History Series / SpaceAboveAndBeyond

''Space: Above and Beyond'' (1995-1996) was a MilitaryScienceFiction series on Creator/{{Fox}}. Set in space around the middle of the 21st century, it focused on a group of young, ragtag Marines living aboard the carrier ''U.S.S. Saratoga.'' Humanity was embroiled in a war with an alien race known as "chigs." The central cast were Marine pilots in the 58th Fighter Squadron, or the Wildcards. The show often focused on current issues and introduced moral dilemmas ''without'' being pathetically obvious.

Fox, [[ScrewedByTheNetwork being Fox]], dumped the show after one full season. The show ended with one character presumed dead, another two falling in an escape pod into enemy territory, one reunited with his prisoner-of-war lover, and the others in general limbo.

* AwesomeMcCoolName: Colonel Tyrus Cassius [=McQueen=].
--> '''Interrogator:''' Is your full name Colonel Tyrus Cassius [=McQueen=]?\\
'''[=McQueen=]:''' I always thought T.C. stood for "Top Cat".

* RidiculouslyHumanRobots: The Silicates, who look like regular humans with crosshairs for eyes, [[UncannyValley along with some uncanny behavioral tics.]]

* TheWorfEffect: The 127th Attack Wing, AKA the Angry Angels, are hyped up by their fangirl (Vansen) as "The best there is, ever will be." Except for [=McQueen=], they don't survive past the first half of the pilot. Could be {{justified|Trope}} by claiming that the Chigs would try to hit the humans hard in the first attack, and after both sides took severe losses early on, the general intensity of the battle dialed back [[UpToEleven down from eleven]] once it became apparent the war would be on for a while.

* BaldBlackLeaderGuy: Commodore Ross, the CO of the ''Saratoga'' and the guy who gives [=McQueen=], essentially the ship's Commander, Air Group, his orders (as well as being as close to a best friend as commander and subordinate can be). He's the only major black character other than Damphousse.

* MsFanService: the character of Shane Vansen (played by the lovely Kristine Clok, the wife of one of the producers) is shamelessly exploited in this respect. Despite being a hard as nails Marine officer she is often to be found strutting around in her skimpy underwear/night attire flaunting her leggy supermodel face/figure and huge breasts for no apparent reason. When Coooper fantasises about her in 'Who Monitors the Birds?' she is represented as a seductive, scantily clad Angel of Death. When she decides to earn money as a pool hustler at the Baachus resort she feels the need to wear a revealing skintight minidress and high heels and had the series continued to a second season it was intended that she and Damphouse would have ended up as slavegirls working as hookers at one of its' brothels before being eventually rescued.

* MsFanService: the character of Shane Vansen is shamelessly exploited in this respect. Despite being a hard as nails Marine officer she is often to be found strutting around in her skimpy underwear/night attire flaunting her leggy supermodel face/figure and huge breasts for no apparent reason. When Coooper fantasises about her in 'Who Monitors the Birds?' she is represented as a seductive, scantily clad Angel of Death. When she decides to earn money as a pool hustler at the Baachus resort she feels the need to wear a revealing skintight minidress and high heels and had the series continued to a second season it was intended that she and Damphouse would have ended up as slavegirls working as hookers at one of its' brothels before being eventually rescued.

* MsFanService: the character of Shane Vansen is shamelessly exploited in this respect. Despite being a hard as nails Marine officer she is often to be found strutting around in her revealing underwear/night attire flaunting her leggy supermodel face/figure and huge breasts for no apparent reason. When Coooper fantasises about her in 'Who Monitors the Birds?' she is represented as a seductive, scantily clad Angel of Death. When she decides to earn money as a pool hustler at the Baachus resort she feels the need to wear a skintight minidress and high heels and had the series continued to a second season it was intended that she and Damphouse would have ended up as slavegirls working as hookers at one of its' brothels.

* MsFanService: the character of Shane Vansen is shamelessly exploited in this respect. Despite being a hard as nails Marine officer she is often to be found strutting around in her revealing underwear/night attire flaunting her leggy supermodel face/figure and huge breasts. When she decides to earn money as a pool hussler at the Baachus resort she feels the need to wear a skintight minidress and high heels and had the series continued to a second season it was intended that she and Damphouse would have ended up as slavegirls at one of its' brothels.

* MsFanService: the character of Shane Vansen is shamelessly exploited in this respect. Despite being a hard as nails Marine officer she is often to be found strutting around in her revealing underwear/night attire flaunting her leggy supermodel face/figure and huge breasts. When she decides to earn money as a pool hussler at the Baachus resort she feels the need to wear a skintight minidress and had the series continued to a second season it was intended that she and Damphouse would have ended up as slavegirls at one of its' brothels.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Wildcards_5889.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:The Wildcards' squadron patch.]]

* MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness: Like ''Series/BabylonFive,'' ''SAAB'' was surprisingly "hard" sci-fi for a television show (excluding the artificial gravity, humanoid robots and aliens): FTL travel was accomplished by use of naturally occurring wormholes, kinetic weapons are used by Earth's ground forces, and translating an alien language proves extremely difficult (see below).

** The Silicates are android servants who predictably TurnedAgainstTheirMasters;''not'' so predictably because of abuse, but simply by introducing them to the concept of chance -- they became obsessed with probability, relishing unlikely outcomes even when they ''weren't'' in their favor. The "AI Wars" were not really wars or even rebellions so much as massive, widespread and deadly ''pranking'' campaigns which ended with the machines getting bored and leaving Earth to wander the universe. [[spoiler:They ended up interacting with the Chigs relatively peacefully -- enough to interrogate humans on their behalf]].
** The [=InVitro=] "Tanks" were how the world government fought an enemy that marched off of assembly lines ready, willing and able to fight; they developed a way to mass-produce soldiers. [=InVitro=]s are made from chromosomes [[MixAndMatchMan mixed and matched from hundreds of separate donors]] for optimal results, so their "parents" never existed as two living, breathing human beings and [[UterineReplicator artificially gestated]] -- a process with a 90% failure rate which produces humans physically 18 years of age -- to be full-grown ChildSoldiers; socially awkward children with the bodies and training of elite military operatives, but with no life experiences. Though skilled fighters, they actually made poor soldiers; without familial or social ties to humanity, they were hesitant to risk their lives in heated combat and many deserted. Lacking equal rights under the law when they were first created -- every single one was obviously a draftee, and ReallyWasBornYesterday. This led to their entire "race" being condemned as lazy and cowardly, and post-war are condemned to the drudge work of society -- and often predictably go FromCamouflageToCriminal, adding "violent lawbreaker" to the litany of bigotry. As an [=InVitro=], Lieutenant Cooper Hawkes of the 58th constantly endured slurs like "nipple-neck" ([=InVitro=] were trained through NeuralImplanting via a second umbilical cords at the base of the neck which left a puckered scar after removal) and "tank."

** In "Hostile Visit", the Wild Cards use a captured Chig bomber to mount a sneak attack on a Chig base, likening it to the Doolittle Raid. [[spoiler:The operation is an {{Epic Fail}}ure, mainly due to [[RealityEnsues their poor ability to pilot the alien ship]]: they miss their intended target completely (the Chigs claim they hit a civilian target) and get shot down and captured.]]

** Lieutenant Colonel Raymond T. Butts, who crosses this with TheNeidermeyer, can not only take on entire groups of Marines in a brawl, but manages to lure a group of Chig fighters into falling into a Black Hole, [[GoOutWithASmile singing along to Johnny Cash as he gets pulled in with them.]]

* AmericaSavesTheDay: The war with the Chigs is a UN operation, and the [[ChineseWithChopperSupport People's Liberation Army]], [[BritsWithBattleships Coldstream Guards]], and [[FinnsWithFearsomeForests Finnish Air Force]] all make appearances. However, the US Navy and Marine Corps forces are both the focus of the series and consistently the most successful fighters.

* AliensSpeakingEnglish: {{Justified}}: One of the early hints that not all is as it seems with the Chigs is that they appear to learn human languages remarkably quickly despite the apparent WeComeInPeaceShootToKill situation in the pilot. And not just English: in "Stardust" the protagonists plant disinformation written in Navajo. At the midpoint of the series the Chigs turn out to be in contact with the Silicats. [[spoiler:In the GrandFinale it turns out a MegaCorp first encountered the Chigs several years earlier and kept it quiet to protect their newfound source of profit. The war started because of the MegaCorp [[BullyingADragon reneging on the deal it had made with the Chigs]].]]

* FantasyConflictCounterpart: Late battles are directly based on parts of the Pacific and Normandy campaigns in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, with the similarities directly called out in the episodes.

** Round Hammer itself is inspired by the planned invasion of the Japanese home islands. The UN brass even refers to their strategy as 'planet-hopping', a reference to the USN's island hopping campaign in the Pacific. [[spoiler:But unlike the real one that never happened because the Japanese surrendered after the American nuclear attacks, Round Hammer is called off in the finale because the Wild Cards screw up and give away the battle plan to the Chigs,[[note]]They meet an unarmored Chig while scouting a moon of the Chig homeworld and, not knowing what unarmored Chigs look like, mistake him for a different alien species and tell him about the planned assault to save his life. He is apparently a guardian of a Chig breeding ground and tells his government about the invasion.[[/note]] who offer to open peace negotiations instead of taking advantage. The negotiations go badly awry and the war restarts, but the UN has lost the initiative.]]

* TokenMinority: PlayedWith, given the setting. The squad includes several women, at least two African Americans, and an Asian guy. The only ''minorities'' in the squad, however, are caucasian Hawkes and [=McQueen=], the only [=InVitros=] in the squad, and amongst the few in military service.
* TortureTechnician: Elroy-EL, a line of Silicates that specialize as torturers.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar:
** The end of the finale briefly features a farewell in the form of the military phonetic "Alpha Mike Foxtrot". This is an UnusualEuphemism for "Adios Mutha' F***".
** Colonel [=McQueen=] frequently tells his Marines, "Hear this, C.F.B.!" C.F.B. refers to "Clear as a ***ing Bell."

* GungHolierThanThou: Lt. Herrick straddles the line between this and Theeidermeyer - as a commissioned officer, he does have authority over the men in his platoon (who revere him) but his antics provoke eye rolls at best from the 58th, all of whom outrank him.

* GungHolierThanThou: Lt. Herrick straddles the line between this and TheNiedermeyer - as a commissioned officer, he does have authority over the men in his platoon (who revere him) but his antics provoke eye rolls at best from the 58th, all of whom outrank him.