This week we take a look at Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda. I wondered why in every ad, introduction or opening they kept underlining the name of the maker rather than the title. I mean how much more important can the screenwriter be than the series very title? And then I did a short google search and realized he was the maker 0f the original Star Trek. Ah, that’s what they tried to capitalize on. Though their insistence on his name in the title is somewhat deceiving because while the series are based on an archived idea of his, he was long dead to develop, observe or participate in the scriptwriting of the actual TV series.
So what exactly is Andromeda and how good is it compared to other sci-fi series?
The main plot is pretty simple. Once there was a strong and just systems confederation called the Commonwealth, one of its members rebelled and shattered the union. 300 hundred years in the future, people hardly remember the good times as their galaxy is ravaged by strife, lawlessness and poverty.
However, one of the best Commonwealth battleships is stranded on an event horizon along with its Captain Kevin Sorbo as Kevin Sorbo, I mean Dylan Hunt. And once he gets free, he embarks on a mission to restore the galactical communism, ahem Commonwealth, so that everyone can live better. He is joined by a diverse crew of aliens, who are mostly modified humans living on other planets and two actual aliens. The episodes are mostly stand alone as Andromeda, the ship, encounters different adventures, with some overarching character and story lines.
The acting is decent. At least the actors seem to have fun with the roles without making their characters too over the top or stereotypical. Most of the time anyway. Lexa Doig is also in the series though it’s not her finest performance with lots of eyebrow use to compensate. She does improve a as the series progresses.
Both the music and the dialogue can be quite cliche and obvious.
The CGI doesn’t look all that convincing even for its time. Love the ship design though. The art does improve as the series progresses and looks almost smooth by season three, but they never really get past repeated footage and low quality 3D images. The makeup and sets are pretty good though.
Andromeda is decent, though cheesy and unpolished at times. It could have been better, but it’s still fun. An okay watch for sci-fi fans.
But let’s take a look at episode one. Or should I say one and two because the series opens with a two parter. How bold. So here are Under the Night and An Affirming Flame, featuring Kevin Sorbo’s hair, Lexa Doig’s boobs and RatMan.
The episode opens with the starship Andromeda running a combat drill. Despite a few slowpokes, it all goes well. Until they get a distress signal from a supposedly small Nietzschean ship under attack.
The so called Nietzscheans are off world humans who are genetically engineered and socially and ideologically bred for perfection. Or at least for what they consider physical and mental perfection.
Andromeda responds to the call just to find itself in the middle of an invading fleet. Turns out, the Nietzschean systems decided to rebel and create their own empire. I mean what can you expect from people who call themselves Nietzscheans? Sit around and sip wine while discussing culture? Yeah, there’s a lot of that too. But mostly xenophobic, self-serving behaviour and philosophy. The concept of the Nietzscheans really plays on the idea of master and slave morality, but for anyone interested in that aspect go read Beyond Good and Evil or On the Genealogy of Morality. I do like how sci-fi plays with philosophy though.
The battle doesn’t go well for Andromeda and Dylan orders his crew to abandon ship. he then turns towards the nearby black hole hoping to take as much of the enemy fleet with him as possible.
His best friend, and second in command, is a Nietzschean who, gasp, betrays him. But it is not the villainesque ‘I got you’ kind of betrayal but more like the ‘sorry friend but I’m loyal to my people’. So rather than individuals, beliefs and systems of governance play the role of the real antagonist in the series.
The Officer kills the pilot, a fancy bug alien, too bad she didn’t stick around, and the two battle it off as the ship drifts towards the black hole. Dylan wins just as time dilation becomes so large time just stops. Not sure it works quite like that, but okay, I’ll buy it.
Side note: Dildo laser guns. Who came up with those things? Seriously? But they are handy since they not only shoot but also elongate into staffs.
While the beginning does establish the main conflict and characters it is a bit hard to follow. We don’t know why suddenly part of the confederation decides to rebel. It makes even less sense considering no one saw it coming or noticed them building an armada. The Nietzschean motivation is even iffier. They are gene modified and decide to destroy/enslave those inferior. Again, how did the rest fail to notice such discriminatory ideology? But let’s suspend our disbelief and imagine the conflict has been built off screen in the backstory.
Still we get a lot of name/species dropping and expository dialogue trying to cram in knowledge that we can’t relate to because the universe hasn’t been established yet. Classic example of telling rather than showing, lethal when we’re talking about TV series. It does get smoother as the series progresses, but we are swarmed with too much build up context too early.
But moving on.
We cut to 300 years later, when Beka Valentine, played by Lisa Ryder, and her crew of mongrels are hired by the Ratman, I mean Gerentex, played by John Tench, to do a transportation job. Pull out the Commonwealth starship from the black hole, bring to seller, profit.
Only they didn’t take into consideration that there might be someone on the ship who isn’t too inclined of surrendering it. Nor that the ship’s AI is complex enough to possess a personality and equally unhappy about surrendering herself.
But that’s okay because Ratman brought his own crew of mercenaries, led by a Nietzschean, Tyr Anasazi, played by Keith Hamilton Cobb who is considered by random pop magazines as one of the prettiest people alive.
So surprise, surprise, Ratman plans to double cross them once the ship is under control.
Beka’s crew is cornered between the angry Commonwealth captain and the treacherous Gerentex so they decide to ally Dylan, the more reliable character. They win, send the rat on its way, annex Tyr who is equally annoyed with him and impressed by Dylan, and then are gently coerced into becoming the Andromeda’s crew.
From there on, Dylan takes them on his crazy mission to restore the Commonwealth, meanwhile each character deals with their own personal issues and storylines.
If there’s one thing I love about this kind of shows are the characters. Mostly quirky, sometimes stereotypical, but nevertheless fun as the writers experiment with ideas and designs. The same can be said here, we get a rather varied and balanced crew, while still filling the necessary roles. The brilliant pilot, the quirky medic and plant lover, the spiritual quantum physicist (or something along those lines), the ship mechanic, the weapons and combat expert, topped with a justice frenzy, strategist of a captain. And lets not forget the AI that is slowly learning what is like to be a human.
So even with the flaws, Andromeda still grabs the attention and serves some decent action.
