What if a U.S. military satellite were to crash into a small town, unleashing a deadly plague?

A&E Network will present the two-night action-packed miniseries The Andromeda Strain, which will look at this very real-life possible scenario, based on the Michael Crichton novel, on Memorial Day, May 26-27.




The miniseries stars Benjamin Bratt, Eric McCormack, Ricky Schroder, Andre Braugher, Christa Miller, Daniel Dae Kim and Viola Davis.

In The Andromeda Strain, when a deadly plague kills everyone in a small town except for two people, the military is brought in to quarantine the area while scientists work to find a cure to the pathogen code-named “Andromeda,” which was released when a U.S. military satellite crashed.

When scientists arrive on the scene, only an unhealthy old man and a colicky infant are alive. They take them, the satellite and samples of Andromeda to Wildfire, a secret underground lab designed for a crisis such as this.

While the scientists race to decode and find out what will kill Andromeda, it continues to spread and mutate. It spreads animal to animal, even grass to grass. Some exhibit violent behavior in minutes. The plague may even be able to communicate with itself and transform. Pretty scary stuff!

Meanwhile, a reporter investigating a possible government conspiracy finds out that someone wants him silenced.

Benjamin Bratt plays Dr. Jeremy Stone, an epidemiologist who heads up the team of scientists assembled to stop Andromeda from spreading.

Eric McCormack plays Jack Nash, the investigative reporter someone is trying to kill.

Ricky Schroder plays Major Bill Keene, MD., a virologist from the Army’s Medical Research Institute of Infectious Disease who seems to have issues with Bratt’s character.

Andre Braugher plays General George Mancheck, a U.S. Army biochemical research officer who assembles the team of scientists.

Christa Miller plays Dr. Angela Noyce, a surgeon, exobiologist and specialist in tropical and exotic diseases.

Daniel Dae Kim plays Dr. Tsi Chou, a microbiologist who once worked for the Chinese government and now is a U.S.-based bioterrorism consultant.

Viola Davis plays Dr. Charlene Barton, a pathologist formerly of the Centers for Disease Control now at the San Francisco health department.


For this miniseries, A&E teamed up with Ridley Scott (Black Hawk Down, Gladiator) and Tony Scott (Man on Fire, Top Gun) to recreate Crichton’s best-selling debut novel.

The four-hour event will air in high definition Monday, May 26 and Tuesday, May 27 at 9 p.m. EST on A&E Network.

I hope to publish a review of the first part of the miniseries later this week.