When does Andromeda get shit ?

[Thanas]

Season 1 and clearly you did not understand the first half of Season 2 then.

It stayed good for maybe a few episodes after that. I remember the quest to remove the Mygog larve was fairly enjoyable. It was after this conflict was resolved that things started getting a bit more iffy, with the writers just introducing one lame "monster of the week" after another without any real direction.

However, this was a few years ago, and I was never really more than a casual viewer anyway, so feel free to disregard my input. lol

No, with this clarification you are quite correct. However, since this only happened about half a season later and your earlier statement meant it happened directly after the S1 finale, I was a bit confused, to say the least.

[Patrick Degan]

Andromeda lost me with the pilot. It did not help that I immediately recognised it as the bastard offspring of Genesis II and Starship —two Gene Roddenberry series concepts from the 70s which had been moldering away in his files until Majel decided to dust them off to launch a franchise of her own. One got made as a pilot twice (Kevin Sorbo, BTW, was actually Dylan Hunt n.3: the first two were Alex Cord in the original 1974 pilot and the second was All-Time Evil Actor John Saxon in the warmed-over Earth II 1979 pilot), the other never got beyond the concept notes and some drawings of the featured space vessel which made it onto the rec-deck gallery wall of the Enterprise in STTMP. The revised origin for Hunt winding up out of his time —his ship trapped in a STL orbit within the event horizon of a black hole— and the subsequent depiction of the other salvage ship attempting to tow her out of the orbit, then using the Nova bombs aboard Space-Herc's ship to explode the black hole, melted my bullshit meter to a puddle of slag.

I only ever checked in on a few episodes and followed the general plot development through synopses and reviews to see if there was any improvement and wasn't too impressed; not the least by the fact that various hints were being dropped that the Systems Commonwealth regime of his time really were Not At All Nice People and yet it mystified Hunt that people on independent worlds really did not want the old order restored. The aliens were every bit as embarrassingly stereotypical one-note cartoons as any of the nonhuman TNG races and the anti-intruder defence of the Andromeda in one episode consisted of Space-Herc's supply of shock-quarterstaffs (an idea even more stupid than anything seen aboard the Enterprise-D).

This series just never did impress me all that much and after RHW got shitcanned and the series really did turn into Space Hercules, I knew I wasn't missing anything.

[Thanas]

The aliens were every bit as embarrassingly stereotypical one-note cartoons as any of the nonhuman TNG races and the anti-intruder defence of the Andromeda in one episode consisted of Space-Herc's supply of shock-quarterstaffs (an idea even more stupid than anything seen aboard the Enterprise-D).

To be fair to that episode, that happened only when the AI got shot down, which controls the defences. And the forcelance is actually pretty awesome IMO taking all things in consideration.

[aieeegrunt]

As soon as I saw them using good old fashioned slug throwers I fell in love with nBSG. Why God Why, why must they always use some retarded space quarterstaff or laser nunchucks or whatever.

[avatarxprime]

As soon as I saw them using good old fashioned slug throwers I fell in love with nBSG. Why God Why, why must they always use some retarded space quarterstaff or laser nunchucks or whatever.

Most people did use guns in Andromeda, the Force Lance was a Highguard (and probably Homeguard) only weapon that was essentially a Swiss-army knife of Doom. Also, just thought I'd throw it out there that the one group of people who still held onto Commonwealth level technology and actually advanced it abandoned the Force Lance for a more traditionally designed firearm.

[Thanas]

That is wrong. The guys you are talking about (I assume you mean the Genites?) did not hold on to commonwealth level technology. The ones we see holding really on to Commonwealth technology (and being the only ones where it is exactly said they did and shown so) are the ones shown in the Episode "Home Fires" (Episode 2.05), and they use force lances. As do the ones grouped around the Patriarch.

[avatarxprime]

I'm not talking about the Tarazed people from Home Fires. They are just a one system version of the Commonwealth and haven't done anything from the looks of it when it comes to advancing anything. It's been a while since I've seen any of these episodes though so I might be misremembering or forgetting something useful.

As to the Genites, when they attacked the Nietzscheans they used armor that Dylan said was still on the drawing board and relied on traditional guns instead of Force Lances. Their ships are also Andromeda level with superior stealth and the Seraphim I believe Dylan said were also weapons that the Commonwealth had just begun developing at the time of the Fall. I don't recall them ever using Force Lances. This points to them having Commonwealth level technology to produce the armor and ships at least. The Patriarch's group, the Templar, on the other hand still used Force Lances since they (like the Tarazed people) were preserving the Commonwealth and so should have access to Commonwealth level technology. Since the Genites are simply a group spun off from the Templar they should have access to Commonwealth or better level tech as well. I always thought the Genites seemed more advanced than the Templars though, despite te fact that it should be the other way round.

[Thanas]

As to the Genites, when they attacked the Nietzscheans they used armor that Dylan said was still on the drawing board and relied on traditional guns instead of Force Lances. Their ships are also Andromeda level with superior stealth and the Seraphim I believe Dylan said were also weapons that the Commonwealth had just begun developing at the time of the Fall. I don't recall them ever using Force Lances. This points to them having Commonwealth level technology to produce the armor and ships at least. The Patriarch's group, the Templar, on the other hand still used Force Lances since they (like the Tarazed people) were preserving the Commonwealth and so should have access to Commonwealth level technology. Since the Genites are simply a group spun off from the Templar they should have access to Commonwealth or better level tech as well. I always thought the Genites seemed more advanced than the Templars though, despite te fact that it should be the other way round.

The Genites are not as advanced as the Andromeda though. Andromeda herself is quite easily able to hold off several of their ships and everytime we see the genites going up against force-lance users, their armor does jack.

As for the superior stealth, it merely seems to be an issue of who has got the more sensor drones - we only see the Genites getting the drop on the Andromeda one time, when everytime after that it is the opposite. Heck, in one episode Andromeda - operating without a screening line, which a XMC is not supposed to do in a fleet engagement - is able to smash a whole Genite colony before a single one of their ship even appears.

This is also non-surprising given the Genites hold the position of "anything not baseline human = evil", which would automatically preclude access to most advanced research institutes and most scientists.