Posted 26 June 2005 - 01:03 PM
Robert, thanks for sharing your vision.
I've enjoyed Andromeda since Season 1, as it is in the vein of the very best classic Space Opera. I do have a couple of questions about your vision, though.
One of the compelling features of the show was Dylan's alleigience to a dead Commonwealth, and to Vedrans as a race in particular. I never liked the whole Paradine plot-line -- it didn't make sense -- but I also would have liked to have seen a decent explanation for why the Vedrans buggered off in the first place, what they have been doing, and their eventual re-integration into the galaxy.
What I foresaw was the Vedrans making contact (or Dylan forcing contact) and having him learn that they had discovered the coming cosmic battle centuries ago, and had formulated a strategy of "hide, prepare, and strike when appropriate". The Empress in Exile on a Slipstream-hidden colony world (or even Tarn Vedra itself, getting rid of that horrible Seefra plotline) would personally explain that the Vedrans weren't planning a strike against the Abyss until after it had chewed up the Anastazi-led Neitzeian Empire. She finds Dylan's attempt to re-found the Commonwealth as amusing and nostalgiac, but ultimately irrelevant to the fight. Dylan pleads his case and they get into a long philosophical arguement over the duty of the Empress to the Commonwealth -- Dylan demands that the Vedrans who founded it return to take responsibility for what they did. The Empress tells him that the struggle against the World Ship is more important, and the focus of their efforts. She takes him to a shipyard and shows him the Vedran Armada, two hundred years worth of feverish construction to build ships at the cutting edge of Vedran technology. Any one of them would make the Andromeda look like the Maru. But she wont use them to stop the Magog onlaught, or the Neitziean threat, because it isn't time yet. They are still building Vedran superweapons. Dylan bows and retreats in a hail of scornful sarcasm, questioning his commitment to the High Guard when the Vedrans themselves won't defend those ideals. He returns to Terrazed and prepares to meet the Neitzcheans by gathering up what forces he can that remain loyal to the Restored Commonwealth.
In a climactic battle scene, Andromeda leads a strikeforce on the Netzchean command ship, something like the Superstardestroyer on steroids. The attack fails and Dylan is captured along with Beka and Harper and brought before Tyr. Tyr gloats, introduces his son, and asks Dylan to bow before him like any other Kluge before he incorporates Terrazed and the other RC worlds into his Empire. Before Dylan can make this crucial decision, word comes that the Worldship has come within range of the Neitzchean worlds, and that several of them are under attack by swarmships. While gloating and dominating the Restored Commonwealth is fun, Tyr knows he must take his forces back to face the greater threat. Dylan makes a counter-proposal: join forces in a temporary truce. While the RC forces are weaker, they are still significant, and Dylan thinks he can get the Than and others to join in. He doesn't mention the Vedrans. After some impassioned pleas from Beka and some rude remarks from Harper, Tyr agrees, and tells Dylan to gather his forces at a rendezvous point in three days.
Telemachus agrees to shift forces, leaving only a token behind, and Dylan sends out emisarries to the various powergroups around the galaxies. For three days he negotiates, cajoles, threatens, bluffs, and even hires mercenaries. At the appropriate time the RC forces plus allies meet up with the remnants of Tyrs forces, and they turn to face the Magog Worldship in one great climactic battle.
Greatest Space Battle of All Time.
A hundred ingenious plans are tried to defeat the Magog by stealth and guile. None work effectively. For every swarmship that is knocked out, two more take its place. It look slike the Magog are going to eak it out on attrition alone. Then the Vedrans show up with their armada, led by the Empress, and the battle begins anew.
In the thick of it, suddenly Rev Bem shows up with a strange device. He asks Dylan for help making it through the enemy lines and landing on the Worldship itself. He won't explain why. Dylan gives him the benefit of the doubt, and sends Beka, Harper, Rommie and Trance in the Maru to escort the Rev. After battling and sneaking their way to a central point, Rev Bem confronts the Abyss directly and tries to convert him to the Way. When all seems lost, Rev triggers the device, which uses the power of the Abyss, itself, to release the same kind of radiation that transformed himself. The resulting wave alters the DNA of the Magog to transform them into members of their host species, and breaking the hold the Abyss has over them. Maddened, the Abyss takes to battle himself, laying waste to the Vedran fleet. He is only stopped when Trance, encouraged by Rev, confronts the Abyss with the power of all of her people, and merges with him to force the conflict into a perpetual equilibrium. Trance is gone (sniff).
In the aftermath, Tyr tries to manuever the Empire into a dominant position. The Vedran Empress is not impressed, as are the Than. None of the survivors has a clear advantage, and it looks like they will start shooting at each other in the ruins. The struggle is broken only when Tyr's son, the titular Emperor, overrides his father by declaring the Neitzcheans will not follow the COmmonwealth -- unless his father's old friends, Dylan, is in charge of it. The Empress reluctantly agrees, as do the surviving Triumviers of the RC, the Than, etc. Dylan becomes a unifying point, and government of the Commonwealth is placed in him. He makes Beka in charge of commerical spaceflight and makes Harper the Commonwealth Viceroy of Earth. Andromeda becomes his flagship and roving capital. The Vedrans re-open the routes to Tarn Vedra, and the long task of restoring order to the Galaxies begins.
Fin.
Comments? Questions? Rude remarks?
