
With the original run of the series now over, let’s take a look at some more DATA, shall we?

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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Top 10 Cards
I shifted some of the previous 10 around. Sue me.
The strongest new entries are definitely ‘Babydoll’, ‘Riddler’s Reform’, ‘Harley’s Holiday’, ‘Make ‘Em Laugh’, ‘Batgirl Returns’ and ‘Deep Freeze.’ ‘House and Garden’ had potential, but the choice of typeface ruins it. ‘Harlequinade’ is a pretty famous image, but I don’t think it’s a top contender.
Season 2 also delivered some of the very worst ones including ‘Avatar’, ‘Catwalk’, ‘Bane’, ‘The Lion and the Unicorn’ and ‘Second Chance’. I don’t know if the declining quality was a mark that they were out of ideas and were glad to not do them anymore or if it was simply a deliberate attempt to reduce time and effort.
Best Directors

As I said before, I’ve been tracking who directed each episode and calculating an average score for them based on those rankings. Again, more goes into a ranking than direction, so it’s pure dumb fun with numbers (the best kind of fun IMO).
Nobody new directed an episode in the second season, and previous stalwarts Dick Sebast and Frank Paur worked on 0 and 2 episodes respectively. The other two regulars, Kevin Altieri (22) and Boyd Kirkland (21) lowered their averages, while Dan Riba apparently gained a great deal of trust between seasons, more than doubling his episode count and leaping up to the number 3 spot.
Show creators Bruce Timm (5) and Eric Radomski (4) only contributed one more episode each… but secure the top two spots thanks to Mask of the Phantasm also being included after the season one rankings.
- Bruce Timm (5) (Previous: 1)
- Eric Radomski (4) (Previous: 4)
- Dan Riba (10) (Previous: 7)
- Boyd Kirkland (21) (Previous: 2)
- Kevin Altieri (22) (Previous 3)
- Dick Sebast (9) (Previous: 5)
- Frank Paur (16) (Previous 6)
- Kent Butterworth (1) (Previous 8)
Best Writers

We only got 6 newbies, raising the total to 46 writers to have worked on the show, but the end result will likely please fans of Paul Dini, as he climbed from third to first.
To put Dini’s dominance into context, he wrote 8 of the top 10 episodes, massively increasing his credits by writing over half of season two. Nobody else approaches his 24 scripts.
Michael Reaves, Brynne Chandler, Randy Rogel and Alan Burnett round out the list of regularly recurring scribes, with most of the rest having 4 or fewer episodes to their name. Burnett’s increased involvement is likely due to how much time he had been spending on Mask of the Phantasm before.
Our top ten:
- Paul Dini (24)
- Dennis O’Flaherty (1)
- Marv Wolfman (2)
- Gerry Conway (2)
- Michael Reaves (15)
- Randy Rogel (9)
- Brynne Chandler (7)
- Garin Wolf (2)
- Alan Burnett (7)
- Dennis O’Neil (2)
The bottom of the pile remains mostly unchanged as the writing pool tightened up, and most of the worst episodes are from season one. Of the semi-regulars, Richard Meueller, Jules Dennis, Sean Catherine Derek, the Reeves-Stevens’ and Steve Perry fare the worst.
Best Performances

These are purely gut feelings as I don’t keep a running tally or ranking. The top performers remain the same, but with Alison LaPlaca replacing Henry Polic II for her stellar work as Babydoll.
- Kevin Conroy (Batman)
- Mark Hamill (Joker)
- Arleen Sorkin (Harley Quinn)
- Diane Pershing (Poison Ivy)
- Alison LaPlaca (Baby-Doll)
- George Dzundza (Ventriloquist)
- Roddy McDowell (Mad Hatter)
- Richard Moll (Two-Face)
- Robert Costanzo (Harvey Bullock)
- Melissa Gilbert (Batgirl)
Rankings
All told the final rankings are about what I expected. I’m lower on things like ‘Christmas with the Joker’ and ‘Demon’s Quest’ than the average person, but feel pretty good about my top 20.
Season 2 got 4 episodes into the top 10 (plus Mask of the Phantasm, of course), versus 3 in the bottom 10. The overall quality level was higher, with most of the season placing in the top half and not all that many clunkers.
Last time around I identified the four types of episode: Villain Spotlights, Villain Ensembles, Batman Spotlights and Supporting Character Spotlights.
The most common type remains the Villain Spotlight, with 13 of Season 2’s episodes focusing on a member of the Rogues Gallery, raising the total to 56 of 85. That makes total sense, given you’ve had time to reflect on what did and didn’t work in the first season, and they very much gave the people more of what they wanted. Half of the Top 10 is now comprised of this type, which feels about right.
The proportional split of the other types remained consistent, with both Villain Ensembles and Supporting Spotlights increasing to 11.
Interestingly, of the new entries only Mask of the Phantasm put the spotlight on Batman himself (though it obviously also has a strong villain presence). But given the network mandate that Robin appear more frequently in the second season, any tale that focused entirely on the title character was likely nixed to ensure Dick was inserted (lolol).
- The Laughing Fish
- Mask of the Phantasm
- Almost Got ‘im
- Heart of Ice
- Harlequinade
- The Trial
- Riddler’s Reform
- Shadow of the Bat Part I
- I Am the Night
- Robin’s Reckoning Part I
- Baby-Doll
- The Man Who Killed Batman
- Perchance to Dream
- Two-Face Part I
- Bane
- Batgirl Returns
- A Bullet For Bullock
- Joker’s Favor
- Read My Lips
- Feat of Clay Part II
- Catwalk
- The Demon’s Quest Part II
- Harley and Ivy
- Robin’s Reckoning Part II
- House & Garden
- Beware the Gray Ghost
- Second Chance
- Mad as a Hatter
- Heart of Steel Part II
- Appointment In Crime Alley
- Two-Face Part II
- Pretty Poison
- Deep Freeze
- Harley’s Holiday
- Lock-Up
- Shadow of the Bat Part II
- Feat of Clay Part I
- His Silicon Soul
- Off Balance
- Vendetta
- Birds of a Feather
- Heart of Steel Part I
- On Leather Wings
- See No Evil
- The Clock King
- It’s Never Too Late
- Make ‘Em Laugh
- Joker’s Wild
- Eternal Youth
- The Cape and Cowl Conspiracy
- The Cat and the Claw Part I
- Zatanna
- Day of the Samurai
- Avatar
- The Demon’s Quest Part I
- The Mechanic
- The Strange Secret of Bruce Wayne
- Terror in the Sky
- P.O.V.
- Christmas with the Joker
- Fear of Victory
- Be a Clown
- The Worry Men
- What is Reality?
- Fire From Olympus
- Night of the Ninja
- Mudslide
- The Cat and the Claw Part II
- Nothing to Fear
- The Lion and the Unicorn
- Prophecy of Doom
- Tyger, Tyger
- Blind as a Bat
- If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich?
- Dreams In Darkness
- The Last Laugh
- Cat Scratch Fever
- Moon of the Wolf
- Paging the Crime Doctor
- Time Out of Joint
- Sideshow
- The Under-Dwellers
- The Forgotten
- Showdown
- The Terrible Trio
- I’ve Got Batman in My Basement
Villain Watch

The Joker remains exactly where everyone expected him to be, laughing his way to the top of the pile. He got a lot less play in season 2, with new villains like Bane, Baby Doll and Lock-Up making impactful debuts and Harley Quinn getting a greater spotlight, storming her way all the way up to second place.
Several of the heavy hitters got one last strong showing like Poison Ivy, Mr. Freeze, Two-Face and The Riddler, who finally got an episode worthy of their take on him. Likewise Catwoman got moved back to her natural place as more villain than hero to her great benefit.
Ra’s al Ghul continued to fall from grace, while Scarecrow was reduced to cameos after multiple (weak) spotlight episodes in the first season. Some of that may have been realising they didn’t do a great job with him, but more likely it was the lack of availability from his voice actor.
Perhaps most notable was the first and only appearance of the truly atrocious Terrible Trio, who were so bad that even the production staff have disowned them.
- The Joker
- Harley Quinn
- Poison Ivy
- Mr. Freeze
- Two-Face
- The Ventriloquist
- Catwoman
- The Riddler
- The Phantasm
- Baby-Doll
- Bane
- Mad Hatter
- Penguin
- HARDAC (and Randa Duane)
- Clayface
- Ra’s al Ghul
- Lock-Up
- Lloyd Ventrix
- Killer Croc
- Rupert Thorne
- Count Vertigo
- Clock King
- Nivens
- Roland Daggett (and Germs & Bell!)
- Josiah Wormwood
- Scarecrow
- Talia al Ghul
- Sid the Squid
- Queen Thoth Khepera
- Maxie Zeus
- Jimmy ‘Jazzman’ Peake
- Tony Zucco
- Man-Bat
- Hugo Strange
- Red Claw
- Arnold Stromwell
- Mad Bomber
- Tygrus
- Rhino, Mugsy and Ratso
- Kyodai Ken
- Condiment King/Pack Rat/Mighty Mom
- Grant Walker
- Gil Mason
- Nostromos (and Lucas!)
- Cameron Kaiser
- Dr. Dorian (and Garth)
- Mad Dog
- Ubu
- Professor Milo
- Romulus
- Arkady Duvall
- Sewer King
- Boss Biggis
- Montague Kane
- 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.
My other recap column, Marvel Mondays, just finished coverage of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. To fill the time before Loki begins, I’ll be going back to WandaVision, with two episodes per week. Injustice corrected!