The Clock King

[The Laughing Fish]

Does anybody else find The Clock King to be an underrated episode?

After the Two-Face episodes, this has to be my favourite villain origin story of the entire show. A man who possibly suffers from obsessive compulsive disorder and is always concerned about punctuality, becomes vengeful towards Hamilton Hill when advice to relax costs him his career. Very similar to the Riddler by the way he dressed and how every crime is based on what he's obsessed about.

Clock King screaming in court after he lost and the camera zooms into his mouth before the rest of the episode takes place years later is comedy gold. His weasel voice and name Temple Fugate cracks me up too. 

[Slash Man]

I think the Clock King gets his due when the discussion of "obscure villains revived by the show" comes up. Brilliant re-envisioning of the Silver Age villain.

Another thing that was refreshing about the series was that not all villains had overpowered abilities that threatened the world. No, we had normal people like Temple Fugate. Normal people who just got pushed too far and took their unusual talents to crime. Villains like that made up the Golden Age, and sought to outsmart Batman as opposed to outmuscle him.

[Edd Grayson]

I love this episode.

[The Laughing Fish]

Fun fact: Temple Fugate means "time flies" in Latin. 

Another thing that was refreshing about the series was that not all villains had overpowered abilities that threatened the world. No, we had normal people like Temple Fugate. Normal people who just got pushed too far and took their unusual talents to crime. Villains like that made up the Golden Age, and sought to outsmart Batman as opposed to outmuscle him.

You're right. A lot of the villains in the cartoon weren't just simple bad guys "who wanted to watch the world burn" for the sake of it:

• Clock King & Riddler - Obsessive personalities who were forced out of their careers unfairly, and try to have their revenge by using their superior intellect.
• Two-Face - Secretly suffered from split personalities which manifested into one entity after the mob had inadvertently taken away his career and fiance.
• Poison Ivy - An eco-terrorist who resents people for disregarding the welfare of plant life.
• Mad Hatter - A man who was obsessed with Alice in Wonderland, and resented Batman for 'taking away' his co-worker Alice.
• Maxie Zeus - A mentally ill crime lord who really believes he is Zeus.
• Mr. Freeze - A scientist who fell victim to an accident caused by his cruel boss; leading him to seek revenge and find a way to cure his cryogenically frozen wife.
• Penguin - a funny shaped sophisticated crook who wanted to be accepted by society's upper class.
• Baby Doll - An ex-child actor with an aging problem who longed to be treated like an adult and move on her with her life.
• Harley Quinn - A mentally fragile and easily manipulated victim to the seductive yet abusive Joker.

Quite impressive for a children's cartoon show. 

[The Laughing Fish]

BTAS director Kevin Altieri and storyboard artist Bradley Rader participated in an episode commentary and shared their memories behind the scenes.