If there's anything that shows what an incurable optimist I am, it's the fact that I keep trying to like Andromeda. The thing is, it's a show with potential... or at least it had quite a bit of potential back in Season 1. For an action-based space opera, it has a reasonably well-thought-out setting with lots of potential for conflict and intrigue, and the "gang of misfits out to save the universe" cast, while cliche-ridden, offered some interesting characters. At the time, I was disappointed that Season 1 didn't manage to do more with the material; looking back, I can now recognize it as a kind of Golden Age of Andromeda, because Seasons 2 and 3 initiated a steep decline in the quality of the storytelling (which was never all that stellar to begin with, but at one point actually offered some lightweight fun).

In Season 4 Collection 1, it looks like Andromeda is trying to head in a slightly different direction. The idea of having Dylan actually succeed in creating a new Commonwealth, which indeed felt rather rushed at the time, seems to have been recognized as a bad move, in terms of the overall story arc. So Season 4 starts shaking things up: the Magog threat is pulled off of the shelf where it had been stored out of sight for a while, and a new emphasis is placed on conspiracy and intrigue within the Commonwealth, threatening to pull it apart.

That new and potentially darker direction sounds like a good idea, and I have to say, in the hands of competent writers with a better lead actor, might have saved Andromeda. However, a couple of things make it flounder. One is Kevin Sorbo, who is growing increasingly insufferable in his role as Captain Dylan Hunt. He's so ridiculously one-dimensional and so smugly self-assured that it's impossible to actually take him seriously as a character, let alone as the heroic captain of the Andromeda. It doesn't help that the scripts keep handing him scenes in which Dylan must (with false modesty) brush off the adulation of a grateful galaxy. "Oh, it was nothin', really, just lil' old me doin' my part for the Commonwealth..."

But that's just the tip of the iceberg. What's underneath the surface can be expressed in two words: bad scripts. The stories in Collection 1 are bland and forgettable, but not in a lightweight fun way: in a "eh, this is pretty awful" way. It almost makes me nostalgic for the swiss-cheese plots of some of the earlier seasons... at least some of those had some creativity despite their flaws. Here, we get various intrigues and conflicts that Dylan must resolve, in order to protect the Commonwealth from enemies within and without. Unfortunately, that every conspirator or intrigue is made up out of new cloth for each episode. How can we be shocked by revelations of Citizen Eight's duplicity, when we never heard of him before? And let's not even get into the fact that all of the enemies of the Commonwealth seem to have the same sneering delivery of their lines. If someone is comically obnoxious, he's a baddie. Another problem is that Dylan's methods of resolving conflicts are, shall we say, tactically limited... which in turn means that the plots of the Andromeda episodes are not exactly full of surprises.

The character of Tyr, who took off to do mysterious things on his own at the end of Season 3, is absent from all of these episodes. Perhaps Keith Hamilton Cobb decided it was time to cut his losses...

Incidentally, in another example of the "we know it's broken but we have no clue how to fix it" approach, we get some new theme music within the episodes.... and it's utterly inappropriate to the style of the show. In fact, the new music is much more suited to a happy-go-lucky Western than a sci-fi action series. It is never a positive sign when the musical cues for a dramatic battle scene provoke laughter.

Here's a quick rundown of the episodes on Season 4 Collection 1:

"Answers Given to Questions Never Asked": One of the Commonwealth Triumvirs is kidnapped, and Dylan & co. go to the rescue.

"Pieces of Eight": The Andromeda crew tracks down a conspiracy headed by a mysterious Citizen Eight, who has a creature who can tell the future.

"Waking the Tyrant's Device": The creator of the Magog worldship is up to no good. Dylan must, of course, stop him.

"Double or Nothingness": Dylan is trapped in a virtual-reality program without his knowledge.

"Harper/Delete": The Andromeda crew discovers the most powerful weapon in the universe, and must prevent it from falling into the wrong hands.

The DVD

Andromeda: Season 4 Collection 1 is a two-disc set, in a double-wide plastic keepcase. It contains episodes 401-405.

Video

The one thing you can't fault about Andromeda is how it looks: Season 4 Collection 1 offers an almost perfect viewing experience. The image is crisp and sharp in almost all scenes, the only exception being a tiny bit of softness in the occasional scene. Colors are natural-looking, with blacks being solid but not too heavy while brighter colors are nicely vibrant. Edge enhancement is totally absent, making Andromeda one of the nicest-looking shows out there in terms of detail in the image and general sharpness.

Audio

The Dolby 2.0 soundtrack does a solid job of handling the sound requirements for the series, though as I've commented before, this is one show that would benefit from a more aggressive surround track. The dialogue, music, and special effects are well balanced on the whole, but I did notice that a touch of harshness creeps into the soundtrack when voices are raised.

Extras

The special features for Season 4 Collection 1 follow in the footsteps of the earlier seasons, though the content is a bit light in this set. The menus continue to look more streamlined and stylish, and are now actually quite easy to navigate: always a plus.

Disc 1's main featurette is "Meet the Cast: Laura Bertram," which offers a 17-minute interview with Bertram (Trance). It's a nicely content-rich piece, with Bertram touching on topics like her background in show business. Also on this disc are six minutes of deleted scenes, trailers for the episodes on that disc, and a set of ADV previews.

Disc 2 has a reasonably interesting 8-minute featurette on the visual effects of the series, in the form of an interview with the visual effects supervisor. On the not-so-great side, we get "Kevin Sorbo's Bloopers and Gags" (4 minutes) which are getting kind of old by now. Another six minutes of deleted scenes are included, along with a 4-minute slideshow of costume design sketches, trailers for the episodes on this disc, and ADV previews.

Final thoughts

I've finally run out of patience with Andromeda. Through three seasons, I've hung on, enjoying what light-weight fun the series has to offer (less and less as time goes on) and hoping for a turnaround. With these first episodes in Season 4, it just looks like more of the same bad-quality stuff, with no improvement in sight. If you're a fan, you'll be pleased with the audio and video quality, at least; otherwise, skip it.