Space Above and Beyond... Any Takers?

[Star Wolf]

If they rebooted it, perhaps they could finally decide if they wanted to make a show about fighter pilots or infantry grunts. Not as characters 'temping as both.

S:AAB is what you get when you have writers who REALLY want to write military drama but know nothing about the subject (nor do they care to find out about it).

That was what really drove me nuts, and ultimately turned me off the show. It wasn't just switching from infantry to fighter jocks, either: remember the pilot episode? They spent boot camp (for like eight weeks) in simulators, trained by a gunnery sergeant to be pilots (R. Lee Ermy is awesome, but still) then became commissioned officers. W.T.F.? OCS is one thing, but that was ridiculous.

.

Missed An Officer and A Gentleman did you. The flight officer candidate schools have been around the Navy for awhile although I think real life Marines have to command a platoon before going aviation.

 

[Mr Light]

They spent boot camp (for like eight weeks) in simulators, trained by a gunnery sergeant to be pilots (R. Lee Ermy is awesome, but still) then became commissioned officers. W.T.F.? OCS is one thing, but that was ridiculous.

If I recall correctly, in the pilot most of the experienced military personnel was wiped out in a disastrous ambush by the Chigs, leaving all the raw recruits to fill in the gaps with insta-promotions.

 

[Pilot Ace]

Really enjoy the show! Own the DVD.

They spent boot camp (for like eight weeks) in simulators, trained by a gunnery sergeant to be pilots (R. Lee Ermy is awesome, but still) then became commissioned officers. W.T.F.? OCS is one thing, but that was ridiculous.

If I recall correctly, in the pilot most of the experienced military personnel was wiped out in a disastrous ambush by the Chigs, leaving all the raw recruits to fill in the gaps with insta-promotions.

I thought this was largely the explanation for why pilots were ground pounding as well. Earth's military had been completely fucked by the Chigs, so humans were limping along trying to gain back ground and all able bodies needed to be flexible in combat situations.

 

[Alpha_Geek]

The backstory tells all. The US military was pretty small when the Chig attack came. There were reasons for this, and they are given in the pilot.

1. Global peace. Military enlistment drops as less forces are needed.

2. Military tried to utilize AI robots to fill the ranks. They went amok.

3. Attempting to bolster their ranks to fight the AIs, the military turned to invitro humans. This didn't work out very well either.

4. AI's leave Earth for parts unknown.

*** Begin Pilot ***
5. Telus Colony established

6... Get the DVDs.

 

[FPAlpha]

So the logical reason is to use an officer who knows how to control a multimillion air/space fighter and whose training has cost great amounts of money for guard and search missions where a stray shot or grenade can kill him?

Sorry to be so harsh but an army invests far more money and time into training up a pilot than training a basic grunt and losing that pilot to simple infantry guard duty is a waste.

Now.. if they were some kind of experimental unit that has gone through Aviation school AND Special Forces school they might had a point (still a huge stretch and a whole set of new logic flaws) but as it was in the show it was one big logic flaw.

 

[Harvey]

I'd like to see this at some point, although I've always been put off by the way Morgan and Wong ran Millennium into the ground by turning it into a childish adventure show.

 

[Star Wolf]

So the logical reason is to use an officer who knows how to control a multimillion air/space fighter and whose training has cost great amounts of money for guard and search missions where a stray shot or grenade can kill him?

Sorry to be so harsh but an army invests far more money and time into training up a pilot than training a basic grunt and losing that pilot to simple infantry guard duty is a waste.

Now.. if they were some kind of experimental unit that has gone through Aviation school AND Special Forces school they might had a point (still a huge stretch and a whole set of new logic flaws) but as it was in the show it was one big logic flaw.

There were only like 6 of them. By all logic if the Wildcards didn't have planes they would have been broken up and the officers would serve as forward air controllers or platoon commnaders. The all officer Special Forces and fighter pilot show was done. The second season of Wings of Gold. Year one was teaching just Marines, no Navy, how to fly F18s.

 

[Pilot Ace]

So the logical reason is to use an officer who knows how to control a multimillion air/space fighter and whose training has cost great amounts of money for guard and search missions where a stray shot or grenade can kill him?

Desperate times breed desperate measures?

 

[Star Wolf]

So the logical reason is to use an officer who knows how to control a multimillion air/space fighter and whose training has cost great amounts of money for guard and search missions where a stray shot or grenade can kill him?

Desperate times breed desperate measures?

If times were that desperate you would expect many platoon and company commanders wold need replacements. That is what out of work Lieutenants do. Not become riflemen in a entire squad of ground combat rookies.

 

[Lindley]

Now.. if they were some kind of experimental unit that has gone through Aviation school AND Special Forces school they might had a point (still a huge stretch and a whole set of new logic flaws) but as it was in the show it was one big logic flaw.

I'm reminded of the Star Wars: X-Wing series here. Wedge Antilles built up Rogue Squadron specifically to be pilots who also had infiltration skills. Later he tried building Wraith Squadron with infiltrators who also happened to be pilots. Both experiments worked out well.

Still, no such logic was applied here.....

 

[DS9Continuing]

I thought it was terrible. I couldn't bear it. I bought the DVD set based on recommendations from this board, and I regret it totally.

I found the dialogue to be stilted and cliched, the acting abominable, the effects laughable (although to be fair that's not their fault), and the characters annoying. I wanted them to be killed, they deserved it.

I made it to the episode where the lead guy's younger brother turned up. I couldn't even make it to the end of the teaser, I had to take it off. I never put it back on from that point. In fact I instructed my boyfriend to take the DVDs to a second-hand place and sell them - I didn't want them in the house.

I was aware that some considered the season/series finale one of the "best shows ever made," but frankly I so loathed what I'd seen so far that I didn't care enough to try to make it that far.

 

[EEE]

The Infantry vs Pilots debate is offset by the fact they made them Marines. In the USMC, ALL Marines are riflemen. No matter what their specialty code is.

However, the series was enjoyable in a Starship Troopers (the book version) sort of way.

 

[Orion Pimp]

Agreed with the rough start - in fact, I stopped watching after a few eps when it was first run. Then I checked in later, and discovered it had become the best military sci fi show EVAH!

Here's me in my hammerhead from Alfred Wong's kit at Starship Modeler:
http://www.inpayne.com/models/hammerhead1.html

Forbin, That's gorgeous!

I liked the show slightly when it first came out. re-watched some of it about 3 months ago and actually enjoyed it more the second time around. You do have to keep a salt shaker next to the DVD player for this one though.

 

[Forbin]

I'd like to see this at some point, although I've always been put off by the way Morgan and Wong ran Millennium into the ground by turning it into a childish adventure show.

Wait, I thought Morgan and Wong were responsible for Millenium's glorious second season, and then Chris Carter reasserted his control and gave us the shitty third season.

 

[Forbin]

The ground/air debate was actually brought up in one episode, i assume after the writers heard about the buzz around fandom about it. Col. McQueen addressed the Wild Cards on the subject thusly (paraphrased): "You are Marines. You will follow orders!" End of discussion, continue with the episode.

 

[Star Wolf]

The Infantry vs Pilots debate is offset by the fact they made them Marines. In the USMC, ALL Marines are riflemen. No matter what their specialty code is.

However, the series was enjoyable in a Starship Troopers (the book version) sort of way.

They were also officers which means as a riflemen they are platoon commanders, not ammo bearers for the machine gunner

 

[Mr Light]

Wait, I thought Morgan and Wong were responsible for Millenium's glorious second season, and then Chris Carter reasserted his control and gave us the shitty third season.

You are correct, sir! I loved Season Two. The Old Man is one of my all time favorite performances/characters.

 

[Harvey]

Wait, I thought Morgan and Wong were responsible for Millenium's glorious second season, and then Chris Carter reasserted his control and gave us the shitty third season.

Please. The second season indulges in Dan Brown level stupidity, turning the Millennium group from a consulting firm to an ancient conspiracy, complete with secret meetings and spooky babble that didn't go anywhere!. It turned violence, which the series had previously treated with a surpising eye of realism(considering it was on network television), into a cartoon, where cars explode with huge fireballs when they crash and the blood loss caused by a gunshot wound is nil. It turned the Polaroid Man into a mysterious menace into a babbling idiot in less than five minutes. It gutted the relationship between Frank and Catherine, seemingly to no purpose in the end. It erased the epigraphs in favor of (lame) on screen titles. And introduced the computer geeks and Frank's obsession with Bobby Darren, which accomplished little but stereotype the fanbase and destroy the perfect sense of tone.

But it did make the switch to widescreen.

(No bitterness about season two here... )

 

[Peter the Younger]

They spent boot camp (for like eight weeks) in simulators, trained by a gunnery sergeant to be pilots (R. Lee Ermy is awesome, but still) then became commissioned officers. W.T.F.? OCS is one thing, but that was ridiculous.

.

Missed An Officer and A Gentleman did you. The flight officer candidate schools have been around the Navy for awhile although I think real life Marines have to command a platoon before going aviation.

It's been a while, but I don't remember Louis Gossett Jr. teaching dogfighting. Unless he was playing the same character in Iron Eagle. [shudder]

Like I said, OCS was one thing, but the short training period and the use of them as infantry strained credulity for me. "Every man a rifleman" is good for training rounded soldiers and encouraging esprit de corps, but has little bearing on real world force deployment. It takes a lot of time and money to train a pilot properly; sticking them in a foxhole is like throwing money in a fire.

 

[Forbin]

Wait, I thought Morgan and Wong were responsible for Millenium's glorious second season, and then Chris Carter reasserted his control and gave us the shitty third season.

Please. The second season indulges in Dan Brown level stupidity, turning the Millennium group from a consulting firm to an ancient conspiracy, complete with secret meetings and spooky babble that didn't go anywhere!. It turned violence, which the series had previously treated with a surpising eye of realism(considering it was on network television), into a cartoon, where cars explode with huge fireballs when they crash and the blood loss caused by a gunshot wound is nil. It turned the Polaroid Man into a mysterious menace into a babbling idiot in less than five minutes. It gutted the relationship between Frank and Catherine, seemingly to no purpose in the end. It erased the epigraphs in favor of (lame) on screen titles. And introduced the computer geeks and Frank's obsession with Bobby Darren, which accomplished little but stereotype the fanbase and destroy the perfect sense of tone.

But it did make the switch to widescreen.

(No bitterness about season two here... )

You apparently remember it a lot better than I do!
One thing I do remember was a rather fascinating 15 minutes of Kristin Cloke have visions of angels, running commercial-to-commercial without a word spoken. I remember that as being daring and original.

But yeah, if that's the season they killed off Meghan Gallagher, then fuck 'em!