Episode Reviewed: The
Black Veil I & II (490 - 491)
Writer:
Marshal Younger
Production
Engineer: Jonathan Crowe, Rob Jorgensen
Original
Airdate: April 6, 2002 - April 13, 2002
(weekly)
Theme: Spiritual battles
The Black Veil I
& II
Part One
Strange. That's all I can say
about this episode. I will say right now and now alone that everything that happens in
part one is very strange...odd... an out-of-body experience. It is these types of episodes
that tend to... well... annoy my thought patterns. Why? My reasons are as follows:
1. It's an out-of-body
experience. What do I mean by that? Well I mean that the entire episode is REALLY
an out-of-body experience! The characters turn into some sort of monster (mentally) and
wreak havoc on the citizens of Odyssey.
2. It's very
unrealistic. It's a common fact that mind control is NOT possible in the way in
which it is portrayed on Odyssey. You can't control people's thoughts. You can
help to coax them into a decision by persuading them or brainwashing, but never has there
been an incidence of mind control in such a manner.
3. It's not Odyssey
anymore. It's science fiction. I'm a "get a dose of reality" type guy
(whatever that means), and what happens in real life is what I think should happen on the
show. The characters of Odyssey (especially Whit) are caught up in this never-ending saga
that seems to be heading in the wrong direction and seems to shine no ray of hope.
You have now seen my three
stances on this episode. It's now time to discuss what I was disappointed with during the
episode. Since mind control is the main idea of the episode obviously people are going to
get huffy and shout in each other's faces. And that is what annoys me. All that yelling
gets on my nerves.
Also something else gets on my
nerves. How they introduced the black boxes into the plot. The episode is written in a way
that SUDDENLY brings in the black boxes. You'd think that AIO would slowly drift in the
storyline, not drop it from the sky like they did. That's probably why people were upset
with the episode. A nice, realistic Novacom/Andromeda saga continued, but all of a sudden,
POW! People are yelling at each other!
This is not to say that I
didn't LIKE the episode. I did. It's an enjoyable listen, but that's about it.
Part Two
I wasn't planted in my seat of
denial as tightly when I listened to part two. I guess thinking about "The Black
Veil" for a week cooled me down a bit.
There's one thing that bothers
me about this episode, unlike the millions of things that annoyed my in part one. The
scene in which Mr. Whittaker takes a ride in the Imagination was such a repeat. Don't even
get me started on the comparison between The Black Veil and The Mortal Coil
I'd be rambling for hours and you wouldn't even care anymore!
I'm really curious about the
disappearance of Veil Industries. There have been so many companies mentioned since the
beginning of the Novacom/Andromeda Saga and I want to know how they all link together. I
am predicting that these companies are doing "good" things for the communities
they come in contact with to cover up their crimes. We'll see.
- - - - -
I give The Black Veil 3 cones.
I'm probably being too generous on this one.
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