Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation Episode 1: "East Meets West Pt. 1" [review]

Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation Episode 1 “East Meets West Pt. 1”

(Originally Aired: 09/12/1997)

(Please Note: For purposes of ease, I will hereby refer to this series as “NT:TNM”, as there will be at least twenty six episode reviews)

                This episode is the first of five parts, which were broadcast over the course of just as many weeks, but one has to think that they were made into five installments much like the G.I. Joe Movie was broken down into five pieces and aired Monday through Friday.  I assume that the creators of NT:TNM saw this show going on long enough to become syndicated and then they would always start the syndicate run over with this sort of movie.

                The episode is kind of basic and at the time might have seemed revolutionary but right now in retrospect really does not.  In 1997, I was probably too cool to watch Ninja Turtles, though I distinctly remember watching pretty much every other series based around them aside from this one.  I stumbled across this via Power Rangers one day when I learned that the Power Rangers and Ninja Turtles crossed over.  (Like whoa!)

                The only other thing I learned about this series that rocked my world was the addition of a fifth turtle and that the fifth was in fact female.    This is something that is really built up in this first episode.  For me, it was a spoiler and so when they revealed at the end of the episode that the fifth turtle is female, it was a “duh” from me, but I imagine at the time, in 1997 pre-social media, it could have come as quite a shock to people.    So just for fun, I’m going to look at this episode objectively, as if I never knew that this was going to be the big reveal, just so I can try to relive what viewers experienced some sixteen years ago.

                The episode opened with a cloaked figure talking to her ninja master guy, who is human.  They cut back to them occasionally, as they have this special magic mirror deal like the witch from Snow White.   On the turtle front… all is pretty much the same.  The turtles love pizza and all four of them still have the same traits they have always been best known for having.

                The opening scene with the turtles themselves features silhouettes of Leonardo and Raphael arguing, which leads to Raph storming off.   it’s no coincidence that this is the only live action based series for the TMNT, yet it begins much like the first live action TMNT movie because Raph is the outsider.   Is it too much to ask, just once, to see a TMNT show or movie begin with Donatello graduating college or Mikey coming out of rehab from partying too hard?

                So, Raph goes off on his own, on a motorcycle, finds a bunch of the Foot Clan, fights them, Splinter comes to help and then all the other turtles also show up to help.   By the end of the episode though, the turtles (Well, mainly Michelangelo) manage to lead the Foot back to their super secret underground lair, which leads to a massive brawl on their home front. 

                As the four turtles plus Splinter seem to be in the most trouble ever, it is revealed in the final scene of the episode that the fifth turtle must go help them and the fifth turtle is female.   Had I not known this going in, I would have been quite excited about the reveal at the end because it feels like a huge payoff for having to sit through an episode that, to be fair, we’ve sat through many times before.   Just when you’re ready to write this series off as being too close to the movie, they throw in a curveball like this. 

                You also have to wonder (And I still can because I’ve only seen this episode thus far) how this female turtle will play into the equation.  All of the turtles still have their roles:  Raph is the jaded loner type, Leo is the leader, Don is the smart geek gadget guy and Mikey is the fun loving party guy.   So where will this new turtle fit in with them?  She can’t simply be the “female one” because what would that imply?  She is a ninja, so I don’t really see her doing all of the cooking and the cleaning.   She’s not human, so she won’t take on April O’Neil’s role.  

                The turtle dynamic has never had a female counterpart before.   Sure, Power Rangers can have at least two girls in their line up at once, but the turtles are quite different.   So I am quite eager to see where they go with this and would like to assume- at this point in time- that the series was only produced for twenty six episodes not because of quality but rather due to production costs being so high.   That’s the attitude I’m going in with now at least, though I honestly have no idea why the show got cancelled, I just know it has a finite number of episodes obviously.