Andromeda Main Page | Episode Guide | Links

All Too Human - Episode #206 (some spoilers below) (Click here for synopsis)

I said last week's episode did not have a 'B' story, which was nice for a change. Well this week's had not only a 'B' story, but a 'C' story also!

Multiple story lines are not a problem if well done and all three of these were good ones. My only complaint is that the resolutions of all three were rather "rushed" due to lack of time. Since they were all good stories it might have been better to save one (the Maru story likely) for another episode.

The lead ('A') story was that of Rommie on Machen Alpha who indeed proved to be "all too human", while showing off some pretty super-human capabilities. I thought Lexa Doig did an great job and managed to balance being a sympathetic and tough character at the same time. The "Matrix" like effects (highlighted by Rommie's black trench coat) were fun though the violence was a bit heavy for my taste (though non-graphic). My only major concern with this story was that Rommie's super-human fighting abilities seemed to come out of nowhere and unless newly gained do not make much sense in light of prior stories and the ways they would have made a huge difference at the time. Also, I thought the guest cast in this story were excellent.

The Maru ('B') story was also good in general and gave Rev the best line of the whole show ("not only is the Divine real, but he has a twisted sense of humor"). There was nice continuity with Harper's Magog larvae figuring large in the plot. However, Rev's plan to flood the ship was pretty hard to believe since the high pressure water should have still crushed the interior and using this to surface did not seem realistic. Also, Tyr was uncharacteristically somewhat 'whiny' then suddenly willing to die, which no Nietzschean would seem to so easily do. Perhaps all of this might have made more sense if there had been time to flesh it out further.

Finally, the Andromeda ('C') story was well done if once again somewhat rushed. Dylan was believable in making tough decisions involving the Maru and later damaging Mobius to save it. It did seem odd he never contacted Mobius about what they did, but again this might have been due to the lack of time to show this in the episode. The one continuity issue here was his casual comment which seemed to indicate their weapons could be easily manufactured by stopping off at an asteroid field, not something that seems to make sense in light of prior parts and supplies issues.

This episode had some inconsistencies and difficult to believe points. However, these are easy to overlook if not too numerous and the story is exciting and well done in other ways. This week's outing certainly qualifies as one of the better episodes of the series, hindered mostly by trying to do too much in one episode.

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

Review 11/13/01 by Larry Kramer

Andromeda Main Page | Episode Guide | Links

© 2001 Larry Kramer (See Copyright Disclaimer)