Shooting has started on Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda.

In another exclusive SPACE.com Dispatch From Andromeda, Don Lipper speaks with co-executive producer and head writer Robert Hewitt Wolfe about the series’ maiden voyage and how it compares to the old days on Deep Space Nine.
 

Kevin Sorbo Is Definitely Dylan HUNT

"When it became clear that we could use that name and it wouldn't be problematic in any way, we said, 'it's Gene's name, why not?' "

"Kevin is doing really great stuff with Hunt."

	More Stories
	Dispatches from TV's 'Andromeda' - Military Intelligence
	Dispatches from 'Andromeda' - The Nietzscheans
	Sneak Peek: Robert Wolfe Talks Gene Roddenberry and 'Andromeda'
	'Andromeda' Going Beyond the Federation Frontier
	Related Links
	Tribune Entertainment
	Roddenberry Productions
	Andromeda

SPACE.com: So you’re shooting now. Tell me what that’s like.

Robert Hewitt Wolfe: It’s great! The dailies are looking really, really good. Kevin’s been terrific. He totally inhabits the role and the rest of the cast is doing great work too. Not that I had much to do with the quality of the dailies, the credit goes to Allan Eastman and Brenton Spencer, the first two directors.

SC: Have there been surprises?

RHW: We’ve had the usual little glitches but the biggest surprise has been that we’ve have far less of them than you might expect, starting out a new show. It’s been a pleasant surprise how smoothly things have gone.

SC: How is it different when it’s your baby?

RHW: Deep Space Nine to a certain extent was my baby too. I tend to be pretty emotionally involved regardless. (Laughs) The pressure is a little higher. The pride may be a little more significant. But television is a collaborative medium, so no one person takes all the credit and no one person gets all the blame. And right now it’s been credit.

SC: Have you been on the set most days?

RHW: The set is about 30 feet from my office. I go down there and then I go back here to write. I haven’t been on the set constantly. I just haven’t had the time, to be honest.

SC: Have there been things that worked on the page but not the stage?

RHW: Not in a negative way. Most of the stuff that has been on the page has been working quite well on the stage. There’s been times when you see opportunities, but that’s what making a TV show is all about. You watch it and you see what’s working and see "maybe I can play a little more with that, there’s some chemistry there." But basically we’ve been getting what we wanted which is really nice.

SC: You worked on the first five seasons of DS9. As with all series it takes a while to figure out what’s working with different characters. What did you learn from the first five years on DS9 that you applied to designing and molding the characters on Andromeda?

RHW: It was like basic training in a lot of ways. Especially because 26 episodes a year was quite a fast pace. I was working with good people. I went from theory to practice on Deep Space Nine. You learn to try to lay good groundwork. Interesting characters tend to have a life of their own and they create situations. So the richer you create your characters right from the start, the better off you are in the long run.

SC: Originally Sisko was defined as "I’m mourning for my wife and I don’t want to be here." Then he evolved into a swashbuckling pirate kind of captain. In that first season, did you know that’s where you were going to go or did it evolve?

RHW: I think it evolved. Once an actor inhabits a role they bring a certain amount of themselves or their own persona or their own take on the character. You examine what they’re doing and you see what’s working and you try to enhance the things that are working and move away from things are not working. But most of the time it’s like "wow that’s cool, let’s do more of that." Avery [Brooks’] personality and take on the character definitely lent itself to that strong, maverick type officer who in difficult situations tries very hard to figure out what the right thing and then commits himself to do it. Sisko evolved into a pretty complex character actually.

SC: So let’s talk about Dylan Hunt, what lessons from Sisko could you apply to Dylan?

RHW: I think a lot of it is the ability to be flexible and see what’s working. Kevin is doing really great stuff with Hunt. But in series television you have to be flexible so that you don’t get wedded to something if it’s not working. And you can spot something nice, even if it doesn’t fit in to your original game plan. You have to surf a little bit. It’s a little bit of an exercise in Zen.

SC: "Dylan Hunt" was the name in two other Roddenberry pilots. Why was the name kept?

RHW: All writers have things that they really like. Gene liked that name. He used it a lot as he was developing things. He was using it again when he was making his original notes and we played around with keeping Dylan and changing his last name.

SC: Like "Jericho"?

RHW: "Jericho" and "Sheppard". But when it became clear that we could use that name and it wouldn’t be problematic in any way, we said, "it’s Gene’s name, why not?"

SC: Have there been anecdotes?

RHW: We shot in an abandoned power plant for the last few days. That was fun. We’ve also been struggling with the Crew Flu. Everyone in the crew seems to have this nasty little flu virus. That’s been the only glitch in the whole process.

SC: What about the Vedrans' costumes? [The alien Vedrans are supposed to resemble centaurs.]

RHW: We haven’t seen any of the Vedrans yet. So we don’t know yet. We’ll see when we get there.

SC: Any challenges ahead? Underwater photography?

RHW: No, not yet. The next two episodes that we are shooting are going to be numbers one and two.

SC: Why are you shooting episode three first?

RHW: So we could get some of the bugs out before we did the premiere episode [...] In case there were things that were going to be troublesome, we could deal with them in episode three instead of episode one. We wanted to put our best foot forward.

SC: Have you ironed out bugs?

RHW: Yeah but there weren’t that many. There was one sort of major one but we’re dealing with it bit by bit. I’ll let you know what it is if you can figure it out when you watch the episode.