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Here is some of the FAQ on REBOOT.
Newsgroups: alt.tv.reboot,alt.cartoon.reboot,rec.arts.animation,rec.arts.tv
Subject: ReBoot FAQ, part 2A
Contents: Episode Guide, 1st season
Date: Wed Feb 7 06:00:06 PST 1996
From: Joe Smith <jsmith@inwap.com>
ReBoot: Opening
Saga Cell: Opening
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[ image='../img/soundbutton.gif' descr='audio' ]
ThemeSong.au (467K, 59 seconds @ 8000 Hz, SPARC format)
[ image='../img/soundbutton.gif' descr='audio' ]
Alliance:Introduc.wav (1.36M, 59 seconds @ 22255 Hz, PC format)
Alliance has a 4 megabyte QuickTime movie of the opening sequence on
the official ReBoot home page.
(It may take 53 minutes to download at 14.4Kb.)
== Opening Sequence ==
[ image='episodes/img/01fromnet.gif' ]
[ image='episodes/img/02andcities.gif' ]
[ image='episodes/img/03place.gif' ]
[ image='episodes/img/04mainframe.gif' ]
(music starts)
Blue-green skyscrapers on round bases, floating above yellow mountains.
"I come from the Net. Systems, people, cities,"
Smash through shiny sphere to starburst pattern (mostly purple, blue, and
yellow) with turquoise balls in concentric circles and flying octahedrons.
"to this place:"
Round city floating above blue-green sea. Silver and black industrial
areas and a lot of greenbelt park areas.
"Mainframe."
Bob walking into the diner.
"My format: Guardian."
Bob and Dot in warehouse facing brilliant light.
"To mend and defend."
Bob zaps light with swirling beam, several dodecahedrons stacked up.
Dot pressing buttons on numeric keypad.
"To defend my new-found friends."
Close-up of Dot.
"Their hopes"
Close-up of Enzo spinning his cap.
"and dreams."
Dot leaning up against Bob.
"To defend them"
Phong standing in front of pictures of Megabyte and his minions.
"from"
Binome-one and binome-zero.
"their enemies."
Megabyte in front of a flaming breach in the interface.
Close-up of Megabyte.
Hack and Slash.
Hexadecimal casting a spell.
Outside of city. (Created by: Gavin Blair, Phil Mitchell,
John Grace, Ian Pearson.)
Hexadecimal striding forward ("Created by" still showing).
Hex's football-shaped pet, Scuzzy.
Planet exploding with six fighter ships escaping.
Bob riding a dragon, dodging a fireball.
Large semi truck ("Boshbilt"). Driven by Dot with Enzo in uniform.
Hexadecimal playing buddy to Bob.
Enzo knocking Bob over in diner (Calvin Spline sign in background).
Landspeeders racing through cave.
Enzo flys zipboard into diner.
Enzo and Dot surprised.
Hovercraft racing through semicircular trench.
Something coming out of a flaming tear.
Frisket on top of a binome-one.
Megabyte catching a falling Dot.
Dot, Enzo, and Bob in a confrontational pose
(Executive Producer: Jay Firestone).
Background sky changing drastically
(Executive Producer: Steve Barron).
Purple cube with flashing white lightning descends on city.
"They say The User lives outside the Net"
Close-up on cube (Produced by: Christopher Brough).
"and inputs games for pleasure."
Close-up on Bob.
"No one knows for sure,"
Group shot.
"but I intend to find out."
Disc of light comes down on each character.
"ReBoot!"
Diamond logo: "R e B o o t".
To do: identify which episode each scene came from.
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==============================================================
ReBoot: Credits
Opening and Ending Credits
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The original copyright for ReBoot was in 1991.
= Voice Credits =
Bob: Michael Benyaer
Dot: Kathleen Barr
Enzo: Matthew Sinclair (was Jesse Moss)
Mike: Michael Donovan
Megabyte: Tony Jay
Phong: Michael Donovan
Hack: Gary Chalk
Slash: Scott MacNeil (was Phil Hayes)
Hexadecimal: Shirley Millner
Cecil: Michael Donovan
------------------------
Captain Capacitor: Long John Baldry
Mouse: Louise Vallance
AndrAIa: Andrea Libman
Gigabyte: Blu Mankuna
Data Nully: Gillian Anderson
= Opening credits, late 1st season =
Production for 1st season ended April 1995.
Created by: Gavin Blair, Phil Mitchell, John Grace, Ian Pearson
Executive Producers: Steve Barron, Stephane Reichel
Executive Producer: Ian Pearson
Produced by: Christopher Brough
= End credits, late 1st season =
Directed by: Zondag Entertainment
Executive Creative Consultant: Ian Pearson
Story Editor: Lane Raichert
Starring the Voices of: Michael Benyaer, Kathleen Barr, Matthew Sinclair
(was Jesse Moss), Tony Jay, Shirley Millner, Michael Donovan, Phil
Hayes, Gary Chalk, Louise Vallance
Voice Director: Michael Donovan (was Andrea Romano)
Associate Producer: Jeanie Lamb
Casting by: BLT Productions Ltd.
Talent Coordinators: Gail Fabrey, Jennifer Wilson
Production Design Consultants: Brendan McCarthy, Ian Gibson
Production Designers: Gerald J. Lauze, Chris Bartleman
Storyboard Supervision: Blair Peters
Supervising Animators: Gavin Blair, Phil Mitchell
Computer Animators: Russel Ang, Ken Ball, Steve Ball, Scott
Baltjes, Stephen Cooper, Jeff Cappleman, Andrew Doucette, C. Michael
Easton, Andrew "Spanky" Grant, Walter Hsieh, Gerald J. Lauze, Mark
Lemon, Ezekiel Norton, Colin Raesler, Morgan Ratsoy, Mark Schiemann,
Mike Skorey, Andrew Sokolowsky, Scott Speirs, Ken Steel, Philippe
Theroux, Chris Welman, Adam Wood, Kent Yu, Michaela Zabranska
Production Manager: Helen du Toit
Script Supervisor: Susan Turner
Editors: Dermot Shane, James Boshier, William Lau
Publicist: Carol Tavener (was Cheryl Blakeney)
Director of Technical Operations: Kelly Daniels
Post Production Supervisor: Anne Hoerber (was Chris Gibbons)
Technical Assistant: Alden Williams
Software Development: Chris Welman, Phil Peterson, Albert Ho
Production Assistants: Colin Cameron, Chris Quetsch, Stephen Cooper,
Barbara Dawson, Lorey Barnard
Production Accountant: Giuliana Bertuzzi
Production Secretary: Sharon Bond, Jennifer Scherer
Music Supervisor: Robert Buckley
Dialogue Recorded at: Uptown Studios
Supervising Sound Engineer: Roger Monk, C.A.S.
Sound Effects Editor: Marcel Duperreault
Audio Post Production: Dick & Roger's Sound Studio Ltd.
Video Post Production: SFX MAINFRAME Ltd. - Vancouver, Canada
Recorded in: Stereo Surround
Production Executives: Adam Whittaker, Josanne B. Lovick
Executive in charge of Production: Mark Ralston
Co-Produced in association with YTV
All Rights Reserved Worldwide (C) ATFL (1991) III Limited Partnership
Co-Produced by BLT Productions, Ltd. - Vancouver, British Columbia
and Alliance
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==============================================================
ReBoot: Episode Guide
Episode Guide
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[ image='ytv/YTV-icon.gif' descr='YTV' ]
[ image='images/ABCsmall.gif' descr='(ABC)' ]
* Air dates for Canada (YTV)
* Air dates for USA (ABC)
* Air dates international
* Networks in other countries that show ReBoot
Back in January of 1995, the first 10 episodes had been shown, the next 3 were
in production, and the networks ordered 10 episodes for the second season.
== Promo spots ==
In the fall of 1994, ReBoot was prempted for several weeks.
During that time, producers offered teasters to
keep audience interest up.
== 1st season (1994-1995) ==
01 "The Tearing"
Megabyte tries to get a tear stabilized into a portal so that he
can invade the Supercomputer.
Game: Outer space simulation
02 "Racing the Clock"
Bob delivers a package to Hexadecimal and gets caught in the
backlash. Game: Multi-level race (Forumla-1 cars, hovercraft,
jet planes)
03 "Quick and the Fed"
Dot gets brain-wiped by a magnet.
Game: White Knight
04 "Medusa Bug"
Hexadecimal unleashes a viral bug, turning everything to stone.
Game: none
05 "The TIFF"
Dot and Bob won't speak to each other.
Game: Starship Alcatraz
06 "In the Belly of the Beast"
Frisket swallows an old UNFORMAT command.
Game: none
07 "The Crimson Binome"
Captain Capacitor, the software pirate, loots Mainframe but is
bested by Admiral Dot.
Game: none
08 "Enzo the Smart"
Enzo is smarter when Mainframe runs at half speed.
Game: Olympians
09 "Wizards, Warriors, and a Word from our Sponsor"
Mike the TV is a winning part of the team.
Game: Dungeon Deep
10 "The Great Brain Robbery"
Megabyte hires Mouse to get inside Bob's brain. She gets Enzo instead.
Game: (has ended as story opens)
== 2nd season (1995-1996) ==
Episodes 11, 12 and 13 were shown on YTV in Canada as part of the 1st season.
ABC showed "Talent Night" on 12-Aug-95, then several weeks of 1st season
reruns, and then broadcast "Identity Crisis" as the first two episodes
of the 2nd season (9-Sep-95 and 16-Sep-95).
The opening was changed for the second season.
11 "Talent Night"
Dot auditions several acts for Enzo's birthday party, including
the guys from "Money For Nothing" and the Small Town Binomes.
Game: none from the User.
"Saturday Morning Preview"
On Friday evening, 8-Sep-95, ABC ran a preview of the new
Saturday morning line-up. Megabyte tried to take over the show.
12 "Identity Crisis, part 1"
Dot is responsible for the safekeeping of the binomes PID codes,
but Megabyte gets a hold of them.
Game: Fun House
13 "Identity Crisis, part 2"
Dot is in a world run by Megabyte. She lost the game (or did she?)
Game: Fun House
14 "Infected"
Megabyte interferes with the scheduled upgrade, infiltrates the Core.
Game: none, but Dot does a neat Sigourney Weaver imitation.
15 "High Code"
A code master comes looking for a master who has left the guild.
Game: Wild West Locomotive
16 "When Games Collide"
Megabyte steals energy from a game cube. The user sends in another
game cube which merges with the first to form an out-of-control game.
17 "Bad Bob"
Megabyte attacks the Principal Office. His theft of the core energy
messes up the game cube.
Game: Mad Max (Road Warrior)
18 "Painted Windows"
Hexadecimal paints the town all sorts of pretty colors.
Game: none, Hex on the loose is worse than any game.
19 "andrAIa" (formerly "Enzo's Friend")
Enzo has no one his age to play with until he meets an AI game sprite.
Game: Undersea Adventure
20 "Nullzilla"
A "web spore" attacks Hexadecimal, the Nulls become monster, and the
Mainframe team combine to form a giant robot.
Game: none - this is start of a four-part story
21 "Gigabyte"
Megabyte is attacked by the web spore. Hexadecimal joins him, the
result is Gigabyte. Mouse saves the day.
22 "Trust No One" (formerly "Energy Vampire")
A visit from the CGI agents, Fax Modem and Data Nully.
The web spore has teeth and gets stronger; the shadow Guardians
are no help at all. "TO BE CONTINUED"
23 "Web World Wars"
Mainframe has to fight an all-out war as the Web invades.
This is the end of the four-part story.
Short schedule of upcoming episodes: (January and February)
Canadian schedule: YTV updated 19-Jan-96
Thu 8:00p Sun noon Mon 7:30p (1995-1996 schedule)
04-Jan-96 07-Jan-96 08-Jan-96 "Nullzilla" (HD attacked) NEW (part 1 of 4)
11-Jan-96 14-Jan-96 15-Jan-96 "Gigabyte" (MB attacked) NEW (part 2 of 4)
18-Jan-96 21-Jan-96 22-Jan-96 "Painted Windows"
25-Jan-96 28-Jan-96 29-Jan-96 "Trust No One" (X-files) NEW (part 3 of 4)
01-Feb-96 04-Feb-96 05-Feb-96 "Web World Wars" (finale) NEW (part 4 of 4)
08-Feb-96 11-Feb-96 12-Feb-96 "AndrAIa"
U.S. schedule: ABC updated 4-Jan-96
06-Jan-96 Sat 10:30am(ET)/9:30am(PT) "High Code"
13-Jan-96 Sat 10:30am(ET)/9:30am(PT) "When Games Collide"
20-Jan-96 Sat 10:30am(ET)/9:30am(PT) "Bad Bob"
27-Jan-96 Sat 10:30am(ET)/9:30am(PT) "Talent Night"
03-Feb-96 Sat 10:30am(ET)/9:30am(PT) "Painted Windows"
10-Feb-96 Sat 10:30am(ET)/9:30am(PT) "AndrAIa"
17-Feb-96 Sat 10:30am(ET)/9:30am(PT) "Identity Crisis, part 1"
24-Feb-96 Sat 10:30am(ET)/9:30am(PT) "Identity Crisis, part 2"
02-Mar-96 Sat 10:30am(ET)/9:30am(PT) "Web World Wars" (finale) NEW (part 4)
YTV Schedule
ABC Schedule
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==============================================================
ReBoot: Episode Guide - United States
Episode Guide: ABC
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Saturday morning shedule:
ABC CBS Fox WB
Eastern 10:30am ReBoot Ninja Turtles X-Men Earthworm Jim
Central 9:30am ReBoot Ninja Turtles X-Men Earthworm Jim
Mountain 8:30am ReBoot Ninja Turtles X-Men Earthworm Jim
Pacific 9:30am ReBoot Ninja Turtles X-Men Pinky & Brain
"ReBoot" is not being shown on some ABC stations:
WCVB channel 5 in Boston has decided not to carry Reboot
until "college football season is over in December".
WFTV in Orlando does not appear to be showing ReBoot at all.
KSTP channel 5 in Minneapolis/St.Paul shows "paid programming".
If you know of any other ABC affiliates that are not showing ReBoot, please
send e-mail to jsmith@inwap.com so that I can update this page.
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Thanks to Jeff Toschlog for providing the initial list of episodes (March 95).
01 " THE TEARING " 09-10-94
02 " RACING THE CLOCK " 09-17-94
03 " QUICK AND THE FED " 09-24-94
01R " The Tearing " (r) 10-01-94
04 " MEDUSA BUG " 10-08-94
PREEMPTED 10-15
PREEMPTED 10-22
PREEMPTED 11-05
PREEMPTED 11-12
PREEMPTED 11-19
03R " Quick And The Fed " (r) 11-26-94
06 " IN THE BELLY OF THE BEAST " 12-03-94
04R " Medusa Bug " (r) 12-10-94
01R " The Tearing " (r) 12-17-94
PREEMPTED 12-24
05 " THE TIFF " 12-31-94
07 " THE CRIMSON BINOME " 01-07-95
====================================================
03R " Quick And The Fed " (r) 01-14-95
06R " In The Belly Of The Beast " (r) 01-21-95
02R " Racing The Clock " (r) 01-28-95
04R " Medusa Bug " (r) 02-04-95
08 " ENZO THE SMART " 02-11-95
01R " The Tearing " (r) 02-18-95
09 " WIZARDS, WARRIORS AND A WORD FROM OUR SPONSOR" 02-25-95
05R " The Tiff " (r) 03-04-95
07R " The Crimson Binome " (r) 03-11-95
10 " THE GREAT BRAIN ROBBERY " 03-18-95
====================================================
03R " Quick & The Fed " (r) 03-25-95
06R " In the Belly of the Beast " (r) 04-01-95
02R " Racing The Clock " (r) 04-08-95
04R " Medusa Bug " (r) 04-15-95
08R " Enzo The Smart " (r) 04-22-95
01R " The Tearing " (r) 04-29-95
09R " Wizards, Warriors and a Word From Our Sponsor" 05-06-95
05R " The Tiff " (r) 05-13-95
06R " The Crimson Binome " (r) 05-20-95
10R " The Great Brain Robbery " (r) 05-27-95
====================================================
03R " Quick & The Fed " (r) 06-03-95
06R " In the Belly of the Beast " (r) 06-10-95
02R " Racing The Clock " (r) 06-17-95
04R " Medusa Bug " (r) 06-24-95
08R " Enzo The Smart " (r) 07-01-95
01R " The Tearing " (r) 07-08-95
09R " Wizards, Warriors and a Word From Our Sponsor" 07-15-95
PRE-EMPTED by Golf 07-22-95
05R " The Tiff " (r) 07-29-95 9:30
06R " The Crimson Binome " (r) 07-29-95 10:00
10R " The Great Brain Robbery " (r) 08-05-95 9:30
03R " Quick & The Fed " (r) 08-05-95 10:00
11 " TALENT NIGHT " 08-12-95 9:30
06R " In the Belly of the Beast " (r) 08-12-95 10:00
02R " Racing The Clock " (r) 08-19-95 9:30
04R " Medusa Bug " (r) 08-19-95 10:00
08R " Enzo The Smart " (r) 08-26-95 9:30
01R " The Tearing " (r) 08-26-95 10:00
09R " Wizards, Warriors ..." 09-02-95 9:30
05R " The Tiff " (r) 09-02-95 10:00
12 " IDENTITY CRISIS (part 1) " 09-09-95 10:30 ET, 9:30 PT
13 " IDENTITY CRISIS (part 2) " 09-16-95 10:30 ET, 9:30 PT
14 " INFECTED " 09-23-95 10:30 ET, 9:30 PT
15 " HIGH CODE " 09-30-95 10:30 ET, 9:30 PT
16 " WHEN GAMES COLLIDE " 10-07-95 10:30 ET, 7:30 PT (football)
17 " BAD BOB " 10-14-95 10:30 ET, 9:30 PT
11R " Talent Night " (r) 10-21-95 10:30 ET, 9:30 PT
04R " Medusa Bug " (r) 10-28-95 10:30 ET, 9:30 PT
18 " PAINTED WINDOWS " NEW 11-04-95 10:30 ET, 9:30 PT
19 " ANDRAIA " NEW 11-11-95 10:30 ET, 9:30 PT
ReBoot is rescheduled on the West Coast for 3 weeks of College Football.
Some stations will be showing it 2 hours early, check your local listings.
12R " Identity Crisis (part 1) " (r) 11-18-95 10:30 ET, 7:30 PT (football)
13R " Identity Crisis (part 2) " (r) 11-25-95 10:30 ET, 7:30 PT (football)
14R " Infected " 12-02-95 10:30 ET, 7:30 PT (football)
PRE-EMPTED by "Twas the Night Before Bumpy" Xmas special 12-09-95
20 " NULLZILLA " NEW 12-16-95 10:30 ET, 9:30 PT (1 of 4)
21 " GIGABYTE " NEW 12-23-95 10:30 ET, 9:30 PT (2 of 4)
ReBoot will be rescheduled on the West Coast 12-30 due to NFL Playoffs.
22 " TRUST NO ONE " (X-Files) NEW 12-30-95 10:30 ET, 8:30 PT (3, NFL)
15R " High Code " (r) 01-06-96
16R " When Games Collide " (r) 01-13-96
17R " Bad Bob " (r) 01-20-96
11R " Talent Night " (r) 01-27-96
18R " Painted Windows " (r) 02-03-96
19R " AndrAIa " (r) 02-10-96
12R " Identity Crisis (part 1) " (r) 02-17-96
13R " Identity Crisis (part 2) " (r) 03-24-96
23 " WEB WORLD WARS" NEW 03-02-96 FINALE (4 of 4)
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[ image='../images/ABC.gif' descr='(ABC)' ]
Note that there were only 7 episodes from September 1994 to February 1995.
On January 11th, 1995, the show was renewed for a minimum of 23 episodes; 6
more for the first season and 10 more for the second season. The first half of
the second batch of episodes hit the air in the middle of February, and
the second half will be part of the second season (Fall, 1995)
The second season on ABC will start in the Fall of 1995. There will be
several more stories with Hexadecimal, and Mouse will be back again.
Note from Jeff Bryer:
ABC in Seattle has been airing an hour of
ReBoot before the rest of the country decided to do it. The
first episode aired at 6:30am PST/PDT with the second episode
at 9:00am. Last week it switched to 6:00am and 9:00am. And Seattle's
airings do not follow the episode guide that Joe posts (ie
last week they aired "The Tearing").
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==============================================================
ReBoot: Episode Guide - international
ReBoot showing in other countries
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=== United Kingdom (ITV) ===
Started January 4, 1995.
After-school show: Wednesdays at 4:15pm
Nine consecutive weeks, then a gap before tenth episode was delivered.
=== Australia ===
Date: Wed, 03 Jan 96 15:28:09 -0800
Organization: Nickelodeon Australia
Subject: nickelodeon australia airings
The newest iternational affiliate of Viacom Inc.'s Nickelodeon has
secured the rights to air "ReBoot." The series premieres Saturday,
February 3 with a four episode marathon to kick off the series premiere.
After the 3rd, ReBoot will air every Saturday night at 8.30pm as part
of the SNICK (Saturday Night Nickelodeon) line up.
Todd Phillips
Director, Commuications
Nickelodeon Australia
=== Japan ===
Date: Tue, 19 Sep 95 14:12:15 0900
From: tomio@mew.co.jp (Steve Madsen)
Just for your info . . . "Reboot" was on Japanese TV a few months ago.
As is common practice here, the stereo broadcast capability was used
instead to broadcast bilingually, so that either English or dubbed
Japanese could be heard.
I didn't realize it was a popular Saturday morning cartoon in the U.S.
until moments ago . . .
Steve Madsen
Virtual Reality R&D Lab, IS Center
Matsushita Electric Works, Ltd.
1048, Kadoma, Osaka 571 JAPAN
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==============================================================
ReBoot: Episode Guide - United Kingdom
Episode Guide for ITV
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Started January 4, 1995.
After-school show: Wednesdays at 4:15pm
Nine consecutive weeks, then a gap before tenth episode was delivered.
As soon as I get any details about the ITV air dates, I will put them here.
If you have any details about what episodes where shown when in the UK,
please send mail to jsmith@inwap.com
so that I can update this page.
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==============================================================
ReBoot: Episode Guide - Canada
Episode Guide
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[ image='../ytv/YTV-robot.gif' descr='(YTV)' ]
As soon as I get any more details about the Canadian air dates, I will put
it here. Some of the info here came from teddy@inforamp.net (in alt.tv.reboot)
and Jeff Bryer (jbryer@watson.mbb.sfu.ca).
If you have any details about what episodes where shown when in Canada,
please send mail to jsmith@inwap.com
so that I can update this page.
Old schedule (1994-1995)
New episode, Wednesday at 7:30pm ET
First repeat, Friday at 7:30pm ET
Second repeat, Sunday at noon ET
Wed 7:30p Fri 7:30p Sun noon (1994-1995 schedule)
08-May-95 10-May-95 12-May-95 "Talent Night" NEW
02-Aug-95 04-Aug-95 06-Aug-95 "Identity Crisis, part 1" NEW
09-Aug-95 11-Aug-95 13-Aug-95 "Identity Crisis, part 2" NEW
---------------------------------------
New episode, Thursday at 8:00pm ET
First repeat, Sunday at noon ET
Second repeat, Monday at 7:30pm ET
Thu 8:00p Sun noon Mon 7:30p (1995-1996 schedule)
14-Aug-95 17-Aug-95 18-Aug-95 ???
31-Aug-95 03-Sep-95 04-Sep-95 "Infected" NEW
07-Sep-95 17-Sep-95 11-Sep-95 "High Code" NEW
^v^v^v^v^ (WGC was swapped in due to a problem with HC)
14-Sep-95 10-Sep-95 18-Sep-95 "When Games Collide" NEW
21-Sep-95 24-Sep-95 25-Sep-95 "Bad Bob" NEW
28-Sep-95 01-Oct-95 02-Oct-95 "Identity Crisis, part 1"
05-Oct-95 08-Oct-95 09-Oct-95 "Identity Crisis, part 2"
12-Oct-95 15-Oct-95 16-Oct-95 "Infected"
19-Oct-95 22-Oct-95 23-Oct-95 "High Code"
26-Oct-95 29-Oct-95 30-Oct-95 "When Games Collide"
02-Nov-95 05-Nov-95 06-Nov-95 "Painted Windows" NEW
09-Nov-95 12-Nov-95 13-Nov-95 "andrAIa" NEW
16-Nov-95 19-Nov-95 20-Nov-95 "Bad Bob"
23-Nov-95 26-Nov-95 27-Nov-95 "The Crimson Binome"
30-Nov-95 03-Dec-95 04-Dec-95 "Enzo the Smart"
07-Dec-95 10-Dec-95 11-Dec-95 "Wizards, Warriors, and a Word from our Sponsor"
14-Dec-95 17-Dec-95 --------- "The Great Brain Robbery"
21-Dec-95 24-Dec-95 25-Dec-95 prempted due to Christmas schedule
27-Dec-95 Wednesday at 9:00am "Infected" different day
27-Dec-95 Wednesday at 8:30pm "Nulzilla" NEW different day
27-Dec-95 Wednesday at 9:00pm "Gigabyte" NEW different day
28-Dec-95 31-Dec-95 01-Jan-96 "Talent Night"
29-Dec-95 Friday at 10:00am "High Code" different day
According to a schedule I got from Alliance back in November, YTV was
planning on showing "Trust No One" and "Web World Wars" as a double-feature
on Wednesday. Apparently YTV decided it would be better to show the
new episodes on the regular days, when more people would be expecting it.
As of 4-Jan-96, here is the most recent schedule:
Thu 8:00p Sun noon Mon 7:30p (1995-1996 schedule)
03-Jan-96 Wednesday at 10:00am "When Games Collide" different day
03-Jan-96 Wednesday at 9:30pm "Identity Crisis, part 1" different day
03-Jan-96 Wednesday at 10:00pm "Identity Crisis, part 2" different day
05-Jan-96 Friday at 10:00am "Bad Bob" different day
04-Jan-96 07-Jan-96 08-Jan-96 "Nullzilla" NEW (part 1 of 4)
11-Jan-96 14-Jan-96 15-Jan-96 "Gigabyte" NEW (part 2 of 4)
Because WWW might not be ready by January 25th, YTV decided to reschedule
it for February 1st. "Trust No One" was pushed back a week so that parts
3 and 4 would air back to back. That's why "Painted Windows" on the 18th.
18-Jan-96 21-Jan-96 22-Jan-96 "Painted Windows"
25-Jan-96 28-Jan-96 29-Jan-96 "Trust No One" (X-files) NEW (part 3 of 4)
01-Feb-96 04-Feb-96 05-Feb-96 "Web World Wars" (finale) NEW (part 4 of 4)
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ReBoot: Teaster clips
Reboot Episode 00
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== Teasers ==
From: William Blair x3-2821 (blairw@tac433.med.ge.com)
Date: Tue, 30 May 95 12:29:40 -0500
To: jsmith@inwap.com
Subject: Reboot clips
I'm not sure if it was done on every network, but during the weeks in
which Reboot was preempted (fall of 1994), short Reboot clips where shown.
There was a short (15-30 second) scene shown from (I'm assuming) a
non-existent episode where Megabyte gets ahold of the Medusa virus, and
spreads it over mainframe. There were a total of 5 or 6 of these out-takes.
I haven't seen them mentioned or described anywhere. I'm assuming they're
common knowledge. I don't have access to the alt.*.reboot newsgroup, so
I can't ask there.
--
William G. Blair Phone: 414-896-2821
Service Systems Fax: 414-524-5305
GE Medical Systems Internet: blairw@med.ge.com
P.O. Box 414, W-597
Milwaukee, WI 53201
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== Details ==
Date: Wed, 26 Jul 95 09:46:21 CDT
From: blairw@iscmed.med.ge.com (William Blair x3-2821)
Subject: Reboot clips
Here are the details on the teasters I mentioned.
= TEASER 1 =
The clip starts with the standard Reboot opening sequence.
[ image='img/10virus1.gif' ]
[ image='img/01fromnet.gif' ]
[ image='img/02andcities.gif' ]
[ image='img/03place.gif' ]
[ image='img/04mainframe.gif' ]
[ image='img/11virus2.gif' ]
BOB "I come from the Net. From systems... people...
cities... to this place... Mainframe!" We see the standard
overhead shot of Mainframe when suddenly it starts turning gray from
one edge and heading toward the middle. We pull back from the
image, and we find ourselves beside Megabyte looking at Mainframe
through a Vid Window.
[ image='img/12mbwatch.gif' ]
MEGABYTE "Oh Bob! Did you really think that only Hexadecimal
could create a Medusa bug?" Megabyte glances at his finger tips in
a self-satisfied way.
[ image='img/13mbgloat.gif' ]
MEGABYTE "You'll soon find out hers is quite inferior to mine."
The camera moves to a close up of Megabyte's face.
[ image='img/14end.gif' ]
MEGABYTE "Once Mainframe is offline, who knows which systems
might be next..." The words "To be continued..." appear on the
bottom of the screen.
= TEASER 2 =
[ image='img/20logo.gif' ]
The clip starts by displaying the Reboot icon, but it's gray marble. Bob speaks.
BOB "With Megabyte infecting Mainframe with the Medusa
virus, there is only one place for me to turn...Hexadecimal!" The
scene shifts to a closeup of Hexadecimal sitting on her throne.
[ image='img/21hex.gif' ]
HEXADECIMAL "Why Bob, it's always a pleasure to see you."
Camera shifts behind Hexadecimal to view Bob over Hexadecimal's
shoulder. Scuzzy is watching.
[ image='img/22hexbob.gif' ]
BOB "Listen, I've got no down time for inputting! You
have to help me erase the Medusa virus!" Camera returns to close up
of Hexadecimal.
[ image='img/23gotidea.gif' ]
HEXADECIMAL "As much as I hate Megabyte, I kind of like the
chaos his virus is creating. I've got a better idea. Why don't you
stay here with me, and..." Camera jumps to a closeup of Bob.
[ image='img/24wontstay.gif' ]
BOB "Me, stay here with you?!? I don't think so."
Bob turns away from Hexadecimal.
[ image='img/25leave.gif' ]
BOB "There's gotta be a way to save Mainframe, and I'll
find it...somehow!" The words "To be continued..." appear on the
bottom of the screen.
= TEASER 3 =
The clip starts by displaying the Reboot icon with ominous music in the
background. We then see Bob flying over Mainframe.
[ image='img/30city.gif' ]
BOB "The Medusa virus has turned the entire city of
Mainframe to stone, and if I don't act soon, the effect will be
irreversible!" Suddenly, a beeping noise is heard.
BOB "Glitch, vid window!" A wid window appears, and we
see Phong. We hear the noise of the virus in the background.
BOB "Phong! You're all right!"
[ image='img/31phong1.gif' ]
PHONG "Not for long, young sprite. The virus is
downloading my door as we speak!" The noise of the virus gets
louder.
BOB "I'll be right over!"
PHONG "No time! Besides, I need you to search and find
the Trias Effect."
BOB "Trias Effect?"
The noise of the virus becomes extremely loud.
[ image='img/32phong2.gif' ]
PHONG "Yes, only that can stop..."
Suddenly the background behind Phong, and then Phong himself, turns
to stone.
BOB "Phong!" Bob looks toward the camera.
[ image='img/33oh-no.gif' ]
BOB "Oh no, now what am I going to do?!?" The words "To
be continued..." appear on the bottom of the screen.
= TEASER 4 =
[ image='img/20logo.gif' ]
The clip starts by displaying the Reboot icon with music in the background.
We see Bob standing in the Principal Office. As he speaks, the camera slowly
pans over the frozen forms of Phong, Enzo, and Dot.
[ image='img/43dot.gif' ]
[ image='img/42enzo.gif' ]
[ image='img/41phong.gif' ]
[ image='img/40bob.gif' ]
BOB "Megabyte has infected Mainframe with his deadliest
program of all... the Medusa virus. Now everyone I've ever cared
for has been reformatted to stone. But before he was infected,
Phong mentioned the Trias Effect. It may be my only clue to saving
Mainframe." The camera closes in on Bob's face.
[ image='img/44portal.gif' ]
BOB "There's only one place I can go for the answer.
Glitch, portal!" Glitch flies from Bob's wrist, and a large silver
sphere appears in front of Bob.
[ image='img/45saveyou.gif' ]
BOB "The supercomputer! That's where I'll find the
Trias Effect, and a way to save you Dot. I promise!" The words
"To be continued..." appear on the bottom of the screen.
= WRAPUP =
[This info comes from InfraPink@aol.com]
Just before the first NEW show, Bob comes back from the
supercomputer and gets glitch to enact the Trias effect and cure
everything. Everybody adulates Bob. Then he turns to the camera and
says, 'Okay, you can roll the opening now.' Or something to that
effect.
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==============================================================
ReBoot: "The Tearing"
Reboot Episode 01
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=== "THE TEARING" ===
* Synopsis
* References
== Title credits ==
Written by Mark Hoffmeier
Story by Lane Raichert, Mark Hoffmeier
== Synopsis ==
A tear is found in mainframe and Megabyte plans to use it to access the
Supercomputer. But only two things can stabilize a tear into a portal: A
Guardian or a game. Megabyte attempts to strike a deal with Bob, luring
him to his base where an army stands waiting to infiltrate the
Supercomputer. Bob refuses to cooperate and manages to escape, but then
a game cube descends. The game is an outer space spaceship
simulator. Megabyte, Bob, and Dot enter the game, where MB infects the
user and takes control, heading for the tear which has now become a
portal. It's up to Bob and Dot to stop him.
== Story ==
Hack and Slash, each riding on the front of an armored tank, chase Bob into
the city, where he stands his ground. The two henchmen come at Bob from
different directions, and the predictable happens when Bob steps out of the
way. Megabyte shows up and asks for a simple favor. When Bob refuses, MB
tells him to think of his friends.
The story jumps forward to the next day, when the alarm clock goes off,
throwing Bob into the shower and hair styler (where he emerges with gold
plated hair). A panic call comes in from Enzo, who informs Bob that Dot's
Diner has been trashed. (Signs down, windows broken, tables overturned.)
While the group is overlooking the damage, Megabyte shows up in a Double Sided
Vid Window. As long as Bob does one little favor, MB will try to make sure
that this sort of thing won't happen again.
The standoff is interrupted by an incoming game. Megabyte orders his legions
to make sure that Bob does not play a game until the favor is done.
They are successful at keeping Bob out, and this time, the User wins. The
entire sector is off-line and nullified. (There is a big dark hole where
the Game cube had been, and the sprites that had been in the game are no
where to be seen.
Bob goes to see Phong at Dot's request. After defeating Phong at a game of
Pong, Phong explains that COMMAND.COM has tried to eliminate Megabyte at
every upgrade, but the virus is very clever and has bad file servers in
every sector.
Bob shows up at Megabyte's Tor and is very convincing at being impressed
with MB's power. Down in the lower levels, Megabyte has massed an army,
hundreds of tanks and thousands of viral binomes, waiting for a door and a
bridge to be opened. MB has partially controlled a Class 12 tear leading
to the Super Computer. (The tear is a large, nebulous ball of flashing
blue and white light.) The favor is for Bob to stabilize the tear into a
portal. (Only games dropped by the User and Guardians are able to stabilize
a tear.) Bob proves that he can use Glitch to create a portal, but is
yanked back by the leash that Megabyte has put on him. Hack and Slash show
up carrying Dot, and during the distraction Bob knocks over the control
console, allowing the tear to break free.
Just then another Game cube descends, to Megabyte's delight. The Game takes
place on an aircraft carrier, and Megabyte infects the User's fighter craft.
"Alpha wing clear of deck; proceed heading 1138, stay frosty." The tear
has been stabilized into a portal at the end of the third level.
The battle goes through an asteroid field, much like the one in Star Wars,
and Dot fires the shot which destroys the battle cruiser at the second level.
The third level is an ice tunnel, which takes out all but three ships; Bob,
Dot, and Megabyte. During the battle, MB's ship is shot down, he slices the
wing off of Bob's ship, which takes out Dot's ship. Bob ends up hanging
from a stalactite, then uses Glitch as a rope to get over the portal and
drop in. This ends the game and destabilizes the tear. MB threatens Dot
with some really nasty fingernails, but Bob comes back, and the tear/portal
disappears completely. Bob boasts that this was a result of a command that
he picked up at the Super Computer's armory, and sets off another two
commands to make him and Dot disappear. Megabyte assumes it was a RETURN
command and orders everyone back to the Diner. When he leaves, an invisible
Bob says "hidden file commands, ya gotta love 'em."
Later, at the Diner, Bob says that Supercomputer was a nice place to visit,
but he'd rather stay in Mainframe. Cecil complains that it is not his
function to clean up, as more pieces of the Diner fall down.
== References ==
* Phong shading is used to simulate shading and light in 3-D graphics.
* Pong is the original video game that made Atari famous.
* COMMAND.COM - the command processor for MS-DOS. It is the program
" prompt.
* The sign on a moving van: Two Small Sprites with Big Cpu's Transfer Co.
refers to the Two Small Men With Big Hearts Moving Company of Vancouver.
* THX-1138 is a film by George Lucas, way before he did Star Wars.
* MS-DOS has hidden files (such as IO.SYS and MSDOS.SYS
that do not show up in regular directory listings.
== Did You Notice ==
* The 8-ball, rotating like a Union 76 ball, outside Bob's apartment.
* In a frame marked Home Sweet Home is a picture of The Net.
* The alarm clock is set for 8:08, which almost spells BOB.
* The game is based on Lucas Art's "Rebel Assault". Jim Little
(jiml@teleport.com) says "The donut-shaped asteroid (complete
with Bob winking at the camera) and ice caves make it very obvious."
* When the enemy battleship is blown up, for a single frame, you can see an
x-ray of Dot's face. Noted by Greg Nesmith (gnesmith@bugs.uark.edu).
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==============================================================
ReBoot: "Racing the Clock"
Reboot Episode 02
---------------------------------------------------------------------
=== "RACING THE CLOCK" ===
* Synopsis
* References
== Title credits ==
Written by Mark Edens, Lane Raichert
Story by Mark Edens, Ian Pearson
== Synopsis ==
Enzo wants to be successful, like his sister, so he starts up an overnite
delivery service. Megabyte uses the service to send a booby trapped gift
to Hexadecimal, but Bob ends up delivering it instead. Dot and Enzo try
to catch up to Bob before the bomb goes off, and get sucked into a game.
== Story ==
The opening scene is the best view of Dot's Diner that have been shown. It
shows the relationship to Baudway and the buildings with billboards behind it.
Enzo has taken over the Diner with signs pointing to Enzo's Overwrite
Delivery Service. His first customer is Megabyte, who wants Enzo to deliver
a package to Hexadecimal. The contents are a surprise.
Dot and Bob are in a storeroom on the lower level where Bob uses Glitch to
mend a tear. (The tear is a green glowy globe that moves through walls and
causes destruction to pieces of Mainframe.) Just as the tear is mended, Enzo
walks in announcing his first customer. He accidentally lets on that it is
going to Hexadecimal, whereupon Bob and Dot figure it is probably a bomb.
Glitch's x-ray function shows it to be a mask with a clock in it, not a bomb.
Dot refuses to let Enzo go to Hexadecimal's place in Lost Angles (too
dangerous) and gets Bob to deliver the package instead.
Hexadecimal is in her lair, trying on her various masks, when Scuzzy reports
that Megabyte is having Enzo deliver a DELETE command masqued as a mask.
Lost Angles is shown to be a dreary island, connected to the rest of
Mainframe by a creepy looking bridge. As Bob flys his zipboard through one
arch, he is magically transported to another arch heading another
direction. "Why do I always get lost in Lost Angles?", he asks. He gets
surrounded by a pack of Nulls (shapeless, worm like critters) and yells at
them to find someone else's energy to eat. This is when Hexadecimal opens
up a hole in the ground and brings him in. She refuses delivery, slaps the
mask on Bob, and sends him flying in the direction of Megabyte's place.
(The time-delayed DELETE command has been activated.) Enzo overhears HD
gloating, and rushes to get Dot to warn Bob.
They almost catch up to Bob when an incoming game descends on the city. Bob
jumps into the game, and Dot drags Enzo in as well. The game is Formula-1.
The first lap has racing cars, complete with a nitro boost; the second level
has hovercraft doing a slalom through a mine field; the third level is
low-flying jet planes going through tunnels and loop-de-loop. Dot tries to
get Bob's attention by driving a gasoline tanker truck onto the raceway.
Bob ejects in time, but the blast has caused game corruption, resulting in
an infinite DATA/ELSE-IF loop. The implosion starts sucking in everything
from the game. Bob saves a binome from being sucked in, and everyone
ends up safely outside when the game cube implodes.
Enzo appologizes for not "copying and pasting the truth". Megabyte
tells Enzo he's fired, which is just fine with the young sprite. Of course
the replacements that MB has to deliver the next bomb are Hack and Slash.
They return, with the bomb, stating that Hex says she already has one.
Kaboom!
== References ==
* Cifelli Tires - combination of Pirelli (the tire company) and
Benny Cifelli, the sales rep for SGI.
* Plutonium Graphics - play on Silicon Graphics, the company that
makes the workstations used to create ReBoot.
* Boshbilt instead of Peterbilt on the tanker truck. (James "Bosh"
Boshier is the show's Editor.
== Did You Notice ==
* "Main Frame Sluggers" on the baseball gloves Hack and Slash are wearing
(while trying to keep an enthusiastic Enzo from pusing the Vid Window in).
* Null Away billboard.
* SL McGinty Motors (billboard at race track).
* Silicon Snacks: Micro-Chips (at race track).
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==============================================================
ReBoot: "Quick and the Fed"
Reboot Episode 03
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=== "QUICK AND THE FED" ===
* Synopsis
* References
== Title credits ==
Written by Mark Edens, Lane Raichert
Story by Mark Edens, Ian Pearson
== Synopsis ==
Dot gets partially erased by a magnet. Bob goes to get some really slow
food to help her condition, but gets caught in a dragons and castles game.
The damsel in distress is not who you would expect it to be.
== Story ==
The story opens in Megabyte's cobra-shaped tower, the Tor. Hack, Slash, and
Megabyte's worm Nibbles watch as he fires up a large impressive ray gun and
starts to break though to the Supercomputer. Bob snags the magnet at the
tip of the gun and puts it into a shielded container. Megabyte puts on his
legs and goes bounding up the gun after Bob, but ends up hanging from a
cable outside his tower.
Bob walks into the diner and is bowled over by Enzo. (This is the scene
from the opening sequence.) A delivery to go proves that Dot's diner is the
fastest food in Mainframe. Everyone is upset when Bob mentions that he has
the magnet, but assures them that it is shielded.
Bob lets Enzo play with Glitch for a while. It's a lot of fun until he
tries "jackhammer". The uncontrolled vibrations knock the container off the
bar, the magnet breaks out, and attaches itself to Dot's head. She becomes
sick and semi-transparent. Enzo is distressed, "she's too young to
end-file, too young to quit without saving." Bob does not know how to
reverse a magnetic erasure, the other people in the diner send him to see
Phong.
This appears to be the first time that Bob has met Phong. Bob cannot obtain
Phong's wisdom until he beats the old man at a game of Pong. Phong states
that Dot is in an accelerated condition and needs to access some really,
really, really slow food. Any sudden shock will totally disrupt her system.
Back at the Diner, Bob is told that the slow food is at Al's Wait and Eat on
Level 31. Dot is stuttering badly, and Bob ignores her when she tells him
it's too dangerous and to use a "vid, vid, vid, use a window to ca-ca-ca-call".
Al's place is a seedy joint, the customers include a gray skullhead, a purple
water-cooler with floating eyeballs, a Zero wearing a toque, a woman with
stripes on her shirt and face, a violet Five.
Rasta Mon is a guy small purple shades, dread locks with knives at the
ends, and a dark red face that looks like a specific computer programmer.
The guy running the counter, Al's Waiter, is a dingy
brown and green One. Al, the cook, is out of sight in the kitchen. Bob is
told to take a number. He gets 1000000000000 (four thousand and ninety six).
"Now serving number 3".
Meanwhile, back at Megabyte's Tor, it is clear that MB can't tell
Hack and Slash apart. (The red one is Hack, the blue one is Slash). He
orders them to search and retrieve Bob.
Back at Al's, a large Seven scares a little Zero by burping at it. Bob asks
why everyone is afraid of Seven, and the Toque answers "because Seven ate
Nine!" Barrump-bump!. The counter man says he can't process Bob's order
any faster because he has a partner on his back demanding a take-out order
and Al only runs at three decahertz. Bob tries to talk an Eight out of his
order of food, but no luck. At this point, Hack and Slash burst into the room.
The proprietor's reaction indicates that Megabyte is running a protection
racket.
Bob grabs some food, jumps on his zip-board, and leads Hack and Slash
straight up to the top level (coming out between Baudway and the Terminals).
Just then the User downloads an incoming game; Castles and Knights. Bob
presses the ReBoot button and turns into a knight in gold armor. The User
is a knight in silver armor.
Bob gets a blue dragon from the stable, the white knight gives chase on a
red dragon. (Bob's dragon is operated by Al's waiter, and Al is working
the fire-breathing part.) Bob and the boys best the knight in an aerial
joust. Bob tells Glitch to "B.S.'n P" and they go through a stained glass
window. He has to fight a walking skeleton and almost falls into a pit of
sharp stakes. (The Broadcast Standards 'n Practices at ABC has asked
that no major character ever be place in mortal danger like this again.
B.S.'n'P. policies tend to cause headaches for many production companies.)
Bob has Glitch fly up and turn into a VidWindow with large icon. This breaks
the skeleton's bones.
When Bob gets to the tower, he finds Enzo in the Damsel's costume and Dot
as a knight in green armor. They determine that the User can be defeated
by hitting his icon enough times. The final blow is when Enzo throws his
megaphone at the knight. Game over.
Dot explains that she and Al are partners. She just vidwindowed for delivery.
Megabyte grabs Enzo and demands his magnet back. Bob obliges by having Glitch
throw the magnet at MB's head. He falls off the edge and calls for Hack and
Slash, who crash with him at the bottom.
Bob: Speaking of which ... Dot, is there anything in Mainframe
that you don't own?
Dot: Maybe. Who wants to know?
The camera pulls back and shows Dot's Diner all by itself on a small lot.
Three buildings of the multilevel Baudway are in the background. The
billboards to the left (behind the Diner) are unreadable. The billboards in
foreground say "ener G ener", "DeeCee's Powerbar", and something "soundcard".
== References ==
* B.S.'n'P. Does not want imitatable acts, such as throwing a rock
through a stained glass window. That's why the magic spell was used.
== Did You Notice ==
* Seven is ready to eat an Egg from "Aliens"; he has the inner jaw as well.
* Just before the game starts, Bob floats past a building marked The
Parameters. (Probably high class apartments.)
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==============================================================
ReBoot: "Medusa Bug"
ReBoot Episode 04
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=== "MEDUSA BUG" ===
* Synopsis
* References
== Title credits ==
Written by Lane Raichert
Story by Lane Raichert, Ian Pearson, Phil Mitchell, Gavin Blair
== Synopsis ==
Hexadecimal created a powerful weapon called the Medusa, but Megabyte has
stolen it. The Medusa turns Megabyte to stone, then starts affecting all
of Mainframe. Can the city survive? Is Bob immune to it?
== Story ==
Enzo drags Dot away from her business for a breather. (She had been too
deep in taking calls, looking after the Mitchell account, etc.) She is
amazed to see that Bob has gotten his old car running.
Megabyte's armored stretch limo is seen coming out of Lost Angles. He stops
to show Hack and Slash his latest acquisition; a box with the Medusa inside.
Hexadecimal discovers that her secret weapon is gone, and starts after MB.
She unleashes a crimson hoard of nulls. Hack and Slash, whom everyone agrees
are not kept around for their brains, have to stop this threat. This time
they actually do something intelligent - they lift up a section of the bridge
until is breaks off and falls into the ocean. MB tells H+S to show her some
of their toys as he heads back to the Tor. MB's minions bring up six armored
tanks, with enough rockets and cannons to lay waste to an entire city, but
all the projectiles bounce off Hexadecimal's force field.
Megabyte is proud of having stolen the Medusa, but has not determined what its
power is. He presses the hexagon on the top, and the device activates. Too
late MB realizes it is a viral bug. The bug turns MB arm to stone, then his
whole body, and, with increasing speed, takes over the entire Tor and
surrounding area. Hexadecimal is not sure she has done the right thing,
infecting all of Mainframe with an unstoppable bug, but she cackles evilly
anyway.
Meanwhile, back at the park, our heros are having a picnic.
Unfortunately, it is in median of a freeway, only a block from the Diner.
(Bob's car had broken down.) Enzo notices the nasty thing chasing after
Frisket. Although the viral bug appears to be frightened by Frisket for a
while, the dog soon turns to stone. With a well placed smack, Enzo helps get
the car running. The immediately head to Phong for advice.
Phong states that the bug will affect everything it touches, but Bob may be
immune, since he is a Guardian. The attack is not Megabyte's style; it is
too chaotic, like Hexadecimal. And the longer an object remains infected,
the more it begins to decay. Low energy (like signs) go first then high
energy. (Phong shows a diagram with a Null, a Zero, a One, a Five, Water
Cooler Head, and last a sprite like Dot.)
When Phong lets Bob look at the drawers in the system Vid Window, he asks
for a Level 8 Desktop Rebuilder, but Phong merely goes blink, blink. All
Mainframe has is a viral erase command (in the shape of a pink eraser).
Bob tries an add-on to boost its power, but the eraser reverses the bug
only temporarily.
Phong isolates the Center from the rest of Mainframe. All the links are
taken down, firewalls cover the gateways, the ball on top retreats, and
an impenetrable shield goes up. But the bug breaks through; everyone is
turned to gray marble.
Bob breaks out of his shell and goes after Hexadecimal. She is surrounded
by stone people, including Scuzzy. Bob tries physical fighting, and when
that fails, switches to a logical battle. Now that everything is cast in
stone, Mainframe is very predictable and quiet. No more random occurances.
No fights with Megabyte. This is too much for Hex, who craves chaos.
She counteracts Medusa with a snap of her fingers.
William Graham (wgraham@freenet.calgary.ab.ca) writes:
"Medusa Bug" has 2 different endings, depending on
which network (ABC or YTV) it's on. The ABC ending shows a tree, and suddenly
all the leaves fall off, and Bob says something like "Oh, no, not again!"
The YTV ending starts out with the same picnic scene, but instead, a game
cube appears, and all 4 characters (Bob, Dot, Enzo, & Frisket) snap to
attention and look directly at the camera with shocked looks on their faces.
(This ties in nicely with Bob's line "Where's a game cube when you really
one?" about halfway through the episode.)
(On 15-Apr-95, ABC showed the latter ending. The freeze-frame at the end
is the picture next to "Heros" in the Intro page.)
== References ==
* Medusa Bug - The movie "The Satan Bug" is about a virus
that can wipe out all of Los Angeles. From mythology, anyone who even looks
at Medusa (an woman with snakes in her hair) will turn to stone.
* Desktop Rebuilder - When a Macintosh computer gets confused as to
what is where on its disk, it is time to "rebuild the desktop".
* links, firewalls, gateways - when a business on the Internet is
being attacked, some of the defences are: take down the links that connect
the company to the outside world, beef up the gateway routers, and use
firewalls to keep intruders out. Note that Phong down the links (bridges),
and brought down firewalls outside of each gateway.
== Did You Notice ==
* Sounds of the original Star Trek transporters are heard when the city is
being evacuated.
* "You Could Be Zipping" on the side of a bus.
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ReBoot: "The TIFF"
ReBoot Episode 05 (code 9404)
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=== "The TIFF" ===
* Synopsis
* References
== Title credits ==
Written by Lane Raichert
Story by Lane Raichert
== Synopsis ==
Dot and Bob have a bit of a tiff; she thinks he's too impulsive and he
thinks she's too inflexible. Enzo and the others try to get them to
make up, but a Game Cube interferes. Dot and Bob will have to learn to
work as a team to get out of this one.
== Story ==
Dot is in her Diner doing business (checking the Mitchell account,
waiting for the First National Databank) when her secretary reminds
her that she missed a board meeting. Dot is upset that Enzo is late
for his class in ancient languages (Cobol, Fortran). Bob accuses her
of being preprogrammed, stuck to a schedule, and should live more on the
edge, making decisions on the fly like he does. Both get angry and
stop talking to each other.
Dot says she will never call Bob, even when a tear in the interface
causes havoc in the Diner. Enzo decides that he has to do something.
A crowd goes to Phong at the Center, who says that "a broken friendship
is best mended by tragedy or apology". Enzo gets help from the movie crew
to make it look as if Megabyte has him captive at Old Man Pearson's Data
Dump. (On the director's clapboard, the number 9404 is this epidode's
production number.) Enzo sends this phony message to Bob and to Dot, then
is tied to the conveyor belt to the big machine. But Bob and Dot argue so
much that Enzo has to be saved by Frisket.
Enzo sends a fake apology hologram from Bob to Dot and from Dot to Bob and
they almost make up on the park bench in Floating Point Park, but the deceit
is unveiled. This is when the User's game arrives - a dangerous prisoner has
breached the prison cell and has triggered a self destruct sequence on Starship
Alcatraz.
Dot faces down some prisoners; a spider with four legs and a block head.
She uses the PCU (Prisoner Control Unit) to immobilize them in a floating
bubble. Bob dispatches a spider down the elevator, but it comes back up
with a big hairy fuzz ball. They knock Bob down the central shaft, and Dot
shoots him with her PCU. This saves Bob from the fall, but he has to
figure a way out of the bubble. Glitch's hammer and cutter don't work, but
Glitch as a pin does. "Go figure."
Dot carries two big guns as she goes after the User. Bob sits in the
Control chair and tries to get the main power back on-line. It's written
in Turbo YADDA, one of the ancient languages. Dot talks him through the
job of reprogramming it. Once power is restored, Bob starts slamming the
doors ahead of the User and turns the stairs into down ramps.
Dot does some two-fisted shooting as she neutralizes an entire mob, then
knocks out the User with judo. Time is running out, and Dot makes a wild
leap down the central shaft, relying on Glitch and Bob to do something
before she hits bottom. Glitch becomes a big spring, allowing Dot to
somersault to the control panel and cancel the destruct sequence.
Bob complements Dot on living on the edge, and Dot appreciates Bob's plan.
== References ==
* Tiff - a petty argument. TIFF - Tagged Image File Format, a way
of storing pictures on a computer.
* COBOL and FORTRAN are two computer languages from back in the days
of vacuum tubes (before the transistor was invented).
* Turbo YADDA - Turbo Pascal was an affordable compiler that made
Borland famous.
== Did You Notice ==
* Instructions on Dot's computer screen: 1) Place palm on reader, 2) Make
choice, 3) Wait for Door to Open.
* When Enzo and the mob are asking Phong for advice, Rasta Mon is in the
background, levitating in a lotus position.
* Clapboard: "The Tiff", 9404, Act:1 Beat:8:1, Version:2 Suite:7,
Beep Numbers 10 - 11, Phil, Frames:175, Set 6, Notes: Data Dump Int.,
"Enzo Calls Dot", Wizzywig Productions.
* The cameraman for Dino DeHorrendous is always hiding behind someone.
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==============================================================
ReBoot: "In the Belly of the Beast"
ReBoot Episode 06
---------------------------------------------------------------------
=== "IN THE BELLY OF THE BEAST" ===
* Synopsis
* References
== Title credits ==
Written by Mark Hoffmeier
Story by Mark Hoffmeier, Lane Raichert
== Synopsis ==
Frisket eats an old UNFORMAT command, and Megabyte wants it back.
== Story ==
An old UNFORMAT command has been discovered in Old Man Pearson's Data Dump.
Megabyte has Hack and Slash rough up Pearson, and Bob interferes.
During the excitement, they drop UNFORMAT command whereupon Frisket eats it.
Poor Frisket turns greenish gold and semi-transparent as a result of the
old sector-blanking command trying to unformat his stomach. In Dot's Diner,
Bob checks Frisket's supercharged V8 engine, but he and Glitch can't do much
for the dog. Frisket goes looking for Enzo, and meets up with the boy outside
the Algorithm Theater. Hack and Slash kidnap Enzo in order to lure Frisket
to Megabyte's territory.
Frisket gets locked into a large trap that looks just like the one at the
beginning of Jurassic Park. Megabyte pushes him into the Deconstruction Tank.
Enzo distracts Hack and Slash with his yo-yo, then uses it to turn off the
containment field so Frisket can get away. As they are escaping, Enzo says
"Gee, Frisket, these wires look important. It sure would be awful if
something were to happen to them." Frisket does the obvious.
Enzo and Frisket end up in Megabyte's warehouse where the ICBMs and other big
weapons are stored. One really mean looking gun actually fires a
liferaft (marked "B.S.'n P Approved"). They steal an armored shuttle, but
Megabyte can run faster than they know how to drive. After giving Hack
and Slash one more headache, they escape through the mail tubes.
At the top of Megabyte's tower, Frisket leaves a present. They get
clean away, and Megabyte steps in what's left of the UNFORMAT command.
== References ==
* The FORMAT command erases a hard disk. Nicer versions of the FORMAT
program store critical information elsewhere, so that an UNFORMAT
program can undo the formatting.
== Did You Notice ==
* Megabyte's legs are detachable.
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ReBoot: "The Crimson Binome"
Reboot Episode 07
---------------------------------------------------------------------
=== ReBoot: "THE CRIMSON BINOME" ===
* Synopsis
* References
== Title credits ==
Written by Lane Raichert
Story by Gavin Blair, Phil Mitchell, Ian Pearson, Lane Raichert
= Guest star: Captain Capacitor =
Voice by Long John Baldry. A binome-one with a peg leg, a hook for his left
hand, orange rope mustache, beard, and hair. Wears red tricorn hat.
== Synopsis ==
Mainframe is attacked by Software Pirates. Bob is thrown in the brig, and
Dot has to save the day with fancy verbal fencing.
== Story ==
The story starts at the Dock area of Mainframe, where people are walking around
and riding bicycles - it looks like a boardwalk beach near the turn of the
century (straw hats, handlebar mustaches, bustles, etc). There is a
Punch & Judy style puppet show, called Punchcard and Qwerty. A big pirate
ship arrives, releasing a horde of flying pirates, all going "Arrr!".
Dot is talking to the police chief when the Ethernet goes off line. Phong
tries to pinpoint the cause of the disturbance when Enzo remarks that
Bob has an apartment down by the Docks; he can handle it.
But Bob is oblivious to the citizens being frozen by file locks; he is too
busy singing to himself while repairing his car. The pirates steal his car
while Bob is not looking, and Sally the pirate steals Glitch.
Captain Capacitor recognizes the Guardian's tool, and figures to make a
profit selling it, especially if he can ransom the Guardian as well.
Bob tries to sneak up on the software pirates, but finally realizes that
Glitch is missing. He ends up using his own file lock while riding on
a pair of hover discs.
Princess Bula, a large South Seas maiden, pops up from the deck and grabs
Bob during the exchange for Glitch. Bob is placed in the brig as the ship
leaves harbor. (After deploying its virtual sails, the ship jumps into
hyperspace.)
Dot and the harbor police commandeer a fast private yacht. (The music from
"A Three Hour Tour" plays in the background; the yacht's owner is Mr. Mitchell
but sounds a lot like Mr. Howell.) Dot says "He tasks me, and I
shall have him."
Bob tries to grab the keys from a sleeping guard, but is stopped
by the force field in the bars. "No one escapes from my brig, except for one."
Bob recognizes the signature of the one who got away; Mouse. He throws the
cell's bed against the bars and disappears during the flash.
After the others have gone, Bob comes out from behind a pillar and says
"thanks, Mouse, where ever you are." He then wreaks havoc on the ship,
knocking the rudder and cannons off line, so that Dot can catch up with
the Crimson Binome. Only one cannon is still working, but the yacht is saved
when Frisket catches the cannonball.
The pirates get the upper hand, but Mr. Christian reports that Bob's damage
has caused the profit margin to drop below 200%. Dot and Capacitor exchange
witty repartee, fencing with words, until it is obvious that the pirate has
been outclassed. He goes into business with Dot, who needs someone with his
ability to deliver. The captain reveals that his real name is Gavin.
== References ==
* Punch and Judy - a very old puppet show where one puppet hits the
other. The punchcard was used to enter programs into ancient
computers. The English computer keyboard is called qwerty for the
top row of letters on the keyboard. (It's different in France and other
countries.)
* One of the co-creators of the show is Gavin Blair. He has short
copper-colored hair.
* The quote about "He tasks me, and I shall have him" did not originate
with "The Wrath of Khan". It comes from "Moby Dick".
== Did You Notice ==
* Mainframe has two seas - the "A" Sea and the "D" Sea (AC/DC)
* Grafitti on the ship: Capacitor is a Flaccidor
* Grotesque and Arabesque -- Sir.Real
* Kilroy Was Here
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ReBoot: "Enzo the Smart"
ReBoot Episode 08
---------------------------------------------------------------------
=== "ENZO THE SMART" ===
* Synopsis
* References
== Title credits ==
Written by Mark Hoffmeier, Lane Raichert
Story by Mark Edens, Brendan McCarthy, Ian Pearson
== Synopsis ==
Enzo wants to be smarter than anyone in Mainframe, and gets his wish.
When the Master Clock slows down, everyone else is dumb, and Enzo has
to win the game by himself.
== Story ==
Cannon fire is being exchanged between castles as the story opens.
Dot is wearing a general's uniform with a silly handlebar mustache.
Her attempt to take the User off-line fails as he ducks. The return
fire blows up her rampart. Now it is up to Enzo to fight back.
His first shot is a bit low, so Enzo decides he needs more power.
He enlarges his cannon's bore and brings out the mondo cannonball.
But in this case, bigger is not better, and Enzo is out of the game.
Bob fires off a teeny tiny cannon, but it hits the User's stockpile of
gunpowder. Kaboom! Game Over.
Enzo is bummed that he wasn't smart enough to defeat the User. He doesn't
want to wait for knowledge, he wants to be smart now. He then tries to get
some information from Phong, but the ancient one can only download wisdom
to those who can beat him at his own game.
As a consolation, Phong allows Enzo to look at the Read Only room at the
center of Mainframe, but he is not to touch anything. (They pass by a black
marble statue of a desk lamp; the pedastal reads "JL
SENIOR".) Enzo starts by scanning every README file on the system. He
realizes that this will take too long, possibly millions and millions of
nanoseconds, and asks the computer about a way to make this faster. The
computer reports that Mainframe's clock speed and bit rate determine how
fast sprites can be run. Enzo just wants to be smarter, twice as smart as
everybody else. The computer sends him to the Clock Speed Room.
This room has a large glowing pendulum (bigger than the one in Edgar Allen
Poe's "The Pit and the Pendulum". At his request, Enzo is made twice as
fast as everyone else. Actually, the clock slows down, and everyone except
Enzo becomes slower and dumber. He walks outside and everything has gone
"8-bit". (Instead of thousands or millions of colors in high resolution,
the city is now low resolution in just a few colors.
Phong is beating his head against the wall. All the people in Dot's Diner
are happy when Enzo walks in - they could not find the door. Bob does an
Enzo action - running up to and knocking over his hero. Dot can't even
remember the name of the place. Bob starts acting extremely macho and
attacks the mailman.
Before Enzo can get back to Phong's place, a game cube descends. Enzo is
made coach of the Video Athletes and Mike the TV is there to announce
the games. (Mike was not affected by the change in clock speed; he can't
get any dumber.) When Bob finally presses his ReBoot button, he ends up
in a football uniform, which is a silly thing to wear while playing basketball
and pole vaulting.
Mike interviews Enzo just before the Eliminator round, stating that the
point lead will be almost impossible to overcome, the Mainframers may lose
the game, in which case the entire sector will be wiped out and all the
losing contestants reduced to mindless Nulls. "How do you feel right now?"
Enzo has to run the Eliminator race by himself. Dumb Bob tries to help out,
but ends up circling the track in the wrong direction carrying a pole vault,
and just getting in the way.
The race goes through rotating logs, a 3-D pinball game, powered roller skates,
lava beds, train cars, etc. Enzo gets blocked by all the people on his
team, who claim "we are helping, we are helping". (Everyone, that is,
except Bob, who is still circling the track with his pole.)
Enzo decides that the smart Bob would use his brain, so he assigns all of
his team to the User's team, who "needs a lot of help to make it to the
finish line". They try to help the User's boots go faster, but end up
putting them in reverse, and Bob knocks the User down at finish line.
Enzo wins, and then returns the clock speed to normal. Phong tells him that
good things take time, and Enzo realizes that Phong knew what was going to
happen all along.
== References ==
* JL Senior - an homage to John Lassitor, who created the award
winning computer animated short "Luxo, Junior". Later, JL went on to
direct the movie "Toy Story".
* In the athletic competition, one User is wearing the yellow and black track
suit that Bruce Lee wore in "Game of Death" and makes a hand sign
similar to Bruce's in "Enter the Dragon".
* The User in blue looks like Grace Jones and is called Graceful Jones.
The User in Orange looks like a professional wrestler from Mexico.
== Did You Notice ==
* Ryan Thompson (rbthwomp@unixg.ubc.ca) says the castle and tower game
is like Atari's "Rampart". The track and field game is like the old
Nintendo "Track and Field" with the special power pad (the one you
could walk on).
* Marquee on the Algorithm Theatre; "twice nightly: Susan Alexander".
* Phong opens the door to his inner sanctum by saying "Yada, yada, yada".
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ReBoot: "Wizards, Warriors and a Word from our Sponsor"
ReBoot Episode 09
---------------------------------------------------------------------
=== "WIZARDS, WARRIORS AND A WORD FROM OUR SPONSOR" ===
* Synopsis
* References
== Title credits ==
Written by Jono Howard, Lane Raichert
Story by Gavin Blair, Phil Mitchell, Ian Pearson, Lane Raichert
== Synopsis ==
Bob, Dot, Enzo and Mike the TV have to play as a team in a Dungeons and Dragons
type game. Mike gets the hero role this time, and proves to be a valuable
asset to the community.
== Story ==
Mike, the announcer TV, won't shut up. "It's yours free for $99.99.99" (His
remote ran away, and no one can blame it.) The User's game, "A Dungeon
Deep", starts up almost immediately, it is a basic role-playing game. Bob
is the Thief, Dot is the Wizard, Enzo is an Elf, and Mike is the mighty
barbarian Warrior. (Dot's star-spangled wizard's costume is the exact color
of bright blue that keeps changing to red and back on typical VCRs.) After
much bickering, they descend through the various levels of the dungeon.
Level 1: The door guardian says, "To win the chalice, listen to me. One in
all, all in one, that's the key". The door slides down a tunnel and floats
on the the Hopeless River of Eternal Imprisonment, going to the Vicious Pit
of Total Oblivion.
Level 2: Greek armor attacks. Dot's "Abracadabra ca watchmacallit" cuts them
in half, then quarters, eighths, etc. until they are small enough to step on.
Level 13: Spiral stairs down a deep well occupied by a nasty spider. (Bob
vanquishes it with a butter knife.)
Level 23: No way out.
Level 31: Attack carrots reduced to Julienne fries.
Level 37: Stuck on a four square foot spire.
Level 42: Water monster; "stay frosty".
Level 53: Enzo shoots head off ghost armor with a clown-face arrow.
Level 58: "Run away!" from flying eyeball with 7 tentacles.
Level 65: They are riding on a flying banana until a white worm with skull
(Skullipede) knocks them off. Race through hallway peppered with arrows,
swinging axes, trap door, and a force field made of pansies.
Level 66: Shadow monster from a bright candle is dispatched by Mike
using his loud mouth to blow out the candle. "Tonight on BMMN, the Bad
Monster Movie Network." The narrow pathway starts falling into the
"bottomlessness-lessness". The key is all pressing the doorknob together.
In the last room, each character meets their own zombie, which is stronger.
(Dot gets turned into a Picasso painting.) The zombies can only be defeated
by teamwork from the other members of the party. As the Users arrive, the
group realizes that they all have to pull together to release the chalice.
They do "and the crowd goes wild."
== References ==
* The game in this episode conforms to the real rules of FRP (Fantasy
Role Playing) games.
== Did You Notice ==
* When our four heroes are standing outside the game entrance arguing
about Mike's accompanying them, the background noise is the "alien
planet" sound effect from Star Trek-The Original Series.
* Jim Little (jiml@teleport.com) says the start of the game reminds him
of "Betrayal at Krondor".
* Blooper: After defeating the two animated armor statues, Bob says: "Look,
the only way to find out is to try one!" As he delivers that line,
the beard and broken tooth are gone.
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ReBoot: "The Great Brain Robbery"
ReBoot Episode 10
---------------------------------------------------------------------
=== "THE GREAT BRAIN ROBBERY" ===
* Synopsis
* References
== Title credits ==
Written by Jono Howard
Story by Jono Howard, Lane Raichert
Guest star: Louise Vallance as Mouse
== Synopsis ==
Megabyte's plan to get inside Bob's brain fails when his miniaturized agents
end up in Enzo instead. Bob has to take a fantastic voyage inside of Enzo
and defeat Mouse (the hacker that was mentioned in "The Crimson Binome").
== Story ==
Megabyte has second thoughts about hiring Mouse. He paid in advance and is
worried, but Mouse shows up on her own sweet time, after slipping unnoticed
past MB's defenses. She and the two goons (Hack and Slash) get into an
Armored Binome Carrier (ABC) and Megabyte compresses it small enough to fit
into a dropper. MB uses a Vid Window to pass the dropper to Sgt. Smiley.
The User's game was finishing up when the story opened. Bob decides to get
some refreshment and they all hop into Bob's hot rod (the car is actually
working this time). The team goes to Al's place on Level 31 where Bob
orders a Quantum Shake.
Sgt. Smiley pretends to be Al, and puts empties the dropper into a shake.
(We don't get to actually see Al; he is a One that is tied up and completely
covered with rope.) Frisket growls when the shake is delivered, then Enzo
asks for a sip. The troop carrier with Mouse inside gets sucked into Enzo.
Megabyte is using Mouse to get to Bob's neural interface, a direct link to
the Supercomputer's access codes. She sets down and activates the remote
that allows MB to control the brain's neurons. This causes Enzo to jump
up and start acting strangely. Bob and Dot are concerned, so they take
Enzo to Phong. Phong determines that Hack and Slash are inside Enzo's head.
Phong uses an old BPEG to compress Bob down small enough to get into Enzo.
By the time they do this, MB has rewound Enzo's memory back to early
grade school. "I'm a little source code, short and stout. This is my
input, this is my out."
Megabyte is extremely upset with being inside Enzo, until he realizes that
Dot has brought him to Phong - they are inside the Principle Office, past
all the security. MB takes manual control and makes Enzo walk to Mainframe's
central system core. This is where Bob and his speeder show up. Hack and
Slash morph into battle mode - rocket packs on their backs and their
forearms replaced with missle launchers. Bob gets the two bozos to follow
him until they run into their own ship. Bob is gloating when Mouse sneaks
up from behind and uses her power ring to immobilize Bob with a stasis
field.
Under MB's control, Enzo opens the locks to the central core.
Bob last saw Mouse when he arrested her for attempting to hack into the
Supercomputer. Bob tells Mouse that MB's actions will cause Enzo to be
erased in a power surge, taking all of them with it. She contacts MB and
asks him about "toasting some little kid". "You know I don't do toast!"
MB tries to sweet talk Mouse, but she decides for self-preservation and
pulls the plug on his operation. Enzo comes to his senses and skeedaddles.
Megabyte strikes back by destabilizing the compression field. Bob and Mouse
pick up the equipment, zap Bob's speeder, and try to get out of Enzo before
they return to normal size. Bob pilots them through a roller coaster ride
through Enzo's body, and get sneezed out just as full size occurs.
Bob greets the gang, saying "we did it", but Dot has a distinct look of
jealousy as she demands "who's that girl". Bob goes to introduce Mouse to
the others, but she is already gone. Nothing left but a Mouse signature
on the door. Hack and Slash are returned to Megabyte after having been
compressed to one half their normal size.
== References ==
* The shrinking of a vehicle and injecting it into a person was brought
to the big screen in the move "Fantastic Voyage".
* I don't do toast! - other shows (such as "Babylon-5" and "seaQuest")
are done using NewTek's Video Toaster.
== Did You Notice ==
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INWAP.COM is Joe and Sally Smith, John and Chris O'Halloran (and our cats).
See http://www.inwap.com/ for "ReBoot", PDP-10, and Clan MacLeod.
Subject: ReBoot FAQ, 2B
Contents: Episode Guide, 2nd season
Date: Wed Feb 7 06:00:16 PST 1996
From: Joe Smith <jsmith@inwap.com>
From: Gavin Blair, co-creator of ReBoot
To: Joe Smith
You may also notice if you have sharp eyes and/or ears (which I know you have)
that in some of the newer episodes we've actually incorporated the number into
the show somewhere. (That got your attention didn't it!)
Season 1
01 Show number 9402 - The Tearing
02 Show number 9401 - Racing the clock
03 Show number 9403 - The Quick & the Fed
04 Show number 9405 - The Medusa Bug
05 Show number 9404 - The Tiff (on movie director's clapboard)
06 Show number 9408 - In The Belly of the Beast
07 Show number 9414 - The Crimson Binome
08 Show number 9411 - Enzo the Smart
09 Show number 9410 - Wizards, Warriors & A Word From Our Sponsor
10 Show number 9406 - The Great Brain Robbery
(11-13 are Canadian 1st season shows, American 2nd season shows)
11 Show number 9416 - Talent Night
12 Show number 9415a - Identity Crisis Part One
13 Show number 9415b - Identity Crisis Part Two
Season 2
14 Show number 9501 - Infected
15 Show number 9502 - High Code (Locomotive: 9502)
16 Show number 9503 - When Games Collide
17 Show number 9505 - Bad Bob (Dot: "security plan 9505")
18 Show number 9504 - Painted Windows
19 Show number 9509 - AndrAIa
20 Show number 9508 - Nullzilla (Dot: "procedure 9508")
21 Show number 9506 - Gigabyte
22 Show number 9507 - Trust No One
23 Show number 9510 - Web World War
ReBoot: "Talent Night"
ReBoot Episode 11 (code 9416)
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=== "TALENT NIGHT" ===
* Synopsis
* References
== Title credits ==
Written by Lane Raichert
Story by Gavin Blair, Phil Mitchell, Ian Pearson
Fancy guitar work by a guy local to Vancouver
== Synopsis ==
Dot and Bob have a surprise birthday party planned for Enzo. With all the
commotion going on, Megabyte wants to get into the act.
== Story ==
The story opens with Bob and Enzo playing a game against a couple of binomes.
"You're smoke" says Enzo. "In your dreams, birthday boy", replies Bob.
(This scene is included in "The Recording Session #2", a QuickTime movie.)
The game ends in a four-way tie. Enzo goes on ahead while Bob checks up
on Dot. Dot is in the middle of auditioning acts for the surprise party
she is holding for Enzo's birthday.
Things are not going well. Most of the acts are awful, and the interesting
ones are nixed by Miss Emma Fee, the Prog Sensor. Dot tells Bob to keep Enzo
busy until 24:50. The acts being auditioned are:
* "the fabulous, uh, acrobat guys". The One with its hair in an Afro style
is launched into the stratosphere. (His comment to this is something like
"oo, er", and background is a great shot of Mainframe's Baudway sector.)
* A Zero that bugs its eyes and falls to pieces.
* The Dires, Sal and Harv, rather primative looking characters that Mike
gleefully smashes.
* Johnny O'Binome, who does a joke of nothing but "1" and "0".
* Live Null Juggling (clown on red unicycle treats nulls as if they were
balloons and twists them into funny shapes).
* Phong singing "Unforgettable" and forgetting the unforgettable words.
* Small-Town Binomes singing "B.S.'n'P." (to the tune of the Village People's
"Y.M.C.A"). "It's fun to play in a non-violent way".
* The Primatives: a blue sphere, a green cube, and a red cone.
(At the end, the cube rotates to a diamond shape, the cone flattens to
a triangle covering the top half of the diamond, and the sphere becomes
a circle behind them. They form a ReBoot icon.)
* Captain Quirk, doing William Shatner's rendition of "Rocket Man".
* One of Megabyte's viral binome's doing break dancing and moonwalking.
Megabyte notices the activity and tries to get information out of Bob (who
throws Enzo into the goal of a rocket-pack game to keep Enzo from hearing
about the secret activity). MB sends some of his incompetent spies to check
out the commotion around Dot's Diner. They end up being part of the act.
MB is rather pleased to hear that all those people will be gathered in one
place - he decides to put into action "plan code 214".
Meanwhile, Bob takes Enzo to the Data Slides in the Beverly Hills sector.
Enzo is tired and hungry, and wants to go back to the Diner. As he takes off
on his zip-board, the guy with the Afro comes down, and Bob says "oo, er!"
The street near the Diner is filled with just about every single vehicle in
Mainframe. (Some of these are shown in Alliance's Motor Pool,
others can be found by Parsing Mainframe's Database; look for the Data Crane.)
Enzo wanders backstage, past the fat Elvis, past the water-cooler sprite (who
is speaking Robby the Robot's line from the movie Forbidden Planet:
"would 64 gallons be sufficient"), past the big red robot, and on stage.
Everybody is there, and is counting down the time left. Right at zero,
sparklies start at Enzo's feet, and he gets a new outfit. His shirt says
10 instead of 01. Dot comes out in a torch-singer outfit and performs
"You're Alphanumeric" to a slack-jawed Bob and Enzo.
The fat Elvis gets ready for Aloha from Mainframe via Satellite, but gets
flattened when Megabyte crashes the party (literally). Two A.B.C.s (Armored
Binome Carriers) transform into giant speakers, and Megabyte comes out of
a coffin held up by skeleton hands. (Hack and Slash are his drummers.)
He pulls out a guitar, and turns the volume up to eleven.
Bob counters by telling Glitch to transform into a BFG (Big Fancy Guitar).
The two men perform a wild guitar duet. At the end, MB gives his guitar
to Enzo, and says "I've always wanted to do that". As MB's gigantic
armored limo leaves, Mike the TV tells the crowd "Ladies and gentlemen,
Megabyte has left the building". (Fat Elvis pops up and looks astounded.)
== References ==
* The cars in the opening game are designed to look like floor tile
pullers; two suction cups on a handle, used to pull up 2-foot by 2-foot
squares to get to the cables under the equipment in a computer room.
* "Live Null Juggling" appears to be a reference to "Live Cat Juggling"
in Steve Martin's movie The Jerk.
* The Binome Joke: "1010011011101110111001101111001110101100001100101110011101"
Assuming A=1, B=10, C=11...Z=11010, Johnny O'Binome says:
10100 1 1011 101 1101 11001 10111 1001 110 101
T A K E M Y W I F E
10000 1100 101 1 10011 101
P L E A S E
* The co-creators of ReBoot are always being refered to as "the people who
did the Money For Nothing music video for the Dire Straits.
Gavin Blair said they were sick of having only that reference and wanted
to show their displeasure by having the Dires get clobbered on stage.
* The mock documentary film "This is Spinal Tap" has a guitar player
who is very proud that the knob on his amplifier does not stop at ten,
"it goes to eleven!".
* In the PC game "Doom", a BFG-9000 is a very desirable weapon.
* At the end of Prestley's concerts, the announcer would say, "ladies and
gentlemen, Elvis has left the building" to convince people to leave.
== Did You Notice ==
* There is no concensus as to which rock star Megabyte is imitating. Could
be Megadeath, Meatloaf, or any one of several other bands.
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Maintained by Joe Smith - jsmith@inwap.com
==============================================================
ReBoot: "Saturday Morning Preview"
Reboot Episode SMP
---------------------------------------------------------------------
=== ABC special, Friday 8-Sep-95, 8:30pm ===
== Preview of the new Saturday morning line-up ==
On the evening of Friday the 8th of September, ABC ran a half-hour "Saturday
Morning Preview" show, which described the new fall line-up. Two kids hack
into the ABC mainframe to look at the top-secret files there. They attract
the attention of Megabyte, who kidnaps all the Saturday morning shows and
demands: "Bring me the president of Television." "Why?" "I want my own
prime-time series!"
Kid: Where's the can of Rust-Be-Gone when you need it?
Megabyte: Where's the can of Kid-Be-Gone when you need it?
The kids receive a video tape of Mr. Bumpy pleading for his life.
Megabyte sings:
Two bits, four bits, sixty-eight bits strong,
If you think you can fool Megabyte, your motherboard is wrong!
Show the President this tape; he'll see how I am made.
It's a prime time star I'll be, never will I fade
Ha hahahahahahaha
Hastala vista ... Baby.
I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. De Mille.
My delete key is getting itchy.
The kids convince Megabyte to download onto their hard disk, so that he
would be in the room when it came time to make the exchange of hostages.
MB thinks that's a great idea, but when he shows up, he is zapped by
an anti virus program and Saturday morning is saved.
Display screen: "Path Search in Progress", "(*) EOF", "Don't Panic",
"Warning: Route Deallocated"
Megabyte: "I'll get you my pretty ... and your little dog too."
Kid: "Wrong movie."
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==============================================================
ReBoot: "Identity Crisis, part 1"
ReBoot Episode 12 (code 9415a)
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=== "IDENTITY CRISIS, part 1" ===
* Synopsis
* References
== Title credits ==
Written by Jono Howard
Story by Gavin Blair, Phil Mitchell, Ian Pearson
== Synopsis ==
Dot is trying to make things better for the binomes that are in Megabyte's
sector. Some very important information is stolen, and Dot loses confidence
in herself. She starts losing her sense of reality in "The Funhouse".
== Story ==
As the episode opens, a game cube is already in place on top of the Wall
Street sector. It is an idyllic setting, birds and butterflys along a
stream. Bob is fishing. (He is wearing a commando outfit; plenty of
grenades on a camo vest, and his shiny silicon hair in a black flat-top crew
cut.) Suddenly his revery is interrupted by an Apache attack helicopter, a
Stealth Bomber, and a tank. The tank stops a little too close to Bob, and
out pops Enzo in Desert Storm fatigues. Enzo complains that the game is too
old, it's boring. Bob warns him, "who knows, maybe one day you'll end up in
The Fun House". (Bob knew a sprite in the Supercomputer who's best friend's
cousin got caught in the Fun House, Enzo thinks it is just a fairy tale.)
Off on the side, the User is not doing so well; its tank is stuck between
two buildings. The crew of the Stealth Bomber try to take it out, but the
Bomb gets stuck in the plane. (This is the first time that
the British binome and Binky lose a plane). Bob
decides that it is taking too long, pulls out a handheld rocket launcher,
and takes out the User's tank in one shot. Game over.
It is Dot's big day, so the two guys hurry back to the Diner. (We see a
lot of vehices moving round her place.) Dot is working on a checklist.
"PID containment node, check. CCI display, check." When she calls for
Cecil, everything goes wacky. The colors match Megabyte's viral binomes,
and MB's face is on all the billboards outside. Phong's voice comes
through, "what you are experiencing is a temporary distortion of reality".
Cecil has a blank facescreen and an "EU 26" label. When things get back to
normal, Cecil states that all of the staff and some of the food items are
behind her all the way. [Binary dictionary]
Enzo comes running in, having beaten Bob at a foot race. He is all
excited, but Dot is horrified that Enzo's icon is not on his baseball cap.
Bob picked it up and replaces it. Dot reminds Enzo that his Personal ID
codes are stored in the icon; if anyone gets ahold if them, they can make
him do anything they want.
After a little more dilly-dallying, Dot gets her personal organizer and
prepares herself. She taps her icon to change into her businesswoman
outfit; black and white top, black skirt, gold accessories, round black
eyeglasses.
She and Bob go through a dark tunnel. [MB + HEX; TicTacToe, Binomes
Unite, Smash the Solid State.] Dot is nervous as they go through the final
door into a vast auditorium filled with binomes. The binomes are also
nervous. Megabyte owns everything around those parts; their Personal ID
codes are all they have left. [Mama, Poppa, and Baby binome in audience]
Dot implores them to remember the plans they have to turn the sector into an
Energy Park. [Energy Park seen in Talent Night] One by one, the binomes tap
their icons and allow their PID to flow into Dot's organizer. While Dot
turns around to look at the Vidwindow with the message "P.I.D. File
Aquisitions Completed", her organizer vanishes from the podium. One of the
lead binomes has it and warns Dot to keep close track of it.
At this point, Hack and Slash show up on an Armored Binome Carrier and
demand that everyone surrender. The viral binomes start shooting at
everyone, Dot and Bob sneak out through a trap door with the help of Cyrus,
a One with a white streak in his hair. Cyrus leads them through the
sewers. While talking to Phong via Glitch, Dot refuses to active the
self-destruct mechanism on her organizer. Cyrus points them to a hatchway
that leads to the street, yells "Go, Dot, for freedom!", then goes back to
give them time to escape.
Dot scares up an ABC and commands Bob to get in. She is on a mission.
There is another temporary distortion of reality, but it is over quickly.
["Which way to the border?", "Warning: Route Deallocated"] They are soon in
a heavy battle and Bob gets them out of a head-on collision by turning the
ABC on its side. Dot gives him permission to use the big gun. They make it
past the border to Wall Street.
Megabyte engages his plan to break Dot's spirit by activating big
vidwindows throughout Mainframe and thanking her for delivering the sector's
PIDs to him with such a cunning and inciteful plan. This is when Dot
realizes that the PID file has been removed. Not erased, removed. Phong
agrees, this is bad.
Megabyte is in possesion of the file, but not its contents. The file has
been encrypted, and it will take his scientists 2000 nanoseconds to decrypt
it. In the mean time, MB thanks his new Liutenant; Cyrus.
Dot has another temporary distortion of reality, where peaceful Mainframe
looks like the Berlin Wall during the height of the Cold War. The incoming
game does not help her mood. Bob does not like the look of it either; the
game is the dreaded Fun House!
TO BE CONTINIUED
== References ==
== Did You Notice ==
* Dot's Binary Dictionary
* 0 (ZEE-roh) Noun: Less than 1
* 1 (WAN) Noun: More than 0
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==============================================================
ReBoot: "Identity Crisis, part 2"
ReBoot Episode 13 (code 9415b)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
=== "IDENTITY CRISIS, part 2" ===
* Synopsis
* References
== Title credits ==
Written by Jono Howard
Story by Gavin Blair, Phil Mitchell, Ian Pearson
== Synopsis ==
Dot gets a chance to see how important she is to Mainframe. Without
her help, Bob would be reduced to a blue and silver Null, and Megabyte
would take over Mainframe.
== Story ==
The episode starts with a recap of "Identity Crisis, part 1".
Bob repeats "this is bad, very bad". He reboots into a red haired clown
with big red shoes. "Dot, aren't you going to reboot?" "What for?" "To
avoid getting nullified, to win the game". Dot reboots into a Harlequin;
black and white diamonds on top, black and purple squares on the bottom.
They are bombarded with killer cream pies from the User, who is a very
grotesque looking clown.
In the mean time, the decoding of Dot's password has yielded four
columns. 1000111 (71), 1110101 (117), 1100001 (97), 1110010 (114).
"Everything is going according to schedule".
Bob and Dot get sucked into the Fun House (by a giant tongue). Phong
realizes that Dot has been affected by her failure more than he thought; he
has to do something. Bob and Dot end up in a room with mirrored doors. Bob
tries opening one, but gets turned into a marrionette. It's all up to Dot
now. Phong (or a vision of him) appears and says "I want to show you
something". Everything slows down, "game over; User wins". Blackout.
Dot climbs out of a hole in the ground. It is the same size and shape of
where the game cube used to be. The whole sector has been nullified, but
Dot's still alive. The sky is an ominous gray, not blue any more. Dot sees
that all the binomes now wear Megabyte's blue color. Checkpoint Charlie is
for real now. Frisket has been branded with a UPC zebra code and is leashed.
A big one-eyed spy robot comes after here. Her beautiful diner now says
Nibble's Diner (with the same green and white color scheme as MB's pet null).
Dot walks into what used to be her diner and finds all sorts of lowlifes
hanging around, jumping on the counter, and eating raw nulls. Cecil has
been scrapped, replaced by service Entry Unit Two Six (EU 26). It informs
here that this is not Mainframe, it is Megaframe. Enzo shows up in black
leather, looking about 18 years old. He refuses to recognize Dot since is
sister was nullified when she lost the game. When Dot asks about Bob,
everyone laughs. Bob is living with old man Phong on level 31.
There she finds Phong's voice coming out of a large cardboard box that
has a drawing of Frisket and the label "Databone". A sinister looking
penguin walks past Phong has lost all his luster and
speaks as if he is senile. When asked about Bob, Phong pulls out a cage
containing a blue and silver null. "No one believes me, but truly, Bob
here, used to be a great Guardian".
Dot laments that she destroyed Mainframe, and didn't even try. She wants
another chance. Phong's strong voice comes out, saying "chance has nothing
to do with it, child; the future is not determined by the through of the
dice." Just then Megabyte's minions show up. As soon has Dot hears the
name of Liutenant Cyrus, she is galvanized into action. But they corner
her, and the security spy drone removes her hair and leaves a UPC code
stamped onto her forehead.
Then the nightmare ends; Dot is still in the Fun House. Going though the
right door, she is stuck with a blue tricycle with a flat tire. The user is
on a red tricycle. After dodging bowling pins and a gigantic bowling ball,
the User reaches the final chamber first. His squirt gun has pushed the
ball almost to the top, Dot kinks her hose to build up pressure and blasts
the ball up to the bell first. User loses.
Phong explains that his RDE (Reality Distortion Engine) has distortion
waves that move back into the past and forward into the future to show her
what the conscequences of her actions would be. One side effect shows the
result of the Energy Park being built.
MB is still trying to decode Dot's password. The board now shows 1000111
(71), 1110101 (117), 1100001 (97), 1110010 (114), 1100100 (100), 1101010
(105), 1100001 (97), and only blank column. The binomes are to be brought
in, but Bob and Dot use an ABC to rescue them. The binomes still believe in
her. The last column is 1101111 (110), and this spells "Guardian". But
something is wrong. The file code has been broken, but the file is not there
anymore. Dot had tapped into Megabyte's system and downloaded the PID file
back into her organizer. She thanks Cyrus for his help, which causes MB to
demote Cyrus to shoeshine boy.
== References ==
* The penguin is a character featured in Nick Park's clay-animation
feature "The Wrong Trowsers". What you are seeing is a jewel thief
(without his clever chicken disguise). A box with eye holes was also in
that film.
== Did You Notice ==
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==============================================================
ReBoot: "Infected"
ReBoot Episode 14 (code 9501)
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=== "INFECTED" ===
* Synopsis
* References
== Title credits ==
Written by Martin Borycki
Story by Gavin Blair, Phil Mitchell, Ian Pearson, Lane Raichert
== Synopsis ==
Megabyte takes advantage of a system upgrade to get into the Principal
Office and goes after the energy in the Core Reactor. Dot turns into
one mean mother and fights back.
== Story ==
The story opens with a view straight down on the top of the Principle
Office. The sub sphere opens up to reveal Dot and Phong standing on a
platform atop the main sphere. The "voice of doom" is heard, but instead of
announcing an incoming game, it intones "Attention, incoming file". The
various binomes throughout Mainframe are excited by this. The incoming file
is accompanied by a flashing orange and yellow fog, with a circular tunnel.
Phone comments that the Upgrade File has arrived a little earlier than he
expected.
The file lands on the platform, it is in a sealed drum. Dot hopes for a
new data compression unit, or a quantum business network maximizer. Phong
wants better devices with which to fight the viral evil. The pinnacle
descends into the Core, the very heart of Mainframe.
Enzo is rousing the rabble, demanding upgrades, now. Everyone else is on
the lookout, to keep Megabyte away during the upgrade. Phong announces to
all of Mainframe to prepare for power-down and upgrade. Bob is given the
honor of pressing the big green button, turning it red and starting the
sequence that brings Mainframe to a halt. The sky turns sunset colored, the
flow of bits stops, and the Principal Office is covered with a blue-gray
armor force field. Bob and Phong open the lid, and out pops Megabyte.
MB gives Phong a shock, and avoids Bob's attempt to put him back into the
file container. He knocks Bob off of the wall, causing the Guarding to fall
down the cracks of the Core. Phong won't give into MB, "you cannot infect
me, virus", to which Megabyte agrees. But he can copy Phong's Read-Only
Memory to get the entry codes. During the transfer, both Phong's brain and
Megabyte's brain are visible through their skulls.
MB uses the Pinnacle Elite commands to drop the sphere further inside, to
the Core Control Chamber. (Bob is left hanging several hundred feet up.
His comment: "Megabyte in the Core? I don't think so!") Dot tries to warn
the others outside, but the can't get a message through the armor. Megabyte
plans to erase Mainframe and rebuild it in his image.
Bob comes swinging in (on Glitch as a rope) and almost succeeds in
knocking MB into the Core Reactor. "Glitch: Electopulse" propels Bob over
MB. "You want to play cat and mouse? Maybe we need some cheese" says
Megabyte as he lunges for Dot and Phong. "Glitch: Energy Shield" causes
yellow bands of light to protect his friends. MB bounces off it, heading
straight for Bob. "Glitch: anything" results in an orange light post that
MB clangs into. "Like falling off an analog" gloats Bob. But Megabyte is
quick to his feet. "Glitch: Elevator". Nothing happens, other than
Glitch's display showing a battery with no energy left and a frowny face.
Dot tries to drag Phong away, but does not make much progress. He orders
her to save herself. Phong uses the command "Zip, Zip, Zoom" to enable a
transporter field. Bob grabs Dot and uses the field to get away from
Megabyte, who shows off some really ferocious teeth as he roars in
frustration. Bob and Dot run down a tunnel, looking for a recharge unit,
while MB gives barks out "COMMAND.COM - ERASE".
MB unleashes Phong's game pucks, programmed as weapons. Bob gets Dot to
use the jumper cables on her organizer to give power to Glitch. Glitch's
double header shield moves the two out of the way and allows two groups of
pucks to annihilate each other.
"C.P.U" exclaims Enzo, "I don't like the smell of this" as the
environmental shutdown is announced. The inhabitants of Mainframe start to
turn transparent as their energy is cut off. There is an earthquake, and
various towers start falling. Even the 8-ball above Bob's apartment falls
off.
Hexidecimal complements Megabyte on the delightful mess he is making.
"You wouldn't be trying to delete me, now would you?" she asks. "Now is
that any way to treat family," MB replies. He assures her of 50/50 control.
In the mean time, Dot gets into the Mainframe Armory as Bob goes past the
statue of JL SENIOR to get to the Read-Only Room. As Bob is recharging
Glitch, a hologram of Phong appears. "You have what you need, now use his
greed" it says. Bob is so angry he is quivering. (This is the scene shown
in the opening sequence).
Megabyte checks up on the Diner, were the binomes are reduced to almost
nothing but eyeballs. As he is gloating, Dot sneaks up behind him wearing
the forklift exoskeleton from the movie "Aliens". What follows is very much
like the battle Sigourney Weaver fought against the egglayer, but MB knocks
her off balance. Bob shows up and immobilizes MB, but the master virus
takes over Dot's exoskeleton suit by infecting it,
turning it from yellow to blue. "Sorry Bob, I can't control myself."
"Funny, I've always known that." Megabyte demands access to the Portal, and
Bob agrees to keep from having his head crushed.
The Portal is exposed; it is a shiny sphere reflecting the same scene that
is as the opening of every show - blue and green skyscrapers floating above
a yellow and black sea. It is beautiful. Once MB enters the Portal Room,
Bob commands Glitch to lock the door. But it is really a virus
decontamination chamber. Just before MB is broken apart, it triggers a self
destruct command. (His actions are exactly like the self destruct mechanism
used in the movie "Predator".) To save them all, Bob ejects the chamber,
which deposits Megabyte at the foot of his Silicon Tor. Just then the real
upgrade arrives.
Energy returns to Mainframe, the fallen towers right themselves, and a
loopy Phong shows up. "Who knows, maybe I'll get a new modem".
== References ==
[The code number for this episode is 9501. Did anyone spot it?]
== Did You Notice ==
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==============================================================
ReBoot: "High Code"
ReBoot Episode 15 (code 9502)
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=== "HIGH CODE" ===
* Synopsis
* References
== Title credits ==
Written by Martin Borycki
Story by Gavin Blair, Phil Mitchell, Ian Pearson, Lane Raichert
== Synopsis ==
A wild West showdown on Main Street - a mercenary Codemaster has come looking
for another member of his guild. Bob is willing to sacrifice everything in
order to get this hotshot out of town before sundown.
== Story ==
The episode starts with a nice side view of Mainframe floating above a
turquoise and purple sea, with a water vortex lined up under the very
center. The camera starts outside of the Kits Sector; the tall buildings of
Baudway are to the right and Hex's Los Angles is floating off to the left.
The point of view zooms in and pans left. As the camera rises, the tall
thin towers of the Kits Sector are to the right, and Floating Point Park
to the left looks like giant pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, covered with grass
and stacked at different levels. The point of view descends slightly
when it is directly over the lightly tinted tiled terraces of Beverly Hills.
It approaches closer as the oval shaped towers of Wall Street come into view,
and then the dark industrial sector of G-Prime. By the time the camera
circles over Baudway, the view is dominated by a close up of the Sub Sphere.
During all this, the background music is reminiscent of "High Noon",
"Bonanza", and particulary, "The Magnificient Seven". Sounds like it is
going to be a showdown.
Suddenly a portal opens up, and from it appears a really mean looking
insectoid creature, one totally unlike anything else seen before.
Meanwhile, back at Bob's apartment, the Guardian is working on his old
car as Dot tries to provide assistance. "Sounds to me like it's a fried
initiator." "No, just a distended turbo lock." Bob is bound and determined
to mend this car ("mend and defend; it's a tradition"), and commands Glitch
to become a multitool, but he pauses as he senses the sinister creature
moving about Mainframe.
Phong is having problems with his Vidwindow in the Read Only Room, when
the creature pulls its thin bony body out of a portal right on top of Phong.
It seeks the Codemaster, "Talon". Phong tries to run away, but the beast
pulls off some fancy martial arts moves, and has Phong in a force field.
Enzo and Frisket are in an out of the way corner of Old Man Pierson's
Data Dump. They enter an old shed [Poster: "Greetings from Sunny Kits"] in
search of parts for Enzo's air cart. There's a lot of neat stuff, including
something that looks like a cross between a muffler and a bagpipe with six
horns. [It plays part of the ReBoot theme song.] The big find is clear
lavender rod with a knob on one end (it looks exactly like part of a
"laser-ray" gun found at many science fiction conventions). Old Man Pierson
barges in, but his lecturing is interrupted by the creature calling for
Talon. The sound of its voice leaves Pierson quaking in fear.
Bob and Dot jump on their zip-boards and the precise path from Dot's Diner
to the Principal Office is shown. When Bob declares "you're a Codemaster.
From the Web?", everyone gasps. "No," replies the creature, "you are
fortunate, I am from the Net". [The Web must be a really bad place.]
Bob tries to convince the Codemaster that there is no one named Talon in
Mainframe, but gets knocked several thousand feet into the air. When
he comes down, Glitch has been immobilized. The creature vows to take
Mainframe apart, sector by sector.
Dot starts evacuating Mainframe. All the vehicles are in use, but she needs
more. She tries to rent some from Megabyte, but he refuses to get involved.
"Codemasters and Viruses have a rather unpleasant history." Phong tries to
remove the lock from Bob's arm. (His examining room has readouts exactly
like Dr. McCoy's in the original Star Trek.)
In the Read Only Room, Phong shows Bob a hologram of a Codemaster. They
are mercenaries, intersystem eliminators. They are the most vicious
society to inhabit the Net, even the Web. Their Gibson-coil Pike is deadly.
Long before Bob came to Mainframe, Talon sought refuge, changed his
identity, and now lives amoung the people of Mainframe.
Enzo overhears the conversation, and concludes that Old Man Pierson is Talon.
He flies to the Data Dump, singing "Nano nano nano nano, Codemaster" (to the
tune of "Batman!"). The old man had taken a vow to never again delete a
living being. Unable to convince Pierson to fight, Enzo accuses him of
being a coward.
Bob tries to scoop up the Codemaster with a data retrieval crane, but is foiled.
The Codemaster is distracted by an incoming game, and Bob convinces it
that the game cube has more power than even a Codemaster. [Welly's Data
Retrieval Systems] His plan is to help the User win, which will nullify
the stranger (and Bob too).
It's a Wild West game. The train station is in the town of Spuzzam.
The number on the steam locomotive is 9502. (This is the production
code for this episode - look (and listen) for code numbers in other episodes.)
Bob helps the User, who disconnects the engine from the rest of the train.
He explains to the stranger the consequences of losing the game; total
nullification (times 2), but will allow his friends to live. It is the
Guardian tradition. This impresses the Codemaster.
But then he hears Enzo's cry for help. The boy was the Engineer on the
locomotive, but is now tied up. As the train bends around a switchback,
Bob lassoes its smokestack from across the gorge and pulls himself in
with a "Yee Haw!" (not unlike a current frog/beer commercial). He yanks
on the User's tie, causing "Game Over".
Back at Dot's Diner, Bob is giving Enzo a good talking to, when they are
interrupted by the Codemaster appearing at one end of the street. At the
other end of the street, a second portal opens up, and out steps Old Man
Pierson. (Cue the Spanish guitar.) The stranger declares "I, Lens the
Reaper, hearby do challenge you, brother Talon, to a game of High Spy".
Pierson denies the challenge, "tell the guild masters that I'm out of
circulation". "No one leaves, the Guild; it is tradition" says Lens as
he glares meaningfully at Bob. The stranger grows to enormous size, but
instead of aiming his pike a Pierson, unleashes it into the sky. The
sky becomes roiling blue and red as a result of the paradyme shift.
Bob steps in front of Pierson, blocking the Codemaster. As do Dot and
Enzo. In all his days on the Net, the Codemaster has never seen such a
"dispicable" display of honor. He leaves Mainframe, to tell the Guild that
Talon is no more.
== References ==
* Spuzzam is the name of a real town in Canada; it's north of
Vancouver, past Hope.
== Did You Notice ==
* button@io.com says that the Codemaster staff reminds him of the priest's
weapon in "Horns of Nimon", a "Dr. Who" episode from the Tom Baker era.
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==============================================================
ReBoot: "When Games Collide"
ReBoot Episode 16 (code 9503)
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=== "WHEN GAMES COLLIDE" ===
* Synopsis
* References
== Title credits ==
Written by Jono Howard
Story by Gavin Blair, Brendan McCarthy, Phil Mitchell, Ian
Pearson, Lane Raichert
== Synopsis ==
Megabyte starts leeching energy from game cubes in order to break into
the Archives. Hack and Slash drain too much energy from one cube, resulting
in the User downloading a second game on top of the first. The two games
merge. Then Megabyte activates a "Stargate" to the Supercomputer.
== Story ==
The episode opens in the midst of a game. The setting is in the ruins
of some strange temple on a planet with two moons. A deadly enemy
hovers into to view, looking like a cross between a Samauri warrior's
helmet and an orange umbrella. Dot, Bob, and Enzo are in the game; their
personas have no hair, are covered head to foot with a shiny metallic
lavender covering. Even the binomes are covered with the purple-tinged
metal. The whole thing looks like the futuristic commercials that
Robert Ableman and Associates created for Benson and Hedges in the early
1980's.
Meanwhile, Hack and Slash are positioning a device atop the game cube.
It has a nasty looking leach-like mouth. After their usual bickering
("Push the button", "No, you push it. Everytime I push the button
something bad happens". The device drops its main feeding orifice onto
the cube (and 8 smaller legs), and starts sucking energy out of the
game cube.
Our heros, who had been unfairly outgunned by the enemy, are surprised to
see the orange menace moving at one-quarter speed. It becomes trivial
to dodge its bullets and bombs. Enzo uses his gun like a baseball bat, and
knocks a fireball back to The User's icon, ending the game. Back in Mainframe,
Phong reports a mysterious energy drain, and Security reports a break in
at the Archives.
The Archives merely look like a "tiny little hut", but in reality, are a
memory bank with transfinite parameters. It has a voice-print lock, Dot
simply states her name to get in. The doors open, and open, and open,
just like "Get Smart" and MST3K. Inside are copies of old information.
The security field suffered a major blow during the game; the compression
waves were registering at 0.8.
One of Megabyte's henchmen reports that they could have broken through with
just a little more energy. MB instructs Hack and Slash to use maximum
drain on the next game cube. In the mean time MB's minions are assembling
a Stargate, a ring about 20 feet in diameter with strange hieroglyphs on
the side. [The viral binome operating the crane has a pink bunny slipper
and a brick as shoes, his mouth on the bottom cube, eye and one arm on
the middle cube, and the other arm on the top cube.
Bob is heading for Megabyte's Silicon Tor when another game cube arrives.
This time it's Basic Combat with the User in a tank. Bob reboots into
a generic "Rambo" style soldier. But before he can do much fighting, Hack
and Slash set the energy leech to maximum drain. The game cube is running
out of energy, an is about to crash. Phong tries to reroute power to the
game cube, but to no avail. A manual override occurs; the User downloads
a fresh game cube (swirling with purple and white energy) on top of the
old game cube (which has become flattened and dull gray). This is very bad.
The games merge; Dinosaurs meets Basic Combat. Bob is a cave man with
fossilized eggs as grenades, the F18 fighter/bomber has a beak and bendable bird
wings, and Tyranosaurus Rex is a robot wearing a Nintendo Super Scope.
Megabye is stuck in the game. He helps Bob push a large tree over a deep
canyon, but then tries to knock the Guardian into the gorge. Bob is saved
by the bird/plane; it is piloted by a Zero with a definite British accent.
[Bob has a tatoo of a grinning skull on his left shoulder.]
As MB is dodging fireballs from the T-Rex, he lands in a tar pit. As he
is slowly sinking into the mire, Megabyte calls for Bob's help. The
Guardian has been programmed to defend people from outside enemies and
has to save him.
While patrolling the perimeter, Frisket and Enzo investigate a manhole
leading under the Archives. An energy surge from the second game cube
passes down the cable running through the sewers, and allows the virals
to break through. Enzo and Frisket see this, but are captured before they
can report back to Dot.
Glitch becomes a rocket-launched cable, jamming up the dinosaur's Gatling
gun, and allowing Bob to swing in and punch the User's icon. Game Over.
Dot informs him that the virals have stolen an old Gateway command from
the Archives, and that Enzo is missing. They both head for the Silicon Tor.
A rust-colored viral binome arrives with the Gateway command in a bag
marked "SWAG" (stolen booty). MB advises them to be careful with that, the
Gateway command is old and fragile. Frankenbinome lumbers forward with the
Gateway command, and plugs it in. The ring is filled with field that looks
like rippling water. Enzo is at the end of a long cable and is forced to
test out the gateway. If the portal works, he will be transported to the
Supercomputer. Otherwise, he will be deleted. Enzo sticks his face and
hands into the gateway, then goes through. Once it is clear that the
gateway works, Megabyte severs the cable just as Dot and Bob arrive.
Megabyte tells Hack and Slash to "get Bob", and in their infinitesimal
wisdom, they try to catch Bob using the gateway as a net. Bob goes through,
the ring cracks, the silvery surfaces wobbles in slow motion, and before it
shatters on the floor, Bob zips back carrying Enzo. They start to leave,
but notice the henchmen holding Dot.
Bob stares at MB and says "Let her go. You owe me one." Megabyte
reluctantly complies. As Dot, Enzo, and Bob exit, Megabyte says, "Now,
we're even, Guardian."
== References ==
[The code number for this episode is 9503. Did anyone spot it?]
== Did You Notice ==
---------------------------------------------------------------------
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*
Maintained by Joe Smith - jsmith@inwap.com
==============================================================
ReBoot: "Bad Bob"
ReBoot Episode 17 (code 9505)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
=== "BAD BOB" ===
* Synopsis
* References
== Title credits ==
Written by Martin Borycki, Susan Turner
Story by Martin Borycki, Susan Turner
== Synopsis ==
Megabyte assaults the Principal Office. His meddling with the Core energy
causes a Game Cube to bend so far that it engulfs the PO. This means that
Phong is inside the game, which is based on Mad Max, the Road Warrior. Bob,
Phong and Enzo have to make sure that the Core energy does not leave with
the game when it's over.
== Story ==
The engine on Bob's car cuts out. He has a hard landing in front of Dot's
Diner, and a biker-babe binome diagnoses the problem as his interociter.
Enzo shows up with his new air cart, modeled after an XMP-48.
An army of ABCs (Armored Binome Carriers) appear from Megabyte's Sector
G-Prime and start attacking the Principal Office. They overwhelm
Mainframe's Security force and blast the Sub Sphere on top of the main
dome. A floating tank comes in and starts siphoning off the energy
from the Core. Megabyte shows up in his giant limo, and as he is giving
orders to Hack and Slash, Bob sneaks up on them and turns off their
rocket packs. The viral binome scientist with the German accent (assumed
to be Dr. Strangelove) is working on a video console when Bob
commands Glitch to be come a cutter. This cuts through the video console,
smashing the binome's fingers, who then complains about "my digits".
MB boasts that the Guardian won't be able to stop his plans this time,
when there is an in-in-in-com-com-coming g-g-g-game. (Something is
very wrong, the game cube is not acting properly.) "Oh, curses," says MB.
The game cube twists around like a snake, and bisects the white sphere
that is the Principal Office. Enzo shows up, and knocks Megabyte into the
pool of energy. MB's face spreads out just as the cube lands.
Inside the game, Bob's car has wheels. It is a desert scene with an orange
sky, and Bob has a pronounced five-o-clock shadow and is wearing studded
black leather. He is Mad Max, the Road Warrior. (A binome looking like
Charlton Heston comes on screen, and says "they finally, really, did it.
The maniacs, they blew it up".)
Megabyte's actions have corrupted the game. Mainframe is being affected by
power surges. If Bob and the others don't win the game, the Principal
Office will be nullified. If they do win the game, Mainframe's energy will
leave with the game cube. They have to keep the game going until the energy
can be returned to the Core.
In the game, Phong is the Gyro Captain. [A gyrocoptor is similar to a
helicopter, but it has a passive rotating wing on top and a pusher propeller
with engine in back.] Enzo is in the game as the Feral Kid on a go-cart,
and the User's car looks very much like a slot-car racer. The wheels of
the User's black Formula-1 racer sprout nasty knife blades.
Bob picks up speed by touching the rotating cactus coins at the side of
the road. This allows him to pass the biker binomes and a cockpit section of
a 747 airplane (which has tank treads instead of wheels). [The 747 has
longhorn steer horns on front, and graffitti including "Hi There".]
The pilot is same Brit that lost the plane in "Identity Crisis, part 1" and flew in "When Games
Collide".
Enzo gets to the lead position, and is horrified to see that Megabyte is
the tanker truck. The truck has Mainframe's energy and is heading away from
the Principal Office. Hack and Slash are crybabies stuck on top. Enzo
goes back to get Bob, who's car had given out. (Even in the game, the
interociter fails.) Frisket is riding shotgun on the go-cart, which means
that Bob has to ride in back. As Bob tries to jump on the truck, he
almost falls off, but Hack and Slash save him, because they need help too.
Bob succeeds in turning the truck around just before it would have docked
at an oil refinery.
Outside the game, Dot consults with Number 1. (Unlike binome ones, which
have three independent cubes, this Number 1 is a tall digit. He had a
goatee that looks like one that Commander Riker wore in ST-TNG, but sounds
like Sean Connery. Dot commands her Security team to "initiate
security plan number 9505" (the production number of this episode
is "9505").
Bob is driving the MB truck as they head back into the canyon. But the
747 is coming through the canyon, which is barely wide enough for the vehicle.
Enzo is heading straight for it when Frisket takes over the steering wheel.
But the British pilot and Binky have nowhere to go. The Megabyte truck goes
through the 747 and knocks the biker binomes flying. [Just before the crash,
each of the characters is featured with a flash and freeze frame. Is this
a reference to yet another movie?] "Be still my binomes of war; just walk
away," says the one in the hockey mask. Frisket continues to drive the go-cart through
the mine field, using vision from his nose-cam. But they go over a cliff.
Luckily Phong is there to pick them up. Frisket has to stop the User without
deleting him - the dog's powerful jaws do the job of stopping the User's car
in its tracks. Bob has Hack and Slash unhook the trailer ("Schnell!") and
the tanker wipes out the User. But before the "Game Over" message is spoken,
the tank of energy gets back to the Principal Office, saving the day.
Outside the game, MB threatens Bob, but Dot and the entire Mainframe
Security Force convince him to leave. "You shouldn't follow me into the
game, Enzo", says Bob. "But I couldn't have won it without you".
== References ==
* Interociter comes from the movie "This Island Earth"; it
was used to transport people and bug-eyed monsters to Metaluna.
* At one time, a Cray-XMP was the most powerful real supercomputer.
* "The maniacs, they blew it up!" is from the the last scene in
the first "Planet of the Apes" movie.
* Knive blades poking out of wheels are from a chariot race
in "Ben Hur".
* According to Gavin Blair, the "Hi There" scrawled on the side of the 747
was based on the movie "Dr. Strangelove", where "Hi There" and
"Dear John" are graffitti on two nuclear bombs being dropped on Russia.
== Did You Notice ==
* The "digits" binome was playing solitaire just before he got damaged.
* The "Road Warrior" movie has a flunky that got his fingers
(digits) cut off by a sharp boomerang, and a big guy with a gruff voice
wearing a hockey mask. ("Be still, my .... of war.")
* Dot's Number 1 sounds like someone imitating Sean Connery, or someone
imitating Patrick Stewart imitating Sean Connery from "Men in Tights".
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==============================================================
ReBoot: "Painted Windows"
ReBoot Episode 18 (code 9504)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
=== "PAINTED WINDOWS" ===
* Synopsis
* References
== Title credits ==
Written by Jono Howard, Susan Turner
Story by Gavin Blair, Phill Mitchell, Ian Pearson, Mark Schiemann,
Susan Turner
== Synopsis ==
Hexadecimal paints the town red, blue, yellow, and all sorts of colors.
All of Mainframe becomes a gallery of her works, and the surreal images
make life difficult for others.
== Story ==
The opening shot from above Lost Angles shows just how twisted the Gilded
Gate Bridge really is. The point of view flies over Mainframe and down
to the vault under the Principal Office. One of the guards says "I've heard
that the Web is out of control; invading other systems." The rookie asks,
"What's the Web?". Just then, Hexadecimal shows up.
Dot, in lilac colored running shorts, leads several Ones and an Eight on a
jog around Floating Point park. (The big guy declares "I 'ate exersize".)
Bob and the biker chick are checking out a V3 Data Cycle. Then a crudely
drawn sun is drawn onto Mainframe's sky. Phong explains that Hexadecimal
has tampered with the system Paint command. And broken through the defenses
of the Archives.
The guards have been kidnapped (into "The Scream"). Hex does a Rod
Sterling imitation; "Picture if you will, an artist". [Woman with blond
hair, colored with big dots, going "Sob!"] Paint can flooding sides of
Baudway skyscrapers with pink. Red ribbon on other buildings. Then a large
blob of multicolored paint swallowing up construction truck and binomes.
Polka dots on round towers. The Zero guard as Mona Lisa. Megabyte's Tor
painted like a yellow vase, with Hexadecimal's name as grafitti and holding
giant sunflowers. Megabyte yells at Hex for destroying his Tor, and she
tells him to not have such a long face, then makes his face short and wide.
She paints him as a harlequin wearing a tutu, then lasso's his outline and
does a cut and paste, leaving him stuck to the sky.
Phong warns that the damage from Hex's painting will become permanent at
the next system backup. Bob has to get to the linked program in Hex's Lair
and perform an Undo operation before Phong can break the link. But before
he can give more details, Phong's head is erased and replaced with a
green apple. "Now you really are the 'Keeper of the Core'" cackles Hex.
Phong gets pasted to the sky opposite MB. Bob tries to contact Dot, but
Glitch melts and falls off his wrist. Vid Windows are covered with black
ink; it's a communications blackout. The buildings and even the zip-boards
are melting. Dot's organizer is kapoot. [Painting of aqueduct or bridge.]
[Skull, melting watches, goofy fish swimming in air, barren trees cut but
standing, Salvador Dali.]
Mike the TV is in Floating Point Park being a pretentious art critic.
[White cube with red dog, green and blue men, eye in diamond.] [Trees
looking like balloons.] [Rodin's "The Thinker" statue and door to the
sky.] [Towers with orthogonal black lines, red, blue and yellow
rectangles.] [Silo with orange ball, blue dumbells, black bow ties.]
[Pastel orange wall covered with posters of Dot's head.] [Simple drawing of
a man in a hat carrying an ice cream cone (Peter Max?).] [Rotating heart
outline with yellow rays.] [Big lips in Traffic Window.] [Leaning Tower of
Pisa.] [Polka dotted wrapping paper.] [Shiny metallic taffy.]
The top dome of the Principle Office has
the hand of God touching Man from the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. HD has
reproduced the Arc de Triumph at the end of the Bridge. [Man with 3 eyes
and upraised arm or giant ear.] [Bull with nose ring, changing colors.]
There are several large slugs (giant nulls) each with a cardboard cutout of
Bob's face. (It's the artist's "blue period".) Bob's path has life size
cardboard images of himself. Except for the final one with Bob holding
a movie camera, they all fall down like dominoes.
Dot is sliding down a wildly looping gold ribbon. When she passes Enzo
and Frisket, the dog shrinks to about 3 inches in height. Enzo puts him on
his cap and jumps onto the slide. When they get inside the Archive, the
tunnel ends as the mouth of a giant Hex face, and instead of stairs, several
Vid Windows are arranged in a double helix of DNA. Enzo tries to walk on
them, but falls, and his image ends up being split among several Vid Windows.
Lost Angles has been turned into a cheerful riot of color. Mike and Bob
think it's funny that Scuzzy is guarding Hexadecimal's Lair, until the little
guy gets close, and is revealed to be 10 feet tall. With teeth, too.
Bob yells to Mike to "split up", but Scuzzy takes the command to heart, and
splits into Scuzzy-1 and Scuzzy-2. Before Bob and Mike get crushed between
the two, Hexadecimal shows up. Bob claims that he represents Mainframe's
local art's program.
Meanwhile, Enzo has figured out how to control the Vid Windows. He
replicates them like stairs for Dot, as they go looking for the system
Paint program. They find it, and sure enough, it has a link.
Bob and Mike interview the reclusive artist. She has several self
portraits. [Blue and white face with sharp angles.] [Blurry one with light
purple background.] [Head only painting.] "The huge impact of her work."
[Painting with red vertical stripe, surrounded by two dark blue stripes.]
[Green painting of girl with black hair.] [Hex face covered by moving
swirls.] [Several overlapping masks.] (Note that Bob has something rolled
up and stuffed into his belt.) "I'm ready for my close up now, Mr. Guardian."
But the cameraman does not move. It is Bob's cardboard image.
As Hex goes berzerk looking for the real guardian, Bob has snuck around
to the link to the Paint command. Clicking on the "help" icon, Bob
navigates through several layers of menus, until he gets to the "Undo All"
operation. This causes the DNA ladder in the Archives to collapse, giving
the signal to Dot and Enzo. Hexadecimal starts coming after Bob, who does
a cut-and-paste job on her face. A Hex without a mask is a dreadful sight
to see. Bright beams of light shine out from the empty spot in her head.
The facemasks talk to Bob: "Guardian, you have removed the only thing
that keeps her power in check".
Dot has to hurry, as everything is going back to normal. Enzo's ability
to hold her up fails before she gets to the Paint command, but Frisket
is back to normal size, and carries her the rest of the way. Dot clicks
on the "L", breaking the link to the virtual copy on Hex's Lair.
This upsets Bob, who hasn't put Hex back together yet. He calls for
Glitch, and it flys to his arm. Bob commands the multitalented tool to
"close file", then do a "copy and paste". The masks thank him as they
return to her body. Hexadecimal is alive but in shock, curled up in
a fetal position, quivering. Bob tells the others that Hex is in a bad
way, but is getting the best help he could get for her. Mike the TV will
be blathering at her until she pulls out of her comatose state.
== References ==
The code number for this episode is 9504. Did anyone spot it?
* SCSI-1 and SCSI-2 are two standards for connecting disk and
tape drives to a computer.
* Keeper of the Core - the central part of Mainframe and an apple core.
The paintings and artistic styles:
* 3 guards - Picasso, Edward Munch: The Scream, DaVinci: Mona Lisa.
* Vertical stripes (blue, red, blue) is "Voices of Fire". The National
Gallery in Ottawa paid $1.8 million Canadian dollars for that in 1990.
It is about 20 feet tall and was painted by Barnett Newman is an American.
(A sarcastic duplicate titled "Voices of Ire" is in the University of
Alberta, a farmer created a protest copy with a paint roller and left
it in a wheat field.
* Hex's portraits - Matisse, Van Goh.
* Principal Office - the Sistine Chapel's "Adam touches God" (by
Michaelangelo.
* Statue - The Thinker, by Rodin
* Monet
* Mondrain style colored squares on two of the towers.
* Phong with a green apple as a head is Rene Magritte.
* Enzo in the vid windows ala David Hockney's Polaroid photo montage.
* Wavy, swirling skies from several Van Gogh paintings.
(Starry Night, Sunflowers.)
* DNA double helix (from Mother Nature)
* Andy Worhol
* Keith Haring
* Jackson Pollock
* Georgia O'Keefe
* Roy Lichtenstein (large comic book panels, sliding down the painting
of brush strokes)
* Monet's Waterlilies mapped onto the pavement
* Kenny Scharf
* Melting watches - "Persistance of Memory" by Salvador Dali
* Rembrant painted more self-portraits than any other artist.
* White cube with stylized people and dog = Toyota minivan ad
== Did You Notice ==
* "Too bad Bob and Mike didn't have a SCSI terminator handy. (Wayne Morris,
morris@magic.mb.ca)
* Some of the cardboard cutouts of Bob have Glitch, some don't.
* The Hex masks treat Bob as a peer, not a nemisis, and even say "Thank You."
* After her mask is returned, Hex has a blank "nobody's home" face.
* Hex likes chaotic randomness; Mike the TV is able to provide that sort
of comforting input to her as she recovers.
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*
Maintained by Joe Smith - jsmith@inwap.com
==============================================================
ReBoot: "AndrAIa"
ReBoot Episode 19 (code 9509)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
=== "ANDRAIA" ===
* Synopsis
* References
== Title credits ==
Written by Steve Ball, Phill Mitchell, Ian Pearson, Susan Turner
Story by Steve Ball, Phill Mitchell, Ian Pearson, Susan Turner
== Synopsis ==
Enzo is unhappy that there is nobody his age to play with. But in an
undersea game, he meets an AI game sprite that's just his size.
(Note: the working title of this episode was "Enzo's Friend".)
== Story ==
Out in the parking lot of Dot's Diner, several binomes are re-creating "True
Stories of Mainframe". Two particularly bad actors (binome Ones) are
playing the part of Dot and Bob from the end of "The Quick and the Fed".
Zeros play the parts of Enzo, Megabyte, Hack and Slash. Mike the TV is
playing back this story in an attempt to cheer up the real Enzo. Next
week's episode will be a re-creation of "The Crimson Binome".
Dot asks Enzo why he doesn't go outside and play. "Who with?".
Bob is in the game cube fighting the same ice planet as in "The Tearing".
The other players in the game are not really helping. After the game, a
dejected looking Bob wanders into the Diner, followed by two binomes who had
"helped" in the game. The One is wearing William Shatner's hairpiece and
the Zero kept saying "make it so" and "engage". But Bob is so busy berating
them for making stupid moves (such as setting off a planetary detonation
while still inside the planet) that he misses Enzo's approach.
Bob can see Enzo is unhappy. "He hasn't got any friends because there
aren't any small sprites left in Mainframe since the Twin City was destroyed,"
says Bob. This statement pains Dot, causing her to think of her father.
"It wasn't his fault, Dot. It was just an experiment that got out of control".
[Cecil is confused by the bald binome asking for "tea, Earl Grey, hot".]
Frisket isn't around; he's a feral dog, and could be doing anything. (Enzo
imagines the dog helping the Crimson Binome in a swashbuckling pirate battle.)
"And it's all Dad's fault! If he didn't have to leave with all the sprites
I'd someone to play with."
Bob follows Dot's suggestion of giving the binomes a refresher course on
how to survive a game. [A Zero, in a blue uniform, wearing a hat that
says "Elwood".] A female Zero in pink lace winks at Bob with "I love you"
on hear eyelids, much like the first Indiana Jones movie. A One with
wild hair and toolbelt asks how many types of game sprites there are.
* Aggressives - attack Mainframers (knight with mace)
* Defensives - try to block everyone (carots with swords)
* Chaotic - attack anything, User and Mainframer alike (skullipede)
* Passives - usually reveal hints about the game (face above door)
* Artifical Intellegence - change their programming based on the
player's actions.
At the end of the lecture, Bob tells the students to read the first five
chapters in the README Room [more dialog from Raiders of the Lost Arc].
Dot and Phong show up to talk about Enzo's problem. "Having no one his
age to play with is really getting to him," says Bob. Again, Dot looks
very pained by this. Phong has a schematic for a robot friend.
Just then a Game cube descends in the Baudway sector, on top of Dot's Diner.
Enzo has been told to not go into a game without Bob or Dot along, but
was not told to get out of the way if a game cube comes to him. Everyone
else clears out (including "Where's Waldo" and a big Five).
Inside the game cube is completely underwater. Enzo reboots into a
Captain with an eye patch, inside a brightly colored flatfish submarine.
Dot has silvery-blue skin, gills on her throat, red eyes, a long mermaid's
tail, shiny blouse, and Poseidon's Triton. Bob's skin is dark green and blue
skin, silver eyes, a long tail like an electric eel, and gloves.
Bob thinks to himself "Dot looks really amazing. What a babe!" Dot scowls,
then smiles, "I heard that." (Their game personas are telepathic.) Dot's
weapon can create a nasty vortex or a piranha mine. Bob can grow spikes
from his glove to unleash an electrical blast. They have to stop the User
from getting to the lost treasure of Atlantis. "Nice tail" thinks Bob.
"I heard that!" "D'oh!".
As a nasty looking shark submarine drifts past, a game sprite unleashes
a throwing-star starfish. The small weapon knocks a hole in the side of
the User's vessel, but does not disable it. It responds by sending out
a depth charge that leaves the game sprite floating helplessly. Just before
the User's torpedoes hit, Enzo swoops by and scoops up the player. "Pick on
someone your own size, you big bully!". Bob gets in front of the shark,
distracting it with electrical blasts, as Dot produces a piranha mine just
in front of the shark's fins. Upon contact, the mine releases a school of
ferocious piranhas, which quickly reduce the submarine to a skeleton.
But the game is not over. The user has multiple lives, 15 to be exact.
"This is bad, very bad" says Dot this time. And Enzo's friend wakes up,
hissing and threatening the boy with sharp spines.
Bob and Dot keep destroying the User's submarine, over and over, without
much enthusiasm. Enzo comments on the game sprite's cool spines (they're
not poison, just paralyzing) and introduces himself. Her name is Andraia.
She yells for quiet, then commands Enzo to turn to avoid the wolf eels up
ahead. As Bob tries to slow down the User (Dot is running out of power),
Enzo regales Andraia with tales of being a Guardian. The two youngsters
meet up with the User, and quickly take it out with manta rays and sting
rays, but have to duck into a side cave as the User is reincarnated.
Dot and Bob swim into some red-stained water, and are surrounded by
organic sharks. After some close calls, Bob sticks his four-foot long
spike straight up. Everyone is surprised to when a shark swims straight
into it and cuts itself in half. The remaining sharks bug out quickly.
But with the sharks gone, there is nothing to stop the User. Luckily
Enzo's submarine collides with the User's before it can get to the treasure.
Bob and Dot try to swim to the treasure, but get caught in the arms of
an irridecent octopus.
Enzo is upset; his ship is damaged and they don't make it in time they
will all be nullified. He has to explain this concept to Andraia, and
that's when Enzo realizes she is a game sprite. There's no way they can be
together - she will disappear when the game cube leaves, win or lose.
"But we can be together," she says, as she pokes him with a paralyzing dart.
Andraia removes her icon (a triangle with the letters "AI" on it) and then
shoots Enzo out of the ship in a torpedo. The unmoving Enzo reaches the
treasure before the User; game over.
Dot and Bob rush up to Enzo, who is dejected at having lost his new
friend. "What's this on your icon?" It's Andraia's icon. When Bob touches
it, the girl pops into being. She had downloaded a copy of herself onto
Enzo's icon, and the game cube let her out. Now she can be with the little
Guardian and his friends. But first, a sheepish Enzo has to explain why
Andraia thinks he is a Guardian.
== References ==
The code number for this episode is 9509. Did anyone spot it?
== Did You Notice ==
---------------------------------------------------------------------
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==============================================================
ReBoot: "Nullzilla"
ReBoot Episode 20 (code 9508)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
=== "NULLZILLA" ===
* Synopsis
* References
== Title credits ==
Written by Susan Turner
Story by Susan Turner
New voice for Slash: Scott MacNeil replaces Phil Hayes
New recurring character, Andraia: Andrea Libman
[Note: The software being used by the people at ReBoot has improved. When
the characters talk, their heads and entire bodies move more than before.
Also, objects in the distance are out of focus, like a real camera.]
== Synopsis ==
A mysterious black fractal creature comes out of the Web and attacks
Hexadecimal. The Nulls in Mainframe surround her, forming Nullzilla.
Our heroes have to form a giant robot to battle it.
== Story ==
[It starts out with "Next, on ReBoot" - scenes from this week's episode.]
The story opens on the streets of Lost Angles - a blasted, wasted city
inhabitted by Nulls (slug-like creatures, each with white markings on
a single dominant color). In the distance, Hexadecimal is in her lair,
having recovered from "Painted Windows". To Scuzzy
and Mike the TV, she is showing off her Looking Glass, which is displaying
images of the Supercomputer (the blue skyscrapers on an orange sea, as seen
in the opening sequence). "If only Megabyte knew how easy it is to find.
But you known what they say: He got the smarts, but I got the power." She
becomes bored of gloating, and demands that Mike entertain her. He displays
a clip of "The Bride of FrankenBinome". HD demands something else,
so Mike shows an opera. But when the fat lady sings, her high note cracks
Scuzzy's dome and shatters the Looking Glass. A web of nasty looking
tentacles is visible behind it - some of them reach out and grab Hex.
Hack and Slash are babysitting Nibbles, the Null. The two bumbling henchmen
appear to have had an IQ upgrade; they are speaking in coherent sentences
now. Meanwhile, back in the lab, Dot, Bob and Phong are trying procedure
number 9508 in an attempt to turn the nulls back into sprites. The idea is that
the defeated player's parameters are stored somewhere in a saved game.
On the other side of the Looking Glass, a circular opening forms, and
something black and menacing comes though it. It has more tentacles than
an octopus, and at then end of each arm are more smaller arms, like a
fractal drawing. It crosses over into Mainframe and takes over Hexadecimal,
turning her completely black (with a nasty looking tongue). The nulls,
Frisket, and Andraia all react when Hex is taken over. The Mainframers
follows the nulls to Lost Angles. There they meet up with the media sprite
and verminous familiar (Mike and Scuzzy) who, along with Hack and Slash,
are fleeing the Null monster: Nullzilla.
Back in the Principal Office, Phong explains that the nulls are isolating
Hex, protecting Mainframe from whatever it was that came through her
Looking Glass (and it wasn't Alice). Even though nulls drain energy, Hex
has transfinite power limits. They will have to contain her. Phong has
prepared for just such an emergency. He goes to a door, and says "F.A.B."
[The rest of this episode is very much like Gerry Anderson's "Thunderbirds
Are Go" puppet animation show.]
Inside a wood panelled office (which pictures of the main players on the
wall) Bob is wearing a suit that looks like a black beetle, Dot is a lady
bug, Enzo is a grasshopper ["Ah, Grasshopper" says the Ancient One], Frisket
is a hornet, and Mike is a gnat. They go through color coded tunnels and
speak the magic words to activate their vehicles. "Black Beetle Turbo Pincher
Force", "Ladybird Accellerator Spotted Carapace Force", "Grasshopper Sig
Pulse Hopping Force", "Woof Woof Woof Woof" (Hornet Force), "Gnat's Slightly
Annoyed High-Pitched Buzzing Force". They have to get the vehicles up to
speed and then form a giant robot, using the phrase "Reboot Robot
Entomologizing Force". [The end result is like Voltran, Dynaman, and
countless other mighty morphing power robots.]
The inhabitants of Mainframe are in a panic, shown as a faded-color
scene of binomes running around in front of a rear-screen projection of
Nullzilla. The giant creature is just about to knock the 8-ball off of
Bob's apartment building, when the giant robot shows up. [During this
scene, the background music is exactly like a cheezy tune from a 1960's
Sci-Fi action show.] Bob tries a sucker punch, which knocks Nullzilla
on top of the the apartment, smashing it. "Oh, no. I've just redecorated."
Phong tells them to use the Destructo-Matic weapon. Bob's body language
is visible as the giant robot pats its pockets looking for the 'Matic, then
changes to Dot's pose as her voice says "Phong, we haven't got a Destructo-
Matic". Back in the PO's basement, the mighty weapon is still in its case.
While waiting for Andraia to fly the 'Matic to them, the team fights the
monster in for form of Rockem Sockem Robots (trying to knock its block off)
and World Wrestling Foundation pro wrestling (jumping up and down on the
opponent). The Destructo-Matic disperses the nulls (smashing a clown).
This leaves a weakened Hexadecimal back in her normal form. Whatever caused
the problem is gone.
Megabyte's pet null, Nibbles, returns to its crib. MB says "there you
are, Father". [What does this mean? And why did Hexadecimal say "he got
all the brains, but I got all the power? Where these two viruses created
at the same time?] The web crawler swings down and turns MB into a black
creature.
Scenes from next week: A large viral sprite having a combination of
both Megabyte's and Hexadecimal's colors and markings says "I am become
Gigabyte, destroyer of systems!"
== References ==
* Bride of FrankenBinome - the pronounciation of the
assistant's name (Eye-gor instead of Ee-gor) and the "abnormal" brain are
references to Mel Brooks' "Young Frankenstein".
* Opera - the background for the opera looks very
much like an old episode of "Bugs Bunny".
* Nullzilla - a reference to Godzilla (especially
when the hysterical citizens cast shadows on the buildings) and to Netscape's
mascot Mozilla.
* Alice - in the book "Alice in Wonderland", she gets
there by falling through a Looking Glass (a mirror).
* Transfinite - going beyond or surpassing any finite
number, group or magnitude.
* F.A.B. - phrase used on "Thunderbirds Are Go" instead
of "A-OK". Short for "fabulous", otherwise means absolutely nothing,
according to the creators, Gerry and Sylvia Anderson.
* Grasshopper - reference to the old "Kung Fu" TV series. The Ancient One
(whom Phong sounds like) used this term when addressing his student.
== Did You Notice ==
* Enzo makes a Bruce Lee noise ("Ee-yaow") when he enters as Grasshopper.
* The Destructo-Matic is in a case that says:
"IN CASE OF GIANT NULL MONSTER THREATENING CITY - BREAK GLASS".
* Megabyte refered to the Null as "Father".
---------------------------------------------------------------------
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Maintained by Joe Smith - jsmith@inwap.com
==============================================================
ReBoot: "Gigabyte"
ReBoot Episode 21 (code 9506)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
=== "GIGABYTE" ===
* Synopsis
* References
Part 2 of 4. This continues where "Nullzilla" leaves
off, and continues in "Trust No One".
== Title credits ==
Written by Phil Mitchell, Susan Turner
Story by Phil Mitchell, Susan Turner
Guest star: Mouse Louise Valence
Guest Star: Gigabyte Blu Mankuna
[ABC messed up. They showed scenes from next week instead of scenes from
this week at the beginning of the show.]
== Synopsis ==
Now it's Gigabyte's turn to be taken over by the creature from the Web.
He and Hexadecimal merge to form a much more powerful virus: Gigabyte.
Bob has to call for help.
== Story ==
Starting where "Nullzilla" left off, the 8-ball and
Bob's apartment are still on the ground. The giant robot gets picked up by
a Data Crane (but knocks over some buildings on its way out.) Dot
supervises the clean up while Bob looks over Hexadecimal (along with the
entire Mainframe Security Force in green and gold cars.) HD is recovering.
Bob and Phong discuss the thing that came out of Hex's mirror - it is
either gone or not detectable by Phong's sensors. Since it attacked Hex first,
maybe it goes for viruses. "Megabyte," croaks Hexidecimal. "That's right,"
says Bob. "No, Megabyte!". The virus in question is standing right behind
Bob, colored completely black, and show exceptional strength by knocking Bob
for a loop. Then it picks up Hexidecimal, and its hands start passing through
her body. Glitch's wide-field energy beam knocks the evil MB away, but when
Bob has Glitch fetch the car, MB returns. HD tries to hold him back with
orange fireballs, but she is too weak to keep it up. Just then Dot swings
by and picks up the black one with a Data Crane. MB tries to take over the
vehicle by infecting it (turning it blue) but Dot is prepared and jettisons
the gripper.
While driving Hex to Lost Angles, Bob demands answers. He wants to know
why HD and MB were merging. She explains that they are from the same viral
strain. "The same family?" "Much worse than that, he is my brother!".
Their fighting is just sibling rivalry. "What will happen if you join?"
"The next generation! Ha ha ha..." Just then Megabyte shows up, rips Hex
from the car, and plunges to the street below. After the column of fire
disappates, a combination creature is visible. It has MB's skull, eyes,
shoulders, and joints, but HD's facemask, arms, and breastplate. The right
hand has long sharp claws (like Freddie Krueger from "Nightmare on Elm
Street"). Hanging off the back of its red spinal column are the black
multifacted tendrils of the creature from the Web.
Bob: "I am Guardian 452. State your function."
It: "I am become Gigabyte, destroyer of systems".
Bob tries using Glitch as a wide-field energy beam again, but Gigabyte
simply absorbs it. Dot swoops in, but her Data Crane gets cut to pieces.
The creature is stronger than Megabyte, but so far has not use any of
Hexidecimal's higher functions. It appears to have the potential ability to
create its own portal to the Supercomputer. Bob tells Phong to shut down
the city, then he sends out a distress call, stating that they are fighting
a Class-5 (energy absorbing) virus. Bob and Dot try to get as far away
as possible before their zip-boards fail.
Trapped in a dark alley, Gigabyte demands that Bob hand over his Guardian
key tool. Bob had Glitch fly away, and just before GB puts his claws into
our hero, something comes in an chops off Gigabyte's arm. It's Mouse, "Did
you miss me?" Her ship is not affected by the city powerdown. Phong is not
prepared to allow Mouse in the Principal Office, but Mouse hacks through its
defenses.
Out on the streets of Mainframe, Gigabyte is sucking energy out of
binomes, including a One dressed up as Indiana Jones. It continues toward
the Principal Office, but the shield there won't last long once GB starts
absorbing the energy from it. Bob has a plan to overload Gigabyte with an
energy surge from a tear. Mouse and Dot are sent out to capture a tear
while Bob tries to hold GB back with the primitive weapons available in
Phong's armory. Bob is in black, with a black cheek guard that makes him
look like one of the X-Men. Hack and Slash show up, are do a good job of
assisting Bob. After GB is lured to Floating Point Park, Phong releases the
sector so that it is far away from the city.
Meanwhile, Dot keeps the ship steady as Mouse uses a video game
console to build an icosahedron around the tear. A sudden surge sends Mouse
flying - Dot flys the ship and catches her before Mouse falls into the Energy
Sea. Bob has things under control until Hack (the red one) gets too close
to Gigabyte and gets all his energy drained. Slash (the blue one) is so
angry that he knocks Gigabyte all the way back to Mainframe, ruining Bob's
plan. With Hack's energy, Gigabyte is able to fly over the moat and attack
the Principal Office directly. The last line of defense is two small sprites;
a girl, a boy, and his dog. Frisket's great strength is no match for Gigabyte,
but his action delays GB until Bob and the tear can arrive. The tear
overwhelms Gigabyte with too much power. Glitch becomes a splitter, and
separates the monster into three portals (Hexadecimal, Megabyte, and the
unknown black thing).
Mouse uses her wrist band, and determines that the unknown presence is
still in Mainframe. [Why was Mouse prepared to track the thing?]
To be continued.
[ABC messed up on the scenes from next week, showing the opener again.]
== References ==
[The code number for this episode is 9506. Did anyone spot it?]
* Hexidecimal holds an orange fireball on the collectable card, SA #6.
* Destroyer - from Hindu mythology: "I am become Shiva, destroyer of worlds".
* Gigabye = 1024 megabytes = 1,048,576 kilobytes = 1,073,741,824 bytes.
According to the producers, the original virus was called Kilobyte, but when
it tried to upgrade itself, it was split into Megabyte and Hexadecimal, with
an uneven distribution of powers.
* Mouse is a hacker who has tangled with Bob before,
as described in "The Great Brain Robbery".
== Did You Notice ==
* When Gigabyte is first seen, he is on one knee, in a small crater, much
like "The Terminator".
* The first binome to be drained of energy has a whip, hat, and leather
jacket, just like Indiana Jones in "Raiders of the Lost Ark".
* Phong: "I've said it before, and I'll say it again; this is not the
Supercomputer."
* The game console Mouse is using looks just like a Sony Playstation.
* "A Boy and His Dog" is the name of a science fiction movie.
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*
Maintained by Joe Smith - jsmith@inwap.com
==============================================================
ReBoot: "Trust No One"
ReBoot Episode 22 (code 9507)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
=== TRUST NO ONE ===
* TV Listings
* Background
* Credits
* Synopsis
* References
From the TV listings: Gillian Anderson of "The X-Files" guests as the
voice of CGI agent Data Nully in the computer-generated animated show
"ReBoot," airing at 8:30 a.m. PST on ABC.
In the episode, titled "Trust No One," the Binomes and Sprites of
Mainframe are being terrorized by an energy-siphoning "mouse". Two CGI
agents, Fax Modem and Data Nully, who specialize in cases known at the ASCII
(ask-ee) Files, are called in to solve the puzzle.
From the New York Daily News for Friday, December 29, 1995
'X-Files' voice joins 'Reboot' visuals
by David Bianculli
Before there was "Toy Story", there was "Reboot" --
the ABC Saturday-morning series, now in its second season,
that boasts fully computer-generated visuals and effects
and is unlike anything else on TV.
This Saturday morning, "Reboot" offers viewers a
special kick; a "guest vocalist" appearance by Gillian
Anderson, co-star of Fox's "The X-Files".
"Reboot" is set inside a computer, in a high-tech
place called Mainframe. It tells of the adventures of city
hero Bob, best friend Dot Matrix, and little boy Enzo. In
Saturday's new "Reboot", written by Mark Leiren-Young, Dot
is missing, and there's some sort of serial attacker on
the loose -- so serious that two "outside agents" are sent
into the Mainframe.
Instead of David Duchovny's Fox Mulder and Gillian
Anderson's Dana Scully from the FBI -- the protagonists of
"The X-Files" -- "Reboot" gives us Fax Modem and Data
Nully. Their computerized body shapes are like three
boxes stacked on top of one another; the top box includes
one eye, the middle box includes the lips, and ABC leaves
the rest to our collective imagination.
And while the person supplying the voice of Fax Modem
sounds more like Steven Wright than Duchovny (in reality,
it's neither), Anderson provides her own voice for this
show.
This makes for a very surreal multisensory experience,
because the voice is unsettlingly familiar. Data Nully
may be a blockhead (and a blockbody), but her green eye
shadow looks just right, and her computer-generated lips,
richly red and almost 3-D in their roundness, fullness and
relative largeness, manage to look unmistakably Gillian
Anderson-ish (the red hair atop the top block doesn't
hurt).
To paraphrase a famous phrase: those lips, that eye ...
No sooner do Data and Fax swoop in to investigate
things in Mainframe than Fax suspects a massive conspiracy
involving beings from outside their known world. Bob,
listening politely but skeptically to Fax Modem's theory,
turns to Data Nully and asks sarcastically, "Excuse me,
but is your partner completely random?"
"Not completely", Data says. And it sounds as though
Anderson, in real life in the safety and secrecy of some
isolated sound booth, had a lot of fun saying it.
X-File this week's "Reboot" episode as something worth
watching, at least if you're an "X-Files" fan. The
script is funny, and the guest appearance is a good stunt
-- but the "Reboot" visuals are what will most likely make
your want to return.
== Background ==
"ReBoot" is created in Vancouver, Canada, as is "X-Files". ReBoot is shown
in prime-time by YTV (the network for young people in Canada) and is shown
as a Saturday morning cartoon by ABC in the US. The show is 100% CGI
(Computer Generated Imagery) and tells the story of the sprites that live
in a typical personal computer.
The city is called Mainframe. Most of the inhabitants are binomes: Ones
are three cubes with arms, legs, a mouth, and a single eye. Zeros are
walking spheres. In addition to the binomes are the Numerals (such as Five,
Seven and Nine) and data sprites (Dot, Enzo, Bob, Phong, Mouse, Frisket).
One particularly successful data sprite is Dot Matrix, the owner of Dot's
Diner. She has a younger brother Enzo, and has close ties with Phong (the
ancient one, the mayor who lives in the Principal Office). Dot and Enzo
have green skin, their friend Bob has blue skin. Bob is a Guardian; he
comes from the Supercomputer and wears a multipurpose tool "Glitch" on his
wrist. As opening sequence says, his mission is to protect and defend.
Every once in a while the User downloads a game. When a game cube lands,
the inhabitants of Mainframe tap the diamond shaped icon on their chest in
order to "reboot" as a character in the game.
In the previous episode, Mainframe had been attacked by a mysterious
black multitentacled creature that absorbed energy. Mouse, a female hacker,
showed up right after the distress call went out. Dot hates Mouse for
having almost deleting her brother and for flirting with Bob. Dot and Mouse
cooperated long enough to lasso a "tear in the interface" -- a swirling green
and white ball of energy -- and throw it at the black thing. That solved the
immediate crisis, but eldrich creature went into hiding. Mouse had been
prepared and tried tracking it.
[Portions of the CGI agent's dialog were obtained from alt.tv.x-files. The
full text of Gillian's lines are reproduced here for those that requested it.]
Jackie Hughes <danafoxx@syix.com> (Doll Artisan) has a
page with screen shots from the show.
From: ron@axionet.com (Ron McMillan)
Date: Tue Jan 02 23:27:42 PST 1996
Newsgroups: alt.cartoon.reboot
Inside scoop - They did ask him, but David Duchovny did not WANT
to do the voice over; he said it's a 'kids' show and he dinnae wanna.
SO they got a guy who could do the voice, and so what if they
'overplayed' it a bit, eh? It's not like they did it 'on purpose'...
=== "TRUST NO ONE" ===
This was shown on ABC on 30-Dec-95.
It is scheduled to be run on YTV (in Canada) on 18-Jan-96.
== Title credits ==
Written by Mark Leiren-Young
Story by Gavin Blair, Mark Leiren-Young, Phil Mitchell, Ian
Pearson, Susan Turner.
Special guest appearance Gillian Anderson as Data Nully
Other voice Mike Donovan probably did the voice of Fax Modem -
he does the voices for Phong, Cecil, and Mike, and is the
voice director.
== Synopsis ==
The title is not displayed at first - instead, the opening is more like an
episode of the "X-Files" with low-level lighting and weird camera angles. In
the alley behind Al's Diner on Level 31, Al's waiter is seen emptying the
trash ("Garbage in, garbage out") and Al is, as usual, off screen when he
yells "what?". Then the point of view becomes that of "Predator 2" -
something evil is hiding amongst the pipes. The waiter screams, then is
dragged off. Cut to the title, "TRUST NO ONE", (black letters outlined in
flourescent green on a black background).
Mouse (the woman with flaming red hair, filigreed lilac skin, white top,
and black tights) sashays into Dot's Diner where Bob is having an energy
shake. The cops are eating donuts when a One reports that Al's waiter has
been abducted. Enzo bursts in, and tells Bob that his sister, Dot, is also
missing. Miss Brodie, a teacher Zero, confirms the story.
(Enzo's friend is AndrAIa, an AI game sprite.)
Bob goes to Al's "Wait and Eat" Diner on Level 31. This is where the
low lifes of Mainframe hang out. A waiter with an attitude skates
past. Al himself is not much help, he just says "what?". A pair of Ones
notice Bob's interrogation; a man with a squinty eye, wearing a disheveled
black suit and a pretty redhead wearing a blue pantsuit.
[Because Ones don't have noses, the guy does not look as cute as David
Duchovny, but Gillian Anderson's mouth and hair are well rendered.]
Him You ask a lot of questions, Guardian.
Bob Who are you?
Him CGI Special Agent, Fax Modem.
Her CGI Special Agent, Data Nully. We couldn't help overhearing
you. You're looking for a missing person?
Bob Yeah, Dot Matrix is missing. Do you know anything about it?
Fax There's been a rash of disappearances in Mainframe.
Data Phong sent us to investigate the most recent disappearance,
Al's waiter.
Bob We should talk.
(meanwhile) Mike the TV is doing an on-the-scene report. Mouse
is trailing them, and making a report to someone else.
Bob I can't accept that. Mouse is an old friend.
Data Bob, you've got to be reasonable on this. All evidence points
to Mouse. We have eyewitnesses that will testify to here being on
or near the scene of each abduction.
Bob Coincidence.
Data Tell him your theory, Modem.
Fax (very dramatic) Her *fangs*.
Bob Yeah? So? She's got fangs!
Fax I suspect she's a Web-creature.
Bob What! Oh, now *this* is ridiculous. These aren't theories.
These are--delusions!
Fax Listen...(foreboding music starts)...when I was just a little
node, I saw my sister taken by a strange creature. It had fangs...
just like Mouse.
Bob Excuse me. But is your partner *completely* random??
Data (in a tired voice) Not--completely. (gives sidelong glance at Fax)
Bob OK, why didn't it take you too, then.
Fax I don't know. I was reading comic bytes in bed. When I
peeked out from under the covers I saw something hovering over my
sister. Then I pointed my flashlight at it, and a moment later,
it, and my sister were gone. I'll never forget the noise it made.
Bob I don't want to seem insensitive, but next you'll be telling me that
you've see the User.
Fax There is no User. That's just induced mass psychosis engineered by the
Guardians.
Bob What?!? But what about the games?
Fax Sent by the Guardians to promote the User myth.
Data Another conspiracy theory, Modem?
Fax One of many...
Bob So, let me get this straight. There's a web-creature, posing
as Mouse, loose in Mainframe, abducting sprites. For what purpose?
Fax I haven't worked that out yet.
Bob OK. And Guardians are control freaks, willing to sacrifice the
very people they've been sworn to protect by dropping games on them.
Fax That's right.
Bob Tell me - did Phong personally interview you for this job?
Didn't think so.
Data Look, this isn't getting us anywhere. What we need is a plan,
not theories.
Bob You ... remind me of someone.
(meanwhile) Mike the TV finishes up an interview on the scene of
the latest abduction. [A picture of the Five is on a milk carton.]
When he turns around, Mike's camera crew is gone. He starts to run,
then the shadow of a multi-tenticaled creature overtakes him.
Mike is heard falling, then a flickering white light shines out.
The creature screetches, then its shadow is seen running away.
Cut back to the diner, where Fax is holding is head, wincing.
Data Are you alright, Modem?
Fax (in pain) That's it ... that's the noise the creature made.
Bob Quick, outside! Now!
(they find) Mouse bending over the unconcious TV, which has
flickering "snow" instead of a face.
Data Hold it, CGI! (The agents pull out some large handguns.)
Mouse hiss (as she bares her fangs).
Bob Mouse, what are you doing?
Mouse It's not what you think. Bob, you've got to let me go.
Bob You know I can't do that.
(standoff) Mouse gets to her feet, then glances behind the
agents. They follow her stare, and are dumbfounded when Mouse
pulls a katana sword from her boot and slices their guns in half.
Bob Don't make me do this, Mouse.
Mouse Trust me. (She kisses him, and runs off while Bob is dazed.)
Bob Glitch: tracer (Glitch sends out a dot which embeds itself
in Mouse's boot.) You two look after Mike; I'm going after her.
(Bob jumps on his zipboard and speeds away.)
Data (taps on Mike's glass until he wakes up.) Are you OK?
Mike Ooo! It bit me!
Fax Calm down.
Mike It was the light. The light I tell you! The light saved me. (babbles)
Data Just like your sister, Modem.
Fax Wait here. I've to get something from the CPU.
Mike I can't think straight. I can take it. Tell me the truth.
Tell me the camera was rolling.
Data (shakes head)
Bob tells Phong that they're dealing with a web-creature, but that it's
not Mouse. Mouse uses her wrist communicator to tell someone named Turbo
that they have confirmation of the web-creature but continues on to free the
Mainframers. She slides down an elevator shaft. At the bottom, there is
more evidence of the creature shedding its skin. She walks past a trash
can, and the cliche happens - a small animal jumps out and runs away.
(Instead of a cat yowling, it is a Null, a brightly colored slug.) She
looks up and sees several bodies encased in cocoons, arranged in neat rows.
Drawing her sword, Mouse advances until she gets to Dot and frees the woman.
After the other abductees are freed (including a Nine and a clown),
Mouse stays behind to get physical evidence that the web-creature exists.
The web-creature arrives. It has jaws bigger than a person, and a near
infinite number of small spheres that make up its arms. One of them grabs
Dot. Fax and Data show up, and use their incredibly bright flashlights to
immobilize the creature. It drops Dot and Bob catches her.
Data You were right. It can't stand the strong light.
Fax (in a somewhat smarmy voice) I'm sure there's a *very*
scientific reason for it.
Data But...we don't know what it is!
Mouse continues trasmitting to Turbo, an imposing man wearing a
Guardian's suit. There are other Guardians around him, half in shadow. One
of them states that creature is Class M, with portal forming abilities. [We
have never seen any Guardian other than Bob. Is this a cabal, or some sort
of Star Chamber?]
Mouse explains that she has been working for Turbo (that's why she was in
the neighborhood when the distress call went out) and that she's just called
in the cavalry. Bob informs her that the Guardian protocol for discovering a
web-creature is to destroy it and everything around it.
Turbo and the others in the high command release the codes that will
trigger an explosion. Turbo asks the others to leave, "I'd like to be
alone - Bob and I go way back." When they are gone, Turbo turns the virtual
hourglass over again - this gives Bob a little more time.
Data Hurry, Bob. We're running low. We don't have much time.
Bob (uses Glitch to determine that Mouse's communicator is the bomb.)
Data Guardian, we can't hold it for much longer. (Their flashlights
go out just as security team brings up more spotlights.)
Bob zooms off in an attempt to get the device out of Mainframe. It goes
off in a big explosion, and tears a hole in the sky. The swirling in the
hole becomes 8 small tears, and then one giant tear. The glowing green and
white ball of plasma illuminates Mainframe like a carbon-arc lamp. The
light is strong enough to reach the lower levels. The web-creature appears
to gain energy from its spectrum, and smashes a hole through several layers
of concrete to the surface.
Bob barely escapes the blast. When Phong tells him that the web-creature
has escaped, Bob is most distraught. "It's a Class-M! It can use the tear
energy to form a portal to the Web!" The web spore merges with the tear and
the portal is formed. It is a sphere as big as Mainframe filled with
radially-symetric tendrils.
Fax It just broke free.
Data We couldn't stop it.
Fax You see, Nully--the Web *is* out there.
Data No, Modem--it's here.
Bob This is it, Phong. Prepare for war.
Next time, on Reboot: All the security vehicles (police cars) are lined
up waiting for battle with the Web.
== References ==
Some of the character's names are computer puns. This is explained on the
Characters page.
* GIGO - Garbage In, Garbage Out is a programmers mantra;
feeding unreliable data to a computer program produces unreliable results.
* Brodie - Must be a reference to "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie",
a famous play. The title character is a school teacher.
* Waiters with attitudes and rollerskates can be found
in some of the dining establishments in Vancouver.
* CGI - Computer Generated Imagery (which decribes how
ReBoot is produced), or Common Gateway Interface, used to make dynamic
pages on the World Wide Web. An example of the latter does the
"Hello, WebSurfer" message for this site.
* Katana - a type of Samuri sword used by Duncan
MacLeod in "Highlander" (another series that is filmed in Vancouver, Canada).
* Cabal - at one time, the USENET newsgroups (such as
rec.arts.tv) were controlled by a semi-mythical cabal of computer gurus.
== Did You Notice ==
[The code number for this episode is 9507. Did anyone spot it?]
* Miss Brodie is Scotish, but is not wearing the Brodie tartan.
* The customers at Al's Diner: a Seven, and a One with a bone in its hair.
* Data Nully is wearing the same sort of cross that Dana Scully wears.
* The missing Five already has his picture on a milk carton.
* Mouse might be afraid of heights.
* No, that's not a Six in a cocoon; it's a Nine held upside down.
* One of the beast's victims was the clown that juggled Nulls in
"Talent Night" and was squashed by Nulls in "Nullzilla".
* When Mainframe Security turns their spotlights on, it goes green, green,
green, yellow, red (like the lights at an NRHA drag race).
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ReBoot: Web World Wars
ReBoot Episode 23 (code 9510)
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=== "WEB WORLD WARS" ===
* Synopsis
* References
This was originally scheduled to be shown on ABC on 6-Jan-96, but the
episode was not ready at that time. Hopelfully it will be finished by Jan-24.
Canadian schedule: YTV
25-Jan-96 28-Jan-96 29-Jan-96 "Trust No One" (X-files) NEW (part 3 of 4)
01-Feb-96 04-Feb-96 05-Feb-96 "Web World Wars" (finale) NEW (part 4 of 4)
U.S. schedule: ABC
The episodes for January 6, 13 and 20 will be repeats because "Web World
War" is not finished yet. The season finale is scheduled for January 27.
06-Jan-96 Sat 10:30am(ET)/9:30am(PT) "High Code"
13-Jan-96 Sat 10:30am(ET)/9:30am(PT) "When Games Collide"
20-Jan-96 Sat 10:30am(ET)/9:30am(PT) "Bad Bob"
27-Jan-96 Sat 10:30am(ET)/9:30am(PT) "Talent Night"
03-Feb-96 Sat 10:30am(ET)/9:30am(PT) "Web World Wars" (finale) NEW (part 4)
10-Feb-96 Sat 10:30am(ET)/9:30am(PT) "Painted Windows"
17-Feb-96 Sat 10:30am(ET)/9:30am(PT) "AndrAIa"
24-Feb-96 Sat 10:30am(ET)/9:30am(PT) "Identity Crisis, part 1"
02-Mar-96 Sat 10:30am(ET)/9:30am(PT) "Identity Crisis, part 2"
== Title credits ==
Written by ??
Story by ??
This is part 4 of a 4-part story. The Web Spore has obtained enough
energy from the tears to form a portal that brings the Web to Mainframe.
It looks like the sprites have a full fledged war on their hands.
== Synopsis ==
The Web comes to Mainframe.
== Story ==
ABC has not shown this episode yet. The information here is based on
what has been posted to the alt.tv.reboot newsgroup.
== References ==
[The code number for this episode is 9510. Did anyone spot it?]
Twice: one on the hardware and alsow when Bob was talking to Enzo about
becoming a Guardian.
== Did You Notice ==
* The penguin is seen again.
* A binome ejecting just like DieHard II
* The CPU squad cars are A12 (like One Adam 12)
* When Hex changes from angry to happy, we can see the mask changing
(instead of having the switchover hidden by her hand).
== Quotes ==
* "Does this make me look too butch?"
* "The ABCs have turned on us!"
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ReBoot: Episode Guide
Episode Guide
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[ image='ytv/YTV-icon.gif' descr='YTV' ]
[ image='images/ABCsmall.gif' descr='(ABC)' ]
* Air dates for Canada (YTV)
* Air dates for USA (ABC)
* Air dates international
* Networks in other countries that show ReBoot
Back in January of 1995, the first 10 episodes had been shown, the next 3 were
in production, and the networks ordered 10 episodes for the second season.
== Promo spots ==
In the fall of 1994, ReBoot was prempted for several weeks.
During that time, producers offered teasters to
keep audience interest up.
== 1st season (1994-1995) ==
01 "The Tearing"
Megabyte tries to get a tear stabilized into a portal so that he
can invade the Supercomputer.
Game: Outer space simulation
02 "Racing the Clock"
Bob delivers a package to Hexadecimal and gets caught in the
backlash. Game: Multi-level race (Forumla-1 cars, hovercraft,
jet planes)
03 "Quick and the Fed"
Dot gets brain-wiped by a magnet.
Game: White Knight
04 "Medusa Bug"
Hexadecimal unleashes a viral bug, turning everything to stone.
Game: none
05 "The TIFF"
Dot and Bob won't speak to each other.
Game: Starship Alcatraz
06 "In the Belly of the Beast"
Frisket swallows an old UNFORMAT command.
Game: none
07 "The Crimson Binome"
Captain Capacitor, the software pirate, loots Mainframe but is
bested by Admiral Dot.
Game: none
08 "Enzo the Smart"
Enzo is smarter when Mainframe runs at half speed.
Game: Olympians
09 "Wizards, Warriors, and a Word from our Sponsor"
Mike the TV is a winning part of the team.
Game: Dungeon Deep
10 "The Great Brain Robbery"
Megabyte hires Mouse to get inside Bob's brain. She gets Enzo instead.
Game: (has ended as story opens)
== 2nd season (1995-1996) ==
Episodes 11, 12 and 13 were shown on YTV in Canada as part of the 1st season.
ABC showed "Talent Night" on 12-Aug-95, then several weeks of 1st season
reruns, and then broadcast "Identity Crisis" as the first two episodes
of the 2nd season (9-Sep-95 and 16-Sep-95).
The opening was changed for the second season.
11 "Talent Night"
Dot auditions several acts for Enzo's birthday party, including
the guys from "Money For Nothing" and the Small Town Binomes.
Game: none from the User.
"Saturday Morning Preview"
On Friday evening, 8-Sep-95, ABC ran a preview of the new
Saturday morning line-up. Megabyte tried to take over the show.
12 "Identity Crisis, part 1"
Dot is responsible for the safekeeping of the binomes PID codes,
but Megabyte gets a hold of them.
Game: Fun House
13 "Identity Crisis, part 2"
Dot is in a world run by Megabyte. She lost the game (or did she?)
Game: Fun House
14 "Infected"
Megabyte interferes with the scheduled upgrade, infiltrates the Core.
Game: none, but Dot does a neat Sigourney Weaver imitation.
15 "High Code"
A code master comes looking for a master who has left the guild.
Game: Wild West Locomotive
16 "When Games Collide"
Megabyte steals energy from a game cube. The user sends in another
game cube which merges with the first to form an out-of-control game.
17 "Bad Bob"
Megabyte attacks the Principal Office. His theft of the core energy
messes up the game cube.
Game: Mad Max (Road Warrior)
18 "Painted Windows"
Hexadecimal paints the town all sorts of pretty colors.
Game: none, Hex on the loose is worse than any game.
19 "andrAIa" (formerly "Enzo's Friend")
Enzo has no one his age to play with until he meets an AI game sprite.
Game: Undersea Adventure
20 "Nullzilla"
A "web spore" attacks Hexadecimal, the Nulls become monster, and the
Mainframe team combine to form a giant robot.
Game: none - this is start of a four-part story
21 "Gigabyte"
Megabyte is attacked by the web spore. Hexadecimal joins him, the
result is Gigabyte. Mouse saves the day.
22 "Trust No One" (formerly "Energy Vampire")
A visit from the CGI agents, Fax Modem and Data Nully.
The web spore has teeth and gets stronger; the shadow Guardians
are no help at all. "TO BE CONTINUED"
23 "Web World Wars"
Mainframe has to fight an all-out war as the Web invades.
This is the end of the four-part story.
Short schedule of upcoming episodes: (January and February)
Canadian schedule: YTV updated 19-Jan-96
Thu 8:00p Sun noon Mon 7:30p (1995-1996 schedule)
04-Jan-96 07-Jan-96 08-Jan-96 "Nullzilla" (HD attacked) NEW (part 1 of 4)
11-Jan-96 14-Jan-96 15-Jan-96 "Gigabyte" (MB attacked) NEW (part 2 of 4)
18-Jan-96 21-Jan-96 22-Jan-96 "Painted Windows"
25-Jan-96 28-Jan-96 29-Jan-96 "Trust No One" (X-files) NEW (part 3 of 4)
01-Feb-96 04-Feb-96 05-Feb-96 "Web World Wars" (finale) NEW (part 4 of 4)
08-Feb-96 11-Feb-96 12-Feb-96 "AndrAIa"
U.S. schedule: ABC updated 4-Jan-96
06-Jan-96 Sat 10:30am(ET)/9:30am(PT) "High Code"
13-Jan-96 Sat 10:30am(ET)/9:30am(PT) "When Games Collide"
20-Jan-96 Sat 10:30am(ET)/9:30am(PT) "Bad Bob"
27-Jan-96 Sat 10:30am(ET)/9:30am(PT) "Talent Night"
03-Feb-96 Sat 10:30am(ET)/9:30am(PT) "Painted Windows"
10-Feb-96 Sat 10:30am(ET)/9:30am(PT) "AndrAIa"
17-Feb-96 Sat 10:30am(ET)/9:30am(PT) "Identity Crisis, part 1"
24-Feb-96 Sat 10:30am(ET)/9:30am(PT) "Identity Crisis, part 2"
02-Mar-96 Sat 10:30am(ET)/9:30am(PT) "Web World Wars" (finale) NEW (part 4)
YTV Schedule
ABC Schedule
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