January sees the celebration of two notable dates in science-fiction history, with January 2 christened “National Science Fiction Day” to coincide with the birth date of the world renowned sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov, and HAL 9000, the sophisticated artificial intelligence of Arthur C. Clarke’s seminal 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), being created on 12 January. Accordingly, I’m dedicated every Sunday of January to celebrating sci-fi in all its forms.
Season One, Episode 16: “The New Breed”
Air Date: 9 July 1995 Director: Mario Azzopardi US Network: Showtime UK Network: BBC 2 Stars: Richard Thomas, Peter Outerbridge, and Tammy Isbell
The Background: I never watched The Twilight Zone (1959 to 1964; 1985 to 1989) as a kid; growing up, I was limited to the then-four channels of terrestrial television so my sci-fi/horror anthology series of choice was The Outer Limits (1995 to 2002). Itself a revival of the original 1960s show, The Outer Limits was an award-winning anthology series that was originally broadcast here in the United Kingdom on BBC 2; every week, a new tale would unfold, usually revolving around aliens, rogue artificial intelligence, or other sci-fi, horror, or fantastical stories, though there were also a number of recurring themes, characters, and even semi-sequential stories to be found in the show’s long history. Considering my nostalgia and affection for the series, it is gratifying to see others also have a fondness for the show and I’ll be extremely interested to see if the planned revivals ever come to pass.
The Plot: Doctor Stephen Ledbetter (Thomas) makes a technological and medical breakthrough with nanobots. However, when his dying friend, Doctor Andy Groenig (Outerbridge), injects himself with the experimental nanobots, his body starts to hideously mutate!
The Review: “The New Breed” focuses on Dr. Stephen Ledbetter, a genius in nanotechnology whose research spell the potential end for life-threatening cancerous disease by rewriting the cellular structure of the bodies they are introduced to and removing malignant or destructive elements. A somewhat condescending and self-aggrandising scientist, Stephen fully believes in his work and is extremely proud of the level of intricacy and brilliance that has gone into their creation. However, like many phenomenally intelligent individuals, he is somewhat blinded by how miraculous his nanobots are, which are smart enough to replicate individually and operate independently to, in his words, improve the “flawed man”.
Stephen’s breakthrough nanobots spell the end for cancer but he is frustrated by regulations.
His grandiose claims to have surpassed God aggravate his colleague, Doctor Norman Meritt (L. Harvey Gold), who is not in the least bit amused at Stephen’s attitude and flamboyant disrespect for professional conduct. Meritt stresses that Stephen needs to play by the rules since the last time he bent them in his favour, he almost lost his job and caused the entire department to be shut down. As it’s the only way for his nanobots to see the light of day, Stephen begrudgingly agrees to play the game for the sake of his grant and the Board of Trustees despite being frustrated at having to wait for approval to begin live animal testing.
Andy’s whole world comes crashing down when he receives news ofa malicious cancer.
His research and the potential of the nanobots excites Stephen’s friend and colleague, Dr. Andy Groenig, a far less egotistical and driven scientist who is not only dating Stephen’s younger sister, Judy Hudson (Isbell), but is engaged to marry her in a month’s time. Things are looking good for Andy, who also just got tenure, and Stephen is overjoyed at his good fortunes (showing hat, beneath his arrogance, there is a loyal and trustworthy human being). However, when he pays a visit to Doctor Katzman (Veena Sood) regarding an lingering pain in his back, Andy’s world comes crashing down at the news that he’s suffering from a malignant form of pelvic cancer that will either kill him in about a year or leave him without his lower limbs through surgery. Desperate for a solution to this horrifying news, he presses Stephen for more information about his nanobots and is dismayed to find that the Board would never allow human testing without stringent tests, not even on a willing volunteer, for fear of a potential lawsuit.
Desperate for a solution, Andy injects himself with the nanobots andis miraculously healed.
With Judy already enthusiastically planning out the rest of their married lives, and with literally nothing left to lose, Andy breaks into Stephen’s lab during the night and exposes injects the nanobots into his body. The results are almost instantaneous; within three days, his tumour has significantly reduced, giving him a whole new lease on life and virality. The benefits don’t end there, either, as Andy awakens one morning to find that he no longer requires glasses to improve his vision. Stephen, however, is aghast at Andy’s recklessness; despite his bold claims from earlier, Stephen is enraged that Andy would put himself and both of their lives and careers at risk. Afraid of what the nanobots could potentially do to Andy, Stephen immediately demands that they be shut off but, when Andy vehemently refuses, they reach a compromise and, together, run further tests to record the benefits and behaviours of the nanobots on the proviso that they deactivate the second anything starts to go wrong. Thanks to the nanobots, Andy is able to hold his breath underwater for at least seven minutes, read even near microscopic test from a greater distance, physically push himself faster and harder than ever before, and heal from horrific injuries in seconds.
Andy’s stamina overwhelms Judy but the nanobots soon take their programming a bit too far…
A sentimental goof, Andy is extremely grateful to the nanobots, and Stephen, for saving and improving his life; however, his increased stamina and virility begin to cause concern for Judy, whom he inadvertently hurts during sex. Concerned that he’s on drugs, Judy is nevertheless exhausted and somewhat fearful of his newfound virility and, as if that wasn’t bad enough, Andy awakens to find that the nanobots have “gifted” him with a set of gills to allow him to freely breath underwater. Both enthralled and horrified at this development, Stephen immediately attempts to expel the nanobots from Andy’s body; however, his attempts are met with unexpected failure as the nanobots believe that the “program run [is] not complete”. Consequently, Andy is absolutely horrified to find that the nanobots have grown him a new pair of eyes on the back of his head!
Andy chooses death to end his suffering but leaves a terrifying legacy behind…
Unable to shut the nanobots down in a conventional way, Stephen attempts to short them out using high-intensity electric shocks; unfortunately, though, he is again frustrated by failure and reluctant to subject Andy to further electric shocks out of fear of killing him. Andy, however, begins to think that dying wouldn’t be so bad at this point and his fears and desperation only grow as his hearing becomes superhumanly acute and the nanobots shield his body from both external and internal threats with an array of jellyfish-like nematocysts and additional ribs, respectively, in a conscious effort to stop Stephen’s efforts to drive them from Andy’s body. Angered at his current physical condition, Andy is equally dismayed at his inability to die as, no matter what either of them do, the nanobots continue to revive Andy. With no other option, the two sorrowfully agree to bombard Andy to a lethal dose of electrical current to destroy both him and the nanobots; heartbroken and dejected, Stephen destroys all evidence of the event, and his research, in a fire but the episode ends suggesting that Andy has passed at least a few of the nanobots on the Judy during their earlier coitus.
The Summary: As the narrator (or “Control Voice”; Kevin Conway) sombrely tells us: “Man has long worked to stave off the diseases that can ravage us, but what can happen when the cure grows more fearsome than the disease? Over millions of years man has become the very paragon of animals, but we must take care not to alter what nature has taken so long to forge…or risk being burned by the very fires of creation”. The lesson here, as with many episodes of The Outer Limits and similar tales of man trying to either play God or expand the limits of scientific research, is to exercise caution, restraint, and humility when dabbling in the fantastical and the unknown.
A miraculous technology soon turns terrifying in this cautionary tale.
I’ve watched a lot of movies and television over the years, and many episodes of The Outer Limits, but “The New Breed” always stuck with me as a moving, terrifying, and poignant tale of the potential, and dangers, of science. Andy is facing his very real, and painful, death at the beginning of the episode and, as he puts it, “sells [his] soul” for another chance at life; this turns out to be more than apt as the nanobots very quickly begin to take their programming way too far. Although Andy assures Stephen on numerous occasions that he doesn’t blame him (as in Stephen) for the events of the episode, it can’t really be argued that the tests Stephen subjected Andy to were directly responsible for his gills, eyes, and other freakish enhancements. Had Andy not been so overjoyed at getting his second chance and so afraid for his cancer returning, Stephen may have been able to deactivate the nanobots before they set about further “improving” Andy’s physical condition but, instead, we’re left with a cautionary tale of the limits of science.
“The New Breed” is full of disturbing imagery and warnings of the potential danger of science.
These lessons, while commonplace in many similar science-fiction stories and which can be traced all the way back to the likes of Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (Shelley, 1818), are presented in a fascinating and terrifying way in “The New Breed”, one which left an indelible impression on me as a child. The shot of Andy’s new pair of eyes slowly, ominously blinking open through weeping pus alone is a nightmarish visual, as are the unnerving, gaping gills on his neck and the disgusting, twisted stingers that eventually cover his entire body and seem to be cocooning him for a further transformation by the end of the episode. Another comparison I could easily make would be to The Fly(Cronenberg, 1986), which is a similar tale of science at first improving a man and then quickly mutating him into some more gruesome and monstrous and my unapologetic fondness for that film may very explain my affection for “The New Breed”. Still, the episode remains as captivating and enthralling as ever (thanks also, it has to be said, to nostalgia and some intense sex scenes) and it’s just one of many strong episodes of the Outer Limits revival that I would point any self-respecting sci-fi fan to without hesitation.
My Rating:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Great Stuff
Have you ever seen “The New Breed” or the 1995 revival of The Outer Limits? If so, what did you think to it and what were some of your favourite episodes? Did you enjoy the steady, gruesome escalation of the nanobots’ effect on Andy’s body? What are some other cautionary tales regarding science that you enjoy? Whatever your thoughts, feel free to leave a comment below.
In the episode “Me2” (Bye, 1988) of the classic British science-fiction comedy show Red Dwarf (1988 to 2020), it is revealed the Arnold Rimmer’s (Chris Barrie) last words were “Gazpacho soup!” and that he made a point to celebrate November 25th as “Gazpacho Soup Day” after a particularly traumatising visit to the Captain’s Table. Accordingly, this seems like the perfect date to celebrate the long-running cult phenomenon.
The Promised Land
Air Date: 9 April 2020 Director: Doug Naylor Network: Dave Stars: Chris Barrie, Craig Charles, Danny John-Jules, Robert Llewellyn, Norman Lovett, Lucy Pearman, Mandeep Dhillon, Tom Bennett, and Ray Fearon
The Background: Red Dwarf was the brainchild of creators Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, who originally produced a similar show, Dave Hollins: Space Cadet for BBC Radio 4 in 1984. Influenced by sci-fi classics such as Dark Star (John Carpenter, 1974) and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Adams, 1978; Bell, 1981), the duo’s concept of a comedy set in space featuring relatively ordinary characters in an extraordinary setting was initially a hard sell but quickly became a cult hit among audiences. The show remained consistently popular and the duo became experimenting with more outlandish sci-fi concepts up until the seventh season, when the two parted ways, before disappearing from broadcast altogether following the eighth season. In 2008, the show was revived in a three-episode special that aired on Dave, which led to the commission of three more seasons that returned the four principal cast members, now understandably much older and far more jaded. After years of rumours, a feature-length instalment of the series finally saw the light of day in 2020 ahead of a comprehensive retrospective on the popular series. As a life-time fan of the show who had noticed an unmistakable dip in quality since the eighth season, I wasn’t too surprised to find that Red Dwarf: The Promised Land was met with mixed reviews as I remember being mostly unimpressed with it at the time of airing but let’s take another look back and see if it holds up on a repeat viewing.
The Plot: While exploring Red Dwarf’s cargo bay, Dave Lister (Charles) is able to finally reboot Holly (Lovett), the ship’s computer, who promptly forces the crew to flee for their lives. In the process, Arnold Rimmer (Barrie) discovers technology to upgrade his hologramatic form and the crew stumble upon remnants of the Cat’s (Jules) race of felis sapiens, who worship Lister as God and are being relentlessly hounded by the ruthless Rodon (Fearon).
The Review: The Promised Land finally delivers on a concept the Red Dwarf creators had been kicking about years ago by returning to a long-forgotten plot point of the series revolving around the felis sapiens race; in all the length of the series history and the many bizarre plots and characters Red Dwarf has employed, the show never delved into this aspect beyond the first series despite the fact that it would have been pretty easy to have the cat race be recurring antagonists or characters. Instead, all we really know about felis sapiens comes from the Cat (who has little to no interest in the religious teachings of his race and is more obsessed with himself and fashion), an elderly priest (Noel Coleman), and the rough translation of the Cat Bible in the episode “Waiting For God” (Bye, 1988). It goes without saying that the focus of Red Dwarf has shifted quite drastically from the identity crisis Lister suffered in that episode, and which was peppered throughout the first series, and his status as the Cat’s God and saviour of his race was downplayed to the point of nonexistence in favour of him being a slobby, reluctant hero and developing a far more equal friendship with the Cat. The Promised Land, though, finally comes full circle back to these long-forgotten threads and shows that the felis sapiens race (or, at least, part of it) roams the universe on a fleet of warships under the command of Rodon. Rodon is unimpressed that three of his crew, Brother Sol (Bennett), Sister Luna (Dhillon), and Sister Peanut (Pearman), refuse to submit to his rule and, instead, prefer to embrace the antiquated teachings of “Cloister”.
The crew are forced to abandon Red Dwarf, allowing Rimmer to upgrade totemporary diamond-light.
These three outcasts dress like Lister (at least, they dress like he did in the first two seasons) and believe wholeheartedly in the teachings of the Cat Bible; when they meet Lister, they bombard him with the big questions of life (male genitals, the agony of child birth, why people smell. You know, the usual) and are resolute in their belief that Lister is capable of working miracles since Peanut wondrously regains the ability to speak upon meeting her idol. Lister, meanwhile, has taken to hording junk, eating and drinking more than usual, and seems more distracted and slobby than normal, to the concern of Kryten (Llewellyn), who believes that Lister is having something of a mid-life crisis due to the pressure of being the last man alive. Eager for Lister to procreate and thereby ensure the survival of his species and give him something to focus on, Kryten suggests that the Cat undergoes a sex-change operation, much to their horror. This discussion is interrupted when Rimmer orders Kryten to investigated an unidentified object that appears to be on a collision course with the ship; when the object turns out to be the cats’ ship in need of aid, Rimmer decides that they’re all too old and too past it to go gallivanting off on some rescue mission and so has Kryten erase his memory of the entire event. This exchange goes on for some time before Lister and the Cat reveal that they found Holly’s back-up disk. However, upon rebooting Holly, they find that he’s returned to his factory settings and no longer recognises or remembers the crew or their many misadventures; believing them to be a group of stowaways and criminals, Holly decides to decommission Red Dwarf and drives the crew from the ship. Fleeing in Starbug, the crew plan to catch-up to the ship Rimmer picked up earlier, the Iron Star, and stumble upon advanced hologram technology; Rimmer, excited at the prospect of his form being vastly upgraded, decides to overrule Kryten’s concerns and (after cycling through his various costumes from previous series’) is granted a new “diamond-light” form and transformed into a veritable superhero. Sporting a glistening new uniform, Rimmer is now able to manipulate the density of objects around him, phasing through matter while still retaining his hard-light invulnerability, and even transforming into pure light energy at will…for about two minutes as his Light Bee is drained by the resulting energy surge.
There’s some surprisingly heartfelt moments amidst the cat drama and sci-fi action.
While exploring the Iron Star, the crew stumble upon the cat escapees, who are immediately in awe at meeting their idol; as in “Waiting For God”, Lister is reluctant and uncomfortable at being worshipped as a God and insists that he’s simple a normal, unremarkable man. While he wants to tell them the truth, as he did with the Cat, Kryten and Rimmer discourage him from destroying their faith and he begrudgingly decides to play along while also vowing to protect them from Rodon’s pursuit. Rodon is unimpressed to find that their God is actually real as is concerned only with the rebels and the Anubis Stone they possess; he’s easily able to acquire the stone thanks, largely, to Lister not actually being the all-powerful deity the clerics believe him to be and orders his lackeys to throw them all out of an airlock as a message to those that would defy his authority. Thanks to Rodon’s impatience to destroy the Iron Star, the crew are able to elude their captors and make a harrowing escape in Starbug, though Lister impulsively jettisons the ship’s engines when they catch fire, sending them into an uncontrollable death dive to a desert moon. Thankfully, the hitherto-unknown Starbug owner’s manual reveals that the ship possesses emergency parachutes (as well as being a hybrid and having a hovercraft mode) and, while the Cat fashioned himself a jacket and mittens out of one, the back-up parachute is deployed, and the crew makes a successful crash-landing. Marooned on the moon with no food, water, fuel, or hope of escape, the crew are driven into a sandstorm when Rodon attacks and Lister begins to question the decision to keep the truth from the cats in their midst. Similar to when he worked to help Kryten break his programming, he is uncomfortable with the cats being so dependant upon him rather than thinking and acting for themselves and ultimately decides to break the truth of to them. When Kryten is unable to speak a bad word against Lister, Cat volunteers to do the deed but is quickly (and amusingly) reminded of everything Lister has done for him and briefly joins them in their worship of Lister, so Rimmer steps up to the task. Unfortunately, while he relishes the opportunity to tell them the awful truth about Lister, he is interrupted by a crashed piece of debris that may hold the key to their escape; in order to catch up to the piece of debris, Kryten is forced to conserves all available power, reducing Rimmer to low power mode. Thanks to being in mono and greyscale, and Cat’s goading, Rimmer begins to question his relevance and existence as he faces both his impending end and questions his identity. This does, however, give Lister an opportunity to show just how much he’s grown over the years; at one time, it would have been him criticising Rimmer and tearing him down but, instead Lister snaps at Cat for harassing Rimmer and is ultimately able to convince his long-time frenemy that he is a relevant and appreciated member of the crew with a heartfelt analogy comparing Rimmer to moonlight.
Rimmer ultimately saves the day and then reluctantly gives up his superpowers to save Kryten.
After being buried by the sandstorm, and with little options available to them, Rimmer comes up with the crazy idea to have Kryten establish contact with Red Dwarf and convinces Holly to load up his last save file, thus restoring his memories to the full. However, now suffering from three million years’ worth of computer senility, Holly’s only suggestion is to use one of Red Dwarf’s thermonuclear torpedoes to dislodge Starbug, a tactic which succeeds…but also destroys the entire moon in the process! However, Rodon and his fellow ferals managed to beat them back to Red Dwarf and, when he takes Luna hostage, Lister is forced to admit the truth about who he is, much to the disappointment and heartbreak of his devoted followers. Disgusted by these revelations, Rodon is satisfied to order Red Dwarf’s destruction with a time bomb; it’s also randomly revealed that Rodon is the Cat’s older brother and that the cats purposely left him behind for being “uncool”, thus spurring him to devote his life to being fashionably cool. Facing certain death, Lister performs one last miracle by revealing that the seemingly useless Anubis Stone in fact houses an incredible power source. He then uses this to power Rimmer back up to his diamond-light form, which allows Rimmer to save the ship from destruction by flying the bomb out into space. After a brief fake out where Rimmer appears to die (it’s already been established that his hard-light form is invulnerable to harm so it’s pretty obvious his diamond-light would be equally impenetrable), the crew fly head-first towards Rodon’s ship and Rimmer projects a beam of light into the bridge, turning Rodon’s crew against him and forcing them to crash into a nearby asteroid. Rimmer then reluctantly sacrifices his superpowered form to repower Kryten with the Anubis Stone (though he isn’t shy about rubbing this act in Kryten’s face) and the cats are returned to their people, their faith reaffirmed but now placed in Rimmer after witnessing his heroic actions.
The Summary: Being a lifelong fan of Red Dwarf, I’m always excited to see the guys back on screen and getting up to all kinds of wacky hijinks and, ever since series eight, I’ve been continuously disappointed. You can really feel the absence of Rob Grant; ever since he left, the show hasn’t been the same and slowly, but surely, fell back on recycling the same old jokes and situations whilst sweeping all of the character progression under the rug. Thus, by the time the series came back on Dave, the Cat was right back to being a shallow, self-obsessed egomaniac rather than an independent and strong-willed character; Lister went right back to being a slobby layabout; Kryten regressed into a neurotic wreck; and Rimmer acted more like his season one incarnation than the developed and fleshed out character he was by season seven. To make matters worse, what little interest in continuity the show had was completely thrown out of the window, with sets, models, and outfits continuously changing with each of Dave’s productions and the show constantly dodging the unresolved cliffhanger of season eight in favour of random wacky shenanigans in space.
It’s great to see the characters back in action but a lot of the old magic is noticeably lacking.
Sadly, Red Dwarf: The Promised Land is no different in this regard; the only character who appears to have grown a little bit is Lister, who is now much more sympathetic and understanding to Rimmer and far more pragmatic and capable in tight situations thanks to his years of experience in dire scenarios. Yet this is never fully capitalised on and is massively downplayed in favour of random gags like Kryten’s sex change suggestion and laborious exposition and call-backs to previous episodes. Even the chemistry between the returning cast members is notably awkward; there’s a number of obvious pauses after they deliver lines where they wait for the laugh track or for the next line, which really interrupts the flow of their conversations and the few moments of genuine humour in the feature. The Promised Land puts a lot of its eggs in one basket, that being the depicting of the cat race. Accordingly, Rodon’s fleet resembles a cat’s face, the door to his private chambers is a cat flap, he and his minions all have exaggerate cat mannerisms similar to the Cat in the first series, and they’re all easily distracted by moving lights. Unfortunately, this all quickly outlives its charm; it’s one thing for one character, the Cat, to act this way but even he dropped the more annoying aspects of his personality by the second series and seeing a whole bunch of new characters take on the worst aspects of his character gets old very quickly. Equally, I found the call-backs to previous episodes and events more aggravating than anything else; Lister sings the Om Song, the crew run through a very truncated version of their past misadventures when bringing Holly up to speed, and Cat even drops a mention of the backwards world at one point and all this does is make me wish I were watching one of the earlier, far superior episodes of the show.
Some of the gags land and the feature has a lot of untapped potential in its premise.
It’s not all bad, to be fair. There are a couple of funny gags, such as Holly’s back-up disc being a gigantic floppy disc, Rimmer’s deep and overly dramatic voice when in his diamond-light form, Rimmer racing around with extension cords to prolong his lifespan, and Cat joining in with the cats’ “Listey-Listey” song. There’s also a definite sense that the crew are older and more world-weary (maybe “space-weary” is a better word) now: Kryten’s suit (which looks the worst and fakest it’s ever been) is all cracked and patched up; Lister’s rant about not finding the Cat attractive alludes to the possibility of him being impotent; and Rimmer asserts that they’re all too long in the tooth for any elaborate hijinks. Yet, once they are in the heat of their latest misadventure, the crew are still able to get by on the last few remnants of that old spark they had in season six, surviving through a combination of dumb luck, the stupidity of their enemies, and a modicum of competency on their part. Unfortunately, though, it’s just not enough to really capture the old magic of when Red Dwarf was at its peak. I was really excited when Red Dwarf first came back on Dave and was hoping for one last event to tie up all the loose ends and bring the story to a close. Instead, it feels as though Dave put the show on life support and has been dragging it out ever since. I would have much preferred to see maybe three one-hour specials that brought the story full circle, maybe even bringing the crew back to Earth or using time travel shenanigans to bring their story to a close. Instead, we keep milking the same gags and treading the same ground in a series of self-contained, meaningless episodes that, rather than celebrating the long-running cult show, merely serve as a bleak reminder of how great it used to be.
My Rating:
⭐
Rating: 1 out of 5.
Terrible
What did you think to Red Dwarf: The Promised Land? Did the jokes and gags work for you? What did you think to the inclusion of the cat race and Rimmer’s new diamond-light form? Are you a fan of the Dave era of Red Dwarf? Do you agree that it lost a lot of its magic after Rob Grant left or have you enjoyed the show regardless of the obvious dip in writing quality? Which character, season, and ship is your favourite and why? Would you like to see another feature-length special, maybe one that finally closes the book on the Red Dwarf story, or do you think it’s best to leave it be for now? How are you celebrating Gazpacho Soup Day today? No matter what you think, feel free to leave a comment about Red Dwarf: The Promised Land, or Red Dwarf in general, down in the comments.
On this day, the 23rd of November, in 1963, the longest-running and most successful science-fiction television series ever, Doctor Who, first aired on BBC One in the United Kingdom. Since then, the rogue Time Lord has gone through numerous incarnations, travelled throughout the entirety of the past, present, and the future, and is widely celebrated as one of the most iconic and recognisable mainstream cultural icons in the world.
Click here to listen to my guest spot about this special on the It’s Time to Rewindpodcast.
Air Date: 12 May 1996 UK Distributor: BBC One OriginalNetwork: CITV Stars: Paul McGann, Eric Roberts, Daphne Ashbrook, Yee Jee Tso, and Sylvester McCoy
The Background: In 1963, Sydney Newman, the Head of Drama at the BBC, commissioned the creation of an educational science-fiction show to fill a gap in the BBC’s schedule, something that would appeal to be children and adults alike. Staff writer Cecil Webber created a brief outline for the show, then known as Dr. Who, but it took a collaborative effort for this concept to be shaped into the debut episode, ‘An Unearthly Child’ (Hussein, 1963). Though the assassination of President John F. Kennedy overshadowed this debut, it fared somewhat better when rerun and the series shot to success with the second episode, which introduced the Doctor’s (Various, but played by William Hartnell at the time) long-running enemies, the Daleks. While Doctor Who reached mainstream popularity during Tom Baker’s time in the role, the show was cancelled in 1989 due to waning interest and a series of unpopular regenerations for the title character (who was then played by McCoy) but continued on in print, such as books and magazines.
Doctor Who’s immense popularity had waned by the end of the eighties.
In the mid-nineties, however, producer Philip Segal negotiated a revival of the series, which was originally going to be a complete, American-made and set reboot until writer Matthew Jacobs persuaded the filmmakers to tie it into the existing continuity. Many actors audition for the title role, some of whom would go on to play the Doctor years later, before Paul McGann was cast but, while McGann’s performance was received rather well, the feature-length episode failed to find an audience or impress in the United Kingdom and, especially, in the United States. While the film was largely glossed over when the show was eventually revived in 2005, McGann’s Doctor was actually one of the longest-running incarnations of the character, the first official Doctor I actually saw onscreen, and made a welcome return in the ‘Night of the Doctor’ (Hayes, 2013) special as part of the show’s fiftieth anniversary.
The Plot: Whilst returning to Gallifrey with the remains of his old nemesis, the Master (Gordon Tipple), the Doctor’s (McCoy) TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimension in Space) is damaged and is fatally wounded upon making an emergency landing in San Francisco on the eve of the million. After regenerating into his eighth incarnation (McGann), the Doctor suffers from amnesia while the Master assumes possesses a new body (Robert) and plots to steal the Doctor’s remaining regenerations and destroy the Earth in the process.
The Review: If you’ve never seen Doctor Who before, Doctor Who: The Movie is quite a daunting first experience in many ways; obviously, these days, with Doctor Who still running on the regular and access to the show being far easier, it’s highly unlikely that anyone would begin their Doctor Who experience with this feature-length pilot but, back in the day, that’s basically what happened for me. As I mentioned above, Doctor Who wasn’t on television when I was a kid so my exposure to the show came from the many novelisations my Dad owned, a number of videogames and audio books, and the two, largely unrelated films starring Peter Cushing. Thankfully, this was enough for me to understand the basic concept of the TARDIS and the relationship between the Doctor and the Master but, considering how long the show had been off television and the fact that the pilot was made for an all-new audience (and generation), Doctor Who: The Movie chooses to spread exposition regarding its concept throughout its runtime, which can be a bit daunting. The film picks up with the Seventh Doctor, “nearing the end of [his] life”, transporting the remains of his old nemesis, the Master, from Skaro and to Gallifrey; however, these opening scenes are narrated by McGann’s Eighth Doctor which is a bit of an odd choice and it almost feels like the film should have opened with the Doctor’s emergency landing on Earth and then incorporated more in-depth flashbacks, narrated by McGann as he relates his story to Doctor Grace Holloway (Ashbrook).
The Doctor meets a sudden end and regenerates into his amnesia-stricken eighth incarnation.
Regardless, the Master’s essence (little more than a slimy, snake-like glob) causes the TARDIS’s central console to malfunction and forces the Doctor to make an emergency landing on Earth, where he is immediately gunned down by a gang of gun-toting thugs who are chasing rebellious youth Chang Lee (Tso). Though a wannabe thug himself (and seeking to steal the Doctor’s belongings), Lee gets the Doctor to an ambulance, and a hospital, but Grace inadvertently kills him when his two hearts throw off their equipment and his alien physiology causes her trouble during her attempts to calm his erratic heartbeat. Thus ends the inauspicious seventh incarnation of the Doctor; there’s not a massive amount for McCoy to do except look horrified, get shot, and lie motionless in the hospital morgue but it’s nice to see him back in the role and to connect the pilot to the continuity of the series. The anaesthesia and being locked in the freezing morgue delays the Doctor’s regeneration into his eight incarnation and, as a result, when he dramatically rises from the dead (a scene cleverly juxtaposed with the creation of the Monster (Karloff) in Frankenstein (Whale, 1931)), he suffers from amnesia and wanders around San Francisco with fragmented memories. These led him to Grace and, having been confused by the Doctor’s physiology, she puts aside his wild demeanour and ravings in order to solve the mystery of her unusual patient.
Charming and enthusiastic, the Eighth Doctor is ruled by passion and empathy.
Grace, a well respected and highly skilled cardiologist, is baffled at having lost her mysterious patient literally right in the middle of a break-up with her long-term boyfriend due to her commitment to her job. Initially, she believes the Eighth Doctor is insane but is captivated by his charisma and mystery; however, he quickly proves his claims of the impending destruction of the Earth and his status as an alien Time Lord when he offers irrefutable proof. A charismatic, impulsive, and energetic incarnation of the Doctor, the Eighth Doctor is excitable, insightful, and very action-orientated, leaping on a police motorcycle and relying far more on his uncanny knowledge of the future to sway others to his whim rather than relying on his gadgets. Passionate, emotional, and effortlessly charming, his joy at the restoration of his memories leads him to unexpectedly kiss Grace, an action she finds very agreeable and encourages more of, leading to an explicit romantic attracting between the two. I remember, at the time, people hated this and it seemed like all anyone could talk about was how the Doctor would never do this so it really rubbed me up the wrong way when subsequent Doctors ran around snogging and falling in love with their companions and all anyone did was praise it.
The Master is obsessed with stealing the Doctor’s remaining regeneration no matter the cost.
Rather than the Daleks or the Cybermen, the Doctor’s antagonist is, of course, the Master; after being executed by the Daleks (sadly never seen onscreen), the Master is reduced to a snake-like creature and possess the body of Bruce, the paramedic who brought the Seventh Doctor to the hospital. Possessing superhuman strength and able to hypnotise others with his snake-like eyes, the Master is also able to spit venom at his victims and carries himself with an ostentatious, flamboyant arrogance. He’s easily able to persuade Lee to assist him in locating the Doctor with promises of gold dust and appealing to his greed, giving him access to the TARDIS and the Eye of Harmony located deep within it. Given that the Master has used up all thirteen of his regenerations and is only able to possess others, he plots to steal the Doctor’s remaining regenerations using the Eye of Harmony, a miniature black hole that powers the TARDIS and enables it to travel through space and time. However, the Eye being open weakens the fabric of reality and threatens to turn the Earth inside out on New Year’s Eve, 1999; the impending destruction of the planet leads to Lee opposing the Master and he, and Grace, pay the price for this insubordination. A remorseless killer, the Master wishes only to take what he wants, manipulate others, and have dominion over the living and it is his obsession with immortality that causes his downfall as the Doctor is able to force him into the Eye of Harmony and even perform a trick generally unheard of in Doctor Who by restoring Grace and Lee through the power of the TARDIS. Indeed, time in Doctor Who: The Movie is far more fluid and malleable than it’s usually presented in the show (“fixed point in time” my ass!), meaning that the Doctor can rewind time to prevent the destruction of the Earth and undo the Master’s actions even while they’re inside the TARDIS and even bring back the dead, which I don’t believe is something ever done in quite the same way in the show normally or else the Doctor would have surely brought back numerous companions in the same way.
The Summary: I remember being really disappointed that more people didn’t enjoy Doctor Who: The Movie; it wasn’t like Doctor Who was on television at the time and, for me, something is generally better than nothing and, as a reintroduction of the character and concept, I think it works really well. The approach is, however, interesting; while I commend them for tying it into the show’s ongoing continuity and not starting fresh, I can see how new viewers would be a bit put off by the concept as it’s a little overwhelming and it walks a fine line between delivering exposition and keeping things vague (we learn a little about the TARDIS and the Time Lords but only the briefest of explanations about what these concepts mean and the history between the Doctor and the Master).
Thanks to the bigger budget, the TARDIS has never looked better and more elaborate than here.
One thing I really liked about the film was the depiction of the TARDIS; bigger and more elaborate than ever thanks to the bigger budget afforded to the pilot, the TARDIS is an extravagant and heavily decorated environment full of Victorian and Gothic architecture that, even now, the show has failed to fully replicate as Doctor Who generally only focuses on the main control room. The TARDIS is also depicted as having a degree of sentience; the Master comments that the ship “likes” Lee, responding to his touch and allowing him to open doors and even the Eye of Harmony despite the presence of the Master. At the time, like most people, I was mainly aware of the Third (Jon Pertwee) and Fourth (Baker) incarnations of the Doctor so, in many ways, the Eighth Doctor was my Doctor and the Doctor of my generation. I really enjoy McGann in the role; he’s passionate and dynamic, impulsive and full of vigour and sports a fitting Victorian-era outfit. Best of all, his solution to every problem isn’t to use the damn Sonic Screwdriver and is, instead, more geared towards his unique and (as far as I can recall) sadly forgotten ability to see and relate the past, present, and future of others through his distinct insight into their lives. Something else that I believe is only an aspect of this film (or incarnation of the Doctor) is that he is, apparently, half-human; I don’t believe that this has come up before or since and, honestly, it has little bearing on the plot beyond being a shorthand to explain his affinity for the human race and, apparently, his ability pilot the TARDIS.
I’ll always have a soft spot for the Eighth Doctor, who effectively introduced me to Doctor Who.
Honestly, it still bugs me that the Eighth Doctor isn’t a more prominent part of Doctor Who’s continuity; he had numerous adventures in books, comics, and audio dramas and it really feels like Steven Moffatt (a man whose contributions to the show I routinely call into question) missed a trick by not giving him a bigger role in ‘The Day of the Doctor’ (Hurran, 2013). I love John Hurt but the introduction of the “War Doctor” just caused too many problems and seemed like a cop out to me; I would have much preferred to see a series of specials chronicling the Eighth Doctor’s role in the Time War and decision to end the conflict between the Daleks and the Time Lords. I remember, at the time it was released, people seemed to be annoyed at how “American” the pilot was, that it had kind of perverted the quaint and cult nature of the show in some ways, but I think the additional budget did wonders for bringing the concept to life; the TARDIS has never looked better, the classic theme is the best it’s ever been, the effects and action were beyond anything seen in the show up to that point, and everything has a far bigger, grandiose feel to it. The cinematic quality of the production was also evoked when the show returned in 2005 which, again, was met was almost unanimous praise, which really annoyed me at the time as it seemed like everything people complained about in Doctor Who: The Movie was suddenly being praised and the only difference, really, was that one was produced in America and the other was produced in the UK. For me, the film, and the Eighth Doctor, will always have a special place in my heart and I’m glad that his surprise reappearance saw further interest in his portrayal of the character.
My Rating:
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
Pretty Good
Have you ever seen Doctor Who: The Movie? If so, what did you think to it? If you saw it at the time, whether as a new or long-term fan of the show, what did you think of it? Were you put off by the “American” production of the show and the Doctor’s more passionate exploits? What did you think to McGann as the Doctor and the death of the Seventh Doctor? Would you have preferred to see the Daleks or another of the Doctor’s adversaries as the antagonists and what did you think to this incarnation of the Master? Which incarnation of the Doctor is your favourite? How are you celebrating Doctor Who Day today? Let me know your thoughts on Doctor Who and its feature-length production down in the comments.
Air Date: 31 May 2019 to 2 August 2019 UK Distributor: Netflix OriginalNetwork: DC Universe Stars: Derek Mears, Crystal Reed, Andy Bean, Will Patton, Virginia Madsen, Kevin Durand, Maria Sten, and Jeryl Prescott
The Background: Although the monstrous swamp creature known as Swamp Thing first appeared in July 1971, the character is best known for his Alec Holland incarnation, though both characters were created by writer Len Wein and artist Bernie Wrightson. Not to be confused with a similar swamp monster published by Marvel Comics, the Man-Thing, Swamp Thing has long been personified as the protector of the “Green” and all environmental life. Considering how obscure the character is, Swamp Thing has quite a lucrative history in adaptation; he received two live-action horror/comedies in the 1980s, a spin-off live action series, a cartoon, and often crops up in animated ventures and videogames. Development of a new horror series based on the character began in 2018; ostensibly produced to provide more content for DC Universe, DC’s now-defunct video-on-demand streaming service. Existing in a separate continuity to other DC live-action shows, Swamp Thing was cancelled almost as soon as it began airing because of creative differences and financial concerns, which killed any plans for follow-up seasons and spin-offs. Despite this, Swamp Thing was generally very well received and the popularity of the show, in addition to the character’s very brief cameo in the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover (Various, 2019 to 2020), has left the vague lingering hope that Swamp Thing might be integrated into the “Arrowverse” in the same was as Matt Ryan’s John Constantine.
The Plot: When a deadly illness hits a small town in Louisiana, Doctor Abby Arcane (Reed) is sent to investigate and begins to suspect that disgraced scientist Alec Holland’s (Bean) research may be related to the outbreak. However, in the midst of her investigation into shady businessman Avery Sunderland (Patton) and the mysteries of the nearby swamp, Alec is suddenly killed but appears to live on as a monstrous swamp creature.
The Review: All throughout Swamp Thing, the swamp is treated as a dark, ominous force that stalks intruders and actively hunts those who venture within it, no matter their intentions. Thanks to the dumping of mutagen accelerator, the swamp is alive, malevolent, and brutally kill those who invade its depths, and its influence has begun to spread into the nearby town of Marais, causing a debilitating virus known as the “Green Flu”. The town is understandably disturbed by the virus but also believes that the swamp, their primary source of income, is responsible and is striking back at those who would seek to destroy or damage it. Local businessman Avery Sunderland, who has brought prosperity to the town, is fascinated by the swamp after witnessing its power as a boy when his father, Burritt (Steve Wilcox), was murdered by the swamp for attacking one of its trees was when Avery was a boy.
Abby is puzzled by the Green Flu, which appears to be connected to Alec’s research.
The mysterious plague brings Abby back to Marais, her hometown; she’s a pretty, smart CDC doctor who immediately and affably takes charge of the hospital staff and the organisation of a response team but is haunted by memories of her childhood in Marais. Though stumped by the potency of the disease, which mutilates its victims with swamp life and roots and is capable of reanimating corpses into violent planet creatures, Abby’s investigation is aided Alec Holland, a quirky and mysterious but brilliant biologist who clearly knows more about the infection than he’s letting on. His research focuses on dangerous mutagens, which he has identified growing and mutating out in the swamp, and he explicitly demonstrates to Abby that the swamp is growing aggressively and malevolently and causing the disease. Although unsure of Alec’s odd demeanour, he and Abby quickly pool their talents; a quick Google reveals to Abby Alec’s sketchy past, which saw him disgraced after manipulating data to prove his theories, but instead of arguing, they bond over their past mistakes and remain focused on figuring out the Green Flu. During their efforts, they are horrified to witness the swamp’s malevolent effects but, right when they are on the cusp of figuring out how the Green Flu came about, Alec is suddenly shot and killed.
Swamp Thing isn’t the only thing brought to monstrous life by the swamp’s malevolent forces.
In his place is a large, monstrous bog monster (the titular Swamp Thing) that emerges from the swamp in a confused and agonised daze and, for a brief period, has a strange connection to Susie Coyle (Elle Graham), a young girl infected by the swamp. Susie is able to sense Swamp Thing’s emotions and even see through his eyes, to an extent, which causes her a great deal of distress, nightmares, and to leave the hospital in search of Swamp Thing. There, she witnesses two of men dumping the mutagen, a particularly brutal murder, and Swamp Thing violently attack and kill one of the men, Munson (Micah Fitzgerald), using the roots and branches of the swamp. Now able to communicate with the swamp and other plant life (known as the “Green”), Swamp Thing is functionally immortal as he’s able to almost immediately heal from any injury and has no need for his plant-like organs. Thanks to Swamp Thing’s unique connection to the swamp, Abby is able to suppress the Green Flu but this also alerts him to a foreboding, oncoming Darkness that has spread death and devastation throughout the swamp. When the Darkness manifests as the Rot, it reanimates Munson’s body into a zombie-like creature who spews and controls insects and goes on a killing spree until Swamp Thing defeats it. He’s also instrumental in curing and counteracting an infection that spreads from the Darkness and causes this exposed to see disturbing, nightmarish visions of their worst fears that lead them to violently injure and kill themselves and others in a frenzied panic.
Maria regresses when Abby returns to town and soon descends into mania and insanity.
Abby’s return to Marais causes quite a stir for many characters; for her childhood friend, Matt Cable (Henderson Wade), who is now a police officer, she reawakens his childhood feelings for her. These drive him to accompany her into the swamp and to aid with her search for Alec, much to the chagrin of his mother, Lucilia (Jennifer Beals), who is also the town sheriff. Resentful and distrustful of Abby, Lucilia dissuades Matt from helping Abby, believing her to be nothing but trouble who will just break his heart, but, when Matt learns that Lucilia is little more than a corrupt official who has lied about his true parentage and been covering up evidence of Avery’s wrongdoings, he begins to consider transferring to a different department. Lucilia, who murders without a thought to protect her son, is driven to conspiring against Avery when she discovers that he manipulated his son into killing Alec, an action that ultimately dooms her to further betrayal and murder. Like Lucilia, Avery’s wife, Maria (Madsen), is extremely perturbed by Abby’s return; blaming Abby for the death of her daughter, Shawna (Given Sharp), Maria is cold and hostile towards Abby and demands that she leave the moment her work in Marais is done. Having struggled with alcoholism after Shawna’s death, Abby’s return causes Maria to regress; she takes to sleeping in Shawna’s death and turns to local blind fortune teller, Nimue Inwudu/Madame Xanadu (Prescott) for comfort, only to be driven to both violence and near madness by Shawna’s vengeful spirit, which possesses Susie and attempts to kill both Maria and Abby. Fully aware of Avery’s transgressions, and having grown weary of him using her wealth to her own ends, she cuts him off and, after conspiring to kill him, appropriates Avery’s research for her own to enter into an alliance with Nathan Ellery (Michael Beach) and the shadowy Conclave Group. Abby also reconnects with another of her friends, Liz Tremayne (Sten), a local reporter who believes that uncovering the truth behind Avery’s shady operation will be her big break. At every turn, even after encountering Swamp Thing, Abby confides in Liz and is met with nothing but unconditional support as Liz takes every opportunity to aid Abby in her efforts to help Alec, solve the mysteries of the swamp, and expose Avery’s true nature.
The supernatural and the macabre are pivotal aspects of Swamp Thing‘s appeal.
Liz’s investigative abilities not only help to lead Abby to Swamp Thing after he is captured by the mysterious Conclave Group but also leads her to Daniel Cassidy (Ian Ziering), an former stuntman and actor who found fame as a live-action version of the superhero Blue Devil and runs a video rental store where Alec lived and worked. Unable to leave Marais due to a supernatural force, Daniel is compelled to assist Abby by the mysterious Phantom Stranger (Macon Blair), who bound him to Marais some time ago, even when this leaves him comatose and trapped in the town. Supernatural elements such as these are a pivotal aspect of Swamp Thing: Xanadu finds her visions and psychic abilities augmented by the dark forces growing in the swamp, Shawna’s ghost spirit torments Maria and Abby, and Alec’s presence haunt Abby, the show, and Swamp Thing himself. The ghosts of his former life echo in Swamp Thing’s dreams alongside disturbing visions of numerous dead bodies, which the Phantom Stranger explains are actually the memories of all the events the trees and the swamp and the Green have witnessed over the centuries. The Phantom Stranger encourages Swamp Thing to hold on to the humanity still in his heart and soul and to embrace his newfound connection to the Green, which allows Abby the see the truth about Shawna’s death, but it is through his continued relationship with Abby that Swamp Thing finds his most potent connection to his humanity. Desperate to find out what happened to him and return him to normal, Abby reconnects with Alec in the episode “Brilliant Disguise” (Ostrander, 2019), which sees him temporarily reassume his human guise thanks to a mysterious flower. Here, Alec reveals the true extent of the Darkness and the Rot and believes that he has been transformed into a warrior to combat these malevolent forces and, accepting his new destiny, reluctantly asks her to leave and move on with her life.
With Maria committed, Avery ends up little more than a murderer infected by the swamp’s darkness.
Of course, the dark forces in the swamp aren’t the only things Swamp Thing has to content with in the show; Avery’s dumping of the mutagen accelerator was meant to bring him more opportunities for profit and expansion but, after witnessing the power of the swamp and seeing what Alec has transformed into, he begins to manipulate the situation back into his favour. A disreputable and manipulative individual, he Avery regularly engages in extramarital relations with Lucilia (which ultimately turn Maria against him) delivers thinly veiled threats to Abby and Liz when they continue to poke their nose into his business, and purposely exploited Matt to eliminate Alec when he got close to discovering Avery’s plot. A slick and deceptive individual, he’s even able to trick Swamp Thing into trusting him and doesn’t hesitate to twist the narrative in his favour wherever possible, including having his wife committed to a mental hospital and threatening friend and foe alike. I found Avery to be quite an intriguing character and he had a lot of complex layers to him; though both he and Maria were heartbroken at Shawna’s death, Maria’s reaction is far rawer and more aggressive, and Avery is much more accepting of Abby. Rather than blaming her for Shawna’s death, he sees her as a surrogate daughter and regrets not defending her in the past and there’s a genuine sense that he cares for her even when he’s clearly primarily concerned with his own self interests. A master manipulator, he’s able to prey upon Maria’s fragile state of mind and lingering fears about Susie’s health into continuing his funding in order to improve the image of their family in the eyes of the public and the investors. Despite being betrayed by all those around him and having lost everything, Avery remains adamant in his ability to bounce back from his losses out of a pig-headed belief that the town is reliant upon his generosity and influence. With Maria reduced to a mindless shell of her former self, and having learnt that he is Matt’s true father, he attempts to rekindle his relationship with Lucilia only to be adamantly rebuked by her after everything he’s done to her and Matt.
Thanks to Woodrue’s invasive experiments, Swamp Thing is dismayed by the truth about his origins.
Although Lucilia reconciles with Matt, she doesn’t live to see that through as Avery stabs her from the backseat of her car and dumps her body, and the car, in the swamp. By the end, he’s been reduced from an affluent and influential industrialist to a cold-blooded, remorseless killer; he mysteriously spits up a piece of the swamp, hinting that he may have been infected by the Rot. Avery also forges an alliance with Doctor Jason Woodrue (Durand), an unorthodox biogeneticist with an unhealthy obsession with plants who was responsible for creating Avery’s mutagen accelerant and causing the plague. While Woodrue is incredulous since the swamp’s very nature invites disease, Avery is unimpressed with Woodrue’s efforts, which were supposed to allow him to profit and have, instead, brought an unwelcome amount of attention and death to his doorstep. Woodrue is both in admiration of the aggressiveness and potency of the Green Flu and the swamp but also determined to stay support his wife, Caroline (Selena Anduze), as she suffers from early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. Like Abby, Woodrue is astounded by Swamp Thing’s genetic make-up and the regenerative capabilities and, upon discovering evidence of Swamp Thing’s existence, convinces Avery to provide him the resources to hunt down and capture the creature, alive, for further research. Ever the opportunist, Woodrue willingly betrays and allies with each of the Sunderland’s in his desperate bid to find a cure for his wife’s condition; to that end, Ellery provides Woodrue with the proper facilities to continue his research and is instrumental in luring Swamp Thing into a trap to freeze him with nitrogen blasts. Subjected to an invasive examination more akin to an autopsy and subdued by special lights, Swamp Thing is horrified when Woodrue discovers that he has no nerve or pain receptors (despite the fact that he clearly reacts to injury), can survive without any internal organs, and his theory that Alec’s consciousness was merely absorbed by the swamp and given a humanoid form by its mutagenic properties. Disturbed by Woodrue’s claims, Swamp Thing returns to the swamp after being rescued and is devested when he retrieves Alec’s mangled corpse from its depths, confirming that he is merely an autonomous plant creature possessing the shadow of Alec’s consciousness. Thought despondent at this discovery, Abby insists that Swamp Thing is imbued with Alec’s heart and soul regardless and, after mercilessly slaughtering Ellery’s men in retaliation for the suffering they caused him, he is bolstered by Alec’s sprit and Abby’s devotion to stay in the swamp and find a new path for himself against the coming Darkness.
The Summary: I really enjoyed Swamp Thing; at only ten episodes long, the show is paced incredibly well and the structure is just about perfect; it never feels like there’s any filler and everything flows naturally and nicely and with a real purpose. The show’s emphasis on dark, gritty horror really makes it stand out against other superhero shows and it does a really good job of explaining its unique lore and introducing just enough intrigue to keep you hooked; the supernatural elements are seen as equal parts mysterious and dangerous and beautiful and alluring, and the ominous presence of the oncoming Darkness was a fascinating inclusion that I’m sad to see has not been resolved in the Arrowverse as of late. In many ways, it feels like the showrunners should have tried to slightly rewrite the concept to refer to the destructive anti-mater wave that was the subject of the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover but I remain hopeful that Swamp Thing’s loose ends will be addressed in some way, shape or form at some point.
Swamp Thing excels in its fantastic and creative use of practical and special effects.
One of the most appealing aspects of Swamp Thing is how well it utilises its special effects; the swamp, a living, largely malevolent being in and of itself, writhes and squirms through a mixture of practical and special effects that reanimates dead bodies with a sickening burst of ever-growing and malicious tentacles but nowhere is its influence more impressively realised that in Swamp Thing himself. Brought to life through the power of an impressive practical suit and augmented by animatronics and just the right amount of CGI, Swamp Thing is both impressive and horrific in his appearance thanks to an abundance of dark lighting, shadows, and well-framed shots but he also impresses when seen in full lighting. It seems like the showrunners wisely put a great deal of Swamp Thing’s budget into the titular creature, which results in them creatively cutting corners when it comes to Blue Devil. Sadly, we never get to see a clear shot of Blue Devil, who slaughters the Conclave’s goons through the power of frenetic and blood-soaked editing; to be fair, though, this does work to emphasise the brutality, horror, and mystery of Blue Devil. Performances are strong throughout Swamp Thing; Crystal Reed is a fantastically alluring lead actress, carrying just the right mixture of gumption, intelligence, and empathy. She feels a tremendous amount of guilt over her part on Shawna’s death and is both heartbroken and desperate to try and help Alec after he’s transformed into Swamp Thing. Similarly, while she’s little more than a supporting character, there’s a surprising amount of depth to Liz; I was very pleased to see that the two never fell out or had any interpersonal drama and were simply two close friends who supported each other no matter what, even in the face of their own deaths.
Sadly, as good as Swamp Thing was, its loose ends probably won’t be tied up any time soon.
I was impressed with Durand’s range for his portrayal of Woodrue, who is continually torn between his work and his wife just as Swamp Thing is torn between his humanity and the creature he has become, and his descent into insanity and villainy was all the more affecting because he wasn’t just some over the top comic book villain. I was similarly intrigued by Patton’s performance as Avery; a deceitful, manipulative character who always has the upper hand, he fought and clawed against his descent from his lofty position and always had another scheme, another option, at hand to try and turn things to his advantage. The only real issue I had, in fact (apart from the show being cancelled) was that Susie seems like she’s going to be important but basically disappears from the show after a few prominent episodes and her connection to Swamp Thing is not as pivotal as it seems at first. Honestly, it’s a real shame that Swamp Thing was cancelled almost as immediately as it started as it was very entertaining as a horror/mystery show and was a very different type of comic book adaptation. The show was also packed with some clever additions and references to the wider DC universe; Adrienne Barbeau, who starred in the first live-action movie, makes a cameo appearance as the CDC’s new assistant director, the Phantom Stranger was a surprising and welcome inclusion, and the show even does a good job of bringing Blue Devil to life when Daniel eventual transforms into an actual, fire-breathing demon. The show even ends on a massive cliff-hanger when Woodrue, driven to madness by his wife’s accidental overdose and his obsession with curing her, ingests Swamp Thing’s organs and transforms himself into the Floronic Man.
My Rating:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Fantastic
Were you a fan of Swamp Thing? Did you enjoy the show’s emphasis on horror and practical effects or was a bit too obscure and dark for you? What did you think to the Swamp Thing suit and effects and Derek Mears’ performance as the character? Which of the show’s characters and sub-plots was your favourite and did you enjoy the inclusions of names like the Phantom Stranger and the Blue Devil? How well do you think the show did at adapting the source material and were there any characters and plots you would have liked to see included in the show? Were you disappointed that Swamp Thing was cancelled and would you like the see the character and the show’s loose ends tied up in the Arrowverse? Whatever your opinions on Swamp Thing, leave your thoughts down below.
Easily Marvel Comics’ most recognisable and popular superhero, unsuspecting teenage nerd Peter Parker was first bitten by a radioactive spider and learned the true meaning of power and responsibility in Amazing Fantasy #15, which was first published in August 1962. Since then, the Amazing Spider-Man has featured in numerous cartoons, live-action movies, videogames, action figures, and countless comic book titles and, in celebration of his debut and his very own day of celebration, I’ve been dedicating every Wednesday to talk about everyone’s favourite web-head!
Air Date: 14 September 1977 Network: CBS Stars: Nicholas Hammond, Lisa Eilbacher, Thayer David, David White, and Michael Pataki
The Background: Following his debut in the pages of Amazing Fantasy #5, Spider-Man soon graduated to his own solo comic series and, by the mid-1970s, had become an icon of mainstream pop culture thanks to numerous merchandise and adaptations in other media such as the 1960s cartoon. It was during this time that CBS bought the rights to produce a live-action show for prime-time television; however, rather than debuting as an episodic series, The Amazing Spider-Man first aired as a feature-length episode that served as a back-door pilot. The pilot actually received a theatrical release outside of the United States, though I only remember seeing it on TV here in the United Kingdom once as a kid; regardless, the pilot was a success and led to the commission of a thirteen episode series that aired between 1977 and 1979.
Spider-Man’s feature-length pilot led to a thirteen episode TV series.
Despite drawing favourable ratings during its airing, CBS were reluctant to continue the show as it was expensive to produce and underperformed with older audiences. As a result, the show was eventually cancelled and has never seen a re-release outside of a few VHS tapes back in the day. Although the series was lacking in any of Spider-Man’s recognisable rogues gallery, it’s rumoured that there were tentative plans to produce a crossover with the long-running Incredible Hulk series (1977 to 1982) but these, obviously, never came through. Today, the series is largely forgotten, having been long overshadowed by Spider-Man’s big budgetlive-action ventures but Peter’s likeness in the 1994 cartoon always reminded me of Hammond’s.
The Plot: When freelance photographer Peter Parker (Hammond) is bitten by a radioactive spider and gains the proportionate strength, speed, and agility of a spider, he adopts a crime-fighting persona dubbed Spider-Man to oppose the aspirations of the malicious Edward Byron (David), who plans to hold the city to ransom with his mind control technology.
The Review: After the introductory titles (which features both a glimpse of the spectacular stunt work that the pilot and series was known for and the show’s super funky seventies theme music), Spider-Man immediately introduces the central antagonistic force of the plot as a doctor and a lawyer are inexplicably compelled to walk out in the middle of their jobs and perform a bank robbery, with the only thing relating the two being mysterious pins attached to their suits.
Peter struggles to sell photos to, or get assignments from, the grouchy Jameson.
Next, we’re introduced to Peter Parker, a freelance photographer who suffers from allergies and is attempting to work his way through college by selling photographs to J. Jonah Jameson (White), to little avail. While Jameson is far less as explosive and grouchy than his usual iterations, he’s still volatile and a natural cynic at heart, especially when faced with the seeming randomness of the opening crime and the subsequent threat for further crimes to follow.
A lone spider is bathed in radiation during one of Peter’s experiments…
While Peter can’t catch a break with Jameson and is thus constantly low on cash, he’s intrigued by the threat of mass mind control that has been levied against the city and has far more luck in the field of science. Peter works in a laboratory alongside his friend and fellow student Dave (Larry Anderson) and the two of them are conducting experiments on radiation. However, while dealing with some radioactive waste, a lone spider is bathed in over 400 rads’ worth of radiation and, in its last desperate act, bites Peter’s hand.
Peter is exhilarated to find he can cling to walls and surfaces just like a spider!
I’m not entirely certain but I think this is the first time the spider bite was indirectly caused through Peter’s own actions and it’s an interesting change. Rather than going through any kind of adjustment period or troublesome transformation, Peter experiences the effects of the spider bite almost instantaneously, being aware of incoming danger thanks to his spider-sense and racing up a wall with ease and on pure instinct. It’s not until later, after a particularly gruelling night’s sleep, that Peter pieces together the fantastic event and realises that he has been genetically altered; this leads to a montage in which he explores the lengths of his new abilities on the outside of his Aunt May’s (Jeff Donnell) through the use of camera trickery.
After being dubbed “Spider-Man”, Peter throws together a costume to sell pictures to Jameson.
It’s not a great effect, and certainly nothing on the practical wire work seen later in the pilot, but it’s certainly ambitious for the time. Peter first puts his powers to good use while clambering up a wall in the city, which is startling enough to stop a purse snatcher (Barry Cutler) in his tracks. This leads to eyewitnesses dubbing him “Spider-Man”, which piques Jameson’s interest and, in that moment, gives Peter the inspiration to construct a colourful outfit and persona befitting of such a name and to explain Spider-Man’s logistics and capabilities to the pessimistic Jameson (and, in the process, the audience). While Peter acts on instinct to stop a criminal, his primary motivation for becoming Spider-Man is to sell Jameson pictures; there’s no Uncle Ben or lessons about power and responsibility here (which, I’m sure, today’s Spider-Man “fans” would throw a fit over!), just a regular kid trying to do the right thing and make some money out of little more than an ingrained sense of right or wrong.
Captain Barbara’s cantankerous, gruff demeanour was a real highlight for me.
In the course of the pilot, Peter runs afoul of the temperamental Captain Barbara (Pataki), a grouchy, cantankerous, and suspicious police captain who is kind of like the Jack McGee (Jack Colvin) of the show; perhaps because of his jaded nature, he is almost immediately suspicious of Peter and becomes even more so when Peter continues to show up at the scenes of the inexplicable crimes. Barbara is equally unimpressed with Spider-Man’s debut, believing (with little reason) that the wall-crawler is somehow involved in the mysterious events and voicing many of the more aggressive objections to the vigilante that are usually attributed to Jameson, who is skeptical of Spider-Man but never exhibits the hatred normally associated with the character.
Peter and Judy attend one of Byron’s aggressive seminars on the futility of life.
When covering the aftermath of another of the incidents in which Professor Noah Tyler (Ivor Francis) randomly committed a robbery and then crashed head-first into a wall, Peter meets his daughter, Judy (Lisa Eilbacher). Judy confides in Peter that her father has been attending a special group to teach people the “true meaning of themselves” through unusually aggressive lectures. This group, which is more like a cult or twisted church, is led by the pilot’s big bad, Edward Byron; Byron uses specialised radio signals to compel his victims to commit their crimes and is basically able to force anyone wearing one of his pins and subjected to his mind control device to follow his explicit instructions. Specifically, Byron has them commit robberies and then kill themselves and his end goal is extortion, as he threatens to kill several citizens unless he’s paid a ransom of $50 million. Byron exhibits a disdain for those in his group, and humanity in general, and believes himself to be above them both in terms of intelligence and stature; for all his grandiose speeches, though, he’s little more than a madman who wishes to exert and abuse his power and technology purely to satiate his greed.
Peter’s far from the hapless nerd from the comics and his ingenuity is heavily emphasised.
While Peter has some bad luck in the pilot, it’s generally more around trying to make money off the pugnacious Jameson and he’s far from the hapless, down on his luck nerd he is often pigeon-holed as. Instead, he’s a relatively well-adjusted young man who bonds with Judy extremely quickly and a central theme of the pilot is Peter’s intelligence and scientific acumen. Not only does he put together an impressive costume for himself but he quickly cobbles together his patented web-shooters and not only stumbles upon Byron’s hypnotic signal with his microwave emitter but also puts together a gadget to led him to the source of the signal.
Stuntman Fred Waugh took over once Peter donned the suit to perform the pilot’s dangerous stunts.
When in the costume, Spider-Man duties mostly fall to stuntman Fred Waugh, who adopts an agile grace and insectile posture that, possibly, was a conscious decision on Waugh’s part to emphasise the physicality of the character. The pilot features a number of complex and incredibly dangerous stunts achieved through the use of wire work, cables, rigging, and rotating sets; though you can make out some of the wires here and there, that doesn’t take away from the ambition of those involved and it’s because of this practical approach that, for the first time, we get to see a live-action Spider-Man literally climbing up the sides of buildings, leaping to ceilings and walls, and swinging across rooftops (something, even now, which is more likely to be achieved through CGI than traditional filmmaking techniques).
Spidey’s intelligence wins the day as much as his incredible strength and agility.
While these instances showcase Spider-Man’s agility, a protracted fight scene between the web-head and Byron’s three mind-controlled goons does a decent job of showing how formidable Spider-Man is (and, in a follow-up confrontation, his amazing recuperative powers); it’s not an especially thrilling fight scene as it’s a very slow and co-ordinated affair but, nevertheless, he’s easily able to outmanoeuvre and overpower the three. This also gets paid off at the conclusion of the pilot in one of my favourite scenes where Spidey, in the quest to bring Bryon to justice, makes friends with the three. Indeed, in the end, it’s not strength or agility that wins the day but a combination of luck (Peter’s control pin gets dislodged from his jacket) and intelligence as he not only discovers but also decodes Byron’s hypnotic microwave technology. This allows Spider-Man to tear down Byron’s control antenna and turn his technology against him, rendering him little more than a mindless puppet to face Barbara’s not-inconsiderable-wrath.
The Summary: I’m well aware that I’ve used the word “ambitious” a lot in this write-up but it’s the best word I can think of to describe Spider-Man; it’s impressive how much the filmmakers were able to pull off given the limitations of the seventies and I would argue that, despite a lack of recognisable characters and villains, Spider-Man is actually a far more accurate adaptation of the source material, in many ways, than The Incredible Hulk. They’re both relatively grounded and far more realistic takes on Marvel’s colourful heroes but Spider-Man features far more innovative special effects to bring the character to life.
Despite the lack of Uncle Ben and May’s reduced role, Peter still uses his abilities responsibly.
I have to say, even now, that the Spider-Man costume is pretty impressive; it’s kind of like an all-in-one body suit but the colours are suitably bright and vibrant and I love the simplicity of the design, which includes reflective lenses and, in time, mechanical web-shooters of Peter’s own design that allows him to swing between buildings and stop crooks with a variety of webbing. It’s rarely, if ever, Hammond in the suit but the plus side to that is that Spider-Man is pretty much always wearing his mask and fully capable of performing the pilot’s complex and ambitious stunts and fight scenes. Thanks to the alterations to the character’s origin, Uncle Ben is no longer a factor (he’s not even mentioned or even hinted at) and Aunt May has a much smaller, inconsequential role where she’s a doting matriarch rather than a decrepit, fragile figure (something subsequent live-action movies would emulate). Regardless, Peter is still compelled to use his powers for good (…and to make a little money at the same time) simply because he’s a good kid; he may lack the tragedy and pure motivation often associated with the character but he’s nonetheless as determined to help others.
I’ve got a lot of nostalgia for the pilot and I’ve love to see the show made more accessible.
Neither the Amazing Spider-Man or Incredible Hulk TV shows were on when I was a kid so the only exposure I had to either was in their feature-length spin-offs and, for the longest time, Spider-Man was about as good as you could get for a live-action adaptation of the character. I remember preferring the subsequent features that were produced some time after this and were comprised of combined episodes of the show but, revisiting this pilot episode after a good twenty years was an entertaining experience, to say the least. Sure, many of the effects haven’t aged too well and it’s disappointing that it doesn’t adhere more closely to the source material but I am very forgiving of this pilot and have a real fondness for it, and Hammond’s portrayal of the character, so I can only hope that, one day, the entire series gets a much-needed release on DVD so more people can experience this early and ambitious take on the character.
My Rating:
⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 3 out of 5.
Pretty Good
Have you ever seen Spider-Man or the Amazing Spider-Man TV show? What did you think of them at the time and how do you think they hold up today? What did you think to the show’s costume, stunt effects, and Hammond’s performance as Parker? Were you a fan of original characters like Captain Barbara and Edward Byron or would you have preferred to see more comic-accurate characters and villains in the show? Would you like to see a release of the series on home media or Disney+ or do you think it’s best to leave the show to obscurity? Whatever your thoughts on the seventies Spider-Man adaptation, go ahead and leave a comment below and be sure to check in again next Wednesday for more Spider-Man content!
Air Date: 20 October to 15 December 2019 UK Network: Sky Atlantic Original Network: HBO Stars: Regina King, Jean Smart, Jeremy Irons, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Tim Blake Nelson, Hong Chau, Jovan Adepo, Louis Gossett Jr, and Don Johnson
The Background: Since its release, Watchmen (Moore, et al, 1986 to 1987) has become a critical and commercial success and is largely regarded as one of the most influential and significant graphic novels ever created. Although at one point considered to be unfilmable, various writers, producers, directors, and other creative types had attempting to spearhead a live-action adaptation since the end of the eighties, all of which fell apart until Warner Brothers approached Zack Snyder to finally bring the project to life in 2005. Say what you will about Watchmen(Snyder, 2009) but it did a pretty good job of translating Moore’s dense, complex text into a cohesive live-action feature; elements were changed, for sure, but that is to be expected from the adaptation process and, for me, the changes made perfect sense and didn’t detract from Watchmen’s themes or main story. After the film’s release, DC Comics really ramped up the Watchmen spin-offs and merchandise (much to Moore’s chagrin, I’m sure) and this included tentative talks with Snyder concerning a live-action Watchmen television series. After Snyder left the project, the HBO network began developing the series with Damon Lindelof. Rather than being a sequel to the movie, however, Lindelof conceived of the series as a continuation of the Watchmen comic that would jump between the 1920s, 1980s, and then-modern-day 2019, dealing with issues of race and the fallout of Watchmen’s iconic ending. Watchmen was met with widespread critical acclaim and won numerous awards, though Lindelof stepped away from the franchise and HBO reclassified Watchmen as a “limited series” with options of additional instalments and stories under a different creative team.
The Plot: Thirty-four years after the world was united against a perceived alien threat, the Seventh Kalvary, a white supremacist group inspired by WalterKovacs/Rorschach, has risen to prominence in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Because of their actions, the Tulsa Police Department have taken to hiding their identities behind masks and code-names like the long-outlawed vigilantes of the 1960s and 1980s. After Police Chief Judd Crawford (Johnson) is murdered, Angela Abar/Sister Night (King) finds herself uncovering uncomfortable truths regarding her past, the state of the world, and a deadly plot to harness the powers of the long-exiled Jon Osterman/Doctor Manhattan (Abdul-Mateen II).
The Review: A central premise to Watchmen is the idea of a deep-rooted conspiracy; obviously, there’s the primary Watchmen conspiracy involving the sudden appearance of a giant, alien squid in New York City shocking the world away from nuclear Armageddon but HBO’s Watchmen juxtaposes this narrative with one involving a nefarious plot by Senator Joe Keene Jr. (James Wolk) to manipulate a series of violent and discriminatory events that will ensure his seat in the White House. As in the original comic book, the cogs are forever turning in Watchmen and nothing is ever quite as it seems; the majority of those in positions of power wear masks, either literal or metaphorical, and, as always, it is the general public that suffers as a result. Central to the series’ themes of conspiracy and violence is our main character, Angela Abar; in the 2019 world of Watchmen, the police are anonymous individuals who hide their identities behind masks and code-names after a series of mass murders perpetrated in 2016 by the Seventh Kalvary that came to be known as the “White Night”. Abar was one of the few survivors of this atrocity, one who steadfastly stuck by her police chief, Judd Crawford, to rebuild the police department and adopting masked identities as per Senator Keene’s groundbreaking decision to bend the rules seemingly to protect those in law enforcement.
Angela wears a number of literal and metaphorical masks.
As a result, Abar lives a life of lies and deception; to the outside world, she works as a struggling, nondescript baker who has been long-retired from police work but, in reality, she is a tortured soul despite her seemingly perfect family life with her husband, Cal (Abdul-Mateen II) and her adopted children. Not only is she hiding her identity behind that of Sister Night, a masked persona that allows her to exercise her violent tendencies (especially against white supremacists and racists), but she is also largely covering up the specifics of her childhood and troublesome upbringing in Vietnam. In addition to this, her actual origins and true lineage are largely hidden from her and discovered throughout the course of the series, forcing her to confront some uncomfortable revelations about not just trusted comrades like Judd but also herself, her parents, and, most significantly, her grandfather and husband. Consequently, racism is a massively important part of Watchmen; all throughout the series, the narrative returns, in some form or another, to the atrocious events of 1921 that saw racist sentiment in Tulsa boil over to breaking point. Even now, in 2019, there is an air of racism across the board as people resent those of colour, and President Robert Redford, for “taking over” their town, putting down roots, and receiving a series of payouts (known as “Redfordations”) as recompense for their suffering. Racism in Watchmen is mostly personified by the Seventh Kalvary, basically an evolved form of the Klu Klux Klan who have adopted and twisted Rorschach’s diary, appearance, and methods to spread anti-racist and anti-authority sentiment throughout Tulsa.
Many of Tulsa’s police use their masks as an excuse for excessive violence.
For decades, Judd has worked to maintain a rocky kind of peace between the Tulsa police and the Seventh Kalvary to keep events from escalating into full-blown violence; as a result, cops are unable to utilise deadly force (or even draw their handguns) without requesting permission and their firearms being remotely activated and it is forbidden for them to reveal their true identities to the public, all to help ensure that they are protected from reprisals and to keep them from sparking all-out war through needless violence and death. However, anti-authority sentiment remains high amongst the public; many resent the police for using their masks as an excuse to indulge in excessive violence and, in a twist on the anti-mask riots seen in the comics, the public now seem to be far more receptive to the idea of actual costumed vigilantes than masked police officers. However, in 2019, costumed heroes are few and far between; with vigilantism still outlawed, law enforcement agencies track them down and arrest them at every opportunity and all the costumed heroes you knew from the original comic are either dead, retired, in jail, exiled, or have conformed to the new world. The most principal of these is, obviously, the all-powerful Dr. Manhattan, whom the public believes has exiled himself to Mars; Manhattan Booths have been placed all over the city (and, potentially, the world) to allow people to call Mars and leave messages for Dr. Manhattan but, like any self-respecting God, Dr. Manhattan never replies to these prayers and is largely believed to have abandoned mankind.
Time, and life, have not been kind to the former Silk Spectre.
The other costumed heroes haven’t fared much better, either; Laurie Juspeczyk/Silk Spectre (Smart) is now a hard-nosed, cynical FBI agent who is apathetic, pessimistic, and callous. She has a personal dislike for masked vigilantes, regarding them as a “joke”, and meets almost every challenge or obstacle with a mocking indifference. Indeed, it says a lot about Laurie’s mindset that she has adopted the surname of her biological father, Edward Blake/The Comedian, a man whom she hated with a passion for being a cruel and sadistic rapist. Clearly changed after the events of the comic and in the time between the comic’s conclusion and present day (and her knowledge of the truth behind the squid incident, which is unsubtly referred to as “11/02”), Blake is a confrontational, no-nonsense, world-weary woman who has no time for bullshit or games and even less time to indulge those who hide behind masks (again, both literal and metaphorical).
Adopting many of Rorschach’s characteristicsmakes Looking Glass one of the stronger characters.
This naturally means that she ruffles a lot of feathers once she is assigned to Judd’s murder case, believing it to have been the result of vigilante action, and causes her to clash with those in the Tulsa police department, such as Wade Tillman/Looking Glass (Nelson). Looking Glass, who adopts many of Rorschach’s characteristics (his blunt, monotone voice, his stature and body language, his paranoid over-preparedness, and even a similar mask), is a highly perceptive and analytical character who is able to tell what someone is really thinking and feeling (or whether they are lying) through his highly tuned reading of body language. After suffering some of the squid’s violent psychic impact, Looking Glass constantly shields his head and face behind a reflective material to keep himself sane and free from nightmares, meaning he is much more comfortable hiding behind his masked identity. However, while he is the closest thing the series has to an actual Rorschach-like character, he is fundamental different from Rorschach in many ways and is, in a lot of ways, Rorschach’s opposite (Looking Glass, for example, lives in a house, has had various (often disastrous) relationships with women, regularly unmasks to reveal, at least, his face, and is a devoted member of the establishment rather than being anti-authority and uncompromising).
Veidt becomes disillusioned with the state of the worlddespite everything he did to save it.
HBO’s Watchmen is a world very similar to ours but fundamentally different and flawed; far from the utopia that the squid’s presence was meant to inspire, the world has largely grown accustomed to the “new normal” and regularly endures sporadic mini squid showers as though they’re an everyday occurrence rather than a startling reminder of the alien menace that lingers overhead. Disillusioned with the state the world has fallen into despite everything he did to save it, Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias (Irons) jumps at the chance to be transported to Europa, where Dr. Manhattan has created an idyllic paradise populated by endless clones living in a stately manor. As jarring as Laurie’s character changes are, they at least have some basis in her comic book counterpart; Laurie was always a bit of a sharp-tongued, blunt instrument in the comics and age and experience have only served to make her even more tiresome but Veidt is so drastically removed from his original depiction that it is almost insulting. Much of the early episodes revolve around Veidt (then known simply as “The Master”) seemingly trapped in a prison, surrounded by endless, disturbingly polite and helpful clones and unable to escape. Eventually, the truth of his situation is revealed (Dr. Manhattan transported him there at Veidt’s enthusiastic suggestion but Veidt became bored with paradise and Manhattan was unable to retrieve him, so Veidt constructed an elaborate plot to keep him challenged and from going insane) and Veidt is able to send a message to affect his rescue.
Both Lady Triey and Senator Keene seek to steal Dr. Manhattan’s God-like powers.
However, flashbacks to earlier years before his imprisonment and subsequent focus on his current mindset show Veidt as being quite the hypocritical and egocentric character; while this was, to be fair, evident in the comic book, here Veidt actually records a message to President Redford admitting to having concocted the squid as an elaborate hoax and is visibly insulted and frustrated at Redford rebuking his attempts to form a partnership and the fact that he receives no credit for having “saved the world”. As a result of this, and having grown jaded and frustrated at the continued production of weapons and nuclear deterrents (which I find odd as obviously the world would want to arm/prepare itself for a possible alien invasion), Veidt retires to Karnak to live in solitude and is dismayed and affronted to find, upon his return, that the world not only believes him dead but has largely forgotten about him. In Veidt’s place is Lady Trieu (Chau), his unwanted biological daughter, who takes Veidt’s vision for a world united by peace and prosperity and further defiles it through a complex plan to find, kidnap, and destroy Dr. Manhattan so that she can assume his abilities and reshape the world. Senator Keene has similar aspirations, wishing to be the first “superman” in the Oval Office, but only Trieu has the resources and knowledge to actually pull off such a plan. Oddly, her aspirations to assume Manhattan’s Godhood are shocking even to Veidt, despite his attempts to destroy Manhattan in the past, forcing Veidt into an uneasy alliance with Blake, Looking Glass, and Angela to keep Trieu from becoming the new Dr. Manhattan.
The glimpses into Hooded Justice’s backstory are some of the show’s more interesting elements.
It is, essentially, the same fundamental plot of the Watchmen comic and many of the same story beats are evident throughout the series (a newsvendor even pops up every now and then to give his views on the state of society), however HBO’s Watchman sheds a lot more light on the effect Dr. Manhattan’s presence had on the Vietnam War (Vietnam becomes an official state of America and Angela hates Manhattan since his actions led to the death of her parents) and the true identity of the very first costumed hero, Will Reeves/Hooded Justice (Jovan Adepo/Louis Gossett Jr). The subject of much speculation in the comic, Hooded Justice turns out to be a young, angry black man who faces unwarranted prejudice and foul treatment in his youth while working as a police officer; after being briefly hanged by his fellow officers, he adopts a hooded guise to dish out corporal punishment and stumbles upon a plot by a group of white supremacists known as “Cyclops” to hypnotise the black community into attacking their own kind. When he is approached by Nelson Gardner/Captain Metropolis (Jake McDorman), Reeves is initially hopefully that the backing of his fellow masked adventurers will held him uncover the conspiracy ever faster but is quickly dismayed and disappointed to find that the Minutemen care more about publicity and catching “supervillains” rather than conspiracies, especially those against black people. This partnership also causes Reeves further turmoil as he enters into a passionate homosexual affair with Gardner, meaning that he is forced to hide behind a myriad of masks (he hides his true identity from the public with his hood, further masks his true identity by applying white face paint so as to be more “accepted” by his fellow Minutemen, hides his sexuality from his wife, his anger from the world, his true intentions from the police…it’s just mask after mask after mask).
Angela is a complex character but one I find more grating than compelling…
Even in his older years, Reeves is still hiding; he hides the truth of his identity (and the truth about Judd) from Angela, setting her on a difficult and violent path of self-discovery, and then also hides the specifics of his relationship with Dr. Manhattan (at various points he even claims to be the God-like superman, though this is openly debunked by many characters). Angela later gets all the answers she could hope for, and more, when she swallows an entire bottle of Reeves’ “Nostalgia” pills, which allow her to relive his memories and experiences in excruciating detail in order to discover her true heritage as Reeves’ granddaughter. Compared to her grandfather, Angela’s masks are considerably fewer but by no means less complex; she hides her true identity, obviously, and is clearly enthusiastic about putting a hurting on white supremacists but is largely open and honest with her husband (while, understandably, keeping her kids in the dark). Her and Cal have no secrets and he is completely supportive of all of her endeavours and actions, even when they are highly questionable, and cares only for her safety and wellbeing. An angry and confrontational character, the events of Watchmen certainly put Angela through the wringer as she discovers her true heritage, finds out her trusted comrade and friend Judd was secretly a member of the Seventh Kalvary, and finds herself at the center of Lady Trieu’s elaborate scheme to steal Dr. Manhattan’s abilities.
Dr. Manhattan is destroyed but, apparently, passes his abilities on to Angela.
All throughout the series, characters debunk the idea that Dr. Manhattan can disguise himself as a human; at first, this seems a bit weird as Manhattan’s powers are virtually limitless and it’s odd that people would just know that he couldn’t do this but, nevertheless, the seeds are planted throughout the series that this is actually what has happened. And, of course, it turns out to be true; the footage of Dr. Manhattan on Mars is simply another lie to placate the public and Manhattan, despite wishing to “leave this world” and create life, quickly grew bored with the utopia he created on Europa and returned to Earth specifically to meet Angela. After relating to her, in his characteristically pragmatic way, his perception of time, Manhattan sought out Veidt to provide him with the means to adopt the closest thing to a human guise in order to be with Angela; Veidt’s specially-constructed implant disrupts Jon’s memories, giving him complete and total amnesia and allowing him to assume a whole new face and identity, Cal Abar, in order to live a normal life. However, after Angela uncovers the plot against him, she’s forced to literally crack Jon’s head open and remove the implant to try and save his life. Ultimately, though, despite Jon’s vast powers and abilities, he is unable to escape his fate; Lady Trieu’s specially designed technology is enough to capture, entrap, and then disintegrate Jon, effectively killing God before the eyes of our main characters, though Trieu’s goal of assuming his abilities is thwarted and the series ends with the suggestion that Jon has passed them on to Angela instead.
Watchmen looks fantastic, for the most part, but Dr. Manhattan looks like bad cosplay!
Watchmen’s visual presentation is quite impressive; clearly inspired by the aesthetic look of Snyder’s film, the series does a wonderful job of not only rendering comic-accurate costumes for the likes of Ozymandias, Hooded Justice, and Captain Metropolis but also at recreating the look and feel of the Watchmen world. I didn’t actually mind the omission of the squid in Snyder’s adaptation but it was pretty fantastic to see the monstrous, grotesque alien beast a bloodied heap in New York and there are some fun call-backs to other recognisable Watchmen elements, too, such as Dan Dreiberg/Nite Owl’s goggles and airship, Archimedes. And yet, despite how impressive much of the costumes and aesthetics of the show look, they completely dropped the ball on Dr. Manhattan; Yahya Abdul-Mateen II is a great actor and certainly has the voice for the role but he never quite exudes that same sense of God-like awe and mystery as in Snyder’s film and is generally, disappointingly, quite nerfed in terms of his powers, motivations, and portrayal. Watchmen works pretty well in terms of its structure; each episode has a quick intro sequence and a fittingly pretentious title, and the series reflects a lot of the structure and narrative flow of the comic book as certain episodes will expand upon one (or more) of the series’ many complex plots while others will focus on specific characters or world-building all while weaving them (however awkwardly) into these aforementioned plots. The series builds its mysteries relatively well; we’re immediately deposited into a world that, for all its similarities to the comic book and the real world, is completely unfamiliar to both, meaning we must re-learn and become re-accommodated with this new Watchmen-esque world where things have changed considerably from what we know but are just familiar enough that we have a vague idea of what characters are talked about and referring to. And then, into this, the series creators inject a whole load of new lore, building upon elements from the comic book, referencing the movie, and then swamping this world (and its narrative) with entirely new, original characters to uncover more of this new world, and the series’ mystery, at the same time as we do,
The Summary: I wasn’t sure what to expect going into Watchmen; I knew it was a sequel series and that obviously meant a lot of the comic characters either wouldn’t be coming back or would be portrayed very differently but I never expected the plot to veer so far off the rails. I thought the series would revolve around a splinter group of vigilantes trying to expose Veidt’s deception but, while the squid is an integral part of the series’ plot and had a profound influence on many characters and events, it may as well have been left out as the series more concerned with telling a story revolving about the atrocities of race hate. This isn’t really a problem in and of itself, as racial tensions and bigotry were quite prominent in the comic, but it kind of overwhelms the plot of the series and doesn’t seem to mesh well with the other competing plots.
The biggest issue for me was that the show just didn’t “feel” like Watchmen that often…
I think the biggest issue I have with Watchmen is that it really doesn’t feel like Watchmen; while you can argue that the series is a lot closer, thematically, to the comic book and much truer to its source material than Snyder’s film, at least the film had characters we recognised and closely followed the events of the comic. Here, we have a whole bunch of new characters, many of whom (including Angela, our main character) just aren’t as interesting as the characters from the comics. Looking Glass is kind of like Rorschach but he’s not Rorschach and neither are the Seventh Kalvary; Sister Night is kind of an amalgamation of Nite Owl and Silk Spectre, I guess, but is her own character, one who I just found to be angry and unrelatable in a way those characters weren’t; and Lady Trieu basically is her father…but is also far less compelling and nuanced. She just comes across as a nutcase whereas Veidt was always scarily logical and sane in his motivations. And then there are the returning characters; Laurie is a thoroughly unlikeable character now (though I did enjoy her calling out everyone around her for their bullshit and for dressing up in masks and costumes), Veidt is little like the highly intelligent and manipulative character he was in the comic, and Nite Owl is conspicuous (and much missed) in his absence.
Watchmen‘s returning characters are all very much worse for wear in the HBO series.
If you’re going to do a follow-up to Watchmen, I’m not sure why you would choose to focus 90% of your story on entirely new characters; a new generation should be included and be a vital part, for sure, but fans of Watchmen were fans of the characters in the book, not a whole bunch of copycats and also-rans who don’t quite match up to the complexities and nuance of their predecessors. Dr. Manhattan is probably the worst of all the returning characters, though; for all his grand-standing and posturing in Watchmen about leaving Earth behind to create life elsewhere, he simply played God, got bored, and then decided to enter into another relationship that was doomed to fail (he even admits this outright to Angela when they first meet) even though he was so far beyond and over such trivialities by the end of Watchmen. Honestly, I’m not entirely sure why HBO’s Watchmen was so critically acclaimed and so well received; while manycriticised Snyder’s Watchmen (and I can understand that given how different it is from the comic’s more subtle approach), it feels, for all its changes and alterations, much more like Watchmen than HBO’s Watchmen, which honestly could have been any old superhero drama. Having the Watchmen title, though, demands a certain level of expectation and, for me, HBO’s Watchmen comes close and is an interesting extension of the lore but fails to really live up to those expectations. It was like I kept waiting for it to kick into a higher gear, to go the extra mile, to tie everything up and really “become” Watchmen and it just never did. As an official continuation of the comic book, I find myself disappointed and apathetic to the world presented by HBO’s Watchmen, which is even more desolate and cynical than the comic (and Moore himself), as if that is even possible.
My Rating:
⭐
Rating: 1 out of 5.
Terrible
What did you think of HBO’s Watchmen? Which of the new characters was your most, or least, favourite and why? What did you think of the show’s mystery and conspiracy elements and the structure it adopted? Do you feel this was a suitable follow-up to Watchmen or, like me, were you disappointed by the show’s treatment of the comic book’s plot and returning characters? Do you think the show would have worked better if it had simply been a new adaptation of the comic book rather than a sequel? What did you think to the show’s exploration of Hooded Justice, its treatment of Dr. Manhattan, and the main plot of the show? Whatever your thoughts about HBO’s Watchmen, feel free to leave a comment below and pop back next Wednesday for one last piece of Watchmen content.
Sonic the Hedgehog was first introduced to gamers worldwide on 23 June 1991 and, since then, has become not only SEGA’s most enduring and popular character but also a beloved videogame icon. The Blue Blur turned thirty this year and, to celebrate, I’ve been dedicating every Friday to SEGA’s supersonic mascot.
Episode 37 to 40: “The Quest for the Chaos Emeralds”
Air Date: 26 October 1993 to 29 October 1993 UK Distributor: Channel 4 OriginalNetwork: ABC Stars: Jaleel White, Christopher Stephen Welch, Long John Baldry, Phil Hayes, Garry Chalk, and Jim Byrnes
The Plot: Doctor Robotnik (Baldry) has forced Professor Caninestein (Chalk) to build him a time machine so that he can acquire four magical Chaos Emeralds that would grant their bearer the powers of Invisibility, Invincibility, Immortality, and Life in a bid to become an all-powerful Demi-God. After escaping, Caninestein supplies Sonic (White) with the means to follow Robotnik across time and space to thwart his diabolical plot.
The Background: Sonic the Hedgehog blasted onto the videogame scene with his debut, self-titled release in 1991. Thanks to being bundled with the Mega Drive and SEGA’s aggressive marketing campaign, Sonic the Hedgehog (Sonic Team, 1991) was a huge success but Sonic’s popularity exploded after the release of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (SEGA Technical Institute, 1992). Suddenly, Sonic was everywhere: comic books, t-shirts, in the Macy’s Day Parade and, soon enough, on television in the form of not one but two concurrent cartoons. After seeing the success that DiC Entertainment had with producing cartoons that were effectively little more than half-hour advertisements for Nintendo’s videogames, characters, and franchises, SEGA of America contacted DiC to begin developing an animated series for their own super-sonic mascot. Artist Milton Knight set about redesigning Doctor Eggman (widely known at the time as Doctor Ivo Robotnik) into “Animation’s Sexiest Fat Man!” and Long John Baldry was cast in the role, reimagined as an egotistical, narcissistic blowhard. To help sell their pitch to ABC, DiC also roped in Jaleel White for the title role but ABC deemed their original slapstick pitch unsuitable for a Saturday morning slot. Undeterred, producer Robby London made the decision to develop an entirely separateSonic cartoon for the prime Saturday morning slot and develop Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog for syndication instead. The result was two vastly different Sonic cartoons, each with a differing tone and animation style and far removed from their source material; Adventures was comprised of sixty-five episodes of over-the-top, meme–worthy, slapstick humour while Sonic the Hedgehog (generally referred to as “SatAM”) was a far darker take on the franchise. Though both cartoons awkwardly collided when Archie Comics began publishing Sonic comic books, the majority of Adventures’ influence was eventually stripped away in favour of those from SatAM and Adventures is generally regarded less favourably than its darker counterpart with the notable exception of the four-part “Quest for the Chaos Emeralds” story arc.
The Review: While “Black Bot the Pirate” (Butterworth, 1993) forms the first in a four-part saga and is thus a rare example of continuous, sequential storytelling in what was generally a more fast-paced, comedic cartoon, it still contains many of the same elements that made up what can be loosely described as Adventures’ “charm”: an abundance of sight gags, slapstick, cheesy lines, and jokes. Having grown up with the series, I have a certain affection for some of these elements and Robotnik’s long-suffering, clumsy lackeys Scratch (Hayes) and Grounder (Chalk), who make for some of the most annoying and yet amusing characters in the series. Constantly getting into scrapes and bumbling even the simplest of plans, there’s a pretty funny gag right at the start of the episode where Scratch accidentally activates Robotnik’s time machine (which looks more than a little like H.G. Wells’ famous contraption and which Scratch mistakes for a vacuum cleaner) and returns as a roast chicken. It makes no sense but then that’s pretty much par for the course of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog.
Dr. Robotnik’s plot is unusually devious but he’s no less immune to falling for obvious tricks.
Robotnik, easily the most charismatic and appealing part of the cartoon, is unusually focused and determined in this first episode (and the entire saga); having learned of four Chaos Emeralds scattered throughout time and space, he wishes to acquire their individual and collective powers to become “Supreme High Robotnik”, a lofty goal that is far beyond his usual plots to destroy or take over towns, cities, or even the planet. Of course, Robotnik is as much his own worst enemy as Sonic is a hindrance to him; blinded by his egotism and quick temper, he’s quick to throw tantrums, is easily fooled, and makes massively glaring errors in judgement that often lead as much to his downfall as Sonic’s involvement. Long John Baldry really puts his all into portraying Robotnik as a loquacious and comically exaggerated character; in this episode, he is also joined by his pirate counterpart Black Beard (Byrnes), whom Robotnik transforms into a robot dubbed Black Bot. Unlike Scratcher and Grounder, Black Bot is a relatively competent minion as it forces Sonic and Tails off the ship; while Sonic is perfectly capable of swimming and his no fear of water in this cartoon, this does leave him and Tails at the mercy of a gigantic robotic whale.
There’s no situation Adventures-Sonic can’t find a way to escape out of.
While this causes a momentary issue for Sonic, who is unable to cut through the whale’s metallic shell, literally nothing is beyond the ability of Adventures-Sonic; he always has a solution for any situation whether by using his incredible speed, a series of elaborate disguises, or literally pulling a solution out of thin air. Jaleel White pretty much defined Sonic’s characterisation for generations of kids and, while I have a lot of respect for his work, as always it’s Sonic’s constant need to spout quips and one-liners that makes his character as aggravating as he is entertaining. No matter the situation or how bad the odds look, Sonic always finds a way to succeed and make fools of Robotnik and his robots; even when Robotnik has a time machine on hand to get the drop on him, Sonic is able to trick Robotnik into trapping him in the treasure chest with the Chaos Emerald and using its powers to best his foes. Even when Robotnik manages to steal back the Chaos Emerald and strand Sonic and Tails in the past, Sonic simply uses some dodgy time-manipulation to get them out of the jam.
Tails spends most of the episode being used as a hostage and in need of rescue.
Speaking of Tails, as is tradition for most Adventures’ episodes, there’s not really a lot for him to do here except say cringe-worthy stuff, act as a hostage, or provide minimal support for Sonic. He’s the very definition of the kid sidekick, existing mainly for Sonic to have someone to talk and brag to (though, ironically, Sonic is more than capable of simply breaking the fourth wall and addressing the audience directly). “Black Bot the Pirate” is a pretty standard episode of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog; as is often the case, there’s some enjoyment and humour to be found between the show’s more aggravating clichés and the influence of films such as the Back to the Future trilogy (Zemeckis, 1985 to 1990) and Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (Herek, 1989) is obvious, making for a quick shorthand to explain the show’s concepts of time travel. The second episode, “Hedgehog of the “Hound” Table” (Butterworth, 1993), begins with Doctor Robotnik, Scratch, and Grounder crash-landing in another time and place and with a recap of Robotnik’s plot to obtain four Chaos Emeralds and become and all-powerful “Supreme High Robotnik”. This is unusual for the series as, generally, episodes were not sequential or consecutive; characters and storylines did reappear and were revisited at times but, as a rule, every episode was a self-contained bit of wacky fun so seeing the cartoon actually attempt a concurrent storyline is a nice breath of fresh air.
This time, simply holding the Chaos Emerald isn’t enough to use its power.
Robotnik quickly finds the laboratory of Merlynx the Magician (Unknown) and, in his quest for the Chaos Emerald of Invincibility, obtains Merlynx’s magic wand and, in short order, the Chaos Emerald. However, unlike with the last Chaos Emerald, simply holding the gem isn’t enough to grant the wearer invincibility; instead, one must also become King of the Hound Table because…well, the episode needs to happen, I guess. Back in the present day, Sonic and Tails are still trying to relax on the beach when their good time is again interrupted by Professor Caninestein, who once again supplies Sonic with his time-travelling Atomic Relativity Boots. Immediately arriving at King Arfur’s (ibid) castle, Sonic and Tails meet the king’s daughter, Princess Gwendolyn (ibid), who plead for Sonic’s help in fending off the “Evil Bloated Knight” (spoilers: it’s Robotnik in a suit of armour). Motivated by the egotism he feels at being declared the “Holy Hedgehog”, Sonic, of course, agrees to help as Robotnik’s technology is surprisingly effective at dispatching the Knights of the Hound Table with minimal effort. I say “surprising” as, generally, Robotnik’s credibility is…sketchy at best especially because of the bungling and incompetent nature of his goons. This is emphasised in a short action scene wherein Sonic (with minimal assistance from Tails) humiliates the three in true Adventures slapstick fashion by tying up Robotnik’s moustache, painting a target on a wall, and tricking Grounder into taking out his own team mates.
Though momentarily distressed at his lack of speed, Sonic is still able to best Scratch and Grounder.
Robotnik then coerces Merlynx into using his magic to turn Sonic’s feet into solid rock, which robs him of his speed and allows Robotnik to steal Arfur’s crown; this is, apparently, enough to render Robotnik invincible, transforming him into a muscle-bound version of himself and locking Sonic and Tails in the castle dungeon. Being robbed of his speed makes Sonic uncharacteristically despondent…for a time. It’s not the first time he’s fallen into despair at the loss of his abilities in this, or other, cartoons and is an interesting wrinkle in his otherwise flawless character but we only see the briefest of glimpses into this aspect of his personality as he immediately perseveres to appeal to Merlynx to undo his spell. Even when Sonic is robbed of his speed, he is more than a match for Scratch and Grounder; you’d think this would be the perfect opportunity for Tails to actually help Sonic but he doesn’t even carry him to Merlynx’s house or help take out the Badniks when they block their path. After they separate Robotnik from the Chaos Emerald, Tails actually lays claim to it and briefly transforms into his own hulking form…but does nothing with that power beyond childish posturing. Still, at least he isn’t constantly used as a hostage this time around.
Even after becoming invincible, Robotnik is as foolish and bungling as ever.
You might also think that being rendered invincible pretty much means Robotnik has claimed victory but of course not; not only does Robotnik not kill Sonic and Tails when he has the chance, he quickly falls into boredom with his kingship, and foolishly agrees to answer Sonic’s challenge for a jousting match. Although the Chaos Emerald renders him unbeatable, he wears the damn thing on his head, under his helmet, for some reason so he loses his powers when he is knocked off his horse by a cactus plant Sonic randomly plants on the battlefield. In the end, it is Robotnik’s own bumbling nature that causes his downfall as he is easily goaded into falling for Sonic’s tricks and winds up being packed off to a Roman coliseum. “Hedgehog of the “Hound” Table” is marginally better than the first episode; for one thing, there’s a bit more action and a few more interesting characters in this episode compared to the last one. There’s not a lot to Merlynx, Princess Gwendolyn, and King Arfur beyond being one-dimensional characters in exactly the roles you’d expect (wacky reclusive magician, stuttering, worrisome princess, and wholesome, honourable king, respectively) but they help to make the episode a bit more lively compared to the more barren and lifeless setting of the last episode. However, of all of the episodes that make up the “Quest for the Chaos Emeralds” saga, the third episode, “Robotnik’s Pyramid Scheme” (Butterworth, 1993), is the only one I actually watched as a kid. Somehow, I missed the previous two episodes, and the final part of the saga, despite religiously watching and/or taping each episode of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog every Sunday morning. Still, here in the United Kingdom, the airing of Sonic cartoons was a little in flux; I remember watching Adventures one week and then waking up the next week to find it had inexplicably changed in tone and narrative and was suddenly the far darker SatAM with no explanation as far as I could see.
In trying to stop himself from being erased, Sonic accidentally undoes his own birth!
Again, sequential narratives weren’t really a thing in Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog so it’s surprisingly unique to find this episode picking up almost immediately where “Hedgehog of the “Hound” Table” left off with Robotnik, Scratch, and Grounder running for their lives in an ancient coliseum. After a brief encounter with his equally rotten ancestor, Julius Robotnikus, Robotnik helpfully brings any new viewers up to speed before heading to Ancient Mobigypt. This opening serves a few purposes; obviously, first and foremost, it’s to continue the story but it also places a bit more emphasis on the characters meeting their ancestors, something that is of particular importance to this episode’s plot. This is further emphasised back at the beach, where Professor Caninestein reveals that Sonic’s bloodline is being systematically erased from history due to Robotnik’s actions in the past. Rather than being provided with his time travelling Atomic Relativity Boots, Sonic is gifted the Time Warp Boogie Board to travel back in time and keep himself from being erased. Unfortunately, while Sonic and Tails manage to rescue Sonic’s ancestor, Masonic (White), from Robotnik, they inadvertently interrupt the meeting between Masonic and his fated future wife, Penelope (Cathy Weseluck), which causes Sonic to be erased from history.
Apparently, it’s easier to use time-bending shenanigans than to break some flimsy chains?
Yeah, it’s basically the plot of Back to the Future (Zemeckis, 1985); however, thanks to the convenient fact that Tails not only remains in the past but also still remembers someone who never existed, being erased from existence is only a minor inconvenience for Sonic as Tails simply forces Masonic and Penelope to meet, instantly returning Sonic to life. Rather than actually removing the infallible Sonic from the plot and having Tails team up with Masonic in an effort to undo their actions, what should be a major plot point is almost immediately undone and, once again, Tails is rendered to a mere sidekick. Similarly, when the Pharaoh of Mobigypt (Chalk) refuses to give up the location of the Chaos Emerald, Robotnik declares himself Pharaoh and forces Sonic, Tails, and Masonic to spend the next twenty or thirty years building pyramids. Oddly, it’s actually easier for Sonic to repeat the same time-bending trick he pulled in “Black Bot the Pirate” and carve a hieroglyphic message for Professor Caininestein to conjure up a saw to cut through their piddling little chains that it is for him to simply buzz saw through them but I guess that wouldn’t be anywhere near as impressive as having Sonic “Mary Stu” his way out of another hopeless situation.
In a morbid twist, Robotnikhotep would rather die than endlessly fight with his version of Sonic.
Still, they’re unable to keep Robotnik from discovering that the Chaos Emerald is hidden deep within the booby-trapped pyramid of Robotnikhotep (Baldry); this is where Scratch and Grounder are at their best as they first squabble over which of them is smart and fast enough to decipher the clues that lead Robotnik to the pyramid and then constantly run afoul of the pyramid’s many traps to keep Robotnik safe from harm. There’s even a surprising nod to the videogames in the pyramid’s final puzzle, which requires a number of Golden Rings to be collected; it’s always nice when the cartoons actually include some of the more obscure gameplay elements of the source material. However, they all wind up in the burial chamber and encounter Robotnikhotep, who is functionally immortal thanks to the Chaos Emerald he wears; after a mummified hedgehog (White) awakens and defeats Robotnikhotep, Robotnik takes the Chaos Emerald from his ancestor and gains immortality. In a surprisingly poignant exchange, Robotnikhotep expresses gratitude for being relieved of not only the curse of immortality but the constant interference of Sonic’s mummified counterpart.
Robotnik’s immortality is quickly bested by Sonic’s own emerald powers.
In the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog universe, “immortality” is realised not only as everlasting life but also, apparently, immunity to harm as, once Robotnik has the gem, Sonic’s attacks simply bounce off of him. Although, again, Robotnik has claimed near-unstoppable power, Sonic is easily able to defeat him by being gifted an emerald of his own (whether it’s a Chaos Emerald or not is not made clear but, judging by its blue colouration, it doesn’t appear to be one of the legendary gems) that grants him a “blue energy shield” and the means to take the immortal Robotnik down and secure his future. “Robotnik’s Pyramid Scheme” is probably the best of the “Chaos Emerald” saga so far thanks to the influences and unashamed homages to Back to the Future; unfortunately, it squanders the potential of a largely Sonic-less plot by undoing his erasure within about two minutes of it occurring. This could have been a good chance to have Tails take a more proactive role and still involve a Sonic-like character in Masonic, having Sonic return to life in far more dramatic fashion for the action-packed conclusion but, instead, it’s just another excuse to show how flawless Sonic is. The final episode, “Prehistoric Sonic” (Butterworth, 1993) begins exactly where the last episode left off, with Robotnik, Scratch, and Grounder escaping back into the timestream to hunt down the final Chaos Emerald. However, Professor Caninestein once again supplies Sonic with a new time machine (a time-travelling skateboard, naturally) so that Sonic and Tails can put a stop to Robotnik’s plot once and for all. Robotnik and his Badniks arrive in prehistoric times, soon followed by Sonic and Tails, with the characters quickly encountering the prehistoric Mobians who are guard the volcano where the Chaos Emerald lies waiting.
Robotnik has the power of life in his hands and uses it to its…fullest..? extent…
Robotnik conjures up a gigantic robotic dinosaur to take care of Sonic and Tails; Sonic is, of course, immediately able to tame the Badnik and turn it against Robotnik’s underlings, however, and when Robotnik attempts to obtain the Chaos Emerald he is stopped by the volcano’s monstrous guardian, Magma the Volcano God. Like Stonekeeper (Ross Marquand), the lava creature demands a sacrifice before anyone can claim the Chaos Emerald, so Robotnik willingly and casually tosses Scratch and Grounder to certain doom in order to get his hands on it. Now imbued with the power of life, Robotnik conjures lava minions of his own to finally capture Sonic and Tails; actually learning from his past mistakes, he even ties Tails’ tails together so there’s no chance of them surviving a plummet into the volcano. But, of course, Sonic is easily able to escape his fate and get them to safety, so Robotnik reunites with his Badniks and flees, victorious, back into the timestream.
Robotnik finally becomes a God and immediately sets his sights disappointingly low…
Sonic and Tails immediately give chase, heading back to Ancient Mobigypt, but are too late to stop Robotnik from stealing the Chaos Emerald of Immortality from Robotnikhotep. Next, they head back to medieval times and arrive right as Robotnik claims the Chaos Emerald of Invincibility with minimal effort. Now immune to all of Sonic’s attacks, there’s nothing stopping Robotnik from digging up the final Chaos Emerald, the Chaos Emerald of Invisibility, and finally claiming all four as his own as Robotnik brings a treasure chest to life to cover his escape. Returning to the present day, Robotnik makes a suitably dramatic show of placing all four Chaos Emeralds around his neck (…even though he had already three of them around his neck) and transforming into “Supreme High Robotnik, Master of the Universe”, a gargantuan, God-like version of himself who immediately begins destroying a nearby town in a demonstration of his power. With his limitless powers, Robotnik easily throws Sonic and Tails to the beginning of the universe (of course represented by a gigantic stick of dynamite). However, after managing to escape (with trademark ease), they concoct a plan to defeat Supreme High Robotnik: using their time machine, they travel back through time and recruit a small army of their past selves for help.
Even when he’s a God, Robotnik is toppled with ease as, for some reason, he still feels pain…
After the five Tailses render Robotnik visible, the five Sonics are…somehow…able to damage and hurt Robotnik enough to bring him crashing to the ground with a pathetic amount of ease. Toppled, Sonic easily retrieves the Chaos Emeralds, stripping Robotnik of his God-like abilities, and ending his desires for the gems, and veritable omnipotence, once and for all. Honestly, this is quite a disappointing end to the saga as, even with the combined powers of the Chaos Emeralds, Robotnik is defeated way too easily. There was potential here for a veritable army of Sonics to attack Robotnik but, instead, the episode limits itself to just five. Sonic could also have used the Chaos Emeralds to become Super Sonic but the cartoons never seemed able to actually adapt this element into their stories so, instead, the Sonics simply attack Robotnik until he falls to the ground. There’s never a question that Sonic could fail in facing Robotnik’s ultimate form. Even when he’s thrown to the beginning of time it’s little more than a minor inconvenience; being trapped inside of an anthropomorphised treasure chest is more of an obstacle for him as he actually needs Tails’s help to escape because, again, he never thinks to just spin his way free. Other than that, and dropping flour on Supreme High Robotnik, Tails is next to useless in this episode and is simply along for the ride to screech out the obvious or words of panic or encouragement.
The Summary: It’s rare that Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog actually uses gameplay mechanics from the videogames; although the series contained more references and nods to its source material than SatAM, these were still few and far between thanks to the cartoon’s focus on slapstick humour and largely original, self-contained episodes. As a result, the concept of the Chaos Emeralds is massively different compared to how they are portrayed in the videogames but it makes for a unique spin on the mechanic to have their powers more explicitly defined and associated with different abilities. In a small example of how low the standards were for the cartoon, though, there are a few instances where the characters say “invisible” or “invisibility” instead of “invincible” and “invincibility”. Still, seeing Robotnik obtain the Chaos Emerald of Invincibility and actually attain its power was a nice, if brief, distraction; had he acquired this power and Merlynx’s wand (which the episode establishes that Robotnik, and anyone for that matter, can easily wield), he arguably could have laid claim to complete victory but, of course, that was never going to happen as Sonic had to emerge victorious by the episode’s end. Nevertheless, actually getting a glimpse of the potential of “Supreme High Robotnik” helps to understand the stakes involved and why it’s so important to keep all of the gems out of his hands.
Robotnik constantly squanders his God-like powers, remaining little more than a bumbling idiot.
Something I do enjoy about these episodes compared to many episodes of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog is how many elements it includes from the videogames; obviously, we have the inclusion of a Chaos Emerald but the traps, obstacles, and danger of the pyramid remind me quite a bit of the hazards encountered in Sonic the Hedgehog (in particular the Marble and Labyrinth Zones). Having the Badniks be forced to collect Golden Rings to enter the burial chamber was also a nice touch and we get the briefest glimpse of the threat “Supreme High Robotnik” could pose if he obtained all four Chaos Emeralds thanks to seeing him actually wielding the power of the Chaos Emerald of Immortality…even if he is, again, defeated with comparative ease. In the end, the “Quest for the Chaos Emeralds” saga had so much potential in seeing Robotnik’s dreams of Godhood realised in full form but, instead, the final episode wastes too much of its runtime back in the past and on the acquisition of the Chaos Emerald of Life. For a man of such vaulted intelligence and imagination, Robotnik is surprisingly rubbish at using the powers of the Chaos Emeralds, or his assumed omnipotence, to their full extent, simply conjuring up a few ineffectual goons and growing to gargantuan size. He obtains the Chaos Emerald of Invisibility but remains visible 95% of the time; he has the Chaos Emerald of Invincibility and Immortality but is able to feel pain and be brought to his knees despite being immune to Sonic’s attacks in previous episodes (and even earlier in this episode!), and he has the Chaos Emerald of Life but doesn’t just strip and Sonic and Tails of their lives. Obviously, a lot of these things would render the episode unwatchable but I still think we could have gotten a much better, more interesting saga if Robotnik had dominated Mobius as Supreme High Robotnik and Sonic and Tails had been forced to go to a little more effort to end his threat.
Sonic the Comic did the God/Super-Robotnik story arc far better.
As a four-part saga, the “Quest for the Chaos Emeralds” is pretty good when watched sequentially as a kind of mini movie or television special. Had the saga been presented in this manner, it might have benefited from this format and been able to balance its pacing and structure a little better. Instead, each episode is still largely self-contained and concerned more with being just another fun entry in a largely slapstick cartoon series and, as a result, too much of the runtime is spent lingering and on padding rather than seeing Robotnik being all-powerful and actually dominating his nemesis for a change. Unfortunately though, similar plots have been done far better in Sonic the Comic (1993 to 2002) and, while the saga is a cut above the usual madcap nature of the cartoon and has some interesting ideas, it ultimately wastes a lot of the potential of the multi-part format and its plot.
My Rating:
⭐⭐
Rating: 2 out of 5.
Could Be Better
What did you think to the four-part “Quest for the Chaos Emeralds” and the eventual realisation of “Supreme High Robotnik”? Would you have liked to see more episodes taking a similar multi-part format or revolving around gameplay elements like the Chaos Emeralds or did you prefer the cartoon’s wackier, slapstick tone? Where you surprised to see the Chaos Emeralds playing such a pivotal role in the series or were you, perhaps, annoyed and confused as to why they were depicted so differently? Which character from Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog did you like, or hate, the most and what did you think about the cartoon’s tone and aesthetic? Whatever your thoughts, feel free to share your memories of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog in the comments below.
In April of 1940, about a year after the debut of arguably their most popular character, Bruce Wayne/Batman, DC Comics debuted “the sensational find of [that year]”, Dick Grayson/Robin. Since then, Batman’s pixie-boots-wearing partner has changed outfits and a number of different characters have assumed the mantle as the Dynamic Duo of Batman and Robin have become an iconic staple of DC Comics. Considering my fondness for the character and those who assumed the mantle over the years, what better way to celebrate this dynamic debut than to dedicate an entire month to celebrating the character?
Season One
Air Date: 12 October 2018 to 21 December 2018 UK Network: Netflix OriginalNetwork: DC Universe Stars: Brenton Thwaites, Teagan Croft, Anna Diop, Ryan Potter, Alan Ritchson, Minka Kelly, and Curran Walters
The Background: In July of 1964, the sidekicks of DC Comics’ most powerful superheroes came together under the leadership of Dick Grayson/Robin to form the Teen Titans, a crimefighting group of teenagers who were designed to better appeal to younger readers. Since then, the group has undergone many changes, with runs by the likes of Marv Wolfman and George George Pérez being notably influential, and the team has seen success in a number of animated ventures. Development of a live-action adaption was first announced in 2014; the series, which would have aired on TNT, never came to fruition but the concept was resurrected to produce content for DC Universe, DC’s now-defunct video-on-demand streaming service. Separate from the ongoing “Arrowverse” continuity, Titans got off to a bit of a bad start due to the violent and adult nature of the show and was criticised for its abrupt cliffhanger ending after the true season finale was pulled to become the first episode of the second series. Regardless (and despite the vitriol I often see towards the show on my Twitter feed), Titansimpressed enough to earn subsequent seasons, inspired a spin-off show, and was even acknowledged as being adjacent to the Arrowverse during the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover event (Various, 2019 to 2020).
The Plot: Dick Grayson/Robin (Thwaites), who is attempting to make a name for himself outside of Bruce Wayne/Batman’s (Alain Moussi/Maxime Savaria) shadow, works as a police detective by day and violent vigilante by night. When the mysterious Rachel Roth/Raven (Croft) comes to him for protection against the dangerous forces pursuing her, Dick finds himself joining forces with not only similarly confused and superpowered misfits but also his former Titans teammates to combat a threat to the entire world.
The Review: Unsurprisingly, much of Titans’ plot revolves around Dick Grayson, who now works as a police detective in Detroit; trying to make a name for himself as a solo act, he is very much against being partnered up with anyone, even within his own department, which makes him somewhat cold and rude towards his new partner, Amy Rohrbach (Lindsey Gort). Dick uses the information and resources of the Detroit police department to track down criminals and bring them to justice as Robin; while the scum he targets immediately dismiss him and are more concerned about Batman, they quickly regret it when faced with Robin’s ferocity and his presence concerns his superior (and the mayor). Dick reveals to Amy that he and his former partner disagreed on the way to go about their work; initially, Dick admired him and saw him as a hero, just like everyone else, but chose to walk away when he saw that he (Dick) was becoming too much like him. Clearly, he’s talking about Batman and this is a recurring theme throughout the show; a much darker and more violent figure, his vicious nature is augmented by his great physical skill and Batman’s training, making him a formidable and well-training combatant who is easily able to take on groups of armed men. Dick isn’t adverse to using knives, guns, and whatever means necessary (even appearing to fatally wound some thugs) to put a beating on lowlifes and seems to both revel in, and be disgusted by, his violent impulses.
Dick uses his position as a cop to track down and bring criminals to justice as Robin.
However, as meticulous and skilled as he is, he’s still vulnerable and carries the results of his actions on his body in the forms of bruises, cuts, and scars; his primary motivation, as Robin and as a police detective, is to help out troubled kids and youngsters targeted by criminals. This naturally leads to him to Rachel, who is clearly framed as the audience surrogate right from the start (her nightmares of Haley’s Circus show her (and us) Dick’s origins as a trapeze artist and the tragic death of his parents) and is our unknown, confused, window into this world of costumes and masks. Such nightmares are a regular occurrence for her that, despite her mother Melissa’s (Sherilyn Fenn) best efforts, continue to torment and frighten Rachel; Rachel, clearly influenced by some dark power, is an empath and can sense a great fear emanating from her deeply religious mother. An outcast at school, Rachel’s fears and confusion lead her to sporadic outbursts of aggression, often accompanied by a dark reflection of herself and a shadowy, ethereal aura. When a mysterious man forces Melissa to reveal that she’s not Rachel’s actual mother and then brutally murders her right in front of Rachel’s eyes, she goes on the run and, driven by her nightmares, heads to Detroit to track down Dick Grayson for help. Though she fears her dark half, which encourages both violence and the need to kill, it acts primarily to protect her from lies and deceit, which allows her to escape from some suspicious types and end up right where she needs to be: police custody. Dick’s relationship with Rachel is a pivotal aspect of Titans; at first, though driven to help her, he plans to leave her in the care of others (with a payoff to sweeten the deal) since he feels that he’s damaged after what Bruce trained him to become.
Kory uncovers evidence that links Rachel and her dark powers to a prophecy.
While his mindset soon changes and he becomes fiercely protective of her, she forms a bond out of necessity with Kory Anders (Diop) when her trust in Dick is shaken. A mysterious and enigmatic young woman suffering from amnesia, Kory’s relationship with Rachel is based as much on necessity as Rachel’s inability to feel anything from Kory, who is inexplicably able to read and speak foreign languages and wields an equally destructive power. Desperate to unlock her memories and find out who she really is, and believing that Rachel is the key to her true identity, Kory uncovers evidence linking Rachel to an apocalyptic prophecy concerning ravens and a vast underworld conspiracy involving the convent where Rachel was raised. However, while Sister Catherine (Meagen Fay) immediately recognises them both and reveals some scant information on Rachel’s childhood and Kory’s mission to track her down, she quickly drugs Rachel and locks her in the convent’s basement in order to hide her from “him”. Rachel’s dark half manifests and, after tormenting her with taunts, empowers her to escape from her confinement and out into the nearby forest. Scared and alone, she crosses paths with Gar Logan/Beast Boy (Potter), a green-haired boy who can transform into a disappointingly rendered CGI tiger. Obsessed with pop culture, movies, videogames, and geek culture, Gar is an awkward, quirky outcast who sees a kindred spirit in Rachel and who desires to explore the outside world and, in an effort to connect with her, brings Rachel to the manor house he shares with his fellow misfits, the Doom Patrol: Cliff Steel/Robotman (Jake Michaels and Brendan Fraser), Larry Trainor/Negative Man (Dwain Murphy and Matt Bomer), and Rita Farr/Elasti-Woman (April Bowlby). Each of them, like Gar, was involved in some kind of hideous accident that left them near death only to be saved (and horrifically changed) through the innovation and genius of the mysterious Niles Caulder/The Chief (Bruno Bichir). Rachel finally feels a sense of belonging amongst these freaks and outcasts, each of whom reflect the complex nature of her own self and dark powers: hidden behind his bandages, Larry is unable to reveal himself because of the destructive nature of his condition, Cliff is robbed of the trivial pleasures we all take for granted, and Rita is barely able to hold herself together to appear normal.
Brought together by tragedy, Hawk and Dove continue to fight crime as costumed vigilantes.
The Chief, however, is angered that Gar threatened their sanctity by leaving the house and bringing an outsider amongst them; despite a glimmer of a threatening, dubious nature, the Doom Patrol are all incredibly thankful and loyal to him for saving their lives and willingly allow the Chief to run his experiments in order to advance the betterment of human lives. The Chief promises that he can also help Rachel and her condition as well but, while she initially allows him to run some tests, she almost immediately changes her mind and grows scared. Although Gar tries to help her, the Chief tranquilises him and, angered by this, Rachel’s dark half manifests as a swirling dark liquid that attacks and paralyses him and frees her. Dick and Kory arrive just in time and Dick is able to talk Rachel down and promises to help her, reuniting them once more. Encouraged by Cliff, Gar goes with them to live a life outside of the mansion, setting the team up for their own strangely unrelated spin-off. Not that Dick is without his allies as well; initially, he plans to leave Rachel with Hank Hall/Hawk (Ritchson) and Dawn Granger/Dove (Kelly) in Washington, two of his former Titans allies who continue to operate as costumed vigilantes. As damaged as Dick is, Hank is equally traumatised by his past when, as a young boy (Tait Blum), he was sexually abused by his football coach to spare his younger half-brother Don (Jayden Marine). As teenagers, Hank and Don (Elliot Knight) became the first Hawk and Dove to specifically target sex offenders and to give Hank an outlet for his anger but Hank’s world was shattered when Don was killed in a random car accident. This same accident also took the life of Dawn’s mother, Marie (Marina Sirtis), and, in time, the two form a bond over their shared grief and need for an outlet for their unresolved issues. After she discovers Hank’s makeshift Hawk gear, Hank finally opens up about the abuse he suffered as a child and, together, they bring justice to his abuser and become the new Hawk and Dove. By the time of Titans, however, Hank is heavily reliant upon painkillers and pills, carries multiple scars, and is in near constant pain from a lifetime of crimefighting in addition to the multiple concussions he suffered during his college football days. The two plan on retiring from their violent double life once they finish breaking up a gang of gunrunners and, though he’s stubborn and pig-headed, Dawn is clearly devoted to Hank and supportive of him despite his injuries and impotence.
Dick is disturbed to find Bruce has replaced him with the arrogant and violent Jason Todd.
Flashbacks cast some light on their time together as Titans, where Dawn had a thing for Dick and Hank, being the arrogant meathead that he is, was rightly jealous and condescending towards Robin. Hank is unimpressed that Dick has come back into their lives and, resentful of Dick’s former relationship with Dawn, also has no faith or trust in Dick at all because of their past in the Titans. However, even Hank is horrified to see how brutal Robin has become as he throws his shurikens into a man’s eye, crushes another man’s balls, and viciously takes out the gun dealers before their shocked eyes, while Dawn sees a correlation between Dick’s relationship with Rachel and how Bruce helped him as a kid. Dick is disturbed, angry, and resentful to discover that Bruce has replaced him with Jason Todd (Walters), who acts as the new Robin, a vicious and arrogant youth who revels in being Batman’s partner, basks in the upgrades in his suit compared to Dick’s, and takes a perverse pleasure in being Robin and part of Batman’s legacy (even while acknowledging that his role is mainly to draw fire away from Batman). A largely annoying and grating character without even really needing to be, Dick is annoyed when Jason reveals that Bruce implanted tracking devices into the both of them and revoked his access to his newer technology. Dick tries to send Jason back to Gotham City and discourages him from continuing his life as Robin; despite trying to convince him that Bruce’s methods and motivations are less than benign, Jason reveals that he was sent there with evidence that his old circus family has been brutally murdered to send a message to him and that someone knows his true identity. Together, they track down the last surviving member of the circus, Clayton Williams (Lester Speight), who was like Dick’s surrogate father back in the day, who is almost immediately abducted by the perpetrator of the murders, the Phantom-like Nick Zucco (Kyle Mac), the “Melting Man” and son of gangster Tony Zucco (Richard Zeppieri), the man who killed Dick’s parents.
Donna advises Dick and helps uncover the truth about Kory and Rachel.
Nick is out for revenge because Dick, as Robin, intercepted Zucco during his transfer, mercilessly beat him and left him to die (watched him, no less) at the hands of the Maroni’s and their acid-firing weapons and then murdered the rest of Nick’s family. Goaded into a trap by Nick, Robin goes to save Clayton and, thanks to Jason, is able to subdue him. When the local cops show up, though, Jason brutalises them and, seeing the darkness he fears in himself mirrored in Jason, Dick is disgusted at Jason’s attitude. Initially, Jason regards Dick with awe and respect and they form a tenuous brotherly bond but, as their relationship sours due to their conflicting methods and attitudes, this is replaced a mixture of contempt and loathing for having walked away from such a sweet gig. Dick struggles with the idea of being replaced so quickly; he doesn’t want to be Robin and is trying to step away from Bruce’s shadow and influence but doesn’t want to see another kid be turned into a weapon like he was and resents the fact that Bruce has been keeping tabs on him while simultaneously keeping him out of the loop. When Dick finally decides to walk away from his Robin persona and burns his uniform, he seeks out another of his former Titans allies, Donna Troy/Wonder Girl (Conor Leslie). Having first met as teenage sidekicks, Dick and Donna formed the Titans back in the day and she’s one of the few people left who Dick feels will properly understand what he’s going through. Donna, now an investigative journalist, has long since walked away from her life as a costumed adventurer, Amazon, and Diana Prince/Wonder Woman’s sidekick, and is able to offer Dick some insight into what it means to redefine oneself outside of the shadow of one’s mentor and to help improve his social skills. Dick, however, finds it difficult to socialise and to keep his mind from wandering back to the “job”; despite being so composed, confident, and controlled when in the field or concentrating on superhero work, he’s a bit of a fish out of water in normal, everyday situations. His paranoia leads to him following Donna as she meets with a game hunter in pursuit of a story and disrupting her attempts to bring down a much bigger operation through his reckless attempt to take one more scumbag off the streets. Although Donna chastises him for his efforts, she encourages him to find a new path, one that isn’t Robin or Batman and is more productive than violent. Donna is also able to offer some insight into the strange text from Kory’s lockup that suggests that Kory’s true mission is actually to kill Rachel.
Adamson sends the disturbing Nuclear Family to track down Rachel.
The intrigue regarding the true nature of Rachel’s power and destiny is a central aspect of Titans; an empath, she’s able to feel and sense the pain of those around her, is frequently tormented by her dark half (which manifests in reflective surfaces and possess her during times of great stress), but also demonstrates the ability to heal the wounds of others. Rachel is targeted by the mysterious Organisation, which is headed by the dubious Dr. Adamson (Reed Birney); Adamson activates the “Nuclear Family” (a group of brainwashed psychopaths comprised of Nuclear Dad (Jeff Clarke), Nuclear Mom (Melody Johnson), Nuclear Sis (Jeni Ross), and Nuclear Biff (Logan Thompson) and, later, Nuclear Stepdad (Zach Smadu)) to track Rachel down so that she can fulfil her destiny to “purify the world”. Disturbingly polite and unnervingly relentless, the Nuclear Family gain formidable abilities from a mysterious vitamin shot, dog the protagonists at every turn, and even put Dawn into a coma during a particularly ferocious attack. Thanks to Dick’s intervention, the team are able to subdue the family but they are killed when Adamson remote detonates the explosives in their heads though, in the process, the team are led to the asylum where Rachel’s real mother, Angela Azarath (Rachel Nichols), is being held captive. This leads to probably the weakest episode of the season, “Asylum” (Kalymnios, 2018), which sees the team captured when they attempt to breach the facility and rescue Angela. The main reason this makes for the weakest episode is the unnecessary drama that sees Rachel and Gar head off on their own foolhardy rescue mission simply because Rachel couldn’t wait ten minutes for Dick to scope out the asylum’s defences and layout. As a result, all of them are captured and subjected to Adamson’s torturous experiments): Dick struggles to counteract Adamson’s serum, which forces him to confront his worst fears about himself and his past; Kory is locked in a dark cell that renders her powers useless and forced to endure an invasive procedure; and Gar is routinely poked with a cattle prod to provoke his transformation.
Dick struggles against his violent impulses and often loses control of himself.
Rachel is left in the disturbing company of Adamson himself, who tries to coerce her into assisting him by forcing her to watch her newfound friends suffer their individual tortures and winds up choking to death on his own blood as a result of Rachel’s unleashed wrath. Rachel then rescues her mother and teammates with a ridiculous amount of ease but Gar is left traumatised after he mauls one of his tormentors to death and this continues to haunt him throughout the remainder of the season. A primary plot point of Titans revolves around Dick’s struggle against his violent nature; believing that Batman’s training turned him into little more than a living weapon, he reveals to Rachel that he began to fear the violence he was forced to inflict to help others and to Kory that he had to walk away from his past because he was growing dangerously close to the edge. While he hasn’t operated as Robin for at least a year by the start of the season, he vehemently opposes any machinations to turn innocent kids into weapons and, even when not in his Robin costume, Dick often struggles with his violent nature; desperate to find Rachel after she goes missing, he briefly loses control and viciously beats a hunter who spotted her in the forest in front of his child, much to Kory’s shock, and absolutely brutalises the asylum’s guards during their escape from the facility and even instructs Kory burn the entire building to the ground (presumably killing everyone left inside). His rage stems from his traumatic childhood after first witnessing the murder of his parents and then having his rage and grief turned towards costumed crimefighting by Batman. However, as violent as Dick can be, Bruce’s training also made him a competent and capable leader; when Dick, Kory, Gar, and Rachel make their new alliance official, Dick begins a training regime to teach them how to master their individual abilities and work together as a cohesive team. All of these plot threads culminate in the season’s final episode, “Dick Grayson” (Winter, 2018); by this time, Kory’s true identity as Koriand’r of the alien world Tamaran is revealed and, with it, the knowledge that Rachel is doomed to bring her demonic father, Trigon (Seamus Dever), into being so that he can devour both of their worlds.
Dick is drawn into a confrontation with Batman after his mentor goes on a killing spree.
Betrayed by Angela, who was in league with Trigon all along, Rachel is manipulated into summoning her father to save Gar’s life and, after restoring Gar, Trigon sets in motion a plot to break Rachel’s heart in order to facilitate his master plan. He does this by thrusting Dick into a dreamworld where he is happily retired and settled down with Dawn; however, his idyllic life is shattered when Jason, now confined to a wheelchair after a botched mission against Edward Nygma/The Riddler, arrives to tell him that Batman has become obsessed with killing Joker in retaliation for his torture and killing of Commissioner James Gordon. Thanks to Trigon’s influence, Dick is compelled to return to Gotham (a dreary and rainswept hellhole where crime, debauchery, and violence are rife, turning the very streets into a desolate warzone) to try and talk Bruce away from the edge. However, despite Dick’s best efforts, Batman murders the Joker in cold blood and then goes on a killing spree throughout Arkham Asylum, killing the Riddler, Harvey Dent/Two-Face, Arnold Wesker/The Ventriloquist and many of the other guards and patients. After revealing Bruce’s identity to the authorities, Dick directs a SWAT team on an all-out assault on Wayne Manor that leaves them all slaughtered at Batman’s hands (including Kory, thanks to Batman busting out Doctor Victor Fries/Mister Freeze’s cold gun). Enraged, Dick orders the entire mansion to be destroyed by C4 explosives and, amongst the rubble and the wreckage, he finds Batman pinned helplessly beneath the debris; driven to the edge, Dick succumbs to the darkness and, with one swift boot, murders his mentor and father figure and, in the process, falls under Trigon’s spell to end the season on a massive cliff-hanger made all the more intriguing by the brief tease of Kon-El/Superboy (Brooker Muir) in a post credits scene.
The Summary: As much as I enjoy Titans (and, honestly, I really do, being a big fan of Robin and happy to see him actually get some acknowledgement and spotlight in live-action for a change), there are a couple of things that I find more than a little disappointing about it. Like many, I was a bit perturbed by Robin’s “Fuck Batman!” line and, while the violence and swearing was entertaining and brutal throughout the show, I do question if it’s really necessary in superhero adaptations that aren’t traditionally violent characters, like Frank Castle/The Punisher or Wade Wilson/Deadpool. Next is the fact that it exists in its own continuity separate from both the DC movies and television shows and this is a shame as it could easily have bridged to the Arrowverse by including Wally West/Kid Flash (Keiynan Lonsdale) or even been adjacent to the DC Extended Universe by including a cameo by Jeremy Irons as Alfred. Titans’ position as a separate, unrelated continuity was solidified in the second season, which upgraded Bruce Wayne from a mere cameo and into a fully realised (and surprisingly old) character played by Iain Glen.
Both Robin suits are impressive and Batman cuts a monstrous figure.
However, Titans excels in both casting and costume design; Brenton Thwaites is great as Dick Grayson and made for a pretty fantastic Robin and his costume, especially, is absolutely top notch in Titans. Both Robin suits look amazing and have probably the best and most practical look of any superhero show; clearly inspired by the awesome and sadly doomed suit that appeared all-too-briefly in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice(Snyder, 2016) and Tim Drake’s Robin costume, their dark, gritty, armoured look enables both Robins to not only appear imposing but also move unimpeded and look like they would hold up perfectly well in a big budget film. Similarly, although he only appears very briefly in the final episode, Batman also looks particularly impressive, especially compared to his depictions in Gotham (2014 to 2019) and Batwoman (2019 to present). Referenced continuously throughout the season, Batman is built up as this elusive, near mythological figure and his brief appearance leans heavily into that; frantic editing makes him appear as a monstrous, inhuman figure and the nightmarish appearance of his suit only serves to emphasis this further.
Sadly, the special effects don’t always do justice to the characters or the practical suits.
Hawk and Dove also benefit from Titans’ high-quality costume design; though very different from my limited experience with their comic book counterparts, their heavily armoured suits look both practical and ridiculous at the same time, appearing well-worn and dangerous thanks to their sharp appendages. However, it goes a bit downhill once we get to Kory; for the most part, she’s serviceable enough despite being a far more promiscuous and forthright character than in most interpretations, but her outfits are limited to tight fitting dresses that only somewhat recall her traditional costume. Similarly, Rachel’s not quite the sour, serious and withdrawn goth she’s usually characterised as and is, generally, portrayed as more of a confused and troubled teenager garbed in a vaguely raven-like hoody. Sadly, it’s Gar that suffers the most in Titans; of all the characters, he’s the one that sticks out the most to me as he doesn’t seem to really fit with the rest of the team and ends up being more of an afterthought most of the time. While the special effects used to bring Kory’s powers work, largely due to how infrequent and grounded they are depicted, Gar’s are pretty dreadful, making his animal forms resemble little more than cartoony creatures, which is a bit disappointing considering the quality of the special effects in the likes of Swamp Thing (2019), how impressive the CGI is in shows like The Flash (2014 to present), and the effort Titans went to the faithfully recreate the other members of the Doom Patrol.
Trigon manipulates Dick into succumbing to his influence in order to devour the world.
References to the larger DC universe are prominent throughout Titans thanks to Gar, who fawns over the likes of Batman and Wonder Woman, and the fact that many characters wear Superman t-shirts. For the most part, though, Titans is concerned only with its own gritty, grounded narrative that becomes increasingly more supernatural and elaborate as the plot progresses. The show builds towards these moments over time, with both Rachel and Kory discovering the full extent of their otherworldly abilities as the season progresses, but never shying away from the more flamboyant aspects of the source material with characters like the Doom Patrol and interdimensional beings such as Trigon. Largely based on Marv Wolfman’s initial run on The New Teen Titans, Titans primarily deals with Trigon’s impending arrival through Rachel and the formation of a new version of the Titans but, for the most part, is just as much a journey of self-discovery for Dick as he struggles to define himself outside of his role as Robin. Personally, I found this the most appealing part of Titans and would have happily ditched all the other side plots and storylines to focus entirely on this one plot point but, thanks to each episode focusing on different characters and their sub-plots and building intrigue around this world and the former iteration of the Titans, I found Titans to be incredibly enjoyable and was chomping at the bit for the second season to release to see how things turned out.
My Rating:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
Great Stuff
What did you think to season one of Titans? Were you a fan of the season, and the show, or did its gritty, violent take on the traditionally plucky and colourful characters turn you off? Which character was your favourite and what did you think to the plots involving Dick’s struggle against his violent impulses and the mystery about Kory and Rachel? Did you enjoy the cameo appearance from the Doom Patrol and other references to DC heroes and properties? Did the climax of the season leave you wanting more or were you turned off by the concept? What did you think to the show’s portrayal of Robin, the inclusion of Jason Todd, and their costumes? Whatever your thoughts on Titans season one, feel free to leave a comment down below.
In April 1985, the first issue of the ground-breaking Crisis on Infinite Earths(Wolfman, et al, 1986) released and saw the temporary destruction of the “Multiverse”. To celebrate this momentous event, I’ve spent every Sunday this month discussing multiversal crossovers in an event I dubbed “Crossover Crisis”.
Air Date: 8 December 2019 to 14 January 2020 UK Network: Sky One and (eventually) E4 Original Network: The CW Stars: Stephen Amell, Grant Gustin, Melissa Benoist, Ruby Rose, LaMonica Garrett, Tyler Hoechlin, David Ramsey, Carlos Valdes, Chyler Leigh, Caity Lotz, Brandon Routh, Tom Cavanagh, and Jon Cryer
The Background: Crisis on Infinite Earths was, easily, the biggest and most influential crossover in DC Comics history back when it was first published; even now, the reality-changing events of the twelve issue series can be felt in DC and cosmic events and crossovers are an important part of the comics industry. Still, such an event seemed irrevocably tied to the comics books; even DC’s animated ventures rarely attempted to tackle an event of such magnitude so to say that I never expected Arrow (2012 to 2020), of all things, to led to, and end with, a massive crossover between not just the “Arrowverse” but also the wide spectrum of live-action DC adaptations would be an understatement, to say the least. Crisis on Infinite Earths was first hinted at in the first episode of The Flash (2014 to present) but was explicitly referenced throughout the Elseworlds(Various, 2018) crossover and revealed in the conclusion of that event. The Crisis then become the focal point of the entire Arrowverse, with almost the entirety of Arrow’s eighth season and The Flash’s sixth season specifically preparing characters for the oncoming Crisis, visiting and destroying parallel worlds, featuring Mar Novu/The Monitor (Garrett) as a frequent guest star, and setting the stage for the biggest comic book crossover in television history as the writers and showrunners crammed in cameos and references galore to pay homage to DC’s many live-action adaptations. The result was some of the best-received and highly-praised episodes in all of the Arrowverse and a significant change in the presentation of the Arrowverse going forward as worlds lived, died, and were forever changed by the event, which saw both Supergirl (2015 to present) and Black Lightning (2018 to present) merged into a new version of the Arrowverse Earth.
The Plot: When a wave of destructive anti-matter threatens all life in the multiverse, the Monitor gathers seven heroes – Oliver Queen/Green Arrow (Amell), Barry Allen/The Flash (Gustin), Kara Danvers/Supergirl (Benoist), Sara Lance/White Canary (Lotz), Kate Kane/Batwoman (Rose), Doctor Ray Palmer/The Atom (Routh), and Clark Kent/Superman (Hoechlin) – to face the crisis. Facing overwhelming odds, the team must journey across time, space, and the expanse of the remaining multiverse to find seven “Paragons” who will decide the fate of all reality!
The Review: Crisis on Infinite Earths hits the ground running and kicks off with a massive bang in “Part One” (Warn, 2019), which was the ninth episode of Supergirl’s fifth season and saw the devastating wave of anti-matter obliterate Argo City and threaten the very fabric of Supergirl’s world, Earth-38. In a change for these crossovers, Supergirl and her supporting cast are given a prominent role right off the bat as she is forced to watch her home and family be destroyed by the mysterious, unstoppable wave of energy. She is overjoyed to see that Superman and Lois Lane (Elizabeth Tulloch) survived the destruction but deeply affected by the death of her mother, Alura Zor-El (Erica Durance), and the loss of her home, and the fact that the entire first episode actually takes place on her Earth allows her supporting characters to actually contribute in a meaningful way towards the Crisis.
Supergirl is heartbroken when Argo City is destroyed and is tempted to rewrite reality.
Faced with the impending destruction of their world, Alex Danvers (Leigh), J’onn J’onnz/Martian Manhunter (David Harewood), and Querl Dox/Brainiac 5 (Jesse Rath) are forced to call in every debt they are owed, and even turn to the unscrupulous Lena Luthor (Katie McGrath) for help evacuating as many people as possible to Earth-1. Interestingly, it is Superman who has the crisis of conscience in this first episode and finds his resolve faltering after failing to save Argo City and out of concern for his baby son, Jonathan; despite the losses she has suffered in such a short space of time, it is Supergirl who lifts his spirits and encourages him to remain hopeful in their ability to succeed. After discovering that the Book of Destiny has been recovered, Kara, as the Paragon of Hope, makes every effort she can, despite the incredible risk, to use the Book to restore her Earth, bringing her into a moral conflict with Kate.
Oliver has spent the last season preparing for the Crisis and to make the ultimate sacrifice.
The anti-matter wave spreads throughout all of time and space, however; throughout the most recent seasons of Arrow and The Flash, Oliver and Barry have been struggling with their impending deaths since the Monitor foretold that each of them would die in the coming Crisis. This has been particularly trying for Oliver, who, like Barry, has been trying to prepare for the coming event and get his team ready to operate without him once he’s gone but has been struggling with time travel shenanigans, which saw him meet his future daughter, Mia Smoak (Katherine McNamara). Normally the more grounded and pragmatic of the Arrowverse heroes, Oliver has had extensive experience not just with multiversal events by this point but also with the anti-matter’s effects thanks to his travels with the Monitor in preparation for the Crisis.
Even in death, Oliver finds a way to continue fighting and decide the fate of all reality.
Despite his lack of superpowers and being more of a tactician, Oliver plays a vital role throughout the Crisis as we seen his disillusioned Earth-16 counterpart run through some of this greatest hits (again…), and see that he is less than impressed to find that the deal he made with the Monitor to sacrifice his life in exchange for Barry and Kara’s is no longer valid. Though Oliver is angered at the deception, the Monitor purposely arranged for this to ensure that Oliver would be at his most prepared by planning for every eventuality; as if seeing multiple worlds be destroyed in short order wasn’t proof that the stakes for Crisis on Infinite Earths was unimaginably high, Oliver’s untimely sacrifice to cover the evacuation of Earth-38 certainly is. Of course, Oliver’s story doesn’t end there as he ultimately sacrifices himself again, first by taking on the role of the Spectre and then by giving his life once more to end the Anti-Montor’s threat.
Kate is horrified to see the disillusioned wreck Bruce has become on Earth-99.
Since Oliver is now well-versed in multiversal crossovers and events, and unexpectedly killed before his time, it is Batwoman who brings the pragmatic cynicism and is the fish out of water in Crisis on Infinite Earths. “Part Two” (Belsey, 2019), which was the ninth episode of Batwoman’s (2019 to present) first season (although it was the last episode here in the United Kingdom), explores her attempts to adapt to the unusual situation she finds herself in. Failing to see how her abilities, as vast as they are, can measure up to cosmic threats, Kate is distrustful of her colourful associates and begrudgingly agrees to tag along purely on Kara’s word and in the face of a clear and present threat. The revelation of the Paragons drives Kate into an unexpected voyage of self-discovery; initially, she believes her destiny is to recruit the Bruce Wayne of Earth-99 (Kevin Conroy) and, in the process, comes across a jaded and broken version of her cousin who has descended into a murderous and disillusioned crusade. Rattled by this incarnation of Bruce, and her actions in contributing to his death (to keep him from killing Supergirl), Kate is somewhat sceptical to learn that she is the Paragon of Courage.
Tired of killing Superman, Luthor compels the Earth-96 Kal to kill his Earth-38 counterpart.
The quest for the Paragons takes Superman, Lois, and Iris West-Allen (Candice Patton) to first Earth-167, where they briefly encounter a depowered version of Clark (Tom Welling), and then to Earth-96 and an older, far more troubled incarnation of the Man of Steel (Routh). In possession of the Book of Destiny, Lex Luthor (Cryer), who was returned to life to play a vital role in the Crisis, travels throughout the multiverse killing Superman and, ultimately, forces Superman to fight his Earth-96 counterpart in a brief, exhilarating moment before Lois and Iris wake up and realise that they can just punch Lex out. Lex, however, gets the last laugh by manipulating the Book of Destiny to replace the Earth-96 Superman with himself as the Paragon of Courage
Although fully prepared to meet his destiny, Barry’s Earth-90 counterpart takes his place.
As mentioned, Barry has also been trying to prepare for his untimely end; he’s been aware that he disappears, most likely due to his death, in a red-sky Crisis and he is so angered at Oliver’s death and the Monitor’s manipulations that he is driven to using the restorative nature of the Lazarus Pits to bring Oliver back to life in a crazed state with the help of John Constantine (Matt Ryan). “Part Three” (McWhirter, 2019), which aired as episode nine of season six of The Flash (2014 to present), leads Barry to facing his fate in the worst way possible when he is forced to watch the Earth-90 Flash (John Wesley Shipp) sacrifice himself to destroy an anti-matter cannon. Although Barry is more than willing to fulfil what he believes is his destiny, his counterpart takes his place willingly and, in the process, allows Barry to live on for his friends and family while also providing a fantastic excuse to showcase some highlights from Shipp’s turn as the Flash back in the nineties.
Both Luthor and Harbinger become brief secondary threats amidst the Crisis.
Of course, the intangible threat of the destructive anti-matter wave and the ominous fate that awaits Oliver and Barry isn’t the only threat facing the Arrowverse characters; throughout their journey across the multiverse to defend the Monitor’s Quantum Towers, they must battle against fittingly Grim Reaper-like “Shadow Demons” that, despite being easily destroyed, have the advantage through sheer numbers and their threat is escalated by the fact that Oliver was practically torn apart by them offscreen. Additionally, thanks to messing around with the Book of Destiny, Luthor manages to position himself as a man of incredible metahuman powers who first attempts to kill Supergirl in an effort to usurp the Monitor’s destiny and then, reluctantly and unwillingly, to join forces with the heroes. Lyla Michaels/Harbinger (Audrey Marie Anderson) also takes on a brief antagonistic role when she ends up falling under the influence of the crossover’s primary, physical antagonist, Mobius/The Anti-Monitor (Garrett), which causes her to betray and murder the Monitor against her will and set in motion the final days of all reality.
As secretive as the Monitor is, the Anti-Monitor craves nothing but complete annihilation.
The Monitor himself is a deceptive and mysterious character; thanks to Luthor’s manipulations, we learn in “Part Four” (Winter, 2020) that it was he, in his far more mortal form, who birthed the Anti-Monitor in a desperate and misguided attempt to view the creation of the universe. Of course, while the Monitor inspires much distrust and anger from the heroes (especially Barry), the Anti-Monitor is a form of pure, unadulterated evil; similar to other crossover threats, the Anti-Monitor is an elusive and ominous being who isn’t revealed in full until the conclusion of “Part 2”. His motivations are nothing less than pure destruction, making for a decidedly one-dimensional villain but, in truth, the Anti-Monitor has always been that way; he simply exists as a singular, cosmic force of evil for the heroes to unite against.
The stakes have never been higher or dourer than in Crisis on Infinite Earths.
Fittingly, for an adaptation of the greatest and most devastating storyline in DC Comics history, the stakes couldn’t be higher in Crisis on Infinite Earths; though a prevailing concept throughout the crossover is the idea of hope conquering above all, the odds are constantly against our heroes as entire worlds are wiped from existence, killing many of the supporting characters, and leaving the handful of remaining characters trapped at the Vanishing Point with no hope of escape and alongside Luthor, of all people. In their darkest hour, Oliver, as the Spectre, comes to them with a vague shot in the dark at reversing their fortunes but, even then, the cost is high. This, again, gives the crossover another excuse to run through some of Arrow’s greatest hits so that the disparate parts of his personality can be reunited in the speed force and empower him to transport them to the anti-matter universe and the inevitable showdown with the Anti-Monitor. I won’t lie; I can’t say that I’m a massive fan of the grim, gritty, grounded vigilante ultimately being to one to save and restore the entire multiverse and being the saviour of all humanity but even I have to admit that it’s an almost peerless heroic end for the character.
At great cost, reality is saved and the Arrowverse’s Justice League officially forms.
In the end, with all seven Paragons gathered and united (however reluctantly, in Luthor’s case) and the Spectre locked in a dual with the Anti-Monitor, the heroes are able to light the spark that reignites a new version of not just Earth-1 but the entire multiverse. Though he dies in the process, Oliver is finally at peace and leaves the future to his friends and family who, in “Part Five” (Smith, 2020), find their world has radically changed as a result; for one thing, many characters and locations are now on an amalgamated world dubbed “Earth-Prime” and, for another, Luthor is a world-renowned hero, and no one has any memory of what happened except the seven Paragons. Thanks to J’onn’s psychic powers, they are able to piece together what happened but, while they are able to ultimately banish the Anti-Monitor to the microverse, they are heart-broken to discover that Oliver is not among those restored by the entire process. In celebration of Oliver’s sacrifice, the Flash, Supergirl, J’onn, Batwoman, and Black Lightning hold a memorial service for their fallen comrade and officially give birth to the Arrowverse incarnation of the Justice League that, sadly, will look decidedly different in the near future.
The Summary: For such a large and ambitious crossover, Crisis on Infinite Earths does pretty well when it comes to its special effects; again, as we’ve seen in the other Arrowverse crossovers, some of these hold up better than others (Ray Terrill/The Ray (Russell Tovey) still looks terrible even in his brief appearance, as does Lyla’s teleporting effects and the “temporal zone”, but the destruction of the infinite worlds is disturbingly effective) but I’d say the CW did really well, especially when you consider that Marvel Studios spent billions of dollars on its big screencrossovers and it’s frankly ludicrous that they ever decided to greenlight an adaptation of Crisis on Infinite Earths. As you might expect, costume design is absolutely spot on; Nash Wells/Pariah (Cavanagh), the Monitor, and Anti-Monitor look a little goofy but I can’t fault the fidelity to the source material and the crossover delivers an absolutely fantastic adaptation of Bruce’s exoskeleton armour and the Kingdom Come (Waid, et al, 1996) Super-suit.
It probably should have been called Cameos on Infinite Earths…No? Just me?… Okay…
Of course, one of the most appealing and entertaining aspects of Crisis on Infinite Earths is the sheer abundance of cameos and references to other live-action adaptations of DC Comics; most of these are fleeting, appearing onscreen simply to be destroyed in seconds, but some are prominent aspects to the crossover’s massive narrative. Accordingly, we get much-appreciated and surprising appearances by Dick Grayson (Burt Ward) from the Batman sixties show, Alexander Knox (Robert Wuhl) from Batman (Burton, 1989), Hank Hall/Hawk (Alan Ritchson) and Jason Todd/Robin (Curran Walters) from Titans (2018 to present), Helena Kyle/The Huntress (Ashley Scott) and Barbara Gordon/Oracle (Dina Meyer) from Birds of Prey (2002 to 2003), Alec Holland/Swamp Thing (Derek Mears) from Swamp Thing (2019) and the cast of both Stargirl (2020 to present) and Doom Patrol (2019 to present). The crossover also splices in surprise appearances by Wil Wheaton, Wentworth Miller, comic creator Marv Wolfman, and even Ezra Miller alongside numerous references and allusions to comic book arcs such as the Death of Superman (Jurgens, et al, 1992 to 1993), and even setting up a potential spin-off for John Diggle (David Ramsey) after he appears to find a Green Lantern ring.
Sadly, not every character gets a large role in the massive crossover…
Interestingly, despite all these cameos (and more) and the myriad of characters from across the Arrowverse, Crisis on Infinite Earths does a surprisingly good job of balancing its pace, action, and cast; in the beginning, things are very rushed and frantic but, once everyone is gathered together, the story focuses up quite nicely. The stakes stay high and ominous throughout as we’re constantly reminded of the impending doom but there’s still time for a few amusing character moments, such as Mick Rory/Heat Wave (Dominic Purcell) realising his paternal instincts. Of course, with so many characters included and so much at stake, Crisis on Infinite Earths features a wide array of action and fight scenes; to make the best use of the many powers and characters in the crossover, these are largely ensemble pieces that truly unite the Arrowverse in a way we haven’t seen before. Even those who are largely side-lined throughout the crossover, like Diggle, for example, get something to do (he is incensed at Oliver’s death and joins Constantine, and Mia in journeying to Purgatory to retrieve Oliver’s soul) and many of the supporting characters contribute to the overarching plot even though their efforts are ultimately in vain. Some cameos, however, are all-too-brief; many of the Legends and Team Arrow get short-changed this time around, Lucifer Morningstar (Tom Ellis) was a welcome and unexpected inclusion but, sadly, the crossover chose not to bring Emmett J. Scanlan back as Jim Corrigan and, despite Ryan Choi (Osric Chau) and Black Lightning’s pivotal roles in the larger narrative, they’re not as heavily showcased as the more recognisable and established Arrowverse characters.
Such an elaborate crossover would never have been possible without time and dedication.
I said at the start that I never expected to see Crisis on Infinite Earths ever be the basis for an adaptation, much less a live-action adaptation; it barely works in the comics, to be honest, as it requires quite a lot of knowledge about DC Comics and outlandish concepts like the multiverse. Thankfully, the Arrowverse version of events focuses its adaptation by concentrating on the main Arrowverse characters, surrounding them with a myriad of cameos and references, and buildings its concept around these familiar aspects. If you’ve never watched an Arrowverse show before then of course it’ll be quite a daunting first start but, like its comic book namesake, it is clearly not intended for casual fans or newcomers. It’s interesting watching these Arrowverse crossovers back-to-back as Invasion! (Various, 2016) feels so rushed and frantic in comparison and Crisis on Infinite Earths does a much better job of balancing a far bigger and more diverse cast, which I honestly wouldn’t expect considering how daunting its concept is. Of course, this crossover would never have been possible without the long-running, episodic nature of the CW shows and that’s exactly why it works in a way that DC’s cinematic films often fail; rather than trying to crameverything into a couple of films, or tossing it all into a four-hour long epic, the Arrowverse was able to naturally build towards this crossover and deliver from start to finish and it’s honestly a shame that the films couldn’t have followed suit and that the Arrowverse is basically coming to an end now.
My Rating:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Fantastic
What are your thoughts on Crisis on Infinite Earths? Did you ever expect to see the Arrowverse culminate in an adaptation of one of comics’ biggest crossover events? How do you feel the adaptation was handled? Which cameo was your favourite and which would you have preferred to see be featured more prominently? How did Oliver’s death affect you, if at all, and which of the CW Arrowverse shows is/was your favourite? Are you sad to see that the Arrowverse has changed following this event or do you feel it’s time for it to move on? Do you agree that building towards such an elaborate crossover is a matter of time, patience, and character development or were you not bothered by Zack Snyder’s attempts to cram it all into a couple of movies? Which of the many multiversal crossover events was your favourite, whether in comics, videogames, TV, or movies? Whatever your thoughts, go ahead and drop a comment down below and check back in again for more superhero content throughout the year.
In April 1985, the first issue of the ground-breaking Crisis on Infinite Earths(Wolfman, et al, 1986) released and saw the temporary destruction of the “Multiverse”. To celebrate this momentous event, I’m discussing multiversal crossovers all throughout April in an event I dubbed “Crossover Crisis”.
Air Date: 9 December 2018 to 11 December 2018 UK Network: Sky One Original Network: The CW Stars:Stephen Amell, Grant Gustin, Melissa Benoist, Jeremy Davies, Tyler Hoechlin, David Ramsey, Carlos Valdes, Chyler Leigh, and Ruby Rose
The Background: The “Arrowverse” may have started as a grim, gritty reimagining of the life and times of Oliver Queen/Green Arrow (Amell) but it soon expanded to include all kinds of elaborate, comic book plotlines: time travel, metahumans, and parallel worlds were now all par for the course and annual crossovers with other superhero shows on the CW were a regular occurrence. After executive producer Marc Guggenheim noted that the cast and crew were pretty burned out by these massive crossover events, the CW relented thatDC’s Legends of Tomorrow (2016 to present) would not have to be included in the next crossover. Elseworlds was heavily inspired by a comic book concept from the mid-to-late-nineties which, in the absence of the usual infinite parallel worlds, allowed writers and artists to tell out of continuity tales of popular DC characters. The event was also primarily constructed to finally introduce Gotham City, and Bruce Wayne/Batman, to the Arrowverse and setup a new Arrowverse show, Batwoman (2019 to present) through the introduction of Rubt Rose as Kate Kane/Batwoman. Each of Elseworlds’ three episodes were received very positively and the production of the crossover not only saw a Batwoman spin-off take off not long afterwards but also brought the entire Arrowverse, and most of DC’s live-action adaptations, together for perhaps the biggest superhero crossover ever attempted the following year.
The Plot: When psychiatrist John Deegan is gifted the Book of Destiny by a mysterious individual and begins rewriting reality to his every whim, Oliver Queen and Barry Allen/The Flash (Gustin) inexplicably switch bodies! After seeking help from Kara Danvers/Supergirl (Benoist), the three travel to Gotham City to track down Deegan, who plans to use the Book’s power to assume the powers and abilities of Clark Kent/Superman (Hoechlin).
The Review: Elseworlds begins in earnest with, appropriately enough, “Part 1” (Tancharoen, 2018), which was the ninth episode of season five of The Flash (2014 to present). At that time, The Flash was knee-deep in the confusion and drama of Barry and Iris West-Allen’s (Candice Patton) daughter, Nora West-Allen/XS (Jessica Parker Kennedy), coming back in time to meet her father before his fated disappearance during a mysterious “Crisis” and to help Team Flash track down the big bad of the season, Orlin Dwyer/Cicada (Chris Klein). The central concept, and humour, of the crossover begins immediately after John Deegan is gifted the Book of Destiny by the mysterious Mar Novu/The Monitor (LaMonica Garrett) and Oliver Queen wakes up in the body of Barry Allen. Confused and disorientated, Oliver attempts to adapt to the confusing situation on the fly but, while he does blag his way through breakfast with Iris, he struggles to adjust to Barry’s superspeed and metahuman abilities. It’s amusing and entertaining to see Oliver struggling for a change; for all his training and preparation and adaptability, he’s totally out of his depth hanging around with Team Flash and having to be more open and honest with his feelings.
Barry is ecstatic to be in Oliver’s body and his enthusiasm rubs Ollie the wrong way.
Similarly, Barry finds himself without his superspeed and at the mercy of a beating from John Diggle/Spartan (Ramsey) and suddenly involved in Team Arrow’s campaign against Ricardo Diaz/Dragon (Kirk Acevedo). While Oliver struggles with his newfound powers and the bright, chippy nature of Barry’s team and city, Barry revels in having Oliver’s physical abilities; he only becomes motivated to get to the bottom of it all when Iris exhibits no recognition or belief in him. Normally, I’m not a massive fan of body swap storylines but seeing Barry and Oliver having to adapt to each other’s specific abilities and attitudes was an amusing twist for both; Barry has to dislocate his joints and adopt a far darker approach to his actions since Oliver’s focus and determination come from all of the anger and torment he’s been through. Conversely, Oliver must try and master (or, at least, stumble through) picking up Barry’s metahuman abilities and learn to act out of his feelings of love and positivity from his team and family. To try and get to the bottom of the body swap, which has also caused disconcerting red skies to cover the city, Oliver and Barry manage to escape and travel to Earth-38, where Kara is reconnecting with her cousin, Clark, and his partner, Lois Lane (Elizabeth Tulloch). This includes not only a fantastic little homage to Smallville (2001 to 2011) but also an amusing scene where Barry is in awe of Clark and Oliver puffs his chest out, and in which Oliver attempts to teach Barry how to actually use his abilities rather than relying on his powers and his team.
Even with Superman’s presence, it takes the entire team to defeat A.M.A.Z.O.
Annoyed at Barry’s pranks, Olivier tries to get a rise out of him but finds that he’s equally handicapped by Barry’s superspeed; in the end, the two are forced to admit that they are two very different people, with different motivations and experiences, which literally places each one in the other’s shoes. This forms the main conflict of the first episode and the crossover, leading to a lot of digs and points of contention between the two. Luckily, the two are able to focus their issues on a common enemy: the Anti-Metahuman Adaptive Zootomic Organism (A.M.A.Z.O.). Even better, Supergirl and Superman accompany them back to Earth-1 to battle the android, which can adapt to and counter their attacks and has absorbed a multitude of metahuman abilities. This means that Superman and Supergirl aren’t enough, by themselves, to defeat the android, which helps to emphasise the new teamwork dynamic of the crossover, and that actually gets to play a vital role in a crossover for the first time, a role that only increases in prominence and danger when Deegan takes over his body in “Part 3” (Warn, 2018).
Elseworlds finally brought Gotham City into the Arrowverse.
Deegan is largely absent for a great deal of Elseworlds buthis ominous presence is felt through Cisco Ramon/Vibe’s (Valdes) visions and the chaotic events of the crossover. For the majority of Elseworlds, the heroes are on the backfoot, forced to adapt to new situations and constantly chasing tangential leads about the source of their body swap. “Part 2” (Bamford, 2018), which was episode nine of season seven of Arrow (2012 to 2020), leads Barry, Oliver, and Kara to Gotham City, a location often hinted at in the Arrowverse but never seen or explicitly referenced beyond cheeky allusions. A great deal of focus in the second episode is placed on the urban legend of the Batman; similar to how he felt emasculated in Clark’s presence, Oliver is annoyed and frustrated at the idea that he isn’t the “original vigilante”. Barry, however, continues to exhibit his crossover-characteristic enthusiasm for visiting Gotham and potentially meeting the Batman, whom Oliver is convinced is merely a myth used to scare criminals.
With Batman having been gone for three years, Gotham’s streets are haunted by a Batwoman.
After a run-in with some muggers (including one of my favourite characters and stuntmen, Daniel Bernhardt), the three are arrested (mainly because Oliver’s identity as the Green Arrow is public knowledge by this point) on the corner of “Burton and Nolan” but are bailed out by Kate Kane. Stoic and unimpressed with their presence, Kate is only interested in getting the three out of Gotham as quickly as possible; it’s through their interactions that we are brought up to speed with the state of Gotham, which is noticeably different compared to what we see in Batwoman. Bruce Wayne is gone, having been missing for three years, and with him the Batman; the Crows are nowhere to be seen and the Gotham City Police Department are still in full force; the Bat-Cave looks entirely different; and Kate is already Batwoman, making this episode’s placement in Batwoman’s continuity a bit difficult to judge. Supergirl mainly acts as peacemaker between Barry and Oliver throughout the crossover, painting her in a noticeably different role than in other crossovers, where she’s generally the optimistic and polite ace in the hole (one thing I continuously find odd is that Kara insists on wearing her glasses when on Earth-1, which may be out of habit more than anything). However, Kara gets a chance to shine by connecting with Kate, mainly due to Clark and Bruce being friends on her Earth, and is able to learn a little more about both Kate and Bruce and get a more definitive lead on Deegan at Arkham Asylum (which includes a number of references to famous Bat-foes and even Guggenheim himself). Despite Batwoman’s callous attitude and no-nonsense approach, she is won over by Kara and the two end the second episode having taken the first steps towards what would, unfortunately, be a friendship fated not to last thanks to behind the scenes drama and shenanigans.
Deegan wrecks havoc with the Book of Destiny as part of the Monitor’s plan to test Earth’s heroes.
While Barry and Oliver deal with their identity crisis and, alongside Supergirl, attempt to track down Deegan, Team Arrow and Team Flash join forces to try and get to the bottom of the chaotic red skies that seem to follow Barry and Oliver everywhere they go. Team Flash, especially, are more of a hindrance than a help in the first episode as they lock Barry and Oliver up and refuse to even consider the possibility that they have switched bodies; Team Arrow are, surprisingly, more open to this suggestion, meaning the three get far more co-operation from the likes of Diggle, Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards), and Curtis Holt/Mister Terrific (Echo Kellum) than they do from Ralph Dibny/Elongated Man (Hartley Sawyer). Eventually, however, the teams are able to pool their resources, which leads to them making contact with the Flash of Earth- 90 (John Wesley Shipp) and discovering the source of Deegan’s powers: another, far more powerful and manipulative individual, the Monitor, a mysterious, enigmatic figure that appears to be behind not only the Book of Destiny and Deegan’s actions but also the disconcerting tumultuous red skies. Despite appearing to be a threatening, antagonistic force, the Monitor is eventually revealed to be simply “testing” Earth’s heroes for an oncoming, far greater Crisis by putting them up against overwhelming odds in preparation for a far more powerful threat.
Deegan becomes a corrupted version of Superman whose defeat requires strategy…and sacrifice.
The ninth episode of Supergirl’s (2015 to present) fourth season sees the culmination of this storyline and the shift to another altered timeline where both Barry and Oliver, lacking their abilities, are wanted criminals and Deegan has cast himself in the role of a hero as a black-suited version of Superman. Already an unhinged character even before he acquired the Book, having performed immoral experiments on the inmates of Arkham Asylum, Deegan is driven to near insanity by the Book’s magics and revels in Superman’s unmatched power. Deegan perverts not just Superman’s image and symbol but also the Team Arrow/Team Flash dynamic by usurping their friends and resources; although he paints himself as a hero, he’s a near-tyrannical despot but is, ultimately, handicapped by his lack of control, arrogance, and turbulent emotions that make him an aggressive and unpredictable, but easily out-witted, foe. One of the downsides to the previous crossovers was how easily the big bads were defeated and Elseworlds changes that, somewhat, thanks to Superman’s incredible powers being put to evil and the reality-changing powers of the Book of Destiny requiring a little more than just an anti-climatic fist fight this time around.
The Summary: Elseworlds, despite dealing with shifting realities and timelines, is a much less crowded and elaborate crossover than Crisis on Earth-X (Various, 2017) and, although the body swap storyline is a central focus of the crossover, action is still frantic and varied throughout Elseworlds; we get comically over the top fight scenes involving the likes of A.M.A.Z.O. and Superman but also gritty, down to Earth scuffles during the breakout in Arkham Asylum. Thanks to effects of Doctor Johnathan Crane/The Scarecrow’s fear gas, we also get brief cameos by Eobard Thawne/The Reverse-Flash (Cavanagh) and Malcolm Merlyn/The Dark Archer (John Barrowman) when Barry and Oliver believe that they are their greatest foes.
Elseworlds offers a differentspin on the Arrowverse characters and relationships.
Elseworlds is also a far more amusing and entertaining crossover thanks to its central focus on the identity crisis between Oliver and Barry; this dynamically changes their understanding of each other and the nature of their teamwork and allows them to understand each other a little more intimately. The fact that they spend pretty much the entire crossover either struggling with each other’s powers, abilities, and supporting cast, or depowered entirely, means that there is no easy solution to anything this time around. They are constantly on the backfoot, having to adapt on the fly and find new ways to figure out what’s going on, which makes for a decidedly unique dynamic for each character and those around him. Once again, Supergirl gets shafted quite a bit, with only Alex Danvers (Leigh) really having a significant role outside of Supergirl and Superman; while Supergirl doesn’t really get a whole lot to do besides be the straight woman in the bickering banter between Oliver and Barry, she finally comes into her own, appropriately enough, in the final part when she is able to reach her rewritten sister and stand up to a corrupted version of her cousin.
Though a more grounded crossover, Elseworlds set the stage for an even bigger Arrowverse event!
One thing I enjoyed about Elseworlds, and the majority of the Arrowverse crossovers, is how each of the heroes has a significant role to play no matter how powerful they are; Superman and Supergirl may have incredible powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men but they alone are not enough to turn the tide against Deegan or to stand up to the Monitor’s power. Oliver, faced with incredible situations and God-like beings far beyond his comprehension and experience, struggles to adapt and, yet, still finds ways to not only be relevant but also forever affect not only this Crisis but the coming Crisis as well by bargaining with the Monitor. In the end, Elseworlds was an enjoyable crossover that was both amusing and action-packed, gritty and elaborate, and managing to both be an interpersonal drama in a unique way while also setting up a far bigger, more insane crossover than I, for one, never expected to see.
My Rating:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Fantastic
What did you think to Elseworlds? Did you enjoy the body swap plot and the introduction of Batwoman? Were you disappointed that Supergirl didn’t have a slightly bigger role or were you happy to see her and Superman showing different sides to their personalities? What did you think to John Deegan and the ominous presence of the Monitor? Did Elseworlds leave you excited for its far bigger crossover? What are some of your favourite Elseworlds stories from DC Comics? Whatever your thoughts, drop a comment below and check out my review of the final Arrowverse crossover and the last week of Crossover Crisis!
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