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| Into the fray: Kevin Sorbo as Captain Dylan Hunt and Lisa Ryder as Beka Valentine, in Gene Roddenberry's sci-fi epic: ANDROMEDA. Images: Revelation Films. |
Despite the eventual incredible success of his sci-fi brainchild, the original, classic STAR TREK, once it finally became a bona fide worldwide hit in daily TV syndication, the early to mid-seventies would prove to be a time of personal frustration and overall disappointment for Gene Roddenberry, as his attempts to carve out new success beyond the adventures of Captain Kirk and crew met many hurdles within Hollywood. Several sci-fi series ideas made it to television pilot form but sadly never became full series orders, whilst other fascinating series concepts fell into limbo until after the time of his sad passing in 1991, when Hollywood finally realised, with the emergent success of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION on the goggle box from the late eighties, how the overall genre he had helped to revolutionize had now come back into viewing success. One such late project, the intriguingly named ANDROMEDA, would finally make it to the light of reality in October 2000, made by the Canadian Tribune Entertainment company after the previous success their rival, Alliance: Atlantis, had bringing another one of Roddenberry's "forgotten" series outlines, Battleground: Earth, to the screen in 1997- as the memorable EARTH: FINAL CONFLICT.
Beyond the futuristic environs of Earth and its peoples relationship with the newly arrived Taelons, ANDROMEDA had the overall potential to be a bigger, bolder beast than EARTH, and more in the best STAR WARS tradition, mixed with the humanity and excitement that had previously made Classic TREK such a success back in the day. There was no United Federation of Planets about in this new series, but rather a spacially vast Commonwealth, now fallen into chaos and destruction after a once prosperous start. From its ashes comes the starship Andromeda, its crew once suspended in galactic hibernation thanks to the effects of a black hole, and its reawakened legendary commander, Dylan Hunt, determined to bring peace and stability back to the cosmos with his ideals of bravery, brotherhood and working together for the common good. All leading to lots of opportunities for action, weird and wonderful aliens and civilisations, and CGI pyrotechnics along the way...
Andromeda (2000) - TV series - YouTube
Swapping his HERCULES leathers of old time Earth history for a brave new future beyond the final frontier, Kevin Sorbo gives the launched series the commanding presence it needs: his dedicated fan base helping to propel the shows popularity across five seasons up to 2005. Amongst his crew are a worthy bunch of well known Canadian acting faces, including Lisa Ryder, Laura Bertram, Keith Hamilton Cobb and the very sexy Lexa Doig, playing the ships holographic computer/crew liaison avatar, Rommie.
The first series, developed by modern STAR TREK series veteran Robert Hewitt Wolfe, finally arrives on UK DVD, and, even better, in glistening picture-perfect Blu-ray from next month, courtesy of Revelation Films, where I'm sure it'll be a big hit for them. Let's hope that ANDROMEDA's success also secures the way for them to release the entire five season run run of EARTH: FINAL CONFLICT, too-something yet to happen in the UK.
Get hold of ANDROMEDA Season One here: Andromeda - Season 1 [UK BD] [Blu-ray]: Amazon.co.uk: Kevin Sorbo, Marion Elfman, Paul Johansson, Lisa Ryder, Bill Croft, Malcolm Stewart, Keith Hamilton Cobb, Gordon Woolvett, Lexa Doig, Laura Bertram, Brent Stait, Nels Lennarson, Gerard Plunkett, Steve Bacic, Linnea Sharples, Allan Kroeker, Allan Eastman, David Warry-Smith, Richard Flower, Michael Robinson, Brad Tuner, Brenton Spencer: Film & TV
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