Space Above and Beyond - The Complete Series
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Actor: Joel de la Fuente, Kristen Cloke, Lanei Chapman, Morgan Weisser, Rodney RowlandBrand: SPACE-ABOVE & BEYOND
Writer: Glen Morgan
Writer: James Wong
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: Spanish (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; Spanish (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 1032 minutes
Published: 2005
DVD Release Date: 2005-11-08
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: 20th Century Fox
DVD Reviews of Space Above and Beyond - The Complete Series
DVD Review: A good war series that fell victim to the FOX curse
Summary: 5 Stars
"Space: Above and Beyond" begins in the 2060s, and follows 5 young Americans who are undergoing accelerated officer training for the United States Marine Corps Space Aviator Cavalry. These people all have different reasons for joining the Marines in peacetime:
- In hopes of rejoining a lost love: Nathan West (Morgan Weisser)
- Carrying on a family tradition: Shane Vansen (Kristen Cloke)
- As an alternative to prison: Cooper Hawkes (Rodney Rowland)
- The military paid for engineering school: Vanessa Damphousse (Lanei Chapman)
- To escape a life of poverty: Paul Wang (Joel de la Fuente)
Except for spacecraft rather than aircraft and different-looking guns, little is changed from today's U.S. Marines. The uniforms are very similar; "every man a rifleman" is still the dictum.
What's new in 2063:
The U.N. is running world politics, but individual countries control their own military. Faster-than-light travel is available, although it's very expensive so commercial use is mostly directed through naturally-occurring wormholes. Two fledgling colonies have been established in other solar systems. There was a war with A.I. androids ("silicates"), and they departed Earth. Tank-grown human clones ("tanks") were developed to form troops to fight against the silicates.
As these new officer candidates near the end of their training the peace ends, suddenly, when a previously unknown enemy (the "Chigs") destroys the two extraterrestrial human colonies and captures many of the colonists, including Nathan West's fiance.
While S:AaB featured a great deal of emphasis on accurately depicting military life, there was little emphasis on accurately depicting physics. Space helmets don't seal at the neck. You hear sounds of flight and battle in a vacuum. Small solar cell arrays power large vehicles. Space fighters thrust continuously to get to their targets, and bank for turns. This is all bunk, of course, but don't let that put you off the series. Despite the future setting, S:AaB is almost exclusively a war show rather than a science fiction series. As a war show the series excelled, and its roster of largely unknown actors did an excellent job of portraying young people forced to become battle veterans at a frantic pace.
Just as the original Star Trek series used SF metaphors to highlight current 1960s events, S:AaB uses the fight with the "Chigs" to illustrate recurring themes of war:
o Demonization of a poorly-understood enemy
o Prejudice in the military mirroring prejudice in the larger society
o Large corporation with a hidden agenda, profiting from the war
o Sneaky politicians using skulduggery to further their personal aims
o Psychological warfare
o Wounded soldiers striving to return to combat
o Making friends, then losing them in battle
o Younger brother volunteering for the war
o Glory-hound commander putting his troops at risk needlessly
o Separation from family
o Interaction with different branches of the military
o Fraternization with fellow soldiers
o Problems with not enough R&R, followed by problems disengaging from R&R
o Being cut off and left without support for extended periods
o Deciding whether natives are bystanders or enemy supporters
The 5 young members of the 58th Squadron are augmented by their commander, Lt. Col. T.C. McQueen (James Morrison). Recurring roles include Tucker Smallwood as Commodore Glen Ross, Tasia Valenza as Lt. Kelly Winslow, and Harriet Sansom Harris as Ambassador/U.N. President Diane Hayden.
The DVD collection of S:AaB includes the double-length pilot plus 22 more "hour" (45 minute) episodes, on 5 double-sided DVDs. Discs 1 & 5 "A" sides hold 4 45-minute segments each; all the others hold 2 segments/side. Since they obviously could have done the whole thing as 4 segments per side, there's no reason for the doubled-sided discs except to make production cheaper.
The extras are restricted to the FOX promotional advertisement spots. There are no commentaries. In fact, no material at all was produced after the series ended in 1996.
"Space: Above and Beyond" suffered the usual FOX treatment for science fiction shows. It was shuffled around the 1995-1996 broadcast schedule, and a new series intro was introduced halfway through the season. You'll also note that there are many more promo spots included before the pilot aired than for the last 3/4 of the series run. (Once FOX decides a show isn't a hit, it's pretty much doomed to failure from then on.)
The two-part series ender ("If They Lay Us Down to Rest ..." and "... Tell Our Moms We Done Our Best") was obviously finished knowing that the series was already, or likely to be, cancelled. This ends with one of our 58th Squadron stars killed in action, two missing, and one wounded. The two remaining soldiers lie down in their bunks, staring at the ceiling and bleakly contemplating their loss. I'm sure that's a metaphor for how show creators Glen Morgan and James Wong reacted to the demise of S:AaB.
Despite the shabby FOX treatment, both in its original airing and on this DVD set, I recommend "Space: Above and Beyond" highly.
Description of Space Above and Beyond - The Complete Series
In this cult fan favorite, it?s the year 2063. After 150 years of deep space exploration, the people of Earth feel certain they are alone in the universe. Then word comes that two Earth outposts light-years away from home have been brutally attacked by an advanced alien civilization. Now the new young recruits of the United States Marine Corps Space Aviator Calvary are heading for the front lines of space in the toughest battle the world has even faced.Bestsellers in DVD
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