Gene Roddenberrys Andromeda

[Phaedron]

Im disappointed it does not receive the recognition it deserves. Everything about the show kicked ass, perhaps most notable is the concept of the sentient ships. It's true they didn't have transporters, holodecks, or replicators, well except for Harpers transporter, an episode which came about following a real teleportation experiment in Australia. The show goes deep, in physics, philosophy, even Qabalah. It's kind of sad that a non science fiction show would get a forum here before one that was based on the creator of Star Trek...

Oh yeah and, I have a thing for Trance Gemini...

 

[Sketcher]

You did watch the entire thing...right?

 

[Phaedron]

Of course. I have mixed feelings about the ending, and about all of season 5 for that matter. lol. I guess nobody wants to hang out in the Sefra system...

But back when the show was on the air I remember being really impressed with the Magog worldship.

 

[Hound of UIster]

If it consisted of perhaps the first season and a half, it would have a small footnote in the annals of science fiction television. However the departure of the showrunner midway into season two made it into another generic Tribune produced program.

 

[T'Girl]

To be honest, the show brought forward some fine ideas at first, the problem was the execution of those ideas.

Sentient computer were old hat by the time Andromeda arrived, but I thought what they did with the character of Rommie was one of the highlights of the show, if you pay attention, Lexa Dong was playing three different characters with three separate personalities at the same time.

I also thought it was interesting, especially coming from Roddenberry's original idea, that the systems commonwealth was largely destroyed by their own high ethical position, it was their version of the prime directive and it's application that lead to the insurrection of the Necheans and overthrow of the commonwealth.

(however you spell "Necheans")

 

[Mr Light]

It certainly started out incredibly promising... I was so excited about that show... but once Wolfe left in season two the show quickly became utterly terrible.

 

[The Wormhole]

I watched Andromeda for half of its first season and gave up because it was awful. And then I see people say the first season was the only good one and that the show went downhill after. It must truly have gone down to low depths after that.

 

[Reverend]

Watched most of the first season, a good chunk of the third but my interest tapered off rather quickly as the episodes got dumber, the plot strayed further from the basic premise and the characters became even more broad and one-note than they already were. Which says a lot since they weren't really what you'd call three dimensional to begin with. Some of them had a certain charm, (mostly thanks to the actors rather than the writing) but that alone it's enough.

I remember catching a bit of an episode which channel hopping when it must have been somewhere around season 3 or 4 and it was just unrecognisable.

The only reason I stuck with it as long as I did was because it looked like it had potential and, though it was clearly a bit naff from the get-go I thought it might get better once it hit it's stride...alas.

The really odd thing though is that exactly the same thing happened with Earth: Final Conflict and Sliders, at least as far as my experience with those shows went.

 

[Kegg]

I watched Andromeda for half of its first season and gave up because it was awful. And then I see people say the first season was the only good one and that the show went downhill after. It must truly have gone down to low depths after that.

It did, but yeah, even the first season wasn't exactly great. I'd say the problems with Tribune's involvement and the show being a low-budget Kevin Sorbo vehicle were evident pretty much from the pilot (the Than always looked terrible).

Thing is for a while it seemed Andromeda might pull things together; as it did have a pretty nice season finale and the show was seeding notions that it had some sort of big metaphysical arc going on not that dissimilar to another low-budget, often tacky looking space opera... Babylon something or other.

Then Wolfe left, and Andromeda doesn't get the recognition it deserves today because, er, if it's not that good overall.

 

[Angel4576]

It's all been said;

First season - ok
Second season - meh
Third - Fifth seasons- Sh1te

Much like another Roddenberry spinoff - Earth Final Conflict

 

[JoeZhang]

To be honest, the show brought forward some fine ideas at first, the problem was the execution of those ideas.

Sentient computer were old hat by the time Andromeda arrived,

but I thought what they did with the character of Rommie was one of the highlights of the show, if you pay attention, Lexa Dong was playing three different characters with three separate personalities at the same time.

I also thought it was interesting, especially coming from Roddenberry's original idea, that the systems commonwealth was largely destroyed by their own high ethical position, it was their version of the prime directive and it's application that lead to the insurrection of the Necheans and overthrow of the commonwealth.

(however you spell "Necheans")

What I find weird about trek is that beyond Peter David's work, it has been completely and utterly resistant to the idea of Star Fleet having sentient Starships, you might have an episode or a book where it happens but at the end the ship is back to being 'dumb'.

 

[Hound of UIster]

Also genetic engineering and nanotech enhancements.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

I thought the first year of the show was pretty great, despite dodgy production values and over-reliance upon the circumscribed talents of Kevin Sorbo. As others have already noted, it tanked hard when Wolfe's involvement ceased.

 

[Flashover]

It was good campy fun, in a delightfully over-the-top absurd way.

Good Sci-Fi it was not.

 

[C.E. Evans]

Andromeda was explosions, spaceship battles, laser gun & fist fights, and sexy people in leather. In some ways, it was a throwback to the action shows of the '80s, in which you knew what you were going to get in any given episode. If you wanted something with a deep meaning and complex characters, go somewhere else. Andromeda was just good buys beating the crap out of bad guys with big starships and blowing a lot of s*** up in the process.

Man, I miss that show...

 

[marillion]

Count me among those who really liked the first couple of seasons. I thought it was well written and a lot of fun.

Once they changed the theme song, however, it took a serious nose dive. The original theme, composed and performed by Rush's Alex Lifeson was amazing... Hated the replacement.

 

[SiddFinch1]

[What I find weird about trek is that beyond Peter David's work, it has been completely and utterly resistant to the idea of Star Fleet having sentient Starships, you might have an episode or a book where it happens but at the end the ship is back to being 'dumb'.[/QUOTE]


M5 anyone?

 

[SiddFinch1]

][What I find weird about trek is that beyond Peter David's work, it has been completely and utterly resistant to the idea of Star Fleet having sentient Starships, you might have an episode or a book where it happens but at the end the ship is back to being 'dumb'.

M5 anyone? Trek had a sentient computer once...

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

This very much demonstrates that Trek takes place in the 1960s and not in the future.

 

[stj]

The show was never very good. The claim that there was a sharp drop in quality after Wolfe left founders on the fact there were no outstanding episodes while he was there. The pilot episode was primarily notable for the belief that superbombs could somehow get you out of a black hole.
And interstellar travel is like a roller coaster ride, except only a human being can pilot the roller coaster.

The best he could do was a cliffhanger episode where somehow a bunch of furry critters somehow use teeth and claws to pretty much kill every one. Then in the first minutes of the first episode of the new season, lo and behold, everyone suddenly leaps up and kicks ass. I haven't seen cliffhangers resolved so gracelessly since the dog days of the old Republic serials. There was one episode that worked fairly well, but it recycled a major plot point from The Abyss, so I wouldn't give it high marks for originality.

The character work was also abysmal. Rev Bem is a good illustration, starting with the cutesy joke for a name. Writing a natural predator species as a convert to pacifism isn't dramatic in itself. Thematically it embodies a diametrical opposition between nature and morality that is too simplistic to be worthy of interest.