Andromeda
"Harper 2.0"

Airdate: January 29, 2001

Beka and Harper are returning to the Andromeda Ascendant from a shopping trip in the Eureka Maru when a Perseid transfers aboard in some kind of life pod. The alien is in a bad way; in fact, he's dying. Just before he shuffles off his mortal coil, however, he dumps a huge amount of data into Harper's brain via his neural interface (the jack-socket on Harper's neck).

Seamus Harper : When this man starts an intelligent conversation, it's time to worry.

Once back on the Andromeda, Harper starts to act very strangely. The others realise something is wrong when he starts singing She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain in a variety of alien and old Earth tongues that he has never been able to speak, while generally exhibiting an intelligence far beyond his norm. Which is obviously a very scary thing. (Think the moment in the Space: Above and Beyond episode "Eyes" where McQueen knows they've done something to Hawkes because he's making sense... now you've got the idea).

While all this strangeness is going on with Harper, a bounty hunter comes looking for the Perseid accusing him of having stolen property. Dylan, once he has checked the man's arrest warrant, allows him to remove the body. This is not, however, the last they see of this cheap Arnuhld impersonation. (Yeah, you've got it -- he'll be back!)

All the data in Harper's overloaded brain is causing him (not to mention the rest of the Andromeda's crew) a lot of pain. The engineer seems to be losing his marbles big time, and the bounty hunter, having worked out what the Perseid did with his information, is after Seamus' head.

It now falls to Dylan and the others to work out what is going on. They also have to try to find a way to download all the information in Harper's head without killing him and before he totally freaks out on them.

This Harper-centric episode was quite watch-able. There were a lot of quick-fire quips going on in Harper's dialogue, though these unfortunately got more garbled as the show progressed and the character descended ever deeper into psychosis. Gordon Michael Wolvett did a very convincing turn as a nut-case however and just about managed to keep it from being too silly for words. That was, until the character started talking in squeaks and giving Trance meaningful looks.

Of course, everything turned out peachy in the end. Harper found somewhere "big and safe" to store the data and didn't remember any of it once it was removed; Rev Bem got to make a deep and meaningful closing speech about wisdom and the bad guys got their comeuppance -- or did they?

In fact, "Harper 2.0" introduced the first possibly recurring bad guy in the strange being that the bounty hunter was working for. I'm not sure whether this is a good move or not -- this alien was the least convincing in the show so far (and let's face it -- this is the show with Rev Bem), but I guess we'll just have to wait and see where they take things from here.

-- Muriel 'Mogs' Moore

Andromeda airs at 8pm GMT Mondays on Sky One in the UK and is syndicated in North America so check your local listings for show times.

We welcome your comments on The 11th Hour and this review. Please send letters to: letters@the11thhour.com

< Previous Review | Next Review >