Space Above and Beyond

Bigt028

Bigt028

Rear Admiral
Ok, just got the DVD version of the TV series. Thank goodness they put both seasons in one set.
Question, did they or are there any projects in the works for a PC game based on this popular show? I found this show to be amazing and fun to watch. Sorry they didnt continue it. Just wanted to hear your thoughts.
 
Bigt028 said:
Question, did they or are there any projects in the works for a PC game based on this popular show?
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I'm sure someone somewhere wanted to do a fanmod for this show - but outside of that, S:AAB didn't really do well when it came out. FOX pre-empted it for football pretty often and I think they changed it's hours more than once.
 
Yeah, FOX's treatment of the series disenfranchised me to it. I think it went from Sunday's to thrusday's IIRC and was preempted a lot by football. I think it's an ok show, but if I need my tv sci-fi fix I always turn to B5
 
LeHah said:
I'm sure someone somewhere wanted to do a fanmod for this show - but outside of that, S:AAB didn't really do well when it came out. FOX pre-empted it for football pretty often and I think they changed it's hours more than once.
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Not only that, I think I remember hearing that, because of how expensive CGI was at the time, the show was very expensive to produce per episode. So, because no one ever knew it was on, it never got the level of viewership to justify that fox spend more money on more episodes.

But you'ld really have to look around for fan mods. I haven't heard of any, but a lot of people here really liked the show.
 
Dundradal said:
Yeah, FOX's treatment of the series disenfranchised me to it. I think it went from Sunday's to thrusday's IIRC and was preempted a lot by football. I think it's an ok show, but if I need my tv sci-fi fix I always turn to B5
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Say no to Babylon 5.

Its an interesting question actually, if someone wanted to pick it up it would probably not be too expensive to do so, and given the majority of those who saw it liked it you can probably say the scenario and characters were more workable than those of your average generic video game. There are a few shows with very hardcore fanbases, such as S:AaB and Firefly (which had similar troubles, not least of all the pilot being shown something like 2nd to last), picking up those licenses probably wouldn't bring in too many extra gamers from the name alone but it could lessen the risk of the game being criticised for poor characters or storyline.

Only problem with that theory is how storyline is treated in games today... as a way to score some extra points on presentation and show how detailed the character models are close up (god I sound cynical, especially being a graphics programmer).

On a side note, I know BSG isn't too popular around here, but does anyone else feel its declined in quality as of late?
 
AD said:
Not only that, I think I remember hearing that, because of how expensive CGI was at the time, the show was very expensive to produce per episode.
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Roughly 2 million per episode, making it the most expensive series ever on televison at the time.
 
I'd be willing to bet that they tried to license a S:AaB game while the show was in development -- when it was new, space shooters were the hottest genre of games (with Wing Commander III and TIE Fighter competing for best selling game of all time).

That said, I don't know of any project that went anywhere. The problem with doing a licensed game for most TV shows is that you have to be somewhat assured that the show is still going to be on when your game comes out (with some exceptions -- things like Star Wars and Star Trek).

This was also before things like DVDs or internet downloads, so a single-season show just wouldn't stay in the publc consciousness. S:AaB was a huge undertaking on FOX's part, but it wasn't a ratings success -- and without that, nobody would have been interested in licensing any kind of spinoffs (especially a costly game). The same thing happened with Wing Commander Academy... without a second season, nobody wanted to risk developing a game or producing toys or anything (though all these were discussed).

Babylon 5, mentioned earlier in the thread, ran into the same problem with its big budget game. Sierra ended up cancelling a B5 space shooter late in development when it became apparent that the show's spinoff was a flop. (I'm curious about what happened to the FMV they shot for this -- has it made it to the convention circuit?)

The idea that S:AaB flopped because it was pre-empted by football is silly -- FOX's most profitable and longest running franchise, The Simpsons, gets dropped for long football games half a dozen times a year. S:AaB premiered on Friday nights with a huge marketing push... the audience just never materialized. It's fairly amazing that FOX was willing to continue paying for what was then the most expensive TV show ever made for a full season at all.
 
Pedro said:
On a side note, I know BSG isn't too popular around here, but does anyone else feel its declined in quality as of late?
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I certainly don't care for it much but I've been watching it. I'm not sure where you're at in the series but I would agree with you on everything from the point the Pegasus shows up untill episode 4 of season 3. The last couple episodes have somewhat returned to being at least entertaining. For whatever reason they derailed the entire momentum of the show for their little political side jaunt. Also it's as if they couldn't figure out what to do with the new ships and characters so eventually they killed off all the pegasus officers anyway and even Pegasus herself. It kind of seemed like the writers didn't like being out of their comfort zone with the extra characters and such and wanted their little 'family' all reunited on one ship. So with some notable exceptions its like they've returned the show back to where it was before the Pegasus ever showed up... (I can't entirely describe why this irks me so much). At least they're looking for earth again now.
 
I know that a LONG time ago there was a Homeworld mod that was pretty neat. Had the Saratoga and some Chig ships. But that was years ago.
 
BradMick said:
I know that a LONG time ago there was a Homeworld mod that was pretty neat. Had the Saratoga and some Chig ships. But that was years ago.
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That would be an interesting notion - given that we don't see any bombers on the show. In fact, aside from quick glimpses during a handful of episodes (like "Sugar Dirt") all we know of the terran fleet is the Saratoga, the Hammerhead fighters, the APCs and not much else.

Still - would like to have seen screenshots of this.
 
All that remains now is a dead link it seems.

It was kind off odd, they had the saratoga, hammerheads, chig fighter, the chig consular ship, and I think that was it. There were some original design ideas and stuff, but beyond that not much else.

The dead link is http://www.tgu.org.uk/users/saab/

It was pretty neat.
 
That would be an interesting notion - given that we don't see any bombers on the show. In fact, aside from quick glimpses during a handful of episodes (like "Sugar Dirt") all we know of the terran fleet is the Saratoga, the Hammerhead fighters, the APCs and not much else.
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I think we see a ship of the line at some point, and there's also a large transport early on. The stylebook blueprints for the Saratoga that are available online now list the names and designations for various unseen ships, too -- including Barracuda-class fighter/bombers.

I believe the Peter Telep adaptation kept a number of present-day aircraft in service in 2063, too... including F/A-18 Hornets and F-117 Nighthawks (which are now supposed to be reitred in '08). I'd have to thumb through my copy at home to be sure, though.
 
I really enjoyed the S.AaB series.

As for BSG, I agree with most of what was said. I think it could use an episode devoted to fighter tactics. That would be neet. Follow some of the no name pilots from wakeup, briefing, and launch to typical recreation and amusement activities. Maybe they stand watch after fighter ops, or maybe attend to other duties when not on flight status. I know they've featured the training of the inexperienced pilots before and even had some interesting missions, I think one of the strongpoints of the series is its depiction of fighter combat.

OR, maybe what I want to see is all the steps the Galactica would take to hunt down and destroy an individual basestar in a sector. That might be interesting also. Spread it out over a few episodes highlighting recon, tactics, and the final showdown.

~~~, just my two cents I guess...
 
Re: BSG. Pedro mentioned earlier that people don't like it here -- in so far as I know, it's mostly just me, and it's a personal opinion. People are welcome to discuss the show here (or, ideally, in the off-topic zone...).
 
I've only seen a couple episodes of both series, but in my admittedly limited experience, SAAB was dreadful and the new BSG was pretty good. Of course the truth could be completely opposite. After all, for example it would be unfair for someone to judge all of ST-TNG based on seeing only a couple of the lousy ones when overall it was excellent.

So was SAAB really any good??? The two I saw were really bad.
 
It had an incredibly solid setting, and when it did pure military science fiction episodes it was absolutely perfect.

The biggest problem was that it was made in 1996 when everyone wanted to get rich off of the X-Files... so there were a number of episodes that involved a corporate conspiracy that just wasn't interesting. It spent a lot of time early on developing various ideas that just weren't as good as the show's compelling space war... the AIs and the In-Vitros and such got too much play early on, which seemed to turn people off.

They made for interesting story elements when used in moderation, but when the show spent whole episodes focusing on it's big racism allegory (with clonsed human workers), it just didn't work well (the BSG pilot movie had the same problem -- Captain Adama making ammends with his son while we know there's a giant space war going on somewhere else was really, really frustrating).

Never the less, after it had lost its initial audience, S:AaB got really, really good. Basically, the second half of the season was amazing. Everyone will cite Sugar Dirt and the two-part finale as some of the best science fiction episodes ever made... and there were a number of others that come close -- Pearly, River of Stars, Stay With the Dead, Never No More, Angriest Angel, Toy Soldiers and Dear Earth are all fantastic stories with really good production values.
 
I remember picking up SAAB on more or less only LOAF's recommendation. I only had vauge memories of the pilot and of the end of the episode "Ray Butts".

It's now become one of those DVDs you only take out for "special occasions", just so it always seems fresh and new and interesting. "The Angriest Angel" is probably my all time favorite episode of a continuing sci-fi show, along with "Sugar Dirt".

The 90s were strange because there were a few real gems in a five year span that on one hand would've never been made without the X-Files but on the other hand were never really carried far because it wasn't the X-Files. SAAB was one as was Profit, and to a lesser extent Millennium or Sliders, which got multiple seasons of varrying quality.

I've never cared for BSG - new or old. I think it may have had more levity if I had been around for the original show (which was nothing more than creative fallout from Star Wars) but I don't know if even liking the original would translate to this new version. I've always like Edward James Olmos but there is something about the show's structure that really doesn't sit well with me. It seems too hodgepodge, I guess.

It also never caught on because there were other shows that could've been made instead of simply a connection to the original BSG. I'd have loved to have seen Sci-Fi try making a series that followed The Last Starfighter but I suppose thats as big and interesting a risk as BSG, as well.

In the end, it just seems like a hollow pursuit to me.
 
I agree with the second half being better. The other elements were not very interesting at all, but the pure sci-fi combat was very good. I remember an episode where the good guy confronts some high-ranking bureocrat about if she knew the colony ship his girfriend was into was going into alien terriotory, and she turning away. I'm not sure if the show would've been more successful had it been done entirely on this style, but it would've been better.

A minor thing I had with SAAB, which is irrelevant in retrospect, is that they used advanced fighter pilots as rifleman on a number of occasions. The other thing is the extra squadron member that would get killed by the end of the episode.

Too bad they never showed the ending here, or at least I didn’t catch it. It ran on FOX Channel, which is cable, on some strange schedule.
 
Delance said:
I agree with the second half being better. The other elements were not very interesting at all, but the pure sci-fi combat was very good. I remember an episode where the good guy confronts some high-ranking bureocrat about if she knew the colony ship his girfriend was into was going into alien terriotory, and she turning away. I'm not sure if the show would've been more successful had it been done entirely on this style, but it would've been better.

A minor thing I had with SAAB, which is irrelevant in retrospect, is that they used advanced fighter pilots as rifleman on a number of occasions. The other thing is the extra squadron member that would get killed by the end of the episode.

Too bad they never showed the ending here, or at least I didn’t catch it. It ran on FOX Channel, which is cable, on some strange schedule.
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If I remember right they explained that the fighter pilots were used as infantry because of the number of losses the human military had taken. Also Marines are required to be combat qualified with rifles.

Spoilers

If I remember right at the end all of the Wildcards except for 2 are either dead or we don't know what happened to them and they're probably dead, and I think they rescued the one guy's girlfriend and a lot of other POWs in the finale.

Also does anyone know of a site where I can find the specs for the Hammerheads? Finding specs for the Saratoga was easy but I can't find anything on the fighters.
 
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