Having sung the praises of Batman: The Animated Series last week, I had to return to the episodes of the show that really showcase its finer qualities. Whether it's the wonderful animation, excellent voice work, pitch perfect plotting or scintillating action sequences, these six episodes are the ones most worth revisiting at your leisure.

They're all from the series' long first season as the show did lose some of its sting towards its final few episodes. And while they're all favourites for different reasons, they do all have one thing in common: a plot to die for.

6. Joker's Favor

Any Batman episode featuring the Joker is always going to be worth a look and while episodes such as Christmas With The Joker deserve a mention, it's this outing – which I believe to be his first appearance in the series – which should be viewed over any other.

The true extent of the Joker's evil scheming is revealed as a chance encounter with poor Charlie Collins leads to the Clown Prince of Crime biding his time to call upon Collins years later. Collins is used in order to plant a bomb at a ceremony honouring Commissioner Gordon and it's a scheme that the Joker has clearly taken his time to plan, demonstrating that under the madness lies a cold, calculating killer.

The tension builds slowly in a plot that manages to pack in so much back story in its twenty minutes that it stands out as a thoroughly enjoyable dramatic piece of work.

The twist towards the end of the episode, as Charlie turns the tables on the Joker, is well executed and adds an extra dimension to an already jam-packed plot. Nice turn from Ed Begley Jr, too, as Charlie.

5. P.O.V.

On the face of it, this is a plot you've seen countless times before. When a police sting goes awry, Officer Montoya, Harvey Bullock and a rookie cop find themselves under questioning to discover what went wrong. Over the course of the episode we get to see the same tale from each person's point of view, discovering along the way who is lying and who is telling the truth.

The thing to remember here, though, and what makes this such a remarkable episode, is that this was a series aired for children on early morning television. Kids were used to comedic turns from Scooby-Doo and crazed action sequences from the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. What they weren't used to seeing was expertly paced, film noir entertainment with animation that any show would have been proud to be associated with.

This really is classy stuff and wouldn't be out of place in prime time entertainment schedules. High drama, great voice work and tight animation all packed in twenty minutes.

4. Feat Of Clay (Part 1 and 2)

Occasionally, the series would throw in a two-part episode, giving it the opportunity to delve deeper and provide a meatier plot for the audience. The best of the lot, in my eyes (although Two-Face comes close), is Feat Of Clay, featuring the rather sad figure of Clayface.

In part one, we see how disfigured actor Matt Hagen became Clayface and how he frames Bruce Wayne who ends part one in jail.

In part two, there are a lot more transformations for Clayface to undertake (excellent, T2-style sequences in parts) and a satisfying resolution.

I've chosen this as my favourite two-parter for a few reasons. First, Clayface is a fantastic villain who would be revisited a few more times during the course of the series. Second, the voice work for Matt Hagen by Ron Perlman is superb. Third, as with all the best Batman episodes, this has an awful lot of heart among the action and it's another extremely mature outing.

3. Beware The Gray Ghost

Any episode featuring the mighty Adam West deserves high praise, indeed, but while his appearance as washed-up actor Simon Trent, aka The Gray Ghost (Bruce Wayne's favourite television show as a child) could have turned out as nothing more than a gimmick, it's coupled with a wonderful plot and the usual top-notch animation.

As a series of bombs are going off around Gotham, Bruce spots the connection with an episode of 'The Gray Ghost' and goes in hunt of Trent. Does he have something to do with it? Or is he actually an innocent man? Time for Batman to leap into action.

What makes this show such a joy to watch is the mirroring of The Gray Ghost's actions on television with Batman's, the suggestion being that watching that television show inspired Bruce to solve crime and helped to shape his alter-ego. It's an interesting premise with shots of The Gray Ghost leaping across buildings matched with shots of Batman doing exactly the same. Then there is the wonderful treatment of how Trent despairs over being typecast, thus losing out on acting deals.

This is clearly mirrored in West's own life and fair play to him for accepting the role at all. A real treat.

2. Heart Of Ice

Winning an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing In An Animation, it's obvious why this one makes the list.

Heart Of Ice, a treatment of Mr Freeze that Joel Schumacher should be extremely jealous of, is the episode that best displays what Batman:TAS is all about: high drama, mature writing, thoughtful plotting and sumptuous animation.

The writing, though, rightly takes the plaudits as it's one of the best written episodes I've ever seen. The true genius of the episode is that it makes you feel sorry for Freeze. His vendetta against Ferris Boyle, owner of Gothcorp, is one you end up understanding because Boyle's actions helped lead to Freeze's current state. Indeed, you actually want Freeze to get his revenge on one level, the intelligence of pitting villain against villain working a treat.

Then there is the heartfelt scenes in which Freeze laments his lost love, Nora. It would be doing children's television an injustice to say that this is writing that deserves a wider audience, but it really is worthy of a big screen movie and for that reason alone this is one of my very favourite episodes.

1. Almost Got 'Im

Playing out like a series of mini-episodes, this remains my favourite of any of the entire series because it's a highly intelligent, thoroughly entertaining piece of work.

It features all of the popular villains – Joker, Penguin, Two-Face, Poison Ivy and Killer Croc – packs in more action in its runtime than several episodes put together, and has a wonderfully witty script to boot.

Wearing its film noir credentials on its sleeve, it starts with the villains assembled at a poker table in a bar somewhere in Gotham City. They begin to trade stories on how each one almost finished off the Batman, only for him to somehow escape.

As each story is recounted, we see the action panning out on screen and the episode goes by at breakneck speed. Then, when you think you've seen it all, it delivers a top-draw twist.

Naturally, Mark Hamill as the Joker gets all the best lines while Kevin Conroy as Batman provides a great pay-off at the episode's end. However, all concerned play their part in this absorbing, fantastically fun slice of animation.

• Classic Geek Cartoons Revisited: Batman: The Animated Series