Andromeda Episode 3: To Loose the Fateful Lightning

The crew of Andromeda finds an old Commonwealth station full of fighter ships and weapons. The downside? It’s run by a bunch of annoying kids.

Episode Summary

The Andromeda docks at an old Commonwealth High Guard station that’s inhabited by a bunch of kids – there’s a source of radiation on the station that’s killing them before they reach adulthood. As soon as the kids discover that Captain Hunt is a member of the High Guard, they revere him as some sort of holy figure.

Hunt finds that the source of the radiation is behind a mystery door. He uses his High Guard command code to unlock it to reveal a docking bay full of 24 Commonwealth Slipfighters – each armed with a Nova Bomb.

The Kids are Not All Right

Hunt learns the hard way that these kids have had some xenophobic philosophy drilled into their heads; they believe all non-humans should be killed in a holy light thing. The oblivious Hunt inadvertently blesses two “holy warriors” and they take off in two of the fighters, with plans to detonate their Nova Bombs (or “Noble Bombs” as they call them) in a Magog-controlled system.

The Andromeda sets off after the fighters; one is stopped, but the other is successful in detonation. The Magog system is destroyed.

Andromeda Becomes a Daycare

Andromeda returns to the station, and Hunt’s crew is outsmarted by the kids’ trap, which pretty much amounts to “Wilma! Wilma, open this door!” Some of the kids are let aboard and attempt to commandeer Andromeda, while the rest launch take off in the remaining fighters, with aims of destroying more alien star systems.

In the end, the kids’ plans are thwarted by an android version of Holo-Andromeda created by Harper. She remotely controls the kids’ fighters to eject their pilots and self destruct.

The kids are dumped back on the station and given nanobots to cure the younger ones of radiation damage (it’s too late for the older kids). They’re taught that aliens are good and being bad is bad and then Andromeda leaves for its next adventure.

Thoughts

In the grand tradition of Star Trek, seaQuest, Stargate Atlantis (airing later), not to mention Lord of the Flies, we get an episode about a settlement of kids fending for themselves. How does it stack up?

Well, the episode’s message was good – don’t be aggressive, fanatical, and close-minded, and be excellent to everyone – but on the other hand, these kids were incredibly annoying. Huge dealbreaker.

A for Android

I also didn’t like how Andromeda got her body at the end of the episode. I felt it was way too soon for that and I’m still not sure how Harper did it so quickly. This development would have had more weight if it had occurred later in the season.

It would be as if Star Trek Voyager gave its holographic doctor the mobile emitter in the third episode instead of the third season. It cuts out some of the character and storyline possibilities if a character gets something cool before we really even know they need it.