The Clock King (Batman: The Animated Series)

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“The Clock King”
'Batman: The Animated Series' episode
Episode no.	Season One Episode 19
Written by	David Wise
Directed by	Kevin Altieri
Original airdate	September 21st, 1992
Episode chronology
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"Fear of Victory"	"Appointment in Crime Alley"
List of Batman: The Animated Series episodes

The Clock King is the twenty-fifth episode of Batman: The Animated Series and the first appearance of The Clock King in the DC animated universe. Unlike most Batman episodes the entire episode is set in the day time, which suprisingly went down ok with the fans.

[edit] Plot

Temple Fugate was a stiff, anal-retentive efficiency expert, obsessed with punctuality, and appealing a $20 million judgment against his business. Hamilton Hill, a lawyer with the firm representing the other side, who took the same train to work as Fugate, suggested that Fugate deviate from his rigid schedule so as to appear more relaxed in court. Fugate took the advice, and had his coffee break at 3:15, instead of 3:00. However, as a result of this, and a string of accidents, Fugate missed his court appearance, lost his appeal, and was ruined.

Seven years later, he adopted a clock-based motif and embarked on a campaign of revenge against Hill, who had become mayor of Gotham City in the meantime. Fugate's revenge would have culminated in murdering Hill at 3:15, by crushing him between the hands of a giant clock, had Batman not interfered. Fugate was much less flamboyant than his comic-book incarnation or Batman's enemies in general. While he did base his crime around a general clock-theme, he did not use themed weapons and his "costume" was a simple business suit embellished only by a walking cane shaped like a clock hand and glasses with clock faces on the lenses. Nonetheless, his obsessive-compulsive attention to detail did allow him to be a formidable opponent using various time pieces and completely memorized schedules of various activities to his advantage. For instance, in his first confrontation with Batman, Fugate was able to suddenly backflip from the building top he was on to land on a passing train he knew would pass underneath at that exact moment to escape before the superhero could react in time to pursue him. He even was able to briefly spar competently against Batman, due to having memorized the timing of the crimefighter's moves from news footage of his previous fights. Unfortunately for Fugate, he accidentally jammed his clock cane between the gears of the clock tower and disappeared in the collapsing rubble of the clock tower. He was presumed dead by Gordon, but Batman suspected that if he himself could survive the collapse, the Clock King could as well. Fugate's future appearances in the series prove this right.

[edit] Cast

Actor	Role
Kevin Conroy	Batman / Bruce Wayne
Lloyd Bochner	Mayor Hamilton Hill
Bob Hastings	Commissioner James Gordon
Efrem Zimbalist Jr.	Alfred Pennyworth
Mari Devon	Summer Gleeson
Jeff Bennett	Office Boy
Alan Rachins	Clock King / Temple Fugate