Sailing the Slipstream:

An Unofficial and Unauthorized Guide to Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda

by Jill Sherwin

WriterGroupie Press $25, 490 pages

The science fiction TV series Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda recently completed a five-year run with little fanfare, having fallen off the radar of most genre TV fans even after the fifth and final season was picked up by the SciFi Channel. By the time the series ended, it had about a quarter of the viewers it started with, leaving only the die-hard fans watching the show as it lumbered to a halt. You may ask why we need a comprehensive guide to a series that wasn't as popular as other recent space series. There were some good things done during the run of the series, and, in some cases, what went on behind the scenes was more interesting than what was produced and put on the screen in the episodes of the series. Jill Sherwin has put together a detailed and extensive guide to Andromeda, both on screen and off.

The show started out strong under the guidance of Robert Hewitt Wolfe, who created the Andromeda universe from notes and ideas left behind by Gene Roddenberry. But midway through the second season, Wolfe was let go by the producers, derailing any long-term plans Wolfe had for any of the characters or the overall story arc. By the time the series ended, it was a much different show and had gone through many other changes over the five years it was on the air.

In Jill Sherwin's guide to Andromeda, she details a lot of the behind-the-scenes action on the series, having interviewed writers and stars of the series for all five seasons. She provides in-depth analysis of each episode; in some cases, detailing changes they went through from the original idea to the finished episode. She points out the high points of the series as well as the low points, discussing what made each episode work (or not) without pulling any punches. Jill was a writer's assistant during the first season of the show and sold a story for the second season, giving her a good look into the beginnings of the series and insight into what it might have been if Wolfe had been kept on. She talked with the writers who stayed on as well as new writers to give the reader insight into the changes that happened in the later seasons.

The book is well-organized with sections on each episode, as well as season introductions and summaries to give you more information about the big picture within the show as well as what things were going on in the production world to influence the changes. Sherwin has put a lot of work and time into this book and it shows. Details on ordering the book direct from the writer can be found at www.sailingtheslipstream.com - Lee Whiteside