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 Michaelangelo 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 Michaelangelo 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.

Instead, Shredder takes over the leadership of the corrupt local karate school "Slash for Cash dojo" and establishes 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)
 * Michaelangelo (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
 * First Supermarket Thief (Barry Gordon)
 * Second Supermarket Thief (Rob Paulsen)
 * Lady at Cash Register (Jennifer Darling)
 * First Punk in Park (Townsend Coleman)
 * Second Punk in Park (Peter Renaday)

Animation Errors

 * When Shredder bends the bars to Baxter's cell, one, and then several of the bars appear as if they've been cut.
 * Michelangelo's lips don't move when he says, "Yeah, so what's the haps?"
 * 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 can be seen with Leonardo's colours in one shot.
 * 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.

Real World/Cultural References

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

Trivia

 * This is the first appearance of Irma.
 * 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.
 * 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 shares a name with another Turtles enemy.
 * Tiffany is extremely phobic of turtles, to the point where she'd dump Burne merely for ordering turtle soup.
 * 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 1990's. The gang was re-named 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.
 * First appearance of Shredder's Com-Link communication device.
 * 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 is 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 a Com-Link.

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

Leonardo: Baxter?

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


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


 * Krang{nasally voice}: Send me back! Send me back!


 * Krang: That is all I ever hear from you since you arrived in Dimension X. I am tired of your whining! I tell you what, I will send you back.


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


 * Krang opens portal and Shredder passes through


 * Rocksteady: Oh boy, hamburgers, onion rings!


 * Bebop: And vanilla milkshakes!


 * Rocksteady: Earth, make way for Bebop and Rocksteady!


 * Bebop: Because he we come!


 * Rocksteady and Bebop race towards the portal, but fall down as Krang has closed it


 * Rocksteady: Why'd ya do dat?


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


 * Central Park
 * Mugger #1: Boy, this is a slow day. We ain't mugged anyone for ½ an hour!
 * Shredder arrives through portal from Dimension X
 * Shredder: Where am I?
 * Mugger #2: I got a better question, like how much money you got in that silly costume of yours?
 * Shredder: You threaten me?
 * Mugger #1: Yeah!
 * Shredder: Ha ha ha. You will see why you are wrong to threaten me. Foot soldiers, destroy these imbeciles!
 * Nothing happens
 * Shredder{looking around confused}: Foot soldiers! Did you not hear my command?
 * Nothing happens and muggers look at Shredder like he is crazy
 * Shredder: Bebop! Rocksteady! Where are you? Oh well, I can do the job myself.
 * Shredder jumps atop tree and uses his gauntlet to break a branch, intimidating muggers
 * Shredder: Now what was this about money?
 * Mugger #2: We were saying if you do not have any..
 * Mugger #1: ...take ours!
 * Muggers empty pockets and retreat. Shredder contacts Krang
 * Shredder: Krang! What happened! Where are my troops?
 * Krang: I refuse to give you any support or technology until you prove yourself otherwise. Until further notice, you are on you own!


 * Shredder contacts Krang via dimensional communicator to report on his progress
 * Shredder: I tell you Krang, my plan is working well.
 * Krang: How so?
 * Shredder: With my students impersonating the Turles and out causing trouble, 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!!
 * Krang ends communication
 * Shredder{talking to himself}: Insolent fool!

Locations

 * Turtles' Lair
 * Technodrome
 * Supermarket
 * Mental Asylum
 * Slash For Cash Dojo
 * Channel 6

Vehicles

 * Turtle Blimp
 * Rat-Catching Machine

Gadgets

 * Turtlecoms
 * Com-Link