Batman: The Animated Series (TV Series) What Is Reality? (1992) User Reviews

The Riddler Fiddles With Virtual Reality

[ccthemovieman-1 · 7/10 · 7 January 2009]

Edward Nygma (Enigma) is back, a.k.a. "The Riddler," and this time he's disabled computers so that all trace of him will be gone; all his police records, driver's license, birth certificates, etc. He wants no trace left that he ever existed.

Along the way, he gives numerical clues to what he's doing.

Why?

It turns out to be a "virtual reality" trap to get Batman, with the lure being Commissioner Gordon who is trapped inside and who's heart is 15 minutes away from expiring, thanks to the "virtual reality" experience he's having. Batman will have to go into cyberspace to save Gordon!

This probably looked a lot cooler back in the early '90s when "virtual reality" and other computer advances were new and exciting. By now, it's old....but that didn't make the episode any less; it was still interesting, even if dated a bit.

John Glover guest-stars as the voice of "The Riddler."

"It all makes sense when you add it up..."

[Foreverisacastironmess123 · 7/10 · 13 March 2017]

Now they're really into computers! OK so in this episode various weird computer-related crimes begin to crop up across Gotham City with riddles attached to them, and while all this is going on, all of the information that's related to Edward Nygma's existence is vanishing. Gee.. Then a treehouse-sized object encased in a puzzle that's something like a giant Rubix cube is delivered to the police headquarters and is first mistaken for a bomb but is actually a computer system that uses an astonishing virtual reality program, and thanks to some pretty unbelievable stupidity on Robin's part, Commissioner Gordon is soon at the Riddler's complete mercy in the freaky depths of cyberspace, and the only way for Batman to save his old friend and ally before it's too late is to go online himself! This is my least favourite of the seldom seen Riddler stories of this show. It's good, but I don't find it great like his first appearance, the concept of the virtual reality seems a little rushed and clichéd, it perhaps should have been a two part story, with the first part being everything that leads up to the VR stuff and the second being Batman's adventure in the virtual realm. It just feels a bit too big of an idea to cram into one episode, and for me it's a little underwhelming when it should be awesome. The idea of the Riddler creating an entire computer kingdom in order to prove his superiority over his greatest opponent because he's unable to do so in the real world is very cool though, and there's some impressive imagery during the VR sequence, I freaking love the killer chess set, and the knight version of Batman is so awesome! The ending to the story is weird too, with the Riddler temporarily being left a helpless babbling idiot because mind his was trapped in his own virtual world when Batman caused the whole simulation to come crashing down. I do like the insights into the Riddler's persona, he's such a snide petty man for thinking he can make Batman's previous victory over him disappear simply by erasing all records of himself as Edward Nygma.. He's a very insecure twisted genius! John Glover was always such a joy to hear in his voice role, he was an absolute pitch perfect Riddler, sounding intellectual and witty yet with a little bit of manic superiority in there as well, he was as great as Mark Hammel was for the Joker. Something strange and kind of ironic is that recently a Batman game came out that requires you to wear a device on your head that's not too different from the one that features in this episode, it puts you entirely in the world of the game and lets you play as the Dark Knight himself! So for me this is nowhere near what I'd consider the worst but it's also not a favourite, it's just a good solid enough and very novel episode of a classic series. X

Batman does not do fashionable well

[flash-104 · 5/10 · 30 April 2020]

Batman usually ages well, but not this time. In the 1990's there seemed to be an edict requiring shows about virtual reality that wasn't actually virtual, and whose Off switch couldn't be used. Police dirigibles age much better.