My Crazy Youth: The Time That The Ninja Turtles Teamed Up With Themselves (and Other Season 10 Adventures)

I still have a little bit more to say about this final Season.  I might as well milk as much content as I can out of my $1 purchase!

In 1996, we got the final Season of TMNT.  It was weird.  How weird?  Let me tell you...

Lord Dregg is the main Villain (carried over from Season 9).  He's a generic Space Tyrant with gadgets and the like.

Here's a recurring thing I hate from this Season- the Fake Out.

- Episode 1 begins with a big battle...only for it to be a VR Simulation.
- In another Episode, it begins with Michelangelo chased by Monsters...but it's a dream.
- Lord Dregg shows off his evil plan- to teleport parts of the Sun into the middle of cities- with a simulation!
- Another Episode begins In Media Res with a Turtles fight against Dregg...which is him watching a previous battle.  Is this Stock Footage from Season 9?
- Finally, it comes around when they use the same simulation footage- how did they know about it?!?- to trick Dregg into thinking his Sun-based plan worked.

Another thing that goes on too many times- transformations.  The 'Turtles are mutating again' thing seemed to end with Season 9, but comes back for the first 3 Episodes of Season 10.

They eventually cure the Turtles and their buddy- seen on the right.  More on him later.

Shredder and Krang show up for the big 4-Part Story that should have been the finale.  They don't get to do nearly enough and are literally gone between 'camera' changes in the final part.

Said 4-Part Story involves the Turtles fighting Dregg, him stealing their 'life essence' and their friend doing the only logical thing- contacting some Future Folk to bring older Turtles back to help.

Again- how is this NOT the Finale?!?

As for their buddy, he goes from being 'I can't be a Hero without powers' to 'I should go to College' to 'I'll just go to the Future with these guys.  Bye Forever!'

Bear in mind, this follows a ticking-clock scenario where the Past Turtles must return or destroy the Timeline.  Logic!

To highlight how anti-climactic the actual finale- covered already- is, let me tell you what the semi-final Episode involves- the Earth nearly being pulled into a Black Hole!

So yeah, this Show may have gone off the deep end.  Speaking of ends, here it is.  The End.

A dumb, silly time.  The quality is mixed here.  On one hand, they cheat ALOT (as mentioned) to create Drama.  The Plots are just all kinds of silly.  There is some real creativity shown in them, however, so I can't fault them for trying in that regard.  Dregg also has the power to make continuity loose as they are kicked out of a Nuclear Power Plant in Episode 2 and then just 'settled in' for Episode 3.  Another thing that they seem to have a problem with is stakes and keeping them.  Dregg is defeated and sent to Dimension X in the big Story.  After that, he's immediately back and can just teleport here with ease.  Later on, his ship is seemingly destroyed by the Black Hole...and he's just fine in the Finale.  That's what really hurts the Finale- closure.  Why should I believe that he's dead or defeated this time?  The Show can be fun when it gets out of its own way.  Seeing the Turtles team up to fight Aliens is fun.  The feel of the Show is unique- it's just not a TMNT Show anymore.  All in all, Season 10 is a glorious, silly mess.  As a bonus, it may have inspired Farscape...

Damn strange to see a Show completely change from the way you remember it.  It would be like if G.I. Joe suddenly fought Mutants...oh, right.