This show is the show that just keeps on giving as a few years after Worzel Gummidge ended the exact same writers , director and some of it's stars launched a spin-off series. With this series also serving as a sequel series to the original show this despite it dropping alot of the original shows main cast of characters and so then join me as I review episodes that sees the end for now of the franchises first straight up villain with the episodes in question being called simply just "Slave Scarecrow" and "The Traveller Unmasked" enjoy.
The plot of these first two episodes is the evil Travelling Scarecrow Maker finally gets his hands on Worzel Gummidge and turns him evil and it's up to The Crowman and Aunt Sally to turn Worzel good again and defeat the Travelling Scarecrow Maker for good before it's far to late. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in these very episodes well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in these very episodes was in all honesty not that bad with the plot for this two parter being suitably epic for a two part episode and yet at the same time tho the episodes plot isn't really worthy of being a two part episode with the episodes plot being really very entertaing and really very engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in these episodes is Superted and Doctor Who star Jon Pertwee as Worzel Gummidge and Sherlock star Una Stubbs as Aunt Sally. Also starring in these episodes is The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers and The Lord Of The Rigs: The Return Of The King star Bruce Phillips as The Crowman , Olivia Ihimaera-Smiler as Manu , Wi Kuki Kaa as The Travelling Scarecrow Maker and Jonathan Marks as Mickey.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in these very episodes well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that thew actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in these very episodes was in all honesty not that bad. With alot of the episodes cast turning in some really good performances and while the kid actors aren't as good as the kid actors from UK set series of Worzel Gummidge they do make the most of what little that there given to do with the acting in these first two episodes really being helped by the fact that scripts for both of these two episodes being so good that all the cast have to do is just say the lines as there written and a good performance will come out of them naturally and while yes some of the actors aren't as good as others that's not a knock on the episodes script as that's more a knock on the actors not being as good as they should have been.
It's in this episode were we get to see something that wasn't shown in the original show and that's an evil version of Worzel Gummidge. This is a really creepy idea as the character at this point has been really harmless with him only displaying bad behavior due to him not really being that smart and there for doesn't know all that much but in this episode The Travelling Scarecrow Maker turns him fully evil with him setting out to kill his beloved Aunt Sally and while we do get to see Jon Pertwee pull of a great sounding evil voice for Worzel there's just something wrong about seeing Worzel Gummidge be as evil as he is this is despite it being a really good idea but at the same time tho it feels wrong because it's not something works well for this character and while they do give an in universe behind this sudden change it's something that should have been handled alot better then how it was handled in these two episodes of the show.
One of the many things that this episode gets right is the fact that it gives Una Stubbs the chance to show just what kind of voices that she can do. With those voices really being good with her doing a very convincing Northern England type of voice at one point it's just a shame that the episode very quickly drops this idea just as soon as it introduces it as it could have been a great way to have some humor in what is two episodes that are more horror based but at the same time there is most likely a practical reason as to why the idea of Aunt Sally putting on different voices was dropped as doing different voices is hard work to do at the best of times and while it would have been great to hear more of the kind of voices that Aunt Sally could do it most likely would have been to difficult for Una Stubbs to do.
For some reason the makers of the show chose to have Aunt Sally be the one to try and rescue Worzel Gummidge. Which just doesn't make all that much sense as Aunt Sally isn't the type of character to help anybody out as she's the type of person to leave a person who is in desperate need of her help just because it suits her to do so and given all that we've of the character in all of the previous it does seem out of character for her to be the one to go and rescue and while they do give a reason for why The Crowman couldn't do it it would have made more sense then having Aunt Sally do it or even having the children go and do it would have made sense as there Worzel's friends and would therefor actually really want to help him out where as Aunt Sally really isn't that kind of person something which we see at several points during part two of this two part episode.
To many this is one of the more scarier episodes of the franchise with this episode being pretty creepy even for a kids TV show. While the original show didn't shy away from having scary episodes either in these two episodes they really have alot of creepy with The Travelling Scarecrow Maker making scarecrows that are more in line zombies then they are actual scarecrows as they can only come alive at night and don't talk with his main goal to take all of The Crowman's powers which would enable him to make scarecrows walk and talk at any time and thus pretty much raise an army to take over the world which is a pretty creepy idea which is made even more creepier when we see that Aunt Sally is to scared to even go to his house and yet what's funny is the fact that parents in the UK complained about this episode being scary as it was shows early in the morning and yet they were OK with the original series having some scary scenes and episodes in it and yet those episodes were broadcast alot closer when children were most likely heading of to bed.
Now then while I cannot for the absolutely life of me remember whatever these two episodes grand total running even were I do know for a fact that both episodes has / had a combined exact grand total running time of roughly fifty minuets. With both episodes being somewhere around twenty five minuets each in length with this story really feeling short changed because of the fact that it's only two episodes as you very easily could have stretched this story out to three or four episodes which would have helped the story out quite alot as the second episode really does feel like a rush job with plot points just coming out of nowhere and the characters not really getting alot of the development that they should have gotten in these episodes which does make sense as this is a TV series but at the same time in a pair of episodes like this one they really should have given the characters really some form of character development but I will admit that both episodes really do have some really truly wonderful pacing to them.
So now then as this is comedy that means that I have to actually talk about thew actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in these very episodes well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in these very episodes was in all honesty not that bad as we do get some funny moments during both of these episodes. At the same time tho the main focus of both of these episodes oddly enough isn't the comedy it's the horror and while the horror aspect is really well done the lack of jokes during alot of both of the episodes really does make it feel like that they put to much effort into the horror side of things when this should have been more like a horror comedy instead of a straight up horror with one or two lighthearted moments in it but when we do get a good and funny joke you really do notice it in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall this was a really solid two parter which does show just how good this sequel spin-off series could have been when it was at it's best and not let down by bad scripts in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in these very episodes in this very review and as such that means that these episodes really do earn themselves a combined grand total score of exactly a 6.5 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from Amazon . Co . UK , Wikipedia and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from these very episode that I used in this very review being Google Images really simply just due to the fact that really alot of the images that are on Google Images are all really fairly high in quality and as well as them all really being really fairly freaking high in definition.