Couldn't sleep, so decided to plough through a few of the PVR'd shows piling up on the hard disk. They included the last 2 episodes of Andromeda. Um... dark. Everyone dies save the hero who decides to flee... even the heroine that the hero (who eventually flees) convinces she shouldn't flee.

I mean, yes, it was foreshadowed with the evolved enemy coming back through the gate to the future a few episodes ago, but honestly I wasn't expecting anything quite so unremittingly dark. Unfortunately, the writing was so full of strange pacing that it didn't have much emotional impact. Too many 5 minute pauses in the middle of what is supposed to be an invasion by an overwhelming barbaric assault... too much time to think "hey, this doesn't make any sense" and thus lose the effect.

Bringing in the "thing that absolutely must be saved" so late in the game also messed things up; required too abrupt a series of plot twists and character development to really satisfy. The sudden elevation of the hero... a little stretchy, and entirely unnecessary. Why, having seen increased gravity work 10 minutes before (heck, in an episode three or four back it was portrayed as a standard defense mechanism) they don't just use it again, who knows.

I wonder if this was written as a "we're out of funding and need to wrap the whole thing up" episode? But then the whole series has been somewhat lame since the introduction of the "world ship" arc (yes, yes, I know, I'm watching reruns, but it's the first time for me). You have a gigantic super-weapon coming at you, and rather than build an army to counter it (it was noticably damaged by the flagship of the fleet, which is superior, but not hugely superior to other ships in the fleet, so 50 or 60 of them would have been quite sufficient to destroy it), you spend your month-or-so wandering about wrapping up personal business, poking into various other people's projects, and generally do nothing that provides any military benefit.

I guess what I'm saying is, similar to the effect with Buffy's finale, I almost feel cheated for having watched the series now that I know they never really do anything interesting with it. Artists, designers, writers, here's a hint: your role in society is to help us understand and cope with our world. The artistic component of your work involves having something to say about the human condition. If you're just putting in time, don't waste our time. (Yes, I see the irony of writing that in a blog).