Nothing to Fear (Batman: The Animated Series)

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“Nothing to Fear”
Batman: The Animated Series episode

Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 10
Written by	Henry T. Gilroy & Sean Catherine Derek
Directed by	Boyd Kirkland
Original airdate	September 15th, 1992
Episode chronology
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"Christmas With The Joker"	"The Last Laugh"
List of Batman: The Animated Series episodes

The original looks of the Scarecrow

Nothing to Fear is the third episode of the first season of Batman: The Animated Series. Due to schedule changes it was the tenth episode to air.

1 Plot
2 Trivia
3 Cast
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Plot

A criminal calling himself The Scarecrow starts a series of havoc and crimes in revenge against the Gotham University, stealing founds while intoxicating people with a gas that causes victims fear hallucinations.

Batman's worst fear, rejection from his father

When Batman first tries to stop him, he gets intoxicated, being only able to tear off a piece of the Scarecrow’s clothes. Batman then chases the criminals to a zeppelin they are using to escape, but the fear induced hallucinations start kicking in, leading to thoughts of rejection from his father, and fails to catch Scarecrow.

After successfully escaping, the Scarecrow reveals to his henchmen, he was actually a college professor at Gotham University. Since his childhood he was obsessed with fear, and when he later started conducting fear experiments on his students, the Gotham University board fired him, so he swore revenge.

Thanks to the piece of fabric Batman got from the Scarecrow and the Bat-computer, Batman is able to identify him as Professor Jonathan Crane, owner of a chemical factory, and get to his hiding place to apprehend him.

[edit] Trivia

This was the first episode of the series to feature Batman's past. Only the 1989 movie from Tim Burton, and an episode of the Super Powers Team (the last season of the Superfriends), incidentally also featuring the Scarecrow as main villain, explored the Dark Knight’s origins outside comics medium before this episode.

Bullock mentions Batman's refusal to comply with the investigation, saying to Gordon "Zorro here's been holding evidence." Ironically, Bruce's origin of Batman began when his parents were gunned down after seeing The Mark of Zorro. Bob Kane has said Zorro influenced the creation of Batman.

This episode marks the first appearance of the Scarecrow, as well as the first of Bruce's late father, Dr. Thomas Wayne.

At one point the Batmobile computer shows a list of nearby chemical companies. Among the companies shown are STAR Labs from Superman's comics, which would later be featured in Superman: The Animated Series, and Axis Chemicals, which is the company that turned Jack Napier into The Joker in the 1989 Batman movie.

Near the end of the episode, Batman exposes the Scarecrow to the fear toxin, which causes him to hallucinate that Batman is a monstrous bat-like creature. A similar scenario can be seen in Batman Begins.

Water sprinklers do not work on gasoline fires; the bank would have burned to the ground within minutes even faster.

The security guard at the bank is reading a Tiny Toon Adventures comic book.

The Danny Elfman theme is used once again, this time it is used twice. Also there is a similar sound in this episode that is ditto to the Batman Begins theme.

[edit] Cast

Actor	Role
Kevin Conroy	Batman/Bruce Wayne
Robert Costanzo	Detective Harvey Bullock
Bob Hastings	Commissioner James Gordon
Clive Revill	Alfred Pennyworth
Mari Devon	Summer Gleeson
Kevin McCarthy	Dr. Long
Richard Moll	Computer / Anthony / Nigel
Henry Polic II	The Scarecrow/Jonathan Crane