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[3.6/10] Well this was a big disappointment. Let’s start with the fanboy complaints. First of all, this episode takes very little from the original ReBoot beyond the logo. It cribs from tons of sources: there’s a Power Rangers (or, god forbid, VR Troopers) vibe to the whole premise, the idea that their video game was training for a real fight takes from The Last Starfighter, the “if you die here, you die in real life” is borrowed from The Matrix, and the HUD-based close-ups are right out of Iron Man.

There’s nothing wrong with using ideas from other sources, but without much of a twist on any of this, it makes the whole setup feel rote, and it makes you wonder why they didn’t, you know, take more from the show this series is nominally a sequel to.

But even taken on its own terms, apart from its influences and lack thereof, this was just bad television. While the original ReBoot’s graphics are no great shakes today, at the time they were groundbreaking. The Guadian Code, by contrast, offers a pretty generic CGI environment with a run-of-the-mill bit of video game-esque combat.

And that’s before you get to the writing and acting of this thing. The kids who make up the main quartet of characters are such stock types, with barely any personality. The bad guy is a sniveling evil Sith hacker type, who just comes off ridiculous. And the whole setup for the episode is cliché and broad as all get out.

The one interesting thing is this pilot is the idea of Vera, the group’s virtual guide when they transform and step into cyberspace, being made flesh and blood. Sure, the episode mostly botches this reveal with exaggerated movements and a long series of pointless reaction shots and weak musical cues, but there’s at least an interesting idea there of a virtual being having to make sense of the real world.

Overall, this was an almost total disappointment as a return to Mainframe, that wouldn’t warrant watching any further if I weren’t still naively hoping to see Bob, Dot, and Enzo around here somewhere.