Chariots of Fir

Battles B.C. Season 1, Episode 7
Ramses: Raging Chariots (2009)
Directed by David Padrusch

Despite the ridiculous title this may be the most tolerable episode of the series. The Battle of Kadesh is a classic example for historians of multiple conflicting sources about an event and for once the Battles B.C. gang manages to address the issue of the source material, make some decent conjectures about the events at Kadesh, include archaeological evidence and deal with ancient technology intelligently, show some decent visual effects and maps and re-enactments and make interesting reasoned statements about the bigger picture and the significance of the battle. This might pass for the beginning of some decent history. If only the chariots weren’t raging. Why do they have to be so angry?

Ramses, a young brash pharaoh....Vincent Lewis
Muwatallis....Ashwin Nair
Kikkuli....Michael Popp
Suppilumiuma....Kristopher Blount
Hittite Prince....Bryan McGowan
Hittite Bad Guy #1....David Hernandez
Bedouin Spies....Ian Stoker-Long
Michael Popp

Richard A. Gabriel (Distinguished Professor, Royal Military College of Canada)
Mark Schwartz (Department of Anthropology, Grand Valley State University)
Steven Weingartner (Chariots Like a Whirlwind)
Matthew Gonzales (Assistant Professor of Classics, Saint Anselm College)
David George (Director, Institute of Mediterranean Archaeology)

Raging Chariots is a dumb title, but this is a good episode of Battles B.C. Of course, if we believe the Death Chase episode in terms of placing this Ramses as the Pharaoh of Exodus, then there are some issues of whether or not he would have run into the Israelites in Sinai on his way up to Syria in his multiple campaigns against the Hittites and their allies, but that’s an issue for another day. As it stands, this episode is one of the more salvageable ones from this series. It doesn’t hurt that it was the one that their chariot expert Steven Weingartner was most useful for. And yes, Richard Gabriel is still a blowhard who says stupid things and the other guys seem so earnest that I might want to take a class with them but still, it’s a good episode.

As for Ramses, I still don’t buy his account of Kadesh completely.