Andromeda: Any Good?

[KRAD]

Andromeda was the result of a frustrating clash between the complex, hard-SF show that Robert Hewitt Wolfe conceived (of all the series bibles I've read in my time, the one for Andromeda was by far the most complex) and the cheap-ass approach to TV production that was Tribune Entertainment's hallmark.

I'm glad I got to write the novel I did, though. Destruction of Illusions was a prequel, and writing the Eureka Maru crew and Tyr as a lone-wolf badass was tons of fun.

 

[ATimson]

And I had trouble with the dated cyberpunk idea that he needed a physical jack in his neck to plug into computers. They don't have wifi 3000 years from now?

I'm sure they do, but if I'm going to be connecting a strange computer to my brain, I'd much rather use a hardline to reduce the ability of another party to interfere with what I'm doing and possibly fry my brain.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

I'm sure they do, but if I'm going to be connecting a strange computer to my brain, I'd much rather use a hardline to reduce the ability of another party to interfere with what I'm doing and possibly fry my brain.

The bandwidth might also be greater, especially if it's wavelength multiplexed (multifrequency) fibre-optic cable. I might be out of date but speeds of up to 10 Gbps are currently possible for fibre-optic cable runs of a few kilometres compared with up to 1.3 Gbps for wifi (IEEE 802.11ac) over much shorter distances. However, the upcoming IEEE 802.11ax standard promises wifi speeds of up to 11 Gbps. Of course, the tech in Andromeda's time would be much more advanced...

 

[Christopher]

I'm sure they do, but if I'm going to be connecting a strange computer to my brain, I'd much rather use a hardline to reduce the ability of another party to interfere with what I'm doing and possibly fry my brain.

Even so, I'm not convinced a permanent hole in one's body is the best way to do that. After all, there are more literal forms of infection to worry about besides malware and computer viruses. Surely there must be some way to do it through something placed in contact with the outside of the skin. Like, some sort of conductive tattoo that serves as a contact point.

 

[Kegg]

Not in the UK, it isn't. You're assuming Prime Video offers the same content in all countries. It doesn't. Andromeda isn't even available on Prime Video in the UK to rent or buy.

It was available On Demand for the Pick channel in the UK and Ireland as of last year (and in high definition, too, I presume from the recent-ish Blu-Ray release), which I used to do a full series watch through.

It's not up there anymore, though, admittedly, but I think they still do reruns on that channel and others. It used to be on Netflix over here, but that was many years ago. (I enjoyed doing the full series watch through mostly because of how fond I am of the program, in spite of everything that happened to it and that the show could never live up to the idea of what it could be that Robert Hewitt Wolfe's "Coda" leaves one with.)

Actually, forget what I just said. Calling Lexx porn is an insult to porn.

Better to just call it Eeeeeeewww and be done with it.

Honestly, Lexx is both a great and terrible show. It was very committed to its weird aesthetic, bizarre cosmic scale and dark sense of humour; and in its best episodes - like "Brigadoom" in season two and "The Game" in season four, or particular the arc that ran throughout season three - it was something odd and special. Unlike Andromeda it had a lot of the same team behind it throughout its four seasons and thus has a more consistent if much more looser and fantastical sense of self.

The worst episodes are however the worst television I've ever sat through, and a lot of that has probably aged poorly (the homophobia, for example) and yet I'm incredibly fond of the Lexx that wasn't terrible. It's not really something I recommend but it's also something I think about all the time.

An interesting point of comparison between Andromeda and Lexx is while each had a scope that spanned galaxies at their inception they both spent their final seasons with the title ships mostly spent of power and energy, trapped inside a single solar system.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

I'll keep a lookout on Pick and see if it's rebroadcast. On Freeview, it will be SD only but I'm not sure how good the supposed HD version is anyway.


ETA: Turns out that the Horror Channel is showing Andromeda weeknights at 8pm. The Horror Channel, eh? Seems appropriate.

 

[Kegg]

ETA: Turns out that the Horror Channel is showing Andromeda weeknights at 8pm. The Horror Channel, eh? Seems appropriate.

The Horror Channel in the UK really is, like Pick TV, one of the go-to channels for the old syndicated shows. They did Earth: Final Conflict recently; they've done Xena, Dark Angel, you name it, it probably went through there in the last few years.