This series plunges into the depths of space, where humanity makes first contact with alien intelligence through mysterious signals. The discovered knowledge, deciphered from an extraterrestrial computer, unlocks a Pandora's Box of human understanding. Science and technology are pushed to their limits, yet they also face a threat that could jeopardize the very existence of humankind.
A new radio telescope picks up from the constellation of Andromeda a complex series of signals which prove to be a programme for a giant computer. After the computer is built it begins to relay information from Andromeda. Scientists find themselves possessing knowledge previously unknown to mankind, knowledge that could threaten the security of human life itself.
The Andromeda Breakthrough was a 1962 sequel to the popular BBC TV science fiction serial A for Andromeda again written by Fred Hoyle and John Elliot. Kidnapped by Intel, John Fleming (Peter Halliday) the hero of the first serial, and Andromeda the artificially constructed human (this time played by Susan Hampshire as Julie Christie was unavailable--main reason for the film's failure) are brought to Azaran, a small Middle Eastern country, where a duplicate of the machine he designed has been built by Intel. After many dangers he finds both the reason for the original message having been sent and the means to bring the machine under human control. The complete TV serial survives in the BBC archives and was released, alongside the surviving material from A for Andromeda and various extra features, as part of The Andromeda Anthology DVD set in 2006. Souvenir Press published a book titled more simply Andromeda Breakthrough in 1964. Corgi issued a paperback edition in 1966.