The long night has come. The system's Commonwealth, the greatest Civilization in history, has fallen.

Well, that's beside the point, but I like it. -- "Long Night" - A term describing, originally, the Greek god Zeus' method of darkening the sky when seducing women so that Hera, his wife, wouldn't notice. He used this trick in important cases - seduction of Io (great-great-grandmother of Herakles) and Alcmena (mother of Herakles).

The title of this episode comes from a poem "September 1, 1939" by Wystan Hugh Auden:
<...> Defenceless under the night
Our world in stupor lies. <...>
At that day Fascist Germany invaded Poland. Without declaration of war being given the Second World War has begun... Auden's poem is documentary certificate on a condition of the person, caught by catastrophe anawares, trying to realize what was the reason of disaster and how it is still possible to rescue and be rescueed.

Hunt = The name of captain had mutated several times during the series' development phase, starting from Hunt in 1999 and alternating to Jericho, Shepard or Shepherd. In the middle of February 2000 it got the final form "Dylan Hunt". The reason for changes was misgiving that the new character may be confused with one of another Hunts from Roddenberry projects.

Andromeda = the name is derived from the Greek elements andros "of a man, manly" and medesthai "to think, to be mindful of" -- In the Greek mythology she was the daughter of King of Ethiopia Cepheus. Queen Cassiopeia claimed that her daughter was more beautiful than all the Nereids. In retaliation Poseidon, their father, sent a sea monster to devastate the kingdom and Cepheus was forced to sacrifice Andromeda, who was was chained to the rock on the shore. Rescued from the monster by Perseus she became his wife and followed him to Argos. One of their sons - Electryon - was grandfather of Herakles.

Gaheris Rhade = In Arthurian legend Sir Gaheris was one of the Knights of the Round Table. Son of King Lot of Orkney and Morgause. He surprised Lamorak and his mother in bed together and killed her for conjugal infidelity... When attending execution of Queen Guinevere (on demand of King Arthur), he has been casually killed by Lancelot, who came tearing along to rescue his ladylove from a bonfire.

Rhade: As the great philosopher wrote: Man is for woman a means. The end is always a child.

"Man is for woman a means: the purpose is always the child." - Friedrich Nietzsche "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" (chapter "Old and Young Women").

Courier: It's a rogue black hole! Hephaestus system. They're trying to evacuate, but there aren't enough ships.

In Greek mythology Hephaestus was a god of arts and crafts. He was thrown from Olympus by his mother Hera owing to her digust at his deformity. Having remained forever lame, Hephaestus stayed on Lemnos, perfecting his skills. At last he forged gold chair of unusual beauty and gifted it to his mother. The moment Hera sat down she was trapped. Been chained to the chair Queen of the gods was compelled to return Hephaestus his rightful place among the Olympians. Later Hephaestus arranged another trap for his wife Aphrodite.

Commonwealth diplomats negotiate the Treaty of Antares, officially suspending hostilities with the Magog.

A peace treaty seem to be signed at the right place. Antares - name of the beautiful bright reddish star in the constellation Orion - means in Greek "rival to Ares" (god of war).

Rhade: The blood of over a billion people cried out for vengeance, and you made peace. You have sown the wind, you shall reap the whirlwind.

"Andromeda" isn't intended to be taken too seriously, but that doesn't excuse its penchant for dopey dialogue. At one point, a former friend on the verge of vanquishing Hunt summons all his strength to proclaim: "You have sown the wind. You shall now reap the whirlwind." We don't know what that means, but it demonstrates how this corny entry sometimes floats along on hot air." (07.10.00 Los Angeles Times)

Rhade's line is scarcely amended quotation from the Old Testament (Book of Hosea): "For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind." The prophet here was predicting fate of Israel for praying to false gods.

Dylan: Gaheris, what have you done? -- Gaheris: I'm proud of you. You should be...

"Ye shall only have enemies to be hated, but not enemies to be despised. Ye must be proud of your enemies; then, the successes of your enemies are also your successes." - Friedrich Nietzsche "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" (chapter 10)

The "Eureka Maru" = "-Maru" is a Japanese suffix for ship names. Thousands of fishing-boats have the name-end "Maru", which means "boat" and, at the same time, "dragon". Earlier the big ones were made in the form of a dragon.

Beka Valentine = Beka - diminished form of Rebecca (Hebrew). Meaning: "a noose" or "who takes prisoners".

Seamus Zelazny Harper = Seamus - Celtic/Gaelic form of James (root: Hebrew). Meaning: "one who supplants, supplanter". The writers said second name is a tribute to Roger Zelazny of "The Chronicals of Amber" fame.

Trance = Latin root "trans" means "through" and is usually used as the first part of compound words (for example... transformation).

Gemini = Latin name of the constellation the Twins. According to prevalent version, it represens the brothers Castor and Polydeuces (Latin form - Pollux), Spartan heroes, sons of Leda and Zeus, known as Dioscouri. They were considered as patrons of seafaring. With the oath "By Jiminy," sailors revered Twins as the Protectors of ships. In the less popular version, Twins are Herakles and Apollo.

Andromeda: According to my calculations, we have been frozen in time for over 300 years. -- Dylan: Three hundred years? Oh my god... Sara, my folks, the rest of the crew.

For indistinct reasons - may be under impression of a wintry sleep and spring awakening of nature - from time immemorial humans originate legends about fallen asleep, frozen, staying on islands out of time, sealed in a stone heroes who would one day return. Return to help their people. Siegfried, pierced by the thorn of winter, is sleeping until he shall be again called to fight. Three Tells (including William) are awaiting the hour when their country shall again need to be saved from oppressor. Charlemagne is reposing, sword in hand, waiting for the coming of Antichrist. Dozes Friedrich Barbarossa until the time comes for him to raise Germany to the prosperity and new fame. Olaf Tryggvesson, Don Sebastian, King Boabdil... Mortally wounded King Arthur journeyed to island Avalon, but tradition claims that he will show up to help Britons against enemies. (To complete the theme - in the episode "Music Of A Distant Drum" Dilan is directly paralleled with Arthur...)

Harper: I'm telling ya, the guy is huge! He's like, some kind of Greek god or something.

Q: Loved his greek god comment - was that ad lib? -- Zack Stentz (writer): The famous line was in script. (09.10.00 Slipstream Web Live chat)

Tyr Anasazi = Early Indo-European peoples shared the same (reconstructed) sky god, father-god, associated with light, authority and creativity. This deity can be identified with Vedic god Dyaus, Greek Zeus, Latin Jupiter and Tiwaz (Tyr, Tiw, Tiu, Zui) in Germanic and Norse mythology. Later Tiwaz/Tyr was however supplanted by Wodan/Odin (who was named his father) as the supreme god and became the god of war and justice. At the end of the world, in the Ragnarok, Tyr will slay and be slain by the giant hound Garm.

-- How did Tyr miss Dylan when shooting at him many times from close range?
Ashley Edward Miller (writer): High Guard have electronic counter-measures (ECM) integrated into their uniforms, as well as small devices on their bracers that provide additional protection from smart bullets. Basically, they mess up the guidance systems in the smart-bullet's brains, as well as targeting systems in the guns themselves. Live by the computer, die by the computer. (10.10.00 Slipstream BBS)

-- Why didn't Tyr mention Dylan's ECM generator as an excuse why Dylan wasn't dead?
Ashley Edward Miller (writer): Tyr didn't KNOW! These are the Dark Ages, after all. I'm sure Tyr spent many long hours contemplating his sucky aim, never realizing that he was the victim of highly advanced technology. (13.10.00 Slipstream BBS)

Tyr is using against Dylan some flying pieces before their hand-to-hand combat.

Shurikan - very popular kind of the Japanese throwing weapons. A word is translated as "the blade hidden in a hand". Metal plate consists of base, often with stabilizing aperture, and petals of various forms. Usually it is not larger then 70-100 mm in diameter. Shurikans are not intended for inflicting a mortal blow. This weapon is used to distract the opponent while sneaking up closer, within, say, sword thrust.

Gordon Michael Woolvett: "[When Harper entered a holographic representation of Andromeda's brain] I felt like Jessica Lange in King Kong, without the white bikini. They hung me in front of a green screen. They had me on a crane so they could move the camera down as I'm being craned upward, strapped on by my feet. That can be tough. You find yourself acting to a piece of tape glued to the side of the camera so you know where to look." (30.01.01 Cinescape)

Tyr: Do you know what's happening? -- Rev (referring to the black hole): Behold the beast.

Rev is recalling "The Revelation of St. John": "The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is."

Tyr: If you stare too long into the abyss, the abyss stares back at you.

"He who fights too long against dragons becomes a dragon himself... and if you stare too long into the abyss, the abyss will stare at you." - Friedrich Nietzsche "Beyond Good and Evil" (part "Maxims and Interludes").

Rev: Detonation in three. Two. One. Detonation! -- A huge white blast. -- Rev: Fiat Lux.

"Fiat Lux" (Latin for "Let there be light") - from the Old Testament (Book of Genesis). These words marked setting the Universe in order.

Rev: It is written: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Isaac Newton's Third Law: "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction."

Dylan: Didn't Nietzsche once say "The secret of reaping the greatest enjoyment from life is to live dangerously"? -- Tyr: You read the right books.

"Believe me! The secret of reaping the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment from life is to live dangerously! Build your cities on the slopes of Vesuvius! Send your ships into uncharted seas! Live at war with your peers and yourselves! Be robbers and conquerors as long as you cannot be rulers and possessors, you seekers of knowledge!" - Friedrich Nietzsche "The Gay Science" (Book IV, 283).

"Battle Hymn", published during the American Civil War, became the Christian fight song, inspiring to pick up arms, to fight and kill to free slaves.

Hayek: We have waited for the Day of Lightning. And now that day has come.

The Day of Lightning may bear resemblance to the idea of Armageddon, great final battle between the powers of good and evil. That day will be a lot of blood, and God will come to loose the fateful lightning of his sword. ...Or, may be, for the unconventional kids it was just the day of lightning attack, blitzkrieg.

The entire situation, with generations of children living on this station for 300 years, is simply unbelievable. There is virtually nothing about this set-up that passes the laugh test. None of the key systems, like life support, failed in all that time? The weapons still work and there is still ammunition to fend off regular attacks? Radiation lethal enough to kill every inhabitant by the time they reach twenty years of age but which doesn't render them sterile or hopelessly disabled? Children who can't read, but who have learned how to pilot a fighter ship without ever seeing one? Children, with no real tactical or weapons training, can successfully defend the station from repeated (and presumably organized) assaults [may I add: of the most dreaded enemies in the Universe - Nietzscheans and Magog]? Children who can't read and have mislabeled everything but who know what nanobot inhibitors (or even nanobots) are? (10.00 The Cynics Corner Andromeda, review by David E. Sluss)

Harper: Listen, I had two cousins - Declan and Siobhan. They were twins, actually, about my age.

Not really important note: both names are Gaelic, Declan must be male, Siobhan - female.

Kevin Sorbo: On the 22 episodes we've done so far, 'To loose…' remains one of my top five favourites. The story was a fascinating look at what happened to the descendents of the High Guard over the past three centuries. It also allowed the characters to get off the ship. (06.01 TV Zone #139)

WEAPON LOCKER
Dylan takes forcelances off the nearby rack to give to Harper and Beka.
Dylan: We don't know what we're going to get. So, er, let's put on our game faces.
Dylan looks towards Rev and Tyr, who is spinning the knife in his hand.
Dylan: Maybe some of our faces are a little too game. Tyr, Rev Bem you'd better stay behind.
Tyr: We're the best battle gear you've got.
Rev: No offence, Harper.
Harper: Oh, none taken! In fact I am so unoffended, allow me to present you with the gifts of a forcelance, and a gauss gun.
Dylan: Sorry Harper, but if anyone's down there they've certainly scrapped with Magog and Nietzscheans.
Harper: Well, maybe they hate humans too?
Dylan: I doubt it - they haven't even met you yet.

On the military slang 'D Minus Zero' means 'The first day of the operations' ... graceful name for the first filmed episode :)

Keith Hamilton Cobb: Show number one, first day, first episode, first scene, basketball in the Hydroponics. Kevin loves basketball. Kevin likes to play and thought Dylan should have hoop so they wrote it in. So, I show up there the first day and… I couldn't play basketball if my mother's life depended on it. So there we are and I'm thinking ok, this is a day to make impressions, right, and I have to play basketball with a guy who plays basketball and rather well. They had a double, but you really can't double my face. I'm trying to look like I know how to dribble the ball, I can't. I kinda thought if I make it more about the confrontation and about the fact that this guy doesn't know how to play basketball - this might work and they sorta let me do that. But the executive producer, who was the director that episode, really wanted a one on one basketball between two guys. I don't know if he got that. I looked at the tape and I really looked really stupid. Day One! (09.01 convention Starcon)

As it was precisely noticed in the episode' review by Michelle Erica Green: "On 'Star Trek: Deep Space Nine' [on which head writer Robert Wolfe worked before "Andromeda"] baseball is usually the contemporary sports metaphor for teamwork. Interesting that this installment of 'Andromeda' begins with a game of combative one-on-one, and nobody sticks to the rules."

Brent Stait: "I had never worn the entire Rev outfit before my first day on the set. So I was tripping on things and falling over my own feet. I had these long claws on the feet of my costume. Whenever I walked across the floor all you'd hear was 'click-click-click'. I sounded like a dog on linoleum. It was driving the poor sound guy nuts." (02.01 TV Zone)

Harper: Hey. New uniform? -- Dylan: I'll put on something more impressive later.

This was an inside joke. The High Guard uniforms were not yet ready.

"One thing that [writer] Ashley Miller feels he has been able to contribute to the series is his background in math and working as an analyst for both the Navy and the Coast Guard. "My experience with that - and that it was in a very military application - turned out to be great for 'Andromeda'. Plus, knowing how real military people behave in military situations helps a lot." When Captain Dylan Hunt requests Beka and Tyr to "walk" with him or to "have a word", Miller says that's straight from reality. "The chew-outs from 'D Minus' come directly from my experience being chewed out at the Pentagon. I got chewed out a lot," he laughs." (04.01 Jigsaw Mag)

[Headwriter] Robert Hewitt Wolfe wrote a particularly tongue-twisting audition speech for prospective Harpers to read, which Woolvett remembers as "the Oral Olympics." "There was so much technobabble," he recalls, "and part of it actually ended up in one of the first episodes, where I'm explaining to Beka about how life is like a windscreen: 'As far as the universe is concerned we're all bugs, just hopping along, loving life, until one day fate decides to introduce each and every single one of us to our very own personalized windscreen.' It was really neat, but poor Allan Eastman had heard that particular speech so many times from so many actors in so many different ways that when it came time to actually shoot the scene, it was difficult to have any enthusiasm about it. I think they ended up cutting half of it just because they couldn't listen ot it anymore. It was also extremely long." (03.02 Starlog)

Dylan: Random speed, heading, and attitude changes. I want Andromeda bucking like a drunken Vedran with a Nightsider on his back. <...> This is what old Earth's submariners called a Crazy Ivan... random shifts and lurches designed to throw off a pursuer, maybe force her to do something stupid.

"Crazy Ivan" is an actual submarine warfare tactic. Submarines no longer actively engage sonar under normal circumstances as the emitter betrays the boat's location. Instead the sonar officer passively listens for aberrant sounds that portend another sub. The problem with this tactic is that the listening sub's propellers create an acoustical blindspot. Therefore the sub will make a rapid random directional change to clear it's screws in order to potentially reveal a lurking/trailing submarine. (posted on Slipstream BBS)

Laura Bertram had a bit of a "bad stunt experience" in 'D Minus Zero'. The "targeting glasses" they were wearing in the one scene were very dark - she couldn't see through them, which made her kind of nervous. When they were doing the explosion, she actually missed the landing mat completely… and her tail got caught in the console and came right off. (04.02 convention Starfest)

Tyr: I can feel my DNA being shredded molecule by molecule. -- Beka: Well, look on the bright side: maybe some stray cosmic ray will zap just the right gene and give your children some killer mutation that will make all the other Niet's weep with envy.

...In the next episode Tyr became father.

Q: Were there any scenes in the episode you would rewrite? -- Ashley Edward Miller (writer): I don't know how much I would rewrite, aside from Tyr's line "They killed themselves to cheat us of our victory." That was way too Klingon for my tastes, and to this day I wish he had said, "They saved us the ammunition." Ah, well. Aside from that, I would probably re-edit the episode to include a deleted scene where Dylan enters the ship's "who are we fighting" betting pool. It's a nice little bit of business that speaks volumes about Dylan and how he sees his world. <...> (04.01 Xenite.Org: The Lost Interviews)

Brent Stait: "There was a scene, where 'Andromeda' is being fired on and these explosions are shaking the ship. We were all rocking back and forth to make it look real. In the process Kevin and I accidentally ripped the tops of the consoles off our bridge stations. In fact, most of us ended up doing that. The director was like, 'Cut! The cast is tearing up the the set again.' We certainly got off to a memorable start, didn't we?" (02.01 TV Zone)

Alternate Scene - rematch:

The closing basketball game goes similar to the final cut. Dylan and Tyr are watched by Trance, Rev and Harper. The game is longer.
Trance looks pleased when Dylan scores.
Trance: Go Dylan! Take it to the hall.
Harper: Hole, it's hole.
Trance: Er, whatever.
Tyr: I underestimated you. That won't happen again.
Tyr jumps up and scores.
Harper: Oh, nice shot! You are the Uber, man!
A still weak Harper falls backwards. He is helped by Rev and Trance.
Harper: I'm OK, K.
Trance: So, who's winning anyway?
Rev: The highest form of competition is that which produces two winners. Not one.
Harper: Yeah, what he said. Kumbaya.
Dylan hits Tyr slap in the face with the ball. And scores.
Tyr: What happened to playing by the rules?
Rev and Trance are really interested.
Dylan: Let's just say, I owed you one. (He flings the ball to Tyr.) Now, you gonna take your free throws, or what?
After the little pause Tyr aims from where he is standing - and succeeds.

Dylan: I represent the Systems Commonwealth. -- Guderian: The Commonwealth? Why not the Confederate States of America?

Confederate States of America = the union of southern, slaveholding states, which quickly appeared and disappeared, as it was losing side in the US Civil war. Among those who tried later "to restore former glory" were the Ku Klux Klan and other racist groups. A hint rude enough but that do you wait from that pirate marshal?

Freya = the goddess of love, fertility and beauty in Norse mythology. Wife of Odin. She was also the goddess of war, because love and hate were seen as basically the same emotion just redirected.

Tyr: I am Tyr Anasazi. Out of Victoria by Barbarossa! -- Freya: Barbarossa, son of Hannibal, or Barbarossa, son of Temujin? -- Tyr: Temujin.

Victoria = Queen Victoria (1819-1901) had reigned for nearly 64 years. During her reign, Britain expanded into an empire. Victoria became an icon and symbol of her age.

Barbarossa (Italian: "Redbeard") = nickname of two colourful historical personages. From which Tyr's father get his name is unknown. Friedrich I Barbarossa -- Holy Roman emperor (1152–90), who challenged papal authority and sought to establish German predominance in Western Europe. Khayr al-Din (Hayreddin) Barbarossa (1468-1547) -- Son of a Greek potter accepted islam when the island where he lived, was captured by Turks. He became the seaman and has shown remarkable talent of the military leader and the organizer both as the corsair and Admiral in chief of the Ottoman Empire.

Temujin (Temuchin) = A Mongolian political and military genius (ca 1155 - 1227), Temujin, best known as Genghis Khan, is one of the most famous conquerors in history, a military strategist and ruler who consolidated tribes and then extended his empire across Asia to the Adriatic Sea.

Dylan: I feel like I'm reliving the worst moments of my life, only 300 years later. I'm betting everything I've got, everything I believe in, on a Nietzschean.
Rev: The Divine often teaches us in echoes.
Dylan: I just wish the Divine would make things a little easier.
Rev: Has Tyr given you any reason not to trust him? Beyond his being a Nietzschean?
Dylan: No.
Rev: Then you must ask yourself... Do you want Tyr to be a member of your crew, or do you not? The only way to trust Tyr, is to trust him.

Harper: Hello! They're pirates! They're enemies! -- Rev: Do I not destroy my enemy by making him my friend?

"Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?" -- Abraham Lincoln

Freya: Wonder...who are you? Everything deep loves masks. What are you thinking?

"Everything deep loves masks; the deepest things have a veritable hatred of image and likeness." - Friedrich Nietzsche "Beyond Good and Evil".

Dylan flashes back to playing Go with Rhade.

"Game Of Go", board logical game, was developed in China between 3,000 and 4,000 years ago, but it is widely believed that in Japan the game came to its full potential. At first Go was studied by Japan's warrior class and later had spread to all levels of society. The design of a Go set is prescribed with a compelling simplicity dating back through centuries. The round chips are calles "stones", they are black (formerly made from dark slate) and white (formerly made from shells). Go has only a few simple rules, but as an intellectual challenge it is extraordinary. The game offers scope for intuition and experiment. Since a player needs only to have more territory than the opponent in order to win, the outcome may hang in the balance until the very end. In our days players from more than 30 countries compete in the annual World Amateur Go Championship.

Yeshgar: Hell, it's been years, and you still haven't told me how you got that stomach wound. -- Dylan: It's, uh, it's classified.

The stomach wound was explained in the episode "Forced Perspective".

Yeshgar: You'll tell me the truth when you think I need to hear it. Until then, in Dylan Hunt we trust.

"In Dylan Hunt we trust" = Well-known motto "In God We Trust" appeared on the coins at height of the US Civil war. Now it can be seen in the court-rooms. In the second season episode "Ouroboros" the High Guard major has repeated Yeshgar's phrase. Looks like Dylan was of great importance for Guards...

Rommie: I've checked the Maru's historical records. I've seen the casualty lists. The Vanguard, the Continuation of Politics, the Salient Debate, the Fires of Orion.

Commonwealth had a peculiar way of naming their ships. For example, second name comes from the well known Clausewitz's definition of war as "the continuation of politics by other means". (Carl Clausewitz - 1780-1831 - famous German war historian.)

Dylan: What kind of divine plan requires the deaths of tens of thousands of people? -- Rev: "Tiger, Tiger! Burning bright In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye Could frame thy fearful symmetry?" Humans have been asking this question since the dawn of time.

For Rev, who lives in 5167 A.D., the end of 18th century surely is "the dawn of time". He quotes "Tiger" (1792), the most famous poem by poet and philosopher William Blake. Blake was an outspoken dualist, who recognized Good and Evil as equilibrium forces. His basic belief was in uncompromising antagonism of the vital elements, for the more fierce is this opposition, the deeper is life.

Rommie: You do have a choice. -- Dylan: Do I? Occam's Razor: "The simplest explanation is usually the right one." There are three times as many enemy ships as there should be. We have the means to destroy them. What is the simplest explanation?

"Occam's Razor" = a principle of simplicity attributed to the English philosopher and theolog William of Occam / Ockham (ca. 1285-1349). Been Franciscan monk, he was a minimalist in his life of poverty and in his philosophy. "Razor" comes from his appeal for shaving off excessive argumentation.

Dylan: I am become Death, Destroyer of Worlds.

Captain quotes Hindu scripture "The Bhagavad-Gita" with Krishna's line made famous by J. Robert Oppenheimer after the first atomic bomb was detonated.

Sketch from the set

Director yells "Shake!", Sorbo and Cobb are shaking on the bridge. There are sparks from a particular big "impact." Suddenly Kevin stops and looks down.
Sorbo: I kinda destroyed the entire panel.
He holds up the panel. Lisa Ryder cheers him on. Keith braids his hair.
Sorbo: They just don't make ships like they used to!

The title of the episode is an alteration of the first line of the Protestant hymn "Blest be the ties that bind our hearts in Christian love."

Tyr: So, we were forced into a sun and bathed in radiation by Restors. -- Rommie: Who'd rather destroy themselves than be captured. -- Tyr: Or identified, I suppose.

Helpful quote from the episode "D Minus Zero" = Tyr: They killed themselves to cheat us of our victory. -- Dylan: Or to conceal their identity.

Following Beka to the Orbital Monastery we see the giant statue of Magog holding the Eternal Flame of Knowledge in his open palm. He is the Anointed, founder of Wayism.

Rommie: I've tested and re-tested their slipstream drive. There's no good reason for her not to fly. Plus, I found some navigational inconsistencies. -- Dylan: Curiouser and curiouser.

" 'Curiouser and curiouser!' cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English)." - Lewis Carroll "Alice In Wonderland" (chapter II).

Lethe = the river of forgetfulness, one of the five rivers in the Underworld of Greek mythology. When the souls of the dead drank from its waters, they forget the sorrows and troubles of their earthly life before beginning a new life in the Elysium.

Zack Stentz (writer): At first, the mysterious connection with the past through the black hole was our big scientific handwave (hey, we're allowed at least one per episode). But further reading into the nature of Kerr black holes made us conclude that this black hole is indeed a permanent time machine, with each end opening up 302 years apart from the other. Is this a hell of a fortunate occurrence for two people sending signals into the singularity in exactly that time frame? Yeah, sure. But we figured that since the universe has been playing so many nasty jokes on Dylan lately, it owed him at least one lucky break. (27.11.00 Andromeda Forum)

Michael Martinez: Roy Kerr, a New Zealand mathematician, theorized in the 1970s that if a black hole were creating from a rotating mass, its center would actually form a ring and not a singularity. In theory, if one were to pass through the center of the ring (where the gravitational forces would cancel each other out), one would travel backwards in time. (27.11.00 Andromeda Forum)

Dylan enters Command, where Tyr is lounging in the slipstream chair, reading "The Fountainhead" (in English). <...> Tyr tosses the paperback book at Captain. Dylan catches it and reads the cover. <...> Tyr: Now, assume that this kills you. What will happen to this ship? -- Dylan: Tactful, as always. Beka takes command. No question. But a ship like this one, manned by a skeleton crew of cargo-runners and salvageers... I want you to stay. I want you to protect them. -- Tyr: And what possible reason would I have for doing that? -- Dylan: Because they need you. -- Tyr (smiling): You say that as though you actually believe it means something to me. -- Dylan: Doesn't it?

The classical novel "The Fountainhead" (1943) by American writer Ayn Rand has been created to illustrate the essence of objectivism. It displays a passionate defense of individualism. From Rand's point of view, the self-respect and independence are interconnected. The person with firm self-respect has to be absolute individualist who does not worry about been appraised and appreciated by the others.

The novel describes the life of Howard Roark, an innovator architect, compelled to earn his living working as unskilled labourer in quarry or doing negligible projects like country houses and gaz stations. Due to the striving for complete and utter independence from traditional principles / bright creative individuality Roark cannot get on with big clients. He often accentuates that his real and only incentive is the need of artistic self-expression.
Roark: "How can you let others decide for you?"
Roark: "Independence is the only gauge of human virtue and value. What a man is and makes of himself - not what he has or hasn't done for others."

Crash course of Objectivism: 1. All our wishing and praying won't change the reality. 2. Self-esteem and ego are good. Reasoned self-interest is correct. Wish to survive and thrive is natural. Individualism and personal freedom are our only birthrights. 3. No one have any right that takes away someone else's rights. 4. Money is our key to freedom.

In theory sounds not too badly. In practice there is a problem of overlapping items 2 and 3. Probably, for this reason Tyr has preferred to operate according to absolutely another principles.

David E. Sluss: "With its questionable technology and associated babble, gratuitous space battles, and foregone conclusion, this felt a bit like an episode of 'Voyager'." (26.11.00 The Cynics Corner Andromeda)

Zack Stentz (writer): 'Banks of the Lether' was originally pitched as a 'Voyager' story. Tuvok uses quantum-entanglement to communicate with his wife back in the Alpha Quadrant. But the communication is slowly driving his wife insane, and he has to cut off the link with the Alpha Quadrant. (18.04.01 Slipstream Web interview)

Dylan: Dr. Riley, I presume?

One of the most famous meetings in history occurred on the shores of Lake Tanganyika in 1871, when the American reporter Henry Stanley, sent to Africa by "New-York Herald" to find the missionary David Livingston, who was missing for five years, finally faced him after two years of the quest. Stanley made contact with the renowned words, "Dr. Livingston, I presume?" The point of that strange-to-stupid greeting was the Victorian etiquette: you did not speak to those you had not been introduced to.

Dylan: Are you here to give me advice, Rev? -- Rev (laughing): It's what I do.

Kevin Sorbo: They made Rev so preachy in the beginning. I remember one of the scenes Brent and I had together where we both ad-libbed. Rev goes to see Dylan, who asks him, 'Are you here to give me more advice?' and Rev tells him, 'It's what I do.' I think the fans got a kick out of that. (06.01 TV Zone #139)

Dylan: Sorry. I, uh, should've warned you before I came. Mea culpa.

Mea culpa (Latin) = In the religious practice of Catholics - the formula of a repentance: "by my fault".

Kevin Sorbo: "People have lost loved ones in their lives, so here is a character that has lost all of his loved ones, 300 years in the future. People can relate to the pain and the suffering he's going through. "The Banks of The Lethe" was able to show everything that he is feeling." (19.07.01 Interview with Official European Kevin Sorbo Fan Club Team)

An interview with Kevin Sorbo which was conducted during the filming of "Home Fires" [early at 05.01]. His favourite first season episodes are 'The Banks of the Lethe', 'The Mathematics of Tears' and 'Angel Dark'. (12.01 Cult Times #75)

Rekeeb and another Perseid tinker with some equipment, as Harper struggles to haul another piece of machinery onto Command Deck, which he dumps at their feet.
Rekeeb: Be careful! Do you have any idea how much that piece of equipment costs? Hmm?
Harper: I can tell you how much it weighs.
Rekeeb shuffles over to Tyr, sitting in the Slipstream chair reading "Fountainhead".
Rekeeb: You. Help him with that.
Tyr (without looking up): I'm studying.
Rekeeb: Studying what?
Tyr: How to kill every Perseid on this ship when the captain decides you're a threat.
He turns to look at Rekeeb.
Rekeeb (nervously): Oh. Carry on then.
Perseid wanders back to his assistant.
Rommie: Well, let's hear it for Nietzschean diplomacy.

Deleted scene (shot-but-never-seen)

Machine Shop. Harper, working on the teleporter, drops a piece of equipment.
Hohne: Please, be carefull! Those components were hand machined by one of the finest.... (Harper deposits it carelessly on a bench.) I wouldn't do that if I were you. Those parameters are calibrated precisely to...
Harper: Relax, relax. This is going to be one beautiful mother of a time machine, okay. And besides, blowing up the Captain would not, ahhh, look good on my resume.
Hohne takes the equipment off to another part of Machine Shop, as Rommie approaches.
Rommie: Don't even joke! If you put him through that thing, he better come out in one piece.
Harper: Oh, I'll get him through all right. The question is - what happens then?
Rommie (slightly bewildered): What do you mean?
Harper: Well, in the rush of scientific curiosity, there's one fact that I actually managed to overlook. When Dylan gets back to his fiancee, what happens if he decides to stay? I'll tell you what: no more glorious mission, no more Commonwealth. Beka will have you running cargo and us hunting for pretty rocks.
Rommie: It won't happen. He won't abandon his mission, not for anything.
Harper: Who you trying to convince, Rommie, you or me?

Harper: It's, uh, Dylan's fill-in-the-blanks Constitution. <...> Kinda lacks the poetry of the Founding Fathers. -- Trance: Founding fathers - you know, I've never understood that. If they found it, it was already there, so how could they be its father? -- Harper: It's complicated to explain.

Founding Fathers = collective name for those men who made significant intellectual contributions to the U.S. Constitution.

"If they found it..." = play upon words, in English "found" can be a verb with meaning "to base" or past participle of a verb "find".

Beka: Uh, Dylan, maybe we should cut our losses. There are a million other worlds out there. -- Dylan: Plenty of fish in the sea? -- Beka: You said it, not me.

The idiom Dylan is using was old even in the Herc's days :) -- H:TLJ ep. "Warrior Princess", Hercules to Iolaus: Haven't you heard the old saying? There's plenty of fish in the sea.

Rev: Are you familiar with Aeschuylus? -- Dylan: Ancient Earth, right? Greek tragedy? -- Rev: Very good. I was thinking specifically of the Orestean Trilogy. The house of Atreus was cursed by the gods, condemned to murder one another throughout history. -- Dylan: Orestes mother killed his father. He was forced to kill her in revenge. -- Rev: Forced to kill. Much as Andromeda was forced to kill. Do you remember how the curse was finally ended? -- Dylan: Apollo invented the jury trial. The jury found Orestes innocent.

"Oresteia", written by the great Greek poet-tragedian Aeschylus (458 BC), consists of three plays in which he consistently told the story of Agamemnon, his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus. The faithless wife killed Agamemnon on his returning home from Troy. So their son, Orestes, under Apollo's order has to take his mother's life. The last part of the trilogy is devoted to sufferings of Orestes, pursued by ruthless Erinyes and his rescue by the judgement of the Athenian trial.

Deleted scene (shot-but-never-seen)

Stand-off with the Castalians. Beka, Dylan and Rev on Command Deck.
Beka: Point Defence Lasers ready. Countermeasures on full alert.
Rev: We're being painted by targeting sensors.
Dylan (walking towards Rev's station): I wish they'd stop doing that. They think they're being dashing and provocative. They don't realise they're one mistake away from tragedy.
Rev: Can they hurt us?
Dylan: If they got lucky, certainly. But we could hurt them... badly. And what would that do to the alliance, to our reputation in this sector?
Beka (joined them at Rev's station): How do we make them... go away?
Dylan: Well there's only one thing that will satisfy them. And that is Tyr.
Rev gives Dylan a sharp look and starts to growl.
Beka (to Dylan): What is it you always say? 'Walk with me'.

The title of the episode comes from Shakespeare's play "The Tempest". Ariel is speaking with Ferdinand about his father:
Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes;
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea change
Into something rich and strange...

Beka: This is the "Eureka Maru", requesting permission to land, Captain Hunt, Sir. -- Dylan: Affirmative, "Eureka Maru". You're late.

Note Dylan's wrong pronunciation of "Maru" - he places the emphasis on the second syllable this one time. Either the captain got agitated when Beka and Trance at last have returned, or Kevin Sorbo was letting Canadian accent run free (the majority of the crew and some of the guest actors were natives of Canada, and "wrong", on the American hearing, variant was constantly heard on the set). However, Kevin extremely rare does something casual on the professional ground... So I'm tending towards first version.

Monica Schnarre (Jill Pearce): "That was one of my best guest-star appearances ever, mainly because of Kevin Sorbo. He's such a pleasure to work with. Kevin sets the tone for the whole show. He's a professional, but he also has no problem making the cast and crew laugh. I really liked the way my character was written and the fact that she was so unpredictable. You never knew what she was up to. I loved the twist near the end where she gets Dylan's ship, the Andromeda, to do something she herself could not do." (Spring 2003 TV Zone Special #49)

Dylan: <...> There I stood - this plebe on furlough staring up at this huge bronze statue of Sani nax Rifati, my lifelong hero. And it hit me. This is where he lived and wrote. This is where he fought and died.

4279 CY: The Conclave votes to officially dissolve the Empire and replace it with a fully democratic Systems Republic. The Imperial government resists, and civil war seems imminent. The tense standoff ends when High Guard supreme commander Sani nax Rifati brokers a compromise. The Vedran Empress will remain as titular leader of her former empire, but with political power ceded to an elected government. The Systems Commonwealth is born. (from the Timeline of All Systems University)

Don't pass unnoticed opening quote here.
2 Season episode "Home Fires" = Rommie: So what are you going to do? -- Dylan: The same thing General Sani nax Rifati did six thousand years ago. I'm gonna get the military out of the republic.
3 Season episode "The Shards of Rimni" = Trance: He's Captain Dylan Hunt, restorer of the Systems Commonwealth, a modern-day Sani nax Rifati.

Rev: Uhhhh... I was going to say she's not on the crew manifest. -- Dylan: Of course not. "Pax" is Latin for "peace". Peace - Pearce.

Dylan is right. High Guard Academy must have given classical education.

The episode did wonderful use of Wagner's opera "The Flying Dutchman" as both a parallel and as background music.

The legend of "The Flying Dutchman" is well-known in European culture. In the most common version the Captain stakes his salvation on a rash pledge to round the cape of Good Hope during a storm and devil takes him at word - he is doomed to sail up to the Day of Judgement. The woman's fidelity is his only chance of escape, so once in seven years the Captain can go ashore and marry. In one of versions, loving wife threw herself into the sea, beeng loyal to him to death. That's the end of curse and the ghost-ship plunges into sea abyss.

The most popular elaboration of the subject was made by German composer Richard Wagner (1813-83) in the opera "The Flying Dutchman".

Tyr: They were playing Wagner. It's the most fun I've had in about six months.

Nietzsche initially liked Wagnerian Opera, but later changed his mind and wrote an entire book on just how bad Wagner's music was. However, many later admirers of Nietzsche kept Wagner at high value. (By the way, this line was said to be an ad-lib.)

An interview with Kevin Sorbo which was conducted during the filming of "Home Fires" [early at 05.01]. His favourite first season episodes are 'The Banks of the Lethe', 'The Mathematics of Tears' and 'Angel Dark'. (12.01 Cult Times #75)

Dylan and Beka on the way to Andromeda's hangar deck.
Beka: Have you ever actually eaten Antares kelp patties before?
Dylan: It makes for strong bones and teeth. I was kind of hoping I'd get some at dinner tonight.
Switches to Dylan and Beka entering the Maru.
Beka: You and Pearce might be the last two people alive that like that stuff. Hope thats not the only thing you have in common.
Dylan: This isnt a date, it's an opportunity. I'm asking Pearce to join our mission.
Beka: What? Aren't you assuming a little much? You've only known these people for about three hours.
Dylan: That's where you're wrong. They... are High Guard. I've known them my whole life.

The title of the episode comes from Omar Khayyam's (1048-1122) "Rubiyat":
"How sweet is mortal Sovranty!" - think some:
Others - "How blest the Paradise to come!"
Ah, take the cash in hand and waive the rest;
Oh, the brave music of a distant drum!

Beka: I kept dreaming about you. <...> You know, you were - uhm - King Arthur, and I was Guinevere <...> and we were discussing our taxes. <...> And then, in walked Merlin, only he looked exactly like Andromeda.

Arthur = legendary King of Britain. There are the different versions of his "biography" which have been written during several centuries. Their essence is reduced to the assertion that Arthur's magnificent reign was time of extraordinary prosperity and impressing military victories. This excellent warlord and wise ruler invited to the court the best knights who have made a true support of his authority. Arthur and knights of the Round Table are leveled to the absolute and tied up with ideals of fairness, brotherhood and mutual assistance... however the kingdom, based on these concepts, perishes together with King Arthur.

Guinevere (Guinevre) = Arthur's wife. She was his reliable ally in political affairs, but unfaithful spouse.

Merlin = powerful wizard, assistant and counsellor for the King.

Dylan: W-w-w-wait. You still haven't told me the disturbing part. -- Beka: Oh, yeah. There was this whole, uh, Lancelot thing. I - I really don't want to get into it.

Lancelot = the bravest and most illustrious of the knights of the Round Table. He became enamoured of Queen Guinevere, and eventually she ran off with him. This caused a feud between not only King and his top knight, but involves huge quantity of barons and the knights.

By the end of their conversation Dylan is the one who seems to be disturbed...

Yvaine: Well, at least you know your name. Barabbas Jericho: Owner and operator of the Klondike Trail. -- Tyr: Faked. -- Yvaine: You sure? -- Tyr: I may not know my real name, but I know it's not Barabbas.

Jericho = funny how the author declined to waste good stuff -- 'Dylan Jericho' was one of the development ideas for the name of "Andromeda" captain.

Barabbas = in the Gospels: a robber and murderer, who was in prison awaiting execution at the time of the trial of Jesus. He was released for the crowd by Pilate and Jesus was crucified. Surely, it is not a name for any proper Nietzschean.

Tyr: Drago Museveni, I presume?

see comments to episode "Banks..." -- Dylan: Dr. Riley, I presume?

Zack Stentz (writer): In the original Andromeda bible, the All Systems University Special Collections Department was presented as a shadowy organization devoted to preserving knowledge and artifacts from the old Commonwealth (kinda like Asimov's Foundation). They were portrayed as morally ambiguous and in one proposed episode, actually hijacked the Andromeda. But Robert [Wolfe, head writer] decided against doing the episode because he simply didn't view packrat librarians as credible villains, so when the Special Collections department finally did show up in "Harper 2.0", we retooled it as a benign secret society of scholars working behind the scenes to preserve and advance knowledge and help restore the Commonwealth when the time was right. (10.11.03 Ex Isle)

Kevin Sorbo: There are some episodes in the second half of the season, such as 'The Mathematics of Tears', 'Harper 2.0' and the season's finale, that are unbelievable. That's when I think the writers really started to get a comfort level with what they were doing, as did the actors, myself included. (06.01 TV Zone #139)

"Forced perspective" is a filmmaking technique to make larger objects appear smaller to the viewer or vice versa. Forced perspective is used primarily to make objects appear far away when set space is limited.

The story of Venetri reminds of Albert Speer - the Nazi Who Said Sorry.

Speer was Adolf Hitler's favorite architect, and the man tasked with building Berlin into a great city for the 1936 Olympics and beyond. Later Hitler chose Speer as Reichs Armaments Minister. During this period, he had a small role in a plot by several senior generals to assassinate Hitler. And at the end of the war he did his best to stop Hitler's "Scorched Earth" policy, to save the infrastructure and even whole cities from destruction for the sake of the German people. Albert Speer was the only one of the occused to plead guilty at the Nuremberg trials.

Beka: It's too quiet in here. -- Tyr: All right. (He starts reading aloud) We are born, sworn jealous friends of solitude. Of our own deepest, most midnight, most midday solitude.

Tyr is reading "Beyond Good and Evil" by Friedrich Nietzsche. In that work philosopher articulated his disdain for conventional morality. He described Christian standards as a "slave morality", a way to decrease the human spirit and ruin the character of the individual.

Dylan: How did you find me? -- Trance: Oh. That was easy. I had this. -- Dylan: You found me with a button?

The vagrant European proverb - "To sew the jacket to the button" - is used in two ways: either when someone, having one detail, is capable to imagine all the rest; or when something is made after having a negligible part of if only.

Dylan: I'm not going to kill you. Because the basis of my Commonwealth is persuasion, and I think you're open to being persuaded.

Zack Stentz (writer): Notice Dylan's very deliberate pronoun switch: "the basis of MY Commonwealth." Not THE Commonweath. In fact, the whole point of the episode was making Dylan realizes that not everything about the old Commonwealth should be brought back. (16.07.01 Slipstream BBS)

Title was made from the truncated law of logic: The potential for the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Rommie: I didn't design my appearance. I extrapolated it. In myth, Andromeda was a Phoenician princess. Now, since no one knows what Phoenicians looked like, I blended a multitude of human physiognomies to create this plausible simulation.

In fact, Andromeda was the daughter of king of Ethiopia. Perhaps in the course of time in a tale of beautiful Andromeda crept some discrepancies and mistakes. Or the Artificial Intelligence of a military starship has limited knowledge of the very ancient myths.

Harper: This isn't gonna work. I say we let slip the nanobots of war.

Harper adapts the line from William Shakespeare's play "Julius Caesar": "Cry 'Havoc,' and let slip the dogs of war."

VX (over comm): What is this abomination!?! -- Dylan: The poor, the wretched, the huddled masses yearning to be free. And for you, the end of the line.

Dylan makes scarcely amended quotation from the very famous sonnet "The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus (1883). These words are engraved on the base of the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor:
<...> Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Give these, the homeless, tempest tost to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.

The title is a reference to Hunter S. Thompson's novel 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas', in which a journalist and his attorney go on a drug-filled trip to Las Vegas. (There is a road-movie of the same name, based on the book.)

Dylan: I've spent almost an entire year trying to get worlds to sign up for the new Commonwealth. I've managed to get three, and now one of them is threatening to back out.

Zack Stentz (writer): The episode was supposed to come after "Star-Crossed," in which another world signs up, but the airing order was switched. So I'm assuming another world besides Sinti and Castalia signed up offscreen... perhaps Mobius after they establish a democratic interim government. (We do establish Mobius as a signatory onscreen in season 2) (15.04.02 Andromeda Forum)

Harper: Now, if I remember correctly, wasn't Hasturi a paranoid? -- Gerentex: Yes. Like the purple girl in a room full of rocking chairs.

It's a play on an old saying. When someone is worried or paranoid, people say they look like a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.

The title of the episode is the part of the phrase, "Every man for himself, and the devil take the hindmost". The proverb is found in print as early as 1620. It comes from medieval superstition that the students of the Devil's school, at a certain stage of their training, had to run through a hall. The last one through was seized by the Devil and became the imp.

Thaddeus: Behemial! -- Rev: Brother Thaddeus.

"Cabbala" names Behemial (Behemiel) amongst cherubim, an angel with dominion over tame beasts, who pushes humane treatment of pets and livestock, but also inspires many of those incidents of pets that rescue their humans from buildings in fire or earthquakes, etc.

Tiama = her name seems to be connected with Tiamat - a dragonlike personification of the oceans, savage goddess of chaos in the Mesopotamian creation myths. She gave birth to the first of the gods. God Marduk (her great-grandson) defeated her in the battle, cut her in half, and used the pieces of her body to make the earth and the sky. Her destruction was prerequisite to an orderly universe.

Dying Thaddeus: You - you are - you are the merciful hand...

Blake's cryptic remark to Dylan was meant to fit in with several other scenes in which Blake and Rev Bem debated the meaning of the Bible's Abraham/Isaac story. However, those scenes had to be cut for time. (AndromedaTV.com)

Zack Stentz (writer): Unfortunately, the draft of the script was waaaaay too long, so we had to lose this scene before it was even shot:

INT. EUREKA MARU
Dylan reviews the hopeless tactical situation on a hand-comp. In frustration, he throws it to the floor and sinks into a chair, his head in his hands. Rev appears -- he's been watching Dylan from the shadows.
Dylan (fights back anger): Six Hajira. Blake. All dead. And I still don't have a plan to protect the rest of them.
Rev: Faith...
Dylan (cuts him off): Faith.
Dylan shakes his head. Faith doesn't offer much comfort.
Dylan (thinks): Why are you a Wayist? It would be a lot easier for you to give in to your Magog instincts. But you don't. You struggle. Every day.
Rev: The Divine gives each of us a burden.
Dylan: Here's mine: while I've been gone, the Universe has had three hundred years of chaos, where the only law is every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost. And now I'm supposed to pick up the pieces?
Rev: Perhaps. It is... not always easy to see the Divine's plan.
Dylan: You think I should leave? Let Ursari take what he wants?
Rev: I think... if you die here, your quest to drive back the night dies too. Surely, that thought frightens you.
Dylan: And if I leave, I'll have to live with walking out on the Hajira because I decided they weren't important enough to die for.
Rev: So, make an ally of your fear. Find peace in knowing that what approaches is your last breath. Then we can fight our demons together with clear minds and unburdened souls... as it should be.
Rev rises, puts a hand on Dylan's shoulder. Dylan smiles.
(30.04.02 Slipstream BBS)

Deleted scene:

In the cave.
Dylan: Which brings us back to faith now.
Rev: That's all we ever needed.

Arun is waiting at the cave entrance, others are few steps farther.
Magog: (to Dylan) Brother. (to Rev) Father. (It hands Wayist amulet to Rev Bem). Nature created darkness, but you chose the light. We will remember you. (turns to Dylan) And you, Dylan, you stood with us, holding your stand on your own. What you are now, we hope someday to be. (turns to Rev) Now you must go.
Rev (to Arun): Walk in the Light.
Magog fixedly looks at Dylan. Dylan is grim.
Arun: Walk in the Light.
Magog bows and with Arun returns into the cave.
Dylan is very unsettled. In a swift movement he catches Rev's wrist.
Dylan (in a low voice): Rev, do you really think we did the right thing here?
Rev: I think, in all things there is purpose. Even in horror.
He leaves, feasting his eyes upon amulet on his palm. Dylan turns to the cave entrance, obviously not a whit reassured.

"The Honey Offering" is the title of one of the chapters of Friedrich Nietzsche's "Thus Spoke Zarathustra".

Cuchulain = heroic warrior in the epic cycle of Celtic legends. Even as a child he possessed remarkable strength and skill, at seven he became a full-fledged warrior. Cuchulain was almost undefeatable in battle due to his spear (which sang for the blood of its enemies) and his warrior frenzy.

Dylan (to Elsbett): Have you seen my force lance?

The writers decided to use Sorbo's favorite on-set phrase (who couldn't quit joking over the fact that someone designed these things to look like vibrators) and have found suitable lady to whom Dylan could turn for the answer.

Beka: How long until we reach the line of defense stations? -- Rev: 14 minutes, 37 seconds. -- Tyr: If this which he avouches does appear, there is no flying hence nor tarrying here. -- Harper: Nice. You make that up yourself?

Tyr is quoting Shakespeare's MacBeth:
<...> 'Fear not, till Birnam wood
Do come to Dunsinane:' and now a wood
Comes toward Dunsinane. Arm, arm, and out!
If this which he avouches does appear,
There is nor flying hence nor tarrying here.

Elsbett: Cuchulain! He's caught up! -- Dylan: What is it that Nietzsche said? "God is dead."

Two references introduce Friedrich Nietzsche's idea about the death of God. In "The Gay Science" (aphorism "The Madman") and in "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" (chapter "The Pitiful"): "God is dead: of his pity for man hath God died."

The episode's title comes from a line in the Prologue of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet":

<...> From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents' strife.

Rommie: It's a fully armed Siege Perilous class destroyer. -- Beka: Siege Perilous. Sounds friendly.

The Siege Perilous comes from the Arthurian legends. It was a seat at the Round Table which only a man of good heart could sit on, otherwise terrible tragedy would befall him.

Gabriel - "man (power) of God" = the archangel, messenger and the attendant of Divine omnipotence. One of the leaders of Heavenly Host.

Tyr: Love is merely a trick that DNA plays to replicate itself.

"Xena: Warrior Princess", episode "Return of Callisto" -- R.J.Stewart (writer): I was able to put the following line in Callisto's mouth, "Love is a trick that nature plays to get us to reproduce." I love that line. It sums up rather well Schopenhauer's essay "Metaphysik der Geschlechtsliebe [Metaphysics of the sex love]".

The title of the episode was made from a quatrain by Edna St. Vincent Millay in "A Few Figs from Thistles" (1920):

My candle burns at both ends
It will not last the night;
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends -
It gives a lovely light.

Zack Stentz (writer): The blooper [from "D Minus Zero" with Rev saying "I want a hat. A pointy hat"] became such a running joke among the staff that Ethlie incorporated into "It Makes a Lovely Light," where all are actually wearing a pointy party hats for Dylan's birthday. (14.06.03 Ex Isle)

Ethlie Ann Vare (writer): People are always going to want to be faster, stronger, better, don't you think? Flash was actually in the series Bible; that Beka Valentine's father was a drug burn-out really interested me, and I wanted to write stories around it. And I was the perfect writer to do it, not only because I identify with Beka but because I overcame a pretty nasty drug habit myself, once upon a time. <...> And the dynamic of the drug-addicted family, the inherited aspects of drug dependency, the affect of an addict or alcoholic parent on the self-image of a child... that's all really strong character stuff to work with, both for the writer and for the actress. I think Lisa Ryder did a tremendous job with a challenging role. (04.01 Xenite.Org: The Lost Interviews)

Dylan: It's dangerous, Beka. -- Beka: Yeah. Maybe it is dangerous, but someone once told me that nothing worth doing is easy.

Helpful quote from the episode "An Affirming Flame" = Beka: You know, a lot of people will not be enchanted by this plan of yours. -- Dylan: Nothing worth doing is easy.

Harper: Hey! You think it's on Tarn Vedra, don't you? The Engine of... -- Beka: Seamus, Ix-Nay.

More information on the Engine of Creation was given in the 2 Season episode "In Heaven Now Are Three".

Rommie: Hasturi makes a lot of references to the ancient Earth epic, the Odyssey. -- Beka: Except when he confuses his Vedrans with his centaurs, and then he just veers right off of Homer and starts quoting Einstroth bex Napranar.

Zack Stentz (writer): That would be The Hox Vesgaroth, by Vedran poet Einstroth bex Napranar. A Vedran epic that Hasturi was evidently mixing up with the Odyssey. (11.05.01 Slipstream BBS)

Beka: Joke's on you, Sparky. Five more jumps. Five more jumps, Sparky! And we're home free.

Ethlie Ann Vare (writer): There was a bit left on the cutting-room floor which explains Beka's "Sparky" reference in the slipstream core -- it was part of a joke she was telling herself: "Hey, Sparky, why did the Vedran cross the road? I don't know, Raxmeth. Why did the Vedran cross the road? Because he couldn't find his way home! Ha! Old joke. Bad joke. Who's joking now, huh? Five jumps, Sparky. Five more jumps and we're home free." (17.05.01 Slipstream BBS)

The title of the story is a nod to William Butler Yeates' poem "The Second Coming":

The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

Kevin Sorbo: There are some episodes in the second half of the season, such as 'The Mathematics of Tears', 'Harper 2.0' and the season's finale, that are unbelievable. That's when I think the writers really started to get a comfort level with what they were doing, as did the actors, myself included. (06.01 TV Zone #139)