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Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda: Difference between revisions
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[[File:AndromedaHome2.png|frame]]
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There are some people who view the [[Skiffy|sci-fi]] show ''Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda'' as, essentially, an unbranded ''[[
The story opens aboard the titular starship, the "Andromeda Ascendant", a warship of the line in the Systems Commonwealth, which is the same thing as ''[[
Things do not go well for the Systems Commonwealth. Though their technology was vast and their captains were noble and compassionate, they ran into a bunch of problems all at once. Most importantly, a race of man-eating apelike creatures called the Magog were invading in ridiculous numbers. They could, perhaps, have dealt with this, but at the same time, one of their member races, the misnamed [[Nietzsche Wannabe|Nietzscheans]] (enhanced humans obsessed with eugenics and claiming to follow the philosophy of [[Friedrich Nietzsche]]), angry that the Commonwealth made peace with the Magog, turned on the Commonwealth.
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''Andromeda'' was inordinately fond of the [[Negative Space Wedgie]], depicting a universe rife with temporal anomalies -- in fact, the Andromeda Ascendant itself incorporated dimensional anomalies into its very construction. For a starship crew the cast also spent a great deal of time underground, presumably because somebody in the first season [[Shoot the Money|invested money in a tunnel set]] that had to be re-used over and over again.
In addition to the obvious ''[[
Technically set approximately 3 millennia into the future (Figure from ep. Harper^2), though effectively [[A Long Time Ago in
Sometimes described as "Herc meets Kirk", because Kevin Sorbo, best known for his role as Hercules in ''[[Hercules: The Legendary Journeys]]'', is playing the role of a kind, wise and mysteriously super-strong character in the role that Captain Kirk filled in the original series of Star Trek, which this show so closely resembles.
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* [[Actor Allusion]]: After his first run-in with Dylan, Harper refers to him as "like [[Hercules: The Legendary Journeys|a Greek god]]."
* [[
* [[Apocalypse How]]: Many different ways, starting with High Guard ships of the line, such as the Andromeda, that are said to be capable of de-civilizing an Earth-like planet in six minutes with their conventional weapons, and moving on to the planet crackers that are talked about and occasionally seen or the target-dependent Nova Bombs that the Andromeda carried 40 of as part of her class's standard load out (they destroy planets and stars by nullifying the gravitational pull of the target). Then there are the Magog whose designed goal of ridding the universe of pain and suffering by [[Body Horror|horribly killing]] everything that can feel pain and suffering lends them from disasters from "mere" genocide to the destruction of entire solar systems. And the mount point singularity projectors, which fire ''miniature black holes'' at their opponents that can tear through ships and planets like they weren't there, and whose sole defense is to open a slip point in the way (which if done too close to a planet can cause major geological instabilities).
* [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking]]: Hawkins reads off Harper's rap sheet:
{{quote|
* [[A-Team Firing]]
** Justified and lampshaded in an episode where it is revealed that most small arms ammunition are smart bullets whose guidance system is jammed by man portable jammers, causing them to miss.
* [[The Atoner]]: Rev Bem, although he personally hadn't done anything to feel sorry about except eating through his human mother, which he couldn't help but do at that age.
* [[Badass Army]]: Nietzscheans think they are but they're really not.
* [[The Battlestar]]: Most High Guard ships, including the Andromeda Ascendant.
* [[Bitter Almonds]]: The cyanide [[Deadly Gas|gas trap]] in ''In Heaven Now Are Three''.
* [[Boarding Party]]: The Magog use Swarm Ships to punch holes in the attacked ship and swarm in.
* [[Boomerang Bigot]]: There was a radical group bent on destroying space travel in order to preserve planetary ecologies. It was founded by a warship's AI.
* [[Brain-Computer Interface]]: Harper has a jack on his neck.
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* [[Deadly Gas]]: The cyanide gas trap in ''In Heaven Now Are Three''.
* [[Derelict Graveyard]]
* [[Dueling Hackers]]: In the pilot Harper tries to hack Andromeda. As she is an intelligent machine she can count as a white-hatter in her own right. But she has so much juice in her circuits that it is a mismatch even with someone as [[Always Someone Better|good as Harper.]]
* [[Eleventh-Hour Superpower]]: Hunt, from his half-Paradine heritage.
* [[The End of the World
* [[Evil Is Visceral]]: Aspects of the Magog that are not already covered by the subtropes: they spit on people, and have exposed noses.
* [[Executive Meddling]]: Robert Wolfe was the original head writer of the series, based on Gene Roddenberry's notes. He resigned after season two because of differences with the executive. He has since, however, written a one-act play, ''[http://www.cyberspace5.net/agentrichard07/coda.htm Coda]'', which is a compressed form of his original plan for Andromeda.
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** Bartolome Naz in And Your Heart Will Fly Away is an expy of [[Dr. Strangelove]].
* [[Face Full of Alien Wingwong]]: The [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|Magog]].
* [[Family Values Villain]]: Not exactly what most people would call family values. But Nietzcheans often adore their families and apparently their children. One of the few [[Pet the Dog|touching]] things about them. Though they believe their children are extensions of themselves so arguably it is kind of selfish.
* [[Fantastic Racism]]: Not just for/against aliens, either; the Knights of Genetic Purity hunt down all modified human-offshoots.
** As Dylan points out, only 12% or so of the humans in the ''entire known universe'' fall under their definition of "pure".
* [[Flanderization]]: Oh, so very much.
* [[Flat Character]]: After Season 2, all of them. Robert Hewitt Wolfe planned major [[Character Development]] for the ''Andromeda'' crew. After he was fired, [[Status Quo Is God]] took effect in regards to their emotional growth.
▲** If post-Ouroboros Trance is adult Trance, then does that make pre-Ouroboros underaged Trance? [[Less Disturbing in Context|Much less squicky]] once it's established that she's [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old|several billion years old]] [[Genius Loci|star]] using an [[A Form You Are Comfortable With|artificial humanoid body]] as a sockpuppet.
* [[Gaia's Vengeance|Gaia's avengers]]: The Restorians, lead by the Balance of Judgment, a [[Knight Templar]] [[Sapient Ship|warship AI]].
* [[Gainax Ending]]: The final episode of season 4.
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** One very horrible offender is in a scene, where Dylan says "Tyr, try not to destroy the warship." The subtitles say "Tyr. Get rid of the warship."
* [[Good Is Not Dumb]]: Trance Gemini.
* [[Guile Hero]]: Capt Hunt is several times told that "he thinks like a Nitzchean". As every Nizchean aspires to be a [[Magnificent Bastard]] that is considered a great compliment.
* [[Heroic Lineage]]: Every Nitzchean boasts of his ancestry and aspires to be someone else's heroic ancestor. Except they view themselves in brutally [[The Social Darwinist|pseudo-biological]] terms, consciously trying to pass on their genes.
**Their idea of heroism is simply "proving oneself a [[Badass]]" with no other considerations other then [[Pragmatic Villainy|what works]] for that purpose. Oddly that philosophy would be self-destructive in real life as it is necessary to cooperate to achieve anything including survival. If every Nitzchean really behaved as he was supposed to, they would be mopped up by inferiors as easily as Romans mopped up Celts.
**Oddly enough one could imagine a future ethnoreligious group something like the Nitzcheans. Tribal organization has proven itself as a useful format in the past, works among some peoples today and even advanced democracies sometimes feel the need to fall back on a pseudofamilial figure like a powerless monarch. People in societies like that do obsess with lineage in much the way Nitzcheans do and in the future might justify it just the way the Nitzcheans do and even use appropriate imagery such as the double-helix bracelet representing the joining of DNA in a wedding. Real Life versions of tribal societies though are seldom as amoral as them as that would be societal suicide.
* [[Humans Are Special]]: [[A Is]] are horrible at guessing, which makes humans and other organic life forms are far better at slipstream navigation. Also, ship [[A Is]] seem to make poor commanders, are more effective in combat when working with a crew.
** Averted partly when the AI Ryan is given command of... well, himself, aka the Wrath of Achilles.
* [[Hyperspace Lanes]]: Several star systems are strategically important because you need to travel through
** In one episode, they're trying to get to Tarn Vedra (the lost capital planet of the old Commonwealth) by following a ridiculously complicated sequence of slipstram routes. Several of the steps are jumps between ''different galaxies!''
*** In defence of the pilots, the guy who planned the route was insane.
*** In further defense of them, the Vedrans ''deliberately'' messed with the slipstream to make their system near-impossible to get to by any sane slipstream route, to hide from the Nietzscheans after the Commonwealth collapsed.
**** It also seems to have been a critical aspect of their plan to destroy the Spirit of the Abyss.
* [[I Want You to Meet An Old Friend of Mine]]: In "The Knight, Death, and the Devil", Michael Hurst (previously [[Hercules: The Legendary Journeys|Iolaus]]) plays Ryan the AI.
* [[Identical Grandson]]: "Genetic reincarnation" is a proven phenomenon for Nietzscheans due to their low genetic diversity. Telemachus is played by the same actor as Gaheris and Tyr's son was apparently the reincarnation of the first Nietzschean (and therefore their Messiah).
** Beka Valentine once encountered a female Nietzschean who looked as close to exactly like her as a Nietzschean could look, which doesn't make sense until Season 5 reveals she's the genetic mother of the first Nietzschean.
* [[Informed Ability]]: Despite being lauded as a tactical genius, Drago-Kazov Fleet Marshall Cuchulian Nez Perce sure gets his ass handed to him by Dylan and company. Twice.
* [[Infinite Supplies]]: Even though the Andromeda repeatedly runs out of missiles in battle, she seems to always get new ones by the next episode. However they did once mention mining asteroids so Rommie's workshops could make new ones, so I guess it's [[Justified Trope|justified.]]
* [[Insistent Terminology]]: The Commonwealth is ''not'' an empire, damn it! The fact it was led by the Vedran Empress and was an evolution of the Vedran Empire is irrelevant!
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** Humans seem to have been the most widespread because they were easy to engineer (or no-one cared enough to stop them) and pretty much anywhere that life could exist, there is an engineered form of humanity to plunder it. From high gravity worlds to under the sea, humanity is all up in nature's face eating her resources.
* [[Mr. Fanservice]]: Tyr Anasazi.
* [[Mundane Utility]]: Beka Valentine's use of nanomachines for [[Hair Colors|instant hair dye]].
** Subverted when it's revealed {{spoiler|her father gave young Beka those nanomachines as a gift because he'd hidden an encoded message within them}}.
* [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast]]: Nietzschens tend to give themselves names that are [[Badass Boast]] s, like ethnic groups with a warlike reputation(Sabra), military leaders(Guderian)or even [[War God]] s (Tyr).
* [[Negative Space Wedgie]]
* [[Nietzsche Wannabe]]: Tyr and the rest of the Nietzscheans.
* [[Only Known
* [[People in Rubber Suits]]: Than-Thre-Kull, Magog, Ogami.
* [[Phlebotinum Breakdown]]
* [[Planet of the Apes Ending]]
* [[Psycho Serum]]
* [[Rape
* [[Real Life Writes the Plot]]: Due to Brent Stait's makeup allergies, his character, Rev Bem, got a less prominent role, and was finally [[Put
* [[Recap Episode]]
** Especially during the fourth season. Christ.
* [[Recycled in Space]]: The basic premise is [[wikipedia:Genesis II %28film%29|Genesis II]] and [[wikipedia:Planet Earth (TV pilot)|Planet Earth]] in space.
* [[Redemption Equals Death]]
* [[Revised Ending]]: sort of. The original series developer, Robert Hewitt Wolfe, wrote a non-canon (technical [[Fanfic]]) one-act-play of an outline, entitled [https://web.archive.org/web/20120417071506/http://www.roberthwolfe.com/Coda/Andromeda___Coda.pdf Coda] (warning, PDF) for how he envisioned the series to play out past the point of his departure.
* [[A Riddle Wrapped in
* [[Ridiculously-Human Robots]]
** Rommie is [[Squick|squicked]] to discover that Harper engineered her humanoid body with "certain parts" which, strictly speaking, aren't necessary for her normal operations, and asks to be assured that he used gloves while handling said parts.
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* [[Shout-Out]]: At least [[Once an Episode]].
** In the very first episode, Harper compares Dylan Hunt to [[Hercules: The Legendary Journeys|a Greek god]].
** The Knights of Genetic Purity were lifted directly out of the classic role-playing game ''[[
** Also, Seamus '''[[Roger Zelazny|Zelazny]]''' Harper.
** The crew of the Bellerophon had [[Star Trek
** [[Star Trek: Enterprise
** An improbable number of episodes were named after lines from W. B. Yeats' poem "The Second Coming". Some examples: "The Widening Gyre"; "Pitiless as the Sun"; "Its Hour Come 'Round at Last".
** In general episode titles were influenced by literature, such as "The Pearls That Were His Eyes" (Shakespeare) and "Fear and Loathing in the Milky Way" (Hunter S. Thompson).
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* [[Time Travel]]
* [[Time for Plan B]]
* [[Tomato in
* [[Too Dumb to
* [[Troubled but Cute]]
* [[Vehicle Title]]
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[[Category:Live-Action TV of the 2000s]]
[[Category:Science Fiction Series]]
[[Category:Sci Fi Channel]]
[[Category:American Series]]
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