TV Episode Review: Nancy Drew - The Mystery of the Diamond Triangle

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Good mystery, better characters

Cons: Title has little to do with plot.  One plot point unexplained

The Bottom Line: 

A missing car crash

And much better characters

In fun episode

The Mystery of the Vanishing Car Wreck

What's in a title, right?  That's how I felt after finishing "The Mystery of the Diamond Triangle," the second Nancy Drew episode of the 70's The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries.  The title refers to some maneuver while flying a small airplane that Nancy is trying to perform when the story starts.  I didn't quite follow what it was, but that hardly matters since it's just the set-up for this fun episode.

Nancy (Pamela Sue Martin) and her friend George (Jean Rasey) are up in the plane when Nancy sees a car crash into a ravine.  She calls in the coordinates of the crash, but the police show up at her house later to say that not only was their no car there, but the road in question is blocked off because of a bridge that is out.  Puzzled, Nancy tracks down the owner of the car.  But then the car does really turn up in a ravine, but several miles from where Nancy swears she saw it.  Was she originally mistaken?

Once again, the plot had me befuddled and confused for most of the episode.  Once Nancy solves the case, it seems pretty obvious.  However, there is one aspect of things they never did explain.  Still, it was a pretty strong episode from start to finish.

I complained with the first episode about the characters.  They were certainly better here, although not still perfect.  For starters, there was no screaming from any of the characters.  That annoyed me to no end in the last episode.  George is still a bit of a fraidy cat, but she's stronger than she was.  The biggest change, however, was George O'Hanlon, Jr.'s Ned Nickerson.  He's still a bit of a dweeb, but he's got more personality this time around.  I actually liked him here.

The acting and production values are filled with the typical 70's TV cheese, but it works and adds to the fun.  Fans of WKRP in Cincinnati will want to look for Gordon Jump as a police officer.

All the episodes in the series I've watched have had a lighthearted tag designed to give us some last smile or laugh.  This episode's was actually pretty funny and perfect for the episode.  I loved it.

All told, "The Mystery of the Diamond Triangle" proves to be another fun Nancy Drew episode.