Season One Episode Reviews

1X22    It's Hour Come Round At Last 
Plot: Rommie's old program is accidently activated, leading to Magog storming the ship.

Lots of action and suspense, but what's the point?  Just on a sheer excitement level it's the best of the season, but there's very little substance to it unfortunately.  The Magog still do not sell as a credible threat, they just get slaughtered like cattle to almost comedic effect.  It's like the Borg in TNG, they're supposed to be unstoppable but they're not even smart enough to fire a gun.  That said, the initial boarding with the chanting and pounding was extremely well done.  The action is ridiculously repetitive, I just can't believe the entire episode was about shooting up Magog, I kept waiting for some actual Warpie/Trance/Magog revelations.  We do get a few tidbits, like Rev's real name, and this Bloodmist who promises a culture and a god (Warpie... or was he called Abyss here?), the Hour of Awakening approaches.  The World Structure was certainly neat but I'm sure what's so terrible about it.  Rommie turning on her crew was pretty entertaining in its own regard.  The Dylan/Beka and Harper/Tyr bonding was well done.  The cliffhanger was nice and bleak, Andromeda getting chopped up was an unexpected bonus, baring Trance pulling a deux ex machina I really have to wonder how they'll get out of this one.

1X21    It Makes a Lovely Light 
Plot: Becca becomes addicted to Flash attempting to Slip to Tarn-Vedra.

Good enough, but a bit of an exercise of futility.  We knew going in that they wouldn't reach Tarn-Vedra and that Beka would become addicted to Flash but would obviously break it.  There's not more to the episode aside from that unfortunately.  It's great to see events flowing right from "Fear and Loathing" and "Pearls Her Eyes" of course, most especially Hasturi's Diary.  Interesting to learn about his arduous Slip route to Tarn-Vedra.  Is Beka really the best pilot out there?!  What were Beka and Harper hoping to find on T-V that started with "Eng-"?  What exactly did it mean that Trance started to die from continued Slip travel (or because it was to T-V?  Was she faking?).  Beka-on-Flash is once again a standout performance.  It seems highly incredulous that the ingredients for Flash as just lying around in the Med Bay though, and it seems even more ludicrous that a hopped up Beka could single-handedly take over the entire ship.  Even given Harper's security bypass from "Under the Night", which was another lovely bit of continuity, it just seems highly improbable (same goes for Harper slipping it by Rommie all this time!).  Beka fearing becoming her father, and in the end liking it, was a great bit of character drama.  Tyr gets a new uniform (about time!).

1X20    Star Crossed 
Plot: Rommie falls in love with Gabriel, the avatar of the Restorian flagship.

Surprisingly good episode, learning the origin and leader of the Resters was a very pleasant surprise. The Rommie-Gabriel romance was well done and believable, though romance stories of course don't usually mean epic adventures, so having this be about the big bad Rester High Guard flagship was great.  Nice to see the FTA joining in on the hunt as well, lovely mention to "Ties That Blind" there with Rafe Valentine being confirmed as a FTA spy.  The Balance of Power was a great looking ship, extremely powerful and scary.  The revelation that Gabriel was the Balance avatar was unexpected and very cool.  It's great to learn the Resters' origin, a renegade High Guard ship AI, but it's pretty disappointing really, I was expecting something bigger.  Besides, the Rester attacks didn't begin until four years ago, so it was just a massive coincidence that Balance was just taking on little field until four years before Andromeda is resurrected...?  As always Dylan gets an ingenious solution to destroy the superior force.  Rommie breaking down to Dylan at the end was very touching, most especially in her fear of insanity after Balance and Pax ("Math Tears"), and I certainly think it's a concern.  Love those three way Andromeda arguments!

1X19    The Honey Offering 
Plot: Dylan deals with a Nietzschean marriage alliance and multiple betrayals.

Great action packed political intrigue episode!  It's wonderful to see Dylan actively working to change the political situation of the world by forging a Sabra-Jaguar alliance against the Dragans (too bad these two didn't have a previous introduction though).  Ellsbett was an interesting well developed character, be nice to see her again.  The Dylan-Ellsbett fight was spectacular.  Did Dylan actually have sex with Ellsbett?!  Cuchalin was not very impressive for a Niet mastermind unfortunately.  Dylan's final naval solution was extremely ingenious, though I really have to wonder how the Sabras slipped an entire fleet in the Jaguar system unawares.  Forcing a Dragan confrontation to force the Sabra-Jaguar alliance is extremely devious and brilliant, and Dylan gets two more systems.  Lovely continuity reference to "Music" and the new droids look much better, what was up with Beka kissing Dylan like that?

1X18    The Devil Take the Hindmost 
Plot: Dylan and Rev protect a Wayist mission from a Slaver attack; Beka commands a relief mission.

A good enough episode, but doesn't live up to the hype.  The villagers weren't terribly interesting, the slavers weren't terribly interesting, and the Wayist monk wasn't too hot either.  The night-time battle was wonderful (though too limited), but that was pretty much the high point of the episode.  Rev getting raped was more comedic than tragic, and create genetic-memory Magog was pretty interesting but ultimately disappointing that they turned out as expected.  Of course the whole episode is elevated by some great discussions on faith vs realism, though I find Dylan's abrupt disdain for Wayism pretty inconsistent with other episodes.  The subplot with Beka commanding a relief mission is unfortunately complete fluff with nothing particularly interesting, unlike the Beka subplot last episode.

1X17    Fear and Loathing in the Milky Way 
Plot: Gerentex drafts Harper and Trance into a search for Hasturi's Diary; Dylan and Beka must appease the Perseids.

Excellent episode!  The banter between Harper, Trance, and Gerentex was spectacular and I really appreciated all the development Gerentex got, it really plays against type.  Their quest was extremely interesting and arc-important as well, finding the fate of Hasturi and perhaps of Tarn-Vedra as well.  Lots of great action.  Gerentex's makeup looked much better.  I also loved the Perseid subplot, because it finally showed some much needed political dealings with their allies, and Dylan and Beka were extremely funny together.  Beka's speech to the Perseids was particularly funny.  Love how Nightsiders are persecuted and made into criminals and they just want to reproduce.  Harper gets to show his dark side, and so does Trance.  Great stuff.  If Trance can beat gambling, why does the crew ever have to worry about money again?

1X16    The Sum of Its Parts 
Plot:  Andromeda encounters the Consensus of Parts a machine culture.

Pretty average.  Your basic Borg story even with Hugh who learns about individuality.  There's not even a lot of action to makeup for it!  About the only surprising thing was that HG was acting against the Consensus when he took over Rommie (though if he was it would have made all the saccharine stuff with him not quite as by-the-numbers).  The Borg costuming was actually pretty good, and a ship a thousand times larger than Rommie was cool (if poorly delivered in perspective on the CGI).  I like how Dylan now just punts to Trance whenever he gets in trouble, though it could be bad for the show in the long run.  Super-Rommie was kinda cool, too bad we'll never see it again.  The Outcast Consensus could make for a decent bit ally in the future though.

1X15    Forced Perspective 
Plot: Dylan is forced to relive a past black ops mission with Rhade.

Good episode, delighted to see that Dylan and the High Guard had a darker blackops side.  It was wonderful to see Dylan and Rhade meeting on a mission (and how they get the Andromeda), Stark was a cool character (related to Sara as it turns out!), Venetri was a great character too.  Really like the kidnapping/assassination plot.  I only wish Dylan killed Venetri at the end, this episode seems to say what the High Guard did was wrong but Dylan's gonna make it right, which I disagree with.  Could've used some more planning and action though (how did they get in and out!).  Delighted to finally see Dylan confront Trance about her powers, and learn she is a precog.  Nice to see Trance will always be there to rescue Dylan too.  The Beka-Tyr subplot was pretty funny.

1X14    Harper 2.0 
Plot: Harper has a massive database downloaded into his brain that sets a bounty hunter after him.

Good episode that finally starts to deliver on some story arc, though all the crazy Harper shenanigans seem like padding, fun as they are.  Jeger was a damn cool baddie with some damn cool weapons, and it is a real tragedy he didn't get in an actual fight and was killed.  Obviously the biggest part of the episode is "Warpie" the alien being behind the Magog, and it's damn interesting but ultimately only a bit part of the episode.  Looks like Warpie was behind the Magog, the Nietzschean Revolt, and World War Two.  Very interesting!  Plus we get another cryptic hint to Trance (looks like she's Warpie's opposite number).  Little more action with Jeger and a little less Harper padding and this would have been a real classic.  Harper was a great comedy bit though, and the Harper/Rev bonding was excellent (particularly Rev revealing that he is constantly 'starving' in order to not kill his friends).

1X13    Music of a Distant Drum 
Plot: An amnesiac Tyr crashes on a Nietzschean tributary planet with a secret package.

Decent episode but nothing spectacular, though it certainly makes the most of a silly premise.  Amnesiac Tyr was a tad on the annoying side, but the nanotech explanation made a lot of sense.  The revelation that Tyr stole the Progentior's Remains from the Dragans was very cool, though it seems highly implausible that he by himself could manage to do it.  And the Nietzschean troops he fights seem pretty inept too; Tyr is just one man!  Lots of nice location filming, though it all looks too modern Earth, and most of the plot is rather generic.  The 'futuristic' motorboat in particular was hard to swallow.  The Dylan-Beka subplot was fun.  I'm shocked that Tyr still had the Remains at the end of the episode, this seems to open a huge can of worms with the Dragans constantly after them.  Up to now I haven't thought much of Tyr, and this episode with him as an amnesiac didn't help, but I did like his final scene where he kills the Niet leader, it was the first scene that he didn't sound bored in.  The regular characters were sorely missed.

1X12    The Mathmatics of Tears 
Plot: Andromeda discovers a lost sister ship the Pax Magellanic with her crew still alive.

Great episode! Being on a High Guard ship again was wonderful, particularly Dylan's reaction to it.  Pierce was a great character.  I really liked getting to see Rommie more and interact with characters like Beka and Rev.  The mystery of what happened to Pax was extremely interesting, and the war-era backstory was very cool.  The Pax romance was also a shocker, very tragic, especially for what it bodes for Dylan and Rommie.  The final shootout with the androids done to Wagner was a beautiful sequence!  My only beef with the episode is that this avatar-Captain thing might be seen as unintentionally sexist.  The 'interpretative dance' avatar was cool and creepy I thought.  The gold-tint to the standing sets made them look very different and unfamiliar.  The CGI continues to improve, and I love the new female High Guard uniforms.  Several continuity references, and best of all they make mention of the annoying character absences.

1X11    The Pearls That Were His Eyes 
Plot: Beka is reunited with an old family friend now head of the largest trading corporation.

Good episode though a tad heavy on exposition.  Loved the low down on the Valentine family history.  I really liked Sid, he was a good guy who's done some nasty things.  DeLancie was a great choice, and really livened up all the exposition he had.  I particularly like that he was never 'evil' and always willing to help Beka.  Since he's now in charge of the largest trading corporation I fully expect him to become an important part of the show.  The early Beka Trance fluff was a little forgettable.  The entire episode is filled with funny little lines.  Love the scene where Beka is 'Flashed', great performance, plus she questions Trance's origins.  The subplot was fun, and of course it's nice to see them having repair problems for realism.  The city CGI looked very lame; since this episode was supposed to go before "Neptune" I think this should be the last of that sort of thing.  As for Beka getting the message three years later, I'm sure Trance was behind it, it's not a plot hole especially since Sid questioned it so often throughout the episode.

1X10    All Great Neptune's Ocean 
Plot: Tyr is framed for the assassination of a President.

Excellent bottle show that presents an interesting murder-mystery and a great political-ethical dilemma.  This is precisely the type of episode that I hope to see in this series, dealing with interesting and realistic political dilemmas involving the horrors of war.  I was never bored despite the lack of action; in fact the brief action sequence felt like an unnecessary intrusion into the episode and should have been snipped.  I like that the murderer did it for a good selfless reason, and I appreciate the detail in the investigation.  I didn't have a huge problem with the alien makeup as others did since they're not aliens but genetically-enhanced humans.  The CGI looks about twice as sharp, which was a welcome surprise.  The white High Guard dress uniforms looked better than the other two ones.

1X9    A Rose in the Ashes 
Plot:  Dylan and Rommie are held on a prison planet while the rest attempt to rescue them.

Not much to make it special.  All the prison planet stuff is pretty cliched and most of it is pretty embarrassing, though they did do a little analysis of the society which was nice.  I particularly gotta wonder about a co-ed prison; wouldn't the women get raped all the time?  About the only particularly good thing about it was the Warden AI.  While Jessa was an interesting character Kae-Lee definitely was not.  The most interesting stuff was Rommie and the nature of her being separated from the ship.  The rescue subplot wasn't very spectacular either though I loved that Trance used her mysterious abilities to locate the world; and that final scene where she guesses random chance was just disturbing.  I'm also annoyed that Dylan saved the day on the ground against all odds I really would've preferred him being rescued for once.  At least there was some nice location shooting with several extras, though I was hoping for some big action.

1X8    The Banks of the Lethe
Plot:  While studying the black hole he was lost in, Dylan is reunited with his fiance Sara.

A wonderfully tragic and touching ending is marred by practically an entire episode of scientific technobabble.  It's a shame so much of the episode was about the science rather than the tragedy of the Dylan-Sara relationship.  Plus Wolfe promised us no teleportation!  Ah well... Sara was an excellent character very well acted, I hope we can see her again sometime.  The Perseids were very interesting characters I look forward to seeing them again; plus Dylan got his first Commonwealth nation to sign in!!  Interesting to see a pro-CW Nietzschean and the flashback to a Magog attack where Dylan and Sara first meet.  The Nietzschean attacks seemed a bit forced in for some action.  That final scene between Dylan and Sara was very sweet and touching.

1X7    The Ties That Blind 
Plot:  Beka's brother arrives involved in a Restorian attack.

Great episode full of action and plot twists, though so many the episode is pretty difficult to follow.  Rafe Valentine was a pretty interesting character, mainly for the many plot twists about his true intentions.  There's a lot of great universe building going on as we are introduced to the Wayists, the Free Trade Alliance, and the Restorians.  The Restorians are very interesting though I'd like to hear more about their philosophy... and we learn they were the DMZ attackers!  And the raiders from the last three years!  Very interesting.  The Restorian attack on Andromeda was extremely clever, but Dylan's counter-solution was nothing short of brilliant.  I was shocked but it all made sense on a second viewing, brilliant thinking on the writers' behalf.  The Tyr-Trance partnership was a hoot, though Trance crying "hee-haw!" bordered on stupidity.  Rommie arguing with herself was an absolute hoot!  Can't wait to see more from the Restorians, the Wayists, and the FTA.

1X6    Angel Dark, Demon Bright 
Plot:  Trance sends Andromeda back in time to the final critical battle between the Commonwealth and Nietzscheans.

This was a great episode!  I particularly like how all the characters do shocking things that we normally wouldn't expect, most especially Dylan of all people killing 100,000 Nietzscheans.  The whole time travel paradox thing was great.  Wish we saw more of Dylan's comrade Yeshgar.  Harper gleefully plotting the Nietzschean genocide then possibly intending to kill Trance was particularly cool and shocking- I love his dark side!  Of course the episode is really about Trance and her secrets; she intentionally took them back to affect the war.  I really love how there's this whole secret plot going on beneath the surface of the actual episode.  Particularly disturbing is when she hypnotizes Tyr who was planning to warn the Nietzscheans and murder Trance.  Very cool stuff.  The FX on Rommie fighting then torching the Niet fleet was absolutely great, the best we've seen yet.  The engine room looked absolutely amazing!

1X5    Double Helix 
Plot: Andromeda encounters Nietzschean pirates who Tyr attempts to bond with.

Decent episode that really explains the Neitzschean mindset, though I was very disappointed that Tyr never actually betrayed Dylan.  I especially loved the scene where the Nietzs immediately shoot the first drop pod and Tyr negotiates by holding a hostage.  The flashback of Rhade explaining Neitzschean nature to Dylan intercut with the Nietzs on the colony was absolutely brilliant.  Once again Rhade is a brilliant character and this was a beautiful speech, especially with the bit about cheating all these years and the subtle warning about the betrayal.  Absolutely wonderful to see Rhade again.  Also good to see the Than established as a major post-collapse power (the makeup looks much better but it still needs MAJOR improvement) who recognizes Dylan.  I can't wait to see more of this, just how much help are they going to give him?  Supplies?  A crew?  Once again the ending is very clever where Dylan outthinks his foes in an ingenious way.  Finally Tyr gets to display some character, this goes a far way towards explaining his character, I just wish he didn't have to be so neutral in tone.  I was a little disappointed we didn't get to see a big fight with the Than fleet though.

1X4    D Minus Zero 
Plot:  Andomeda is attacked by an unseen enemy causing dissention in the ranks.

Great action-packed episode, perfect for an early episode.  The naval combat is both interesting and exciting, in fact I think I prefer these tactical readouts to the CGI of ships blasting away at each other.  I also love the submarine/stealth aspects of it as well, and the mystery of who they were fighting.  Also inter spaced with this were necessary and logic character builders with Dylan and the rest, most especially with Beka and Tyr.  All good stuff, though I'm a little surprised that Tyr never actually tried to do anything by force.  For the first episode to be filmed it looks surprisingly competent, except for Rommie flipping between being a hologram and not and displaying a lot more emotion than before.  This episode really should have gone before "Lightning".  Can't wait to learn more about this mysterious enemy!

1X3    To Loose the Fateful Lightning 
Plot:  The crew encounters a lost society of CW children who want to use Nova Bombs.

An average episode, not bad but hopefully this will ultimately be one of the series' weakest episodes.  Children warriors could easily have been a silly idea but it was handled as well as it possibly could have, and the performances were excellent.  However the whole situation with the radiation and the kids dying young seems a bit strange.  Dylan screwing up through idealism was handled excellently, as was his briefly calling him a messiah- it's good that they think about these things!  The brief chase with the fighters was excellent, I really love the tactical readouts.  The kids boarded Andromeda way to easily, and Harper's building a human avatar for Rommie seemed way too easy.  Harper's scene about his hatred for Magog could easily have been trite but it was handled excellently.  Can't wait to see the new interaction with human-Rommie.  Of course, this was a poor choice for a first regular episode; they should've focused on the new character dynamic a lot more.

1X2    An Affirming Flame (part 2 of 2) 
Plot:  Dylan fights to reclaim Andromeda while Beka's crew is turned upon by their contractor.

Unfortunately thanks to my local station this was my first episode, and let me just say that at this point I was expecting a piece of crap after all the poor reviews, but I was absolutely blown away by this episode.  It was excellent, fast paced, intriguing, I was glued to the screen for every second.  The 'Die Hard' Dylan half of the episode was great on a pure action level; the fight scenes are absolutely amazing and use wire work to really make them superhuman in scope.  I loved the vast CGI city of Rommie's mind, and the twenty story form of her that kicks Harper out.  I was shocked when Trance was 'killed'.  I was surprised that Dylan used up all his Nova Bombs to escape.  An interesting thing about this episode is the absolute lack of annoying exposition to the point that many things just go explained (for example Tyr briefly throws some kind of boomerang at Dylan but they don't do anything).  Gerentex the Nightsider was perhaps a bit two dimensional, but I thought both the costume and the voice made this a very interesting character.  Dylan's recruitment speech to the Maru crew was very moving, I really can't wait to see the next episode and how these people will interact.  This is going to be a great series!
    Now I'll touch on the more general aspects of the series as I saw them here.  The costumes looked great, though I'm still dissatisfied with the Commonwealth uniforms.  The alien makeup is absolutely astounding, particularly on Rev Bem, who just has an absolutely amazing look.  The holographic effect on Rommie looks wonderful.  What little CGI I saw looked wonderful, perhaps not as good as Farscape, but still excellent (and there weren't any battles in this episode so this very preliminary).  The sets looked wonderful, better than Babylon 5's.  On to the characters.  I like Dylan, he's a great heroic figure with a goal, I like his idealistic personality, though he was a bit cliched in hero-speak sometimes when he was 'Die Hard'ing the ship.  Beka made a good impression, though she didn't get any characterization at all.  Rommie is a great character, she was basically giving exposition but there was something really cool about her, her stature and line delivery.  Tyr was not at all like I expected, he looks innocent and bored, this will take some getting used to, but he's still good.  Rev Bem was a particular standout, not only in the costume and makeup but in performance and that wonderful voice, and the whole philosophizing Magog angle.  I didn't think I would like Trance, but she came off very well, very energetic performance, and I'm interested in her secrets.  I didn't think I'd like Harper either but the performance really sold the character, his lines could have sounded stupid but instead they sound very witty.

1X1    Under the Night (part 1 of 2) 
Plot: Captain Dylan Hunt is betrayed by the Nietzscheans and trapped in time until he is discovered by salvagers.

Overall I'd have to say that I like "Flame" more, but this is still very good.  The first half with the Nietzshean betrayal was some great epic stuff, particularly the amazing fight between Dylan and Rhade.  It's a real shame he got killed because Rhade was a great multi-faceted character, this Nietzschean stuff is extremely interesting.  What little space battle FX we saw looked pretty cool, not amazing but good.  The alien makeup jobs were pretty bad unfortunately, especially Dawn.  It was great to see the ship full of crew, and I officially love those uniforms.  Unfortunately the second half is almost pure filler aside from just introducing the Maru crew.  They free the ship and land on it, that's about it.  It's also a shame that we didn't see any of Rommie's fabled defense systems.  And those huge battle bots looked very silly.  Dylan's reaction to learning the truth was a bit overdone I think, though I really like his speech to the Maru crew.  Rev's makeup job is definitely a step down from the one in "Flame", and Gerentex wasn't very intimidating or interesting in this episode.  If I saw this episode first, I probably wouldn't have been as excited as the series as I was with "Flame".