First off, it was very clever introducing the aforementioned railway system on the Malevolence. Seriously… these guys are supposed to be a credible threat to anyone? There were certainly some stronger sequences here though. But moments later was the terrible scene in which Battle Droids attempt to put out a fire and – sigh – uselessly find themselves thrown about by their fire hoses. That was a funny moment that referenced the real world, but didn't undermine the credibility of the universe the show is set in. As for the episode's other attempts at humor, it was a very mixed bag – I laughed out loud as Grievous disembarked the Malevolence's railway, and a voice could be heard announcing 'Mind the gap,' in a reference to the London Underground's amusing and popular quote. Meanwhile, kudos to the design team and animators for making sure that while Natalie Portman may not be present to drool over, the animated version of Padme has a very shapely butt for male fans to either be amused by or admire or some weird mixture of both. Padme's mention that Anakin has been 'playing with droids' since they met was both semi-funny and semi-creepy, as it brought up just how young Anakin was when the two first met. There were some groaner moments in this episode – Padme's 'something's not right' reaction to her ship jumping into the middle of a huge battle was pretty ridiculous and the quick would-be-romantic moment where she and Anakin nearly kiss just didn't feel genuine. Overall, it was a flawed but decent installment, though last week's 'Shadow of Malevolence' stands out as the strongest among this storyline. This episode was the first for the series in a few ways – it served as the introduction of Padme and C-3PO it gave Obi-Wan and Anakin their first mission together and it brought together the duos of C-3PO & R2-D2 and Anakin & Padme. When Padme's ship is snatched by Grievous, Anakin stops the attack on the Malevolence, and he and Obi-Wan board the ship to rescue the senator. Throwing a wrinkle into the proceedings was the unexpected presence of Padme, who'd been lured there under the pretense of the Banking Clan seeking a truce, via information given her by Chancellor Palpatine – hmm, I don't know if that guy can be fully trusted. The rest of the half hour involved the attempt to finally bring down the ship, while Grievous attempted to fix his hyperdrive and escape. I was glad to see that the third and final part of the 'Malevolence' storyline picked up with the Republic ships still right on the tail of the Malevolence, rather than it somehow having escaped off camera.

Republic at war malevolence