Changes: Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation (TV series)

Latest revision as of 20:11, 7 April 2024

Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation (abbreviated to NT:TNM) or Saban's Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation (also known as Hero Turtles: The Next Mutation) is a live-action television show that ran from 1997 to 1998 on Fox Kids. It was produced by Saban Entertainment. The Ninja Turtles from The Next Mutation made a special appearance on Power Rangers in Space: in the episode "Shell Shocked", but were first introduced at the end of the episode "Save Our Ship". The short-lived series was based loosely from Mirage Studios' Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

The series introduced many new elements to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles saga, including new central antagonists, an army of humanoid dragons known as "The Rank" led by the vicious Dragon Lord. It was touted (in some of the promotional material) as a continuation of the 1987 TV series, but by the period of time it aired it turned apparent that this was not the case. Instead, the series apparently followed the continuity of the first three live-action films. The Turtles lived in the same abandoned train station featured in the second and third films, and Splinter's ear is slashed as it was in the original film. However, most fans tend to regard the films and the series as two separate entities, citing differing styles, the Shredder being alive (and no longer Super Shredder), and the absence of April O'Neil and Casey Jones.

In the second episode, Leonardo states that the turtles are not biologically related, which is indeed different, as other forms of TMNT media either avoid the issue altogether or explicitly state that they are blood relatives.

The most prominent new element was the inclusion of a female mutant turtle called Venus de Milo; named after the famous statue. Other notable differences were found in the Turtles' weapons; Leonardo carried one double-bladed ninjatō instead of two katana (though he was shown to own two in a few episodes); Raphael's twin sai could combine to make a staff; and because nunchaku are outlawed in several places, Michaelangelo's signature weapon in this series was a pair of tonfa. Similarly, the name of the series was amended in several countries to Hero Turtles: The Next Mutation under censorship ruling.

The show never caught on and was cancelled after one season of 26 episodes. The characters of April O'Neil and Casey Jones were said to appear in the cancelled 2nd season.^{[citation needed]}

Characters

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Tmnt — The TMNT as they appear in *The Next Mutation*.

Leonardo: Gabe Khouth
- Voice of Leonardo: Michael Dobson
Donatello: Ricard Yaw
- Voice of Donatello: Jason Gray-Stanford
Raphael: Mitchell A. Lee Yuen
- Voice of Raphael: Matt Hill
Michaelangelo: Jarreed Blancard
- Voice of Michelangelo: Kirby Morrow
Mei Pieh Chi/Venus de Milo: Nicole N. Parker
- Voice of Venus: Lalainia Lindbjerg

Allies

Splinter: Fiona Scott
- Voice of Splinter: Stephen Mendel
Chung I: Tseng Chang
Andre: Len Gibson
The Space Rangers (only in Power Rangers in Space)
Bongo
Alpha 6 (only in Power Rangers in Space)
D.E.C.A. (only in Power Rangers in Space)

Villains

Dragon Lord: Gerald Wong
- Voice of Dragon Lord: Christopher Gaze
The Rank
Silver: Garry Chalk
Shredder: Patrick Pon
Foot Clan
Dr. Quease: Simon Webb
Bonesteel: Scott McNeil
Wick: Adam Behr, Bill Terezakis
- Voice of Wick: Lee Tockar
Monkey Thief Mick: Michael Dobson
Monkey Thief Dick: John Tench
Monkey Thief Clarence: Ronnie Way
Rank Lieutenant: Andrew Kavadas
Good Dragon
Clone Turtles
- Clone Leonardo
- Clone Raphael
- Clone Michelangelo
- Clone Donatello
- Clone Venus de Milo
Heavy Duke: Travis MacDonald
The Unknowables
Vam Mi: Kira Clavell
- Voice of Vam-Mi: Saffron Henderson
Bing: Justin Soon
- Voice of Bing: Colin Musback
Chi Chu: Lauren Attadia
- Voice of Chi Chu: Sherry Thorson
Astronema (only in Power Rangers in Space)
Ecliptor (only in Power Rangers in Space)
Elgar (only in Power Rangers in Space)
Quantrons (only in Power Rangers in Space)
Electrotramp (only in Power Rangers in Space)

Venus de Milo

The most interesting contribution the show made to the Turtle's mythos is a fifth mutant turtle, Venus de Milo (initially named Mei Pieh Chi). Venus, a female, is shown as being an adept of the mystic arts of the Shinobi and wears a cyan mask that was braided in the back, giving the appearance of a ponytail. Her fighting style sometimes resembles Kung Fu more than Ninjutsu. Venus is a controversial character and many fans didn't like her. Venus was portrayed by Nicole Parker and voiced by Lalainia Lindbjerg.

At the time, many fans believed that Venus was created by Fox and Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird were forced to use her. Others say that Kevin Eastman created the character because he has a positive opinion of her. Either way, Peter Laird does not like Venus and removed her profile from the official site, but it has since been restored.

Episode list

#	Production	Title	Original Airdate
1	1	"East Meets West, Part 1"	September 12, 1997
2	2	"East Meets West, Part 2"	September 19, 1997
3	3	"East Meets West, Part 3"	September 26, 1997
4	4	"East Meets West, Part 4"	October 3, 1997
5	5	"East Meets West, Part 5"	October 10, 1997
6	6	"The Staff of Bu-Ki"	October 17, 1997
7	9	"All in the Family"	October 24, 1997
8	7	"Silver and Gold"	October 31, 1997
9	12	"Turtles' Night Out"	November 7, 1997
10	8	"Meet Dr. Quease"	November 14, 1997
11	11	"Windfall"	November 21, 1997
12	14	"Truce or Consequences"	November 28, 1997
13	22	"Unchain My Heart, Part 1"	February 6, 1998
14	23	"Unchain My Heart, Part 2"	February 13, 1998
15	24	"Unchain My Heart, Part 3"	February 20, 1998
16	25	"Unchain My Heart, Part 4"	February 27, 1998
17	13	"Mutant Reflections"	April 6, 1998
18	18	"King Wick"	April 23, 1998
19	21	"Like Brothers"	April 24, 1998
20	16	"Going Ape"	April 27, 1998
21	20	"The Guest"	May 4, 1998
22	10	"Trusting Dr. Quease"	May 11, 1998
23	19	"The Good Dragon"	May 12, 1998
24	15	"Sewer Crash"	May 13, 1998
25	17	"Enemy of my Enemy"	May 14, 1998
26	26	"Who Needs Her"	May 15, 1998

Power Rangers crossover

Outside of The Next Mutation, the Turtles also guest-starred alongside the Power Rangers from Power Rangers in Space. The end of the episode "Save Our Ship" leads directly into "Shell Shocked", where the Turtles are summoned and brainwashed by Astronema to fight the Rangers. Her control over them is later broken, and they team-up with the Space Rangers to battle Astronema's forces. Before returning to New York, the Turtles have one request from the Rangers: space surfing on the Galaxy Gliders.

Cancellation

The show was cancelled in the summer of 1998. The cancellation of the show marked the first time that the Turtles were off TV screens for a protracted period since the animated series debuted in 1987. A new animated series would eventually begin airing in 2003. The ratings weren’t strong enough for Fox to want to continue spending money producing the show. Since they didn’t own the Ninja Turtles, they didn’t profit from airing it as much as they would by airing a series that they owned the rights to. Rumor has it that it was Power Rangers that canceled the show but it was an argument for more money to make the season more polish.

DVD Release

Tmnt nt cover f-b — 2012 Shout! release.

The complete series of the heavily-edited "Hero Turtles" version has been released on DVD in the UK by Jetix Films. The series in divided between 2 Volumes, containing 3 discs each. Volume 1 was released in July 2007 and Volume 2 was released in February 2008. Some foreign territories have released the full-length form of episodes only in their native languages, including Germany, France, Israel, Poland and Italy.

In 2012, Shout! Factory obtained the license to release DVDs on many of Saban Entertainment's productions, including The Next Mutation, in the United States. The first 13 episodes was released March 2012 listed as "Volume One". Later, in October of the same year, the "Volume Two" was released with the last 13 episodes and include as "Bonus Features" the official music video of the series and the Power Rangers in Space crossover episodes "Save Our Ship" and "Shell-Shocked".

Second season

According to TV.com's NT:TNM page, had there been a second season, April and Casey were to return to the Ninja Turtles universe, and Shredder would have returned either to join forces with Dragon Lord or be at war with him. There would have also been a storyline involving the government discovering the turtles, and hunting them down, possibly ending with the death of a family member, most likely Splinter.

Trivia

This series featured two vehicles: a humvee and a motorcycle. Leo drove the humvee while Raph drove the motorcycle.
On the closing credits (and a promo ad for the series), you'll see the TMNT playing as a band: Raph and Leo on guitars with Don on bass and Mikey on drums; oddly enough, Venus is on tambourine.
The show was shot and produced in Canada. In fact, in the episode "Going Ape", there is a sign pointing to Ontario.
In initial promotional footage for the series and the end of the intro, Leonardo's headband color was changed to yellow.
Despite using the set of the Turtle's lair from the 90s live action films, The Next Mutation is not a continuation of that story and exists as its own iteration of the Turtles.
The story of The Next Mutation was later continued in the "Turtle Tracks" letter column of the official website.
Some parts of the show's plots were similar to the 18th installment of the long lasting Super Sentai series Ninja Sentai Kakuranger mainly the main villains as both the Yokai from Kakuranger and the dragons were evil being imprisoned until they were unintentionally freed by the main heroes, some of the main heroes have similar personality traits mainly Michaelangelo and Seikai, and the fact that heroes from both shows were pop culture ninja.
The Next Mutation did not appear in the 2009 film Turtles Forever.
When the series was re-acquired by Saban in 2010 through Saban Brands, the original opening and closing themes were replaced with a new theme; the new theme appeared on the 2012 DVD, Netflix, and reruns on the former Hub Network.