Seamus Zelazny Harper is the engineer techno whiz-kid onboard the Andromeda Ascent and the only member of the crew born and raised on Earth, although Earth is now a wasteland plagued by famine, Magog raids and Nietzchean attacks.  We know he has a tormented past, growing up in a refugee camp with his two cousins Declan and Siobhan whom he was very close to.

Their demise through being infested with Magog eggs and ravaged to death left Harper resentful and considerably affected him.  This makes his relationship with both Try and Rev an interesting one, in fact we see Harper defending Rev in The Pearls That Were His Eyes against the Chechin when he calls him a cannibal ("Cannibal...er no.  See he doesn't eat his own kind").  Also as well as witnessing his cousins poignant deaths growing up in a refugee camp has left Harper with a weak immune system.  He has already suffered from triangulum measles and radiation sickness.

Seamus Harper Young Harper is a free man but the boy clearly has a thing for Andromeda.  Having built the body for Rommie he now seems infatuated with her.  He also has an implant on the lower part of his head which seems to allow him to interact with computers.

 

Harper is a confident, sarcastic individual (he gets all the best lines, OK so I'm a little bias) who frequently speaks of his accomplishments but who gets the job done.  In D Minus Zero he was committed to finishing the FMS to the point of collapsing but not until it was completed.  He also knows it will work without testing it "Did I do it right, what am I saying of course I did it right".  Perhaps one reason why Harper uses so much wisecracking humour is to hide his vulnerable side from the rest of the crew.

We frequently see him doing patch-up repairs on the ship and building gadgets that get the crew out of tight situations, he is after all a "freaking genius".  He's the sort of guy who can completely re-build an engine from a paperclip and a couple of old nails, basically a one man version of the A-Team.  However his light hearted and cocky behaviour can be annoying to the rest of the crew members at times.

 
Seamus Harper In addition to being self-assured he his also head strong and a little impetuous at times, in fact if it wasn't for the rest of the crew having to intervening and keep Harper's impulsive nature in check they would have probably all be blown up by one of his solutions already!  Any psychologist would have a field day delving into Harper's anguished past and dealing with his repressed anger.  Beka calls him a little psycho after he floods the Maru's engine tanks with protons.  He wanted revenge against Gerentex after he kills Trance by building a "really big bomb" and seems quite willing to take everyone else on the ship out with him!  His reaction after learning the kids in To Loose The Faithful Lightening have destroyed a Magog solar system is complacent ("I say good on them") and In Dark Angel, Demon Bright he disagrees with Dylan's course of action and is willing to die in order to destroy the Nietzchean fleet as they come out of  slipstream.  He sabotages Andromeda and is confined to quarters.  However in the end they put Harper's plan into action and he builds the fusion catalyst enabling them to  destroy the Nietzchean ships so the High Guard wins the battle of the Witchead.  In this same episode after the Andromeda crew find themselves in the past we also see that Harper is an opportunist "we could corner the market on independent couriership, we know how the next 300 years turnout."

In the "Ties that Bind" we find out that Harper enjoys surfing as he went AWOL to compete in a competition.  He was ranked 48th out of 10,000.

Harper has to admit defeat in "The banks Of Lethe" when he is unable to bring back both Dylan and Sara from the past with his teleportation device he built with the Perseids.  For the first time we see him admitting to his limitations.  He also blows up numerous melons and Walter, Trance's plant in his endeavour to get the machine to work!

Harper definitely has his own philosophy and way of thinking.  Click here to see some of his more memorable quotes:-

 

 

 

 

Photographs on this page are copyright 2000, Tribune Entertainment Company

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