Andromeda

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.

After series finale I have been left with completely mixed emotions and had to wait for a very long time to come to a complete summary of the series. What started as one of the best Sci-Fi series, having enormous potential ended as a trash series with nothing left of the grandeur it once possessed.

The idea itself is intriguing and uncovers vast possibilities of exploring the personal and interpersonal nuances of feelings, relationships etc. And in the first season as well as in the first half of second season the signs were set to "GO". However, after Robert Hewitt Wolfe left the show and Bob Engels took over the show almost immediately began to drift into crappy action Sci-Fi. Each episode had to show at least 20 dead enemies, had at least 5 fighting scenes, 10 big explosions and so on. The once almost invincible ship became more vulnerable than MS Windows and she "went down" at least once per episode.

Character development went not further but backwards, the writers forgot what has already been seen and said, denied some aspects which were already stated clearly.

Bottom line: if it would be possible, I'd rate seasons as follows:

1. season 10

2. season 8

3. season 6

4. season 4

5. season 0

However, overall note is 5.

This could have been such a great show.... :-(

This sci-fi series opens in a distant future where the vast System's Commonwealth brings peace and stability to three whole galaxies. Our protagonist is Dylan Hunt, captain of the ship Andromeda Ascendant and his world is about to be turned upside down. A group of genetically modified humans, known as the Nietzscheans, betray the Commonwealth; this includes Dylan's close friend and second-in-command. As the fight rages Andromeda is caught on the event horizon of a black hole. Here Dylan is locked in time till a salvage crew pulls the ship out. Three hundred years have passed and a lot has changed; the Commonwealth is long gone, the Nietzscheans are divided but still oppressing people and a species known as the Magog are literally preying on people.

After initial events Dylan takes the salvagers, pilot Beka Valentine; engineer Seamus Harper; Rev Bem, a Magog who has renounced violence; Tyr Anasazi, a Nietzschean with uncertain motives; and finally the enigmatic Trance Gemini, a purple alien of an unknown species. They are soon joined by 'Rommie' the ships android avatar, built by Harper. Over the course of the series they face various dilemmas as Dylan works to re-establish the System's Commonwealth. Some of these will be single episode problems others will be long running plot arcs. We also get some crew changes as the seasons progress.

This series, from an idea by Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, starts of really well as it introduces an interesting group of characters. Dylan is perhaps too much of a 'Captain Perfect' character at times but the others are more interesting; notably Tyr, thanks to his moral ambiguity, and the mysterious Trance. We get plenty of action in just about every episode; this can include space battles, shootouts and physical fights. There is also a good amount of humour. While I still enjoyed later seasons I don't think they were quite as good as the early ones; the plot gets a bit messy at times; the final season, where the crew are trapped in a single star system almost feels like a different series at times. The special effects are pretty good and the cast does a fine job bringing their characters to life. Overall I'd recommend this to fans of space-based sci-fi; it might not be a classic but it is fun enough.

Thanks to it's release on DVD, I have managed to watch the first 4 seasons of "ANDROMEDA" while avoiding pesky TV commercials. Thus, my take on the series might be different from someone who had the show's rhythm broken by advertising - talk about taking one out of the moment. I really wanted to like this show from the beginning, mostly because of its origins with Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry. I strongly disliked actor Kevin Sorbo's previous show "HERCULES" (except for the rare appearance by the brilliant Bruce Campbell), but was willing to give his new show a try anyway. After 4 seasons (season 5 is still airing and not available on DVD as of this writing), here's my take on ANDROMEDA: This might be as clear of a case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde writing as I can remember in a TV series. There have been episodes that stand up with the best of sci-fi television writing (the original "TWILIGHT ZONE", "City on the Edge of Forever" episode of "STAR TREK", "The Inheritors" episode of "THE OUTER LIMITS", etc.). The two-part episode that ended season 4 was probably the best thing I've seen from TV since "TAKEN", the Spielberg mini-series.

But when ANDROMEDA is bad, it's really bad. I've never been a fan of "BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25TH CENTURY", and some of ANDROMEDA's shows must be compared to the very worst of "BUCK ROGERS". Unfortunately, it's not like there's a good season or a bad one. It's, as my summary states, a roll of the dice. This 50/50 result of script writing (and I really must put the blame there) is in some part due to the pace that TV writers must produce these days. But there's the rare quality TV show out there to make the case that it can be done. I won't blame the actors, because when the writing is good, they're all fine - even impressive at times.

I think the issue with ANDROMEDA is a lack of clear cut identity. Is it a light space romp with plenty of humor? Is it a serious take on a potentially exciting premise? Is it experimental? Is it space opera? Unfortunately, the answer is 'All of the Above'. Beyond this, it's hard to define just why the show is sometimes terrific and other times pathetic. The one thread that I found had to do with the character Trance Gemini. It seemed when the show centered on her, it was usually better than when it didn't. But even that is not always the case.

So my recommendation for viewing ANDROMEDA is this: If you like your sci-fi goofy, this might work for you. If you're really hardcore sci-fi, it also might be worth sifting through the episodes on DVD. As I said, when it's good, it's hard to beat. For special effects junkies, Season 4 has some stellar (excuse the pun) and stylistically unique CGI work, some of the best I've seen on TV. For most casual sci-fi viewers and others however, I imagine wading through the bad apples to get to the good shows will be more trouble than it's worth.

I heard Mr. Sorbo comment on that last season 4 episode I mentioned earlier, and he seemed to think it was their best and they should do more like it. I fully agree, but as the show is running out to it's end now, I think this was a case of finding what was best about the concept way too late. I really wanted to like it, but overall just not as good as it should have been.

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.