Cracks form when Valentine's
fragmented salvage crew tries to take the Andromeda by force -- and the
ship's sentient computer make preparations to stop them.
IN BRIEF
I wouldn't call it riveting,
but it's slightly better-executed than part one, and comes packaged with
a palatable mission statement.
(originally aired the
week of October 9, 2000)
Written by Robert Hewitt
Wolfe
Directed by Brenton Spencer
| A Marriage of Equals |
| BEKA VALENTINE: We're not saluting you, and we're not calling you "captain." |
DYLAN HUNT: Dylan. Dylan will be fine. |
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GUEST STARS
John Tench - Gerentex
RATING (OUT OF FOUR)
***
ANALYSIS
Warning: This review
contains significant spoilers. If you haven't seen the episode yet, beware.
The argument can definitely
be made that "Under the Night" and "An Affirming Flame" could easily have
been a single two-hour premiere (and perhaps viewers might even have been
better served that way, but no matter). Episode 2 clearly belongs more
to Episode
1 than to itself.
Overall, I think "Flame"
works a little better than "Night" because it comes packaged with the general
series mission statement, without which no pilot episode is really complete.
We also get a chance to get more familiar with the characters' behavior
in the midst of the show's action.
Like "Night", this is not
a great hour of television but instead a reasonably entertaining, not-too-serious
one. I'm interested in who these characters might become under the circumstances
of the show's newly established premise, but I also don't yet see tons
of originality.
Swashbuckling space action
The end of "Under the Night"
left us hanging with Nietzschean
mercenary Tyr
Anasazi menacingly bringing in the Big Guns to clean house onboard
the Andromeda Ascendant. Within the first few seconds of "An Affirming
Flame", the guns come out blazing as Anasazi mows down Andromeda's security
drones on his way to the bridge. Of course, the nice thing about robotic
opponents is that they can be involved in action scenes and indiscriminately
destroyed, decapitated, etc., and since they're robots that are not "killed"
we thus have PG-level "action" without actual "violence." (The Phantom
Menace employed this insight at length.)
The fight scenes here resemble
the stylized action of Hercules or Xena, especially when
Captain Hunt, armed with his trusty force-lance, faces off against the
bad guys. There are a couple scenes here that feature Force-Lance
Fun [TM pending], and I enjoyed them on their level of stylized choreography.
This sort of action is hard to take very seriously (which is obviously
beside the point, since, just to show off, a female mercenary android does
an amusingly gratuitous front walkover while moving toward Hunt to kick
him around some more), but it's fun.
Based on these first two
episodes, it appears choreographed fight scenes will be an Andromeda
staple along the lines of Hercules -- or, for that matter, Star
Trek: TOS. (Although I didn't understand what Anasazi's flying disc-blade
things were suppose to accomplish during one fight scene.)
Meet the Magnificent Seven
Aside from the Die Hard-like
cat-and-mouse games early in the episode, the plot of "Flame" serves to
slightly flesh out some of the characters' personalities and to separate
Valentine and her crew from their slimy employer, Gerentex (John
Tench). It's not too long before Valentine begins to wonder if maybe they're
on the wrong side in this battle for control of the ship. Let's face it:
Gerentex is a first-class jerk. He doesn't just want the ship; he also
wants Hunt tracked down and killed. When Trance
(our resident space cadet) vocally disagrees with Gerentex and says she
quits, Gerentex shoots her and leaves her for dead. Nice guy.
Personalities begin to emerge
after Trance is "killed." Valentine reveals her captainly qualities
in taking responsibility for those under her command, as well as maintaining
the role of leader and calm voice of reason as she solicits opinions for
action from her crew.
Harper shows that
he's the young hothead ready for revenge against Gerentex ("I say we kill
him!"), and seems quite willing to take everybody out ("I was thinking
a *really* big bomb") if given the opportunity.
Rev Bem still gets
my vote for most complex character so far. He's religious and philosophic,
and when he speaks, there's a definite air of wisdom and experience behind
the voice. He offers Harper a word of caution on traveling down the road
of violence, which is not a new theme, perhaps, but still an honorable
one.
Anasazi, the head
mercenary, is a laconic, introspective man of mystery who projects most
of his thoughts here through glances and calm stares. He clearly doesn't
respect Gerentex but is still going to do his job as best he can. His hope
is to prove his value so he can be accepted in Nietzschean society. (The
idea of a subset of humanity being Nietzschean -- and apparently primarily
anti-Commonwealth -- is an intriguing one that screams of future development.)
When Gerentex realizes he's
not going to be able to steal the Andromeda from underneath Dylan Hunt,
he decides to return with the reluctant Harper to the Eureka Maru and push
the Andromeda into the black hole ("If I can't have the Andromeda, no one
will"). This is what forces the alliance between Hunt and Valentine's crew
aboard the Andromeda -- and ultimately also Anasazi, who is left stranded
with everyone else when Gerentex flees. They must work together to figure
out how to escape the black hole before they're sucked into it.
Meanwhile, Gerentex has Harper
try to hack into Andromeda herself, using a link Harper plugs directly
into his skull, like the characters in Johnny Mnemonic. This leads
to the show's most ingenious special effects sequence, in which we see
Harper trying (and failing) to poke around inside Andromeda's
mind, which promptly kicks him out. (The sequence somehow reminded
me of Tron.)
~
Captain courageous
Like part one, "Affirming
Flame" is pretty fast-paced. Crises are resolved quickly and simply. I'm
no physics expert, but the solution to Hunt's black-hole problem strains
credulity (essentially coming down to "let's blow it up with huge bombs!"),
and before we know it, Dylan & Co. are off to the next crisis, tracking
down Gerentex to retrieve Valentine's stolen ship, the Eureka Maru.
In the midst of these events,
the episode does a few things for staking out some territory for Hunt's
character and actions. He's a fair negotiator, but one with an edge; he
agrees to help Valentine get her ship back, but only if she agrees to a
condition that he refuses to name until later.
Hunt also rejects the notion
of helplessness, as when people die on his watch, even if not under his
control. When Andromeda reassuringly tells him that there was nothing he
could've done to prevent bad results, he doesn't accept it. Kevin Sorbo's
performance gets the job done, though it seems the story hasn't yet put
great demands on him.
But he does get to deliver
the series' mission statement. He intends for the fallen Commonwealth to
live on through his ship -- and he'd like to try to restore an ideology
that apparently no longer exists. He intends to seek out others who might
want to help change the world for the better. He starts with the crew of
the Eureka Maru by inviting them onto his ship to serve as his crew.
The idea is essentially one
of finding something more meaningful and constructive in life rather than
living from one uncertain score to the next. It's about thinking big and
grand and doing something difficult, because the hard tasks are usually
the one worth doing. I tend to think that's a pretty universal theme in
our society, one we as individuals like to think we'll live by before our
lives are over (though not always to be followed through on), and it's
one I certainly can live with as a starting point for this series.
Some rough edges
Of course, "An Affirming
Flame" is far from perfect. I for one didn't find much use in seeing Trance
shot and killed only so she could be brought back to life under uncertain
off-screen circumstances. (As Andromeda puts it, not able to explain it
herself, Trance was dead, and then "she got better.") This served to advance
the story through the other characters' responses to her death. Obviously
it wasn't intended as a dramatic surprise, since you don't kill off one
of your regular characters in Episode 2. But it's still an odd chain of
events that ends with Trance's less-than-riveting reappearance. I'm not
sure what it was supposed to mean, if anything.
The point seems to be to
make Trance something of an unpredictable mystery. We know nothing more
about her now than we did after "Under the Night," and from the looks of
things, that's
intentional. Unfortunately, that still makes her the least compelling
character on the ensemble. Her ditzy personality so far is not capturing
my attention.
I also really could've done
without Gerentex's overwrought villain antics. Tench plays the part so
far over the top that Gerentex becomes an absurd cartoon character. Restraint
would've been advisable here. Sure, Gerentex is a creep and a fountain
of deceit, but that can be portrayed without resorting to the kinds of
excess we end up with here. The way he was portrayed in "Under the Night"
worked better -- in this episode, he careens out of control until he seems
like the star of his own Saturday-morning cartoon show (Teenage Mutant
Ninja Nightsiders?).
By the end of "An
Affirming Flame" we have an established premise and initial goals that
are not too far from both Gene Roddenberry's and Rick Berman's reigns over
Star Trek. The idea of exploring the unknown, of course, parallels the
original Trek concept. The concept of several overlapping/clashing societies
and a diverse set of characters is reminiscent of Deep
Space Nine. And the notion of a ship stranded out of its element
with characters of varying agendas is similar to the early stages of Voyager.
Given the mystery of the
once-powerful and now-uncertain Commonwealth, an abundance of mysterious
societies with different values, and a chaotic universe with no overriding
sense of structure (apparently), the elements are here to make Andromeda
a good exploration series with its own interesting, original mythos. The
elements are also here for a routine revisit to the heavily mined Star
Trek concept. Which will it be? Only time will tell.
TUNE IN NEXT WEEK
Children of the Commonwealth?
Find out, in "To Loose the Fateful Lightning".
Copyright 2000 Jamahl
Epsicokhan. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction or distribution
of this article is prohibited.
Andromeda is clearly
staking out new territory. Love it or hate it, let
us know.
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