Dylan sends Tyr on a mission
to persuade a group of Nietzschean pirates to accept a cease-fire with
their Than enemies, upon which Tyr finds his loyalties put to the test.
IN BRIEF
An informative look at some
Nietzschean beliefs and our one and only Tyr Anasazi.
(originally aired the
week of October 30, 2000)
Written by Matt Kiene &
Joe Reinkemeyer
Directed by Michael Rohl
GUEST CAST
Steve Bacic -- Gaheris Rhade
Dylan Bierk -- Freya
Marion Elfman -- Olma
Paul Johansson -- Guderian
Stuart O'Connell -- Dimitri
RATING (OUT OF FOUR)
***
ANALYSIS
Warning: This review
contains significant spoilers for Andromeda episode "Double Helix".
If you haven't seen the episode yet, beware.
"Double Helix" tries to do
a lot of things and does many of them well. It's not really about its plot;
it's a tapestry of backstory, torn loyalties, and effective character study.
It's not the most riveting story ever told, but it does get us into the
heads of a few major players.
Tyr Anasazi. He had
one line in "Under
the Night" and was primarily a large, nondescript menace in "Affirming
Flame." In "D
Minus Zero" he was laconic and direct. Now we get more into the character's
head. He has a lot of dialogue -- outright speeches -- and interaction
with other characters. And what's most interesting is that we're not sure
whose side he's really on -- perhaps nobody's. It can be rightly said that
his first duty is to himself.
In the course of "Double
Helix," we begin to get an understanding for why that is. The plot for
this episode is not fundamentally interesting -- involving a murky skirmish
between the Than
(the bug-like aliens, improved in design since the pilot) and a band of
Nietzschean
pirates who have access to a powerful long-range weapon onboard an asteroid
installation. What is interesting is how the plot tells the story of Nietzschean
beliefs while bringing Tyr's past and present into the picture.
As their name indicates,
the Nietzscheans take philosophy seriously, but they're also very fragmented
as a people. Factions fight other factions when vying for power; the result
is that people grow up like Tyr, lacking a place in life and ending up
with an individualized mission of self-survival. The overall question:
Can Tyr carve out a place for himself aboard the Andromeda? The opportunity
of this week: Can Tyr carve out a place for himself with this group of
Nietzschean pirates?
Tyr is ostensibly working
on Dylan's behalf to bring these Nietzscheans into Dylan's new Commonwealth.
Dylan hopes that, in finding
people in desperate situations like this, he might be able to convince
them to join his new Commonwealth. Is he a hopeless optimist? I'm not sure,
but if he's hoping to turn people like these into allies, he's got his
work cut out for him. The question isn't whether making enemies into friends
is a good idea; the question is whether it's tenable.
~
Tyr takes a shuttle pod down
to the asteroid to negotiate with the Nietzscheans. The leader of the group
appears to be Guderian, but there's also another, apparently wiser, figure
of authority in Olma, whose role is to give or deny a seal of approval
to would-be fathers based on the purity of their DNA and survival skills.
There's also Freya, a woman who quickly begins to see Tyr as a potential
spouse -- and the feeling's mutual.
To be honest, these particular
Nietzscheans are not all that interesting in themselves. Johansson is wooden
as Guderian, the man whose trust Tyr must earn. The same goes for Bierk's
role as Freya, who exists more as a major plot point for Tyr than a compelling
character.
Fortunately, Tyr is
of real interest here. The situation permits some useful backstory for
our former mercenary, whose past set him up as a loner who may or may not
be allying himself with these Nietzscheans.
As it turns out, this particular
clan are members of a faction that was responsible for the destruction
of his own family and homeworld years ago. He doesn't trust them. They
don't trust him. Consequently, he assures the Andromeda crew that there
is no chance that he would be interested in a place among them. But is
that entirely true?
What's even better conceived
is the crisis of trust that Dylan finds himself facing back aboard the
Andromeda while Tyr (maybe) carries out his mission. Can Tyr be trusted?
There's a prudent Dylan/Rev scene (though a bit heavy-handed with musical
cues) where Dylan wonders if his own anger in having been betrayed by the
Nietzscheans -- who toppled the Commonwealth -- has created in him a prejudice
that may never be conquered.
Really, most of this has
to do with Gaheris Rhade, Dylan's Nietzschean first officer and close friend
who betrayed him (see "Under
the Night") and left him tortured over the possibility that the fall
of the Commonwealth hinged upon his own trust being used against him. There's
an intelligent series of flashbacks involving Dylan and Gaheris playing
a friendly game of 3-D Go while debating the role of love and marriage
as seen through human and Nietzschean sensibilities.
These scenes do a nice job
of revealing the series' take on "Nietzschean" values, where every action
is construed either as a credit or demerit to a man's value to a woman
as a specimen of worthy DNA. Life seems colder and less passionate in this
view, but the point is one of simple logic: Fathering as many children
as possible by as many women as possible is the best bet for immortality
via continuous lineage.
This plays alongside Tyr's
current situation with the Nietzscheans, as he is "chosen" by Freya to
be a husband and father (the Nietzscheans sure don't waste any time getting
down to business). Freya could be a way for Tyr to obtain what he has long
sought -- and there is indeed a sex scene here that is portrayed as very
"Nietzschean" in cause and effect -- while Gaheris' voiceover makes the
valid ideology connections. (The female demographic might drool over the
Tyr Anasazi sex scene, but the idea also fits the story.)
~
All the while, Dylan's problem
is in trusting a Nietzschean again. Indeed, it might be downright foolhardy
to do so under the circumstances. The flashbacks reveal not only the Nietzscheans'
philosophy on reproduction but also their willingness to resort to treachery.
There's a moment in the game of Go where Dylan catches Gaheris cheating
and he says, "It's only cheating if you get caught," in a tone of such
cool indifference that it's chilling.
Not long after that discussion,
Gaheris would try to kill Dylan and seize the Andromeda. It was a forewarning,
and now Dylan suspects history will repeat itself through Tyr. With only
five people onboard the ship, it'd be awfully easy for Tyr to take over
the Andromeda and hand it to the Nietzscheans.
What's kind of neat about
"Double Helix" is how its ending plays like a chess game (or a game of
Go), with Tyr in the middle willing to take whichever side either (a) better
benefits his long-term interests or (b) wins. Tyr is no fool, and plans
for the possibility that Dylan will have a trick up his sleeve that will
make a Nietzschean takeover of the Andromeda impossible.
Indeed, Dylan does, having
rigged the ship to explode (although I must say that his timing is implausibly
perfect, and comes off the heels of some clunky corridor-based fight scenes).
Tyr is able to double-cross Dylan and then immediately double-cross the
Nietzscheans, giving the Commonwealth back the upper hand.
In the end, no one wins because
everyone's interests are incompatible.
With Tyr destroying the Nietzscheans'
cannon, they're left defenseless. This affords Dylan the opportunity to
recommend his Commonwealth to people who are even more desperate now than
before -- but also all the more angry and determined to continue in their
ways. Tyr's quest to become husband and father ends in disappointment;
Freya flees with the Nietzscheans, a group Tyr would never happily have
served under even if he had been successful in his plan to overthrow the
power structure on Andromeda.
Noteworthy is the ambiguous
ending involving Freya, who apparently conceived Tyr's child, but must
now decide whether to abort the pregnancy. On the one hand, the father
is a powerful, worthy opponent; on the other hand, he's a traitor. Perhaps
we'll see more about this down the road.
In the meantime, I'm liking
Keith Hamilton Cobb's riffs on Tyr; he can be calm with an unrevealing
face before suddenly exploding with urgency and emotion and then returning
to calm again. He is quickly becoming one of the show's most interesting
characters, with multiple dimensions, strong opinions, and hidden agendas.
Dylan, as well as the audience,
comes to realize at least one thing: "I trust Tyr to be Tyr."
TUNE IN NEXT WEEK
"Angel
Dark, Demon Bright", featuring Andromeda's first time-travel outing.
Oh wait -- I mean second.
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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