When it first aired, Star Wars: The Clone Wars was one of my favorite shows to watch at the time alongside The Secret Saturdays. I was eager to imbibe anything associated with Star Wars back then (ah, what innocent times). But, as the series wore on and times changed, it gradually lost my interest. The series just seemed to drag on, shoehorning more one-off plots and characters in this small void of Star Wars canon (The Clone Wars lasted less than three-years canonically, which is only half the time the series has run overall). What’s more, it repeated the mistakes of the prequels, getting hammy or political and overall growing harder to watch with each passing season.

For that reason, I was less than enthused by the news that Cartoon Network was resurrecting the show. My only thought was pretty-much:

Wake me up when they bring Genndy back…

Additionally, my cynical side thought the announcement came at a rather suspicious time given the disastrous execution of the sequel trilogy and Disney’s souring relationship with Star Wars fans. But, I suppose I had enough fond memories of the 2008 series in its heyday that I could give it the benefit of the doubt. After the first episode, I can say my outlook on the series is fairly…tepid…

The Bad Batch

The episode begins with the usual intro, Admiral Yularen and his hokey impression of a WWII propaganda film narrator. I never liked these to begin with, but I suppose that’s how I would imagine someone reading the classic title-crawls in the movies. He informs us that the Republic has been involved in a protracted siege on Anaxes, suffering setbacks at every turn.

Clone officers Rex and Cody contritely attribute this to the Separatists beginning to catch on to Rex’s playbook of battle strategies. Apparently, he bases his unique style of strategy on battle plans he drew up with his old colleague Echo, long since believed to have perished. Rex suspects otherwise, that he may still be alive and somehow responsible for the Separatists’ uncanny manoeuvering.

First, why wouldn’t Rex have innovated on these strategies since the beginning of the war or adapted them to fit different situations? Second, if his M.O was so predictable why didn’t someone else, like Commander Cody or the Jedi, come up with their own battle plans to compensate? It just seems like this premise is a bit forced for my liking.

Moving on…Master Windu signs off on a covert mission to infiltrate a Separatist command post and gather intel on how they always remain one step ahead. For this assault, they enlist the aid of an elite squad of clone troopers known as Clone Force 99 or “The Bad Batch”. As Cody puts it, “they’re defective clones with desirable mutations”. Now we’re touching on a problem I’ve had with the show overall:

Superfluous Additions to the Canon

Anyone familiar with the lore of the Star Wars Universe (or at least what it was before Disney nuked it), knows that the ARC Troopers or Accelerated Recon Commandos (like Rex for instance) pretty much fulfill this role already. An elite force of clones taken out of the normal chain of command to perform missions too dangerous for rank-and-file clones. In fact, there’s another force of elite clones acknowledged in canon that also fit this niche, the Republic Commandos who first appeared in the eponymous tie-in-videogame in 2005. I consider them no less redundant, but at least they would have been a recognized piece of Star Wars history to incorporate into the new canon.

Instead, they decided we needed another elite group of clone commandos with suped-up weapons and gear. The Republic is so chocked full of them by now it’s a wonder they didn’t win the Clone Wars sooner. In addition to that, we have the re-appearance of a former one-off villain character, Admiral Trench. A spider-like British curmudgeon of a general, he was formerly thought killed in a previous episode but has been resurrected with cybernetics. Hmm, it’s almost as if another multi-limbed cyborg character has been upstaged…but who could it be?

Looking past that, I do like the overall aesthetic of Clone Force 99. Their black and red armor is a nice change from the usual white with accents of primary colors. The clones beneath the armor are a different matter…From the moment they appear on screen with a fanfare reminiscent to the A-Team blaring in the background, you know you’re in for a slew of 80’s action movie references. Not that I mind a few nods to some of my favorite action films, but it touches on another problem I’ve had with the show in the past.

Obtrusive Film References

A while back the series centered a few episodes on paying homage to other properties like Godzilla and The Lost World in the episode “The Zillo Beast”. There was another episode that took place on an ocean world (Water War), seemingly so it could make a reference to the famous scene in Jaws. These episodes weren’t too much of an issue for me, but even for Star Wars seemed pure ham. On that note, there was another episode entitled “Nomad Droids“, wherein R2-D2 and C-3P0 find themselves on a series of misadventures akin to those in Gulliver’s Travels. This one I enjoyed considering that the Droids are expressly comedic characters, so the reference didn’t feel too forced.

Circling back, the most obvious reference in the episode is the leader of Clone Force 99, Hunter, being visually modeled after Rambo. He is the stern leader in the classic five-man-band arrangement his squad follows:

You have Wrecker, the Meat-head:

Tech, the Nerd:

“*snort*…Ahktchyually…*snort*”

And Crosshair, the Edgy Loner:

Now, you could probably guess the archetypes these imaginatively named clones fit into just from looking at them, but for some reason they go on a lengthy tangent about “Yalbicks”, whatever those are, as a way of introducing them to the audience.

Before we move on, here’s a fun little drinking game to play as we watch Clone Force 99’s exploits in future episodes. Take a sip whenever you hear them reference these classic action film one-liners! “The cavalry has arrived!” “I don’t got time to bleed!” “I love the smell of tibanna gas in the morning…” “cOmE gEt sOmE!!!” “Light ’em up!” “You’ll have to pry it from my cold, dead hands!” (finish your drink if it’s followed up with) “…That can be arranged…” “Get to the LAATi!” “Go on without me…I’ll just slow you down.” “I pity the fool!” Soon to be sold as a bingo card in party stores near you!

After pleasantries are exchanged, the clones get underway in a mission that plays out reminiscently of the ARC troopers segment in the 2003 cartoon. There are some no less impressive scenes on display in this episode as “The Bad Batch” demonstrates their derring-do. However, I can’t help but feel their Leeroy Jenkins style of confrontation only works given this show employs the trope of horrendous mook marksmanship. There’s one scene where the clones are withdrawing from an engagement and bottlenecked in a tight hallway, but even THEN the B2 battle-droids pursuing them STILL can’t land a shot. To be fair, this does seem standard practice in Star Wars where storm-troopers are involved, and even more so with their pin-headed battle-droid counterparts.

Ultimately, I think I liked the episode, but season seven hasn’t quite won me over yet. To do that, it will have to demonstrate that it’s learned from the mistakes of seasons passed and is using this opportunity to address them. One particular point of contention comes to my mind, regarding a certain under-utilized cyborg general…

Overall: 7/10