Tron: TAS - the best character
I was feeling nostalgic tonight about one of my favorite series when I was a kid. And because it’s late, and I’m awake I want to talk about it. Particularly, I want to talk about Turing - my favorite character from Tron: The Animated Series.
What? You don’t remember Turing? He was a recurring villain in season one and had that awesome face heel-face turn in season two, during the episodes where Tron got reprogrammed. And he was voiced by Tim Curry to make it even more awesome! How can you not remember Turing?
No one thought that much of Turing during season one, both in the show, and as far as people watching it were concerned. He was a program that was vaguely reminiscent of Dr. Wily from the Ruby-Spears Megaman cartoon, but instead of being the main villain of the season, he was kind of like the Mandarin in Season 1 of the 90s Iron Man Cartoon - before he became the big villain in season 2. Mandarin that is - not Turing. So kind of like a recurring mad scientist character who stole every scene he was in back in season 1, but they used him sparingly, both because Tim Curry was expensive, and also because the action was focused more around Jet, Tron, Clu, and all of the other good guys, like cartoons often are. (Though the behind the scenes stuff I’ve found said that Tim Curry was actually totally on board with being on the show and he had a lot of fun with the role).
For example, there was this one episode in Season 1, where it was the obligatory Christmas Episode ™ that every 80s and 90s kids cartoon was contractually obligated to have. But since the cartoon was set in The Grid, that meant that programs didn’t really understand Christmas. So it was this whole mess of Clu doing what he did and trying to copy the User World to make the perfect system, people saying Christmas every five seconds until it stopped sounding like a real word, and Jet, who was agonizing about whether or not he would be able to be home with his family for Christmas. And in the midst of all of this, Turing swans in to “Steal Christmas” for some nebulous reason, complete with tacky glowing accented Santa Suit, because he’s a program and what else would he be wearing? He also was trying to goad Tron into stealing Christmas back, even though it was completely contradictory to his plans, because Tron was the Champion and that’s what he was supposed to do.
As silly as it sounds, that honestly was my favorite season 1 episode with Turing in it. Turing had these ideas about how Tron was the Champion, and he was supposed to fight for the Users, but then would also be Very Put Out that Tron wasn’t actually doing things for the programs in the system, since the system is where he actually lived, and all his stuff was there. Turing would also go back and forth about if the Users actually existed, because he had never met his, or any other User personally, and how do you prove something is real without data, or evidence to back it up? So Turing, especially Season 1 Turing, would sometimes vacillate wildly between hecking up Tron’s day, because who cared about the Users (and also just being a menace), and also going on about how Tron was supposed to protect the programs in the system, and if he wasn’t, then he was Doing It Wrong.
Season 1 Turing was kind of a mess. And I don’t think the writers really knew what they wanted to do with him. But it was fun, and when he would show up his appearances were always memorable. Tim Curry hadn’t reached the utter unhingedness of his Red Alert 3 SPACE scene, but he was doing great work all the same. Think of Mal back in Captain Planet, but dialed up more. But then came Season 2 and all that changed.
Season 2 had this arc about midway through it where another program, Asimov, who was Distinctly More Evil than Turing could ever hope to be, got ahold of Tron and reprogrammed him. Asimov was kind of like the Mr. Sinister of Tron: TAS, as he was interested in code, and what a Program’s code destined them to be, or gave them the potential to do, and what could potentially happen if you tried to mix the code of two different programs together. Asimov was honestly terrifying for a kids show, but that’s a rant for another day. The point is, he reprogrammed Tron into a cross between Rinzler and The Terminator, and gave this whole long monologue about Tron’s code dictating this and it being Tron’s destiny to reformat the system, and how this is what he was created to do. (Aside note: Asimov was voiced by Peter Fricking Cullen, playing amazingly against type. Freedom is the right of all sentient beings, but apparently not if your name is Tron.) Also, this was a three parter (the only one in the series, actually), and the first part ended on a cliffhanger, with the reveal of reprogrammed!Tron, whose circuits were glowing red. I’m sure that me, and a lot of the other kids that watched it yelled at their TVs when they saw that.
So. All hope seems lost. Tron is a bad guy. The Grid is doomed, right? Wrong. Because in the beginning of the second episode of this three part saga, Turing shows up. He is incensed. His nemesis/frenemy/most boon companion (yes, he used that descriptor) has been compromised. And while he and Tron have never seen eye to eye, that doesn’t mean that he is destined to do anything like destroy the system. So Turing, who is So Extra, breaks into where Jet, Clu, and the rest of Team Good Guys are and gives an full on presentation (complete with pictures) of why they are going to rescue Tron, and how he is going to take point. This leads to a lot of arguing and shouting about how Turing even knows this is going on, and Turing being downright offended at even the hint that he is working with Asimov. There’s talk of friendship, and Turing points out that neither Jet, nor any of the rest of Team Protag will be able to reprogram Tron, but Turing will be able to, since he’s Just That Good. Clu seems to be gearing up to counter all of the reasons this is stupid and why it won’t work (and why they can’t just call Flynn and get him to fix Tron), when Tron and Asimov show up, intent on annihilating everyone. End of the second episode.
This is the part that I remind you all that this was your typical Saturday Morning Cartoon and that meant you were waiting a week for all of this to get resolved, which is an eternity when you’re in the first grade.
So. The conclusion. Tron was standing there about to kill all the guys and reformat the system. Asimov is winding up to give another long villain monologue. Team Protag is very conflicted, because Tron is their friend, but he also doesn’t seem to know who they are. Jet believes in himself and gives a speech about friendship. Clu tries to do the same, but it’s Clu, so that doesn’t really work and he ends up just telling Tron to stop being dumb, but it does give a really nice insight into his and Tron’s friendship. Unfortunately, Tron is unmoved by this, and his circuits seem to start glowing even redder. And then Turing steps up. And since this is an 80s cartoon, there aren’t going to be any more friendship speeches, because the writers have figured that the kids are bored with all the talking and there needs to be action. So it figures that there would be an action sequence, right? Wrong. Turing doesn’t give a speech about friendship, oh no. He basically gives fricking Asimov a lecture about how if this was Tron’s destiny, he would have reformatted the system a long time ago, and Asimov clearly doesn’t know what he’s talking about since Tron is just standing around looking redder than Turing did when he tried to steal Christmas (and yes they actually bring that up). Jet uses the distraction to throw a disc or fire a laser or something at Asimov (because again, 80s kids cartoon), and that actually does cause Asimov to retreat. Turing takes the opportunity to apologize for what he’s about to do, before knocking Tron out, and then undoing Asimov’s reprogramming.
Turing actually does explain (while Clu and Jet watch him very closely) that sure, he could reprogram Tron into someone that was easier to get along with, but that would make him just like Asimov, and who wants that? Tron is understandably very upset when he finally is back to his normal self, and the implications of the reprogramming and getting better from it last throughout the rest of Season 2, though Tron does mellow out a bit after he gets better from being reprogrammed. And Turing ends up as a recurring good guy after that, and while he doesn’t show up in every episode, he is a more frequent presence than he was in season 1. (Though we don’t really talk about the weird arc he had in season three. It was dumb, and he got better, so it’s better left forgotten.)
(So @teh-kittykat - how did I do?)
I am LOVING ALL OF THIS
filing it under the “TRONCHAROV” tag where I keep my own headcanon that Goncharov was a real movie in the Tron universe and was Roy’s inspiration for the name “RAM-JWHJ-0715”