These people should be noted on wiki pages of these shows, so whenever they apply for new job, their future employer could check and say: "TF you did?! You sir/madam should be ashamed of yourself! I will never hire you!"
Space Above and Beyond was a better show than Firefly with better writing. Problem was both came established creators that had hit shows and these just didn't do as well.
@Channel LuckySpock - Left 4 Dead 2 You should... I actually liked them both because they're not the same... Firefly is comedy, civilians kinda commiting space piracy or fraud sometimes with a wild west twist... Space: Above and Beyond is Marines... Military, fighting a war against aliens... Completely different but both well done for their their style.
'Space Above and Beyond' was a way beyond above average series, it was killed as usual by TV Executives without the patience to wait for the audience to build and they listened to the critics to damn much.
The usual TV executives never understood and never liked sci-fi shows. Certain executives are notorious sci-fi haters. So sci-fi shows have to maintain unusually high standards (to maintain high viewer ratings and generate high revenues) if they want to last more than a couple seasons. It's why so many sci-fi shows end up falling apart around middle of season 2, the writing goes to shit, the producers pull out more cheap tricks (gratuitous sex, nudity, violence, action), more escalations, more tech toys, more plot hooks which get randomly dangled and reeled all over the place in pure desperation. Sometimes they get lucky. Sometimes they get "given" only what they need to "gracefully" end the series. Sometimes they just die and get their slot filled by something else. Very few sci-fi shows are able to complete structured grand multi-season plot arcs without interruption. Most basically have to live week by week while hoping they don't get axed. The only exceptions are the sci-fi valuable "properties" which are already established and expected to be popular - the studios will even replace people if needed to keep the money flowing - but they'll still kill it without mercy once the revenue stream starts drying out.
a SciFi show that had more realistic story lines then normal shows. So lets cancel it. But we the audience didn't forget! the show that gave pancakes a different meaning.
I was friends with the creators, Glen and James. Before the show went on the air, they got their time slot, Friday at 7pm, and knew the show was dead right then...before it ever aired. I still have the detailed plans for the Saratoga from the production team...and many of the actual patches from the squadrons made for the production. I have a Saratoga hat as well from the show. I was sad to see it go....I thought, despite some of the flaws pointed out in this video, it was a fun show with a lot to offer.
Oh it was more than that. The per episode cost of the show was rather high. The executives also fucked with the time slot. Back then networks always messed with time slots of shows. Either to justify killing it, or thinking they can take on a more popular show. FOX is notorious for doing this. WHich is the station Space Above and Beyond was on. They started this show paired up with X-Files. Which was a great idea. Then they moved it so it was competing with Due South on Sundays. That was a highly popular family police drama at the time. At the same time FOX had the NFL contract. So the show was always delayed by football. You can look at the hostry of FIrefly, and how Married with Children ended to see more fuckery in how FOX worked at the time.
"Chiggy von Richthofen's" fighter was never Red, it was in fact Green, it was a prototype fueled by a clean burning non thermal self perpetuating organic compound (Sewell fuel) which aided the ship's Stealth capabilities, you may be misremembering the RED Hulled Chig fighters that were able to skip across the event horizon wash of black holes.
@@panzermacher I know, my error. I re-watched the scene... the part where he tells the priest, 'our maker' doesn't want to hear from him right now cuz he's about to go out that and remove one of his creations from the universe with that fighter.... then come back and drink a bottle of scotch as if it were chiggy's blood, and celebrate his death. yep...
It got killed off before the first season was actually finished. It sucks cause it's still one of my favorite sci-fi shows ever. Would have been nice to see the season atleast finish off properly :(
Actually, TV Guide at the time called it "The best new show you're not watching." It was, quite frankly, outstanding sci-fi. But Fox seemed to almost intentionally kill it, constantly skipping weeks and switching time slots and days. About the same time Earth 2, which was another exceptionally good sci-fi, suffered a similar fate.
Honestly, it all comes down to production costs. Comedy shows, police / medical dramas, and teenage escapades were much cheaper to produce per episode than sci-fi. I mean, unless a scifi show wasn't bringing in Star Trek viewership numbers, it was considered a loss. I think there was a lot of interest in creating the next Star Trek but at the end of the day, the studios simply didn't want to put in the extra funding to keep the shows around to gain viewership momentum.
@@SacredCowShipyards Not all but most. Star Trek TNG and DS9 did well despite Fox's best efforts to kill them. But admittedly those are exceptions to the rule.
@@IM-xs3uv that continuation was called Serenity. Space: Above and Beyond didn't even get that, and it should have. But on a side note, Space: Above and Beyond should have been a huge unheeded warning to Joss Whedon.
The shows producers were smart, when they realized the series was bye, bye, they wrote and filmed a three part finale, therefore the series can be called a limited series. Like this videos creator I loved the functional and realistically plausible ships in the show, I can foresee these existing in the late 21st century,
For the record, SCS, "rack" is a euphemistic term that stuck as full official terminology. It's a reference to a morgue's racks and how the bodies are slid in and out of their storage on a rack. It's small, cramped, and smells bad when you're sharing it with others (referred to as "hot-racking"). Source: my CPO during boot camp.
It can be taken another way. I honestly thought it'd be more in-line with something like a spice rack, or even gun rack and so on. It is one way of many to put a lot of something somewhere. I immediately thought "spice rack" cause sailors are always going to be salty, and soldiers are always going to come from the dirt, so they are spicy.
I don't understand how that show got bad reviews- it was amazing. I was about 13 when that show was on and I found it absolutely fascinating. I am now 39 and TO THIS VERY DAY, I am upset/disappointed about the cliff hanger the show ended on. We were at the cusp of a new offensive against an alien race we were constantly retreating from despite a few small skirmish victories. The show ended with one of our carriers investigating a retreating small alien craft that went behind an asteroid or moon only for wreckage (presumably the carrier falling into a trap on the dark side) emerging from the other side of the moon. Maybe they can do a recreation perhaps form the folks at Amazon or Netflix. This is the ONLY show I want brought back.
@@SacredCowShipyards It was an OK show that got better once it settled down to a story arc, but some of the decisions in the show were just pure dumb. A BSG style remake though would be interesting.
It was kinda more of the last offensive. It was the Chig homeplanet, Anvil, about to get hit by operation Roundhammer. We had won much more then just skirmishes. Those you saw were mostly part of larger operations we did not see (probably to cut cost). Remember, at the start we just had Earth and two expeditions/ colonies, so anything taking place on a different planet was far from a retreat. The prologue was the only time we had battles in our solar system. So that enemy home planet did give me uneasy feelings, like: this is getting close to a conclusion.... for Paul it was, and Nathan his Celina story arc had kinda concluded too. Still, I want to see the rest of the story.
The Eagle from Space 1999. Has three basic parts. All can separate and be used individually. The cockpit can be both an escape pod and a fighter. The body can fly normally by either remote control or pilot and do whatever mission the pod is for. The pod comes in many varieties including habitats. hospitals, etc. If you were so inclined, you could turn this thing into a space going AC130H Spectre. I love this thing.
True, hence why they're marines, who historically were, are trained for more than only land based infantry tactics, with shipboard & amphibious ops - just expanded to include future tech & r&d in flight systems and air/space-craft etc; to allow them to be pilots, in atmo and in space ...and keeping the cast small & cheaper than Fox usually/always baulks when SciFi related. That's my understanding of the guesstimation of it.
I loved that with ISSCV we have another multi-purpose craft inspired by the CH-54. It's clearly in the proud tradition of Thunderbird 2 (Thunderbirds, 1965) and the Eagle (Space 1999)
Oh, the Eagle! Move anything, anywhere. One of the first sci-fi ships to acknowledge RCS thrust control instead of "flying in space-air". Modular, believable, beautiful.
Narrator: "...BUT that idea actually turns up in science fiction!" Me: "THUNDERBIRD TWO!" (Sorry, but it really *was* the first thing that popped into my head when I saw the original Skycrane "bus" photo.) By the way, I remember S:A&B very well, and was royally PO'd when it went away. I know they're bringing back Babylon 5, I'd love to see an updated remake/reboot of this show as well. Ancillary point: My father was in the Navy (Korean conflict) and once told me the bunks were called "racks" because in stores & warehouses you hung clothing & goods from racks, and that's kind of what the sailors felt about the concerns for their "bedrooms"... I dunno, just putting it out there.
Oh S:AAB was a brilliant show. It had a deeply detailed background, with despite Earth being united, had subfactions, vat -grown humans ("tanks"), started at peace but soon dropped into war. It even had R.Lee Emery as a drill instructor! It had a much more industrial feel to its sci-fi, and this ship is a reflection of that. Thanks so much for this review, and for bringing back some great memories.
It was cheesy as fuck with way too many cliches & tropes, but I loved the show anyway, I would welcome a reboot. it would make an excellent MMOG, you have 4 factions Humans invitroes somewhat hostile to Humans but willing (mostly) to collaborate on common goals. Silicates mostly hostile towards Humans but willing to trade for Tech on occasion, mostly aligned with Chigs. Chigs I could see the Invitroes & Silicates as Mercenary Factions willing to work with & betray both Human & Chig Factions as they saw fit.
@@panzermacher Yeah, absolutely it was cheesy, but that cheese was part of its charm. Absolutely it'd make a great MMOG. I've used it as background material while running Traveller (table top RPG)
I LOVE how they worked Ermey's FMJ monologue into the script! Also: "Now hear this, CFB! This is Operation Red Baron! All our plans are on hold until this Chig dies! I want you to go out there, find this bastard, and you pile on!" - Air Commodore Glenn Ross
@@BlokeOnAMotorbike Such great lines as: "In space, no one can hear you scream, unless it is the battle cry of the United States Marines!....Why did you join my precious Marine Corps?" "...Sir, to defend my country, sir!" " To defend your country from what? We have no enemies. Are you crazy? I think you made a horrible mistake!" A cheaply made series that deserved better than what it got. Loads of fun. It was a boon for Australia too. so many Australian actors in that series, and filmed a lot in Australia too.
This ship actually reminds me, a lot, of the landing ships from Starship Troopers. It also reminds me, a little bit, of the Wayfarer class ship from the Star Wars RPG. All three ships utilize a modular, detachable cargo container system. The biggest differences are, the container on the ISSCV and the Starship Troopers' ship is smaller than the container in the Wayfarer and the Wayfarer's drive section, if you will, is off to the side of the container rather than above it or in the case of the ISSCV, around it.
I actually worked, at first, as an extra on this show. I got to play one of the aliens, dressed head to toe in an exoskeleton suit with an awkward head. Later, I got to work as one of the flight crew, preparing the main characters as they jumped in their cockpits before dropping down out of the floor of the set. I also was a stand-in for the actor Rodney Rowland. It was one of the coolest shows that I ever worked on. I remember sitting in traffic, on my way to the set each day, looking around at all of the other people in their cars, wearing their suits and ties and thinking to myself, "I get to work on a space ship today!". I was barely 18 years old at the time. Those were fun times.
Better not. Can you _really_ imagine this show being remade under the current political and cultural climate? Silicates did nothing wrong, silicate lifes matter!
I loved Space: above and beyond, i had the opportunity to talk to 2 of the actors and even meet James Paige Morrison! This show was ahead of its time and with nowerdays CGI technology it would have been a major hit show!
SAAB is one of my all time favorite SciFi shows. I still curse the shortsighted jackholes that cancelled it. I loved the characters and the stories. This is one show that deserves a reboot. I even recall an interview with Ronald D. Moore where he stated that SAAB supplied a fair amount of inspiration for the BSG reboot that Moore would helm seven years later. End rant. lol I’d love to see your treatment of the SA-43 Hammerhead fighter, the Saratoga as well as the Chig fighters, bombers and capital ships.
The way I understand the situation with Space:Above and Beyond, the original concept by Morgan & Wong was the old series Combat in space - following a squad of infantry as they fight and live their lives, but the Network wanted something flashier - fighter pilots. So Morgan & Wong had to adapt their initial concept to the mish-mash we got and end up with many elements that didn't make sense, like using pilots as ordinary soldiers. They still had some amazing episodes looked at individually, "Sugar Dirt" & "Who Monitors the Birds?" being just two. Enjoyed the discussion. Keep up the good work.
Much like the troops themselves, the entirety of SAAB appeared a massive compromise. And that's unfortunate. There were a lot of stories to be told there, yet no one was interested in paying for them.
They explained it early on why the Wild Cards were filling dual roles. Vansen was complaining to McQueen about that same thing and he informed her that it simply had to be done that way with the immense strain on manpower after the Chigs destroyed so many of their forces.
The rack is an ancient torture device where the tortured were strapped on a hard bed and stretched from their limbs until dislocation/death. Some variations of the rack were based on a wooden wheel that also bent the torso while limbs were extracted. It was a horrible way to die and the discomfort of the navy beds was probably humorously compared to being 'on the rack'.
they were literally stacked wooden frames on merchant ships from the early 16th century onwards. The crew would share them, and given the lack of consideration offered to comfort you'd be lucky to have a tunic to put under your head.
@@TaffenFelspar This just makes me think of the Mann Shorts D&D military edition bits(I think it was marine edition but can't remember for sure). "Roll to see how well you slept" Players roll. 2 of them slept alright but the one who rolled a nat 20 slept REALLY well. Drill instructor gave her a special wake up call due to oversleeping in basic training.
I loved Space: Above and Beyond. The Hammerheads are awesome. I felt that they were more Special Operations as they could multitask ground work/space flight than an actual infantry unit but yea, jack of all trades etc etc. Love the reviews!
@@SacredCowShipyards . They weren't. LT COL Raymond T Butts was, and they were seconded to him for a mission in one episode. Hawkes also was solo seconded for another mission in another episode.
@@SacredCowShipyards If I recall...it's been a long time since I've watched the show, they were not special operations per se, but they were a special unit that they decided to try out training to be both pilots and ground pounders. It was a weird concept, but seemed just like a conceit the show went with in order to keep the cast to a more manageable size rather than have to follow the aerospace and ground forces as two separate sets of characters to keep track of
This was a really well-made show, and it deserved better. In my area of the US, you could never find it because Fox moved it around every week to make room for sports. :-P
I saw one of these Helicopters one Saturday morning while going to work in Downtown LA. As it turned out, they were filming the movie Swordfish. It was hovering a few feet off the ground about to tow a bus on Bunker Hill
Saratoga was a lovely thing. Big, chunky, well armed and one of the few sci fi ships where the fighter bay isn’t directly in line with the carriers centre of symmetry (causing a massive hole/weakness in the frontal armour) guaranteeing that half your fighters are taken out by stray shots aimed a your big ship.
And here I had two separate frames for my sci-fi humans' transport craft and their tanks' dropships. Of course, the one advantage of that was having two separate nicknames for them, with the dropship being nicknamed the "Tank Dropper" and the transport being nicknamed the "Flying Schoolbus".
I remember that show! The Earth / Chig war, the human gene solder Tanks, and how the main cast go from a group of green marines to a mere handful of survivors over the course of the story. I think this is the show where the naval intelligence guys put automated iff devices in the combat fighters without telling anyone, before sending them out on a training excersise
@@SacredCowShipyards AI remastering is pretty good now, use that with some solid image and sound folks to oversee it and adjust when it has issues and it'll be golden.
When on network TV, I loved this show and watched it every week. Own the full season on DVD and, it is still a joy and pleasure to watch. “When, I die and they lie me down to rest, please tell our mothers that we did our Best.”
I used to love that show. It had all the cliche 90's storylines, but it was original science fiction when that was a rare commodity, and it was honestly decent production values. I remember the cliffhanger ending to this day, and it was with that same transport you discuss here. A memorable show.
So it's a more aerodynamic Space:1999 Eagle. Very similar size and module options. But much less significant landing legs, probably for aerodynamics again. You wouldn't want an Eagle's landing gear if your fuel were any less magical than an eagle's fuel. I also don't think eagles ever had compound modules in the midsection, like half medical + half cargo. But the Eagle command module was able to detach from the eagle and attach to other ships of different designs to command them, as in the episode Dragon's Domain.
oh you have to watch the rest. "Never No More" and "The Angriest Angel" are my two favourites. "Looking darkly upon Hector, swift footed Achilles answered, 'I cannot forgive you. As there are no trustworthy oaths between men and lions, there can be no love between you and me. Before then to glut with his blood, Ares, the god who fights under the shield's guard. Now the time comes for you to be a spearman and a bold warrior. You will pay in a lump for all the sorrows of my companions you have killed in your spear's fury.'" - Lt. Col. Tyrus Cassius McQueen
What is a rack? It is a sleeping compartment for one person. The name goes back probably centuries. Initially, sleeping was done on hammocks which were tied to supporting structures on the frame of the ship. As building practices changed, so to did the technology for sleeping compartments. Eventually the hammocks were replaced with wall mounted frames that you pull down. Think of it as a hide-a-bed that were pretty common in smaller apartments. The difference though is these frames are quite small and the mattresses are barely wider than the human body. And generally are only about six feet long. Which back in the time wasn't an issue. The average male wasn't even 5 foot 8 inches tall. Now, the current berthing models have little cubicles stacked on top of each other. Usually three to a stack. So you the bottom bunk, the middle bunk, and the top bunk. Officers and senior enlisted tend to get two cubicles per stack. They also tend to be wider and the mattresses are thicker. These cubicles tend to be a thin mattress, a storage bin under the frame of the mattress, a light, and a curtain that runs the length of the cubicle. If you are lucky, you also will get an air vent and a single electrical outlet. Which back in my days of service was unheard of in older model ships. Also the amount of height space allocated to each cubicle was directly related to the height of the ceiling in the berthing space. I've been on some older ships were the ceiling was barely seven feet tall. And once you ran ventilation, lighting, and other obstructions, this left little to no room for berthing cubicles. If you were unfortunate enough to be assigned to one of these you probably didn't have room to roll over. These "racks" were usually more like coffins than sleeping spaces.
Love it. So much sci-fi (as most of your videos mention) are centered around looks cool, or handwaviness. I love seeing practical applications and pure function being the purpose. I've actually never seen this show, ill have to add it to my extensive list
It's a fun ride. It actually goes into a lot of interesting social debates, like sapient/sentient/self-aware AIs, and whether or not vat-grown clones are human, and other such fun things.
Hey this was a great show. I actually met one of the creators of this show when he wrote the Jet Li movie "The One." Oddly, when I asked him if he was an aficionado of military history he said no, even though there is tons of material that seems inspired by WW2, WW1, and the Trojan War to name a few.
It is a logical approach. You might not have a historian on the creation team, but you probably have a few scientists on the payroll. What seems like an inspiration from previous times, is nothing more than a practical look at a problem and addressing the issue with a common sense approach. The funny thing is, you actually have to have people asking the right questions and then deciding on whether or not to address it. How many SciFi shows and video games never address bathrooms? And when it does get addressed, how do those shows handle it? Usually with unisex restrooms. But something so simple then leads to other questions. Where do people sleep in the longer voyages? What do they eat? How do you deal with air and water recirculation? People who enjoy scifi want to know those answers. And the smart production teams address that very thing in a episode and may even at times make it a critical point to address.
@@superdave8248 Lower Decks have racks set into the walls of the corridors where those bottom-ranking crewmembers sleep. Not sure if they share racks though, I would assume not given the amount of space offered per crew member even on the Intrepid Class.
Regarding 'rack' - my understanding is it originates very early WWII with ships being converted to house extra personnel, sleeping spaces being made from same/similar construction material used for making shelving/warehouse racking, which led to "getting rack time" for sleep, which in turn inevitably became simply 'rack' for general referencing.
The show was made in Australia and was the firet TV show to use CGI. I remember watching it on TV. It was shown on Australian TV before it was even finished. There were blank screens in the episodes where unfinished CGI sequences were supposed to go so obviously Aussie audiences were the first to see it, which was unusual as we usually only got TV series' after they were at least a year old. I watched it later and it it obvious that the team doing some of the CGI sequences were not aware, or forgot, that US and AU tv's used different aspect ratios as there are obvious paralax/aspect ratio distortions going on. The show featured a brief, but funny cameo by Gunnery Sargent R. Lee Ermey too.
Way back when I was excited about Space Above and Beyond , but the writing , acting and ( still blows my mind to this day but....) how 'dark' a lot of the scenes were shot in was just mind-boggling ! Note the future filmmakers , pay your reflector Handler and lighting crew what they're worth !!! Pertaining to the ISSCV if anybody watches the UA-cam channel ' Dark Skies ' you'll see how this could very well be a proof-of-concept aerodynamic design ! That is to say it could be something we could actually build ! Although I would like to see a compare and contrast or and all-in outright fight between an ISSCV and a UD-4 'Cheyenne' Dropship !!!
In the military the rack is as you said slang for bed/cot, most likely came from being compared to “The Rack” a torture device due to its uncomfortable nature. Most racks I have come across while serving have been uncomfortable and too short for an average size guy.
the sky crane are used to fight fire. It is beautiful, and Space: above and Beyond is one of my favorite. It's closest to real sci fi, oppose to sci fantasy
16th Century merchant navy used racks for the crew to sleep on. These were usually stacked 4 or 5 high below decks, made with wooden pallet frames (and resembled torture racks more than they did beds - the sole comfort sleeping on one of these was usually a rolled up tunic under your head - there was no room for a mattress!). On board a ship with ~120 crew, there'd be probably 18-20 racks which were shared among the crew. The Captain and the cabin boy would share a mattress (if they were so inclined) or the cabin boy would sleep on the floor in the captain's cabin. Modern submarines use stacked bunks for the crew in a similar way - this is called hot racking, and is also used elsewhere space is at a premium, particularly if some of the racks are used at the start of the voyage to store nonperishables such as food.
@@almitrahopkins1873 yeah because they are a ratings channel... which is better then what you get from like disney and hollywood... woke shit for many seasons and in the end the franchise is completely dead. (star wars, Star trek, and many many others)
Maybe, Navies around the world do tend like all military forces to have a somewhat macabre sense of humour, but it might just come from the tool rack kind of rack, the racks are literally storage space for personnel between shifts
@@MrTrilbe I think you may understand my origin of the term "rack" if you had ever been confined to your rack because of foul weather. I've seen two days of horsecock sandwiches and rack burn along with every color of puke in the rainbow. Laying down in force ten winds isn't as restful as you'd think. Being at sea is a ride you can't get off of and when it is rough it is tough to sleep. It isn't just the motion it is the thought of waking up after a bad roll waist deep in cold sea water... that helps you keep one eye open . In the age of cat-o-nine tails and keelhauling it wasn't uncommon for men who had never see the sea to be shanghaied by press gangs waking up on ships far at sea . Imagine going from your nice still bed to a wet hard wood bench or deck rolling and pitching as the weather commands. Add to that you share a space with every burp and fart your new crew mates can muster. Hammocks are for Able Bodied Seamen and Farty McGee hangs his right over your part of the bilge. Some people might see that as a torture.
I was in the Navy. The etymology of rack is literally just rack. A synonym for rack is shelf. A Navy rack is a shelf you sleep on. In submarines we have torpedo racks. Those are shelves for torpedoes. You can also attach a box with a mattress in it to the torpedo rack and now you have a torpedo rack rack.
Best guess is that the term is a perversion/shift of "rick" as in "Rick of Wood" or other material that traditionally measured 4ft by 8ft by 16 inches (or one third of a cord.) Cords were traditionally freestanding, but Ricks were only one log (16 inches) deep, and were usually stacked against walls for easy access. TL:DR - It was early sailors and soldiers low-key complaining about being stacked on top of each other like firewood against walls.
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Fun Fact: The Assassins of Joy responsible for the killing of this show would later go on to assassinate "Firefly". Bravo, Fox. Great job.
Reminds me of the "Rural Purge" CBS did back in the day...
These people should be noted on wiki pages of these shows, so whenever they apply for new job, their future employer could check and say: "TF you did?! You sir/madam should be ashamed of yourself! I will never hire you!"
Space Above and Beyond was a better show than Firefly with better writing. Problem was both came established creators that had hit shows and these just didn't do as well.
Who are the AOJ?
@Channel LuckySpock - Left 4 Dead 2 You should... I actually liked them both because they're not the same...
Firefly is comedy, civilians kinda commiting space piracy or fraud sometimes with a wild west twist...
Space: Above and Beyond is Marines... Military, fighting a war against aliens...
Completely different but both well done for their their style.
'Space Above and Beyond' was a way beyond above average series, it was killed as usual by TV Executives without the patience to wait for the audience to build and they listened to the critics to damn much.
Exactly!
The usual TV executives never understood and never liked sci-fi shows. Certain executives are notorious sci-fi haters. So sci-fi shows have to maintain unusually high standards (to maintain high viewer ratings and generate high revenues) if they want to last more than a couple seasons.
It's why so many sci-fi shows end up falling apart around middle of season 2, the writing goes to shit, the producers pull out more cheap tricks (gratuitous sex, nudity, violence, action), more escalations, more tech toys, more plot hooks which get randomly dangled and reeled all over the place in pure desperation. Sometimes they get lucky. Sometimes they get "given" only what they need to "gracefully" end the series. Sometimes they just die and get their slot filled by something else.
Very few sci-fi shows are able to complete structured grand multi-season plot arcs without interruption. Most basically have to live week by week while hoping they don't get axed. The only exceptions are the sci-fi valuable "properties" which are already established and expected to be popular - the studios will even replace people if needed to keep the money flowing - but they'll still kill it without mercy once the revenue stream starts drying out.
a SciFi show that had more realistic story lines then normal shows.
So lets cancel it.
But we the audience didn't forget!
the show that gave pancakes a different meaning.
I was friends with the creators, Glen and James. Before the show went on the air, they got their time slot, Friday at 7pm, and knew the show was dead right then...before it ever aired.
I still have the detailed plans for the Saratoga from the production team...and many of the actual patches from the squadrons made for the production. I have a Saratoga hat as well from the show.
I was sad to see it go....I thought, despite some of the flaws pointed out in this video, it was a fun show with a lot to offer.
Oh it was more than that. The per episode cost of the show was rather high. The executives also fucked with the time slot. Back then networks always messed with time slots of shows. Either to justify killing it, or thinking they can take on a more popular show. FOX is notorious for doing this. WHich is the station Space Above and Beyond was on. They started this show paired up with X-Files. Which was a great idea. Then they moved it so it was competing with Due South on Sundays. That was a highly popular family police drama at the time. At the same time FOX had the NFL contract. So the show was always delayed by football.
You can look at the hostry of FIrefly, and how Married with Children ended to see more fuckery in how FOX worked at the time.
Oh i loved it, "Chiggy von Richthofen"'s red stealth fighter, with "Abandon All Hope" on it, was a thing of legends for designs.
You gotta love a murderous protohuman having a flare for the dramatic.
"Chiggy von Richthofen's" fighter was never Red, it was in fact Green, it was a prototype fueled by a clean burning non thermal self perpetuating organic compound (Sewell fuel) which aided the ship's Stealth capabilities, you may be misremembering the RED Hulled Chig fighters that were able to skip across the event horizon wash of black holes.
@@panzermacher I know, my error. I re-watched the scene... the part where he tells the priest, 'our maker' doesn't want to hear from him right now cuz he's about to go out that and remove one of his creations from the universe with that fighter.... then come back and drink a bottle of scotch as if it were chiggy's blood, and celebrate his death.
yep...
Never Forget Space Pancakes. RIP Ray Butts.
@@MM22966 Because you're mine, I've walked the line... Hooraaaaa!
"You probably never heard of it."
*glances over at DVD box set and Wildcards t-shirt that still gets worn regularly*
Because Fox couldn't stop switching Sunday showtimes.
That was a damn fine show, pity we never got a second season.
one of the best show ever make it was just ahead of it time
Especially with thad damn hardcore cliffhanger it ended with, because the makers firmly believed that there would be a second season.
It got killed off before the first season was actually finished. It sucks cause it's still one of my favorite sci-fi shows ever. Would have been nice to see the season atleast finish off properly :(
Or more!!
I still miss Space Rangers.
Actually, TV Guide at the time called it "The best new show you're not watching." It was, quite frankly, outstanding sci-fi. But Fox seemed to almost intentionally kill it, constantly skipping weeks and switching time slots and days. About the same time Earth 2, which was another exceptionally good sci-fi, suffered a similar fate.
Fox kills all science fiction it touches.
The creators of S:AAB are also the creators of the X-files, wich started running the year after S:AAB. I do hope for a reboot for this serries
Honestly, it all comes down to production costs. Comedy shows, police / medical dramas, and teenage escapades were much cheaper to produce per episode than sci-fi. I mean, unless a scifi show wasn't bringing in Star Trek viewership numbers, it was considered a loss. I think there was a lot of interest in creating the next Star Trek but at the end of the day, the studios simply didn't want to put in the extra funding to keep the shows around to gain viewership momentum.
@@fenixbogarden8665 x files was before above and beyond
@@SacredCowShipyards Not all but most. Star Trek TNG and DS9 did well despite Fox's best efforts to kill them. But admittedly those are exceptions to the rule.
Space, Above and Beyond was criminally underated, would have liked to see how the plot would have gone forward after the final episode cliffhanger
Space: Above and Beyond was a great show, left us on a cliff hanger ending. Do not forget the SPACE:1999 Eagle. Is a pod mover
V'Ger and Moobase Alpha use the same tech.
There's never been a series more deserving of a continuation than Space: Above and Beyond.
kehvan: Surely you haven't Glimpse SeaQuest DSV/2032, I Enjoyed that like No other...First and Final Seasons-2nd Season kinda was a Mixture
@@TwiceStruck yeah, SeaQuest was ok, but Space: Above & Beyond was something else entirely.
Firefly
@@IM-xs3uv that continuation was called Serenity. Space: Above and Beyond didn't even get that, and it should have.
But on a side note, Space: Above and Beyond should have been a huge unheeded warning to Joss Whedon.
Good point. SAAB definitely deserved more.
I was just thinking about this show the other day and thought to myself, “nobody remembers that show.” But here we are getting a breakdown. Good stuff
Surprisingly, there's been a few requests to do the Hammerhead on here. We'll probably loop back around to it in the future.
Same mate. I tried looking for it but couldn't find it. I watched it when it was originally aired in Scotland in the 90s. 👍
There have been a few videos and articles examining Space Above and Beyond lately.
@@jamp12008 Same for me, pal. I have the boxed set on DVD.
do you need to be a nipple neck to fly one? or can normies fly it too?
The shows producers were smart, when they realized the series was bye, bye, they wrote and filmed a three part finale, therefore the series can be called a limited series. Like this videos creator I loved the functional and realistically plausible ships in the show, I can foresee these existing in the late 21st century,
For the record, SCS, "rack" is a euphemistic term that stuck as full official terminology. It's a reference to a morgue's racks and how the bodies are slid in and out of their storage on a rack. It's small, cramped, and smells bad when you're sharing it with others (referred to as "hot-racking"). Source: my CPO during boot camp.
It can be taken another way. I honestly thought it'd be more in-line with something like a spice rack, or even gun rack and so on. It is one way of many to put a lot of something somewhere. I immediately thought "spice rack" cause sailors are always going to be salty, and soldiers are always going to come from the dirt, so they are spicy.
Racks are storage units for a variety of things in warehouses too. Your "rack" is a storage unit for a Marine or sailor.
I don't understand how that show got bad reviews- it was amazing. I was about 13 when that show was on and I found it absolutely fascinating. I am now 39 and TO THIS VERY DAY, I am upset/disappointed about the cliff hanger the show ended on. We were at the cusp of a new offensive against an alien race we were constantly retreating from despite a few small skirmish victories. The show ended with one of our carriers investigating a retreating small alien craft that went behind an asteroid or moon only for wreckage (presumably the carrier falling into a trap on the dark side) emerging from the other side of the moon. Maybe they can do a recreation perhaps form the folks at Amazon or Netflix. This is the ONLY show I want brought back.
With the way Hollywood is going with remakes these days, it might be better to let happy memories remain unmolested.
@@SacredCowShipyards It was an OK show that got better once it settled down to a story arc, but some of the decisions in the show were just pure dumb. A BSG style remake though would be interesting.
It was kinda more of the last offensive. It was the Chig homeplanet, Anvil, about to get hit by operation Roundhammer. We had won much more then just skirmishes. Those you saw were mostly part of larger operations we did not see (probably to cut cost). Remember, at the start we just had Earth and two expeditions/ colonies, so anything taking place on a different planet was far from a retreat. The prologue was the only time we had battles in our solar system. So that enemy home planet did give me uneasy feelings, like: this is getting close to a conclusion.... for Paul it was, and Nathan his Celina story arc had kinda concluded too. Still, I want to see the rest of the story.
The Eagle from Space 1999. Has three basic parts. All can separate and be used individually. The cockpit can be both an escape pod and a fighter. The body can fly normally by either remote control or pilot and do whatever mission the pod is for. The pod comes in many varieties including habitats. hospitals, etc. If you were so inclined, you could turn this thing into a space going AC130H Spectre. I love this thing.
Not only is a pilot better off being a dedicated fighter pilot. An Infantry man is better off being a dedicated infantryman.
But my Angels Fall First boarding actions.
True, hence why they're marines, who historically were, are trained for more than only land based infantry tactics, with shipboard & amphibious ops - just expanded to include future tech & r&d in flight systems and air/space-craft etc; to allow them to be pilots, in atmo and in space ...and keeping the cast small & cheaper than Fox usually/always baulks when SciFi related.
That's my understanding of the guesstimation of it.
"Let's not get too bogged down in the details"
Point of order: that's what we're here for.
I loved that with ISSCV we have another multi-purpose craft inspired by the CH-54. It's clearly in the proud tradition of Thunderbird 2 (Thunderbirds, 1965) and the Eagle (Space 1999)
Oh, the Eagle!
Move anything, anywhere. One of the first sci-fi ships to acknowledge RCS thrust control instead of "flying in space-air".
Modular, believable, beautiful.
Was just about to write the same thing but saw your comment just in time! Cheers!
Was also just about to write the same thing but also to comment that Space Above and Beyond has a lot of Starship Trooper influence.
Was thinking of the Eagle as well
Really wish they had made a second season as really loved it
The eagle transporters are my favourite spacecraft too.
Narrator: "...BUT that idea actually turns up in science fiction!"
Me: "THUNDERBIRD TWO!" (Sorry, but it really *was* the first thing that popped into my head when I saw the original Skycrane "bus" photo.) By the way, I remember S:A&B very well, and was royally PO'd when it went away. I know they're bringing back Babylon 5, I'd love to see an updated remake/reboot of this show as well.
Ancillary point: My father was in the Navy (Korean conflict) and once told me the bunks were called "racks" because in stores & warehouses you hung clothing & goods from racks, and that's kind of what the sailors felt about the concerns for their "bedrooms"... I dunno, just putting it out there.
Narrator: "...BUT that idea actually turns up in science fiction!" - The Eagle Transporter from "Space: 1999".
Thunderbirds came back on either Netflix or Amazon, can't remember which...
@@windwalker5765 - The original "Thunderbirds" or the 2015 remake "Thunderbirds Are Go!"?
Oh S:AAB was a brilliant show. It had a deeply detailed background, with despite Earth being united, had subfactions, vat -grown humans ("tanks"), started at peace but soon dropped into war. It even had R.Lee Emery as a drill instructor! It had a much more industrial feel to its sci-fi, and this ship is a reflection of that. Thanks so much for this review, and for bringing back some great memories.
It was cheesy as fuck with way too many cliches & tropes, but I loved the show anyway, I would welcome a reboot.
it would make an excellent MMOG, you have 4 factions
Humans
invitroes somewhat hostile to Humans but willing (mostly) to collaborate on common goals.
Silicates mostly hostile towards Humans but willing to trade for Tech on occasion, mostly aligned with Chigs.
Chigs
I could see the Invitroes & Silicates as Mercenary Factions willing to work with & betray both Human & Chig Factions as they saw fit.
@@panzermacher Yeah, absolutely it was cheesy, but that cheese was part of its charm. Absolutely it'd make a great MMOG. I've used it as background material while running Traveller (table top RPG)
I LOVE how they worked Ermey's FMJ monologue into the script!
Also:
"Now hear this, CFB! This is Operation Red Baron! All our plans are on hold until this Chig dies! I want you to go out there, find this bastard, and you pile on!" - Air Commodore Glenn Ross
@@BlokeOnAMotorbike Such great lines as:
"In space, no one can hear you scream, unless it is the battle cry of the United States Marines!....Why did you join my precious Marine Corps?"
"...Sir, to defend my country, sir!"
" To defend your country from what? We have no enemies. Are you crazy? I think you made a horrible mistake!"
A cheaply made series that deserved better than what it got. Loads of fun. It was a boon for Australia too. so many Australian actors in that series, and filmed a lot in Australia too.
This ship actually reminds me, a lot, of the landing ships from Starship Troopers. It also reminds me, a little bit, of the Wayfarer class ship from the Star Wars RPG.
All three ships utilize a modular, detachable cargo container system. The biggest differences are, the container on the ISSCV and the Starship Troopers' ship is smaller than the container in the Wayfarer and the Wayfarer's drive section, if you will, is off to the side of the container rather than above it or in the case of the ISSCV, around it.
What about the Eagle transport from Space 1999. It was modular too but you mostly saw the standard configuration.
@@Thurgosh_OG I've never seen Space 1999 so, I'll take your word for it.
Loved Space:Above and Beyond, watched it every week while it was on, and got the dvd series when it came out.
Seen it and loved it. I concur with others: a reboot with today's tech and CGI would be outstanding.
The brutal end of it still haunts me today, when I'm reminded of this series ^^
Guess I'm old now.
"In space, no one can hear you scream unless it's the battle cry of the United States Marines!"
*_Blitzrieg Bop_** intensifies*
I actually worked, at first, as an extra on this show. I got to play one of the aliens, dressed head to toe in an exoskeleton suit with an awkward head. Later, I got to work as one of the flight crew, preparing the main characters as they jumped in their cockpits before dropping down out of the floor of the set. I also was a stand-in for the actor Rodney Rowland. It was one of the coolest shows that I ever worked on. I remember sitting in traffic, on my way to the set each day, looking around at all of the other people in their cars, wearing their suits and ties and thinking to myself, "I get to work on a space ship today!". I was barely 18 years old at the time. Those were fun times.
Well that's awesome.
I enjoyed the series way back when, but my favourite part was indeed the Hammerhead. It's a beautiful fighter.
One of my favorite TV Shows of All time.
Same
This is a series that I remember very well, bit am amazed so many either don't know of it or have completely forgotten it.
SAAB was a great show, am glad I was able to watch it back when it was on the air
SAAB, now there's a blast from the past that I haven't thought about in a long time
I would love a reboot this show was great.
Better not. Can you _really_ imagine this show being remade under the current political and cultural climate? Silicates did nothing wrong, silicate lifes matter!
@@Furzkampfbomber Best left for another decade or so for this idiocy to run it's course.
At least it made it to this side of the pond. I loved this series and have it on DVD.
It's by all means the best "adaptation" you will ever see of Wing Commander.
I loved Space: above and beyond, i had the opportunity to talk to 2 of the actors and even meet James Paige Morrison!
This show was ahead of its time and with nowerdays CGI technology it would have been a major hit show!
I loved the show. Sad when it got taken off.
The intrigue with Aerotech in space above and beyond was always fantastic. Loved that show!
SAAB is one of my all time favorite SciFi shows. I still curse the shortsighted jackholes that cancelled it. I loved the characters and the stories. This is one show that deserves a reboot. I even recall an interview with Ronald D. Moore where he stated that SAAB supplied a fair amount of inspiration for the BSG reboot that Moore would helm seven years later. End rant. lol
I’d love to see your treatment of the SA-43 Hammerhead fighter, the Saratoga as well as the Chig fighters, bombers and capital ships.
I remember watching _Space: Above and Beyond_ as a child.🥺
The way I understand the situation with Space:Above and Beyond, the original concept by Morgan & Wong was the old series Combat in space - following a squad of infantry as they fight and live their lives, but the Network wanted something flashier - fighter pilots. So Morgan & Wong had to adapt their initial concept to the mish-mash we got and end up with many elements that didn't make sense, like using pilots as ordinary soldiers. They still had some amazing episodes looked at individually, "Sugar Dirt" & "Who Monitors the Birds?" being just two. Enjoyed the discussion. Keep up the good work.
Much like the troops themselves, the entirety of SAAB appeared a massive compromise.
And that's unfortunate.
There were a lot of stories to be told there, yet no one was interested in paying for them.
They explained it early on why the Wild Cards were filling dual roles. Vansen was complaining to McQueen about that same thing and he informed her that it simply had to be done that way with the immense strain on manpower after the Chigs destroyed so many of their forces.
Glad to see space above and beyond get some love
I loved this show and think it may have been one of the first tv shows that showed the fighters using thrusters to rotate during "flight" in space.
I loved that show, and was gutted when it was cancelled.
Luckily I had Babylon 5 to watch too
This was a terrific show. I was really bummed when it was cancelled on a cliff hanger.
The rack is an ancient torture device where the tortured were strapped on a hard bed and stretched from their limbs until dislocation/death. Some variations of the rack were based on a wooden wheel that also bent the torso while limbs were extracted. It was a horrible way to die and the discomfort of the navy beds was probably humorously compared to being 'on the rack'.
they were literally stacked wooden frames on merchant ships from the early 16th century onwards. The crew would share them, and given the lack of consideration offered to comfort you'd be lucky to have a tunic to put under your head.
Rack - a torture device where the victim lays upon it, also a navy bed. Same thing.
Also the lair of the infamous "Rack Monster"... who would lay in wait and force a deep sleep upon any unaware seaman who would wander by.
@@TaffenFelspar This just makes me think of the Mann Shorts D&D military edition bits(I think it was marine edition but can't remember for sure). "Roll to see how well you slept" Players roll. 2 of them slept alright but the one who rolled a nat 20 slept REALLY well. Drill instructor gave her a special wake up call due to oversleeping in basic training.
I glad somebody mentioned this show. No nobody seemed to remember it but me. Glad I managed to find it on DVD a number of years ago.
Space Above & Beyond was broadcast here in the UK at around 1am, obviously I stayed up to watch it on a school night.
I loved Space: Above and Beyond. The Hammerheads are awesome. I felt that they were more Special Operations as they could multitask ground work/space flight than an actual infantry unit but yea, jack of all trades etc etc. Love the reviews!
I don't remember them being specifically called out as SPECWAR, but that might explain it.
It's also been a darned while since I watched it ;).
I have it on DVD if you want to borrow it. Hahahahaha
@@SacredCowShipyards . They weren't. LT COL Raymond T Butts was, and they were seconded to him for a mission in one episode. Hawkes also was solo seconded for another mission in another episode.
@@SacredCowShipyards If I recall...it's been a long time since I've watched the show, they were not special operations per se, but they were a special unit that they decided to try out training to be both pilots and ground pounders. It was a weird concept, but seemed just like a conceit the show went with in order to keep the cast to a more manageable size rather than have to follow the aerospace and ground forces as two separate sets of characters to keep track of
This was a kid's show in South Africa back in the day. I still have random flashes from the show when I was like 10-13 years old.
I loved that show from beginning to end and devastated there was no resolution for the cliff hanger.
This was a really well-made show, and it deserved better. In my area of the US, you could never find it because Fox moved it around every week to make room for sports. :-P
I saw one of these Helicopters one Saturday morning while going to work in Downtown LA. As it turned out, they were filming the movie Swordfish. It was hovering a few feet off the ground about to tow a bus on Bunker Hill
This was a pretty awesome show. I loved all of the ship designs and the actually interesting combat scenes.
This was a great show. I was impressed with the use of nomenclature and props, I lived on a ship for 3 years, much of what I saw was very familiar.
Saratoga was a lovely thing.
Big, chunky, well armed and one of the few sci fi ships where the fighter bay isn’t directly in line with the carriers centre of symmetry (causing a massive hole/weakness in the frontal armour) guaranteeing that half your fighters are taken out by stray shots aimed a your big ship.
It's on the list.
Such an underrated series. I really enjoyed it
And here I had two separate frames for my sci-fi humans' transport craft and their tanks' dropships. Of course, the one advantage of that was having two separate nicknames for them, with the dropship being nicknamed the "Tank Dropper" and the transport being nicknamed the "Flying Schoolbus".
I watched every episode of Space Above and Beyond when it was on TV. I remember being quite saddened when it was canceled.
Not entirely dissimilar to Gerry Andersons Space 1999 Eagle Transporter from 1975.
I remember that show! The Earth / Chig war, the human gene solder Tanks, and how the main cast go from a group of green marines to a mere handful of survivors over the course of the story. I think this is the show where the naval intelligence guys put automated iff devices in the combat fighters without telling anyone, before sending them out on a training excersise
The fox molder playing pool was one of my favorite episodes lol. This show was ahead of its time sooo good and under-rated
This was one of the best shows ever.
Definitely deserves a remastering, though I doubt the original recording was high enough quality to be doable.
@@SacredCowShipyards Deserves more than a re-mastering. They need to re-boot it.
@@SacredCowShipyards AI remastering is pretty good now, use that with some solid image and sound folks to oversee it and adjust when it has issues and it'll be golden.
Loved that show, watched when it came out on Fox
When on network TV, I loved this show and watched it every week. Own the full season on DVD and, it is still a joy and pleasure to watch. “When, I die and they lie me down to rest, please tell our mothers that we did our Best.”
Space Above and Beyond was simply amazing. The fact that it wasn't finished was simply criminal.
One of the most underrated TV shows of all time
I used to love that show. It had all the cliche 90's storylines, but it was original science fiction when that was a rare commodity, and it was honestly decent production values. I remember the cliffhanger ending to this day, and it was with that same transport you discuss here. A memorable show.
Got Space above and beyond on Dvd and blu-ray. totally love it. so underrated.
loved this show, shame it ended on the cliffhanger
So it's a more aerodynamic Space:1999 Eagle.
Very similar size and module options. But much less significant landing legs, probably for aerodynamics again. You wouldn't want an Eagle's landing gear if your fuel were any less magical than an eagle's fuel.
I also don't think eagles ever had compound modules in the midsection, like half medical + half cargo. But the Eagle command module was able to detach from the eagle and attach to other ships of different designs to command them, as in the episode Dragon's Domain.
I only ever watched a single episode of this and it felt VERY real.
oh you have to watch the rest. "Never No More" and "The Angriest Angel" are my two favourites.
"Looking darkly upon Hector, swift footed Achilles answered, 'I cannot forgive you. As there are no trustworthy oaths between men and lions, there can be no love between you and me. Before then to glut with his blood, Ares, the god who fights under the shield's guard. Now the time comes for you to be a spearman and a bold warrior. You will pay in a lump for all the sorrows of my companions you have killed in your spear's fury.'" - Lt. Col. Tyrus Cassius McQueen
What is a rack? It is a sleeping compartment for one person.
The name goes back probably centuries. Initially, sleeping was done on hammocks which were tied to supporting structures on the frame of the ship. As building practices changed, so to did the technology for sleeping compartments. Eventually the hammocks were replaced with wall mounted frames that you pull down. Think of it as a hide-a-bed that were pretty common in smaller apartments. The difference though is these frames are quite small and the mattresses are barely wider than the human body. And generally are only about six feet long. Which back in the time wasn't an issue. The average male wasn't even 5 foot 8 inches tall.
Now, the current berthing models have little cubicles stacked on top of each other. Usually three to a stack. So you the bottom bunk, the middle bunk, and the top bunk. Officers and senior enlisted tend to get two cubicles per stack. They also tend to be wider and the mattresses are thicker. These cubicles tend to be a thin mattress, a storage bin under the frame of the mattress, a light, and a curtain that runs the length of the cubicle. If you are lucky, you also will get an air vent and a single electrical outlet. Which back in my days of service was unheard of in older model ships. Also the amount of height space allocated to each cubicle was directly related to the height of the ceiling in the berthing space. I've been on some older ships were the ceiling was barely seven feet tall. And once you ran ventilation, lighting, and other obstructions, this left little to no room for berthing cubicles. If you were unfortunate enough to be assigned to one of these you probably didn't have room to roll over. These "racks" were usually more like coffins than sleeping spaces.
absolutely loved this show as a kid
I remember and loved the show. And that transport seems to share some DNA with Space:1999's Eagle.
Love it. So much sci-fi (as most of your videos mention) are centered around looks cool, or handwaviness. I love seeing practical applications and pure function being the purpose. I've actually never seen this show, ill have to add it to my extensive list
It's a fun ride. It actually goes into a lot of interesting social debates, like sapient/sentient/self-aware AIs, and whether or not vat-grown clones are human, and other such fun things.
With all the reboots going around some network or streaming service should pick this awesome show and re-run it for 5-6 seasons!
So long as Fox-Universal-Disney is nowhere near it at all.
Shuffle up the wild cards and deal em!
Abandon all hope my ass
Terrible shame this series was shot down. The actors did brilliantly with what they were given and the over arching story was compelling.
With my man Wang going out like a God Damn Legend. “This is for YOU!!!”
I bought all the episodes a few years back and I get them out and watch them start to finish. Great show.
Boy, aint that a blast of the past. I loved that show when it was broadcasted back in the day.
Algorithm brought me here, and I'm glad for it. As for the craft discussed today it sort of reminds me of a bigger brother to a BSG Raptor.
I loved this show so much and was so sad it was cancelled so soon!
"We have watched you while you were in caves.
That is all Earth has ever been.
That is why we told you to stay away."
Hey this was a great show. I actually met one of the creators of this show when he wrote the Jet Li movie "The One." Oddly, when I asked him if he was an aficionado of military history he said no, even though there is tons of material that seems inspired by WW2, WW1, and the Trojan War to name a few.
It is a logical approach. You might not have a historian on the creation team, but you probably have a few scientists on the payroll. What seems like an inspiration from previous times, is nothing more than a practical look at a problem and addressing the issue with a common sense approach. The funny thing is, you actually have to have people asking the right questions and then deciding on whether or not to address it. How many SciFi shows and video games never address bathrooms? And when it does get addressed, how do those shows handle it? Usually with unisex restrooms. But something so simple then leads to other questions. Where do people sleep in the longer voyages? What do they eat? How do you deal with air and water recirculation? People who enjoy scifi want to know those answers. And the smart production teams address that very thing in a episode and may even at times make it a critical point to address.
@@superdave8248 Lower Decks have racks set into the walls of the corridors where those bottom-ranking crewmembers sleep. Not sure if they share racks though, I would assume not given the amount of space offered per crew member even on the Intrepid Class.
Regarding 'rack' - my understanding is it originates very early WWII with ships being converted to house extra personnel, sleeping spaces being made from same/similar construction material used for making shelving/warehouse racking, which led to "getting rack time" for sleep, which in turn inevitably became simply 'rack' for general referencing.
I remember watching this as a kid. Was really good if I remember correctly.
The show was made in Australia and was the firet TV show to use CGI.
I remember watching it on TV. It was shown on Australian TV before it was even finished. There were blank screens in the episodes where unfinished CGI sequences were supposed to go so obviously Aussie audiences were the first to see it, which was unusual as we usually only got TV series' after they were at least a year old.
I watched it later and it it obvious that the team doing some of the CGI sequences were not aware, or forgot, that US and AU tv's used different aspect ratios as there are obvious paralax/aspect ratio distortions going on.
The show featured a brief, but funny cameo by Gunnery Sargent R. Lee Ermey too.
Way back when I was excited about Space Above and Beyond , but the writing , acting and ( still blows my mind to this day but....) how 'dark' a lot of the scenes were shot in was just mind-boggling !
Note the future filmmakers , pay your reflector Handler and lighting crew what they're worth !!!
Pertaining to the ISSCV if anybody watches the UA-cam channel ' Dark Skies ' you'll see how this could very well be a proof-of-concept aerodynamic design !
That is to say it could be something we could actually build !
Although I would like to see a compare and contrast or and all-in outright fight between an ISSCV and a UD-4 'Cheyenne' Dropship !!!
It was one of my favorite TV shows ever.
In the military the rack is as you said slang for bed/cot, most likely came from being compared to “The Rack” a torture device due to its uncomfortable nature. Most racks I have come across while serving have been uncomfortable and too short for an average size guy.
the sky crane are used to fight fire. It is beautiful, and Space: above and Beyond is one of my favorite. It's closest to real sci fi, oppose to sci fantasy
In the novel BLACK SUNDAY, a Sky Crane is used to intercept the Goodyear blimp. But the movie could only get a Huey.
16th Century merchant navy used racks for the crew to sleep on. These were usually stacked 4 or 5 high below decks, made with wooden pallet frames (and resembled torture racks more than they did beds - the sole comfort sleeping on one of these was usually a rolled up tunic under your head - there was no room for a mattress!). On board a ship with ~120 crew, there'd be probably 18-20 racks which were shared among the crew. The Captain and the cabin boy would share a mattress (if they were so inclined) or the cabin boy would sleep on the floor in the captain's cabin. Modern submarines use stacked bunks for the crew in a similar way - this is called hot racking, and is also used elsewhere space is at a premium, particularly if some of the racks are used at the start of the voyage to store nonperishables such as food.
many good scyfy shows only ever got 1 season... this and firefly, spring to mind instantly.
Both on Fox, strangely enough…
@@almitrahopkins1873 its not all that that strange... fox has had quite a lot of good shows.
@@BjrnFriedrichsen And they canceled them after a season or two...
@@almitrahopkins1873 yeah because they are a ratings channel... which is better then what you get from like disney and hollywood... woke shit for many seasons and in the end the franchise is completely dead. (star wars, Star trek, and many many others)
I was told the term rack comes from the ancient torture device known as "The Rack".
Maybe, Navies around the world do tend like all military forces to have a somewhat macabre sense of humour, but it might just come from the tool rack kind of rack, the racks are literally storage space for personnel between shifts
@@MrTrilbe I think you may understand my origin of the term "rack" if you had ever been confined to your rack because of foul weather. I've seen two days of horsecock sandwiches and rack burn along with every color of puke in the rainbow. Laying down in force ten winds isn't as restful as you'd think. Being at sea is a ride you can't get off of and when it is rough it is tough to sleep. It isn't just the motion it is the thought of waking up after a bad roll waist deep in cold sea water... that helps you keep one eye open .
In the age of cat-o-nine tails and keelhauling it wasn't uncommon for men who had never see the sea to be shanghaied by press gangs waking up on ships far at sea . Imagine going from your nice still bed to a wet hard wood bench or deck rolling and pitching as the weather commands. Add to that you share a space with every burp and fart your new crew mates can muster. Hammocks are for Able Bodied Seamen and Farty McGee hangs his right over your part of the bilge. Some people might see that as a torture.
It’s more than the fact that post dreadnought battleship crew berths tended to look like hardware store shelves.
I was in the Navy. The etymology of rack is literally just rack. A synonym for rack is shelf. A Navy rack is a shelf you sleep on. In submarines we have torpedo racks. Those are shelves for torpedoes. You can also attach a box with a mattress in it to the torpedo rack and now you have a torpedo rack rack.
I really enjoyed that show. I remember eagerly awaiting every episode.
Best guess is that the term is a perversion/shift of "rick" as in "Rick of Wood" or other material that traditionally measured 4ft by 8ft by 16 inches (or one third of a cord.)
Cords were traditionally freestanding, but Ricks were only one log (16 inches) deep, and were usually stacked against walls for easy access.
TL:DR - It was early sailors and soldiers low-key complaining about being stacked on top of each other like firewood against walls.
High on the list of great shows that were never given their due...
Loved that show as a kid. It was aired on Swedish television.