103 replies to this topic

[pinktinker]

The new Earth 2 thread has referenced this show repeatedly -- particularly with regard to the character Shane Vansen -- so I thought I'd create a new thread. :)

The show was on Fox and lasted just one season (1995-96). It ended with a whopping huge cliffhanger: one character definitely dead (Wang), two characters probably dead (Shane, Vanessa), one character alive but out of action (the Colonel), two characters alive but unsure of what to do next (Nathan, Hawkes), and the war with the aliens still raging.

So what happened next?

Other questions:

Did anyone ever care about Nathan's girlfriend? I was much happier with her lost in space.

Were Shane and the Colonel ever going to get it on?

Did Hawkes ever meet up again with Coolio's character? Because, c'mon...it was Coolio.

My favorite episodes: the pilot; anything with the AIs; the "silent" episode with Hawkes.

Semper fi!

[Fabrisse]

I watched this faithfully every week, but I really only remember 4 epidsodes from it. The pilot being the biggest most important one. I didn't particularly care for Shane, and I wanted to know more about the "nipple necks."

Mostly, I felt that they wasted some of their potential.

[cheesesteak]

I remember this show mostly because hard core porn actress Ashlyn Gere guest starred in a couple of episodes.

[ChillinTheMost]

You know I loved this show, pinktinker, as I was one of those referencing it on the E2 thread.

grin. I was just the opposite, Fabrisse! I looooved the character of Shane. Wanted to be her. And while I liked the guy that was the 'nipple-neck' [Hawkes?], I didn't care for that storyline.

I actually did identify with Shane. Unless I'm mixing this up with another show, she didn't want to be the leader, had had to take charge her entire life and just wanted to be a 'grunt' for once. However, like other natural leaders, when they find out that things aren't running right and someone has to step up, Shane did that. I so identified with that. Although, with me, perhaps there was a fine line between "leader" and "bossy".

Were Shane and the Colonel ever going to get it on?

I think the more burning question for me was, "Were the Colonel and ChillinTheMost ever going to get it on?" Because, I was willing, baby!

I know it was only one season, so it probably won't make syndication, but I'd like to catch this one again.

I'm enjoying these threads about old shows that I watched and enjoyed, but don't really remember much about. I have vague memories and general rememberances of what I liked and didn't like as much, but you all have enabled me to really think about my reactions.

Edited by ChillinTheMost, Jul 2, 2004 @ 1:34 PM.

[pinktinker]

grin. I was just the opposite, Fabrisse! I looooved the character of Shane. Wanted to be her. And while I liked the guy that was the 'nipple-neck' [Hawkes?], I didn't care for that storyline.

Hey, ChillintheMost! Another E2/S:AaB fan. Yes, Cooper Hawkes was a "nipple-neck" (also known as a "tank"), a test-tube baby born fully grown. I myself was a big fan of the tanks plot. It served as a good means of putting Hawkes together with both the Colonel and Shane, who served as his father and mother of sorts. And, of course, it also provided the backbone of the "silent" episode, which was one of my faves.

And yes, you're right: Shane was a most reluctant leader and had joined the Marines as a sort of respite from taking care of her two younger sisters. The three of them were orphaned after AIs killed their parents in a horrific midnight home invasion. (At least, I think that's what happened. I could be wrong. In any case, Shane certainly relished the opportunity to fight the AIs.) The Colonel and the Commodore, however, had great faith in her leadership skills, so leader she was. (She sometimes tried to fob off the leadership role to Nathan, though.)

I think the more burning question for me was, "Were the Colonel and ChillinTheMost ever going to get it on?" Because, I was willing, baby!

You were not the only one!

I know it was only one season, so it probably won't make syndication, but I'd like to catch this one again.

The SciFi Channel used to show it (in conjunction with their reruns of E2, coincidentally), but they've abandoned it in favor of airing reruns of such hits like Starman and Manimal, I think. They'll probably air it again, but it usually takes SciFi a while to run through their circulation of rerun material.

[kimmako]

I loved this show! I distinctly remember having a conversation with a friend of mine about why this show was being cancelled - it was a harder edged sci fi show that didn't have trekkian overtones. And damn if my boss didn't chime in late about how this was an ok show, but no Star Trek! I really liked the AIs and the concept of random luck being their religion. The tank plot was just ok. And word on not caring about the love that couldn't be separated by the stars. gah.

[phoenix_73]

Count me in as another fan of this show. I really liked the concept and the fact that though it was set in space, it wasn't all twee storylines like Star Trek could be sometimes. But I agree with Fabrisse, they did seem to waste some of their potential but I vaguely recall an interview where the producers said that Fox weren't exactly behind them 100% and they had problems as the season went on.

I liked the characters but sometimes I wondered at the acting, especially West and Shane. It didn't always seem right.

Recently, I came across a box of VHS tapes I had put away years ago and lo and behold, what's on them but none other than Space: Above & Beyond. I can't tape over them. They're a reminder of my carefree college days where one of the most important things in life was having enough blank tapes to record all the tv shows I lived for and had time to watch almost immediately. *sigh*

[Warden]

I remember this show mostly because hard core porn actress Ashlyn Gere guest starred in a couple of episodes.

Well damn. The one episode I did watch only had Coolio and David Duchovny in it.

[Curunir]

Hey, I came very close to starting this topic myself not so long ago. I caught the whole run again recently, having good memories of the show from the original broadcast and was very disappointed. There were a couple of good ideas here and there, but on the whole it was just bad. The AIs were especially laughable: people with contact lenses obsessed with gambling and shambling around making loud bleepy noises. The leads were all incongruously pretty and horribly inept at acting. Vansen wore half a ton of make up in every scene, trapped in space or trudging through jungle, you name it. On top of that the writing wasn't very good - episodes were very slowly paced and dialogue was usually painful. There were only a very few good episodes in the whole bunch.

They made an interesting choice for the end of the season, though when the leads betray the entire war effort by stupidly telling the enemy of the planned invasion. I wonder if they would have been court martialled had there been a second series.

[Curunir]

That the humans didn't know what Chigs look like would be a good argument for not telling random aliens top secret battle plans IMO. Especially since they were on a moon that was deep inside Chig territory and may even have been a satellite of their homeworld (I forget). Someone in the finale compared it to telling people about the Normandy landings and I agree - that information was so crucial that taking such a risk was just nuts.

The aliens' motivations for sending the emissary were never made clear. It may have been a good faith gesture in recognition of the 58s' "humanity" (odd expression to use in this case, but you know what I mean), but it could have easily been meant to stall the human fleet while the Chigs deployed defenses around that moon. That the emissary brought a bomb with him suggests that he wasn't necessarily acting in good faith to me.

[chipper]

Apparently, S:AaB is going to be out on DVD soon, this summer perhaps.

I really only remember the one where West was left behind to say his team was dead so they could avoid an ambush. This show was good at the time because it was such a different take than Trek. I was reminded of Starship Troopers so much. The only thing was all the patriotic stuff made me gag.

But the Colonel being on 24 has been making me happy. He even lived to the end!

[Polter-Cow]

I remember that there was a guy looking for his sister. But I liked the show and I'd recently been missing it, so this is great news!

[stlbf]

Thank you GOD! Profit's coming out, now S:AaB! Now I only need American Gothic to make me deliriously happy with my dvd collection.

Damn, I still miss this show!

[Kaboom]

"OMG, you must be my other half! I will be one happy girl once I have Profit, S:AaB and AG in my greedy little hands. :-)

I LOVED S:AaB. Watched every ep. My family knew not to even look at me while I watched it. I had the biggest crush on Hawkes and I didn't care who knew it. I also remember feeling giddy, giddy!, when he and Shane guested on X-Files (in different eps). Good times...

[Polter-Cow]

Thank you GOD! Profit's coming out, now S:AaB! Now I only need American Gothic to make me deliriously happy with my dvd collection.

Yes! I so need American Gothic. I've heard good things about Profit; I might pick that up too.

I remember there was one guy who looked like Jack Black but was not Jack Black. And there was an Asian guy. And probably a hot chick or two. I don't even remember why I liked the show. But it was good.

[MantaRay]

By Asian guy, do you mean Joel de la Fuente? He's on Law & Order: SVU now as a computer techie guy.

I loved this show when it was on. But I'm worried that if I ever saw it again, I would realise that it sucked. This has happened to me with several old shows that I remember being amazing, but just look cheesy now.

I remember one specific episode in which the AI's capture the squad on Mars (?) in some sort of factory and torture them. And Vansen goes all medieval on their asses.

I hated that goody two shoes guy, the one with the possibly-dead girlfriend. He had that talking picture frame necklace...I wanted to vomit everytime he played back the message.

And Hawkes had to catch up on American culture or something, and he bought an antique CD player and listened to Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon (har har).

Ah. Good times.

[Belchimaera]

I actually got to see the series again a couple of years ago and liked it just as much. So I think it will hold up.

I remember one specific episode in which the AI's capture the squad on Mars (?) in some sort of factory and torture them. And Vansen goes all medieval on their asses.

That's the episode she finds out the AIs attacked her family because of a flip of a coin, right? That was a good epiosde. I think its that one that they're in low gravity and one of the guys tells another to "go long, go very long" and throws a football very very far!

Yeah, Nathan was annoying. My sister and I would mock him. But I thought the character grew somewhat and I liked how his (not-so) dead girlfriend became a symbol for them for never losing hope.

I liked Vansen, Damphouss and Wang and McQueen. Didn't the series end with all of them dead, or something?

One thing I didn't like was that they didn't seem to spend much time piloting, considering they were pilots.

Edited by Belchimaera, Jun 15, 2005 @ 9:23 PM.

[scair]

Yeah, Nathan was annoying. My sister and I would mock him. But I thought the character grew somewhat and I liked how his (not-so) dead girlfriend became a symbol for them for never losing hope.

And one of the best episodes(Stay With The Dead) had McQueen and Nathan as the two central characters. He WAS awfully annoying at times; I think it was at least partly the actor's voice.

I liked Vansen, Damphouss and Wang and McQueen. Didn't the series end with all of them dead, or something?

The worst thing about the series' cancellation was that it ended with Wang almost certainly dead, Vansen and Damphousse on the way to being MIA, and McQueen with half his leg blown off. One more reason to hate Fox.

[MantaRay]

That's the episode she finds out the AIs attacked her family because of a flip of a coin, right? That was a good epiosde. I think its that one that they're in low gravity and one of the guys tells another to "go long, go very long" and throws a football very very far!

Did the football glow? Cause I remember a scene like that, but my brain put it into some crappy movie, like Pitch Black or Starship Troopers or something. Ah how the mind plays tricks.

One thing I didn't like was that they didn't seem to spend much time piloting, considering they were pilots.

Hmm, I remember lots o' flying. But my memory obviously isn't so good, so what do I know? And there was a corny bit where they blew pancakes out the airlock in tribute to some fellow flyer who got sucked into a blackhole.

Lesse, tiny recollections...they were each named after a face card and they had that painted on their helmets. Does anyone remember the name of their squad?

I liked the show 'cause it was reminscent of a Vietnam War movie. Plus, it had the darkness and violence of Babylon 5, but without all the people in funny makeup and the endless negotiations and diplomatic bickering.

[snowcrash]

The 58th Squadron, aka The Wild Cards.

I watched the first couple of eps of this show way back when it was being aired in Malaysia. For some arcane reason, the local censorship board pulled it (and DS9, which aired immediately after it). I managed to get the entire series about a year ago and watched it over a couple of weeks. It's aged pretty well, actually. There's some instances of scenery-chewing, and the Nathan West character *really* grates in the first few eps, but it's eminently watchable.

Still the most fucked-up unresolved cliffhanger of all time though, and not just the revlation about the aliens either.

[txm79]

Yay! A S:AAB thread! I still love this show, and have all but 3 episodes on tape, although I do have to agree that it was overacted at times. A few months ago I rewatched some episodes after a long time viewing them, and that one episode where they're trapped on that planet with the Chig weapon that makes everyone's fears take over was pretty laughable. I always remembered that as being really good. Oh, well, I was 16 when it was on.

I even liked Nathan, although he was very annoying with the girlfriend. Kylen. Does anyone remember in the last episode when they rescued some Tellus colonists, including her? I like to think that in the second season Nathan and Kylen would have realized that they had changed during their experiences and drifted apart. She would be changed from being held captive for a year or whatever, and he would've changed from fighting in a war and losing his brother and all that. It would've been realistic, and nice to never again hear, "I believe in you." Stupid photo tag.

Maybe I'm blinded by my love, but I thought the acting and writing was good overall. Shows like this are always going to be a little cheesy, but this remains one of my all time favorite shows. I know it's TWOP, but don't mock my adolescent-like adoration. The cliffhanger still drives me mad.

Does anyone else remember the one with David Duchovny?

[Actionmage]

Hi; I'm Actionmage and I came late to the Space:Above and Beyond party, but loved it!

My favorite episode was the one where Damphousse was thought to be psychic, but it was Richard Kind's character (RK-Paul on Spin City).

I thought Damphousse and Wang got a bit lost in the shuffle, though they were strong characters. I loved McQueen and the Commodore (when TS was playing his guitar near the end of the run), but it seemed that the writing was about West, Shane, and Hawkes when not about the war. As I said, I came in really late, so I may have missed a good Damphousse or Wang ep.

I caught the Duchovny ep. They were in a SpaceVegas and DD was a holographic pool hustler. I liked that McQueen watched cartoons/Westerns(?) and that he tried to pass that onto Hawkes, or at least trying to get Hawkes past his "I'm just a Tank" mindset.

I also liked the letters-from-home episode. It seemed pretty well-written. I know it happened after the stuff with West's brother and there was fallout addressed, but it seemed kinda more rounded out.

Oh, and yes- that was one balls out, f'd up, "screw you" ending. What I sorta love is that it kinda made sense too. Don't get me wrong, I wish it'd stayed on at least one more season,but damn!

[txm79]

David Duchovny played an AI and did a very poor Clint Eastwood impersonation. Doug Hutchison played an AI named Elroy El on a couple of episodes. I always think of Space when I see him anywhere else.

The letters to home episode was Dear Earth, and that's probably one of my favorites. I also really like Stay With the Dead and Toy Soldiers. I guess West really didn't bug me that much. I bet he would now, though. Hawkes' special ops mission episode was good, too. That's one I don't have on tape, but I still remember it. Vansen remains one of my favorite women characters, I agree with others here who pointed out how nice it was to see a strong female.

Damphousse and Wang did kind of get the shaft. I guess it's because West, Vansen, and Hawkes were supposed to be the three main characters. Even several publicity photos for the show featured those three, and left out Wang and Damphousse. Wang does have one of my favorite moments, though, when he did his McQueen as a plumber bit.

[SugarcultAddict]

For anyone interested

Space: Above and Beyond - Best Buy Lists Set
Posted by Gord Lacey
7/08/2005

Nearly a month ago we brought you news that Space: Above and Beyond would be coming to DVD, first through Best Buy, and then through other retailers. Best Buy has just posted the set on their site with a release date of October 4. They're preselling it for $44.99.

Since this is a Best Buy exclusive title we'll likely get information in pieces, whenever Best Buy posts it to their site. Right now they have it classified as a "documentary," which they should correct soon.


I remember loving this show,because It was on Friday nights,and I didn't have to be in bed early for school.I was like 11,the cliffhanger haunts me to this day!

Certaintly one of the more interesting plot twistsThe Chigs who are basicly evolved Humans were not the ones invading,but defending against the invasion from earth and the aerotechin a series.

I'm looking foward to the DVD's I don't even care if the show isent as good as I remember it,I've got to have them.

[Dang Surly]

The worst thing about the series' cancellation was that it ended with Wang almost certainly dead, Vansen and Damphousse on the way to being MIA, and McQueen with half his leg blown off. One more reason to hate Fox.

Still the most fucked-up unresolved cliffhanger of all time though, and not just the revlation about the aliens either.

Oh, and yes- that was one balls out, f'd up, "screw you" ending. What I sorta love is that it kinda made sense too. Don't get me wrong, I wish it'd stayed on at least one more season,but damn!

I thought I read somewhere that it was a fucked up ending because Morgan and whoever were pissed off because they were canceled. They even put a AMF (adios, mother fuckers) in the credits. Anyone else remember this, or more about this?

Certaintly one of the more interesting plot twistsThe Chigs who are basicly evolved Humans were not the ones invading,but defending against the invasion from earth and the aerotechin a series.

I don't remember this, but then it's been so long since I've seen the show.

I will pick up the DVDs, because I remember loving this show.

[stlbf]

I thought I read somewhere that it was a fucked up ending because Morgan and whoever were pissed off because they were canceled. They even put a AMF (adios, mother fuckers) in the credits. Anyone else remember this, or more about this?

Yup. I remember that being in the credits. Morgan and Wong were really pissed at the shabby treatment S:AAB(along with Morgan and Wong) suffered at the hand of FUX. The ending of S:AAB was pretty much the true beginning of my Chris Carter hatred. God, I remember reading somewhere about how Morgan had to watch S:AAB's sets be razed for the utter shit that was
LA Firefighters, or whatever the hell that crappy show that replaced S:AAB was called.

As for that rumored spoiler, I remember hearing about it. And I thought that it had tons of fantastic possibilities. Fucking FOX!

[teraelli]

It was LA Firefighters. They used the flight deck as kindling, or so it was reported.

I loved this show. I'll pick up the DVDs even if it's aged as badly as B5 has....

[RiverThames]

Huh. I kind of liked the last episode. But I'm often a fan of "blaze of glory" endings that don't end happily.

[stlbf]

Yippee! I bought the dvds at Best Buy today! I also picked up the Millenium season 2 dvds---so I got $20 off the pair. I've just watched River of Stars and Who Monitors The Birds? and they were just as great as I remember them the 1st time around. I don't think that the decade since their original airing has eroded how great the show really was. It has weathered time pretty darn well. Much like my beloved Profit series did. Even the FX weren't bad.

As for the dvds themselves.....nothing special. Just the episodes. No commentary, no behind the scenes, no deleted scenes. Nothing. The only extra stuff on the last dvd were the dozen or so cheesy trailers that FOX aired for the show. I really, really wish that Morgan and Wong(along with the actors) would've been on for some commentaries. But I'm a sucker for commentaries. Still, it is worth the $40 for the show so I can watch it over and over again. And force everyone around me to watch them.

ETA: Wow. I stayed up to watch the 2 hour pilot, The Farthest Man From Home and The Dark Side Of The Sun. Kristen Cloke damn near had me in tears(again) with her performance in Dark Side. And I still remember(and still want to!) wanting to be as awesome as Shane Vansen when "I grow up"! I was twenty then......and I still want to be her. *sigh* And I had almost forgotten how much I liked the *barely*in*it Pags. And yes, I see that Nathan West is still as annoying as I recalled.

Edited by stlbf, Sep 7, 2005 @ 12:14 AM.