David Wise

The name or term "David" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see David (disambiguation).

He even recycled that chin from George Lucas.

David Wise is an American television animation writer. He is perhaps best known as the head writer for the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series, where he wrote or co-wrote over seventy episodes (and story-edited many more). He was also the single most prolific writer for the The Transformers cartoon, penning fifteen episodes.

Episodes written

The Transformers cartoon

• "Attack of the Autobots"
• "Day of the Machines"
• "Microbots"
• "Make Tracks"
• "The Secret of Omega Supreme"
• "Kremzeek!"
• "Auto-Bop"
• "The Girl Who Loved Powerglide"
• "The Key to Vector Sigma, Part 1"
• "The Key to Vector Sigma, Part 2"
• "War Dawn"
• "Trans-Europe Express"
• "The Rebirth, Part 1"
• "The Rebirth, Part 2"
• "The Rebirth, Part 3"

Convention appearances

• BotCon 2004 (unofficial)
• BotCon 2009

Notes

• Wise is a large fan of the Doctor Who series, claiming to have inserted the line "reverse the polarity" whenever he could in his writing; in Transformers, that happened in "The Rebirth, Part 3". Meanwhile, in "The Rebirth, Part 2", one of the Nebulan Hive rallies that they must "exterminate! exterminate!" the newly created Headmasters.
• Wise was interviewed as a special feature for Kid Rhino's The Transformers Season 3 Part 2 and Season 4 DVD set.
• The character of Sōji Yoshikawa is named after the real-life animator of the same name, who was a co-worker of Wise's during his time working at DiC Entertainment.

Recycle-o-matic

David, rather unapologetically, recycled concepts and ideas from old work for use in the new. This is rather understandable considering how prolific a writer he was, and just how much he was called on to write. However what it means is that many Transformers set pieces, concepts and even plots wound up appearing in later series, especially Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and many other ideas seem to have actually started life as plots for earlier series, like He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.

Which Transformers stories were recycled? Wellll...

• "Attack of the Autobots" — the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles episode "Slash - The Evil Turtle from Dimension X".
• "Day of the Machines" — Recycled from the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe episode "Day of the Machines".
• "Microbots" — Recycled for sections of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles episode "Shredder & Splintered".
• "Kremzeek!" — Sections recycled from the He-Man episode "Day of the Machines". Later recycled almost completely for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles episode "The Big ZIPP Attack", and The Mighty Ducks episode "Zap Attack".
• "Auto-Bop" — the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles episode "Corporate Raiders from Dimension X".
• "The Girl Who Loved Powerglide" — Recycled wholesale for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles episode "Poor Little Rich Turtle".
• "Trans-Europe Express" — The weather machine was recycled for the climax of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles episode "Hot Rodding Teenagers from Dimension X."
• "The Rebirth, Part 3" - The circumstances and dialogue where Galvatron and Lord Zarak bicker over leadership ("We shall see...") was nearly identically reused for Krang and Shredder at the conclusion of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles episode "Shredder & Splintered".

External links

• David Wise on the Internet Movie Database
• A Spy in the House of Tomorrow - David Wise's blog
• Interview with David Wise on the Moonbase 2 podcast
• Interview with David Wise at Geewunner