Andrómeda

I feel the need to post a comment on this title because I've seen a few comments from people who are surprised at the positive user response for such an awful show.

What is truly tragic about Andromeda is that it is a show that never realized its full potential. This is due to the powers that be and their decision to remove Wolfe from his post as head writer of the show.

From Season 1 to the halfway point of Season 2, Wolfe was the head writer of Andromeda and the show was quality in every sense of the word. Wolfe took his experience from shows such as Star Trek: Deep Space Night and invested it in Andromeda, bringing life to intricate plot-lines and vibrant characters functioning in a realized Universe.

As Season 2 began to move along, the usual first season clumsiness that one expects from new TV shows had totally dissolved and an epic plot line was beginning to come to life.

This was tragically cut short when Wolfe was fired. After this unfortunate event, nearly all of his work was thrown out of the window as the series took an entirely different direction in favour of mainstream approval and a more episodic format. The most painful example of the latter is embodied in the decision to do away with the character of Trance in favour of a new incarnation of the character designed to be sexy.

The series began to spiral downwards even more, until it was finally too difficult to watch. Andromeda soon began to buy into nearly every science fiction cliché in the book, and when it ended was a pathetic worm of its former glory.

Four stars out of ten for 1.5 excellent seasons and 3.5 awful ones in a show that tragically never met its unimaginable potential.

When I first started watching Andromeda I was blown away. A great universe, with great ideas, both in technology and philosophy. Now, I was a little concerned with Hercules being the captain of the ship, but I said what the hell, Kevin Sorbo deserves a break.

Unfortunately, the only thing broken was the show. After the first season it all went up in smoke. The universe turned silly, the fights idiotic, the logic nonexistent. You can see how the first season had such a powerful effect on me because I spent the last two days watching the fifth season, even if it sucked immensely.

What started as a great saga, adventure, call it what you like, ended up in a silly fight against an impossible evil, moronic opponents and allies like avatars of stars, moons, hot chick androids that functioned differently in every episode. You might want to see suns that move from system to system while the heroes "evacuate" entire planets with two ships, or even black hole avatars converted into code uploaded to a solar sail energy deflector.

So, I gather Gene Roddenberry must be turning in his grave after his great ideas were perverted by money hungry TV producers with no technical expertise, no strategic thinking, no feel for the wishes of the audience or of the original creator of the series. The "Abyss" has won and it destroyed yet another great opportunity for a great sci-fi show.

This is NOT Gene Roddenberrys Andromeda, its someone else's.

Shows like this make me wish IMDb allowed us to rate individual seasons.

Like Earth: Final Conflict, another Roddenberry posthumous series, it started out rather good, with a lot of potential. They both had interesting concepts, good characters and could have gone somewhere. Yet, as happened with EFC, the seasons got progressively worse until finally ending up as a joke, the likes of which you might expect to come from the SciFi Channel in the post-2003 era.

Andromeda's best seasons were 1 and 2. The plots surrounded the overall concept which was an idealistic captain from an idyllic fallen civilization seeking to restore an order to the fractured systems across 3 galaxies. It was evocative of Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire as the Dark Ages set in.

In season 3, the series lost its aim. There were still interesting plots but the overall aim of a lone captain in a powerful ship on a lone quest to restore the Commonwealth had been lost. While not as good as seasons 1 & 2 by any means, season 3 is still watchable.

It's at the end of season 3 when the series took a notable nose dive. Season 3 ended with a cliffhanger which made you think everything had changed; yet when season 4 began it was clear the only thing which had changed was that everything became less logical and the writing noticeably worse. I have to wonder if there was a major change in management and writing talent at this point. In season 4 things foundered and it was not the Andromeda of before.

Season 5 became a joke. The end of season 4 obviously set up a "reset" for the entire series but instead it appears in season 5 they ignored this set-up and created a scenario hardly worthy of Andromeda. Instead of roaming 3 galaxies trying to establish a grand civilization, the crew, which inexplicably survived clearly being killed, is now trapped by an absurd force in a single solar system plagued with ailments while Andromeda sits crippled. Season 4 was a disappointment but season 5 was so far removed from the original series that it only served as the butt of jokes from former fans.

All in all, Andromeda serves as an example that you should know when to end your show before it becomes pitiful. I average it out as a 5/10 because the last 2 seasons bring down the total score considerably. I would rank the seasons as follows:

Season 1: 8/10 Season 2: 7/10 Season 3: 6/10 Season 4: 4/10 Season 5: 2/10

What started off as an OK sci-fi series that I "kicked" myself when I missed or forgot to tape has become one of those shows that I now watch and wonder "why am I waisting my time on this?". My young daughter used to watch it with me, but now she would rather do homework.

After the first two seasons of decent action, sub plots etc, the story lines started to get stupid in season 3. There was more action in season 4 but the final show was one of the worst I have seen on any show.

Season 5 has limped along with too few interesting stories, little character development, new long term "bad guys", little good action (same karate type fight sequences where Sorbo gets to kick people, and the introduction of the "busty" Doyle character adds nothing to the cast. In fact she detracts from time that could be spent with other regulars. When the season 5 DVD comes out, they should edit the whole season down to about 2 hours, but then it would really not make much sense.

I've heard Sorbo has taken more direct control of the show as it has continued....what a shame. The "artsy" look and inane stories remind one of a boxer well past his prime trying to do what he did years ago and continually getting sent to the mat.

After reading the reviews for the new fall season, I was expecting Andromeda to be another Star Trek clone, but I was pleasantly surprised to find this was not the case! Andromeda is an entertaining show with solid acting and a great mix of action, sci-fi and comedy. Kevin Sorbo slips into this role like it was made for him and the only obvious remnant of his days as Hercules is his wonderful ability to portray the noble hero without taking himself too seriously! The effects are decent, the cast is solid and you don't need to know the technical specs of the Enterprise to understand and enjoy the plot! This show is a treat for sci-fi and action fans alike and even stubborn Star Wars fans (myself among them!) will get a kick out of Rev's Yoda-esque witticisms! All in all, an enjoyable ride!