BRIEF STORYLINE: The turtles feel they need to have a go at Shredder, find the Technodrome and force him to turn Splinter into a human once again. Meanwhile Shredder hides out in a deserted mansion to find a source for new scientific equipment, using flying mechanical bugs. Baxter Stockman, an inventor, is rejected by a company for one of his projects, a "Mouser" which catches rats. Shredder soon snaps him up, and tells him to make hundreds of mousers, which will get rid of Splinter. Krang is angry at Shredder for not providing him a new body yet. Shredder wants to deal with the turtles and Splinter first. Krang hopes he fails his latest mission.
Shredder then impatiently wields out the first batch of Mousers. Splinter is soon attacked by these machines in the sewers. Splinter becomes helplessly out numbered, but the turles save him. The turtles discover that the title "Baxter Stockman, Inventor" is engraved on every mouser. Somehow, they feel Shredder is behind this. The turtles want to protect Splinter more, so he comes along with them to search for Baxter Stockman.
The turtles cause chaos at April's apartment, who isn't pleased about them. She helps them find computer records on Baxter Stockman, and find an address & photo.
Baxter had now completed the Master Control Device, but wants nothing more to do with Shredder. On his way back home, he is about to be ambushed by the Foot soldiers, but the turtles pulverise them and want answers from Baxter. They get their answers, and use Baxter's van Shredder's secret location. Happening elsewere, April & Splinter are hit by attacks from Mousers chewing through April's walls. They struggle to fight them off before the turtles come back, but it's too late, and the building collapses.
They escape, but waiting for them is the evil Shredder with a heart-stopping 1200 army of mousers.
TMNT REVIEW HQ COMMENT'S: Another solid episode from the 87 Season. The fight scenes bring out the best, and Raphael is on good form in the humor stakes. The storyline surrounds on Baxter Stockman becoming Shredder's slave after volunteering to build the mousers, but Baxter then feels evicted after enough mousers had been built but Shredder wants to never hear from him again by getting the Foot Clan to give him a good beating. You could feel sorry for the vulnerability of Baxter, but he does turn totally bad in the next season with Shredder and becomes his sidekick for a short while. Also, the best humor is used against Baxter's vulnerability, when the turtles have Baxter tied up, and Raphael warns him to tell all or he will be "sarcastic", which is partly Raphael's gimmick in the cartoon.
We see very little of Bebop and Rocksteady, but when we do, there's more proof of how much serious and stern they were in this season compared to later ones. The best looking spot in the episode was the turtles fight with the Foot Clan to save Baxter, which was well done, with a little creativity & humor in the mix. The editing was at a high at the very end with the turtles laughing at Michaelangelo's alledged meeting with a pink brain(Krang) at the mansion. Good surprise of Krang popping up at the mansion, knowing that he can't walk, thnking how he got there. A nice touch of only seeing Krang's tentacle at first with Michaelangelo. Krang once again has one of the best moments demanding Shredder again for a body for the 55th time. The boy's on form.
April 'O Neill is on the brink of losing it with the turtles in this episode, after wrecking her flat. This is just after her mistrust for the turtles as she had not known them for long. We didn't get to see much of April's friendship with the turtles starting to disintegrate, that's what you might call unique about this episode. But also it leaves questions after this episode of what will she do next now her apartment is demolished after the mousers.
The mousers do make out to be quite menancing with their big numbers and get a good handful of editing when they are on the move, eating through walls. But with these skills, they could've put in a more horror impact or suspense in the episode to make it better. We do see how much the turtles care for each other when they can't find Mike, and we see Raphael in a rare state of mental anguish. Another very good moment.
This episode is definetely one of the weaker episodes of the 87 Season, still consistantly a thumbs up, but lacks the shine of a couple other eps.
"A THING ABOUT RATS" GETS A: 3/5 RATING.
