There are a lot of ways to classify a pilot. I’ve already talked in these about how the pilots can differ depending on whether the show is episodic, serialized, or serial episodic. And then there are the differences between comedies and dramas, and even differences in how anime approaches their pilots. But one thing I have yet to touch on is the “premise pilot” vs the “non-premise pilot” (or “normal episode pilot”, as I have sometimes seen it referred).

A premise pilot is, as the name suggests, a pilot that built around establishing the premise. In Umbrella Academy, Hargreeves has died, bringing the siblings together and kicking off the mysteries. In The Office, the documentary crew (and Ryan) are both having their first day. In Fairy Tail, Lucy meets a member of the guild and is asked to join. These are all introducing us to the worlds and characters of their respective shows with some level of an event that changes their lives in a meaningful way.

A non-premise pilot on the other hand, is a pilot where no such event takes place. It’s written to feel like any other episode of the show, to the point that if you watch them out of order, the characters and world should remain consist enough that the pilot still works as a later episode. Of course, because of this, it is far more likely that a non-premise pilot appears in an episodic or anthology series than a serialised one.

But the thing is, even a non-premise pilot is a pilot. And while it wants to be like any other episode, it still has work to do setting up the series. How does one balance these two seemingly contradictory choices?

ReBoot – “The Tearing”

Written by Mark Hoffmeier

Story by Lane Raichert and Mark Hoffmeier

Directed by Dick Zondag

Opening – Exposition Up Front

The literal opening title sequence.

Usually, the title sequence wouldn’t make it into one of these breakdowns, but amount of exposition here makes it feel worth noting.

(*Note: this is not to say this is necessary for a non-premise pilot, there are plenty that do not use this element, and it is more of a fixture of a lot of programming from this time period that is aimed at kids than anything else)

Bob narrates in the beginning and end of this sequence. He talks about being from the net, his title as a Guardian, and the fact that this means his job is to “mend and defend.” Also, he’s new to Mainframe. It all comes off like a cop who just got transferred from a big city to a small town.

We’re getting an idea of who Bob is, the way he speaks makes it clear we’re in a computer system, and then he drops one last bit:

“They say the user lives outside the net, and inputs games for pleasure. No one knows for sure, but I intend to find out. ReBoot!”

It’s setting up a mystery. There is something about this world that no one knows, and Bob wants to discover. There’s this completely unknown force acting on them and they don’t know why.

Now this goes beyond the scope of the pilot, but the show’s use of the user as this unknown and essentially neutral chaotic force that can drop games on them at any time, is such a massive element to the series. It’s a mystery that can drive action and create interesting problems but is probably best left thought about (like in this line from the opening) and never solved.

Basically, from these opening moments, we’re getting an idea of who Bob is, what he does, what the setting is like, and that this mysterious user is acting upon them. And the fact that this appears before every episode (though changes later…), means if you watch another episode first, you at least go in with an idea of who Bob is and what is happening.

Act One – The Cop and the Criminal

Bob is asked to do a favour.
Bob’s morning routine is interrupted by Enzo.
Bob promises to protect Dot’s Diner, but a game is coming.
Megabyte sends minions to stop Bob reaching the game.
Bob is stopped from getting in the game.

Worth noting, there is only an A plot to this episode, no real B or C plots to mention.

We’re kicking off the show proper in media res. Just like there isn’t an episode all about Bob first arriving in Mainframe to set up the series, there isn’t a scene where we see Bob start to run from Hack and Slash, two of Megabytes minions, we just see him already being chased down. Though, we do learn why he is running near the end of the scene.

I’ve already mentioned how Bob’s narration in the opening sets him up like a cop who is new in town, but in this first act, we’re also getting that Megabyte is like crime boss who’s been able to pretty much do what he wants before a Guardian was around. Megabyte is saying he and Bob can be friends, he just needs a small favour, and when Bob refuses, Megabyte has Dot’s Diner smashed up.

At least for these two characters and their relationship, they are using such well known archetypes that three scenes in, we basically get who these people are. Which in some ways is incredibly helpful because this episode especially is focused more on setting up the world itself and needs the time to build that.

We’re in an interesting place with the world of ReBoot, because in some ways it is a “normal” city… just in a computer. These characters have their own homes, they have jobs, they go to a diner for food. But in this first act we’re seeing how cars and zipboards (basically skateboard) can fly. How Bob isn’t just woken up by an alarm but gadgets in his home fully move him through his apartment and do his hair and generally get him ready. We get a lot of the slang of this world when Enzo’s describing what happened to the diner. And finally, how these giant cubes can drop from the sky at any time, and force people into a game.

The game dropping being used as the act out is already a way to emphasize its importance to this world, but it is taken one step further by how it initially shows up. Bob claims he is going to stay at the diner and stop anything from happening to it again, but the moment a game warning sounds, he has no choice, he has to drop everything and get to this game. We don’t know why this is so important yet, but how he feels forced to abandon this post so immediately shows us this is something big.

Of course, we do have a bit of set up for other major characters in the series. We see Frisket doesn’t like Bob, Enzo is an excitable kid that loves Bob, Cecil is fed up with everything, and then there’s Dot. Dot owns the diner, she believes in community and doing things together, and she is someone who isn’t afraid to stand up to Megabyte.

But it’s important to note that all these other characters basically just get a single scene in this act. The vast majority of the time is spent on either world building, or Bob and Megabyte’s protagonist-antagonist relationship. It’s about making sure people understand where we are, and who we’re primarily following, and where conflict is coming from.

Act Two – Just a Small Favour

Bob worries over the game; it’s lost.
Bob’s distraught over the destruction; agrees to see Phong.
Bob gets Phong’s advice.
Bob goes to Megabyte.
Dot discovers Bob is with Megabyte.
Bob learns what Megabyte’s favour is; refuses it.
Bob and Dot try to get away, but a game drops.

The second act starts by showing us exactly why the games are such a big deal. Without Bob, the binomes (ReBoot’s less human-like citizens) lose, and we see that the part of Mainframe where the game cube dropped has been completely destroyed. In this world, games are a matter of life and death.

Bob is seeing how bad things can get if he doesn’t do what Megabyte says. Dot’s Diner being smashed up is one thing, but this is multiple buildings that are totally demolished, and for all we know, everyone who was inside them is dead (they aren’t, they are turned into nulls, but we don’t know that in this episode). Bob’s going so far as thinking it might be worth giving in, but Dot says he should get advice from Phong.

Phong is the last major character introduced in the episode. A weird and mysterious, wise mentor figure. Phong like to play Pong, so that’s extra fun. But mainly this builds the dynamic between Bob and Phong. Bob has a problem, he goes to Phong for words of wisdom and then may not actually listen to them at all. Phong tells Bob exactly what Dot said earlier, that they need to work together, but Bob goes off on his own.

So, Bob goes to see what Megabyte actually wants, and, as suspected, the little favour is actually something that could be incredibly bad for everyone.

Megabyte has a tear in his basement, and with Bob’s help it can be turned into a portal that could get Megabyte into the supercomputer, where he could do all kinds of harm. We get two bits of set up here too, as Megabyte says his options are to get the help of a Guardian or have a game drop exactly here (which comes into play almost immediately), and then how Bob calls out that Megabyte would go into the supercomputer’s armory, an important line.

Bob refuses because of how awful this would be, Megabyte stops playing nice and starts acting more explicitly evil, but Dot shows up to, sort of, save the day!

As set up earlier, Dot isn’t afraid of Megabyte, at least not as much as some others are. She comes up with the plan of being captured by Hack and Slash to get to Bob and figures she will work out the rest on the fly. We get the line of Bob saying she’s been spending too much time with him, hinting at the fact that she is much more of a planner, and he is the more impulsive one, as well as how these two have an established relationship at least for a little while before the series starts.

Finally, Megabyte chases them up an elevator shaft, showing how scary he can be, and a game begins to drop. And, as set up minutes before, this means Megabyte doesn’t need Bob anymore.

Act Three – Game Time

Bob and Dot have to beat Megabyte in a Star Wars-like game.
Bob and Dot chase Megabyte through an asteroid field.
Bob and Dot take on a giant ship of Megabyte’s minions.
Bod and Dot chase Megabyte through a tunnel; they all lose their ships.
Bob destroys the tear.
Bob calls Mainframe his home.

We spend almost the entire final act seeing for the first time what it is like inside a game, and more importantly, we get our first ever titular ReBoot!

Let’s talk about everything we get from this game:

Referential humour the series will employ often, with the game being very Star Wars inspired.
Games can take us to drastically different settings than Mainframe.
Connected to the above point, games can follow a whole different kind of genre rules.

All this is done while making the goal of the game, the goal of the characters for the episode. While other episodes use games as maybe a joke or connected to a theme, such as having the point be that two characters are working together rather than specifically reaching the goal, this one is more explicit in how beating the game in general is what matters most. The end of the game is where the tear is, so reaching it first matters more to the plot than anything else within the game.

On the character side of things, we’re getting two great elements.

We have Dot, who is mostly relegated to the side in this episode while Bob’s journey is teaching us about the world and who he and Megabyte are. In this game though, she is just as important as Bob is. She is going just as hard as Bob is and doing as good as him the entire way through the game. She is even the one who blows up the massive ship in the second level.

Dot is treated as an equal and never made the damsel in this battle between him and Megabyte. She saves him, she fights along side him, she is a partner in this, not a conflict or prize.

And this is made all the more important because of the second great element, and that is Bob learning that “Mainframers stick together”. It’s the whole theme of this episode, that Bob needs to work together instead of doing things alone. Dot kicking butt in the game, is used to reinforce the theme and the lesson he needs to learn. If she were doing awful, it would show maybe he should work alone.

When Bob and Dot win the game, Bob uses the tear as a portal to the supercomputer. He uses it exactly the way he worried that Megabyte would, going to the armory and taking commands. But obviously, Bob is a good guy, so the commands he takes are one to destroy the tear, ruining Megabyte’s plans, and then two “hidden file commands” that turn him and Dot invisible so they can get away. Just a nice simple set up and pay off from when the tear was introduced.

Finally, we end the episode with a nice little wrap up at Dot’s Diner, which includes Bob describing the supercomputer in a way that feels reminiscent of a big bustling city, nice to visit, but he’s happy to be home. Between this moment, and him saying “when [Megabyte] messes with one of us, he messes with all of us,” it is clear that Bob isn’t just the new guy in town anymore, he feels like this is his home.

Conclusion

When you look at a premise pilot, the story it is telling is often far more simplified than any other episode, in order to devote more time to the characters and world. This could even mean swapping what another episode would have as their A and B plots.

For example, in Supernatural’s pilot, the A plot is the boys looking for their dad, and the B plot is hunting the monster.

A key difference for a non-premise pilot, is that it maintains the same kind of A plot, but structures it around the setup.

So how does ReBoot do this?

This is an episode built around the story of Bob needing to learn to rely on others rather than do everything himself. It is a story that could appear in just about any episode, but also works perfectly when wanting to keep the use of other characters to a minimum. A story about Bob going it alone until he learns the lesson of the theme, functions best when other characters don’t play a major role until the third act.

In terms of world building, explaining the games is probably the biggest concept the episode needs to get across, as they are a major element of the series and not entirely self evident in how they work.

There are two games into this episode. The first shows up right Bob promises not to leave the diner because he has to protect it from Megabyte, and so the fact that he leaves the moment a game shows up tells the audience that these can come up at any time, and they are important enough for him to drop everything. When Bob misses the game, we see the consequences for one of very few times in the series, giving us context for the future about why these are so important. Then the second game has the goal of the game as the literal goal of the characters with not only the normal consequences (as we saw earlier), but with far more on the line if Megabyte wins.

We can see with these games that, again, the episode is constructed around how to tell a “normal” (for the series) story that weaves in the elements that need to be explained to the audience.

It’s easy to imagine a premise pilot version of this episode. A similar story about a tear that Megabyte wants to use, but with the focus being more on Bob first arriving in Mainframe, and first meeting Dot and the others. Going the non-premise route is a very different choice, with different focuses, and wouldn’t necessarily fit with every series. But for this series, one that is character driven, and that (for half the seasons) is incredibly episodic, a non-premise pilot sets the standard in a more accurate way.

Structuring the Pilot: ReBoot