Return of the Shredder


 * This article was transwikied from Wikipedia.

"Return of the Shredder" is episode number 6 of the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon series. It is the first episode of season 2 (1988). This episode of the show was produced by Kara Vallow. The script was written by Christy Marx. The story was written by David Wise and Patti Howeth. This episode of the show originally aired on October 1, 1988, in syndication. It is available on the DVD box set released on April 26, 2005.

Plot Summary
While shopping, Leonardo and Michelangelo stop two robbers at a supermarket and return to their home in the New York City sewer system before the police arrive. Later, TV reporter April O'Neil arrives and interviews the woman working in the checkout. The woman Damen tells that two guys tried to rob her, when two turtles saved her.

Later in Dimension X, Shredder begs Krang to send him back to Earth, claiming their defeat to the Turtles was an "accident." Krang, tired of his whining, sends Shredder back to Earth through the dimensional portal. Bebop and Rocksteady try to follow, but Krang closes the portal before they can get through. When they ask Krang why he did so, he answers that he "likes to see both animals and humans suffer," and refers to Bebop and Rocksteady as both.

At Channel 6, April O' Neil says that the Turtles are heroes, but her boss Burne Thompson says that they are a threat to society, and his girlfriend Tiffany agrees.

Meanwhile Leonardo and Michelangelo discuss how easy it was to stop the robbers in comparison to Shredder. However, Splinter fears that Shredder is back.

Meanwhile Shredder passes through the dimensional portal into a park in New York City, where two robbers demand his money. Shredder thinks this will be no problem, as he yells for Bebop, Rocksteady, and the Foot Soldiers and orders to make quick work of the muggers. When nothing happens he yells "Foot Soldiers! Did you not hear my command?!" Shredder realizes he is alone. Shredder climbs a nearby tree and uses his knives on his armour to saw off a branch that falls on the robbers.

Shredder contacts Krang, who tells Shredder that—since Shredder failed to defeat Splinter and the TMNT with his help—he is on his own until he proves worthy. This means no Foot soldiers, no Bebop or Rocksteady, and no Krang's technology.

Unable to get any help form Krang, Shredder finds a corrupt local karate school the "Slash For Cash Dojo" and decides to take control of it. Inside the dilapidated dojo, he watches a karate match between two students, who appear to be the best the school has to offer. He quickly discovers that their skills lead quite a bit to be desired. Through a series of clumsiness, as well as illegal moves, uninspired technique and cowardness, the two students manage to knock each other off balance. They eventually, land on top of each other, on the mat. Their master "Smash", fed up with his students pathetic performance, declares them all "useless wimps!" The Shredder comments that "the master is responsible for the students". He also declares himself the new master of the dojo and that he and his students will obey him "or else." To show he means business, when Smash seems reluctant to let the Shredder take over, he rips one of the sand bags out of the roof and destroys it! Smash and his students wind up on the mat, on all fours, for fear of what would happen to them if they chose not to obey him.

After some training, he  establishes Smash's students as the Crooked Ninja Turtle Gang, a gang who dress up as turtles and start a series of robberies, with the hope that the humans living in the city will believe that the TMNT are the bad guys. April calls the TMNT and tell them to come to Channel 6. The TMNT arrive in the Turtle Blimp. At Channel 6, April and the TMNT watch a videotape that shows the Crooked Ninja Turtle Gang fighting and realize that the fighting style of the Crooked Ninja Turtle Gang is the same as only two senseis in the world: Splinter and Shredder, and "of course" they believe Shredder is behind this. Just then, Tiffany enters, and when she sees the TMNT, she screams. The TMNT escape. Burne wants to run it on the 11 o'clock news.

Meanwhile, Shredder frees Baxter Stockman from an insane asylum. Baxter Stockman then steals an excavator equipped with a drill and re-builds it into a rat catching machine, which he uses to catch Splinter in the sewers. When the TMNT return home to find Splinter missing, they follow the trail left by Baxter Stockman's machine. Eventually the TMNT end up on the streets, where they encounter the four members of the Crooked Ninja Turtle Gang. The TMNT defeat the Crooked Ninja Turtle Gang members in a fight, and force them to tell where Shredder is hiding. The answer is written at a wall: at the karate school Slash for Cash dojo.

At the karate school, Shredder has tied up Splinter and is just about to use his sword to cut down an enormous battering ram and crush Splinter. Just then, Baxter Stockman drives his machine into the dojo and cuts loose the ropes supporting the battering ram, which begins to move. Leonardo uses his katana to cut through the ropes Splinter is tied with. The TMNT free Splinter, and the battering ram smashes Baxter Stockman's machine into pieces.

April has also followed the trail, and arrives after the fight. She goes to a nearby telephone booth and calls Irma at Channel 6 to send a news crew. The police also come, and arrest the "Crooked Ninja Turtle Gang" members. The Shredder and Baxter Stockman escape. Krang tells Shredder that Shredder has been beaten by the TMNT once again, and that Shredder will not get "one shred of help from him" until he has done something. The TMNT head home to the sewers and on TV April O'Neil says to the Channel 6 viewers that the Crooked Ninja Turtle Gang were just humans who dressed up as turtles, and that the TMNT are no threat to the city. Tiffany leaves Burne Thompson for a while.

Character voices

 * Leonardo (Cam Clarke)
 * Donatello (Barry Gordon)
 * Michelangelo (Townsend Coleman)
 * Raphael (Rob Paulsen)
 * Splinter (Peter Renaday)
 * April O'Neil (Renae Jacobs)
 * Burne Thompson (Pat Fraley)
 * Vernon Fenwick (Peter Renaday)
 * Irma Langinstein (Jennifer Darling)
 * Tiffany (Jennifer Darling)
 * Shredder (James Avery)
 * Krang(Pat Fraley)
 * Bebop (Barry Gordon)
 * Rocksteady (Cam Clarke)
 * Baxter Stockman (Pat Fraley)
 * Smash (Peter Cullen)
 * Napoleon Convict (Peter Renaday)
 * First Supermarket Thief (Barry Gordon)
 * Second Supermarket Thief (Rob Paulsen)
 * Lady at Cash Register (Renae Jacobs)
 * First Punk in Park (Pat Fraley)
 * Second Punk in Park (Townsend Coleman)

Locations

 * Turtles' Lair
 * Technodrome
 * Supermarket
 * Mental Asylum
 * Slash For Cash Gym
 * Channel 6
 * J & J Jewelers

Vehicles

 * Turtle Blimp
 * Rat-Catching Machine
 * Channel 6 Newsvan

Gadgets

 * Turtlecoms
 * Com-Link

VHS

 * Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Shredder is Splintered

DVD

 * Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Volume 2
 * Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Complete Classic Series Collection

Adaptation

 * Return of the Shredder (Random House)

Animation Errors

 * The mats at the Slash For Cash Dojo are shown 3 different ways. In the first shot, they are large, in good shape and hot pink. in the next shot, where we see slashes students sparring,  they look more worn out and look to be a darker redish color. In the final shots, after the Shredder takes over the class, they are pink and smaller in size and in much better shape.
 * When Shredder bends the bars to Baxter's cell, one, and then several of the bars appear as if they've been cut.
 * When Michelangelo asked April what the haps was, his mouth didn't move.
 * When the Turtles high-tail it to the blimp after being caught, only three are seen boarding the blimp.
 * When the Turtles walk over to the TV in April's office, Raphael gains Leonardo's colours.
 * When the Turtles speak to Splinter in his meditation room, Donatello is seen with red teeth in one shot.
 * When the Turtles are eating pizza in the lair, Leonardo is seen with Raphael's colours when telling the others about Splinter's condition.
 * The Turtles are missing their eye pupils as they advance on Shredder when he's holding Splinter captive in Slash's dojo.
 * In this episode, Irma's hair is black and not brown.
 * Also she is shown to wear red nail polish on her fingers.

Continuity Errors

 * Michelangelo blows a pile of orange juice cans on one of the crooks in the opening scene, from several feet away and from in front. Even if we are to believe that he has some freakishly powerful lungs here, how exactly did the cans fall forward?

Real World/Cultural References

 * The lunatic in Baxter's cell thinks he's Napoleon Bonaparte.

Trivia

 * The "Slash for Cash Gym" is erroneously referred to, in this episode, as the "Slash for Cash Dojo". It's given its proper name in the Archie Comics version.
 * This is the first appearance of Irma (though not her first encounter with the turtles).
 * So... Shredder's plan to frame the Turtles involve storming a dojo full of novices that can barely perform a Judo flip, training them for half a day, putting on cheesy disguises and having them commit crimes? Ordinarily, this would be a rather dumb plan that anybody with half a brain could see through, but... it actually worked. Go figure.
 * Baxter Stockman reappears for the first time since "A Thing About Rats", having been committed to an asylum. He now has longer hair.
 * Vernon Fenwick's voice actor changes from Pat Fraley to Peter Renaday starting with this episode. This was done to even out the number of roles each actor had to deal with; otherwise, Fraley would have had three regular characters (Krang, Baxter Stockman and Vernon) and Renaday would only have had one (Splinter).
 * Leonardo and Donatello can tell Shredder trained the crooks merely from the way one guy kicks down a door. Unless that's one of the hidden techniques of the Foot Clan, that's pretty far-fetched.
 * There's a rather dodgy scene where April asks Burne what he and his girlfriend were doing at the Channel 6 building after hours. Burne's girlfriend drapes her arms over him, giving him a rather seductive sounding, "Tell her, shnookums..." before a babbling Burne quickly lets April off the hook and runs back in his room with his date.
 * The dojo master is named Smash, but in the Archie Comics adaptation of the episode, he is erroneously named Slash in one panel.
 * Tiffany is extremely phobic of turtles, to the point where she'd dump Burne merely for ordering turtle soup. Mock turtle soup, to be exact.
 * April breaks a fourth wall of sorts when she assures the Turtles that she was winking at Splinter....over a TV screen.
 * The animation has been redesigned to give a higher quality, from the design of the characters to the background settings.
 * This episode had many edits in the UK airings in the 1990s. The gang was renamed to The Crooked Turtle Gang and scenes of nunchaku were trimmed.
 * This episode was adapted to comic book format in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures #1-2 published by Archie Comics.
 * Starting from this episode onwards, Rocksteady no longer wears his helmet.
 * The Technodrome now resides on a Mars-like planet in Dimension X with pink sky, but at the end of "Shredder And Splintered" it was seen hovering in a fiery dimensional limbo.
 * This is the first episode to air on BBC1 in the UK. The reason for this being was probably because the BBC deemed Season 1 too violent to be aired. This season and the next are the only seasons that the BBC have ever aired in the show's nine year run.
 * First appearance of Shredder's comlink.
 * In this season, the Turtles' letters are white, but are gray in "The Mean Machines", "Enter The Fly", and "Catwoman from Channel 6".
 * When Splinter calls the Turtles, he says each of their names: Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael instead of "Turtles" or "my students".

Quotes

 * Baxter: Greetings from your friendly neighbourhood rat-catcher!


 * Leonardo: Baxter?


 * Raphael: Don't you just hate it when people drop in unannounced?


 * - More so when said rat happens to be your father.


 * Shredder: I tell you Krang, our defeat was an accident! Send me back to Earth and I will get rid of the Turtles!
 * Krang, I implore you! Please send me back!


 * Krang {nasally voice}: "Send me back! Send me back!" I am tired of your endless whining! That is all I ever hear from you since you arrived in Dimension X! I'll tell you what, I will send you back to Earth.


 * Shredder: Thank you, Krang! You will not regret it!


 * Krang opens portal


 * Rocksteady: Oh boy, hamburgers, onion rings!


 * Bebop: And vanilla milkshakes!


 * Shredder passes through


 * Bebop: Earth, make way for Bebop and Rocksteady! Because here we come!


 * Rocksteady: And a way we go!


 * Rocksteady and Bebop race towards the portal, but Krang has closed it and they bounce back to him. Krang laughs.


 * Rocksteady: Why'd ya do dat?


 * Krang: Because I enjoy seeing both people and animals suffer, and you , my friends, are both!!! (laughs)


 * - Krang, Dimension X's biggest troll.


 * Central Park
 * Mugger #1: Boy, this is a slow day. We ain't mugged anyone for over ½ an hour!
 * Mugger #2: Relax pal, some poor sucker is bound to show up.
 * Shredder arrives through portal from Dimension X
 * Mugger #2: See? What did I tell you?
 * Shredder: Where am I?
 * Mugger #1: I got a better question, like how much money you got in that silly costume of yours?
 * Shredder: Of course, I'm in the Big Apple. You threaten me?
 * Mugger #2: Yeah!
 * Shredder: Ha ha ha. You will see why you are wrong to threaten me. Foot soldiers, Bebop, Rocksteady, destroy these fools!
 * Nothing happens and muggers look at Shredder like he is crazy
 * Mugger #1: That old trick? Forget it pal, it won't work!
 * Shredder {looking around confused}: Foot soldiers! Did you not hear my command?
 * Still nothing happens
 * Mugger #2: Now just handover your dough!
 * Shredder: Bebop! Rocksteady! Where are you? Oh well, I'll just have to handle this myself.
 * Shredder jumps atop tree and uses his gauntlet to break a branch, intimidating muggers
 * Shredder: Now what were you saying about money?
 * Mugger #1: We were saying, here... if you do not have any, take ours!
 * Mugger #2: Yeah! And uh... have a nice day!
 * Muggers empty pockets and retreat. Shredder contacts Krang
 * Shredder: Krang! What happened! Where is my army? And my Technodrome? And all my weapons?
 * Krang: You failed to defeat those miserable Turtles and their teacher Spliter with my help. Now you must destroy them on your own. I refuse to give you any support or technology until you prove worthy of it. Until further notice, you are on you own!
 * Shredder: I will show you, Krang. I will destroy my enemy, the Turtles. And then, the world will tremble before... the Shredder!


 * - Krang, basically telling Shredder "Go screw yourself."


 * Shredder: Not another step, or your furry sensei will be crushed!
 * (The Turtles look upward towards to see a giant fist-shaped battering ram suspended from the ceiling)
 * Donatello: "That rope, it leads to...a battering ram!!"
 * Michelangelo: "It's gotta weigh megatons!!"
 * Raphael: "None of us could stop that thing!!"
 * Shredder: That's right Turtles, you master is about to become history!!


 * - Not only do Turtles fight with honour, but with a tenacious grasp of the painfully obvious as well.


 * Shredder contacts Krang via dimensional communicator to report on his progress
 * Krang: Well Shredder, what have you to report?
 * Shredder: My mock turtle ninjas have been terrorizing the city with a glorious crime spree. I tell you Krang, my plan is working well.
 * Krang: How so?
 * Shredder: With the citizens turn against them, the real Turtles will be forced to the surface to clear their names!
 * Krang: You call that a plan? That will take forever! I want results now. Now, now, NOW!! Don't contact me until you have real progress to report. Goodbye.
 * Krang ends communication
 * Shredder {talking to himself}: Insolent fool! That leaves me just one place to turn.


 * - Even Krang knows a dumb plan when he hears it.


 * Baxter: And then I set loose a horde of robot rat-catchers, but unfortunately we were captured by a talking rat and some ninja turtles!
 * Napoleon Guy: Sacre bleu! We never had such problems when I ruled France!!


 * - When even the guy who thinks he's Napoleon gets awed by your story, you should really consider therapy at this point.

Gallery
Die Rückkehr des Shredder