"THE CLONE WARS" SEASON TWO. SWA's TOP FIVE EPISODES. NO 5: "THE ZILLO BEAST STRIKES BACK"

Watch out Palpatine, the Zillo Beast is coming after you!

With next weeks release in the UK of the DVD and Blu-ray box sets of the complete Season Two of THE CLONE WARS, I thought it would be nice to do a mini-countdown celebration by listing, on a day to day basis, my top five personal favourite episodes of the season, and my top five personal reasons as to why I enjoyed them so much.

First off, it's number five: THE ZILLO BEAST STRIKES BACK!

1. The Zillo Beast. A marvellous design and beautifully realised creation, and its scenes of sympathy, nobility, anger (loved that look it gives Palpy!) and destructive strength are a fine homage to the GODZILLA and KING KONG films of yesteryear. Its a genuinely sad moment when the beast, trying to survive against the adversity its faced with, is finally felled.

2. Supreme Chancellor Palpatine. Ian Abercombie clearly relishes his voice acting skills as the evil Republic leader determined to mine the natural defensive strengths of the beast for his own personal intent (and another weapon to use against the Jedi-a story avenue perhaps to be explored in a later episode of the series?). Deliciously evil throughout, its a great finale scene where he cruelly and happily orders the cloning of the dead animal.

3. Yoda and Aayla Secura on top of the Zillo Beast! Considering he was a last minute inclusion to the episode its really cool to see old frog face leaping in, out and around the creature. And Aayla's pretty nimble, too!

4. Together Again! Its great to pretty much see all the film series core main cast re-united in one episode- a very rare opportunity indeed, and especially fun when its for a terrific episode (particularly nice to see Artoo and Threepio back as a duo, too!).

5. Coruscant battle damaged. The city planet's centre looks more devastated in this episode than it did from the huge space battle that takes place in the skyline/atmosphere above it in EPISODE III! Who doesn't love a monster on the rampage bit of carnage, especially when its a great showcase for the writers and animators to have a bit of spectacular fun with/for the audience.

THE CLONE WARS Season Two, out on DVD and Blu-ray from WARNER BROTHERS DVD on November 15th.