Andromeda

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weird and wonderful

[kg redhead]

Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda was a science fiction television series, created by Gene Roddenberry but produced posthumously. It starred Kevin Sorbo as High Guard Captain Dylan Hunt. The series premiered on October 2, 2000 and ended on May 13, 2005, coincidentally on the same day as Star Trek: Enterprise which was based on Star Trek, also created by Roddenberry.

At the start of the series three galaxies are mostly part of the Systems Commonwealth, quite a utopian society based from Tarn-Vedra. However, one of the Commonwealth’s member species, the Nietzscheans, become disillusioned with the peace with the Magog, and overthrow the Commonwealth. In the first battle, Dylan Hunt is forced to evacuate his crew, but his ship, the Andromeda Ascendant, gets caught on the edge of a black hole’s event horizon. Over 300 years later, a salvage crew (on the Eureka Maru) rescues him. The Systems Commonwealth has fallen, leading to a dark age known as the Long Night. Hunt recruits the salvage crew to join him in an attempt to restore the Systems Commonwealth and “rekindle the light of civilization.”

Season one of the series shows Hunt assembling the crew and adjusting to the new universe, while pursuing the creation of the Restored Systems Commonwealth; the second season shows the crew reacting to the sudden necessity of the Restored Systems Commonwealth after the discovery of the Magog Worldship, as they continue to make sure the dream comes true. Season three shows the Restored Systems Commonwealth implemented and the crew preparing for the impending fight against the Spirit of the Abyss and the Magog, while season four shows the new Commonwealth corrupted by its enemies, thus making survival against said enemies more difficult.

Andromeda is one of two TV series (to date) based upon concepts Roddenberry had created as early as the 1960s and 1970s. The name Dylan Hunt had also been given to the heroes of two TV movie pilots Roddenberry had produced in the mid-1970s. Another series posthumously “created” by Roddenberry is Earth: Final Conflict.

Controversy erupted during the midst of the second season when series developer Robert Hewitt Wolfe announced he had been let go from the show’s production, though his influence was felt through the completion of the second season; at that point, Bob Engels was brought on to executive produce the series. The reason for the change was due to the desire to make the show more episodic and open to “casual viewers,” as Wolfe’s version although episodic had many storylines and continuing story arcs. After the show’s final episode aired, Wolfe wrote a one-act play that he placed on his website, entitled Coda that explained his version of the show (and without contradicting the already aired episodes).

When Engels took over and the show began the more “episodic” format, reactions from the fans were mixed. The new producers tried to lighten the doom and gloom seriousness of the original story arc, while focusing more on the Dylan Hunt character played by Kevin Sorbo. Some felt that the quality and fun of the series had jumped, while others considered the new season to be seriously lacking in depth, and little more than “Hercules in Space” (see Kevin Sorbo & Hercules: The Legendary Journeys). Consequently, the success of the episodic format was as questionable, and while some fans feel that the dismissal of Wolfe and the switch to the episodic format was the moment the series jumped the shark.

Eventually the fourth and fifth seasons saw a return to the arc plotlines and the series reached resolution at the end of season 5 in 2005. Ultimately, the series never reached the widespread success of Star Trek or the cult following of Babylon 5. The series was subsequently picked up by the Sci-Fi Channel in the US.

Unlike other sci-fi series, recurring characters are often separated, and don’t appear always together. As a consequence, Kevin Sorbo (as Dylan Hunt) is the only actor to appear in every episode of the series.