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(Gene Roddenberry's) Andromeda
I suppose there are three aspects for me to ponder:
Design aesthetics Andromeda began airing in 2000 and this shows. The first episodes
appears a bit rough around the edges with understandable budget
restrictions and CGI technology limitations, but it was somewhat
fascinating to see the developments through the course of the five
seasons. The ship itself, Andromeda Ascendant Plot lines I don't know if it's my brain these days, but I struggle to follow the plot lines of TV shows. I know this isn't just me, because I occasionally watch shows with my sister and we'll get to the end of an episode of something and exclaim that we have next to no clue what actually happened, if anything. I thought this was a phenomena with newer stuff, but watching many of the Andromeda episodes left me feeling the same way. It's as if the writers have ideas about what they want/need to include in an episode and string things together as best as they can for it to be presented within the timeframe available (understandably not an easy task). Sure, you get to see some action along with perhaps some "character development", and something might be added to the overall storyline of the season, but I can't help but think I'm wasting my time investing my attention in such shows (we've given up on some). I don't recall Stargate SG-1, Farscape, or Star Trek being like this, and I watched all of those back in the day. Sure, there would have been some loose episodes, and some fillers, but by and large I always thought they made sense. Perhaps my brain thinks too rationally for TV (and some movies) these days, and I find myself stepping outside of the action to consider that "it makes no sense that they did it this way". Additionally, it amuses me also when you have two lots of action seemingly happening at the same time, but the advance of time for one aspect isn't realistic, like "switch back to so-and-so still being shot at..." Characters Beyond the main character, who in this case is just about his story (and original mission to "restore the commonwealth"), other characters have to be intriguing, amusing, impressive in some way, or attractive, don't they?
Tyr (Teal'c) Anasazi is a funny one. It amused me no end whenever he presented himself as auditioning for a role in Shakespeare, that was until he cut off his hair for the final season and seemingly got kicked. At least we had Telemachus Rhadé to take his place... That leaves us with Trance and Rommy. Trance, unlike Harper, is someone we get to see grow up, and regress in a way. It was amusing when she swapped places with her future self, coming in all confident and kicking butt; I could see Kevin Sorbo (Dylan Hunt) struggling with her appearing this way at first, but that persona seemed to be short-lived after an episode or two. She turned back into her old-self, but thankfully kept the new attire.
Rommy remains as the curious one (or three) being the ship's A.I., or the Data (Star Trek) of Andromeda.
For a show that's now twenty-five years old it's interesting to gain some 2000s perspective of "how might the future of A.I. present itself?", while we're now seeing it being made available to the masses. In this light it's perhaps ironic that Harper created Rommy (and Doyle's) physical form as something to meet his boy wishes and desires, when we now have A.I. providing the same through phone apps. It is endearing to see the crew come to treat Rommy as one of their own, perhaps providing suggestions of how our own A.I.s might gain their own "human rights" before too long. I just wish Rommy could have been more android-like to help make things more believable. And it took me all this time to learn Lexa Doig who plays Rommy, came to marry Michael Shanks (aka Daniel of Stargate SG-1) following his appearance on the show. The final season was a strange one, and very Firefly-esque, or perhaps more a(na)kin to Star Wars - it certainly received a nod to the latter with the whole droid scene which witnessed my hardest laugh for the whole of the five seasons...
Things got a bit rough too though. Remember I mentioned that noble Captain Hunt? In the final season we're seeing him beating people to death; with the level of violence going up, we see the standards go down, and I don't think we end up with someone we might look up to. In all, though, I enjoyed finally watching the show, but I would surely have seen it all differently if I'd watched it twenty years ago, and given myself chance to watching it all again, as I have done so with some things. As a little extra, it was fun to see the crude crops seemingly cobbled together from discarded gadgets of the day.
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I'd never watched the TV series
before, but when I had another trial
of Amazon Prime I grabbed the lot
(all five seasons) and watched them
at my leisure over the course of a
year.
