Machiavelli's ideas are basically sound ones for the Nietzchean people.
Unforturnately, he was an optimist.
Cerebus Kiimer "Aphorism" - C.Y. 8969
I'll be the writers are having a good time coming up with these little sayings that they show at the beginning of each episode.
Again the Tyr faction is going to be glued to the TV set for the first few moments as Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda begins episode #105, Double Helix. One handed pull-ups. Oh yeah.
Moving to a more 'innocent' scene, Andromeda, fully clothed in a less revealing outfit is walking the corridors of the ship. She sees herself in a view screen and decides to take a closer look. Her lips seem to intrigue her as she starts puckering and pouting at herself. Harper drops down a ladder to land behind her saying "You're welcome." Obviously very pleased with himself.
Rommie: For what?
Harper: The lips. I spent a long time getting those the right shape, right texture.
Rommie: Hum. How very thoughtful of you.
Harper: What? You don't like them?
Rommie: No ... no. I do. They're very ... liplike.
Harper: Then why the look? Which, by the way remember, I programmed into your facial vectors to express displeasure.
Rommie: I can't help but notice that you engineered my humanoid form with certain ... features that, strictly speaking, aren't necessary for my normal operation.
Harper: Ah..."
Rommie: I guess I wonder, Harper, when you made the body who did you do it for?
Harper: Ah, ohh, ah, well for you Rommie ... absolutely for you. Okay I know that look too. It means 'Harper, you're full of it.' Ah ... technically for both of us?
Rommie: Oh really?
Harper: Okay Rommie, you're taking this all wrong. I mean for you because I wanted you to feel the full advantages of being a human woman. You deserve it. And for me in the capacity of an engineer who prices himself on perfectionism. I just wanted everything to be just right.
Rommie: (moving in closer to Harper) So when you handled certain parts of me, did you wear gloves?
The sound of a klaxon saves the day as Beka's voice is then heard over the intercom "All hands to report to command."
Dylan, Beka, and Rev are discussing a space battle that the sensors of the Andromeda have picked up in the sector where they are refueling. Rev identifies the combatants as Than and Nietzschean. The Than are apparently attacking an asteroid. Dylan mentions that they system was supposed to be uninhabited to which Rev replies that it is apprently not. As they witness the combat on the screens, Beka begins giving commentary and instructions to those fighting even though they cannot hear, and one of the Than ships is blown up. Another is sending out a distress call and Dylan decides that they have to help the Than who it appears are outgunned. His plans are to bring the crippled ship into one of the hanger bays and help negotiate a peace between the Nietzscheans and the Than. If he can accomplish that, then he has the beginnings of his idea of rebuilding the Commonwealth.
From my prespective, this is the best episode to date. It addresses a lot of issues that have been left open. Dylan and Tyr give really good performances throughout and I was never sure just who Tyr was going to side with - the little band of Nietzscheans or the Andromeda.
Dylan, through a memory flashback, comes to understand why Rhade did what he did in betraying him and the Commonwealth and also why Rhade said he was proud of him on the bridge just before he died. He comes to understand Tyr a bit more through this as well and, I think, can pretty much see where Tyr is going to stand in the future. It isn't going to be an easy acceptance for either of them. It has built up a different, more workable tension between the two men. Personally I believe that there is some trust building between the two, but that it is a trust based on opponents rather than friends. A quote by Rev very early in the episode is, I believe, going to be a recurring theme throughout the show for quite awhile. "Destroy my enemy by making them my friend."
The viewer is also allowed to learn more about Tyr, his personal background, and some of the reasons the Nietzscheans think they way they do. It, I think, will validate why Tyr reacts the way he does when he is interacting with the rest of the crew. It gives the character more depth and I, for one, can now start feeling for this man and what he has gone through and what he will be going through.
Rev, again, plays to Dylan's conscience when he begins to face his feelings about the destruction of the Commonwealth and the betrayal of Rhade - not just his First Officer, but someone he considered friend enough to ask to be his best man at his wedding. Dylan admits that even though he wants to rebuild the Commonwealth and the ideals it stood for, he is personally having problems with the idea of making peace with the Nietzcheans because all he really wants to do is to kill them all.
Rev then asks him after describing the Magog, why Dylan doesn't feel the same way about them. After Dylan's explanation Rev says, "Then in each species, no matter how horrible, there's room for improvement."
Cheers,
