A crippled
Wayist courier ship asks Andromeda for help, reuniting Beka with her older
brother. Rafe Valentine is a master con man, though, so what’s his game?
(First aired during the
week of November 13, 2000)
Story by Ashley Edward Miller
and Zack Stentz
Teleplay by Ethlie Ann Vare
Directed by David Warry-Smith
GUEST STARS
Cameron Daddo – Raphael "Rafe"
Valentine
Brian George – Serenity
Vikram Singh Khalsa
WHAT HAPPENED
Trance is learning martial
arts from Tyr. He’s not impressed by her choice of ki-ai shout – "hi-ho"
isn’t very intimidating. She settles on "hee-hah" instead.
As Beka watches a broadcast
of Harper in a surfing contest on Infinity Atoll, a Wayist courier ship
hails Andromeda. The Om Shanti carries Serenity Vikram Singh Khalsa, and
an attacker has crippled it.
Dylan agrees to bring the
ship aboard. When Khalsa disembarks, Beka gets a surprise: the acolyte
with him is her brother, Rafe Valentine. (spoilers)
ANALYSIS
Well, that settles that.
Beka Valentine isn’t just a salvage ship captain – she’s the proud daughter
of a family of con men and smugglers.
Good for her. Every space
opera needs a good scoundrel, and she has the quick wits and smart mouth
for the job.
Her roguish past also restores
something to her character. When
we first met Beka, she was the confident captain, fully in charge of
her ship and her crew. She lost that when
she joined Dylan’s crew.
For the last few weeks, she’s
been the dispossessed former captain, reacting to Dylan and struggling
with him for power. Since Dylan is firmly in command of his ship, there’s
not much potential to that plot.
This week’s backstory adds
a much-needed dimension to her personality. It differentiates her from
the straight-arrow Dylan Hunt and the self-obsessed Tyr Anasazi. It gives
her an area of expertise besides flying the Maru.
"The Ties That Blind" also
suggests a direction for Beka to grow in. Rev
is right when he comments that Beka and Rafe are very alike, and Beka knows
exactly what Rafe means when he comments on how powerful someone who believes
in their cause can be. Dylan is beginning to infect her with his idealism.
Time like a river
Meanwhile, some continuity
issues are developing. We’ve had seven weeks of Andromeda, but more
time seems to have passed on the show. Tyr refers to "months" since he’s
seen a properly self-motivated act, and Trance
tells him that Dylan has saved their lives "dozens" of times.
Apparently Andromeda’s crew
is already having "untold adventures." That seems a little odd.
These first episodes are
tightly woven, highlighting each crewmember in turn and establishing the
basic relationships between them. It’s jarring to hear references to unseen
events that affect those relationships.
Trance has been surprisingly
loyal to Dylan since "D
Minus Zero", when she was the first to take Dylan’s side against Beka.
Her statement helps explain why, but perhaps it should have come later
in the season, when we would have seen more of these heroics for ourselves.
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK
"Many say living in the Way
is difficult. Is sleeping difficult? Is waking?" – The Collected Works
of Serenity Vikram Singh Khalsa, 301 AFC.
WHAT WE LEARN
Harper
is an expert surfer, taking 48th out of a field of 10,000 at the recent
Pan-Galactic Surfing Championship on Infinity Atoll.
Beka’s family nickname is
"Rocket," or occasionally "Booster Rocket."
There are 223 billion sentients
in this sector of the galaxy.
The ship that attacked Andromeda
in "D Minus Zero" was a Restorian ship. The Restor are radical eco-terrorists
determined to end interstellar colonization by crippling star travel.
The Free Trade Alliance is
one organization opposing the Restorians. They’re considering a full-scale
military action.
UNANSWERED QUESTIONS
Why do the Restorians consider
Andromeda an "abomination?" Is it because she is an AI? Because she’s the
last Commonwealth warship? Or do they hate all starships this much?
How did the footage of Harper’s
surfing get to the Andromeda? It seems to be a news broadcast – are there
couriers dedicated to transmitting sports from system to system?
Was Rafe’s contact a Restorian?
Why did he want Rafe to use the EMP trigger? Khalsa’s nanobots seemed effective
on their own.
REALITY CHECK
The Restorian warships were
detected 1.2 astronomical units away, and were arriving in about an hour.
That means they’re moving at about 20 percent of the speed of light, about
typical for ships in the Andromeda universe. It also implies the
Andromeda’s sensor range is about 10 light-minutes.
TUNE IN NEXT WEEK
Dylan reunites with his lost
fiancée in "The Banks of the Lethe".
Where's Jammer, you ask?
He's been really busy with other projects (not least of which is getting
caught up with his first reviewing love, Star Trek), and so
we've provided this review to give Andromeda fans something to do
while he's digging out -- and to remind them that we
still cover the show.
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