Deep Midnight's Voice
Andromeda Episode Review
In which Beka has crap taste in men, Dylan has crap taste in women, and Tyr needs new friends.
What Happened
Guiding a convoy, Andromeda observes a pair of Nietzschean battle groups - you know - battling each other. One of the losing Nietzscheans makes a break for the Andromeda, so Dylan blows up his pursuer and brings him onboard. Questioned, Gaitan says that the Drago Katsov are searching for "Deep Midnight's Voice": a pre-fall Nietzschean slip-scout. It mapped all of slip-stream, which would give whoever found it a huge advantage while they were running about killing people.
Not wanting to see the balance of power upended, Dylan decides to find it. Andromeda finds they planet that is "probably" where the probe may have gone down for repairs. Problem is, the planet in question is inhabited by folks who think they are alone in the universe. Dylan, Beka, Tyr, and Gaitan go down to try and blend long enough to find the probe.
Spotted by the natives, Dylan sends Tyr and Gaitan to find the probe. He and Beka wind up collecting a pair of scientists investigating "falling stars." So while Tyr and Gaitan go lumbering through the jungle, Dylan and Beka try not to get arrested as spies long enough to make out with the natives. Gaitan admits that he is a spy for the Drago Katsov, sent to make Tyr an offer he can't refuse. He and Tyr find the probe, brutally murder a few soldiers, then return to the Maru.
Hearing from Harper that the Nietzscheans are coming, Dylan sadly tells his new girlfriend that her planet may well be hosed. She demands that he do something about it, but he's not pretending to be Super-Dylan this week and makes sad face. Just before Beka and Dylan arrive, Tyr listens to Gaitan admitting that he thinks Tyr's son is the reincarnation of Drago Musevni. Though Gaitan wants to join Tyr in using probe and baby in conquering the universe, Tyr isn't playing that way and shoots him.
Dylan has the Andromeda set off a solar flare, destroying the Nietzschean ship and covering his escape. Before dropping the girlfriend off, Dylan gives her a comm pad, offering her a chance to advance her world's technology by a thousand years. Onboard the ship, Andromeda tells Dylan that someone made a copy of the probe's data...
What We Learned
- Harper is a charmer.
- An AI's ability to guess the right route in slipstream is fifty-fifty.
- Drago Musevini fathered a race of royal over-achievers.
- Tyr is asserting his independence.
- It is good to be smart.
- They have no idea how dangerous the universe is.
- Then, maybe it is the universe that needs to be reprogrammed.
- Beka is familiar with basic anatomy.
- Harper is really really primitive.
- Setting off a solar flare is not subtle.
- The universe is perfect. Interfere with it at your peril.
Best Lines
Gaitan: "You could save my childrens' lives and I would still hate the Kludge."
Dylan: "And I'd still save your children. ... I'd leave you behind, though."
Gaitan: "Is there such a difference between me and my ancestors?"
Dylan: "Yes. They're dead."
What Did I Think?
That I say it is better than last week should not necessarily be viewed as an endorsement. Beka's baby-talk flirtation, for example, is an embarrassment for all involved. On the other hand, it advanced the Dylan/Tyr storyline and Dylan himself was less obnoxious than usual here. Even his chirpy little girlfriend was palatable.
When I think about it, most of his girlfriends are not - in and of themselves - all that bad. It's just when you stack them up throughout the series, the very fact that Dylan seems unable to exist unless there is some "spunky" female putting aside her own life to gaze adoringly in his direction is what pisses me off so thoroughly.
And for all the drama of Dylan showing up at Tyr's doorstep to "talk," we don't get to see the talk and the talk is never mentioned at a later date. Which? Bites.