Agent John Bishop is a special agent of the U.S. government, head of the Earth Protection Force and the tertiary antagonist in the 2003 animated series. He works to protect the Earth from alien invasion. He was introduced in the 2003 series' third season Space Invaders/Worlds Collide multi-parter, where he kidnapped the Ninja Turtles and tried to dissect them in an attempt to learn the secrets behind their mutation. Since then, he has played a part in most of the series' primary storylines, as both an enemy and ally to the Turtles.
A U.S. soldier during the early 19th century, John Bishop's life was changed forever when, for unknown reasons, he was abducted by Gray Aliens while fighting in the Battle of New Orleans. After being experimented on, he escapes back to/is returned to the battlefield. What exactly the experiments entailed is unknown, although it is speculated that they are at least partly responsible for Bishop's longevity and enhanced strength. The Abduction traumatized Bishop and let him develop a long-lasting paranoia against aliens. Marked by the experience, he has since dedicated his life to staving off alien invasion.
Little is known about the following one hundred and ninety years of Bishop's life, except that he was present when the U.S. Army encountered the first aliens who crashed in United States territory and the subsequent creation of the black-ops Earth Protection Force during the Grant administration in 1870. He was also responsible for the Roswell incident of 1947, in reality caused by the a covert take down of a flying saucer belonging to the Greys. In more recent decades, he acted as Best Man to Finn, a Navy sailor who later on was turned into a mutant under unknown circumstances.
During the 2003 Ninja Turtles series, Bishop acted as the head of the Earth Protection Force, a black-ops team formed to protect Earth from extraterrestrial threats. In order to combat a possible alien invasion effectively, he applied an "any means necessary" approach to his mission, and was aiming to accumulate alien technology and use it to improve humanity's gene stock and build an army of super-soldiers by doing secret experiments on captured aliens and mutants.
Cunning, uncaring and manipulative, there was precious little that Bishop would not do to obtain what he wanted. During the Triceraton Invasion, he made a deal with the Federation, offering the Fugitoid, along with his knowledge of the world-destroying Teleportal, in exchange for what he needs, as well as a guarantee that the Earth would be left alone. As a bonus he also captured the Turtles to use as test subjects and took them to his lab where Bishop says he knows their names and much much more. He took samples of their DNA, the Turtles of course wanted to not accept such exploitation, as well as Leatherhead's, whom he self-imprisoned, experimented on, and tortured, thus traumatizing him and unleashed his primal instincts. He was going to dissect them and collect more DNA when Splinter, Casey Jones and April O'Neil stormed his lab. He battles the Turtles, Splinter, and Casey, before Leatherhead gets the upper hand on him. Then he escapes with the DNA samples, but not before declaring they'll meet again. When he reached another one of his bases, Honeycutt's message was interrupting his work and he ordered the transmission to be severed.
Bishop also made an enemy of the Utrom Shredder and the Foot Clan. Bishop set up a convenient trap for Karai, who was trying to steal an alien microchip from the government, and then called Oroku Saki to demand that he hands over all of the Triceratons tech he had been salvaging under the cover of rebuilding New York, threatening to kill Karai should he not respond in forty-five minutes. But instead of surrendering, Saki sent Hun to save Karai, who follows Bishop all over town. Bishop then decided to take down the brute once and for all, only for the Turtles to interfere, as 'he is the only person they hate more than Hun'. Outnumbered, Bishop decides to abandon the train he was on, but not before revealing to the Turtles of his taking of their DNA, which sped up his work by decades.
Bishop then began an elaborate plan to capture Splinter, whose DNA was more complex. He intended to copy that advance DNA to create an army of super solders who should act as a combat-ready protection force against alien attacks, born of enhanced DNA acquired from genetic manipulation, alien autopsies, and DNA stolen from the turtles. His first creation was the Slayer, a cyborg meant to hunt down aliens anywhere, who didn't care if people got hurt in the process. But with the help of Leatherhead the Turtles and Honeycutt stormed the lab and managed to seal the Slayer in a tank. While fighting against Splinter, Bishop was sent slamming against a hook, which he was impaled on, but he survived and escaped the flooding facility while no one was looking. He had gray liquid on him, suggesting he is not human.
At Oroku Saki's "good-bye party", Bishop had a contact on the inside - Dr. Baxter Stockman, who had grown tired of the Shredder's punishments. He learned that Saki had been constructing a ship to return to the stars. Bishop had his men blow the main launch tunnel, forcing Saki to go through the doors of the party going on beneath. Bishop had any surveillance station launch missiles at the ship, determined not to allow the ship to escape. The ship was destroyed, which was a relief to Stockman, as Bishop says it's the beginning of a "Mutually beneficial partnership".
Unfortunately, the E.P.F. was under fire from the President of the United States for attacking the Oroku estate and failing to stop the Triceraton invasion. The President warns Bishop should there be anymore failures, he would cut the E.P.F.'s funding. Immediately after, Bishop learns that Finn had been stolen by the Purple Dragons and was determined to retrieve the mutant at all costs. He chased Finn to his wife's house, remarking that Finn still remembers. Unfortunately, Bishop fails to recapture the mutant and resumes that he died in a fire. This further further failure was enough for the bureaucrats to cut funding for the E.P.F.
Bishop staged an alien invasion for him to stop, "proving" his organization's worth and assuring his funding. With one ship in the sky, remote controlled aliens and a number of holograms, they made it seem like Earth was being invaded again. Bishop "saved" the President, his plan worked as the President agrees to give him money to fund the EPF, as well as getting the Turtles wanted by the government. Unfortunately, the alien residue went into the sewer and accidentally came in contact with local wildlife and mutated them into a savage, near-sentient form. Bishop had to focus the E.P.F.'s resources on containing the outbreak, but there was no end to it.
Bishop demanded that Stockman clean up his mess, and tries to warn Stockman to postpone his attempt to get a new human body. But his head scientist was too focused on creating his own body. But it proved to be a failure after a series of hallucinations and decomposition's. Stockman seemingly died in the East River, but Bishop simply resurrected him, claiming that he needed his brain to clean up the outbreak.
The Turtles demanded they give a cure. Bishop agreed, having Stockman work with Leatherhead, while he had them retrieve the Heart of Tengu, which he heard from a mysterious contact that it was an archive of alien technologies. Once they got it to him, he had Area 51 self-destruct to cover its existence and had the cure spread all over New York. But when Stockman uses lasers to try to crack the Heart, it shattered, as the entity cut off communications. What Bishop didn't known was that the entity was the Water Foot Mystic, who was manipulating everyone so that Karai's control over them will be broken.
Stockman recovered a number of nanobots from a Triceraton wreck at Coney Island, which they presumed to be a new alien technology, not knowing it is a government project. Stockman places a microchip on one of the nanobots, activating them to serve Bishop's commands. Unfortunately, they found out that the nanos were intelligent and that its original programming was fighting with Stockmans and gathered all advanced technologies as it escaped, underlining Stockman's overconfidence once more to Bishop.
The Turtles were reluctantly forced to work with Bishop because of a common interest, particularly as the threat posed by the Tengu Shredder was so great that the Turtles had to ask for help against this common threat from their friends and enemies. Bishop, Stockman and the rest of the E.P.F. troops were part of the final attack on the Tengu Shredder at the Turtles' side. Although the Bishop and the Turtles were usually enemies, he nevertheless developed a certain grudging respect for their abilities.
Bishop appears in "Wedding Bells and Bytes", watching Casey and April's wedding from a monitor.
In the Legacy of Chris Thorndyke,
And he is reprised by David Zen Mansley in the English dub and will be voiced by Hideo Ishikawa in the Japanese dub.