Space: Above and Beyond is an American science fiction television series that aired on Fox, created and written by Glen Morgan and James Wong. Planned for five seasons, it only ran for one season from 1995–1996 before being canceled due to low ratings. It was nominated for two Emmy Awards and one Saturn Award. Ranked last in IGN's top 50 Sci-Fi TV Shows, it was described as "yet another sci-fi show that went before its time.") — Alvin El 1543 aka "Handsome Alvin" (Silicate in episode "R & R")

  • Dale Dye, Capt., USMC (ret.) — Major Jack Colquitt (USMC) (in episode "Who Monitors the Birds?")
  • R. Lee Ermey, GySgt., USMC (ret.) (uncredited) — Sergeant Major Frank Bougus (USMC) (in the pilot episode)
  • Adam Goldberg — Sergeant 1st Class Louie Fox, Seventh Cavalry, U.S. Army (in episode "Pearly")
  • Steve Rankin — Lieutenant Colonel Raymond Thomas Butts, callsign "Kick Butts" (in episode "Raymond Butts")
  • Harriet Sansom Harris — Ambassador Diane Hayden (Secretary General, UN)
  • Richard Kind — Colonel Burke (in episode "Level of Necessity")
  • Martin Jarvis — Major Cyril MacKendrick (British Army - in episode "Pearly")
  • Ronald G. Joseph — General Oliver Ranford (USMC) (in episode "Stardust")
  • Gail O'Grady (uncredited) — Colonel Klingman (in episode "Stardust")
  • Jennifer Balgobin — Communications Lieutenant Price (USN) (in episode "Sugar Dirt")

Production

While drawing comparisons with Robert Heinlein's novel Starship Troopers

Music

Wong and Morgan were looking for a more traditional musical approach than the synthesiser scoring favored on The X-Files; visual effects supervisor Glenn Campbell introduced the producers to the music of Shirley Walker, who had worked on Batman: The Animated Series. Wong and Morgan were initially unconvinced on hearing Walker's synth demos, until it was explained that her musical ideas would be filled out by an orchestra. Wong went on to describe the scoring session as "(his) favorite part of filmmaking." and she reunited with Wong and Morgan on many of their later projects (her final film score was for their remake of Black Christmas).

In 2011, La-La Land Records issued a three-disc limited edition featuring Walker's score for the pilot and music from most of the episodes ("The Enemy", "Choice or Chance", "Level of Necessity", "R&R", and "Stardust" do not have any score cues on the album).

Sound effects

The sound effects used on the show are often reused on the animated series Futurama.

Criticism

The actor Joel de la Fuente described his perception of a possibly stereotypical nature of his character Lt. Paul Wang, for which he felt discomfort for the role of "a cowardly soldier who betrayed his comrades":

  • space-readyroom.de – web site about S:AAB with multimedia, images, articles and fan fiction since 1997