Andromeda: S02E16: The True Quarry
| “THE TRUE QUARRY OF ANY GREAT ADVENTURER IS THE UNDISCOVERED TERRITORY OF THEIR OWN SOUL.” Lady Aenea Makros “The Metaphysics of Motion” CY6416 |
Dylan gets to see the very cool map that Beka managed to steal from the Hedgemon’s Heart. It details where to locate the “Engine of Creation”. It is a mythical machine that can re-arrange space and time, thus re-starting stars, creating planets and ,as Trance interjects in a whisper ,“or even raise the dead.” Dylan thinks the Engine is not real but Beka persuades him to help her look for it on Shintaida. The last news from Shintaida is a hilarious video of a pompous Archaeologist, Meno Tabascalli, who had gone to the planet over 2 months ago and has not been heard from since. He was also after the Engine.
Our Exploration team of three lands on Shintaida and heads off in search of the Engine. Apparently this planet has convenient place names. Wouldn’t want your lunch in a ravine named Eyes of Blood and Peril? Neither would Beka, so they seek out the Rock of Refuge. Dylan scouts ahead and somehow misses a big booby trap that Beka steps on. It’s a trigger for releasing darts from a near by statue. Beka calls for counter weights to replace her weight but Dylan decides to save the day by jumping in front of the darts and removing Beka forcibly from the trigger.
The darts’ poisoned teeth bite into Dylan’s….backpack. So the party continues on its way and Trance strikes up a conversation with Dylan. She asks him how he feels being under Beka’s command. He says that he is finding it very educational and is glad they are on the same side. Trance replies enigmatically, “more than you know.”
Our expedition happens along the camp of the archaeologist. No wonder no one has heard from them for two months, one would need a head to accomplish that, of which no one in the camp has any more. Further investigation proves that all of their weapons are missing too (How would you know if they had weapons?).
The actual archaeologist is missing too. Trance takes the opportunity to wander off and gets caught in the bushes by a trio of Baddies. one nasty looking woman named Duran, her equally nasty fellow, named Fletcher and a blue devilish looking creature named Flux. Dylan and Beka catch up and we quickly have a “you shoot me and I’ll shoot you” problem. Fletcher tries to make Dylan quiver in his boots by boasting proudly that they murdered the Archaeologists party and trains his weapon on Trance. Duran points a weapon towards Beka and another on Dylan.
Flux just politely listens. Fletcher further threatens to kill Trance but Dylan just shrugs and states that she has died three times before so he’s not too concerned. With her weapons wielded, Beka tries to diffuse the hostilities by reminding them that if they too are after the engine, they will need 3 people to find it. Fletcher replies that if he kills “Goldie” they will lose so Dylan counts to three and everyone opens fire, no one gets hurt and Trance makes it back to her side safely.
Later on, as our heroes sleep comfortably, the little blue devilish guy, Flux, sneaks into their camp and steals Dylan’s forcelance (honestly, who leaves no one on watch?). This does not go unnoticed by the “pretending to be sleeping” Trance who catches up to the happy, whistling little dude and cons him into giving it to her, erm…the forcelance that is. They then proceed to have a little heart to heart and the simple creature tells her how he is a manservant who was traded to Fletcher. Fletcher used to be an FTA wing pilot and Duran a Restor-Terrorist. They fell in love and now want the Engine to reshape the universe to their will.
Trance reveals that she doesn’t think that they killed the Archaeologists and were just trying to scare them off. She further infers that she knows Flux would not want to see further violence between the two parties, so she asks him to take his group north and she will take her group south so no one gets hurt. Flux agrees while Beka and Dylan are watching them from the behind a rock.
The next day Trance leads Dylan and Beka to the ruins of a temple. Inside they find the decapitated Archaeologist. Thinking he was decapitated like the rest of his party by a person, they shrug and begin to look around. To everyone’s horror they discover what really killed the man. Spinning along the ceiling, “The Whirling Guardian of the Sanctum” also known as a Shurikan begins its attack. Dylan extends his forcelance and Beka attempts to gain entry to the next room by bashing on the symbols the door contains.
Beka asks Trance what to do but Trance panics as “last time we didn’t get this far!”. Meanwhile Beka opens the door and she and Trance whip inside. The whirling disk of doom breaks Dylans forcelance and he dives for the “safe” room. Beka slams shut the door and the disk so enthusiastically follows Dylan that it embeds itself deep into the door.
As they look around the small room they notice three statues. Beka realizes that this is the room where the engine should be. All they need now is the key to open the panel where the Engine should be hidden. Reciting the legend, Beka tells them they have to turn the statues “as one”. When they do a bowl slowly drops from the ceiling with the key in it (Kind of like leaving your car keys on your visor I would think). Beka grabs the key and uses it to open the panel but the panel is empty! They assume that Fletchers team got there first.
Even worse, the room begins to smell like Almonds. Trance tells them that the smell is Cyanide. This is coming from the bowl where they took the key. It is spilling little crystals into another bowl filled with liquid. They remove the key from the lock and the door to the room opens. Out of the frying pan and into the fire…they run into Fletcher, Duran and Flux. Flux grabs Trance and the idiot threatens her life once again unless they hand over the Engine to them at which point the actual inhabitants of the planet fire upon them all and take them all prisoner. The Shinta native leader happens to be very young and beautiful, but is also quiet bad tempered and in need of a new makeup artist. Her exaggerated eye make-up and big blue dot on her forehead are no doubt trying to distract the male audience from her rather low-cut and chilly looking ensemble. If the make-up doesn’t do it…her exceedingly deep voice should.
In their little cell, feminism gets a big boot in the rear. Beka waxes on about how she hates being responsible when something goes wrong and why she is glad for Dylan as she can just follow along while Dylan has to figure out plans of salvation for the situations he gets them into (Bleck!). The Shinta come and take Trance away. The Shinta leader then tells them, through Flux translating, that they did not kill everyone outright as both teams fit the profile of those who would be worthy of the Engine. So it’s off to a trial of Fire and Pain! Both Beka and Duran volunteer first but the boys also insist on going first. Flux also gets taken away. Beka complains to Hunt that she doesn’t want him risking himself as this is her mission.
Dylan and Fletcher are taken into an arena. Guards are chained in place at the out of bounds areas, waiting to kill any misplaced fighter. They are given a choice of weapons to which Dylan lets Fletcher choose first since he himself is proficient in both the sword and the spear! Fletcher chooses the sword. Both combatants are given a shield. They begin to fight, with Fletch going in for the kill and Dylan trying not to hurt him. The middle of the arena has a nice toasty fire to throw each other into. While Trance watches from the sidelines, Flux joins her.
As you may have suspected, he is in fact, one of her species. Apparently her people have been wondering what happened to her. Flux implores Trance to return to her brothers and sisters but she wants to stay with her friends. Apparently Trance is a renegade and whatever she is up to on the Andromeda is a big problem for her family. Flux scolds that she won’t be able to defy them forever to which she wistfully agrees. Flux infers that it is her people not her friends who would best put the engine to use. Trance retorts that the engine has a mind and will of its own and is trying to place itself with Andromeda.
Back to the fight: Duran gets sick of watching her man get pushed all around the arena and jumps into the fight thereby followed by Beka. The usual girl fights girls, boy fights boy thing happens and Beka and Dylan win but refuse to kill the losers and drop their weapons. Trance happily exclaims that they did the right thing and gets to rejoin her friends while the baddies are carted away. The pouty Shinta leader presents them with the engine. It takes all three of them to be able to cart the heavy thing back to the Maru.
On board the Maru, Trance and the Maru’s sensors can’t figure out what the engine is made of. The sensors claim that it weighs up to three galaxies. Dylan recites a story his dad told him about a Vedran archaeologist who once found the engine. She discovered that the engine was older than the universe itself, had in fact created the universe and the power of it made her a god. Beka adds that the archaeologist went crazy and almost destroyed everything but at the last minute regained her senses and turned the machine against itself thereby breaking the engine into five pieces. The Vedrans scattered them across the stars. Beka hopes that 1/5 of the engine will still help fulfil a wish. She and Dylan hold onto the engine and make a wish….and nothing happens. They walk away, exclaiming what a good team they make…as the engine begins to pulse.
Hmmm…well I think the highlight of the show was seeing another of Trance’s species…other than that there isn’t much to say, except…where the heck did the strong, bum kicking, Beka Valentine disappear to? Where did this manipulative, whining, and weak character come from? Oh well, let’s hope she gets back to her old self next week.
I’d rate this episode 4500 out of 10. What did you think?
This episode review is © Hollydays. Not for reproduction without the authors express permission.
Vidcaps are © Tribune Entertainment. All rights reserved.
The names, characters and everything else associated with Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda TV series are the property of the Tribune Entertainment Company. All rights reserved.
Checkout their website
