OT ep: What's Michaelangelo good for? (Pigeon Pete's cameo)
 

I want to discuss the episode where Nick apparently derived the mutant character Pigeon Pete from in the new show. As you know this is the episode where Mike has a pet pigeon named Pete. Somehow someone at Nick must have been fond of this episode to pluck such an obscure "character" from the middle of Season 4 and make it into a mutant.

Anyway I think this is one of the better, "mad scientist" episodes of Season 4. What I love most is of course the title, "What's Michaelangelo good for?" Its an excellent episode where Mike has to prove his worth to the team as the other Turtles are captured and Splinter tells him to go on his own to rescue them. I love how he has to travel through a mindfield of lilipads, get attacked by robots and use his own skills to find the secret lair of the villain.

This episode also features the first major African American female of the show, Doctor Goodfellow. I really liked her character and I wish she appeared in more episodes. I wonder if there was something significant of her being the first black female with a major role in the show.

The mad scientist in this episode reminded me of Hugo Strange from Batman, and I liked the way he was genetically splicing different animals together. This episode had fantastic animation and the huge fight scene with Donatello using a laser projectile to destroy a bunch of robots was fantastic.

This episode is one of the best mad scientist episode of the series, and proves you could do one of those episodes right. (My other favorite one of the season was the one with Prof. Sopho).

She can't have been the first African American in the show if you count ordinary people on the street?

She was the first actual character though, not a background pedestrian.

I always liked this episode. It's really great character development for Mike, as well. Most of the time, he's laid back and go with the flow, but this episode really shows how insecure he feels. He feels like he doesn't really have any special talent to bring to the group, and in this episode he got to save the day!

I liked this episode. When I first heard about Pete in the Nick show, it immediately reminded me of Pete in What's Michaelangelo Good For. It was funny how Goodfellow heard Splinter talk in Michaelangelo's head.

I find it amusing how many wise cracks Don made while being held captive too.

Leonardo was the straight man in that series, not Donatello.

I liked the one he made when he pretended to be a game show host and said to the bad guys they won an all expense paid trip to the slammer.

"Let's tell them what they won, Mike" Only one of the two times Mike wasn't called Michelangelo on this show.

So am I the only one who thinks doctor Goodfellow should have made another appearance?

I think she was the only major African American female in the entire show.

She wasn't. There was also Merrick the time traveler.

Was the other time in Usagi Yojimbo? I remember him being called Mikey.

Yes, it was :)

Just a few corrections: Carter was also African American.

The exchange (one of the best in the series) went like this:

Dr. Leseau: Voila!! Enter: my victorious robots!!
Michaelangelo: Wrong answer, dude!! You SHOULD'VE picked door number THREE!
Dr. Leseau: Aw, the FOURTH Turtle!
Michaelangelo: No duh! Tell that man what he's won, Donatello!!
Donatello: Right, Mike!! An all expense paid vacation to the penitentiary of your choice, for the next two years or 240 months!! Whichever comes sooner!

:D

Those zoo animals could have been mutated for the other street punks that Shredder had in Season 1 since it could have been the same zoo where the Rhino and Warthog came from. But it does feel silly for there to be an island inside a big lake that's presumably in Central Park. But the thought of having an animal with the best traits of all animals combined is an interesting experiment idea where certain DNA/genes may result in organisms that are smarter than humans.