Appointment in Crime Alley

The first season of Batman: The Animated Series ended on a nice string of top-notch episodes, and among them was one of the more important episodes of the whole show — "Appointment in Crime Alley." This show never gave us a straight-up origin story for Batman, but this episode comes as close as any other in alluding to it. This was the 26th episode produced, but it got bumped up to No. 12 in the  airing order, which I think was a great idea. With this episode, you get a good idea of how and why Batman became Batman, in addition to seeing how he honors and remembers his parents.

I'll bring the score up to a 6 for a nice scene of Batman working out at home and watching TV. Not only was it nice to see him exercising and going through his daily routine, but we got to see some nice emotion from him when they announced Roland Daggett was planning to destroy Crime Alley. Batman  hides his emotions pretty well, but occasionally they come out when he's with a punching bag, for instance.

Now, this show really had excellent music throughout each episode, but in this one, it really stood out. The producers knew this was an important episode, and they treated it as such with a movie-like score that really enhanced the emotion and tension. I'll add another point for that.

The score gets bumped up to an 8 for the appearance of Leslie Thompkins, who I think is one of the most important and under-utilized characters in the Batman universe. In most continuities, she was the first one on the scene after the Waynes' murder, and she is one of the few people who know Batman's secret identity. She is his friend, counselor, and sometime doctor. If Alfred is Batman's father-figure, then Leslie is his mother-figure. It is always a joy to see her, and she really was great in this episode.

Sadly, this important episode that got extra attention to the music, did not receive the same amount of attention for the animation. There were some flat-out sloppy parts, most notably a strange scene where Batman swooped in on a rope and caught two full-grown men, landed gracefully, then pulled back his cape to show both the men hiding underneath it. Not only do I doubt Batman's ability to catch both those guys so easily, but there is no possible way both of them could hide so easily and comfortably under his cape. There just isn't enough room there. I'm willing and able to look past a lot of animation goofs in this show, but this one was just too much for me, and I have to take a point off for it.

When you get right down to it, this episode really had a rather pedestrian plot. Yes, Daggett was planning to blow up the neighborhood and Leslie was briefly kidnapped, but the bulk of the action involved Batman tending to rather routine crises. But the main point of this episode was watching how willing Batman was to put off something very important to him. Every year, on the day and time his parents were shot, he visits that stretch of sidewalk and places two roses on the spot his parents were killed. In his mind, that is the main way he honors their memory, but the real way he honors them is by doing what he did throughout the episode — helping people. Even though he desperately wanted to (and needed to) make his appointment in Crime Alley, he was willing to postpone it to help those in need. And that is what Batman is all about.

Final score: 8