OK, first and foremost, I am not a Star Trek fan of any sort, except for wrath of khan, I'm sure you're all feeling me on that one. So where do I begin, yes, lets begin at the fact that the Captain of the Super Dope looking Starship Andromeda is run by none other than Hercules. (WOW, those Greeks sure get around). Kevin Sorbo is quite appealing as a Commander of the Commonwealths High Guard Ship Andromeda. He's got a very likeable character, nuff said.

We'll proceed on to the Story and overall feel of the show. The human race is now part of the Systems Commonwealth, a union of a million plus solar systems spanning three galaxies, yes I said 3 galaxies. These galaxies are reachable via slipstream the only means of FTL flight in the universe. I got the feeling that it's about the equivalent of 50th century on Earth, it's hard to tell because the show is based on the commonwealth calendar and it's over C.Y. 10,000+. The Premise is the andromeda is attacked near a Black Hole and unfortunately is trapped within its event horizon and time stands still for 300 years onboard the ship. During which time the Nietzchians, who are an offshoot of basic human gene-stock but have improved their DNA with the use of genetic engineering and selective breeding have crushed the Commonwealth forces throughout the galaxies plunging the universe into chaos (good idea isn't it!!!). Hercules is rescued and decides to restart the commonwealth from scratch with a crew of thieves and assassins.

The show starts out rather bland, but ramps up nicely, if it wasn't for the fact that the Andromeda is one of the coolest looking starships since James Camerons 'Sulaco' I probably wouldn't have continued watching. Some episodes are boring but some are really good and the range of bad guys from the Magog, Restorians (who are psychopathic eco-terrorists), and Nietzchians (who make the Klingons look like Pikachu) are all really entertaining. Unlike the corny crap that Star Trek has produced such as unviable technology that couldn't exist in the 23th century, Andromeda has a far superior grasp of possible tech. The ship uses drones that buzz around the vessel giving it a sense of enormity and single man fighters, the show also isn't afraid to show that the future will be very violent. Body Armor is commonplace with the crew, everyone is strapping a gun or a knife, and the weapons range from plasma to smart bullets (nice!!).

To say that everyone will enjoy this show is wrong, but to say that people who love science fiction will, that's wrong as well. But there is definitely some s**t going on in this show that you wouldn't see on any other sci-fi show like Farscape or Babylon 5 and I have to admit they ended the first season with a cliffhanger that has now got me fiending to get the complete second season now (damn them.) Dude, when you see twenty interconnected worlds sucking power from a star for like beach bums sipping on margarita's you get that feeling that the writers have some aces up their sleeves.

Review by David Marini
www.everythingevangelion.com