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 Episode
Reviewed: The
Perfect Church
(715, 716)
Writer: Paul McCusker,
Marshal Younger
Director: Paul McCusker
Sound Designer:
GAP Digital
Music: John Campbell
Theme: The importance of church
Scripture: Hebrews 10:25
Original
Airdate: 10/06/12 - 10/13/12
Review Written by:
Ben Warren, Staff Writer
Rating (out of 5):
Episode
Summary
After Matthew sees
the problems and conflicts at his own church,
Whit sends him on an Imagination Station
adventure to witness the very first church in
the book of Acts.
The Review
 Sometimes
I wonder if there have been more modifications made to the Imaginations
Station than actual Imagination Station adventures. In
Elijah,
Whit built a second door to the Imagination Station to accommodate two
people. How many doors must have been built in
St. Paul: The Man from
Tarsus? And how is it that in
The Triangled Web
folks could keep diving into it like it was a diving board at your local
swimming pool? In
The American Revelation
we learn that the machine had been modified to hold up to 10 people.
And, ever since, I've had no idea how to picture this marvelous
invention.
For the longest time, the image I had of the Imagination Station came
from the video, "The Knight Travellers". Regardless of what you thought
of those videos, they managed to inadvertently fill a few gaps in our
imagination. That said, the latest Imagination Station could never
resemble a telephone booth. It probably couldn't even resemble a hot
water tank lying on its side, either. It's a room with doors. But
where's Mabel? Where's the red button? And where's that iconic
roller-coaster ride?
Remaining consistent with the changes made in
The Imagination Station,
Revisited, the newest Imagination Station has
had to keep up with the times, I'm afraid. A red button to start an
adventure? That's so 80's arcade game! A roller-coaster ride to throw us
into the game? Let's cut to the chase already! A computerized,
occasionally British-sounding, Jenny Whittaker? I guess someone must
have told Whit how creepy it was to have a computerized version of his
dead wife...
However, maybe these decisions were made not just for stylistic reasons,
but for the purpose of telling previously untold biblical stories.
George and Jimmy Barclay did not need to walk through different doors in
Moses: The Passover
because their story had a linear beginning, middle, and end. In
The Perfect Church,
we see how the use of the doors is just a creative way of telling this
more fragmented book of the Bible; there's not really an obvious
beginning, middle, and end when reading the first few chapters of Acts,
after all. This new tool allows both the user and listener to jump
through time and space and it presents us with people, places, and
events that would be difficult to connect through traditional
storytelling.
Creative liberties must be taken, too. Here, Paul
Paul McCusker
ties all of the events together using a common theme and spends a great
deal of time looking at the events through Seth's family. Other
Imagination Station adventures, such as
The Big Deal
and
St. Paul: The Man from
Tarsus needed a little more creativity to tell
their stories, too; they fluffed up details, added secondary characters,
and created conversations that likely never occurred in order to make
the story flow better.
That said, I wonder whether
The Perfect Church
would have benefited from focusing more on the events surrounding famous
individuals such as Peter and John instead of spending so much time on
Seth's family. For an Imagination Station adventure, far too many events
are told through second-hand accounts, such as Peter's first arrest and
the deaths of Ananias and Sapphira. Strangely, even the Pentecost is
also told through a secondhand account. Why couldn't we hear it? That
is, after all, the purpose of the Imagination Station, isn't it? To
bring to life biblical events that are difficult to imagine? Then again,
how does one depict the Holy Spirit descending on the apostles through
audio drama? What would that have sounded like? Interestingly, the Bible
gives us a bit of a clue:
"And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a
might rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were
sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested
on each of them." (Acts 2: 2-3)
Though, in its defense, by focusing on Seth's family and
less on the apostles, the writer doesn't have to put too many words into
the mouths of real people (which is what I think they did a little too
much to John the Baptist in
The Big Deal).
It's a tricky issue: how does one dramatize the "empty spaces" of the
Bible and at what point does the dramatization start sounding too much
like our own words?
Adaptation issues aside, the episode's greatest strength is in what it
teaches. Having Eugene "pop in" and define certain words was helpful,
and I wouldn't mind hearing this tool used again in future Imagination
Station adventures. Why shouldn't kids learn the definitions of Portico
of Solomon, Sadducee, and Hellenists? This is the kind of trivia that―thanks
to Adventures in Odyssey―will stick
with them for years to come. Even Stephen's final speech was much longer
than I expected it to be for a children's show, showing Adventures in
Odyssey isn't necessarily pandering to this generation's short
attention spans.
Matthew's frustrations have been my own. These days, many Christians are
wanting to disassociate themselves from their church and practice a
faith absent of fellowship. I myself, at one point in my life, was
guilty of staying out of the church because of bickering I witnessed.
However, if we aren't part of the problem then we are usually
complaining about the problem. And that, in itself, is a problem.
The Perfect Church,
to echo its conclusions, reminds us of the importance of being faithful―that
our churches aren't perfect because we, as humans, aren't.
The Perfect Church
is certainly one of the most poignant and resonating Adventures in
Odyssey episodes I've heard in a while. Explaining the imperfections
of today's church by going back and highlighting key moments in the
Early Church is smart and certainly shines some light on those first few
chapters of the book of Acts. Armed with truly great bookend scenes,
terrific performances, and some well-crafted sound-design, the end
result makes me forgive certain adaptation issues and the absence of a
particular red button.
Rating
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