Another neat episode to come back to and skip to on a re-watch.
Given this show's budget, the time in which it was made (and what that meant for the glass ceiling of quality for syndicated sci-fi shows) this show, and episodes like this, still stand out as examples of things that, while hampered by the restraints of its circumstance, simply can't be found anywhere else, with a sense of imagination that you only find in often kitschy, weirdo low/mid budget sci-fi (Andromeda, Farscape, LEXX, and to some degree Stargate: SG1.)
While I appreciate things like Battlestar Galactica (OG and remake, but I'm referring to the latter), the self-seriousness and melodrama that worked well in that show (at least as far as I've watched) became the new style, only most things lost the creativity and sense of wonder and just turned into pretentious, emotionally demanding ""Serious Adult Drama"" filled with petty, vindictive and awful people, and an overdeveloped yet ironically naïve and ignorant sense of "realism".
You won't find that here.
Here, you will find vibrant, well defined fantasy/adventure characters-- some cute, purple, and hiding something, with or without a tail --, dubious interpretations and implementations of bleeding edge, highly theoretical physics that play with different eventualities and combinations of technology that frame events with stakes so high and so far outside of our experience or familiarity that they become exciting and fantastical instead of causing dread, fear, and disgust.
Meta note: This episode is another that highlights the differences in this universe and the universe of Star Trek. They may both have FTL travel to facilitate their wide open space opera, but the universe of Andromeda doesn't have transporters, and this episode delves directly into the physics of why that is, and, as an explanation and plot device is used very well. I also like that they allow you to figure some things out for yourself instead of explaining absolutely everything through an obvious and unnecessary exposition dump, eg. regarding the differences in the effects on the ship versus the effects on the planet they were orbiting Andromeda just says that they were much worse, but she wouldn't necessarily know why, but I questioned it for a second, and then realized it must have been related to the differences in mass, with a larger object having amplified effects from a space-time screwing-around-with thingamajig, and that perhaps there was also some amplified inverse square multiplier going into effect (which also ties in with a the main counter-theory to "dark matter".
Shout by LNeroBlockedParent2024-03-06T03:35:09Z
Just watched again after three years, and this episode has so many quotables and great character moments. It may have a serious premise and conclusion, but there's a lot of action, and I find myself smiling and laughing throughout whenever I watch it, mainly with Harper and Trance. Laura Bertram is absolutely delightful. I don't know why she doesn't do voice over work, since she'd be so much better and more convincing than a lot of VA playing younger characters in animation and video games. I'd cast her in a heartbeat.