1987–1996 series continuity timeline

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

This is an attempt of making a timeline based on the 1987–1996 animated TV-series. Thank you, Jephael at the Technodrome community, who'd made a similar timeline for the 2003–2009 animated TV-series originally started by an anonymous user at the Technodrome community, for inspiring me.

After rediscovering my interest for the TMNT back in late-2003, some weeks before Christmas, I later found Jephael's fan-website back in early-2004.

The idea of seasons and episodes mostly taking place during midyear is based on the fact that we didn't see much natural autumn and winter, caused by Earth's orbit around Sun, during the episodes. It seems we se some autumn during season 4, at the end of "Get Shredder!" when the tank is about to crash into the river.

I'm not sure where to place "Turtles Forever", "Wormquake", "Transdimensional Turtles" and "Wanted: Bebop & Rocksteady", especially not because of Nickelodeon doing nothing more than messing up with continuity and timelines, so much later. It's easy to assume the turtles of the 2003–2009 respective 2012 series ended up in other realities, meeting other versions of themselves, April, Shredder and Krang. I know that's not how it was supposed to be, but sadly that seems to be how it turned out. But I don't see them as more canon than for the Mirage turtles.

There were two Japanese episodes, (1996) and nobody considers them canon.

I will split it up, because this forum don't allow too long posts (more than 10 000 characters). Fanfiction Net doesn't allow timelines posted as stories. Part 1 will be until season 1.

Feel welcome to make comments:

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Circa 13 700 000 000 BC: The Universe is formed following the Big Bang. A powerful remaining crystalline is later discovered by the Glaxons.

Circa 13 000 000 000 BC: A while after galaxies have begun to form, Dimension X is formed, with its active galactic nucleus being so extremely-bright-shining than any other blazar and quasar, with light so extremely bright that outer space at some places near the centre appears red, something not even seen in other blazars. This light continues for a very long time.

Circa 66 000 000 BC: A comet collides with Earth, after the comet has crossed into the Earth orbit around the Sun, causing the comet to fall onto Earth ending up landing at the Yucatán Peninsula at what since September 1810 AD is Mexico, killing almost all dinosaurs on Earth, later providing conditions for monkeys to evolve into humans. However, a few remaining dinosaurs manage to escape extinction by escaping into an underground cavern. While most stop evolving, a few of them, led by Speega, later evolve.

Circa 10 000 BC: The island of Atlantis on Earth sinks into the Mediterranean Sea, near the Greek coast, as described by Greek philosopher Plato during the 4th century BC. An underwater civilization at the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean, southeast to New York City, later adopts its name.

Circa 4 000 BC: An extraterrestrial family from a planet orbiting a star in the Antares system, consisting of male Klaatu, female Barada and their male offspring Nikto go visiting Earth when Nikto by accident forgets one of his toys. Because of their species' physiology, Nikto is still a toddler when they revisit Earth in 1989 AD.

7th century AD: Space pirate Logos crashes onto Earth in his spacecraft, over a thousand years before the development of New York City.

1583 AD: The Footclan is established in Japan.

17th century AD: An unmanned extraterrestrial spacecraft, with a built-in spacecraft computer, crashes onto Earth, falling under the Manhattan Island not rediscovered until a group of human archaeologists in 1989 first mistake it for an old temple of Earth. After 483 years, it is taken by Baxter Stockman and crashes onto a planet with giant spiders.

17th century AD: The Kojima Brothers of the Kurakuasu Ninja Clan are some of the most fearsome warriors in Edo-period Japan.

Circa 1793 AD: Alim Coelacanth leaves the underwater Atlantis civilization.

1869 AD: After the fall of the Tokugawa Shogunate and the following Meiji Restauration of Japan, the Footclan officially continues more as a Japanese martial arts club. But the ninjutsu moves are still there.

1890 AD: ERK's home-planet crashes, causing him to escape in his spacecraft.

1890 AD: The Octopus exposition is held on the Manhattan Island.

1890 AD: During a 1991 visit to the UK, the turtles, Splinter and April by accident travel back in time to 1890 UK, teaming up with Sherlock Holmes and John Watson in fighting James Moriarty stopping him from taking over the future.

1895 AD: The New York City council adopts a plan for the sewer-system.

1920's: A group of cultists uses an abandoned subway station under the Manhattan Island to open portals to Dimension X.

1939 AD: Burne Thompson born.

Early-1940's AD: The Duchess Diamond of the Netherlands is shown to public display, which will not occur again until the 1990's.

Circa late-1940's to early-1970's AD: Everyday vigilant Gadgetman uses his gadgets to fight everyday crimes on the Manhattan Island, and quickly becomes the hero for young Burne Thompson.

Circa 1961: April O'Neil born. Irma born some years later.

Circa late-1960s and early-1970's AD: In Japan, Oroku Saki challenges Hamato Yoshi in leading the Footclan by pinning a knife getting his kimono towards the wall when a sensei visits, tricking everyone into believing Hamato Yoshi as he removes the knife is about to kill the sensei. Hamato Yoshi is expelled from the Footclan while Oroku Saki turns it into a criminal gang. Dishonoured, Hamato Yoshi leaves Japan for the USA, where he hides in the New York City sewers without habitual residence, with the rats and four turtles, by accident dropped by a boy on his way from the pet shop. One day he finds the turtles covered in mutagen, and touching it he becomes a human-like bipedal rat while the turtles become human-like and bipedal. Hamato Yoshi teaches the turtles Japanese martial arts to defend themselves, gives them unique weapons and bandanas of different colours. He names them Donatello, Leonardo, Michaelangelo and Raphael and they nickname him Splinter. It's later revealed that the mutagen was poured into the sewers by Oroku Saki.

Mondo Gecko is mutated alongside the turtles, unseen by Splinter, and quickly adopted by "Mr. X" to assist his robbers.

Circa late-1960s and early-1970's AD: Krang ends up on Earth, as the Technodrome unnoticed crashes onto a not so populated place on Earth by night.

1970's-1980's AD: Texas millionaire J. Gordon Hungerdunger runs for New York City mayor several times, without success. By the late-1980's, he even tries to buy the entire city, but fails.

Circa 1974-1975 AD: Buffy Shellhammer born. She grows up at the Shellhammer Estate.

Circa 1976 AD: Bebop and Rocksteady go to school for last time, and start skipping lessons playing truancy. Instead, they join street gangs. They later do some time at Stonewall Prison.

Circa 1976 AD: Zach born.

1977 AD: A lawcourt in the USA sentences Mugsy McGuffin to prison, he's paroled in mid-1992.

Circa 1980-1982: Foster Fenwick born.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Mid-June 1987 AD: While investigating a series of crimes, Channel 6 news-reporter is chased by a street gang through the Manhattan Island sewers and is rescued by four mutant turtles. She teams up with them, and after learning Oroku Saki is in the USA, they together defeat Shredder, Krang, Bebop and Rocksteady by sending the Technodrome, with them inside, through the portal from Earth to Dimension X there it lands on a rocky planet. Baxter Stockman is left to the authorities.

Inside the Technodrome are also Bebop and Rocksteady's faction of the street gang deployed by Shredder, who has mutated the punks. Meanwhile Lugnut's faction, with no mutated members, end up on Earth.

Circa 1987-1988 AD: An expedition through Japan led by April's aunt Agatha Marbles digs up the treasure of Nakamura.

Mid-1988 AD: Irma is employed as Channel 6 secretary.

Mid-1988 AD: Shredder returns to Earth, and after a series of misadventures Baxter Stockman, who has been freed by Shredder is sent to the Technodrome in Dimension X, and turned into a fly. Bebop and Rocksteady return to Earth. Shredder, Krang, Bebop and Rocksteady later return the Technodrome to Earth, using the Niagara Falls hydroelectric power station to open a portal. They succeed but the turtles come into the Technodrome and cause it to burrow towards near the lava at the Earth's core. However, late Shredder returns.

June 1988 AD: April celebrates her first anniversary at Channel 6, and Donatello as well as Rocksteady end up zapped by extrateresstrials ito their spacecraft.

July 1988 or 1989?: Shredder, Krang, Bebop and Rocksteady temporary shrink the Sun.

Early-1989 AD: An Impervium diamond is discovered in the Minas Gerais mining districts of Brazil and taken to the Pfeiffer's Jewels shop on the Manhattan Island for Mardi Gras in New York City for the carnival season.

Early-1989 AD: Lydium 90 is discovered in the mines of Malicuria.

Mid-1989 AD: Shredder, Krang, Bebop and Rocksteady return the Technodrome to the surface of the Earth, but the turtles send it to Dimension X. There it crashes onto a giant round orbital space station, and then the Volcanic Asteroid.

Circa-mid 1989-mid 1990: Shredder, Krang, Bebop and Rocksteady plot revenge, and attempt to send Channel 6 to Dimension X. The turtles win a visit to Europe.

May 1990 AD: Donatello earns a degree during the spring-cleaning season.

July 1990-circa March 1991 AD: The turtles and Splinter visit Europe. First thinking they will ride luxurious liner-ship Paradiso, the turtles instead end up travelling across the North Atlantic Ocean-waters inside the small ship Maude, with the turtles suffering from seasickness. Splinter doesn't. A cargo ship carries the Turtlevan and Turtleblimp in giant boxes onboard.

March 1991 AD: During Easter, the turtles team up with the Easter Bunny from a fairytale reality, and time-travel to the future year of 11 November 2036 AD. The Easter Bunny is later returned to his reality.

Mid-1991 AD: Shredder, Krang, Bebop and Rocksteady send the Technodrome from the Volcanic Asteroid to Earth when the turtles and Splinter together with Shredder's brother Kazuo Saki, Tokyo policeman, defeat them and trap the Technodrome in the Arctic.

August 1991 AD: Big Louie steals anti-freeze for Shredder in exchange for the "Star of Hoboken" diamond.

Mid-1992 AD: Krang attempts to free the Technodrome from the Arctic using an artificial satellite's laser, but instead it breaks the ice sending the Technodrome to the Arctic Sea bottom.

31 October 1992 AD: After getting zapped from a ray, Irma gets temporary superhuman abilities for some hours during Halloween.

Mid-1993 AD: Shredder, Krang, Bebop and Rocksteady return the Technodrome to the Manhattan Island before the turtles and Splinter stop them and send the Technodrome to Dimension X, while Shredder, Krang, Bebop and Rocksteady remain on Earth.

Mid-1994 AD: Car thief Otto Wrecker disappears mysteriously.

September-October 1994 AD: On Earth, Shredder, Krang, Bebop and Rocksteady use the 1964–1965 world exposition New York Hall of Science as their new base. Shredder, Krang, Bebop and Rocksteady later get portal access to the Technodrome on Balaraphon, where the Technodrome has ended up after crossing through Dimension X between asteroids and into a black hole, before ending up on Balaraphon. The turtles follow them to Balaraphon and destroy the Technodrome main-engines before returning to Earth.

Mid-1995 AD: The turtles team up with Carter, and both the turtles and Carter undergo unstable mutations. Extraterrestrial warlord Dregg, using his Dreggnaut spacecraft, attacks Earth.

Circa March-April 1996: Following his unstable, mutation, Leonardo wreaks havoc inside the Metropolitan Stadium ice rink in the middle of an icehockey playoff series during a Mighty Clucks homegame.

Mid-1996 AD: After leaving Channel 6 and a time as freelancer, April works for Newspan. Dregg returns Krang and Shredder to Earth, where they remain. Carter goes to the future with Landor and Merrick for mutation reserving. Dregg returns to Earth, and the turtles go through Donatello's portal to the Technodrome on Balaraphon and return the robot earlier used by Krang to Earth. Using Krang's robot, the turtles fight Dregg before sending him through the portal from Earth before it closes. Splinter then tells the turtles they're no longer his students, but equals.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

2014 AD: Known reporter April O'Neil saves the life of a young boy who will later become the father of Krakus.

Circa 2027 AD: April O'Neil rejects retirement for some years, and stays reporter until at least 2037, still making her a TV reporter when the turtles visit the future.

11 November 2036 AD: The turtles from 1991 AD and the Easter Bunny come to the future. Splinter has passed away from old age.

2066 AD: Titanus travels back in time to 1994 AD, before after fighting the turtles ending up in the ages when dionsaurs walked the Earth.

3 June 2728 AD: If still alive, the two extraterrestrial visitors who in the late-1980's AD visited Earth in their spacecraft taking the Japanese sword made of an extraterrestrial metallic element, revisits Earth.

2390 AD: Robot MACC travels back in time to 1988 or 1989 AD, teaming up with the turtles fighting Shredder, Krang, Bebop and Rocksteady before returning to his own time.

4989 AD: If still alive, the extraterrestrial family from a planet orbiting a star in the Antares system which visited Earth in 1988 AD, again revisits Earth.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

17th century AD: On an alternate Earth, where bipedal human-like animals have evolved, samurai rabbit Miyamoto Usagi ends up going through Donatello's portal to a human-dominated Earth around 1988 or 1989 AD, teaming up with the turtles against Shredder.

2015 AD: From an alternate timeline, where Dregg won and defeated the turtles and force humans on Earth to build spacecraft for him, two humans named Landor and Merrick travel back in time to 1995 AD to protect the turtles from what they first think is Carter, as Dregg uses a robot looking like Carter.

[FredWolfLeonardo]

Awesome work! I had alot of fun reading the list and your hardwork is always appreciated

[ToTheNines]

You definitely added too many years passing for the turtles in your Part 2 post. Each season is not necessarily tied to the year of its air dates. I tend to work backwards from the 1991 date given in the second Hokum episode and assume Donatello's Degree was delayed for some reason. Anyways, here's a rough time line:

Season 1 takes place in June
Season 2 is only a few weeks later
Season 3 starts shortly after 2. We see April celebrating her 1 year anniversary at Channel 6, we see Michaelangelo's birthday and several other episodes specifically taking place in Summer. Notably Take me to your leader in July.
Season 4 eventually runs through Easter.
Season 6 eventually runs through November (Halloween in Super Irma).

I don't really recall any specific continuity for seasons 7 and beyond. But the whole show takes place in a span of less than 3 years.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

I say:

Season 1: Takes place during one week in June 1987

Season 2: Starts somewher after, and ends in mid-1988.

Season 3: Starts in mid-1988 and lasts until around August or early-September 1989. The season goes through one carnival season (wich is early during the year, between Christmas and Easter).

Season 4 begins in mid-1989, right after season 3 (the hole in the street since the Technodrome left Earth is still there), and lasts during 1989 and until 1990 (just because you win a vacation doesn't mean you do it directly). Donatello's Degree is in April-May during spring cleaning and the end of the academic year.

Vacation in Europe begins in July 1990 during Bastille Day, and lasts during the northern winter of 1990–1991 , probably ending in March 1991 during early spring.

The Easter episode takes place during Easter 1991

Season 5 takes place in 1991

[ToTheNines]

Well you still have the error of April celebrating one year at Channel 6 in season 3.

Also, your timeline suggests that the guys were like 25 years old during the final season, which seems wrong.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Originally Posted by ToTheNines

Well you still have the error of April celebrating one year at Channel 6 in season 3.

Not if season 3 starts in 1988.

[ToTheNines]

Well the way you have it broken down has it to where April is basically a brand new hire in season 1. Not impossible, but I never got that vibe. Seemed more like she'd been there a while.

Could be fixed by shortening your season 2 span. I never got the feeling that it spanned that much time.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

How about this? (continuing after what I wrote following "I say:")

*Seasons 5, 6-7 also all take place in mid-1991 and into November that year (we never saw the Technodrome surrounded by dark skies in the Arctic, and in the Arctic it's very dark even by daytime during winter).
*Season 8 takes place in 1992 (Krang says the 1964–1965 world expedition was almost 30 years ago.
*Season 9 takes place in 1993
*Season 10 takes place in 1994 (the turtles two years travel back in time)

Ending with the turtles being around 22.

[ABrown]

I assume that from the first episode through the final episode, it was not supposed to have been 10 years. I can see it maybe having been a few years, but definitely not 10.

[ToTheNines]

Originally Posted by Original TMNT Cartoon Fan

How about this? (continuing after what I wrote following "I say:")

*Seasons 5, 6-7 also all take place in mid-1991 and into November that year (we never saw the Technodrome surrounded by dark skies in the Arctic, and in the Arctic it's very dark even by daytime during winter).
*Season 8 takes place in 1992 (Krang says the 1964–1965 world expedition was almost 30 years ago.
*Season 9 takes place in 1993
*Season 10 takes place in 1994 (the turtles two years travel back in time)

Ending with the turtles being around 22.

Well season 7 is the year after season 6, since Super Irma/Halloween is fairly early in the season. Even if you played with the episode order, I don't think all of 7 can fit in one month. Then season 8 picks up not long at all after 7.

Originally Posted by ABrown

I assume that from the first episode through the final episode, it was not supposed to have been 10 years. I can see it maybe having been a few years, but definitely not 10.

Yeah, me personally I see seasons 1-4 as roughly one year, 5-8 as roughly another full year, and then whatever they were doing for 9 & 10. It's hard for me to pay attention during Red Sky.

[pferreira]

I like what you've done here. I kind of wish though we got the FW episode order sorted out. A shame the original user doesn't visit any more.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

TMNT Entity has a timeline attempt. It has no year, but mostly focuses on episode orders.

http://tmntentity.blogspot.se/2016/0...tles-1987.html

[pferreira]

Originally Posted by Original TMNT Cartoon Fan

TMNT Entity has a timeline attempt. It has no year, but mostly focuses on episode orders.

http://tmntentity.blogspot.se/2016/0...tles-1987.html

It's good but I remember disagreeing with some of his episode orders because Mark's done it without anybodies help. He should have collaborated with us fans here.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Can this be placed as a sticky thread? Same with this below:

http://forums.thetechnodrome.com/showthread.php?t=58621