Classic Episode Discussion: Landlord of the Flies
 

-Baxter's fifth of six appearances as a mutant fly was written by Gordon Bresseck. He also wrote what I refer to as the first goofy episode Burne's Blues and recently passed away. Continuity of his appearances here causes issue.
-Season 2-4 writer Michael Reeves or David Wise wrote all other Baxter Stockman appearances.
-For an unknown period before the episode began a plague of flies has been pesting New York City.
-Bebop and Rocksteady are sent to rob an electronics store on their own. It does not explain how Baxter is able to control flies. It would be nice to have some sort of explanation like Rat King's flute or mind control.
-Baxter takes the module from Bebop and Rocksteady to attempt to chaos chaos in the Technodrome.
-Sure, annoy with a horde of flies, but defeat them? I like how Shredder jump kicks his way over to the control panel.:lol:
-Anti-matter platter? Krang uses Baxter instead of him wanting to get revenge on both the Turtles and Shredder. Different. Baxter responses to Krang taking over Baxter's plan with "Does a fly like garbage?".:lol:
-Showing scenes around the city of the fly invasion a voice from a random citizen by Cam Clarke goes, "waiter, there is a fly in my soup!" Just one?:lol: You then see the flies somehow destroy the whole restaurant.
-Baxter calls himself the landlord of the flies as he addresses the television audience and reveals himself.
-Bug puns, the turtles go on the offensive as a SWAT team among others. Baseball puns too! I appreciate this humor as an adult. Maybe this cartoon is why subconsciously.
-Bebop and Rocksteady show up to help Baxter so they can become human gain too. I thought they preferred being mutants to humans? That part did not make sense, but could be a side effect of this being the writer's second of only two episodes. Also, why the continuity is of issue.
"Fire at will!"-Baxter "Which one's,Will-Bebop?" Wasn't that joke in an earlier episode?
"Never mind, just fire at all of them!"-Baxter "No your talking!Haha"-Rocksteady. They cause a pile up of vehicles on top of the turtles!
-A 4th wall break by Donatello.
-The three are all shown to be tough even if not bright.
-Final battle takes place in a baseball stadium. Is it meant to be Shea Stadium or Yankee stadium?
-How did April break into the press box? Did she happen to have a hair pin in her purse?
-The Shredder took off before they were defeated!
-The solution is to send Baxter to another dimension. Either demutate him or send him to the freaking Phantom Zone!
-Episode is resolved too quickly. Its like Bresseck realized it was going to long and had to finish it quickly.

I thought it was funny when the turtles said the law of gravity is a law bebop and rocksteady can’t actually break!

When Baxter said “Crush them, smash them, anyway you want to”, I wonder was that a reference to a 60’s or something song that goes “Shake me, shake me, anyway you want”?

It was cool to learn that baseball stadiums have their own power generators and don’t need the power plant’s power. Do other places do that also? Just curious.

I think usually, hospitals have them.

Fun episode, but it has a major continuity error, as was noted: absence of Z.
And I think there is a major animation good, where module on the stadium doesn't have insides and it looks like there is just grey background in its open hatch.

Yes, I noted the only law they can't break in expressing my love of the dialogue. I do not believe the dialogue is as good in other TMNT shows. It just hits my humor preferences so perfectly. Though I do wonder if this show actually shaped my humor preferences.

There are obscure references, but I don't know about the song reference. The song in question is Bend Me, Shake Me a pop rock song from 1968.

This:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kM-y1a1oeCo

Yeah, that is the song,but I did know who performed it. It is a different band that performs it on retro hits, I looked it up, The American Breed. One-hit wonders I believe.

Outsiders
 

The Outsiders first recorded it in 1966 for their album In, released in January 1967

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bend_Me,_Shape_Me

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_(The_Outsiders_album)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZU_639WNXs

FW series dialogue was peppered with references like this, I think.

There is a theme on this forum which was trying to gather all references throughout the FW series and there were a lot of references to the pop music and some other obscure stuff, which most likely would fly over the head of the young viewers.

American Breed's version of the song is just the one I know.

I don't remember said thread. It makes it even stranger that Rat King would cite Mickey Mouse as a role model in Return of the Fly instead of a rat even if we don't know who Templeton or Rizzo are.

Are there any theories about how Baxter Stockman was able to control billions of flies?

His ability to control flies was probably either a power granted to him by Mutation, or something that Baxter managed to figure out the secret to since he has shown genius level intelligence even as a Fly.

The weakest Baxter-Fly ep but still a fun watch.

I thought it was funny when Raph said “Come into our parlor, said the turtles to the flies” and Don said “We’ve gone past the age of miracles.”

Way too many plotholes in this episode.

-How did Baxter get back to Earth?
-Baxter's intelligence was very limited in his previous appearance, but now he's smart enough to control flies? Maybe we were supposed to believe that Z's intelligence transferred to Baxter through the chip?
-why is Baxter all of a sudden OK with working for Shredder again? We had already established that he would never do that again.
-the flies on the loose (or in the latter case termites) plot was recycled in the very same season with "Michaelangelo Meets Bugman Again", not to mention the very next episode in airing order with "Donatello's Duplicate" involving another rat invasion. Yikes!!

The rest has already been established. When doing a "Fly" marathon, I usually skip this episode.

Those plotholes kinda bugged me too (no pun intended). It’s best to just go with it and treat this ep as non-canon, as “Revenge of the Fly” ignores it completely.

Didn't Shredder tell Baxter Stockman from the beginning of the episode that if he captured the turtles, he would turn him Human again?

Yes but at the end, he betrayed him and said deals are made to be broken, just like the wings of a fly. Also back in Return of the Fly, Baxter mentioned how Shredder fooled him last time and Shredder asks later if he ever broke his word before and Bebop started saying yes before Shredder covered his mouth saying he didn’t ask him. I wouldn’t blame Baxter for not trusting Shredder.

Maybe the Technodrome portal malfunctioned, and Krang by accident brought Baxter Stockman to Earth?

Maybe Baxter found a way to teleport to Earth but could only transport one being.