I was reading io9 today, as I’m wont to do, and I came across a piece written by Jesse Alexander — currently the showrunner for ABC’s new Day One — singing the praises of Fox’s late, apparently lamented sci-fi series Space: Above and Beyond. In said piece, Alexander explains how the futuristic military pioneered many of the storytelling and production initiatives that would eventually bear fruit in shows like Battlestar Galactica, Firefly, Lost, and Alias. Which all may very well be true; Alexander certainly makes a compelling case. The thing I always took away from Space: Above and Beyond was, Why didn’t Fox just make a Colonial Marines series?

Surely, you remember the Colonial Marines, the astro-badasses introduced by James Cameron in Aliens? The men and women who strapped on massive guns and pounded ground all over the galaxy? The troopers who led Ripley onto the mining facility on LV-426 and found a whole nest of acid-for-blood aliens?

Those guys should’ve had their own show. Still could. It’d be a natural extension of an already existing Fox-owned franchise, as well as a way to do space-based military sci-fi on a large scale without the burden of a cheesy name like Battlestar Galactica (which even the producers admitted was something of an albatross that kept the show from reaching more viewers).