Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda - The Commonwealth

[@MacsLore]

I was going to have to get into the TV sci-fi eventually, so I figured: "Lets go, *really* out there". You may be wondering why I say six galaxies and not three as you've undoubtedly heard on the show. The All-Systems University, which was an in-universe lore website actually run by the show staff states at multiple points during the timeline of the Commonwealth that there were six known galaxies. I'm not fully sure what the correct answer is, so I just went with the ASU. Also, I'd like take a moment to appreciate the fact that someone, or some people on the show actually cared about the universe they were building enough, to make a site dedicated to some of the history and concepts found in said universe. Back in 2000-2001, of all things. Too bad such forward thinking was thrown out the window to turn Andromeda into a space action-fest. www.saveandromeda.com/allsystems/index.htm (Official address is long since dead, but Thank Christ, Hunter, Sajuuk, & The Divine for SaveAndromeda.org and their archives.) EDIT: Well, the official ASU is...not dead. Serves me right for not actually clicking the original link on SaveAndroemda until this video is uploaded. Kudos to you. whoever you are for keeping the dream alive: www.allsystems.org/

[@Knight860]

Officially there known as Three "Tri-Galaxies" The Milky Way, Andromeda , Triangulum Galaxy, Large and Small Magellan Clouds are the only ones I'm aware of officially being part of the old Commonwealth but the High Guard had conducted missions as far away as Messier 86 about 66 million light years away from Earth in the show (a shade under 52 million in real life.)

[@MacsLore]

Thanks for clearing this up. I only remembered hearing "Three Galaxies" and the names "Andromeda", "Milky Way", & "Triangulum". But it has been awhile since I've watched a large majority of the episodes.

[@Knight860]

@@MacsLore Your welcome, I read somewhere that each big galaxy in the lore (Milky Way, Andromeda, Triangulum) has two smaller dwarf galaxy's (i.e. Magellanic Clouds) next too it hence the term "Tri-Galaxies" but characters in the show would use the term "three galaxies" and "tri-galaxies" interchangeably, so your not wrong.

[@theodoremccarthy4438]

I love Andromeda, but for "really out there" you should look into Roddenberry's Earth Final Conflict.

[@SSIronHeart]

My people have a legend about the battle of Witchhead. They say that the Nietzschean force arrived here with overwhelming numbers. Their victory seemed assured. But then, in the critical hour, the Angel of Death appeared, summoning forth the fires of hell. The Nietzschean fleet was struck down, crippled, their glorious victory turned to ashes. I've never seen an angel before."

[@robbrowne4995]

Someone needs to reboot this series do it right this time around.

[@labrat810]

Didn't know I needed this. I never really 'liked' Andromeda, but recall 'being entertained' nonetheless. Knowing the background lore to the setting, makes for a satisfying feeling.

[@thedinochromecommand]

Love it. It was such an underrated show in its first 3 seasons

[@weldonwin]

And then Kevin Sorbo became executive producer and as frequently happens when principle actors become EPs, everything goes sideways because he can't stop retconning things to stroke his own ego

[@thedinochromecommand]

@@weldonwin its one of the reasons Keith hamilton cobb gave as his reason for leaving. That he was turning it into the "kevin sorbo power hour"

[@weldonwin]

@@thedinochromecommand I think by the end of it, Dilan Hunt was literally a Demi-God, created by Ancient Interdimensional beings to save creation

[@thedinochromecommand]

@@weldonwin SPACE JESUS!

[@victorkreig6089]

@@weldonwin wasn't just him, shows rarely ever continue to be good past their second season. Also writer's change as well

[@Shard113]

Thank you for this one. Not enough people are giving this series attention. Sad affair what happened to it and how it devolved after season 1, but hopefully, maybe, it is not lost yet. There are countless things that season 1 did that barely other sci-fi even mentions. Example, cyberwarfare during space combat, nanotechnology and practical uses of it, just to name a few.

[@pskopsyke]

Robert Hewitt Wolfe should have written this as a series of novels.

[@lexington476]

Good coverage of the Andromeda series, this was one of my favorite series in the late days of college. The series was good the first two or three seasons, the later seasons really went on an oddball tangent. Maybe I need to rewatch the whole series, been a long time at this point.

[@indiajohnson]

Yeah, I viewed the first 2 seasons and a few episodes of season 3 as watchable, after that, no.

[@VivekSmith]

The network cut their budget ... no more lavish CG space battles.... but they kept Sorbo??

[@lexington476]

@@VivekSmith he's an okay actor. But I think he really did fit the role of Hercules and Captain Dylan.

[@lexington476]

@@indiajohnson same.

[@YycGrumpyGamerDad]

Amazing job man. And the way you managed to NOT stumble over all those names. Epic!

[@MacsLore]

Careful editing helped out way more then I care to admit lol

[@GregDevStuff]

Do Babylon 5... PLEASE... PRETTY PLEASE!

[@MacsLore]

I was afraid this day would come. So I guess it's time to come clean: I....have never actually watched Babylon 5. I'd have to do some serious binging/reading before I'd feel comfortable talking about anything in that universe.

[@GregDevStuff]

@@MacsLore You must! If you are a fan of Sci-Fi, it is an absolute must watch! :)

[@warhawk4494]

Loved this show. Thank you for making this video.

[@JemHadar422]

Thank you for this. I’ve been waiting 20 years for this.

[@Deepingmind]

Great opening entry to what I'm hoping will be a new series for you!

[@mikeroepke9624]

I love the show through and through. Most people don't know it was originally supposed to be a future story line of the star trek universe. After Gene Roddenberry past the owners of the trek franchise thought it wouldn't go over well with the fans that the Federation could fall. So we got Andromeda. The success of this show is the foundation that Star Trek Discovery is built on.

[@maryrosetran5109]

I always wondered how the commonwealth lost so badly. Writer's whims I guess as the plot needed the high guard to lose badly. All officers shown that I remember show that the high guard are trained highly, and 3(6?) galaxies' worth of economy and manpower should have absorbed the initial loses due to inexperience. The only way they'd have lost is if they don't learn from mistakes, which doesn't make sense for a highly trained organization.

[@angrypineapple1]

I think a lesson can be learned from real life. >trained highly Doesn't mean trained rightly. They can have plenty of hours training. But you fight how you train. And if they treat every training like its a game they're forced to play than they'll suck at fighting. >3-6 galaxies worth of manpower and economy I think because of those the commonwealth would find its supply lines limited. Imagine needing to care for hundreds of different sapient races within a single armada. Bringing resources from different countries to their forces can be difficult. But there's another issue with a diverse military. The fact is each alien race will have its social bias, and its own capabilities. Some aliens will do better than others. In a merit based system this can cause issues. But the military is as much of a political creature as civilian organizations, and is just as prone to nepotism. The highguard could have suffered from a case of various officers putting their and a select few men's lives over the existence of the nation, and result in all sorts of ceasers and napoleons within the ranks carving out their own battalions of yes men willing to lie to upper command about training abilities and supplies. Resulting in a force that projects the idea of strength with nice management and kind (to their bootlickers) leaders. But lacking actual spirit and strong leadership necessary for conflict.

[@someb0dy2]

Training is not always enough - especially if you are trained for something different from what you encounter. IRL example : US military was trained to fight other armies prior to Sept 11. After that, they had to start training for asymmetrical warfare in Afghanistan and elsewhere. Although the prior training is not totally wasted, you will not be as prepared when you are encountering something different.

[@weldonwin]

There is also the issue of there being a literal Dark Lord behind all of this, the evil power behind the Magog, that had been manipulating events and priming the six Galaxies for their invasion

[@willt3223]

i believe the necheizans at that point took to the Highguarc like a duck to water. It state that the Commonwealth wanted to disband the highguards. it was the Nicheztian who did most of the fighting during the Magog war. So when the betrayal happened. An Execute order 66 happened. the mass majority of Necheztian who was serving on board the Highguard ships slaughtered their crew mates and captain. That right there cripple the Highguard response who then proceeded to sow futher chaos by assassinating the Empress. The Tarn Vedran freaked out and cut themselves off from the war giving no guidance to their commonwealth and thus you now have choas. The kicker is there were loyal nitcheztian but they were all painted with rhe same brush. So by the time the high guard could effectively fight back many of the commonwealth members had noped out of said commonwealth and look to themselves.

[@balianrhade8745]

This needs to be adapted into a tv show

[@ChiKettle]

Imagine a hard sci-fi Andromeda reboot with Expanse style space combat. I would completely reimagine the characters though - get rid of Harper, jeez.

[@anwarsentinel1752]

Considering the "fall of star trek" it would be welcomed. People are now watching different shows like the Orville and the expanse for their star trek fix.

[@MikeCloud666]

If you doing tv shows too, are you going to cover Exosquad?

[@HoLeeFoc]

What a lot of people don't know is that the character Dylan Hunt was originally from a 1973 failed Roddenberry pilot series called Genesis II. The Rip Van Winkle effect was also used like they did in Andromeda (Remember Buck Rogers in the 25th Century?) with the main character wakes up in a post nuclear apocalyptic future which, among other things, contained a race of supremacist super humans similar to the Nietzscheans. Andromeda creators chose to recycle some of the concepts and characters and turn it from a future Earth based series into a multi galactic based series.

[@dataportdoll]

Good on your research on this one! I tip my hat to you!

[@carlroyle3055]

Thought the first season was great and had so much potential! Thought the next 2 season were OK but I didn't think they delivered on the promise of the first season.

[@sword4005]

that because they fired the showrunner during early season 2 and went complete other direction that fell flat, that show runner wrote what his ending would be it called coda, google for it you find it, its so much better then the tv show ending

[@carlroyle3055]

@@sword4005 I'll do that . Nice one.

[@jamesyboy1066]

More please!

[@BeagleFeatures]

This lore is so cool, that this show needs to be rebooted so it can live up to it's full potential. And I mean reboot, not a revival, because you definitely should NOT bring back Sorbo

[@The_Viscount]

I hate how they basically sidelined the original lead writer after season 2. You can really tell once we get into season 3. This universe had such potential, and they wasted it.

[@reedallen4613]

My question is this: what EXACTLY happened to the other 3 Galaxies that were part of the '6 Galaxies'? Did those unnamed 3 Galaxies just suddenly cease to exist? Or did they simply cease to be important seeing as how they were Dwarf Galaxies, and NOT the 3 LARGE Galaxies (Triangulum, Milky Way, and Andromeda) that are in our Local Galactic Cluster? Just wondering about that.

[@LionlordEbonfire]

It was just the three galaxies. To original bible had it that the the Milky Way, Andromeda and the greater Maagnalic (Sp) Cloud were the commonwealth. Then it was a show started by using Roddenberry’s notes.

[@reedallen4613]

@@LionlordEbonfire you are partially correct dude. It ended up being the 'Three Galaxies', but originally the Commonwealth (which was preceeded by the Vedran Empire) actually spanned 6 Galaxies. Those 3 Galaxies being the Andromeda, Milky Way, and Triangulum Galaxies. So my original question was just exactly what happened to the OTHER 3 Galaxies that made up the initial 6 Galaxies? And contrary to what some people have said, Slipstream travel to those other unnamed 3 Galaxies was NOT severed by 'The Fall/Long Night'. Those 3 Galaxies became ignored BEFORE the time of Dylan Hunt. An example is how after being pulled from the Black Hole Dylan told Rommie "The Commonwealth spanned 3 Galaxies". So again, just EXACTLY what happened to the OTHER 3 Galaxies, and when did they suddenly disappear?

[@LionlordEbonfire]

@@reedallen4613 Actually I am just telling you what I recall from the original web page that accompanied the series. if you have another source it may be different but I only ever recall the 3 Galaxies being mentioned. That said after Sorbo took total control I did not watch it nearly as much and the webpage was not updated . A lot got messed up when that happened. Like the original show runner left and his final story was left incomplete and a lot of issues occurred because Sorbo's new show runner never had a better idea.

[@UgoNeiva]

Very Nice!!

[@JLAvey]

Commonwealth-wide referendum. Even if the franchise was very, very limited, how many trillions of ballets is that?

[@scottleespence752]

...unless the viewers had read a lot of Space Opera like Iain M. Banks, Doc Smith, Alister Reynolds, etc. and then they would see where Wolfe lifted his ideas and executed them weakly. 🤨

[@zeokingsilver]

it was 3 galaxies

[@zeokingsilver]

I read that the show was canceled was it true if so how many more seasons were intended

[@williammitchell4417]

Ironic that the Andromeda looked in a way like the Draconian Flagship. Albeit with smoother lines.

[@ericmiller9688]

High guard is loosely based on the Roman empire just updated. But much of what caused Rome's fall caused the high guard to fall. Growing to fast, being to inclusive to fast without vetting members first, vices, complacency , not paying close enough attention to the capital of Rome/ the common wealth thus leaving it vulnerable to attack as well as insurrection

[@twindiamonds3378]

Just a note, on your Starsiege Universe playlist, you switched the order of the Empire and Rebel videos. The Rebel video should come after the Fire part 2 rather than Empire.

[@MacsLore]

I originally did it based on upload order at the time (I didn't go by the Compendium order). I'll switch it around to the right order.

[@twindiamonds3378]

@@MacsLore Oh, good to know thanks for the info!

[@Drebin2293]

It really is too bad that the show turned into garbage later on. It started off so well.

[@glencora6340]

It was ridiculous to destroy Earth 🌎! A better ending would have been for humans to defeat the Nietzscheans, rendering their philosophy self defeating, like Nazism.

[@ff3player]

I thought it was only 3 galaxies

[@VivekSmith]

If they had made half the episodes WITHOUT Kevin Sorbo... focus on the Andromeda Ascendant (title) .... series would have been much better. The ship is what made the series different from the Enterprise... run by AI.... the High Guard had a fascist theme

[@tarn1135]

I’ll give Roddenberry this, like Lucas, Roddenberry was a great idea man just not an execution guy. Lucas fully writing and directing the prequels is proof of that statement nor take Roddenberry who if he got his way Star Trek wouldn’t exist anymore. Look at TMP it was Roddenberry’s idea and execution, it sucked. ST didn’t take off till TWOK and TNG in season 3 onwards. The key was getting rid of him. Sadly the same thing didn’t work when they got rid of Lucas.

[@meetdavidothespy]

The Star Wars prequels are great.

[@d3mist0clesgee12]

Reboot please

[@deleonfrancis60]

You mean three galaxies not six

[@MacsLore]

See the comment I made shortly after I uploaded the video about the number of galaxies which I've recently pinned. As well as Marcus Drake's explanation in response to it.

[@OmegablueWolf]

I often think the show would have been far FAR better if Hunt had died in second episode getting rid of the mercs, surviving just long enough to pass his mission onto Andromeda her self, make it HER mission and have the crew of Maru helping out......but it was early 2000's C-level Scifi so it definitely wasn't ready for Romi as the main character.

[@_Reverse_Flash]

Yeah because feminism is always better under all circumstances. Viva la difference.

[@kayfrenly5460]

Nah. Sounds cringe and unoriginal. Dime a dozen these days.

[@kiltedbroshar4187]

Andromeda is the greatest show ever

[@randomgotham]

Andromeda had so much potential. But once RHW was fired during season 2, it got dumbed down and became Hercules in space

[@AnotherDoomerWeeb]

Andromeda is such a dumb show, but the visual aesthetics, lore & concepts were so cool. For real, high guard ships are gorgeous.

[@Nagrachlp]

MAn the lore was so good, and the series itself so bad :(

[@maryattiatalla7770]

are u in love?

[@DickbuttDirk]

Ah yes, the show i watched on the Space channel at five in the morning when I was 11

[@BuckFutterd]

All systems library website, damn it shows it's age doesn't it. LOLOLLOLOLOLOL!!!! I remember all these shows and that it was the shit and it's been over 24 years.