Andromeda
"Angel Dark, Demon Bright"

Airdate: November 13, 2000

When an unscheduled stop in the past gives Dylan Hunt and the crew of the Andromeda Ascendant a chance to change the outcome of the battle that ended the Commonwealth, everyone has their own idea about what they should do. Of course, they can't all be right. Dylan has to chose his best option; the lesser of two evils... or does he?

We all know that you don't give the car keys to the kids until they're old/smart enough to cope with the road system, don't we? So how come they've forgotten it in the far flung future?

Live long and... oops, wrong catchphrase.

OK, Tyr's logic can't really be faulted -- with only 6 people to crew a ship the size of the Andromeda, everyone has to pull their weight. But when you're purple and as (let's be nice here) naïve as Trance; pulling your weight should be confined to things like talking to the inhabitants of the hydroponics bay and generally getting on people's nerves. That she can manage.

So, one disastrous driving lesson later, Dylan has the typical Roddenberry-esque big issue to deal with. He knows how the future will turn out, and he has a chance to do something about it. Does he leave well alone, or does he fix things? Of course, then it gets complicated when one of his friends shows up. (Why do they always do that at the most inopportune moment? They're supposed to be your friend aren't they? Don't they know you're busy trying to save the universe, and they're getting in the way, and nothing good can come of it? But I digress.)

The whole thing seemed a little too reminiscent of "City at the Edge of Forever" to me. In fact, there were a lot of things that reminded me of Star Trek. At one point I even thought Rev Bem was going to give Dylan the old "The needs of the many out-weigh the needs of the few, or the one" speech. (Well, let's face it -- he does have the ears for the part).

Things really started to get wacky when ditzy-chick started to out-think Harper, and then out-Nietzchien Tyr while still being an annoying PITA, oh and then skipping off with her tail swinging like a reject from some cute kid's film from the Uncharted Territories. One day, someone's going to stamp on that tail -- just to see if it's where she keeps her brains... (Down Linda, that was not permission, it was speculation!)

Unfortunately, I found the extremely thick spreading on of the moral point in this episode spoiled it for me. I'm sure most of us understand by now that the right thing to do, isn't always the easiest. Subtle and thought provoking is more to my taste than being pummelled non-stop with trite phrases and a holier-than-thou attitude, which is what came across here.

The show would have been better served at this early stage by something more engaging than a re-telling of other time travel episodes of other shows, which inevitably turns out the way you expected.

-- 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.

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