A small group of scientists contracted to develop a super electronic eavesdropping system for intercepting possible terrorist communications stumble across a signal of extraterrestrial origin, coming from the Andromeda galaxy, some 2 million light years from Earth.The signal contains the instructions for building a Computer far in advance of anything humanity is yet capable of. The device is constructed and begins to issue instructions for the development of artificial life. Andromeda, created in the image of a team member who died in mysterious circumstances associated with the Computer, is born.The machine seems to offer so much - the possibility of curing all human diseases - but does it "know" too much, especially about how to manipulate humans in pursuit of what they desire, to achieve its own ends?

unlike everyone else here, i enjoyed it thoroughly. granted, i am not old enough to remember the original, i believe this to be an advantage. i had nothing to compare it to. on its own it is an excellent piece of British SCI FI. i enjoyed it a lot i am going to find the original now and watch that. but i will not compare them. like Battlestar Gallactica. you cant really compare them, so why bother. i know it is a remake but it doesn't mean have to compare them does it. secondly who cares about some minor holes in the science of it. does it detract from the enjoyment of the show? there are so many shows that don't follow the science of today so why should this?all in all i really liked this. well done the BBC.

I thought this was a very enjoyable piece of BBC Sci-Fi drama. Yes there were flaws, it was even patronising at times but I liked the look and feel of it. I found the idea very scary and plausible. The idea that life is a code and as such can be downloaded and that it can even even behave like an internet Trojan. Very scary! A previous user has stated that it was heavily flawed scientifically (realtime communication with Andromeda). But there is no real time communication. They build a computer from a signal originating 2 million years ago. The interaction they have is with the computer once built not with Andromeda.Not a great film but definitely a great story.

** Contains minor spoiler** Despite being a remake of the 1960s BBC series, this comes across as an uninspired cross between Contact and Species. It is filmed using the typical cheap BBC Sci-Fi manner i.e. dull, grey, overcast and in a quarry. They spend the budget on the one "special effect", which is, of course, destroyed at the end. The story is unconvincing and the basic science is badly flawed (real time communication to Andromeda anyone?)It tries to pad out a thin story line with the addition of a few extraneous few subplots, namely a love triangle, some espionage and the oh so stereotypical "government subverting science for evil" thing. Even Jane Asher can't drag this up from being a long, slow, and predictable hour and a half.