Syfy's "Andromeda" Discussion (2000-2005)

[Forever Knight]

Season 1's final 2 episodes were solid as hell. Tons of action too. I'm slowly getting the hang of the series. Onto season 2.

[stevo4264]

Love this show, have the entire series on DVD, waiting for the BD release if it ever happens.

[Forever Knight]

Halfway through season 3 and I'm loving this series big time. It's like Star Trek but with more action. Actually, before I got into Trek this is how I thought it would be.

I'm slowly liking Tyr's calm mannerisms.

[dissention]

Andromeda is so, so, so, so, so terrible.

Not as terrible as Earth: Final Conflict, though. Enjoy Andromeda, stay away from Earth. It will give you the runs.

[John Ross Ewing]

I imported all five seasons of Andromeda, specifically the Alliance releases. They haven't arrived yet, but I do have some questions.

There were some complaints that the sets that Alliance released were in fullscreen, but prior releases such as ADV's were widescreen. So are the Alliance DVDs cropped? Open matte? Less information on the left and right side but more information on the top and bottom?

I spent time looking on several websites and I'm curious about the aspect ratio. IMDB says it was 16:9, but if I look at listings for individual episodes they're listed as having an aspect ratio of 1.33. And then a Google search brings up results on some sets saying the aspect ratio it was broadcast in was 1.33, but other results say it was broadcast in 1.78.

If you watched Andromeda when it initially aired do you remember what aspect ratio you saw it broadcast in? I don't remember which channel it was even on here in America. Maybe they protected it for both aspect ratios?

[wormraper]

Originally Posted by John Ross Ewing

I imported all five seasons of Andromeda, specifically the Alliance releases. They haven't arrived yet, but I do have some questions.

There were some complaints that the sets that Alliance released were in fullscreen, but prior releases such as ADV's were widescreen. So are the Alliance DVDs cropped? Open matte? Less information on the left and right side but more information on the top and bottom?

I spent time looking on several websites and I'm curious about the aspect ratio. IMDB says it was 16:9, but if I look at listings for individual episodes they're listed as having an aspect ratio of 1.33. And then a Google search brings up results on some sets saying the aspect ratio it was broadcast in was 1.33, but other results say it was broadcast in 1.78.

If you watched Andromeda when it initially aired do you remember what aspect ratio you saw it broadcast in? I don't remember which channel it was even on here in America. Maybe they protected it for both aspect ratios?

it was 1.78:1 .... the Alliance releases are cropped 4x3 for some SD broadcasting on certain channels up there. the only good ones are the ADV releases

[John Ross Ewing]

Originally Posted by wormraper

it was 1.78:1 .... the Alliance releases are cropped 4x3 for some SD broadcasting on certain channels up there. the only good ones are the ADV releases

Damn. I definitely should have come here and asked before placing the order a few days ago. I hate that those are the facts, but thank you for letting me know. I did want to get the Slipstream collection which I think ADV put out, but it's out of print and quite pricey.

[wormraper]

Originally Posted by John Ross Ewing

Damn. I definitely should have come here and asked before placing the order a few days ago. I hate that those are the facts, but thank you for letting me know. I did want to get the Slipstream collection which I think ADV put out, but it's out of print and quite pricey.

Yeah. I've always been disappointed no one ever picked up the license. The slipstream collection is all flippers though. The individual seasons are the best ones. I hold onto my sets dearly

[Indiana Jones]

Originally Posted by John Ross Ewing

Damn. I definitely should have come here and asked before placing the order a few days ago. I hate that those are the facts, but thank you for letting me know. I did want to get the Slipstream collection which I think ADV put out, but it's out of print and quite pricey.

Not tempted by the Blu-ray releases?

[John Ross Ewing]

Originally Posted by Indiana Jones

Not tempted by the Blu-ray releases?

The only thing that kept me from buying those are not being sure they'd work in my player (I'm in The US) and not all of the seasons being released yet. I read over the thread in the UK section of the forum and supposedly they do plan to release the rest of the series, but they sure are taking their sweet time with it. Maybe I'm too impatient!

[CouncilSpectre]

The Blus are region free

[jokerzwild]

I have been doing a rewatch of this (first since it aired), so far pretty much as I remembered it. First season was excellent and despite a bit of cheese had some real depth. The second season you can see the suits messing things up, more cheese, less depth, and losing Rev. A little hesitant to keep going to 3-5 as I know it goes further down hill. It is really sad when a show with such potential gets mucked up.

Tyr was such a great character, it disappointing he left and even more so the actor didn't move on to better things.

Honestly on its own season 1 ranks up there with some of the sci-fi great series seasons. I would have loved to see what Wolfe would have done had he continued unencumbered.

[TheLaughingMann]

Andromeda's a hot mess of a sci-fi show. It was another Gene Roddenberry special before he passed on. It had a great premise, lot of potential...but then the showrunner Robert Hewitt Wolfe left and the show tailspun into getting worse.

I will say that while RHW was on the show, manning it...it was decent and building up to be something good.

Post-RHW, it was a spectacular ruining.

[jokerzwild]

Originally Posted by TheLaughingMann

Andromeda's a hot mess of a sci-fi show. It was another Gene Roddenberry special before he passed on. It had a great premise, lot of potential...but then the showrunner Robert Hewitt Wolfe left and the show tailspun into getting worse.

I will say that while RHW was on the show, manning it...it was decent and building up to be something good.

Post-RHW, it was a spectacular ruining.

RHW wrote something years later that kinda would have shown his direction if you are interested in reading it.

http://www.roberthwolfe.com/Coda/Andromeda___Coda.pdf

[TheLaughingMann]

Originally Posted by jokerzwild

RHW wrote something years later that kinda would have shown his direction if you are interested in reading it.

http://www.roberthwolfe.com/Coda/Andromeda___Coda.pdf

Damn, scanning over those last few pages...this is like Xenogears/saga grade mindscrewery.

[noirjunkie]

I tried to watch this show twice, but each time, I couldn't make it through the pilot. And based on what everyone seems to have said about it, it only goes downhill in later seasons.

In retrospect, it's kind of amazing that it went for five seasons.

[TheLaughingMann]

Originally Posted by noirjunkie

I tried to watch this show twice, but each time, I couldn't make it through the pilot. And based on what everyone seems to have said about it, it only goes downhill in later seasons.

In retrospect, it's kind of amazing that it went for five seasons.

I think it's cause Gene Roddenberry's name was on it, and this was the guy who pioneered Star Trek. Also, around the time it aired, you had:

-Farscape
-Firefly
-Dark Angel
-Star Trek: Enterprise
-Stargate SG-1

And by the time it left, we were just getting into Battlestar Galactica and shows like Lost, The 4400, Doctor Who (revival) and the new Stargate show were just kicking in.

As to why the show lasted as long as it did, reasons:
-RHW was removed by studio involvement wanting more Dylan Hunt-centralized episodes
-There was a statement somewhere that Kevin Sorbo was contracted for 5 seasons to this show, and was an EP on it. He, by rumor, said that Wolfe's scripts for shows were "too intelligent" and that the show was being more episodic/serialized. As a result, he had a say in canning RHW.

This right here just says that somehow, somewhere...RHW had great ideas for the show after a couple of seasons, but he was not given a chance to reap two seasons' worth of growth. The link to "Coda" above, which I read, seems to introduce expansive content. Deep storylines with some thought and intellect to them are thriving in today's market. It just seemed like...Andromeda was trying to become different, and it had a shot at it after a couple of seasons...but then studio intervention changed that.