In Review: Star Wars: The Bad Batch (S1 – Ep1) Aftermath

Synopsis: During the aftermath of the clone wars. The Bad Batch find themselves in a changing galaxy. Where their orders no longer make sense.

The Story

The Bad Batch find themselves in the service of Depa Billaba and her padwan Caleb Dume just as order 66 is executed. When the order gets triggered. Hunter, Crosshair, Wrecker, Tech and Echo can’t make sense of the order. So choose to disregard it and save Caleb Dume from execution before they head back to Kamino in hopes that their creators can fill them in.

As they arrive. They find themselves being conscripted by Admiral Tarkin who sends them on a mission to test their loyalty to the empire. When he learns that their mission is to kill innocent women and children. Hunter chooses not to follow orders. Unfortunately, Crosshair feels that Hunter’s actions are wrong and argues that they should be following orders so that they can assimilate into the new order of things. But Hunter and the others do not agree and all choose to go their own way.

The Voice Acting

Dee Bradley Baker does a brilliant job of voicing every member of the Bad Batch as well as the other clone troopers in the show. It’s pretty amazing how he manages to imbue each member of the Bad Batch with their own voice. I particularly enjoyed the leery sarcasm displayed throughout by Crosshair and his various conversations with Hunter. Also, Wrecker is a ton of fun to watch. Whereas Tech is the more logical thinker of the bunch.

We also get a nice but brief performance from Freddie Prinze Jr. as Caleb Dume who will grow up to become none other than Kanan Jarrus in Star Wars: Rebels. It was nice seeing the event of his master Depa Billaba to provide the context of the much bigger picture and how it all connects to future events.

Stephen Stanton does an excellent job of voicing Admiral Tarkin and manages to capture Peter Cushing’s vocal inflections brilliantly. And rounding out the cast is Michelle Ang as Omega. A new clone that has similar defects to the Bad Batch and winds up joining the group.

Overall

Overall. This is a solid start. Starting the episode off during the aftermath of Order 66 was a fantastic idea. It allowed us to see the event that would impact the life of another popular Star Wars character. But also allowed the perfect launching point for The Bad Batch and their future adventures.

The addition of Omega to the group was a nice touch. As was having Crosshair side with the Empire and go against his brothers. I’m really looking forward to seeing where all of this goes in the weeks ahead.