Space: Above and Beyond - Revisited

Just in time for a proposed Region 2 DVD release I’ve finished watching my Region 1 boxed set of Space: Above and beyond, watching this and Babylon 5 and playing Duke Nukem 3D and Max, I may as well be 17 again.

As always, I will not avoid spoilers, be warned.

For those who don’t know, Space: Above and Beyond (SAAB) was a one season wonder created by X-Files alumnus Glen Morgan and James Wong which Aired in the UK around 1996-1998.  It was a military SF series following the lives of the 58^th US Marine Corps Squadron known as the Wild Cards during a war between Earth and an inscrutable advanced alien race who never named themselves but were commonly referred to as the “Chigs”

While it didn’t get much critical recognition in its day I was a real fan of the show, admittedly it helped that I often spent my Friday nights in watching TV late at night and so was one of the few who probably caught it on its initial broadcast.  However, could this be a case of “Don’t meet your heroes?”

In short, no.  If anything being older and having many years of different SF under my belt lead me to believe this is an under-rated classic.  Like any good military fiction this is not primarily about “boys Own” action, swinging in and giving chiggy a jolly old boot up whatever it uses for a backside.  In fact during the bulk of the single season humanity is loosing the war.  It is instead about the characters, from hardened veteran Colonel McQueen, rebellious loner Cooper Hawkes, and all round nice guy Paul Wang, what initially start off looking like bog standard ciphers become fleshed out, three dimensional characters.  They bond as a unit in a believable way (i.e. not by the end of the pilot) and similarly, while not avoiding the “redshirt” trope entirely (In general any new recruits of the 58^th have a short shelf life) they actually built up one new recruit (Winslow) which made the squadron’s reaction to her demise more believable.

The series itself was very cynical, particularly of humanity.  In the future they’ve created robots to act as slaves only to have them rebel, at which point they create artificially gestated people (In-Vitros or Tanks) to fight the rogue silicates, who also eventually refuse to fight.  The war itself turns out to have been started by a shady Aerospace contractor called Aerotech.  Yes, the series had subtle underpinning and development of plotlines that sadly we never got to see come to fruition.

Interestingly, watching S:AAB now, it definitely gave a good chunk of its DNA to the re-imagined Galactica.  The overt military feel, which the Likes of Trek and even Babylon 5 often avoid.  In S:AAB they don’t shy away from military jargon in much the same way BSG adopted its own forms of military speak.  There is also something of S:AAB’s Hammerheads in the way the BSG vipers fight, in fact aside from artificial gravity S:AAB tried to keep its Sci-Fi relatively “hard” the fighters do behave a bit like planes but can also perform 180 turns in space in the same way the Babylon 5 Starfuries could, only this is lightening quick.  All the equipment is more militaristically named.  On a personal note and as someone who doesn’t see an X-Wing, they see an Incom T65 X-Wing Space Superiority Fighter the Aerotech SA-43 “Hammerhead” Endo/Exo-Atmospheric Attack Jet brings me great joy.

Like BSG it’s not afraid to be grim, people die, people are sacrificed, sometimes in vain and it isn’t usually tied up at the end with a nice ribbon (Although S:AAB isn’t quite as unrelenting as BSG was)  there are moments of levity and nobility.

If I was to bring up a couple of gripes, in early episodes the acting is a bit sub-par (However not unusual for any series, look at early DS9 or TNG) the effects have aged a bit, although they did make some good calls, not having a massive effects budget they make good use of shadow, the darkness of space and put a lot of effort into re-usable stock footage.  It saved money for when they wanted to be ambitious, like the Beauty shots of “Chiggy von Rechtoven” lurking in a gaseous atmosphere.  The series is also undeniably “90’s” not in actual substance but in look and feel, in a similar way that TNG is early 90s while both DS9 and voyager are a bit more timeless.

The best way to recommend this series in my mind is not through all this piffle I’ve just written, but to give a Top 5 Episodes, if you watch nothing else, catch these 5.
In no particular Order

Who Monitors the Birds.

Hawkes takes on a covert assassination mission, however when his commander is killed he must survive alone on an enemy planet until extraction.  As well as getting flashbacks to the In-Vitro programme it’s a daring episode that gets by on relatively little dialogue.  Hawkes doesn’t talk to himself as he starts feeling the effects of isolation, the hardships are played out through action.  I’d challenge a series to do this now without some sort of Voice over log recording or hallucination friend to talk to.

Toy Soldiers

West’s brother is assigned to the Saratoga under the command of a reckless, enthusiastic and inexperienced commander.  It’s not blindingly original but the dénouement is nonetheless heartbreaking

The Angriest Angel

Quite an uncharacteristic episode, McQueen goes into full on action hero mode to take down a Chig ace who has destroyed squadrons of pilots.  It should be absurd that this one pilot succeeds where many others have failed or were lucky to return alive but James Morrison makes it compelling and fascinating viewing.

The River of Stars

Almost an obligatory Christmas Episode, the 58^th are stuck in a damaged APC drifting in space.  The idea of the enemy helping them to safety is actually secondary to the character development, particularly that Happy go-lucky Wang has actually lost his faith and is actually getting worn down by the horrors of war.  It’s also a good episode showing the way the cast have bonded over the past few months.

…. Tell Our Moms we Done our best

The Final episode.  Yes it’s a hateful cliff-hanger with no resolution, but instantly forgivable.  The Chigs have sent an envoy for peace after the 58^th unwittingly revealed their invasion plan’s in the previous episode.  As a gesture of goodwill the chigs release the Colonist POWs who have been held since the Pilot including West’s girlfriend.  However when Aerotech’s complicity is revealed and talks break down the rescue becomes threatened with tragic consequences.  Yes, they bump off half the cast.  By the end of this episode Wang is dead in one of the finest TV deaths ever, Vansen and Damphouse are MIA, probably dead and McQueen has lost his legs.  There is so much to like, from the Gung-Ho “Shuffle up the wild cards, and Deal em” to the lump in the throat “Take Her home West” and “Semper Fi my friends” to McQueen’s words to Commodore Ross “No, It shouldn’t have been you, it shouldn’t have been any of us”  One of the finest 45mins of TV you will see.

So, needless to say I’m not sorry I decided to re-visit this particular gem from my past.  But I have been thinking about why it wasn’t a success.  Frankly, my view is it came too early, it came as Babylon 5 and DS9 were beginning to bring this sort of thing to the front.  Also, in general people prefer allegories they can relate to.  The nearest war we had in mind was the first Iraq war, and it didn’t really fit the war depicted in the show.  In many ways it was still reflecting aspects of Vietnam.  I imagine somewhere there is a world where this series was delayed by a decade and came out in the post 9/11 mid Iraq/Afghanistan world and found its audience.