Andromeda (TV Series) - Plot and Production

Plot and Production

The series is set thousands of years in the future, and revolves around the Systems Commonwealth, a constitutional monarchy based in a distant star system called Tarn-Vedra. Humankind is a part of The Commonwealth, having been discovered by its members thousands of years prior. The Commonwealth is based in three galaxies; The Milky Way, Triangulum Galaxy, and the Andromeda Galaxy, located 2.7 million light-years from the Milky Way Galaxy. Ships travel from one end of the Commonwealth to the other through slipstreams, following pre-guided roller coaster-like pathways through the cosmos to and from their destination.

The Commonwealth claims to be a utopian society, but it is actually in a state of war with the Magog, a humanoid species with bat-like faces that is dedicated to war. A few years earlier, to show good faith as a result of peace talks, the Commonwealth ceded to the Magog a key home world. This home world is a key planet of one of the Commonwealth's member species, the genetically engineered Nietzscheans. The Nietzscheans, displeased with this peace agreement with the Magog, secretly attempt to usurp control of the Commonwealth. This is also the embodiment of their basic beliefs, as they see themselves as the race described as the "Übermensch" by philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.

The Commonwealth is defended by the High Guard, an armada of many ships. The protagonist of the series, Dylan Hunt, is the captain of a Commonwealth ship, the Andromeda Ascendant. The ship's computer, a powerful AI (Artificial Intelligence), is a key character in the series.

The entire High Guard, including Captain Hunt, is caught by surprise in the first engagement of the Nietzschean uprising. He is forced to evacuate his crew, but Andromeda gets caught on the edge of an event horizon of a black hole, freezing him in time.

303 years later, the crew of the salvage ship Eureka Maru locates Hunt's ship. The Systems Commonwealth and the High Guard have fallen in the centuries since he was frozen in time, beginning an era known as The Long Night. Hunt recruits the salvage crew to join him in an attempt to restore the Systems Commonwealth and "rekindle the light of civilization."

The salvage crew comprises its leader, Beka Valentine, a con-artist and expert pilot; a super-genius engineer named Seamus Harper (rescued from Nietzschean-enslaved Earth by Beka) who can plug his mind directly into computer systems; Trance Gemini, and Rev Bem. "Rev" is short for Reverend; although he is a Magog and thus violent by nature, he has discovered a non-violent, Taoist-like religious order called The Way and become a Wayist priest. As for Trance, little is known at first about this pixie-like purple female alien other than that she has a tail and seems somewhat distant. The salvage crew's beneficiary also brought along an insurance policy in the form of a Nietzschean mercenary named Tyr Anasazi ("out of Victoria by Barbarossa", of the nearly extinct Kodiak pride). Tyr is the leader of a group of mercenaries, of which he is the only one to be left on board after the opening episodes. Tyr's propensity for self-preservation leads him to also join Dylan's crew until better opportunities arise.