Old friends, new enemies enhance ‘TMNT’ Season 3 (2004-05)

There might not be another franchise that skirts the edge of copyright law quite like “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” which famously started as a “Daredevil” parody. Case in point: Agent Bishop in “TMNT” ’03 Season 3 (2004-05, Fox) is Agent Smith from “The Matrix” combined with a “Men in Black” agent if he were evil.

Bishop has mutant-hunting precursors in “TMNT” ’87’s Captain Hoffman (“Invasion of the Punk Frogs”), Dirk Savage (“Dirk Savage: Mutant Hunter!”) and Krakus (“Enter: Krakus”). And his Earth Protection Force is similar to Mirage Vol. 2’s D.A.R.P.A. Technically, though, Bishop is new to the franchise, with very much a 2000s Cool flavor. On the other hand, Nobody (“Nobody’s Fool,” 11) comes directly from Mirage’s “Tales of the TMNT” Issue 2. He’s a Batman knockoff – not a Turtle Titan knockoff, as Mikey suggests.

That having been said, “TMNT’s” writing team puts together old ideas in ways that feel fresh. Despite having eight writers, Season 3 is intelligently plotted, starting slow but eventually paying it off. (SPOILERS FOLLOW.) Similar to what Peter Laird was doing in Mirage Vol. 4 at this time, the season starts with an alien invasion – Triceratons here, rather than Utroms – in the “Space Invaders” (2-4) and “When Worlds Collide” (5-7) three-parters.

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I love how Fugitoid — the very first “TMNT” character, predating even the Turtles – gets to be a consistent part of the story; even when he loses his mechanical body, he sticks around on Don’s palm pilot because he backs himself up (but, amusingly, he skips “nonessential information,” including his knowledge of Mikey’s name).

Enter: Renet!

Valley-girl timestress Renet (one of “TMNT’s” inexplicably human, English-speaking aliens) had more regular Mirage appearances than Fugitoid. But likewise I’m glad to see her introduced in “Time Travails” (17) – an adaptation of Issue 8, minus Dave Sim’s Cerebus. She’s accurately, amusingly portrayed – as are her boss Lord Simultaneous and her rival Savanti Romero — and I hope she pops in more often. (Interestingly, this episode is written by Bob Forward, marking the first case of a “TMNT” ’87 writer coming over; he is co-credited on “The Unknown Ninja.” Although that episode launched Season 9, David Wise took over and became the guiding force of that show’s best season.)

Season 3 continues the trend of mixing Mirage adaptations with a new storyline, and this is the most seamless season. “The Christmas Aliens” (1) adapts the Michaelangelo one-shot of the same name, a cozy issue that would develop too much edge with the show’s usual all-white eyes for the Turtles. So the animators simply give Mikey pupils for this episode only (even in scenes where the other Turtles have white eyes). With the rest of the gang waiting for Mikey at the lair along with their invitees – from their homeless friends to Usagi Yojimbo – the ep earns a spot in Christmas rotations.

“Touch and Go” (8) introduces symbiotic superpowered thugs; Touch develops an energy charge, then Go uses it. I’m not crazy about that, and although it’s rare to see a Splinter-Mikey team-up, I always feel something is missing when it’s not the full team. That said, the Raph subplot – taken from “Challenges” – wherein he accidentally befriends an old blind lady who doesn’t know he’s a mutant Turtle, is quite cute.

“Hunted” (9) then adapts “Tales” Issue 6 (“Leatherhead”), wherein Leatherhead is tracked through the sewers by a big-game hunter, and “H.A.T.E.” (10) is a faithful riff on Issue 12 (“Survivalists”), wherein alien-hating rednecks intend to trigger a nuclear bomb. As a wonderful bonus, the new character of Casey’s mom is introduced; she nags Casey and April at the farmhouse, but there’s more to her than meets the eye, and the episode ends on the zinger of Mrs. Jones offhandedly inquiring about the giant turtle and giant rat in the barn.

H.A.T.E.’s hatred of aliens – and beings who seem like aliens, in the Turtles’ case – nicely ties in with the Triceraton invasion that unambiguously establishes “TMNT” as a world of extraterrestrials, mutants and superheroes. In an equally hateful — but government-stamped — capacity is Agent Bishop. It’s nice to have Bishop as an added threat so we’re not merely dealing with the Shredder.

Journeys above and below

In another example of the writers blending Mirage-borrowed threads better than Mirage did, “New Blood” (12) finds the Shredder aiming to piece together a Triceraton ship left over from the invasion. That sneak-previews the season’s grand finale. “Mission of Gravity” (15) similarly deals with post-invasion housekeeping as the Turtles work to get Shanghai – floating in the sky as per a Triceraton attack – settled back onto the surface.

Though Shanghai is back in place (albeit backward), Season 3 wobbles in its middle section. The flashback episode “The Lesson” (13) reveals that the Turtles once interacted with Casey when they were younger (it’s not clear if any of them remember this), and — though well-meaning — they give him bad advice that gets Casey repeatedly beat up by bullies. It’s among the series’ weakest episodes.

“The Darkness Within” (14) toys with the idea of the Turtles being mind-controlled by a Lovecraftian monster. Raph experiences Luke’s cave scene on Dagobah, with Shredder standing in for Darth Vader. It’s an exercise in storytelling that’s been done better elsewhere.

Speaking of underground tales, “The Entity Below” (16) then finds the Turtles returning to that underground cavern with the glowing crystal sun from Seasons 1 and 2. Even though the previous community is gone – having been ushered topside by the Turtles – now there’s a new one with an evil leader. It ends up being one of the saga’s many lame Atlantis riffs (see also two episodes from “TMNT” ’87’s Season 7, and “Junklantis” from “TMNT” ’03’s Season 2).

It’s vaguely suggested that a new continent could rise in the Atlantic – a cool idea also found in “Superman Returns” – but ultimately I continue to scratch my head over why the adventures in this Vernean underground community are so flat.

Deep into the weeds of Mirage … and Sakai’s ‘Usagi Yojimbo’

“Hun on the Run” (18) ratchets things up big time. Some of the series’ best action animation is found in a video-game-esque battle featuring a moving subway train and Karai held in a stasis chamber by Bishop, who now positions himself in opposition to the Shredder. Hun, Baxter (in full robot form now, with his “head” a projected hologram) and Dr. Chaplin (perhaps a riff on “TMNT” ’87’s version of Baxter) are all allies of Shredder (despite his mistreatment of them). Despite the battle including about a half-dozen distinct sides, it’s crisp and thrilling; it’s one of those sequences where I say “Wow, this show is cool!”

The pacing hits a snag again with the ensuing six-parter, although the writers’ ambition is impressive. Ultimate Drako, a dragon-human hybrid from the Battle Nexus arc of Season 2 (another arc that’s overly padded), sends the Turtles into different dimensions, and these episodes individually chronicle those adventures. They are an opportunity for the writers to tap into oddball aspects of Mirage that don’t cleanly fit anywhere else.

“Reality Check” (19) finds Mikey encountering Laird’s superhero Turtles from Vol. 4 Issue 7 (from 2002, making this one of the most recent comics to be turned around for the show), and “Across the Universe” (20) finds Raph thrown into a Planet Racers race. It’s like the “Phantom Menace” podrace, with monsters along the course. This marks the first crossover of Laird’s and Jim Lawson’s “Planet Racers” comic with “TMNT,” although more would follow.

The Donnie-driven “Same as It Never Was” (21) introduces the Turtles’ dark future (regularly hinted at in Mirage, and reaching its zenith in IDW’s recent “The Last Ronin”) to “TMNT” ’03, while also doing a much grimmer take on “TMNT” ’87’s “Shredderville” (a serious episode by that cartoon’s standards). The whole world is Shredder’s forced-labor camp.

Then Leo goes to Usagi’s anthropomorphic alternate ancient Japan for “The Real World” (22-23), a tale that comes from Stan Sakai’s “Usagi Yojimbo” comics; I love the vibrant look of this world but didn’t totally get caught up in the rather typical feudal lords-versus-serfs conflict. Again, I think it’s weird that Usagi has an American accent rather than a Japanese one, but I can live with it.

That’s the end of the Shredder (or is it?)

After the solid “Bishop’s Gambit” (24) – where we learn about the agent’s experimentation on non-human creatures, with the aim of creating a perfect specimen of human – Season 3 ends in epic fashion with “Exodus” (25-26). It revives the multi-pronged conflict from “Hun on the Run,” previously the season’s best episode.

Shredder aims to flee the planet in his rebuilt Triceraton ship, but several factions have different ideas. Bishop wants the spacecraft, and the Turtles – particularly Leo and Splinter, befitting their values – aim to stop Shredder once and for all, because while Earth may get a reprieve from Shredder’s depredations, other civilizations won’t.

In a lesser cartoon, this would be an abstract notion, but since “TMNT” has now established several peaceful (or at least human-like) aliens – from Fugitoid to Renet to the Utroms — along with the various ways beings can traverse space and time, Leo’s and Splinter’s position has gravity.

Through three seasons, “TMNT” has masterfully walked a fine line wherein Shredder is the Mirage Shredder but he’s also Shredder and Krang combined into one – and of course made less silly than in the original cartoon. (The one evil Utrom is named Ch’rell here, rather than Krang.) By simply showing him in his “human” Oroku Saki form most of the time, we can think of him as an evil human up till the point we don’t have to anymore. Though the show backgrounds the Utroms for a long stretch (while Laird was heavily featuring them in Vol. 4, interestingly), that only allows their return in the season finale to be all the more epic.

Despite the limitations of a kids’ cartoon — including Leo being stabbed by Karai without it being clear how bad the wound is — the stakes are high, the character motivations line up, and the scope ranges far into space. “Exodus” is “TMNT” at its highest ebb of quality with the exceptions of early Mirage and the 1990 movie.

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