Attack of Big MACC

This article is about the episode "Attack of Big MACC". For the VHS, go to Attack of Big MACC (home video).

“Attack of Big MACC”
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987) episode
Season Code:	03
Episode:	12
Original airdate	October 10, 1989
Written by	Francis Moss
Producers:
Episode chronology ← Previous Next → "April Fool" "The Ninja Sword of Nowhere"

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1989 Season September 25, 1989 - Feburary 9, 1990 List of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles episodes

Episodes: "Beneath These Streets" "Turtles on Trial" "Attack of the 50-Foot Irma" "The Maltese Hamster" "Sky Turtles" "The Old Switcheroo" "Burne's Blues" "The Fifth Turtle" "Enter the Rat King" "Turtles at the Earth's Core" "April Fool" "Attack of Big MACC" "The Ninja Sword of Nowhere" "20,000 Leaks Under the City" "Take Me to Your Leader" "Four Musketurtles" "Turtles, Turtles Everywhere" "Cowabunga Shredhead" "Invasion of the Turtle Snatchers" "Camera Bugged" "Green With Jealousy" "Return of the Fly" "Casey Jones - Outlaw Hero" "Mutagen Monster" "Corporate Raiders from Dimension X" "Pizza by the Shred" "Super Bebop & Mighty Rocksteady" "Beware the Lotus" "Blast from the Past" "Leatherhead: Terror of the Swamp" "Michelangelo's Birthday" "Usagi Yojimbo" "Case of the Hot Kimono" "Usagi Come Home" "The Making of Metalhead" "Leatherhead Meets the Rat King" "The Turtle Terminator" "The Great Boldini" "The Missing Map" "The Gang's All Here" "The Grybyx" "Mister Ogg Goes to Town" "Shredderville" "Bye, Bye, Fly" "The Big Rip-Off" "The Big Break In" "The Big Blow Out" 1987 Season – 1988 Season – 1989 Season – 1990 Season - 1991 Season – 1992 Season – 1992-1993 Vacation in Europe sideseason – 1993 Season – 1994 Season – 1995 Season – 1996 Season

Attack of Big MACC is an episode from season 3, 1989 of the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon series.

Appearing in Attack of Big MACC

Major characters

• Donatello (Barry Gordon)
• Leonardo (Cam Clarke)
• Michelangelo (Townsend Coleman)
• Raphael (Rob Paulsen)
• Splinter (Peter Renaday)
• April O'Neil (Renae Jacobs)
• Shredder (James Avery)
• Krang (Pat Fraley)
• Bebop (Barry Gordon)
• Rocksteady (Cam Clarke)
• Foot Soldiers
• Rock Soldiers
• Vernon Fenwick (Peter Renaday)
• Burne Thompson (Pat Fraley)
• MACC (Peter Renaday)

Minor characters

• Ace Duck
• Library security guard (Pat Fraley)
• First tank operator (James Avery)
• Hotel owner (Townsend Coleman)

Species

• Human
• Mutant Duck
• Mutant rat
• Mutant rhinoceros
• Mutant turtle
• Mutant warthog
• Robot
• Rock soldier

Objects and vehicles

• Technodrome
• Transport Module
• Turtle Van

Locations

• Army testing laboratory
• New York police station
• Technodrome
• Turtle Lair

Plot

One night during an electrical storm, the Ninja Turtles watch April O'Neil on TV as she is reporting live from an army testing laboratory, on the first public showing of a new "Super Laser". Suddenly, a bolt of lightning from the storm strikes some power lines and inadvertently overloads the laser's computer. As a result, the storm causes the laser's computer to open up a strange portal, and out comes a white robot. The soldiers fire at the robot, whom is not phased by their weapons, only solemnly remarking that he's on Earth before destroying their weapons itself. The scientists try to use the super laser to destroy the robot, but this only tickles the robot, who then destroys the laser as well.

Meanwhile in the Technodrome, Krang, Shredder, Bebop and Rocksteady are watching the same report when Krang takes an interest in the robot for its destructive capacity. Noticing that the robot's neck is its only weak spot, Krang sends Shredder and the mutants to the surface with a "Docilator", a device that will re-program it to serve them. Back at the laboratory, April is seized by the robot, forcing the turtles to go rescue her. Believing that the turtles are violent as well, the robot fires on them until Michelangelo manages to convince it that they are peaceful, to which the robot calms down. The robot, named "MACC" ("Mobile Armored Computerized Combatant") states that he is from the year 2390 (400 years in the future) and that he detests violence due to most inhabitants from his timeline being warmongers. MACC also sporadically switches to a western dialect from time-to-time due to him being a fan of western films from where he comes from.

Now friends, the Turtles and April convince MACC to come with them so that April can do a report on him and so that the Turtles may learn more about him. Suddenly, the Shredder arrives and captures MACC, placing the docilator onto the robot and re-programming him to become violent. However, before MACC can destroy the Turtles, the robot manages to override the docilator's programming and rejects it, firing on Shredder and his mutants and forcing them to flee underground. After which, April takes the robot to Channel 6 for an interview. Back at the Technodrome, Krang has invented a new docilator that is far stronger than the previous version, and Shredder and the mutants head back to the surface once more.

After April's interview, the Turtles take MACC to the local library so that it can acquire more data from their timeline, only to flee upon a near confrontation with an officer. The turtles then bring MACC back to their sewer lair to meet Splinter. However shortly into his stay, MACC begins to show signs of instability. Donatello runs some tests of him and is shocked to discover that MACC's time travel has screwed up his circuitry. He informs the other Turtles and Splinter that if MACC isn't returned to his original timeline, he will explode, taking all of New York City with him. MACC overhears the conversation and not wishing to hurt his new friends, he leaves the sewers but only to, once again, be caught by Shredder, who immediately slaps the new docilator onto him, placing him under his control.

At Channel 6, Vernon Fenwick tells Burne Thompson and April that the now-brainwashed MACC is attacking a police station, forcing April to rush away to cover the story and warn the Turtles. The Turtles soon learn of MACC's disappearance and of his attack on the station. As they arrive to try and stop their friend, MACC attacks them too, forcing them to flee from his rampage. The Turtles also fear that the docilator is further damaging MACC's programming, and will instead accelerate his detonation if it is not removed. With MACC under his control, Shredder and his mutants also take the time to briefly relax at a 5-star hotel (at Krang's expense when Shredder reveals he's deliberating paying for it with Krang's credit card). Once Shredder has had his fun, he returns to the Technodrome with MACC, where Krang reveals his plan: He intends on opening another time portal back to MACC's timeline in order to force MACC to lead an army of future robots under Krang's command (despite doing so will destroy MACC in the process).

Eventually, the Turtles track MACC's whereabouts by following clues left behind by the robot. Following the clues to the basement of the hotel (which has since been destroyed by Shredder and the others), the Turtles find an empty Transport Module and ride down to the Technodrome to find and save MACC before it's too late. The Turtles arrive but are taken prisoner upon realizing that the module was a trap set for them. Krang immediately prepares the portal for MACC to carry out his orders, but the docilator falls off of MACC's neck, and the robot finally regains control of himself. MACC then proceeds to free the Turtles from their imprisonment, and attacks Shredder, Krang, Bebop, Rocksteady, the Foot Soldiers, and the Rock Soldiers by firing on them with his weapons. During the firefight, the time portal opens, and Michelangelo convinces MACC to return to his own time. MACC initially refuses to return, but Donatello encourages him to become a "warrior for peace" in his own era. MACC is keen to the idea and returns home safely. After which, the Turtles commandeer a Transport Module and returns home as well.

See also

• Attack of Big MACC/Gallery
• Attack of Big MACC/Transcript

Notes and errors

• When the Turtles greet MACC, Raphael sais are seen on the back of his belt instead of the front.
• Just before Michelangelo makes peace with MACC, Leonardo speaks in Donatello's voice.
• MACC is shown throughout the episode with mitten-shaped claws. However right before MACC returns back to his own time to be a warrior for peace, he is shown with hands and fingers (albeit metal in appearance).

Trivia

• MACC seems to be based on the S.A.I.N.T. Robots (Strategic Artificially Intelligent Nuclear Transport) from Short Circuit, and MACC calls a TV camera as Number 5, after the main robot from the film.
• Shredder's skin tone is lighter than normal this episode.

Home media releases

VHS

• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Attack of the Big MACC
• Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles: Attack of Big MACC

LaserDisc

• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Attack of the Big MACC/Pizza by the Shred

DVD

• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Volume 3
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Season 3
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Complete Classic Series Collection