I haven't watched this in almost 19 years. It definitely looks like it was made around the Turn of the Millennium. Tyr and Becky still look cool. But Harper's look really dates the show. He looks like half the guys I knew back then.
But that's all trivial. Actual content, as I watch the first episode: "Under the Night".
Zora will be dead-on like Rommy. I’m sure of it.
Harper seems to be an aficionado of older ships. He calls Andromeda the Pride & Joy. I wonder if in DSC S3, there will be someone who's familiar with Federation Starships of the 23rd Century?
The Nietzscheans are part of the Commonwealth but they open fire and engage in open warfare against them. Which means the beginning of the first episode, "Under the Night", sees a Civil War that leads to the fall of the Commonwealth.
Andromeda racing towards the Black Hole to get away from the Nietzscheans is kind of like Discovery racing towards the future Burnham will lead them to while the Enterprise provides cover for them, fighting off Control. And Rhade is like Leland, who has to be stopped.
The Nietzscheans have a similar mindset to the Terrans. I could see Tyr and Rhade being disciples of Sun Tzu, just like Georgiou. The question in DSC S3 becomes: will Georgiou be more like Tyr or Rhade? I think neither, but there's always a chance her interests won't be the rest of Discovery's.
In "Calypso", Craft is from Alcor IV and they're at war with the V'Draysh. The Federation might have also been part of a Civil War, similar to the one where the Nietzcheans tried to overthrow the Commonwealth.
The Magog sound pretty savage. They eat sentient life. They reproduce by rape. A Nietzschean world was destroyed by them. And The Neitzscheans want destroy the Commonwealth because the Commonwealth made peace with the Magog. "You compromised with monsters!," Rhade tells Dylan Hunt.
One way you can tell this was made in 2000 is that the slo-mo choreography of the fight scene between Rhade and Hunt is like what you'd see in
The Matrix. The fight between Hunt and Rhade ends in a shoot-out where Hunt narrowly wins. Then Andromeda goes through the Black Hole...
... and into The Future.
Here's a key difference between
Andromeda and
Discovery: On the other side, Becky, and whoever that Pimp-Looking Alien she's travelling with is (who I'll refer to from now on as Space Pimp), are waiting for the Andromeda Ascendant to emerge from the Blackhole. It seems like the Andromeda was as prestigious as the Enterprise in Star Trek. Whereas the existence of Discovery has been completely suppressed.
The crew of Becky's ship are: Becky, Harper, Trance, and Rev Bem. They're the people Dylan Hunt immediately runs into. Though, in DSC S3, Burnham will be separated from Discovery for a time, I think it's possible that Book will join the crew. Also I think there might be some other people from the 32nd Century who join Discovery.
Bem is a character who seems to be a reformed Magog, who's done some horrible things in his past. I actually think Georgiou might be like a cross between Tyr and Bem. I can't see her giving up her bad-ass-ness, but maybe something happens that makes her change her ways. Or being on Discovery and away from the Mirror Universe too long rubs off on her. There's zero chance, however, that I think she'd go down the Holy Path.
After Hunt and Rommy find out what happened, that the Commonwealth lost to the Neitzcheans, Rommy and Hunt talk about it. Rommy reminds Hunt that the Commonwealth hadn't fought a war, "a
real war", in over 1,000 years. And the Neitzcheans caught them completely by surprise. If the Federation had also been at peace for hundreds of years, it could also be off its game in the future. Making it easy to fall. Hunt says the Commonwealth had over 1,000,000 worlds in it, spanning three galaxies. Something the Federation could easily grow into. So travel might be intergalactic instead of just interstellar. Something that wouldn't be a problem for Discovery's Spore Drive.
At the end of the episode Dylan Hunt says the Commonwealth might have fallen but it still exists on his ship and he won't have anyone trying to salvage it or taking it over. Saru and the crew of the Discovery will probably feel similarly. And without Saru’s fear, I think he would definitely act on those defensive instincts.
Dylan Hunt wants everyone off the ship. Becky doesn't like threats and neither does Space Pimp, so they unleash Tyr who says, "I'll take it from here." So a fight for control of the ship looks afoot as the episode ends.
EDIT: The next episode, "An Affirming Flame", is more
Andromeda-specific and doesn't seem as compatible with what
Discovery might be. One thing that stood out, though, Becky and her crew realizing that they were on the wrong side and they turn on Space Pimp. It's entirely possible that whoever Discovery runs into in its new setting might also initially be at odds with Discovery, until both sides have a change of heart and realize who the true enemy is. Whoever that is. If there is.
At the end of "An Affirming Flame", Dylan Hunt makes it his mission to rebuild the Commonwealth. Something Discovery might try to do. Or they might try or want to seek to restore the V'Draysh back to what the Federation was before, or create a Federation from the remnants of the people fighting against the V'Draysh.
As far as '90s/'00s syndicated sci-fi goes, I think
Andromeda got off to a solid start in the beginning. I don't know enough to say about afterwards. I'm interested enough again to keep watching. But everything I typed above, I think, is it in terms of how I think
Discovery might have any similarities.
The next thing I'll look at, in another post, is
Genesis II.
And I think it might be more likely to be that we find a Federation that has lost its way than one that's simply gone.
