Andromeda
"A Rose in the Ashes"

Airdate: December 4, 2000

Dylan and Rommie are visiting a planet which was previously part of the Commonwealth in order to try and persuade the ruling council to sign up again. However, the 300 years Dylan spent orbiting the black hole have not been kind to these people, and they are somewhat different from the race he recalls. Both he and the Andromeda's favourite avatar end up in a "re-education centre", sentenced to life imprisonment while their misfit crew have to find and rescue them.

If the above sounds awfully familiar, then you've either seen this episode before, or you've seen several like it on other shows. My guess is the latter. (More about spot-on "guesses" later folks!)

Trance Gemini: Sees all, knows nothing... or does she?

Okay, so "A Rose in the Ashes" is moderately well written, but when you've seen the gallant Captain (pick a name, any name will do -- Kirk springs to mind, personally) fighting for his life as soon as he's thrown into the stinkin' Hell-hole in which he's been wrongly sentenced to spend the rest of his life, you've pretty much seen them all. Add a feisty, bull-headed but warm-hearted leader of the pack; a huge beast that has never been beaten in hand to hand combat -- but respects the Captain for doing just that; an outsider who knows really useful stuff; add an unbeatable security system, and Hey Presto! you've got an episode of (pick your show title now).

There are one or two nice but all too brief moments of humour, and a nasty AI who likes to torture his prisoners (Hmmmmm -- hang on a moment even that sounds familiar -- did I do something baaad?), but once again, Andromeda's PTB seem to have simply re-jigged an already over-used idea.

However, there was something a bit new and possibly interesting introduced in this story. You remember my mentioning accurate guessing skills a little earlier in the piece? (Linda, now would be a good time to sit down, I think). Well, a certain not-so-bright purple person, while still being extremely coy about her origins, managed to locate Dylan and Rommie when all the skills and intelligence of Beka, Tyr and the Andromeda Ascendant failed. She did this by picking the pretty planet (I know, I know, but this is honestly just the facts, ma'am). She then went on to exhibit spot on accuracy in a game of "heads or tails". Add these snippets to the fact that a few shows ago, she seemed not only to understand the choices the Universe was making, but to be happy about them too.

Now ask yourself -- is it just me, or is the prospect that Trance Gemini might be something a little bit more than she seems a scary thought?

-- 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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