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As with most comic book to movie or TV adaptation, I’m coming into the project blind … or perhaps with fresh eyes. Outside of some of the bigger characters like Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, most of what I know about comics characters comes from the film/video media. That held true for DC Universe’s first original series Titans and it holds true for the second series, Doom Patrol. Really all I know about the Doom Patrol is what was shown in the sort-of backdoor pilot that was Episode 4 of Titans.
Now DC Universe has launched the series properly with what is being titled ‘Pilot’. I have to say the Titans episode was one of my favorites of the first season because I enjoyed the off-kilter humor and pure comic book feel to the episode and the characters. Watching the first episode of the new series is an entirely different experience altogether … in a very good way. The Titans episode did have a bit of a low budget feel to it, not very cinematic, and Bruno Bichir (as Chief) had what appeared to be a terrible wig and glued on facial hair. All of that has been replaced, including Bichir, in the new series. Watching this first episode, all I could think was how utterly breathtaking it was, the stunning cinematic quality it had, and for an ‘origin story’ it never felt bogged down by overly explaining each character. This episode has some real heart. I just hope they didn’t blow the entire series budget on this episode because I’d hate to see the quality of the production and the writing take a downward spiral.
Seeing as we’ve already met most of the characters in the Titans episode, the series begins with the introduction of Eric Morden in Paraguay in 1948 (the episode time hops through the decades as each character’s previous life is revealed). Morden has set up an appointment with a famous Nazi doctor who can do things to the body for a price. Morden, who narrates the episode, says if he had known what the doctor was going to do to him, he would have paid double. Whatever he did, the key to the operation seems to have been repeating the phrase ‘The mind is the limit.’
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The episode then takes us to 1995 where Cliff Steele, a race car driver, cheats on his wife. They seem to have a terrible relationship and during one of his races she wishes a fatal accident upon him. While he’s racing, he discovers his wife is having an affair with the leader of his pit crew and that distraction leads to what appears to be a fatal accident. That’s when he wakes up in the home lab of Dr. Niles Caulder, aka Chief. Caulder informs him that there was a terrible accident and he’s done what he could to save Steele’s life. Except the only part of him that survived the wreck was his brain. Cliff doesn’t see his new robot body until another resident of the house, Rita Farr, takes it upon herself to put a mirror in front of his new face. It’s a shock to say the least but Cliff is more concerned about how his wife and daughter are doing, wanting to have a chance to see them and let them decide if they can accept him as he is now. Caulder is very hesitant to let him go, but he also seems to be holding back some pertinent information from Cliff.
Rita Farr was an actress in the 1950s, toiling away in mostly B-movies, conducting herself with more importance than she actually has. During a shoot on a lurid jungle flick, she insists the director fire the focus puller, the best in the business, because his missing arm distracts her. The guy is beloved by the crew, but come time for the next shot, the man has been replaced … and Rita can feel the scorn coming from the rest of the crew. As she walks down a wooden pier for the shot, the planks break and she falls into the murky water … and everyone else just stands there until the director yells at them to help Rita. Underwater as she’s clawing at some rocks to get to the surface, some green substance emerges and goes into her mouth. When she is pulled from the water, the crew is agape. Demanding a towel, one of the women hands her a mirror instead and Rita sees that her face appears to be melting. Then her left leg turns into a gelatinous blob and she drags herself away, never to be seen again. Now she spends her time at Caulder’s mansion knitting her days away and occasionally rewatching some of her old movies with the others.
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Then there’s Larry Trainor, a NASA test pilot in 1961 with a wife, two kids and a deep secret. Larry is preparing for a mission to test a new rocket engine that will take him just to the edge of space. The launch is a success but once outside the Earth’s atmosphere a strange electrical charge pierces his rocket jet and his chest, knocking him unconscious and sending the rocket spinning out of control, crashing back to Earth as his family and ground crew watches with horror. As his crew arrives at the crash site, Larry has miraculously survived, but he’s on fire and his body is burned almost beyond recognition. Now he spends his days at ‘Doom Manor’ tending to his gardening (and I believe his avocation in the Titans episode was cooking). Larry, though, is also carrying another secret, one in which he felt he was already a monster before his accident … he’s gay. Not something a family man could admit to or be open about during the late 1950s/early 1960s.
The is one new arrival to the group, Jane, and she has 60+ different personalities, earning her the moniker Crazy Jane. She makes a terrible first impression on Cliff while Rita and Larry just seem afraid of her. And it seems, but isn’t confirmed, that Caulder could be her father. Or just a father figure. Everyone is uncomfortable with Jane around, except Cliff. He actually befriends her while she’s outdoors painting, but the rain comes, she swicthes personalities and the painting is ruined. Cliff takes pity on her and the two really do bond.
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Chief needs to make one of his mysterious exits from the manor, imploring them all to stay put. But after he’s gone, Jane wants nothing more than to get out of the house and spend the day in town with a Robot Man, a guy who looks like a mummy, and a woman who may melt at any second. What could go wrong? For starters, Cliff is still moping about his life and wanting to see his family, and one of Jane’s personalities helpfully informs him that he wasn’t in an accident at the race track. Cliff’s memories finally start to come back and he remembers the car in front of him flying over his car. He made it to the winner’s circle where he probably killed the guy screwing his wife — or at least did some real damage with that giant champagne bottle — and then went on a downward spiral of his own. So then how did he end up in this predicament?
They didn’t have much time to ponder this as Rita, who had befriended a waitress at a diner who insisted this woman looked like the old movie star Rita Farr, had a nice conversation about that actress and those old movies, but when the topic of her last film came up and then the rumors that Rita had turned to a life of pornography after being replaced midway through that movie, it set off her condition and she needed to exit quickly. Not quick enough though as she turned into a giant blob that crashed through the windows and rolled down Main Street, putting a school bus full of children in danger. Cliff realized he could break a piece of the pavement and hold it up as a barrier, saving the day but the destruction to the town and the appearance of these strange creatures among the populace has put them all in jeopardy.
Caulder was not happy about this turn of events when he returned, and he finally let Cliff hear the last phone call he had with his wife. It started out as a voice message but his wife picked up and they talked, but the conversation continued to record. Cliff learned he called to apologize and she actually agreed to come back home with him. Picking his family up from her parents’ they began the drive home. Asking his daughter a question, Cliff was distracted long enough to not see a truck jack-knifed across the road. With no time to stop, the car went under the truck, shearing off the roof. Cliff now knows that he can’t see his family again because they’re dead. This is the accident that ‘killed’ him as well. Despondent about being a terrible father and always missing his daughter’s birthday, Jane takes him to a toy store to buy her a gift (this was the real impetus for taking everyone into town). Cliff buys a toy but knows he has no one to give it to … or does he? Jane shows him that he and his wife we decapitated in the accident, but his daughter was the sole survivor.
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But now with the fear of a mob of angry villagers descending on the manor, Caulder advises them that it’s time to pack up and get as far away as possible. Rita and Larry agree and Jane reluctantly goes with the majority vote. Cliff, however, wants to stay and find his daughter. As the others leave, Jane has a change of heart and want to turn around and help Cliff. Rita agrees and Larry now is forced to go with the majority over Caulder’s wishes. They catch up to Cliff and join him in the middle of the street just a few yards from where he pulled up the pavement.
Inside the van, Caulder suddenly finds himself with a visitor — Morden, who has a decidedly different look than he did when we first saw him, a very weird, fragmented, black and white, electrically charged body. Or as he says, a Nobody. Caulder knows who he is and says the word ‘Paraguay’ with some disdain and disgust. Mr. Nobody is now causing something to happen in the town, a swirling vortex consuming the street ahead of the group. There’s also a donkey (which Caulder had seen before Morden’s appearance on the bus) that emits a green gas that forms the phrase ‘The Mind is the limit’ in the sky above.
What does it all mean, and how does Caulder know Morden? Was he perhaps the assistant to the Nazi who helped turn Morden into what he is now? The premiere episode of Doom Patrol is hands down one of the best first episodes I’ve seen of any series. Each character was set up beautifully, there was a lot of real heart and emotion to the story, the production design was epic as it jumped through decades from 1948 to the present. Brendan Fraser and Matt Bomer had already provided voices for their characters Robot Man and Negative Man, respectively, but this was the first time we got to see them in action. Both we excellent as their human selves and as the voices of their altered characters. April Bowlby is perfect as the 1950s actress who now never ages, and even when Rita becomes a blob her plaintive request to go home really carried a lot of emotion (as did Fraser’s ‘We can do that’ reply). Diane Guerrero is a nice addition to the established cast, having the tough job of portraying multiple personalities and not making the worst of them so bad that you can’t stand her. She has to bring some subtle and not so subtle variations to each character and she did a terrific job. And Timothy Dalton stepping into the role of Caulder is magnificent. Bichir’s portrayal in the Titans episode felt a bit cold and standoffish, but Dalton’s take now makes him more of a caring father figure to his ‘children’ but we know there is something dark and possibly dangerous behind that veneer. Dalton pulls it off to perfection.
I often say I need to give a new series at least three episodes to find its feet and get the writing and the cast to gel, but right out of the gate I’ve got an emotional connection to all of the main characters thanks to the outstanding performances and stellar writing. Coupled with the masterful production on the pilot, I don’t need to watch two more episodes to know that I am already completely hooked on Doom Patrol. Now please don’t let me down as the season progresses!
What did you think of this episode? Sound off in the comments below!
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