BRIEF STORYLINE: 3 of the turtles are content in their lair watching professional wrestling on TV until Michaelangelo switches it over to “ON TRIAL”, hosted by Clayton Kellerman, an egomaniac with his own talkshow who suggests the turtles are a danger to the public lurking in the sewers. The turtles are horrified by this and can’t understand why people would hate them, as they fight for good. April gets her hands on human masks from her make-up department so the turtles can walk safely in public to avoid being discriminated.
Meanwhile, Shredder is sweltering from the heat, because the Techodrome’s refrigeration units don’t have the necessary components to repair it. Krang blames Shredder telling him he’s failed. Shredder, in a mood to turn the tables, suggests that Krang should go up to the Earth’s surface and get what he needs and destroy the turtles. Krang, usually not keen on doing the dirty work, for once agrees with him.
April and the turtles are having pizza, but are disturbed by an alarm going off at a jewellery store close by. Firstly the turtles tear off their masks, chase the thieves in question, but the crime isn’t prevented when suddenly they are confronted by an angry mob. They run back to the sewers. The turtles have a hint that Clayton Kellerman is influencing and inciting this dislike or hatred of them. They ask April to use her sources to get them on the “ON TRIAL” show so they can calm down this bad perception of them and deny this nonsense coming from Clayton Kellerman.
It just happens so that, Krang, Bebop and Rocksteady catches an advertisement for the turtles “ON TRIAL” show upcoming appearance. Krang is overjoyed, and all he needs now is a weapon. Shredder is tempted to come too, so Krang accepts he acts as a decoy to the turtles, while he breaks into military warehouses to retrieve solar Benite.
As the turtles are making their way to the television studios, they are interrupted by Splinter on the Turtle Comm, telling of a break-in at Natural Museum of History. The turtles now feel forced to cancel the TV appearance altogether. In it, they face Shredder, Bebop & Rocksteady the decoys.
What the turtles don’t know is Krang is already obtaining the solar Benite and a prototype of a heavily armed robot primed to destroy them, and what’s even worser, April gets captured by Shredder. Can the turtles defeat two things, prove to the nation that their bad rep is all false, and Krang, who excitedly looks forward to finishing them off on live TV in full view of the public?
TMNT REVIEW HQ COMMENTS: This is definitely not one of you’re silly-story episodes, which has a certain realness to it. The turtles, obviously seen as outcasts of society are targeted by humans in New York with bad publicity from a talk show host. There’s hate mobs chasing them and everything. If this was real life though, the turtles would get more aggro and hysteria from humans than this. Also, they’ve been given time before all bad opinions started, 2 full seasons worth. Anyway, about the quality, it’s quite poor at the start but has a solid ending, with good action involving Krang(who for once does most of the dirty work) in his giant killer machine.
I would say the best parts are the turtles catching the jewel thiefs but are stopped by an angry mob, Kellerman accusing the turtles of “wimping out” at Channel 6, the turtles and April on their home-made water ski’s with a couple interesting viewpoints, Krang and his Rock soldiers stealing the solar benite and the killer machine with good music to introduce it, the turtles fighting with Shredder and Bebop at the museum, the turtles getting nervous on camera, some of the amusing dialogue from Kellerman including calling them “abnormal amphibians!”, and the turtles saving Kellerman from Krang.
Some of edits unfortunately are rather jumpy, like when 1 character has moved too fast in one edit to the next, but this is seldom here. Also, edits aren’t so strong at the beginning, as well as some fight scenes with Bebop, Rocksteady and Shredder.
Casey Kellerman is not a bad character, but could’ve been more humorous when attacking the turtles on who they are. His talkshow presenting reminds me of Morton Downey Junior’s talkshow from the late 80s in the US, which could have been the inspiration for this episode. Seeing the defeated Krang sliding out of the broken robot and showing his true physical downturns is comical as Shredder soon has to save him. Bebop does like a “role-reversal” in one scene, charging at the turtles shouting “Warthog Power!”, which the turtles do usually shouting turtle power. It’s a decent episode but the quite dark “turtles-as-outcasts or freaks” theme makes it stand out a little better than other episodes of similar quality.
"TURTLES ON TRIAL" GETS A: 3/5 RATING.
