Pilot Wings: Birds of Prey (2002)

If I'm going to do obvious click-bait, I might as well be creative about it.

I got the DVD of Birds of Prey (all one Season of it) and it features the Unaired Pilot as a Bonus Feature.

With the return of the world in Crisis on Infinite Earths (kudos to the Actress for keeping the costume) and the Film coming out, let's see what worked and obviously didn't work for the Network here...

Already things are a bit confusing.  So bear with me while I exposition dump the way that the Pilot does...

- Batman and Batgirl (in her classic outfit) fight crime together.
- Selena Kyle had a kid with Batman that he didn't know about.
- Batman captures The Joker, but he escapes and does two things...
1) Hire a guy to kill Selena (with ease!)
2) Show up to shoot and paralyze Barbara Killing Joke-style

Our Lead- Dinah- has some sort of psychic powers and sees this happen, even though she's not in New Gotham or even knows them.

Years later (seven, to be exact), she travels to the City, seen here represented by the first of dozens of slightly-dated-looking CG Models.

Also I think the Sun is dying in the background.

Barbara is now the computer-hacking Oracle, while Selena's Daughter is...

Huntress!

She has cat powers, since...um, I guess this is Batman Returns' Selina Kyle.
Although she left Gotham after the Movie or was dead (it wasn't clear).
So did this continuity break away from Batman Forever's one, since this is a different Batgirl and...why do I care more than the people who made this Show?

Dinah is saved by Huntress from Aaron Paul and uses her touch-based telepathy (which it is now, I guess) to find the base.

She proves to have powers and, of course, got close to one of the victims of the crime the pair are investigating.

So, naturally, Oracle...

…sends her out into the field with no training to check out the Docks for clues.

She does give her these silly goggles that lets her see what Dinah sees though.  That sure will be helpful if she's murdered!

This leads to an exposition dump explaining what I already did in the first part.

Huntress, meanwhile, is drugged by the bad guy, who is trying to make her kill herself.
The Director gets all arty here with this bit inside of Huntress' mind too.

The Villain is stopped and rendered catatonic.

As her Heroes celebrate, we are introduced yet again to Dr. Harleen Quinzel, played by Sherilyn Fenn.  Shock Twist- she's the Villain.

Unfortunately, she is the biggest change from Unaired Pilot to real Pilot as she was recast.  Aw.  The End.

A good start.  Obviously, the Show has come and gone in the last 18 years, so there's no use trying to save it.  It is interesting to see how much this feels like Smallville, which proved to be the more successful DC Show.  There are alot of good ideas and bad ideas here.  I like that is connected to the Films.  I hate the connection is so confusing.  Seriously, it's like Batman Returns happened, but then some other Film besides Forever and & Robin happened.  In that one, we get a different Batgirl, a renaming of the City AND Selena Kyle returning to Gotham as a Socialite.  Oh and if you think that it is a different Selena Kyle, I'll remind you that they reuse the Returns suit for flashbacks.  Speaking of weird connections, they used Mark Hamill as the Voice of Joker, but uses a Stunt Man for the actual on-screen appearance- why?  Obviously the biggest thing here is the fact that Fenn was recast from original to final Pilot.  For the record, I thought she was good.  I think that she could have worked for the Show just fine.  FYI she would later be Raven's Step-Mom on Titans (for like 10 seconds), so that's a random connection for you.  Two last points to cover.  First, they decide to call Huntress as 'Helena,' but pronounce it like 'Helen-ah.'  Weird.  Lastly, they cast a lady named 'Dina' to play Barbara and then someone named 'Rachel' to play 'Dinah.'  In summary, this Pilot is good.  Why did they mess with it just to have another lady do the same Scenes in place of Fenn?

The Show clearly had some potential.  This one sets up alot that the Series will pay off, but it wasn't to be.