The Matt Signal – Episode 77: The Lion and the Unicorn

Plot summary: Red Claw kidnaps Alfred in order to obtain his half of a missile launch code from his days as a member of the British Secret Service.

Each Saturday and Sunday Matt Waters recaps an episode of the legendary Batman: The Animated Series, building an overall ranking along the way. Plus best performances, the ever-popular Villain Watch and more!

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Notes

Episode Title: ‘The Lion and the Unicorn’

Original Air Date: September 15^st, 1995

Directed: Boyd Kirkland (19)

Written: Diane Duane (1), Peter Morwood (1) and Steve Perry (7)

This was the final episode of the series to be aired.

Diane Duane wrote a lot of children’s television, but was primarily a fantasy and sci-fi novelist, much like her husband, Peter Morwood (who was erroneously credited as Philip Morwood.)

Alfred quotes two different works of Tennyson while under the effects of truth syrum: ‘The Brook’ and ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’.

Recap

Alfred bothers Bruce about the cleanliness of his costume and Dick for performing an insane gymnastics routine in a dank cave without a shirt on. Both respond sarcastically, but Robin wonders what they’d do without him.

They get to find out the hard way, as Alfred receives a phone call from an old acquaintance, Frederick, a prisoner of The Red Claw! Frederick requests a meeting, and Alfred departs immediately, leaving his employer an apologetic note.

In London, Alfred awaits Frederick but is instead greeted by a dodgy pair by the name of… Bert and Ernie. Alfred sees straight through the deception and evades capture, but shortly after telephoning Bruce the pair succeed in a second kidnapping attempt.

They take him to Castle Blairquhan in west Scotland, where he’s reunited with Frederick. Red Claw reveals herself and makes vague threats against his life.

Bruce fills Dick in on Alfred’s past as a member of the British Secret Service during their flight to London, where the pair pick up the trail. Bert & Ernie make the mistake of trying to attack them, leading to a dramatic bus hijacking.

One crash later, and the Dynamic Duo have their men. Robin quickly discovers a Red Claw tattoo on one of their arms. Remember, Red Claw is both the name of the villain, and the organisation she leads. It’s needlessly confusing.

Speaking of Red Claw, she interrogates the two Freds, revealing they each know half of the code required to launch a nuclear missile that she intends to use to obtain a ransom of £5million. Cue that scene from Austin Powers where Dr. Evil learns a million dollars isn’t much money these days.

Anyway, Red Claw shoots them both up with truth serum. Frederick cracks, but Alfred deliriously recites Tennyson in defiance, prompting Red Claw to dunk on Britain. Deserved.

Batman & Robin infiltrate the castle from below, having obtained its location from the government in exchange for the villain’s capture. Fighting their way through scores of armed guards, the pair find themselves locked in a deathtrap.

Red Claw makes another Austin Powers faux pas and elects to switch off the security camera rather than making sure they’re dead, and they of course escape.

She apparently learned her lesson from earlier though, as she delivers her ransom message and instead asks for £5billion, at last gaining Alfred’s half of the code amidst his half-conscious babbling. Realising her men cannot hold Batman back, she launches the missile early.

Bruce takes to the sky in the Batwing and chases down the missile, but fails to notice Red Claw in the cockpit with him and the pair struggle until she’s ejected (possibly to her death!). With seconds to spare Bats destroys the missile, which apparently had a sufficient payload to destroy the city, but detonates harmlessly right next to Big Ben…

Best Performance

At long last, Efrem Zimbalist Jr. gets his day in the sun. For the most part he’s not doing anything new, but rather benefitting from getting more lines. The interrogation scenes are the highlight, with Alfred effortlessly reeling of poetry in the face of torture. It’s a shame we don’t get the emotional work heard in Mask of the Phantasm, and it might have been nice to give him more old acquaintances to talk to.

Kate Mulgrew is decent, and I did get a kick out of her saying nobody takes Britain seriously anymore. Finally we got fun little peripheral performances from Adam Ant and Roy Dotrice, and some attempts were made at British accents by American actors.

Ranking

In theory it’s always fun to get a window into Alfred’s life before he was a billionaire’s obedient manservant. In practice, it can often be bad. I hated Sean Pertwee in Gotham and I refuse to believe Pennyworth is a real show. This wasn’t as bad as those, but it does kind of suck that Alfred ends up handing over a nuclear launch code to a terrorist, truth serum or no. By no means did he have to take on a legion of bad guys and save the world single handed, but there’s got to be a happy medium.

The strength of the episode is taking the story beyond Gotham, which is always nice, though as usual it’s a rather stereotypical take on the locale, with barely a civilian in sight and the very first location our heroes visit leads them directly to where they need to go. Spy games would be a little generous, but I did enjoy the cloak and dagger stuff, with a shadowy branch of the government presiding over a secret nuclear missile solo housed within a Scottish castle.

But fundamentally the episode misses the mark thanks to some inconsistent writing. Your mileage may vary depending on how charming/whimsical you find a range of British accents, which is obviously not a novelty to yours truly.

1. The Laughing Fish
2. Mask of the Phantasm
3. Almost Got ‘im
4. Heart of Ice
5. Harlequinade
6. The Trial
7. Shadow of the Bat Part I
8. I Am the Night
9. Robin’s Reckoning Part I
10. Baby-Doll
11. The Man Who Killed Batman
12. Perchance to Dream
13. Two-Face Part I
14. Bane
15. A Bullet For Bullock
16. Joker’s Favor
17. Read My Lips
18. Feat of Clay Part II
19. Catwalk
20. The Demon’s Quest Part II
21. Harley and Ivy
22. Robin’s Reckoning Part II
23. House & Garden
24. Beware the Gray Ghost
25. Mad as a Hatter
26. Heart of Steel Part II
27. Appointment In Crime Alley
28. Two-Face Part II
29. Pretty Poison
30. Shadow of the Bat Part II
31. Feat of Clay Part I
32. His Silicon Soul
33. Off Balance
34. Vendetta
35. Birds of a Feather
36. Heart of Steel Part I
37. On Leather Wings
38. See No Evil
39. The Clock King
40. It’s Never Too Late
41. Joker’s Wild
42. Eternal Youth
43. The Cape and Cowl Conspiracy
44. The Cat and the Claw Part I
45. Zatanna
46. Day of the Samurai
47. Avatar
48. The Demon’s Quest Part I
49. The Mechanic
50. The Strange Secret of Bruce Wayne
51. Terror in the Sky
52. P.O.V.
53. Christmas with the Joker
54. Fear of Victory
55. Be a Clown
56. The Worry Men
57. What is Reality?
58. Fire From Olympus
59. Night of the Ninja
60. Mudslide
61. The Cat and the Claw Part II
62. Nothing to Fear
63. The Lion and the Unicorn (NEW ENTRY)
64. Prophecy of Doom
65. Tyger, Tyger
66. Blind as a Bat
67. If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich?
68. Dreams In Darkness
69. The Last Laugh
70. Cat Scratch Fever
71. Moon of the Wolf
72. Paging the Crime Doctor
73. Time Out of Joint
74. Sideshow
75. The Under-Dwellers
76. The Forgotten
77. The Terrible Trio
78. I’ve Got Batman in My Basement

Villain Watch

Red Claw (Kate Mulgrew) (third appearance)

This is the final appearance of Red Claw, who enjoys a weird little following among fans of the show despite not really amounting to much. It’s possible she’s intended to have drowned in the climax, as not only does she learn Batman’s identity, but I’ve recently read over 100 tie-in comics and if she made a cameo at any point I’ve already forgotten it.  

I wonder if she never took off because she’s written as a full-on terrorist who tries to destroy entire cities, compared to the outlandish villains who engage Batman on a more personal level. Maybe her stories were harder to break. Maybe she’s just mediocre.

1. The Joker
2. Poison Ivy
3. Harley Quinn
4. Mr. Freeze
5. Two-Face
6. The Ventriloquist
7. Catwoman
8. The Phantasm
9. Baby-Doll
10. Bane
11. Mad Hatter
12. Penguin
13. HARDAC (and Randa Duane)
14. Clayface
15. Ra’s al Ghul
16. The Riddler
17. Lloyd Ventrix
18. Killer Croc
19. Count Vertigo
20. Clock King
21. Rupert Thorne
22. Nivens
23. Josiah Wormwood
24. Scarecrow
25. Roland Daggett (and Germs & Bell!)
26. Talia al Ghul
27. Sid the Squid
28. Queen Thoth Khepera
29. Maxie Zeus
30. Jimmy ‘Jazzman’ Peake
31. Tony Zucco
32. Man-Bat
33. Hugo Strange
34. Red Claw
35. Arnold Stromwell
36. Mad Bomber
37. Tygrus
38. Rhino, Mugsy and Ratso
39. Kyodai Ken
40. Gil Mason
41. Nostromos (and Lucas!)
42. Cameron Kaiser
43. Dr. Dorian (and Garth)
44. Mad Dog
45. Ubu
46. Professor Milo
47. Romulus
48. Sewer King
49. Boss Biggis
50. Montague Kane
51. The Terrible Trio

Plugs

Eager for more long-form coverage of Batman? Why not check out my podcast with Mike Thomas, The Tape Crusaders, which reviewed every Batman movie and delved a tiny bit into the animated series.