"The Ties That Blind" - Episode #107 (slight spoilers below) (Click here for synopsis)

  This episode began to tie together a number of elements in the Andromeda 'universe' including Wayists, the attackers in "D Minus Zero" and some back story for Beka. As such it had alot of potential that unfortunately was marred by a somewhat confusing execution.

The character development was generally well done with Beka's family background fairly convincingly (if very annoyingly) revealed through Rafe. Meanwhile we find that Wayists are not above either being infiltrated by terrorists or being personally mistaken (as Rev Bem was).

However, the crew (especially Tyr) continue to seem unconvinced of Dylan's mission which really needs to be dealt with. While reservations or personal agendas are expected, it seems strange to see little or no belief in their mission to restore the Commonwealth.

I questioned having Harper so casually "stop off" at a surfing competition since this implies a more stable society with safe/easy travel than I would have expected. However, his absence set the stage for a priceless exchange where Andromeda 'talks to herself' as she finds the technical clues to Vikram's true purposes!

The scientific believability of the show suffered a bit by the presence of CD's in great shape after millennia and the technobabble device Rafe was given. However, it was nice to finally see an invasion of Andromeda not totally successful even if the 'internal defenses' scenes were unconvincing.

Overall, a fair episode that could have been a very good one with a bit more coherent plot and better guest star acting

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

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

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