Michael Shanks of Stargate SG-1 fame will make an guest appearance in this episode.

Yeah. He and Lexa fell head over heels for each other while filming this episode.

Wait I thought he was married already...

He was living with Vaitiare Bandera who played Shau're on SG-1 and they have a daughter, Tatiana who was born in 1998. Evidently the relationship between Vaitiare and Michael failed (because they killed Shau're perhaps?)

So, now he is dating Lexa. The lucky guy.

I believe that Star Crossed should have a dashed in it, so it is really Star-Crossed.

This was a very good episode, IMHO. I did shake my head when they mentioned that Gabriel (like Daniel, a name from the Bible) was a expert in ancient languages, though! Was that the High Guard theme that Harper and Trance were singing at the beginning?!

The crew of the Andromeda come across a ship in a battle with Restorians. The ship is destroyed but one life pod manages to escape. They take the survivor aboard to discover that he is a android named Gabriel who teaches claims to be a teacher of literature. Rommie finds herself developing feelings for Gabriel.
Meanwhile Hunt decides to find the Restorian base to destroy and stop their terrorist campaign. They are jioned by mercenaries working with the FTA who claim to have information about the Restorians flagship. They inform Hunt that the Restorian flagship is a highguard vessel called the Balance of Judgement.
Rommie and the crew soon discover that Gabriel is not what he claims. He is the Avatar of the Balance of Judgement sent to compromise the Andromeda. Garbriel gives the story of the loss of the Balance Of Judgement's crew and how it continued with its mission to protect the Commonwealth.
The crew managaes to destroy the Balance of Judgement and Rommie is later forced to kill Gabriel when she discovers that the ship downloaded of copy of its personalities into Gabriel.

A well written episode, Shanks and Doigs performances were great. The conflict between Andromeda and Rommie over Gabriel as wells Gabriel's inner conflict with the Balance of Judgement were well done. Of course I did realize at the beginning that Gabriel was the Balance of Judgement's avatar and that Gabriel founded the Restorians.
A very good episode.

Nit, sort of: Shanks' Middle English diction (when he's quoting Chaucer) was awful. ;-)

Couldn't the "split personality" thing between ship and avatar get to be a _real_ problem? _Fast_?

Also, just how often do the avatar & ship connect/combine memories? Once a week? Never?

Given the function of the Avatars, one would think that they would be in *constant* contact with ship.

I would have thought so, in fact Rommie makes reference to running the ship at times, but--she also argues with her ship self in this epsidode, and Gabriel's personality was distinctly different from the Judgement's--so they can't be quite the same thing after all.

The implications here are that the Avatars are actually capable of independent thought--this seems to be the truth, but why would you give them the capacity for independent thought?

Good episode. Ironic that the ship that went beserk was named Balance of Judgement.

-So who decides whether the ships' personas are male or female?
-And building warships with any sort of personality seems more dangerous than advantageous.

JUST A THOUGHT:
I didn't see this very well, but I don't think they repaired the hull damage to the ship at the end. Also, in one episode Teyr mentioned tearing out support beams from crew quarters. Don't seem to be very many tools and resources. By the end of the show, I'm betting that the Andromeda will no longer be in tip top High Guard shape, with a million improv repair jobs and salvaged parts.

The 3 faces of Rommie. I can understand the possibility of Avatar Rommie disagreeing with Computer Rommie, if the Avatar is seperated from the ship for a period of time, but here they bring in Hologram Rommie into the argument. Helloooooo? Do the writers know what they are doing here or is just BILC (Because It Looks Cute)?

Was it my imagination or did Andromeda's shut down sequence use the actress's real name?

I thought it was cute. Sure, the whole love thing with the android wasn't as hot 'n steamy as her nude scenes with Dean Cain in that movie a while back (hey, it's TV), but I enjoyed seeing Rommie actually get so emotional over another 'droid.

Dataport date: 2.1-2.10.10088

Near the beginning Beka is repairing something in the Eureka Maru while talking to Rommie. Well, the "something" is obviously an old PC motherboard with ISA slots and RAM sockets...

So far, emotional warships seem to be nothing but trouble (at least those who lose their captains). Both Balance of Judgement and golden whats-her-name (Pax Magellanic?) become psychotic; no wonder Rommie's so fragile at the end, what with her friends and role models betraying their oaths. If I were Dylan's crew, I'd want nothing more to do with old, abandoned High Guard ships.

Really loved this show first time through. Watching this week's show (Day of Judgement, Day of Wrath), made me wonder about the end, though--if they can delete "all traces" of a foreing personality from Rommie, why couldn't they take Balance's personality out of Gabriel?

(This may not be a nit; they may have addressed this in Day of Judgement, Day of Wrath; I didn't catch quite all of the episode. Still--one wonders).

Shows following this still raise questions about building intelligent & emotional ships.

If the Balance of Judgement has no crew, how does it navigate the slipstream? Does it use 'brains in a bottle'?

How does running the Maru on minimum engine power prevent it from being detected by the Balance's sensors?

Mandy, Pax didn't go mad because she lost her crew; she went mad because her captain betrayed her, by having an affair with her and then ordering her to commit suicide, as it were. Which would be why there's that old 'no fraternization' rule in most services.