475 – Star Cops – Conversations with the Dead

What happens in scientific research on the lawless frontier can’t get approvals for human or animal trials?  You conduct it anyway because it’s the “lawless” frontier. John and Eugene discuss the Star Cops episode, Conversations with the Dead. Episode Synopsis: A freighter bound for Mars, the Daedalus, has a wee problem.  Its engines have fired at the wrong time and the freighter and crew are now on an uncorrectable course.  The crew, while still alive, are considered dead. [expand title=”More…” swaptitle=”Less” tag=”strong”] On the Charles de Gaulle Nathan Spring isn’t adapting well to zero gravity.  At his age, he is unlikely to adapt.  Box informs him that the only solution would be to find a place that has gravity.  He starts scoping out offices on the Moon. Back on Earth, Nathan’s girlfriend and lingering personal plot complication, Leah is watering the plants in his apartment.  She receives a highly encrypted secure message from Nathan, although she never get the chance to read it.  The message says, “Your life is in danger.”  She doesn’t need to read the message to know that, though, as a man breaks in and murders her in the apartment. Sometime later, Spring has returned to Earth, where he is interrogated by Police Inspector Colin Devis and Sgt. Corman.  Devis seems to be more than a bit of a jerk, both to Spring and his assistant.  The computers tell him that this crime isn’t special.  Spring wants to conduct the investigation himself, but that idea is shot down by Devis.  The message from Spring was a fake, but tracing it turns up as a dead end. On the Moon, David Theroux has gone to see Star Cops new digs, he’s also investigating the Daedalus’ accident.  Sentiment on the Moon, which has never had any Star Cops, is decidedly cold.  One crewman, Fox, is particularly opposed to them, but a colleague just says it’s because he was formerly romantically involved with one of the Daedalus’ crew and he’s taking it poorly. Everything checks out on the Daedalus, no cause for the accident can be found.  Though Fox is unwilling to talk, he makes an indication that he knows what the “fault” was on the Daedalus.  David is beginning to think this may be a crime rather than an accident. On Earth, Spring has returned to his favorite restaurant to drown his sorrows.  Sgt. Corman meets him there.  She’s an up-and-coming officer that’s hungry to solve the case and show up Devis.  She knows Spring has continued to investigate and hopes he’s turned up something that she can use.  Spring isn’t particularly nice to her. On the Moon, David interrogates Fox, demanding to know what he thought the “fault” was.  Turns out, he thinks the fault was that people allowed a couple in a relationship to pilot the freighter.  It’s against the regulations, but somehow people turned a blind eye or even aided in getting the assigned to the same flight. Spring receives a message from the killer, saying that he’s next.  Shortly thereafter, he gets a phone call.  Someone claims to know who murdered Lee and wants to meet him in a park, at night to convey the information. On the Moon, the moonbase Administrator, Paton, has had an idea.  Part of the cargo were his experimental human cryogenic chambers.  While they can’t bring the ship back before the air runs out, if they could deflect the course so the Daedalus would return eventually, the crew could use the cryogenic suspension units.  It’s a risk, but it’s their only chance.  They prepare to try the daring measure. In the park, Spring encounters a reject from a Mad Max movie rollerblading in the park.  True to form, he is senselessly violent to Spring and beats him up – despite Spring being armed and alert to the possibility of trouble. Just before the rollerblader does serious harm to Spring, the real killer murders him.  (The rollerblader, not Spring) The murderer, still hidden from Spring, taunts him, but is scared off when Sgt. Corman arrives and fires a couple wayward shots at him. Back at his apartment, Devis chews out Spring for his stupidity. Spring agrees, but there’s still something about this case he can’t quite see.  The computers have decided the case isn’t worth pursuing, and is being closed.  Feeling useless, Spring decides to return to space. On the Moon, the daring rescue may have worked.  The crew have entered suspension, and an explosive charge has been used to blow out an airlock.  The expelling air deflects the ship onto a course that will be retrievable in 8 years time.  It remains to be seen in they will be able to be successfully revived or just be frozen corpses. Spring, now back in full Star Cop mode, has a chat with Paton.  He knows Paton sabotaged the ship.  Paton had been denied a permit to perform human tests on his suspension system.  He arranged for his equipment to be on the ship, helped the unwitting pilots to be assigned together (I guess he’s a bit romantic,) programmed the anomalous engine burn and then, when no one else thought of it, he had to suggest the idea of using the cryogenics.  He’s either committed murder, or, at the very least, the crew, if they return alive, can file civil charges.  One problem, they haven’t got proof, and Paton knows it. And so starts the awkward tenant/landlord relationship of the Star Cops’ new HQ on the moon. Sgt. Corman turns on the moon.  She’s tracked the killer to Charles De Gaulle station.  She found her motive for the crime.  The killer, John Smith, had a beef with the Star Cops on the moon and now he’s getting his revenge on the head of the Star Cops. The killer has stolen a shuttle and is flying towards a controversial and secretive new American space station. Spring, David and Corman hop in another shuttle and give chase.  As they approach, the Americans blow up the killer, and Spring reveals he’d figured it our.  Corman and the killer were both British Secret Service and their mission was to get a look onboard that space station.  If the Star Cops, which are politically neutral by treaty, were forced to pursue a criminal onto the station, the Americans could complain, but they’d have nothing actionable. Spring was supposed to follow the killer onto the station, arrest him and send him back to Earth for trail, where the killer and Corman would be able to report back what they had seen on the station.  Spring tipped off the Americans and, so warned, they blew up the station. Back on Earth, Devis knows he’s been played, and while he knows he’ll never get a conviction, he’s going to make sure that light is shined on this nasty business.  This will also end his career. He asks Spring for a new job. [/expand]