Monday, March 19, 2012

Blast from the Past #500: September 26, 2005: Re: TMNT Premise 130 ("The Journal") beats

Subj: Re: TMNT Premise 130 ("The Journal") beats
Date: Monday, September 26, 2005 2:57:24 PM
From: Peter Laird
To:           Lloyd Goldfine

Lloyd,


        Here are my notes on the Ep. 130 revised premise beats.

While this is an improvement on the last version, it is still not very satisfying. One of the big problems is that if we DO establish -- as in this premise -- that there IS an authentic Casey Jones journal and the Turtles (in their first, brief glance inside it) realize that it tells the story of their future in the past, after they have returned from THIS future (does that make sense?), then one of the big mysteries of this season -- "Will the Turtles ever make it home to their original time?!" -- is basically blown. There is no longer any... wait a minute...


... you know, I just realized -- we've ALREADY blown that bit, with at least one reference that I can recall from a recent premise: the "Donatellium" that Don supposedly created sometime in the past, but at a time AFTER the Turtles were sucked into the future. So we already know that at least Don makes it back.


I also think more needs to made of the point that Splinter (not Cody so much) makes to the Turtles about "knowledge of one's future". He should make a compelling argument to the Turtles that at least temporarily convinces them not to look further into the journal.


Also, there needs to be more time than one day between the time the Turtles find and want to look at the journal and the time they "snoop" their way to it and read it... time enough for Cody and Splinter to have thought up and made (via the handy-dandy Transcendental Lathe?) a duplicate journal with the fake histories. Maybe a week would be good.


Perhaps, too, we should cover a lot of potential problems which might arise from the existence -- even if "safely" locked away -- of a journal which actually does contain details of the Turtles' future... and I have an idea to accomplish that which might be fun. Here it is:


The Turtles find Casey's journal and START to look at it. They see the first few pages, and Don realizes what it is and shuts it. They start to have an argument about whether they should continue, and that's when Splinter walks in and stops them.
A week later, the Turtles can't resist their burning curiosity anymore and individually sneak into the Trophy Room to look at the journal (as written in the revised premise).
They read all the crazy stuff in the journal and then we have the reveal that Splinter and Cody created it to teach them the lesson about seeing the future, etc.. The REAL journal is locked away.
The kicker to this version is shown in a coda which involves only Cody and Splinter, in which we see that after those first few pages in the journal, the rest of it is BLANK! Splinter says something about how it is just like Casey -- the man could never have had the patience to keep up with a journal like this.
(A variant of this could be that the Turtles are STILL burning with curiosity after they go through the "fake journal" thing, and once again they sneak into the trophy room and pick the lock on whatever it is that holds the journal... and then THEY see the rest of the journal is blank and all have the same realization that Splinter had... that Casey was not a journal writer.)


-- Peter

8 comments:

  1. I know you're not really involved with the movie... but is there anything you can do to smack Michael Bay upside the head? I can't believe he wants to turn the Turtle into aliens...

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  2. While I do like most of your alternate story ideas, this one I'm not too fond of. We already know that Casey had enough patience to start a company with april. A rather successful one at that, so maybe, just maybe, he changed in character as well...and grew some patience.

    I always wondered if Splinter read it with Cody...being keeper of many secrets himself :). this is one of my favorite episodes

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    1. Neil, we actually DON'T know how patient or not Casey was vis a vis the company named "O'Neil Tech" which he started with April. In fact, I don't think it was ever made at all clear WHAT his part was in starting that company. Maybe he worked on the loading dock. -- PL

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  3. Mister Laird,

    I have been a fan of TMNT since I was 10 years old (I am now 35). I met my husband because of TMNT. I have my daughter because of TMNT (We showed her to you when she was 2 when my husband and I met you at That's Entertaintment in Worcester, MA. She is now 11). I basically owe my entire current happiness to yours and Peter's creation. So it is because of this that I beg you...please do not let Michael Bay change TMNT to aliens. I don't want such a drastic change made to a series I owe so much to. Please PLEASE don't let him do this. Take control of the movie if you have to but I respect you and the TMNT too much to let Bay destroy it. If they wind up being aliens I'm afraid I will be boycotting the movie and I'm sure many other fans will as well.

    Sincerly,
    Mrs Wendy Mihail
    songbird21@charter.net

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    Replies
    1. Wendy, I hate to disappoint you, but having sold the TMNT property to Viacom back in 2009, I no longer have -- nor do I want -- any control over it.

      However, I think you should rest assured that if the TMNT property could survive something as idiotically conceived and wretchedly realized as -- for example -- "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: "The Next Mutation", it can surely survive any number of similarly dopey ideas. -- PL

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  4. Replies
    1. Yeah picturing Casey operating a forklift made me laugh pretty hard. Working logistics could have eventually driven him to code.

      Thanks for sharing so much on here it is entertaining and I appreciate your stance on the TMNT property as well.

      Cheers...

      ~ Trista

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