Andromeda

The Over-all Plot of Andromeda is based on Gene-Roddenberry's Genesis II. In Both, Dylan Hunt is somehow brought into the future. In the future he finds that the world (galaxy) has turned barbaric. He, with a little help from his friends, try to restore order against the barbaric powers. Many similarities between Genesis II and its retooled, more futuristic update exist but either way both were and are still good watching

It has a story arc with about 3 seasons of material, that centers around 'trance' a very novel character. They also have formulaic episodes of mixed quality. After you 'get' the series, read the episode summary, look at the rating and skip the episode if your spider sense tingles.

It's a pretty good show so why watch this one? To see Lexa Doig in her 20's as Andromeda. I cringed when I heard 'she was the ship' but that make sense when you watch it. Also she appears in three formats, a screen representing the cold logic of a ship, a hologram which balances her 'avatar' which is an android body who is the most human. Thank goodness for the android version.

Halfway through season 2, Trance changes her blue skinned character for a golden tone hottie wearing a more form fitting outfit. If you have an elf fantasy, you absolutely must see this version of her.

Good show plus extremely attractive women equals must watch for me.

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.

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

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.... :-(