Like season 3, season 4 also had a few bad episodes that were very confusing. There was an overuse of clips of previous episodes as a storytelling device, and some shows, like the first episode, had deus-ex-machina endings that came out of nowhere. The season gets better as it goes, with many of the finest episodes ("Trusting the Gordian Maze", "Time out of Mind") on the last disk. The final episode is very touching, and would have been a fine ending to the series if there was no season 5.
In the first two years Tyr served as the realist/anarchist foil to Dylan's idealism/community building. In season 4 Dylan was more the Hercules-style adventurer and moralist. To serve as a partner, Telemachus Rhade was added as a regular. While a Nietzschean, he was multi-faceted and interesting, and had an earnestness that complimented Dylan and the rest of the Andromeda crew. The Andromeda gained a new bad guy in the form of an internal power struggle in the Commonwealth by a group called the Collectors. Some of the Collector episodes are good, some are poor re-hashes of ideas from old Stargate SG-1 episodes.
Speaking of Stargate, like every show filmed in Canada you can bet on a number of familiar guest stars. Some recurring characters from Stargate and a few regulars from Battlestar Galactica are prominent.
You again get double sided disks in 5 regular sized cases. The user interface is clear and easy to use, but again the episodes are just listed by their number instead of title. The cases do not have any episode synopses, and the titles are all famously grand and cryptic so it is hard to remember what happens in each. Front loaded ads and warnings are all skippable.
If you liked the previous seasons of Andromeda, go ahead and get this one too.
Exit Keith Hamilton Cobb-Enter Steve Bacic
Although this particular run of Andromeda does not feature as much of the struggle as was felt in seasons 1, 2 and 3, it does feature all of the elements which made the series enjoyable. There is lots of campy dialogue, lots of space battles, and lots of sci fi fun. However, by this point the series assumes that viewers are knowledgable about the show. From the beginning, the season begins to tackle long unanswered questions about the series, revealing such secrets as the true origins of Bekka, Trance and Tyr. For thos who have never seen the show, I recommend that you purchase seasons 1 or 2. For fans of the series, I highly recommend this addition to your collection.
The season starts with the exit of Tyr, and the first four episodes without him are a little shaky. Fans of Harper will enjoy watching Harper trudge his way through away missions with Romy and Bekka. This is fun because Harper had previously been left behind on the ship in most episodes before this season.
Fans of the series will remember that Rev Bem left the series midway through season 3, so the show lost two of its male characters. The early episodes of the show then allow Harper to step up and take a more commanding role in the series. Evidently, this didn't sit so well with producers, who then added Telemachus Rhade to the cast.
Telemachus Rhade is a direct descendant of Gaheris Rhade, the dude who betrayed Captain Hunt in Episode 1. Thanks to Season 3's "the Unconquerable Man", we have been led to understand that Gaheris is in fact, an honorable man, and therefore, we can trust his descendant. IHMO, the addition of this new character helps this series immensly.
Played by Steve Bacic, Rhade's tortured sense of need to evolve as a Nietzchien instantly gives us a peek into an impressive but troubled character.
Tyr makes a comeback in two of the Rhade episodes as a dreadlock-less slave to the Abyss. Tyr and Rhade make for some tremendous fight scenes, and we say goodbye to Tyr in a way that kept me waiting for his return.
Trance really comes into her own this season, and the revelations made about Bekka's past help to fill out her character.
As for the special features, you probably saw all this stuff when it came out on individual dvd sets. Still, some interviews, behind the scenes, bloopers and deleted scenes will keep most fans happy. Also, there is an alternative ending to the season, to my understanding something they wrote with the thought that the show may be cancelled at the end of the fourth season (I have no way of confirming this right now, sorry) .
My only complaint with this and all the other Andromeda DVD sets is that the sound is never in Dolby 5.1. It is in Dolby surround sound, but you'd think they'd be able to add that feature without difficulty.
However, these are small complaints about a great overall set.
4 out of 5 stars.
Love it
Keith Hamilton Cobb did leave the show to go back to Young and The Restless, but he was doing both shows at once. He didn't like how the show was going so he asked to be outed of the show. But I have been a fan of Kevin Sorbo since his Hercules days, and I already have all 5 seasons on VHS, til I can get them on DVD. Gene Roddenberry is a genius and should be praised for his work. May he Rest in Peace
Andromeda is an incredable series, and a great replacement for the 'Star Trek' series now that they're off the air.
It's always expected that the series will come out in box sets after the individual disks are released, so why be so impatient to get them all individually like that.
Andromeda is really good, and especially this season because we glimps a little more into the mysterious Trance Gemini. More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Gene Roddenberry DVD Release Date: Released the 27 July 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Based on an idea by Gene Roddenberry, Andromeda confidently wears its debt to Star Trek on its sleeve, recalling the best sci-fi of Roddenberry's heyday. The two-part premiere "Under the Night" and "An Affirming Flame" make for a terrific introduction to the lead character, Captain Dylan Hunt, played by Kevin (ex-Hercules) Sorbo. He's a sympathetically flawed idealist in command of the Andromeda Ascendant, a massive starship of the now-disbanded Systems Commonwealth. The fall of civilization has meant that although she ought to be a relic she remains the zenith of technological advancement.
In the series opener we see Captain Hunt in battle against 10,000 enemy ships, winning a bout of fisticuffs with a close friend turned enemy traitor, wrestling with the... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Kevin Sorbo DVD Release Date: Released the 11 November 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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I have read a lot of negetive reviews about the shorter version of the episode "Threads" being on this set rather than the longer more boring version. I just picked up the set and have only watched the episode "Threads" (I watched the season when it aired). I thought the shorter version was better and quicker to get to the point, there was a lot of padding in the longer version. Although I don't agree with MGM's Decision to not to put the broadcast version on the DVD, I'm glad they didn't. I don't think I will trade in my set to get the longer version. More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Richard Dean Anderson DVD Release Date: Released the 04 October 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Created at least in part due to popular demand, Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars will provide some closure to fans who were dismayed by the demise of the popular science fiction television show in 2003 and campaigned mightily to bring it back. Indeed, this miniseries (originally broadcast over two nights on the Sci-Fi Channel) will likely appeal primarily to the Farscape faithful, as the somewhat convoluted storyline may prove baffling to the uninitiated.
A brief bit of backstory explains how John Crichton, an astronaut from Earth, went through a wormhole and ended up on Moya, a living spaceship, with a motley group of aliens, including D'Argo (Anthony Simcoe), Chiana (Gigi Edgley), various puppet characters (designed by the Jim Henson Company), and Aeryn... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Brian Henson DVD Release Date: Released the 18 January 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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The first and only spin-off of Babylon 5, J. Michael Straczynski's short-lived sci-fi series Crusade had its roots in the B5 television movie A Call to Arms, in which Earth was battling a Drakh invasion at the end of the Shadow Wars. When Crusade begins, the Drakh have released a deadly virus that threatens to wipe out all 10 billion humans living on Earth unless a cure can be found in five years. To take on this monumental task, Captain Matthew Gideon (Gary Cole) is assigned command of the state-of-the-art Destroyer-class ship Excalibur. His crew includes telepath John Matheson (Daniel Dae Kim); pompous but brilliant archaeologist-linguist Max Eilerson (David Allen Brooks); Dureena, a member of the Thieves' Guild and the last surviving member... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Tony Dow DVD Release Date: Released the 07 December 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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