Batman TAS - The Forgotten

[BlackoutCreature2]

This was always one of those early Batman: TAS episodes that I really liked, a lot of it due to the score. It felt like the episode didn't even need dialogue, the entire story could just be told through background music. Sadly that kinda got lost as the series continued, and none of the other DCAU shows ever captured that feeling again.

I was actually really surprised when a couple of years later I started getting on the DCAU fan boards and discovered that it wasn't particularly well liked by the fandom. There were a couple of episodes like this actually, "The Underdwellers", the Kyodai Ken episodes, "It's Never Too Late". They were just more down to earth stories that I loved that taught us about who Batman is and why he does what he does and they didn't need costumed villains threatening to bomb all of Gotham to do it.

Yeah, for "The Forgotten" the big boss was a bit over the top in how cartoonishly evil he was, and the animation was far from the best the show could do, but I honestly thought it was a really good "one and done" story.

[Robovski]

I agree, this was in my opinion a good ''one and done'', for much of the same reasons above. I love the score, it is memorable and tells part of the tale. It humanizes Batman/Bruce Wayne and shows that things can go not entirely to plan and I'm generally for anything that shows Batman as The Detective over being just the thing criminals fear in the night.

For another thing it humanizes people who are in need of help, and shows our hero doing some of that help, something we need to see more of.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

When I was watching this episode, it was at the point that Alfred's flying the batwing that I noticed that that's the only part of the episode that technically qualifies as science fiction (for 1992 at least). A self controlled jet with the sas of Siri.

[Archanubis]

Something tells me Chuck was split on the choice of quaility lines in this episode. It was either, "Land you bucket of bolts!" "Your funeral." or "Don't let me drown!" "When you taste the prison food, you'll wish I had."

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

Plus, this episode went through some trouble and had to be rewritten quite substantially, as Boss Biggis was rewritten to be more memorable, one of the original writers (Gary Greenfield) was left uncredited because they hardly used any of his original material and there was supposed to be a scene early on with Batman looking into the disappearances and finding a community of homeless families, which got axed because the Fox network didn't want to show homeless women and children.

Apparently homeless people were a touchy subject in the 90's

what the Tartarus? o_0

[FaxModem1]

Apparently Hoovervilles are too extreme for kids television?

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Putting Republicans in a bad light is always bad for Fox Kids kids.

[HighPriest]

A few people have already mentioned it, but I love the music in this episode. This isn't my favorite episode of the series, but it might be the one with my favorite music.

[Nealithi]

I am glad this episode got a review as it is one I remembered fondly. Take away his identity and Bruce is still ready to leap to the aid of his fellow man. He does not just forget his angst and become happy. He isn't just haunted into doing what he does. I recall him regretting he can't do more. He can impoverish himself and barely make a dent. But from up top he can work the machine that is society and try for bigger improvements. The music I felt was memorable because it was not used again. It was very thematic. The batplane arguing with Alfred was both funny and explained something about Batman. How is he so good at everything? He isn't. He built his plane with the foresight that he might need to fly through narrow areas. Like between buildings, and programmed it to be able to handle all of that so he does not have to. Also good if he has to get out mid flight and let it go home on its own.

As far as the two watch towers thing another commentor mentioned. I believe he had the first watch tower up before the League was founded and just gifted it to them. Hence the speed they got it initially. The second tower likely could get funding from more than just Wayne Tech and would explain why it was more expansive and the Javelins were so thoroughly redesigned. Why spend so much though when he could do more for the homeless? The same reason he gave Green Arrow. Those monsters? They tend to step on the little guys. That is why Batman can sleep with the expense. It is another layer of protection. And it was proven to be needed.

[Aotrs Commander]

That makes me wonder about Standards and Practices at the time. Why was that something that had to be written out?

BS&P at the time were... weird.

The crew behind Batman TAS wanted to do a two part episode called 'In Darkest Night' where Batman went up against the vampiress villain from the comics, Nocturna (the episode would have been a loose adaptation of her storyline) and would involve Batman being bitten and turning into a vampire, and craving blood. Apparently when they mentioned the word Vampire to Fox they instantly said no. They tried to get around it, but to no avail. Apparently the same thing happened when they moved to WB, who were much more lax in terms of what they showed to kids.

Infamously, Spider-Man The Animated Series was taken apart by sensors, but the writers refused to forego the villain Morbius the Living Vampire and it became a notorious example of how insane the censors were.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBN1uDbVN1Y[/youtube]

Yes, they kept the character but had him drink plasma instead of blood. Motherfucking Scooby Doo had some vampires and implied blood drinking without a problem back in the 70's, but Batman and Spider-Man couldn't in the 90's? The Coppola Dracula movie was a huge hit at the time, Castlevania games were big successes... I mean, every kid knows what a vampire is and what they do, so who did they think they were fooling?

It's kind of why if you watch shows that aired on Fox back then, they threw jabs at the censors a lot, I noticed it in Animaniacs, The Simpsons, The X File's sister show Millennium, X-Men TAS... the list goes on.

X-Men TAS being unanble to even say "die" or "dead" and having to use "destroy" was painfully wince-inducing, especially given that Transformers a handful of year prior was not only saying this stuff, but actively killing characters off. Nevermind Star Wars or anything, so regularly on the telly.

(Heck, in UK, it was acceptable to have characters killed on screen in, of all things, a Cosgrove Hall (i.e. the people behind Dangermouse) Fantomcat.)