- By John Hansen
- 02 Jun, 2025
- Sherlock Holmes
‘TMNT’ takes welcome ‘Vacation in Europe’ to start Season 7 (1993)
“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ ” “Vacation in Europe” (1993) episodes have a mythic “lost episodes” quality in my mind. I was gradually losing interest in the kiddie side of “TMNT” in 1993 – I recall being fine with going to “TMNT III” a couple days after it opened – and when this batch of 13 adventures popped up on USA Network, I found it to be an interesting curiosity, nothing more.
Turned off by the alternate voice actor for Raphael (Hal Rayle instead of Rob Paulsen), I thought the episodes were dumb (although now I realize he’s perfectly fine), and I’m sure I didn’t even watch all of them. I was slowing down on being a “TMNT” completionist.
Rewinding the timeline
I did notice the episodes take place in the past – right after “Plan Six from Outer Space” (Season 4, episode 1, from 1990), which references the Turtles winning a trip to Europe – so I had a vague idea that somehow these were old episodes I somehow missed.
“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” Season 7, episodes 1-13 (“Vacation in Europe”) (1993)
USA Network
Episodes: “Tower of Power” (1), “Rust Never Sleeps” (2), “A Real Snow Job” (3), “Venice on the Half-Shell” (4), “Artless” (5), “Ring of Fire” (6), “The Irish Jig Is Up” (7), “Shredder’s New Sword” (8), “The Lost Queen of Atlantis” (9), “Turtles on the Orient Express” (10), “April Gets in Dutch” (11), “Northern Lights Out” (12), “Elementary, My Dear Turtle” (13)
Producer: Fred Wolf
Writers: Michael Edens (1, 6, 9), Lee Schneider and Matthew Malach (2), Misty Taggart (3, 4, 11), Doug Molitor (5, 10), Carol Mendelsohn and John Fox (7), Francis Moss and Ted Pedersen (8, 12), Dennis O’Flaherty (13)
Some reports say they were produced as part of Season 4 in 1990, but that makes little sense; why would they not air as soon as they were ready? The point of product tie-in cartoons is to strike while the iron is hot. More common reports say they aired in 1992 in Europe, then a year later in the USA.
It’s too bad the creation story of “Vacation in Europe” is under-covered, because it’s an unusually creative move for a series that was generally content to have Krang and Shredder try to grab a power source in New York and have the Turtles thwart them. Granted, most of “Vacation in Europe” uses this plot, transposed to European cities.
While someone (perhaps Jack Mendelsohn, the story editor) had to come up with the overarching idea, since Team Green is indeed in Europe for all 13 episodes, the communication didn’t go much further.
The Turtles arrive in Paris on a small ship in “Tower of Power” (1), then inexplicably have the Turtle Van in “Rust Never Sleeps” (2). They visit the Louvre for “the first time” in both episodes, and Shredder is surprised by the Turtles’ presence in the second episode, despite encountering them in the first one.
Channel 6 expands its coverage area – by a lot
April’s – and sometimes Irma’s and Vernon’s – presence in “Vacation in Europe” is explained in various ways. Sometimes Burne is ambitious and sends them there, sometimes he’s a spendthrift and April begs him for an overseas assignment, sometimes April and Irma are vacationing, and ultimately the trio becomes “European correspondents.” That’s not how local news works, but then again, nothing in “TMNT” represents how the world works.
Still, we do get fresh background cels of Europe – France, Italy, Vatican City, Greece, Austria, the Netherlands, Norway, England, Ireland, Portugal, Germany, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey. The foreground animation is a notch below average for the series.
As noted, the scripts usually follow the standard “TMNT” plot of Krang (stuck on the Dimension X asteroid, as per Season 4) sending Shredder, Bebop and Rocksteady on a mission to acquire a power source for a portal big enough for the Technodrome. Or Krang plans to cause destruction and take over the ravaged Earth at his leisure, like in “A Real Snow Job” (3), where he intends to melt glaciers. Featuring Irma crushing on a ski instructor who turns out to be a robot (!), this is a fun romp from Misty Taggart, one of the show’s more consistent writers.
Similar plots are found in “Venice on the Half Shell” (4), where Krang plans to create massive flooding; “Ring of Fire” (6), where he looks to destroy cities with a heat ray; and “Turtles on the Orient Express” (10), where he aims to use a propulsive bomb to blast a train into an oil field.
The bad guys turn to magic in “The Irish Jig is Up” (7), wherein a charm turns animals into the opposites of their true nature (Mikey becomes beastlike and Bebop and Rocksteady turn small and innocent); “Shredder’s New Sword” (8), where Tin Grin aims to acquire Excalibur; and “The Lost Queen of Atlantis” (9) and “April Gets in Dutch” (11), where April stumbles upon powerful pieces of jewelry that the baddies also desire.
A Sherlock Holmes crossover!
If only for the sake of variety, the three non-Krang/Shredder/Bebop/Rocksteady episodes are among the best; they’re also the most educational for kids. “Artless” (5) finds aliens attempting to steal great artworks, including one each by the four Turtles’ namesakes.
The villain of “Northern Lights Out” (12) is the evil son of Thor; young viewers might think he is a disguised Shredder since Jim Cummings (who voices Shredder this season) doesn’t disguise his voice. Capturing the big skies, snow-capped mountains and fjords of Norway, this is among the better-looking episodes.
Dennis O’Flaherty’s “Elementary, My Dear Turtle” (13) is among the series’ best-scripted episodes, as “TMNT” crosses over with an even more ubiquitous franchise, “Sherlock Holmes.” It features Holmes (Splinter actor Peter Renaday), Watson (Krang actor Pat Fraley), Moriarty (Rayle) and direct references to Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories (including Holmes placing a bust of himself in his window to confuse a sniper). Since Moriarty successfully (for a time) creates an alternate future where he rules the planet, he’s more dastardly in “TMNT” than in the canon!
I might’ve hoped “Turtles on the Orient Express” would similarly be a riff on Agatha Christie, but the connection doesn’t go beyond the title; the story’s inspiration is train-based actioners like “The Great Train Robbery.” April’s sleuth aunt Agatha Marbles, from “Case of the Hot Kimono” and “Sleuth on the Loose,” remains “TMNT’s” only Christie nod.
“Vacation in Europe” could’ve been so much better, but grading on a curve, it’s impressive that “TMNT” leaves the Big Apple for a while. It’s a superficial change, since sewers look the same everywhere and the writers don’t tap much into local cultures (all supporting characters have a generic “foreign accent”), but at least children get basic geography and history. If you’re an adult slogging through a rewatch, it’s a vacation worth taking, for a slight change of pace.
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