What are they doing with Turtles in space?! A look at ‘TMNT’ Season 2 (2003-04)

Although the Mirage comics are great, they are also experimental and stream-of-consciousness in those heady early days, and they mark the first time young writers Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird crafted a grand narrative. For “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” (2003), Laird takes the puzzle pieces of early Mirage and pre-arranges them, allowing for better-flowing chronology and added character depth.

Most notably in Season 2 (2003-04, Fox), Shredder and Splinter get more robust backstories. (SPOILERS FOLLOW.) At the time, when Shredder is revealed to not only be a Utrom, but to have always been a Utrom, this resulted in some fans’ cries of “Not my Shredder.” It’s a daring yet smart choice by Laird and story editor Lloyd Goldfine in “Secret Origins” (episodes 6-8), the most robust arc so far that branches completely from Mirage.

Shredded backstory

Whereas Mirage Vol. 1 sets the Utroms aside for two decades until Laird explores their backstory in Vol. 4, the cartoon goes into these brain-resembling aliens immediately upon the Turtles’ return to the transmat platform in the Utroms’ TCRI building, following the season-opening “Turtles in Space” (1-5). The Utroms, via VR devices, show the Turtles their forced landing in feudal Japan one millennium ago.

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For reasons I don’t totally grasp, our heroes then end up literally in the past, facing off against Shredder, who is actually Ch’rell. Being the only evil member of the Utrom species, it might’ve made sense to call him Krang, but I imagine Laird wouldn’t go for that. As a compromise, the writers throw in a joke wherein one bumbling Utrom in the TCRI building is named Krang.

It’s a risk to make Shredder actually be Ch’rell, but a calculated risk: It allows him to continually come back to life. (The Turtles can destroy the cyborg shell, but if Ch’rell survives, he’ll just get another one.) Still, Laird and Goldfine make sure to thoroughly link Ch’rell with ancient ninja warriors. It’s a nice compromise, although now I kinda wonder what was up with the clone Shredders in Season 1’s “Return to New York.” I guess they were just henchmen Ch’rell created for giggles.

Shredder is in “TMNT” ’03 an awful lot, but it doesn’t seem so bad compared to “TMNT” ’87, where his schemes are foiled by the Turtles seven days a week and twice on Saturdays. It’s the right call, because cartoons require an arch-nemesis. His presence – driven by great voice work by Scottie Ray and the creepy off-screen killings and mutilations of henchmen who fail him (particularly Baxter, whose body-horror arc mirrors Jim Lawson’s Mirage Vol. 2) – adds heft to arcs such as “City at War” (14-16).

Splintered backstory

Splinter also gets a new backstory, far less controversial than Shredder’s; I’m guessing most fans love it. In the Mirage run, E&L didn’t have any plans for Splinter – other than being the dispenser of wisdom — after he trains the Turtles to kill Shredder for his own revenge motives (which is accomplished in Issue 1!). What is Splinter’s life outside of revenge and mentorship? Five episodes of Season 2 reveal his secret passion: regularly fighting in a major interdimensional tournament.

“The Ultimate Ninja” (10) is a sneak preview for the season-ender “The Big Brawl” (23-26) as a dimension-hopping (though human) warrior demands a duel with Leonardo, whom he (inaccurately) heard has killed Shredder, for the title of Ultimate Ninja.

Splinter has so regularly traveled to the way-station dimension that he is legit in the Battle Nexus hall of fame (!) and is close friends with the daimyo who runs the event. Since the Turtles don’t know about that till now, we can assume a quirk of time dilation. He could sneak away for “minutes” and win week-long tournaments. (It’s mentioned after “Turtles in Space” that the Turtles had been gone for hours, even though it was weeks from their POV.)

The Battle Nexus makes clever use of the rules of magic. The fights are to the death, but when a killing blow is about to land, the loser is immediately warped to the locker room. This allows a kids’ program to have extreme fights wherein no one is killed. But relative to the hype among fans, the Battle Nexus doesn’t do much for me. Five episodes is a lot for a video-game plot when most of the fighters are generic monsters.

Two exceptions are the noble Triceraton warrior Traximus, who hopes to overthrow the Triceraton emperor and restore the Republic; and Miyamoto Usagi, Stan Sakai’s rabbit bodyguard who is popular on his own but arguably most famous for crossing over with “TMNT” (in the comics, the toys, the cartoons, the video games and the trading cards). No quibbles about the Usagi animation; his fighting skills match his new friend Leo’s. But his voice work is an oddly flat American accent. If he spoke in a soft Asian style like the ’87 Usagi, we’d have an awesome addition to the lineup of heroes.

See ya later, alligator

While cases can be made for Shredder’s and Splinter’s new backstories, and while Usagi’s portrayal is a mixed bag, I have to give a mild thumb’s-down to Leatherhead. He should be an alligator, not a crocodile, and I see no reason for the change except for the sake of a punny episode title. And it has the additional downside of creating a direct comparison to DC Comics’ Killer Croc.

“What a Croc” (12) comes from “Tales of the TMNT” Issue 6 (“Leatherhead”) by Ryan Brown and Issue 45 (“Leatherhead, Too”) by Dan Berger, wherein we learn of his Utrom friendship — although in the show it morphs into a friendship with the disembodied head of Baxter.

An interesting wrinkle: Metalhead (from Michael Reaves’ standout 1987 series episode “The Making of Metalhead”) is also in “What a Croc,” complete with the ability to copy each Turtles’ skills. However, he’s officially called Turtlebot. Some theorize the show snuck “TMNT” ’87 references past Laird. In this case, though, he can’t be called Metalhead because a member of the Justice Force (a short lad whose long metallic locks can be whipped around, Willow Smith-style) had that name first, and Laird and Goldfine had “Return of the Justice Force” (22) in the pipeline.

This episode faithfully adapts Laird’s “Dome Doom!” (Issue 15). Like a lot of fans, I dislike the existence of other superheroes in the “TMNT” universe, and I’m not a fan of Issue 15, but this adaptation is excellent. I think it’s because the parodic nature pops on a colorful TV screen as opposed to a B&W comic.

Space and magic

Speaking of colorful, “Turtles in Space” (1-5) is a visual feast as it faithfully tells the story from Issues 5-7, plus the “Fugitoid” one-shot. Also peppered in is the concept of Baxter-as-robot from Mirage Volume 2. This is unadulterated great stuff, with the type of vibrant colors I associate with “Valerian” and other space-SF from the midcentury golden age.

“TMNT” takes advantage of its parody status (it started as a “Daredevil” gag) to admit it is riffing on “Star Wars.” “Han” and “Chewie” are in the cantina, and Mikey later tells Raph to not get cocky when the pair of them are in gunnery wells of a spaceship.

Further showcasing the toon’s attention to detail, the Turtles have air-breather hoses in their mouths during their whole time on the Triceraton world, like in the comics. The Triceratons are fittingly huge and menacing and Fugitoid is exactly as I’d imagine him. Voice actor Pete Zarustica (combined with a mechanical effect) sounds like the C-3PO from the “Star Wars” further-adventures records such as “Rebel Mission to Ord Mantell.”

With “Turtles in Space,” Season 2 signals it is a time of expansion from Season 1’s gangland battles and getaway jaunts to the country. After the space epic, we get that time-jump to ancient Japan. While time-jumping comes courtesy of Renet (coming in Season 3) and her scepter in Mirage, it’s courtesy of Utrom technology in “Turtles in Space,” an alley-based gateway Splinter can open via chanting in “The Big Brawl” and a puzzle cube from the Second Time Around shop in Season 2’s best one-off episode, “April’s Artifact” (21).

The Turtles are warped to a giant-bug-filled jungle planet by the magic cube owned by April’s Uncle Augie (a play on “TMNT” ’87’s Aunt Agatha).  Like in the “Jumanji” films, the gang is a step behind in finding Augie, but we get a vibrant jungle landscape, bug battles, and April stepping to the fore as “Jungle Girl.” Some viewers loathe the music montage of the Turtles’ forging weapons from the woodlands (“City at War” also does a brief music segment), but in good episodes, I’ll allow it.

War, it’s fantastic

The addition of space/dimension/time travel doesn’t mean the groundedness of “TMNT” ’03 is gone. “City at War” (14-16) adapts the feuding-criminal-factions portion of Issues 50-62, along with the Leo-Raph spat and the introduction of Karai, the leader of the Japanese branch of the Foot Clan who surveys the mess that NYC has become. Lacking the Splinter-Rat King existential debate, April’s ennui and Casey’s domestic issues, 13 decompressed issues turn into a tight three-parter. It can’t help but seem lesser, but there’s tasty stuff in here.

On screen, the conflict between the two most egotistical Turtles doesn’t play as well as in the comic. But it is interesting how – in a flip-flop from Season 1’s “Return to New York” – Leo wants to fight and Raph wants to stay out of it. Leo argues that by killing the Shredder (so it seems at this point), he created the war; Raph says it’s none of their business if criminal factions are unstable. I agree with Raph but also admire Leo’s honor in forging a truce with Karai.

This series’ Leatherhead lands a little flat as a mentally unstable friend of the Turtles, but as Mirage fans know, the Triceraton Zog also fills that role in the comics’ “Return to New York” (Issues 19-21). Though absent from the cartoon’s Season 1 arc by that name, Zogs’ tragic-redemptive tale gets repurposed for “Rogue in the House” (19-20), which builds from “City at War.” This is excellent stuff as it walks a fine line with the morality of the Turtles’ using the huge, mentally ill Triceraton as a weapon.

The misfires

Although the Shredder and Splinter character growth and the adaptations of several favorite Mirage arcs are on point, Season 2 has more sloppy moments than Season 1 in the margins. “Reflections” (9) is something we’ll never see from a modern series: a clip show. It’s valid that we need breather after 10 consecutive linked adventures dating back to late Season 1, so the gang relaxes at the Northampton farm house. But the Chris Farley-esque “Remember that time …” intros to the tales are clunky. I would’ve voted for the reflections to be interspersed with a light adventure in the woods, perhaps one based on Laird’s Issue 12 (“Survivalists”).

Instead, Laird rather surprisingly chooses to adapt an Eastman issue from Mirage’s escape-to-Northampton time frame. “The Golden Puck” (18) adapts “The Unmentionables” (Issue 14), replacing the Golden Cow statue with the Golden Puck trophy and moving the action to the city. Casey’s wacky ambition to be a detective de-emphasized, not necessarily for the good. In both the comic and the episode, I feel like the story desperately wants to be a wild jaunt but can’t achieve it.

As for the non-Mirage episodes, “The Return of Nano” (11), “Return to the Underground” (13) and especially “Junklantis” (17) belong on the (relatively speaking for this fine series) junk heap as they continue mediocre Season 1 threads. The first gives us more tragedy about the sentient robot, the second brings the poor underground dwellers to the surface only because Donatello randomly finds a cure (plus we’re treated to nonsensical unrealities like a transparent lava pool), and the third accidentally reveals an odd quirk. An adventure with only two Turtles – Mikey and Don here – is exponentially less fun than when it is the full quartet bantering.

Still, as with Season 1, I absolutely blasted through Season 2 in no time flat because I like these four Turtles’ brotherly interactions and personalities via the voice cast. I really like this Splinter and April, although Casey is becoming an also-ran, and unfortunately I doubt he’ll see a Mirage-style rebound. It’s hard to imagine family life or his scary brush with the law after accidentally killing a low-level criminal (in “Shades of Gray,” Issues 48-49) being things a kids’ show wants to explore.

The villain roster is deep with the Utrom Shredder, the noble Karai and the insane genius Baxter (who is disturbingly whittled down to a brain with an eyeball and spinal cord, a la “Robocop 2,” by the end of Season 2). The Triceraton Republic looms now that “TMNT” ’03 has discovered space travel, and it’s great to see decent Triceratons like Zog and Traximus. Leatherhead and Usagi don’t land for me, but I adore Fugitoid. Fifty-two episodes in, “TMNT” ’03 maintains its status as the richest and most faithful adaptation of the Mirage comics, which were already legendary by this time.

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