No Shredder, no problem: ‘TMNT’ Season 4 (2005-06) is a scary smorgasbord

“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” Season 4 (2005-06, Fox) continues its style of adapting the Mirage comics but tightening the narrative links between street-level villains, outer space, alternate dimensions and time-travel.

This would seemingly shrink the world, but instead it makes it rich and exciting to comic readers, who hadn’t gotten to experience many completed story threads. At this time, “Tales of the TMNT” Volume 2 was providing standalone stories and Peter Laird was working on Volume 4, which he would never finish.

The trouble with Leo … and Donnie

Season 4, understandably considered the best of the series by many, is scarier and moodier, highlighted by Leonardo brooding in the first 14 episodes as he struggles to come to terms with the fact that the battle against the Shredder in Season 3 was so far over his head that he couldn’t control the outcome. (The Turtles win the battle, but only with outside help.)

Leo voice actor Michael Sinterniklaas uses a Christian Bale type of voice in the same year “Batman Begins” came out. Although it’s on the nose in the manner of a kids’ show, it’s great to get this level of psychological depth for Leo in comparison to the 1987 series, where the most we got was that he loses his nerve in one episode (“Take Me to Your Leader”) because of a random dream. Although the culmination of this arc, “The Ancient One” (14), is weak – as it takes the title character’s tendency to fart too far as he provides Leo with Yoda-esque bonus training – it’s nice to dig into a Turtle’s inner troubles.

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“Tale of Master Yoshi” (22), one of 10 episodes penned by Season 4 superstar Christopher Yost, then course-corrects by keeping the Ancient One but dropping the fart jokes for a story that nicely embellishes the lore of Splinter’s owner Hamato Yoshi. It builds on Issue 1’s story of Yoshi’s and Oroku Saki’s rivalry for the love of Tang Shen, something also featured in the 1990 movie. Here, Saki must be replaced by Mashimi, because in the ’03 lore Saki is a fake persona invented by the one evil Utrom, Ch’rell, who is passing as human.

Leo’s troubles are internal, and Donatello’s are external as he heads up Season 4’s horror/monster aspect. Hulk-Donatello caps off the “Aliens Among Us” (9) thread where Agent Bishop and henchman Baxter Stockman accidentally mutate the sewer pests of NYC. Donnie is scratched in a fight in “Outbreak” (14) and it leads to his secondary mutation in “Adventures in Turtle Sitting” (23). Late in the ’87 series, it’s primarily Leo who hulks out, but here it’s interesting to see Donnie be the victim, as he’s therefore not on hand to solve it with science.

Leatherhead (who I missed; perhaps absence makes the heart grow fonder) tries to help, but the heroes have to go to their enemy Bishop for a temporary alliance. Leatherhead is linked to the Rat King in the ’87 series, but in the 2003 series, the Rat King is very much linked to the long-lived Bishop. Despite this intriguing tidbit, “I, Monster” (5) is a quite faithful – and appealingly moody – adaptation of “Tales” Issue 4.

Watch out for (the new) Shredder

The Rat King’s new weird-science explanation means he’s not a mystical figure like in the comics, but “TMNT” ’03 makes up for that with an increase in the presence of the Foot Mystics, a quartet who represent the powers of earth, wind, fire and water. They simultaneously work for Karai – the lady Shredder, as emphasized by voice actor Karen Neill’s “Watch out for Shredder!” in the new-and-improved theme-song recording – and secretly work against her. The Mystics feature in “Bad Day” (8), a standout episode for its shock value. Some might say it’s undercut by happening on the astral plane, but for a kids’ show, it’s shocking to see main characters killed off.

Karai’s legitimacy as a villain is boosted further in “Scion of the Shredder” (15), where she drives the Turtles out of the lair that has become like a home to viewers and nearly kills all our heroes. It’s slightly undercut because she does that villain thing wherein she assumes she has killed her targets, without proof of corpses.

Understandable for a single enemy, perhaps, but here she makes the mistake in three (!) distinct missions: to get rid of Donnie and Splinter in an underwater battle, Michelangelo in an underground fight and Raphael in a motor chase. Their survival is officially revealed in “Prodigal Son” (16), which also reveals Leo’s superpower of vision-walking, where he can picture recent events that happened in a location by concentrating hard.

Although “Prodigal Son” is daringly capped by Leo’s aggressive Raph-esque decision to attack Karai on his own, on her home turf, a couple things are missing from this arc: Leo doesn’t tell superhero fan Mikey about his new superpower, and we don’t get a reunion scene of April and Casey being shocked and delighted to learn the Turtles are alive after all.

Another retreat to Northampton

Generally, though, Season 4 does have a nice sense of that family bond we love in “TMNT” stories, starting at Casey’s Northampton farmhouse, where (as the writers emphasize the toll of defeating the Shredder last season) the Turtles and Splinter recover from physical injuries. This allows for placement of lighter adaptations, including “Cousin Sid” (1), from “Tales” Issue 1; “The People’s Choice” (2), from Issue 13, with a bonus of amusing April-Casey courtship moments; and “Sons of the Silent Age” (3), from Issue 28.

“Sons of the Silent Age” marks the first instance of a comic writer adapting his own work. Steve Murphy takes his environmentally themed story about the last surviving fish-people (named Mermen in the ’03 lore) further, providing a hopeful ending that undercuts the tragic parallel to the Turtles. Issue 28 is melancholy because we must reflect on how the Turtles are inevitably the last of their kind, a bittersweet theme that infuses the entire Mirage run. (Murphy, struggling to transition from comics to TV, would stick around to write the fart-joke-laden “The Ancient One” and three episodes in future seasons.)

Despite the imperfections, these farm-house episodes are enjoyable for a Mirage fan, and they make me think about how an adaptation of my favorite Northampton arc, “The River” (Issues 24-26), would’ve fit well here, even if kiddie-fied. Being penned by a non-Mirage staffer, Rick Veitch, means we’ll never see it adapted.

Spooky season

Back in the city, “All Hallows Thieves” (12) faithfully adapts “Tales” Issue 3, wherein an artifact in April’s antique shop unleashes bat-like monsters from another dimension. Despite being a Halloween-themed episode, it’s not the season’s scariest – although granted, Season 4 as a whole would make for good October viewing.

“I, Monster” has a spooky vibe and great color work as the insane Rat King stalks the Turtles among ruined structures. Bishop and Baxter unleash a false-flag extra-terrestrial attack in “Aliens Among Us” to keep their government funding going; the monster-movie-esque side effects are then seen in “Outbreak.”

These three episodes fill out the picture of Bishop being a centuries-old man who was abducted by aliens (of the generic “X-Files” variety). He stays alive to continue his mission by periodically transferring his mind into a fresh clone. Bishop is now an overstuffed character, expanding so much from his Agent Smith ripoff beginnings, but between him and the vengeance-minded Karai, the Turtles certainly have legit villains.

Insane inspirations

Sci-fi stories sometimes use the conceit of introducing one element (Bishop’s crazily advanced cloning lab) without preamble, and that serves as a preamble to another story. It’s a cheat, but something viewers have become accustomed to allowing — especially if a good story comes from it. That’s the case with “Insane in the Membrane” (19), wherein Baxter – having moved into his own clone body – falls apart like Seth Brundle in “The Fly” (1986).

“Membrane” was infamously banned by Fox and not available until 2006 on DVD and 2015 on stateside TV. It’s a tragic piece of body horror that crystalizes what Jim Lawson is going for with Baxter’s literally self-destructive mad science in Volume 2 and the Volume 4 miniseries “Donatello: The Brain Thief.” I feel it’s more effective in a visual medium. (Interestingly, the ’87 series directly – albeit more superficially — riffs on “The Fly” by turning Baxter into one, possibly getting away with it only because of the parody exception of copyright law.)

Then “Adventures in Turtle Sitting” and “Good Genes” (24-25) transfer the body horror to Donatello, who becomes a mindless Hulk version of a Turtle. And, actually, Baxter’s latest revelation – just a skeleton with some muscle, a brain and an eye – is more grotesque than his Frankenstein’s-monster form in the banned installment.

Savanti, street fights and superheroes

Not exactly horror, but still qualifying as scary, “Return of Savanti” (20-21) is a pair of dino-mite episodes thanks to the grand atmospherics of the Cretaceous period. Based on “Tales” Issue 7, this romp perfectly captures the charming flightiness of Renet, who flails in her attempts to prove herself as a timestress, to the annoyance of the Turtles; and goat-demon Savanti Romero’s gleeful plans to wipe out the Turtles and just about everything else.

As in the comics, when the Turtles team with Renet to fight Savanti in various moments of Earth history, “TMNT” achieves achieve an anything-goes level of thrills comparable to the “Valerian and Laureline” comics. Liza Jacqueline has figured out Renet’s voice here, and it’s a shame this is her last major appearance; she’s a guest star on par with Fugitoid, Leatherhead and Usagi.

That leaves some housekeeping as I run down the remaining episodes. Season 4 nominally reminds us Karai’s Foot Clan is a thievery enterprise in “Dragon’s Brew” (4), “Dragons Rising” (10) and “Still Nobody” (11). Although the Purple Dragon episodes continue the Casey-Hun clash that dates back to Casey’s childhood, they are forgettable, partly because Casey’s sweet side around April is so prominent now, partly because it’s Leo’s brooding that’s front and center.

“Still Nobody” brings back the Batman-esque vigilante, and – as with his Season 3 introduction – I think it’s a mistake to base him in NYC. I like how he is the local superhero of Springfield, Mass., in the comics; that’s the right scale.Laird’s (and Mikey’s) superhero interest also infuses “A Wing and a Prayer” (7), which – building from his invention for Mirage Volume 4, Issue 2 – explains Hawkman-esque Raptarr’s backstory. The avian-human hybrid is too fleeting to me to care much about; I prefer Nobody – or nobody.

More dimension-hopping

“Grudge Match” (6) is a throwaway coda to Season 2’s Battle Nexus arc. And “Samurai Tourist” (13) brings back samurai rabbit Usagi and rhino Gen from that arc. Though it’s an almost leisurely “fish out of water” story, using Gen more so than Usagi (who gets a “confused foreigner” episode in the ’87 series), I find it charming. I love that Gen (purposefully, by the animators) looks like Rocksteady after a change of clothes. The 1987 homage is taken further when their enemy turns out to be an anthropomorphic warthog (although he doesn’t look much like Bebop).

“Trouble with Augie” (18) ties the bow on April’s search for her uncle from Season 2’s “April’s Artifact,” a fun episode where April hones her fighting and survival skills. This sequel is on the cartoony side with its very “Twilight Zone” (Donatello even says as much) story of supposedly altruistic lizard-monsters with a (not-so) secret agenda. It clunkily brings in April’s sister, Robyn, from the comics. But in a cool nod to Mirage, the Turtles can now easily visit April via a tunnel that goes directly to the basement of her building.

“Ninja Tribunal” (26) closes out Season 4 with a “to be continued.” For unclear reasons, the Turtles and other martial-arts warriors are brought before Shredder-esque beings and forced to fight to earn their stripes. It’s a darker take on the Battle Nexus, and not one I’m excited to learn carries over into Season 5, colloquially called the Ninja Tribunal season.

But with 19 out of the 26 episodes being strong, and the other seven being watchable, Season 4 is indeed the best of animated “TMNT” up to this point. The seven main characters’ personalities, interactions and bond – along with the hominess of the Turtles’ old and new lairs and April’s building – make this world come alive. Sure, I enjoy the Mirage-adaptation episodes due to curiosity, but even more so for how Yost and company work them into the flow of the fresh storyline.

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