How come Gene Roddenbury/Majel Barrett/Robert Hewitt Wolfe's Andromeda does not seem to get the respect as his other creations? It appears the Trek fans will even skip over discussing this series and go to non-Gene Roddenbury shows.
probably because nobody could respect a dylan hunt... andromeda was the third time gene roddenbury tried to create a hero in a series with the name of D. Hunt... he's as lame now as he was then... check out his two 70's destroyed earth pilots... I'm surprised james kirk wasn't named dylan hunt..
He wasn't even alive when the series was made! I understand totally why Roddenberry re-used ideas though....its because a lot of his ideas were respected by Hollywood but they never gave the greenlight for so many of his productions!!! No wonder he re-used what he thought was relevant, ie Data learning to be human like Questor in the Questor Tapes, Dlyan hunt, etc. RAMA
While the first 1.5 years of Andromeda were *extremely* promising, the Tribune executives completely bastardized the series forcing the creator Robert Hewitt Wolfe to leave, and what resulted was just terrible. It's a real shame... I was SO excited when that show started, not just because I got to have regular e-contact with one of the writers by visiting their chat room. I even got to trade VHS tapes with him!
I watched the first few episodes and thought it was okay, but it slid rapidly part way through season 1 IMHO. Of course I remember reading a review (I think the NY Times) that went on along the lines of "Hercules is Lost in Space"
Very true rationalities for its demise, but the show had so may promising points too. I'm not sure if Francessca von Zimmermann (makeup artist Andromeda and Babylon 5) is any relation to Herman Zimmerman (production designer for Star Trek) but she has a lot of scifi experience. The design of of the Andromeda was very sleek and the slipstream technology was unique (I think). The uniform designs was cool. I also like the poetic interludes. Lexa Doig (Stargate: SG1) as the Andromeda descent was incredible. Keith Hamilton Cobb as Tyr was very convincing. The Magog was a very scary species and one of the best villains I seen in a Scifi series in a long time. I admit the writing took a major hit - it was apparent that Robert Hewitt Wolfe left the show. I wonder if it was not for Tribunal entertainment's budget and if SciFi Channel would have picked up the production would it had survived? There are so few space exploration shows on TV. Andromeda was cancelled at the same time Enterprise was lost - sign o' those times I guess.
It isn't well respected because, to many, it felt like something that lost its way. The first season was great but about mid second I know I lost interest. I did start tuning in again toward Season Four and actually turned it off mid episode. It just degraded and lost its way. I heard the final season they were on a planet?
I stopped watching after S2 or so but apparently yeah to save money the final season just took place on one planet. Excitement!
Because despite a strong start it was not a very good show. Therefore it's unworthy of any particular respect just because it had Roddenberry's name attached to it.
I think that there were many fantastic eliments that made this show unique. The universe was as diverse as Trek ever was, and to actually have the ship as a character (even bigger than Farscape's Pilot) was inspired. There seemed to be a genuine chemistry between Sorbo and Ryder, and Cobb's Tyr Anasazi was a joy. But, after all that, something just was missing. Loved the show, but still smacks of a bit of a wasted opportunity. Funnily enough, caught a few episodes recently, including one with BSG's Michael Hogan and another with Kandyse McClure. I also remember Michael Shanks and Christopher Judge appeared as warships too.
I'm glad someone respected the show as much as I did. I think Gene had a lot of hopes for this show even though he wasn't around when it eventually got produced, his wife Majel carried that torch for him. As Solariabsg25 mentioned, the universe was very dynamic just as Star Trek. As far as name branding, Gene wasn't around for that last few years of TNG and none of the other spin-offs either, but his spirit was all over that show. It took a hit by bad writing. I respect female writers but they always make crew romances and that's part of what killed this show and Enterprise.
Robert H Wolfe created the actual series...the GR branding was due to the basic idea of a sentient ship, a ruined 'federation', and lead character's name, but what we saw of the series came from the brains of RHW. Huh??? After RHW was shown the door, he was replaced by Bob Engles the following season.
Roddenberry didn't conceive this show. It was cobbled together from some notes and mainly from elements of his previous pilot, "Genesis II," combined with ideas that Robert H. Wolfe had for an sf TV series. Wolfe was the real creative force behind the series.
For the fist 1.5 seasons I adored the show and characters and had every hope that Andromeda would equal or surpass B5 in quality storytelling. Then after RHW was kicked out and I read an interview where Sorbo admitted that he'd insisted that the show be dumbed down, I quit watching. Tyr had been turned into a caricature and it seemed that if they had a choice between story and effects, the effects won every time. Sad. Jan
Andromeda had potential, but it was at first hampered by low production values and then just crappy writing. I loved the world that GR/RHW created. I remember reading the All Systems University descriptions for each species, technology, history and there were some really well thought out ideas and some interesting races that could've rivaled anything we saw on Trek, B5, or Star Wars. But the production values-the horrible Michael Jackson Thriller uniforms in the pilot, and the shoddy makeup work throughout the first season (and a good part of the entire series) put a damper on my enthusiasm. Also, they didn't focus a lot on some of the aliens described in the ASL-like the Than, outside of the brief appearance of the crewmen that was killed. I did like the Magog and the Nietzscheans-I thought they both got pretty fleshed out. I also liked the quotes at the beginning of each episode-it added at least some surface depth that was lacking in most of the episodes. Another thing that hurt Andromeda was they pretty much abandoned the premise of the show and turned it into Hunt and his band of merry misfits having space adventures while doing the restoration of the Commonwealth offscreen. There weren't even any great debates about why the Commonwealth should be restored in the first place or how exactly was Hunt going to do it with one ship, no matter how advanced? The fourth and fifth seasons were really abyssmal (sp), turning Dylan into a god like figure was crap writing, that had no real build up, unlike Sisko's Prophet parentage. Overall I thought the cast'/crew was pretty good. My favorite was Tyr. I thought he was a pretty interesting character. I miss the Nietzscheans and Magog. I wish they had been in a better show.
The story was created by Gene and developed by RHW and Gene's wife Majel. The show's series had many producers Engel was only one (Sorbo nd Majel produced some as well) and the show had over twenty writers many of which were female. I've never seen any show produced and written by one person except for season 3 of Babylon 5 that was written entirely by MJS.
It had a lot of potential and I recall liking some episodes but the weak plots and the absoultely atricious dialogue is what sunk it. It's hard to underestimate just had bad the dialogue was on that show. It was embarrassing from day one.
Dropping Wolfe and the original guiding vision along with him is what really screwed things up. If you look at season 1 and early season 2, and compare them to the rest of the show, you can see how badly they screwed up. They set up a great many complex plot threads, all of which were abandoned for a Sorbo-centric adventure-of-the-week style. A few were hastily and awkwardly tied up, while others were just left in the dust. The same is true for Earth:Final Conflict.
QFT Also, story dropped for effects???? This show reused more effects than the original Battlestar Galactica.