Show Guide

Space: Above and Beyond

1995 FOX 60 min Drama, Science-Fiction, War

7our take /10

8IMDb /10

In this cult fan favorite, it's the year 2063. After 150 years of deep space exploration, the people of Earth feel certain they are alone in the universe. Then word comes that two Earth outposts light-years away from home have been brutally attacked by an adva

Our Review

The most unfairly canceled show of the ’90s. Space: Above and Beyond is Band of Brothers in space — a war drama about the 58th Squadron, the Wild Cards, fighting an alien species nobody understands, created by X-Files writers Glen Morgan and James Wong. It aired on Fox in 1995, right when Trek-style optimism was the only sci-fi anyone wanted, and its grim military realism got it killed after one season.

What holds up: the show treats its soldiers as people first (tank-bred In Vitro humans are its underclass, and the discrimination allegory is blunt but effective), and the combat is genuinely tense — the Chigs are an enemy that’s never cartoonish. Who Monitors the Birds, a nearly wordless episode where a Marine is stranded behind enemy lines, is one of the best hours of ’90s sci-fi, period. The finale cliffhanger will break your heart. Bring a helmet.

Verdict: Watch it for the best sci-fi war story before The Expanse came along. Then curse Fox, as is tradition.

Seasons

Space: Above and Beyond — Season 1

23 episodes

Season 1 of Space: Above and Beyond premiered 1995-09-24 and ran 23 episodes through 1996-06-02.