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''Space: Above and Beyond'' (1995-1996) was a MilitaryScienceFiction series on Creator/{{Fox}}. Set in space around the middle of the 21st century, it focused on a group of young, ragtag Marines living aboard the carrier ''U.S.S. Saratoga.'' Humanity was embroiled in a war with an alien race known as "chigs." The central cast were Marine pilots in the 58th Fighter Squadron, or the Wildcards. The show often focused on current issues and moral dilemmas.

Fox cancelled the show after one full season. The show ended with one character presumed dead, another two falling into enemy territory in an escape pod, one reunited with his prisoner-of-war lover, and the others in general limbo.

----
!!This show provides examples of:

%%Zero Context Example Entries are not allowed on the wiki. All such entries have been commented out. Add context before uncommenting them.

* AceCustom: Chiggy Von Richthofen's fighter, the only one of its kind among the alien forces, and the only alien ship to feature any sort of nose art.
* ActionGirl: Many of the female Marines, but particularly Captain Vansen, the most gung-ho of the squad.
* AdmiringTheAbomination: Elroy-EL loves to wax poetical about how kind and benevolent the Chigs are compared to humans.
* AIIsACrapshoot: The Silicates, who started a RobotWar against humanity due to a disgruntled programmer adding a directive to their programming instructing them to "Take a chance."
* AliensStealCable: This is the explanation for the Chigs mutilating human dead: it's not really malicious, they just misunderstood the Gospel narrative as indicating that humans can come back to life after being killed.
* AliensSpeakingEnglish: {{Justified|Trope}}: One of the early hints that not all is as it seems with the Chigs is that they appear to learn human languages remarkably quickly despite the apparent WeComeInPeaceShootToKill situation in the pilot. And not just English: in "Stardust" the protagonists plant disinformation written in Navajo. Whereas humans have almost entirely failed to decipher the Chig language. At the midpoint of the series the Chigs turn out to be in contact with the Silicates. [[spoiler:In the GrandFinale it turns out a MegaCorp first encountered the Chigs several years earlier and kept it quiet to protect their newfound source of profit. The war started because of the MegaCorp [[BullyingADragon reneging on the deal it had made with the Chigs]].]]
* AllPlanetsAreEarthLike: Both averted and played straight in different episodes. Some planets can be operated on in plainclothes, while others require full space suits. The Chigs' native atmosphere is apparently methane-based.
* AmericaSavesTheDay: The war with the Chigs is a UN operation, and the [[UsefulNotes/ChineseWithChopperSupport People's Liberation Army]], [[UsefulNotes/BritsWithBattleships Coldstream Guards]], and [[UsefulNotes/FinnsWithFearsomeForests Finnish Air Force]] all make appearances. However, the US Navy and Marine Corps forces are both the focus of the series and consistently the most successful fighters.
* AncientAstronauts: It's all but confirmed in "Stardust" that the Chigs have encountered humans for a long time: they can apparently understand Navajo [[spoiler:enough that the Marines are able to successfully plant disinformation written in it. In the series finale, the Chig ambassador claims his people are originally ''from'' Earth, but left home hundreds of thousands of years before humans evolved. This was in an ancestral form, as bacteria that survived in space and found their way to a new life-bearing planet, but the familiarity with the Navajo language does imply that the 21st century wasn't the first time they dealt with Homo sapiens.]]
* AndroidIdentifier: "[=InVitros=]", artificially-created humans, do not have [[NoNavelNovelBirth belly buttons]], but rather nipple-like bumps on the back of their necks from where artificial placentas attached to them in the womb-tanks (hence the FantasticSlurs "nipple-neck" and "tanks").
* AndThisIsFor: Invoked a couple of times by different characters:
** In "The Angriest Angel", [=McQueen=] says, "This one's for you, [[spoiler:Winslow]]" just before killing Chiggy Von Richthofen.
** In the finale, during his HeroicSacrifice, [[spoiler:Wang]] recites the name of every single character [[TheDeadHaveNames killed in the entire course of the series]], ending with "This is for you!"
* ArcWords:
** "Abandon all hope," a ShoutOut to the ''Literature/TheDivineComedy''.
** "Take a chance," for the [=AIs=], owing to their obsession with gambling.
** "I believe in you," a hasty message recorded in an audio picture frame by Lt. West's girlfriend; it is his [[TheQuest reason to stay in the fight]], the hope that [[IWillFindYou he will find her]] and rescue her after her colony was attacked by the Chigs. [[spoiler:At the end of the series, she changes the message to say "[[MeaningfulEcho I believe in]] ''[[MeaningfulEcho all]]'' [[MeaningfulEcho of you]],", addressed to the entire squadron after they saved her.]]
** [[OperationBlank Operation Roundhammer]]: [[spoiler:The planned Terran invasion of the Chig Homeworld.]]
* ArtificialHuman: Organic and synthetic. Both subject to FantasticRacism and notably, they're somewhat related;
** The Silicates are android servants who predictably TurnedAgainstTheirMasters; ''not'' so predictably because of abuse, but simply by introducing them to the concept of chance -- they became obsessed with probability, relishing unlikely outcomes even when they ''weren't'' in their favor. The "AI Wars" were not really wars or even rebellions so much as massive, widespread and deadly ''pranking'' campaigns which ended with the machines getting bored and leaving Earth to wander the universe. [[spoiler:They ended up interacting with the Chigs relatively peacefully -- enough to interrogate humans on their behalf]].
** The [=InVitro=] "Tanks" were how the world government fought an enemy that marched off of assembly lines ready, willing and able to fight; they developed a way to mass-produce soldiers. [=InVitro=]s are made from chromosomes [[MixAndMatchMan mixed and matched from hundreds of separate donors]] for optimal results, so their "parents" never existed as two living, breathing human beings and [[UterineReplicator artificially gestated]] -- a process with a 90% failure rate which produces humans physically 18 years of age -- to be full-grown ChildSoldiers, socially awkward children with the bodies and training of elite military operatives, but with no life experiences. Though skilled fighters, they actually made poor soldiers; without familial or social ties to humanity, they were hesitant to risk their lives in heated combat and many deserted. Lacking equal rights under the law when they were first created, every single one was obviously a draftee, and ReallyWasBornYesterday. This led to their entire "race" being condemned as lazy and cowardly, and post-war are condemned to the drudge work of society -- and often predictably go FromCamouflageToCriminal, adding "violent lawbreaker" to the litany of bigotry. As an [=InVitro=], Lieutenant Cooper Hawkes of the 58th constantly endured slurs like "nipple-neck" ([=InVitro=] were trained through NeuralImplanting via a second umbilical cords at the base of the neck which left a puckered scar after removal) and "tank."
* ArtisticLicenseGunSafety: Invoked when Lt. Herrick hands over his rifle to [=McQueen=]... and is immediately (and correctly) chewed out for not opening the breech and checking the chamber first.
-->'''[=McQueen=]:''' An unloaded weapon always shoots the loudest.
* ArtisticLicenseMilitary:
** [[ArtificialHuman Cooper Hawkes]] ends up getting arrested due to a combination of FantasticRacism and a misunderstanding with the police after a group of thugs try to hang him in an alleyway. The judge sentences him to [[TradingBarsForStripes serve his debt to society via military service]]... by putting him through a commissioning program to become a space fighter pilot in the Marine Corps. The DrillSergeantNasty even goes so far as to describe the entire situation as a cruel prank played at his (the drill sergeant's) expense. While the US military ''did'' do this in the past, A) they only recruited enlisted men this way, not officers, and B) they officially ended this practice several decades before the series was ''made'', never mind set. Hawkes would have had to obtain a waiver after the fact; he most certainly would not have been shipped from jail still in a prison jumpsuit and shackles. Besides which, becoming an officer in the US military requires a college degree (whether from a civilian university or a service academy).
*** Of course, [[SpaceWhaleAesop in-universe]] all [=InVitros=] technically ''are'' the equivalent of fully trained officers, and Cooper in particular is [[spoiler:one gone AWOL; in "Who Monitors The Birds" it's revealed that he was going to be killed by his trainer for being too intelligent and curious, and instead killed him and escaped. It's a grotesque miscarriage of justice, but also a way of highlighting the utter amorality of the described process]].
** The military had long since abandoned the issue of sending letters to inform families of their dead loved ones. Appropriately, to avoid exactly the sort of situation Nathan finds himself in in one episode. [[spoiler:His parents not getting the letter and still believing their son is alive.]]
** No, Colonel [=McQueen=], the real Marine Corps does ''not'' routinely send naval aviators in as infantrymen. Despite the Marine creed that every Marine is first a rifleman, that would be a stupid risk of very expensively trained officers. It's also worth noting that Marine aviators are not primarily air-to-air combatants as shown in the series (though that does happen), but rather mainly provide air support to ground forces.
** The Angry Angels wear custom uniforms and berets. This is officially frowned upon by the USMC because they believe that all Marines are alike to the point where unit patches were eventually phased out.
** Commodore as a United States Navy rank was phased out in the 1980s. While officers in certain posts may still be referred to by that title, none would be in the chain of command of a carrier. Additionally, all present day commodores are senior captains, whereas Commodore Ross wears the single star of a rear admiral. This may again be the result of the show drawing heavily on World War II for inspiration, as the conflict saw a revival of the rank. It may also be due to a case of rank-based OneSteveLimit, allowing the show to sidestep questions of why Lt. Col. [=McQueen=] would outrank (Marine) Captain Vansen but not a (Navy) Captain Ross, or why an Admiral Ross would answer to other admirals and generals.
* AsianAndNerdy: Wang is an interesting take on this trope, as he's a ''sports'' nerd (his parents once send him sod from Wrigley Field, and he claims he can figure out where exactly in the field it's from by the smell).
* AttackItsWeakPoint: [[spoiler:How T.C. finally takes down Chiggy von Richthofen: by planting a salvo of missiles in its engine intakes, apparently the only part of the fighter that isn't armored to shrug off human weapons.]]
* BaldOfAuthority: Commodore Ross, the CO of the ''Saratoga'' and the guy who gives [=McQueen=], essentially the ship's Commander, Air Group, his orders (as well as being as close to a best friend as commander and subordinate can be). He's the only major black character other than Damphousse.
* BattleCry: [[SemperFi The United States Marine Corps]] Battlecry. Turns out to be a MeaningfulEcho, being prominently featured in the very first episode and at the climax of the very last episode of the series.
* BattleDiscretionShot: The fight between a Chig force and the USS ''Hornet'' is only seen by means of a reporter broadcasting from aboard the ship (where we can't see anything except the ship shaking, things breaking, smoke, etc.), and the view from Earth as the entire battle is seen only as a series of flashing lights in the sky.
* TheBattlestar: Though primarily used as a spacecraft carrier, the USS ''Saratoga'' is shown from time to time to engage in ship-to-ship combat against enemy capital ships. Presumably her sister ships (including the USS ''Eisenhower'' and presumably the [[BattleDiscretionShot USS]] ''[[BattleDiscretionShot Hornet]]'')
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:One of the Wildcards almost certainly dies in a firefight while two others are falling in an escape pod into enemy territory; [=McQueen=] is severely injured in an explosion that kills a handful of important human officials; the war, once within sight of peace, now rages as intense as ever and the human forces have lost the initiative, making Operation Roundhammer irrelevant. On the other hand, the colonists held captive since the series pilot, including West's girlfriend, have been successfully rescued. We also learn that the alien aggression might not have been as unwarranted as we've been told. All in all, it would have been a very interesting second season.]]
** WordOfGod is that [[spoiler:the ending, had the series continued into the second season, would still be bittersweet, as the war would've ended not with a victory but with a tenuous peace treaty, in part thanks to a major Earth offensive failing. While the two women would have survived, they would be enslaved and taken to a brothel. Wang would still be dead]].
* BizarreAlienBiology: In the pilot, Damphousse decides to give the Chig POW some water, to show that [[HumansAreBastards humans]] ''[[AvertedTrope are not]]'' [[HumansAreBastards bastards.]] [[spoiler:Unfortunately, [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Chigs are deathly allergic to water]].]]
** [[spoiler:In the next to last episode, an armourless Chig runs around a wet swamp without problems. It's more likely that that first one committed suicide.]]
*** [[spoiler:Then again, Damphousse might have a degree in ArtisticLicenseBiology, since she started pumping water into what was obviously a gill used for breathing. Odds are, if the first one didn't commit suicide, it drowned.]]
** Later the Chig are show to be grown in bee hive like domes and when ready are planned under ground, making them part bee part plant.
** Also, since [[spoiler:they have evolved from microorganisms brought from Earth by a comet]], it doesn't make sense for them to be [[spoiler:allergic to water]].
* BrickJoke: "You will be issued one urine and fecal collection device. [[BringMyBrownPants A yellow flashing light on the flight suit indicates full capacity]]."
* TheBrigadier: Commodore Ross. His rank is even the naval equivalent of brigadier.
* BugWar: Not a literal example, although the humans' nickname for the enemy is [[NicknamingTheEnemy The Chigs]]. It is revealed along the way that the Chigs have a nickname with similar connotations for the humans.
* BunnyEarsLawyer: Major [=McKendrick=], a slightly crazy British officer who got stuck on a planet with nothing to do but listen to Chig transmissions on a broken radio all day, who has managed to at least start to understand the Chig language. [[spoiler:He refuses to be evacuated in order for him to finish the job.]]
* BurialInSpace: Notably [[InsistentTerminology referred to as]] "burial '''''at''''' space," in keeping with the show's SpaceIsAnOcean theme. This is [[spoiler:Winslow's]] ultimate fate, after being killed by Chiggy Von Richthofen.
* TheCameo:
** Creator/RLeeErmey appears as a drill instructor in the pilot.
** The episode "R&R" has cameos by Music/{{Coolio}} and Creator/DavidDuchovny.
* CassandraTruth: In "Stay with the Dead", West is believed to be the only survivor of the 58th after a disastrous mission. When he tries to tell his superiors the rest of the Wildcards are still alive, they think he's suffering from [=PTSD=]. Eventually, he manages to convince Col. [=McQueen=], and the squadron is rescued.
* CassetteFuturism: The show had lots of CRT screens (not disguised) as well as [=CDs=] and other mid-nineties tech.
* CasualInterstellarTravel: Averted. Naturally occurring wormholes are used opportunistically to supplement the rarely mentioned "Hawking Drive" (a form of artificial FTL); presumably the wormholes have some unspecified advantage over the Hawking Drive.
* ChristmasEpisode: "The River of Stars".
* ColonelBadass:
** T.C. [=McQueen=] repeatedly was shown to be the only guy who knew what the Hell he was doing - especially when he fought Chiggy Von Richthofen.
** Lieutenant Colonel Raymond T. Butts, who crosses this with TheNeidermeyer, can not only take on entire groups of Marines in a brawl, but manages to lure a group of Chig fighters into falling into a Black Hole, [[FaceDeathWithDignity singing along to Johnny Cash as he gets pulled in with them.]]
* ColonelKilgore: Herrick is only a lieutenant, but otherwise fits this trope rather well, being overly eager to fight the Chigs and gain prestige and honor--even when he's commanding the reserve in a recon mission and has been specifically ordered not to engage the enemy. He disobeys a direct order from Vansen (a superior officer) and decides on his own initiative to attack a Chig satellite tower. [[spoiler:He ends up getting his entire squad killed, including Nathan's younger brother, as the tower was a decoy and a trap.]]
* ColdBloodedTorture: The Silicates use torture for various reasons. [=McQueen=] recounts his own experiences during the [[RobotWar Silicate War]] and how, even with an [=InVitro=]'s enhanced pain resistance, he was still [[TortureAlwaysWorks forced to divulge everything he knew]].
* CoolHelmet: The Wild Cards all have custom artwork on their flight helmets, including their (poker card) themed callsigns.
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Almost every Aero-Tech employee in the series.
* CrimeOfSelfDefense: How Cooper ends up in the Marines, thanks to some creative sentencing by the judge.
* CunningLinguist:
** Played with in "Sugar Dirt": the Chigs use recorded human voices to try and lure surviving UN forces into booby traps. When that doesn't work, they try taunting them, which works even less well:
--->"Hey! [[CaptainObvious Abe Lincoln's dead!]]"[[note]]The Chigs apparently took the Literature/TheFourGospels too literally and thought humans could sometimes come back to life after dying, hence a practice seen elsewhere of mutilating human dead.[[/note]]
** Major [=McKendrick=] in "Pearly" is a straight example, almost to the point of deconstruction. Translating the Chigs' language - a language seemingly completely unknown to humanity - is ''hard'', and he's far from fluent in it, but he's made more progress in deciphering it than any other human we've seen.
* CustomUniform: The 127th Attack Wing, AKA the "Angry Angels". Black uniforms with leather jackets and black berets is probably not a standard Marine Corps uniform, given that we never see anybody outside of that unit wear them. (And we never see most of the Angry Angels wear them after the pilot episode. See TheWorfEffect.)
* CurbStompBattle:
** Several, including the early fight in the pilot between the Chigs and the USS ''Hornet'' and the Angry Angels, and several engagements against Chiggy Von Richtofen.
** In one battle, they sent ''[[NoKillLikeOverkill fifteen]]'' squadrons out specifically to hunt down and destroy Chiggy Von Richtofen and his AceCustom. Not only did they fail to destroy him, but of the three squadrons that found and engaged him, only one survived. To clarify, the humans engaged Chiggy with ''thirty to one odds'' and barely came away with a stalemate.
* CyanidePill: A captured chig uses ''water'' as this in the pilot, which unbeknownst to the 58th is fatal for them.
* DangerousDeserter: Major [=McKendrick=] is a subversion of sorts. In fact, when [=McQueen=] points out his refusal to be rescued and evacuated is technically desertion, he gets extremely offended, as he considers his current work [[spoiler:decoding the Chig language]] to be much more important than the pencil pushing the British Army would undoubtedly reassign him to. This doesn't stop the Wildcards from suspecting him first when a power cell goes missing. [[spoiler:it was actually Wang who stole the power cell]]
* DareToBeBadass: In the pilot, Coop, an unwilling recruit to the Marines, complains to [=McQueen=] (who is still with the Angry Angels at this time) that "I won't die for them!" (referring to natural-born humans in general). [[ArmorPiercingQuestion [=McQueen=] retorts]], "What ''would'' you die for?"
* TheDeadHaveNames: In his [[spoiler:DyingMomentOfAwesome, Wang yells out the names of all the 58th Squadron RedShirts who died over the course of the series during his [[HeroicSacrifice heroic]] LastStand.]]
* DeadlineNews: A reporter is broadcasting from aboard the USS ''Yorktown'' in the pilot, as the humans are about to fight their first major battle against the Chigs. From what we can see of the broadcast and the aftermath, it didn't go well. (Fridge Logic: One wonders if the reporter's live feed from aboard the flagship might have made it easier for the Chigs to defeat the human force with such uncharacteristic ease, compared to later in the series.)
* DeathNotification: After the death of [[spoiler:Nathan West's younger brother Neil]], Nathan is shocked to discover that the notification letter was sent to the ''wrong address''. He ends up writing a letter of his own home to inform [[spoiler:their mother]] himself. It is implied that rather than being hand-delivered, the notices are sent in the mail in "ugly yellow envelopes".
* {{Determinator}}: [=McQueen=]'s inner ear was injured badly enough that he relies on an electric implant to maintain his balance. This keeps him off flight status because the implant will fail under heavy maneuvering. When he decides to take on Chiggy von Richtoferson, he has the implant removed and battles through intense vertigo until he overcomes it through sheer willpower.
* DistractedBytheSexy: Played with. Vansen is suspicious about some strange events, including the 58 being denied access to their fighter craft. She has West be her lookout while dives in head first into her cockpit, with her shapely butt in the air. West takes a quick look before remembering he's suppose to be on the look out. It is possible the West actor was more into the quick look as older [=TVs=] with smaller screens might not have picked it up.
* DoAnythingSoldier: The 58th are ostensibly fighter pilots but more than half the episodes have them sent in as infantry or recon instead (see ArtisticLicenseMilitary).
** {{Lampshaded}} in one episode when the 58th complain about this; Colonel [=McQueen=] justifies it with the Marine creed that every Marine is a rifleman.
** {{Deconstructed}} in "Sugar Dirt". The 58th are ordered to land their planes and join in ground combat, which lets their fighters be destroyed on the ground when the Chigs spring their trap.
* DramaticUnmask: When a [[spoiler:Chig ambassador aboard the ''Saratoga'' takes off it's helmet, revealing itself as the same alien species the 58th aided on Anvil.]]
* DrillSergeantNasty:
** [[Film/FullMetalJacket Gunnery Sergeant Hartmann]] reappears, played by Creator/RLeeErmey, only this time he insists his name is Bougus... and he has toned it down to PG-13 dialogue. Bogous is also a lot less nasty than Hartmann: he's certainly tough on his cadets but it's made abundantly clear that he deeply cares for them and wants them to succeed.
** Colonel [=McQueen=] has shades of this too. He generally cares for the pilots under his command, but will come down harshly on anyone who doesn't measure up to his exacting standards or doesn't show him proper respect.
** Lt. Herrick tries to be this with his unit (lampshaded by Wang, [[YouWatchTooMuchX who says he's "seen too many war movies"]]), but [=McQueen=] steps in and does the same thing ''to him''.
* DorkKnight: Once his harsh exterior wears down Hawkes begins to show signs of this trope, being BookDumb, a tad naive, and incredibly appreciative whenever someone else on the squad is nice to him.
* DueToTheDead: A number of episodes feature memorials for fallen comrades of one kind or another, notably for [[spoiler:Pags]] in the pilot and [[spoiler:Winslow]] in "The Angriest Angel." Averted by the Chigs, who not only practice no such rituals but also dismember any human remains they find. [[spoiler:Not believing in any form of afterlife, they took the human belief in "life after death" a little too literally...]]
* DuringTheWar: T.C. [=McQueen=] recounts some stories about the [[RobotWar Silicate War]] where his kind were discriminated against. Likewise, the leader of the squadron has flashbacks to her childhood. Hawkes also spends an episode having flashbacks to his training in preparation for fighting against the Silicates.
* EmbarrassingFirstName[=/=]Embarrassing Middle Name: Colonel T.C. [=McQueen=] never goes by any other name than "Colonel" or "Sir", to cover up the fact that T.C. stands for Tyrus Cassius.
-->'''[=McQueen=]:''' I always thought T.C. stood for "Top Cat".
* EnsignNewbie:
** The entire 58th squadron during the pilot, as it shows them going through basic and flight training and culminates in their first battle with the Chigs.
** Later on, fresh-from-training Lt. Herrick shows up with a squad of [[NewMeat equally raw]] Marines, and are looked down on by the now-battle-hardened 58th.
* FacelessGoons: The enemy was almost always shown wearing their environmental suits. They have a suicide pill that turns them into goo if someone tries to force their helmets off [[spoiler:but you see what they look like near the end.]]
* FaceYourFears: How the 58th defeats the Chig bioweapon in "The Enemy."
* FakingTheDead: In "Stay with the Dead", the 58th use this as a ploy against the Chigs. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, their fellow Marines believe it too.]]
* FantasticDrug: "Green meanies", a painkiller in the form of [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin green pills]] that [=InVitros=] find highly addictive. [[spoiler:Hawkes is prescribed them by an unthinking doctor and spends the rest of the episode either addicted or detoxing; when he offers to help get him clean, Col. [=McQueen=] mentions he also had gotten addicted during the AI Wars.]]
* FantasticRacism: There are three or four intelligent races in this show's setting, depending on if you count the [[ArtificialHuman InVitros]] as a separate race from humanity: Humans, [=InVitros=], Silicates, and Chigs. Racism back and forth between the different groups varies from implied to openly expressed.
* FantasticShipPrefix:
** The ''Kennedy''-class space carriers took the current hull classification for a nuclear carrier, CVN, and put an 'S' (for Space) in front resulting in SCVN. ''Saratoga'' is SCVN-2812.
** The official designation for the Hammerheads also uses the S prefix: SA-43. This is partially true to life; the letter S can be used to denote a spacecraft under the United States' aircraft designation system, however American designations put the "vehicle type" last (i.e. AS-43).
* FantasticSlurs: One or more exists for just about every race in the series. Notably:
** "Chigs" or (less commonly) "Chiggers" for the aliens, after a kind of mite - to the point of being OnlyKnownByTheirNickname.
** The [[ArtificialHumans [=InVitros=]]] are called "Tanks" or occasionally "Nipplenecks."
** The name "Silicates" may itself have originated as a slur in the AI Wars.
** The Silicates themselves refer to humans as "Carbonites".
** The Chigs have a slur for humans that roughly translates to "red stink creature."
---> '''Elroy-EL''': It's much more poetic when they say it.
* FantasyConflictCounterpart: Later battles are directly based on parts of the Pacific and Normandy campaigns in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, with the similarities usually directly called out in the episodes.
** In "Hostile Visit", the Wild Cards use a captured Chig bomber to mount a sneak attack on a Chig base, likening it to the Doolittle Raid. [[spoiler:The operation is an {{Epic Fail}}ure, mainly due to their poor ability to pilot the alien ship: they miss their intended target completely (the Chigs claim they hit a civilian target) and get shot down and captured.]]
** "Stardust" = a disinformation op in the leadup to D-Day. [[spoiler:Also referenced are the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_talker code talkers]], with the Marines using missives written in Navajo and attached to corpses to mislead the Chigs.]]
** "Sugar Dirt" = Guadalcanal, with a landing force being abandoned to fend for themselves for months in favor of taking advantage of a more strategic position elsewhere (New Guinea in real life, the planet Ixion near the Chig homeworld in the episode). Complete with a VanityPlate dedicating the episode to Guadalcanal veterans.
** Round Hammer itself is inspired by Operation Downfall, the planned invasion of the Japanese home islands. The UN brass even refers to their strategy as 'planet-hopping', a reference to the USN's island hopping campaign in the Pacific. [[spoiler:But unlike the real one that never happened because the Japanese surrendered after the American nuclear attacks, Round Hammer is called off in the finale because the Wild Cards screw up and give away the battle plan to the Chigs,[[note]]They meet an unarmored Chig while scouting a moon of the Chig homeworld and, not knowing what unarmored Chigs look like, mistake him for a different alien species and tell him about the planned assault to save his life. He is apparently a guardian of a Chig breeding ground and tells his government about the invasion.[[/note]] who offer to open peace negotiations instead of taking advantage. The negotiations go badly awry and the war restarts, but the UN has lost the initiative.]]
** The new Lieutenant in "Toy Soldiers" is named after Lieutenant Henry Herrick who was killed in the opening minutes of the Battle of Ia Drang in Vietnam in 1965 made famous in the book and movie "We Were Soldiers." Depending on who you ask, the actual Herrick was overly gung-ho and allowed his men to be separated from the main force of his battalion and most were killed or wounded.
* FatalFamilyPhoto:
** {{Averted}} with West. The photo of his girlfriend recovered from the wreck of her colony ship is [[TheQuest specifically]] [[IWillFindYou what keeps him going.]]
** In an interesting twist, [[spoiler:Nathan's brother Neil]] dies in the episode where he gives [[spoiler:Nathan]] a photo of himself in his Marine dress uniform.
* AFatherToHisMen: Lt. Col. [=McQueen=], even if it's often the stern-father archetype (although he is often kinder to them when they are under severe stress, like when [[spoiler:Nathan's brother was killed]]). As the series goes on it becomes increasingly clear that the Wildcards are incredibly important to [=McQueen=], and whenever it appears they are dead or lost his distress is obvious. This all counts double for Hawkes, given that both are [=InVitros=] and [=McQueen=] begins to serve as a ParentalSubstitute to him.
* FictionalGenevaConventions: The Ho Chi Minh City Convention of 2054, which grants AI [=POWs=] similar rights and protections.
* FooledByTheSound: Attempted by the Chigs in "Sugar Dirt", who start playing fake audio clips of wounded UN soldiers calling for help in hopes of baiting survivors to respond. When that fails, they switch to just insulting them. [[InsultBackfire Or trying to, at least.]]
-->'''Recording:''' Hey! [[UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln Abe Lincoln]]'s dead![[note]]The Chigs lack the concept of an afterlife and apparently misinterpreted the Gospels to mean humans coming back to life is a normal thing.[[/note]]
* FunWithAcronyms: This M.A.R.I.N.E.S. chant.
-->M: Mean as Hell!\\
A: All the Time!\\
R: Rough and Tough!\\
I: In the Mud!\\
N: Never Quits!\\
E: Every Day!\\
S: SemperFi!
* GloryHound: Lt. Herrick to the core - he's obsessed with wanting to see action and prove himself to the veterans around him, even if it means [[spoiler:disobeying orders. His unit is wiped out when he leads them on an ill-advised attack.]]
* GovernmentConspiracy: [[spoiler:It turns out the human higher-ups were aware of the Chigs' existence before they established the colonies at Vesta and Tellus. According to them, when the Chigs warned them against settling those worlds, they concluded that the Chigs had no legal claim to planets so far outside their sphere of influence. The Chigs disagreed.]]
* GreatOffscreenWar: The AI Wars. Several senior officers including [=McQueen=], Ross, and Butts are veterans of that war.
* TheGrimReaper: In "Who Monitors The Birds?", Hawkes is TrappedBehindEnemyLines and hallucinates a nightmarish Vansen beckoning to him.
* GuiltyPleasure: When the 58th gets R&R on a pleasure ship, they're offered whatever their hearts desire. Colonel [=McQueen=]'s desire is to kick back and watch Creator/WCFields movies all day.
* GungHolierThanThou: Lt. Herrick straddles the line between this and TheNeidermeyer - as a commissioned officer, he does have authority over the men in his platoon (who revere him) but his antics provoke eye rolls at best from the 58th, all of whom outrank him.
* HandicappedBadass: Lieutenant Colonel T.C. [=McQueen=], call-sign "Queen Six". He suffered a crippling injury to his inner ear during a [[CurbStompBattle battle with the Chigs]] in the first episode, being the only survivor from his squadron. He has an artificial implant which allows him to not suffer crippling nausea, but high-g maneuvers (such as those experienced during SpaceFighter combat) would cause it to [[YourHeadASplode explode]]. In the second episode featuring Chiggy Von Richthofen, [[spoiler:he has the implant removed, trains himself to be able to stand upright and function ''without a working inner ear'', and proceeds to defeat Chiggy Von Richthofen in one-on-one combat while presumably suffering the kind of nausea that would leave most badasses vomiting and sobbing inside their space helmets.]]
* HeWhoFightsMonsters: Col. Ray Butts has been a Marine for so long and in so many stressful situations that it has seriously compromised his inter-personal skills--all of the 58ths and [=McQueen=] absolutely loathe him within a few minutes of meeting him thanks to his JerkAss personality, rude sense of superiority, and refusal to explain any of his mission objectives even when it's necessary to understand the mission. When you make the dour, humorless [=McQueen=] seem friendly and approachable, you're obviously doing something wrong.
* HollywoodAtheist: Wang, who stopped believing in religion after seeing the horrors of war, although he still has a tendency to cross himself before battle and when he thinks he's going to die. When Damphousse (a devout Christian) calls him on it, he claims it's just superstition and habit.
* HumanoidAliens: The Chigs, [[FacelessMooks while usually clad in concealing full-body armor suits]], generally are put together the same as humans are.
** It doesn't help that while the Chigs have very limited communication with the humans, they ''do'' appear to be working with the Silicates, who ''hate'' the humans, and are rather bastards themselves.
* IJustWantToBeSpecial: The officer attached to the 58th in "Level of Necessity" to investigate Damphousse's apparent psychic abilities would like nothing more than to become psychic himself.
* INeverToldYouMyName: Invoked by Nathan in "Choice or Chance", when [[spoiler:"Kylen"]] calls for two of Nathan's squadmates to follow, he [[spoiler:coldly shoots her.]]
-->I never told [[spoiler:her]] who you were.
* IWillFindYou: West spends the entire series searching for his girlfriend, whose colony ship was attacked by the Chigs shortly after he was pulled off the colony mission. [[spoiler:He and his squadron rescue her and the other surviving colonists in the series finale.]]
* InSpaceEveryoneCanSeeYourFace: Those lighted helmets must make good aiming points for Chig soldiers in the dark.
* InformedAbility: Played with. The Angry Angels are reputed as the top pilots in the Marine Corps, so much so that they get a CustomUniform. The entire unit is obliterated in the first major battle with the Chigs in the pilot. Possibly {{justified|Trope}}: it's indicated in the pilot that there hasn't been a major Earth conflict since the A.I. War about twenty years earlier, so it would appear the Angels actually attained their reputation during military exercises in peacetime. [[spoiler:It's only ''much'' later in "The Angriest Angel" that we see their real skill, when T.C. [=McQueen=], the only member of the unit to remain on active duty after the battle in the pilot, personally goes out and kills [[TheDreaded Chiggy von Richthofen]] in a solo sortie despite having been crippled during the Angels' last battle.]]
* InsectoidAliens: the Chigs are so named because their environmental suits make them resemble chiggers, although Wang points out they look more like praying mantises or walking sticks to him.
* InsultBackfire: "Hey! [[UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln Abe Lincoln's]] [[CaptainObvious dead!]]" Said by Chigs in "Sugar Dirt" to the bemusement of the Wild Cards.
* ISOStandardHumanSpaceship: Human warships play this to the letter as big, flat, gray boxes.
* JackBauerInterrogationTechnique: [=McQueen=] torturing a captured Silicate saboteur to death to find out where Chiggy Von Richthofen is.
* KickTheDog: Chigs have a habit of chopping up any human they find, dead or alive.
** This gets subverted later in the series when they explain just ''why'' the Chigs do this. A running theme in the show is that the Chigs aren't pure evil per se, just very "alien" from humans. It is eventually learned that the Chigs have no concept of an afterlife, and misinterpret human references to such as being a human ability to [[DeathIsCheap come back from the dead]]. So they are trying to counter that presumed advantage of the humans.
* LandMineGoesClick: When one of the 58th steps on a "buzz beam", it does not go off immediately; the rest of the squadron has time to figure out a way to defeat the boobytrap.
* LeftHanging: Like many, many, many other Fox shows, due to premature cancellation. WordOfGod is that the creators did this deliberately in hopes that the show might someday be brought back.
* LimitedAdvancementOpportunities: [=McQueen=] notes that if he wasn't an [=InVitro=], he would be a general.
* LivingShip: the Chigs' spacecraft were at least partly biological and may or may not have been [[SapientShip sentient]].
* ManChild: Cooper Hawkes, {{Justified|Trope}} since he is not only [[PeopleJars just a few years old]], but also very poorly socialized due to being a runaway. He [[CharacterDevelopment improves over time]] as he fights and serves alongside the other Wild Cards.
* MacrossMissileMassacre [[spoiler:[=McQueen=] kills Chiggy von Richthofen with one.]]
* TheMainCharactersDoEverything: This is the real reason for the 58th being {{Do Anything Soldier}}s. In real life, USMC naval aviators do ''not'' get sent on ground missions, but it's a TV show so [[ArtisticLicenseMilitary this gets fudged for budget and plot reasons]].
* ManchurianAgent: "Eyes" involves the possibility that one of the 58th's own might be one. [[spoiler:It turns out to be one of the squadron's new replacements, although Hawkes finds himself getting this treatment as well and coming within a hair of killing his target.]]
* MauveShirt: Kate Winslow, a minor character that remained in the squadron for several episodes and even had a minor arc in which she coaxes out a more sentimental side of [=McQueen=]. [[spoiler:She gets killed in that same episode.]]
* MeaningfulEcho:
** "I Believe In You," by the end of the show, it becomes [[spoiler:"I believe... in]] ''[[spoiler:all]]'' [[spoiler:of you."]]
** Not to mention the [[SemperFi UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS]] [[BattleCry BATTLECRY]]: [[spoiler:In the pilot, Wang is incapable of producing a convincing battlecry without the help of two [[DrillSergeantNasty Drill Sergeant Nasties]] demonstrating one for him at point blank range. In the series finale, he produces a fine battlecry while making his [[HeroicSacrifice Heroic]] [[LastStand sacrifice]]. To top it off, he even throws in a ToAbsentFriends by screaming the names of every Wild Card RedShirt and MauveShirt who died on the show as part of his battlecry.]]
* MeaningfulName: Lieutenant Herrick is likely named after Army Lieutenant Henry Herrick, whose similiar foolhardy and bloodthirsty attitude got his platoon surrounded and himself killed at the battle of the Ia Drang Valley in the Vietnam War. Yes, he's the foolish green officer in ''Film/WeWereSoldiers''.
* MegaCorp: Aerotech, having enough power that their corporate reps are able to march onto the ''Saratoga'' and send the 58th on missions for them. At one point, a powerful new missile that they hope to use is stated to be Aerotech property even as they are preparing to use it in action.
** The UN Secretary General sat on their board of directors, the Chigs demanded that the CEO attend the peace conference, and they appear to have paid informants all over the military.
** [[spoiler:they knew about the existence of the aliens for years, but never even told their own government.]]
* MenAreTheExpendableGender: Averted. Plenty of female soldiers fight and die over the course of the series, on and off screen. [[spoiler:At the end of the finale, the only two members of the 58th still fit to fight are West and Hawkes.]]
* MildlyMilitary: {{Averted}}; The show went out of its way to show a rigid military command structure with a lot of division between ranks.
** Primarily, it was small details that fell into this trope, such as haircuts and the like.
** In "The Angriest Angel", several of the Wildcards get too familiar with Colonel [=McQueen=] (Wang casually invites him to join in a game of pool, while Winslow is in the process of hitting on him. [=McQueen=] proceeds to [[DrillSergeantNasty lay down the law]] on all of them, reminding them that he is ''not'' there to be their friend.
* MilitaryScienceFiction: USMC Kicks Alien Ass: TheSeries.
* MinovskyPhysics: "Sewel Fuel", a glowy form of UnObtanium which is extremely energy-dense.
* MistakenForRacist: [=InVitros=] are pejoratively called [[ArtificialHuman Tanks]]. A Tank is also a type of armored ground combat vehicle. ''Pearly'' is ''[[BerserkButton not]]'' an Armored Personnel Carrier. Sgt. Fox is initially misunderstood when he tries to clarify this. [[note]]Hawkes kept calling Pearly an APC, leading to the vitriol-filled correction from Fox.[[/note]]
%%* MixAndMatchMan: Implied to be used to make the Tanks.
* MsFanService: the character of Shane Vansen (played by the lovely Kristine Cloke, the wife of one of the producers) is shamelessly exploited in this respect. Despite being a hard as nails Marine officer she is often to be found strutting around in her skimpy underwear/night attire flaunting her leggy supermodel face/figure and huge breasts for no apparent reason. When Coooper fantasises about her in 'Who Monitors the Birds?' she is represented as a seductive, scantily clad Angel of Death. When she decides to earn money as a pool hustler at the Baachus resort she feels the need to wear a revealing skintight minidress and high heels and had the series continued to a second season it was intended that she and Damphouse would have ended up as slavegirls working as hookers at one of its' brothels before being eventually rescued.
* MustHaveCaffeine: Sgt. Fox takes his morning coffee by swallowing a mouthful of coffee grounds washed down with canteen water.
* ANaziByAnyOtherName: "Eyes" features an election of a new United Nations secretary general (which has apparently gone to a worldwide popular vote instead of selection by the Security Council delegates) after the previous one is assassinated by an [=InVitro=]. One of the candidates is Nicholas Chaput, a Frenchman who is said to be the leader of a far-right political movement and wears military-styled uniforms with a badge clearly meant to be a stylized swastika.
* TheNeedsOfTheMany: In ''Mutiny'', the ship the 58th faces destruction by the chigs if they don't divert power from one section to get away. That section happens to be where the [=InVitro=]s are being stored, and the [=InVitro=] crewers refuse their orders. A mutiny occurs, but eventually they're persuaded to stand down because if they don't do this, ''everyone'' will die. In the end, they do it.
* TheNeidermeyer: Ray Butts, due to a combination of HeWhoFightsMonsters and PoorCommunicationKills, is generally despised by the 58th. Played with, in that once the rest of the 58th learn why he's co-opted them from Col. [=McQueen=] - [[spoiler:his previous unit was wiped out; he wanted to go back to the site of their last stand in part to give his men a proper burial]] - they gain some respect for him.
** Zigzagged with Lt. Herrick. His inexperience (bordering on willful ignorance), Drill Sergeant Nasty tendencies, and gung ho attitude would ordinarily make him a decent example... but the equally raw men under his command revere him. It's those outside his chain of command who see him for what he is.
* NewMeat: The fresh-from-training 5th Force Recon in the appropriately named episode "Toy Soldiers".
* NicknamingTheEnemy: The term "Chigs" is used to refer to their alien enemies, apparently because they look like chiggers.
** The enemy pilot flying the distinctive AceCustom in later episodes quickly earns the nickname, "Chiggy Von Richtofen". [[spoiler:he's even deadlier than his namesake.]]
* NoDialogueEpisode: "Who Monitors The Birds" was an attempt to make an episode with minimal dialogue. Hawkes being alone in enemy territory means he has no-one to talk to, and the flashbacks to his training as a [=InVitro=] shows them being conditioned rather than trained, with the instructors interacting with them as little as possible.
* NoNavelNovelBirth: The [=InVitros=] lack standard belly-buttons. Instead, they have nipple-like bumps on the back of their necks from there the artificial placentas attached to them in the womb-tanks (hence the FantasticSlur "nipple-neck").
* NoOneGetsLeftBehind: {{Inverted}}, albeit under protest, in "Sugar Dirt". A landing to capture a strategic airstrip goes south because the Chigs suckered the UN high command, but the Navy realizes that in order to pull this off the Chigs withdrew forces from an even ''more'' strategic target, which is now open to attack. But there isn't time to retrieve the troops already on the ground so the ships are forced to abandon 25,000 troops, including the 58th, for two months until they've captured the new target and can return to retrieve them... by which point the 58th have nearly starved to death and only 2,000 survivors remain. Commodore Ross says it best at the end:
-->"As a commander, I feel no obligation to explain my actions. But as a ''man'', I have never been more ashamed of myself, or [[SoProudOfYou more proud of you]]."
* NoseArt: Chiggy Von Richtofen's AceCustom has a human skull painted on the nose, and the words "Abandon All Hope". In ''[[BringIt English]]'', as the characters note.
** When the 58th becomes operational late in the the pilot episode, several of their Hammerheads have slogans painted on, including "Pags' Payback" (on Hawkes' fighter) and "Above and Beyond" (on West's).
* OldSchoolDogfight: Played with a little. The Human SA-43 "Hammerhead" fighters have guns in front and behind so they can shoot at targets that aren't in fount of them.
** Often zigzagged during space combat sequences. While the Hammerheads are typically seen executing maneuvers that wouldn't look out of place for a UsefulNotes/WorldWarI or UsefulNotes/WorldWarII fighter, they are also shown to be capable of feats of agility matched only by present day attack helicopters and aircraft like the Harrier... [[FridgeBrilliance as befitting craft maneuvering via thrust vectoring and operating outside of an atmosphere.]]
* OperationBlank: Several examples, most notably the much-foreshadowed "Operation Roundhammer", [[spoiler:the all-out invasion of the Chig homeworld.]]
* OutrankingYourJob:
** As the 58th is composed entirely of officers, each member should be ''leading'' ground units of enlisted soldiers (or at least be attached individually to such a unit as forward air controllers), not acting as cannon fodder. This is particularly egregious when the unit is depicted fighting alongside a conventional infantry unit, commanded by a lieutenant - he is outranked by ALL members of the 58th. It's TruthInTelevision when they're acting as pilots, however: In the US military, fixed-wing aircraft pilots are all officers.
*** Lampshaded in the finale, where Damphousse points out that the only reason the 58th has remained as a unit the way they are is that because of attrition the Marines lack the manpower to split them up properly.
** In "Who Monitors the Birds", the sniper team sent to assassinate a Chig officer consists of Major Colquitt and Lieutenant Hawkes.
** It's lampshaded pretty early on. Col. [=McQueen=] takes time during a briefing to chew the team out for whining about ground duty, remind them that "every Marine is a rifleman!" and that they'll damn well keep their traps shut. ([[ArtisticLicenseMilitary The team actually has the right of it, though]]: the Rifleman's Creed notwithstanding, Marines are not {{Do Anything Soldier}}s, and sending in naval aviators as infantry is a stupid risk of very expensively trained officers.)
* PaintballEpisode: When Lt. Col. Butts (briefly) takes command of the 58th, one of his first actions is to put the squadron through a training exercise with paintball pistols.
* PeopleJars: [=InVitro=] growth tanks.
* PhysicalFitnessPunishment: Sergeant Major Bougus has several officer recruits drop and start doing pushups: One for mouthing off to him, and another for smirking at the first one doing pushups.
* PsychicPowers: Left ambiguous, if not outright [[SubvertedTrope subverted]]: an entire episode is devoted to how the military (specifically, one officer who [[IJustWantToBeSpecial really wants to "see what you see"]]) turns what is likely common intuition into a deal that endangers the whole of the squadron.
* PunyEarthlings: [[AvertedTrope Averted]]. Chigs die as easily as humans, and the Silicates, not having been built for fighting, can be beaten by humans in hand to hand combat. In fact, [=McQueen=] and Hawkes are able to break into a Silicate-run prison and liberate the others (who had been captured) pretty much entirely on their own. Three of the few enemies not killed by [=McQueen=], Hawkes, or someone they freed are the two Silicates and the Chig that Vansen and Damphousse manage to kill ''from their prison cell''.
* RecoveredAddict: The [[ArtificialHuman In Vitros]] have severe problems with addictions to certain pain meds. Col. [=McQueen=] has had problems with the same "Green Meanies" prescribed to Hawkes in one episode.
* RecycledInSpace: The show draws heavily from UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, including elements of both the Pacific and European Theaters of Operations. Often lampshaded with the officers explicitely drawing inspiration from their own homeworld's military history, or making historical allusions while discussing the strategic situation. The show's setting of 2061 is also meant to draw a paralell to the UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement and UsefulNotes/TheSpaceRace of the 1960s.
** In particular, "Stardust" referernces Operation Mincemeat, a British misinformation ploy against the Germans, and the series two part finale reveals that Operation Roundhammer to be an obvious nod to [[spoiler:Operation Downfall, the planned Allied invasion of the Japanese home islands.]]
* RedHerring:
** [[spoiler:In the episode "Eyes", one of the candidates for UN Secretary-General is the "far right wing" [[CheeseEatingSurrenderMonkeys Nicholas Chaput]]. He's set up to look like the bad guy via the [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything swastika-like emblem]] of his political party, his [[FantasticRacism distrust of [=InVitros=]]], and his penchant for polygraph loyalty tests (but only from [=InVitros=]). He then reveals that his [[ThereAreNoGoodExecutives opponent's corporation]] provoked the Chig attacks in the first place, and said exec (who winds up getting elected as world leader) tries to have Chaput assassinated.]]
** The same episode also had [[spoiler:A group of [[AIIsACrapShoot Silicates that had been invited to the gathering for some reason. They don't cause any problems for the entire time they are there.]]]]
* ReallyGetsAround: {{Downplayed}}: The first episode of the Chiggy von Richthofen arc has an offhand mention that Vansen has an offscreen habit of having quickies with members of the flight crew.
* RedplicaBaron: A recurring antagonist is a chig ace named Chiggy Von Richthofen.
* RedShirt: Any members of the 58th that aren't part of the main cast can be assumed to be dead men walking.
* RidiculouslyHumanRobots: The Silicates, who look like regular humans with crosshairs for eyes, along with some uncanny behavioral tics.
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: Vansen goes on one when she learns why the Silicates killed her parents: [[spoiler:they flipped a coin,[[note]]Heads, they kill Vansen's family. Tails, the family across the street[[/note]] as Silicates view betting as a semi-religious experience]]. She starts her rampage off by [[spoiler:beating a Silicate to death with her bare hands]].
* RobotWar: The Silicate War, shown in flashbacks and alluded to often. Literally an OriginStory for Lt. Hawkes and Lt. Colonel [=McQueen=].
* RomanticFalseLead: At several times in the series, Vansen and West appeared to be getting set up as a couple. The Finale sank this ship by having [[spoiler:West rescue Kylen and Vansen getting stranded behind enemy lines]].
* SacrificialLion:
** [[spoiler:Winslow]], a character who appears for four episodes about the middle of the series [[spoiler:before being killed when Chiggy von Richthofen destroys her EscapePod. This prompts [=McQueen=] to have his cochlear implant removed so he can safely fly a one-man sortie to kill Chiggy.]]
** [[spoiler:The series finale has Wang cover the escape of West, Hawkes, and Kylen and the other captured colonists by separating the cargo compartment of an APC with him in it so West can grab the one from the other, disabled, APC. He blows away several Chig fighters with a mounted gun before one crashes into him. WordOfGod is that, had the series not been cancelled, the death would still have stuck.]]
* SatelliteLoveInterest: West's girlfriend has no real role in the plot other than to be a DamselInDistress to motivate him.
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: The [=InVitros=] awoke from their tanks, were informed they had been created to fight a war they had no stake in, and promptly deserted.
%%* ShootTheDog: The entire show is implied to be a series of these moments.
* SendInTheClones: Much like Cylons in the later ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'' remake, there's only about a dozen models of Silicates, all of whom share memories with others of the same model. This means an individual of one type of Silicate can be killed in one episode only to come back for more later (c.f. Wang's experience with two different Elroy EL {{Torture Technician}}s).
* ServantRace:
** The Silicates were created for use as laborers and servants to humans, but rebellled thanks to the insertion of [[ArcWords "Take a chance"]] into their programming. Ironically, the [=InVitros=] were created to fight the Silicates, but also rebelled.
** The [=InVitros=] a.k.a. "Tanks," are basically created as slaves to the "normal" humans: serving as expendable soldiers (initially to fight the Silicates!), miners, et cetera, and even once they're "freed" from indentured servitude (which is "banned" but still practiced) they still are always assigned the "dirty jobs."
* ShipTease: Hawkes and to lesser degree, Vansen had some interest in each other. If the show had continued on, Hawkes likely would have become a lifer like Vansenm which would make them more compatible.
* ShootingGallery: In "Who Monitors the Birds?", Hawkes is PlayingPossum after the officer he was working with is killed, and has a flashback to the officer (played by Dale Dye) recruiting him from a firing range after witnessing his marksmanship. We then flash back to the present where three Chig soldiers have finished [[CoupDeGrace hacking up the officer's body]] and are now advancing on Hawke, who promptly puts his shooting skills to the test.
* ShoutOut:
** ''[[{{Film/Alien}} In Space, no one can hear you scream]]... [[SemperFi Unless it's the BATTLECRY OF THE UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS!!!]]''
** In "Dear Earth", Commodore Ross gets angry over [[Literature/TheCaineMutiny some missing strawberrys]]. Fortunately he doesn't full Queeg.
* ShownTheirWork:
** The show is of course known for averting MildlyMilitary, but they even go so far as to include little touches like having the deployed servicemen read [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stars_and_Stripes_(newspaper) The Stars and Stripes]].
** The song that that 7th Cav Sergeant sings at the beginning of "Pearly"? That's not a random tune, that's Garry Owen, the 7th's regimental song.
* SoleSurvivor: A few characters are depicted as the last surviving members of their (former) units.
** Major [=McKendrick's=] ordeal behind enemy lines began when his unit was wiped out.
** Lt. Col. Butts is ultimately revealed to be this; one of his motives for taking command of the 58th was to return to the site of his previous unit's last stand and [[DueToTheDead give them a proper burial.]]
** Possibly [=McQueen=] himself, as he is the only member of the Angry Angels explicitly shown to have survived their battle with the Chigs.
** Played with in "Stay with the Dead" - [[spoiler:West's]] superiors ''think'' he is the only survivor, and he must convince them otherwise in order to save the rest of his unit. [[spoiler:The Wild Cards faked a last stand for the Chigs' benefit, only it was [[GoneHorriblyRight too effective]] and convinced the ''Saratoga'' crew as well.]]
* SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay: In "Stay With the Dead", when [[spoiler:the 58th]] receive a message - which they at first don't believe - saying extraction is coming, what convinces them is hearing the title phrase repeated at the end of the transmission. As this was the last thing [[spoiler:Vansen]] said to [[spoiler:West]] before he was rescued, they realize the message is genuine.
* SpacePlane: The Hammerhead SpaceFighter, which is specifically designed to operate both in an atmosphere and in space.
* SpaceIsAnOcean: References are made to "dropping anchor", "setting sail" and "burial at space" (and yes, it's ''at'' space, not ''in'' space).
* SpaceIsNoisy: Has noisy space like almost every other sci-fi show, but also {{parodied}} in the pilot with Creator/RLeeErmey's line, "In space, no one can hear you scream, unless it's the battle cry of a United States Marine!"
* SpaceMarine: Notably US Marines, but since it's the future their role has been extended to space.
* TheSquad: The 58th Reconnaissance Squadron, also known as The Wildcards.
* TheSquadette: Vansen, a MilitaryBrat, is very much a tomboy and is arguably the best pilot and fighter among the squadron, and is eventually even made XO.
* StarfishLanguage: Communicating with the Chigs proves extremely difficult.
* SexBot: The original programming for some of the Silicates, notably Felicity OH.
* StiffUpperLip: Major [=McKendrick=], a British logistics officer who refuses to let his being trapped alone behind enemy lines after the loss of his entire unit get him down. Instead, he forges on finding ways to keep himself occupied, including monitoring and analyzing the Chigs' communications to try and gain intel on them.
* SuperPrototype: Chiggy Von Richtofen's custom Chig fighter. It's hull is NighInvulnerable to Earth weaponry, it has superior handling than the Hammerheads, and it's almost completely invisible to sensors. It consequently slaughters Earth fighters by the squadron [[spoiler:before [=McQueen=] finally destroys it by planting a salvo of missiles the only place it's vulnerable: the engine exhausts]].
* SupernaturalFearInducer: In the episode "The Enemy", US troops on a desolate planet the 58th have been sent to resupply are reported to be stuck in a meat grinder of a battle. It turns out that there aren't actually any Chigs on-planet, but they left behind a panic-inducing weapon that's causing the troopers to turn on each other or blunder into minefields.
* TankGoodness and TanksButNoTanks: [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]] [[StealthPun in]] "Pearly". The Wildcards end up taking refuge inside an armored vehicle on the battlefield. They keep referring to it as an [[AwesomePersonnelCarrier Armored Personnel Carrier]], much to the driver's annoyance. Finally he screams "'''''TANK!'''''", briefly being MistakenForRacist because Hawke is there - but it turns out that ''Pearly'' is a battle tank, not an APC.
* ThemeNaming: The TrueCompanions' squadron is called The Wildcards. Their callsigns are all based on poker cards.
* TitleByYear: The MarketBasedTitle ''Space 2063'' (after the year it starts) in several European countries.
* TokenMinority: PlayedWith, given the setting. The squad includes several women, at least two African Americans, and an Asian guy. The only ''minorities'' in the squad, however, are caucasian Hawkes and [=McQueen=], the only [=InVitros=] in the squad, and amongst the few in military service.
* TortureTechnician: Elroy-EL, a line of Silicates that specialize as torturers.
* TradingBarsForStripes: Hawkes. Unusually, his deal included becoming an officer and a fighter pilot, rather than being pressed into duty as an enlisted soldier.
* TrappedBehindEnemyLines: A feature of several episodes:
** "Choice or Chance" sees the 58th escaping and evading after their TrojanHorse Chig bomber is shot down.
** "The River of Stars" sees the 58th in a damaged [=APC=] drifting through Chig space.
** "Stay with the Dead" sees all but one of the 58th given up for dead on an enemy held planet, with the "sole survivor" struggling to convince his superiors the rest of the squadron is still alive.
** "Who Monitors the Birds?" sees Hawkes alone in enemy territory when a mission to assassinate a Chig officer goes wrong.
** "Pearly" has the 58th encounter a British Major who has been hiding behind Chig lines long enough to begin to decipher their language.
** "Sugar Dirt" sees the 58th and 25,000 other Marines marooned on an enemy planet when the ''Saratoga'' and the rest of the fleet must suddenly leave orbit.
* TripleNipple: Lt. Hawkes is an [[UterineReplicator InVitro]], meaning he spent his embryonic period in a tank. The mark where the feeding tube was connected at his neck resembles a nipple (hence the FantasticSlur "nipple-neck"), though he insists it's more like a "belly button".
* TrustPassword: When investigating a mining facility in "The Dark Side of the Sun", the 58th use "Bulldog" and "Chesty" as a [[SpySpeak sign/countersign]]. As it was Vansen who came up with the code words, they are likely in reference to famed Marine Corps General Chesty Puller.
* TurnedAgainstTheirMasters: The Silicates launched a brutal RobotWar against humanity, and would later sign on with the Chigs when their war with humanity broke out. The [=InVitros=] were a more minor example, created by humanity to fight the Silicates, but turned out to make poor soldiers as they had no stake in the fight and gained little motivation from being used as easily-replaced CannonFodder. Rather than actually turn against their creators, they mostly just refused to fight for them with a few exceptions.
* TwoPlusTortureMakesFive: [[spoiler:Wang]] confesses under torture to war crimes [[spoiler:he]] didn't commit.
* VirginShaming: Very {{downplayed}}. Most of the cast are sexually active offscreen (West has his MIA girlfriend, [=McQueen=] is a divorcee, and Vansen is once mentioned to sometimes have quickies with members of the flight crew), but in "R&R", West hires a prostitute to take care of Hawkes' virginity. Rather understandable that the socially stunted runaway with no family (other than his unit) would be one.
* UnitedNationsIsASuperpower: Very much in effect, though countries like the UK and the USA are shown to still exist, the UN will have a lot more political authority in the mid-21st century, according to this show.
* UnusableEnemyEquipment: Hawkes at one point tries to use a Chig rifle but either can't figure out how to fire it or is technologically prevented from doing so. The team also manages to capture a Chig bomber and use it in a redux of the Doolittle Raid, but they're not good enough at flying it to actually hit their target and are instead shot down and captured.
* {{Ultraterrestrials}}: [[spoiler:In the final episode the Chig ambassador claims that his species evolved on Earth before humans did, but left before it became suited to oxygen-breathing life. Actually, his species evolved elsewhere, from Earth-originated bacteria that were transported naturally to another planet via Panspermia]]
* WeAreStrugglingTogether: to a small degree as the Saratoga comms officer gets frustrated with the 58th sending mundane reports over the radio during the raging battles in "Sugardirt." [=McQueen=] cuts her off and sends the team an uplifting reply, and then chews her out reminding her to "never make them think they are not needed!" After two months on their own, these generally useless reports were the only thing keeping the 58th from collapsing from exhaustion.
* WhamLine: From an [[spoiler:unarmed Chig ship at the end of "And if they lay us down to rest...", transmitted in English;]]
--> [[spoiler:'''Chig Ambassador:''' PEACE]]
** And in the finale, when the [[spoiler:Chigs confront the head of Aero-Tech:]]
--> [[spoiler:'''E. Allen Wayne:''' How can you lay sole claim to the universe?]]\\
[[spoiler:'''Chig Ambassador:''' How can you claim the Earth?]]\\
[[spoiler:'''E. Allen Wayne:''' It's our home, we originated there.]]\\
[[spoiler:'''Chig Ambassador:''' ''So did we.'']]
* WhatDoTheyFearEpisode: "The Enemy." The members of the 58th are exposed to a Chig bioweapon which amplifies their fears to crippling levels.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: In the episode "Choice or Chance" he Wildcards are captured and thrown into a Silicate prison where they discover what looks like the missing Tellus colonists imprisoned, including West's girlfriend Kylen, mining fuels for the Silicates. At the end of the episode, it's revealed that [[spoiler:"Kylen" was some sort of shapeshifter]], but what about the rest of the prisoners?
* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman:
** Most of the problems that the humans have with the Silicates and the Tanks are because the humans keep treating their creations like slave labor or cannon fodder. A decade or more after the Silicate War, racism against the Tanks is rampant because they are perceived as cowards at best, or freaks at worst.
** [=McQueen=] convinces a captured Silicate saboteur to divulge needed information by yanking pieces of his internal circuitry out, despite both the silicate and Lieutenant Wang protesting that Silicates are specifically reserved certain rights as intelligent beings, including protection from torture. After the silicate dies, [=McQueen=] orders that the "pile of scrap" be disposed of.
* WhoWatchesTheWatchmen: In a flashback sequence in "Who Monitors the Birds?", [[MeaningfulName Hawkes]] asks one of his indoctrination monitors the eponymous question. When the monitor replies, "I monitor the birds," Hawkes' next question is, "Who monitors you?" The monitors decide Hawkes must be eliminated at that point, [[spoiler:but Hawkes pulls some AssassinOutclassin and escapes the facility]].
* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: [[spoiler:The Chigs' Amygdala weapon turns any mild fear into a crippling phobia]].
* TheWorfEffect: The 127th Attack Wing, AKA the Angry Angels, are hyped up by their fangirl (Vansen) as "The best there is, ever will be." Except for [=McQueen=], they don't survive past the first half of the pilot. Could be {{justified|Trope}} by claiming that the Chigs would try to hit the humans hard in the first attack, and after both sides took severe losses early on, the general intensity of the battle dialed back down from eleven once it became apparent the war would be on for a while.
* WrongGenreSavvy: Lieutenant Herrick, West's brother's CO in the Recon Marines, is gung-ho and caught up in the tales of heroic Marine battles of the past, wanting to imitate them in his own career. Unfortunately, ''Space: Above and Beyond'' is a WarIsHell-style series and he isn't the protagonist. As a result, [[spoiler:he goes against orders on a routine scouting mission and his entire unit are killed in a Chig ambush, with West's brother fighting to his last bullet]].
* VehicularTurnabout: The Earth military captured an alien Bomber. They had to spend some time learning how to operate it before they could use it against the Chigs, though.
* YoungerThanTheyLook: In Vitros are all considerably younger than their physical age, since they're force-grown to eighteen while still in the tank.
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