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A Bit Of Info On Gene Roddenberry's ANDROMEDA
El Cosmico here, a few people have been asking about Andromeda, so I thought I'd dig some stuff up, and point you guys in the right direction...there is some good information around for those of you who are curious about the latest series based on a Gene Roddenberry creation.
Of course, at this point there is already a very good sci-fi series bearing Mr. Roddenberry's name...Earth: Final Conflict, which in my opinion RULES. But, now that Star Trek seems to be either dead or hopelessly adrift (can't wait for the flames on that), might Andromeda be that much-needed addition to our sci-fi lineup?
Andromeda, it seems, is going to be a different sort of sci-fi, or so the line goes. Of course, we hear this about every new sci-fi show, sometimes it's true, and sometimes when it is true, we wish it wasn't. Only time will tell, and we'll have to see how adaptable Kevin Sorbo is to a leading series role in this genre.
What sort of things can we expect? Well, the creators seem to want to cover all of their bases, involving the usual suspects of aliens, long-range travel, funky gadgets, and a really big ship (which apparently changes form during various modes of travel)...they just want to do all of these things in distinctly non-Trek ways. Apparently, the show will be somewhat of an attempt to make sci-fi less fiction, and more science. Call it SCI-fi.
Well, I happen to agree that current sci-fi has gotten a bit too fanciful for my tastes, and this show might be just what the doctor ordered. We can also apparently expect more of an emphasis on characters and story, rather than technology. Well, to me, that's a no-brainer, but again, I agree that story line and character development is something severely lacking in a lot of today's sci-fi.
Now, for more details and insight, there's an excellent interview by Don Lipper over at Space.com, which you can check out here, and, of course, there's the official site, which is still in development, but which can be found here.
It's a site that bears exploring, there's a lot of information hidden in there. Happy trails,
-El Cosmico
mail me at: elcosmico@austin.rr.com
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I don't know about E:FC conflict being good but it seems that all of Roddenberry's shows have sucked for quite some time. All of them suffer from the "Star Trek reset button" in which every show is stand alone with no real impact in the long term. Even Earth: Final Conflict suffers from this curse. If this is any indication, Andromeda will be just another stillborn series and will only get passing glances from die-hard Trek fans. What is needed is what Babylon 5 implemented as their concept, the five year arc. I know that with season renewals, it is hard to do nowadays. With the clout of all things Trek, Majel Roddenberry can push this concept through and really start making intelligent, involving sci-fi that the genre really needs.
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So true so true. Everything seems so episodic these days. The reset button is punched at the end of the show. Yes, a good show would have an arc. And a built-in expiration date (the X-Files has not only expired, its growing mold for Christ's sake). Rottenberry already had his time, let the new blood bring some fresh ideas, this sounds stale.
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I mean, come on. Gene's dead and thinks up a new series. L Ron Hubbard is still writing books for some reason, while Tupac Shakur made a few movies and a couple of albums in the afterlife. Also, didn't Big Punisher just release a full album? Aren't all these people dead? What next? JFK Jr. reveals the secret behind his father's assassination? I'd have to agree with El Cosmico when he says that Earth: Final Conflict rules. It's one of the most underrated sci-fi television series ever! Well, Gene good luck to you and this new project (scratching my head in confusion).
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It is hard to direct from the grave. EFC was good the first season, but now is totally gay. A fresh infusion of live brains may have helped, but at this point put a stake in it (where's Buffy when you need her?).
At this point the only SF worth a shit is Farscape.
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Star Trek needs to be character- and not technology-centered...so let's all but ignore DS9's demise, focus on how awful Voyager is, and hope to God we get a prequel series! Let's throw out the most interesting stories of the last thirty years so we can see what it was REALLY like in the 2100's! What? That would qualify as "technology"- and triviality-centered? Get the hell off here, you Berman lacky. Sulu for president!
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I visted the link to the home website and the "space university"
link talk about the different races and their technology.
it even quotes from the babylon
5 movie "In the begining " about
humans.
The spaceships are also described
in a similiar way.
What a copy of B5.
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Babylon 5 was a good show. The tech was excellent, no "Well we've developed this handy device to break that law of physics, so that we won't turn to goo when we accelerate at 50,000K a second , in only 200 years" (Star Trek is good, but I always hated the idea that tech should advance THAT MUCH in so little a time. I can see some of it coming about, but not all of it). But I digress from my point: B5 is a good show. Andromeda is supposed to be similiar (I'ver heard) to B5 in certain aspects, though not story. Therefore, would that not indicate that this show may have some Hope?
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Seriously... Mr. Mom played Batman.. So did Morrison.. I'll bitch about him after he punches someone and they go through a bulkhead. And as for this being a B5 rip-off.. With B5 better than Voyager it's not really a suprise watch for episodes from JMS himself.. And speaking of Voyager.. off topic but.. Can we say "next week is a rantings thing....."
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Believe it or not, Voyager is supposed to do that as well. There's warp, non-warp, and landing mode. No points for originality there, even if Voyager's producers forget it more often than or not (or can't afford the F/X for it). As far as Sorbo, the problem is that he really hasn't _done_ much outside of the whole Hercules/Kull thing. Looks like he did a couple of movie/TV schticks back in 92-93, and then for the last 7 years he's been playing...well Hercules or Sorbo-as-Hercules. On the other hand, do we really need a masterful actor for the role of Dylan Hunt? Neither of the leads on E:FC have ever particularly wowed me either.
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May 05, 2000 12:11:04 PM CDT
No wonder Babylon 5 fans are the most hated fans in sci-fi!
by frank grimes
It's because they're constantly levelling absurd accusations of plagarism against other shows, as if a marginally successful, highly derivative, cheap-looking P.O.S. like Babylon 5 is such a great template for ripping off!
What's more, a cursory look at the Andromeda site reveals that it's NOTHING like Babylon 5. The technology is completely different, the political situation is completely different, the aliens are completely different, the way the ships work, travel, and fight is completely different...to sum up, only a complete moron could look at Andromeda and scream "Babylon 5 carbon coby!" But then again, the phrase "complete moron Babylon 5 fan" is a redundancy, isn't it? -
....and hereby state that not all Babylon 5 fans are morons, only the ones who insist on crying "rip-off" at every other show that comes down the pike. I just got pissed because I know some of the people involved with Andromeda and the site, and they're all trying really hard to do something fresh and original with the site and the show.
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It was Kevin Sorbo who pulled the plug on Hercules in the first place. He was tired of the hair, of living in New Zealand, and of acting in the stupid show that made him famous. He has a real desire to expand his range and present a new image. Zathras thinks this motivation may make Sorbo better than most of us would expect. He's got something to prove. So Zathras will give him the benefit of the doubt too.
Zathras does not think that every show is a ripoff of B5, but the term "arc" is thrown around much more in the sci fi world now than it was a few years back. Upcoming series like "First Frontier" and "Privateers" are both courting B5 viewers for ideas, opinions, and support. Sorry, Zathras has no links for these shows...not good. Tsk tsk. And in the interest of harmony, Zathras will just choke up DS9's similarities as a coincidence.
As for looking cheap, each epsiode of Babylon 5 cost roughly $1 million, opposed to $4 million for it's Star Trek counterpart's. Zathras does think that as the show went along, they were able to slowly and prudently beef up their set design by adding and improving existing sets. DS9's "Way of the Warrior" Season 4 premier cost $18 million, almost as much as the entire Season 2 of B5. Voyager's premier cost $15 million. B5 never had that kind of money, but made do with what they had. As we've seen with Voyager, money ain't everything. The coolest warp core with Bio-gel packs can't save a constipated writer from putting us to sleep.
All Hail THE ONE!
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Yeah, Sorbo is to acting diversity what the DMV is to fast paced. Look at IMDb and see all the diverse parts this moron has played. As for B5, I would hardly say everything rips B5 off. But the arc was a great idea and well executed - and the more shows that pick up on this (B5 was hardly the first show with an arc) the better.
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for something good and memorable. I know that many people think B5 fans are assholes, and truthfully many of us are because we are bitter that that show wasn't given more praise. But that doesn't excuse attacking other new shows with similar ideas(though series creator JMS enjoyed screaming how DS9 robbed him). Personally I think it's a shame that when we had B5, ST:TNG, X-Files, and DS9 all on TV at the same time we had to fight and spit over which one ruled the others. Petty competition ruled, and, frankly, we should have known better. They were ALL great with the inevitable and occasional slumps. Shame on us for acting like children(and we still do on these talkback, the joy of anonymity I guess).
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I was a huge ST:TNG fan, but I completely lost interest in DS9 and Voyager. Got to admit that I really LOVED Babylon 5 (though season five was a bit of a disappointment).
Now, I look forward every week to Farscape on SciFi. This show has it all -- humor, adventure, GREAT special effects, interesting characters, exceptional cinematography, and more.
I enjoy the worst episode of Farscape as much as I do the best episodes of ST.
I certainly hope Andromeda breaks out of the mold of ST, though I don't have high expectations for the special EFX. -
I love Sci fi, and I hate it when they keep funding crap ie Voyager and pull the plug on the good stuff ie Babylon 5! I shall probably end up watching Andromeda, as long as it's not a another tired rehash of Star Trek. They should set it to rest for a while and give other shows a chance to take root before ressurecting it.
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Do all of you whiners work for TNT?
Geez, atleast we are getting some new SciFi. All you complainers haven't even seen an episode yet. Seems to me that nothing would make you happy.
I love you arm-chair producers who think you know best and just complain about everything. Oh its a B5 ripoff. Oh, Star Trek has done that before. Oh, how can Kevin Sorbo be the lead? Ih, another GR production.
Why don't you just wait and see. I give all SciFi shows a chance. Well, most atleast (I never watched Lexx or gVSe). Point is, I would rather have a so-so SciFi show than some of this other crap they are putting on the air.
Just wait and see you f***ing cry-babies. -
I was just over at the site and read some of the stuff. Very interesting. And it doesn't look like B5 to me. I loved B5, but this looks differnt and hopefully even better. I'd be willing to give it a chance, but then I don't own a TV. ^_^
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I had a look at the Andromeda website -I hope they put as much work into the show itself- and the only B5-ish thing that struck me was the mode of travel: the slipstream capability. When cosmologists are asked the rather goofy question on how to beat C, it comes down to either other dimensional travel a la B5's jumpgates, or wormhole-ish shortcutting. The description of the slipstream sounds a lot like what David Brin came up with for his Uplift books, actually. Andromeda's political backstory reminded me more of something Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle would come up with. Cordwainer Smith's Instrumentality of Mankind comes to mind as well, in that mutations to the race are established and accepted. But it doesn't smack of Babylon 5 much to me. If the technology sounds familiar, hopefully it will be because both shows shot or will shoot for plausibility, if not accuracy, in the science. Besides, B5 wasn't about the technology, and it was almost never a plot device ("Yes or no will do, Mr. Lennier.") and hopefully this will be the same way. The Supermen from Ayn Rand Land or wherever sound more like something out of Iain Banks' Culture universe than Straczynski's Psi-Corps, which was clearly (jms said so!) based on Alfred Bester's ideas. All these comparisons are compliments, by the way. If they can make a TV show in THIS universe, to hell with the plot! Watching them establish the setting might be the best thing about it, and would go a long way to making me forgive bad dialogue and wooden acting. Of course, I've been known to enjoy an occasional episode of "Highlander", so what do I know?
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the iron chef is better scifi then lexx! lexx is the worst show ever made. lexx makes the videos those wackos on the trinity network try to hawk look like good productions.
to be fair to lexx, i have to admit that i've only seen 15 minutes of it in total. but for god's sake, those commercials drive me insane!!
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