Feature: Andromeda

Being Dylan Hunt

Kevin Sorbo had no problems changing from playing the mythical Hercules to Outer Space Captain Dylan. We caught up with him recently while filming Episode 15 of the third season, The Right Horse

In-between takes, Sorbo talks about what fans can except to see as the season unfolds. “For one thing there will be more costumes,” says the actor. “You’ll probably never again see that military uniform I wore. Well, it might come back every so often but I think Dylan has relaxed himself when it comes to his wardrobe, which I’m pleased about. Our costume designer, Toni [Rutter], is incredibly talented, so everybody has a new look this year. Even Trance [Laura Bertram] has a completely different look. The severe make-up that was used on her face and collarbone in the second year has been softened. She looks terrific. I know some fans are still saying, ‘But we miss Purple Trance’, and I understand that. However, I feel that the production team made a good choice going in the direction they have with Laura’s character. Since we lost Rev Bem [Brent Stait] last season we’re hoping to perhaps add an alien or two over the course of this year. The series needs more aliens. It has such a Human look to it. Let’s face it, though, it all comes down to budget. It takes a long time to put on prosthetics and have someone appear all dressed up like that on a regular basis. So for the moment we’re not quite sure where we are with that idea.

“Overall, though, Season Three is going very well,” continues Sorbo. “As a series, Andromeda is going to become much more accessible, I think, to people. We have our core audience, thank God for that, but we also want to attract some new viewers. Contrary to what some people may have thought, we’re not trying to dumb down the show. We’re trying to make each episode an individual one so that the casual viewer can tune in and still know what’s going on. Our new writer, Bob Engels, is doing a wonderful job in that regard. We’d already produced 44 shows when he joined us, so he’s still working to find the voices of our characters. Luckily for us, he catches on quick. Bob is very much a go-for-it, approachable guy. When I call him up on the phone he gives me solid reasons why he does or doesn’t like my [script] changes, which I appreciate. Robert Hewitt Wolfe [former series writer and executive producer] was the same. I don’t want to take that away from him. Robert’s vision just became different from what everybody else on the show wanted, from [executive producer] Majel Roddenberry on down. It wasn’t really the universe we wanted to create, you know?

“Viewers are also going to notice that this year is more of a submarine one, meaning that we’re on the Andromeda a lot. That was an experiment and one we found doesn’t work especially well. It gets sort of claustrophobic. So next season we’re definitely going off-ship. I’d say a good third of the fourth season stories will be filmed outside. We need to make use of all the fantastic locations that a city like Vancouver has to offer. Apparently, we’re not far away from the place that was used for the film Mission to Mars, so we’ll be going to locales like that. In the meantime, we’ll be inside the ship…”

by Steven Eramo

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TV Zone Special #48

Photo © Alliance Atlantis
Feature © Visual Imagination 2002. Not for reproduction

Taken from

TV Zone Special #48
Yearbook (2002-03) Andromeda 2002
ships from Oct 31 2002
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