TITLE: The Ultimate Enemy...GREAT SCOTTS!!11!!!!111!!!
LOGO: "It's time to SCREAM!"
EPISODE #: 28+29
SEASON: 2
AIRDATE: September 16, 2005
DIRECTOR: Butch Hartman, Wincat Alcala, Kevin Petrilak
STORY: Steve Marmel
WRITERS: Marty Isenberge, Steve Marmel, Sib Ventress
STORYBOARD: Ray Angrum, Ben Balistreri, Chris Graham, Shaunt Nigoghossian, Robb Pratt, Fred Reyes, Butch Hartman
ART DIRECTIONS: George Goodchild
MUSIC: Guy Moon
APPEARANCE: Irving "Third Degrees" Burns (1st appearance), Main Trio, Fenton family, Lancer, Valerie and Damon (future), Kwan (Future cameo), Star and a bunch of girls (cameo), Doc Brown (as Sir-Not-Appearing-in-this-Movie)
GHOST APPEARANCE: Phantom…or Dark Danny/Dan Phantom/whatever, Box Lunch (1st appearance), Fright Knight, Skulker and Technus as Skultech 9.9, Johnny 13/Shadow and Kitty, Box Ghost, Ember McLain (future counterparts)
FENTON GADGET APPEARANCE: Fenton Boooooooooo-merang (1st appearance)
LESSON: When this baby hits 88 miles per hour…we're gonna see some SERIOUS shit.
SUMMARY: A cockroach casually walks pass the many debris lied before it (ya know, them cockroaches being said to survive just about any destruction thrown their way while we humans get our asses kicked by the time nuclear war arrives or something). Only one city seems to remain, however, blocked in a giant ass Ghost Shield. The city is Amity Park, ten years into the future, majestic flying cars, futuristic buildings, and--wait--THIS is what Hartman envisions Earth in just ten years? I honestly don't believe it. Yeah, yeah, technology getting faster and better, but I just don't see this happening in just ten short years. Maybe 50 at least, but ten? No way, seems way too short for me. Frankly, I see the future of Batman Beyond more likely even IN 50 years. Of course, I'll be eatin' my hat if I'm proven wrong, plus from what I heard, this city was suppose to be inspired by something called Cloud City in the original Star Wars movie (yep, that's right, I NEVER saw the original trilogy...yet).
Despite that, Casper High looks the same and I mean ridiculously the same. What? They couldn't create a future school and write "Casper High" on it? This is seriously the most underpaid school EVER. Any who, Valerie of the future flies by on her hoverboard, serving as the sole guardian of Amity Park and bearer of ridiculously bad buzz cut hairdo. She eventually flies over to the secure the Ghost Tower, signaling it's safety to her father who I assume monitors said securities (and it seems he's accepted his daughter's ghost hunting status). However all that hard work is for moot when her communication watch jams and cuts off her old man, instead giving way to a dark screen with two pairs of red eyes. He speaks in creepy evil voice, then reveals his new power, the Ghostly Wails, which destroys the entire security system off, removing the giant Ghost Shield. DAMN, that shit is powerful.
Valerie is quickly ambushed by the Fright Knight after, him stating that he serves a new master. Valerie falls literally hundreds of feet next to the Nasty Burger 2, another place that looks the same from ten years in the past (why the HELL is it called Nasty Burger 2? Isn't this place like a McDonalds? Do they really only have one that they need to write a "2" on it instead of rebuilding another one like any other fast food market corporation?) and aside from a few scrapes and bruises, she's…well alive. Yes, for some VERY odd reason, Valerie, falling HUNDREDS OF FEET from the air SURVIVES when she HITS THE HARD GROUND. What the hell did they pump her with!? Is the future THAT advanced in medicine or something in just ten short years or did she gain immortality sometime between now and then!? She's feckin' WONDER WOMAN! Oh, my God. I don't know if that's badass or just bad animation goof. Whatever it is, she hover boards her way out while FK gives chase, throwing more purple meteor thingies at her (his sword and horse are curiously absent in this episode) and eventually destroying a segment of the Fenton Opt Center (also looks the same) where the Grays have made it their permanent residence. Valerie eventually heads down to the Fenton basement--well, I suppose it's now the Gray basement--where she finds her father and panicks over what to do, seeing FK indicates "he's not far behind"…wait, but FK stated he has a NEW master now. How the hell does Valerie know he serves whom she thinks she knows? There, she meets with her father where the alarm siren rings, leaving the ground to split in two. Damon desperately suggests his daughter to run, but it's too late for out of the cracked bursting floor in pure dramatic villain entrance fashion comes whom Valerie was talking of: Phantom (which is what I will be calling him throughout, NOT Dark Danny or Dan Phantom, just Phantom because that's just what I like to call him, so deal). DUH DUH DUUUUUH! Phantom quickly states a cryptic "Hello Valerie" before adding a "And goodbye" as he waste absolutely no time blasting the entire Fenton Works. Wow, skip the villain speech and right to the fight, why can't more villains be like Phantom and take that example? They'd get rid of the main heroes much easier.
All of this is being watched by Clockwork, Ghost Master of Time (voiced brilliantly by David Carradine) inside his lair. He is told by The Observants that Danny Phantom will grow up to be Phantom, the most evilest and powerful ghost of like ever. Holy Crap, he's the next Pariah Dark. It is Clockwork's tasks to defeat Danny for the good of man and ghost kind. DUH DUH DUUUUUUUUUUUH!
Back in present day Amity Park, all the students of Casper High (or at least the freshmen, I don't know) are in the auditorium where they listen to Lancer ramble on about the C.A.T, the Career Aptitude Test, designed to possibly help the students on their career path and eventual future. While Sam and Tucker doesn't worry too greatly, Danny shows off his growing maturity by stating how important this is. Lancer cites two examples of test takers: Jazz who "got the highest score in the history of the CAT" and a potentially secured future and Irving "Third Degree" Burns, the one who got the lowest and doomed to a life at the Nasty Burger. Irving steps up to defend his position stating how taking care of all the Nasty sauces and herbs are trying, one wrong move able to cause an explosion big enough to wipe out an entire city block. Of course, nobody gives a shit. After Irving walks away dejected, Lancer makes some final warnings about the test, puts the answers inside his briefcase (which he goes as far as handcuffing himself to), then walks off. Danny however just stays seated, panicking and scarred for life.
Clockwork and the Observants watch that event unfold, the latters pushing and shoving Clockwork to do his killing biz since those lazy bastards can't do it themselves because they can only watch and never act. Oh, excuses, EXCUSES! Clockwork cuts to another scene in Danny's life through his magical time portal doohickey where Danny is shown studying, Clockwork showcasing he has plans of his own.
In the kitchen, Jazz watches over Danny's shoulder and makes little noises before he's about to put in each of his answers, enough to the point where he cries out in frustration and states he'll never be smart enough to pass the test. Funny, are career tests taken differently in other parts of America? All the ones I've taken doesn't denote whether you pass or fail, but merely on what route is best for you in the future. That or this test was just merely made up to be designed to fail or pass for future's sake which in that case is a lot harsher reality check then I ever could want. Jazz chimes in with her advice before telling him to duck when ZOMG! PLOT DEVICE smacks right onto Danny's head. Meet the Booooo-merang, the stupidly named tracking device designed to hone into a ghost's ecto signature and well…go after said ghost. So when the parents come to retrieve it, they're obviously puzzled on why it honed onto Danny. Then Jack makes note on the CAT test, stating he took it and he never turned out to be a cat before he and Maddie walks off. Okay, I know Jack is dumb, but come on, he cannot be THAT dumb enough to know what the CAT test is or not. He's an experienced technician and inventor, plus he's been said to get SOLID B's in his academic years!
Danny, out of anger throws his practice test sheet and books away (Are those textbooks? Are they really needed to determine one's career?) while Jazz gets ready to sneeze. Time freezes at this point as Clockwork comes with a young girl ghost. Putting a time medallion around her neck, he tells her she's in the past before her time (Yep, evidently ghosts can be born in this world, more on that later) and states he's employers want him destroyed. Employers, so Clockwork DOES work for them…maybe. I suppose--ahh, who cares? Clockwork leaves in an awesome time warpy fashion after, time returning to normal, and Danny's ghost sense letting loose. He yells at her to leave him alone, something Jazz does once she spots the ghost. Danny then turns ghost himself and is introduced to Box Lunch, Box Ghost and Lunch Lady's daughter. Wow, now if that's a mental image I never wanted to see, the world will be thankful. Danny expresses his disgust, then Box Lunch goes all dramatic before drowning herself with various boxed and regular foods from around the kitchen into her own personal armor. Danny however easily tackles her and takes her out of the house. Looks like she still has some fighting skills left to develop.
In the Nasty Burger, well, outside near it, Lancer is about to eat his burger (handcuffed suitcase still in hand) when he spots Tucker and Sam coming his way for some unknown reason. He asks if the two have studied (calling them "slackers" in pure Mr. Strickland fashion) to which the two give off their confidence, stating they have. Lancer isn't convinced and just laughs it off before eating. What a jerk of a teacher. He doesn't get in one bite of his burger anyways (serves you right) as it and other Nasty foods around the fast food joint goes flying, surrounding Box Lunch as she chucks it all at Danny. Danny merely phases them out, unimpressed until Box Lunch smacks him down inside the fast food joint where he crashs onto a table, NOW causing everyone to run off screaming and panicking. Oh-No, it's not enough to see flying food to freak them out, they have to see actual ghosts to do so. Irving however states his employees must stay and protect the Nasty Boiler from overheating, but they don't give a crap. Taking that in cue, Danny remembers Irving's speech and grabs one of the Nasty sauce condiments, throws it at Box Lunch, and blasts it to overheat it, causing about 1/3 of the Nasty Burger blows up. Danny turns intangible as he is thrown away from the explosion, accidentally phasing into Lancer's suitcase. Irving makes it out alive (apparently it didn't take out a whole city block as he estimated), and everybody runs off screaming. Box Lunch is nowhere to be seen, but is presumed to have return to her time period since her time medallion came off, something Danny spots and wonders what the hell it is. Even more, he also notices something sticking to his back (due to all the messy condiments and burger crap he's got all over him) and notices it's the CAT answers.
Clockwork, who is watching all this again with the Observants makes note Danny will make the right choi-- "HELLO, GREAT FUTURE!" Yep, Danny plans to cheat, something his two best friends, hell, EVEN Tucker, of all person, usually the most likely to suffer through his vice, is concerned about. The Observants point this out annoyingly to Clockwork. Geez, if he was me, I'd have time freeze'd those suckers and their nagging habit years ago. Clockwork has amazing patience, he deserves a freakin' medal. Clockwork states he knows what he's doing as we get glimpses of foreshadowing events, namely the heater boiler, Danny engaging in battle with Skultech 9.9 then later Phantom, the Fenton Works debris dropping towards Tucker and Sam, and eventually his entire family, friends, and Lancer (Animation goof, Maddie's hood is up here, but down in the actual showcase later on, ahahaha) tied to the boiler, now overheated and causing an explosion that takes their lives while Danny watches in horror. "His fate is sealed…"
By the next day, Tucker and Sam continue to nag on about Danny's plan to cheat. Lancer overhears this and opens his suitcase, pissed the test answers are gone. In another part of the school, Jazz speaks with a group of girls on which of them smart colleges she's trying to join in (Harvard, Yale, and Stanford), but they all just walk away, seemingly pissed/uninterested or something. This is one of those very few moments where we do see Jazz's social life (which is ironic considering it's implied she has one as oppose to Danny's), but they all seem peeved at her for some reason. Are they jealous of her smarts? Angry she's a geek despite her popularity (which is also implied, but never shown) or what? One of these days, I'd like an episode to focus on Jazz's social status in school, if not to add another layer to her growing development. Any who, Lancer walks over to Jazz to speak with her.
Later back at Fenton Works, Tucker tries to hack into the time medallion, but doesn't get much out of it. Sam wonders if it's from the future (eh, not really) while Danny gets ready to cheat. Again his friends expresses disdain while Danny makes the excuse all the ghost fighting has prevented him from studying, so he dares the two to argue back, making some pretty good argument. The boy is getting smarter. Doing a stupid thing, but getting smarter. Man, I miss this Danny. Tucker and Sam say nothing more and Danny gets ready to open the test (in a nice semi worm's eye view angle), but he is extremely hesitant; if this was more cartoon-ier, the scene would play out in that his angel conscience side would basically tell him to stop what he's doing while pitchfork wielding devil conscience skewers angel one and tells him to keep at it. Tucker asks if Sam should say something since she's usually the nagger, but surprisingly, her response is, "I'm his friend, not his mom". Another rare Sam moment where she doesn't bitch about rights and stuff. Man, this episode gets better and better.
Luckily for all three of them, Danny's almost test cheating ways is cut short when another ghost comes, a bigger hi-tech one then Box Lunch and definitely more fightable. Danny goes ghost and immediately goes on the offense, the giant ghost merely smacking him to the wall. He--sorry--they reveal themselves as Skultech 9.9, the future world's best ghost hunter with their best operating system. Skulker and Technus fused together…it works, seeing as these are the two are some of the biggest ghosts threats in Danny's life. They prove that by whipping out like six tentacle claws, all aimed for Danny. He dodges out of the way and phases Tucker and Sam out of the room to safety. He then continues the battle, but isn't doing a good job, eventually getting captured by one of their claws and almost sliced until one of Skultech's gauntlet acts up, someone hacking into they system ("I thought we fixed that!"). Technus notes they must've accidentally hooked up to someone's PDA and incidentally, they are force to fly off via their jetpack. The hacker in question is Tucker who can still hack into technology TEN YEARS IN ADVANCE. Geez, Tucker, that either very IS sad…or you're very, VERY techno-smart. Whatever the case is, Danny flies off while Tucker and Sam follow closely behind.
Back in Casper High, Lancer speaks with Jazz stating her brother guilty of stealing the answer with Jazz defending him, saying he has no proof. To further kiss up to his prized student, Lancer decides to give Danny till the day of the test to retrieve the answers or his future is going down the toilet. Meanwhile, the Skulker side of Skultech tells Technus to back up the Purple Back Gorilla overdrive. Ahahaa, nice past reference, that or Skulker found a newfound respect for Purple Back Gorillas. Danny goes about blasting the two-in-one until they crash-land onto the already damaged Nasty Burger, causing even more property damage then it really should. Skultech counters with the "Phantom Palm Pummeler" which shoots out of…well, the palm of their hand, causing Danny to turn back into a human. He quickly reverts into Danny Phantom again before getting note from his foe that the pummeler may not work on his future self, but his past self would, something Danny is puzzled at as he is blasted once again, turning human. He falls down, but catches a flagpole in a homage to Looney Tune-ish cartoons (even going as far as referencing that segment), before the flagpole snaps and he falls again, bouncing off a market tent and landing onto a pile of trash in an alley. Skultech then grabs him by a mechanical…grapple…thingie (fear my lack of vocabulary power) and shocks him silly, ready to kill him until Tucker and Sam come, the former hacking into their system, causing them to fall and grab another flagpole which snaps and sends them crashing into a street lamp, knocking them unconscious and causing the time medallion they had to drop. Tucker and Sam tries in vain to pry the mechanical thingie off of Danny as the trio gets teleported away alongside Skultech.
They end up in Clockwork's HQ, although the trio doesn't know that yet. Danny assumes it's the Ghost Zone, just one he's never seen before (and he'd be correct). Tucker spots more time medallions just casually placed on a rack against a wall so any idiot could grab them. Although considering Clockwork possesses omniscience, he probably did this on purpose and then be all surprising and catch anyone off guard. Tucker assumes wearing them would get them out, but nothing. Danny expresses concern (ahh, maturity Danny, I REALLY miss you), getting even worse when Sam orders him and Tucker over to a time portal she sees. And what they see is Phantom ushering absolute destruction for no reason, eventually Ghostly Wailing an ENTIRE batch of tanks, police cars, and helicopters. No wonder he wrecked just about every part of the world successfully. Danny states what a cool power that is to which Sam shows of her usual glare. Okay, so not mature in this sense. That scene always bothered me the way Danny handled that situation and even more so that Tucker and Sam are actually VERY calm about this situation. Quite frankly, if my best friend or if I was Danny himself ever saw future self doing evil, I'd be traumatized, immensely.
Tucker tries to hack into Skultech to see if he's got anything to say, but he is sent back to his time, courtesy of Clockwork. Stating who he is, he tells Danny he is to kill him in order to prevent his evil self from being born. Danny counters by asking him one evil thing he's done. While Clockwork could go down an entire list of what Danny has done over the years that's considered sinful (and believe you me, he's actually done some dark sided things in various DP episodes prior to this), Clockwork instead shows off a recent event present where Jazz finds the CAT in Danny's backpack (Wha--it was on his drawer before, OUT of his backpack!) and is shocked to discover Lancer is true. She then cries her eyes out. "Betcha can't find two!" Tucker cries out, then Clockwork points out Phantom again and the many destructions and devastation he caused. "How about 2,000?!" Danny however is very pissed that he is being accused of turning evil (and more then likely because CW was sent to kill him), he goes ghost to attack Clockwork who merely rewinds his transformation. Danny experiences a deju vu moment, then goes ghost again, aiming for Clockwork who merely slows him down literally, then gets out of the way of attack, then repetitively gets Danny to hit himself to the giant bell located on top before dropping him. He then gets a scythe from a Grim Reaper statue (ooh, how Goth chic) and aims for Danny who dodges upon his friends' warning. Clockwork however freezes everything except Tucker who is unaffected due to wearing the time medallion. Taking that in cue, he gets two more for Danny and Sam as well as take away Clockwork's scythe…who gives off a rather surprised look like he wasn't expecting this. Then again, considering his true intentions throughout the entire episode, his looking shock and not doing much about it is probably another part of his plan. Indeed, Danny and the two are now surrounded by more of Clockwork's doings when he sends various figures of him from across time (I assume to think this is his own way of duplicating himself), so Danny has no choice but to drag him and his friends to the future, the only way out. Clockwork then delivers some cryptic message afterwards with a grin on his face.
Danny and friends ends up in the destructive future, Danny FINALLY getting in his head that he may be responsible for this…well, his future self anyways. Valerie immediately gets out of debris on hoverboard, giant ass bazooka in hand to note he is correct, then near blasts him, thinking he is Phantom. As much as Danny tries to deny it, she refuses to believe and continues blasting him until eventually capturing him via ectoplasmic net. Valerie comes close to shisk-kabobbng him until Sam and Tucker steps in to state the truth. Valerie is more shocked the two are alive though when they're suppose to be dead, something at least Tucker expresses panic over. Valerie mumbles some more about explosions, Sam, Tucker, Danny's family all having died from it, and then again aiming the bazooka at Danny, still thinking he is Phantom--
--Then she gets blasted away by the REAL Phantom who hovers over them to correct her as Tucker, Sam, and especially Danny watches in total shock.
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Article written in: Between 2006 and 2007
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