A Bridge Too Close, Part I

2021-07-10T10:17:06Z

SteelCharger:

{{episode|
|series=Anitoon
|series2=AniJapan
|ep=28
|ep2=25
|prev2=Black Friday (episode)
|next2=A Bridge Too Close, Part II
|image=TFA ABTC1 Space Bridge operational.JPG
|caption=Closer... closer...
|title="A Bridge Too Close, Part I"
|airdate=[[June 28]], 2008 (Canada) [[July 5]], 2008 (USA)
|written by=[[Marsha Griffin]]
|directed by=[[Ben Jones]] [[Christopher Berkeley]] [[Shunji Ōga|Shunji Oga]]
|animation studio=[[The Answer Studio]]
|continuity=[[Animated cartoon continuity]]}}

'''The Decepticons kidnap Bulkhead to aid in Megatron's ultimate plan to take over Cybertron.'''

==Synopsis==
[[File:Megatron branding.jpg|thumb|left|"Can't you just paint the insignia on our chests?" "Now, where's the fun in that?"]]

Now serving under [[Megatron (Animated)|Megatron]], the [[Constructicon (Animated)|Constructicons]] have completed construction of the villain's [[space bridge]]. They are rewarded for their efforts by being officially inducted into the [[Decepticon]] army in a small ceremony led by Megatron, with [[Lugnut (Animated)|Lugnut]] and [[Blitzwing (Animated)|Blitzwing]] serving as witnesses (and, for some reason, holding candles). After the Constructicons have recited the oath of allegiance, Megatron [[branding|brands]] them, quite literally, with a [[Redeco|color-change]] for their armor and eyes thrown into the bargain. At Megatron's instruction, [[Isaac Sumdac (Animated)|Professor Sumdac]] fires up the bridge, but when it fails to activate due to the professor's simple lack of understanding of the technology, Megatron realizes that he will require additional help...

[[File:TFA ABTC1 Screamer Clones Argue.jpg|thumb|"There's something in your [[Sensor|optic]]." "No, there isn't!"]]

On [[Earth]]'s [[Moon (moon)|moon]], [[Starscream (Animated)|Starscream]] gloats over five new [[Starscream clone (Animated)|clones]] of himself, to which he is in the process of putting the finishing touches. The final clone is completed and, like its fellows, brought online with a tiny chip of the [[AllSpark]] that gives Starscream life. Immediately, however, Starscream has to wrestle with the various wacky personalities the clones have wound up with, each one an exaggerated aspect of his own: [[Skywarp (Animated)|a coward]], [[Sunstorm (Animated)|a sycophant]], [[Thundercracker (Animated)|an egomaniac]], [[Ramjet (Animated)|a pathological liar]] . . . and [[Slipstream (Animated)|a short-tempered female who insists that Starscream not ask what aspect of his personality gave birth to her]].

Megatron contacts [[Shockwave (Animated)|Shockwave]] on [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]] in order to have him [[DataNet|track down]] the top space bridge engineer on the planet. Shockwave is surprised to report that the engineer in question is on Earth—it's [[Bulkhead (Animated)|Bulkhead]]! Megatron decides to capture Bulkhead personally and instructs Lugnut and Blitzwing to pick up an item from [[Sumdac Tower]] to aid in “convincing” the Autobot to help them. When Lugnut points out that Sumdac cannot be trusted in the base alone with the Constructicons, Megatron decides to take the professor with him. As all this scheming goes on, however, someone else is listening in—the mysterious “Blue Racer” that [[Bumblebee (Animated)|Bumblebee]] recently encountered.

[[File:TFA ABTC1 painting time.JPG|thumb|left|Optimus Prime has deemed this image in need of a caption!]]

At the [[Autobot Earth Base|Autobot base]], Bulkhead is working on his latest painting, an abstract rendition of [[Sari Sumdac (Animated)|Sari]]. Unfortunately, backseat artistry from the other Autobots winds up ruining the painting, and Bulkhead goes for a walk with Sari to vent a little. Bumblebee follows to apologize, but just as he catches up to them, Megatron appears in the sky overhead and opens fire. Using Sumdac as a human shield to stop the Autobots from firing back, Megatron continues to rain destruction down on the Autobots as Bumblebee and Sari argue over whether or not Sumdac has been working with Megatron.

[[File:TFA ABTC1 Megatron Sumdac Hostage.jpg|thumb|right|...dads?]]
Suddenly, the Blue Racer speeds onto the scene, and Bumblebee, believing the enigmatic speedster to be working with Megatron, chases him off through the city and manages to run him off the road. When he attempts to report his success to Bulkhead, though, there's no response—because Megatron has captured Bulkhead and is airlifting him away. Bumblebee's failure is compounded by the next turn of events: The Blue Racer reveals himself to be [[Blurr (Animated)|Blurr]], a fast-talking member of the [[Elite Guard|Cybertron Elite Guard]] who has been covertly monitoring Megatron's activities.

Back at the Decepticon headquarters, Bulkhead refuses to help Megatron, so the villain unveils the fruit of Blitzwing and Lugnut's labor: a [[Headmaster (Animated)|Headmaster]] unit! Faced with the threat of once again having his body taken over and being used to destroy his fellow Autobots, and failing to elicit any help from [[Scrapper (Animated)|Scrapper]] or [[Mixmaster (Animated)|Mixmaster]], Bulkhead relents and agrees to work on the space bridge.

At the Autobots’ base, Blurr relates his mission to [[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus Prime]] and company and brings them up to speed, quite literally. While Prime leads the rest of the team to the Decepticon base, the location of which is provided by Blurr, [[Ratchet (Animated)|Ratchet]] and Sari head for Teletran-1 to try to get it online one last time. Just like [[Lost and Found (episode)|last time]], their efforts lead to nothing, forcing Ratchet to attempt one last drastic approach: using the AllSpark fragments the Autobots have gathered to jump-start the ship's systems.

[[File:TFA ABTC1 Bulkhead Sumdac.JPG|thumb|left|Merry Christmas!]]

Prime's team is led by Blurr into the Decepticons’ coal mine base, where they are immediately attacked by Lugnut and Blitzwing. The fight is a brief one, as Blurr uses his super-speed to bind the odd couple with [[stasis cuffs]]. Meanwhile, as the space bridge nears completion, Bulkhead insists on modifying many aspects of Sumdac's design, and winds up in an argument with the human, which Sumdac interprets as Bulkhead trying to sabotage the bridge deliberately. When the bridge is activated, however, it functions perfectly—Bulkhead knew full well that Sumdac's design was wrong, and he corrected it!

[[File:TFA ABTC1 Screamer Clones Emerge.jpg|thumb|right|Why, I'm beside myself! And myself! And...]]
As the bridge flares into life, Prime's team bursts into the main chamber, but they are instantly immobilized by cement booties, courtesy of Mixmaster. With the Autobots out of the picture, it seems there is nothing to stop Megatron now...until the roof of the cavern explodes, and Starscream and his clone army make their grand entrance!

[[A Bridge Too Close, Part II|To be continued...]]
{{--}}

==Featured characters==
{{featuredcharacters
|c1=
*[[Bulkhead (Animated)|Bulkhead]] (14)
*[[Bumblebee (Animated)|Bumblebee]] (15)
*[[Blurr (Animated)|Blurr]] (16)
*[[Optimus Prime (Animated)|Optimus Prime]] (17)
*[[Ratchet (Animated)|Ratchet]] (18)
*[[Prowl (Animated)|Prowl]] (19)

|c2=
*[[Megatron (Animated)|Megatron]] (1)
*[[Lugnut (Animated)|Lugnut]] (2)
*[[Blitzwing (Animated)|Blitzwing]] (3)
*[[Scrapper (Animated)|Scrapper]] (4)
*[[Mixmaster (Animated)|Mixmaster]] (5)
*[[Starscream (Animated)|Starscream]] (7)
*[[Thundercracker (Animated)|Thundercracker]] (8)
*[[Sunstorm (Animated)|Sunstorm]] (9)
*[[Ramjet (Animated)|Ramjet]] (10)
*[[Skywarp (Animated)|Skywarp]] (11)
*[[Slipstream (Animated)|Slipstream]] (12)
*[[Shockwave (Animated)|Shockwave]] (13)

|c3=
*[[Isaac Sumdac (Animated)|Isaac Sumdac]] (6)
*[[Sari Sumdac (Animated)|Sari Sumdac]] (15)
}}

==Quotes==
"Ah, never before have I seen such an impressive group of lethal fighting machines! And pretty good-looking, if I do say so myself."
:—The ever-humble '''Starscream''' comments on his clone army.

"So, which part of me did you come from?" 
"Don't ask." 
''[sigh]'' "This is going to be a long orbital cycle."
:—'''Starscream''' and '''Slipstream, the female clone'''

"I just didn't think my head was so big." 
"That's your leg."
:—'''Sari''' and '''Bulkhead'''. Oh, the irony!

'''Sari''': No, don't shoot! You'll hit my dad! 
'''Bulkhead''': She's right! 
'''Bumblebee''': So what are we supposed to do? Fight him with snappy comebacks?
:—'''Bumblebee''' conveniently forgets his normal attack strategy.

"All right, Zippy, start talking!" 
"First of all, the name's not "Zippy"! As a matter of fact, I don't believe I've ever met another bot named Zippy, so one can only assume that you came up with "Zippy" in reference to my speed, which may be technically accurate, but lacks a certain creativity!" 
"Eh...eh-eh..." 
:—It took '''Bumblebee''' a long time to get '''Blurr''' to start talking. From this point on, he doesn't shut up.

'''Bumblebee''': Woah, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Back up! 
'''Prowl''': Did he just say Bulkhead? 
'''Optimus Prime''': ''Our Bulkhead?'' 
'''Ratchet''': ''An expert?'' On anything?!
:—The Autobots aren't terribly impressed with Bulkhead.

"I must be a bigger pain in the gearshaft than I thought." 
"Well, well, well, look who just got to the party!" 
"Don't ''start'' with me, woman!" 
:—'''Starscream''' [[Total War!#Quotes|openly admits]] one of his primary faults, much to '''Slipstream's''' annoyance.

"Okay, I give. I'm officially no longer the fastest thing on wheels."
:—'''Bumblebee''' is humbled after seeing Blurr's speedy takedown of Blitzwing and Lugnut.

==Notes==
===Animation or technical errors===
*When Mixmaster encases Optimus and Prowl in concrete, his colors shift back to his neutral, pre-Decepticon color scheme.
*When Megatron attacks the Autobots, his cockpit changes from black to grey for a brief moment, then back.
*When Megatron transforms with Isaac Sumdac in his cockpit, Isaac moves from his cockpit/feet to his chest; complete with new ropes tying him.
*Blurr's mouth disappears for a frame after he introduces himself to Bumblebee and is pointing at him for the second time.
*Right before Starscream and his clones take off, the Thundercracker-esque one looks like he's.......um.......

===Continuity errors===
*Not so much an error as a quirk: During the engagement in the mines, Icy Blitzwing is scowling noticeably, while Hothead Blitzwing is...''smiling???''
*When Bulkhead is brought into Decepticon HQ, Prof. Sumdac says his name as if he is surprised to see the Autobot, despite the fact that Sumdac was ''there'' when Bulkhead was kidnapped by Megatron.
*It's odd that while Bumblebee wasn't fast enough to catch up with Blurr with his turbo boosters in "[[Velocity (episode)|Velocity]]", he can catch up to him and hit him while he hasn't got them on in this episode. Maybe he was doing the speed limit?
*How exactly did Megatron know about the Headmaster unit or for that matter that it was being kept at Sumdac Tower?
*So no one told Optimus that one of his crewmembers was an expert on the devices they were tasked with repairing? It never occurred to anyone that the commander of a space bridge repair crew might need to know who is the expert on space bridges amongst said crew? Similarly, after Primus knows how long repairing space bridges, no one ever noticed Bulkhead actually seemed very familiar with the functioning of such devices?
* If the Elite Guard knows Bulkhead is such a genius and the greatest expert in his field, then why did they give him such an unimportant job as maintenance guy on a repair crew? Isn't that kind of a waste of his genius?

===Transformers references===
[[File:ABridgeTooClosePart1-MegatronHandExtendtion.jpg|thumb|right|His special hand! There's none other like it!]]
*Shockwave's report on Bulkhead appears to be in the form of [[Tech Spec]]s.
*After branding, the Constructicons' color schemes match those of their Generation 1 counterparts.
*Megatron takes control of the Headmaster unit by launching his middle and index fingers, connecting himself to it via extendible cables - possibly a callback to [[Scrounge (G1)|Scrounge]] and his "special arm".
*What Starscream says about his clones is similar to what [[Starscream (G1)/Generation 1 cartoon continuity|his Generation 1 cartoon counterpart]] remarked on [[Starscream clone (G1)|his clone]].

===Real-world references===
*In ''{{w|The Bridge on the River Kwai}}'', [[Obi-Wan Kenobi|Alec Guinness]] is a prisoner of war who is forced to build a bridge. Even though the bridge will help his enemies, he builds the bridge to the best of his ability just to demonstrate how capable he is. In "A Bridge Too Close"...replace "Alec Guinness" with "Bulkhead".
*The title is a reference to the movie ''{{w|A Bridge Too Far (film)|A Bridge Too Far}}''.
*Among the parts needed for a space bridge are "[[hollow cathode tube]]s", parts which until recently made up computer monitor displays.
*When Megatron said to Shockwave, " I plan to make him an offer he cannot refuse... " Is probably a nod to the Godfather's famous line "i'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse."

===Trivia===
*So in all the months that Isaac Sumdac has been missing, it never occurred to anyone that the Decepticons kidnapped him? Perhaps everyone thought he was dead.
*All of the heavy exposition is given to the guy who talks really, really fast. Handy.
*Megatron initiates new Decepticons by [[branding]] the symbol onto them with cattle brands. How bovine.
*This is not the first time Bulky has transformed his [[Total Meltdown|kibble into a chair]].
*Starscream opens a hatch on his head to pick parts from his AllSpark fragment to bring the clones to life, suggesting that in all of the episodes when you do see it, he has his hatch open, exposing the AllSpark fragment.
*Starscream's clones are never named on-screen in the original version. The Japanese dub has Slipstream namesdrop them all while pointing out their personalities, and after that intriducing herself instead of giving Starscream her original sassy response.
*This episode, along with part 2, was adapted in comic book format using screen captures as "[[Transformers Animated Volume 13]]".

===Foreign localization===
'''French'''
:*''Title:'' "'''La porte d'à côté, 1ère partie'''" ("The Next Door, 1st Part")
:*''Original airdate:'' ???

'''German'''
:*''Title:'' "'''Die Weltraumbrücke, Teil 1'''" ("The Spacebridge, Part 1")
:*''Original airdate:'' [[July 30|30 July]] [[2008]]

'''Spanish (Latin America)'''
:*''Title:'' "'''A un puente de distancia, parte 1'''" ("A bridge away, part 1")
:*''Original airdate:'' [[December 6|6 December]] [[2008]]

'''Italian'''
:*''Title:'' "'''Un Ponte Troppo Vicino (Prima Parte)'''" ("A Bridge Too Close (First Part)")
:*''Original airdate:'' [[April 4|4 April]] [[2009]]

'''Japanese'''
:*''Title:'' "'''Sorezore no Omowaku'''" (それぞれの思惑, "Respective Expectations")
:*''Original airdate:'' [[September 18|18 September]] [[2010]]
::* New [[stock footage]] for Bulkhead's transformation, him doing the introduction, and the return of the additional sound effects last seen in "[[The Elite Guard|Elite Guard]]" during the [[title sequence|opening sequence]].
::* The [[Otoboto family]] attempt to win a Wingblade Optimus on answering what year did Transformers begin airing in Japan (the hint: "25 years ago"). The correct answer is "[[1985]]", but instead of writing "9", [[Tatsuya Otoboto|Tatsuya]] wrote the hiragana for "sha" しゃ.

'''Polish'''
:*''Title:'' "'''O Jeden Most Za Blisko, Część 1'''" ("A Bridge Too Close, Part 1")
:*''Original airdate:'' ???

'''Portuguese'''
:*''Title:'' "'''Uma Ponte Muito Próxima, Parte 1'''" ("A Bridge Too Close, Part 1")
:*''Original airdate:'' ???

==Home video releases==
;DVD
[[File:Flag of USA.png|20px|United States of America]] 2009 — ''Transformers Animated'' — Season Two ([[Transformers Animated (cartoon)/home video|Paramount]]) — English and Spanish audio. 
[[File:Flag of Australia.png|20px|Australia]] 2009 — ''Transformers Animated'' — Volume Six: Black Friday (Paramount) — English and German audio. 
[[File:Flag of UK.png|20px|United Kingdom]] 2009 — ''Transformers Animated'' — Volume Six: Black Friday (Paramount) — English and German audio. 
[[File:Flag of Germany.png|20px|Germany]] 2009 — ''Transformers Animated'' — Volume Sechs: Schwarzer Freitag (Paramount) — English and German audio. 
[[File:Flag of Japan.png|20px|Japan]] 2011 — ''Transformers Animated'' — Vol. 7 (Paramount) — Japanese audio only. 
[[File:Flag of Australia.png|20px|Australia]] 2014 — ''Transformers Animated'' — Season Two ([[Madman Entertainment]]) 
[[File:Flag of USA.png|20px|United States of America]] 2014 — ''Transformers Animated'' — The Complete Series ([[Shout! Factory]])

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bridge Too Close, Part I}}
[[Category:Animated episodes]]

MediaWiki - User contributions [en]

A Bridge Too Close, Part I