'Bioshock,' which became one of last year's biggest console games, is making the expected move to the big screen with Gore Verbinski on board to direct, according to Variety || The last two seasons of 'Lost' will now be 17 hours each instead of 16 hours to make p for time lost because of the Writers Guild of America strike, says The Hollywood Reporter || Common, a rap artist, has decided to take a turn to acting and has been granted a role on 'Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins,' according to Variety || For the first time, SciFi Channel will rerun episodes of the 1987-94 series 'Star Trek: The Next Generation,' joining 'Charmed' and 'Mork & Mindy' on the cable outlet, Variety reports || 'Star Trek: The Experience' may be running out of steam. Cedar Fair, which owns the Las Vegas attraction, says there are no plans to renew its contract with CBS Corp., which could close the event next year, TrekToday reports || 'Bioshock,' which became one of last year's biggest console games, is making the expected move to the big screen with Gore Verbinski on board to direct, according to Variety || The last two seasons of 'Lost' will now be 17 hours each instead of 16 hours to make p for time lost because of the Writers Guild of America strike, says The Hollywood Reporter || Common, a rap artist, has decided to take a turn to acting and has been granted a role on 'Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins,' according to Variety || For the first time, SciFi Channel will rerun episodes of the 1987-94 series 'Star Trek: The Next Generation,' joining 'Charmed' and 'Mork & Mindy' on the cable outlet, Variety reports || 'Star Trek: The Experience' may be running out of steam. Cedar Fair, which owns the Las Vegas attraction, says there are no plans to renew its contract with CBS Corp., which could close the event next year, TrekToday reports ||

'Pitiless?' More like pitiful

REVIEW: The latest 'Andromeda' really defines 'low-end'

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By MICHAEL HINMAN
Source: SyFy Portal
Oct-28-2001

You know, there really were some great elements to "Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda" this week. But if Roddenberry, who sadly passed away 10 years ago, knew that his name was attached to such a dumbed down show as "Andromeda," I wouldn't be too surprised to find out he would be one pissed off man.

Laura Bertram was finally given an episode to shine as the mysterious character Trance, and she got her chance to do it with famous "The X-Files" alum William B. Davis (The Cigarette Smoking Man). Sadly, all the acting in this episode fell on these two, and if it wasn't for this portion of the story, I may not have even finished "Pitiless As the Sun."

While Dylan Hunt (Kevin Sorbo) and the Andromeda Ascendant crew investigate what they were led to believe were unprovoked attacks against cargo ships, Trance is tricked into visiting the surface of a planet of a xenophobic race ... and meets up with a professor (Davis) that wants to know everything about her race.

Over the summer, we got to hear quite a bit about these new "fiery" creatures called the Pyrians. In fact, Sorbo himself bragged about them. Yep, computer-generated images and it was supposed to make us go, "oooh!!" and "aaaah!"

Well, Kevin my friend -- they didn't. It looked like the CGI department cut the head off the villain from "Alien," added a few tentacles, and went crazy on the smoke machines. The aliens would've looked good -- if we were sitting in the movie theaters watching an old serial from the 1950s.

They were ugly, cheap and only deepened my resentment of Tribune Entertainment for wasting such valuable airtime with trash like this. I'd rather my network affiliate fill the time with another "Teletubbies" episode.

Compared to the previous episode, the writing certainly was better, and I guess we have Emily Skopov to thank for it. I thoroughly enjoyed the exchanges between Trance and Professor Logitch. Bertram really can act, and her performance in this episode was rather chilling.

Too bad they couldn't have received a better episode to have it wrapped in, eh?

This episode also introduced us to the new bridge for the Andromeda Ascendant. While I think this was simply a cheap ploy to try and freshen the series, it was nice to know that we don't just get totally rebuilt sections of the ship within one week's time as we waited two episodes to visit the bridge after the second season premiere, "The Widening Gyre."

And look at those androids ... it's weird actually seeing them walking around and functioning as if they serve a purpose, and to finally explain how five people can run a ship all by their lonesome.

But where the hell is Rev Bem? This is the second straight episode we have gone without him (and thank God we didn't get a sentence explaining he was at some religious conference, or surfing, or God knows what). I know that all the supporting characters disappear for a couple episodes during the season, but it seems wasteful to give Brent Stait his leave of absence two episodes in a row.

There really isn't much more, positive or negative, to say about this episode. I was only mildly happy with it. But, unfortunately, we have Sorbo telling the press that this series is better than any other out there -- including "Enterprise." And I'm sorry, man, when you set the stakes that high, you have a lot to prove. And you're nowhere near getting off the ground.

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What's your thoughts on the episode? Tell us here!

Michael Hinman is the news editor and co-owner of SyFy Portal. He lives in Tampa, Fla.

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