#cyber turtles

At the Hall of Science, Bebop and Rocksteady mount the Astro-Viewer on the roof. Krang explains to Shredder that he intends to modify the stolen device, turning it into a makeshift dimensional portal. While testing the equipment, they spot an incoming spaceship from which they receive a transmission. At the helm is Commander Korak from the Glaxxon Federation.  His team, we learn, have recently defeated their enemies after a prolonged war, and taken possession of an item called the Firestar, which will make his people “the undisputed masters of the universe”. 

Krang explains to Shredder that the Firestar is a legendary crystalline fragment as old as the universe, which supposedly contains “the power of a thousand suns”. Naturally the alien brain wants this Macguffin for himself, and uses equipment installed within the Hall of Science (possibly by Drakus) to shoot the ship down.

The Turtles spot the ship descending and rush to the scene of the crash landing, but Shredder gets there first, arriving with Rocksteady and Bebop. Shreds using a paralysing device to freeze the Glaxxons, and wastes little time in escaping with the Firestar. Time passes as the Turtles, accompanied by April, arrive on the scene to find the same tell-tale tracks from the Space Center raid near the ship. They make their way inside just as the crew snap out of their paralysis, and the Glaxxons, determining that the Firestar has been stolen, naturally assume the Turtles are responsible.

Act two opens with the aliens opening fire upon the Turtles. Our heroes are soon captured and plead their innocence, pointing out that not only do they not have the Firestar, they were only examining the ship to make sure no-one was hurt. Korak informs the Turtles that the Glaxxons are a war-like people who don’t make friends, and heads off with his men to recover their stolen property. Watching the visitors leave their ship, April figures the Turtles are in trouble, and leaves to get help.

Krang explains his new Scheme of the Day to Shredder: rather than just opening a portal to Dimension X as he had originally intended, with the use of the Firestar he can destroy the barrier between Earth and his home world entirely. Shreds points out that the Glaxxons will surely come looking for the stolen item, but Krang has thought of that too, implementing a cloaking device left behind by Berserko / Drakus to stop the Firestar from being tracked. This works as intended, with the next scene showing Korak frustrated at being unable to locate the device. Vowing to destroy the whole world if he must to get it back, he orders his men to retrieve the equipment they need to carry out such a task: the Cyber Suits.

April continues to watch these events unfold from afar, and is soon joined by the help she required as Casey Jones returns to the show, last seen in season seven’s “Night of the Rogues”. The vigilante is eager to confront the aliens head-on but April explains they need to retrieve the Firestar to put an end to the conflict.

From their jail cell within the ship, the Turtles look outside and see the Glaxxons don their Cyber Suits, which transform them into outlandish cyborgs that tower over the city. Seeing the threat the aliens pose, our heroes look for a means of escaping. Donatello uses his “D” belt buckle as a reflective device to knock out the energy beams restraining them. Finding a set of spare Cyber Suits nearby, Leonardo orders the rest of the team to join him in donning the armour.

As the Glaxxons flatten cars and destroy buildings in their search for the Firestar, the Turtles themselves are transformed into brightly-coloured cyber warriors, each with their initial emblazoned across their midsections for reasons of viewer identification (and also because these are pre-existing action figure designs, but we’ll come back to that). Each member of the team remains their normal size within their respective suit, piloting it by flailing their arms and legs around as it they were playing a Kinect game. After figuring out how to move around, the Turtles track down the alien invaders and a battle begins. With Krang about to begin the process of merging Earth with Dimension X, the green teens take a beating at the hands of the more experienced Glaxxons as act two concludes.

Emerging from a pile of rubble, the Turtles remark among themselves that they remained unhurt thanks to the Cyber Suits. Meanwhile April and Casey arrive outside the Hall of Science to witness Krang beginning to meld Earth with his home dimension. Learning via Turtlecom of what’s transpiring, the Turtles split up, with Leo and Mikey leaving to stop Krang while Donnie and Raph tackle the Glaxxons.

While April and Casey sneak into the Hall of Science, Raphael and Donatello do battle with the alien warriors. They remain at a disadvantage throughout, with Donnie trying frantically to figure out how to activate the weapons systems installed within the Cyber Suits.

Krang makes contact with his army of Rock Warriors – for some reason, since “Shredder Triumphant!” last season they’ve been renamed and are no longer referred to as Rock Soldiers – but soon learns intruders are present on the roof. It’s April and Casey, who have used a makeshift zipline from the dilapidated sphere left behind from the World’s Fair to land on the roof of the Hall of Science. Shredder soon arrives to confront them, accompanied by Rocksteady and Bebop. Suddenly the vigilante and Shreds are going at it in a sword fight: by now we’re used to Shredder pulling a sword out of nowhere but since when did Casey carry one?

Michaelangelo and Leonardo arrive to turn the tide of battle, with Mikey clutching the three villains in his hand while Leo pushes the fleet of Rock Sol—uh, Warriors back through the dimensional rift. This provides April and Casey with an opportunity to sneak downstairs into the Hall of Science.

Krang uses the same roof-mounted laser that took out the Glaxxon spaceship earlier to knock Michaelangelo off the roof, de-activating his Cyber Suit in the process. Meanwhile Donnie and Raph are cornered, still with no means of fighting back, until they overhear one of the invaders mention “triangle fire”. Pressing a red triangle on the Cyber Suits, the two Turtles use the advanced weaponry previously concealed within the armour to fight back. Soon the Glaxxons are relieved of their suits, defeated in battle.

Leonardo continues struggling to hold Krang’s army back as Casey and April defeat the alien brain, retrieving the Firestar. As they attempt to escape they’re again confronted by Shredder, but Leo uses his Cyber Suit to fish them out of danger, the dimensional rift now closed.

The Turtles take the Glaxxons back to their ship, where a humbled Korak concedes that they lost in battle, adding that “by the ancient laws of war you may dispatch us as you see fit”. Our heroes, of course, have no intention of hurting the visitors, and explain all of this was merely a misunderstanding, but the Firestar needs to be destroyed for the safety of the universe. Korak declares this can only be done by taking it to the core of the galaxy, where it can be “incinerated in the heat of a million suns”. He vows to do so with his men as a means of making up for all the trouble they’ve caused through the years; the Turtles agree to help fix the Glaxxon spaceship so they can begin their journey.

Later, in the Lair, the Turtles view a transmission from Korak where he thanks the team as he says goodbye. To the bafflement of our heroes Master Splinter remains worried, because this is the Red Sky era and we can’t end on a happy note anymore. He tells his students that “since time began, war-like people have sought ultimate power,” adding that any number of alien races could try and take the Firestar for themselves before it can be destroyed, and if that turns out to the case, the Turtles may encounter the Glaxxons again in the future.  

After three episodes devoted to proving anything the X-Men could do, the Turtles could too, “Cyber-Turtles” sees attention turn to combatting the threat posed by the nascent Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers (see the Turtlethon entry for “Get Shredder!” for an analysis of TMNT’s newfound inferiority complex upon finding itself in MMPR’s shadow). Little attempt is made to hide what’s going on here, as the Turtles pilot giant mecha-like suits, stomping around and taking out entire buildings during battle in a blatant mimicking of the Megazord sequences so prominent in the competing series. All of this was part of a multi-pronged effort to promote the Cyber Samurai line of Turtles action figures produced by Playmates Toys, but given that 1994 and 1995 saw a glut of toys from similar competing properties flood the market – including Superhuman Samurai Syber Squad, a line sold in the US by Playmates themselves – it's hard to imagine any of this did much to help revitalise the image of the Turtles.

These considerations weigh heavily upon this episode, which more than most Turtles adventures openly acts as an advertisement for toys while also giving over a significant amount of screen time to the fight sequences which showcase them. In doing so, it leans into season eight’s tendency to prioritise action above everything else, something that’s fun for a while but ultimately becomes tiring, especially if you’re an adult watching these adventures back to back. Beyond a certain point, it all becomes an endless parade of fight scenes, and I’m concerned that the show is more interested now in putting up a tough front as a means of winning back viewers than it is in telling compelling stories.

Casey Jones, a prominent figure in many other incarnations of TMNT, never really got a fair shake from the 1987 series, doomed to be a one-dimensional angry vigilante character in a show where so often the need for the Turtles to take centre stage all the time has a tendency to rob the supporting players of any opportunity to develop. He debuted mid-way through season three in his spotlight episode, “Casey Jones – Outlaw Hero”, and was fortunate enough to get a follow-up showing – something not typically afforded to guest characters  – in “Corporate Raiders from Dimension X” a few episodes later. Two further appearances followed, in season five’s “Leonardo Cuts Loose” and season seven’s “Night of the Rogues”, but by then there was a definite sense of the Law of Diminishing Returns taking effect. Like the Rat King, each of the later Casey cameos has felt less exciting than the one that preceded it, so perhaps it’s for the best that this marks the point where we wish him a fond farewell.