In this science fiction thriller, a team of scientists creates a dangerous new life form from a set of instructions beamed from deep space.
At a top-secret radio telescope facility, a group of scientists led by the brilliant but obsessive John Fleming (Tom Hardy) decodes a complex signal from the Andromeda galaxy. The message proves to be a blueprint for a supercomputer, which the team duly constructs. Once operational, the machine provides a genetic formula for creating a human being. The result is a rapidly developing young woman named Andromeda (Kelly Reilly), a biological extension of the computer itself. While government officials, represented by General Vandenberg (David Haig), see only the potential for technological and military advantage, Fleming grows deeply suspicious of the alien intelligence’s ultimate purpose and fears Andromeda is a threat to humanity’s existence.
This 90-minute teleplay is a compact remake of the celebrated, but largely missing, 1961 BBC serial written by cosmologist Fred Hoyle and John Elliot. Commissioned for a BBC Four season celebrating classic British television science fiction, the production’s primary challenge was to condense a slow-burning, seven-part story into a single, self-contained drama. The updated script by Richard Fell preserves the intellectual core of the original; it is a story about the moral consequences of scientific discovery and the nature of alien contact. The casting of rising stars Tom Hardy and Kelly Reilly brought a modern intensity to the central roles, but the compression of the narrative inevitably sacrifices the creeping paranoia that distinguished its predecessor. The result is a functional thriller, yet one that struggles to escape the shadow of the lost landmark it seeks to honour.
Broadcast: BBC Four – A BBC Wales production, 1 Episode, 27 March 2006
Adapted by: Richard Fell, from a script by Fred Hoyle and John Elliot
Director: John Strickland
Producer: Alison Willett
Executive Producers: Richard Fell, Bethan Jones
Main Cast: Tom Hardy (John Fleming), Kelly Reilly (Christine Jones / Andromeda), Jane Asher (Professor Madelaine Dawney), David Haig (General Vandenberg), Charlie Cox (Dennis Bridges), Colin Stinton (Kaufman)
