Date: Wed, 06 Dec 2000
Ayn Rand & "Andromeda"
Thomas M. Miovas, Jr.
[Note: This is a cropped down version of an essay previously
rejected by Harry, though it does contain some new thoughts.]
"Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda" has the potential of concretizing
various philosophies via the crew members of one space ship, the
Andromeda Ascendant; and how these philosophies relate to the
rebuilding of civilization. In my assessment, "Andromeda" has
done a fairly decent job of putting together character traits
of the crew members that reflect their (largely implicit)
philosophies.
While the directors and producers have not done an excellent job
at this concretization -- I don't think they understand
philosophy well enough to pull it off -- the grasp of such
concretization is there in the characters (these are based on my
own analysis):
Captain Dylan Hunt -- the rational man of unbending ideals and
dedication to upholding those ideals, even though no one else
understands them or thinks they can be brought back on a grand
scale.
Tyr Anasazi -- the will to power Nietzschean, dedicated to the
supposed self-interest of the raider, in many cases seeking to
destroy rather than to understand. He comes from planet
Fountainhead, founded by a geneticist who admired Ayn Rand,
though the story hasn't said much about this individual. [*see
below*]
Beka Valentine -- the range of the moment opportunist,
commander of the salvage ship Eureka Maru, formerly going
wherever there was loot to be had and unconcerned with who she
had to associate with to gain such loot.
Trance Gemini -- the happy-go-lucky emotionalist or
subjectivist, joining the crew because she felt it would be fun.
She also seems to be very lucky.
Seamus Harper -- the pragmatic though genius engineer, who
loves to tinker, but doesn't seem to be too interested in
restoring The Systems Commonwealth. He's just interested in the
Andromeda Ascendant because it's a cool ship.
Rev Bem -- follower of the Way, a mystical and intrinsicist
cult that believes the universe is sentient and provides
opportunities as well as challenges for the creatures it has
created.
Andromeda -- the ship itself, possessing a consciousness and
now a body, thanks to Harper in a process called "ship made
flesh." This last is very intriguing, in that in the Star Trek
universe, the captain was in love with the ship; in "Andromeda,"
the ship is in love with the captain. I don't know if this was
intended, but the "ship made flesh" aspect of Andromeda's
character represents (to me) the concretization of the ideal
woman -- going from a creature of mere artificial intelligence
to a woman of flesh and blood (well, she's a fully functional
android).
My biggest concern is that the show will present the rise of
civilization in the idea that people should accept *any*
philosophy (i.e. moral tolerationism), such as those
(implicitly) presented in the crew of the Andromeda.
But here's an interesting aspect of the potential of the series.
To rebuild civilization, Captain Hunt, in fact and in reality,
must fight all of the philosophies implicit in his crew. That is
where the battle must begin if he is going to rebuild
civilization. If the directors know what they were doing, that's
the tact they will take.
Now, it remains to be seen if the creators of Andromeda will
show him winning by convincing the rest of his crew of the
correctness of his stance; or whether he will be shown "winning"
by getting the crew to accept other philosophies and their
applications as irrelevant -- i.e. accepting different points of
view as OK as the foundation of a civil society. At this point,
the show could go either way; but I am encouraged by the fact
that although Captain Hunt listens to his rag-tag crew, he often
lets events run their course until each crew member sees the
error of his stance.
==========
[*end note*] Strictly from an artistic point of view I don't
think the series -- as it has been presented so far -- smears
either Ayn Rand or Objectivism. That is, going just by the
series as a work of art, it doesn't concretize Objectivism in
the character of Tyr Anasazi, nor does it try. I would even go
so far as claiming that the role of Captain Dylan Hunt, the lone
idealist attempting to rebuild civilization, does a somewhat
respectable job of concretizing what it is like trying to bring
back reason as man's only means of survival 200 years or so
after Kant has all but destroyed civilization. So, yes, I am a
fan of the series, despite the back handed association of
Nietzsche and Ayn Rand.
