Batman: The Animated Series
Episode 45
Terror in the Sky
Man-Bat’s second appearance. It’s a nice twist. Kirk Langstrom thinks the Batman’s cure didn’t work but Kirk’s wife Francine was actually infected when her dad tried to recreate the formula. While not as visually stunning as the first Man-Bat episode, it’s quite the thriller with an amazing twist.
Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
Owner/President
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Season 4
Episode 98 These Are the Voyages…
So much done wrong in this episode. The writers even apologized for it years later. The concept behind it was respectable. The writers tried to write an episode that was saying goodbye to 18 years straight of a Star Trek shows being on the air. Because when Enterprise ended, the franchise was taking a break to revamp and redirect.
Failure of the show was blamed on fan fatigue. When looking at all the episodes in Enterprise, it was evident a lot of the stories were recycled gimmicks from prior series. Fan fatigue seemed to be a copout when the real issue was lazy writing in the first season and choices for filler episodes in the third season. Those writing decisions set a tone which turned fans away early on and made it harder to recapture them in later season when the stories improved. The characters weren’t as robust, the time travel war annoyed people, prequels in general seem to annoy people.
So the writers pull in two characters from their biggest Star Trek hit, The Next Generation. Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker) and Marina Sirtis (Consoler Troi). The plot revolves around a Next Generation episode. Riker is playing a holodeck program with the Enterprise crew on their last mission while trying to get insight on a decision he needs to make.
The Enterprise story takes place 6 years after the prior episode. It’s on the eve of the creation of the United Federation of Planets. The show kills off one of their best characters; Commander Tucker in the lamest way possible. There is no time to respectfully grieve his death. They also take their best recurring character, the Andorian Shran and turn him into an inept loser.
Ultimately the format in which the last episode was told could be fixed in a future Star Trek production. All the wrong decisions made in the show could be easily salvaged as an inaccurate and poorly written holodeck program about Earth before the Federation. Therefore Commander Tucker could have lived a long healthy life and gone on to Captain his own Starship, Shran could have risen to be president of the Federation. It’s all easily fixed with just a few references.
Will the Star Trek creators ever try to retcon or fix their error instead of just apologizing? Probably not. Will we ever get an Enterprise film? Probably not.
How was the content of the show overall? Pretty good. The first season had its challenges. Twenty-six episode seasons was way too ambitious. The fact, the show aired on network television instead of direct syndication was a limitation for the series. Star Trek: The Next Generation found its audience in direct syndication. The stakes and competition were much lower.
The Temporal Cold War wasn’t written well and took too long to gain any decent momentum. The stand alones in season two were much better. Any episode that focused on filling gaps between Enterprise and Star Trek the original series were amazing. Season three’s attempt at an entire story arc was a great attempt at something different. It had its setbacks but kudos for trying to shake things up in Star Trek. Fans however found season three to be overall frustrating and made it hard for the casual viewer to catch up after missing episodes. DVR and online streaming wasn’t the monster it is today
Season four was phenomenal. It really found its footing with the 2 – 3 episodes story arcs. The characters were growing, the stories were crisp, the stakes were high, the action was amazing. If allowed to continue for another three years by following the standards set in Season 4 the show would have been regarded as one of the best Star Trek shows ever made. But like Star Trek the original series, Enterprise was canceled before its time.
Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
Owner/President
“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®
ILikeToPlayWithToysProductions@Yahoo.com
Batman: The Animated Series
Episode 44
Day of the Samurai
Kyodai Ken is back. He’s still seeking revenge on everyone for ruining his life, even though he was the guy who made the choice to be a jerkwad. This time he’s focused on their former martial arts master Yoru-sensei and his star pupil Kairi Tanaga. Ken uses them to track down a hidden Japanese martial arts document that has the most deadly maneuvers.
Of course the only salvageable section of the document is the touch of death. Batman agrees to face Ken in an epic battle at a volcano. Batman figures out where the touch of death is and protects himself. The volcano is erupting, Batman tries to save Ken but he’s stubborn and refuses. He theoretically dies in a lava explosion since we never see him again.
Kairi Tanaga will not appear again until Batman Beyond where she’s aged significantly. One could argue there was a huge drop off in her looks but the beauty standards for people in their 80s is relative...
Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
Owner/President
“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®
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Season 4
Episode 97 Terra Prime
This is considered by many fans as the true last episode of the series. It concludes the anti-alien storyline from the prior week’s episode Demons. It’s also a storyline thread that was established in the episode Home.
Archer leads a team to stop the Terra Prime terrorist and their anti-alien agenda. The demands are simple, all aliens leave Earth. But Star Trek would be very boring without aliens, so they must be stopped.
Antics ensue, they stop the bad guy Peter Weller. The hybrid baby dies, it’s very sad. Archer makes a speech to all the aliens to encourage them to explore the universe together.
Lots of fans like this story arc. It’s okay but not as spectacular as others in the season. It is a fitting end to the series as it involves Earth joining up with other aliens to eventually form the United Federation of Planets.
Ultimately it’s bittersweet, since the show found it’s footing but was canceled anyway. And it’s official final episode was so poorly done, this episode arc is almost forgettable.
Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
Owner/President
“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®
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Batman: The Animated Series
Episode 43
Moon of the Wolf
There’s a werewolf causing problems in Gotham. The werewolf is a genetic mutation of an athlete Anthony Romulus who used steroids made by Professor Milo. The steroids made him the best athlete ever, beat drug tests, turns him into a monster on the full moon. Milo is blackmailing him with the cure to preform illegal task but Batman is hot in his trail.
The main complaint about the episode is the audio for the wolf. It sounds over modulated. It’s irritating. The episode is a nice allegory about the dangers of steroids. Cheating in sports might get you millions of dollars but eventually it will all come crashing down. Lance Armstrong didn’t exist when this episode aired but he should have watched the episode. Instead he’s a disgraced athlete isolated from society with only his tens of millions of dollars to comfort him.
Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
Owner/President
“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®
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Season 4
Episode 96 Demons
An interplanetary alliance has been created. But it has pushback from a bunch of anti-alien humans on Earth. A half Vulcan/half Human baby has been created using the DNA of Enterprise’s favorite couple Commander Tucker and T’Pol. Tucker and T’Pol go to investigate but get captured. Peter “Robocop” Weller is the leader of the anti-alien faction. They create a spacecraft on the Moon and fly to Mars and send a message out to Earth saying all the Aliens have to leave the planet or he will attack Earth. To be continued…
Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
Owner/President
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Batman: The Animated Series
Episode 42
Tyger Tyger
The Island of Dr Moreau? Since this episode was made long before the 1996 film, we wonder if it may have inspired the film. Selina Kyle is kidnapped and turned into a cat lady by evil scientist Dr Emil Dorian. He wants a girlfriend for his creation Tygrus. Why he converted Batman’s girlfriend instead of a random runaway makes no sense. Also, why didn’t he just make another girl cat from scratch for Tygrus?
Illogical reasons aside, he’s a total loon and Batman has to beat him up. Tygurs is conflicted but since he’s in love with the cat version of Selina Kyle he opts to embrace the pussy…cat’s side. Dorian gets himself killed by being a douche. Kyle’s given the antidote to her cat transformation by Tygrus because no one normal wants to be a furry. Normal people like to dress up in leather outfits of their favorite animal. It ends all artsy with Batman reciting The Tyger by William Blake.
Not a bad episode but Batman had one too many genetic monster episodes and the redundancy of Selina Kyle infected with something was genetic McGuffin as he races to save her was becoming a trope.
Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
Owner/President
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Season 4
Episode 95 In A Mirror Darkly, Part II
Evil Archer takes command of the Defiant and learns of his alternate self. Evil Archer who is typically passive, weak, lacking ambition becomes inspired by this news. He sets out to prove himself as a competent leader. He takes tons of different struggles head-on.
Evil Archer fights a Gorn! Star Trek only ever saw the Gorn in the original series episode Arena where Kirk fights a man in a rubber lizard suit. It’s actually a great TOS episode but limited by its costumes, so it has a lot of campiness to it. Enterprise makes a much more menacing CGI Gorn for Archer to defeat.
The Defiant’s memory banks holding an alternate history of events also influence other characters in the mirror verse and cause a rebellion lead by T’Pol. The revolt ultimately fails and Archer maintains his power. Archer then sets his sights on taking over the empire.
As Archer celebrates his victories, he’s betrayed by Evil Sato who kills him, takes command of the ship, goes to Earth, and declares herself Empress. It’s a silly twist but it closes out the episode.
It’s another brilliant episode and incorporates so much of Star Trek into the show. The ending is a little silly but since they are all evil and the Empire doesn’t fall until the time of Kirk and Spock, there’s no real way to craft a resolution that isn’t an entire season of episodes. Therefore the twist with Sato resolves everything and let’s us move back to the main universe stories. The best part is all the original series paraphernalia that’s used via the USS Defiant whose origins are from said series. The costumes, phasers, ship design are all beautifully designed and fun to watch.
Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
Owner/President
“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®
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Batman: The Animated Series
Episode 41
Joker’s Wild
Cameron Kaiser makes a casino modeled after the Joker. It turns out to be an insurance scam because his original casino plans cost too much money. So the Joker theme is crafted to entice the Joker to come to the place and destroy it. The only problem is, it also attracts Batman because he goes where the Joker goes. So Kaiser’s plan, which was a pretty solid idea, fails.
Kaiser was a total jerk about it though because he had no concern about the lives that could be hurt with the Joker running around blowing up his buildings. So poor on execution but still a smart idea. This also proves Joker had sound logic in trying to trademark his image in Laughing Fish.
Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
Owner/President
“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®
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Season 4
Episode 94 In A Mirror Darkly Part I
Such a great episode. It tells a story in Star Trek’s Mirror universe where all the evil characters have goatees. There’s no clumsy cross over incident, it’s just a story in an alternate universe.
Archer is not captain in the universe. Earth is an evil regime. Archer manipulates the Enterprise to capture a ship the Tholians have possession of. The ship in question is the USS Defiant that disappeared into a space warp as seen in Star Trek the original series episode The Tholian Web. The Enterprise writers decided to have the USS Defiant warp through time and space into the mirror verse. AMAZING!!! This is one pure meta reference and answer which again connects Enterprise to the grander world of Star Trek.
The Enterprise is destroyed while Evil Archer and comrades try to steal the Defiant from the Tholians. Episode ends on a cliffhanger.
So much awesome in one little episode. Specifically the fact it takes place in the mirror verse is amazing in it of itself. The callback to an original series episode is brilliant. Having Tholians in the episode, YES! YES! YES! It has everything a Star Trek fan would want.
Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
Owner/President
“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®
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Batman: The Animated Series
Episode 40
If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich?
Riddle me this! We finally get The Riddler and he’s awesome! His real name is Edward Nigma and he’s an arrogant douche who was cheated out of tons of money for a game he created. He seeks revenge on a former business associate Daniel Mockridge. Bruce Wayne is trying to cut a deal with Mockridge to bring a tone of jobs to Gotham. His riddles entice Batman and Robin get involve and save the day.
It’s a fun episode all around and the riddles are as clever as the traps he creates for the dynamic duo. John Glover as the voice of The Riddler is the perfect casting. The right tone of arrogance, brains, and subtle fear.
The ending is brilliant and grim. Batman and Robin save Mockridge, The Riddler escapes. Mockridge is a weasel but he still makes millions in the business deal, lives the rest of his life in pure fear Riddler will come back for him.
Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
Owner/President
“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®
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Season 4
Episode 93 Bound
Enterprise inherits some Orion Slave Girls. They release pheromones on the ship that drive the men crazy. They use these abilities to try to take over Enterprise and we also learn the women run the Orion Syndicate. The men are slaves to them. It’s a great twist that doesn’t undo Star Trek lore since not much has ever been revealed about the Orion Syndicate. People just assumed the men ran things and the women were actual slaves.
Orion Slave Girls basically have the same affect Famke Janssen had in Star Trek: The Next Generation episode The Perfect Mate. While The Perfect Mate played out quite well as a Captain Picard driven episode. Bound is more plot driven but manages to develop the relationship between T’Pol and Commander Tucker. Since Tucker and T’Pol are so in love they are the only people not affected by the Orion Slave Girls and are able to save the ship from being captured.
It is a nice stand alone episode but also calls back to the Augment arc earlier in the the season. Back when the Orions stole a bunch of crewmembers and Enterprise had to rescue them. Another episode cementing how brilliant Season 4 of Enterprise truly was.
Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
Owner/President
“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®
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Batman: The Animated Series
Episode 38 & 39
Heart of Steel: Part 1 and Part 2
Another great two-parter, it’s in the same vein as the Max Fleischer’s Superman short where he fights killer robots. This a more intricate plot but it’s the same premise. A super computer called HARDAC wants to take over the world. He’s replacing key figures in Gotham with robot duplicates but saving humans for research purposes because it’s a children’s cartoon and it would be too morbid to kill them.
Bruce Wayne falls for one of the robots, Miranda who is modeled after Karl Rossum’s late daughter. She discovers Bruce Wayne is Batman and HARDAC makes a Batman duplicate.
The subplot involves Barbara Gordon knowing Commissioner Gordon is acting like a total jerk. The reason being he’s a robot, she starts investigating in Batgirl fashion. Her investigative skills bring Batman into the fold. We learn Harvey Bullock is a robot. He tries to kill Batman but Batman destroys him in the most gruesome way possible. BtAS loved killing robots in horrible ways since there were no standards and practices rules which existed about robots. As AI begins to take shape in the coming years, this rule may change and this episode could become censored or have a warning about robot violence.
Batman tells Babara to chill and hide with a friend but she decides to head to the central computer. Batman shows up as everything is going down. Massive fights and explosions happen. Batman saves everyone, Barbara helps evacuate them. It’s as much of “an awesome robots trying to take over the world” episode as it is “world building” episode for a future Batgirl. It works on so man levels.
HARDAC as a villain is truly menacing in an old school, 1940s, noir, sci-fi style. One of the more underrated or perhaps forgotten Batman villains in the DCAU since he’s only featured as a bad guy in three total episodes counting this two-parter.
Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
Owner/President
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Season 4
Episode 92 Divergence
In the conclusion, Commander Tucker who left Enterprise only an episode ago has to come back and fix the engine that won’t turn off. He does some cool transfer from ship-to-ship during warp speed. It was certainly a new gimmick for Star Trek and thoroughly welcomed.
Once aboard Tucker fixes the engine but has to stick around for repairs. Lieutenant Reed is in trouble for lying to the Captain because of his affiliation with the Black Ops group Section 31. A hidden organization that carries out covert stuff in Earth’s best interests and later the Federation’s best interest.
Meanwhile Dr Phlox is working on a cure for the Augment Klingon super virus. The results cause Klingons to lose their ridges and look more human. Basically their makeup matches that of Star Trek the original series. It explains why the 1960s show with less of a make-up budget had the aliens just look really tan.
It’s a gag that started out on the Star Trek Deep Space Nine episode Trials and Tribulations where the DS9 people traveled back to Captain Kirk’s time. That episode intercut clips from the Star Trek original series episode The Trouble With Tribbles. The show had to explain why the Klingon Worf looked so much different than the Klingons in that episode. Saying better makeup effects really wouldn’t work within the show narrative. Their vague explanation is that Klingons are allergic to tribbles. So thus, tribbles somehow cured the side effects of Phlox’s cure to the mutated Augment disease.
It’s truly amazing how clever the show was to incorporate the different Klingons. It’s the result of failed genetic engineering experiments. It’s a question fans weren’t seriously asking about. It’s just something people accept as an inconsistency but Enterprise insisted on tightening up the storyline. Every time Enterprise made an episode that bridged the gap between themselves and the original series, they knocked it out of the park. Affliction and Divergence are some of the best examples of how to do a prequel story correctly.
Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
Owner/President
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Batman: The Animated Series
Episode 37
The Strange Secret of Bruce Wayne
Dr Hugo Strange creates a machine that can read minds. Instead of selling it to the government for billions of dollars he decides to blackmail random people for tens of thousands of dollars. Batman investigates the shenanigans and his secret is exposed. Strange tries to sell the secret to The Joker, Penguin, and Two Face but Batman stops him and manages to prove he’s not Bruce Wayne by having Robin dress up in the best prosthetic Bruce Wayne costume ever made.
A lot of cool stuff happens in this episode. This is the Almost Got ‘Em episode before that episode existed. Combining Batman’s biggest rogues is very exciting. The characters are so well defined at this point, the episodes write themselves when you put them in a room together.
The show does fail with Hugo Strange who’s rather prominent in the comic and other DC media. The DCAU got so much else right in it’s run, this is an extremely minor complaint for a very adaptable character.
Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
Owner/President
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Season 4
Episode 91 Affliction
Dr Phlox is kidnapped by Klingons who made Augments of their own but with disastrous consequences. They need his help to stop a super virus. Commander Tucker leaves Enterprise because he’s heart broken about breaking up with T’Pol. While Enterprise is searching for Phlox, Augmented Klingons board Enterprise and sabotage the engines. The episode ends on a Speed cliffhanger where the engine won’t turn off and they cant slowdown.
Bringing back the Augment storyline is a great idea. Incorporating the Klingon into the fold is a great twist. The ramifications to the entire Star Trek universe actually clears up some inconsistencies that were made due to budget limitations of the 1960s.
Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
Owner/President
“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®
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Batman: The Animated Series
Episode 36
Cat Scratch Fever
Roland Daggett is infecting stray cats with a virus that he will then release into Gotham to get everyone sick and then sell them the cure. Catwoman’s cat goes missing and gets caught up in the shenanigans. Catwoman is infected and Batman has to save her.
Daggett never gets his due in BtAS. He’s this corporate jerk who keeps squeaking by. Even if Batman stops his major plans, Daggett never gets tossed in jail. This is the first episode we see Dr. Milo in. He’s a recurring jerk throughout BtAS who finally gets his comeuppance in Justice League Unlimited almost a decade later.
Perhaps the episode is a bit too honest. It’s entirely believable if actual pharmaceutical companies did this.
Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
Owner/President
“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®
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Season 4
Episode 90 The Aenar
Enterprise and friends travel to a remote area of the Andorian home world to try and stop the drone ship causing problems in the area. They befriend a girl who’s the sister of the Andorian controlling the ship for the Romulans. He went missing months earlier. Enterprise crew accurately believe he is the one piloting the drone.
Jhamel goes to Enterprise and helps contact her brother who learns the Romulans are deceiving him. He agrees to destroy the ship even though it will kill him in the process.
It’s a nice wrap-up that features our favorite aliens the Andorians. Another great story arc in the season. It keeps the viewer enthralled in each episode. It somewhat wraps up the Romulan threat established in the Vulcan story arc. Later season might have fleshed the Romulan wars more. But it’s still satisfying conclusion.
Season 4 really figured out the formula by this point and sadly it’s the show's last season when it occurred.
Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
Owner/President
“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®
ILikeToPlayWithToysProductions@Yahoo.com
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Batman: The Animated Series
Episode 35
Night of the Ninja
One of the first Batman origin episodes we get. It revolves around an old rival of Bruce Wayne’s terrorizing his company. Kyodai Ken blames Wayne for his downfall and plots revenge to destroy him. We learn Wayne received martial arts training in Japan before he became Batman as part of his grand plan to be a vigilante. A nice prequel buildup to Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. Ken kidnaps Bruce Wayne and reporter Summer Gleason. During their captivity Wayne challenges Ken to a Samurai fight. Since Summer is there, Wayne has to throw the match so she doesn’t learn he’s Batman. Robin in his attempt to rescue Wayne sees the him throwing the fight and obstructs Summer Gleason’s vision. At that point Bruce Wayne goes full Batman on Kyodai Ken and totally annihilates him in the battle. Ken fakes his death until we see him again many episodes later.
A truly original Batman episode that goes into his pre Batman years and the steps he took to become the best fighter in the world. It deviates from the comic and in a nice way. A solid backstory the show builds on in later episodes.
Written by
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Season 4
Episode 89 United
Commander Tucker and Lieutenant Reed are trapped on the drone ship and are actively working to try to disable it with no real success. The ship is running around emitting holoprojections that it's Enterprise and causing lots of problems.
Meanwhile on Enterprise Captain Archer and friends devise a way to expose the fake ship but he needs the help of Andorians, Tellarites. But one of the Tellarites killed Shran’s lover so he challenges him to a fight to the death and Archer agrees to fight in his place.
A fairly cool fight sequence takes place, Archer wins by cutting off one of Shraan’s antenna. Which apparently counts as a win in the Andorian culture. It’s a Star Trek series requirement to have fights to the death which don’t end in an actual death. The original series had Amok Time, Deep Space Nine had Looking for par’Mach in All the Wrong Places, The Next Generation had Code of Honor, Voyager had the gladiator rip-off Tsunkatse. Luckily this trope was well done on Enterprise and only a small part of a larger story arc.
Archer gets his fleet to expose the fake ship. They rescue Tucker and Reed. The ship heads back to Romulan space. Negotiations between the Andorians and Tellarites commence. It’s the first step in creating a United Federation of Planets.
Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
Owner/President
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Batman: The Animated Series
Episode 34
The Laughing Fish
The Joker mutates some fish and tries to copyright them. Unable to get his copyright approved he proceeds to terrorize innocent bureaucrats. Another great Joker episode and Harley Quinn at her finest. The Joker could have likely appealed his copyright case instead of infecting people with his laughing toxin which makes people laugh so hard they become catatonic, a fate far worse than death.
The Joker really had a solid lawsuit he could have taken all the way to the Supreme Court. It would have been a groundbreaking case trying to determine if you can copyright the image of a fish. His claim wasn’t as crazy as people try to make it seem.
Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
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Season 4
Episode 88 Babel One
Enterprise is prepping to host a peace delegation between the Andorians and Tellarites. Antics ensue, Andorians are pissed off about stuff. A weird ship appears and Commander Tucker and Lieutenant Reed end up on the ship. The ship can make itself look like other types of alien ships which implies everyone is being played.
The episode ends with a reveal of the Romulans operating the ship via drone on their home planet.
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Joseph Ammendolea
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Batman: The Animated Series
Episode 33
Robin’s Reckoning Part 2
Another worthy two-parter. The emotion and action doesn’t tone down in the slightest. Robin is on a quest to find the man who killed his parents. The story is flashing back to when he was a kid trying to find him. A young Dick Grayson tracks Tony Zucco down to an abandoned building. Tony Zucco sees Grayson and plans to kill him since he’s the only witness to the Grayson murders. Batman shows up and Zuccoo uses the kid as a hostage. He throws him in the river, Batman saves Grayson and Zocco gets away. Dick Grayson is pissed at Batman for letting Zucco go.
The kill the witness trope is so tiresome in film/TV. There are actual laws in the USA which state if a witness dies then hearsay is admissible. It's better to have the witness live and be too scared to testify than kill the witness because their statement can be read in court. A 90s cartoon isn't going to tackle that complex law and the DCAU might not have such legal logic in a world filled with super villains.
Batman takes Dick to the Batcave and reveals his identity. Dick agrees to stay with Bruce Wayne and Alfred permanently and help Batman in his quest to fight crime.
In the present Robin and Batman separately track down Zucco. Batman gets their first and Zucco incapacitates him. As he’s about to kill Batman, Robin arrives and total beats the crap out of Zucco. He pushes himself to the point of almost killing Zucco but backs off. The police take Zucco away.
Robin tells Batman he was right, his emotions almost got the best of him. Batman explains his reasons weren’t about hurting Zucco. Batman was afraid Zucco would hurt Robin.
It’s two part episodes like this which make BtAS the best animated show ever. To tell a story with such depth, emotion, action was never seen in American children’s animation. It’s one of the best two-part episodes in the entire DCAU.
Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
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Season 4
Episode 87 Observer Effect
A great stand-alone episode! The Enterprise encounters a virus they cannot cure while an alien race called the Organians secretly observe them trying to fight it. Archer convinces the Organians their approach is wrong. While he agrees with non-interference, their choice not to warn people the planet has a deadly virus is wrong. His speech is so moving the Organians change their ways and cure and or revive everyone on Enterprise infected with the virus. They wipe everyone’s minds of the memory of the Organians and state they will prep to make first contact with them in 100 or so years.
The Organians are from Star Trek the original series. We see them in the episode Errand of Mercy. They are omnipotent benevolent alien pacifists who prevent the Klingons and Federation from going to war. A great and unexpected callback to the original series. The episodes bridging the gap were always amazing. The episode has great sentiment and suspense. A win in the series.
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Joseph Ammendolea
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“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®
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Batman: The Animated Series
Episode 32
Robin’s Reckoning Part 1
A two-part episode devoted to Dick Grayson’s backstory. Batman and Robin are investigating an extortion scheme. After some awesome action Batman interrogates the thugs and gets a name he knows all too well. He immediately tells Robin to stop the investigation. As the episode progresses we learn the gang leader is Tony Zucco, the guy who killed Dick Grayson’s parents. It’s brilliantly balanced between the present investigation and the flashbacks of how a young Dick Grayson had a happy childhood in the circus with his parents, lost his parents due to Zucco’s sabotage, Bruce Wayne was in the audience, relating it to his own childhood tragedy offers to take him in.
Batman makes it his mission to find Zucco to give Grayson the resolution that Bruce Wayne never received. In that quest he scares Zucco completely out of town. We see Arnold Stromwell make a return via flashbacks after first seeing his redemption story from It’s Never Too Late. Alfred reminds Batman that Dick Grayson needs a nurturer more than justice. Bruce proceeds to spend more quality time with Dick and they begin to bond. The show cements the relationship between Bruce and Dick in a way no other media had ever achieved. Two children who witnessed the loss of their parents to a meaningless crime.
In the present Robin discovers it’s Zucco, is super pissed off, and refuses to listen to Batman’s order to stand down. He drives off in a rage vowing to resolve the matter himself and end his relationship with Batman.
Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
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“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®
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