Andromeda is like Earth Final Conflict...both Tribune-sponsored syndicated series that had major corporate interference that hurt it in the middle. Season 5 helps the series get to a "magical" 100 episodes that ensures it can be re-broadcast in syndication for years to come. (at least back in those days)
Earth Final Conflict similarly had a season 5 SOOO disconected to seasons 1-4, and ALSO seemed sooooo cheap.
Yup. In both cases, it was a purely corporate decision, the fifth seasons commissioned for the exclusive reason of getting to 100 episodes so the syndication package would be more valuable. All of Tribune's shows were subject to constant meddling and retooling and firing of showrunners, so they kept changing direction and deteriorating in quality throughout their runs. It was all done in the name of saving money -- producers and cast members were fired and replaced with cheaper ones, storytelling was scaled down, budgets slashed. The execs just didn't understand the value of investing money in a quality product for a long-term payoff in audience loyalty; they just wanted to save money in the short term and be as cheap as possible.
Andromeda's Executive Producer/Head Writer Robert Hewitt Wolfe left the show in the 4th season, because his clever writing wasn't connecting with the (lowest common denominator?) audience.
Actually he was fired midway through the second season. Saying he "left" implies it was his choice, but he was kicked out. The last episode that was completed with Wolfe in charge was "Ouroboros," though most of the remaining second-season episodes were at least partially made or developed under his watch. Actually, I think RHW lasted longer than any of the original showrunners of Tribune's other shows. Steve Feke of
BeastMaster: The Series was replaced after one season, and Richard C. Okie, who worked closely with Majel Roddenberry to develop
Earth: Final Conflict into a sophisticated, thoughtful science fiction drama, was fired after half a season and replaced with a showrunner who started the long process of dumbing it down to suit Tribune's desire for a lowbrow, unchallenging action show. (Roddenberry made a terrible mistake selling these two shows to Tribune, as it turned out. She wanted intelligent science fiction, they wanted cheap, mindless action. Unfortunately, they won.)
The remainder of season 2 was show-run by staffers Matt Kiene and Joe Reinkemeyer, who I feel didn't do a very good job; they did some terrific work under RHW's supervision, but left to their own devices, they did pretty poorly. But from season 3 onward, the showrunner was Bob Engels, who didn't know what he was doing and turned the show into something completely idiotic and incoherent. His own scripts were practically word salad, with dialogue unconnected to how human beings actually use language and convey meaning.
Season 3 was essentially two or three different shows, depending on who was writing it that week. The best episodes were the ones by Zack Stentz and Ashley Edward Miller, who'd been with the show since its development phase and continued writing the show that it was meant to be, insofar as they were able to under the imposed changes -- a smart hard-SF show set in a plausible universe and advancing the themes and storylines of the original version of the series. But the episodes by the other writers were generally mindless action set in a fantasy universe that didn't follow any coherent rules.
This was further compounded by the departures of Brent Strait (Rev Bem) - perhaps due to the heavy latex?
That's definite. Stait (not Strait) developed an allergy to the heavy makeup and had to leave the show. They brought him back occasionally and eventually contrived some ludicrous excuse to transform him into a more human form, although it seemed to me that the smaller appliances were still pretty extensive and couldn't have made that much difference.
