Turtles ‘Fast Forward’ to the 22nd century for ‘TMNT’ Season 6 (2006)

After four strong seasons that adapted most major Mirage issues into a kid-friendlier continuity, the 2003 “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” cartoon took two separate steps down in quality. I already looked at the hard-to-watch, fantasy/anime-inspired Season 5 (2008), the “Ninja Tribunal” season, overseen by Peter Laird.

Branching paths

In simultaneous production, FoxKids focused on drawing in new kids, or ramping up the excitement level of old ones, with a gimmick: “Fast Forward,” where the Turtles and Splinter are inexplicably hurled from 2005 to 2105 when Michelangelo tries to turn the TV on with the remote in “Future Shellshock” (1). Though known as Season 6 (2006-07), people saw it before Season 5, which was confusing because Season 4 (2005-06) ends with the gang heading off to the Tribunal world.

Today, of course, we can watch them in the intended order, and “Fast Forward” (a 26-episode season but I’ll look at episodes 1-14 here) remains a step down in storytelling quality after Season 4. But it’s a sigh of relief after Season 5 simply because it’s less grim.

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This is classic, colorful futurism with shades of “Valerian” and “Star Trek,” pretty well thought out by a team that includes 10 writers on these episodes, only four of whom are “TMNT” veterans (Marty Isenberg, Steve Murphy, Michael Ryan and Roland Gonzalez).

It’s mostly a utopian future, from our narrow perspective. Technology has steadily advanced, and humans and various aliens and mutants live in peace. Crime still happens, but it’s an old-school, innocent brand of crime, patrolled in this new New York (built atop the old one in that sci-fi manner) by a robot who is like a British constable.

There’s a slight melancholy feeling of nostalgic loss of the past, particularly in “Night of Sh’Okanabo” (6), set in a movie theater that is now a seldom-visited museum. It shows old horror movies, not for the original reason of entertainment, but so people interested in history can learn about how humans absorbed entertainment in the 20^th century. “Headlock Prime” (4), conversely, shows the new style of wrestling, which is all parrying and no fighting, to Raph’s annoyance (and the viewer’s, because the joke overstays its welcome).

Living aboveground

It’s sad that the past is gone, but on the other hand: No more living underground. In this post-bigotry future that’s similar to Laird’s Volume 4 (published at this same time), where the Utroms bring alien immigrants along with tech that improves everyone’s quality of life, everyone lives in harmony.

Indeed, the Turtles live in a skyscraper mansion, and here the writers riff heavily on “Batman.” (Throw in a more angular animation style, and “Fast Forward” is like “TMNT’s” answer to “Batman Beyond.”) Cody Jones, the descendant of April and Casey, is essentially Bruce Wayne; likeable enough as far as rich kids go. His robot butler, Serling (perhaps named after “Twilight Zone’s” Rod Serling?), is his Alfred.

O’Neil Tech’s resident creative genius is Starlee. In the “Batman” parallel, she’s the Lucius Fox stand-in, but here she is a teen girl about the same age as Cody, whom she has a thing for. She moves around on rolling shoes, and she and Cody are a cute couple on the rare occasions the show goes there; being a teen, he’s generally distracted by playing video games with Mikey. It’s too bad Starlee isn’t used more.

Darius Dunn is both Cody’s guardian and the O’Neil Tech boardroom leader; he’s “secretly” evil – later teaming up with alien bad guy Sh’Okanabo – but the writers stumble a bit with this. Cody has free rein to do whatever he wants (Darius tries some schemes to get rid of the Turtles but generally just sighs and accepts their presence), so Dunn is not overbearing. But when he does appear, he acts villainous. It would’ve made sense if he was a two-face.

The Turtles are happy they can live freely and – strikingly – don’t take a moment to mourn that if they are stuck in 2105, they’ll never see April and Casey again. Initially, this is explicable: They’ve been blasted into other dimensions and galaxies before, and have time-traveled, although in those cases they knew it was via Renet’s time scepter or the Utroms’ amazing tech, which would also be their ticket back. And in those cases, the adventures happen immediately; they don’t have time to reflect.

Making the adjustment

In “Fast Forward,” the gang’s initial panic doubles as world-building. The Turtles and Splinter lack the gravity and atmosphere adjusters that all citizens possess. Once they acquire these, they can move through all the city’s zones, which have different gravities and air compositions. It’s also a way to sell more action figures, I suppose, although it’s not all that visually interesting that the Turtles have what look like sports pads on their limbs. Splinter’s robe covers his devices.

The Turtles settle in to episodic adventures with lower stakes, less character development and weaker frame-by-frame fight animation than in previous seasons. The old score remains, a poor choice because 1, this future deserves a futuristic score, and 2, it makes me miss the better seasons. The new theme song, though not better, fits with the lighter style, sounding like Aughts pop-punk.

Quips between Mikey and Raph (whose bandana is a watermelon shade of red, part of the neon future) become the show’s emphasis. “Fast Forward” is largely the Mikey-and-Raph show. Donatello and Cody work, almost entirely off screen and with seemingly little urgency, on a time portal (which resembles the ’87 cartoon’s portable portal generator, which itself came from Kirby’s dimensional portal in the comics) to get our heroes back to the 21^st century. We see the portal fail once, then get throwaway lines that Donnie is still working on it.

Thematically, “Fast Forward” is particularly stuck on “ghost in the machine” — such as the Turtles getting sucked into a video game and being menaced by the flame-like Viral in “Home Invasion” (3) and “The Gaminator” (14) — and “body swapping” tales. Having several writers doesn’t necessarily lead to a wide variety of tales; an idea gets in the air and everyone does their own riff.

That said, the three consecutive body-swapping episodes are fun, as I detect an uptick in quality and energy. Or maybe I’m more into the spirit at this point. “Invasion of the Bodyjacker” (10) finds a bad guy jumping between bodies, briefly possessing each; it’s crisply written so both kids and adults can enjoy the wackadoo sci-fi. In “The Freaks Come Out at Night” (11), the Turtles consecutively fall ill and become monsters. And in “Bad Blood” (12), we meet evil doppelgangers of each Turtle.

Piecing together the past

The best episode of this batch is “The Journal” (13), both gently nostalgic and a total mind-trip, by Mirage veteran Steve Murphy. April and Casey’s journal in the O’Neil Tech book collection tells of key past events. Splinter forbids the Turtles to read it; if they know the past, that might adversely influence their behavior if they do return to 2005. Of course they read it anyway.

It’s great to see April and Casey again, and “Fast Forward” doesn’t completely abandon the past. As we learn in Murphy’s other episode from this batch, “Bishop to Knight” (6), the ageless Agent Bishop is still around, and it genuinely seems like he and the Turtles are truly on the same side now that a century of political events have changed the game.

And “Clash of the Turtle Titans” (8) – which opens with more nostalgia (a museum of comic books) – introduces the grandson of the Silver Sentry, who has taken up Mikey’s mantle of Turtle Titan. It raises issues of legacy and the question of how to employ copyrights, which could lead to an interesting mind journey, as the “TMNT” franchise – after starting as a “Daredevil” parody – has always skirted the razor’s edge when it comes to borrowing concepts.

“Fast Forward” is an uneasy mix. It gradually finds its footing, but even at its best, I’m conscious that this particular time-travel journey doesn’t build toward an escape point, like for instance Season 4’s two-parter in dinosaur times. I feel uncomfortably stuck in 2105; during “The Journal,” I’m happy to return to the 21^st century and want to stay there.

Cody and Serling are fine (and Starlee is even better but, as noted, underused) but they aren’t April and Casey. These adventures are fine, but they aren’t the Mirage adventures. Is it possible for vacations to last too long? “Fast Forward” suggests that it is.

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