Andromeda (TV Series) Tunnel at the End of the Light (2002) User Reviews

Is Trance's 'Bad Future' about to begin?

[Tweekums · 9/10 · 21 June 2018]

It is two years since Captain Dylan Hunt set about trying to recreate the Systems Commonwealth now representatives of the first fifty members are aboard Andromeda to formally sign up. It soon becomes apparent that somebody else is aboard trying to sabotage the event. This individual is tracked down but just as he is about to be captured an unidentified alien materialises and drags the screaming man through a bulkhead. Soon various representatives are similarly taken so the remainder understandably want to leave. Trance warns that they must not leave... when this happened before they left and the 'bad future' she mentioned when Gold Trance replaced Purple Trance began. Soon ships start to materialise around Andromeda, attack then dematerialise before fire can be returned. More and more ships start to materialise and the situation looks desperate.

This episode brings season two to a thrilling conclusion. There is plenty of action, a mysterious threat and a cliff-hanger ending that leaves one wondering if some key characters didn't survive. The story starts well with some nice misdirection as viewers and crew alike suspect the obvious saboteur will be the main antagonist. The aliens are menacing and mysterious; there is a suggestion as to where they come from but no solid details about who they are or why they are attacking... we will obviously have to wait for season three to find out. I liked the fact that all of the main cast featured in the episode; in particular Trance as her warnings about a bad future appear to be coming true. The ending was exciting, as one might expect from a season finale... I'm glad I won't have to wait ages to discover what happens next.

The End of the End of the Wolfe Era

[flash-104 · 6/10 · 13 August 2023]

The series' creator, Robert Hewitt Wolfe, was fired after episode 12 of season 2, Ouroboros (2002), for refusing to dumb the show down enough to suit Kevin Sorbo, but "his influence was felt until the completion of the second season; at that point, Bob Engels was brought on to be an executive producer." At the time, I boycotted the show after Wolfe's departure, but there were actually some good episodes under Wolfe's departed influence, e.g. The Knight, Death and the Devil (2002) and Immaculate Perception (2002).

This episode, however, feels like Wolfe left an intelligent sketch for a season finalé, along the lines of "the first fifty delegates to the restored Commonwealth gather on the Andromeda and Bad Things Happen." The blanks were filled in cluelessly, with the mysterious and inexplicable Alien(s), who at the beginning of the episode, has no problem partially materializing to snatch or kill Commonwealth delegates. It later changes strategy, fully materializing in tactically weak locations to engage in pointless losing hand-to-hand combat.

Then it is reinforced by few enough ships to be defeated by the Commonwealth, followed by a roughly infinite number. Don't expect the idiocy to get an intelligible explanation at the start of season 3; I wasn't able to endure the whole episode, but the reviews here suggest that the new producer didn't even pretend to provide an explanation.