BRIEF STORYLINE: Splinter is unimpressed when he spots the turtles lazing about watching TV, rather than practising their daily katas, a form of martial arts. The turtles’ excuse is that Shredder and Krang are very unlikely to return so saving the city isn’t going to be as hard. They think they also deserve time off, like a vacation. Splinter says there is no proof that Shredder and Krang are gone forever and other potential dangerous individuals could appear.
The Technodrome is miles below the Earth’s surface and Shredder is complaining about not being able to get back to the surface. Krang tells him the Technodrome is low on power and the Protein Silicon Brain Computer is damaged thanks to Shredder. Shredder is instructed to go back to the surface if he wants repairs and gets those important parts.
The turtles, supposedly on patrol, enticed by kung-fu movies, go to the cinema to watch a marathon of them and turn their Turtle Coms off. Big mistake.
Shredder, Bebop and Rocksteady arrive on the surface featuring Krang’s new invention, Pneumatic Modules. Meanwhile, Splinter is worried about the turtles when he gets no answer from his Turtle Com.
April is getting herself ready for a recording at a press conference at Metro Hospital. Splinter contacts April at this time, telling of the turtles absence. The doctor at the conference presents a prototype of a device called the “Medi-Laser Gun, which has the power to heal. Not long after this, Shredder, Bebop & Rocksteady steal the gun to heal the Technodrome’s Protein Silicone Brain Computer. April contacts Splinter of theses unfortunate events.
After the movie marathon finishes, the turtles consider getting in touch with Splinter, but guess everything’s OK and go for a pizza. Splinter and April search for the turtles, but soon Splinter leads a trail to Shredder’s hideout due to his keen sense of smell. Splinter attacks Bebop & Rocksteady, which gives Shredder time to reverse the polarity of the Medi-Laser Gun, which means it shoots now to damage or kill. Splinter gets hit by it, is unconscious leaving him helpless. But he used his staff to knock out a component from the gun just before he became affected.
Now the turtles have came back home and find a comatose Splinter and they need to get the Medi-Laser Gun out of Shredder’s hands and heal Splinter. They can’t live with a zombified Splinter can they?
TMNT REVIEW HQ COMMENTS: A reasonable start to the the 89 Season, where Splinter is at the height of the turtles worries. This is the first episode that features the Technodrome stuck under the surface at the Earth’s core. There’s a good switch from the turtles lair to deep underground to introduce Shredder and Krang in this episode, as the picture moves through the wall then down below. This continues to the first ever time we see the pneumatic modules make their way to the surface. It’s also quite fresh seeing Splinter attack the turtles for not doing their daily katas. Splinter somersaults, lifts up the turtles and throw them away like bad waste in a good scene. Also, a quite funny moment when Donatello thinks their exploits would make a good movie, just at a time when there actually was one on the way coming out in 1990.
The best scenes happen when the turtles are on patrol and then go to the cinema. There’s an imaginative kung-fu film name “Kung-Fu Commandos vs. Chainsaw Cheerleaders” as well. Really nice looking backgrounds as the turtles reach the cinema. Also an important moment when they turn off their turtle comms. Other best scenes include: Shredder, Bebop & Rocksteady crashing the conference at the hospital and stealing the Medi-laser, the introduction of the pneumatic modules at the Technodrome, April and Splinter searching for the turtles on the streets in the channel 6 van, Splinter kicking Bebop & Rocksteady’s butts but then defeated by Shredder, Shredder being sarcastic to Bebop & Rocksteady as he “lovess their company” and the turtles riding on their motor skateboards whilst Michaelangelo suggests “Yabba-Dabba-Do” could be a good replacement for “cowabunga!”
The episode does tread along more sluggishly near the end with not-so-good fight sequences such as, the turtles fight with Bebop & Rocksteady in the park. Although, having Raphael spying using the Turtle Blimp is a good addition to the story and landing in on the action, it could’ve done with better viewpoints, as the editing is lousy. Same goes for the further-along fight the turtles have with the Foot Soldiers and Shredder,bebop etc.Though there aren’t any scenes that are proper bad. However, this episode is largely an ordinary one with little surprises, even when a second Medi-laser is made, they skip how Shredder, Bebop & Rocksteady stole it, so you assume it’s been grabbed in the same way.
"BENEATH THESE STREETS" GETS A: 3/5 RATING.
