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The Pearls That Were His Eyes
Sid Barry
Production
Episode

1.11

Production #

111

Original air date

January 22, 2001

Written by

Ethlie Ann Vare

Directed by

David Winning

Developed by

Robert Hewitt Wolfe

Producer

Sherry Gorval

Executive Producer

Allan Eastman
Majel Roddenberry
Robert Hewitt Wolfe
Josanne B. Lovick
Jay Firestone
Adam Haight

Production Designer

Ken Rabehl

Cast
Guest stars

John de Lancie as Sid Barry
Ty Olsson as Mick
Peter Kelamis as Grask
Ken Kirzinger as Willie

Chronology
Preceded by

All Great Neptune's Ocean

Followed by

The Mathematics of Tears


"Wealth is too Precious
to be entrusted
to the Rich."
Anonymous Kalderan Proverb,
circa CY 500

"The Pearls That Were His Eyes" is episode 11 of Season 1.

Season1Cast

The Regular Cast of Andromeda Season 1

Synopsis[]

The Andromeda is heading to El Dorado Drift for parts, news, and mail. The key items in the news are that two large shipping companies, TransGalactic (run by Sid Barry) and Quantum, are merging, and that there is a large solar storm heading their way, necessitating quick repairs. Beka Valentine also has a message from an old friend of her father's, "Uncle" Sid Barry. Sid is asking her for help, and looks desperate but the message is over three years old. Beka feels obligated to go and see what she can do for Sid, but Dylan Hunt doesn't want her to go. Dylan finally agrees to let her go, but tells her to be back in five days, before the storm hits.

When Beka leaves, Trance Gemini stows away on the Eureka Maru, because Dylan was not going to send anyone with her.

Seamus Harper and Tyr Anasazi prioritize the repairs. Harper places the engines at the top of the priority list, while Tyr is more concerned with the weapons. The main problem, however, is that they do not have a way to pay for it. Harper is willing to arrange to steal it, but Dylan says that they have things they can sell or trade.

Beka and Trance are on the planet where Sid asked Beka to meet him. The meeting area is on the seedy side. Beka notices that some people have the milky-white eyes of Flash users. Flash is a drug, a synaptic enhancer that is taken in through the eyes.

Dylan has set up a meeting with a Chichin trader named Grask. The Chichin, as a race, have a poor reputation - they are known to eat their young. Dylan and the crew are sorting through various items from the ship that they can sell and trade. Rommie is reluctant to part with some things, for sentimental reasons (such as the Andromeda Ascendant Ceremonial China), and Dylan is unwilling to sell the crew's personal effects.

Beka asks around about Sid, and ends up in a fight with a gang of thugs. She gets the best of them, and they admit that they know where to find him. Beka and Trance are taken to a luxurious office, to meet Sid, who is surprised to see Beka. Beka herself is shocked to discover that her "Uncle Sid" is, in fact, Profit. Sid Barry used to curse the big freighter companies, but now he is the one putting the "little guy" out of business. He reminds her that her father, Ignatius Valentine, was always looking for the "Big Score" and now Sid has found it.

Sid provides Beka and Trance with a nice room, and such luxuries as chocolate, fresh-squeezed orange juice, and a personal masseur. Beka is reluctant to accept these things too easily (she thinks Sid is trying to "buy her off"), but Trance enjoys them, and encourages Beka to do so as well.

Meanwhile, Dylan is bargaining hard with Grask. He is finding a lot of defects in the merchandise the trader is offering.

Sid and Beka reminisce about Beka's father. Sid asks her if he left any messages or anything for him he had some data that belonged to Sid. Sid says that it was just "personal journals", but that they would probably be hidden. He offers to give Beka ten million guilders, "the inheritance her father always wanted to leave for her", if she will give him the files, unopened. While she considers the offer, he gives her an unlimited credit disc.

On the Andromeda, the solar storm is getting closer, and defects in the parts they purchased have left them dead in space.

Trance convinces Beka to go out for a "night on the town". Beka is still suspicious of Sid - personal journals are not worth ten million guilders. She and Trance check the Maru's database, and Trance finds an old picture of Beka as a child, with red hair. Beka tells her that she has nanobots made by her father that allow her to change her hair color at will.

Beka notices that the Maru's database has been tampered with, but before she can get the Maru ready for launch, Sid's thugs overpower her and Trance.

Sid comments on Beka's timing; she is responding to a 3 year old message two days before his big corporate merger. He suspects that she has the data, and wants something from him. Sid runs down Beka's father, talking about how he used Flash. Beka denies this, but Sid reminds her that he and her father practically invented it. Beka still refuses to turn over the Maru command codes, so the thugs knock her and Trance out, and take them away.

Beka does not have the information that Sid wants, but she is starting to come to terms with her father's past. Sid, however, still does not believe that she does not have the information, and that she is blackmailing him for something. If it is not money, what is it? Revenge? He runs down her father some more, saying that he referred to Beka as "my little ball and chain", and said that she was "not worth the cost of fuel". Sid claims that the presents he brought home for Beka were bought by Sid, because her father wasted all his money. As a last resort, Sid puts Flash in Beka's eyes, reminding her how addictive it is.

Beka returns to the room with Trance, still high on Flash, and babbling. She says that she does not drink or do drugs, because she did not want to turn out like her father. She also rants about how she does not know anything about Trance, and starts to get aggressive towards her, but Trance talks her down. Suddenly, Beka realizes where the data is. Trance figures out how to open the window of the room, which brings the guards in. Beka and Trance take them down the last because he tries to shoot them with Beka's Force lance, which shocks him unconscious.

The storm continues to build. Dylan and Rev have gone out on an "errand", and return just as the early stages of the storm hit. They have brought the trader Grask with them, so if they suffer from his faulty parts, so will he. Coincidentally, he happens to know where they can get quality parts.

One of the thugs reports to Sid: Beka and Trance have locked themselves in the room. Sid has a plan.

Beka and Trance realize that it has been about five days (their allotted time). Beka has her own plan. Sid's thugs start to force their way into the room, but Beka brings the Maru up to the window on remote control, and she and Trance jump to safety. The thugs report back to Sid that the plan worked perfectly.

Tyr suggests to Dylan that Beka may have struck out on her own again, on the Maru, since Dylan has upgraded a lot of the systems.

Beka remembers the last time her father and Sid saw each other it was right after a deal went bad, but she did not know the details. Right after this, her father made the nanobots for her hair. She deduces that the data is hidden in the nanobots. She accesses the data and finds a video record of a docking station, floating corpses, and Sid, saying he "did what he had to do" to conceal the Flash shipment.

At this point, Sid is on the communications screen. He finally believes that Beka did not know about the data. He tells her that the punishment for drug smuggling on Sigma Gamma 1 is being chopped up for "spare parts". Beka's father had used the information for blackmail against Sid. When he died, Sid thought it was taken care of. The message to Beka was meant to work out some sort of "deal". However, he has overridden the Maru controls (he helped build the ship), and has set Beka on course for the sun, to destroy the evidence.

Beka tells Sid that she has already sent copies of the data to all the local law enforcement agencies, to be opened on her death, so it is in Sid's best interest to keep her alive. He wonders how she could have afforded to do so, but she reminds him he gave her unlimited credit. Sid offers a deal: He will let her live, as long as she does not tell anyone. Beka agrees, and Sid returns control of the Maru to her.

Dylan and Tyr are talking; Beka is 36 hours late, and Tyr is encouraging Dylan to leave, since he does not think she is coming back. As they are having this conversation, a message comes from the Maru, with Beka and Trance returning, apologizing for being late. Tyr seems surprised.

Trivia[]

  • The title refers to:
    • William Shakespeare -- "The Tempest": Those are pearls that were his eyes
    • "The Wasteland" -- T.S.Eliot
      • "The Burial of the Dead": (Those are pearls that were his eyes. Look!)
      • "A Game of Chess": Those are pearls that were his eyes.

Memorable Quotes[]

Harper: Are you saying we don't have any money?
Dylan: We have plenty of currency, just none of it's current.

Dylan: There is an old Earth custom Tyr. It's called a garage sale.
Tyr: What's a garage?

Rev: The drift trader you are meeting is called Grask. Now he is a Chichin.
Dylan: Oh great.
Rev: Yes, they don't buy what they can steal.

Mick: C'mon baby, gimme some sugar. (Beka extends Force lance) What the hell is that?
Beka: Sugarcane.

Beka: Trance, do not let him buy you off with a backrub. This is Sam Profit we're dealing with.
Trance: I think you're just cranky from the gravity. Why don't you just think of it as a way of decreasing his corporate resources? (to the masseur) Now, let's start with the tail.

Trance: You know, I left some bubbles in the tub. I should probably go use them.

Tyr: I wish you would stop looking for beauty in things that want to kill us.

Beka: Y'know, Trance, what I could do with 10 million guilders?
Trance: Oh, you could buy lots of drinks with little umbrellas in them.

Trance: I'm still trying to figure out this whole "poisoning yourself for fun" thing. I think I like it.

Trance: Hey, exactly where on the body is the moneymaker located?

Trance: What did they do to you?
Beka: Nothing - I walked into a door.
Trance: So, did you tell the door what it wanted to know?

Rev: Don't tell me, you've got a plan.
Dylan: OK, I won't.
Rev: He always has a plan.

Beka: You can't stop a Valentine with a head full of steam. Believe me, I tried.

Tyr: I think it's quite possible she may have taken advantage of your generosity and gone back into business for herself.
Dylan: Because that's what you would do?
Tyr: Not after warning you.

DVD Release[]

The Pearls That Were His Eyes was released on DVD in a variety of formats. For more information see:

DVD Release
Andromeda: Season 1 Volume Releases
Andromeda: Complete Season 1
Andromeda: Series 1 Volume Releases
Andromeda: Complete Series 1
Andromeda: The Slipstream Collection
Andromeda: The Complete Boxset
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