Sunbow Sundays

[Andy Turnbull]

The Ultimate Doom Part 2

Let's ignore what would actually happen if Cybertron found itself in Earth's orbit in such proximity. Always so odd that it's so tiny, no wonder the planet had a population of about fifty and ran out of energy. I think the narrator overplayed the war in his narration back in Episode 1.

Marvel Optimus would have let his world be destroyed to save Earth, Sunbow Optimus doesn't have such a sense of duty or obligation. Mind you, he also didn't press a button to send the Ark into Earth in the first place.

A brief scuffle and we hear "Autobots Transform ad Retreat!" Really? Wow. Shame Megatron never got to hear that.

Some better animation in this part so far.

Megatron and Starscream fight or flirt again delete as applicable "You have had the only warning I intend to give." says Megatron, if so please explain the other half dozen over the course of the series to date.

As we cut back to the Decepticon base, I'm struck by how Dr Arkeville, his look aside is such a forgettable character and doesn't really add anything. His creation of the Hynpo-Chips aside, and even then, there is nothing to say how it had to be him who created them. Having say Reflector be behind this idea would work just as well for the purposes of the story.

Soundwave's audio disruptor waves seem to have left Spike acting as if he was chemically enhanced. Thankfully the earthquake seems to have shook him out of it. Poor Bumblebee about to be attacked by a Tie Fighter, no it was Laserbeak, they must have the same engines.

It's Hound to the rescue, remember Hound, Spike? He was your first friend, and you abandoned him to hang around with Bumblebee. Shame on you, shame!

Windcharger using his tractor beam, dammit should have been magnets! MAGNETS!!

Given how unstable Energon cubes are, I don't think I would be happy with having them stored in my cockpit. Mind you, Skywarp is not the sharpest tool in the shed.

Ah, poor Dr Arkeville, you've let the Decepticons clone your computer system, and you still think you will get what you want. Seriously? Not so much Mad Scientist but Dim Scientist. Puts me in mind of every human who ever tries an alliance with the Daleks in Doctor Who.

Menwhile back at Autobot Headquarters the shed is opened and the Dinobots get a look in. Everytime I watch Sunbow I sympathise more and more with Grimlock and his attitude to the rest of the Autobots. Left in a shed and only let out when things get too tough for the Autobots. I'd have chucked them long before now. The sunbow Autobots are a prejudiced and elitist bunch. You'd think Ratchet and Wheeljack would be a bit more protective of them.

Skyfire!!! I wonder if he has his own shed as well. Although, he does seem to at least have a key for it.

Optimus Prime showing a distinct lack of understanding of how volcanoes work. Pretty sure that Ironhide has doomed them all, with that attempt at sealing the volcano. That pressure isn't going to go away. Such wonderfully short-sighted approaches that the Autobots have.

I think Spike might still be suffering from the sonic disruptor waves what with those reflexes and attention to detail he demonstrates as he trips that sensor.

I do so love that the computer that controls the Hypno Chips are labelled in English.

Spike once again screws up, seriously he is an absolute jinx. Leave him on Cybertron and the war will go better for you.

A step up from Part 1, but still not really feeling that it is the big event it is quite obviously meant to be.

[Andy Turnbull]

The Ultimate Doom Part Three

That recap is put together really well, makes the preceding 2 episodes look much more exciting than they actually were.

From the scenes in the Hypno-Chip control It would appear that Brawn could have single-handedly won the war. He's pretty much taking out heavy hitter after heavy hitter. Well until Shockwave actually does something as opposed to making speeches. I do like Corey Burton's portrayal, the undercurrent of sheer outrage in almost every line of Shockwave's dialogue means you can infer that he is not really happy being Space Janitor despite being loyal to Megatron and the Decepticon cause..

Nice to see more of Cybertron, I always liked the design of the planet. Hey, look some more random Tetrajets. There was me thinking Cybertron was a dead world. Maybe a few warriors made their way home to Cybertron somewhere between More Than Meets The Eye and this episode.

Funny, how quickly Cybertron loses it's mystique so quickly here in Sunbow. It's another location for the war, I think Marvel had the right idea, keep it distant and separate and hard to reach for a while. It gave it a much more impactful presence when it did show up.

More surfing Autobots and Optimus has an early warning scanner, where the Matrix was it in the last two episodes. Also, very reassuring to see that it detected the tidal wave. Err...optics guys.

Dr Arkeville demonstrates a bit of intelligence in looking for an ally against Megatron, and then completely undermines it by selecting Starscream.

Woo – Reflector sighting. Will this be the last one in the series, or does he pop up in Heavy Metal War, I can't remember.

Wheeljack makes an Anti-Hypnochip lunchbox. Seriously, the chip is the size of a human fingertip, your device is the size of a dog. Up your game mate.

Starscream with quite possibly the worst plan to harvest energon. Mind energy from the idiot Arkeville. I wonder would Megatron have actually have followed through on his threat and actually killed Starcsream.

Great speech Prime, but why not I don't know attack first and catch him off guard you might actually win the fight. I'm sorry Prowl, a strategic retreat is still a retreat. Megatron would be proud. That's two Autobot retreats in 3 episodes. It is nice to see the current crop of slaves get to keep their own clothes and are not being forced to dress like Sparkplug.

The moral of today's episode, there is no problem that cannot be solved by vast amounts of shooting.

Hurrah for violence!

Not quite the epic it should have been, although it picked up from a very shaky first episode. Problems with pacing and plot threads throughout.

Andy

[Andy Turnbull]

Countdown to Extinction

A little more devastation is shown in the recap...we should have seen more of this in The Ultimate Doom itself. This intro has a weight to it that the preceding three episodes lacked. Humanity in hiding as the Autobots go around attempting to repair the planet.

I love the infighting with the more belligerent Decepticons, and we even get a rare bit of sass from Soundwave. I think that's it until TFTM. We see Frenzy, in Rumble's colours at last. Wonder what he'd been doing for the last 13 episodes, oh and Reflector has vanished again. Oh look, Megatron is here and unscathed. Nice to see Megatron has his priorities right, he is going to have a go at the human.

All joking aside it's great to see some continuity, something we wouldn't see again until S3.

Seriously? How useless are the Autobots, that they must always have Teletraan 1 working. It's a bigger crutch than anything in any other TF fiction.

Some great mad science from Dr Arkeville with that voice command to enter his lab.

I do also enjoy the contempt for Earth displayed by the Decepticons, who all seem to think they can withstand the destruction of the planet.

Look, I've made your generator into a bomb. Starscream really is something of a nihilist here, there is no end game. A shower of free energy which will disperse, he says he'll be on Cybertron and collecting the energy. How? Such a lack of joined-up thinking, he does make Megatron look like a reasoned thinker.

All of a sudden the good Doctor has some concern for his planet, or is that simply he realises he is about to become a slave and/or pet or something worse – dead.

I take back what I said about Megatron. “Land and attack” how about pick them off from the sky. I mean they are only on the surface for a minute and he's already giving the order to retreat. What a twat.

Cybertron, must obviously be close to Earth still following the preceding episodes as Starscream makes it to the planet on one tank of gas.

Wow, Shockwave cowed by Starscream, that wouldn't fly in the comics.

Dr Arkeville, you might have better luck if you didn't announce your plans.

The Valley of No Return...I do love random ominous names of locations. You'd think the Autobots would have some kind of sat nav by now.

So Dr Arkeville's secret laboratory is the Autobots next destination, er, it's a secret. How will you find it?

Megatron must be really blind not to see that uppercut coming.

Some very nice colours and lighting in the Decepticon lab. Nice to hear the R2-D2 sound effects, pretty sure we've not heard that since Roller. Poor Dr Arkeville looking even more ridiculous than before.

Megatron with a bold faced lie, he seldom hits what he aims for.
Let's fight with the live grenade in our hands. Bloody hell, the leaders of the two factions are either stupid or suicidal.

So poor Dr Arkeville, whatever happened to him, and whatever his misdeeds leaving him with the Decepticons is a poor show.

[Pinwig]

The man's on fire! Excellent stuff.

[Andy Turnbull]

Ta. Will hopefully get up to speed soon enough. One ep a day and then can pick up the weekly schedule.

Andy

[Pinwig]

Blimey you'll be ahead of me at that rate. I'm three weeks behind. Insecticon Syndrome is nearly done. I might get caught up over the Easter holiday.

[Pinwig]

29 - The Insecticon Syndrome

The Insecticons return for their second proper Season Two outing as a team in this story (discounting Bombshell’s lone appearance in Enter the Nightbird to facilitate Megatron’s mind control plan). Written by series regular Douglas Booth, it builds on the unsteady relationship between the Insecticons and Megatron, showing how if assumed knowledge is ever used in the series it’s usually to do with characters and their interactions rather than progressive events; viewers are supposed to know the dynamics of the two teams, the hierarchies and roles, but not necessarily what they were up to last week. In the case of the Insecticons this isn’t as black and white as the good and evil of the Autobots and Decepticons and as such it’s a good chance to further explore their nature. Both A Plague of Insecticons and Traitor show the trio almost on an equal footing with Megatron, able to outwit him and challenge him in ways that the rest of the Decepticons would never dare to, which is again the case here.

Apart from reinforcing the notion that the sub-groups in the series aren’t necessarily willing followers of the faction they are allied to (as with the Dinobots) it also allows the writers the freedom to develop new ideas that can be explained away as being unique to a specific team rather than altering the knowledge-base of the main characters. It’s a way of bringing something new to the table without introducing potential continuity problems. An extreme example of that might be the way the Constructicons combine - they can do that because they’re Constructicons and normal Transformers can’t - but with the Insecticons there are more subtle differences, such as the manner in which they ingest fuel and in this episode the surprising way in which Bombshell can reconstruct Shrapnel using an adapted version of his cerebro shells.

In other areas of continuity, the story is the second in succession to introduce new characters without providing any back story for them. Inferno seems to be employed here purely because he can put out fires, and it’s also possible that a perhaps deliberate misinterpretation of Beachcomber’s tech spec (that he is an expert in natural features generally rather than just geology) would make him a likely candidate for analysing the curious markings on the trees at the start of the episode - even if Hound, the other Autobot featured, would be more fitting with his love of Earth’s natural wonders.

The fact Beachcomber knows about the Insecticons and can recognise their presence from the way the trees have been eaten also suggests he has prior knowledge of them and the unique way in which they can generate fuel from natural sources, something he could only have learned on Earth. He also does all the talking in the opening scenes, further suggesting that although this episode is clearly a spotlight for promoting the Insecticons, the remote natural setting was also seen as a chance to push Beachcomber’s character too. Beachcomber isn’t named in the original episode synopsis, as Powerglide wasn’t in A Prime Problem, but with so many new faces to bring in it isn’t surprising that at this point any opportunities to use characters with traits sympathetic to particular settings were taken to highlight them. In this episode, the first act is certainly dedicated to showing off this new super-relaxed, nature-loving Autobot.

Megatron meanwhile starts this episode looking for his “allies”, just as he was in Traitor, showing how he doesn’t have the power to summon the Insecticons to him. No other characters in the series have this kind of leverage, which is possibly reason enough for him to want to get rid of them. Megatron’s plan in this episode is somewhat confused, partly because the original outline doesn’t make sense (grammatically or logically; it was obviously written and not checked), although it’s consistent throughout that Megatron plans to use the Insecticons and then destroy them. This implies that he sees them as a significant threat, but rather than find some way to bring them under his control, he instead wants to do away with them - despite the fact that so far they’ve shown no malice towards him unless provoked and that in return for fuel they offer a significant improvement to his arsenal.

The confusion in the synopsis comes from the fact that originally it is the Insecticons who for an unspecified reason lay siege to Iron Mountain. This switches more sensibly to Megatron in the finished story, and Iron Mountain becomes a military base instead of a generic “ultra-secret government installation”. This gives Megatron a more plausible reason to want to capture it in that obtaining the defence computer it contains will somehow give him control of the planet. He hasn’t been concerned by human firepower to this point, and the conclusion to this part of the plan is scuffed over later in the episode when the focus shifts to the Insecticons exploding. In the synopsis, Megatron was interested only in using the Insecticons to conquer the Nova power plant, a much more typical objective, with the intention of dismantling them afterwards.

In terms of ambitions, the Insecticons are far more interested in fuel sources, and the quality of them, than fighting or military bases. It’s arguable that by having Bombshell take control of the Decepticon forces they could attempt to usurp Megatron, and indeed at the end of the episode they do use Starscream and friends to fire on Optimus and Megatron, but that action is more about keeping them out of the way so they can steal the information Soundwave has than wanting to destroy the two leaders. They initially assume control of Soundwave to gain a spy in Megatron’s camp for their own protection, not to use him as a weapon, and they don’t seem to realise the potential of the information he downloads until he has it (which points at it being learning about the location of energy reserves rather than strategic military positions that would have led the Insecticons to attack Iron Mountain in the original story idea). It’s comical how Soundwave uses a stethoscope to eavesdrop on them before he is caught. Booth is on the money in using Soundwave as the spy, but has forgotten that one of the things that makes him a spy is that he can read minds (as shown in War of the Dinobots). It’s also debatable that a figure as powerful and well versed in mind reading as Soundwave would succumb to the cerebro-shell so quickly. If anyone was going to be immune to Bombshell’s tricks, Soundwave would be the best bet. Conversely this shows again just how powerful the Insecticons are.

A Plague of Insecticons showed how the trio had somehow adapted to generating Energon from eating organic crops, but were more interested in higher grade fuels. In this episode they start out eating trees, accompanied by noises that suggest a buzzsaw like action in their mouths, but are again drawn to the idea of the ‘premium’ fuel in the Nova plant. Along the way Bombshell talks about having heartburn, noting he may not actually have a heart (more a question on the part of the writer than Bombshell perhaps), and there is also reference to the Insecticons having ‘trilithium stomachs’. No attempt is made in the series generally to create an alternative, more Cybertronian, equivalent to ‘eating’ although it would make sense to do it the human way because the Transformers are for the most part humanoid figures with mouths. No other robots have been seen to eat, or expressed a need to. Power is transferred by cables if anything, and the similarities between human and Transformer life have been limited to the revelation that Autobots have sleep chambers (Attack of the Autobots).

The Insecticons eat only in insect mode though, which given Shrapnel’s ability to clone hundreds of drones is about using the image of locust swarms causing destruction in huge numbers to give these smaller Decepticons a feeling of threat. Their diminutive size is also deliberately countered here by the way they grow after consuming the Nova power core. The locust image is extended into their need to constantly eat, which comes to define them as characters. They’re also shown at the start of the episode to be living in a termite-like mound again rather than a base, reusing the idea from Plague… that these Decepticons have adapted to life on Earth over the four million years they spent in exile and are beginning to assume the traits of the insects they transform into. It’s hardly surprising from that perspective that they’re not interested in the war.

Eating then becomes the somewhat tongue in cheek principle for the climax of the episode in that the Insecticons contract explosive indigestion from the Nova fuel. Spike’s perceptive ability to know exactly when they’re going to detonate gives an exciting countdown for the viewer, and his last second intervention with the antidote saves the day by reducing Shrapnel’s explosion to a more manageable size. The story would finish rather limply if the Insecticons were simply defused, so there has to be an explosion. There also has to be some confusion to allow them to escape, the Decepticons to regain control of themselves and a reason for Soundwave to lose the information he gained so Megatron doesn’t win. One explosion neatly covers all those points and ties all the plot threads together, but gives Booth a final problem in that Shrapnel is left in bits on the floor.

It’s implied when Bombshell says “We Insecticons know how to get it together” that the three of them are able to reform if blown to bits, but enabling this resurrection is a technology developed by Bombshell which appears to be an extension of his cerebro-shells. The script for this episode notes that “Bombshell readies his insecta-shell launcher (probably the same thing as his cerebro-shell launcher… see episode 13 where it was used earlier) and fires”, going on to note that the shell sends out hundreds of “electro magnetic control filaments” that pull Shrapnel back together. Rather than being a stunning revelation of Insecticon technology, it’s a get out a jail card that finishes the reset at the end of the episode.

The title of this story, The Insection Syndrome, suggests the problems in digesting the Nova fuel are unique to the way the Insecticons work. It’s hard to imagine Megatron or Soundwave biting into the core themselves - they would simply produce Energon cubes to be absorbed at a later time. The difference encapsulates what’s interesting about this story - it presents ideas and themes that show not all Transformers work in the same way. The Insecticons are less refined, dirtier characters than the main Decepticons - which is in keeping with their sinister biographies. Whether that is a difference pre-existing from before the arrival from Cybertron, or something the Insecticons developed during their four million years on Earth, isn’t clear. It does though provide food for thought, and in doing so Douglas Booth has managed to make sense of an awkward original storyline to write a story that holds together well enough to rank as one of the more involving second season outings.

[Andy Turnbull]

15 - A Plague of Insecticons

Demon Swamp...seriously, you won't get tourists with that kind of name. Was it the natives who coined that, or was it the Insecticons? Interesting to see that the Insecticons do not require conventional Energon and can metabolise other matter to convert to Energon. What have they learned that the rest haven't and how long have they actually been active. Interesting questions that are not addressed in this eisode. They also seem to have no concerns about the Autobot/Decepticon conflict that is going on. Were they fully functioning Decepticons, or the equivalent of protoforms onboard the Nemesis.

Back at Autobot H!, Spike thinks they may need all the help that they can get, but they still allow a handful of mini-Autobots to naff off in the Autobots only aerial transport to try and save the day. He's an idiot.

Convenient that the Decepticons also learn of the Insecticons, somehow I don't think they would be as interested in human disasters given they've only shown interest in their energy sources and advancements.

Some wonderful exposition from Thundercracker there calling back to the pilot. Nice to see that they entirely forgot that there may have been other Decepticons in their craft who may have survived. Not much esprit de corps among the bad guys.

Sideswipe sounding a bit too much like Prowl there for my liking, he's usually a little higher pitched and softer in tone in his portrayal by Michael Bell.

So instead of cerebro shells, Bombshell can help create Insecticlones. It's a nice touch and makes them much more of a threat than they would normally be.

Windcharger giving his magnetic abilities a new name.

So the three Decepticons from the escape pod do not know who Megatron is? Come on, that's some dreadful writing and continuity there.

Skyfire is amazing in flight, such aerial manoeuvring, so adept Oh wait, he just flies in a straight line. Nice to see Wheeljack's solid fuel boosters allowing him to fly a little. I guess, this is the only time that will be referenced.

Dear me, the Autobots are ineffective against just one Insecticon. Override waves eh? Why not I don't know Transform so you can't drive? I'd love to say that the Insecticons are presented as a threat, but they aren't really. It's more that the Autobots are so useless that they actually look credible.

Shrapnel is almost dangerous, until he is undermined by Spike's knowledge of electricity and how it can be conducted.

I love how Ironhide saved the tanker only for Megatron to take it out a few minutes later. So churlish.

What? The control beam is cut off so the Insecticon clones are dissipated. That makes no sense. Though it is good to see that the Insecticons do not simply hook up with the Decepticons but are still in it for themselves. Maybe, in another writers hands they might be more credible and interesting foes.

[Pinwig]

Three behind now. Easter holiday mission is to get caught up and be posting on the right date again in two weeks' time.

30 - Dinobot Island - Part 1

Donald F Glut’s interest in gothic horror led him with Autobot Spike to reinterpret the premise behind Frankenstein as a well-intentioned but ultimately awkward Transformers cartoon, and a glance at his bibliography shows the majority of his early fiction writing career is immersed in exploring classic horror characters. However, by the mid-1980s his output started to move more toward focussing on his self-professed interest in dinosaurs. In 1997 he wrote an award winning encyclopaedia on the subject and has continued that with supplements published as recently as 2012. He has produced a large volume of work writing about dinosaurs for adults as well as children, including directing his own film - ‘Dinosaur Valley Girls’ (1996) - the title of which alone indicates he is also willing to take the subject matter less than seriously.

Given this passion, it isn’t surprising to find that his name should be attached to a Transformers story featuring the Dinobots, and one at that which includes a catalogue of geological and historical inaccuracies. While Glut has written highbrow reference work, he also clearly loves to put that aside to indulge in the more fantastical side of the subject too.

The result in this case, Dinobot Island, just like Autobot Spike again borrows heavily from classic literature and its cinematic offspring. In this case, Edgar Rice Burroughs’ The Land That Time Forgot (1917) is the principle inspiration, along with the 1975 film version, but Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World (1912, with a prominent 1960 film version) is an equal culprit. Of the two, Burroughs’ story is the one where the time-locked dinosaur infested island comes from; The Lost World’s dinosaurs are discovered in an uncharted area of the Amazon.

In terms of the story’s ‘believability’ (in the context of what believability is defined as in the cartoon), a lost island teeming with dinosaurs surrounded by an energy shield is no less improbable than the return of Atlantis from the depths of the sea (Atlantis, Arise), the number of crystal mines and other assorted natural energy sources Megatron finds, or indeed the arrival from another planet of a race of alien transforming robots in the first place. It’s hard to argue the authenticity of the premise should be questioned when looked at from that perspective. Never-the-less, there is a school of thought that the Transformers’ stories should work in as realistic a human world as possible, and that they work best when the Cybertronians are the only science fiction element. From that point of view, if it’s the right point of view, Dinobot Island doesn’t really work.

Aside from the episode’s saurian escapades, this is the first to truly embrace the vast number of new toys Hasbro had introduced since the end of the first season. The earliest 1985 toys (Shockwave, Jetfire, the Insecticons and the Constructicons) were clearly all on the cards and in production very soon after the original 1984 figures because they feature in the bible’s character rosta right from the start, and in some cases appeared on screen before they were available to buy. Having had a 13 episode run at the start of the second season almost exclusively using the season one characters, the show switches gears with Dinobot Island and throws almost all of the new names into the mix without any kind of introduction. Aside from Tracks and Grapple, who get a look in at the start, most even appear mid-scene during the conversation in the Ark about the island.

Across the two episodes of Dinobot Island, the only previously unseen 1985 toys not to feature are Omega Supreme, Skids, Cosmos and Astrotrain (apart from Roadbuster, Whirl, the deluxe Insecticons and the Jumpstarters, who never feature at all). Cosmos and Astrotrain come to gain more prominence in stories that feature trips into space, and Omega Supreme will become a significant presence in his own right in due course, leaving Skids as the one character in the series never really to feature (two minor appearances overall). Many characters weren’t designated their own ‘spotlight’ promotion episode, but did at least get regular background appearances and odd lines.

The fact that so many new faces are jostling for screen time here makes for some humorous moments, such as when Red Alert displays his credentials as a fire chief’s car by escorting Inferno from one side of the room to the other to put out the fire started by the Dinobots. His cries of “Are you ready Inferno?” and “Gangway! Don’t interfere!” are the sum total of his contribution to the episode, showing how tight the space for each character was and how forced some introductions are. Some new faces only appear in the background and don’t get to speak at all. When interviewed on the subject of introductions in 2001, Glut simply said “I think we were just told that there were new characters and we should use them - of course, because they were new toys the company wanted to sell.”

It seems odd with the story being a two-parter that the plot isn’t given over to the kind of staggered character introduction the original pilot had. However, doing that would present an immovable continuity point (not that this was given consideration - in the first season in the order as broadcast Skyfire appears before being recovered from the arctic ice). A story like that would make a great season opener - especially if it featured a return to Cybertron - but the desire to keep episodes as generic as possible at this point so a specific order isn’t needed is clear. In the original broadcast order this story almost did form the season opener, going out third and fourth after Autobot Spike and The Immobilizer, which suggests there was a desire to show the new toys as quickly as possible.

For once the broadcast order does have a benefit in that by showing this story early the Dinobot continuity makes more sense. Here, Grimlock is eager to please with his new “finesse” and is apologetic about the clumsy nature of his team mates, whereas in the two preceding Dinobot stories in the order produced he is much more negative about the Autobots’ perception of him and his place in the hierarchy (Atlantis, Arise and Day of the Machines - antecedents for Desertion of the Dinobots).

The story then is far more about the Dinobots and the opportunity to pit them against their biological counterparts than showcasing new toys. Bumblebee gets a significant proportion of the dialogue at the start of the episode, reinforcing his wide-eyed bumbling nature as he explores the island strapped to a rocket pack. Given the need to wedge new characters in at any opportunity it seems odd that it isn’t Cosmos or another flight enabled Autobot that accompanies Powerglide in this opening scene, especially as it isn’t mentioned at all in the original synopsis. This shows how at this point Bumblebee was still seen as a significant character to push. His toy remained in the minibot assortment into 1986, proving the popularity he gained through an increased presence on the show. His line “I didn’t know the big guy thought that much of me” reinforces his position as the weakest and smallest Autobot, reminding the audience of his principle role.

Rather conveniently, just at the point the Autobots discover a dinosaur infested island, Wheeljack has been trying to educate Grimlock. The Dinobot leader again appears from a darkened cupboard, referencing the fact the Dinobots seem to live in storage when not used. At least here they are shown to have their own ‘room’, separate to the others, rather than just being switched off. In hitting Blaster’s play button with a thin beam of fire, Grimlock’s ‘education’ comes across more as a party trick - like a dog catching a ball - than a genuine change in his intellect. His speech is unaltered, which brings to the fore again the idea explored under SOS and War of the Dinobots that these characters are limited in their intelligence because of something in the way they are built, rather than just being newborn learners or modelled on primitive animals. Sparkplug sounds genuinely surprised when he says that Wheeljack “civilised the Dinobots”.

They are cast out in a rather condescending way, and are surprisingly accepting of their new island home. Wheeljack sounds rather unsure when he says, “You’ll all be back soon, I bet on it” because the Autobots are effectively banishing the Dinobots until they can teach themselves to behave ‘appropriately’, showing again that in this specific case, Optimus is much happier to sweep Wheeljack’s creations under the carpet and ignore them than take responsibility for their lives. In a way this is like a boarding school substitute; the Dinobots are going away to learn how to cope with life independently. The Dinobots use the same back door to leave the Ark they did in their introduction episodes, which could be read as them having their own special exit, but equally that they are restricted to using the ‘tradesman’s entrance’.

The Dinobots immediately take to the primitive, technology-free nature of the island, whereas the lack of sophistication is too much for Powerglide (the “Boondockish” he refers to, which is a surprisingly oblique colloquialism for a robot so new to the planet to use) suggesting its simplicity is a good match for the Dinobots.

Spike does a good job here of re-enacting scenes from dinosaur movies as he explores the island, which comes across as a rare instance of padding for a series that is usually very economical in pace because of the need for everything to be animated - especially as Bumblebee has effectively already done the exploring at the start of the episode. On this topic Glut said of two-parters that, “you get to develop more detailed plots… you can really get into some character things you’d never have time for in a single episode. I think my two-parters feature my best writing on this series,” which sounds more like an educated guess than a genuine memory as other Glut scripts such as SOS Dinobots and A Plague of Insecticons contain far more character development than this episode. All we get here really is the reinforcement of the existing idea that the Dinobots are seen as a problem, and once on the island Grimlock makes them cycle through their unique abilities to remind viewers why they should be buying the toys. Sadly even this sequence (Swoop’s flying, Slag’s fire breath and Snarl’s tail whip) is cut short before poor Sludge gets a chance to do anything, but it does show off the versatility of the Dinobots - they are as effective in one mode as the other - which is something that few Autobots can boast. However, it’s also worth noting that the strength of the Dinobots is defeated at the episode’s conclusion by dropping them into a tar pit, a device lifted straight from the comic, although in this case it’s the local dinosaurs doing it under Megatron’s direction instead of Shockwave. Thankfully though, they won’t remain out of commission for as long as their comic equivalents did.

[Pinwig]

Two behind...

31 - Dinobot Island - Part 2

The odd thing about the second part of Dinobot Island is that it doesn’t really build on the presence of the real dinosaurs established in the first episode. The story looks as though it’s going to become a rites of passage type tale in which the Dinobots prove their worth and return to the Autobot fold triumphant, which they ultimately do, but only by using the kind of brute force that made Prime so worried about them in the first place and without really becoming part of the rest of the story. They don’t seem to learn anything, so the chance for character development is lost.

Having been largely absent from the first episode, the Decepticons return in force in this one to plunder Dinobot Island’s energy resources. Their presence in the first episode is minimal and they only appear in the background to put the seeds in place for this part, which is crammed in awkwardly and needs a voice over at the end of part one to explain what’s going on. Nothing in the story to that point has explained why a time warp would inexplicably open and deposit a barbarian riding a mammoth in Portland. The point is that by siphoning power from the energy field surrounding Dinobot Island, Megatron causes time warps to open in other places. By extension, this could imply the dinosaurs haven’t been living on the island for millions of years, but have also been brought through time by the unexplained energy field.

Referring back to the point under the previous episode about believability in the context of the cartoon, inexplicable time warps do feel odd because compared to something like the space bridge they seem more magic than science. Shockwave obviously spends a considerable amount of time developing matter transfer using the space bridge technology, and the danger of that is part of the episode it’s introduced in (Transport to Oblivion). The force field and initial time warp that brought dinosaurs to the island have no appreciable reason for existing - they just ‘are’ - which illustrates the difference between credible fictional ideas in this universe that have had a bit of thought put into them and ones which as an audience we’re just told to accept. If the time warps had been a by-product of Megatron’s siphoning of the energy from the start, rather than after the dinosaurs had already appeared, it would have given a more robust reason why it was happening and a more usual start to the story in that Megatron initiates the problem for the Autobots to solve.

In addition, building the time warps into the story from the start would make it more coherent and offer a little mystery; it could even be something for Megatron to capitalise on (what if he’d used a time warp to go back, say, four million years?) Instead, the lack of Dinobots in part two until the end and the switch in plot focus makes the two halves of the story feel uneven and misdirected. What it does do though is make the episodes more watchable individually - there isn’t much in part two you need to have seen part one to understand. In fact if you look at it rationally, part two could exist quite easily without part one if the Dinobots were just wheeled out like usual at the end to help the Autobots.

Part two is more deliberate than the first in the way it introduces new characters. When each speaks they get a name check, but oddly it’s only the Autobots who get additional dialogue to reference their character traits and abilities. For example, while Thrust and Ramjet only worry about the effects of siphoning the energy, Beachcomber gets, “Like if you need geology type info, heeey, just call on yours truly, Beachcomber. I dig projects that don’t require conflict,” to introduce himself, quickly followed by Perceptor’s, “And if you need a true scientist to explain Beachcomber to you, don’t hesitate to call on me - Perceptor,” as he turns into a microscope, mass-shifting to match Spike’s size where Blaster didn’t in the previous episode. It’s obvious and takes the viewer out of the story, but is far better than just ignoring the fact so many new characters have suddenly appeared as in the first episode.

Other established characters also get to remind the viewer of their place in the hierarchy. Bumblebee did this in the first episode, so this time Starscream gets his usual ‘if Megatron’s plan goes wrong I’ll be in charge’ type line, but also a curiously poetic concern about what the Deceptions are doing: “Draining those energies might upset the chronological balance of this island. It already drifts precariously in the sea of time.” Megatron’s response, “Scientific gobbledegook,” reminds the viewer that Starscream is saying this because in this continuity he is the resident Decepticon scientist.

Not that the science in the episode makes one iota of sense. As portals open across the American continent, deliberate juxtapositions are used to compare the present to the past. Bikers take on cowboys, and the fun loving, moustachioed captain of a pleasure cruiser comes face to face with a pirate captain who appears to have a galleon manned by WWF wrestlers. Each of these scenarios is designed to allow a few Autobots to display their abilities and solve the problem, although Seaspray does take the ‘hover’ in his hovercraft mode so literally it begs the question of whether there was a translation error when the script was passed to the animators.

There is a deliberate attempt with the new Autobots to give them more unique voices. Beachcomber, Perceptor, Tracks, Warpath and Seaspray are all memorable beyond the end of the episode, whereas previous attempts at bringing in characters (the Constructicons for example) were less distinct vocally and therefore much more muddied as to who each one is. One of the highlights of this episode is Warpath coming face to face with Blitzwing in a battle of the tanks, but even then it’s Warpath who has the personality and dialogue whereas Blitzwing is just a faceless aggressor. Perhaps that’s why Astrotrain doesn’t make an appearance here - at least Blitzwing’s vehicle mode has a purpose in battle. Astrotrain in both his modes is much more about transport than fighting.

Having introduced a big idea in the time warps, Glut then has to fudge the use of them to stop their mechanics getting too intricate; illustrated by the Autobots’ inexplicable ability to control the portal opening with their weapons. Other shortcuts in this episode present a new idea in that Energon cubes can now convert raw energy themselves. In part one the energy from the island appeared to be simply sucked into the cubes, but in this episode they produce funnels that do the same job. It’s a far cry from the machinery that the older episodes needed to convert and fill fuel sources, almost presenting Energon as a liquid channelled through pipes. This is another example of how by this point the series is beginning to get lazy in the way it shows the basics. Everyone knows Megatron produces Energon cubes from raw energy sources, so there’s no need to go into any more detail.

That said, the biggest shortcut this episode takes is in putting together the resolution, whereby Grimlock inspires the real dinosaurs to aid him in his fight against Megatron. Because the Dinobots don’t reappear in this episode until three quarters of the way through, there is no continuation of the plot set up in the previous episode. Far from learning how to ‘conduct’ themselves, they as usual solve the problem they face with brute force, and far from learning anything from the dinosaurs, Grimlock instead inspires them to fight. This does at least give the message that the Dinobots are standing up for their island and protecting it, but by encouraging the dinosaurs into a fight against weaponry that should utterly destroy them it doesn’t demonstrate much forethought or consideration. Prime would try to protect innocents in battle, even if they are 60 foot tall monsters, but Grimlock’s solution is to utilise them as shock troops. Perhaps that reflects the way Prime uses the Dinobots himself, although this doesn’t feel intentional, and subsequently his resolution at the end of the episode (that “The Dinobots have not only demonstrated that they can control their powers, but that they add great value to our cause”) doesn’t make any sense. They haven’t demonstrated any more control over their powers than in any other battle, and the value they add as the heavy artillery has always been the case. There is an opportunity for Grimlock to learn something from the real dinosaurs, about why he likes the island and wants to help preserve it, which would be a far better message to conclude with than the more simplistic ‘might is right’ the viewer is actually left with.

With the island saved, the intended conclusion to the story as per the original synopsis reads, “Prime realizes then that the Dinobots have earned the right to rejoin the Autobots. As the two groups prepare to head back to headquarters, Trailbreaker surrounds the island with a forcefield that will forever protect it,” which may be why Trailbreaker is seen to be the last Autobot to take to the air, but sensibly this idea was dropped, possibly because a) the implication that Trailbreaker’s force fields can exist without him being there to generate them doesn’t work, or b) nothing in the story implied the original energy field had dissipated. The Autobots destroy Megatron’s Energon stockpile and return the energy to the air.

As a two part story, Dinobot Island tries to conjure up a grand idea, but then doesn’t deliver on the promise. The split narrative leaves both halves badly joined with ideas from the first resolved quickly without any imagination or purpose in the second. The first episode comes across as an excuse to play with dinosaurs and the second a similar flight of fancy with time warps, but the whole is unsatisfying and feels unfinished. The idea has the potential to be something great, but lacks the direction and focus needed to realise it.

[Pinwig]

32 - The Master Builders

The Master Builders comes as something of a breath of fresh air simply because the plot isn’t driven by the need for the Autobots to stop Megatron’s latest energy harvesting/world domination scheme. Instead, like the best stories so far, it focuses on an individual character and takes an element of their personality to explore. Traitor, for example, did this with Mirage, coupling his negativity about the war with the suspicion of his fellow Autobots. In this case, Grapple’s downbeat perfectionist nature comes under the spotlight, and his position as the Autobot architect makes him a natural fit to be paired with the Constructicons.

The show bible indicates there was an early intention to put Grapple with the Constructicons when the toys being promoted were assigned episodes, although that specific reference was removed when the list was subsequently shortened to make space for “future new Transformers products”. It makes sense and might even have been an opportunity to establish a pre-existing rivalry or relationship between them; given the Constructicons’ origins become conflicted anyway, it would have added even more to this story to think Scrapper had some kind of grudge against the Autobot, which is why he’s so eager to trick him. As it is, his “Back on Cybertron we all admired your buildings Grapple; they were works of art,” is sadly unexplored and probably explainable as a simple lie to trick Grapple into his confidence. Other than just being ‘constructicons’, Grapple certainly doesn’t recognise them. That point is interesting in itself - when they first appear Hoist also refers to the group as ‘constructicons’, rather than using a determiner to specify them as being ‘the Constructicons’, as if there are any number of them like there are ‘Decepticons’ generally.

This kind of fine detail can be ascribed to the fact that this episode is one written by a pair of writers making their only contribution to the series, David N Gottlieb and Herb Engelhardt, which would also account for the reference to the Constructicons being on Cybertron when to this point the continuity has established they were built on Earth (although obviously much more on that is to come with The Secret of Omega Supreme).

The unique position of the writers may also account for the fresh perspective this episode has to the narrative structure. The difference between episodes written by the regular team and the ‘fill in’ pitches is often noticeable, and it’s great here that the episode doesn’t kick off with Megatron launching a new scheme. Instead the focus is on Grapple’s ambition. It’s interesting that for once the Autobots have the opportunity to create their own energy collection device, and one at that which won’t drain the Earth’s resources, but presented with the chance, Optimus Prime won’t go ahead with the scheme for fear of the Decepticons stealing it. This illustrates how settled on Earth he is by this point, with no visible ambition to remove the Decepticons permanently or return to Cybertron. He is resigned to the status quo and keeping things as they are - not necessarily because he wants that, but because he doesn’t want things to get any worse. This is almost reflected in the way that at the start of the episode he is more interested in Spike’s basketball game than anything else - an Earth pastime. Incidentally, given the Dinobots’ interest in American football (Atlantis, Arise!) it seems sport generally is something the Autobots have taken to.

Furthermore, it could also be argued that this perspective means Prime doesn’t believe his team have the skill or power to defeat or capture Megatron without causing serious damage or human casualties. He won’t risk it, and has to go all the way to the movie before expressing any genuine desire to destroy him.

Grapple’s focus on his endeavours is a nice contrast to the ongoing stalemate between the two sides, even if it makes Prime seem dismissive and narrow-minded in stopping him going ahead with the solar collector. The way Grapple worries before presenting his idea to his leader is driven by his bio: “Takes pride in his work, depressed if it's destroyed in battle. Artistic sensitivity makes him moody,” is demonstrated by him saying, “If he’s not impressed, I’ll be depressed.” This gives an early indication of the pride and angst he suffers, subsequently manipulated by the Constructicons, and again shows how episodes driven by character depth rather than simple tussles over energy are more interesting.

Hoist is an appropriate choice for Grapple’s companion. Being a mechanic he has the skill necessary to help him build the tower, but it’s more important here that he is another non-combative robot who is more interested in building and inventing than the war. Given the need to promote new toys at any opportunity it makes sense one should be used here, and it’s helpful that being new means he has no history in the show with Prime, making it easier for the audience to believe that the pair of them could go behind his back. None of the season one cast would ever dream of doing that. It’s also noteworthy that they aren’t doing this to undermine Prime; they’re simply doing it because they want to prove the technology works and Grapple wants to demonstrate his worth through his art. His character walks a fine line between altruism and egoism, although he is more pompous than arrogant. For example when he sees his solar collector coming together and says, “I must find a place to sign my name… in very large letters,” the tone is of endearing enthusiasm and more reflective of the way he sees his work as art than someone proclaiming his own brilliance. Peter Renaday’s voice acting matches this perfectly, presenting Grapple more as a mad professor than self-centred and arrogant, such as Michael McConnohie’s Tracks. Indeed Michael Chain’s Hoist is similarly well matched to his character, making the two seem like a pair of comically fussy old men. Prime also seems to treat them as such, firstly with his condescending, “perhaps you didn’t think of that,” when admonishing Grapple at the start of the episode, and then at the end by deliberately making them clear up the rubble by themselves.

The other stars of this episode, the Constructicons, begin with the shock revelation that they have had enough of Megatron and want to help Grapple. The interesting thing about this is that Scrapper comes up with this plan himself, so both Megatron and the viewer are initially tricked by the conversation. It does seem unlikely after Devastator’s display of unswerving loyalty to his leader in The Core that the Constructicons should suddenly be looking to go their own way, but the reveal that this wasn’t Megatron’s plan and was Scrapper’s doing makes the Constructicon leader seem darker and more independent than before. This is then backed up by the sinister undertones in the conversation the other Constructicons have with Grapple while they are building the solar collector. It’s clear to the audience that they are toying with him, and the fact they are all holding guns while doing the work is equally nasty in that it feels like the mood could turn violent at any moment. Grapple being unaware and innocent makes his character even more endearing to the audience while making the Constructicons appear as evil as the Insecticons have been shown to be. Far more so than Megatron’s regular crew.

This focus on the Constructicons as individuals is unusual and therefore refreshing - it’s a story more about their unspoken place in the Decepticon hierarchy than it is the usual wait for Devastator to appear. Indeed, the first time he does it’s to lift the focusing sphere to the top of the solar collector instead of just fighting, which is a nice way of reinforcing his size and gives him a use beyond punching things - lateral thinking on the part of the writers.

This also shows in the way Devastator is defeated at the conclusion of the episode. Of course the behemoth will eventually become the Decepticons’ principle defence when the inevitable fight does begin, but given his sheer size, the problem with Devastator is finding a way to deal with him that doesn’t rely on mismatched firepower. Here the writers adopt the approach of using his size and limited intellect against him, utilising new toy Smokescreen’s speed to trick him into kicking the tower, which then causes the giant to topple over in the resulting confusion. It’s a simple solution, but not immediately obvious, and cleans up the plot very neatly.

So in the end the Autobots are once again stopping the Decepticons from using an energy gathering device, but in this case it’s more a by-product of the real meat of the plot instead of being the driving force behind it. The audience has met two new Autobots in some detail and witnessed the vehicular prowess of a third, but has also seen the Constructicons operating under their own initiative, the nastiness of them individually, and enjoyed the usual fan pleasing display of destruction from Devastator. In that regard there’s very little to dislike about The Master Builders.

[Pinwig]

Can he get two more done by Sunday to get back on track? Probably not because he's been pre-occupied with important Rock Lord business.

33 - Auto Berserk

Auto Berserk follows the same format as the previous episode in that it takes a trait from the biography of one of the newer Transformers and uses it to form a story about them. In this case, Red Alert is the toy being showcased and his heightened (and therefore presumably more delicate) sensory perception forms the basis of the plot. This is coupled with his cartoon bible personality: “Paranoia makes him good at his job. Nothing escapes his notice, no matter how small. Expects trouble when sensors activated. Edgy...unpopular with comrades, but appreciated. Prone to rash judgments,” which just about gives you the set up for the twenty minutes in a nutshell.

Writer Antoni Zalewski twists the idea of Red Alert’s paranoia being a constant fear of Decepticon attack (implied more overtly in the full Marvel biography than the shortened one above) to feeling more as though he is being got at personally, shown by his fear of being left alone to protect the base at the start of the episode when the others go outside to face Soundwave. This is then intensified into a fear he isn’t valued or trusted by his Autobot colleagues after his logic circuits are fried by Rumble’s missile. It’s an interesting concept, suggesting his increased perception comes at a personal cost, almost like the effects of a drug, but it isn’t without its problems.

The main concern is that because Red Alert is effectively a new character, his actual personality hasn’t yet been established, so when he is changed almost from the beginning of the episode it’s hard for the viewer to know how he is being different to normal. This then means that in terms of being able to explore his personality, as something like The Master Builders did so well with Grapple, the viewer doesn’t know for most of the episode how much of the real Red Alert they’re seeing. Contrast this idea with something like the way Ironhide feels in The Immobilizer, where his fears about being redundant work well because the viewer is already aware of his character, and it becomes obvious that Auto Berserk would have worked better after Red Alert had already been properly introduced.

His actual abilities are also not well cued, such as the way his head buzzes bright blue at the start of the episode to illustrate that “His sensory perception is extraordinary,” as claimed by his bio. Unusually for a show that is always very heavy on expositional dialogue, there’s no explanation given as to what the blue glow is, why it means Red Alert can sense the presence of Soundwave, or why it should be Red Alert that can do this (unless it’s to imply his circuits are already corroding before Rumble’s missile makes matters worse). Confusingly, the glow is then used through the episode after the explosion to show something is wrong as well as that his spidey-sense is tingling. His position as security chief isn’t mentioned, but is presumably why Prime leaves him in control of the test facility while the others go outside, although this is really a plot device to allow his fear of being left alone to be demonstrated.

Red Alert was paired with Inferno during Dinobot Island, which on the surface appears to be because they both transform into fire rescue vehicles, but the relationship seems more long standing here as Red Alert requests Inferno’s protection - only to gain the response “Aww, not again,” suggesting he relies on Inferno a lot. This possibly comes from Red Alert’s full Marvel biography, which includes reference to Inferno specifically as appreciating his ability to detect trouble. This point isn’t demonstrated very well though, so when Red Alert is damaged and his paranoia intensified, the fact he immediately picks on Inferno as wanting him to fail so he can take his job comes somewhat out of left field and doesn’t make a lot of sense. It’s there so Inferno can rescue him at the end of the episode and the pair can make up, but as it is it’s one line in a rushed scene which is a surprisingly quick set up for Red Alert’s behaviour in the rest of the episode. As a further example, the viewer is left to extrapolate from the lines:

Prime: “Get ready to return to Autobot Headquarters; it’s too dangerous to remain here.”
Red Alert: “Too dangerous? Now Optimus wants me out of the way too; it’s a plot!”

that Red Alert believes Optimus doesn’t think he can do his job properly and is evacuating the Negavator test area as a result. By the show’s standards, this is an unusually complex inference to make from very quickly spoken dialogue.

Following the Decepticon attack on the Autobots as they transport the Negavator, in which Smokescreen gets a nice cameo appearance to demonstrate his ability to eject clouds of clinging smoke, Red Alert’s paranoia is intensified by Prime’s abrupt questioning as to why he didn’t detect the attack. This causes him to run away and leads him eventually to form a partnership with Starscream, who is feeling the effects of rejection himself and looking for a way to get one up on Megatron. Like the previous episode, this gives us an established Decepticon character looking to capitalise on the naivety of a new and innocent Autobot, increasing the viewer’s sympathy for him. Red Alert is quick to believe Starscream though, when he hasn’t believed anyone else, and he begins to believe himself better than the other Autobots as well as accusing them of jealousy. “I would be in charge! Me!” He exclaims, to which Starscream replies, “Of course Red, you would be supreme!” Whether or not this is a rational progression of Red Alert’s problem is debatable as he has only expressed a desire to fit in, not to lead, but it is necessary for the second part of the episode that he be allied to Starscream so the Decepticon has an easy way into the Negavator’s bunker.

The story eventually calls for a quick fix to solve Red Alert’s problem, which is handled in an interesting way in that it’s almost logical Starscream’s null ray (which “disrupts the flow of electricity,” according to his bio) might anesthetise the overloaded logic chips in Red Alert’s brain. Prime also mentions this is a temporary solution when analysing the situation, further lending credibility to what is a clever idea rather than the less believable ‘weapons have special powers’ solutions peppered throughout the series. It’s also nice that Starscream doesn’t realise what he’s done has fixed Red Alert, so the Autobot is able to set the Negavator to explode without being challenged.

All of this character interaction makes the episode undeniably interesting, but there is an elephant in the room in the form of the Negavator itself. Optimus is repeatedly shown in a pacifistic light in the cartoon. He is never proactive in trying to solve the problem of the Decepticons, and any time he actually does have them at his mercy he will walk away and allow them to escape rather than definitively destroy them. In the previous episode he admonishes Grapple for daring to design an energy collector without thinking about how to protect it, and although the Negavator is heavily guarded in this story there is the obvious question of why Prime suddenly wants such a powerful weapon in the first place. His pleasure over testing it at the start of the episode is completely out of character, and although the Negavator seems to change part way through the episode from an incredibly powerful weapon that causes objects to evaporate (the gantry in the test) to something less destructive that simply blows objects up (the bridge in the final confrontation) it seems odd that the Autobots should want something like this at all. The original plot synopsis is no help here, it only refers to the ‘super-weapon’ as something the Decepticons are after, not that it is an Autobot creation.

During the episode the Negavator is tested, moved and stored, and in that time comes under attack from the Decepticons trying to steal it no less than three times. Given this is a story that originated during a period in time when the threat of nuclear war made the world familiar with world ending weapons being built as deterrents, it’s possible to see the Negavator as Prime’s ultimate threat to the Decepticons, and one he has no intention of using, but even so, it’s simple existence feels more like something Prime would usually move to stop rather than sanction.

Aside from that huge flaw, there is a lot that is clever about Auto Berserk. Other than the lack of initial definition of Red Alert’s character and a better reason as to why he would suddenly want to take control of the Autobots, the plot is intricately woven and reaches a conclusion that unites the various plot threads without illogical jumps. Had the Negavator idea been rethought and this episode put after one that had already introduced Red Alert, it would rank as highly as Traitor and The Master Builders as a story that defines the character it is designed to represent.

[Pinwig]

Nearly made it. Five in a fortnight isn't bad going. Just one behind now.

34 - Microbots

Noted for recycling ideas, even his own across different series, prolific Transformers writer David Wise turns to the 1966 film Fantastic Voyage for the inspiration behind Microbots. Essentially a story to focus on the new character of Perceptor, it also gives extended screen time to Brawn, putting the two opposites together as an odd couple with series staple Bumblebee to chaperone them while they explore Megatron’s inner workings.

Typical of Wise’s scripts, it introduces world expanding concepts and technological devices to make the plot work with little regard for how these affect the larger continuity, or the hopes of ardent fans looking for more detail in the Transformers’ history. In previous episodes he introduced the idea of the Autobots needing regular sleep periods just so Megatron could insert a ‘personality destabiliser’ into their recharging machines (Attack of the Autobots), then in Day of the Machines, Megatron’s ‘linker chips’ inexplicably allowed the TORQ III computer to control any earth machinery, even oil tankers. When it comes to big concepts and conveniently useful but unexplained devices, Wise is in his element, and no more so than with Microbots.

Regardless of anything that happens in the actual story, the most interesting concept contained in this episode is the throw-away set up at the start. Even more intriguing than the sleep machine concept, here an entire Cybertronian ship is unearthed by a group of archaeologists in South America. As far as Wise is concerned he needs a way to give an immense power source to Megatron, one that can’t just have been lying around for the last 33 episodes unmentioned, and so picks on the idea of suddenly reintroducing the Decepticons’ crashed spaceship so it can provide one. The way this is then discarded five minutes later is unforgivable, and again shows how the cartoon had little concern for the mythology of the Transformers in the way the comic strived to create and adhere to a galaxy spanning continuity.

Soundwave’s monitoring of television broadcasts brings the discovery to Megatron’s attention, and his revelation that, “It’s a Decepticon ship”, confusingly misleads the viewer - implying this is one of many Decepticon ships rather than Megatron’s own. This comes from the story synopsis, which begins: “At the excavation site of a Decepticon starship that crashed eons ago…” and should have been altered during editing, as after this point the story only makes sense if this is the ship in later years fans would come to know as The Nemesis.

The script supports the notion this is the Decepticon ship by explaining through the TV news broadcast and discussion about rock strata that the ship has been on Earth for four million years. In some ways though, it’s a pity that this isn’t something new. The potential for it to be a rescue ship sent to retrieve the Decepticon leader is an appealing one. Stories like Man of Iron in the UK comic became legendary for introducing such concepts, but the likelihood of the cartoon introducing something continuity altering like that is slim where sellable toys aren’t involved. The fact that the ship itself and what other benefits it might contain is left ignored not only in this episode, but the rest of the series, is astonishingly inept on Megatron’s part as well as the writers’.

The power source, the ‘Heart of Cybertron’, is an interesting concept in itself. The Ark doesn’t appear to have an equivalent, and the way Megatron refers to it as ‘the’ heart suggests it is unique. He claims, “This tiny energy maximiser powered our ship all the way from Cybertron”, cementing the fact this is indeed his ship, and adds that he has finally obtained it after “millions of years”, suggesting there has been an unsuccessful ongoing search to try and find the ship, unwittingly aided by the archaeological dig. It would be nice to think that this was Megatron’s goal all along, and the scans and searches that the Decepticons have been seen to conduct throughout the series for energy sources were in fact intended to find the ship. Frustratingly though, none of this is explored in any further detail.

Coupled with this is irritation is the equally improbable device of the week, Perceptor’s transmat reduction beam. Wise introduces this as a tool in the Autobot scientist’s laboratory used to enlarge small chips to make it easier to repair them. This seems unnecessary when Perceptor is by definition a microscope and his biography says he can “magnify up to a million times”, but it is of course necessary for the plot to work. In line with the bizarre invisibility spray and the linker chips of his previous scripts, this is more evidence of how Wise knocks out the kinks in his plot structures with off-the-cuff magical devices that are only introduced minutes before they become pivotal to the plot as shortcuts.

Another new concept this episode introduces to move the plot along quickly is the idea that Transformers can not only drink from Energon cubes, but also get drunk when “over energised”. Megatron slurring his speech sat out in the desert, Rumble hiccupping, Starscream falling over and Laserbeak ploughing into the ground out of control is a curiously out of character moment, but gives the impression of the Decepticons being a gang bad boy gangster type thugs, here with a stash of illegal hooch (an approach that is also evident in some of Wise’s other scripts in the way the Decepticons behave, and also the way Megatron is smuggled into Quantum Laboratories in a violin case in Day of the Machines). All of this though is contrived purely to put Megatron out of commission long enough for Perceptor, Brawn and Bumblebee to creep inside him.

Aside from the magical devices and wasted concepts, what this episode does well is to utilise the spread of characters on the rosta at this point in a way that doesn’t feel forced. For example, the Constructicons - usually managed as a unique entity confined to their own plots - are shown here as general members of the Decepticon team (expanding on Wise’s previous use of Hook as a winch in Day of the Machines). Other characters appear as part of the day to day routine in the Ark and not because they’re necessary to the plot, such as Ironhide being repaired in Perceptor’s lab. At one point Optimus Prime references Grapple, Hoist and Ratchet without them even appearing on screen (although the latter two do soon after), all of which gives the impression of a cohesive whole where characters come and go because they’re there at the time, rather than being present only when the story is about them. On top of that Powerglide gets to do some air lifting, Warpath some blowing things up, and Smokescreen gets his third appearance in three episodes to show off his skills as a diversionary tactician. The effect this has is to make the world of the Transformers feel more lived in, and makes it less jarring to note that so many of the Autobots aren’t in the Ark when it needs defending from the Decepticon attack. It makes it easier to assume they are on another mission elsewhere.

The attack in itself highlights another typical Autobot trait in that Prime has the Decepticons beaten at the site of the crashed ship when they’re buried under the rock fall, but as usual withdraws instead of finishing them off - ironically in this case because he wants to go and prepare the Ark’s defences for attack from the enhanced Megatron.

As a writer who focuses more on action than character, Wise doesn’t do a lot with Perceptor as the lead in this story - not in the way the previous two episodes explored Grapple and Red Alert. Here the principle trio are more facilitators of the plot than of interest in their own right, although Brawn is written more harshly than he has been before. His abrasive and unforgiving personality comes from the line, “Most macho of all Autobots. Delights in challenges... contemptuous of those not as tough as himself”, in his cartoon bio, which sets up the friction between him and Perceptor.

Interestingly, his full bio states that he is often paired with Bumblebee as a natural protector of the weaker Autobot, although Brawn’s inclusion here is more about him learning that strength isn’t a substitute for intelligence by coming to understand Perceptor’s value to the Autobots. This is highlighted at the conclusion of the episode when Brawn throws the Heart of Cybertron 2000 miles into space before Perceptor shoots it. This may seem an arbitrary distance but is actually the given range of Perceptor’s light canon, meaning he waits until the Heart is as far away as possible before detonating it at the same time as showing off his abilities. This deliberate change, bringing the differing strengths of the two characters together, replaces the original intention in the synopsis that Cosmos would fly the Heart into space. Why it is suddenly about to explode is a different matter, only that in terms of continuity it needs to be tidied out of the way before the end of the episode and it becoming a ticking bomb is a nicely dramatic finale.

Like his previous episodes, Wise doesn’t let common sense or logic get in the way of telling a fast paced and exciting story. It’s clear here he started with the notion of taking the miniaturisation idea from Fantastic Voyage and worked back from that, plugging holes in the leaking damn of a script by making things up to solve each new problem as it arose. This eventually leads back to the Heart of Cybertron being the power source of the crashed Decepticon ship, a throw away plot device that is of far more interest than anything else that happens in the episode. It’s a tantalising glimpse into the mythology of the Transformers, and a crushing blow to the fan eager to learn more about them that it’s used once here and never brought back into the series again.

[Pinwig]

Part two tomorrow!

35 - Megatron’s Master Plan - Part 1

With Dinobot Island, Donald F Glut took the appetising premise of the Dinobots trying to find an identity for themselves and then wasted it on a story that became confused by an irrelevant sub-plot and a conclusion that didn’t fulfil the promise of exploring the focus characters at all. The first part of Megatron’s Master Plan is similar in that it begins with a great idea, but clunky plotting and a lack of attention to the show’s established basics leave the viewer feeling Glut doesn’t understand the characters he’s writing, or care about executing stories in a way that makes sense. Things do improve in the second instalment considerably, but the first half is something of a let down because of a couple of glaringly out of character moments.

The set up here is one that should have made a superb story, and there are parts of it that suggest with more thought it could have been brilliant. The idea that the media could be used to manipulate public opinion of the Autobots is an interesting one, and by definition it means a rare opportunity to see the effect the Transformers’ presence has on the general population of Oregon. Spike, Sparkplug and Chip may be the human characters, but they are treated more as part of the Autobot community than the one they actually come from and consequently offer little perspective from the world outside. Here though, the populace of ‘Central City’ feature on screen, get to have their say, and even have their own internal power struggle demonstrated in the form of the scheming Shawn Berger and the beleaguered city Mayor.

Naming the city in which a lot of the action close to the Ark takes place is a new step for the series, especially because when stories take place further afield the locations so far have had real names (New York in City of Steel and Washington DC in Atlantis, Arise!). Glut himself said about this that the locale used had to be fictional and vague because of the variety of landmarks and natural features associated with it. It had to be somewhere that “hydro dams, rivers and canyons etc” could all be close to each other.

Glut cites his inspiration for the villain of the piece, Berger, as being the character D B Norton from the 1941 Warner Brothers comedy, “Meet John Doe”, in which Norton tries to abuse his position as a newspaper owner in pursuit of his political ambitions. It’s not an uncommon character type in popular fiction, and within the sphere of understanding of viewers in 1985, characters such as J Jonah Jameson would be recognisably similar. Berger owning a television station is as important to his attempts to undo the Autobots as The Daily Bugle is to Jameson’s attempts to discredit Spiderman. Unlike Jameson though, Berger is purely out for his own gain, and his ambition moves on quickly from wanting to gain popularity in his bid to become mayor by vanquishing the Decepticons to demanding two cities from Megatron for helping him, which begins to sound more like Dr Arkeville levels of megalomania.

Corrupt and powerful individuals are a good match for Megatron, and his shrewdness is shown well in the way he easily manipulates Berger into falling for his plan. It’s a pity that Glut’s imagination couldn’t come up with a better method by which the Autobots could be discredited though; having Starscream and friends wear Autobot suits to perpetrate despicable acts is a little too pantomime for the tone of the episode, but then it’s hard in the twenty-first century to think of a suitable method that predates digital technology and the ability to manipulate images.

What all this offers though is the intriguing idea of the Autobots being rejected by the people they have sworn to protect. Being a two part story, there is enough space in the script to develop this in some depth, and the TV interviewer recording vox populi interviews is a great way of grounding the series in reality. Unfortunately this is glossed over, and the ‘average Joe’s’ perspective on the impact the Transformers have had on their world is too briefly explored to give any insight. Instead, the population of Central City become a unified throng, baying for blood. The public trial being held in a football stadium only adds to the sense of unreality, especially as it is the mayor who appears to be banging the gavel and passing judgement on the Autobots.

What makes this seem so awkward is the fact that it isn’t possible to see Megatron placed in the same position. The Decepticons on public trial wouldn’t happen, so why if the officials of Central City now believe the Autobots are the real threat are they so sure that walking up to their front door and demanding they give themselves up is a sensible move? It seems completely implausible that these people, who have seen the Decepticons raid their resources and cause damage on a massive scale time and again, would completely change their point of view based on one video recording. This just adds to the feeling of disappointment with the way Glut has taken a good premise and applied sloppy thinking to it for the sake of knocking out a quick script.

Extending from this, the reaction the judgement that the Autobots must leave the planet gets from Optimus Prime is bizarre to say the least. Optimus has shown many times in the series that the only reason the Autobots remain on Earth is because he feels a sense of obligation to protect mankind from the Decepticons. But here, even when he knows the Autobots are being accused falsely, he is happy to follow the Mayor’s judgement and leave the planet - not only allowing Megatron to win, but also putting the Earth at his mercy. The only other time this has happened is in Heavy Metal War, where Optimus loses the duel with Megatron and chooses to abide by Cybertronian law and leave the Earth. It’s not surprising to find that story is also written by Glut, and in playing on Prime’s need to adhere to moral codes, he overlooks the far more important aspect of his character in that he is the protector of the innocent.

The story has to have an explanation as to why Prime is prepared to go through with all this, but when Ironhide suggests retaliating with force when the humans attack, Prime just says, “Let’s not stoop to their level. Megatron won’t beat us this easily”, not providing any clue as to how he expects to win. He then gives up completely five minutes later when Sparkplug asks him why he isn’t doing something to prove his innocence: “Any action we take now would be viewed as admission of our guilt”. In both cases the dialogue is just a clunky patch to cover up the fact what’s happening doesn’t make sense.

This premise, that Prime would rather leave the Earth than do something about trying to prove his innocence, is not only defeatist but completely nonsensical. Even Optimus Prime wouldn’t put his desire to abide by law above the need to protect the Earth. The fact that he immediately changes his mind at the start of the second episode shows really what all this is for - simply to create a cliff-hanger to bridge the story into its second part and get the Autobots out of the way.

It is arguable that this depth of analysis isn’t suited to a children’s cartoon, and that in terms of entertaining the target audience it does its job. On the plus side, it isn’t yet another story about the Autobots foiling Megatron’s latest energy plan. The plot is at least original as far as the series itself goes, and like Glut’s previous two-parter, it’s a good showcase for the general expansion of the troops on both sides. A lot of the new Autobot faces make brief appearances, including Tracks getting a chance to demonstrate his flight mode to prospective buyers. Starscream also now seems to be leading the three new strike planes, who get notable screen time, with Thundercracker and Skywarp relegated to fleeting appearances in the crowds. From this perspective the story works well as an ensemble piece, especially seeing the sheer number of Autobots making their way onto the ship at the end of the episode, which does lend a degree of gravitas to the situation.

The way the humans treat the Autobots like misbehaving children, sending them to their room to think about what they’ve done, may be something the average viewer could identify with. The way Prime accepts his fate gracefully does at least make him a good role model for younger viewers in that arguing with your parents never ends positively, and maybe that’s the point, but it’s impossible to ignore the flaws in the story - especially the way Prime would rather be banished than reply to the falsities put against him - making it hard to claim the first half of this story is worthy of the high profile of a two parter. Thankfully though, the second part does a good job of redeeming the problems of the first.

[Shockprowl]

Brilliant reviews as always, Pinwig. You really need to gather them together in some kind of volume or something.

[Pinwig]

Ta. What I really want to do is collate all the interviews with writers done over the years and put together a sort of behind the scenes bit. Needs a bit of research. I was pondering the idea of trying to contact some of them to do interviews on aspects I've not yet seen answers to.

[Pinwig]

Okay, so not quite tomorrow, but close.

36 - Megatron’s Master Plan - Part 2

Ignoring the flawed way in which the circumstances of this episode come about, in itself it’s a cracking tale of Earth under Decepticon rule and goes a long way to rectifying the mistakes of the first part. It begins with the Autobots heading unwittingly toward the sun in a doomed ship, and with Megatron poised to betray his politically ambitious associate Shawn Berger and take over the Earth. Not since The Ultimate Doom has the Decepticon leader seemed such a potent threat, utilising cunning and guile to achieve his ambition rather than brute force.

It still doesn’t make a lot of sense that the populace of Central City would take so quickly to the figures they have every reason to hate - after all it’s undeniable that although the Autobots now look like the bad guys, there’s plenty of evidence too for Decepticon crimes. The name alone should be enough to raise eyebrows, but the episode begins with a hastily arranged public holiday in their honour, as if they vanquished the ‘evil’ Autobots from the Earth themselves. On the one hand it’s a ridiculous proposition (actually added to pad the episode to the right length, which explains how awkwardly it’s jammed into the plot here with Spike still examining to videotapes), but on the other it’s as sinister as the way the Constructicons played with Grapple in The Master Builders. There’s an underlying menace that Megatron is biding his time, enjoying toying with his prey, and it suggests something nasty is coming.

In this case it does, with some of the most violent scenes of destruction the show has presented so far. Avoiding actual deaths on screen, which would be a little too much even for a syndicated cartoon, the new Decepticon jets cause sonic booms that shatter entire buildings, with masonry raining down on civilians in the streets. Of course violence isn’t necessarily a key ingredient to making a cartoon ‘good’, but at least for once here the Decepticons seem like the threat and power they’re supposed to be, which is important for the theme of the episode - Earth under Decepticon rule - to work.

Small touches like the boy in the Megatron suit, and the family at home with the child colouring robot pictures, are much more effective ways of showing the impact of Transformers on the local population than the football stadium trial in the first part. It gives a glimpse of the real life that the Decepticons are about to take away in erecting Megatronia 1. Even better is that death and destruction on a massive scale isn’t actually what Megatron wants, there’s no revenge quest, it’s more about enslaving the population and making them work for him in the same way he had success with during The Ultimate Doom. This time though he doesn’t need a mind control chip to do it because the Autobots aren’t there to protect the humans.

They, meanwhile, are on a course for the Sun, and quite rightly begin to argue among themselves about how they’ve ended up in the situation they’re in. In the previous episode Ironhide advocated the use of force to defend the Autobots’ honour, but was shouted down by Prime at the time, and here he goes as far as questioning his leader - a move made doubly damming because he’s one of Prime’s oldest and most loyal friends. He questions where Cosmos is leading them, and when Hound tells him it isn’t his fault, Ironhide replies, “You’re right. Maybe we ought to take it out on the one who got us into this mess,” while clutching his fist. It’s a startling line, and one that could have been developed further into a genuinely interesting moment of Autobot rebellion - at least pointing out how stupid Prime was to so meekly leave the human race unprotected. Instead, Prime backs down immediately and decides to go back to Earth, resolving the cliff hanger with an unsatisfyingly limp conclusion.

It may seem odd at this point that Hound, famed for his hologram gun use in the series, can detect that the ship is headed into the sun, but his biography does state that among his equipment he has a radar scope and an infrared radiation collector, either of which he could be using here.

It’s interesting that throughout the scenes on the ship, none of the new Autobots are seen apart from Cosmos, who rightfully gets his debut being the one Autobot who can travel comfortably through space. Meanwhile on Earth, the story goes to great lengths to include as many Decepticons as possible. Astrotrain gets his first appearance, albeit silently, and the entire rosta feature apart from Shockwave, stuck on Cybertron, and Reflector, who had been retired by this point. The Constructicons and Insecticons may feature only very briefly, missing members, but there seems to have been a definite decision to feature every character possible. They may be fewer in number than the Autobots, but by contrasting the Autobot old guard stuck on the ship with the shiny new array of Decepticons available to buy, it’s clear the intent in this episode was to promote the Decepticons as being what the audience should desire to own.

The newer Autobots do eventually begin to appear, but not until the entire 1984 line have been seen on screen. Eventually, in this episode alone, all of the established 1984/85 Autobot cast are shown except for a handful of names: Blaster and Grapple (who appeared in the previous episode), Skyfire (who like Reflector had been discarded), the Dinobots (bar Grimlock), and Omega Supreme (who was yet to be introduced). Glut has been quoted as saying that he tried to feature as many of the toys as possible in his stories because they were told as writers to push the product, but Masterplan appears to be an extreme attempt to showcase the lot, much like the previous two part story Dinobot Island had been.

Continuing the idea of inclusion, Spike’s endeavour with the video tape may be ultimately pointless (by the time he convinces the mayor of the Autobots’ innocence, the locals are quite well aware they’ve been duped by the Decepticons), but it comes across as much more than padding. Pitting Spike once again against his old foe Ravage highlights his character; Sparkplug gets an increasingly rare look in; and even Chip gets the subplot with Thrust - all adding to the idea that this two-parter is designed to be a self-contained showpiece story that has absolutely everything about the show in it. Except for Carly.

Chip’s plot in this is interesting. Like the ‘Decepticon Day’ scene at the start, it doesn’t feature in the original story synopsis, but whereas the parade scene seems ill fitting in terms of story pace after the climax of the previous episode, Chip’s scene does at least integrate into the main story and additionally gives a reason to introduce Cosmos. Teletraan-1 being oddly silent and Thrust looming over Chip - getting his first extended speaking role in the series - may be an afterthought, but it’s neatly executed. For once Chip is active and able to do something other than just be clever with computers, even if that’s what his journey in the back of the truck eventually leads him to do.

The Autobots’ return is restricted to the very end of the episode after an impressive aerial battle between the Decepticon jets and the US Air Force. The original synopsis implies that the Autobots surviving the explosion is concealed for longer than it is in the finished episode, and knowing they are heading back from early on diminishes their arrival to save the day somewhat, but it’s unlikely that even with a story focussed on the Decepticons the hero toys would be kept off screen for long.

As an individual episode, Part 2 of Megtron’s Master Plan is a great example of Glut working at his best, even if it is apparent the episode needed some additional input to reach its required length. It glosses over the awkward set up of the first part, and if that can be put aside, as a two-parter it stands head and shoulders above Dinobot Island on a par with the better stories of the first season, several of which were also written by Glut. It scores because it presents something different with the Decepticons wreaking havoc on Central City, gives the human characters involved a purpose and a role separate to being question askers, and assembles almost the entire cast of the series to lend weight to the idea that this is a pivotal moment in the ongoing story. Ultimately of course it isn’t - no episodes in the series are game changers to any real degree - but the concluding part of Megatron’s Master Plan makes it feel like it ought to be. It’s one of the most complete stories in the second series in terms of entertaining the audience and promoting the toy range; an impressive feat in itself when the Autobots feature so little in it.

[Pinwig]

Aaaand, we're back on track. This week's episode on the right Sunday. 

37 - Desertion of the Dinobots - Part 1

Like Megatron’s Master Plan, Desertion of the Dinobots is a story with the scope and space to showcase the world of the Transformers by itself. Potentially designed for the emerging home video market, or to sell the series, both stories are of the kind that these days would feature as direct to video mini-movies that go above and beyond the depth of the usual 22 minute episodes. They feature huge numbers of cast members, hit as many series staples as possible, and offer exciting stories with more ambition than the usual fare. In this case, the slow boiling Grimlock finally loses his rag with Optimus Prime, and for the first time in the second season Cybertron itself is used as part of the plot.

Undoubtedly this episode is one of the highlights of the second season and is far better than the slower paced second instalment. Grimlock’s growing disdain for his squad’s use purely as Autobot muscle is one of the very few attempts at ongoing continuity in the series, even if in terms of production order the placid and supportive Dinobots of Dinobot Island are out of place coming after the surlier and more sceptical ones of Day of the Machines and Atlantis, Arise! We’ve seen Grimlock learn more about his place in the world, and twice register discontent at having to mop up after Prime, so it’s no surprise when being called on to do a job the Autobots are too busy to do themselves after just taking a serious hammering from the full force of the Decepticons, he might decide to take his team elsewhere.

Whether by accident or design, the Dinobots still appear from their own ‘storage’ room in this episode, despite being more readily welcomed into the Autobot ranks at the end of their previous adventure. While in the first season this was a definite measure designed to show the servitor role they played, it seems to have stuck simply because ‘they always do that’ rather than having any sense behind it. It does show once again that the Dinobots are thought of as different, and it would make more sense if they occupied a role similar to the one the Insecticons have with the Decepticons - existing separately with paths crossing when desired (the question there though is what they would actually do by themselves). The implication may be more that being a special hit squad, like an elite military corp separate to the rank and file, the Dinobots have their own special quarters in the Ark where they wait perpetually on call. However, they always appear as they did when being pulled out of storage in their debut episode, harking back to the idea they’re ‘switched off’ when not needed. The way Wheeljack says, “I’ve got to work on their personality circuits”, also gives the impression they’re still seen as a pet project - how many other Autobots would he tinker with of his own volition? The implication is the Dinobots are directly under his control and therefore his to fiddle with because he created them.

Another factor in the way the Dinobots come across as separate to the Autobots is that they’re presented more in dinosaur mode than robot mode. Megatron perhaps explains this when he says they’re “vulnerable in their robot modes” but the visual distinction is another way in which they are deliberately separated.

Their battle with the Decepticons is impressively explosive, almost as if they’re being set up to be admonished again for causing too much destruction. Decepticon jets crash into the hanger causing it to explode after the Dinobots have ripped a hole in it, Megatron is thrown through a window by Grimlock and Skywarp hitting a fuel truck causes an entire row of passenger jets to explode. It’s jaw dropping stuff compared to the way the two sides usually just line up and shoot at each other.

It’s fantastic too for once that the alternative modes of the Transformers are used as part of the battle. It may be that Blitzwing transforms a lot in his appearances to remind viewers of his forte as a triple changer, but the fact he shifts into tank mode to make use of his gun to shoot Bumblebee, and then seconds later into a plane to escape Sludge, is excitingly dynamic and an underused reminder of the unique selling point the Transformers have. Animation costs might usually limit the number of complex transformations shown on screen, but they are very noticeable in this episode - especially the way Jazz transforms three times, characteristically jumping onto his hands to do it.

On top of this, every opportunity is taken in the script to remind viewers of names and abilities, again suggesting that this is a story designed to work independently if needed. It’s not uncommon that characters explain their abilities while using them, but there are some almost laughably clunky moments, such as when support arrives to clean up after the Dinobots’ battle and Wheeljack’s voice is dubbed on for clarity to say, “Here come Red Alert, Hoist and Inferno!” when he isn’t even there. The trio of Autobots with obviously distinctive abilities also get to use them in quick succession, almost as if Kress is ticking them off a list - Jazz blasts Starscream with his ‘sound and light show’ (tick), Mirage turns invisible to try and steal Megatron’s canon (tick), and Hound whips up a hologram to confuse the enemy (tick).

Being a writer who has been around from early on, Kress also falls back on established character interactions for dialogue, which in this case gives a pleasing sense of familiarity. A good example is the way Starscream acts very much like his first season self - taking any and every opportunity to point out Megatron’s failings and even at one point that he should now be the rightful leader of the Decepticons simply because Megatron has “blown his vocal components”. It may be expected, but the benefit of Starscream being the outspoken dog on a leash is that he gives the Decepticons menace. At the beginning of the episode Megatron offers to allow the Ultra Plane base staff to live if they hand over the blueprints, whereas Starscream is straight in with “No need to be soft with the flesh creatures” making to shoot them. With Megatron to reign him in, Starscream offers writers the most bite in the Decepticon ranks in the knowledge that ultimately he won’t do anything Megatron forbids. He’s all bark and no bite, but the threat is dramatically useful. Kress has also said in interviews that Starscream was one on his favourite characters to write for, which explains why he features more strongly here than other Decepticons.

The pace of the episode is relentlessly fast, much like Earl Kress’s previous story, The Immobilizer, which tried to fit almost too much into its short length. In this case, the chance for the plot to spill into a second episode means there’s no need for the story to reach a quick conclusion, and when the cliff-hanger eventually comes it feels very much like a natural break in the ongoing story rather than something that has been plotted backwards from to meet - as was the case with the first episode of Megatron’s Master Plan. It’s so fast that the Constructicons don’t even get a chance to properly form Devastator, again denying long term fans the chance to see a rematch of the fight with the Dinobots from their debut episode. The only thing missing is a more obvious reason why Grimlock suddenly chooses the moment he does to turn his back on the Autobots. As it stands it comes across as teenage petulance, refusing to obey a parent, whereas the original synopsis for the story more implies that the Dinobots are so damaged in the battle with the Decepticons at the airport that it’s their constant use and abuse by Prime that causes them to leave. That element is still there in the finished script, but is played down enough that it is easily missed.

What is good is that there’s little in this episode that doesn’t make sense. It does seem improbable that Soundwave could get inside Ironhide’s boot without him realising at the start, especially as he doesn’t really need to be there, and there is also the question of why if the Dinobots can function perfectly well without Cybertonium that the other Transformers can’t do the same (interestingly, the Constructicons seem to do quite well without it too - supporting the idea that their bodies, if not their minds, were built on Earth as established by Heavy Metal Wars), but in terms of the usual logical flaws and ‘with one bound they were free’ type jumps that dog the scripting in the series, Kress manages to knock out a varied, fast paced and genuinely exciting script with the appetising prospect of scenes set on Cybertron to come.

[Pinwig]

Part two of this story is really interesting on lots of levels, but that doesn't stop it being a wasted opportunity.

38 - Desertion of the Dinobots - Part 2

In an interview on the Rhino DVD release of the cartoon, writer Earl Kress explained how Desertion of the Dinobots was originally intended to be a single part story, but when script editors Dick Robbins and Bryce Malek passed the outline by Sunbow’s executives, the order came back to make it a two part story because they liked the idea of exploring Cybertron. This element is key to the second episode and goes some way to explaining why the story is so unevenly balanced across its two parts. From the break-neck pace and all-encompassing plot of the first half, the second is much more tightly focussed on a small group of characters and stretches the ultimately thin idea of showing Cybertron across the entire episode.

The revelation that it was the suits in charge who suggested exploring the Transformers’ homeworld also sadly seems to suggest that Robbins and Malek hadn’t thought about doing this themselves, which again shows how limited the scope for world building was in the cartoon. In short, this is more evidence of their being no real thought about the mythology behind the characters - each story came down to what individual writers felt like pitching, which is a shame when background detail is exactly the kind of thing dedicated fans would want to see. Filling in back stories and explaining the unexplained creates entire fandoms.

Because it’s so thin, this episode sticks very closely to its original synopsis. Whereas in most cases the brief one paragraph outlines contained in the show bible get fleshed out with extra incidental and explanatory scenes in the script writing process, this one is simple enough that the whole episode doesn’t take much more than a few sentences to explain. Having arrived on Cybertron, Spike and Carly need to find the Dinobots and the Cybertonium and get them both home. What this becomes is a series of drawn out sequences of the pair overcoming various obstacles in their quest, each of which shows less imagination and feels more like blatant padding than the last.

The initial confrontation with Shockwave is bizarre in that Cybertron’s gatekeeper barely speaks as he stalks about after the intruders (possibly embarrassed by the fact he’s holding a miniature of himself in his right hand), making objects vanish in a fashion that hasn’t been seen before. Shockwave has never felt so insignificant and it’s almost is if he’s no more sentient than the rest of the drones featured in the episode. Barring the animation error in The Autobot Run, this is the first time his character has appeared this season, showing exactly how unimportant he was considered in the cartoon. Here he is a weak, unintelligent middle manager, a complete contrast to the majestic leader of the equivalent comics run.

This is then followed by a boring sequence as Spike blinds Carly with his new torch and the pair fall down a plug hole for no apparent reason, giving the impression the episode is more a ‘Land of the Giants’ pastiche than a chance to finally expose the inner workings of Cybertron. There are nods to previous episodes - Wheeljack’s laboratory is remembered from its previous appearance in the early season one episode Divide and Conquer, even though it does sport a Decepticon badge above the door.

The way Carly gains access to the lab is also reminiscent of the way Chip does the same in that earlier episode, and in Desertion of the Dinobots she very obviously fulfils the same role while being more easily mobile. Kress credits himself with creating Carly, although when interviewed for the DVD couldn’t remember if the initial suggestion of having a female character was his or not. Carly feels like the least significant of the human characters, and of the six second-season episodes to feature her, Kress wrote four. This makes her seem like a character only her creator wanted to use, but Chip also only had six season two appearances. He feels more established in the cast generally though at this point because of his presence in the first season.

What really comes across while Spike and Carly explore Cybertron is that it’s a dead planet and that there is a deliberate intention to present Cybertron in this way - powerless and depleted after the war. The landscapes shown are coldly blue and dark as they were in the first series, but it’s clear now this is Cybertron in decline, not as it used to be, giving the impression that over the previous four million years the world has lain dormant. The importance of Cybertonium has never been mentioned until this story, but it also seems until the arrival of the Dinobots that the all important pits from which the element is mined have also been left untouched, guarded by inactive drones. The point at which Carly finds a series of discs which preserve the planet’s history is reminiscent of post apocalyptic films such as Planet of the Apes (1968) and suggest a dying race trying to leave something of itself for the future.

The flip side of this is that the historical records offer a tantalising glimpse into Cybertron’s past. The original pilot episode of the series presents Cybertron during the aftermath of the war, exactly as it is during this episode. The Autobots are effectively an underground resistance movement looking for a way off planet, which starts the series off. The discs show huge numbers of unrecognisable robots from millions of years previously and offer some exciting revelations, such as the fact that Optimus Prime’s Ark wasn’t the only Autobot ship to leave the planet during the aeons of fighting. All of a sudden there are other avenues to explore in future episodes and the beginnings of a proper pre-Earth history for the characters.

It’s not that Cybertron should be seen as a vibrant and lively culture, after all, the original premise for the series was the quest for energy - Cybertron is a planet in hibernation. With almost all of the toy range on Earth there’s no one really left to populate the world with anyway, but it somehow seems unrealistic to think that Shockwave has sat at that desk for four million years with only a bunch of semi-sentient drones for company. It’s a pity the ‘Rainmaker’ Decepticon Cyber-jets don’t make an appearance as the Cybertonium pit guards, which leaves the one talking robot other than Shockwave in the dubious position of not being well enough defined to know whether it’s intended to be an actual Decepticon or another drone.

Having to come up with so many new robot designs that didn’t look anything like the real toys was obviously a taxing endeavour for the animators, who manage here to produce a pile of designs that look like generic robots rather than Transformers, both in the case of the robots shown on the history discs and those bullying Spike, Carly and Swoop. It’s the lack of human features on the faces that separates them; Transformers are all but human in the way they speak and act, but those featured here are clearly designed so the audience won’t identify with them - even the ones that speak. There is also the suggestion that the Transformers of today have evolved from simpler ones of the past; when Spike and Carly come across a cupboard stuffed with broken robots, they’re referred to as the “primitive ancestors” of the Autobots.

While it was possible to praise the first part of this story for the fact that everything for once seemed to make sense, the conclusion to the second descends once again into the realms of quick fixes and economical dialogue to reach the conclusion. This is less forgivable than usual because of the drawn out way in which the bulk of the episode is given over to exploration. With so much time dedicated to that, the resolution to the actual story is awkwardly squashed into the last few minutes.

The conclusion is a clunky sequence of coincidences that leave the viewer unsatisfied: by chance the Dinobots have been taken to the one place on the planet they were trying to find; Carly can somehow see that their memory circuits have been bypassed by looking at them, as well as then being able to repair them; Teletraan-1’s resetting of the spacebridge co-ordinates seems to physically move the bridge itself right outside the Ark (unless Sparkplug moved it by himself); and there is the small matter of the Decepticons, although it would be entirely within Prime’s cartoon character to provide them with the Cybertonium simply so they can attack the Autobots again next week.

However, the biggest plot fudge comes at the end where the Dinobots suddenly decide to rejoin the Autobots for no reason - Slag even saying that they will despite not wanting to take orders from Optimus Prime. As was the case with Dinobot Island, the characters who form the foundation of the plot are short changed in the way they’re set up to be explored by the story and then never are. In this case it’s doubly disappointing because aside from Shockwave and one line cameos from Prime and Megatron, they are the only Transformers in the episode; the lowest character count by some way for any story so far. Kress made the decision to explore Cybertron through the eyes of the human characters, which serves only to reinforce its scale, whereas it would have been much more interesting to see it from the point of view of the displaced Dinobots, seeing the world from which their race hails for the first time.

[Pinwig]

Almost forgot!

39 - Blaster Blues

Unlike most of the writers who contributed to the Transformers cartoon, Larry Strauss’s episodes make up the majority of all his television writing. A high school teacher and basketball coach by trade, he claims in the biography on his website that he gave up writing for television when he became disenchanted with the level of violence in children’s shows, specifically the Transformers cartoon, which apparently at the time had been ‘tagged’ as the third most violent children’s programme on American television. This is perhaps a shame in that his few episodes demonstrate someone who knows how to structure a children’s cartoon, utilising character traits as well as original ideas (and, incidentally, no less violence than others). After scripting The Ultimate Doom Part 1 from Douglas Booth’s story, Blaster Blues is the first written of his own accord, but far from showing the usual feeling of distance from the subject matter episodes by writers with a limited involvement in the series have, it’s really rather good.

Despite being named in the title, Blaster features no more in the story than many other characters, but the plot does hinge on his actions. The blues of the title is a play on the use of the word in a musical sense, Blaster being a tape deck, but also that he is made to show remorse for his thoughtless actions. His exuberant behaviour in demonstrating his passion for loud music drowns out the distress call that kicks off the story, but in terms of characters coming under the spotlight, Cosmos, Astrotrain, Powerglide and the last of the 1985 line to make his debut, Omega Supreme, get as much attention - giving the episode a nice ensemble feel. What we don’t see, which seems to be a deliberate decision, are Blaster’s tapes - even when at one point Blaster refers to “getting this down on tape” when eavesdropping on the Decepticons. The sprockets in his chest spin, but nothing is said about what he is actually recording onto. It won’t be until the cinema film that Ramhorn, Steeljaw, Eject and Rewind appear, which is a shame when an episode about them and Soundwave’s counterparts seems an obvious way to promote the pocket money toys, as well as offer a chance to see the series from the perspective of the smallest characters.

A story set on the moon is an obvious ploy to focus on the new space going characters, and the idea works well. As with Blitwing in the previous story, Astrotrain is carefully shown in both his vehicle modes in quick succession to demonstrate his unusual triple transformation, using his steam engine form to gain momentum before taking off as a shuttle. On the flip side, a large number of Autobots are crammed into the story, but it’s notable (as was the case with Megatron’s Master Plan) that the ’84 cast tend to be herded together while the newer members get more focus. In this case, the scene in the Ark shows as many of the original line up as will fit on the screen while the ’85 toys are the ones out doing things.

Among them is the pairing of Red Alert and Inferno, who just happen to be looking for a fire to put out when they unsurprisingly come across one, suggesting Red’s sixth sense is at work again. This is the sixth time in the last seven episodes the two have been shown together, establishing their partnership as one of the more memorable character relationships in the series. It certainly seems that as the large number of new names were gradually integrated into the show, partnerships and small groups evolved to help manage and identify them (see also Hoist and Grapple). In the scene set on the frozen road the older and newer characters are thankfully better integrated, but even then it’s obvious to see how Prowl, Ratchet, Hoist and Trailbreaker were chosen for inclusion because they all bring specific skills that are used in the scene.

As was the case with the rest of the ’85 characters, Omega Supreme makes his first appearance here as though he’s always been part of the cast - although the idea at the start of the episode that he is undergoing weapons testing and target practise might suggest that he has only recently been built (which would conflict with future episodes). What is odd about the way he is brought into the show, being one of the larger and more expensive figures, is that he isn’t the focus of the episode. The Secret of Omega Supreme will give him more attention, but it’s even more disappointing than the clutch of new Autobot cars all appearing at once that such a significant toy should just happen to be there, especially when contrasted with the way Skyfire and Devastator were brought into the first series. His use here is primarily to act as a shuttle to get Optimus to the moon in pursuit of Megatron, with a small tussle at the end of the episode. It is undeniably appealing the way he can grasp Megatron in one hand though.

Omega Supreme’s base mode is a problem for the animators in the same way that Prime’s trailer is in that the extra parts have no where to go when they transform. In Prime’s case it becomes quickly accepted that his back end mysteriously appears and disappears when he shifts modes - that is so established by this point it’s barely noticeable - but when the same thinking is applied to Omega Supreme it’s much more jarring. That’s why here his base is left behind when the rocket takes off, but then reappears by magic when he lands on the moon. It’s the same logic but much more noticeable. To a lesser extent the fact his toy robot mode is formed of more separate parts than any other figure makes his transformation from base to robot on screen look equally awkward, but there’s no denying the end result is the most impressive looking Autobot to be seen on screen so far.

Meanwhile in the Decepticon camp, it’s interesting that Megatron has now stopped introducing his operations centres as ‘temporary’ and it’s becoming rare to see the original underwater base being used. Its appearance in Megatron’s Master Plan was almost a surprise; the Decepticons seem to be deliberately expanding their network while the Autobots remain camped in the Ark, and although it isn’t directly mentioned, it’s nice to think that the presence of Astrotrain and Omega Supreme means both sides have a route off the Earth. At the start of season one, Megatron wouldn’t have hesitated to desert Earth if he had a shuttle at his disposal, and tried to in the pilot, but the usefulness of the Earth is now clearly much more his focus, so much so that among his demands for Earth’s energy resources in this episode he proclaims himself the ruler of the planet. Rather than repowering Cybertron, it’s starting to sound more like he intends to stay where he is. Obviously his plan here is flawed in that holding the planet’s airwaves hostage in return for the entirety of its energy resources doesn’t make an awful lot of sense, but compared to some of the bizarre logic displayed in the series, it’s a forgivable oversight.

Another odd moment is the premise at the start used to introduce the Voltronic Galaxer. Professor Haley seems oblivious to the fact that in his quest to contact alien life, he has overlooked the fact it has already arrived on Earth. It’s almost as if the Transformers are now considered locals, they’ve lost their wow factor and have become part of the furniture, but Haley doesn’t seem to consider asking them whether they’ve met anyone else on their travels either. That kind of space-going expansion is much more a third season idea, but there is a deliberate irony being played when Haley is speaking to the stars and the answer comes from Megatron standing on the roof. Why Megatron wants the Galaxer is also odd. Being an advanced robot life form one might think he should already have the technology at hand to scramble radio waves, after all he talks to Shockwave on Cybertron often enough, and if the Galaxer is a device for listening to space, why would it interfere with radio waves anyway?

By this point in the series it’s unusual to have one to one face offs between Optimus and Megatron in the way it would happen weekly in the first season, but this episode is nicely structured in that the large cast get a variety of interlinked plot threads before the climax sees the battle of the space ships in Astrotrain daring to take on Omega Supreme and Carly’s ‘temporary transistors’ giving Prime enough life to see off Megatron. There is also the exciting possibility of Blaster’s offer to build a station from the remnants of Megatron’s base leading to an Autobot outpost on the moon, however as usual this is never followed up.

On the whole, Blaster Blues is a neat package: a clever plot which ties up several different strands without rushing or taking shortcuts, good use of a variety of characters in contrasting situations, an element of peril in Prime being brought down and the introduction of the mighty Omega Supreme. There is very little not to like, apart perhaps from the heavy handed moralising at the end. Prime’s line to Blaster, “Remember, your volume, like any capability, is also a responsibility. You must decide when is the right time and the wrong time to use it”, is almost painful in the way it’s wedged into the conclusion because unlike many cartoons of the time, the Transformers doesn’t often adopt such a blatant approach to preaching morals. Blaster atones for his sins by destroying the Voltronic Galaxer, but as is strangely the case in the series when characters cause problems, he doesn’t directly apologise, instead recommencing his music broadcast as the group return to Earth. What message that leaves the juvenile viewers watching with is dubious indeed.

[Pinwig]

My word this one's a stinker. What a load of cobblers.

40 - A Decepticon Raider in King Arthur’s Court

Taking the premise and several ideas from Mark Twain’s 1889 novel ‘A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur’s Court’, A Decepticon Raider… is an odd mixture of pastiche and stock dialogue that has almost nothing about it worth praising. Plundering literary and cinematic history for ideas to adapt into Transformers episodes is by no means a new concept at this point, but so far the choice of source material has at least worked tolerably well within the narrative framework of the cartoon. Douglas Booth drew on the popularity of films such as Warlords of Atlantis (1979) for his previous effort in this vein, Atlantis, Arise!, and he may well here be drawing more on the popular 1949 Bing Crosby musical version of Twain’s story than the original book, but the question remains as to why he thought the premise of sending Transformers back in time to a romanticised dark age Britain even remotely sensible in the first place.

It’s clear to see the connections to the original story. In Twain’s tale, the protagonist - Hank Morgan - is thrown back in time to 6th Century England and the court of King Arthur after being knocked out. An engineer by trade, Morgan installs himself as a magician and seeks power through trying to modernise the past using his ‘advanced’ technological knowledge.

In adapting the tale, Booth uses Starscream as an obvious candidate for a figure who sees the potential in building an empire while Megatron and the rest of the Transformers are unable to stop him. His credentials as a scientist come to the fore again as he carefully explains the chemical composition of gunpowder - an idea lifted from Twain’s book along with the use of lightning as a source of electricity. In this case though, rather than using lightning to set off the gunpowder, it becomes a way for the Autobots to recharge themselves. It’s also no coincidence that Hoist is one of the two Autobots who feature in the episode; like Morgan, his position as engineer means he can improvise solutions to problems.

Other elements which are derived from Twain’s book include Spike struggling with plate armour (an anachronism in both cases, showing how both the book and this episode derive their imagery more from the medieval portrayal of chivalrous knights than the much less romantic reality of the dark ages), and then losing the jousting match through being unprepared for the power of his opposition. Along the way Morgan gains a love interest in Twain’s tale, here becoming Nimue; banishes a ‘demon’ from a well (actually a leak), here reinterpreted as the Dragon ousted from the cave at the end; and participates in a grand battle which sees 19th Century technology pitted against the swords and shields of Arthurian knights. It’s therefore possible to see how Booth cherry-picked ideas from the original story to construct this one, and divided the various facets of Morgan’s character between Starscream, Hoist and Spike.

What’s interesting with the references to the source material is that Booth stops short of actually putting this story into Arthurian legend. As with Atlantis, Arise! and the underwater race being called ‘Atlanticans’, the reference to the source is in the episode title rather than the story itself. Nimue is a real name taken from Arthurian legend, but would probably be obscure enough to a pre-teen American audience not to matter (she is Merlin’s consort and becomes one of the figures associated with being ‘The Lady of The Lake’ in Thomas Mallory’s Morte D’Arthur). King Arthur himself and Merlin, both in Twain’s novel, are replaced by Aetheling the Red and Beorht, oddly suggesting that Booth had a desire to disassociate his story from actual legend, perhaps in a vain attempt to make the setting, if not the story, seem more believable. This then shows that the confrontation with the dragon, which sticks out as being entirely unnecessary and doesn’t appear in the original synopsis, was added during editing as padding - made obvious by the painfully bad “He was out visiting relatives” being thrown into explain why the fearsome beast wasn’t in the cave at the start of the episode.

Comparisons to the source material aside, there is little of interest in this episode. Featuring only two Autobots, the chance is there to go into one or both in detail, but Hoist has already been explored better in other episodes (notably The Master Builders) and Warpath doesn’t get much in his dialogue beyond the verbal ticks that suggest he’s suffering from the effects of the prolonged war. Aside from Ramjet, the Decepticon cast is taken from the season one roster, wasting the opportunity to develop more of the recently introduced characters.

In contrast, significant time is given to the throwaway human characters, including the bizarre love triangle between Spike, Nimue and Wigend, which seems odd in that Spike for the last few episodes has been kicking about with Carly. Nimue is so abruptly swayed by Wigend’s equally sudden change of heart that it destroys any credibility either character could have, making this aspect of the plot entirely pointless.

Booth’s only original idea for the story, that of how robots can find energy sources in a technology free environment, does raise some interesting questions - but even this is made redundant by the arrival of Beorht and his lightning conducting staff. Far from frying the Autobots’ circuits, channelling billions of joules into them gets them straight back on their feet. We do learn that Transformers use energy to stay in their transformed state, interestingly suggesting that their alternative forms aren’t a natural state for them to be in, but when the story reaches the point of having Hoist and Warpath repeatedly ram themselves into the castle walls in an attempt to bring down Ramjet, even the staunchest supporters of the series have to question what on earth is going on.

As with most of the poorer or ill-conceived stories in the series, there is a seed of an idea here that would have been fascinating to explore had it been developed properly. Starscream’s realisation that he can build an empire unchallenged and use it to usurp Megatron before he even awakes is a concept that would almost make the bizarre time travel idea worthwhile. Similarly, two small groups of opposing forces so power-depleted they can’t fight is a premise that could have been made more of, touched on by the truce at the end as the Decepticons walk toward the Dragon’s Mound aware they can’t challenge the Autobots. But instead of realising the potential of either idea, the story instead unnecessarily indulges the source material, even scuffing over the fact it introduces magic-powered time travel into the world of the Transformers without anyone questioning how it works. The result is a lazily written story adapted from a source that has little to do with the Transformers, and is a poor misfire from one of the series’ more established writers.

[Pinwig]

Really enjoyed this one, and writing it up. Lots to ponder.

41 - The Golden Lagoon

Dennis Marks’ second and final story for the Transformers shares a number of traits with his previous script, The Core. Not only is it well-structured, fast paced and enjoyable, it also provides poignant commentary on the effects of the Transformers on Earth, contains a modicum of science and gives an emotional dimension to the focus character. In The Core it was the potential destruction of the planet that showed the callousness of the Decepticons, followed by Devastator’s blind loyalty to Megatron providing the emotional content. In this episode the Decepticons are again shown to be heartless in the way they destroy the lagoon of the episode’s title, and the nature loving Beachcomber is left to bare his soul in the wreckage. The Core also showed how Marks was well versed in the show’s history with the surprise use of the space bridge as an escape route, and again here he provides a nod to elements almost forgotten by other writers by placing part of the action in the submerged Decepticon base, very rarely seen by this point.

It’s a story that follows the trend of starting out with the newer characters before bringing in the old guard later on, and it’s predictable how the ’85 names again have the interesting scenes, whereas the older characters turn up in force to do the donkey work. Mirage is the only figure who escapes the categorising, with his disappearing act obviously a favourite device of Marks’ as it also sees use in The Core. Mirage eavesdropping on the other Autobots here is curious, as it lends to the idea of him being a counter-spy as noted in his bio (see Traitor).

Aside from Mirage’s invisibility and Smokescreen’s smoke, character powers are unusually inconsistent in this episode. Perceptor’s ability to shift his hand into a missile launcher harks back to the earlier episodes where this practise was more common (again suggesting that Marks watched early episodes for research before writing his own), Blitzwing’s gun has an undocumented tractor beam like feature, and suddenly Thrust has a pair of bird-like claws in jet mode. Another oddity, which was also the case in Megatron’s Master Plan Part 2, is that Teletraan-1 doesn’t speak when relaying information - instead displaying on screen text (possibly to save a voice actor fee as Casey Kasem’s characters don’t feature in this episode). Conversely, the moment Powerglide and Warpath try to stop Thrust is well thought through - showing off a combination of Powerglide’s thermal beam (even fired from the right place) and Warpath’s often overlooked cryogenic shells.

To a degree, it’s noticeable how characters gain featured spots in several consecutive episodes and then make way for others: recent favourites such as Inferno and Red Alert now stand aside for the new minibots to be featured; Cosmos gained exposure in Blaster Blues, and will do again in the next episode, The God Gambit; and Warpath was one of two Autobots in the last episode. Here, Seaspray and most importantly Beachcomber join the rolling programme of featured characters, ensuring the pocket-money toys get properly promoted.

The battle that follows, with Blitzwing in charge of the Decepticon attack force, is another great example of the unique properties of the toy range. Like the battle at the hanger in the first part of Desertion of the Dinobots, the vehicle modes of the characters are used as part of the fighting to great effect and it’s delightfully predictable that Blitzwing’s appearance in robot mode is quickly followed by his plane and then the tank - coming face to face with Warpath. As has been seen before, it’s an obvious pairing to make, but this is the third time in recent stories the two tanks have clashed - creating another of the show’s enduring partnerships.

While the Autobots continue to show the newer and older characters mostly separated, the fewer number of Decepticons allows for their integration to work better. Even though Thrust comes under the spotlight early in the episode, as is often the case it’s Starscream whose character traits are used to greatest effect. His fear of Megatron when being used as the test subject for the electrum is typical, as is his sadistic streak when away from the control of his leader. It’s really quite nasty how he decides that rather than interrogate the captured Autobots for information, as seems to be Megatron’s intention, he would rather force Perceptor and Seaspray to fight each other for his pleasure, delighting in announcing the idea as his to those present. The Decepticons in this episode generally have an unusual air of power about them, which comes partly from the plot, but also from the splendid colouring they gain when coated with the electrum. One has to wonder if this is where the idea for Japanese ‘Lucky Draw’ figures, predominantly gold or silver highly limited-release prize draw repaints, originated.

As was the case with The Core, which demonstrated the need for coolants for sustained drilling, The Golden Lagoon also contains a small amount of subtly injected science in that before the electrum pool is discovered, Perceptor has a close look at a rock which reveals traces of gold and silver - the elements from which electrum is made. It’s worth noting that Warpath shows no interest in this revelation, meaning the properties of electrum on Transformers is obviously something not widely known, so it then seems odd that Thrust realises straight away what he’s found when he discovers the pool, claiming he will become the “number one Decepticon” by coating himself in it. The science does end there though, as there is the question of why this magical electrum stays in a liquid state (plot-wise necessary for the Transformers to still be able to move once they’re coated in it), and also why being plated with a gold/silver alloy means they become invulnerable.

Between these moments comes Beachcomber’s peaceful discovery of the lagoon’s glade, an oasis in the middle of the fighting deliberately shown as a contrast by the addition of ‘cutesy’ fauna not usually found in the Transformers cartoon. This aspect of the story was probably initially suggested by his personality, as somewhere like a volcano would make more sense for a liquid metal pool to exist. Beachcomber’s attempt to commune with nature by learning the birds’ language is suitably endearing, but also provides a possible solution to the problem of how the Transformers were able to talk to humans originally, even if that moment wasn’t seen on screen. He also utters “Great Maximus!” when surprised by finding the pool - an interesting choice of words given the eventual arrival of Fortress Maximus as the largest of the G1 toys. Originally, Omega Supreme was to be called Fortress Maximus, and the name appears in the cartoon bible’s first list of characters assigned to specific second season episodes. By the time this was revised and shortened to add the combiner teams to the end of the series, the references to Fortress Maximus had changed to Omega Supreme, but it isn’t impossible to think that working from early information provided by the production office, Marks may have come across the name and used it knowing it had been replaced by Omega Supreme.

Speaking of whom, the Autobots’ new defence base gains the second of three appearances over a spread of just four episodes here, providing more evidence for the notion that characters were used in repeated short bursts at this point. He is more defined than in Blaster Blues, and it’s nice to see him actually being used as a base by the Autobots in the early part of the episode, reinforcing his size. His speech is also much closer to the stilted statement: explanation that will help define him as the most stoic of the Autobots. Sadly though, as is the case with Devastator, his size and bio don’t come to much when he is downed in one hit. The implication is that he loses the battle because he can’t fight back against the electrum plated Decepticons, but unless it has enhanced their weapons too, it makes this mightiest of Autobots seem a less than effective last line of defence. As in Blaster Blues he comes across much more as an Autobot tool than a character in his own right.

Ignoring the unexplained presence of the liquid electrum pool in the first place, the only time this episode falters is in the conclusion. The apparently undefeatable Decepticons need to be returned to normal somehow, but rather than something interesting (such as the escaped Perceptor coming up with a mercury hose to dissolve the electrum), the fact it simply fades away can only be seen as disappointing - especially as the stroppy Megatron then clears up the problem of the pool itself by simply blowing it up, which is entirely at odds with the defensive properties it’s had for the rest of the episode.

This is a minor point though and doesn’t count against The Golden Lagoon being a thoroughly enjoyable episode, featuring a wide variety of characters not usually given the limelight. Beachcomber is deserving of an episode focused on his unusual characteristics, so far only briefly seen at the beginning of The Insecticon Syndrome, but the fact that many others including Perceptor, Seaspray, Omega Supreme and Thrust get pushed to the fore again creates the ensemble cast feel the show does so well at this point - taking the focus off the leaders and keeping the ever present energy struggle in the background. It’s also moving that as the episode finishes, with the Autobots jubilant at the defeat of the Decepticons, it’s only the Earth-loving Beachcomber who acknowledges the real losers.

[Pinwig]

Here's a short supplementary essay ahead of tomorrow's exploration of The God Gambit.

Network vs. Syndicated Television

At the time of the Transformers cartoon, local television stations in America broadcast content from three sources: their own originated programmes, network affiliated programmes and syndicated content. The difference between the last two had an occasional impact on the content of The Transformers, which was a syndicated rather than network cartoon.

American broadcasting comprised of many local TV stations, which usually carried an affiliation to one of the then ‘big three’ television networks: NBC, CBS or ABC. That would mean they gained exclusive access to the programmes produced by the network they were affiliated to. In contrast, syndicated programmes originated from independent television production studios, who made content to sell on to anyone who would buy it. These days this often means producing a series for one network initially, with the aim of then selling it to others once the programme has established itself (after a few seasons have been produced, generating enough episodes for long daily runs of shows). Sometimes networks put their own content into syndication as a way of making further money after initial airings (Friends is a high profile example of this, being a show that started life on NBC affiliated stations before eventually moving into syndication on others). However, syndicated programmes don’t necessarily have to start life tied to a particular network. Programmes produced for any station to buy in and broadcast are called ‘first run syndicated programmes’, and the Transformers was one such instance of this.

Another important difference between network and syndicated shows is that the former usually air at the same time regardless of the station they’re on, determined by the providing network. In the 1980s, children’s cartoons generally aired on Saturday mornings, but the syndicated equivalents weren’t restricted to that slot by network demands. That meant Transformers and other syndicated cartoons could air daily in a post-school slot, giving them much more frequent exposure. This consequently lead to huge demands on the producers of the shows, and it was common for series to be produced in enormous 65 episode blocks (aired Monday to Friday, 65 episodes covers 13 weeks, i.e. quarter of a year. This also explains the odd number of episodes in The Transformers’ second season - as 49 added to the 16 of the first season gives 65).

Although there was a dramatic rise in children’s cartoons produced for syndication in the 1980s, syndication wasn’t a new thing. Syndicated cartoons were being produced from as early as 1949, with recognisable names such as Rocky and Bullwinkle and Herge’s Adventures of Tin Tin beginning life in the 1950s. However, a relaxation of broadcast regulations in 1983 meant a change in the content of cartoons, causing an explosion of syndicated shows. Ronald Regan’s presidency was one that celebrated financial and commercial success, and under his administration, Mark S Fowler (as commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission) removed the restrictions surrounding children’s television being used as advertising, saying that television content should be driven by market forces. Suddenly cartoons could be produced to promote toy ranges, rather than having to be about characters originated by the studios making the cartoons. By the end of 1985 it is thought that there were more than 40 animated series based on licensed products running concurrently.

The Transformers was part of this but not the originator. Pac-Man was the first cartoon to take advantage of the law changes, airing on 25th September 1983, and He-Man and GI Joe were already in full swing when The Transformers started in 1984. Countless others based on toy lines followed.

The reason why this is important to The Transformers, and the episode The God Gambit in particular, is because of the wider freedoms syndicated programmes enjoyed over their network equivalents. In the case of syndicated cartoons, the content was largely determined by the toy manufacturers looking to push their products. For The Transformers, this meant Hasbro used Marvel to promote the line as a comic and a cartoon made by their animation arm, Sunbow. Interviews with the writers of the series show that Hasbro generally took a back seat to Sunbow’s direction, giving little interference, and free of network restrictions the content could be edgier and more adult to make the toys attractive. This inevitably meant more violence (mentioned by Earl Kress, writer of Desertion of the Dinobots, as being the reason why he stopped writing children’s television) and the possibility of exploring topics that networks would have been uncomfortable tackling, such as the theological debate The God Gambit carries.


commenterry.blogs.com/commenterry/2006/06/syndication_vs_.html
www.awn.com/animationworld/dr-toon-when-reagan-met-optimus-prime
filmescape.com/what-is-syndication
filmescape.com/how-does-tv-syndication-really-work
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_in_the_United_States
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadcast_syndication#Animated_series

[Pinwig]

I've gone out on a limb a bit here and could be totally wrong, but this is my reading of The God Gambit.

42 - The God Gambit

Buzz Dixon may have only written three episodes of the Transformers, but far from being an occasional freelance contributor to the series, he was an integral member of the Sunbow team in the mid-eighties - eventually becoming GI Joe’s story editor for its second (1986) season. In an interview on the Rhino release of The Transformers, he explains how, at the time, Sunbow were producing so many cartoons that employees would pitch in and write where necessary, which explains the cross pollination of writing talent between the shows and the sometimes lax quality control on script editing. He explains that around the time of the second season of The Transformers, Sunbow was actively producing three 52 episode series and another two of 13, and that the offices were a constant rotation of freelancers pitching new stories and dropping off revisions.

It’s therefore possible to see how, in the rush, some of the weaker episodes of the series came to be, and possibly some of the more controversial - especially if they were originated by the contracted staff. With such an enormous turnover required it might also explain why managing a cohesive ongoing continuity for The Transformers proved too difficult to attempt. By comparison, the Marvel comic is often praised for having a deeper and more involved storyline than the cartoon, but when considered in this light, one writer outputting twelve scripts a year is very different to co-ordinating dozens of writers producing more than five times that amount.

The God Gambit is a story that on the surface seems like it benefitted from the speed at which decisions were made; not because it’s a weak story, but because of its striking view of religion. It raises eyebrows, and is held up as an example of the kind of episode that wouldn’t have been made if the Transformers had been a network show, rather than the slightly less restricted syndicated series it was. In his DVD interview, Dixon explains that the TV networks of the time were twitchy about any religious iconography being used on television at all, and even for a syndicated cartoon this episode might seem a risky proposition - presenting what is often interpreted as a negative view of prayer and worship. However, what The God Gambit actually does is allow Dixon (significantly, a man for whom religious belief is very important) to explore theological issues without the knee-jerk reaction and misunderstanding of network television executives getting in the way. The story can be misread as an attack on religion, but it’s actually the complete opposite.

By moving the background of the story from Earth to Titan, Dixon is free to explore the concept of worship without associating it directly with religions likely to cause controversy, such as Christianity (Titan is mentioned once specifically by Starscream in the episode, but the story synopsis in the cartoon bible makes it clear the ringed planet seen in the sky is Saturn). In fact, the dress and society of the people of Titan is noticeably derived from Aztec or Mayan, deliberately removing it from modern America and making it seem more ‘extreme’, or ‘primitive’, with its godlike totems, step-pyramid monuments and the notion of sacrifice. Moving episodes involving worship to another location to avoid problems is a trick that has been used before in the series. Titan is similar in many ways to the Incan setting of Fire on the Mountain, and there is also the manner in which the Insecticons were seen as demon gods in Bali during The Insecticon Syndrome.

In the context of the story, it’s interesting that High Priest Jero’s sky god statue is very Transformer-like anyway (actually very like Astrotrain), possibly suggesting some historical contact with the Cybertronians pre-dating the arrival of Cosmos. It’s also made clear to the viewer from the outset that Jero is fooling his people, threatening his own workers with punishment if his statue isn’t prepared by the time the people of Titan arrive with their offerings. His opposition, Talaria, sets out her stall at the beginning of the episode too - destroying the statue and saying that Jero’s sky gods are “an excuse for high taxes and harsh laws” and that she believes in “reason and common sense”. These two factors make clear from the outset that this episode isn’t about ‘real’ religion. There is no actual god here, which can be read in two ways - on the one hand there is Talaria’s forthright view that religion in general is a tool used to govern and subdue people, but the other point being made is that it’s important to recognise false gods. This is what Talaria is doing, she isn’t necessarily renouncing religion, she’s more pointing out Jero is a liar.

Religious setup aside, the story has much of interest in it regarding the characters too. It’s established very quickly that Astrotrain holds the leadership position in the Decepticon away team, unusually kicking Starscream into second place. This seems to suggest it was originally intended that Megatron would feature in Astrotrain’s role, and it’s true that The God Gambit is one of only two episodes from the entire first and second season which don’t feature the Decepticon leader (The Gambler being the other), suggesting he may have been removed at some point.

However, it is equally possible to read the episode as having been designed to feature Astrotrain prominently from the outset (or for that matter Starscream as he could swap roles with Astrotrain with barely any need to alter the script). In this story, the Decepticon assuming the position of sky god is the one that will gain the most character development and exposure, promoting the toy, so Astrotrain needs to be front and centre as it’s his episode. The knock on effect is an odd alteration to his persona - his cartoon biography doesn’t mention anything about him being a power-hungry turncoat.

In addition, Blitzwing led the Decepticon attack team in The Golden Lagoon, so it isn’t beyond reason to think that the newer, more powerful triple-changer toys were seen as replacements for Megatron’s existing lieutenants. At this point, before the 1986 toy line emerged, they were the only two triple-changers - clearly occupying a position in a tier above the normal Decepticon jets because of the size they were drawn (in contrast to their actual toys being smaller). This might be a result of the small number of new Decepticons introduced in season two (before the late arrival of the combiners). With three new planes and just two more characters on top of that, it isn’t impossible to think the triple-changers were beefed up to make them feel important.

This kind of story is also Astrotrain’s ‘gig’; he is the shuttle, and therefore the one Decepticon experienced in space travel. When questioned about his apparently rash fuel consumption he retorts, “Silence Thrust, I am in complete control” establishing his position with his first line, and while Starscream’s later question, “Why should you be the supreme god? I’m a much better choice” does sound like something he may dare to say to Megatron, it seems more fitting that the opportunity is given at that point for Astrotrain to simply show he is more powerful, which he does with a chokehold. This is then closely followed by Starscream asking why he and Thrust are doing all the work, to which the reply is simply, “Because Astrotrain will vaporise us if we don’t” - again supporting the notion that the triple-changers are seen as a class above the rest of the Decepticon rank and file.

Aside from the discussion of Astrotrain’s role in the episode, it is the usual quest for energy that drives the plot. The lack of it is used as a device to prevent the two factions escaping Titan without resolving the conflict over the moon’s resources. We learn that it takes 97% of Omega Supreme’s energy to reach Titan, meaning in rescuing Cosmos it’s also imperative that the Autobots gain access to the energy he has found. Omega also says the journey will leave him unable to transform, which in terms of plotting conveniently denies the Autobots the option to flatten the three Decepticons outright on arrival. Similarly, Astrotrain starts the episode already energy depleted, and despite being warned by Thrust about this, gambles on gaining the data that Cosmos has to find more.

Ironically, just as he gets hold of exactly this information, he is shown the energy source by Jero anwyay, which unsurprisingly is a type of crystal. Astrotrain’s delusions of power are also seen here when he stops Thrust contacting Megatron for help, although it’s hard to know what help Megatron could provide without Astrotrain to get it there. Further to this, his need for control is shown in quite a sinister manner when he decides to sacrifice Talaria in a public display, the only purpose which can be to intimidate the rest of the population. This is heartlessly cold, surprisingly so for the cartoon, and the scenes of Talaria chained to the alter with her legs splayed are clearly designed to echo the dramaticised conception of Aztec sacrifice - coming back to the idea that this episode seeks to point out the ‘wrongness’ of false religions. At the end of the episode Astrotrain also deserts Jero, telling him to “Die like the worm you are” - again a warning about the perils of following false gods.

What all this brings us to is the simple fact that The God Gambit isn’t denouncing religion and worship of gods as wrong, it’s demonstrating to the viewers the perils of not following the ‘true path’, which doesn’t have to be but in this context would be Christianity. It’s telling the audience to follow their own beliefs and not be drawn in by others. In fact in this day and age it’s almost a training video warning against radicalisation. Anything Jero or Astrotrain do is merely a demonstration of the perils of following the *wrong* religion, not an outright attack on *all* religion. Jazz repeatedly states through the episode that the Transformers are not gods, especially at the point the locals plead for rescue saying “spare us and we will worship you”, having been left bereft and misguided by Jero. Jazz’s final line in the episode is understated but pivotal. With Astrotrain vanquished, he says there are “no Decepticons to monkey around with your beliefs”, implying that the people are now free to find their true path, in the process giving Talaria the “reason” she is seeking.

Of course this isn’t pushed overtly as a message of Christianity, more a pause for thought in the way Christian beliefs are generally moral messages about generally being nice to each other. Similar postscripts were added to the end of Masters of the Universe episodes and while the Transformers isn’t known for this kind of thing, it’s interesting to see the way Buzz Dixon uses his premise to create one of the most thought provoking and engaging episodes of the series. On the surface it’s a great romp for the kids watching, but it also provides something extra for the viewer to think about. The only lingering question is what actual message the pre-teen audience watching the episode would have taken away from it.

[Pinwig]

43 - Make Tracks

Prolific Transformers writer David Wise’s previous episodes have shown how he doesn’t let details get in the way of telling a good story - cutting corners where needed to keep the pace up (such as throwing the original Decepticon ship into Microbots just to provide a power source; the idea the Autobots sleep in Attack of the Autobots just so Megatron can ‘drug’ them; and that TORQ III can control any machine in the world remotely regardless of whether it’s digital in Day of the Machines). His stories can therefore be criticised for a lack of attention to logic and sense, leaving irritatingly unanswered questions for the more involved viewer, but equally they can be praised for spinning excellent yarns in a short space of time, frequently derailing from the standard formulas of the show.

In this case, the backbone of the episode, that Megatron is stealing cars and converting them into remote controlled drones, moves away from the usual quest for energy toward him building an army. The Constructicons are used sensibly to show how Megatron has the technical ability to do this - even if for dramatic effect Scrapper is using a large sword to chop up the stolen vehicles to illustrate Tracks’ impending fate. It would be nice to think Megatron’s transforming drones are the next step in the evolution of the ‘battle taxis’ the Constructicons created in City of Steel, although the chances of an intended connection seem unlikely. In terms of extracting what continuity is possible between the episodes though, it’s nice to believe that during his time on Earth, Scrapper has been developing his understanding of the available technology.

It’s also nice that this plot point is kept in the background until late in the episode. The viewer is left unaware of why the cars are being stolen and Raoul and Tracks go through something of a detective show type mystery in slowly uncovering the truth. These reveals unfold right through the episode, from the opening in which the dramatic irony of knowing the thieves are trying to steal an Autobot is counteracted by not knowing why Tracks is being used as bait, all the way to the final revelation that the mobsters are selling the cars to the Decepticons. The usual formula for the show - that Megatron outlines his scheme at the start so the viewer spends the next twenty minutes watching how the Autobots solve the problem - is ignored and dealt with in a far more interesting way.

This means most of the story is given over to exploring the character of Tracks, and his growing relationship with Raoul. At this point, Tracks is the only character used in the series from the 1985 toy line yet to have a significant presence in an episode (apart from the previously mentioned Skids, who oddly doesn’t even appear on the character rosta in the cartoon bible). Tracks, like Beachcomber and Hound, is cast in the role of the ‘Earth-lover’, but is differentiated from the other two by his affection for the bright lights of the big cities and the attention his sleek automobile mode gets. Unlike Jazz, who is also stated to be “Greatly impressed with Earth culture”, he is far more vain and separates himself where possible from the others. Tracks’ bio says he “prefers to be in car mode whenever possible”, which makes him a natural pairing for a human companion (as well as the other Earth culture lover, Blaster, at the start of the episode), and also explains where Wise’s initial premise for the story came from. In looking for a reason to keep Tracks mainly in car mode, it makes sense for him to be used as bait in a car theft trap, and then when damaged that he can’t transform.

It’s possible to see Wise’s thought process for the plot being worked backwards from his initial idea, as was the case with his previous episodes. Needing a reason why Tracks is doing this, the viewer is quickly filled in with the news that the Autobots are helping the local police department with a ‘crime buster’ programme, and that they are doing this from a previously unseen base, hidden behind Sparkplug’s previously unseen New York garage. However, unlike Wise’s other ‘just because’ explanations (let us not forget the invisibility spray from Attack of the Autobots), this one is feasible and it’s nice to think that the Autobots are helping humans just because they can, rather than because they’re having to stop the Decepticons (albeit here they don’t realise the Decepticons are ultimately behind the plan). The connection that the Autobots are helping because their vehicle modes allow them to infiltrate the car theft ring is surprisingly understated by the script considering it’s a clever conceit not used in the series so far, more so that this allows the story to revolve around Tracks because he is one of the most desirable of the cars. This also indicates Sparkplug’s garage is simply a front being used to hide the Autobase, but is again in keeping with the undercover ruse to expose the thieves. This is why the Autobots are in New York, and explains why all of a sudden they have a base in the Big Apple - the first time they’re seen to be stationed anywhere other than the Ark. This kind of thinking doesn’t often appear in the cartoon and is more reminiscent of the early Ladybird Transformers books, which have a stronger theme of disguise and co-operation between Autobots and humans than other fictions.

On the subject of throw-away reasons, it’s also notable that Tracks can be handily disabled completely by pulling out a single wire in his chest, rather like the way Cosmos is kept in a similar state in The God Gambit.

Of the other Autobots in the episode, the rolling programme of featured characters continues with the newer mini-bots again getting a good amount of screen time. With Warpath and Beachcomber both having been featured heavily in recent stories, this episode pushes Powerglide, Seaspray and Cosmos - clearly shoehorning the latter in to up his exposure when a flying saucer patrolling the streets of New York should cause widespread panic. In keeping with other recent episodes, there does seem to be a mandate that the newer names get featured first, with choice cuts from the old guard providing the muscle later on. It’s nice that the under-featured Huffer gets a few words, but it isn’t until the end of the episode that faces such as Sideswipe, Jazz, Bumblebee and Ratchet get a look in just to remind viewers they’re still on the shelves. In that respect the episode works really well as a blend of old and new, as does the way Blaster’s cassette deck mode makes him small enough to hide inside Tracks at the start when the two earth-loving Autobots spring their trap.

It’s also possible to see Earl Kress’s idea of how using one character and the associated voice actor meant that it was cheaper for Sunbow to include other characters in the same episode voiced by the same person (mentioned in his interview on the DVD extras). This might also be a reason why Cosmos makes an odd Earth-based appearance, as Michael McConnohie voices both Cosmos and Tracks. Equally, Hoist probably gets an appearance because Michael Chain also voices Powerglide, and in this case he also gets to do Raoul.

It’s unavoidable to mention the fact that this episode more than most relies on stereotypes to structure the narrative, not only in the characters but also the depiction of New York itself as a neon-lit Gotham-esque den of iniquity. It isn’t by accident that this story takes place entirely at night: this isn’t the New York of City of Steel. The opening scene presents two brightly coloured 80s punks as the thieves, and when we finally get high enough up the chain to meet the Geddis brothers in charge of the operation, they’re dressed in suits, ties and typical 1940s Al Capone style Fedora hats just to let the viewer know they’re the bad guys in charge. It isn’t the first time Wise has relied on the gangster stereotype to depict villains in his stories, with his portrayal of the Decepticons themselves also often conforming to that image (Megatron hiding as a gun in a violin case in Day of the Machines and the way they all behave when ‘drunk’ in Microbots being two examples). In addition, when Tracks chases the Geddis brothers after he rescues Raoul, it’s delightfully inevitable that he will drive into the dustbin left conspicuously in the foreground of the shot, a given in any US TV action sequence and satirised in shows such as Sledgehammer and Police Squad. No opportunity to wedge a stereotype into the action is left untaken here.

Raoul himself, being a street-wise teenager who has fallen in with the wrong crowd and must learn the error of his ways, appears to be a carefully blurred variety of ethnic backgrounds. While the name suggests an Italian descent, his indistinct accent and choice of clothing suggests anything from Latino through Hispanic to Native American origins. The fact that one character is used to represent all these cultures in the cartoon is questionable at the very least, especially as he is the first audience identification character who isn’t a white American, which makes it all the more awkward that this appears to be the default choice for a street urchin.

Despite the stereotypes being more overtly obvious than usual in this episode, the fast pace and clever way the plot pulls back slowly to reveal the big picture makes it an enjoyable watch. It doesn’t really matter that the eventual pay-off - that Megatron is creating automatons from the stolen cars - comes as a brief conclusion with a typical shootout in the closing moments of the episode. The focus is on Tracks, whose aloof nature and desire to separate himself from the other Autobots is handled well in a story that has a better than usual human viewpoint. It’s not surprising that Spike doesn’t feature in this one; not only has he been replaced by Raoul for the duration, but his position as the link to human society is now so far distant from where it started that he might just as well be another Autobot for all the ‘human’ perspective he offers. Even Sparkplug in this story doesn’t contribute to the plot, he is used simply as a front for the hidden Autobot base. Raoul brings back the original feeling of wonder about the huge, alien robot beings that has been missing largely since the original pilot story. Wise quite deliberately makes it clear through Raoul’s surprise at the ‘talking car’ when he first meets Tracks that he doesn’t know what a Transformer is. That reset in perspective makes the relationship between the two work as they learn about each other, and therefore the episode as a whole, giving Raoul an education in what is right just as much as Tracks gets one in what is wrong with the human world he initially sees as a “breath of fresh air”. In that regard, Make Tracks can be seen as a breath of fresh air in its own right, the best of Wise’s writing so far - even if it’s plagued by sometimes awkwardly obvious stereotypes.

[Pinwig]

What a complete turd this episode is. No holds barred decimation follows... 


44 - Child’s Play

Without doubt, Child’s Play is a sign of the stories being pitched for The Transformers not really being thought through properly during the time-pressured middle of the very long 49 episode second season. It has almost no redeeming features whatsoever, makes no sense, and on top of that is the most poorly animated episode to date. Beth Bornstein is a writer new to the series at this point, and although she will go on to have better success with two more episodes (The Search for Alpha Trion and Nightmare Planet), this first effort is an absolute stinker which doesn’t take the existing mythology seriously and clearly misunderstands the target audience - pitching the ideas and the writing way too young. It’s like what would have happened to the Marvel comic if it had suddenly become a title under the Star imprint.

Whereas most episodes of the series at least make some attempt to explore the various characters involved by utilising their biographies, there is nothing that develops any of the featured characters in this episode at all. Of the key Autobot cast, Perceptor is involved because of his scientific knowledge and his light canon, Inferno so he can put out a fire, Bumblebee so he can be the weak hostage and Optimus because he’s the leader. Smokescreen is irrelevant; he is here only so he can feature in the direct follow on episode The Gambler. The Decepticon involvement is even weaker - all of the cast would be interchangeable with any other characters and most behave in ways at odds with their recognised personas (Soundwave playing baseball?).

This is frustrating because the central idea, that the Transformers end up on a planet where they are the size of toys in the hands of the locals, is quite a clever adaptation of the Brobdingnag volume of Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. The irony in having a toy range being treated as toys on screen is very appealing, and might even give the audience pause for thought about their interactions with their own collections (an idea Toy Story did so well a decade later), so it’s a shame that this particular angle isn’t pursued further.

Comparisons to Gulliver’s Travels are largely unnecessary and are far vaguer than A Decepticon Raider at King Arthur’s Court is to its source material. As with the alien boy Aron in this story, Gulliver’s protector on Brobdingnag is another child - in his case a nine year old girl. Both she and Aron approach the relationship with their captives as ‘owners’ in the way children dress dolls or decide outcomes in role-playing with them. Aron initially wants his toys to behave, and it’s only when he comes to understand the relationship between the Autobots and Decepticons, and the way his parents see the Transformers almost as vermin (another loose connection to Swift), that he begins to see them as having their own lives and decides to help them escape, as Gulliver’s captor does with him after he is turned into an entertainment at the Brobdingnag royal court. In the case of the Transformers it’s a natural progression of the plot, essential for it to work - the Decepticons have to be hated and the Autobots loved to keep the fundamental balance of the series working.

It’s also disappointing how everything about the alien world is no different to the middle class America watching the episode - the only thing separating the two is the look of the aliens, being something like a cross between Star Wars’ Greedo and Edvard Munch’s The Scream. This also shows how poorly this episode is thought out - suburban America and the protagonist’s trials with the local bully is entirely the wrong kind of cartoon.

The rest of the episode is a collection of complete nonsense. From the very opening it fails. Not only does it make no sense for Megatron to build a spacebridge in the middle of a baseball stadium, which would automatically attract the attention of the Autobots, but he seems to consider the idea properly only after it has already been built (“this stadium will make a perfect spacebridge” he says, while standing on it). He also somehow builds it instantly in the middle of a match, outraging the players and spectators who get uppity and demand they continue instead of running screaming from the most powerful and dangerous beings to walk the Earth. On top of that, the Decepticon reaction to this is to act like thoughtless bullies and generally show off, wrecking the place with a display of destruction and baseball jargon that begs the question of why it was necessary for the stadium to be there in the first place. Megatron’s purpose here seems to be to transport much needed energon to Cybertron, so why does he want to do it in a way that will obviously be fraught with problems? Is he that egotistical that he wants the world to see his operation?

All of this setup is simply to ensure there is a selection of both factions inside the bridge when it activates, and that it sends them to a random location instead of Cybertron - ignoring the myriad simpler and more fitting ways to do that. Of those left on Earth, it’s also comical that Chip later claims to have contacted Cybertron to see if that’s where Prime and the others ended up. Who was it he spoke to? Shockwave?

From the moment the camera first pans across Aron’s bedroom to reveal a telescope on the windowsill, it’s obvious that the instrument is going to be part of the solution to getting the lost Transformers home. Rather than locating Earth, sending a message to Omega Supreme and arranging a pickup though, the solution is wheeled out in one astonishing sentence from the ever resourceful Perceptor - “Utilising the energon cubes I can modify my light canon into a transport beam, amplifying the rays through this telescope”, which just about says it all.

The tone of this episode is never more impressed upon the viewer than when the Decepticons hijack this plan to return home, Starscream exclaims he doesn’t care where they are provided there aren’t any “green monsters” around, and they’re promptly attacked by crocodiles. Meanwhile, the Autobots manage their escape using a toy spaceship modified again by Perceptor with no tools or resources to upgrade it from being able to fly around Aron’s bedroom to being able to cross interstellar space.

It’s worth pointing out that these plot fudges only skim the surface of the problems with this episode, without even talking about the poor quality of the animation. A lot of it looks rough and sketchy, features odd camera angles such as Megatron appearing to talk to the camera at the beginning of the episode, and as well as technical layering errors with body parts appearing on top of each other or just not being there at all, there are questions such as why Ravage appears to run in the air when it would be much more economical animation-wise and make far more sense to the viewer if he was transported in Soundwave.

The only remarkable thing about the story is the way that it leads directly into The Gambler, which picks up with the Autobots as they travel home. More so because in terms of production order, Quest for Survival and The Secret of Omega Supreme come between the two, but as broadcast The Gambler followed directly after Child’s Play. This is the first time the production order is seen to break its own continuity and the broadcast order make more sense (as characters still in space appear in Quest for Survival), unlike the instances in the first season where as shown, Skyfire and the Dinobots appeared in stories before they had been introduced. This perhaps is the strongest indicator yet of how the second season at least was not designed to be shown in a specific order.

It is a shame that the pressure the production team were under at the time meant oddities such as this slipped through the net. While the series managed to maintain the quality of the first season through the first half of the second, episodes like this, which show no real thought or consideration for the source material beyond it being a generic children’s cartoon, let down an otherwise excellent run. One to definitely avoid.

[Pinwig]

45 - Quest for Survival

Reed Robbins and Peter Salas may be names unfamiliar by this point in the series, but it’s worthwhile remembering that they were the writing duo who scripted the first season episode Countdown to Extinction. The conclusion to the ‘Ultimate Doom’ storyline was a solid episode in its own right, but it’s noticeable with this one how Robbins and Salas draw on their previous experience, and the first season format in particular, to present a story that feels much more traditionally styled than other recent episodes that have attempted to take the show in new directions. All that’s missing here is a knock down fight between Prime and Megatron. With that, this one could slot in very easily straight after A Plague of Insecticons as a direct sequel (excepting the 1985 characters).

The origins of this episode can be found in novels such as Jack Finney’s The Body Snatchers (1955), Michael Crichton’s The Andromeda Strain (1969) and the cinematic adaptations of both. The scientific hypothesis of Panspermia, that life is carried from planet to planet throughout the universe on a microbial level by comets and other interplanetary objects, is an interesting one for a series which in its own right deals with alien intelligence. It’s also interesting that the Autobots appear to be proactive here in trying to deal with the Insecticon ‘menace’, which revisits discussions that come to the fore in earlier episodes about the perception the Transformers themselves have of the differing levels of intelligence/status in the various robots, based on what they transform into. Prime wants to forcibly stop the Insecticons in a way that he doesn’t go after the main Decepticons.

In their introductory episode the Insecticons were shown to be different to the other Decepticons in the way they can fuel themselves from ingesting arable crops, which appeared to be something that they had developed over the four million years they had been active alone on Earth. Being locust type swarming insects seems to be where the idea that Shrapnel can produce clone copies of the three come from, which is not mentioned in any version of their biographies, bar one reference in the introduction the three characters have in the cartoon bible. This idea is expanded on here to present the clone army on a scale not seen before - thousands of extra insects are shown at the start of the episode terrorising an unspecified Asian region (presumably Bali, where the Insecticons’ ship resides) and somewhere in the American south. The fact these are all voiceless clones, bar the three original Insecticons, seems to mean that the Autobots have no compunction about killing them off, using the equivalent of a chemical insecticide farmers would use to preserve their crops. This is important, because it would be out of character for them to attempt the same idea against the Decepticons themselves with something like the Scraplets from the Marvel comics. Prime never seeks to exterminate the Decepticons, just contain them, so it’s clear from the Autobot actions here that at least the clone Insecticons are seen as a lesser, unimportant sub-species, even if they are sentient and intelligent. Compare that to the way at the end of the episode the Autobot leader doesn’t destroy the plants he is responsible for transporting to Earth, but instead launches them into space to survive elsewhere. However slender, there is a moral question here as to what Optimus Prime deems “freedom is the right of all sentient beings” to actually mean.

Continuing with the idea of different castes of Transformers, the way the Insecticons are spoken about is as if ‘robot insects’ are a specific sub-set of Transformers who pre-date the arrival on Earth. The original pilot episode suggests that it’s pot luck really as to the alternative mode the Transformers ended up with, although some consideration was given by Teletraan-1 to the function of the character. Therefore Megatron being an aggressive leader becomes a gun, Soundwave the communicator becomes a tape deck, the generally flight enabled Decepticons are given aerial vehicle modes, the Autobots a land based transport mode and so on. So if the Insecticons adopted insect based Earth modes because they had a similar form originally on Cybertron, it follows that they may well be a separate type of robot with a different metabolism - perhaps because of their swarming nature they were seen as a pest on Cybertron as much as they are on Earth (although on Cybertron they must have used metal as a food source rather than cereals, which is hinted at in the way they eat through metal in some of their appearances). What is different though is that the clones aren’t a way of reproducing - being dumb copies they aren’t able to replace the original three. It’s also possible because the Insecticons weren’t reformatted by Teletraan-1 with the others that they still maintain their Cybertron modes.

All of this does seem to make sense, and explains a lot about the way the Insecticons work, as well as why Prime seems to have no objection to trying to wipe them out. Just as right thinking humans do he may believe all sentient life has rights, but that doesn’t stop us trying to protect crops with insecticides. The only irony in all this is that because the plants from Fluron 3 travel back on Cosmos, the insecticide itself becomes redundant and is conveniently destroyed in one of the fight scenes to get it out of the way.

As said earlier, for the premise of this episode to work, the Insecticons are shown to be less than intelligent, which is at odds with their previous appearances and their biographies. Megatron’s plan to use them to harvest energon relies on the Insecticons not having thought about turning the crops into energon themselves, which doesn’t quite fit with the way they have powered themselves in previous episodes. It’s true that in their first episode they were drawn to what they seemed to consider a more premium grade of fuel when offered oil by Megatron, but the fact they are scientists (Bombshell at least is shown to have independent value to Megatron during Traitor) and can clearly turn cereals into fuel, makes it seem odd that they need Megatron’s resources to produce actual energon cubes from what they have eaten.

However, the fact Megatron can dupe them so easily, actually calls them dumb, and the climax of the episode relies on them being stupid enough not to realise that their greed is going to get them killed when they try to eat the Morphobots, shows how the Insecticons here are depicted as being robots of limited intelligence driven mostly by the need to eat.

This episode does feel much more traditional than the others around it. Familiar but largely forgotten images such as the underwater Decepticon base raise a smile, as does the subtle but well integrated reinforcement of established characteristics - Megatron and Starscream fighting, Spike being out on a mission with Bumblebee, Megatron transforming to be fired by Soundwave, Soundwave monitoring Autobot activity, Ironhide shooting liquid nitrogen from his hands, and of course Megatron sounding the retreat when his plans are foiled. Around the beginning of the season these tropes may have drawn a sigh from the viewer due to their constant repetition, but at this point they are spread far enough apart that when so many appear together in an episode it feels like for once things are being done ‘properly’. Characters also get a chance to show off their abilities, as is right and proper, ranging from Inferno putting Tracks out when he is set on fire by Shrapnel, and Tracks then later using his rarely seen black light gun to blind Megatron.

It’s also fantastic here that all this is bundled up with the newer characters, showing true integration between the new and old. The cast, the Autobots especially, are a good mixture of both the ’84 and ’85 lines, and the sense of routine life is again present, rather than the entire episode just revolving around the plot. Characters are seen in the background going about their usual business, rather than having to be in shot because they’re part of the story. That means of all the second season episodes, this one is probably most likely to feature a cameo from the forgotten Skids, and indeed he is here being repaired by Hoist while behind them Prime considers the larger issues. There are a total of 31 different characters seen in this episode, in fact on the Decepticon side it’s only the Constructicons, Astrotrain, a couple of the cassettes and the ever forgotten Shockwave who don’t actually appear.

In terms of the expanding feel of the Transformers’ world, it’s also obvious from the opening of the story that spaceflight is now a given in the series - a routine operation which doesn’t require explanation. Cosmos provides more versatility for that task than Omega Supreme’s more unwieldy rocket, but there are certainly some dimensional anomalies in the way Cosmos’s interior always seems to be far larger than his exterior when in UFO mode. The fact that Bumblebee and Spike can comfortably fit inside him is at odds with his apparent size later in the episode when rescued by the Autobots, which is unintentionally made funnier by the insecticide can Bumblebee has collected being as tall as he is. Perhaps it isn’t that Cosmos’ interior is unexpectedly large, but that those who travel inside it shrink to fit inside him.

The Quest for Survival does everything a Transformers cartoon needs to. It incorporates as many characters as possible, utilises their individual abilities, provides a plot that builds on previous relationships and includes all the stereotypes that made the early episodes of the cartoon so appealing. On a higher level it provides more food for thought in terms of where the Insecticons fit in the general hierarchy of the Transformers, and apart from the dubious question of Prime’s intent to exterminate the robot insect swarm, has a fast paced and varied plot that hangs together without the need for illogical jumps or unexplained reasoning to conclude it. Compared to something like the previous episode, Child’s Play, it is in a completely different class.

[Pinwig]

I'm glad this one is out of the way. I wasn't looking forward to it, it took ages, and I'm really REALLY going off David Wise.

46 - The Secret of Omega Supreme

By this point in the series David Wise had already established himself as noted script writer for Transformers, The Secret of Omega Supreme being the fifth of his thirteen second season episodes. His impact overall on the tone of this period therefore can’t be understated, and in later episodes he introduces many of the key concepts that form the backbone of the history of this universe - including Vector Sigma and the origin of Optimus Prime. The Secret of Omega Supreme is almost as significant, but also worsens a continuity problem in that Wise’s self professed lack of awareness of what other writers had done with the show meant he set up a second origin for the Constructicons that conflicted with the first. He also had Omega himself speaking in a manner completely at odds with the established character. Discussing those problems tends to override a general appreciation of the episode itself, and so are dealt with under a separate heading below.

In many interviews over the years, Wise has talked about how he was favoured as a writer in the mid-80s because of the speed with which he could turn around a script. He says this is partly because he rarely wrote second drafts - instead, in his words, “getting it right the first time” and just making minor edits and polishes to the initial draft. Previous discussions here have looked at how he tends to start with a one-line pitch and work outwards from that to establish a plot - adding concepts as and when necessary to meet his goal without really thinking about the impact they may have on wider continuity (as referred to under Make Tracks, this means instances such as the Autobots having unexplained sleep machines in Attack of the Autobots and the original Decepticon ship making a fleeting appearance in Microbots in a way that completely wastes its potential). This is borne out in an interview with him conducted by genre writer Marv Wolfman in which he speaks about his writing process:

“In writing a story for a TV series, I'll first come up with the basic overall concept… From that point I will immediately figure out what I want the climax to be… Then my work simply becomes a matter of getting from Point A to Point Z in as entertaining a manner as possible. This would involve adding character issues… figuring out ways to inject some action early on… and a twist or two… The point is: all this other stuff, the character issues and plot twists, will all feel integral to the story because they come out of the demands of the climax. And the story will be full of verve and momentum because I am working furiously to get to the climax…That's why I always plot the ending first.”

It’s obvious that the elevator pitch for The Secret of Omega Supreme is, ‘the biggest Autobot battles the biggest Decepticon in a grudge match over an old feud’. Everything else in the episode is extrapolated from that, and unlike his previous work, the hoops being jumped through to make it work (such as why Omega hates the Constructicons) are no longer small asides, but become a fundamental part of how the story works - leading to the famous continuity problems.

Those aside, there is plenty more in the episode to explore. Again the series uses space as a setting rather than basing the story wholly on Earth, with Soundwave locating an energy rich asteroid that the Constructicons bring close to Earth using what appears to be their own ship - perhaps intended to be the one that Omega trails through space for millions of years. Being set in space, Cosmos again becomes the Autobot infiltrator. During the glut of space-based episodes at this point he assumes Bumblebee’s role as the smallest/weakest Autobot who gets into trouble while advancing Autobot understanding of Decepticon operations. Optimus Prime has no concern about sending him into danger alone, and does so again later in the episode when in another moment typical of Bumblebee he clumsily falls onto Astrotrain while trying to steal a piece of the ore.

This story is the first to really deal with Omega Supreme as a character, rather than using him as a vehicle or weapon. His apparent desire to live in a forest, needing Optimus to call him out of hiding, is a demonstration of how he is a segregated character - his self imposed isolation apparently a product of the way he was treated in the past. This might be due to his betrayal by those he called friends - leading him to feel unease around all Transformers - but it could also be because of his position as a ‘guardian’ robot, a type who seem to prioritise purpose over everything else.

In the UK, it’s easy to mix the comic’s concept of guardian robots with how the same basic idea is presented here - the Marvel version being a functional, brutish servitor with limited intelligence, similar to the Cybertronian drones seen in episodes such as Desertion of the Dinobots. However, Omega’s more articulate dialogue in his flashback - lines such as, “I’ll say, what with all the trouble the Decepticons have been making. Thanks doc!” show a more articulate side to his past self. Prime’s apparent awe at learning Omega was a ‘guardian’ also indicates the rank to be something highly respected, rather than a menial, lower caste role. Guardians being revered works better in terms of the story as being of an ‘elite’ class makes Omega’s embarrassment at being taken for a fool and subsequent isolation seem more fitting. At any rate, it’s made clear here that Omega doesn’t hang around the Ark simply because he doesn’t fit in it, more that he prefers to keep himself to himself - something which Prime respects.

Having established Omega Supreme as a lauded and noble Autobot in his flashback, Wise then introduces the mechanism by which he can set up his plot. This hinges around the ‘Robo-Smasher’, an inaccurately named device which Megatron uses to reprogram Autobots into Decepticons. Prime’s line, “I remember. He used it to swell the ranks of the Decepticons”, is important in that it implies Decepticons also chose to join Megatron’s ranks freely. It would be a shame to think that the Decepticons were forcibly created entirely by Megatron as the difference in the political and social beliefs of the two factions is a driving force behind the premise for the toy line.

Wise’s use of the past to create a long standing grudge creates its own problems in that it doesn’t fit the character of an Autobot to harbour such a long standing hatred - especially when in this case it’s directed at the wrong characters. When the Constructicons destroy Crystal City, Omega is clear on the party responsible and what he wants to do about it. Looking at the destroyed city he says, “Megatron’s work. I must rescue my friends, then I shall have revenge”, showing it is Megatron who he rightly holds responsible. Wise needs a way to shift that focus onto the Constructicons, and so uses the Robo-Smasher as a quick solution in a manner which partly corrupts Omega’s circuits. He tells Prime, “Megatron failed. I live, but changed. Since then I feel only hate for the Constructicons.”

It’s a fudged reason clearly worked out without real thought. The point about the Robo-Smasher is that those affected by it don’t know they’ve been changed, so if in this case the process has gone wrong and Omega is aware he hasn’t been completely corrupted - why does he suddenly shift his hatred from Megatron to the Constructicons, who he must still know weren’t truly at fault? Is it that he is on one level aware of the truth, but the Robo-Smasher programming overrides this? For this idea to work properly it needs a third party involved to observe that Omega doesn’t realise he has been partly altered and that his focus on the Constructicons is misguided, which could then have been used as part of the climax as Omega is about to destroy Devastator but learns the truth in time. An alterative is that Omega’s change isn’t a result of the Robo-Smasher’s interference, but is simply an emotional change in himself because of what happened, which makes even less sense. This is indicated by Prime’s last line in the episode - “I know what the Constructicons did on Cybertron changed you - took away your feelings.”

In truth, there must be countless better ways to give Omega Supreme a reason for hating the Constructicons, but having started off on the path he chose, Wise adds twists that make less and less sense until the story fills out the three acts. The Robo-Smasher wouldn’t have been necessary at all as a plot device if the Constructicons had started the episode as Decepticons and simply rebuilt Crystal City into a Decepticon fortress. They managed to trick Grapple into thinking they had changed sides in The Master Builders, so here they could have simply tricked Omega into letting them in - creating a much simpler reason why he could legitimately hold a grudge against them. The original synopsis for this episode doesn’t mention the Robo-Smasher at all, simply saying, “Omega confesses a personal enmity with the Constructicons, ever since the old days on Cybertron, when they betrayed his friendship to become Decepticons” - which shows how introducing the Robo-Smasher makes the whole sequence unnecessarily convoluted.

This awkward set up is then further muddied in the second half of the story, where having set the stage for the final showdown, Wise needs some way to stop it being concluded because of the inability to actually destroy either party. Therefore, the creature in the asteroid is introduced as Wise’s way of distracting Omega from his pursuit. Because it purely serves that function, the creature isn’t explained at all. A giant robotic bird creature hatches from its food providing egg-asteroid and heads to Earth thinking it a potentially bigger food source. It does mean the episode gains a second climactic battle as the Autobots try to defend San Francisco (another unusual reference to a real-world location in the series), which is ultimately more exciting that the clash between Omega and his foes. When he finally has the chance to destroy Devastator, and says as much, his choice is to cause a rock fall on top of him, which he rapidly escapes from. Regardless of the problem of not actually being able to destroy the Constructicons, this has to be seen on any level as an anti-climax after the build up the showdown has.

The secret of The Secret of Omega Supreme really is the way it exposes David Wise’s writing. Sometimes the broad strokes he paints with produce exciting and action packed stories, and this is indeed one of those, but they also highlight the disregard he has for maintaining established continuity or ensuring that his ideas actually make sense in context. It’s clear that either a lack of time or interest in the subject meant that the script editors didn’t hold as tight a rein on him as was needed, and while Wise’s other stories get away with the liberties he takes, this one left a huge headache for anyone trying to make sense of the overall series.


Omega: chatty. Constructicons: confused.

The biggest bugbear with The Secret of Omega Supreme is the way it rewrites the origins of the Constructicons. The problem of Megatron’s six construction experts being built on Earth yet simultaneously having history with Omega Supreme dating back millions of years is fundamentally unsolvable without tortuous fan-applied logic to make it work. The origin of the Constructicons is recognised as the biggest continuity flaw in the series. As well as in this episode it is also touched on in The Master Builders when they claim to have admired Grapple’s architectural work on Cybertron, and then again in the Five Faces of Darkness where they step into an infinite loop by creating Megatron - the character who then later appears to create them.

It’s possible to bypass the Grapple problem by interpreting Megatron’s claim the Constructicons were built on Earth (Heavy Metal War) as them being re-built on Earth, or that Scrapper was simply lying, but in The Secret of Omega Supreme, by having them appear on Cybertron millions of year ago using contemporary Earth alt-modes, as well as displaying Decepticon symbols before even joining the Decepticon faction, the problems just aren’t worth trying to explain.

Wise himself has never bothered, and the fault is as much with the script editors as his ideas for not picking up the incongruity, or ensuring the animators didn’t use the standard model references for the Constructicons when in Cybertron’s past. When interviewed by the All Things Transformers podcast, Wise explained the contradictions by saying that episodes were written concurrently by dozens of writers who didn’t necessarily know what the others were doing, and claimed (perhaps in jest) that of the multiple origins for the Constructicons, his version was the better one. Being a throw-away children’s cartoon, this is possibly all the justification the problem needs, but it’s a pity that the most prolific of the season two writers wasn’t as diligent as others in careful note of how the series worked.

It is possible to look past these problems, perhaps by saying that the flashback here is Omega’s own mis-rememberings, and that perhaps the Decepticon symbol existed before Megatron changed the meaning of it. The Constructicons aren’t stated to be Autobots in the story; Megatron refers to them as “those Constructicons”, meaning they don’t necessarily have to have Autobot badges.

While the Constructicon problem was ignored during editing, the episode does contain an example of where a flaw in continuity was corrected. In the interview mentioned above, Wise also talks about the sudden change in the way Omega Supreme speaks, saying that the character information the writers were given was vague enough that he didn’t know Omega spoke in two word sentences:

“Here’s the sort of character stuff we got - ‘Omega Supreme: Autobot. Personality: Taciturn.’ and that was it. We had to write the character based on that one word. ‘Taciturn’ means a guy who doesn’t talk a lot. It doesn’t mean a guy who goes, “Energy: Low. Rest: Necessary.” I had no idea he talked like that.”

He goes on to say that had he known Omega spoke in such a stilted manner he wouldn’t have had him narrate the story, and that he had to insert dialogue he was unhappy with to explain it. The implication is quite clever, that Omega’s laconic speech and guarded nature is a result of his betrayal by the Constructicons, but the implementation in the script is rather unwieldy and an obvious afterthought:

Optimus: I want to know about it.
Omega: Order received. Will talk.
Optimus: Can you talk like a normal Autobot?
Omega: Just this once I will talk the way I did on Cybertron before the betrayal.

There’s no reason to doubt Wise’s assertions, but it does again highlight the almost slapdash nature of his writing. Omega Supreme’s cartoon biography doesn’t mention a ‘taciturn’ nature, and is clear on him being a “grim, serious” figure who “speaks slowly with few words”, which does rather suggest if this was available at the time Wise wrote the episode he chose to ignore it. Depending on how far in advance scripts were prepared it is possible that this episode was under way before Heavy Metal War had aired, the two were broadcast eleven months apart, but it’s a shame that in a series that has a vague sense of its own continuity at best, that a writer so heavily involved with it didn’t look beyond his own writing to see how the series worked as a whole.

[Pinwig]

Devcon!

47 - The Gambler

Michael Charles Hill’s first episode for the Transformers is interesting for several reasons. What is largely a love-letter to his affection for Star Wars, it represents his first foray into the world of the Autobots and Decepticons, bringing new concepts into the series that will have a bearing on its future direction. It features the first fully realised Transformer not to have a contemporary toy (something the comic only did at the time to provide characters that could be killed, as with Scrounge and Straxus); subtly expands Megatron’s empire further into off Earth interests; and provides the strongest indication yet that life continued for other Transformers while Optimus, Megatron and the others lay dormant on Earth.

While Hill would eventually become a producer on the series, for this first story he was commissioned as a freelance writer by script editors Bryce Malek and Dick Robbins based on his previous work for Hanna-Barbera and Ruby-Spears. The Gambler is adapted from a script he wrote for Challenge of the Gobots called Gameworld, coincidentally broadcast just a fortnight before The Gambler was in the autumn of 1985. In that, the Guardian Command Center and Cy-Kill’s Thruster are captured by a larger ship and taken to the planet Kolob, where the two sides are forced to fight each other in gladiatorial combat for the entertainment of onlookers. Of that episode Hill said in an interview conducted by The Cybertron Chronicle in 2014, “I was dissatisfied with the final draft due to changes requested by the story editors. With The Transformers I thought, ‘Here is my chance to get it right.’”

Unusually, it also follows on directly from another episode - in this case the Autobots involved are the cast who featured in Child’s Play, and it begins where that story left off with the Autobots escaping back to Earth in Aron’s oversized toy spaceship. It’s possible here to see the hand of the script editors at work because Hill himself in the Cybertron Chronicle interview said that his story was written without knowledge of Beth Bornstein’s story. Like the Gobots episode, it begins in space, suggesting that in looking for a reason why the Autobots would be in a previously unmentioned spaceship, the script editors though the end of Child’s Play fitted quite neatly. This then explains why Smokescreen is in Child’s Play but barely features in the story at all - clearly having been inserted afterwards to be in place for The Gambler. Similarly, the other Autobots who appear in The Gambler serve no purpose other than to act as characters for Smokescreen to rescue, which suggests the script was edited to replace whoever Hill had originally chosen. This retroactive alteration might also explain why the stories run together, but weren’t produced in sequence, finally being united in the broadcast order.

Since the introduction of the space-going 1985 toys with Cosmos towing the Autobot ship in Megatron’s Master Plan Part 2, the Transformers have slowly expanded further and further off Earth: Blaster Blues got them as far as Earth’s moon; The God Gambit saw Astrotrain trying to become a deity on one of Saturn’s moons; a malfunctioning space bridge flung Prime and the others to Aron’s unnamed planet in Child’s Play; and in Quest for Survival the Autobots are aware of the robot insecticide obtainable from Fluron III. The Gambler is where this expansion is fully embedded into the ongoing story with the implication that Megatron has a previously established relationship with Gyconi. In addition to that: energon is revealed to be a tradable commodity not just used by Transformers, Bosch is aware of what Transformers are even if he doesn’t know who he has captured, and Devcon provides a first example of Transformers existing separately to the remnants under Shockwave’s watch on Cybertron.

Although this development is exciting in terms of the possibilities it opens up for the series, this seems to have happened by accident rather than design because Hill said of the origins of the story, “not being steeped enough in the Transformers universe… my first attempt with The Transformers was to do something different than what the others had done before me”. The surprise then is how the Transformers’ universe begins to expand not because of decisions being made by the show’s producers, but as a by-product of the way Hill adapted elements from Return of the Jedi to create his plot. In the Cybertron Chronicle interview he is open about how Devcon is inspired by Boba Fett, and Gyconi by Jabba the Hutt. It isn’t a huge leap of the imagination then to see Slizardo coming from Jabba’s sidekick, Salacious Crumb, and the animaliens and the arena combat from Luke Skywalker’s battle with the Rancor. All of the place names and characters in this story are references to other subjects, from the obvious, such as Monacus/Monaco, to the less so, such as Gyconi being an amalgam of Dungeons and Dragons creator Gary Gygax and GI Joe writer David Marconi, friends of Hill at the time.

Of all these elements Devcon is the most interesting, and as indicated by Hill is a creation made purely to suit his own desires: “When I wrote The Gambler... no one ever told me that I could not create my own Transformer… No one raised an eyebrow about it at any time during the entire creative/production process”. Resembling a cross between Scourge and Blurr, two characters perhaps in development for their movie appearance around the time this story was being animated, Devcon comes across as a lonely character driven by his need to hunt Decepticons. He doesn’t recognise Smokescreen (or Optimus for that matter), but accepts him as a friend because they share the Autobot symbol, and describes himself as a bounty hunter, suggesting an allegiance to an organisation or culture beyond Cybertron intent on maintaining galaxy-wide law. While he doesn’t know the Autobots, he does know about Ramjet and Dirge, presumably through their visits to Monacus, and they recognise him on sight. It’s interesting that he chooses to follow his own path rather than going to Earth, where he could cleanup financially from the huge number of Decepticons there - including Megatron. This of course is necessary because Devcon doesn’t fit into the continuity outside this episode, but narratively it suggests he thinks greater prizes even than the Decepticon leader are to be found elsewhere.

All of this overshadows the fact that this is Smokescreen’s first episode as the focus character, one of the last of the 1985 line to gain his own spotlight piece. His biography, “Considered the most devious yet most trusted of Autobots. Usually has ulterior motives in everything. Job is to lead the enemy astray. Sneaky, but charming and affable”, makes him the most suited for an episode which is largely about deception and the perils of gambling, but it’s still almost shocking to see an Autobot cheating during the opening when he fixes Bosch’s fruit machine for his own advantage. He does get his comeuppance when his ‘special connection’ is broken by an unnamed observer in the casino, causing him to lose the pile of energon chips he has accumulated (and thus the Autobots’ freedom), but the topic does seem an unusual one for a children’s cartoon. Like The God Gambit, this script is one that may have been questioned had The Transformers been a network show (see The God Gambit for more on that), highlighted by the way at the end Optimus oddly advocates a little rest and relaxation for his crew in the galaxial equivalent of Las Vegas.

As the focal character, Smokescreen does get more than his share of screen time, and gets to use his trademark black smoke cloud twice to progress the action. He is also the only regular Autobot in this story to behave in a normal way, deepening his character by default. Bosch’s devices control the other Autobots surprisingly quickly - reminding the viewer of how the Transformers are robots and therefore subject to control by equipment that can override their programming despite being sentient. The fact there are only three Decepticons in the episode does them no favours either, Dirge and Ramjet come across as goons as usual, and when Astrotrain finally transforms to prove he is more than just a transport service, his “prepare to meet my friend - Mr Ionic Displacer” makes him sound equally like the 1940’s gangster the Decepticons are so often modelled on.

The Gambler’s legacy is the way it broadened the horizons of the series and brought events happening away from the Earth into focus. It inspired hundreds of fan-fictions about Devcon’s character, creating a legendary figure who surprisingly wasn’t realised in toy form until the Fun Publications Pirates and Knights boxset made for Botcon 2014. It’s an enjoyable episode from start to finish with no glaring plot holes or elements that go against established continuity, despite the rookie status of the writer at the time. When compared directly to Child’s Play, it shows how space based Transformer stories could, and should be done.


cybertronchronicle.freewebspace.com/60-astrominutes/interviews.html

[Pinwig]

Ugh. Poor episode, poor write up.

48 - Kremzeek!

While David Wise is noted for writing important stories that fill in the history of the cartoon Transformers before their arrival on Earth, such as The Key to Vector Sigma and War Dawn, his extensive list of scripts also includes hastily-written fillers that are less impressive when coupled with the ‘kid in a sweetshop’ approach he takes to grabbing ideas without really considering whether they fit the tone of the series. When it comes to Kremzeek, this means the viewer is spared the confusion of continuity shattering revelations such as re-writing the origin of the Constructicons, but in their place the viewer is left with all the pizzazz of his very visual ideas without the character development or dialogue to make them interesting. In that regard he is almost the Michael Bay of the Transformers cartoon - big ideas and lots of explosions, but no common sense or substance.

Consequently, there isn’t very much to this episode; it’s just one long chase scene. Megatron creates an electrical gremlin that terrorises the Autobots for twenty minutes before they eventually manage to turn it back on him and then, rather unusually, kill it. It’s noticeable how bland this episode is, given how much some of them try to pack in. It’s got action, and therefore does the job of appealing to a pre-teen audience, but even in that there isn’t much use of the Autobots’ abilities or character traits as there would be in other stories.

It does feature a number of Autobots, although it’s only really Blaster and Optimus Prime who have anything to with progressing the plot. Prime makes the decisions and gets a fair bit of the action, which is unusual by this point in the series and does at least serve to remind us that the Autobot leader can roll his sleeves up when he wants to. If anyone comes under the spotlight in this one though, it’s Blaster.

As was the case in Blaster Blues, his input seems to be to inadvertently cause trouble, which is an odd trait that isn’t reflected by his biography. His attempt to destroy an energy creature by attacking it with more energy does seem ill conceived, and later when he suggests using the transmitter to send Kremzeek back to Megatron via the magnetic collector, Prime admonishes him by saying he has “finally” come up with a plan. Then at the end, it’s the Kremzeek hidden inside him that begins the trouble again. The theme of radio waves and transmissions used in the story does seem to lean toward it being a vehicle for his character, but like Blaster Blues, it doesn’t really put him in a positive light. However, Blaster is the only Autobot named in the original episode synopsis, so perhaps his clumsiness and rash thinking is intended to endear him to the toy buying viewers. It’s also made clearer than ever that his cassettes weren’t something the cartoon wanted to include, given the way his chest unit is used as part of the narrative with no reference to them at all. Given the sheer number of Autobots brought out during the line’s 1985/86 heyday though, it’s not hard to see why.

It wouldn’t be a David Wise script without some left-field ideas, and the biggest in this episode is obviously the Kremzeek characters themselves. Because the series generally gives no thought to the creation of Transformer life, in the way the comic went to great pains to explain the Matrix, there’s no reason to expect Wise to put much into the explanation of how Megatron is able to create life. The original synopsis suggests that he is deliberately trying to create Kremzeek to occupy the Autobots while he develops his energy collector, but on screen this seems played down to suggest it is an accidental by-product of whatever he is doing with the electrodes. The latter is a cleaner explanation because it doesn’t lead us into a discussion about the extent to which Megatron can create life. Apart from the unclear introduction of the Constructicons in Heavy Metal War, all of Megatron’s creations haven’t been sentient. However, that then doesn’t explain what Megatron actually was doing in his experiment, and he is also the only character in the story to whom Kremzeek shows any deference, suggesting some kind of bond. Optimus later also guesses that Megatron “must have created that creature to keep us busy”, which again makes it seem as though Kremzeek wasn’t an accidental discovery.

It’s interesting how when looking for a backdrop for Kremzeek to terrorise that Wise chooses Tokyo. The way Kremzeek traverses the Pacific Ocean by, as Sparkplug says, “riding Sky-Spy’s transmission beams”, is another example of the writer taking shortcuts with his explanations, although it does create the unanswered question of why the Autobots were spying on Tokyo as a side effect. As was the case in Enter the Nightbird, the perception that Japan is the home of the 1980s electronics boom lingers, as it would have been just as apt for Kremzeek to wreck Las Vegas or Times Square in terms of comparative neon visuals. Wise seems to think Japan is a natural setting for his creation, so instead of Chip, the clever chap in the white coat is Doctor Yoshikawa, who sadly doesn’t gain the ‘famous scientist’ accolade that his compatriot Dr Fujiyama did. There is also more than a hint of the Japanese ‘Kaiju’ genre about the episode with its giant Kremzeek, also pointing to Tokyo being a deliberate choice.

Yoshikawa then becomes Wise’s scapegoat for providing the resolution to the story. Kremzeek has to be got rid of somehow - although being a sentient life form he poses more complications that usual. Quest for Survival tested Prime’s definition of freedom being the “right of all sentient beings” in that he was happy to try and wipe out the Insecticon clones, but equally arranged for the Morphobots to be sent to another planet where they could thrive away from the Earth. Obviously different writers work in different ways, but Reed Robbins and Peter Salas’s solution seems more elegant than the awkward conversation Prime has with Bumblebee here in which Wise has the audience identification character voice concerns about snuffing out Kremzeek’s existence before the Autobot leader decides that, “he doesn’t belong in this world” and that “he’s too dangerous”.

Put like that it sounds rather bleak, and even when compared to Prime’s intended extermination of the Insecticon clones it’s no wonder this conclusion causes debate among fans about the Autobot leader. More to the point, it would be more accurate to discuss what this tells us about Wise’s casual ‘it’ll do’ approach to writing - having Prime show remorse by looking away when he presses the button to disperse Kremzeek doesn’t really excuse or explain the decision. It’s an ugly resolution which is presumably what led to the addition of the more light-hearted ending revealing that Kremzeek isn’t dead after all because (as was carefully shown to the audience a few minutes earlier) part of him was hiding in Blaster all along. This makes the previous few minutes of soul-searching frustratingly redundant and gives a rather unsatisfying conclusion to what is a rather unsatisfying episode.