Racing the Clock

ReBoot Episode
Enzo standing by his race car
Racing the Clock
Episode no.	1.02
Written by	Gavin Blair, John Grace
Story by	Ian Pearson, Gavin Blair
Original Airdate	14 September 1994
Prev.: The Tearing | Next: Quick and the Fed
View Episode List.

In Dot's Diner several signs direct towards a certain diner booth, in which Enzo is seated, adjusting VidWindows. One of them reads "Enzo's Overwrite Delivery Service." He is trying to start his own business so he can be just as cool as Dot. He gets a call from Megabyte, asking him to deliver a package to Hexadecimal in Lost Angles, and is instructed by Megabyte not to tell Hex who sent it. No one is aware that Scuzzy is spying on the conversation.

Enzo is so excited about his first order that he goes to tell Bob and Dot about it. He accidentally lets slip that the delivery is to be made in Lost Angles, and Dot ropes Bob into delivering the package instead, claiming that the job is too dangerous for Enzo.

At Lost Angles Hexadecimal is trying on masks when Scuzzy enters. He reveals to her that Megabyte is having a bomb in a mask delivered to her. She plans to delete Megabyte and his delivery boy in return.

However, as Bob goes to Lost Angles, Enzo follows him secretly, not wanting to be left out. Bob is chased by Nulls and gets sucked into Hexadecimal's Lair, and Enzo eavesdrops on their conversation. He finds out that Megabyte sent Hexadecimal a mask with a clock in it. Hexadecimal, claiming she already has one, forces Bob to return the mask to Megabyte... while airborne. Enzo remains and hears Hex reveal that she already knows that Megabyte put a time-delete bomb in the mask and that Bob should reach the Tor when the clock reaches zero.

Enzo, terrified, gets back to the Diner as fast as he can go and tells Dot everything. The two head toward the Tor on Zip Boards to warn Bob. Meanwhile, Bob is still soaring through the air, but before he can reach the Tor, the system voice announces an incoming Game and Bob heads toward it. As Dot and Enzo head toward the Tor, they see Bob steering toward the Game. Dot sees that their only option is to enter the Game and warn Bob there.

The Game is a Formula One Game, and when Bob reboots, the bomb-mask becomes part of his car. Dot and Enzo have no interest in winning the Game, they want only to warn Bob of his impending doom. Three levels into the Game, they finally manage to do so, but the bomb explodes before anyone is able to do anything about it. Luckily, Bob was out of his vehicle at the time. Since tears can't form inside Games the explosion causes an Infinite Data Else-If Loop and the Game Cube gets sucked into itself. Bob, Dot, Enzo, and all the players run to the outer wall and manage to get out before the Cube shrinks and implodes.

Meanwhile, at the Tor, Hack and Slash hold up an enormous bomb in front of Megabyte, stating that Hex claimed she already had one. It explodes in a column of fire blowing the top of the Tor off.

Gallery

References

• While Bob is using Glitch to X-ray the package, one angle shows parts of Bob and Dot through the X-ray in wireframe, the basic structure of forming CGI shapes.
• A smartly dressed Binome named Jean-Luc calls Enzo for Dot's Data Compression Takeout. His name, attire and the fact that he wears a Captain's rank insignia (four gold pips) are clear references to Jean-Luc Picard from Star Trek: The Next Generation.
• When Hack and Slash try to stop Enzo from pushing the Vid Window into Megabyte, "Main Frame Sluggers" can be seen etched on the baseball gloves.
• When Enzo warns Dot about the explosive mask, he bowls her over the same way he usually bowls over Bob. This is the only time he is shown bowling someone else over in this fashion.
• In the Game an advert for Cifelli Tires is shown. This is a combination of Pirelli, the tire company, and Benny Cifelli the sales rep for SGI.
• The stadium signs are called 'Monacode Racetrack', a pun on the "Monaco Grand Prix" (French: Grand Prix de Monaco) which is a Formula One race held on the Circuit de Monaco in Monte Carlo and has been running every year since 1929.
• Plutonium Graphics is a wordplay on 'Silicon Graphics', this company made the workstations used to create the ReBoot series.
• Boshbilt, a clever wordplay on 'Peterbilt Motors Company' the manufacturer of heavy-duty trucks in Texas USA and James "Bosh" Boshier who was also the show's Editor, is written on the tanker truck.
• There are various billboards such as 'Null Away', 'SL McGinty Motors', 'Googalafonic Electronics' and 'Silicon Snacks: Micro-Chips' on the Game's race track.
• A Binome by the track-side was holding a sign for Bob's current position in the race to which he exclaims "18th Place!?". The text is actually upside down - the sign reads at an unknown address in "81st Place".
• When the Game is corrupted, an 'infinite DATA/ELSE-IF loop' is spawned. This is probably an in-joke on software engineers who used way too many "Else If" statements on programming languages.
• One of the ReBoot Adventure Games was based on this episode.