| “The Frankenstein Experiment” | |||||||
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| Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012 TV series) episode | |||||||
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| Season Code: | 508 | ||||||
| Episode: | 120 | ||||||
| Original airdate | October 4, 2017 | ||||||
| Written by | Brandon Auman | ||||||
| Supervising Producer | Patrick Krebs | ||||||
| Producers: | Brandon Auman | ||||||
| Directed by | Sebastian Montes | ||||||
| Voice Direction | Andrea Romano | ||||||
| Supervising Director | Ben Jones & Ciro Nieli | ||||||
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The Frankenstein Experiment is the 120th episode of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the 16th episode of the fifth season.
Synopsis
Savanti recruits Frankenstein's Monster and will soon unleash his creatures on the 21st Century.
Characters
Major Characters
- Donatello (Rob Paulsen)
- Dracula (Chris Sarandon)
- Frankenstein's Monster (Grant Moninger)
- Igor (Grant Moninger) (debut) (death)
- Leonardo (Seth Green)
- Michelangelo (Greg Cipes)
- Pharaoh Mummy (Grant Moninger)
- Raphael (Sean Astin)
- Renet (Ashley Johnson)
- Savanti Romero (Graham McTavish)
- Victor Frankenstein (Grant Moninger) (debut)
Minor Characters
- April O'Neil (illusion)
- Casey Jones (illusion)
- Karai (illusion)
- Pizza Face (illusion)
- Shredder/Super Shredder/Undead Shredder (Kevin Michael Richardson) (illusion)
- Vulko
Plot
The time and place is Germany in the year 1818. In an abandoned cemetery, Igor, the hunchbacked assistant of the scientist Viktor Frankenstein, looks for corpses for his "experiment" and complains bitterly about the impatience of his master, which he has to pay for. Suddenly the burial is shrouded in thick fog, and Igor finds himself immediately surrounded by Savanti Romero and his monsters - Dracula, the mummy, Raphael the vampire, and Vulko the werewolf- who demanded from him access to Viktor Frankenstein's experiment. However, tensions between Savanti and Dracula begin to appear as the vampire prince does not want to be subordinated and pursues his own plans for the conquest of the world...
Later After that, Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo and the time master Renet are looking for Savanti and her lost brother by a time gate near Castle Frankenstein. This act, however, has depleted the last energy reserves from Renet's Time Scepter thus posing the problem of how they should ever return to their own time. Unfortunately, their arrival does not go unnoticed by Savanti, and Raphael, the mummy and the werewolf are preparing an ambush in which they expose the friends to a series of nightmarish illusions that are conjured up by the mummy with magic. But as Michelangelo is confronted by a vision of his old enemy Pizza Face, he discovers the true nature of the attack and can free himself and his friends from the spell of illusions. As a result, Raphael appears in person before them and tries to convince them to voluntarily go to his side. When this is futile, he makes preparations to attack them, but the rising sun sends him and his monster cohorts fleeing.
Meanwhile, the rest of Savanti's troops meet with Igor's support in Frankenstein's lab, and with Dracula's hypnosis and Savantis knowledge from the future, they help the doctor to successfully complete his work on his creature, their last recruit. The turtles reach the castle later and are brought to the lab by Igor, where they try to stay under a pretext near Doctor Frankenstein. Only Donatello, himself a scientist, can convince Frankenstein by offering him his help in his resuscitation project, so the two spend the rest of the day with the final preparations for the final phase of the experiment, in which the electrical discharges of an upcoming storm along with Frankenstein's rejuvenation formula will eventually breathe life into his creature.
In the evening, just as the storm rages, the preparations are completed, and the body of the creature is lifted up to the top of the tower by a skylight to be hit by the lightning. The Experiment succeeds and the creature is revived, but Viktor reacts with disgust to the horrifying appearance of his creature and violates it, even though the creature sees him as his father. Michelangelo tries to approach the monster he calls "Frank," but just as he made progress, Savanti and his cohorts appear, and by hypnosis, Dracula causes Viktor Frankenstein to incite his creation on the Turtles. Donatello tears the doctor out of his trance with an electric shock, and he sends Frank out against Savanti. Igor repels the monster with a torch, but accidentally sets some spilled chemicals on fire, triggering a conflagration in the laboratory.
Frightened by the fire and appalled by the rejection of his "father," Frank flees to the top of the tower, where Michelangelo and Viktor beg him to come back to them. Meanwhile, Renet and the rest of the Turtles have to deal with Savantis monsters, where Igor is thrown out the window by Raphael as a reward for his services, and Raphael himself is captured by Donatello. Beset by Savanti, Renet also escapes up to the top of the tower, where she wants to use Frankenstein's apparatus and the lightning strikes of the thunderstorm to recharge the time scepter. With Savanti's involuntary assistance the plan succeeds, but then another lightning bolt strikes the roof and triggers an explosion under the mechanisms installed there. Renet can protect Frankenstein and her friends with the force of the scepter, but Frank is thrown down from the roof and picked up by Savanti's monsters who use his desire for friendship and acceptance to draw him to their side. Now with Frankenstein's creature in his entourage, Savanti opens the time gate, which brings him and his monsters to his final destination: New York City in the 21st century.
Trivia
- Renet's pronunciation of Igor's name as "Eye-gore" is a reference to the character's line in the film Young Frankenstein.
- Dracula claims that Savanti is Dr. Septimus Pretorious, a mad scientist from the 1935 film The Bride of Frankenstein.
- The recharge of the Time Scepter by a cosmic conjunction is a partial adaptation of a story element from the Mirage comic The Return of Savanti Romero.
- The year 1818, is the anniversary year of the novel Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley.
- The fact that the Dr. Frankenstein lives and works in a castle plays both on the legends about the castle Frankenstein (southeast of the Darmstadt district Eberstadt within boundaries of the municipality of Mill Valley) as well as on the 1931 Frankenstein film. A connection of Mary Shelley with the castle is questioned by various authors for the reasons described above. In addition, there is no mention of a castle in the novel.
- The gate, through which the Turtles and Renet enter the castle Frankenstein, is an exact replica of the castle gate of the real castle Frankenstein near Darmstadt.
- The Latin inscription on the gravestone "Et quod sol non lucebit" means "And that the sun never shines".