Episode 9 - Wizards, Warriors and a Word From Our Sponsor

Alongside having to deal with the restrictions placed upon them by BSNP, another obstacle the creators of ReBoot had to overcome while creating the show was that they were doing something that had never been done before. Seeing as this was the very first full length television series being completely produced with the use of CGI, it was a learning process finding out how to make a show using this new technology. Of course, it also took a very long time to create episodes, and due to needing to get the episodes out the door, the creators would get outside writers from LA to write the scripts. These writers came from a traditional animation background, so they approached the show as such. As well as this, the creators didn't get much control over the scripts due to needing to go through ABC in order to talk to the script editor to talk to the script writer.

This eventually culminated with them ending up with a 52 page script for this particular episode. Given that scripts tend to be approximately one minute per page, that is very excessive for a 21 minute episode. On top of that, the script wasn't particularly good, since it was mainly just the characters talking about things that had happened as opposed to showing us these things, and also included things that would have been impossible to implement at the time due to the constraints of the technology such as vines. Gavin and Ian's solution to this? Take the things that were discussed in the script but never shown and put them in the episode, take lines from earlier episodes and cut them together to make the episode work. The end result turned out pretty well, and also allowed them to begin taking the reigns of the show and push it in the direction that they intended to go in.

We start the episode at Bob's apartment. Bob is hiding behind his couch, and tells Dot and Enzo to go away as they'll give away his hiding place. They both ask Bob what he’s hiding from, giving incorrect guesses such as Megabyte and Hexadecimal. However, Bob says it’s worse than any of their guesses, before announcing that whatever he’s hiding from is coming 'right this way', leading all three of them to scream in terror from...

...Mike the TV. Mike begins advertising a product that comes with a free Log O Matic for the amazing price of '99.99.99'. Enzo asks why they can’t just turn him off, and Bob reveals he can’t due to Mike's remote control running away. Following Mike showing a commercial for a 'Bucket 'O Nothing', Bob decides to try dismantling him, commanding Glitch to turn into a screwdriver. Mike cowers in terror behind Dot, who tells Bob to calm down. The commotion is then interrupted by a Game Cube, which lands on Bob's apartment.

Bob, Dot, and Enzo are in a field outside a cave. Four Users run past them into the cave. Bob says that this game is called ‘ A Dungeon Deep', and the objective is to beat The User's team to the end of the game. Dot ReBoots into a wizard, Enzo ReBoots into an elf, and Bob ReBoots into a thief. Bob isn’t too happy about this, since he’s always the warrior. If he’s not the warrior, then who is? It turns out to be Mike the TV, calling himself 'Mike, The Mighty Warrior' (in a thick Austrian accent not too dissimilar to that of Arnold Schwarzenegger playing Conan the Barbarian). However, he falls over trying to lift his sword. Bob attempts to pick up the sword, but his hand goes straight through it since a thief is unable to use a warriors weapons. Dot and Enzo tell Mike to wait here while they beat the game, but after Mike is incredibly downtrodden about this, Dot and Enzo feel guilty. After some convincing, Bob allows Mike to tag along as long as he stays out of their way.

On the first level, the heroes are met with a wooden door that has a gargoyle face above it. The face states that the key to the chalice is 'one all, all in one', although they aren’t sure what this means. Bob, Dot, and Enzo start pushing against the door in order to open it. Enzo asks Mike to help, and he rushes into the door, causing it to fall over and form a raft that eventually reaches a sewer. Dot reaches into her hat and pulls out a map. The map shows where The User is and where they are as well as all the levels in the game. Dot says that they are currently travelling down 'The Hopeless Valley of Eternal Imprisonment', heading towards the 'vicious pit of eternal oblivion'. The raft falls down into the pit, but luckily Bob is able to grab onto a nearby ledge with Dot, Enzo, and Mike grabbing onto each other as well.

On Level 2, the characters enter a room with several doors. Mike shuts the entrance to the level behind him, annoying Bob. As they traverse through the room, the giant suits of armour in the room spring to life. Our heroes run to the back of the room, and Bob attempts to draw his weapon only to find he’s only equipped with a butter knife. He gets Dot to cast a spell on them. This shrinks the suits of armour, but also doubles their numbers. She does this a couple more times, making them small enough for Bob and Enzo to stomp on. Mike commentates this, but Dot uses her magic to zip his mouth shut temporarily. This now leaves them to decide which door to leave out of. The first door they open has a monster inside, so they instantly close it. Luckily, it’s a case of second time lucky as the second door they open is the correct one.

We then jump ahead 10 levels to Level 13, where Bob, Dot, Enzo, and Mike are travelling down a very long staircase. They’re soon joined by a giant spider, which causes Mike to let out an incredibly high pitched scream. Bob climbs up the spider, and uses his butter knife to cut the web, causing the spider to fall to its doom. On Level 23, Mike begins to rant about how there’s 'no way out'. Bob tells him to log off, and Dot points them in the right direction. Then on Level 31, they’re met by three carrot knights. Bob uses Glitch to slice them up, allowing them to get past. On Level 37, we see Bob and Dot arguing in a dark room as the camera pans around them to reveal they’re all standing on an incredibly small platform in the middle of the room. On Level 42, Dot uses her magic to freeze a monster made of water.

Eleven levels later on Level 53, Bob opens a door, revealing a shadowy knight standing behind it. Enzo knocks his head off using an arrow tipped with a clown's head. Five levels later, we see them running from an eyeball with tentacles. On Level 65, Bob, Dot, Enzo and Mike a riding on a giant banana. Dot reveals they have one level to go, and The User is already there. They then get ambushed by a giant skeletal centipede that breathes fire, leading Enzo to list all the absurd creatures they’ve had to overcome within this game. They eventually dismount the giant banana, and Bob gets separated from the rest of the party. Dot, Enzo and Mike traverse a deadly obstacle course only to be met by Bob on the other side. Once, they’re all together, a trap door opens leading them to the next level.

The next level finds them in a room with a door at the end and a giant hole in the middle of the floor. They initially get ambushed by a shadow monster who proceeds to quickly defeat Bob, Dot, and Enzo, leaving Mike to defeat it. While he struggles at first, he eventually gets rid of it by blowing out the candle casting the shadow, an idea he got from a movie he saw. The rest of the characters forgive him, and head for the door. The gargoyle head from earlier repeats the riddle from before, and then the floor behind them begins disappearing. Dot works out the riddle means all of them have to work together, so they all put their hands in the door's giant keyhole to open it.

The chalice is in the centre of a room full of mirrors. Out of the mirrors come evil doppelgängers of Bob, Dot, Enzo, and Mike. They struggle at first, but Dot and Bob's doppelgängers are scared away by Mike the TV showing bad television, and Dot is able to take care of Mike and Enzo's doppelgängers. However, just as they’re defeated, the user's tea, arrives. Dot, Enzo and Mike try to lift the dome around the chalice as Bob tries to stop the users from entering. However, Bob forgoes this after Dot points out they need to lift the dome together. This then allows anyone to grab the chalice. Bob knocks the chalice as the User tries to grab it, causing it to go flying into the hands of Mike the TV, ending the game. After the game leaves, the chalice becomes a toilet plunger.

At Dot's Diner, Bob, Dot and Enzo apologise for how they treated Mike in the game, who then proceeds to give an Oscar Acceptance speech. This annoys the rest of the characters, who tell him to cut to commercial, ending the episode.

This is probably the episode with the best humour. The gags in this episode are some of the best in the show, and we can see that the show has really got the hang of balancing the humour and the drama with the action set pieces being balanced out with absurdity such as carrot knights and Bob pulling out a butter knife. For instance, the opening scene of the episode has incredibly melodramatic music making us believe that something nasty is coming for the characters, which is exemplified by Bob's cowering in terror behind the couch from whatever this supposedly nasty thing is, only to completely subvert our expectations when it's revealed that it was only Mike the TV.

However, the episode's true star is Mike the TV himself. This is the most prominently he’s been featured within the show so far, and while he has a presence later on, he's not as prominently featured. As stated in my post on The Tiff, the character can be seen as annoying, but he manages to avoid this by being self aware enough about how annoying he is to cross over into humour. His presence is really felt within this episode, providing several quips to lighten a scene, and he even manages to win the game at the end of the episode.

That doesn’t mean the other characters don’t get their moments, though. Bob is forced a bit out of his element during the game since, while he’s played the game before, he’s used to playing the role of the warrior. Instead, he’s stuck as the thief, leaving him with a mere butter knife at his disposal as opposed to the large sword gifted to the warrior. This means he has to use more ingenuity and intuition in order to progress through the game. Likewise, Dot is once again shown to be a more than capable character, being the voice of reason this episode as well as being the one who figures out the key to winning the game.

Another element that I feel works very well in this episode is the use of the gauntlets that tell you which level the characters are currently playing. This was done in order for the creators to easily jump from scene to scene using the elements of the script they liked and wanted to use. It really helps with the flow of the episode since it provides us with a means to jump between several action set pieces at once without having to show how the characters got in or out of the situation that they were currently in. It also allowed them to include things such as the battle carrots that were only mentioned in the original script, using dialogue from earlier episodes to make the sequence work.

The episode's moral is to appreciate those around you and not neglect them (at least, that’s how I read it), which I feel was executed pretty well throughout the episode. The characters are very reluctant to have Mike on this adventure with them, and we can’t blame them for being this way; Mike is presented as annoying, so we can see why they don’t want him along for the ride. However, they realise their error by the game's end since he was able to use his unique skills to help win the game, even his irritating personality comes in handy when dealing with the doppelgängers.

Like I said in my opening paragraphs, this episode helped Gavin, Ian, and Phil to get more control over the scripts. Jenny Trias, the head of ABC at the time, was very impressed with the episode, going as far as to phone Ian to tell him that it was 'the best thing I've ever seen'. The episode they'd completed was funny and action packed, and it had nothing to do with the script. So good, in fact, that it later won a Gemini Award for  'Best Animated Program or Series' in 1995. A directive was then issued stating that the script writers were to listen to what the show's creators had to say with regards to the scripts.

This was also the point where the approach of the show changed. Whereas before, it was being approached as if it was traditional cel animation, the creators realised that it actually had more in common with live action due to the need to build sets and having to set up a camera inside the computer that acted like a film camera. After this episode, they began to approach the show as if they were producing a live action series. While of course, they still had to contend with BSNP's ridiculous standards, they now had more control over the show, allowing them to take it in their desired direction.

Next week: A new character hinted at in a previous episode makes her debut in 'The Great Brain Robbery'

Episode 8 - Enzo the Smart

When watching episodes from the first season of ReBoot for this retrospective, I try my best to keep an open mind. I try not to compare these episodes to those from later seasons and try and enjoy them on their own merits. As a result, I've been able to find enjoyment within most episodes so far this season, even one that I thought I wouldn't like based on my memories of it (In The Belly Of The Beast). Even before starting this retrospective, I considered this week's episode my least favourite of the entire show, but remained open minded and thought that I might enjoy it a bit more this time around. Unfortunately, while there is some stuff in the episode that I do appreciate, it still remains my least favourite.

The episode starts in a grassy field with several stone towers. We're in the middle of a tower defence game. Dot fires a shot at The User, but he ducks, firing a shot at Dot's tower. Her tower explodes, but she’s able to flee just in time, going to Enzo's tower. Enzo has a large cannon he’s using to attack the User. After making a relatively successful shot, he decides he needs to use a bigger cannonball. This fails as the ball just rolls out of the cannon, with Enzo remarking that he should of used more gunpowder before him and Dot flee just before their tower gets hit by the User. Bob is using an incredibly tiny cannon, and using a telescope, spots that the User has explosive barrels on his tower. Bob uses Glitch to get the correct angle to hit the barrels before firing. The User fires shortly after, but Bob's shot hits the barrels, causing his tower to explode, ending the game just before his shot hits Bob, Dot, and Enzo. Bob and Dot are happy about their victory, but Enzo feels down about something.

Back at Dot's Diner, all the binomes are getting Bob to recite the story of how he defeated The User, then Dot points out Enzo, who’s sitting on his own looking miserable, saying he’s been like that since the game ended. Bob and Dot go over to him to find out what’s upsetting him. It turns out that he’s upset because he couldn’t work out how to defeat The User, and that he must be 'basic'. Bob and Dot try and cheer him up by saying he’ll get smarter later as he grows older. After they walk away, he monologues about how he doesn’t want to be smart later, he wants to be smart now. This gives him an idea.

At the Principle Office, Enzo and Phong are playing Pong but Enzo loses fairly quickly. Phong consoles Enzo, telling him he can try again later as he can on,y install his wisdom to those who beat him at Pong. After seeing how downtrodden Enzo is about this, he leads Enzo over to a wall. He tells Enzo that he’s going to show him something he shouldn’t show anyone, so he makes Enzo promise not to tell anyone. After Enzo agrees, Phong speaks the phrase 'Yaada Yaada Yaada', causing the wall to open up. Phong enters and Enzo follows behind him.

Phong leads Enzo into a room with a vid window in the middle of it. On the way in, they pass a giant lamp looking a lot like the mascot for fellow animation company Pixar. This room that Enzo is now in is called the 'Read Only Room', which has contained all information since the beginning of Mainframe. Phong explains to Enzo that his favourite way to get smarter is by reading, and let’s Enzo stay in there as long as he only touches the window. He tells Enzo to leave the way he came in when he’s done, pointing out that anything worth doing takes time. Enzo strives to read every file quickly and store every byte of data available.

Back at the Diner, Bob and Dot ask Cecil if they’ve seen Enzo, who points out that he’s 'not a nanny'. Bob tells Dot that he hopes she’s okay, and Dot reassures him that he’s probably fine. Back at the Read Only Room, Enzo gets bored, saying that it’s going to take 'millions of nanoseconds to process all this information, possibly even one whole second'. He brings up a file on speed settings, and asks for a way to become twice as smart as everyone in Mainframe. He finds out that changes in Sprite Speed must be made from the Clock Speed Room, and after enquiring how to get there, a yellow line emerges out of the window and goes out of the door. Enzo proceeds to follow the line.

Enzo goes into the Clock Speed Room, which is a dark room with a giant pendulum. A voice asks Enzo if he’d like to be twice as smart now or later. Enzo says now, and the room starts shaking and a large light comes out of the middle of the room. Following this, Enzo is disappointed to find that he’s not any faster. However, once he leaves the Principle Office, he’s shocked to see that everything asides from him is now 8 bit.

Enzo asks Phong about this, who’s crashing back and forth into a wall. Phong asks if he knows Enzo. Enzo's first assumption is that a game landed while he was in the Read Only Room. He heads to Dot's Diner only to be greeted with cheering when he enters the building, with everyone saying that they’ve been trying to get out forever. Bob pounces on Enzo, declaring him his hero. A delivery person arrives with a zip board for Dot, and Bob presumes he’s a dangerous villain so starts attacking him. Dot presumes the zip board is a hat, and instantly tries selling it. This is when Enzo realises that while he hasn’t made himself smarter, he’s made everyone else dumber. He decides to go back to the clock speed room to reset everything, taking one of Dot's zip boards. Dot is at first amazed at their proper use, but then gets annoyed about Enzo not paying for it. Bob vows to catch the thief.

Enzo heads off with Bob, Dot and several binomes in pursuit. He’s just about to reach the Principle Office when a voice announces 'Warning, Incoming Game!', and a game lands right on top of him. Bob, Dot, and the binomes are in the game as well, but they don’t know how to stop the zip boards, causing them to crash into the wall of the game.  Mike the TV (who is exactly the same as before the clock speed change) acts as the game's commentator, and it turns out the game is 'video athletes', an Olympic sports style game. The rules of the game are the players rack up as much points as possible, with the team with the most points getting a head start in the final challenge known as ‘ The Eliminator', with whoever wins winning the game.

Enzo ReBoot's as the teams coach, meaning he’s unable to participate in the events unlike the now half witted Bob and Dot who are taking part in the events. To make things worse, after Enzo explains the game to them, Bob asks what points are. What follows is a montage of the Mainframers trying and failing at various sports.

Just before the Eliminator, Mike the TV is interviewing Enzo in a talk show like setting, pointing out that The User has a head start, and that it’s very likely that they will win the game. Enzo then decides he’s not going to let his team mates prevent him from winning, so he rips off the coach lettering on his jumper as well as his whistle and decides to do The Eliminator himself.

The Eliminator takes on the form of a giant race through fields, a ping pong machine, and a cavern filled with lava amongst other obstacles. Enzo is constantly slowed down by his teammate's attempts to help him win the race. Once The User reaches the final lap, Enzo decides to tell his teammates that he’s transferring them to The User's team as he 'really needs their help to win'. This is able to slow The User down just enough to allow Enzo to win the game.

As soon as the game ends, Enzo goes back to the clock speed room to set everything back to normal. Following this, Phong tells him that shortcuts lead to dead ends, and Enzo vows to take his time to build his knowledge. At Dot's Diner, Enzo is reading a read me file and both Bob and Dot think something’s up since he’s not normally this quiet. Enzo puts down his file, saying he’s done enough for today as this stuff takes time, then proceeds to pounce on Bob.

As I said in my opening paragraph, this is easily my least favourite episode of ReBoot. While it has some interesting ideas, the plot isn’t very interesting and lacks any urgency with regards to the threat. Even the threat of everyone turning into nulls in a game cube is downplayed with more emphasis being placed on the humour, which doesn’t really work for me in this particular episode. While the previous two episodes have had a great sense of humour as well as relatively enjoyable plots, the humour in this one mainly falls a bit flat for me. However, the game at the start of the episode is a small highlight as it makes for a fun sequence, seeing Mainframe rendered in 8 bit looks pretty cool, and the moral that things worth waiting for take time is one that’s very relevant even in adulthood, so there is a handful of things that make this episode worth watching even if the episode as a whole is a bit lacklustre.

Next week: Bob, Dot and Enzo get stuck in a Dungeon Crawler with Mike the TV in 'Wizards, Warriors, and a Word From Our Sponsor'

Episode 7 - The Crimson Binome

So far this season, we've mainly been dealing with single shot episodes that largely don't hint at a world outside of Mainframe where the show is set. This episode is the first hint of the direction the show is going to be taking in later seasons. While this is subtle, we get a threat that comes from outside of Mainframe rather than local villains Megabyte and Hexadecimal, and we get a small amount of foreshadowing for a character who's going to show up later this season.

This week, we begin at Mainframe's docks. It heavily resembles an old British seaside town, complete with a Punch and Judy styled puppet show named Punchcard and Querty. A couple of Binomes and Number 5 spot a red light on the horizon coming towards the docks. As it gets closer, it vanishes as a pirate ship docks, with pirate binomes flying off around the docks on their zip boards. We cut to the deck to see the Captain standing there with his first mate. The captain gloats about how he loves his job.

At Dot's Diner, Dot is talking to a security binome on a vid window only for the vid window to cut to static. She tells Phong that all of Kits Sector is down, and Phong tells her that he’s aware of the situation and that the issue started at the docks. Enzo points out that Bob's apartment is in Kits, and that Bob will probably have the situation under control. Cut to binomes screaming in terror running from the pirates. Their weapons trap those they attack within cubes, freezing them. In Bob's apartment, he’s working on his car with headphones on, singing badly into a spanner. As a result, he doesn’t see the pirates sneak in, who then proceed to steal both his car and Glitch. Bob turns around to see his car is gone.

Back at their ship, the pirates are bringing their loot on board. One gives Glitch to Capacitor. He recognises it as a Guardian key tool, and orders his first mate Mr Christopher to give Miss Sally a pay rise. He ponders why a Guardian is in such a small port, and tells one of his crew to wake the princess just in case. At the docks, Dot and Enzo are pinned down as they can’t get past them. Bob is hiding behind a wall near the ship. He recognises that these are Software Pirates. He reaches for Glitch only to realise the pirates took it. Back on the deck, the pirates are about to set off, and release all the Mainframers trapped in their cubes. Then Bob comes along wielding one of their swords, and proceeds to attack the pirates. Some of them are worried about what this could mean for their profit, but Capacitor reassures them that a Guardian would net them a high profit in any system, and then orders Princess Bula, an abnormally large binome, to go after Bob and capture him.

Bob lands on the deck, ordering the Captain to return Glitch. He throws it down, but just as Bob is about to grab it, Bula springs out from the floorboards and grabs Bob. The pirates then proceed to head off, and we can see that the ship is named 'The Saucy Mare'. As it leaves the dock, sails materialise and the ship vanishes from Mainframe, with Capacitor telling his crew that they now have 'the prize of our lives'.

At the docks, Phong informs Dot and Enzo that the pirates took Bob, and that they’re heading for a portal. If they don’t get to the ship before they get to the portal, they might lose Bob forever. Dot then proceeds to commandeer a ship from Mr Mitchell (named after Phil Mitchell, one of the show's Co-Creators), who isn’t too happy about the ordeal. He points out that there are more powerful ships in the docks. While this is true, Dot says speed is what they need, and Mr Mitchell's ship is the fastest. Several security binomes board the ship as well, and Enzo tries to get Frisket to come along but he isn’t too willing. He eventually changes his mind once the ship leaves the dock, but he makes a giant leap, successfully landing on the ship. The ship then uses its engines to speed away.

In the brig of Capacitor's ship, Bob wakes up. He tries to grab the keys to his cell, only to find out that there’s a forcefield between the bars. The guard 'wakes up', and tells Bob only one person has escaped his prison, pointing to a carving of a mouse on the wall. Bob seems to know who this refers to, an old friend of his named Mouse. The Captain comes down to gloat, accompanied by Princess Bula. He refers to himself as The Crimson Binome, and Bob seems to have heard of him. He introduces Bula as a princess, and when Bob questions this, Capacitor asks him if he’d dare tell her otherwise. Bob threatens Capacitor, who continues to gloat as Bob throws a bed at the bars before suddenly vanishing. Capacitor orders Bula and Mr Jimmy to go after him. Once she’s gone, Miss Sally comes down to tell him that they’ve got a ship tailing on them. As Capacitor leaves, we see Bob was hiding behind a wooden beam in his cell. He comments on how he now owes Mouse one, and that it’s time to make this voyage 'unprofitable'.

Back on Mr Mitchell's ship, Phong contacts Dot to tell her that the pirates ship has stopped inexplicably. Dot and Enzo know that this is due to Bob. On the Saucy Mare, we find out that Bob has exploded the rudder, and Bula is desperately trying to catch Bob only for him to keep evading her. Mr Mitchell's ship eventually catches up to them. Dot orders the unidentified vessel to stand down. Capacitor takes offence to this, declaring himself as The Crimson Binome before enquiring who Dot is. She takes Mr Mitchell's hat and calls herself Admiral Matrix, Warning Capacitor that they’ve dealt with her kind before. Capacitor says they always win, so Dot should stand down. After some explosions on the ship, Dot mocks them, pointing out that it doesn’t sound like they’re winning, telling them to prepare for boarding and to return their stolen property. Capacitor states he’s only in this for the profit, but if it’s a fight they want, then it’s a fight they’ll have.

The ship approaches the Mare, and he orders Mr Edwards to fire all the cannons only to learn that Bob has taken out all but one. The cannon fires at the ship, but Frisket catches the cannonball in his mouth. The ship approaches and Dot and the binomes join Bob in the fight. Enzo sets Capacitor on Frisket only for him to strike Frisket with his sword, trapping him in a cube. Bula reveals she’s trapped Bob, and Capacitor orders Dot and Enzo to surrender. One of the pirates says the rudder's back online so they can head off. However, Mr Christopher points out how even with Bob, they won’t reach their usual profit margin of 200%. Dot laughs at this, showing Capacitor her business spreadsheets and her profit margins. As a result, Capacitor and Dot agree to go into business together, with Capacitor revealing his true name is Gavin (of course, named after Co-Creator Gavin Blair). Bob and Frisket are released (with Bula returning Glitch to Bob) and the two ships return to Mainframe.

This is a very fun episode with a lot to like. Captain Capacitor and his crew make for fun antagonists for this episode. Capacitor in particular seems very theatrical, which is accentuated by the late great Long John Baldry's voice performance. They also serve another purpose of building the world the show is set in outside of Mainframe since the crew of the Saucy Mare are outsiders. While we've had mentions of the Super Computer, which is where Bob initially came from, we haven't had any glimpses or ideas of what else is outside of Mainframe until now. This is something that gets touched upon a bit more in Season 2, and then heavily explored in Season 3.

Dot gets a chance to shine in this episode as she heads off to rescue Bob and even resolves the episodes conflict, showing the pirates that they can succeed even more through legitimate business in comparison to their piracy.  Even though he’s held captive, Bob is able to use a bit of ingenuity to escape and cause havoc on the ship, showing that while the character is a massive goofball, he is still capable of doing what needs to be done. We also get our first use of foreshadowing with the mention of Mouse, who is going to show up in a couple of episodes time. While it will be a while until he and his crew make another appearance, this certainly isn't the last that we'll see of The Crimson Binome.

Next time: Enzo makes a Monkey's Paw style wish in 'Enzo the Smart'

Episode 6 - In The Belly Of The Beast

Before I start this post, I'd like to give a shout out to the 'Two Geeks, Two Beers' podcast. They gave this blog a shout out on their most recent episode, so I thought I'd return the favour by directing you to said episode, which is on 'Choose Your Own Adventure Books' and features a segment where they try out one of the ReBoot choose your own adventure books. The third episode of their podcast was on ReBoot as well. You can listen to the episode at this link, or you can find it on iTunes:

https://twogeekstwobeers.com/2019/03/31/choose-your-own-adventure-books-podcast/

In spite of being the series main antagonist, Megabyte hasn't been the central foe in an episode of the show too much so far. While he did appear in Racing the Clock and Medusa Bug, he wasn't really the main threat in those episodes. Heck, he didn't appear at all in 'The Tiff'. In this episode, though, he's back with a vengeance and we get to see glimpses of how menacing he can be and the threat he could pose to the characters if he didn't rely on his incompetent underlings to do his dirty work.

This episode starts off with a shot of Silicon Tor, which then pans down to Old Man Pearson's Data Dump. We see that an old binome is being held hostage by Hack and Slash. Megabyte appears on a vid window and starts interrogating the binome about any 'interesting' items in the dump. Said binome is Old Man Pearson himself, and he's named after ReBoot Co-Creator Ian Pearson. While Mr Pearson denies having anything of the sort, Megabyte gets Hack and Slash to bring up the log, which reveals that there’s an old unformat command at the dump. Megabyte orders his henchmen to look for it immediately and for Slash to show Mr Pearson how they deal with dishonesty.

Megabyte's binomes begin looking for the unformat command. They’re incredibly unmotivated to do so until Megabyte says there will be a reward for whoever finds it. Not too long after this, a binome finds it. Megabyte gets Hack and Slash to check if it will still hold a charge. Once the unformat command has been charged, Megabyte gets Hack to give the binome his reward - to be the test subject for the unformat command. Hack fires it at the binome, causing him to fall to pieces.

Then a crane picks up Hack and Slash, which turns out to have been operated by Bob. A viral tank chases Bob through the dump, and Bob leads it into getting crushed by the crushers, turning the tank into a cube. Frisket wanders into the dump just as Hack and Slash break free of the crane, dropping the unformat command right in front of Frisket, who then eats it. Hack and Slash get crushed by another crusher and Bob attends to Old Man Pearson, who has been tied up.

At the Tor, Megabyte chastises Hack and Slash for their failure at the dump, and then orders them to capture Enzo in order to get to Frisket. At the Diner, Bob and Dot are talking about the incident only for Frisket to come inside, looking much greener than normal. Dot points out how odd this is since Frisket never comes inside. Bob takes a look, opening up the top of Frisket's nose as if it was a car bonnet, revealing an engine inside. He can’t work out what the problem is until after Frisket starts letting out flatulence, leading to the conclusion that it was something he ate. Bob scans Frisket and finds the unformat command, which is trying to unformat his stomach. Bob zaps him with something to make him a little better, hoping that Frisket will be able to stomach it. He tries to get Frisket to leave at Cecil's request, but he won’t listen to anyone other than Enzo. Dot gets Frisket to go and find Enzo, and he leaves the Diner.

Outside, Frisket meets up with Enzo only for Enzo to be grabbed by Hack and Slash in a viral tank. The tank tries to flee, but can’t get very far due to Frisket grabbing onto the door with his teeth. It eventually breaks free, but the door gets detached. Frisket follows the tank to Silicon Tor where he is captured inside a large yellow cage, this is attached to a large crane being operated by Megabyte. He tells his men they need to operate quickly if they wish to get the unformat command back. Enzo says that he’ll erase them all of they hurt Frisket, although Megabyte says that hurt is not what he has in mind before ordering his henchmen to take Frisket to somewhere called 'the tank'.

Back at the Diner, Bob and Dot are sitting and Dot laments how she’s worried about Enzo and Frisket since 'they should have been here microseconds ago'. At the Tor, the cage with Frisket is lowered down. Binomes start prodding inside the cage with sticks, and then Frisket is placed inside 'the tank'. Megabyte orders his men to cut him open, which worries both Enzo and Frisket. Megabyte says that Enzo has served his purpose and orders Hack and Slash to place him outside the city limits. Enzo asks if he can say goodbye to Frisket, to which Megabyte responds 'no' and says that Enzo can find 'something else to play with'. Enzo then reaches for his Yo Yo, which distracts Hack and Slash as they’re amazed by this simple toy. Enzo then uses the yo yo to turn off the energy field in the tank, allowing Frisket to break free. Enzo and Frisket go down an elevator as Megabyte orders Hack and Slash to go after them.

Enzo and Frisket try to escape the Tor, but eventually, they’re cut off by some of Megabyte's Binomes, including a doctor holding a large syringe. They fire ropes from their guns to trap Frisket, but just before the doctor operates, Frisket flings Enzo onto his back and runs off, dragging the binomes behind them. After flinging them off, they eventually come across some important looking wires which Frisket chews on. This turns the lights off, confirming to Megabyte that they’re at the power control room, and after turning on the emergency lighting, orders his men to proceed there as he cuts them off from behind.

Enzo and Frisket eventually reach Megabyte's armoury. The binomes come up behind them, and Frisket pasts Enzo a large gun. Enzo aims it at the binomes, panicking them, then fires. It shoots out a life raft with ‘BSNP approved' written on it. Frisket then climbs on top of a massive rocket launcher, causing the binomes to flee in terror. Eventually, the binomes bump into Megabyte, who asks them 'You’re not running away now, are you?' The binomes then go back the way they came only to run back out again followed by a Viral Tank piloted by Enzo. Megabyte proceeds to give chase.

Enzo can’t pilot the tank very well since he seems to be hitting the walls constantly. Megabyte eventually jumps over the tanks and grabs it from the front, causing it to eventually grind to a complete stop. Enzo and Frisket sneak out the back door while Megabyte picks up the tank and starts bashing it about. Eventually, he sees them and drops the tank. Enzo escapes from the vent and Frisket growls at Megabyte. Megabyte orders Hack and Slash to get Frisket only to get completely torn to pieces before Frisket enters the vent himself.

Enzo and Frisket reach the top of the Tor, and Frisket soils himself. Then Enzo and Frisket successfully escape by sliding down the crane (or jumping in Frisket's case). Later, Enzo and Frisket are walking along the streets of Mainframe and Bob and Dot fly past them. After spotting them, Bob says they were on their way to rescue Enzo and Frisket from Megabyte, and Enzo says they kicked his bitmap. Back at the Tor, Hack and Slash talk about going after Frisket and retrieving the command only for Megabyte to step in Frisket's excrement, remarking 'Never mind, I think I’ve found it' before ordering Hack and Slash to clean up this mess.

While the plot of this episode isn’t overly complex, this episode is incredibly fun. There’s some great gags (including one at BSNP's expense) and some fun action sequences. The show seems to be getting the hang of the format even if the plots still aren’t at the level we're going to be getting in later seasons. Megabyte is portrayed as menacing, but the only thing that’s really holding him back from taking over Mainframe right now is his incompetent minions that he gets to do the work for him. The scene where he catches the tank shows how formidable of an opponent he truly is, which we're definitely going to see a lot more of later on. Of course, we still get the moment where Megabyte steps in shit which is a bit of a downside as it’s a bit of a childish gag. In spite of that, this episode shows the show beginning to find its feet as well as break away from the established formula.

Next week: We get pirates and some subtle foreshadowing in 'The Crimson Binome'