A come Andromeda

For the avid fan of thoughtful science fiction adaptions(and lets face it there aren't many) this is worthwhile....and while the periphery plot of international espionage is less interesting and characters in authority are a little one dimensional, the casting and acting of the key protagonists is impressive.

Time is given to the scientific debate and steady breakthroughs, whilst an added layer of moral questioning is added by the character Flemming, played to wonderful emotive effect by an Italian actor I'm not familiar with. His desperate discourse with Andromeda in the final episode is particularly affecting.

A final note should be given to the fact that this adaption was released around the same time as three other intelligent euro sci fi efforts, all of which have much to offer...Solaris by Tarkovsky, World on a wire by Fassbinder and a 1974 Italian adaption of The invention of Morel. In each, mysterious "others" played by women seem to lead male seekers to either their doom or salvation. Make of that what you will!

The first part (instalment 1 of 5) of the movie has been telecasted tonight Aug 16, 2004 on RAI 3. I saw it in the Italian language (which I know perfectly). The story is very interesting and the movie is typically '70 sci-fi style. It reminded me a bit the UFO series. About the actors job: in my opinion the actors Giampiero Albertini (Gen. Vandenberg) is excellent here, as ever. And also the beautiful Paola Pitagora (Judy Adamson) which is not one of the bigger stars in Italy did a fine Job. For the rest, recitation is sometime too much theatre-like and scenography could be better but both are excellent for the times and quite good also nowadays. The original book (by scientists Fred Hoyle and his collaborator John Elliot) was published in 1962. In Italy the book was edited in 1965. In 1971 RAI started the production. The first part was telecasted on January, 4, 1972 with a mysterious writing: "This story take place in England... the next year". Music was written by Mario Migliardi.

This production is of interest to non-Italian speakers probably for one reason only: it is an Italian remake of the BBC's classic science fiction series 'A For Andromeda'. It's interest lies in the fact that only about 20 minutes of the original series now remains in the BBC's archives, the rest having been wiped in their purge of old programmes in the late 1960's and early 1970's.

This is apparently available on video, so perhaps the ideal solution is to first read the book 'A For Andromeda' by Fred Hoyle and John Elliott (a great book in its own right), and then sit down and watch this. Then it might be possible to imagine just how amazing the original series must have been.

I don't speak Italian, so I can't comment on the cast interaction, but it certainly looks faithful to the original, and for that we must be truly thankful. How strange, though, that they didn't bother to remake the second part of the series, 'The Andromeda Breakthrough'.