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Dance of the Mayflies
#3637 - 2002/02/26 06:59 PM |
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Plot Summary: While Beka, Trance and Dylan evacuate dying people from a Drift to the Andromeda, Rommie becomes emotionally distressed about the loss of life. By the time the crew returns to Andromeda, Tyr has determined that their allies the Than were responsible for the attack. Andromeda determines that a biological weapon carrying a parasite caused the victims to lose consciousness, then die. In the medical bay, Beka collapses; she, too, has become infected after giving CPR to a dying man. While Harper tries to protect his compromised immune system, Trance studies how the infection is spread, since it's apparently not airborne.
The Than attack Andromeda. While the ship hides behind an asteroid to fix the sensors and slipstream drive, corpses rise from their body bags and begin to spread out. Dylan discovers that the parasite spreads when a zombie breathes into the mouth of a healthy person, but though Beka hangs on to consciousness, Trance instantly becomes infected when a zombie exhales in her face. She identifies her host as one of the Bokor a 50,000-year-old species that move from body to body. She says she can offer them undreamed-of longevity, yet Dylan and Rommie fight her. The ship's reserve power comes online, but Harper takes no credit; the Bokor have fixed the engines in order to spread through the galaxy, which is why the Than have attacked.
Harper and Dylan deduce that a force lance set at level 8 should be able to electrocute the invaders, who cannot be killed by conventional means since they're already dead. To guarantee the end of the Bokor, Dylan sets the ship to auto-destruct but the corpses abort the sequence. Dylan then wonders how Trance was taken over so quickly, and concludes that maybe it's because she wasn't alive in the first place. He electrocutes her, which frees her from the Bokor. Though she still won't answer questions about her radically different physiology, Trance does figure out a way to use nanobots to cure Beka.
Rommie, who has been arguing with her holographic and computer avatars about her increasing emotionalism, asks to speak to Dylan alone. She admits that she cares about him as a person, not just a captain, and expresses her fear of losing him; she may be virtually indestructible, but one day all the humans she knows will die. She begs to know how humans make friends and fall in love knowing that nothing is permanent. Dylan says that love never dies; when the universe ends and last star burns out, the only thing left will be love. When Rommie says she doesn't understand, he replies, 'Yes you do,' and kisses her cheek.
To read the full reviews, please click here.
| Dylanite |
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Re: Dance of the Mayflies
2002/02/26 07:13 PM |
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You know, I think maybe our good reviewer ought to avoid popping Valentines Day chocolates while watching Andromeda.
BTW, Iolaus dies in SUMARIA, not Egypt, and if you think DOTM is anything resembling Darkness Rising then I don't think you paid very close attention to EITHER episode, SO THERE. 
| Seraph |
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Re: Dance of the Mayflies
2002/02/26 07:59 PM |
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Well that was certainly the last review of Ms. Green's that I'll be reading. Her takes on the show suggest she has a lot of issues of her own to deal with before she can begin passing such judgements on this (or any other) show. She is constantly trying to read more into scenes/plots that is actually there. Other times she just completely overlooks or misunderstands key elements of the story or character developments. Her diatribes remind me of those self-righteous left-wing syccophants of the Young Democrats and the ridiculous, pompous articles they'd get printed in the school newspaper at college. Get over yourself already. Maybe you should get a co-reviewer to collaberate with on these articles so as to mitigate the absurdity of your observations.
Sorry if that was a bit terse, but I'm really quite frustrated with the consistent garbage that gets passed off as a "professional" review.
Seraph
| Dylanite |
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Re: Dance of the Mayflies
2002/02/26 08:05 PM |
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I don't know you Seraph but I think I'm gonna like you.
Lil
| chinhead |
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Re: Dance of the Mayflies
2002/02/26 08:19 PM |
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Well, I think I'd have to agree that Rommie was a bit emotionally overblown this episode, but otherwise I though it was a pretty consistent, well done ep, with some good character development (I'm feeling better about New Trance), a reasonable zombie premise (oh, think of how bad it could have been!), a bit of humor, and no gratuitous decontamination room scenes....
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"That is SUCH a warship thing to say..."
| Rayhana |
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Re: Dance of the Mayflies
2002/02/26 10:24 PM |
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I agree with Dylanite and Seraph. I thought the show was very good and I enjoyed the character interaction. I too am getting quite upset over Ms. Green's constant discontentment with the show and her "interpretations". I did not think Dylan acted as a dufous nor do I think the story was poorly done, etc. As far as the violance, I didn't think it was misplaced or misused. I think inappropriate or non-necessary violance would have been if Dylan had immediately started attacting the Than, without trying to talk first. I don't know what Ms. Green would like to see in this show, because it seems no matter what this show produces, she finds almost everything wrong with it. A Question to this reviewer:
What would you consider to be a good show, how would you portray Dylan, give an example perhaps of a scene you think would be creditable, than maybe I could understand your point more.
Personally, I enjoyed the show, a lot. I love the character interaction, the concern and care Dylan showed his crew, Tyr's reactions, Harper's humor, a glimpse of Trance to come and Rommie's confusion over the emotions she is starting to experience. All of which I call character development, all of which I want to see more of.
| Seraph |
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Re: Dance of the Mayflies
2002/02/27 12:09 AM |
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Well said Rayhana.
Seraph
| tonnerre |
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Re: Dance of the Mayflies
2002/02/27 04:41 AM |
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[QUOTE]:
Sorry if that was a bit terse, but I'm really quite frustrated with the consistent garbage that gets passed off as a "professional" review.
MY TWO CENTS:
Thank you! My sentiments exactly!
One more point I would add.... WHY oh WHY does every Andromeda reviewed have to get compared to Star Trek????? Is there some unwritten code I need to know about that predetermined every scifi show set in future space has to be like some STAR TREK ??? I hope not! That would be MOST disheartening. I didn't care for any of the ST series enough to say I was a faithful watcher.
Now, when I actually do read these reviews - it is only to see what level of absurdity will be reached - because it is clear that they are inconsequential.
Should these comments seem terse.... try rereading some of the "reviews".
| Sitaine |
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Re: Dance of the Mayflies
2002/02/27 05:03 AM |
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I think she's trying to take it rather seriously (i.e. not wanting to combine serious emotional plots with camp humour) which is certainly her right. She caught *some* of the good character moments, but didn't string them together into the character ensemble masterpiece this was.
| MichelleEricaGreen |
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Re: Dance of the Mayflies
2002/02/27 05:20 PM |
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This is the last time I am going to bother to comment upon or even read the comments on my reviews in the public boards, because they're so immature. When people have legitimate criticisms, disagreements, points of contention, corrections or disputes with my analyses, they write to me and use their real names; the people who post here rarely comment on anything substantive and I don't need to read the comments of vitriolic fans about my supposed mental, emotional or psychological deficiencies.
That said, if you want to read what I like and expect from Andromeda, you are welcome to read my first season reviews, all of which are at http://www.littlereview.com/getcritical. They are not, however, universally positive and gushing, which is apparently the only tolerable response to an episode among the denizens of this board. Jammer and The Cynic (with whom I often disagree yet still respect) had similar reactions to my own to the past two episodes, so while I may be just as crazy and stupid as has been alleged here, the problem is obviously pervasive among online reviewers.
As for why I make comparisons to Star Trek: when a series borrows from, alludes to in dialogue or flat-out rips off Star Trek just about every week, it would be unfair to the Star Trek producers not to acknowledge the...uhh, homage. Stargate SG-1 doesn't constantly rip off Star Trek. Farscape makes occasional joking reference to Star Trek but is full of creative, innovative ideas and character development (with a lot less gratuitous violence) that demonstrates its independence. Andromeda this season alternately reminds me of mediocre Trek and mediocre Hercules (gosh I'm sorry about the Egypt/Sumeria mixup which happened because I had to review two Andromeda episodes in 36 hours, but I haven't memorized the shows and nobody edits my reviews before they're posted -- I'd ask for a volunteer but this isn't the ideal professional forum).
If anyone would like to have a serious conversation about my reviewing style, how my understanding of the characters differs from yours, why you find comparisons to other shows odious, where I've been too scathing, what you wish I'd notice about Andromeda that I keep overlooking, or where I've been flat-out wrong about something, you can reach me at the same site where you can find my previous reviews (I'm not posting the e-dress here because such postings tend to attract spam from advertisers, but it's certainly not a secret). Otherwise, enjoy your bashing. Perhaps one day you will ask yourselves why you cannot stomach criticism of a television character but think nothing of bashing a live human being who reviews what is, after all, Just A TV Show.
Michelle
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http://www.littlereview.com/
| Rayhana |
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Re: Dance of the Mayflies
2002/02/27 06:35 PM |
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As soon as I can access your site I will and will be happy to contact you directly. While I may agree that the show, at times, is lacking here and there, I am simply saying I don't see the severity of the problems that you seem too. I can tolerate and accept constructive criticism of a show or anything else, but I also appreciate the person who can provide a balance to this by siting what wasn't bad or down right pretty good. As far as your references to Star Trek, I see similarities as well. Maybe this is why I don't always understand the poor reviews. I have to wonder if Andromeda did a show like Star Trek's "Trouble with Tribles" if it would be accepted as well as the original. Probably not. I'll be happy to contact you at your site, unfortunately I simply can't access it at this time. Just one last note, bashing can be considered to go both ways.