THE MOONS OF THALOS 3

01PLOT

Coming across a battle between the Salamandrians and the Triceraton Empire, the Fugitoid's ship comes under fire and is sent crashing down into a nearby moon near Thalos 3. During their descent they also cause a Salamandrian ship to crash as well. The Turtles and Fugitoid land on the freezing moon with no power to the ship, meaning they only have a limited amount of heat and oxygen within their suits before they run out and they succumb to the subzero conditions.

They located irrilium metal, which is necessarily to power up and repair the ship. The two stranded Salamandrians of the ship the Turtles hit, a commander named G’Throkka and a lieutenant named Y’Gythgba, are angered by the Turtles' actions for the damage of their vessel and the dishonor they caused for removing them from the battle. They fight the Turtles (due to mistaking Leonardo's offer of collaboration as a cue to fight), during which Raph is impressed by Y’Gythgba's strength and combat prowess. The Salamandrians leave them when they're buried under ice to go after the irrilium.

After escaping the ice, the team makes fun of Raph's crush on the Salamandrian woman and attempt to race them to the top. Raph separates from the group when they disagree with Raph's plan to team up with the Salamandrians, and they are cornered by a group of Ice Dragons. Raph tries to convince the aliens to co-operate, but Y’Gythgba refuses. However, when Raph saves the two from Ice Dragons, Y’Gythgba accepts Raphael's offer and they properly introduce themselves. Raph has a hard time pronouncing her name, so he decides to name her Mona Lisa, based on the painting of one of the most beautiful women in art. After they thaw out the frozen G’Throkka, they save the rest of the gang from more Ice Dragons, where Mikey decides to call him Sal Commander.

The group makes it to the irrilium, which is in the form of a Triceraton space mine. They are cornered by the Ice Dragons, leading them to hurry the mine over to the spaceship as fast as they can, successfully warding off the beasts thanks to Casey's photons pucks.

At the ship, everyone's suits start losing their power as the Fugitoid attempts to repair the ship. Raphael tries to tell Mona his feelings for her as they pass out. They reawaken on the ship, which has been repaired and is operational again, as well as the Salamandrians' ship. The Salamandrians thank the Turtles as Mona also reveals her affections for Raphael through a kiss. The aliens leave as Raphael hopes that he'll get to see Mona Lisa again someday.

02SCREEN GRABS

4 frames. Auto-matched screencaps via Fancaps.net.

03NOTES & GOOFS

• It is revealed in this episode that the extended hand gesture, such as that of a handshake, is the Salamandrian gesture for combat. However, in "Newtralized!" when Slash extended his hand to Newtralizer, a Salamandrian, for a handshake, Newtralizer apparently took no offense and even shook his hand as a gesture of their new partnership and camaraderie, which is the general human response.

04TRIVIA

• An illustrated book based on this episode was released much before the season 4 premiere.
• Casey's claim of how he was supposed to perish against giant Transforming robots, is a reference to _Transformers_, a popular toy line and media empire by Hasbro, which coincidentally debuted the same year as _Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles_ in 1984, and also now has media produced by Paramount and Nickelodeon.

05FAN REVIEW

No fan review for The Moons of Thalos 3 yet. Got a take on this one? Write the first review in the forum and we'll feature it here.