History Series / Andromeda

* HyperspaceLanes: Several star systems are strategically important because you need to travel through them on your way from one slipstream to another. Just the place to lay in ambush, or place a {{BFG}} InSpace

* RecycledInSpace: The basic premise is ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genesis_II_%28film%29 Genesis II]]'' and ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet_Earth_(TV_pilot) Planet Earth]]'', in space.

* MeaningfulName: ''Eureka Maru'' is a composite name. "Eureka" is Greek for "I have found (it)"; "maru" is Japanese for "nothing". Prior to finding the ''Andromeda Ascendant'', the ''Maru'''s crew had attempted to find several other derelict Glorious Heritage Class ships with no success, and before that they were barely eeking out a marginal living while searching for the next big score.

* GenericFederationNamedEmpire: A historical example of one changing to the other in response to changing demographics with the Vedran Empire reforming into the Systems Commonwealth.

* SeriesContinuityError: In Season 5, the battle where Dylan and ''Andromeda'' were stuck near a black hole in the series pilot is referred to as the Battle of Witchhead, when it was actually the Battle of Hephaistos, and the Battle of Witchhead was the one the crew time-travelled to in a later Season 1 episode. Unfortunately, this isn't all that surprising, given that fans near-universally agree Season 5 was the ur-example of seasonal rot.

* SmartGun: Many of the firearms and lances featured autonomous features such as {{Homing Projectile}}s.

* MundaneUtility: Beka Valentine's use of nanomachines for [[HairColors instant hair dye]].

PocketRocketLauncher: The High Guard's force lances carry a set of micro-drones that can be used as homing kinetic missiles or intercepting other projectiles.

* RevisedEnding: Sort of. The original series developer, Robert Hewitt Wolfe, wrote a non-canon (technically FanFic) one-act-play of an outline, entitled [[http://www.roberthwolfe.com/Coda/Andromeda___Coda.pdf "Coda"]] (warning, PDF) showing how he envisioned the series to play out past the point of his departure. It takes place during the warped time incident of "Ouroboros" with Trance explaining things to a possible version of Harper, and the whole Seefra plot of Season 5 is dismissed by her as an unlikely timeline.

* HypocrisyNod: The Wayist in "The Devil Takes The Hindmost" who is trying to stop a gentle, innocent people with genetic memory from having to kill in order to defend themselves against slavers, acknowledges the hypocrisy of asking Dylan to kill the enemy for him with Andromeda... Unfortunately, he has a point: if even one of these people kills, then [[FridgeHorror their children will be born dealing with the guilt and memory of killing someone, tainting their immature and unformed minds from the very moment they come into the world]] for generations onwards until their genetic line dies out.

* IdenticalGrandson: "Genetic reincarnation" is a proven phenomenon for Nietzscheans due to their low genetic diversity (The original Nietzschean population was only about 8000, the Nietzscheans deliberately stripped their genome of a large number of "genetic defects" such as haemophilia and predispositions for diabetes and various cancers, and breed for [[ProudWarriorRace a very specific set of traits]]). Telemachus is played by the same actor as Gaheris and Tyr's son was apparently the reincarnation of the first Nietzschean (and therefore their Messiah). It's lampshaded that the odds of this are still in the trillions, but since there are trillions of Nietzscheans (with more being born every day) it still happens often enough.
** Beka Valentine once encountered a female Nietzschean who looked as close to exactly like her as a Nietzschean could look, which doesn't make sense until Season 5 reveals she's the genetic mother of all Nietzscheans.

* HostileTerraforming: The episode "Point of the Spear", the Pyreans (aliens that live in Venus-like environments) tried to forcibly pyroform a Commonwealth world. A large battle breaks out, and to prove that the Commonwealth is not one to be messed with, Dylan orders the planet's destruction via [[EarthShatteringKaboom Nova Bomb]].

* HourglassPlot: In the Season 1 episode "Star-Crossed", the ''Balance of Judgment'' is an eco-terrorist zealot a few fries short of a Happy Meal and his android avatar Gabriel is a reasonable guy. When the ''Balance'''s AI reappears in Season 3, the ''Andromeda'' is able to talk him into a HeelFaceTurn, but now his new avatar Remiel remains evil and has to be stopped.

* HoneyTrap: Inverted. A Nietzschian assassin bride in an arranged marriage beds Dylan because "For one night [she'd] like to pretend [she] was only human"...and it leads her to a sex face turn. She even sends Dylan a message saying that his idea of peace over war "seems to be the better one".

* HumansAreSpecial: AIs are horrible at guessing, which makes humans and other organic life forms are far better at slipstream navigation. Also, ship AIs seem to make poor commanders, are more effective in combat when working with a crew.
** Averted partly when the AI Ryan is given command of... well, himself, aka the Wrath of Achilles.

** Dylan is separated from his fiancée Sara after being trapped in time by the effect of the black hole. In a later episode of Season 1, they manage to communicate across time but not to reunite physically and [[IJustWantMyBelovedToBeHappy Dylan tells her to move on with her life without him]]. In Season 2, the crew finds that she took his advice, and helped found a hidden planet where Commonwealth culture is still intact, and she remarried and has descendants.

* StarCrossedLovers: The episode where Rommie has a romance with fellow android Gabriel, whom she has to kill to prevent him from being taken over by his ship-self the ''Balance of Judgment'' after the ship body is destroyed, is literally called "Star-Crossed". Conversely, their actors Creator/LexaDoig and Creator/MichaelShanks, who met while filming this episode, are married to this day.

* AIIsACrapshoot: Most of the ships' artificial intelligences are fairly sane and lucid, but the ''Balance of Judgment'' is an eco-terrorist and the ''Pax Magellanic'' had a mental breakdown. It's explicitly said that AIs without the input of others--Captains, crew, or other AIs--tend to go insane, and that this is ''why'' AI ships don't captain themselves.

* {{Flanderization}}: Oh, so very much, primarily after Wolfe left and any pretensions at character balance went with him.

* [[GaiasVengeance Gaia's avengers]]: The Restorians, lead by the Balance of Judgment, a KnightTemplar [[SapientShip warship AI]].

* RobotsEnslavingRobots: The Consensus of Parts. Also, the Balance of Judgment controlled his rebellious android avatar Gabriel, who he tried to [[GrandTheftMe take over with a virus]] when his ship-self was destroyed in battle.

* RevisedEnding: sort of. The original series developer, Robert Hewitt Wolfe, wrote a non-canon (technical FanFic) one-act-play of an outline, entitled [[http://www.roberthwolfe.com/Coda/Andromeda___Coda.pdf Coda]] (warning, PDF) for how he envisioned the series to play out past the point of his departure.

** Rommie is {{squick}}ed to discover that Harper engineered her humanoid body with "certain parts" which, strictly speaking, aren't necessary for her normal operations, and asks to be assured that he used gloves while handling said parts.

** Carter of All Too Human managed to get a job in the security forces of the android-hating world of Machen Alpha.

* {{Robosexual}}: Strictly speaking, High Guard captains are discouraged from having romantic relationships with their ship avatars, with "The Mathematics of Tears" revealing why this is a bad idea, when the ship's avatar destroys the planet her crew was on when ordered to purge her own memory during a losing battle because she interpreted this order as an attempt to hide their relationship.

* StealthPun: The Resident Magog Priest is the Reverend Bug Eyed Monster.

* SeriesContinuityError: In Season 5, the battle where Dylan and ''Andromeda'' were stuck near a black hole in the series pilot is referred to as the Battle of Witchhead, when it was actually the Battle of Hephaistos and the Battle of Witchhead was the one the crew time-travelled to in a later Season 1 episode.

* ImmigrantPatriotism: Although human, Dylan is far more concerned with Tarn Vedra, the homeworld of the Vedran species and capital of the All Systems Commonwealth, where he was born, than with the Earth. In fact, Harper is the only crewmember who cares about Earth much. At least until the series finale, but Season 5 was full of [[SeriesContinuityError Series Continuity Errors]].

The show has its origins in a combination of two separate Roddenberry story ideas from the 1970s, one about a sentient starship and a second about a man from the past trying to piece the remnants of civilization back together after it has crumbled. The former never made it to the air prior to ''Andromeda'', but Roddenberry (who died in 1991) used the latter concept in no fewer than three separate unsuccessful pilots (two of which actually included a protagonist named Dylan Hunt) before giving up on it. Undoubtedly these ideas were [[strike:scrounged from the trash can]] further developed by the ''Andromeda'' creative team. As a consequence, it's difficult to see Roddenberry's hand in this hard-boiled, dystopian future. ''Andromeda'' also had a spiritual bent unlike anything seen in ''Trek'', except perhaps in the GodGuise aliens of ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine''.

'''The initial core crew is, approximately, a FiveManBand:'''

* PhlebotinumBreakdown

* CriticalStaffingShortage: The ''Series/{{Andromeda}} Ascendant'' originally had a crew of thousands, but in the first episode everyone but Captain Dylan Hunt either abandons ship or is killed as it gets stuck in orbit around a black hole. For most of the series the crew consists of the captain and the five (later four) former crew of a salvage ship who pulled the ship away from the black hole 300 years later (due to TimeDilation). Other characters join as well, and the crew varies between 6 and 7 for most of the rest of the series. Andromeda's {{AI}} can fill most crew roles herself so they get by, but it's pointed out several times that the ship is way less effective in combat -- or anything else -- than it would be fully crewed.

* InTheBlood: The prison colony in "A Rose in the Ashes" even keeps the inmates' children locked up on the grounds that the society reasons they are genetically predisposed to crime, so keeping them locked up is justified by the government as keeping potential criminals contained.

* OurCentaursAreDifferent: The Vedrans are quadrupeds with humanoid torsos and arms. Only one is depicted in the series, but their quadrupedal nature is frequently mentioned, their family units are called "herds" and the bridges of Glorious Heritage Class cruisers like the ''Andromeda Ascendant'' are clearly designed to accommodate them.
-->'''Seamus Harper''': We are going to Tarn Vedra where the livin' is easy and the women have four legs!