Our look at the Star Cops TV series comes to an end with the ninth and final episode, Little Green Men and Other Martians.  The Star Cops are on the frontier of a bold new expansion, to the planet Mars, but how will the discovery of life on Mars impact that?

John and Eugene discuss. 

Synopsis:

On Mars, a survey teams finds something extraordinary.  Soon, investigative reporter Daniel Larwood arrives on the moon.  He and Kenzy know each other, she was his former journalism student, but she has become disenchanted with him.

On a shuttle, two pilots are taking a picture of a Martian.

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There’s something up on the moon.  Alexi wants Spring to put the boot on Larwood.  An important curator, Dr. Philpott, for the Holdy museum is coming to meet with Alexi and it’s all top secret.  Not too top secret though, as there are rumors that life has been found on Mars.  Alexi must go to Earth to make a report.

A customs officer alert Colin to a strange find – a figurine that was hidden amongst surveying charges on the outgoing freighter to Mars.

Later, a pilot is killed when her shuttle crashes.  Kenzy and Anna Shoun find drugs amongst her personal effects in the wreckage.  It’s also discovered that, although she was a legit qualified pilot, there is no record of her arriving on the moon.

Larwood goes to meet someone clandestinely, but when he does, the man has been murdered, dying in his arms.  He, too, was a qualified pilot that was not recorded as arriving on the moon.

Spring has a chat with traffic control.  Things are going nuts there.  There’s an approaching window for Mars launches and things are really hectic.  In fact, Spring knows this all too well, as he will be on an outbound flight to Mars in his efforts to bring the Star Cops further into the frontier.  Traffic control was allowing the pilot to fly because they were freelance and had legit credentials.  They didn’t bother to check to see if they were on the moon legally because… why would they?

When Kenzy sees Colin’s artifact, she identifies is as probably a genuine Mayan sculpture – rare and worth of fortune, although why someone wants to smuggle it to Mars is a curiosity.

Colin has been following up on the drug case.  Customs doesn’t bother to check outgoing parcels heading to Earth because… why would they?  Colin has figured out that someone is making designer drugs on the moon and sending them back to Earth.  He finds them and, while bringing them back in, applies a bit of pressure until they crack and confess – but they had nothing to do with the deaths of the two pilots.

All the while, someone on the moon is searching the quarters of the dead pilots, the flight controller and Larwood.  They’re looking for something small.

Ms. Caxton, reporter, has arrived to interview Dr. Philpott.  It’s time to let the cat out of the bag, a Martian was found and is being brought back to the moon, then to Earth.  The Holdy museum has absolute unconditional rights to it and will not let it be seen by the public for two years.  During that time, it will be analyzed by scientists under the strictest of media blackouts.  It’s a bit strange why they won’t release pictures, though.  There was a rumor that someone was trying to sell pictures of it.

Spring puts Kenzy on watching the case with the smuggled artifact, which they put back in order to capture the culprit.  She is taken unawares and knocked unconscious.  Later, the artifact is packed with explosives.  It is on the same freighter Spring will be taking to Mars.

Spring leaves, and shortly after takeoff, the freighter explodes killing all on board.

The Star Cops are devastated, especially Kenzy, who decides to solve that case.  She goes to Alexi, who has recently returned to the moon and when she tells him about the two pilots being dead, he reveals the secret to her:  The pilots arrived unannounced on a Mars freighter that carried the Martian.  It was landed somewhere on the surface of the moon.  This was to avoid the media circus that would happen when the expected freighter arrived.  He drives her out to freighter, parked on the surface, which explodes as they arrive.  Someone is cleaning up the evidence, but what is the crime?

That night, someone breaks into Star Cops HQ and searches for something.  Kenzy surprises them in the act, and then, so does Larwood and Spring – who isn’t dead after all.  The villain is Philpot and he’s willing to blow up that section of the base to avoid capture.  A struggle ensues, he is overpowered, and the bomb defused.

Larwood had gotten wind of a connection between Philpott and the surveyor that discovered the “Martian” artifact on Mars.  The Holdy spent a ludicrous amount of money to get it, and Philpott engineered it so there would be a complete ban on anyone seeing it until he was rich and long-gone.  The pilots on the freighter decided they could get a bit of money by taking a picture of the artifact and selling it to the press.  For this Philpott killed them.  The artifact was a genuine Mayan figurine, similar to the one that Colin discovered being smuggled to Mars.  It had been planted (and found) by the surveyor on Mars.  They knew the ancient astronauts angle would play big since many people believe the Mayans were influenced by ancient astronauts.  A genuine Mayan figurine found on Mars would be irresistible.

Spring, as he was boarding the shuttle, got an idea of what was happening and didn’t board.  Instead, he waited after dark to see if the culprit would try to burgle they headquarters to find the picture.  It was there, hidden in an ID card for one of the dead pilots.

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