TURTLE TRACKS

01PLOT

As dusk falls in New York City, news reporter April O'Neil is broadcasting for Channel 6 News about crime waves. She has an assignment to deliver a news report on mysterious thefts of high-tech scientific equipment from various laboratories across the city. During the investigation, she learns that the thieves are ninjas. She goes with her film crew to stake out a scientific laboratory that she believes to be the site of a potential destination ... only to be seized by a street gang. April's film crew panics and takes off. April makes a run for it and slips into the sewers and is chased by the thug mob under the streets of New York City through an intricate maze of sewer tunnels.

Down in the sewers, April hit a dead end and was cornered by the street gang members. They prepare to attack April, when four big talking turtles arrive and help April by defeating the street gang members.

The Turtles bring April back to see their lair where she meets a giant talking rat, who tells April who they are.

!Saki was up to no good, Started making trouble in Yoshi's neighborhood.

Saki was up to no good, Started making trouble in Yoshi's neighborhood.

In Japan, there was a ninja clan known as the Foot, led by a man named Hamato Yoshi. Hamato Yoshi liked art. One of his pupils, Oroku Saki, planned to take over the leadership of the Foot Clan. One day, a master sensei visited the Foot Clan's dojo. The Foot Clan members sat near a wall to bow for the sensei, when Oroku Saki used a knife to pin Hamato Yoshi's clothes in the wall. To bow for the sensei, Hamato Yoshi now first had to remove the knife, which caused the others to think that he was trying to kill the sensei. He was banished from the Foot Clan and fled to the United States in disgrace.

Penniless, Hamato Yoshi lived in the New York City sewer system, where his only friends were the rats. One day, a small child was walking on a street with a bowl with four turtles. The boy accidentally tripped and fell, causing the bowl to crash on the street and the turtles to fall into the sewers. Hamato Yoshi made the turtles his new friends.

Meanwhile, back in Japan, the Foot Clan became a criminal army led by Oroku Saki.

Back in the USA, Hamato Yoshi one day found the turtles covered in "goo", which was a powerful "mutagen" that "caused whoever touched it to take on the form of whatever animal they had most recently been in contact with." The turtles become humanized turtles, because of their recent contact with Hamato Yoshi, who had tried to clean them up. Hamato Yoshi was transformed into a rat because of his recent contact with the rats. When the rat says this, April realizes that the rat is Hamato Yoshi.

Hamato Yoshi tells April how they got their names. The Turtles gave Hamato Yoshi the nickname "Splinter" because of his ability to splinter wooden boards, and Splinter gave the Turtles names of his four favorite Renaissance painters: Donatello, Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael. Knowing the outside world would consider them freaks, he trained them in the ancient art of Ninjutsu. Together, Splinter called them the _Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles._

Leonardo decided one day to find the person responsible for Splinter's mutation and force the responsible person to turn Splinter human again.

For a short while, April believes that the Turtles are the thieves, leading the Turtles to force April to stay in the sewers throughout the next day, causing her to miss work. However, the Turtles and April strike a deal. The Turtles will let April go and help her find the real thieves and get her story, while April will help them find a cure for Splinter's condition and not tell the world about the Turtles.

The Turtles and April walk up on the city streets with a matchbook that was left behind at the fight between the Turtles and the street gang members. When an old woman with a rifle notices the Turtles, April goes to a clothes store and buys trenchcoats and fedoras so the Turtles can disguise themselves as humans. Then they go to a "Ninja Pizzeria," in order to learn more about the thefts. While the Turtles eat pizza, April scouts the neighborhood and finds a building with a sign attached to it that says "Manhattan Security Services". April enters the lobby and hears the receptionist dispatch a "security team" to another scientific equipment lab that is "just waiting to be cleaned out." April goes to a nearby telephone booth and calls Channel 6 to tell them she found the thieves, only to be abducted.

Meanwhile, the Turtles start worrying about April and go out in search for her. They find her wallet and her press pass. They also see her purse hanging on the roof of an abandoned tenement building. The Turtles rush towards the top of the building, where April is tied to a chair. The Turtles are attacked by a group of "ninjas", but they soon learn that the "ninjas" are robots.

Oroku Saki, who watches the scene via remote controlled cameras, recognizes the fighting style of the Turtles, which is the Foot Clan's techniques. Oroku Saki wonders if Hamato Yoshi is still alive.

The Turtles destroy the robots, save April and chase the robots over to the roof of the nearby building, which is Manhattan Security Services. The robots escape, and April and the Turtles are watched by Oroku Saki via his closed circuit camera system. Now, more than ever, he is convinced that the Turtles have been trained by Hamato Yoshi. Oroku Saki calls back his "Foot Soldiers" to retreat to the Technodrome, but first they flood the building by activating the fire sprinkler. April and the Turtles run to the rooftop of the building as the water inside the building gets higher and higher. They escape from the rooftop just before the building explodes from the water pressure.

Back down in the Turtles' sewer lair, Splinter watches the uniform of one of the robotic ninjas. After studying it, Splinter is convinced that it is the uniform of the Foot Clan and that his old enemy, Oroku Saki, is still alive and also nearby. In the end, April loosens up around her new friends enough to try a slice of Banana and Sausage Pizza.

02CAST & APPEARANCES

03OBJECTS, VEHICLES & PLACES

04SCREEN GRABS

9 frames. Screencaps via Turtlepedia (CC BY-SA).

05MEMORABLE QUOTES

Raphael: Who had the pepperoni and ice-cream?

Donatello: I want some of the jelly beans and mushrooms.

Michelangelo: Yeah, get me a slice of anchovies and peanut butter!

April O'Neil: This is seriously grossing me out!

Donatello: How can _you_ eat raw fish? Blech!

Burne: Where the devil is April? She's been gone almost a day!

Vernon: Well, it's not like she was irreplaceable, or anything.

Burne: Look at THAT. Another hi-tech warehouse hit last night! This story's heating up, and I have to lose my second-best reporter!

Vernon: April _wasn't_ your second best reporter.

_[The Turtles are searching for clues for the secret hideout of the punks who tackled April.]_

Michelangelo: Were not going to find anything here.

Donatello: (after picking up a clue): Ninja Pizza?

06TRIVIA

• Despite contributing nothing to the series beyond a few early ideas, Patti Howeth (David Wise's then-wife) was credited as co-writer on all of the first five episodes, due to the Writers' Guild requiring that all contributing writers be credited.
• Splinter does a title drop when he introduces the Turtles to April. Something very rarely used again after this episode (mostly they're referred to as "the Turtles" or "the Ninja Turtles").
• At the pizza parlor, the Turtles had ordered three whipped cream pizzas, and one sashimi pizza. Raphael was the Turtle who ordered that last one.
• The Turtles have been apparently trained not to bring harm to living beings, as their fighting style seems to revolve around disarming or incapacitating them instead. This is notable once the Turtles realize they're fighting robots in one scene, where they cut loose and start fighting a bit more brutally.
• Rocksteady makes a rather sexist comment towards April when he says his boss thinks she should "stick to reporting fashion shows." As a sarcastic response, April says, "Sure...no problem," and then puts on a cute face and starts batting her eyelashes.
• For the entire season 1, the sound effects in the interior of the Technodrome come from the 1984 Williams' pinball machine, _Space Shuttle_.
• Upon getting the trenchcoat, Raphael uses Humphrey Bogart's famous line, "Here's lookin' at you, kid."
• Despite the Turtles not being sea turtles, as evidenced by their feet and a lack of flippers as normal baby turtles, the fishbowl they're carried in is full of water and the Turtles seem to have no trouble breathing. This is actually a frequent inconsistency throughout the entire series, as there are numerous times throughout the series when the Turtles are in danger of drowning, and in the Season 7 episode "Atlantis Awakes", the Turtles are able to breathe underwater without aid.
• A flashback of this episode is used in the season 3 episode, "Blast from the Past".
• Leonardo, Michelangelo and Donatello all have small sleeves for their weapons under their belts, they will use these until the end of Season 2.
• In the flashback, we get a closeup to a rat Yoshi was feeding, suggesting that it's supposed to be a pre-mutated Splinter.

07HOME MEDIA

08FAN REVIEW

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