Episode Reviews - Terra
Episode #16 - Terra
Original Airdate - January 24th, 2004
The Titans meet Terra, a small teenage girl with big powers. Gifted with
amazing earth-moving abilities, Terra can make rocks fly, mountains crumble,
and the ground tremble beneath her feet. At first, it seems like this hip,
funny, young hero might make a great addition to the team. But Terra has a
terrible secret. And only Slade knows the truth. Will the Titans' new friend
put the whole team in danger?
Review by Bird Boy
Media by Bird Boy |
Titans Writers
Written by Amy Wolfram
Directed by Ciro Nieli
Producer Glen Murakami
Producers Linda M. Steiner, Bruce Timm
Asst. Producer Kimberly A. Smith
Music by Kristopher Carter
Casting and Voice Direction Andrea Romano
Animation Services Provided by Dong Woo Animation Co., LTD.
Titans Voices
Greg Cipes as Beast Boy
Scott Menville as Robin
Khary Payton as Cyborg
Tara Strong as Raven
Hynden Walch as Starfire
Ashley Johnson as Terra
Rob Perlman as Slade |
Review
From start to finish, we get not only an action-packed half hour of
cartoons, but also a first for Teen Titans: a love interest.
True, Raven and Starfire swooned over Aqualad, but that was nothing more
than drooling over his good looks. With Beast Boy and Terra we see a
somewhat softer side of Beast Boy, who, at first, is pretty much incapable
of talking to Terra, later comforts her when she loses control of her powers
and gains her trust. Of course, the trust is shattered at the end, when
Robin reveals that he knows she “can’t fully control” her powers—something
that she made Beast Boy swear not to tell. He hadn’t, Robin had just used
his God (or Bat) given detective skills and found out for himself.
But, enough about Terra and Beast Boy, lets get to the real meat and
potatoes of this episode: Terra and Slade. That’s right—Slade’s back and
he’s found his new apprentice. He’s been watching this girl since he first
heard about her—she’s been the cause of recent earthquakes, mudslides and
avalanches around the world in her journeys. She can’t stop and help someone
without causing more trouble, and Slade promised he could help her through
it, that the Titans weren’t really her friends, that Beast Boy would tell
the Titans her secret—she half believed him, but turned him away at the end.
He left, but not without telling her one thing: he’d be waiting for her.
There’s also a rather interesting training sequence, which we first see
Cyborg run though. For being teenagers, there were some pretty hazardous
things in this course, and Terra, a rookie and her first time training with
the Titans, was put through more than Cyborg was—and still beat his time. It
showed us how powerful Terra was, what she could do (when she doesn’t lose
control, that is), and most importantly, established more of the Beast Boy /
Terra relationship.
Between the episodes intense action, awesome battle scenes and animation
(not as great as last weeks “Every Dog As His Day”, but comparable to it in
it’s own right), this episode held everything that you come to expect from
Teen Titans. While the stories vary with each week, we can be sure this’ll
impact Season 2 more than the rest has: Terra’s already slated to come back
two more times this season, so we’re in for a rockin’ (pardon the pun) good
time…
|
|
