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

 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®
ILikeToPlayWithToysProductions@Yahoo.com

Episode by Episode - Star Trek: Enterprise

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®
ILikeToPlayWithToysProductions@Yahoo.com

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

 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®
ILikeToPlayWithToysProductions@Yahoo.com

Episode by Episode - Star Trek: Enterprise

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

Episode by Episode - Star Trek: Enterprise

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®
ILikeToPlayWithToysProductions@Yahoo.com

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

 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®
ILikeToPlayWithToysProductions@Yahoo.com

Episode by Episode - Star Trek: Enterprise

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®
ILikeToPlayWithToysProductions@Yahoo.com

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

 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®
ILikeToPlayWithToysProductions@Yahoo.com

Episode by Episode - Star Trek: Enterprise

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®
ILikeToPlayWithToysProductions@Yahoo.com