Space: Above and Beyond

A brilliant sci-fi series which, sadly, lost in the competition with Babylon 5 only after one season. Set ca. 100 years in the future, Earth has finally managed to colonize planets light years away. Then, from out of nowhere, aliens attack. The "chigs" are merciless, slaughtering hundreds of colonists. We follow Squadron 58, the "wildcards", in their fight against the enemy. The plot is truly good, with sort of a non-linear history. Brilliant acting, and person gallery.

A true masterpiece. This will stand out in my mind as a truely great tv-series, it's genre being a fine-line between sci-fi and cyberpunk.

Regrettably it only lasted one season - 23 episodes - due to lack of popularity amongst the majority. You damn peons! You know not what you are doing!

Characters include The 58th, the notable Commodore Glen Ross, who starred and burned out in the pilot episode, and Lt. Col T C McQueen. The season lasted 23 episodes, and there is now a role-playing-game and comic book series based on it.

Cast list for Space: Above and Beyond

The 58th
Morgan Weisser - 1st Lt. Nathan West
Kristen Cloke - Capt. Shane Vansen
Joel de la Fuente - 1st Lt. Paul Wang
Rodney Rowland - 1st Lt. Cooper Hawkes
Lanai Chapman - 1st Lt. Vanessa Damphousse
James Morrison - Lt. Col. Tyrus Cassius "TC" McQueen

Other
Tucker Smallwood - Commodore Glen Van Ross
Amanda Douge - Kylen Celina
Doug Hutchison - Elroy L

Notable guest stars
French Stewart - Chig attack survivor ("The Farthest Man from Home")
Adam Goldberg - Sgt. Louie Fox ("Pearlie")
David Duchovny - Alvin ("R&R")
Coolio - Bacchus greeter ("R&R")

It's interesting to note that a number of the main actors have shown up as guest stars on series creators Morgan and Wong's other show... The X-Files. Cloke (Melissa Ephesian, "The Field Where I Died"), Weisser (Lee Harvey Oswald, "Musings of a Cigarette-Smoking Man"), Rowland (Edward Jerse, "Never Again"), Morrison (Dr. Weider, "Theef"), and Smallwood (Andy Taylor, "Home") all made appearances, much to the delight of fans of both shows. Doug Hutchison also played liver-eating mutant Eugene Victor Tooms in the memorable first-season X-Files episode "Squeeze", well before his role on S:AaB.