I’m doing an honors history
degree there in early modern history, and I’m hoping to do my Masters out
here, while we’re doing the show.
SPACE.com: What is
early modern history?
LB: It’s debatable
obviously, scholars will debate about it, but the area of my concentration
is European Continental History between 1485 and 1700.
SPACE.com: Is any
of the stuff you’re studying applicable to what you’re doing in Andromeda?
LB: Actually, I’ve
been reading scripts and there’s a lot of stuff they pull obviously from
major themes in history. Like obviously the Nietzcheans, I mean that’s
night and day, you can tell right there. Obviously there’s a lot of philosophy
applied in the scriptwriting. One of the episodes we’re going to be shooting,
actually number 14 is based on a witch trial.
Dylan has to go through a
trial for crimes he doesn’t believe he’s committed. But there’s a whole
element of repent and we will spare you. But there are a lot of undercurrents
of major historical events throughout time that are played up in Andromeda,
just changing, obviously, the immediate circumstances and situations.
SPACE.com: So you
would be going for your masters in the second season?
LB: Not quite yet,
because I’m breaking up my semesters, it’s going to be delayed. So by the
end of next year, 2001, I should be done with my undergrad, and after that
I’m going to apply to do graduate work.
SPACE.com: What do
you think your thesis is going to be, or your area of concentration?
LB: I’m really interested
in religious institutions and just the growth of Europe as nation states
and . . . the reinforcement of hierarchy. It’s the transition from Medieval
to Early Modern and how religious institution really formalized living
and classes and stuff like that. I’m not exactly sure of what I’m gonna
focus on quite yet, cause I’ve been doing huge sweeping research on all
that area.
SPACE.com: Isn’t Andromeda
the story of a man who finds himself in a chaotic environment, who’s trying
to restore order and hierarchy?
LB: Absolutely. I
think he’s trying to re-establish the hierarchy that once was, finding
that chaos in itself is now ruling the day. I think it’s kind of like he’s
in the Restoration, you know? Restoration Europe. He’s trying to find that
which he was so accustomed to.
I don’t know, I think there’s
a lot to be learned from that in the sense that, personally, based on what
I’ve seen, there’s so much tumult that comes from hierarchy. But once you’ve
lived, how many thousands of years, obviously with the Commonwealth having
existed for so long, it’s total chaos now, and it’s very difficult to live
without that order.
SPACE.com: So, do
you think that you’re going to apply any of these thoughts to maybe pitching
a script or pitching ideas?
LB: Oh. I would love
to write. I don’t know if I have the capability to write a script. I’ve
got ideas, but somehow getting them onto paper in a constructive way, there’s
a block there, so I don’t know if I would be the best choice to be the
writer.
SPACE.com: In that
case, can you write a thesis based on a TV show called Andromeda?
LB: I don’t know if
early modern historians would approve. Although, I could say it’s the dawn
of a new civilization.
SPACE.com: Right,
and then you can draw parallels and parallels and parallels.
LB: I guess, although,
I think I’d be called a hack.
SPACE.com: Give [executive
producer] Robert [Hewitt Wolfe] $50.00 to throw in a bunch of references
throughout the series and you’ve got yourself a thesis.
LB: I could cut away
some time from that whole study process. It’s a thought.
Andromeda. It's
here. Are you elated, disappointed, or would you simply like more time?
Let us know.
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