Thursday, June 21, 2012

Blast from the Past #548: November 15, 2007: Re: comments on TMNT144 OutlineTMNT Season 7 Springboards, and November 18, 2007: comments on TMNT144 Outline




Subj: Re: TMNT Season 7 Springboards
Date: Thursday, November 15, 2007 10:43:27 AM
From: Peter Laird
To:   Lloyd Goldfine

Lloyd,


I don't have much to say about the new springboards -- nothing really leapt out at me in a "big problem" kind of way. I think they will be some fun episodes.


However, I must say that the events in Wedding Bells and Bytes are still making me scratch my head. I am having difficulty understanding exactly WHAT is happening and HOW in, for example, the following:

<<But before the “I do’s” are done, an uninvited guest crashes the party - the Shredder…digitally morphing from out of Master Splinter!  Just before getting “destroyed” by the Turtle Titan and Tortoise Boy, the Shredder managed to zap himself back to cyberspace and download himself into the last remaining cluster of Splinter’s data bits, infecting them like a virus attacks a host body.  Then, when Splinter was uploaded back into the real world (TBD), the Cyber Shredder went along for the ride and prevented Splinter from becoming completely organic again so that he could take him over like he did Viral!  


And it gets worse – having infected Splinter’s essence (and therefore everything in his brain), the Shredder now has access to all of Splinter’s fighting ability, and all of Splinter’s knowledge of his sons’ strengths and weaknesses!   Shredder knows every move they’re liable to make even before they do!  All seems lost - - until Master Splinter, his digital code supposedly subsumed within Shredder’s digital matrix, starts to reassert himself from deep within the Shredder.  Fighting to save his sons!  From the inside out, the battlefield is leveled!>>

It's all seeming a bit too "magic-y" for my tastes... I'd really like it if we could somehow come up with a scheme which makes this (admittedly quite fantastic and unbelievable) moving from real to virtual and back again process seem at least SOMEWHAT logical and operating within some set of rules. 
One idea that might work would be to introduce some kind of new device or technology which is discovered by someone (Stockman? Donatello? the Utroms? Nano?) which serves as a kind of "transformation gateway" between the two realms (reality and cyberspace), allowing for these kinds of transformations. Just as I typed that, it occurred to me that a technology of this nature would be very desirable for a power-mad character like the Shredder, as it would allow for a virtually limitless supply of tools with which to wreak havoc in the real world: All you'd have to do is be able to create them in the cyberworld (like building CG models on your computer) and then run them through this "transformation gateway" technology and you'd have a real-world version of whatever you created on your computer.


-- Pete

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Subj: comments on TMNT144 Outline
Date: Sunday, November 18, 2007 11:08:24 PM

From:  Peter Laird
To:    Lloyd Goldfine


comments on Ep. 144 "Tempus Fugit" outline


1.) Re: the following:

"Cody: “Finally!  You guys can go home!  The Time Window is fixed!"

It occurred to me as I read this that in the beginning of the Fast Forward season, it was made clear that the Time Window bringing the Turtles into the future was a MISTAKE, not something that Cody intended. I wonder if this should be referenced here, i.e. Cody or Don says something like "We've finally tracked down what happened with the Time Window to make it bring us into the future, and we've figured out how to replicate it and -- better yet -- reverse it, so we can go back into the past!"
Of course, then it occurred to me that I don't think we ever specified WHAT made the Time Window malfunction in the first place, and THAT made me wonder if we should perhaps tie Viral in to that initial malfunction. Or maybe that's too much.


2.) Re: the following:

"The Turtles and Master Splinter all stand around the Time Window as Cody delivers the exciting news – the device has finally been repaired!  The Turtles can, at long last, return to their present time in NYC!  "

It might be a fun bit to have Mikey with a bag of "future stuff" (possibly including some futuristic video games) which he intends to take back in time with him, but then Don sternly reprimands him and reminds him that they can't "pollute the time stream"... at which point Serling could make a sarcastic quip like "Haven't you done enough of THAT already?"


3.) Re: the following:

"Meanwhile, the Turtles are hurtling through a TIME TUNNEL towards their Lair.  They get closer…and closer…but then, just before they arrive…"

It might be cool -- and make the Turtles' eventually getting back to their original time a little less random -- if, when they leave the future, Don has some kind of little gizmo that he and Cody cooked up -- a kind of "steering mechanism" that he can use to try to help guide them if they get off course. Viral will still make the trip back a wild ride, but this gadget could give the Turtles just that little extra bit of an advantage to allow them to make it back to the present. The gizmo could then spark/melt/blow up, over-stressed by what Don has put it through.


4.) Re: the following:

"Just then, a slow < STOMPING RUMBLE> can be heard of in the distance.  But it’s getting closer…and CLOSER…until finally, from out of a dense patch of trees emerge…


A HUGE T-REX!  And he’s hungry."

I like Tyrannosaurus Rex as much as the next guy -- maybe even more -- but can we use a different large carnivorous dinosaur here, something a little less common, like maybe a Spinosaurus, Carnotaurus, or Allosaurus?


5.) Re: the following:

"It’s ninjas versus Dinos in a prehistoric pound-fest to the finish!  And since the Turtles have lost their weapons due to the logistics of Time Travel (as set up in episode 119 – only organics and…er, highly advanced androids can travel through time) the guys are forced to brandish bones and branches to take on the ferocious giant reptile!"

I think a better solution to the weapons thing would be to have the Turtles deliberately NOT bring their advanced Fast Forward-era weapons back in time with them. It could be as simple as the "don't pollute the time stream" idea.


6.) Re: the following:

"Still, after some close calls – including Serling getting gobbled up and spit out by the nasty lizard - the Turtles manage to fend off the beast!"

Hmmm... yeah... no. This is a bit too goofy for me. Not to mention that that would be one HUGE dinosaur to be able to "gobble" Serling.


7.) Re: the following:

"All of a sudden, a herd of TRICERATOPS come trampling right towards the Turtles!


Our heroes run for their lives as Viral revels in their distress.


Viral: “You can run, but you can’t hide!  After all, you time travails have just begun!”


Just then, right there in front of our heroes running path, appears VIRAL – mouth ominously agape! 


The Turtles slam on the brakes, but she’s too close and they can’t help but run right into her <CACKLING> face!"

The staging of this bit of action seems a bit weird, as Viral is in essence SAVING the Turtles from the Triceratops stampede. Also, there's a bit too much slapstick here in the way the Turtles can't stop in time. It might work better if they find a way out of this jam themselves and THEN Viral grabs them.


8.) Re: the following:

"But where there’s a will, there’s a way.  In a stunning showcase of ninja acrobatics, Leo and Don manage to eventually leap onto a plane just as it cruises past on its strafing run!  


It’s a balancing act on the wings until Leo and Don can commandeer the aircraft.  Then, while Leo steers the plane through dogfights and dive bombs, Don scours through the aircraft’s instrument panel, taking various items that he needs for the recalibration. 


Unfortunately, one such item he snatches controls the fuselage and Leo and Don are forced to make a quick escape before going down in a fiery crash!"

This is pretty ridiculous. I don't care how good a ninja you are, you don't jump onto an airplane as it "cruises past on its strafing run".


9.) Re: the following:

"Serling rears back and the BLAST fires upwards where it hits a fighter plane!  Upon contact, the plane is immediately DIGITIZED and then, piece by piece DECOMPILED into nothing!"

Ridiculous. Correct me if I'm wrong, but we're not in a virtual/cyberspace world here -- we're actually in the past. So how could Serling's "decompiler gun" have ANY effect on real world objects?
Not to mention the fact that there is NO REASON for this bit of illogical action. Except, I guess, that it sets up the following:

"Splinter has somehow made his way in front of Serling and…


Takes the full DECOMPILING BLAST himself!  


Immediately we see him get digitized and slowly decompiled…but before he’s completely gone, he manages to grab the Serling (still possessed by Viral) with his paw."

... which is also pretty silly and logically inconsistent. I think we need to figure out another way to get Splinter stuck in cyberspace. A good way.


If there is one.


-- Pete

3 comments:

  1. A bit off topic but a new trailer was just released for the new cartoon show. Your thoughts?
    https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=4276585598915

    ReplyDelete
  2. It's… interesting. There were two or three moments when some cool potential shone through, but in all honesty, I have to say it makes me appreciate the 2K3 series all the more.

    Of course, in all honesty again, and in the spirit of fairness, this was a very short clip and may not accurately represent what the finished new series episodes will be like in form and/or content. -- PL

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  3. thank you for mentioning the time travel accident part of it. that seems to have been forgotten. In the one episode where Shoka gets his own portal, it works perfectly just by fixing the window.

    Maybe it was explained away that instead of making a time window, he really made a time machine instead, and THAT was the accident.

    it might be a fun story for a series where instead of a time machine existing in the future, someone creates it in the past and brings someone from the future to their time. switch things up a bit :)

    ReplyDelete