ORBzine - UK TV Review: "Andromeda" April 2001

Season 3

Andromeda [Season 3, Episode 1] If the Wheel Is Fixed
Shown 21-Sep-2002
Shown

Bekka and Tyr are mysteriously returned from the transdimensional tunnel. But they've been changed somehow ...

Andromeda [Season 3, Episode 2] The Shards of Rimni
Shown 28-Sep-2002
Shown

Dylan is framed for murder. He and Harper must find the shards of an important vase.

Andromeda [Season 3, Episode 3] Mad to Be Saved
Shown 05-Oct-2002
Shown

The Andromeda takes a group of refugees aboard. They're inmates from a lunatic asylum. Unfortunately, one of them is a doctor who illegally experimented on his patients.

The Confederacy wants the torturer alive, because his knowledge will help their own research. Finally, this show is getting a healthy cynicism!

Andromeda [Season 3, Episode 4] Cui Bono
Shown 11-Oct-2002
Shown

The title is in Latin. It is a legal term, meaning Who benefits?

Bekka's uncle Sid [John DeLancie - Star Trek TNG ] is up to his old crooked ways. He's going for the biggest criminal job going - he's standing for election to be head of the Confederacy!

However, an assassin thinks otherwise.

Andromeda [Season 3, Episode 5] The Lone and Level Sands
Shown 21-Oct-2002
Shown

The title is from the last line of the poem Ozymandias, by Percy Bysshe Shelley.

Dylan, Rommie, Tyr and Harper are trapped on the Eureka Maru when they are saved by the Bellerophon ... A 3000-year-old exploration ship which travels so fast the crew never grow older!

The paranoid Captain is Tony Todd [ Candyman . While his own crew are considering mutiny, Rommie likes him enough to sleep with him! The flirtation is part of a ploy to steal a key from him, but it's certainly implied she shagged him.

Harper and Tyr act out of character - they have lost their interests in sex and violence!

Andromeda [Season 3, Episode 6] Slipfighter the Dogs of War
Shown 28-Oct-2002
Shown

The title is from the Shakespearean line, Cry Havok! And let Slip the Dogs of War

In order to destroy some weapons of mass destruction, Kunt and his buddies use Slipfighters [space interceptors] as fighter-bombers. They have no option, since the Confederacy doesn't want to get involved.

The people on the ground appear to be some form of crazy arab militia. In other words, this is just a bunch of racist stereotypes, set up for some American jingoism.

But on this show, is anyone surprised?

Andromeda [Season 3, Episode 7] The Leper's Kiss
Shown 11-Nov-2002
Shown

The Leper is an assassin, sent to kill a friend of Dylan's. The team must discover the assassin's identity and prevent the killing.

Andromeda [Season 3, Episode 8] For Whom the Bell Tolls
Shown 18-Nov-2002
Shown

The title comes from the poetry line Ask not for whom the bell tolls: it tolls for thee

One of Dylan's old crewmembers had his personality uploaded into the ship's memory banks. It is accidentally reactivated, and can use both android and hologram form. However, Rommie's sensors cannot detect his actions - he's a hi-tech ghost!

The problem is, the crewman was a workaholic. And he assumes that Dylan betrayed the Confederacy and sided with The Nietzschiens. After all, Tyr and the other unlisted a crew are aboard.

Andromeda [Season 3, Episode 9] And Your Heart Will Fly Away ...
Shown 25-Nov-2002
Shown

Tyr was once hired to hunt down and kill a woman. He fell in love with her, and hid her. But his former employer is still after her ...

Tyr leaves the Andromeda and goes to find his lover. The ex-employer, a crippled and bitter designer of hi-tech weapons, boards the Andromeda and comandeers it for his quest.

Andromeda [Season 3, Episode 10] The Unconquerable Man
Shown 20-Jan-2003
Shown

Kunt decides to return the body of his best buddy to his descendants. Harper spots an unfamiliar scar on the corpse's hand ...

In an alternative universe, Kunt was killed and his buddy was trapped aboard the Andromeda. The replacement tries to survive 300 years in the future, but ends up facing the same dilemmas that Kunt did. His actions under the circumstances are surprising, to say the least.

Andromeda [Season 3, Episode 11] Delenda Est
Shown 27-Jan-2003
Shown 7th January 2007

Rommie the robot interrogates Harper, presumably to see if and why he made her anatomically correct. Unfortunately, they are interrupted by invisible teleporting aliens that look like a cross between Aliens & Predator. The Aliens are intent on stealing energy sources, so they take Rommie!

The crew must locate and rescue Rommie, and save the universe from an invasion. As if the coming Magog worldship wasn't bad enough!

Andromeda [Season 3, Episode 12] The Dark Backward
Shown 03-Feb-2003
Shown

The ship is boarded by a superpowered Alien that wants to destroy Andromeda by sabotaging the Slipstream Engine.

Trance can use her bonsai tree to travel back in time. Yes, in Season One it was just a metaphor but now it's apparently a magical tree! Unfortunately, the intruder has time-travel powers too. It's the Magogs' deity, the Abyss or whatever - or at least, a low-budget replacement.

Andromeda [Season 3, Episode 13] The Risk All Point
Shown 10-Feb-2003
Shown 11th December 2005

The Confederacy launches a new warship, the first in 300 years. It is mysteriously destroyed, and everyone suspects the Nietzscheans sabotaged it.

Dylan's love interest of the week is one of the main suspects, a Nietzschean princess played by Jayne Heitmeyer . She has a lot in common with Bekka - so naturally they don't get along, and they have to work together.

Andromeda [Season 3, Episode 14] The Right Horse
Shown 17-Feb-2003
Shown

Andromeda [Season 3, Episode 15] What Happens to a Rev Deferred?
Shown 24-Feb-2003
Shown 11th December 2005

Andromeda gets an emergency call from a planet that's about to be destroyed. It's from their former crewmate, Rev Bem!

The actor playing Bem originally left due to allergies to the makeup. They've solved that problem by altering Bem's appearance!

This is basically a clip show, but the fact that they used the opportunity to revisit an old character is original.

Andromeda [Season 3, Episode 16] Point of the Spear
Shown 31-Mar-2003
Shown 22nd January 2006

Andromeda tries to protect an M-Class planet from the Pyrians, who are trying to un-terraform it. Luckily there are dozens of redshirts [in black uniforms] running around the Andromeda, to pilot the slipfighters and so on.

The Pyrians have a babelicious spokeswoman. She is dressed just like Trance, but nobody makes the connection!

Of note, the intro quote is from Admiral Constanza Stark, who plays a vital role in Twilight of the Idols.

Andromeda [Season 3, Episode 17] Vault of the Heavens
Shown 07-Apr-2003
Shown 17th April 2007

This was written by Gordon Wolvett. Harper is showing off with a new propulsion system, the sublight equivalent of nitrous oxide. Naturally things go wrong and they are knocked off-course.

Kunt hears a woman's voice in his head, summoning him to a nearby planet. He takes most of the command crew down as an away team.

Tyr is left to run the ship single-handed, facing a solar destruction event [and prowling Neitzschein warships]. What happened to the mass of redshirts running around in the previous ep?

Andromeda [Season 3, Episode 18] Deep Midnight's Voice
Shown 14 April 2003
Shown 5th February 2006

The Andromeda rescues a Jaguar Nietzchein from some Dragon Nietziens. After violent coercion by the peaceniks, he tells them about Deep Midnight's Voice . It's a ship that was lost 300 years ago, that has a map of Slipstream. The map will make Slipstream travel 99.9% reliable.

Andromeda finds the planet where the ship crashed. Unfortunately it's an isolated pre-FTL civilisation, so the Away Party goes in plain clothes. Luckily, Harper invents Universal Translators [well, not universal, but it works for the local language].

Tyr and the Jaguar guy go on the mission. Tyr is plotting, and is willing to go the distance.

Andromeda [Season 3, Episode 19] The Illusion of Majesty
Shown 21-Apr-2003
Shown

The Andromeda encounters the cryogenically preserved Krista Allen . She claims to be a Princess, but turns out to be a lot more interesting. And of course, she's Kunt's love interest of the week.

Andromeda [Season 3, Episode 20] Twilight of the Idols
Shown 28-Apr-2003
Shown 14th January 2006 [Saturday]

Dylan is attacked by the Genites, a bunch of goons in white armour [a cross between Stormtroopers and Power Rangers]. However, he is rescued by grey-armoured troopers - the Templars, led by the Patriarch [Michael Ironside - Total Recall, Starship Troopers ]. They are High Guard Special Forces, out to destroy the Nietzcheins in revenge for the Fall of the Confederacy 300 years ago.

The Genites' apparent aim is to kill all genetically-modified humans. 92% of the human race. What the Magog want to do as well, that is. Only the Genites have developed a bio-weapon to do it for them.

The only help the Confederacy can provide is a woman in black clothes who stands on the bridge and looks busy. It's up to Dylan and the Templars [all ten of them!] to defeat the Genites.

But can the Patriarch be trusted? Tyr doesn't think so, and has a secret plan of his own.

Andromeda [Season 3, Episode 21] Day of Judgement, Day of Wrath
Shown 05-May-2003
Shown

Andromeda attends the launching on the Confederacy's new ship, Resolution of Hector. However, Rommie kidnaps Harper and hijacks the ship!

Dylan and the avatar robot of Hector [Christopher Judge - Stargate SG-1 ] must hunt them down and save them.

Balance of Judgement [Michael Shanks - Stargate SG-1 ] is back after 3 years. This leads on to a climactic if unconvincing, Herc-style fight between 2 robots. The ending is a cop-out ... Kunt has too much, Harper has too little. He admits he loves Rommie, she returns it On some level.

The blonde has a tiny scene in a slip-fighter, but Trance doesn't appear at all.

Tyr is involved in a subplot concerning rival Nietzschiens. With his bone-blades missing he hunts for other survivors of his clan. He's brutal and cold. To be continued in the next episode!

Andromeda [Season 3, Episode 22] Shadows Cast by a Final Salute
Shown 12-May-2003
Shown

Nietzschiens invade Andromeda and hold 2 crew-splods as hostages. They out-maneuvre all internal defences [which are very weak], and Kunt actually realises it must be an inside job. Suspicion naturally falls upon Tyr.

The alien babe tells a very crap version of Appointment at Samarra.

Tyr's story arc is at an end. He must unite his people for a final battle, to create his empire or die trying.

Andromeda [Season 3, Episode ]
Shown
Shown

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