Product Details

• Actors: Kevin Sorbo, Lisa Ryder, Lexa Doig, Gordon Michael Woolvett, Laura Bertram
• Writers: Gene Roddenberry, John Lloyd Parry, Naomi Janzen
• Producers: Emily Skopov, Ethlie Ann Vare, Keri Young, Robert Simmonds
• Format: Box set, NTSC
• Language: English, Japanese, Spanish
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 10
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: A.D.V. Films
• DVD Release Date: November 11, 2003
• Run Time: 60 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0000DIZR6
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #32,516 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

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  Movies & TV > Television > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Andromeda

• This is item 1 in The Andromeda Series.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Based on an idea by Gene Roddenberry, Andromeda confidently wears its debt to Star Trek on its sleeve, recalling the best sci-fi of Roddenberry's heyday. The two-part premiere "Under the Night" and "An Affirming Flame" make for a terrific introduction to the lead character, Captain Dylan Hunt, played by Kevin (ex-Hercules) Sorbo. He's a sympathetically flawed idealist in command of the Andromeda Ascendant, a massive starship of the now-disbanded Systems Commonwealth. The fall of civilization has meant that although she ought to be a relic she remains the zenith of technological advancement.

In the series opener we see Captain Hunt in battle against 10,000 enemy ships, winning a bout of fisticuffs with a close friend turned enemy traitor, wrestling with the shock of being frozen in time for 300 years and then diplomatically negotiating his way out of a salvage rights battle for his ship. The Andromeda Ascendant's emotionally driven, life-like computer is desired by the Eureka Maru salvage vessel, and feisty Captain Beka Valentine can barely stop her engineer Harper from drooling about tinkering with her. The Maru's shipmates are similarly driven: Rev Bem (from another sworn enemy race) has a spiritual calling, while cutesy-pie Trance Gemini's motivations are part of her winning mysteriousness. One final addition is the show's muscle, Tyr, the enemy with a conscience who would later get the spotlight in such episodes as "All Neptune's Great Oceans" and "Music of a Distant Drum."

"The Pearls That Were His Eyes" was one of the first conceived episode ideas, but was delayed until the availability of a Star Trek regular. That eventually turned out to be John (Q) de Lancie, who gives a brilliant turn as Beka's long-lost Uncle Sid. "Star-Crossed" is the first-season episode that caused more gossip than any other. Stargate regular Michael Shanks guest stars, falls in love with Rommie on screen (and with Lexa Doig off screen), and then suddenly quits SG-1. There's certainly a spark between them in the show to support the gossip. The secondary cause for talk was its broadcast rescheduling in sympathy with the events of September 11 since it opens with a terrorist attack. Criticized by some for its extreme violence, the season finale "Its Hour Come 'Round at Last" will stay with you one way or another. Maybe for the sight of an alternate Rommie turning uncharacteristically nasty to everyone and seriously kicking butt. Or maybe the mind-blowing Magog Worldship, made up of 20 planets and their sun. Or maybe just the seemingly impossible scenario each major character is faced with as the show ends. --Paul Tonks

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Andromeda has a slow start, November 11, 2004

By	D. Cooper "tyggy" (Rhode Island, United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The first season of andromeda is a bit of a disappointment. It doesnt have too many episodes that can really 'hook' an audience but if you bear with it just to see the character developments you won't be let down. It doesnt take until the end of season one where the lead characters really start to show who they are and give life to themselves. The Season finale was also a really great story I think out of the first season that was my favorite. The only thing I don't like about this show is how the production company releases the DVDs. I prefer a complete DVD collection of the whole series not the 'collection 1 of season 2' and so on. I guess the company does it this way so people can buy their favorite episodes instead of buying the whole series. I recommend waiting for the series collection to come out before buying if you are a die hard Sci fi fan as I am. Here is also a season one run down list of episodes with brief plot lines so you can better see if this is for you or not before spending the money.

episode 01. Under the Night 2000-10-02
Captain Dylan Hunt and his ship the Andromeda Ascendant are rescued by the Eureka Maru, an opportunistic salvage ship, after being trapped in the event horizon of a black hole for 300 years.

episode 02. An Affirming Flame 2000-10-09
Dylan and the crew of the Eureka Maru agree to join forces and become one team aboard the Andromeda Ascendant as they set forth on his mission to restore the Systems Commonwealth.

episode 03. To Loose the Fateful Lightning 2000-10-16
Dylan (Kevin Sorbo) inadvertently gives a group of child warriors power to destroy a solar system.

episode 04. D Minus Zero 2000-10-23
Beka (Lisa Ryder) and Tyr (Keith Hamilton Cobb) square off against Dylan (Kevin Sorbo) for leadership of Andromeda during a dangerous face-off with an unknown enemy.

05. Double Helix 2000-10-30
Captain Dylan Hunt (Kevin Sorbo) must save the Andromeda from the Nietzcheans, who are trying to persuade Tyr (Keith Hamilton Cobb) to help them destroy the ship and rebuild his Nietzchean life. His new life would include a wife to carry on his
lineage.

06. Angel Dark, Demon Bright 2000-11-06
Dylan (Kevin Sorbo) is faced with a difficult decision when Andromeda slipstreams back in time -- days before the climactic battle of the Nietzschean Revolution where the Commonwealth was defeated and the Nietzschean Alliance was destroyed.

07. The Ties That Blind 2000-11-13
Beka's (Lisa Ryder) con-artist brother unexpectedly shows up claiming to be a devout Wayist making the Andromeda a prime target for Restorian attack.


episode 08. The Banks of the Lethe 2000-11-20
Finally, after 300 years and a black hole keeping them apart, Captain Dylan Hunt (Kevin Sorbo) reunites with his true love, Sara (Sam Sorbo).

episode 09. A Rose in the Ashes 2000-11-27
With their communication with the crew of the Eureka Maru completely cut off, Dylan (Kevin Sorbo) and Rommie (Lexa Doig) are forced into exile on a prison planet and must befriend fellow inmates to attempt any escape.

episode 10. All Great Neptune's Ocean 2001-01-15
Tyr (Keith Hamilton Cobb) and Rommie (Lexa Doig) are framed for the assassination of the Castalian president (Allan Morgan).


episode 11. The Pearls That Were His Eyes 2001-01-22
Beka Valentine (Lisa Ryder) receives a distress call from her beloved Uncle Sid (John de Lancie), but to her disdain realizes that he has become Sam Profit, a big business tycoon.


episode 12. The Mathematics of Tears 2001-01-29
Andromeda (Lexa Doig) encounters her damaged sister ship, the Pax Magellanic, that leads the crew of the Andromeda Ascendant on an eerie mission.


episode 13. Music of a Distant Drum 2001-02-05
A crash landing on a strange planet leaves Tyr (Keith Hamilton Cobb) with a complete loss of memory and a mystery crate to protect from not-so-brotherly Nietzcheans.


episode 14. Harper 2.0 2001-02-12
Harper (Gordon Michael Woolvett) finds himself overloaded with information when a dying Perseid (Mike Desabrais) transfers data into his brain.


15. Forced Perspective 2001-02-19
Dylan (Kevin Sorbo) is taken captive and forced to admit that he killed the Mobius leader and overthrew the Mobius government more than 300 years ago.


16. The Sum Of Its Parts 2001-02-26
A humanoid robot (Matt Smith) visits the Andromeda crew, helps them fight off a culture of organized machines and learns what it means to be a living being.


episode 17. Fear & Loathing in the Milky Way 2001-04-09
Trance (Laura Bertram), Harper (Gordon Michael Woolvett) and their former employer Gerentex (John Tench) are unwilling partners on a wild ride to find a valuable artifact.

18. Devil Take the Hindmost 2001-04-16
Rev Bem (Brent Stait) gets a call from a Wayist friend (Mark Holden) in need of his help to save the Hajira and its settlement, Serendipity, from being taken over by slavers.


19. The Honey Offering 2001-04-23
An arranged marriage between two rival Nietzschean Prides puts the Andromeda Ascendant in danger when Captain Dylan Hunt (Kevin Sorbo) agrees to transport the bride (Kimberly Huie) to the wedding.


20. Star-Crossed 2001-04-30
Rommie (Lexa Doig) falls in love with a surviving android (Michael Shanks) of a destroyed ship, only to be betrayed as he turns out to be the ultimate enemy.


21. It Makes a Lovely Light 2001-05-07
Beka (Lisa Ryder) jeopardizes the crew when she takes a mind-altering drug while attempting an exhaustive piloting mission that could bring Dylan (Kevin Sorbo) to his long-lost home planet

22. Its Hour Come Round at Last 2001-05-14
Andromeda's (Lexa Doig) memory of her current crew is wiped out when an old core personality is accidently re-installed.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A sci-fi lover's dream come true, September 8, 2004

By	Jean-Luc (Canada wants NOWHERE MAN on DVD!!!) - See all my reviews

Great characters, great special effects, great music, and pretty good stories. Andromeda is a very fun show to watch. I love the intro/theme to the show, especially the second season's. Gene Roddenberry shows usually have cool voice intros with the themes, like in Earth: Final Conflict (which had possibly the best intro ever). Gene Roddenberry can't miss! First Star Trek, then EFC, and now Andromeda. All great. (Well except Voyager -- haha, I hated Tuvok -- worst, most boring character ever invented.)

As for the DVD set, what more can you ask for. Anamorphic widescreen, 5.1 sound, and extras on top of extras. The TV spots are awesome and the ADV previews are good too. It's a huge box that has a dominating presence in your DVD collection. I love the box, with its large pictures on it, it's like owning artwork. It's a great waste of space, but what a beautiful waste of space it is.

The one main complaint for the first season I have is that sometimes they can get FAR too sappy/lame. Some of the things Rev Bem says, for example, will make you want to cringe. Same goes for Trance, she can get preeetty lame, too. There are some very lame, lame, LAME episodes this season! Barf worthy! But there also some great ones. The season-ending cliffhanger was among the best anything television has ever produced. As far as other characters go, Sorbo's Captain Hunt is amazing, as is the character of Tyr, and Harper is hilarious ("Trust in the Harper, the Harper is good").

I am now into the second season and the lameness I was talking about has thankfully been diminished greatly, showing that the writers/producers have learned some important lessons from the first season, and improved. So far the second is even better than the first. And Rev Bem looks different now, haha! It reminds me of how Worf's appearance changed over time on TNG, same with Quark and Odo on DS9.

If you love Star Trek, you cannot possibly not like Andromeda. I also very highly recommend checking out Earth: Final Conflict -- an overlooked gem of a sci-fi show, which is also presented in glorious widescreen. I swear these things feel like movies.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant - waiting for more box set releases, June 3, 2004

By	Robert Chandler (Melbourne, Victoria Australia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This really is brilliant SciFi. I thoroughly enjoyed series 1 box set. The best treat was I thought that Voyager was the end of an era. I'm so glad to find another series that matches or exceeds the StarTrek series.

Studio: Please release some more full season box sets. Buying the 5 individual collection sets is way too expensive. I agree with the other reviewer -- just release series box sets. We don't need these 2 disk collections.

One last comment. The packaging is ok. But why do these box sets need to be so big. Take a leaf out of Fireflies box set. They use super thin individual disk boxes. The other annoying thing is that with these big multi-DVD boxes the disks actually fall out of the clip during the long transit to Australia, resulting in scratches on the surface. The FireFly box on the other hand hold the disks in place super firmly.

Congratulations on an outstanding series everyone involved in the production.