stormkeeper_lovedoris

Time to do some reviews of X-men: The Animated Series!

Episode: Time Fugitives, Part I and II

Brief summary: From the future, Bishop travels (again) back to the present time, with the intent this time of stopping a plague.

- Oh good. Another episode that uses time travel. Is there any other plot device that was more overused in XTAS? In Part II when Bishop again goes back in time, he groans, “Here we go again”. My sentiment exactly.

- Cable’s little talking computer is sooo handy! She explains everything that’s going on to him. I could use one of those.

- Despite all my grousing about the implausibility of time travel (and of omniscient computers), I do have to give this episode credit for one thing. The plague, mutants as scapegoats, hatred (such as what Jubilee experiences in the mall, mutants getting quarantined, etc), Creed’s Joe McCarthy-esque moment (“I have in my hand the names of…”) - all are areas that deserve to be explored. So kudos to this episode for undertaking that.

- Cute ponytail on Jean. Normally when she’s not in uniform, her hair is down.

- And speaking of Jean, when Bishop is telling the X-men that they all “must have died in the plague”, I like how she looks distraught and Cyclops takes her hand. Adds a bit of heart to all the action and shooting in this episode.

- Hank could’ve dressed a little more formally when addressing Congress. (This shot doesn’t capture it but he gets up to speak in front of a Congressional committee. Wearing just his undies).

- I do love when Beast rescues Creed – and urges him to remember that “a mutant saved your life”.

- I’ve never been a Cable fan but I like his relationship with his son. It was good to see his concern over Tyler when he gets infected.

- We see Gambit several times in this episode but I think he has a grand total of one line. Did he have laryngitis? (I guess now we know the real reason I don’t like this episode.)

- Interesting moment when Jean probes Cable’s mind and apparently gets some sort of glimpse of his background. I’m a little disappointed that we never get a follow up to Jean’s words to Scott about Cable and his importance to their future, but on the other hand I guess there was no good way to reconcile the differences between the comics and XTAS here.

- My opinion of time travel episodes (which can be summed up in one word – ick) must not be shared by all fans. This one website recently ran an article listing the writer’s favorite episodes of XTAS and he included this one. He wrote: “It's hard to quite put your finger on it, but somewhere in midst of all the action and time hopping this episode really nailed the X-Men and what the show was all about -- selfless sacrifice, teamwork, allegorical representations of prejudice and evils that can only be contained but never destroyed, all served chilled through intriguing slight of hand storytelling mixed with a dash of contemporary sci-fi and comic book magic, "Time Fugitives" manages to be as unforgettable as the series it's part of, and that's no small task.” I don’t quite agree but I’m glad someone liked this episode.

- Rating: Two stars max