Trivia / Space: Above and Beyond

• Accidental Downer Ending: The series ran one full season, with the final episode intended as a cliffhanger: it ended with a failed peace conference (so the war will continue), one of the main characters dead, two more either dead or captured, a fourth severely injured in an explosion, and a very strong hint that the enemy "Chigs" never wanted the war in the first place. Then the series was canceled, so none of these plotlines ever got resolved.
• The Cast Showoff: Tucker Smallwood as Commodore Ross played blues guitar as often as possible.
• Cast the Expert: Both of Hollywood's resident Marines make appearances in the show; R. Lee Ermey appears as the 58th's drill instructor in the pilot episode, while Dale Dye plays a Marine officer in "Who Monitors the Birds".
• Screwed by the Network: Holy, holy moly. Fox actively moved or pre-empted the show on a fairly routine basis, which made it hard to follow during its initial run, and it also dropped the show on a massive cliffhanger, which was teasing some shocking reveals about the origin of the conflict and the relationship between the antagonist races, and also left a number of characters in total limbo.
• Technology Marches On:
  • CRT Monitors and CD-ROMs are used aboard the Saratoga.
  • Mini Disc players on the Hammerhead fighters.
  • The silicates can communicate with each other totally wirelessly...complete with 56k dial-up sounds.

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