“ Nightmares Recycled ” Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003) episode Season Code: S05E06 (Lost Season) Episode: 110 Original airdate Unaired Written by Roland Gonzalez Supervising Producer Lloyd Goldfine Producers: Gary Richardson Frederick U. Fierst Al Kahn Norman Grossfeld Thomas Kenney Supervising Director Roy Burdine Story Editor: Lloyd Goldfine Episode chronology ← Previous Next → "Beginning of the End" "Membership Drive"

"Nightmares Recycled" is the sixth episode of the "Lost 5th Season" of the animated series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

This episode was never completed. The script was finished and some animation had begun when 4Kids pulled the plug because it was deemed too controversial and violent for a children's program (apparently Hun and the Garbageman were conjoined twins that were surgically separated a back-alley surgeon with the Garbageman being discarded as 'garbage').

Apparently, that was just too much for Fox to allow. Since there was no chance of it airing, it was shelved in the early stages of production.

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Information

First Draft

Apparently in the first draft, Hun and Garbageman were separated at birth, with the surgeon discarding Garbageman being put in the trash.

Second Draft

In the second draft, as children, Hun was a healthy twin with a whole body, whilst the boy that would become Garbageman was the weaker of the pair, possessed no legs and was attached to Hun's torso. Desperate to be separated, Hun contacted a sinister back alley surgeon. After the surgery, Hun wraps Garbageman in blankets, renders him unconscious and then throws him in the bottom of a dumpster, leaving with zero remorse.

In the present, Garbageman kidnaps the turtles, Casey, and Hun(who recognizes Garbageman on sight), taking them to his hideout staffed by sub-human henchmen. Hun is forced to ally with the turtles and Jones. In the final battle, Garbageman is knocked into one of his pits of acid and dies gruesomely; his hand reaching out of acid and finally going limp as the Turtles look with pity. Hun was unmoved by his brother's demise and calmly says "good bye brother."

When the heroes and Hun are rescued by a Foot chopper, Hun allows the turtles and Casey to go home unattested as repayment for them saving his life.

This draft critiqued for being too dark in places by Peter Laird on his blog. Laird had issue with Hun's complete lack of empathy for his brother, he felt that Hun should have some small attachment to the twin he grew up with as it wasn't his fault he was the weaker of the pair. He also brought issues with Hun managing to recognize his brother on sight as well as Garbageman's gruesome demise, feeling the Hun connection gave the character much more potential

Laird proposed the following revisions [1] [2]:

That the surgeon blackmail Hun to give up his brother as payment after the surgery and Hun reluctantly giving up his Twin. The surgeon would keep the Hun's twin alive to use him for various sick experiments. Eventually the boy would turn the tables on the doctor and take the surgeon's resources for his future career as the Garbageman.

Hun would have a bit of love/hate relationship with his twin, with emphasis on hate in the present. Nevertheless Hun held nagging guilt for giving up his brother and had always assumed he died in the surgeon's captivity.

Explain the presence of Garbageman's mutant henchmen or make them normal humans.

The acid ending only be kept if it is revealed later Garbageman survived; presumably through giving himself an immunity to the acid he works with in his lair.

Whilst Hun shouldn't break down and sob at his brother's death, he should have more mixed emotions and his "Goodbye brother" be delivered with more sentimentality.

Third Draft

According to Dan Berger of NinjaTurtles.com the third and final draft went like this. [3]

Hun runs into the TMNT in a junkyard, but before they can fight, Garbageman shows up in a powerful new robotic suit and captures everyone. Garbageman takes his prisoners back to "Recycle World" (apparently his new realm). When everyone wakes up, Garbageman reveals that Hun and he were conjoined twins - but Hun hired a shady doctor to separate them. Hun left his twin behind, thinking that he would perish - but the doc performed experiments on him and turned him into Garbageman. Thus he's looking for revenge against the TMNT and his brother, Hun, and he drops them onto a conveyor belt that's heading for some giant, spinning blades. Our heroes escape and turn the tables on their foe. Garbageman ends up falling into a vat of acid and gets flushed out to sea by Hun. Hun and the Turtles leave, thinking that Garbageman is dead - but the final scene shows a bubbling slick of acid rising to the water's surface, with something alive within it - so it looks like Garbageman survived the acid bath.

It appears that Laird's revisions were implemented into the final script.

Major Characters

Episode

Voice-over introduction

Unknown; the episode never aired.

Plot Synopsis

Raphael, Donatello, Casey Jones, and April O'Neil’s evening salvage operation lands them a one-way ticket to Recycle World – the Garbageman’s deadly realm of refuse! As if fighting for their lives in a world of lethal compactors and shredders wasn’t bad enough, they’ve got to do it all with Hun – who’s not thrilled to reveal that he and Garbageman have something in common – DNA!

Quotes

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HUN- After I take care of my brother, I am so going to take care of you guys.

HUN Goodbye … brother

Trivia

Although the episode was not completed, the script was kept and small bits of it were criticized by one of TMNT's creators, Peter Laird, and released on his blog.