NickToons TMNT Episode 5- I think his name is Baxter Stockman

 By Mark Rodriguez with thoughts from Johnny Rodriguez

Originally written on October 21, 2012. Keep in mind, these were our thoughts as they were back in 2012 when the show was new and was written shortly after seeing the episodes after their initial broadcast. At the time we had zero way or knowing what to expect.

The episode opens with Splinter trying to meditate, but being disturbed by the fun-filled yells of the Turtles. Mikey somehow talked his brothers into laying down in a row so he could do an awesome skateboard jump over all three of them. However, Splinter doesn't want skateboarding in the house, and grounds them for a week.

The Turtles are bored out of their shells in the sewers and to pass the time, Donatello makes an i-pod from some tech he found in a military junkyard. Mikey calls it the t-pod and instantly loves it. Raph is annoyed and insists on sneaking out to have fun while Splinter is asleep. The others soon agree and all four of them sneak out. As they jump from rooftop to rooftop, Leo tells the others to be more quiet since they keep yelling and laughing. However Leo soon trips and falls through a building causing a racket himself. During all this, Mike and Don find out that the t-pod is constantly improving itself as it continues to download new songs without being programmed to.

The Turtles spot a random guy in armor (Baxter Stockman) trying to break into a building, and failing miserably. They decide to stop him, and do so quite easily, throwing the guy into a dumpster. The cops arrive and it's time to leave, However, Mike dropped his t-pod during the battle. Baxter finds it, and when he connects it to his armor, it starts to upgrade itself and get more powerful.

The Turtles make it soon safe and sound and without getting caught. However, the next day for training, Splinter notices that they are very tired and sleepy. He asks them about it and they continue to keep what they did secret. Splinter calls for a round of Randori as he whips out his kendo stick and smacks them all saying that keeping truths can hurt. Later on, Leo watches more of Space Heroes on TV, but it is interrupted by news of a guy in huge robot armor attacking the TCRI building. Despite trying to be as menacing as possible, the people at TCRI recognize Baxter as their co-worker who was recently fired. The Turtles also recognize him as the guy from the previous night... and also realize that he has the t-pod and it has made his armor much more powerful. The Turtles decide to sneak out and stop him before Splinter finds out.

The Turtles find Baxter (who was busy trying to make a super-villian name for himself) but it's a much more difficult fight this time around. Mikey tries to tie up Baxter with his nunchuck turned kusarigama, but instead Baxter uses Mikey as a giant nunchuck against his brothers. Leo cuts off Baxter's robot hand, but it turns into its own seperate robot and clamps onto Leo's head. As Leo runs around blindly, the robot starts shooting lasers at Don and Raph. Using a piece of glass, Don and Raph make the robot's lasers ricochet in a way that it slices the robot in half and frees Leonardo. Baxter grabs the Turtles and busts through a wall (even yelling out OH YEAH!! like the Kool-Aid Man) and tosses them into a dumpster. As Baxter gloats, suddenly the armor starts to upgrade even further as Don explains that it's merging itself with Baxter.

Mikey calls the new robot the Stockman-Pod as Baxter chases the Turtles down. The Turtles split up and Baxter chases Mikey and now fires missiles at him. Mikey snatches some pizza from a delivery boy and tosses it at Baxter's face, that is still exposed. The Turtles take the time to escape through the sewers but are caught by Splinter. Splinter is angry at their lies, and Mikey's excuse of being 'hit by a bus' doesn't convince him of how they got their injuries. Their punishment this time is to go out and stop the Stockman-Pod, but Mikey complains that real ninjas never had to fight guys in armor. Splinter moves aside, showing paintings on the wall of ninjas fighting armored fighters. Leo asks what was their secret. Splinter says that they had to fight the man inside the armor, and not the armor itself.

The Turtles find Baxter again and this time use Mike as bait to lure him in. Baxter chases Mike and soon Baxter confronts the other Turtles. Mike returns and tosses a beehive into the robot. Baxter loses control as he is stung like crazy and the robot falls over. Leo uses his sword to destroy the t-pod and Baxter is defenseless yet again. Being surrounded by the Turtles, Baxter wants to call this a tie... Raph considers it a tie until after they throw him into a dumpster again.

The Turtles return truimphant to the sewers and Splinter considers un-grounding them since they did fix up their mistakes... but first, Randori!!

My Thoughts-

THIS has got to be the best episode I've seen yet. It literally had me laugh out loud a few times. Seeing the Turtles being grounded by Splinter for skateboarding in the house again reminds us that yes, they are teenagers. Scenes like Mike dancing with the t-pod and the fighting action were awesome. But what really got me laughing was Leonardo. Always so perfect, it was funny to see him be the one to trip and fall and make such a racket after he was the one telling everyone that ninjas should be silent. Usually that kinda stuff happens to Mikey, but having it happen to Leo just made me crack the hell up. And the whole scene with Leo getting the robot stuck on his head... and how it was shooting at the others while he was running around blindly... comedic gold. I never would have thought of writing such a humorous action scene like that. I can go on and on, this episode was just so funny.

It was also interesting to see Baxter be such a pathetic loser, kinda similar to the 80's cartoon version. In the Mirage comics and 2K3 cartoon (which started out copying the comics) he was a respected scientist before he revealed how insane he was. Here he was out for revenge after being fired from his job, for being an incompetent idiot that caused him to get fired in the first place. I like how the co-workers recognized him and showed a camera close-up on him as and he tried to remain dark and mysterious. It's also the first time we see him start out with something other than the Mousers. A good original take on Baxter and a very funny one at that.

I guess the only complaints I have is again... what happened to April's father? Did he just got forgotten about? What happened to 'we won't rest until we find him' thing from the 2-part opener? The Turtles needed discipline, but Splinter grounding them for a week means that April's dad will continue to rot in Kraang custody for another week. I think the following week deals with Don and April dealing with this where suddenly everyone will start caring again... but I do feel that if Nick didn't want to use such a tight continuity they shouldn't have had April's father in the show to begin with. Just have The Kraang try to kidnap April and have the Turtles rescue her and become their first human friend (or have them rescue both her and her father from the start). There was no need to put a lingering plot thread with her STILL KIDNAPPED father if they were gonna just keep ignoring it to make the show more episodic. I mean this episode is easy to enjoy without any past episode continuity whatsoever.

Another thing I found odd was Don saying the armor was merging with Baxter himself... but he didn't really become a cyborg or anything. He was still a guy inside huge robot armor. Unless he meant he could now control it with his thoughts and body language instead of controls or something like that...?

But other than that rather redundant complaint, this was a hell of an episode and the laughs just kept on coming. Gotta love the ending with Splinter's Randori. I just love how each episode ends with the image freezing and become a cartoon drawing. Also special mention to Don's bo becoming a naginata... it's just too bad Baxter broke it seconds afterwards.

Johnny's Thoughts-

 I thought it was a better and funnier episode than the last one. The action is as awesome as usual, and it's nice seeing Baxter Stockman on this version of the turtles. Its different seeing Baxter turning all evil because his company fired him, compared to him being an evil mad scientist trying to take over the world. This episode shows the turtles as actual teenagers, and how strict splinter can be as their sensei and father figure. Splinter was like this in the 2k3 version, but even then, you don't hear Splinter saying', "you're grounded for a week!" like a modern day father would do to his kids. it nice to see that the TCRI being mentioned. I guess we'll see if it was just mentioned or if it has something to do with The Kraang.