The Nightmare Begins

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“The Nightmare Begins”
Invader ZIM episode
The first time Zim is seen, arriving at the great assigning
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 1
Written by	Rob Hummel
Directed by	Steve Ressel
Guest stars	None
Production no.	01
Original airdate	March 30, 2001 (2001-03-30)
Episode chronology ← Previous Next → "Pilot" "Parent Teacher Night"
List of Invader Zim episodes

The Nightmare Begins is the Emmy and Annie Award-winning series premiere of Invader Zim. It was first broadcast on March 30, 2001. This is also the first "double-length" episode of Invader Zim. Because of the absence of an opening title sequence, this is technically the longest episode of Invader Zim ever made. This episode is also the first to feature Richard Horvitz as Zim and introduces the characters of the Almighty Tallest and Professor Membrane.

Contents 1 Plot Synopsis 2 Relevance 3 References 4 External links

[edit] Plot Synopsis

On the Irken-ruled planet Conventia, the start of a galactic conquest campaign known as Operation Impending Doom II is about to begin. The Irkens want all the races of the universe to serve under their already vast Empire, so they plan to send Irken Invaders to make the planets vulnerable so the Irken Armada can easily invade and conquer them. Zim arrives uninvited, and the reason for his exile to Foodcourtia is revealed to be because Zim single-handedly ruined the original Operation Impending Doom by stealing a Frontline Battle Mech and unwittingly annihilated a large portion of his home planet, Irk.

Reluctant to have Zim involved with the new operation, The Tallest(Current two leaders of the Irken Empire) send Zim away to a distant planet on the other side of the Galaxy, represented on their galactic map as a sticky note with a circle drawn onto it with a question mark in the circle. It turns out to be Earth, thus ending the assignment process. On Earth, a boy named Dib intercepts a signal and hears about the Irken invasion plan, though neither his sister Gaz or his father Professor Membrane takes any interest.

Back on Irk, Invaders are receiving robot assistants called S.I.R. Units (Standard-issue Information Retrieval Units). Not wanting to give away advanced technology to Zim, he is given a robot constructed of garbage named GIR. It is not known what, if anything, the G stands for^[1]. GIR appears unintelligent and Zim comments on this, but The Almighty Tallest lie and convince him all is well, telling him, "It's not stupid...It's advanced!"^[2].

Zim and GIR head for Earth, and upon their arrival Zim picks disguises and constructs a base. The disguises scene involves cameos of the creator, Jhonen Vasquez, and the director, Steve Ressel. The next day Zim attends the local school as he believes he will learn about the enemy there. Dib is there and recognises Zim as an alien, but nobody else does. Dib makes an attempt to capture Zim but gives up when Zim gets to his base, as the front lawn is covered in laser firing lawn gnomes.

[edit] Relevance

All of the main characters are introduced in this episode, as are the main locations used in the series. Important overarching plot points such as the conflict between Zim and Dib are presented. This conflict continues throughout the series with brief moments when they're forced to work together^[3]. The episode also shows how Dib is seen as weird, with characters siding with Zim from the moment they've met him, out of disdain for Dib^[4]. Jhonen Vasquez's design style is prominently shown in this episode, as well as his penchant for the comically absurd, particularly the unrelated humor displayed by background characters^[5]. It is noted by Jhonen Vasquez on the DVD commentary that certain scenes were cut from this episode for time. For example, the scene where Zim goes on a rampage on Irk was meant to be longer but this would have put the episode length over 30 minutes. There was also to be a reason for Zim receiving a sandwich from the Tallest when he battles a creature in order to be allowed to participate in Operation Impending Doom II. On the commentary it is also noted that the Tallest were redesigned after this episode, which can be seen by their new armour and even thinner torsos in their second appearance in the episode Germs. This episode was also the first to be released on DVD, with other Nicktoons as a Wal-Mart exclusive DVD compilation^[6].

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Quotations at The Nightmare Begins on Wikiquote.

v • d • e Invader Zim Episode list • Merchandise Characters Zim (Richard Horvitz)  • GIR (Rosearik Rikki Simons)  • Dib (Andy Berman)  • Gaz (Melissa Fahn) Supporting characters Almighty Tallest (Kevin McDonald & Wally Wingert)  • Professor Membrane (Rodger Bumpass)  • Ms. Bitters (Lucille Bliss)  • Tak (Olivia D'Abo) Crew Jhonen Vasquez  • Steve Ressel • Rob Hummel  • Roman Dirge  • Eric Trueheart  • Frank Conniff  • Danielle Koenig  • Kevin Manthei Video games Nicktoons: Freeze Frame Frenzy • Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots