Andromeda-2.9 (2001)

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General		Extras
Category	Science Fiction	Main Menu Audio & Animation Booklet
Rating
Year Of Production	2001
Running Time	82:18
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Jorge Montesi Michael Rohl
Studio Distributor	Force Video Beyond Home Entertainment	Starring	Kevin Sorbo Lisa Ryder Keith Hamilton Cobb Laura Bertram Brent Stait Lexa Doig
Case	Brackley-Opaque-No Lip
RPI	$29.95	Music	Alex Lifeson Matthew McCauley

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Pan & Scan	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	None
16x9 Enhancement	No
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

217: The Things We Cannot Change (41:09)

    While working near a newly formed black hole on the Maru, Captain Dylan is catapulted into space through a hull breach. The rest of the crew on the Andromeda lose contact with the captain and begin a search. From the outside the captain is floating in an EVA in space near a black hole, on the inside he wakes up back at home with his wife and son. His wife tells him that he is retiring from the High Guard after losing the rest of the crew near a black hole. This does not jibe well with the captain and he begins to distrust what he is seeing and hearing. Meanwhile back on the Andromeda the crew begins a desperate search for the captain, as he only has so much oxygen in the suit and is awfully close to the black hole.

218: Fair Unknown (41:09)

    The Andromeda crew discovers a wrecked ship in space, a Kalderon ship with lots of Kalderon bodies on board. While accessing the on board computer and the log file they discover that the crew has been killed by a Vedran, a species who were very high in the old Commonwealth and thought extinct since then. The log points them to a planet called Ral Partheia. On arrival Dylan, Rommie and Trance take the Maru down to the surface to see what is happening, while the Andromeda plays tag with a number of Kalderon ships intent on destroying her. The away team (sorry, couldn't resist) are also under attack from Kalderon troops. While they are battling it out with the bad guys the Vedran comes to their rescue. After the battle the Vedran disappears but leaves behind a trail of blood, as it has been injured. With the help of the local police force, a descendant of the original High Guard, they track down the Vedran and return to the Andromeda. Once there the Vedran reveals that she is an Admiral in the High Guard and starts giving Captain Dylan orders, something he is not used to any more.

Video

    Presented at 1.33:1 and not 16x9 enhanced, the image is clearly panned and scanned from the 1.78:1 original.

    Sharpness and shadow detail remain excellent, and the image is free of any low level noise.

    Colours are also good and free of noise.

    The are no MPEG artefacts, nor are there transfer artefacts other than some minor aliasing or film artefacts.

    There are no subtitles and this is a single layer disc.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    While still a 2.0 soundtrack with the surround flag set they continue to pretty much ignore the surrounds.

    There are no problems with the dialogue quality nor with the audio sync.

    The music remains good, adding the correct atmosphere to the scenes.

    A fairly bland surround atmosphere where the music is the main element present in the surrounds. Some ambience also leaks in occasionally but nothing spectacular.

    A couple of extra explosions made it into the subwoofer (due to bass management - a 2.0 surround track doesn't directly address the subwoofer) but only at the light end of the scale.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    The menu is computer animated and accompanied by a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack, there are also animations between each menu page.

Menu

    This series is released in R1 as boxed sets containing two discs and thus four episodes, making a direct comparison impossible. In the boxed set that includes these two episodes (the R1 includes 215 and 216 as well) there are a number of extras:

    The R4 version of this disc misses out on:

• 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced transfer
• Laura Bertram Interview
• Anji Benbem Interview
• Philip Segal Interview
• Andromeda Facts
• Deleted Scene
• Trailers
• Animatic

    The R1 misses out on nothing leaving us with a very clear R1 winner.

    Unfortunately there seems to have been a break in the supply of discs for review of this series with 2.5 to 2.8 inclusive missing in action. On these missing discs there seem to have been major plot developments, in particular in reference to two of the main characters, so the continuity of the plot synopses has been broken. I enjoyed the two episodes on this disc despite the break in continuity as much as I have enjoyed any episode in this series.

    The video is good.

    The audio is acceptable but below par for a new series.

    There are no extras on this disc.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall