"To Loose the Fateful Lightning" - Episode #103 (slight spoilers below) (Click here for synopsis)

This episode was unfortunately disappointing, especially given the exciting potential of this series. Therefore, the following review is somewhat negative even though I still have high hopes for the series overall.

Finding a High Guard station full of very young descendants of the original crew fits the series premise well and had a lot of potential as a plot for this episode. However, the execution had enough clichés and unbelievable points to make it at best a fair entry into the series.

The character who was most consistent and who gained a bit more depth was Rev Bem who is once again seen as a spiritual man, well able to understand and forgive even his enemies. Also, we get more information on the background that may have shaped Seamus into the flippant but perhaps somewhat bitter young man he is. Finding out that the Magog had used this relatives on Earth as hosts for their incubating young (similar to how wasps do) helped to see why they are so hated by many.

Unfortunately the previously best defined character, Dylan Hunt, did not fare so well. His lines and performance portray a man who does not seem to quickly grasp and know how to deal with fluid situations. This is hardly what I had expected given the series premise and the first two episodes. Also, his reaction to the loss of an entire solar system is very understated and inconsistent with previous strong reactions to even just one or two people's death.

Another somewhat disappointing item was the special effects. I suspect the budget for this syndicated series is not very high, but the slipstream effect, the shots of the Andromeda in motion and some other effects (like the artificial gravity 'attack' by Andromeda) are not well done at all. Other series (such as Babylon 5) have successfully used CGI effects to give more convincing results on relatively moderate budgets.

Finally, the science in this 'science fiction' show is not all that convincing or consistent so far. The child 'warriors' all to easily overcome Andromeda's nano defenses. Also, the quick behind the scenes creation of a 'human' form (the apparent nudity did not seem to have much purpose) for the ship seems farfetched given the little that we know of the science and skills available. Having Andromeda in a human form is interesting, but a bit more time and explanation of what was done and why would have helped a lot.

I understand that this episode was actually filmed prior to the pilot, which gives me hope that some of the flaws are due to this. As I recall "Star Trek: The Next Generation" had similar ebbs and flows in quality for the first season.

The rating for the episode is given below. For information on how my rating system works, click on this link.

Reviewed 10/24/00 by Larry Kramer       Updated 10/11/01

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