"Strategy X"
Writer: Bob Forward (who also wrote for Beast Wars)
Director: Frank Paur
Original Air Date: November 4, 2000
Introducing: Professor Xavier, Storm, Wolverine, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Nightcrawler, Sabretooth, Magneto, Mystique, Toad, Paul, and Duncan
Synopsis/Review: X-Men: Evolution's
pilot episode starts out during a football game at Bayville High. Football
quarterback Duncan Matthews and his buds take a break during a game intermission
to try to beat up Todd Tolensky, who is stealing people's wallets from
their back pockets. They find him behind the bleachers, and are just about
to beat him up when Scott Summers comes on the scene, having seen them
from his seat. He tells them to leave the guy alone- just have him give
back the money, and everything'll be fine. Duncan and his friends, being
the stereotypical football jocks that they are, refuse to, and decide to
beat up Summers too. Todd/Toad manages to escape during all this getting
Duncan's other friends to follow him. Just as Scott and Duncan start pounding
each other, Jean Grey comes behind the bleachers to see what's going on.
"Scott, no!" she says, like he's some kind of dog. Maybe "Scott, cut it
out!" or "Cool it!" would be better, but apparently, Jean thinks Scott
is stupid or something. Heh. Anyway, Duncan punches Scott's glasses off,
and the resulting eye beams both knock Duncan unconscious and blow up the
kerosene tank at the nearby snack bar (not being used, luckily).
So, havoc ensues, and
Scott is left behind, his eyes having to be closed the whole time, so as
not to emit any more eye blasts. Jean gives him his glasses back, and goes
to find Duncan, who's on an ambulance cart. He's okay, but he's had a concussion,
so he doesn't remember anything. (Gee...how convenient...) Even though
Duncan's obviously a complete idiot, Jean goes with him anyway, leaving
Scott behind. We also find out Todd's a mutant, as he eats a fly via his
tongue (whee!) and hops away once he thanks Scott for helping him out.
Xavier, who's in a nearby limosuine with Storm, erases a policeman's suspicions
of it being more than a leak in the kerosene, tank, and, satisfied with
a job well done, tells Storm that they've got a train to catch. It's Nightcrawler,
hidden underneath a large hood so no one notices his freakiness. There's
another bit here that introduces Wolverine, with him acting all cool and
riding on his motorcycle and slicing a bottle in half. Oh, yeah- and Sabertooth
looks on from a high rock. Oooo, scaary.
Later, at the Xavier
Mansion, the Prof calls Jean and Scott over and introduces them to Nightcrawler,
who's very shy at first, since he's so freaky, but eventually warms up
to them a little and shows off his teleportation power. The "cool, huh?"
smirk he has on his face after he teleports is priceless.
The next day at school,
Principal Darkholme invites (er, "orders") Todd into her office, where
she talks to him about Scott Summers- how he has unusual powers, and how
she needs to know more about him. And she wants Todd to help her out, of
course. Todd at first refuses, until Darkholme morphs into some freaky
Alien thing and scares the living daylights out of him. (Principal Darkholme
is, of course, Mystique.)
So, Todd confronts Scott
at school after the X-Man's (regular) friend Paul leaves, and tells the
one-eyed wonder that he wants to talk with him about their unusual powers
they have, while hoping around in his cool way and eating Scott's lunch
sack in one bite. Scott will "think about it", and pretty much writes Todd
off without directly saying so. Cyclops then proceeds to contact Xavier
by phone, and tells him about Toad- which the Prof already knows about,
via Cerebro. Scott offers to try to bring the guy in, but Xavier says there's
"no need" to- he contacts Storm and wants her to "audition" Toad for him.
Oh, and during all this
stuff at school, the Professor and Storm were showing Nightcrawler around
the mansion, giving him his holowatch and his X-Man costume, stuff like
that. Mostly plot building.
That night, Todd hops
up to the mansion in his costume and sneaks in, via hopping right over
the fence. (By the way, was he invited to the mansion, or did he decide
to come by himself, or what? They never say.) Storm then flies in and "auditions"
him by roughing the guy up a little, nearly frying his booty via little
bolts of lighting and generally herding the guy into the main hall. (Nice,
ain't she?) There, Toad bangs into Nightcrawler, who's giving the mansion
another look. They both insult each other, since one smells and the other's
a blue freak, and Toad goes off after Nightcrawler, even though he can
never hope to catch the X-Man 'cause he can just teleport anywhere. After
a bunch of chasing and breaking stuff, the Prof announces that the "test
is over", and that Toad is indeed a Mutant- although why they don't do
this grueling, life-threatening test to any other Mutant that joins the
X-Men, I'll never know. Toad does not want to join the X-Men at all, understandably,
and proceeds to try to beat up Nightcrawler- who BAMFs them both into the
Danger Room. The automated defenses immediately activate, and the Prof
contacts Jean and Scott mentally and tells them to get Toad and Nightcrawler
out of there before they're killed. Action ensues, and a bunch of machine
explosions later, Xavier finally makes it into the Danger Room control
center and shuts the system down. Toad, completely freaked out by now,
leaves immediately, only to bump into Wolverine on the way out. Xavier
tells the big guy to let Toad go, however, and Wolverine reluctantly lets
him.
Nightcrawler, meanwhile,
comes to the false realization that he doesn't belong in the X-Men, because
he messed everything up. He teleports into the docking bay, where the Blackbird
is, and admires it for a bit before Cyclops shows up. Scott tells him that
they all make mistakes, and that that's why they're at the Institute- to
learn not to make mistakes like that. Nightcrawler agrees to give the Institute
another shot, and thus begins the good friendship that Scott and Kurt keep
throughout the series. Whee!
The next day at school,
Principal Darkholme comes down on Toad for not finding out more about the
mansion. Toad makes pathetic excuses, which is basically what he's good
for, and Darkholme orders him out of her office- even though Toad's IN
HIS COSTUME in the MIDDLE of the school day. Meh, go figure. She then morphs
into Mystique, and is reprimanded by a dark voice (Magneto) for being too
harsh on the boy. "We don't want to thin our ranks now, do we? ...Remember,
this is only the beginning." Bum bum bum!
Last Words: Overall, this episode's nice for a pilot- which are usually kind of bad- but it has a couple glaring plot holes. Like, for instance, why did they only test Toad that harshly and none of the other X-Men? There's also too many plot points that seemed "convenient", like when Duncan got a concussion. These can only be explained by "the writers wanted it that way". Toad was what really saved this episode from being mediocre, though. He's so pathetic he's cool. And this is almost the only episode that really focuses on him, anyway, so I can't give it that low of a rating, heheh.
Overall Rating: 7/10 Good