Classic Episode Discussion: The Mean Machines
 

Alright nothing was happening in the ep 8 discussion so I figured we maswell start this one. I thought The Mean Machines was a cool ep, as usual Krang was harassing Shredder about how there was no way he was going to pull off his goal while Shredder is overconfident. Not to mention it's always great to see the heroes doing more damage than the villians which was greatly shown in this episode.
Krang: "It's been several hours and no word Shredder, care to explain why?"
Shredder: "Sorry, something must be wrong with the transdimensional linkup I'll explain it to you later."
Baxter: "Master I could've fixed it."
Shredder: "Baxter... shut up!"

Man, I used to love watching this episode! My favorite scene had to be in the construction site when they fought off those cranes and bulldozers and whatnot. Dontcha just love that battle music they played?

DK, you do realize I'll have to kill you now for taking over my dominion of ep discussions ;)

Anyway...

*COUGH*

its a good episode.
 

i watched this episode this morning to remember it. this is one of the few episodes i have on tape, but now i have 190 eps + on cd, so i watches it. i love the old episodes, and i like the part at the construction company the most too.

I also like the end of the episode that OMNUS is stopped simply by April un-plugging the computer :lol:
Donatello: "April! Do you know what happend to the computer?"
April: "Of course I do.... I just un-plugged it."
Raphael: "I like it... simple but effective."

Re: its a good episode.
 

OH MY GOD!!!! WHERE DID YOU GET 190 EPS? GOD, I'M LOOKING FOR THEM ALL OVER THE WORLD.
I HAVE ONLY 70 :(

You never pay attention to the posts by the local IRC advocates (like myself) on here, do you? ;)

I never really liked this episode. I dunno why, just wasn't my cup o' tea.

This was a preety good episode, it had the escelating tension between baxter and Shredder which was nice. The action was okay, the "countdown" ending was a nice touch...

Just watched it and great episode, heres my favorite quote:

Raphael after Donatello short circuted the turtle van so it wouldnt crash...
"Whats the panic we had a whole three inches to spare!"

Loved the fight with the cleaning appliances

Michelangelo - "we really wiped the floor with those floor wipers."

I've got this episode - I think it's cool - yeah, I love the music played when they're against the machines, buldozers and stuff

-->>http://www.plumed-serpent.com/ddscrapper.jpg

..relatives of yours??

I used to have this episode....the construction part was pretty funny. :lol:

so how did you get all of those eps. plz tell

I get mine from Kazaa

It's funny how April can just crawl behind the machine at the end and cut the power simply by pullin the plug out. And how Shredder orders the A.I to destroy the turtles so many times, and it thinks it can just send three or four little kitchen machines to finish them, haha ...

PM Karpo_007...I'm sure he'll have all the info for you, and it's a lot better and safer (in terms of not getting caught, I mean) than Kazaa, IMO ;)

Is that a transformer?

Anybody noticed what a pushover Baxter was in this episode(and during this 4 parter for that matter)? Was there really any clear indications that Baxter didn't have any choice in the matter of dealing with Shredder?

Well, if Baxter Stockman refused to continute work together with Shredder, you can just argue that Shredder would easy use his armor or sword to slice, or at least thhreat, Baxter Stockman into pieces once for all. Just stuff we don't see in a children/family-friendly show. :)

Baxter actually did betray the Shredder in the very next episode: Curse of the Evil Eye.

I like how Baxter kept doubting OMNUS and all the things he can do. I felt sorry for April when they were 70 floors up that building and she had to climb onto the turtles.

I don't know why I find this episode so entertaining--it's almost exactly like the Transformers episode "Day of the Machines", which was also boring. I guess the whole "evil computer with Master Control Program from Tron face" was a "thing" in 80's cartoons.

Regarding Baxter, well, you could ask why any henchman of any Evil Organization would bother to follow when they get kicked around so often, and the only answer is that it's a convention of a show like this.

That being said, it's easy to imagine that Baxter's got no place else to go: nobody would want to hire a scientist that's been in the pokey and also has gone crazy. Therefore, he sticks around as a henchman.

Also, I love what a prissy twit Baxter is regarding that computer, which is doubly funny when you remember a computer ends up being his friend later in the run.

Holy!! Almost 10 years since this thread first started!! Before the shows started being released on DVD too!! :)

I'm surprised Shredder and Baxter got along so well after the betrayal (for one episode anyways). Shredder is a pushover. :p

This was a neat episode with a supercomputer using the fragment to control machines and being able to open a portal to Dimension X. This was the best Shredder/Baxter episode of their short partnership.

Mean Machines was one of the first episodes of the series that I was able to watch while in college (that I hadn't owned on VHS for 15 years at that point). It was one that I didn't remember ever having seen as a kid, so it was a bit of a revelation to me.

It featured quite a bit more action than some of the slapstick heavy episodes of later seasons. It certainly wet my appetite to get back into the old TMNT cartoon. And I was very happy when the DVDs starting coming out so that I could finally see what I had been missing.

That one scene where we see Krang for the first time in this episode was really cool. We see the Drome in Dimension X, then we cut inside to see him just sitting around in his Android body, and all the while his theme music plays in the background for a few seconds before he finally opens his mouth. Really small bit of cinematography, but I've always liked it.

Baxter did say 'Don't go away, I'll come with you.' and Shredder replied agitatedly 'Alright, just don't nagg'.

This makes me uncertain about Baxters liberty in the matter.

I know Baxter turns against Shredder in Eye of Sarnoth, it seems his line 'correction i will possess the eye of sarnoth, you will get lunch.', was the final straw for how much he was willing to put up with Shredders insults.

Doesn't Shredder tell Baxter to stay downwind 'cause Baxter's been digging in garbage for a piece of the Eye?

Way I see it, it's not a matter of a methodically planned escalation on the part of the writers, so much as deciding, "Okay, in *that* episode Baxter is going to betray the Shredder". There's not really any one thing that stands out as the final straw, just a bunch of episodes with the same thing, all building up.

Likewise, there's no real reason for him to still stay as Shredder's henchman afterwards, at least none that makes sense in-universe.

If you ask why it took so long for him to act, it's because Baxter is a coward. But he's a coward with an ego, so you bear down on him long enough...

Oh, another thing I noticed about this episode that I don't think about often: how weirdly advanced the public technology in this show sometimes is. Important for creating plot devices, but it's junk you never think about until you're really bored.

Considering a large chunk of episodes introduces some type of intelligent robot character, of course the technology was somewhat advanced but retro 80's at the same time.

It was funny actually. The Turtles would rent movies on VHS tape and you'd see old 80's and early 90's technology....yet you'd also see advanced robot AI and laser guns and hi-tech sci-fi stuff in the same episodes.

Kinda like the Jetsons... using the year 3000 version of 60's or 70's technology. Honestly, if it was the future (and the writers had an uncanny amount of foresight) where are all the flash drives and i-pads?

I love when OMNSS takes control of the Turtle Van.

Who's OMNSS?

That computer the fragment was hooked up to, the one with the blue face.

With an artificial intelligence.

Its also interesting as the typical music cue that precedes a commercial break plays three times in this episode without actually cutting. And even though April says that the Turtles are 70 stories above ground, the way its animated makes it feel more like seven or eight stories. April plays an important role in unplugging the machines, and is probably the biggest cliffhanger of the entire season with just one fragment missing. And O.M.N.S.S. stands for Omnipotent Multi-process Nexus Subuniversal Sentient. In away, this seems to be the follow-up to "A Thing About Rats", since they both involve a master control that gets shut down and a seemingly endless supply of robotic objects. It was also the first and only time in which the Turtlevan's control was affected by some outside source.

I always liked everything, the bank robbers, the machines and the computer taking over the Turtle Van. Awesome episode.