2x04 - Bad Bob

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".] Once again, Binky and "Sir" are doomed pilots.

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.] "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.
* The flash and freeze frame when Bob's car crashes into the 747 is a reference to the other 1963-1964
B&W movie about bombing Russia: Fail-Safe.
* "Zed-Victor-One" is a reference to a British sixties drama series called "Z-Cars".

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".