The Unofficial Laughing At Andromeda Thread

[Patrick Degan]

Offered: a space to bury, not praise, that trainwreck of a series, Andromeda —which is feverishly competing with Boobyprise for the title of Dumbest SF Series Ever Made and shed its intial plot even faster than Earth: Final Conflict.

[Patrick Degan]

Move to Other SciFi board, where this belongs.

[Grand Admiral Thrawn]

Andromeda...a sad tale. It was pretty good at first but then they fucked it up. Fired a writer...

[HemlockGrey]

It was good. Now it sucks. The End.

[Tsyroc]

Unfortunately (????) two other shows I like are on at the same time as Andromeda so I haven't watched it at all this year. From what I've read in the reviews I think I'm extremely glad that I chose the other two shows over Andromeda.

It's really too bad. The show had a lot of promise.

The good outweighted the bad in the begining. I expected it to improve as it went along but it never fully developed like it could have. Then it just started to dive.

[Stormbringer]

It's really too bad. The show had a lot of promise.

The good outweighted the bad in the begining. I expected it to improve as it went along but it never fully developed like it could have. Then it just started to dive.

Well, Kevin "I am Hercules" Sorbo and the other decided to fire the best writer they had. He was attempting to make a show like B5: intelligent, entertaining, and having a larger story.

Instead they dumped him and all the little things like continuity, plot, chararterization, and non-uber heroes. Now it's more or less Hercules in Space.

[Grand Admiral Thrawn]

Watch Dylan Hunt save everyone in trouble!


Hurcules! (in space)

[Stormbringer]

Watch Dylan Hunt save everyone in trouble!


Hurcules! (in space)

Exactly!

[neoolong]

I predict that even hot chicks will not save this series.

[Renewed_Valour1]

Well, Kevin "I am Hercules" Sorbo and the other decided to fire the best writer they had. He was attempting to make a show like B5: intelligent, entertaining, and having a larger story.

I don't think they fired the best writer; some of the other writing times namely Zack Stenz and Ashley Edward Miller wrote some of the best episodes; which are right up there or better than the ones of RHW. They just fired the Head Writer/Creator/Executive Producer in other words the guy who had the capability to get in the way of the plans of Kevin Sorbo and Seth Howard. Without Majel Roddenberry involved actively in the show they had the chance to rid themselves of the guy she hired and supported. Then since then the scripts coming out have been Tribune/Soborized. If you look at episodes like Cui Bono you see the underlying of the quality style that Stenz/Miller buried and butchered under everything else. I think without interference from above they would still be writing quality episodes. The condition of Andromeda isn't the fault of the writers but rather Kevin Sorbo, Seth Howard, and Tribune Entertainment.

[Stormbringer]

Ok, so perhaps Robert Hewitt Wolfe wasn;t the best writer but he seemed to be the one that brought the story arcs, character development, and coninuity to the show. After he left those more or less vanished.

And I donb't blame the writers. They're paid and told to churn out that stuff so they do. I blame the guys responsible.

[Stravo]

I cannot tell you enough how the loss of Andromeda as a qaulity sci fi show pisses me off. The first season was simply fantastic and the characters drew you in. You actually cared about people on this series, Dylan Hunt was Not invulnerable or infallible, he made plenty of mistakes but that was the whole point. There were consequences and reprecussions for actions in the series. Tyr steals the remains of Drago Mussovini in one episode that seems like sort of a throw away and I was a little diappointed, BUT THEN a few episodes later the Dragons come calling looking for the remains and it remains a bone of contention until I stopped watching the show. In a TV wasteland littered with the likes of Voyager and Enterprise THAT was a refreshing change of pace.

The season finale was as gripping as BOBW and I could NOT wait until the new season started. THEN it all went down hill. It was immedaitely obvious at what point in the season they fired the head writer. There was no gradual decline for me, it PLUMMETED intom hell.

What a sad waste.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

I only watched a few episodes, and while it wasn't stellar, it didn't seem to bad. Better than Farscape or Final Conflict.

Watch Dylan Hunt save everyone in trouble!


Hurcules! (in space)

Star Trek has similar bits of idiocy in every episode, especially the newer, more idiotic series Voyager and Enterprise.

[neoolong]

Hey Farscape is good, though the latest season has been falling. When Boone was on Final Conflict it was pretty good.

The intro of Andromeda now describes it as the adventures of Dylan Hunt. Way too similar to Hercules. They should kill him off and let Tyr go around and be bad ass all the time. It can be about his consolidation of the Nietzcheians(sp). That would be complex and cool.

But they aren't and Andromeda will fall further into the realm of suckiness.

[Master of Ossus]

It was much like TOS, after they threatened to cancel the show. The actors all came back, but the writers and directors saw the writing on the wall and bailed out. After that, the characters were the same, the ship was the same, the universe was the same, but the quality of plots and enemies went way down. In Andromeda, the results of dismissing a good writer were even worse. The show hardly resembled its former self, and it lost much of its grandeur and sense of purpose and continuity. Again, consequences are lost in the mists of a week, and the characters lose their fluency.

On a side note, writing in Hollywood is hardly ever done by a single person. The writer who came up with the basic premise of a show (general plot) is given credit for writing the episode, but all of the show's writers participate to ensure that the characters are consistent and the feel of the show is the same. Removing a head writer will not just damage the shows that he, personally, writes, but will affect every episode of the show. Usually, with a good writing staff and a good director, the loss of a single person will not matter. If you lose the head writer, however, who crafts each episode within the guidelines that another writer lays down, the results are disastrous.

[Patrick Degan]

I have to say that Andromeda never impressed me all that much as a series. Indeed, knowing that it was a reworked, space-based version of Genesis II didn't help in forming my impressions. Anybody remember that one? A pilot was shot for it waaaay back in 1974 starring Alex Cord and Mariette Hartley. Cord portrayed NASA astronaut Dylan Hunt, who was participating in a suspended animation experiment when the BIG ONE hit San Franscisco, leveling the city. Hunt is awakened two centuries later by members of the Pax organisation, which is one of the very few pockets of technological civilisation left in a war-ravaged Earth which has broken up into numerous petty fiefdoms. Hunt joins Pax in the effort to rebuild global civilisation and put man back on track to the stars. That pilot failed to sell and Gene Roddenberry had a second go at the thing with the retitled pilot Earth II with all-time evil actor John Saxon in the Dylan Hunt role. Anybody who knows Roddenberry's history and has seen enough SF over the years could smell the whiff of a reheated TV concept in Andromeda. All it really amounted to was a combination of the Genesis/Earth II concept with another Roddenberry project which never even made it to the pilot stage: Starship. Both had been mouldering away in the files for at least twenty years when Majel dug them up, dusted them off, and had Robert Hewitt Wolfe combine the two.

I knew right off that this was a reheat, and the way they worked the whole angle of Hunt in suspension was just plain ludicrous. Their whole idea that the Andromeda was orbiting within the event horizon of the black hole, which froze time on board the ship, was about as laughable as anything ever seen on Voyager. Doubly so for the idea of being able to grapple a starship and pull it out of the orbit, assuming that somehow it hadn't simply been drawn right into the singularity itself. When they put forth the even more laughable notion of "exploding" the black hole to free the starship, that was when I knew this show was going to be, inconceivably, dumber than Voyager.

For the first two seasons, the whole impetus of the series is Hunt's quest to restore the Systems Commonwealth to power. Except several episodes accidently dropped more than enough hints that the SC was actually a fascist dictatorship which enforced loyalty to the state with a large arsenal of planet-killing superweapons available to the High Guard. And it mystifies Hunt that few people actually wanted the Systems Commonwealth back in power.

Now, with Kevin Sorbo apparently in full command of the show's direction, they're not even going to bother with the whole premise of the series anymore. It's just going to be him, his motley crew, and his starship, off on adventures, helping people, having fun, standing up to the gods inflicting mankind with pain and suffering...oops, that was his last show.

Now it's going to be this one as well.

[Renewed_Valour1]

Ok, so perhaps Robert Hewitt Wolfe wasn;t the best writer but he seemed to be the one that brought the story arcs, character development, and coninuity to the show. After he left those more or less vanished.

Wolfe was the one who had the power to fight off Tribune and Kevin Sorbo. The other writers just don't have the position of power that RHW possessed. If you've been watching Season III the heavy continuity and character development episode thus far has been Cui Bono by Stenz and Miller. Really thus far it has been the one that stands out above the others. If it wasn't for Tribune and Sorbo meddling with scripts and what the writers want to see you'd still see the continuation of RHW's theme for the show.

[Frank Hipper]

I`ve only caught a few eps of Andromeda, worst sci-fi ever? No. Ever see Buck Rogers from the late 70`s? Blechhh.

[The Yosemite Bear]

Well this just goes to show that Majeal is digging deeper into the footnotes and unreleased messages then Chubby Broccoli has been with finding new plots for Bond Flicks

[Moonshadow]

lets see it had a cool ship and hot chicks.

right then i knew it would be a So-So series. It did have its moments but it as many have said, became Hercules in Space. Whats worst, instead of bringing back the only Character from the Herc/Xenaverse that carried the two shows all those seasons( Callisto, played by the only talented actress on the show), they brought Iolus back instead. i heard that orignially they were going to have Hudson Leick play Hurst's character( and therefore we would have another Chick for an AI but they thought it would be cooler to have Hurst do it at the last minute) and therefore we had a Dumbass for an AI.

the best thing about that Episode was the Wrath of Achillies Class Ship. other than that it sucked.

[Damaramu]

It's a shame Kevin Smith (Aries) died recently. I would have liked to seen him as a rival captain to Dylan Hunt or something like that.

Next to Hudson Leick and Bruce Campbell , I thought Kevin Smith was a pretty decent actor.

[Vertigo1]

It's a shame Kevin Smith (Aries) died recently. I would have liked to seen him as a rival captain to Dylan Hunt or something like that.

Next to Hudson Leick and Bruce Campbell , I thought Kevin Smith was a pretty decent actor.

He was the sole reason why I even bothered to watch Hercules and Xena.

[Enlightenment]

The writer who came up with the basic premise of a show (general plot) is given credit for writing the episode, but all of the show's writers participate to ensure that the characters are consistent and the feel of the show is the same.

All the committee writers participate to make sure that every episode has something for every target market segment, you mean. Nobody cares about character consistancy anymore as long as the audience demographics look good for every episode.

Indeed, it's not really possible to have consistant characters and comply with the suit requirements for consistant demographics: consistant characters will, sooner or later, so something that pisses off a demographics or two. So instead we get character-less schlock like Voyager and Enterprise where the talking heads are altered every episide just to keep the demographics constant.

[Moonshadow]

oh yeah i almost forgot about Ares. Kevin Smith was another good actor the show had. Its a shame he died before he was to film the Movie that would make him a household name( he would have starred along side Bruce Willis)

[Anarchist Bunny]

oh yeah i almost forgot about Ares. Kevin Smith was another good actor the show had. Its a shame he died before he was to film the Movie that would make him a household name( he would have starred along side Bruce Willis)

Damn, how'd he die?