Space: Above and Beyond is an American science fiction television series that aired on Fox, created and written by Glen Morgan and James Wong. Planned for five seasons, it only ran for one season from 1995 to 1996 before being canceled due to low ratings. It was nominated for two Emmy Awards and one Saturn Award. Ranked last in IGN's top 50 Sci-Fi TV Shows, it was described as "yet another sci-fi show that went before its time."
Set in the years 2063–2064, the show focuses on the "Wildcards", members of the United States Marine Corps 58th Squadron of the Space Aviator Cavalry. They are stationed on the space carrier USS Saratoga, acting as both infantry and pilots of SA-43 Endo/Exo-Atmospheric Attack Jet ("Hammerhead") fighters, battling an invading force of extraterrestrials.
Contents
Plot
Lacking technology that would enable faster-than-light (FTL) travel, colonization is accomplished by taking advantage of transient but predictable, naturally occurring wormholes in space, which allow travelers to traverse vast distances. Without warning, a previously unknown alien species, the "Chigs", attack and destroy Earth's first extra-solar colony and then destroy a second colony ship. The bulk of the Earth military forces sent to confront the Chigs are destroyed or outflanked, in part because the Chigs have some form of FTL, affording them greater freedom of movement (although this technology appears limited, the Chigs also often use natural wormholes).
At the opening of the series, the Chigs have defeated all counter-attacks and have entered the Solar System. In desperation, unproven and under-trained outfits like the 58th "Wildcards" are thrown against the Chigs. The Wildcards are the focus of the series, which follows them as they grow from untried cadets into veterans. Although the unified Earth forces come under the control of a reformed United Nations (UN), the UN has no formal armed forces, so navies such as the U.S. Navy and the Royal Navy operate interstellar starships.
Prior to the events of the show, there was a war between humans and androids known as Silicates. These human-looking androids, referred to as "walking personal computers", rebelled, formed their own societies, and waged a guerrilla war against the humans from remote bases. The Silicates are also suspected of conniving with the Chigs. To defeat the Silicates, a new underclass of genetically engineered and artificially gestated humans were bred to quickly swell the ranks of the military. These troops, collectively known as In Vitroes or sometimes, pejoratively, "tanks" or "nipple-necks", are born at the physical age of 18 and trained solely for combat. In the post-war period, the "tanks" have attempted (with mixed success) to re-enter human society.
Cast and characters
Wildcards
Kristen Cloke — Capt. Shane Vansen (USMC), callsign in the first episodes "Ace of Diamonds", later changed to "Queen of Diamonds".
Morgan Weisser — 1st Lt. Nathan West (USMC), callsign "King of Hearts", his Hammerhead is named "Above and Beyond".
Rodney Rowland — 1st Lt. Cooper Hawkes (USMC, In Vitro), callsign "Jack of Spades", his Hammerhead is named "Pag's Payback" after one his pals that was killed in battle.
Joel de la Fuente — 1st Lt. Paul Wang (USMC), callsign "Joker".
Lanei Chapman — 1st Lt. Vanessa Damphousse (USMC), callsign "Ace of Hearts".
James Morrison — Lt. Col. Tyrus Cassius "T. C." McQueen (USMC, In Vitro) callsign "Queen 6".
Recurring
Tucker Smallwood — Commodore Glen van Ross (USN)
David Jean Thomas — General Alcott (USMC)
David St. James — Admiral Broden (USN)
Amanda Douge — Kylen Celina (Aero-Tech, Tellus colonist)
Tasia Valenza — 1st Lt. Kelly Anne Winslow (USMC) callsign "Queen of Spades"
Edmund L. Shaff — "Chaplain" (USN)
Bill Hunter — Secretary General Spencer Chardwell (UN)
Robert Crow — Officer Crow (Lt. Pruitt in last episode) (USN)
Doug Hutchison — Elroy EL (AI)
Kimberly Patton — Feliciti OH (AI)
John Lendale Bennett — "Master at Arms" (USN)
Michael Mantell — Howard Sewell (Aero-Tech, member of the board of directors)
James Lesure — Lt. Charlie Stone (USMC)
Melissa Bowen — LTJG Stroud (USN)
Gennie Nevinson, Loren Chase — Anne West
Angus Grant, Marc Worden — Neil West (Private, USMC)
Iva Franks-Singer — Sabrine EW (AI)
Kristian Sorensen - Chig
Guest stars
Coolio — The Host (in episode "R & R")
Amanda Douge — Kylen Celina (in episodes "Pilot", "Choice or Chance", "...Tell Our Moms We Done Our Best")
David Duchovny (uncredited) — Alvin El 1543 aka "Handsome Alvin" (Silicate in episode "R & R")
Dale Dye, Capt., USMC (ret.) — Major Jack Colquitt (USMC) (in episode "Who Monitors the Birds?")
R. Lee Ermey, GySgt., USMC (ret.) (uncredited) — Sergeant Major Frank Bougus (USMC) (in the pilot episode)
Adam Goldberg — Sergeant 1st Class Louie Fox, Seventh Cavalry, U.S. Army (in episode "Pearly")
Steve Rankin — Lieutenant Colonel Raymond Thomas Butts, callsign "Kick Butts" (in episode "Raymond Butts")
Harriet Sansom Harris — Ambassador Diane Hayden (Secretary General, UN)
Richard Kind — Colonel Burke (in episode "Level of Necessity")
Martin Jarvis — Major Cyril MacKendrick (British Army - in episode "Pearly")
Ronald G. Joseph — General Oliver Ranford (USMC) (in episode "Stardust")
Gail O'Grady (uncredited) — Colonel Klingman (in episode "Stardust")
Jennifer Balgobin — Communications Lieutenant Price (USN) (in episode "Sugar Dirt")
Production
While drawing comparisons with Robert Heinlein's novel Starship Troopers and the film, according to the producers, the main fictional work that influenced Space: Above and Beyond was one written in response to that story, the 1974 science fiction novel The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. In addition, it was inspired by fictional works, such as the 1948 World War II biographic novel The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer, the 1895 American Civil War novel The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane, the Iliad, and the 1962 television series Combat! At the same time, Space: Above and Beyond also shares conspiracy elements with other television shows co-produced by the same team, such as The X-Files and Millennium.
Cinematography and visual effects
The series featured a very dark and desaturated color grading, apparently inherited from the cinematography of series as The X-Files and Millennium, co-produced by the same team, but taken to a greater extreme. The strength of desaturation employed in many scenes reaches the level that makes them almost black and white (quantitatively, the saturation in CIE xy color subspace of a typical scene in Space: Above and Beyond is in the range 0.03–0.15, approximately 1/4 of a typical contemporary film or television program).
With the increasing affordability of computer systems with performance suitable for 3D rendering, Space: Above and Beyond relied heavily on computer generated imagery (CGI) for space scenes with physical special effects still playing a significant role. The computer generated effects of Space: Above and Beyond were created by the visual effects company Area 51 using NewTek LightWave 3D. In 1996, the team at Area 51 were nominated for an Emmy Award, for Outstanding Special Visual Effects, with each member being named.
Music
Wong and Morgan were looking for a more traditional musical approach than the synthesiser scoring favored on The X-Files; visual effects supervisor Glenn Campbell introduced the producers to the music of Shirley Walker, who had worked on Batman: The Animated Series. Wong and Morgan were initially unconvinced on hearing Walker's synth demos, until it was explained that her musical ideas would be filled out by an orchestra. Wong went on to describe the scoring session as "(his) favorite part of filmmaking." Walker scored the pilot and the entire series, receiving an Emmy nomination for "The River Of Stars," and she reunited with Wong and Morgan on many of their later projects (her final film score was for their remake of Black Christmas).
In 2011, La-La Land Records issued a three-disc limited edition featuring Walker's score for the pilot and music from most of the episodes ("The Enemy", "Choice or Chance", "Level of Necessity", "R&R", and "Stardust" do not have any score cues on the album).
Sound effects
The sound effects used on the show are often reused on the animated series Futurama.
Criticism
The actor Joel de la Fuente described his perception of a possibly stereotypical nature of his character Lt. Paul Wang, for which he felt discomfort for the role of "a cowardly soldier who betrayed his comrades":
Whenever I see Asians in military uniform, I cannot help but recall common images of Asians from the Vietnam War and World War II. They were "yellow-bellied cowards" who took the lives of loyal Americans. They were treacherous and crafty, impossible to gauge. Wang could be seen as all of these stereotypes, I thought. Even though this ignores the fact that the Americans they were killing had invaded their country and napalmed their children, but people tend to leave out the important details...
Other media
Space: Above and Beyond was released on DVD in the United States and Canada by 20th Century Fox as a set of five DVD-10 discs on November 8, 2005. Episodes feature closed captioning, and the set also contains some of the original television promotional advertisements for the series. Certain pressings feature a distorted image of the Babylon 5 space station, which is unrelated to and does not appear in the series, on the discs' title screens.
In 2011, Space: Above and Beyond was released on Region 2 PAL DVD in Germany by KSM GmbH.
In April 2012, Space: Above and Beyond was released on Region 2 PAL DVD in the UK by Fremantle Media / Medium Rare Entertainment. It contained a new documentary, cast interviews, some episode commentaries, galleries, and deleted scenes. The pilot episode is included in the full season set but has also been released separately with just a commentary.
There were several books and comic books released as well based on the show's episodes.
