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'Andromeda' Remake On A&E Puts Strain On Viewers' Full Attention After Chilling Start

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By WALT BELCHER

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 21, 2008

Teenagers hanging out one night in a Utah desert witness the fiery crash of a satellite.

Clueless about what it is, they load it onto a pickup and drive it to the fire station in the remote town of Piedmont.

Some good old boys manage to crack it open and unwittingly unleash a deadly plague. Apparently, the satellite picked up a hitchhiking alien virus.

Most people die within minutes after they breathe in the invaders. Their blood solidifies. Others go violently insane before death. One man cuts off his own head with a chain saw.

The military swoops in, seals off part of the state and sends in a crack team of biochemists. They find only two survivors: the town drunk and a screaming infant.

Racing against the clock, the scientists will try to stop the constantly mutating virus from wiping out the human race.

That's the setup for "The Andromeda Strain," a new sci-fi mystery thriller airing at 9 p.m. Monday and Tuesday on A&E.

It's based on a Michael Crichton novel that inspired a memorable 1971 film directed by Robert Wise and starring Arthur Hill.

I'm giving you an early warning here so you can make plans to watch the remake or avoid it.

The new "Andromeda Strain" gets off to a good start and then stumbles over too much sci-fi jargon, an unnecessary romance, a transparent military plot and an unsatisfying ending.

Why do those fictional government types always think they can turn killer aliens into weapons?

I stuck all the way through the preview DVD even though I was only half paying attention when they started talking about Euclidean wormholes and nanotechnology. At one point, I thought they had borrowed from Crichton's more recent novel, "Prey."

I was fine with this story up to the point where the government manages to keep a lid on the disappearance of almost an entire town.

In our globally connected, Internet- and cell-phone-loving world, it's just not possible to write off even the remotest town without attracting attention. And only one reporter notices something is wrong? Not likely.

WEATHER FLAP: Readers are asking what happened to Bob Stokes, a popular anchor on The Weather Channel who hasn't been seen on the network since February.

The network isn't commenting, but in the past three weeks, various media outlets have learned of his fate through court documents filed in Atlanta.

Stokes, 50, was fired after former co-worker Hillary Andrews, 38, won a sexual harassment judgment against him in January, according to a suit filed recently against her former employer.

Andrews worked for the Atlanta-based network from 2003 to 2006. Her contract required that sexual-harassment claims be settled by arbitration.

She seeks to have the arbitration findings made public through separate lawsuits against Stokes and The Weather Channel. She also is seeking unspecified damages.

In her filings, Andrews says Stokes repeatedly asked about her sex life, leered at her chest, made crude remarks and sabotaged her on-air work.

In her suit against the network, she says that when she complained, she was assigned to the overnight shift and later told her contract would not be renewed.

LAW & ORDER: With most eyes on the "American Idol" two-hour finale beginning at 8 tonight, NBC is throwing on a "Law & Order" marathon with repeats at 8 and 9. The 18th season finale at 10 p.m. is another ripped from the headlines story about a New York governor involved with high-priced call girls.

TUNE IN TONIGHT

Boston Legal, 10 p.m., ABC

Alan Shore and Denny Crane share their last cigars of the season after battling in court over a Massachusetts town that wants to secede from the United States.

Criminal Minds, 9 p.m., CBS

On the season finale, the serial-crime team goes to New York to investigate a series of murders that could be the work of a serial killer, a team of killers or a team of serial killers.

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