Amusements 11/25/2000 • j********o@***.com 26/11/2000 00:00:000 UTC Andromeda rules! I really love that show. Good solid TV: intelligent plots, clever dialogue, neat characters. Tyr is great, Rev Bem is cool, 'Rami herself is neat, Captain Hunt, Chance (the girl with the tail) and Harper are interesting too, now that we're getting to know them. The weak link is Lisa "Perky Tracy" Rider as Beka Valentine: she just can't be anything but perky - she's not bad or annoying, but she has no range. Last week, with Beka's brother, was less great than usual, partly because of her primary role! Great Chance scene two weeks ago: when she finds Tyr trying to betray them and talks him out of (hypothetically) killing her the moment she turns her back! I'm enjoying how they're filling in the gaps bit by bit. (Much of the background is probably available at their web site, but I prefer watching it unfold.) The mystery of what the huge c. 10,000 "C.Y." dates on the modestly pompous opening quotes mean: the obvious guess was always, "Commonwealth Year," yet human characters 300 years after the Nietzschian Revolt (Nietzschian Tactial Offensive, if you prefer) make historical references to Harley Davidson Motorcyles, the Confederate States of America (assuming the South doesn't Rise Again!), etc.. Dumb writing? A layer of translation from an alien culture? Nope. In the latest episode, Hunt assists alien scientists, explaining: "The Perseid (race) sponsored Humanity's entrance into the Commonwealth..." (hence we owe them and it's important to get them as allies). So Humanity weren't among the founders, as they are in Trek's Federation, and the Commonwealth needn't be set 10,000 years from now - Hunt may have been born as soon as 2100 AD, and the series set as soon as 2400 AD (we know that we need to allow time for the Nietzschians to be created and to reach a population of billions by the time of the Rebellion: a century and a half might be adequate). This ties in with the alien script they write in: mankind assimilated into the Commonwealth. They also cleared up what the present date is, which illuminates the context of the quotations: 10,080 C.Y.. They've also explained a few political realities: the Thann (bugs like Hunt's original pilot) got through the Fall pretty well (as it was a Human-Nietzschian civil war, that makes sense), and have an Empire. There's a Kingdom of the Nightsiders (that foxy fellow who financed the salvage of Andromeda was one). In the final battle of the Rebellion, as the last 100 High Guard ships were decimated, they did heavy damage to the ships of the dominant Drago Pride - this set up a struggle for dominance that prevented the Nietzschians from replacing the Commonwealth with an Empire of their own, resulting in the present chaos. Incidentally, at the end of the most recent episode, the aforementioned Perseids become the first planet to sign onto the new Commonwealth charter (they seem to be a modest planet of scientists, but it's a fitting start). The show's really won my heart: it was nice seeing *friendly* guests populating poor empty Andromeda; it was also a pleasure seeing (in the time-travel episodes) a High Guard crew and a loyal Nietzschian again: they made me like them - I didn't want to do it! You remember all the mediocre time-travel/predestination episodes New Trek did? (Probably not, since they were often very forgettable, but do you recall there being a lot - too many?) I would have thought that the concept had been so over-used and emasculated by Wimp Trek that it would have to lay fallow for a LONG time, yet Andromeda has just pulled off their *second* great episode of that sort! (Separated by only two weeks, even!) In a way, Andromeda reminds me of Old Trek, in that the genius doesn't necessarily lie in *what* they do, rather, in *how* they do. Old Trek could take an occasionally just plain ridiculous basic plot, add likeable characters, great acting, dialogue, plotting, music, and produce a great episode. Picard and Co. just as often did the reverse, ruining an intriguing premise (in fact, in all their many seasons, there were really just two perfect pitches, two episodes where there wasn't something annoying I had to overlook: "Coming Home," and "All Good Things..." (Borg-haunted Picard visits his family and the final double episode). While Andromeda hasn't come anywhere near a "Miri," or "The Empath," they seem to be almost deliberately stealing weak premises from New Trek and executing them with pinache, drama, and ingenuity, as if to show how they *should* have been done (I suspect the producer pulled a lot of hair out watching STNG, and he's now getting his glorious revenge!) For example, when the girl with the tail misnavigates the ship into the past - a typically New Trekish freak situation which should have been absurd and annoying, yet was handled so well and allowed such an interesting, charming, and poignant episode that it didn't raise a single heckle. Win the heart and the mind will make allowances. Of course, I'm not impartial on Old Trek: I remember discussing this with Ralph, and since he, being a Great Old One, was in his teens when Old Trek first ran, he had a more sophisticated and skeptical science-fictional outlook (the cut-off date must precede my eldest brother's 1960 birthdate). Since I grew up on Trek re-runs (hiding behind the couch when any of the many scary monsters appeared - the Gorn included!), it's ingrained in my psyche - indeed, my values derive largely from Trek. Still, I think I would have loved it at any age, given my dramaturgical tastes: it's part of the true Golden Age of TV that produced the Fugitive, Ben Casey, etc., which are great for much the same qualities. Indeed, the science-fictional aspects of Old Trek were never its strong points: I can't imagine any other show getting away with anything as intrinsically idiotic as "Yangs," and "Cooms," and a reading of the Preamble to the Constitution! yet on Trek it's not merely palatable but glorious. (Aside within an aside: a TV reviewer was comparing the "big moment" of a Fugitive episode with that of today's remake: in the latter, it's a terrifying stunt or devastating explosion; in the former, David Jansen crouching against a door in a tiny, dark room, or torn between his own safety and a moral obligation to a stranger, or sweating it out as a stranger decides whether to betray him...) Supposedly, younglings feel somewhat about New Trek as I do about Old, but there's no real comparison. Two good EFC's in a row too! Gorno • j********o@***.com 28/11/2000 00:00:000 UTC They never have said exactly *which* three galaxies the Commonwealth spanned: they've referred explicitly to the Milky Way and Earth, and presumably Andromeda. According to my primary astro text, the other major galaxy of the Local Group is Maffei I, which is somewhat farther away than Andromeda, but I can't seem to determine where in the sky it's found (it's not M81, in Ursa Major, I don't think). Doc? See also my contemporaneous posting on "Surprising Local Cluster Fact," (so titled as to avoid confusion with the TV show Andromeda). Maffei I and the Milky Way are similarly sized, at 200 Billion stars, while Andromeda is 50% heavier, at 300 Billion. Presumably, the Commonwealth also included all the satellite galaxies, of which M33 and the LMC are the largest (40 and 25 Billion stars, respectively). In article <2*************.*****.********5@n**-**.***l.com>, j********o@***.com (JohnGorno) writes: >I'm enjoying how they're filling in the gaps bit by bit. ... The mystery of what the >huge c. 10,000 "C.Y." dates on the modestly >pompous opening quotes ...They also cleared up what the present date is, which >illuminates the context of the quotations: 10,080 C.Y.. One quote dates from 10,087 C.Y., seven years later: I have to see if I have it on tape to see if it presages anything. I really have to archive the show when it gets rerun (ditto for EFC season 1, which will eventually be syndicated to the Sciffy Channel). Little tidbits: I'd assumed that Slipstream was a typical hyperspace, but they recently referred to "jumps," making up legs of a trip - this may be a limitation only on small ships like the one they were discussing? Also, they've mentioned that a besieged world had been "cut off from the Slipstream." Curious. They can only enter Slipstream some distance away from a mass, but there don't seem to be jump points, as used by Pournelle's Alderson Drive. Of course, they have hellacious engines, so a few A.U. aren't much: they've mentioned pulling 40,000 G's and hitting 40% of lightspeed. Yeah, baby! If you're gonna extrapolate, extrapolate large, or, as Bender said, "If I'm not gonna catch a fish, I might as well not catch a BIG fish!" We'd seen a Perseid ("chin head") in the previous episode as well. They haven't spelled out exactly how omnipresent Andromeda's internal awareness is: is she like a cute version of HAL, eavesdropping on everything? (That would make conspiracies a lot less interesting!) She responds to her name, and popped up on screen to thank a guest for an unexpected compliment, so she certainly can eavesdrop: perhaps she can only monitor a few locations at once (we've seen her arguing with herself, but could she hold two simultaneous conversations?) Of course, since she's sweet on Dylan, one of her eyes is probably always on him... Does she even really need a crew or captain?! As long as her service bots are functional, the only thing she can't do is navigate slipstream (she also doesn't seem to be able to operate remote fighters effectively). (From Earlier:) >They've referred >to "the King of the Nightsiders," but haven't described the actual extant >political situation: are there local warlords and kingdoms that might resist >aggressors like the Magog, or is there just chaos? which is answered by: >a struggle for dominance that prevented the Nietzschians from >replacing the Commonwealth with an Empire of their own, resulting in the >present chaos. Also, they've said that the Magog usually pass through like locusts, so they aren't conquerers so much as pests. They've added the "Free Trade Association" to the list of extent political entities, as well as a significant eco-terrorist group, the Restorians, determined to end space travel. >This ties in with the alien script they write in: mankind assimilated into the >Commonwealth. Also the Way-ist movement. A while back, I posited that, eventually, globalization might produce a synthesis of world religions into a unified faith: a weird mutated mix of what we would regard as unreconcileable tenets (in fact, I should have realized that Dune was talking about exactly the same thing, although without expounding my premise of prolonged planetary isolation prior to the interstellar age). One imagines that the Way has absorbed Earth religion (Rev Bem has mentioned various elements of Earth mysticism and philosophy). Incidentally, I wonder if "Rev" is a title, (of obvious origin!) rather than a personal name. The holy man from last week had a first and last name, but Bem addressed him with the title "Serenity." Kudos to whoever thought up the Way-ists: now that I think about it, their analogy to medieval monks is obvious, yet apt - troubled times have always stimulated the monastic impulse, and this is another Dark Age, after all. Gorno Speaking of mixing, I always assumed that the now disfavored term miscegenation meant "bad birth," (I was construing it as mis-genation) until I actually considered the spelling: it's misce-genation, "mixed birth." My elderly dentist once explained that "what was once called miscegenation" can cause a mismatch between the sizes of the offspring's dental root bed and jaw, or some such, and it imprinted in my mind that he qualified it as a socially disapproved word with a tainted history. Hey, I haven't posted anything for a while, and I'm not exactly forcing you to read! • s******j@f****.**o.com 28/11/2000 06:15:37 UTC On 26 Nov 2000 09:27:04 GMT, JohnGorno wrote: >Andromeda rules! I really love that show. Good solid TV: intelligent plots, The time travel episode they just ran was pretty good. The explanation of time travel wasn't totally insulting; their writers (or science consultant) were on the ball! (Heck, I just suggested quantum entanglement as a fix for a logical problem in a story ms I'm reading for someone.) I don't know if I'll commit to keep watching it, because it has been running far too "patchily" in the Bay Area. Keeps getting bumped for this or that. I'd feel I was always playing catch-up. Like in that last episode; there seemed to be some missing characters. Did the crew of ship get trimmed down? I seem to remember a bat-faced guy and the perky annoying immortal chick. Dead? Resting? Stefan -- +-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-+ SeJ@ay-oh-el-dot-com ~ stefanj@eye-oh-dot-com http://www.io.com/~stefanj/ CHARGES APPLIED FOR UNSOLICITED COMMERCIAL EMAIL! • j********o@***.com 05/12/2000 05:26:43 UTC In article <2*************.*****.********5@n**-**.***l.com>, j********o@***.com (JohnGorno) writes: >Andromeda rules! I believe their mini-rerun season starts next week: I am going to take the extraordinary step of taping and archiving it (rare praise indeed!). Give it four episodes to see past the cliches. A penetrating letter to TV Guide, re: The X-Files, ending with the declaration that it has "become a bloated corpse." Gorno