TCW Review of the Week!: Between Mercy Mission and Nomad Droids, the latter was MUCH better than the former. This episode was very entertaining, and had many twists and turns that were actually surprising. I must say though, this episode did have more storytelling flaws than Mercy Mission did, and I'll explain them throughout the review.
This episode started out very well, and for an episode about everyone's favorite droid duo, it was definitely reminiscent of the original scenes in A New Hope. The ship they were on, commanded by Adi Gallia, fell under attack by my favorite villain of all time, General Grievous. As the C-3PO and R2-D2 are scrambling for a way off of the ship, now about to explode since it was immediately hit in it's reactor, we see a short duel between Grievous and Gallia. Obviously, most people would've wanted to see this duel go on a bit longer, but for the brief time we saw it, it was well choreographed and didn't involve gungans popping out of nowhere and capturing Grievous.
As the droid duo reaches a Y-Wing that they use to escape, they are forced into the massive space battle outside. Like the duel inside the Republic command ship, it was short but still entertaining for the brief time it was there. It ended with the Y-Wing getting shot down to the planet's surface by a vulture droid that met its untimely end through a vengeful R2-D2.
Once the droids land (more like crash) onto the unidentified planet's surface, they are attacked by a bunch of miniature aliens probably not taller than six inches. At first they were kinda interesting, but I quickly found them annoying, especially when the Big Hezzu, their leader, came out to talk to the "intruders". He said for the droids to leave immediately as if they could just pick up and go, and 3PO promptly resonded by squishing him. This was actually one of the better scenes of the episode, because as R2 is threatening the Big Hezzu, C-3PO tries to call him off by slapping him-the astromech couldn't handle the weight difference and fell onto the tiny guy. I think this is one of the best R2/3PO scenes I've ever seen, it shows how accident prone the two together can be sometimes.
Anyway, the mini people rejoice that the Big Hezzu is dead (apparently the guy was well-repsected), and help our heroes repair their ship. 3PO encourages them to form a democracy and find a new leader through that form of government, but it goes straight down to the Kessel Spice Mines when the little guys try to apply it.
As the droid duo leaves the planet of the annoying little people, they are forced to land again on another planet due to lack of power. They apparently land on the equivalent of Redneck country, and are captured by a group of human-like aliens that are the Rednecks themselves that bring them to their leader. I must say though, that although I'm slightly insulting this part of the story, it was MUCH better than the previous, Gulliver's Travels-like planet. The Redneck people were not that annoying, and it got all the better when we entered the "meeting with the leader" scene.
The leader was some holographic image that actually electrocuted the poor Redneck to death because he was the one who had brought the droids before him. Thankfully, R2 found out what was really going on before we saw anymore country folk get french-fried. R2 found a secret panel, went in, and saw a bunch of pit droids controlling the hologram. This is obviously a major refference to the Wizard of Oz, where the man behind the curtain isn't nearly as scary as he looks, though with a bit more of a dark side to it-these pit droids were practically enslaving the Redneck people for their own purposes. However, once the Rednecks realized what was going on, they stormed the control area and rebelled against their droid "masters".
With yet another planetary government ruined thanks to our faithful droid duo, they tried to find another power source for their Y-Wing, but found that they too were needing power and shut down automatically. They were pickd up by pirates, and they were then put into the most dangerous situation yet-they were being forced into a droid-fighting arena. I loved this scene, it was funny in the sense of watching our beloved, almost pacifist heroes having to take on droids with flamethrowers attached to their wrists.
The pirates entertainment was short-lived however-General Grievous wasn't out of the area yet! The droid general, in one of my favorite scenes of him, ordered to fire on the pirate ship just for target practice. We also saw that Master Gallia had in fact been captured by Grievous. This scene proves just how powerful and merciless he really is, and how much differently Shadow Warrior couldve been if the team had bothered to do so. But enough of my ramblings...
A lucky hit on the pirate ship breaches the hull in the area of the droid-fighting arena, and C-3PO and R2-D2 are sucked into outer space. With nowhere else to go, they're forced to go into the lion's den and board Grievous's ship. They're captured and sent to the incineration chamber, but then the Republic, intent on rescuing Master Gallia, has a fleet of ships intercept Grievous's ship, and Master Plo Koon boards the enemy vessel with some Wolf Pack clones (all in Phase II armor, and, besides the beginning clip, the first time we see them in action) and surprisngly Gallia, Wolffe, and a couple other troopers meet up with Plo, saying Grievous had escaped.
Just then, 3PO and R2 emerge, and Wolffe comments that he was in disbelief they were still in one piece. But Wolffe probably should've kept his mouth shut, because Plo then assigns him to get a briefing report on the adventures the two had had. Poor Wolffe...
Well, that's that! This episode was pretty good, though there are some major cons I need to point out. One, like I mentioned earlier, was the Big Hezzu's planet. It was too annoying, too ludicrous, and more than just a little unlike Star Wars. The second thing I need to mention is that the episode felt very rushed at times, as if the team had tried to put too much in too little time. Of course, if they had skipped over the Big Hezzu's planet, they would've had a couple extra minutes to work on things... I'd give this episode a rating of 8.5/10. One of the better episodes not directly involving the war, yet we still got to see action and enough evidence to keep the galactic conflict in our minds. It was also very comical and nostalgic when it came to C-3PO and R2-D2, and besides the Big Hezzu's planet, felt very Star Wars-like. Although flawed, a must see for any Clone Wars or droid duo fans.
also another title given out....but i wont spoil it ...UNLESS U WANT ME 2.... hints very strongly at another part of the comic book
"This is where the fun begins" LOL.
