''Space Force'' is a

BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering ...

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imagination, imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, Paral ...

serial, broadcast from 4 April 1984 to 17 June 1985. Written by

Charles Chilton Charles Chilton MBE (15 June 1917 – 2 January 2013) was a British presenter, writer and producer who worked on BBC Radio. He created the 1950s radio serials ''Riders of the Range'' and '' Journey into Space'', and also inspired the stag ...

, it was originally intended to be a sequel to his ''

Journey into Space ''Journey Into Space'' is a BBC Radio science fiction programme written by British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC producer Charles Chilton. It was the last UK radio programme to attract a bigger evening audience than television. Originally, fou ...

'' series (broadcast in the 1950s), using the cast which had just made a one-off revival of that series (" The Return From Mars"); while this idea was dropped late in the development of the serial, the four characters are nevertheless essentially the same as those from the earlier series, albeit with different names. The first series begins during the northern summer of 2010. Both series seem to initially mirror the first two ''

Journey Into Space ''Journey Into Space'' is a BBC Radio science fiction programme written by British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC producer Charles Chilton. It was the last UK radio programme to attract a bigger evening audience than television. Originally, fou ...

'' stories before branching off into quite different plots. A second series, known as ''Space Force 2'', featured the same main characters, once again played by Barry Foster, Nigel Stock,

Nicky Henson Nicky Henson ( Nicholas Victor Leslie Henson; 12 May 1945 – 15 December 2019) was a British actor. Early life Nicholas Victor Leslie Henson was born in London, the son of Harriet Martha ( Collins) and comedian Leslie Henson. Adam Henson, a f ...

, and

Tony Osoba Tony Osoba (born 15 March 1947) is a Scottish actor best known for his role as Jim 'Jock' McClaren in the 1970s British sitcom ''Porridge'' alongside Ronnie Barker. He also guest starred in the first episode of the spin-off ''Going Straight' ...

. Within both series, ''Space Force'' is the name of the team's spaceship, rather than the name of an organisation. Each episode had an approximate run-time of 30 minutes.

First series

The episodes of the first series, broadcast in 1984, were: # "The Voice from Nowhere" (4 April 1984) # "Towards the Unknown" (11 April 1984) # "The Silver Strangers" (18 April 1984) # "The Time Ship" (25 April 1984) # "Threshold of the Stars" (2 May 1984) # "Marooned in Space" (9 May 1984)

Second series

The episodes of the second series, broadcast in 1985, were: # "The Return of the Sun God" (13 May 1985) # "The Red Planet" (20 May 1985) # "The Great Martian Pyramid" (27 May 1985) # "A Test of Endurance" (3 June 1985) # "Living with Death" (10 June 1985) # "Unto Death and Beyond" (17 June 1985)

Characters

The main characters in ''Space Force'' were:

Music

Both the first and second series reused commercially available incidental music by

Jerry Goldsmith Jerrald King Goldsmith (February 10, 1929July 21, 2004) was an American composer and conductor known for his work in film and television scoring. He composed scores for five films in the ''Star Trek'' franchise and three in the ''Rambo'' franch ...

. Cues from ''

Logan's Run ''Logan's Run'' is a science fiction novel by American writers William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson. Published in 1967, the novel depicts a dystopic Malthusianism future society in which both population and the consumption of resou ...

'', '' Outland'', Twilight Zone the Movie and ''

Capricorn One ''Capricorn One'' is a 1978 British-produced American thriller film in which a reporter discovers that a supposed Mars landing by a crewed mission to the planet has been faked via a conspiracy involving the government and—under duress—th ...

'' can be heard in series one, while music from ''

The Wind and the Lion ''The Wind and the Lion'' is a 1975 American epic adventure film written and directed by John Milius and starring Sean Connery, Candice Bergen, Brian Keith, and John Huston. Made in Panavision and Metrocolor and produced by Herb Jaffe and ...

'', '' Star Trek: The Motion Picture'', ''

Poltergeist In ghostlore, a poltergeist ( or ; German for "rumbling ghost" or "noisy spirit") is a type of ghost or spirit that is responsible for physical disturbances, such as loud noises and objects being moved or destroyed. Most claims or fictional desc ...

'', ''

Gremlins ''Gremlins'' is a 1984 American black comedy horror film directed by Joe Dante, written by Chris Columbus, and starring Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, Hoyt Axton, Polly Holliday, and Frances Lee McCain, with Howie Mandel providing the voice ...

'' , Coma, and ''

Alien Alien primarily refers to: * Alien (law), a person in a country who is not a national of that country ** Enemy alien, the above in times of war * Extraterrestrial life, life which does not originate from Earth ** Specifically, intelligent extrate ...

'' can be heard in series two. BBC Radio 2 programmes British science fiction radio programmes Fiction set in 2010 Fiction set on Mars Works about astronauts 1984 radio programme debuts 1985 radio programme endings {{BBC-radio-stub