BRIEF STORYLINE: Carter, April and the turtles from the past are confronted by very menacing giant robots. They eventually manage to escape, and the present weakenend turtles are successfully carried back to the lair. April takes the story public to the local authorities to warn them of Dregg.
Dregg and Mung plan an invasion of originally titled "Attack Monsters" to rule Earth and give Dregg a full-time HQ. However, before that, he must get the transporter chip back from the bothersome Shredder.
At this moment, Krang and Shredder rescue themselves from the rubble of the collapsed building that fell on top of them. They live to fight another day! Both of them head back to the nuclear power plant.
In the turtles lair, the energy-deprived turtles are revived. The turtles from history want to get back to their own time. Carter signals to Landor and Merrick from the future, who can travel through time, but there is no reply. Donatello reminds them of the bad news that if the turtles from the past stay here for not much longer the TMNT will have never existed.
Meanwhile, Krang and Shredder arrive at the power plant and beat off a squad of Dregg's batmen. Krang manages to hypnotise one of them(this is a first for him).
Dregg reveals more details of his master plan. He is also using micro bots to construct weapons for the monsters, and start their conquest with the help of the batmen soldiers.
Is Dregg going to win with these terrifying monsters? Are Shredder and Krang tough enough to trash Dregg's army? Where are Landor and Merrick? The TMNT's legacy is at stake, which could be no more!
TMNT REVIEW HQ COMMENTS: One of the better episodes, in 96 season terms! It gets off to a dodgy start, with a not-so-sparkling action scene of the TMNT escaping from the clutches of Dregg and his Attack Monsters in the Transport room. It does get better, in the execution of how the present turtles get their full energy back in their lair, thanks to Carter.
Dregg addressing his plans to Mung of the Attack Monsters, is a strong scene with strong dialogue. Good Godzilla-like action from the giant metallic Attack Monsters arriving in New York, trashing buildings, cars, etc. There's humor implemented in the situation of 2 sets of TMNT, when both Michaelangelo's answer their Turtle Comm's at the same time talking to the same April, thinking it's their April from the present/past.
Landor and Merrick eventually turn up, with their absence at the start of the episode to arouse fear and suspense for the turtles, have have to send the TMNT from the past back to their period of time in less than 24 hours.
It's quite cool to find out Krang can do mind tricks and hypnotise the bat-men. That idea had potential, and why didn't we discover sooner, when Krang was on the top of the TMNT's wanted list?
There's a moment when it looks like its all doom and gloom for the turtles as Dregg tells them some of the Earth's capitals have been destroyed. However, in a good but unsurprising twist, Donatello has rewired the computer to the virtual sim, and the transporter chip is bogus. The UN (United Nations) even get thrown into the equation, making it more real-to-life, just a little bit though.
The final action scene with the 8 TMNT to finish Dregg off, is a letdown to be brief. Good one-liner from Raphael before he takes away Dregg's added mind power of the turtles, "I believe you stole some turtle power?"
The biggest surprise of the episode is Carter deciding to leave the TMNT for good and joins Landor and Merrick in the future, to sort out his unstable mutation. He wasn't really a great help to the turtles and got them in deeper trouble usually anyway. The editing is mostly unimpressive here, and it's the end of this little 3 episode mini-series.
"TURTLES TO THE SECOND POWER" GETS A: 2/5 RATING.
