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Pitiless as the Sun - Episode #204 (some spoilers below) (Click here for synopsis)

Each episode of Andromeda tends to have an 'A' main story and a 'B' side story. In the past I have often felt the 'B' stories were poorly done or unnecessary. However this week the two stories both were well done and seemed to complement each other well.

First, the 'A' story which had to do with the Andromeda's crew dealing with the deceptive Inari and the dangerous Pyrians. The Inari were clearly hiding something, but what this was is not obvious until near the end, making for an interesting story. Guest star Anne Marie Loder as Major Whendar was adequate at best but I thought Antonio Cupo as Lieutenant Gadell did a good job with a rather small role.

The Pyrians were great as a truly alien species and were a believable menace (even if the effect of their missiles on the Andromeda seemed a bit far-fetched). Finding out that not all races were in the Commonwealth makes sense and could lead to interesting story lines as Dylan continues to try to restore it.

As far as negatives, Rommie's sudden ability to be an infallible lie-detector does not jibe with past episodes and was hard to swallow. Also, the final confrontation with the Pyrians was good but perhaps might have been less rushed on the Andromeda (thereby saving the exposition involving the Maru). Finally, the Command deck redesign was great visually but somewhat hard to believe given the lack of resources the Andromeda supposedly has (as were new Nova bombs).

The regular cast were good, especially Sorbo in his portrayal of Dylan as a man who is intelligently facing a very changed situation. Laura Bertram as Trance is not my favorite character (mystery gets tiresome with little substance), but did a good job here.

Speaking of Trance, the 'B' story involving her interrogation was interesting and generally well done. As with Major Whendar, Professor Logich (William B. Davis) was not as believable or well done as I would have liked to see, especially with a role with real dramatic potential. However, it was good to finally see the mystery of Trance start to be addressed. My only concern is that there seems to be a build up about this character that may be hard to resolve in a way that makes much sense in the end. However, I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and hope this is handled better than I dream.

Overall I felt this was a interesting and exciting episode to watch. No story is perfect, but the concerns seen when I stopped to think them though did not take away much from enjoying the story.

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

Review 10/29/01 by Larry Kramer

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