The Andromeda Breakthrough

The Andromeda Breakthrough was a 1962 sequel to the popular BBC TV science fiction serial A for Andromeda, again written by Fred Hoyle and John Elliot.

The Andromeda Breakthrough
GenreSci-Fi Serial
Directed byJohn Elliot (Eps 1,3,5)
John Knight (Eps 2,4,6)
StarringPeter Halliday
Susan Hampshire
John Hollis
Mary Morris
Country of originUnited Kingdom
No. of episodes6
Production
ProducerJohn Elliot
Running time6x45 Minutes
Release
Original networkBBC
Original release28 June –
2 August 1962 (1962-08-02)
Chronology
Preceded byA for Andromeda

Plot summary

Kidnapped by Intel representative Kaufman (John Hollis), John Fleming (Peter Halliday) along with Professor Madeleine Dawnay (Mary Morris) and Andromeda, the artificially constructed female humanoid (Susan Hampshire), are brought to Azaran, a small Middle Eastern country.

Upon arrival, the group find a duplicate of the machine Fleming designed has been built by Intel. After many dangers, Fleming finds both the reason for the original message having been sent and the means to bring the machine under human control.

Things take a deadly turn when Fleming discovers the politically unstable leader's hope to make use of his and Dawnay's skills and Andromeda's otherworldly abilities...

Casting

The title star of the previous serial, Julie Christie, was unavailable due to other projects. As a result, the role was recast with Susan Hampshire succeeding Christie as Andromeda, who survived her fall into the cavern pool.

Availability

The complete TV serial survives in the BBC archives and was released, alongside the surviving episode plus material from A for Andromeda and various extra features, as part of The Andromeda Anthology DVD set in 2006.

Novelisation

Hoyle and Elliot's novelisation was published by Harper and Row in 1964, as Andromeda Breakthrough by arrangement with the BBC, and paperback editions followed from Fawcett World Library (1965) in USA and Corgi (1966) in Britain. Judith Merril reported that although the novelisation suffered from "routine writing, stereotyped characters, and an apparent belief in the Ian Fleming school of international intrigue," the scientists-protagonists were "anything but stereotyped," and "a fair cross-section of the kinds of people who are attracted to scientific work." Merril concluded that the clichéd elements "provide a reasonably amusing background to a genuinely intriguing scientific puzzle."[1]

References
  1. "Books", F&SF, May 1965, p.73 (parenthetical asides omitted)
  • Bould, Mark (2009). The Routledge companion to science fiction. Routledge Literature Companions. Taylor & Francis. p. 97. ISBN 0-415-45378-X.
  • Chapman, James (2006). Inside the Tardis: the worlds of Doctor Who : a cultural history. I.B.Tauris. p. 16. ISBN 1-84511-163-X.
  • Seed, David (2005). A companion to science fiction. Blackwell companions to literature and culture. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 293. ISBN 1-4051-1218-2.
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