 Oh, Ben 10: Alien Force, why must you toy with my affections so? I was almost ready to write off the entire series after volume 7, which took out much of what I liked about the show and replaced it with unlikeable characters and less interesting plotlines. I am happy to report that the six episodes on volume 8 are a roaring return to form, with the same appealing qualities that I discovered so far back in volume 4.
As before, Ben Tennyson is the wielder of the Omnitrix, a watch-like device that allows him to transform into a wide variety of alien life forms. He uses those alternate forms (and the powers that come with them) to battle evil alongside his magic-wielding cousin Gwen and their former enemy Kevin E. Levin. In the last volume, Kevin's ability to absorb the properties of any substance he touched went horribly awry after a failed attempt to hack the Omnitrix, leaving him in a monstrously disfigured state. That attempt also made the Omnitrix far less reliable, often putting Ben into a different alien form than the one he was intending to use.
 The episodes on this DVD nicely balance accessibility against the long history of the franchise. Even though the majority of the episodes involve characters who have appeared on the show in the past, all the episodes here seem like they would serve nicely as an introduction to the show for a newcomer. I had never watched the original series or several of the early episodes of Alien Force, but these episodes make it easy to pick up what you need to know about characters like Gwen's mortal enemy Charmcaster or the energy-draining foe Darkstar. Despite this heavy reliance on continuity, each episode on this disc is a perfectly independent, self-contained adventure. It's the same sort of trick that old-school superhero comic books used to do in the days of newsstand distribution, when publishers couldn't rely on their readers being able to pick up each monthly installment. While Ben is still saddled with an extremely irritating arrogance, it's definitely toned down from the previous disc which made him downright unlikeable. The Omnitrix malfunctioning is a gag that was wearing thin on the last disc, but with this one I am left with the sneaking suspicion that the device may be smarter than Ben is and is "malfunctioning" deliberately.
It helps that all the episodes on this disc are cleverly plotted, smartly written, and well-executed. "If All Else Fails" exploits the alien Highbreed for one last hurrah, as a Highbreed sleeper agent left behind on Earth awakens and activates a world-destroying failsafe device before he learns that the war between Earth and the Highbreed is over. It's an episode with exceptionally little drag, ripping through its plot points smartly and tossing in plot twists that are perfectly logical while still being surprising. "In Charm's Way" and "Trade Off" involve the return of older villains seeking vengeance on our heroes, with Gwen being the target of the first episode and Kevin being the target of the second. Both have enough genre-savviness that none of our heroes are fooled for long, if at all, and both episodes work in plot twists that are both entirely logical and pleasantly surprising. "Ghost Town" marks the return of the villainous Vilgax, except as a supplicant for Ben's aid rather than as a would-be conqueror. The best thing about this episode is that it begins as a ploy, but plays out in such a way to keep us wondering whether Vilgax's fake plea for help has turned into a real one. Even by the episode's finish, when Vilgax seems to be setting up another long-form story arc, we're still wondering how much of what we witnessed was part of his initial plan while getting a clear sense of dread over whatever plot is cooking in his head.
 While it's not terrible, "Busy Box" is probably the worst of the episodes on this disc, as the team finds a strange box that imitates the life forms it is exposed to. Like many of the weakest episodes of Ben 10: Alien Force, this one feels like it's throwing its heroes into combat more to pad running time than because it's a sensible thing to do, and we're able to figure out a lot of what's really going on well before any of the cast members do. It's partially helped by the return of the bounty-hunting Vreedle Bros, the best thing about volume 7, and the whole thing is rooted in an idea that's amusing in theory, but neither is enough to keep the episode from disappointing. Thankfully, it's followed by the best episode on the disc, "The Con of Rath," in which the team must escort an alien infant to a far-flung world as part of a complex peace deal. The mission is further complicated when Ben gets stuck in his newest Omnitrix alien: the tiger-like Rath whose hair-trigger rage and blissful freedom from of the ravages of higher intelligence might make him seem like a one-note character on paper. Thankfully, he is brought to hilariously hostile life by the combination of Len Uhley's clever script and John DiMaggio's marvelous vocal performance. DiMaggio's performance is all the more remarkable considering he has to holler all his lines, and he ends up in at least two conversations with himself during the episode. Rath is definitely the best addition to the cast since the Vreedle Brothers, who are also revealed to be the show's equivalents to Hank and Dean Venture in this episode.
By now, I can pretty much cut-and-paste my comments about the DVD presentation of these episodes from a prior review. Warner Home Video gives us a nice anamorphic widescreen presentation and a Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo soundtrack, with a nice set of chapter breaks within each episode and no special features other than trailers on the disc insertion and a few more alien database entries. The presentation was never anything I could complain about on these DVDs, but the episodes on volume 8 are a nice return to form for the show from the disappointment of volume 7.
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