Customer Reviews

Andromeda Season 1 Collection 1 (Episode 101-105)

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The dialogue in the first ten minutes "There are too many of them!" and "It's our only chance (hope?)" peg the script writer as a student at the George Lucas School of Scriptwriting (correspondence only). The starship (who is a machine, let us not forget)wants to look like a sexy babe with a lot of cleavage showing prominently. Would that 'look' really appeal to a machine - wouldn't it want to be metallic and oily? Besides, the 'living ship' idea is done so much better in Farscape. So I wonder if I have wasted my money.
However, Kevin Sorbo is a surprise - a better actor than our lad in Farscape (who only looks sober and/or confused most of the time). Sorbo's athleticism adds a reality to the fight scenes and he seems totally dedicated to his dream of reuniting millions of worlds (unrealistic as that seems in the face of our inability to unite even a portion of our planet).
Tyr is tremendously sexy, especially when given a chance. And the other characters are off-beat enough to be interesting. Except for the furball - they really should have gone to see Brian Henson on that one - the mask looks like a mask - it never moves. And the spraying is inconsistent with his Zen-like character (who seems more Catholic with his confession and absolution stuff - poor fellow). He won't kill anyone, but he will torture them? Come on.
Are we still going to be riding motorcycles with windscreens 12,000 years from now? Will people from another planet be quoting the Bible about "Reaping the whirlwind" - wouldn't they be quoting Neitzsce instead (sp?)? The anachronisms boggle.
So I bought the next set. So I'm hooked anyway. So sue me.

I was skeptical when I saw yet another "Gene Roddenberry" apostropheed title and noticed mighty Hercules (Kevin Sorbo) as the lead character. "Oh, no, B-movie all the way," I thought. But just for fun I rented this DVD set and was astonished at the very high standard it has set. Andromeda is faster-paced and flashier than the most recent crop of Star Treks, and yet it is also superior in depth and breadth. Robert Hewitt Wolfe, Majel Barrett Roddenberry and the other creative honchos have created an instant universe that is more interesting than the canonized but increasingly stale one that Star Trek perpetuates. By starting at the end of an era (the fall of an empire) and setting out to pick up the pieces we are led through mysterious history like the fall of the Roman Empire or the disappearance of Atlantis. The dialog is quick-witted and the characters have a lot more to say than the usual stock "Shields at Maximum! We're losing power!" cliches. Andromeda mixes the "sexually charged negotiations" of this old empire's barbarians (the Nietzchian fanatics) with high minded nostalgic idealism and bug-eyed monsters without making us cringe. It is the best of scifi action-adventure and it isn't afraid to get cerebral -- the word all network executives hate. I'm going to buy all the DVDs as they come out.

The Andromeda DVD set is truly astonishing. The picture is crystal clear. The soundtrack is properly set so that the dialogue remains understandable rather than being overpowered by sound effects or music. There are a lot of special features, including history of the Systems Commonwealth, character biographies, interviews, bloopers, commentaries, set and prop design diagrams, a making-of documentary and more.

This first DVD offering is a pleasant surprise. I hope that the rest of the series will be released with the same high amount of forethought that went into this set. Enjoy!

This is the story of Dylan Hunt, captain of the starship Andromeda. Lost in time for 300 years, Captain Hunt leads a rag tag crew in an attempt to restore the Commonwealth of Planets and return peace the galaxy.

This is a great series! This 2 dvd set contains the first five episodes. This is a strong dvd production. The five episodes are presented in anamorphic widescreen. That's an interesting but nice change since the show usually airs in full screen. The prints are crystal clear with no signs of deterioration or flecking on the original film. In fact, these dvd presentations are significantly better than the picture I get on my digital cable. The picture does occasionally suffer from excess brightness. However, this may be a symptom of the fact that the film is intended for television and was lit differently than a film that is intended to be featured in the theater. The soundtrack is rich and full with complete use of the stereo track. I think the soundtrack mix is actually superior to many cinematic dvd releases. Unlike many movies that are released on dvd, the dialogue is always clear and isn't overpowered by the sound effects and score.

The extras on this two disc set are excellent as well. There is a commentary with the director and Kevin Sorbo. A short documentary is present with numerous production sketches, outtakes, and tv previews. The extras really exceeded what I expected from the release of a syndicated tv show.

I'm not going to summarize the individual episodes. The only thing that keeps this from five stars had nothing to do with the dvd quality. Some of these early shows just contain too much plot for the one hour time slot. The characters are really asked to develop a relationship fairly quickly and that sometimes feels compressed in these early episodes. As a general fan of the show, I can say that you don't get this feel in later episodes when the characters are more established.

Anyway, this is great dvd set. A must for any fan of Andromeda. Very clear and sharp picture. I watched all five episodes the first night I had the dvd. GREAT!

Take what "A viewer from Bay Area" has to say with a grain of salt; the third season hasn't even aired yet. Regardless, this DVD is worth it, and I would ignore the comparisons to Star Trek. The only thing really common between the two is that they both involve great storytelling! GR Andromeda employs dynamic characters, imaginitive technology, and very good writing for the most part. Highly recommended!

Being a sci-fi fan always on the lookout for new shows to obsess over, I decided to check out Gene Roddenberry's "Andromeda". I wasn't expecting much, and in truth I didn't get all that much. Kevin "Hercules" Sorbo stars as noble Captain Dylan Hunt (i.e Kirk/Picard) who accidently gets himself frozen in time, via a black hole, for three hundred years. When he is inadvertenly rescued by a salvage ship he discovers that everything he knew has been destroyed and "The Commonwealth" (read: The Federation) is no more. He convinces the crew of the salvage ship to join him in an only slightly thought-out quest to rebuild the Commonwealth, thus restoring peace and truth and all that good stuff.

The bench mark for modern sci-fi, in my opinion, is the wonderful "Farscape", and "Andromeda" is, unfortunately, no "Farscape". Still, it isn't boring, and the sets and special effects are decently tight. The characters range from good (the classy Captain Valentine and the oh-so-sexy Tyr) to bad (the Magog, our ... villians) to the annoying (the whiny Harper). One nice touch is the living ship's computer, Andromeda,, or "Rommie". She gets a human body in episode three, but promptly warns the Captain that theirs must be a professional-only relationship. I don't know if they ended up keeping this arrangement, but I think I will rent the next couple episodes or so and find out.

You might want to rent "Andromeda" to see what you think before buying, as it's not amazing or anything like that. There were a few laughs and a couple of good action scenes, and of course Kevin Sorbo frowning intently at the stars.

Bottom Line: Worth checking out for sci-fi fans. GRADE: B-

This is a great show. It goes along with the star trek type of genre, but is different. Instead of a world of order it is chaos. A sole ship with a crew of six are trying to pull a universe together against greater foes. It has spectacular special effects and great fight scenes. This is a DVD to buy.

This show is on of the best i have seen in a long time, a must for any true Sci-Fi fan(Lxa Doig WOW got to love her) and don't forget Keven Sorbo(Hercules her rocks)

When I heard that there was going to be a new series from the creator Gene Roddenberry to be honest I was really wincing becacuse the last one was becoming very tedious but this one truly suprised me and while you may ask why are not buying the full season? because sorry to say not all seasons were stupendous however the first episodes show what the show could have been but what I like about this collection it also has the original trailers for the episodes because sometimes you may not want to admit it you forget the episodes but the trailers really grab you and kept you for the long run.

So enjoy the first episodes of the series GENE RODDENBERRY'S ANDROMEDA

Amdromeda use to be a favorite tv program of mine. I enjoyed seeing this again after a very long time. I give this a very high rating.--Dan