The Andromeda Strain is a 2008 science-fiction miniseries, very loosely based on the novel published in 1969 by Michael Crichton about a team of scientists who investigate a deadly disease of extraterrestrial origin.

In 2004 the Sci-Fi Channel announced that they would produce a miniseries of The Andromeda Strain. Since that time the project has shifted to the A&E Network. The miniseries will be made up of 2 two-hour episodes. The mini-series has already been shown on Sky Movies Premiere in the United Kingdom and Showcase in Australia, 3 weeks before its American Premiere.

It seemed inevitable that the new two-part TV miniseries of Michael Crichton’s 1969 technothriller novel about a lethal extraterrestrial superbug would strain credulity with pseudoscience and quick thrills. But at least through part 1 of the series, which aired last night, The Andromeda Strain has stimulated without going too far overboard.

A remarkable amount of the science in the 40-year-old original still holds up as compelling and has been wisely retained. Who doesn’t get excited when the scrambling scientists, whisked away to a top secret laboratory, discover that the microscopic invader contains no DNA or RNA making it unlike any other life-form on Earth? To try and wow science-savvy people, as well as inveigle the layman, A&E cranks its version up a notch by throwing in buckyballs and singularity wormholes, though somewhat unnecessarily.

Like the Lord of the Rings screen adaptations, this Andromeda Strain update seems to reflect modern moviegoers’ appetite for adrenaline-fueled action that borders on spectacle. Without giving too much away, consider the nuclear cliffhanger that closes out the first installment as well as the chainsaw suicide. (In fairness, a menagerie of similarly grotesque self-annihilations occur in the book, too.).


Even so, there is a remarkable fidelity to the painstaking lab work that made the novel and the staid but excellent 1971 film so gripping and authentic-feeling. The amount of technical detail is not quite as impressive but still satisfies, thanks to some solid, believable technobabble. Of course, the jargon is scaled down exponentially from Crichton’s trademark hyperrealism (which makes it even more surprising that the celebrated author is a full-fledged global-warming denier.)

The Andromeda Strain Plot: In “The Andromeda Strain,” a U.S. military satellite crashes in a small town and unleashes a deadly plague killing all but two survivors. As the military quarantines the area, a team of highly specialized scientists is assembled to find a cure to the pathogen code-named “Andromeda,” and a reporter investigates a government conspiracy only to discover what he is chasing wants him silenced.

After a government satellite lands in the fictional town of Piedmont, Utah, two young adults find it and take it back to the town. They open it and release a deadly virus which is later known as Andromeda. Andromeda seems to evolve, each cell contacting each other, warning of new lethal weapons.

A science team is assembled and set to work in an underground laboratory, completely sealed off from the outside world.

When they finally discover how to defeat the lethal strain, which kills in around 10 seconds, it is a race against time.

A team of planes drop gas around the quarantined areas, in efforts to kill off Andromeda. Despite this, the laboratory becomes infected. One of the members of the team was given the order to destroy every strain of Andromeda held in the lab for testing. She was blackmailed to keep one strain. As the virus evolved, it broke out of its casing and trapped her in a room, whilst setting off the alarm for the whole laboratory.

Every floor was sealed, and the man with the pass key to stop a “15 Minute Countdown” until self destruction had to get to a different floor and use his pass key and finger print. He begins climbing up an air vent as Andromeda eats at the rubber in the facility.

He gets knocked down into a pool of radioactive coolant fluid for the nuclear reactor below, killing him. The head scientist now has to use his pass key. Another scientist rushes in to the rescue and cuts off the dead scientists thumb, killing himself in the process, however he managed to throw the thumb up towards the head scientist. He saves the lab from destruction with 7 seconds left.

At the end, a sample of the Andromeda Strain is shown being inserted into a containment compartment, with the strange symbol shown earlier upon the sample casing, the sample is then locked away with an access code which is identical to the number seen before with the symbol. The camera then zooms out to show that this all took place within a space station, hinting that in some time in the future the Andromeda strain comes down from the space station, and the future humanity sends the means to destroy Andromeda back in time via a wormhole, thus creating a predestination paradox.

A fictional blog, entitled “What Happened in Piedmont?”, accompanies the show and features references to trouble in the town in which the miniseries is set.The “author” is a journalism student at the University of California, Berkeley, and the blog discusses his attempts to contact people from his home town of Piedmont after receiving a “bizarre voicemail” from his sister that left him with “a horrible feeling inside”. Since the first post in April 2008, the blog has revealed further insight into the plot of the miniseries, with cross links to other fictional sites where readers can enter passwords to obtain more information. On August 16, 2007, cast and crew filmed at the Burnaby, BC campus of Simon Fraser University.

One point that Battlestar Galactica keeps trying to hammer home is “All this has happened before, and will happen again.” With yet another scifi remake on the horizon, they may be more right than they know. The Sci Fi channel announced back in 2004 that they would be making a miniseries version of Michael Crichton’s novel The Andromeda Strain with Ridley Scott, Tony Scott, and Frank Darabont producing. It’s not clear if the Scotts and Darabont are still involved, but the mini has shifted from Sci Fi to A&E, and will be airing in February. What is going to make this worth watching?

Apparently star Andre Braugher isn’t a big fan of the novel, “Crichton’s book doesn’t hold up to the test of time and so not much happens. When you go back to 1968 and read that book it’s anti-climactic, period, so this is a re-telling of the story with the same premise.” Let’s hope fans of the novel aren’t rankled too much by that. As long as he’s nitpicking, he might as well say that the 1971 film based on the same novel doesn’t hold up that well either. What’s going to make their version so much better?

He’s very stingy with the details, and basically only tells us that he’s playing the military man who is brought in to deal with the situation, while Benjamin Bratt plays the “hot-headed scientist” who is trying to track down the virus. Does Benjamin Bratt have any roles where he isn’t hot-headed? According to Braugher, the film will have some elements of Sphere in it (please dear god, let him mean the novel and not the awful movie version), and promises that the virus won’t be benign as it is in the novel, but will be “malignant and on the loose.”

Directed by: Mikael Salomon
Produced by: Ridley Scott, Tony Scott, David W. Zucker, Tom Thayer, Mikael Salomon

The Andromeda Strain Cast: