The ANDROMEDA BREAKTHROUGH

   UK tv serial (1962). A BBC TV production. Prod John ELLIOT, written Fred HOYLE, Elliot. 6 episodes, 5 at 45 mins, the 6th 50 mins. B/w.

   The cast included Peter Halliday, Mary Morris, Barry Linehan, John Hollis, Susan Hampshire. In this sequel to A FOR ANDROMEDA the android woman built according to instructions from the stars is played by Susan Hampshire, not Julie Christie; she has not drowned, as previously thought. She is kidnapped along with scientist Fleming (Halliday) by a Middle Eastern oil state where a new COMPUTER has been built according to plans stolen from the Scottish original. This is used by an international cartel in an attempt at world domination. The plot becomes ever more melodramatic. World weather is changed by the influence of computer-designed bacteria on the oceans. The extraterrestrial beings who sent the original computer instructions are not, we are implausibly told, just malicious: they are merely undertaking social engineering on other worlds by administering salutary shocks. (It seems that yellow-star races tend to wipe themselves out using nuclear weapons or other devices.) This was a less powerful serial than its memorable predecessor. The novelization is The Andromeda Breakthrough (1964) by Fred Hoyle and John Elliot.