It was devised by Chris Boucher, a writer who had previously worked on the science fiction television series Doctor Who and Blake's 7, as well as crime dramas such as Juliet Bravo and Bergerac.

A tenth episode, titled "Death on the Moon", was planned but industrial relations difficulties during production led to it being abandoned shortly before recording was to commence.

In recent years, Star Cops has undergone something of a critical re-appraisal and is generally hailed for being "a pretty good attempt at a moderately realistic "High Frontier" SF series".

Law and order is provided by the International Space Police Force (ISPF), twenty part-time volunteers disparagingly nicknamed the "Star Cops".

Many of the crimes that the Star Cops investigate have a science fiction "twist" to them arising from the unconventional (for a police show) environment the series is set[16] e.g. a murder in which the two victims are not yet dead,[11] a ransom demand for kidnapped embryos,[17] a hoax discovery of an alien civilisation,[15] etc.

[20] He was no stranger to television science fiction, having written three serials for Doctor Who and having acted as script editor on the entire four season run of Blake's 7 as well as writing nine episodes for it himself.

[16] Assigned to produce Star Cops was Evgeny Gridneff, who had previously worked for the BBC on Tenko, Blott on the Landscape and Hold the Back Page.

Having previously qualified and worked as a doctor, Collee was a journalist who wrote for The Observer newspaper[9] and later moved into films, most notably writing the screenplay for Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.

[25] Martin was an experienced scriptwriter, best known for the controversial BBC drama series Gangsters, with previous experience in television science fiction, having written for Doctor Who.

[26] Two directors were assigned to the show: Christopher Baker, who had worked with Gridneff before on Hold the Back Page as well as BBC veterinarian dramas All Creatures Great and Small and One by One,[27] and Graeme Harper who had directed two Doctor Who stories.

[8] Naming him Nathan after his youngest son,[22] Boucher had originally written Spring as a much younger character, a high-flyer in his early thirties who had risen rapidly through the ranks of the police.

This was followed by a block directed by Graeme Harper comprising "Trivial Games and Paranoid Pursuits", "This Case to be Opened in a Million Years" and "In Warm Blood".

This contrasted with the look preferred by Graeme Harper who drastically reduced the light levels (leaving many scenes illuminated only by computer monitor screens) and whose designer, Malcolm Thornton, dressed the sets in a messier and dingier fashion.

Forced to prioritise and despite the fact that the episode had been cast, costumes made and sets constructed, the decision was taken to drop "Death on the Moon" and bring "Information Received", now titled "Little Green Men and Other Martians", forward.

Recording was further complicated when Erick Ray Evans fell ill and his lines had to split amongst the rest of the cast at the last minute with most of Theroux's dialogue going to Pal Kenzy.

[34] The theme song for the series, titled "It Won't be Easy", was written and performed by Justin Hayward, the lead vocalist with the Moody Blues.

[33] The BBC listings magazine Radio Times promoted the series, giving it the front cover of the 4–10 July 1987 edition accompanied by a four-page article by Johnny Black inside.

[16] He has also commented that the poor timeslot and the decision to air the series in July and August (a time when viewing figures are traditionally lower due to the summer) reflected the fact that Star Cops didn't have the confidence of the BBC management.

[38] Also in The Times, reviewing "Intelligent Listening for Beginners", Martin Cropper found that "some of the individual plot-lines show invention of a sort, but the script is uniformly feeble".

[39] Meanwhile, in The Sunday Times, Patrick Stoddart was confused by the plot of "This Case to be Opened in a Million Years" asking readers "if you are following any of this, please write to me and explain".

[40] Letter writers to the Radio Times were split on the merits of the show: some such as P. Tricker of Alpheton, Suffolk praising it for having "brilliant special effects, well-written scripts and actors who were convincing" while others like Martin Bower of Allendale, Northumberland slated the "dated designs, poor music [and] cheap sets" and P. Curwen of Balloch, Dunbartonshire described it as "boring – too much talk and not enough action".

[42] The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction stated, "the low-key realism of the show was efficient enough" but argued, in the end, that Star Cops "failed to imagine the future with any real vividness or depth".

Reviewing the VHS releases for TV Zone in 1991, Gary Russell stated that "Star Cops represents excellent science fiction" and recanted his original impression of the series upon broadcast that it was "Bergerac in spacesuits, complete with rather cruddy visual effects and boring performances".

Guest Stars: Moray Watson (as The Commander), Keith Varneier (as Stephenson, Controller), Gennie Nevinson (as Lee Jones), Andy Secombe (as Brian Lincoln), Luke Hanson (as Lars Hendvorrsen).

Guest Stars: Gennie Nevinson (as Lee Jones), Sian Webber (as Corman), Alan Downer (as Paton), Sean Scanlan (as Fox), Carmen Gómez (as Gina Succini), Deborah Manship (as Traffic Controller), Richard Ireson (as voice of Mike).

Guest Stars: Trevor Butler (as Leo), David John Pope (as Michael Chandri), Tara Ward (as Shuttle Hostess).

Guest Stars: Geoffrey Bayldon (as Ernest Wolfhartt), Leigh Funnell (as Beverley Anderson), Maggie Ollerenshaw (as Dr. Angela Parr), Barrie Rutter (as Hooper).

Notes: Cancelled due to industrial action at the BBC, this episode was intended as the penultimate Star Cops story set between "Other People's Secrets" and "Little Green Men and Other Martians".

[52] On 9 November 2017, Big Finish Productions announced they would be releasing a new series of Star Cops stories as audio plays,[53][54] with surviving original cast members David Calder, Trevor Cooper and Linda Newton reprising their roles as Nathan Spring, Colin Devis and Pal Kenzy respectively.

Krivenko is replaced by a Chinese character, Jiang Li Ho, as an attempt to update the Star Cops universe to reflect the ending of the Cold War in 1989.