[AerostarMonk]

Actually, when it comes to comics or things based on comics changes of gender or species is not as big of a deal as one would think. They happen quite often and for very contrived and convoluted reasons. Shredder never lost anything from being an alien. He retained all of his usual history. He just gained another identity and an additional thousand years of backstory. And despite being an alien, he was every bit as human as his alter ego. In fact that was a major plot point, that Shredder had essentially gone native. It just happened to be that he chose to cling to the dark side of humanity. I thought all of this was great character development and made for a really good story, and they really sold it too. They didn't cop out and have the real Saki stuffed in some unnamed closet while an alien masqueraded as him. You know the usual comic book cop out. Besides is a little thing like this upsets you than some of the changes the comic book does to its own continuity would make you rip telephone books.

As for the Doom Patrol, the somewhat two dimesional portrayl of the 60s sqaud mixed well with the overall theme of the episode and indeed the entire season, that the Titans had outgrown their teachers and masters and are now the keepers of their own fates. Although it probably wasn't intentional. The real reason why the Doom Patrol may have seemed so flat is because the actual stars of the show and who would ultimately be the story arc's main villains required more depth than a team that was going to be phased out in two eps and ultimately were only there to serve as exposition. Borderline lazy writing? Yes. But if you look at it my way you sort make more peace with entire thing. Plus I still thing it was cool to see the Doom Patrol on tv, especially after I read more about them. And dropping at least one stars' secret identity wasn't going to hurt the show a bit.