User blog:NJGW/Series 9, Heat A, afterthoughts

Well our first heat of the Ninth Wars is done, and what an explosive opening it was! Here, I'll rundown the positives, the negatives, general thoughts, and an overall score.

Positives

 * Very clean camera work throughout. A lot of cameras seem to be set up in much more natural positions now.
 * I adore this new lighting - not only in the arena, but in general - and the new, battered look the arena floor has.
 * I enjoyed the filler a hell of a lot. It gave us a lot of interesting rundowns and information, and Gabe's particular slot before the Jellyfish fight was a great moment.
 * Minor, but the two teams being in different booths for the Head-to-Heads does add something. The teams are much more expressive of their emotions when in their own personal space.
 * The Rogue House Robot feature seems like it will work nicely. I was worried that fights would be significantly disrupted, but early on, I like how it worked. These are obviously only first impressions, but a good first impression it was.
 * Dara and Angela continue to impress me. I really enjoyed how they were in the Battle of the Stars episodes, and they go from strength to strength today.

Negatives

 * I hope it doesn't pan out this way, but with so many spinners, I really do fear how some of these Head-to-Head rounds could pan out. Although I love the idea of the Head-to-Head as it allows multiple chances, it seems like it may well have been better suited for the older series as apposed to the modern day, where we could easily end up seeing multiple dropouts, and if not, a lot of battles where one machine just cannot give the viewing audience a good enough fight.
 * That blasted clock. It's getting annoying now. When it comes up, it isn't always clear whether the battle is going to a judges' decision or if a robot is being counted out (something that could easily be differentiated via colour of the number) but, more importantly to me, it takes the tension out of the situation. In the old series, Refbot's count could be broken, and although it happened rarely, machines did come back to life, but with this clock being added in post-production, the moment it starts ticking, I know there's 100% no hope of a machine coming back to life, and it annoys me, as silly as that may seem.
 * Post melee losing interviews. Very minor, but if the last we see of a team is via their robot losing without any closing words on the battle from the people who built the robot, then it feels like they're being discarded too easily. I really like having that closure, and although it's a very minor point and certainly nowhere near the Series 5 way of things, I would still like them to be fitted in if possible.

General Thoughts

 * Aftershock well and truly is one of my favourite robots already. It was inevitable that it was going to do well, but, man - it's such an elegant and innocent, yet explosive machine.
 * Terrorhurtz may have lost twice tonight, but those two battles are two of my favourites already. Such great pace and explosive moments. I'll forever love this machine and the team.
 * A massive shame to lose Rapid like that. I would've love to have seen it and Terrorhurtz tussle one vs one, because their melee rivalry was a great watch.

Conclusion
Ha, judging by the Positives vs. Negatives, it may seem like I was quite mixed about this episode, but that couldn't be any less true. I absolutely loved that episode. It didn't feel like a Heat A - if that makes sense - but it was so special in how unique it was, and was an immensely enjoyable watch. The negatives I mentioned bar the losing team interviews in melees aren't really brought on by this episode in itself, but more an annoyance I have with the show as a whole, and I felt the need to bring them up again as they were still relevant in some form.

Score: 8.5/10