Friday, November 4, 2011

Blast from the Past #431: September 16, 2004: Re: FW: Revised Premise 97 ("Insane in the Membrane"), Re: Ep 92 ("The Ancient One"), Re: Episode 53-78 synopses



Subj: Re: FW: Revised Premise 97 ("Insane in the Membrane")
Date: Thursday, September 16, 2004 12:46:28 PM
From: Peter Laird
To:   Lloyd Goldfine

Lloyd,


Here is my comment on the Ep. 97 revised premise.


1.) Re: the following:

<<Then Malignus switches a little of his power to Leo and starts to control him like a puppet.  Leo attacks his brothers full force.


(Act Four)


Leo attacks his brothers and they’re trying to fight him off without hurting him.  What makes matters worse is that Leo is fully aware of what he’s doing, even warning the others to get away, he can’t stop himself.  He’s begging them to take him out but they can’t.


At this point, the turtles attack Malignus.  His defenses are down a bit because his power is divided.  One of the heroes is able to help open up a chink in Malignus’s armor, so to speak, so that the turtles can attack his bug hat.


The bug suddenly takes on a life of it’s own and fights the turtles.  Of course, now the power that was holding the heroes and controlling Leo is gone so the good guys gang up on Malignus and his big bug-bot.  They seriously damage the bug and it starts to short circuit.  It instinctively crawls back onto Malignus’s head (even though he tries to stop it) and plugs into his brain, frying it and turning him into a twittering loony.>>

The typical problem with "super mind powers" is that they tend to have no limits except for the ones which are convenient to the storytelling, and that inconsistency tends to result in a story full of logic holes. Also, when have we set up Dr. Malignus as someone who has any kind of telekinetic powers, or that his bugs can enhance such powers? As far as I can recall, he has only ever had these mind-control bug robots that can take over an individual and bend him or her to Dr. Malignus' will. This telekinetic power stuff comes out of the blue, and you also have to wonder -- if he has this power at his fingertips, why doesn't he use it from the beginning of the fight?
I'm also not too crazy about the whole "bug taking on a life of its own and burrowing into Malignus' brain" bit -- this also seems to come out of nowhere, and frying his brain and "turning him into a twittering loony" seems a silly way to get rid of a decent villain.
  One way I can think of which MIGHT make this work is if the "super mind power" bug is a last-ditch option for Malignus' -- perhaps it's a prototype which even he considers potentially dangerous and unpredictable, and he only uses it as a last resort. I do think that we should not leave Malignus with a ruined brain, as I would like to be able to bring him back at some point.

-- Pete

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Subj: Re: Ep 92 ("The Ancient One")
Date: Thursday, September 16, 2004 1:08:59 PM
From: Peter Laird
To:   Lloyd Goldfine

Lloyd,


Although I still think my idea of Silver Sentry giving Leo a lift over to Asia would save us (and Leo) a lot of time and headaches, I don't have a big problem with him finding his own way. However... if he is going to Asia, would he really hop a ride on a ship leaving New York? Wouldn't it make more sense if he made his way to the WEST coast and left from a Pacific port city? (Maybe a compromise here would be that Silver Sentry gives him a lift to California. OR maybe Casey could drive him there in his car -- ROAD TRIP!!! That could actually be the source for an "untold tale of Leo and Casey"  next season.)
Also, assuming Leo makes it all the way on his own, this trip of his -- taking boats, walking, etc. -- will take months, probably. Does having Leo gone for months cause any problems with story continuity? 


-- Pete

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Subj: Re: Episode 53-78 synopses
Date: Thursday, September 16, 2004 8:36:44 PM
From: Peter Laird
To:   Lloyd Goldfine, Dan Berger

Lloyd and Dan,


I read over the teaser synopses and made a few small changes to them, mostly a word here and there and a few typo things. The biggest change (and it's really not THAT big) is to add a short line to each of the episodes where the individual Turtles are in the other realities. Although the way Lloyd had written it was clever and intriguing in a very frustrating way, with each one being EXACTLY the same except for the name of the Turtle in question, I thought that we could give a little bit away without giving much away. The only one I gave a specific hint about was Raph's (Planet Racers) episodes, and I've already let that cat out of the bag in the TMNT comic letters pages.


I'm happy with them as they are below, and if you agree, Lloyd, I ask that Dan put them up and make the fans start salivating!


-- Pete

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