It’s rare to have stories that use both sides of a writer’s toolkit simultaneously. However, especially today, “The Black Veil” from Simon Machin is about as near a universal story as is possible. Saying this story is both fast and slow, has serial and episodic storytelling, is realistic and fantastical, includes fan service and originality—sounds impossible on paper. Yet, this story set in and inspired by victorian fiction works on the page just as well as for the ears

An Ode to Victorian Fiction

One can pitch this premium audio drama found on Audible*, Spotify and Apple Books multiple ways. One such way is to call it Victorian literature fan fiction. From Sherlock Holmes to Dorian Grey, “The Black Veil” is a smorgasbord of tropes found in the secret history genre. The “this is the true tale of …” stories commonly associated with characters like Robin Hood and King Arthur. One of them is even a key part of the worldbuilding.

The story starts with a prologue scene of Jack the Ripper killing a woman. We then skip to the aftermath of the crime as constables start working the scene. We are then introduced to a blind woman named Miranda Griffin. Accompanied by Dr. Bell and Mahomet Singh—an obvious blend of Sherlock Holmes and Watson with the detective as the doctor—the three travel to gather the thirteen treasures of the island of Britain. Jack the Ripper is also searching for the objects, which can grant one wish if all thirteen are collected.

The Black Veil: Victorian … Dragon Ball. Dragon Ball V?

If that last sentence reminded you of another story, you aren’t alone. If not intentional, it’s hard to not think of the “Dragon Ball” manga for those who’ve read it or watched the show. But, it’s also engrained in our culture so people have at least heard of “Dragon Ball.” More specifically I’m talking about the original series’ first saga, which is more or less a retelling of the “Journey to the West” legend from China. While both the manga/anime and this victorian-inspired audio drama have similar story beats and share a common trope of wish-granting objects, the tone of them could not be more different. In short “The Black Veil” is to Victorian literature as “Dragon Ball” is to “Journey to the West.”

The biggest difference between these two retellings/adaptations by far is the setting and tone. Where one is whimsical, the other is dark and brooding. There aren’t a lot of humorous moments in “The Black Veil.” This decision works in the story’s favor. Since the first season is an amalgamation of classic Victorian literature, it makes sense why the tone lacks levity. Literary classics like “Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” “Moby Dick,” and “The Hound of Baskervilles” give this fictitious collective of real stories a sense of breadth. If you like depth in your stories, or both working in equal measure, there are some episodes here that feel bloated. “The Demon Whale” is one that immediately leaps to mind.

Serial to Novel Back to Serial with an Episodic Garnish

Those who know their literary history will be aware that serializing novels was the norm for most 19th century English literature. Charles Dickens’ “The Pickwick Papers” is often heralded as the first serialized story. The first non-serialized novel written in English is considered to be “Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe in 1719 by many, though there’s some debate on the subject. Novels from countries other than England had a much earlier starting point dating all the way to before the common era (BCE).

“The Black Veil” uses the tenets of serialized fiction, one of those being story’s told in installments, but adds episodic elements to create something both new and old. There’s a certain monster of the weak flavor that ties up the romps through victorian novels into the main storyline. The balance between the main plot of stopping Jack the Ripper from assembling the magic items and the episodes of victorian-style adventure is skewed in multiple directions. It’s to the point where you aren’t sure what it’s trying to be.

Neo Victorian Literature

Some of the added details not from the original stories adds a complexity to some of the character cameos. “The Black Veil’s” take on “Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” involves mental time travel for example. There are a few other examples of changing the story as people remember it, but the above is probably the first instance of this type of creative liberty taken. The time travel, for reference, happens in episode five.

Episodes one through three have more to do with older classics like the Arthurian legend and stories from Ancient Greece than later episodes. The fourth episode, appropriately titled “The Sign of Four” is inspired by the Sherlock Holmes novel of the same name. Doing basic research on the novel shows both stories share character names in common and take its basic premise, incorporating it into the story “The Black Veil” is trying to tell.

A Black Veil Over the End

It’s not until the very last episode when the audio drama transitions into its climactic conclusion. Episodes 10-12 are more of the same — taking known stories and either subverting or consolidating them into the narrative. What some of these episodes do differently from previous ones is it often combines two different stories together. An episode called “The Lochness Monster” sounds like it might have to do with Scotland and the legend of Nessie. However, it has more to do with arthurian mythology and I’ll just leave it at that for spoiler reasons.

These final few episodes suffer from a quicker pace than the rest of the story up until that point. When coming from the slower middle, it gives the listener a sense of whiplash. Suddenly we’re going mach 10 on a limited runway as the writer rushes to wrap up the main story regarding the treasures and Jack the Ripper. By the end of the series, any catharsis is lost because so much has happened in the span of a two episodes. We start the series with a blind woman sleuth, a creative way to do scene descriptions. Other characters are introduced, overshadowing the detective. By the finale, she’s helpless and needs to be saved. It’s hard to talk about without spoilers, but the big twist with Miranda works as a cool little revelation. Unfortunately it feels disconnected from the main story, weakening the impact of both as a result.

Rating: Internally Consistent

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