BATMAN-107-THE BLOODY TOWER

 

BATMAN-107-THE FOGGIEST NOTION 

Prudence: “All the other girls are out of their skin over you. I can see why, Robin. I can see why.”

 

While this episode is VERY enjoyable, there are some very strange things on display that we haven’t seen before (no, not Robin’s….and there’s no other way to say this, finally, package which is seen more than ever as we get more, ehrm, long shots than ever before---we’re used to that after 106 episodes before this one). Mrs. Cooper visits Ireland Yard, trying to locate Bruce and Dick, on her home from her North Cape Cruise. This is never followed up on and seems to be just a filler or time waster? This might even be her last cameo in the series and the last time we ever see Aunt Harriet.

 

Other oddness: Marmaduke plans to go to Argentawhala via plane with his sister. Marmaduke fires the staff (we only see Basil fired) but then rehires them off screen.

 

We also get a lot of the narrator’s, “WHAT’S THIS?” that MST3000 makes fun of in, say their riff of THE HUMAN DULPLICATORS but what is this oddness?

 

Robin is bitten by the death bee queen and is worried, on the ground for a long time with Prudence hovering over him…and then taking him inside and then UPSTAIRS. He somehow managed to take a bee antidote while she did so AND with the other girls wrapped around him, he manages, we are told to JUMP out the second story window and survive! Huh? The bee, by the way, looks like a very young child’s fluffy toy! But who’s looking at that?

 

Batman uses an Indian rope trick, which amounts to an incantation…so he has magic powers now despite calling it a trick. I’m sure this would have come in handy in other episodes. Marmaduke’s lethal bomb is stale so does not kill Batgirl but when he and Lady Peasoup (she must have been married to someone to get a different last name than her brother) get new ones, those don’t kill Batman and Batgirl either and Batman has time to disperse them with one of his huge sprays form his utility belt.

 

While we’re on this, Batman’s…well, the scene with Robin and Prudence and later in the girls’ bedroom is very sexy, but the scene where Batman uses a file to slowly file away at Batgirl’s metal wrist cufflinks is extremely sexual and both actors show this in their expression! WT?

 

Want more oddness? Both Robin and later Batman try to open the front gates with their bare hands but cannot. Alfred manages it with “an usual show of strength.” He also runs, arms waving. It’s interesting to note that both Robin and Batman, on at least two separate occasions and separately, can open Barbara/Batgirl’s suitcase to find Barbara’s clothes in side but do not, Batman prompted not to bey a stare from Alfred but Robin doesn’t do it on his own of his own accord.

 

The final fight uses all the fight music, mostly but Batgirl doesn’t really take part in the fight itself, unfortunately and doesn’t even get credit at the end for helping. She does use one of those pike spears to stop the girls and Fogg from escaping but again, it’s a Batman reflector that stops Fogg’s fog pipe.

 

If this episode isn’t odd enough, the cap is Cat Woman stealing policewomen’s uniforms? And it’s Eartha Kitt who makes a startling hissing entrance or exit as she’s escaping headquarters in Gotham via an elevator. Why didn’t Batman and Robin go down the steps to get her?

 

I’m sure I missed something really odd in this episode. Oh yeah…HOW AND WHY did the girls and Prudence let Robin escape, knowing he took a bat pill to avoid death by the deadly African queen bee, and that he jumped out the window….did they just let him go because they fancied him? Prudence’s plan to play all sides against the other really makes no sense. How was that going to work?

 

AND though Batman stopped the men at the winch, they fully trounced him in the first episode but Penelope says their men didn’t stop him before.

 

Also: Alfred had borrowed his taxi from a second cousin (Cuthbert).  

 

All in all, despite all of these odd things happening, this is a quite enjoyable episode and a fantastically fresh three parter, capped off by this and the arrival of a new Catwoman (and it’s not even discussed as new, just that she’s back).

 

 

Oh and oddest of all, the narrator does his best (Dozier, of course) to let us know that the weather showed clear in Londonium is not usual…and it is clear because it’s not filmed on the real locations of London…but…the accompanying opening long shots show a VERY foggy London in all three episodes! In the third, the opening narration is hilarious because the narrator talks of clear weather and its thick as soup! WT?

 

Oh, Robin backs into a white wire on a wide open green grass that’s attached to a big bee hive and with a large sign that reads, clearly, dangerous bee hive trap or something like that. WTF?

 

Oh and Alfred rides on the Batmobile's side hood? And Batman will take the Alfred Taxi when Robin drives the Batmobile? WHAT? They split up when Batgirl is in the dungeon?

A totally bonkers episode.