THE ARMOURY- SPACE RANGERS BADGE (CIRCA 2104)
“INTO THE JAWS OF HELL FOR JUSTICE...”
I based this badge upon the ones worn by the Space Rangers, from the early ‘90s U.S television series of the same name.
I sculpted it in plasticene, moulded it in rubber, and generally cast it in FastCast plastic, though this particular copy I made in one of the hard casting plasters, just because I was doing a pour with it and the mould was handy.
Found out later that the badges worn on the uniforms had different lettering to the one featured in the title sequence, no doubt because the streamlined lettering used in the logo was easier to read than the ‘spacefont’ used on the props.
Set in 2104 on the frontier Earth colony world of Avalon, the 1993 television series “Space Rangers” was one of a number of attempts to blend the genres of police procedural and space based, futuristic science fiction.
The live action space based shows are generally not as successful as the contemporary or near future genre crossovers which pursue crimefighting in a genre context (which often have the advantage of featuring superpowered meta-humans) such as “Angel” or “Alien Nation”.
Mostly the space based cop shows come and go in the flash of a titanium badge, like the British “Star Cops” (1987, nine episodes) or Gerry Anderson’s “Space Precinct” (1994, 24 episodes). Anime shows of this sub genre tend to have somewhat longer space legs, no doubt due to the lower overall production costs. Exceptions to the rule are the multi-tasked space dramas like the various “Star Trek” incarnations, where the mission statement includes but is not limited to patrolling and police like duties, including some of the older shows like “Rocky Jones, Space Ranger” (1954, 39 episodes). “Captain Video And His Video Rangers” (1949- 1955) broke all the rules with a phenomenal 1,537 episodes!
The 1993 “Space Rangers” only managed a bare six episodes of varying quality, and essentially was totally eclipsed by the far better resourced “Deep Space Nine” and “Babylon Five”.
Still, I kind of liked its crew of constantly fatrigued, overworked and underpaid rangers, scraping by with obsolete equipment (and some of the team!) held together with duct tape and fencing wire. And then there were the totally fearsome “Banshees”, buggy space predators whose very mention made brave folks pee their spacesuits.
The ranger’s slingship #377, “Tin Lizzie” was a wicked looking lass, matched by it’s space-corseted (!) arse booting sheila pilot, Jojo (Marjorie Monaghan- before she joined the Mars Resistance in B-5). Everyone else in the crew generally wore tricked up overalls, with amusing cargo pockets made out of netting, which would probably be the last possible be-damned snagging fabric you’d want to wear in combat.
Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa got to play a hero for a change, as the warrior-monk Zylyn and it was fun seeing Linda Hunt as the tough Commander of Fort Hope.
Star Trek fans will have noticed Clint Howard playing the chief scientist; he was the ‘child’ alien Balok in the Classic Trek episode “The Corbomite Maneuver”, and later appeared in “Deep Space Nine” and “Enterprise”.
Jeff Kaake, who played the standard ironic anti-authority, rule breaking team leader, Cap’n Boone, later landed a recurring role in “Melrose Place” and now does screenwriting and producing. Jack McGee, the cybernetically handed engineer ‘Doc’ continues a solid career of playing character one-offs in series television and movies. Fort Hope’s unpleasant career 2IC, charged with implementing death by a thousand budget cuts to the long suffering frontline troops. was played by Gottfried John, a German actor who appears in many of Werner Fassbinder’s films, also played Juilius Caesar in an Asterix movie and a Russian general in “Goldeneye”.
I call “Space Rangers” a cop show, but it’s also very much a space western, an awful, brain-strangling cliche that can go ‘orribly wrong, usually when mutated into a one-off ‘themed’ episode in, say, “Original Battlestar Galactica” or “Lost In Space”. I’ve seen it done, very very right, of course, in “Firefly”, though the crew there were lawbreakers, admittedly in a universe where the “Law is an ass!”
THE ARMOURY- SPACE RANGERS BADGE (CIRCA 2104)
“INTO THE JAWS OF HELL FOR JUSTICE...”
I based this badge upon the ones worn by the Space Rangers, from the early ‘90s U.S television series of the same name.
I sculpted it in plasticene, moulded it in rubber, and generally cast it in FastCast plastic, though this particular copy I made in one of the hard casting plasters, just because I was doing a pour with it and the mould was handy.
Found out later that the badges worn on the uniforms had different lettering to the one featured in the title sequence, no doubt because the streamlined lettering used in the logo was easier to read than the ‘spacefont’ used on the props.
Set in 2104 on the frontier Earth colony world of Avalon, the 1993 television series “Space Rangers” was one of a number of attempts to blend the genres of police procedural and space based, futuristic science fiction.
The live action space based shows are generally not as successful as the contemporary or near future genre crossovers which pursue crimefighting in a genre context (which often have the advantage of featuring superpowered meta-humans) such as “Angel” or “Alien Nation”.
Mostly the space based cop shows come and go in the flash of a titanium badge, like the British “Star Cops” (1987, nine episodes) or Gerry Anderson’s “Space Precinct” (1994, 24 episodes). Anime shows of this sub genre tend to have somewhat longer space legs, no doubt due to the lower overall production costs. Exceptions to the rule are the multi-tasked space dramas like the various “Star Trek” incarnations, where the mission statement includes but is not limited to patrolling and police like duties, including some of the older shows like “Rocky Jones, Space Ranger” (1954, 39 episodes). “Captain Video And His Video Rangers” (1949- 1955) broke all the rules with a phenomenal 1,537 episodes!
The 1993 “Space Rangers” only managed a bare six episodes of varying quality, and essentially was totally eclipsed by the far better resourced “Deep Space Nine” and “Babylon Five”.
Still, I kind of liked its crew of constantly fatrigued, overworked and underpaid rangers, scraping by with obsolete equipment (and some of the team!) held together with duct tape and fencing wire. And then there were the totally fearsome “Banshees”, buggy space predators whose very mention made brave folks pee their spacesuits.
The ranger’s slingship #377, “Tin Lizzie” was a wicked looking lass, matched by it’s space-corseted (!) arse booting sheila pilot, Jojo (Marjorie Monaghan- before she joined the Mars Resistance in B-5). Everyone else in the crew generally wore tricked up overalls, with amusing cargo pockets made out of netting, which would probably be the last possible be-damned snagging fabric you’d want to wear in combat.
Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa got to play a hero for a change, as the warrior-monk Zylyn and it was fun seeing Linda Hunt as the tough Commander of Fort Hope.
Star Trek fans will have noticed Clint Howard playing the chief scientist; he was the ‘child’ alien Balok in the Classic Trek episode “The Corbomite Maneuver”, and later appeared in “Deep Space Nine” and “Enterprise”.
Jeff Kaake, who played the standard ironic anti-authority, rule breaking team leader, Cap’n Boone, later landed a recurring role in “Melrose Place” and now does screenwriting and producing. Jack McGee, the cybernetically handed engineer ‘Doc’ continues a solid career of playing character one-offs in series television and movies. Fort Hope’s unpleasant career 2IC, charged with implementing death by a thousand budget cuts to the long suffering frontline troops. was played by Gottfried John, a German actor who appears in many of Werner Fassbinder’s films, also played Juilius Caesar in an Asterix movie and a Russian general in “Goldeneye”.
I call “Space Rangers” a cop show, but it’s also very much a space western, an awful, brain-strangling cliche that can go ‘orribly wrong, usually when mutated into a one-off ‘themed’ episode in, say, “Original Battlestar Galactica” or “Lost In Space”. I’ve seen it done, very very right, of course, in “Firefly”, though the crew there were lawbreakers, admittedly in a universe where the “Law is an ass!”