The Dweller in the Depths

The name or term "Dweller in the Depths" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Dweller in the Depths (disambiguation).

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Cthulhu fhtagn!
"The Dweller in the Depths"
Production code	700-107
Season	3
No. in season	22
Production company	Sunbow Productions
Airdate	October 30, 1986
Written by	Paul Dini
Animation studio	Toei Animation
Continuity	Generation 1 cartoon continuity
Watch this episode on YouTube

The Quintessons, as part of a new attempt at regaining Cybertron, unleash the most dangerous creature known.

Synopsis

Start with some amoral scientists meddling with powers they cannot possibly comprehend, let alone hope to control.

On Cybertron, the Autobots have just successfully activated Perceptor's new power core, which should be able to triple the planet’s energy reserves. A short distance away in their ship, the Quintessons watch, disgusted by the success and progress of their creations. One Quintesson unveils a plan to release the Dweller, one of the early biomechanical experiments called Trans-Organics that were developed by the Quintessons that predate the creation of the Transformers. Unable to even perform rudimentary assignments, the Trans-Organics were unstable monsters that were eventually sealed away in a hibernation chamber deep within Cybertron.

Add a group of plucky, quirky friends who can't resist exploring the old abandoned place up the road. (Pictured: the Oddball Buddy, the Final Girl, the All-American Jock, the Creepy Old Groundskeeper, and the Responsible One.)

On Chaar, Galvatron is lamenting his Decepticon troops' incompetence when the Quintessons beam down to talk. The Quintessons inform Galvatron about the Autobots' new power core but purposely give him the wrong location. Galvatron, Cyclonus and the Sweeps arrive on Cybertron, and break into the tunnel that leads below, soon pursued by Ultra Magnus, Arcee, Kup, Springer, and Wreck-Gar.

In the planet's lowest levels, the Decepticons uncover a chamber full of strange organic pods, but no power core. Realizing they've been tricked, a furious Galvatron blasts the chamber's machinery... releasing the Trans-Organics from their long slumber! The motley horrors tear into the Decepticons, then turn on the Autobots when they arrive moments later.

Be sure to include a bunch of interchangeable nobodies who can serve as bodycount fodder. Also, a certified crazy guy who nobody really wants to be around.

Leaving the Autobots to deal with the creatures, the battered Decepticons flee to another chamber, searching for a way out.. only to encounter the most powerful of the monstrous experiments: The Dweller, a giant energy leech that drains living creatures of their energy.

Together they stumble across the terrors that lurk in the dark places of the world!

In quick order, the Dweller drains several Sweeps, all the Trans-Organics (which vaporizes their organic parts, leaving nothing but a few mechanical bits behind) and Wreck-Gar. When Springer tries to rescue him from a storage pod on the monster's back, the zombiefied Junkion drains his energy too: all the victimized Transformers have been turned into shambling energy vampires! Kup is lost to the vampire horde as the battle continues; Arcee and Magnus finally manage to escape.

Then have them unleash an eldritch horror from the darkest depths of the lands below!

Lost in the maze of chambers and tunnels in the dark depths of Cybertron, unable to find their way back to the surface, the Decepticons find their numbers quickly whittled down by the Dweller until only Galvatron is left (it doesn't help when Galvatron starts throwing Sweeps at it to buy time for himself.)

Go, Final Girl! Kick his tail in!

Even hunted by the subterranean nightmare, Galvatron can't resist the chance to attack the two last Autobots when he comes across them. Their struggle is soon interrupted by the arrival of the Dweller, which dislodges Galvatron's cannon and knocks him out. Arcee turns Galvatron's weapon against the Dweller, blasting through a wall... but rather than continuing the fight, the Dweller heads toward the power core.

Said eldritch abomination has its own army of zombies, made of the shambling corpses that were once your friends!

The two Autobots make it back to headquarters where they update Rodimus Prime and Perceptor on the situation, the energy vampires bursting in right behind them. Perceptor determines that the vampires are suffering from a unique form of energy depletion and that a power surge should restabilize their levels. The Autobots form a chain with Perceptor at the end, who plugs himself into the console and they inject the crowd of vampire with an energon surge. The surge returns the Autobots and Decepticons to normal. Cyclonus, Scourge, and the Sweeps quickly escape and rejoin Galvatron in fleeing the planet.

Meanwhile, The Dweller is breaking free to the surface, getting bigger from its energy absorption, and heading for Perceptor’s generator. Knowing that it will be unstoppable once it has attached itself to the generator, Perceptor uses the emergency eject switch to launch both the generator and The Dweller on top of it into space.

As the Quintessons who hatched the plot approach Cybertron, they are puzzled to still find energy readings coming from the planet. Then they detect something else: the Dweller has been propelled directly at their ship, and soon drains it dry...

The Autobots work to recover from the loss of the power core, but consider it a small price to pay to be rid of the creature.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Others
Springer (1) Rodimus Prime (2) Perceptor (3) Ultra Magnus (4) Arcee (5) Kup (11) Wreck-Gar (12)	Galvatron (7) Sweeps (8) Scourge (9) Cyclonus (10)	Quintessons (6) Trans-Organics (13) Dweller (14)

Quotes

I warned you kids about that place! Don't ever let me catch you near the old campground again! YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE MESSING WITH!!

"You cringy, cowardly, weak-willed fools! Why am I still stuck on this worthless, cosmic trash bin! Why have I not retaken Cybertron?! And most importantly, why have I been saddled with such a useless pile of rusting junk for followers!"
"But, mighty Galvatron, we humble Sweeps need energon to—"
"It's power you want?! I will give you power!"

—Galvatron in his rage demands to know from Scourge and the Sweeps why he isn't victorious. He takes out his frustrations on them until the Quintessons arrive.

"Quintesson! You have betrayed us to the Autobots once before. Why should I trust you?"
"Heh heh. Please, Galvatron, you can't lay one bad experience on the doorstep of the whole Quintesson race. Besides, how can you be so certain that we were the ones who betrayed you?"
"Well...you all do look alike."

—Galvatron and the Quintessons as the latter manipulate the Decepticon leader as part of their new plan to retake Cybertron

"YO, JOE! Here I come to save the day. ¡Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay! Can this be...the end...of little Wreck-Gar? Oh, no!"

—Wreck-Gar saves Ultra Magnus from the Dweller's energy-draining web, only to get trapped in it himself and be drained.

Cybertron has a C.H.U.D. problem too.

"Come on, Wreck-Gar, buddy! They haven't canceled your series yet!"

—Springer frees the energy-drained Wreck-Gar from the Dweller's rear pouch.

"Be a good soldier, help him."
"Galvatron, NO! I beg you!"

—Galvatron sacrifices another Sweep to the energy vampires that are approaching.

"I don't know what that thing is back in the tunnels, but even if it gets me as well, I'll die with the satisfaction that the universe will have two more Autobots to mourn!"

—Galvatron as he is about to attack Ultra Magnus and Arcee, not realising that the Dweller is fast approaching.

Notes

Continuity notes

• Along with "Grimlock's New Brain" and "The Big Broadcast of 2006", this is one of several episodes in which the Autobots are hard at work restoring Cybertron.

Creepy Old Groundskeeper tells everyone the old stories about the awful things that are supposed to have happened there, but nobody believes him.

• We get a rare look into Cybertron's early history:
  • The two-headed Quintesson recounts the story of the Trans-organics, who preceded the Transformers. (There's a parallel, doubtless unintentional, with the demons of the Marvel Comics continuity - they were likewise an organic-esque race created before the Transformers, subsequently deemed a failure by their creator and locked away deep within the planet, only to be released in the modern day to terrorize the Transformers.)
  • We also see a whole crowd of Quintessons who seem to be bearing weapons.
  • The Quintessons remark on the Autobots' ancestors being the ones responsible for their exile from Cybertron.
• Gadgets and powers:
  • Springer's rocket-assisted jump from underneath a pile of rubble appears to have been scripted as a rare use of his bio's "springing" power... which is undercut by the animation showing all the trapped Autobots making the same rocket-jump as Springer does to get themselves free.
• When the Dweller drains all the energy from a Transformer, it turns grey - a convention that normally represents death for a Transformer.
• The two Quintessons arrive on Chaar in a blazing column of energy, as if teleporting.
• Standing over the fallen Galvatron, Magnus makes the curious remark that "We'll send the Junkions around for him later." Were they going to salvage Galvatron for spare parts?
• The shot of the Autobots watching the core get blasted away is very similar to the shot of them watching Unicron's head get blasted away (in "Ghost in the Machine"). Only, here they aren't cheering and Wreck-Gar is standing where Kup was.
• There is an unusual hint of sarcasm in Cyclonus' voice when he delivers the line, "Galvatron, I'm relieved you got away, my lord." It's almost as if the unquestionably loyal Cyclonus is getting a bit tired of being used as cannon fodder.

Real-world references

• This episode is heavily influenced by the writings of H. P. Lovecraft. In particular, the Dweller appears to be based on Cthulhu and the Trans-Organics' backstory is similar to the Shoggoths.
• Wreck-Gar quotes the catchphrases of both the G.I. Joe team and Mighty Mouse.
  • "¡Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay!" is a Spanish-Cuban quote popularized by Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz) in I Love Lucy.
  • "Can this be...the end...of little Wreck-Gar?" parodies the dying words of Edward G. Robinson's title character in Little Caeser.
  • Wreck-Gar even stays in character after he's a vampire, crying out "Feed me!" before latching on to Springer - a moment of genre-savvy gallows humor, as he's quoting the ravenous plant Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors.
  • "Y'all don't come back now, ya hear?" plays on a line made famous in the closing theme song of The Beverly Hillbillies.
• Star Wars sound effects:
  • Lots of clashing and sparking lightsabers when people's energy is being drained (or restored), and again when Magnus blasts the pile of rubble away from the Dweller chamber.
  • Millennium Falcon engine burst as the power core is jettisoned.

Animation and technical errors

• The episode's second shot shows either a monstrously huge Springer (hovering over a building), or an absolutely tiny Magnus, Arcee and Perceptor (barely visible in the building's windows.)
• "It's completed at last!" This peculiar shot seems intended to show the reflections of Magnus, Perceptor and Arcee as they watch Springer place the power core through the building's window (Perceptor's cannon is on the opposite side from usual; and the trio's placement is reversed in the next shot, which includes their reflections.) But they're drawn totally solid, making it look like they've turned their backs on the very event they're so happy to be watching.
• "There's Rodimus Prime's signal" - Arcee is looking right at Springer as she says this.
  • And where is Rodimus during all this, anyway?
• Five Voices of Doom:
  • With no Judges in this episode, their usual voices are reassigned to other makes of Quintesson. Regis Cordic's "Quintesson #1" voice is given to the Prosecutor type, while Roger C. Carmel's "Quintesson #2" voice emanates from the bulbous-headed Scientist. The two-faced Engineer exclusive to this episode, performed by Tony Pope, shares his voice with Inquirata from "Forever Is a Long Time Coming."
  • When the Quintessons detect the Dweller approaching their ship, the Scientist speaks with the Prosecutor's voice.
• "Surely you have not forgotten our first experiments" - none of the three Quintessons' energy beams are actually reaching the floor. The two-headed one also moves to the controls at an incredibly slow pace.
• As usual, Galvatron's chin changes from dark grey to grey throughout the episode.
• As the Quintesson scientist notes that the power core mission is a "peace offering" to Galvatron, the Prosecutor Quintesson's face is brown instead of green; he's also standing there with his mouth gaping wide open.

The strange, ominous devices that you don't know what they do but it surely can't be good? Be SURE to mess with those. Preferably for no good reason at all.

• Magically appearing Sweeps:
  • 4 Sweeps are shown entering the tunnels, and entering the Trans-Organic chamber.
  • 5 Sweeps are shown fleeing the Trans-Organic chamber, and having their energy drained at subsequent points.
  • 6 Sweeps are shown departing Cybertron.
• When Galvatron and the Sweeps are entering the abandoned shaft, Galvatron's head is tiny.
• The intent seems to be that Springer used his springing power, or a rocket-powered equivalent, to smash a path out of the rubble... but the animation shows all the Autobots leaping free all at once. Arcee and Magnus both get rocket thruster trails in addition to Springer.
• Two Sweeps, and Cyclonus, suffer visible damage as they battle the Trans-Organics, including a very badly mauled shoulder for one of the Sweeps. None of their injuries are visible after the shots where they happen.
• Just before a commercial break, as Cyclonus is being chased by a Trans-Organic, the rectangle on his chest isn't colored (it should be orange).
• "Galvatron, stop him! Noooooo!" Cyclonus's cry goes on well after the Trans-Organic that's assaulting him is blasted away.
• A recycled shot makes it look like the spike-mouthed bear creature has been standing there the whole time, with the bird-creature still perched on his shoulder the whole time.

Be sure to show a ton of gory, horrific injuries for maximum shock effect!

• As the Autobots enter the chamber where the Decepticons are battling the Trans-Organics, Magnus has a visor instead of separate optics.
• The first Sweep to be drained by the Dweller emits some garbled gibberish after saying "Where?!", before anything's happened to him. Then he screams in Galvatron's voice, despite having had a much higher-pitched raspy voice a second earlier.
• "Have to try and transform!" - Arcee's mouth doesn't move for the first part of this line.
• Kup has red eyes when the vampires grab him.
• "So much for them!" - the opening of Galvatron's cannon is colored solid orange.
• When Galvatron throws the last Sweep at the group of "vampires," the Sweep's Decepticon logo has an overly large crest.
• Cyclonus is running away from the Dweller when he swats off its first netting attempt; when the second attempt snares him in the next shot, he's just standing there, facing the Dweller.
• "I don't know what that thing is back in the tunnels" - the opening of Galvatron's cannon is light gray.
• When Magnus leaps at Galvatron, Arcee - previously on his right - has vanished.
• Galvatron is then inexplicably lying on the ground before Magnus even gets to him; he was standing up, aiming his cannon at the two Autobots, just a second before.
• As he walks toward the fallen Galvatron, Ultra Magnus's Autobot logo is missing, briefly flashes into existence, then disappears again.
• When Arcee and Magnus note that they'll come for Galvatron later, both of them are missing their Autobot logos (and most of their detailing as well).
• When Perceptor notes the "unknown force," his Autobot logo is lined in black instead of white. This happens several more times over the rest of episode.
• The next shot has the lights going dim, well before the Dweller has reached the power core.
• Ultra Magnus and Arcee arrive a shot later, Arcee's Autobot logo disappears for a frame.
• As Magnus explains about the Dweller, Rodimus is missing his spoiler.
• As Magnus says, "So what can we do about it?," Arcee is missing her "wings."
• When he hits the console with his arm tool, Perceptor's chest is white instead of red; it briefly flashes red as he pulls out of the console.
• When the vampire-bots are restored, Kup and Springer's glowing red eye effects are misaligned with their eyes. It looks like they're wearing reading glasses. (EVIL reading glasses!) The glow effects also remain after they return to their otherwise-normal colors.

The police and military are helpless against this viperous malevolence!

• When the Dweller bursts out, two successive shots show Streetwise and Groove firing on it, but they're completely miscolored. Groove is two shades of orange; Streetwise has Ultra Magnus's colors in the first shot, and is mostly medium blue in the second. First Aid is also briefly visible in the first shot, miscolored as Eject.
• As he notes releasing the power core is the only way to stop the creature, Rodimus' helmet is missing its horizontal line.
• As the Dweller reaches the core, its eyes are black instead of glowing yellow.
• "Now!" - Rodimus' helmet is missing its horizontal line.
• As the Autobots watch the core blast off, Rodimus' spoiler is all-yellow (it should be orange in the middle).
• As the Dweller drains the Quintesson ship, its glowing-eye effect flashes off and on, in synch with the lights on the ship. It also doesn't actually affix its mouth to the ship. The glow-effect is still missing when the shot is recycled at the episode's end.
• As Perceptor works on the auxiliary generator, his right hand can be seen through a pillar.
• In the next shot, Arcee's nose is missing its bridge.

Continuity errors

• "Through the ages, many groups of Quintessons have tried to retake Cybertron, but none have succeeded." Their efforts must have been very subtle, as nobody, on either the Autobot or Decepticon sides has had any awareness of them over the last 9 million years. There was even a four million year period where most of them were offline on a distant planet, yet they still don't seem to have done much about this ambition. Unless Shockwave and his crew fended them off and never told anyone.
• Galvatron's claim that the Quintessons "betrayed us to the Autobots" doesn't really describe any of the Decepticons' encounters with them; presumably it's in reference to their deceitful alliance in "Five Faces of Darkness, Part 5".
• Why are Arcee and Magnus trembling at Galvatron's approach? Even if it was in character for either of them, they've already had like two fights with him in this episode alone!
• Galvatron and the Decepticons were trounced by the Dweller - but then Arcee is able to use Galvatron's cannon to blast the Dweller through a wall and force it to retreat.

Trivia

Give the lesser bad guys some endearing traits so we feel bad when they inevitably fall victim to the woebegotten wyrm.

The amoral scientists, of course, get it in the end.

• There is some notably lovely artwork in this episode. Shots such as the Quintesson's face being destroyed, Arcee straining against the Dweller's web, and the damaged Sweep falling to the ground, get extra amounts of loving mechanical detail. There's careful shading on lots of characters, and plenty of dynamic poses and well-proportioned characters.
• The eyes on the last two Sweeps standing are absolutely huge - normally we'd call it an animation error, but it seems intended to show their state of complete terror.
• When Cyclonus calls for help from Galvatron after the Dweller grabs him, Galvatron turns and...actually hesitates for a moment before moving on. The animation even makes it look like Galvatron's 'eyebrows' raise up in shock/horror.
• Galvatron comments that all Quintessons look the same, yet this episode features some of the more disparate designs in place of the usual five-faced Quints.
• In similar fashion to "The Big Broadcast of 2006", this episode was adapted by Marvel as a fill-in comic issue. It was never published, but held in reserve as a "backup" in case of a deadline emergency. Inked and uncolored pages from the adaptation surfaced online in 2015; while generally faithful to the episode, several differences are notable:
  • Rodimus, not Springer, is shown giving the signal to activate the power core, and reacting with a "Wow!"
  • The Quintessons have a completely different design.
  • When Magnus orders Galvatron to halt, Galvatron's "Of course, Ultra Magnus!" response has a logical concluding line, "It gives me better aim!" - presumably cut from the episode for whatever reason.

Foreign localization

French

• Title: "Le monstre des profondeurs" ("The Monster of the Depths")
• Original airdate: ?

• This episode has been dubbed (or maybe re-dubbed) in the 2000s by a brand new team (including voice actors from the Animated dubbing team like Bruno Magne and Frédéric Cerdal). This was probably on demand from Déclic Images for their DVD collection. That may be because the original dub was lost or not usable. It is unknown if a dubbing of this episode was made in the 1980s and if so, where it is.
• Despite this new dub being made in France, all the robots are called by their Canadian French names.
• Interestingly, the names "Autobots" and "Decepticons" are pronounced the English way. At the time of this late dub, French audience was used to hear "Autobots" the French way and "Decepticans", in the G1 dub but also in the Unicron Trilogy dubs.

German

• Title: "Der Moloch der Tiefe" ("The Dweller in the Depths")
• Original airdate: ?

Italian

• Title (first dub): "Terrore dal profondo" ("Terror from the Deep")
• Original airdate: ?
• Title (second dub): "Colui che dimora nelle profondità" ("He who Lives in the Depths")
• Original airdate: ?

Japanese

• Title: セイバートロン星の吸血鬼 (Cybertron-sei no Kyūketsuki, "The Vampires of Planet Cybertron")
• Original airdate: March 27, 1987

Mandarin

• Title: "Shēnyuān lǐ de Jūzhùzhě " (深渊里的居住者, "The Dweller in the Depths")
• Original airdate: ?

Brazilian Portuguese

• Title: "O Morador das Profundezas" ("The Dweller in the Depths")
• Original airdate: ?

• Due to a glitch in the only known surviving audio track of this dub, the only part of the title that is actually audible is "das Profundezas", but it's a safe bet that the full title is a direct translation from the original English.

Latin Spanish

• Title: "El Morador de las Profundidades" ("The Dweller in the Depths")
• Original airdate: ?

Russian

• Title: "Obeetuhtel' nedr " (Обитатель недр, "The Dweller of the Depths")
• Original airdate: ?

Home video releases

All releases listed are in English audio unless otherwise noted.

LaserDisc

1999 — The Transformers: 2010 (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.

DVD

2001 — The Transformers: 2010 — DVD Box (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.
2004 — The Original Transformers — Season 3 Part 2 & Season 4 (Rhino Entertainment)
2004 — Transformers — Season 3 and Season 4 (Metrodome)
2004 — Transformers — Collection 5: Series 3.2 (Madman Entertainment)
2004 — Transformers — Volume 18 (Déclic Images) — European French audio only.
2006 — Transformers — The Complete Generation One Collection (Metrodome)
2007 — The Transformers — Complete Collection (Madman Entertainment)
2009 — Transformers — Season's Three & Four [sic] (Metrodome)
2009 — The Transformers — Complete Collection: Decepticon Edition (Madman Entertainment)
2009 — The Transformers — The Complete Series: 25th Anniversary "Matrix of Leadership" Collection (Shout! Factory)
2010 — The Transformers — Seasons Three & Four: 25th Anniversary Edition (Shout! Factory)
2011 — The Transformers — The Complete Original Series (Shout! Factory)
2014 — The Transformers — Seasons Three & Four: 30th Anniversary Edition (Shout! Factory)
2014 — Transformers — The Classic Animated Series (Metrodome)

External links

• Episode dialogue script