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Batman The Animated Series: The Forgotten

"That's odd. Only vampires loathe daylight more than Batman."

This episode was aptly named because after I was finished watching it I wanted to forget the whole experience.

Poor and homeless people are disappearing in Gotham. The cops are too busy to investigate, so Batman decides to do a little undercover work, allowing us our first glimpse at his Sherlockian talent for disguise. Too bad that when he went around the world picking up all these skills he never found the time to learn some basic manners. Damned inconsiderate of him to go out without even bothering to tell Alfred where he's going or what he's doing. Doesn't even to leave a note saying "Out fighting crime. Won't need breakfast. Iron my cape".

Anyway, our hero finds the bad guys in record time, but they are able to get the drop on him because he was distracted by a cat. Ha, ain't that the story of his life. Despite being no stranger to regular blows to the head (occupational hazard of being a costumed crime fighter), this one is bad enough to scramble Bruce's and given him amnesia. Geddit? It's called 'The Forgotten' and now he's forgotten. Yeah, and that's probably about as smart as this script gets.

As if losing his memory and being kidnapped weren't bad enough, poor Bruce then finds himself having to suffer through a rehash of 'The Underdwellers' as another lame, grotesque, one-off villain who enjoys chomping down on drumsticks rounds up Gotham's neglected (homeless instead of orphans) and turns them into his own private slave force. All that's missing is a ridiculous number of gators.

Mercifully, they don't drag all the Teri Bauer nonsense, and all the silly dream sequences that go with it, on for too long. All someone has to do is mention losing their family and that triggers Bruce's childhood trauma reminding him just how effed up he is. And that he can kick his way out of a metal box. How? Because he's Batman, that's how. Once he's got all his marbles back it's simply a matter of meeting up with Alfred, getting his costume, and kicking the bad guy's collective butts.

That's it. Job done. Episode over. Let's move on to something hopefully better.


I Know that Voice

Boss Biggis was voiced by veteran character actor George Murdock who played Dr. Salik on the original Battlestar Galactica, Lt. Ben Scanlon on Barney Miller, Admiral Hanson on Star Trek: The Next Generation, and 2nd Elder on The X-Files. He actually ate food while recording his lines for authentic slurping sounds. Dan Riley was voiced by prolific voice-over artist Dorian Harewood who has providing voices for Aladdin, Batman Beyond, Darkwing Duck, Legend of Prince Valiant, Biker Mice from Mars, The Tick and many more. He's also done a lot of live action work, most notably Simon Haley in Roots: The Next Generation, Eightball in Full Metal Jacket and Jesse Owens in The Jesse Owens Story.

Notes and Quotes

--Alfred only put the tracker on the truck, so how was the Batwing able to take him to exactly where Bruce was?

--At the end Bruce reveals to his fellow prisoners that he is really billionaire Bruce Wayne. Were none of them curious why Bruce Wayne was disguised as a poor man? Or how he was such a good fighter? One of them has got to think it was mighty strange how he escaped just before Batman showed up.

--The computer on the Batwing is surprisingly sassy.

Riley: "Hey, you can't give up hope. Down here it's all we've got to hang on to."

Alfred: "This must be the place. Bring us down."
Batwing: "Negative."
Alfred: "But Master Bruce is down here, we have to land."
Batwing: "Impossible, area too confined."
Alfred: "Land, you bucket of bolts!"
Batwing: "Your funeral."

Biggis: "Don't let me drown!"
Batman: "When you taste the prison food, you'll wish I had."

One out of four Teri Bauers.

Mark Greig has been writing for Doux Reviews since 2011 More Mark Greig

3 comments:

  1. Yeah, I remember disliking this episode even more than the Underdwellers because of the clichèd amnesia plot and the very lame villain. One of the homeless guys in the camp, the one who is played up as the comic relief, is also painfully unfunny and annoying.

    I guess the show had a sort of early quality slump before it achieved greatness. Don't worry, I think you have the worst behind you, though the upcoming I've got Batman in my Basement I remember also being rather weak. But that one at least features the Penguin as the villain instead of these lame one-offs.

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  2. Umm... should I feel bad for enjoying this episode quite a bit. I loved the music, really enjoyed the dream sequences, and thought the lighting and action sequence in the dark where he was taking everyone out one by one was awesome. Kinda reminded me of the Arkham games.

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  3. I've never liked this one but I dutifully rewatched it so I can tell you definitively that it's awful. I think it may be worse than Underdwellers.

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