| The Pearls that Were His Eyes |
| Of all the Andromeda shows so far, this was the one I anticipated most. I read the synopsis before hand and even before that I read the news release on the main page. For all the excitement I was dissapointed at the outcome in the reviews. Not being a Star Trek fan I knew nothing about JdL from the show except that he played Q, and his episodes are considered some of the best ever made. The only thing I had seen him in was Disney's You Lucky Dog and he was really funny in that. So I formed the opinion that he was a good acter and expected good things from him. Okay, to the point. I've been tough on Andromeda in making these reviews. I haven't been afraid to state the good and the bad. In fact, I hope the producers and writers read reviews alot because it may help them develop stuff in the future. What was good: Well, as a overall episode, Pearls was really not great. It was just a not-the-best-episode-ever type. The storyline was good. Flash and a former drug smuggler building his was up in the corprate empire sounds like a modern gangster type senario. And putting it in the past of the mysterious and cocky Beka was icing on the cake. Trance turned in a good performance. Her inocent charm and good chemistry with Beka helped move things along. We still don't know her age or species or anything but it was cool that that fact was brought up yet again. I, like many fellow fans, must give reverence to the great Lisa Ryder for her star leading lady performance. This episode really gave her a chance to stretch her skill and show she was capable of many talents. John deserves some credit. He essetially played a bad guy but he did it well. He has a lot of charm and seemed to work well with Beka. What was wrong: Detail, detail, detail. The most important thing in a story is the amount of info it presents and this did not have enough. Putting Dylan in the B story was good but the time spent on that story was not always spent well. In my personal opinion, which is all I ever give on this site, I would have ditched the B and elaborated the A. I want to know about this stuff like where did flash come from? and what exactly did Sid mean when he said he "practically invented flash"? While the B had good Harper lines and the entire cast was used it seemed that some of the storytelling was sacrificed for the good of time. In newer episodes this was partially fixed but at the sacrifice of other characters instead. If it's always a trade off, we'll never win. Doesn't have a score yet but I would most likely put this in this mid to mid-high range. I hope JdL had a return appearance and the episode turns out even better. |