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(OT) Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda


Flying Beastie

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I meant to post this last week, but kept forgetting.

 

Robert Hewitt Wolfe, head writer on Andromeda has been fired.

 

According to the article on http://www.slipstreamweb.com, the stated reason was that Wolfe's sweeping, epic arcs were too complicated for the fans (read: Kevin "Hercules" Sorbo, the show's Executive Producer and self-proclaimed Visionary Genius) to understand.

 

Sorbo is bringing in a new writer and strong-arming the writing staff into revising Wolfe's remaining scripts. Sorbo believes that fans want action-packed, stand-alone episodes, with big explosions and sexy people, unencumbered by things like plot and characterization. :snear:

 

Wolfe's previous writing credits include the last 2-3 seasons of Deep Space Nine, arguably some of the best (and most tightly-scripted and well-characterized) SF ever on television.

 

Robert's style of writing, especially when creating a continuing story arc is considered to be one of the few geniuses out there in the world of science fiction.
--Fraggin, on alt.tv.andromeda

 

Fans currently fear that the show will go the way of Earth: Final Conflict, another of Gene Roddenberry's legacy, an intricately plotted series that was gutted by the writing staff in a bid for a younger, hipper, and apparently simpler demographic.

 

Fraggin has created a petition at http://www.petitiononline.com/ker32/petition.html to try to convince Tribune Entertainment Company (apparently, the only ones who have the authority to veto the Exec. Producer) to rehire Wolfe.

 

Please help save what could be some of the most brilliant SF out there from turning into another ratings-whore. :(

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while i have never seen Andromeda, I must say that that is sucks. I dislike shows that 'reset' after ever episode. I prefer massive arcs that get me confused and lost.

I consider myself a writer and I have to monstrous projects:

1) a story set in the near future during WWIII. the STORY arc (the war itself, the technologies, the realism) is subservient to the CHARACTER arc (the stories of the people fighting the war).

2) a story set roughly 300 years from now in an interstellar war. in that the STORY is more important than the characters. in that, the over-arc of the war tells the story, but little side stories pick up mini-arcs of the characters. like a real war or even real history, the players are much smaller than the events. the chances of a ship being at TWO major engagements are tiny, just like reality. But I have smaller arcs that follow individuals or certain ships. these arcs 'collide' with the over-arc from tiny to time. the BOOK sized war story is essentially SHORT STORIES from the mini-arcs combined.

I perfer the SECOND style more. I don't know of any shows that do that, but I would take one like that any day.

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One of the only shows I've enjoyed watching in recent years is

Stargate. It actually had a reasonably continuous plot.

 

I don't really watch anything anymore, even though I found out that if I use a splitter I can get the basic cable tv package if I have cable internet. No extra charge. :)

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Guest garyah99

I actually like Andromeda. Over the past couple of years they have shown decent character development (the growing Mystery about just who or what Trance is, background plots on Becca's family etc), a menacing nemesis (the red eyed guy behind the Magog), and various other story advances. There are story arcs within the show; ie; the Magog larvae in Harpers belly and how they are going to be removed, the recent alliance with a Nietchian pride (formerly bitter enemies and the cause of the Commonwealth downfall). There are many other aspects of the show that I find tremendously captivating. I hope the show continues for several more years.

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I just heard that Brent "Rev Bem" Stait has been canned as well.

 

No concrete info yet (I downloaded a bunch of posts from Usenet but haven't gotten around to reading them), but I'd guess tha it's because:

 

* Rev Bem is a magog (a particularly fierce-looking alien), and stait wears a full-head prosthetic, and thus can't fit in to the "Cooler, Hipper, Sexier" Andromeda because he's "Ugly." (The mask has been redesigned twice for just that reason.)

* Rev is the philosophical and moral centre to the crew, and has no real usefulness in an action shoot-em-up.

* Having a friendly magog on the show would be confusing because the magog are Evil.

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Quick update from Slipstreamnews :

 

Stait wasn't canned, he left for personal reasons, primarily his allergic reaction to the makeup.

 

Speculation on the ng is that they won't be adding another "token magog" (or "token Wayist," for that matter), but will be transfering much of Rev's philosophical/spiritual commentary to Trance.

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  • 9 months later...

Wow. I'd almost forgotten about this thread.

 

As Mini-Niner has probably noticed, the show's taking a nosedive in quality.

 

Since my last post, it's been more of the same. Rev's philosophical commentary has been dropped entirely (lest it should distract viewers from the big explosions and space-skanks) and Trance has gone from a cute and preternaturally wise character with ambiguous godhood to a two-dimensional little she-bitch who's only purpose seems to be to deliver ominous threats and beat up on Bad Guys.

 

We've probably seen the last of the magog, and the "ongoing quest" came to an end after Captain Dylan Hunt created a fully-functional interstellar government spanning three galaxies between scenes sometime last season. It's now all about Captain Dylan Hunt (and his crew) cruising around the galaxy and righting wrongs ('cause Captain Dylan Hunt always knows what's right, because he's perfect and makes absolutely no mistakes whatsoever). :bored:

 

And, with the S3 premiere, the fierce and brilliant Nietzschean Tyr Anasazi (of the Kodiak Pride, out of Victoria, by Barbarossa) has been effectively neutered. He's now a human, and will inevitably grow into Dylan's bestest (and most self-sacrificing) bud.

 

To sum it up:

*Season 1: Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda

*Season 2: Kevin Sorbo's Andromeda

*Season 3: The Adventures of Captain Dylan Hunt, Saviour of the Universe

 

Looks like Stait got out just in time.

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