Friday, July 23, 2021

Khazad-dum and the Temple of Doom

Last night's new episode of The Bad Batch, "Infested", wasn't bad. At any rate, it avoided doing anything really annoying and it's certainly a step up for its writer, Amanda Rose Munoz, whose previous episode, "Decommissioned", was pretty lame.

Cid's (Rhea Perlman) business has been unexpectedly taken over by a Devaronian called Roland Durand (Tom Taylorson), who has all the earmarks of a new recurring character or someone who's going to show up on a live action series. He works for the Pykes, a crime family you might remember being mentioned in Solo: A Star Wars Story.

Most of the story involves Cid enlisting the Batch (Dee Bradley Baker) to steal a cargo of spice back from Roland. It was nice to see an episode that actually centred on the Batch doing their thing, with Tech actually doing smart tech things for once. To accomplish their mission without being detected--and therefore earning the ire of the Pykes--they're obliged to go through an abandoned mine infested by a swarm of giant insects.

Wrecker becomes the "fool of a Took" as he drops his flashlight down a hole, creating a tense moment lifted from Fellowship of the Ring. But a mine car chase at the end of the episode was definitely pulled from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

It's worth remembering Clone Wars managed to come up with action scenes that weren't retreads of famous blockbusters, but at least this episode didn't have anyone acting out of character and the violence didn't feel nerfed.

The Bad Batch is available on Disney+.

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