Agent Bishop (dressed in black) and his later incarnation as President Bishop (dressed in white)
Agent John Bishop (later President Bishop) appears regularly in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003 TV series as both enemy and ally. He was originally a soldier during the 1800s who was abducted by aliens during the Battle of New Orleans. Escaping (or being released by the aliens, it is not made clear) he later became the first (and only) head of the Earth Protection Force, commissioned by President Ulysses S. Grant, to prepare Earth for an alien invasion. By binding alien DNA to his own, Bishop has been able to lengthen his natural life-span and increase his physical abilities, making him indestructible, highly agile and more than a match for the Turtles and even Splinter. On one occasion ("Hun on the Run") he had to take on the Turtles, Hun and Karai, but even with six-to-one odds, Bishop beat them all almost simultaneously.
He makes his first actual appearance during the Triceraton invasion when he captures the Turtles and attempts to dissect them to learn more about them. He becomes a recurring opponent for the Turtles and is constantly attempting to create "super-soldiers" in order to protect Earth from an alien threat. His laboratories are located at Warehouse 51 in the New York docks and Area 51 in Nevada.
Because of repeated failings, he stages an alien invasion and attempted kidnapping of the President in order to justify the EPF. In the process, he unintentionally releases a mutagenic material that eventually mutates Donatello into a more vicious form.
Bishop only appears in the final episodes of the "lost season" when the Tengu Shredder attacks New York and he and a number of other enemies join forces with the Turtles in defeating him.
When the Turtles and Splinter travel a hundred years into the future to the year 2105 (the "Fast Forward" season) they discover to their surprise that Bishop has become the President of the Pan Galactic Alliance, a space-wide United Nations organization which actually maintains a peaceful co-existence among many alien worlds and species. The resulting society created is one where even the Turtles can walk down the street in broad daylight and no one will freak out, given that there are plenty of other non-humans about. The Turtles' host, Cody Jones, assures them that Bishop was democratically elected and is a highly popular leader.
Bishop later reveals that, 50 years prior to the Turtles' arrival in the future, he and Baxter Stockman had been creating an army by experimenting on various captured aliens. When one of Stockman's experiments went wrong, causing widespread destruction, Bishop was saved by one of his imprisoned aliens. This selfless act moved him and he agreed to set up the PGA in order to work for peace with extraterrestrials rather than war. Bishop often calls on the Turtles to help deal with menaces like Torbin Zixx or Sh'Okanabo which they do rather grudgingly given their past history with him.
He makes a cameo appearance in the "Back to the Sewer" episode "Wedding Bells and Bytes" when he is seen observing Casey and April's wedding.
Bishop appeared in 24 episodes:
- Space Invaders, Part 2
- Space Invaders, Part 3
- Worlds Collide, Part 1
- Worlds Collide, Part 2
- Worlds Collide, Part 3
- Hun on the Run
- Bishop's Gambit
- Exodus, Part 1
- Exodus, Part 2
- Dragon's Brew
- Bad Day
- Aliens Among Us
- Outbreak
- Insane in the Membrane
- Adventures in Turtle Sitting
- Good Genes, Part 1
- Good Genes, Part 2
- Membership Drive
- Enter the Dragons, Part 1
- Enter the Dragons, Part 2
- Bishop to Knight
- Head of State
- The Day of Awakening
- Wedding Bells and Bytes