Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda: Difference between revisions

The show has its origins in a combination of two separate Roddenberry story ideas from the 1970s, one about a sentient starship and a second about a man from the past trying to piece the remnants of civilization back together after it has crumbled. The former never made it to the air prior to ''Andromeda,'' but Roddenberry (who died in 1991) used the latter concept in no fewer than three separate unsuccessful pilots -- two of which actually included a main character named "Dylan Hunt" -- before giving up on it. Undoubtedly these ideas were <s>scrounged from the trash can</s> further developed by the ''Andromeda'' creative team.

 

* Beka Valentine -- [[The Lancer]], hotshot pilot, recovering drug addict, and captain of the Eureka Maru. Secretly the genetic matriarch of the entire Nietzschean race via [[Time Travel]].

* Tyr Anasazi -- [[The Big Guy]], [[Proud Warrior Race Guy]], and [[Token Evil Teammate]], [[Last of His Kind|last survivor]] of a vanquished Nietzschean clan (and at times, straddles the line between a [[Nietzsche Wannabe]] and an [[Ubermensch]])

''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.

 

 

Technically set approximately 3 millennia into the future (Figure from ep. Harper^2), though effectively [[A Long Time Ago in A Galaxy Far Far Away]]: Earth exists, but is hardly ever mentioned, except to say that it's not a very nice place to hang out these days.

 

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.

 

* [[Actor Allusion]]: After his first run-in with Dylan, Harper refers to him as "like [[Hercules: The Legendary Journeys|a Greek god]]."

* [[Always Chaotic Evil]]: Assumed of the Nietzscheans and the Magog by most people in-universe, but subverted in both cases.

* [[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).

{{quote| '''Hawkins''': Seamus Harper...Grand Theft Spacecraft, and Interstellar Flight to Avoid Prosecution, and Public Lewdness.}}

** 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.

* [[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.

* [[Cargo Cult]]: The child descendants of High Guard personnel from ''To Loose the Fateful Lightning''.

* [[Chest Burster]]: The Magog reproduction method.

* [[Large Ham]]: Tyr, and, to a lesser extent, Dylan and Harper.

** As for guest characters, there's Bartolome Naz.

* [[The Man Behind the Man]]

* [[Matrix Raining Code]]

* [[Waif Prophet]]

* [[Weapon of Mass Destruction]]: Nova bombs.

** Dyan returning to Andromeda to mope that he had accidentally given children access to 80 Nova Bombs in ''To Loose a Fateful Lightning'' instead of ordering them to stand down and surrender control over the weapons to Andromeda. Keep in mind, at this point Dylan knows they revere him as [[The Messiah|"The High Guard"]] and would likely ''easily'' have done so. Instead, his inaction causes one heavily populated neighbouring system to be destroyed and only narrowly averts them doing similar kamikaze runs with the rest of the arsenal.

** In an alternate timeline [[Mind Screw|which may have been the original timeline]], she did enter into a relationship with a Nietzchean... namely, ''Gaheris'' Rhade.

* [[Xanatos Speed Chess]]: Dylan is a master of this.

[[Category:American Series]]

[[Category:Andromeda]]