Anyone else remember this show? It kicked serious boo-tay. I hope it comes out on DVD sometime.
Mundane? Check. Pointless? Check.
I remember the show, but I don’t remember what happened near the end. What happened after the Red Baron’s appearance. Did the show just end? Can someone fill me in?
Also, anyone know why it didn’t show up again on SciFi like some other cancelled show have? You’d think it would - It was way better than sliders (the scifi episodes anyway) and SG1.
It just ended. Kind of like Firefly. And Earth II. And Alien Nation. BUT I’M NOT BITTER!!!
politics from the sh!t-filled suits at Fox killed the show after the first season. the final episodes (a two-parter), “If They Lay Us Down to Rest” and “…Tell Our Moms We Done Our Best” ended with the usual season-end cliff-hangers.
after Chiggy Von Richtofen was taken out in “The Angriest Angel”, the 58 Squadron was sent on a recon mission to a small moon in preparation for a major campaign in the quadrant. they met with enemy forces, as well as an unarmored alien who was the apparent caretaker for a “nest” for its species. they called it “Pasty”, and despite an inability to communicate on a higher level, eventually managed to convey a warning to it that the area was dangerous due to the upcoming hostilities. meanwhile, an enemy ship approached the Saratoga, signaling a desire to negotiate, and return the Tellis colony hostages. big wigs from Aerotech were called in, as well as top military brass, and the alien unsuited in a sealed chamber with a specially-prepared atmosphere. our first look at the Chigs…and (surprise!) they look like Pasty. the 58 eventually worm a description of the alien from their commander, Col. McQueen, and realize that they’ve probably just tipped the military’s hand to the enemy regarding the upcoming assault. the conference gets underway, and the Chig ambassador makes accusations that AeroTech has been aware for quite some time of warnings the Chigs had sent to satellites to stay out of those sections. the AeroTech sleazebag of course denies everything. things get heated, the Chig ambassador crashes through the glass partition and stabs the AeroTech guy during the pandemonium. Col. McQueen draws a hidden pistol. there’s an explosion, but whether it’s triggered by a bomb hidden in the Chig armor or from the ignition of the foreign atmosphere by a pistol shot is unclear. the 58, currently confined to quarters until their gaffe can be investigated, are called up to retrieve the hostages when the tradeoff starts to go bad. they manage to rescue the colonists (including Kylen --gak–), but 'Phousse and Vansen are lost when their ship is disabled and their cockpit heads to a DMZ planet. Wang apparently goes out in a blaze of glory in a cargo bay, taking out the approaching Chig fighters. West and Hawkes are left to bring the hostages back, and see McQueen being shipped back to Earth after losing half a leg from the explosion. the final scene is Hawkes and West on their bunks, alone in their quarters, contemplating just how high the cost of this whole episode has been.
there is still an on-line community e-list in support of S:AAB (think it’s currently based on yahoo as of now.) there’s a member who’s doing up his own set of DVDs, if he can/has obtained good tape copies to transfer. failing that, there is a mock-Squadron that still sells VHS copies of the episodes. believe it’s the 99th Dragonslayers.
there is also a very healthy (um, welll, depending on your tastes) fanfic collection out there based on the show. good stories spinning off from the main characters, from the setting in general, plus plenty of “slash” stuff for those who are into that.
S:AAB did have a run on the SciFi channel for a while, first in primetime, then later on Saturday mornings. they seem to have shelved it for a while. maybe they’ll bring it out again someday when they need some more filler.
the writers/producers Morgan and Wong regarded S:AAB as one of their highest points (even compared to some of their turns on X Files and Millenium). they also have an active following among our group, and we’ve cheered on their various endeavors.
you might run across my name there, if you dig through the archives.
lachesis
Umm. As I recall, it was a by-now-standard cliffhanger ending. Dopy Wet Guy Who Cracked Under Interrogation In A Previous Episode got to redeem himself heroically by going out in a blaze of glory. Hot Chick #1 and Hot Chick #2 of the 101st Interstellar Lip Gloss Marines were left drifting towards some alien planet in a crippled spaceship. I can’t remember what happened to Vacuous Male Leads 1, 2, and 3, except that one of them (the dozy one with the jug ears who would have been court-martialled and shot six times over in any real military) got his girlfriend back and nobly left her to carry on with the war effort. And all the plot lines about the Sinister Political And Corporate Types were just left hanging.
Sorry, but that show was serious garbage. I’m sure it will be along on DVD sometime …
scifi runs S:AAB every few months on some weekday afternoon. They’ll run a block of about 5 episodes.
The odd thing was that they killed off 5 main characters for the season ending. My money is on what Fox normally does… tell a show it’s been canceled right before they film the season’s last show and the cast/crew tried to wrap it up.
Although I completely digged (dug?) this show, I had a hard time believing that humans were able to travel to distant stars “that easily” before the end of the 21st century.
I really enjoyed the show and would walk barefoot over broken glass (OK maybe not) to get all the episodes on DVD. I might really do it if someone managed to get the rights and get it running again
Yea, I watched it for a while on Sci Fi, but I’d already seen all the episodes numerous times. But watching them in some kind of order would be awesome.
Wrong forum? Check. I’m sure a mod will be along to move this to Cafe Society…
BTW, yeah it was a pretty good show…