The DC Animated Universe Weekly Review - Batman: The Animated Series

 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®
ILikeToPlayWithToysProductions@Yahoo.com

Episode by Episode - Star Trek: Enterprise

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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The DC Animated Universe Weekly Review - Batman: The Animated Series

 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
Joseph Ammendolea
Owner/President
“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®
ILikeToPlayWithToysProductions@Yahoo.com

Episode by Episode - Star Trek: Enterprise

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
“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®
ILikeToPlayWithToysProductions@Yahoo.com

The DC Animated Universe Weekly Review - Batman: The Animated Series

 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
Owner/President
“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®
ILikeToPlayWithToysProductions@Yahoo.com

Episode by Episode - Star Trek: Enterprise

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. 

 

Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
Owner/President
“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®
ILikeToPlayWithToysProductions@Yahoo.com

The DC Animated Universe Weekly Review - Batman: The Animated Series

 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
Owner/President
“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®
ILikeToPlayWithToysProductions@Yahoo.com

Episode by Episode - Star Trek: Enterprise

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.  

 

Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
Owner/President
“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®
ILikeToPlayWithToysProductions@Yahoo.com

The DC Animated Universe Weekly Review - Batman: The Animated Series

 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
Owner/President
“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®
ILikeToPlayWithToysProductions@Yahoo.com