The Secret of Omega Supreme (episode)

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File:Secret of Omega Supreme title shot.JPG His real name is Ralph.
"The Secret of Omega Supreme"
Production code	700-45
Production company	Sunbow Productions
Airdate	November 6, 1985
Written by	David Wise
Animation studio	Unknown Filipino animation studio
Continuity	Generation 1 cartoon continuity

When the Constructicons begin mining on a distant asteroid, Optimus Prime calls on Omega Supreme for assistance, only for a long-standing enmity between Omega and the villains to come to light.

Synopsis

"Paradise: visited. Self: Never visited."

A rocket ship bursts out of the ocean and travels into space. Guided by an unknown force, the rocket lands on an asteroid and then directs that hunk of rock into Earth orbit. A door on the rocket opens, revealing the Constructicons, who step out and signal Megatron of their success. The Decepticon leader intends to mine the asteroid for the energy-rich ore inside.

During his own orbit of the Earth, Cosmos catches sight of the operation and reports in to Autobot headquarters. Optimus Prime contacts Omega Supreme for help. During a one-on-one chat, Optimus senses that Omega is holding a grudge against the Constructicons and demands an explanation. Omega complies in normal speech.

A rare instance of seeing his tank.

On Cybertron, Omega Supreme is a good-natured, friendly Guardian Robot. One of his assignments is guarding the Crystal City, the creation of his friends, the Constructicons. Unfortunately, they are altered by Megatron's Robo-Smasher and permanently changed into Decepticons. The Constructicons then trick Omega into leaving his post, and during his absence, they destroy the city. After losing his friends, his job and his city all in the same day, Omega swears he will first help his friends recover and then will get vengeance on Megatron.

Devastator and Robo-Smasher vs Omega. The 'Cons are doomed.

For weeks, Omega tracks the Constructicons, until he captures them and tries to reprogram them. At first, it appears that they have been restored, but on their way home, the Robo-Smasher corners them. The Constructicons form Devastator and wrestle Omega into the Robo-Smasher's clutches. The machine goes to work at reprogramming Omega; he is able to pull away in the middle of the process, but the experience leaves him scarred and emotionally barren except for his desire for vengeance against his former friends. He chases after them for millions of years and finally finds them on Earth.

Knowing that Omega's judgement might be clouded fighting the Constructicons, Optimus orders him to remain on Earth unless Prime himself gives the order to head to the asteroid. Omega acknowledges Prime's order.

In space, Cosmos gets a sample of the ore from the asteroid and brings it back to headquarters. Teletraan I determines that the ore is organic in nature. Prime has just ordered Omega to destroy the asteroid, and now he regrets that decision. His further attempts to contact Omega fail because the huge Autobot is bent on revenge.

Once on the asteroid, the vengeful Omega immediately attacks his enemies, wildly smashing open a huge fissure. The entire asteroid breaks in two like an egg, hatching an alien creature, which flies toward Earth.

The creature heads straight toward Earth and begins to destroy San Francisco. Powerglide, Ironhide, Smokescreen, Tracks and Beachcomber move to stop it, but fail after several attempts.

"Objective: Catch them all."

Omega is still attacking the Constructicons, their battle having moved from the asteroid to the Earth, when Prime tracks him down. He demands that Omega stop his attack and instead clean up the mess he created by releasing the creature. Prime tells Omega that only he can save Earth by luring the monster back to its food supply on the asteroid. When the Constructicons escape, Omega threatens Optimus, but the Autobot leader refuses to back down and reminds Omega of his past.

Optical leak: imminent. Tissue: desired.

Finally, Omega concedes to Prime's authority and heads off. He confronts the creature and leads it back to the asteroid, where it eats its fill and then flies off into space, never to be seen again.

In the meantime, Prime uncovers Megatron's ore-processing facility and singlehandedly destroys it.

At the end of the day, Optimus thanks Omega for fulfilling his duty. Both Optimus and Omega express hope that he might one day regain some of the feelings that he lost.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Others
Sideswipe (8) Cosmos (11) Optimus Prime (12) Powerglide (13) Omega Supreme (14) Perceptor (18) Tracks (20) Ironhide (21) Beachcomber (22) Smokescreen (23)	Bonecrusher (1) Long Haul (2) Scrapper (3) Mixmaster (4) Scavenger (5) Hook (6) Megatron (7) Astrotrain (9) Soundwave (10) Devastator (17) Starscream (24)	"Doc" (15) Robo-Smasher victim (16) Asteroid beast (19)

Quotes

"That asteroid may be new fuel for Megatron. The Constructicons are mining—"
"Constructicons?! Constructicons: Enemies. Enemies die!"
"This is a military mission, not a vendetta, Omega."
"Results: Same!"

—Optimus Prime and Omega Supreme

"Quit squirming! This is for your own good! HAHAHAHHAHAHAH!"

—Devastator parrots Omega's words back at him while holding him down for the Robo-Smasher to reprogram him.

"Megatron failed. I lived...but changed. Since then, I feel only hate for the Constructicons."

—Omega Supreme reveals the results of his betrayal to Prime.

"Revenge: soon. Anticipation: high. Vengeance: GOOD!"

—Omega Supreme after being ordered to remove the Constructicons from the asteroid in orbit of the planet.

"Well, aren't you going to stop that thing before it chews up your precious planet Earth?"
"Creature lives. You die!"

—Scrapper and Omega Supreme

"Keep San Francisco clean—leave!"

—Tracks to the monster.

"What—eh—if we all just split up—"
"Then he'd hunt us down one at a time."
"Then I say we unite!"

—Bonecrusher and Scrapper debate how to deal with Omega Supreme.

"Relax, man. Remember, we're all one with the universe."
"We're about to become one with the pavement! Duck!"

—Beachcomber and Tracks, as the creature is attacking.

"Perhaps someday, you'll see that there are more important things in life than revenge."
"Possibility: Growing."

—Optimus Prime and Omega Supreme see a little hope for future therapy.

Notes

Animation or technical glitches

• The episode is completely inconsistent about the size of the asteroid. Per the opening shots, the Constructicons should be visible as little black dots in a full view of the asteroid. Later, it's barely big enough for Omega Supreme to stand on.
• As the asteroid is flown towards Earth, it's moving sideways relative to the rocket engines that are supposed to be pushing it!
• As the Constructicons ride out on their lift, Scavenger's arms are white instead of green, and Scrapper's chest is green instead of purple.
• When Megatron replies to Hook's transmission, Sideswipe (an Autobot) is standing to his right. When the camera angle switches, he is replaced by Soundwave.
• After Megatron gives him his orders, Astrotrain just stands there for several seconds before speaking.
• When Soundwave appears (replacing Sideswipe), his chest door is rimmed in white instead of gold.
• For some reason, as Cosmos observes the Constructicons working in vehicle mode on the asteroid, a beeping truck horn is heard!
• In several shots during the episode, the bottom of Optimus' faceplate is triangular when it should be squared off.
• After Optimus sends Cosmos back to the asteroid for the first time, the top of Powerglide's face is colored yellow instead of gray (and his faceplate doesn't move as he speaks).
• As Powerglide watches Prime walk out, his right shoulder/wing is miscolored gray like his arm.
• In a closeup shot of Omega walking back to Crystal City, his shoulders are waggling back and forth much faster than the rate of his footfalls.
• Throughout most of the flashback, Bonecrusher is missing.
• As the Constructions revert to robot mode in front of Omega, they get the "wrong" transformation sound (decending pitch, usually used for robot-to-vehicle.)
• Megatron's gun barrel is dark gray as he acknowledges his new Robo-smashed trooper.
• After the Constructicons get Robo-Smashed, there is a shot of Omega Supreme in front of the Crystal City, then a short panning shot of the Constructicons approaching the Crystal City without Omega Supreme in front of it.
• Scrapper's chest is gray again as he transforms to con Omega into leaving.
• The light gray bits on Scavenger's face are colored dark gray as Scrapper says "Let's go to work!"
• The animation and backgrounds make it a bit unclear how far away Omega Supreme went from the Crystal City. It looks like he just went down the street and back, and he could have seen whether there was an attack from right where he was.
• In any number of distant views of Omega Supreme, his head isn't fully drawn or colored - such as the opening shot of Act 2, when he's got a gray blob where his face should be, or when he stands up after swearing revenge.
• "The worst was yet to come" - Omega's face shield is drawn extending all the way to the top of his head, which is likewise drawn abnormally high.
• The second time Crystal City is shown blowing up, it's a totally different sequence than the first time. (Unreliable narrator alert?!)
• It may be a stylistic choice, but as Omega runs toward the ruined city, there's no background, just flat ground and orange sky. The same thing happens as Omega's tank mode drives up to blast a hole in the ground.
• The clunk sound effects to indicate the Constructicon falling into the crater keep happening while none of them are actually falling.
• "I...I feel sane again!" - All the Constructicons are weirdly misshapen.
• After Omega Supreme has reprogrammed the Constructicons back and encounters the Robo-Smasher again, the buildings on either side of them just sort of disappear into the orange background as they walk. They and the ground also continue to move when he and the Constructicons have stopped walking.
• When Omega spots the Robo-Smasher, an audio error clips off part of his line. The result: "Robosmatcareful. I don't want it to get you guys again."
• "Then, I learned..." - Omega's torso is yellow where it should be mostly gray.
• When Omega Supreme is talking about Megatron giving the Constructicons a "new form", the sky behind him is the orange sky seen in the Cybertron flashbacks.
• After he forms, Devastator's forehead is purple instead of light gray.
• Several times when listening to Omega's story, the plate connected to Optimus' neck is blue when it should be red.
• When Omega Supreme is removing the Robo-smasher from his head, his left forearm is disconnected from his upper arm.
• The background music wavers a couple of times:
  • As the Constructicons make their getaway on Cybertron.
  • As Omega switches off his radio.
• Hook's feet are white instead of green after Astrotrain lands.
• Improbable viewpoints:
  • Prime brings up an image of Omega standing in the forest.
  • Teletraan provides Prime with a nice shot of the creature decending to Earth, and the astroid after it's split in half. Not impossible for the Sky Spy to have gotten, but... that's a busy Sky Spy.

Sure, fire at the rocket whose top half is a cannon. Good plan.

• Omega is in such a hurry, his rocket section takes off with the gantry tower still attached to it! In a bizarre bit of continuity, it's still shown as he makes his attack on the Constructicons. Well, that's one less bit for him to magically summon up out of thin air when he transforms.
• Scrapper's voice is missing its electronic flanging as he taunts Omega.
• Hook is shown on Earth when Megatron is testing the ore, despite appearing in the battle against Omega Supreme in the scenes immediately before and after this one.
• Cosmos's arm is drawn backwards as he and Prime watch the creature on Teletraan's screen.
• When the alien hatches, its cavity in the asteroid vanishes. Later it returns when Teletraan displays the asteroid.
• Tracks' hood flames are all red as he and the other Autobots drive along; there should be some yellow.
• When Tracks first opens fire on the alien, his head is blue instead of white.
• Appearing/disappearing Autobots:
  • The San Francisco squad is clearly shown to be only Ironhide, Tracks, Beachcomber and Powerglide, but Smokescreen suddenly is with them when his smoke gimmick is needed.
• As Scrapper and Bonecrusher debate splitting up, both their helmets are light gray instead of dark gray. Scrapper's visor is also light gray instead of red; part of his forehead is colored red instead.
• Devastator's second combination sequence is a mess. The animators seem to have forgotten to remove the stationary images of Scrapper, Bonecrusher and Mixmaster from the background; the result is that there are nine Constructicons on-screen in the first half of the sequence, with duplicates of the first three seemingly morphing out of Hook, Long Haul and Scavenger.
• As he convinces Omega to stop the alien, Optimus is missing the Autobot logo on his shoulder.
• In an establishing shot of San Francisco, nearly all of the cars are colored yellow on one side and green on the other. Plus, they're all the same models.
• A cel layering error results in a tiny Omega Supreme rocket swooping past the creature as Tracks and Beachcomber attempt to fend it off. Then the alien's cry is clipped off by an audio error, and then Tracks and Beachcomber simply vanish from the frame (they don't duck - they disappear!)
• A recycled shot shows the alien decending and firing from the open sky, but its laser has no sound effect, and it was flying at street level in the previous shot.
• The shot of Megatron, Hook and Starscream at the refinery is reused three times. The first time, Hook shouldn't be there; the third time, Megatron should be looking through some giant binoculars, as shown in the next shot.
• Megatron is reacting in alarm, and his console glowing as if about to explode, before Optimus has even fired a shot.
• The shot of Prime standing near the Decepticon base after launching his attack is recycled a moment later - but it doesn't the audio at all. Optimus is heard firing off several shots, but is shown just standing there with his rifle smoking. The same shot of the exploding base is shown three times almost in a row; the third time another of Prime's shots is heard, but again no laser beam is shown.
• Prime's got some extra gray on his chest as he talks to Omega on the bridge.

Continuity errors

• "The Secret of Omega Supreme" established a second origin story for the Constructicons. Per Omega's tale, the originally benevolent group existed on Cybertron millions of years ago; Megatron rewrote the Constructicons' programming, turning them into a combining force for evil, and they subsequently travelled to Earth via starship and joined up with Megatron there. This story contradicts Megatron's assertion (in "Heavy Metal War") that the Constructicons were built on Earth. It's not impossible to smooth the error down by conjecturing that he could have been referring to their current bodies, but that's certainly not what was originally intended. The Constructicons' origin would be further complicated by a flashback in "Five Faces of Darkness, Part 4" in which they are shown creating Megatron! The conflicting origins have become notorious as one of the biggest continuity errors in the series.
• The Constructicons' character models were not reworked in the slightest for Omega's flashback. Therefore they are consistently seen with Decepticon symbols despite not yet being Decepticons, and they have Earth alternate modes despite not yet being on Earth. Whether due to an intentional choice to avoid confusing young viewers, an oversight or simple cost-cutting is unknown.
• They're even called "Constructicons" despite not yet being Decepticons!
• Megatron orders Astrotrain to depart for the asteroid, and specifies "space shuttle mode" - what other mode could he possibly use?
• Optimus Prime refers to Omega Supreme as the only other Autobot capable of spaceflight, but Skyfire has made least two space flights — one to Cybertron when it was in Earth's orbit, The Ultimate Doom, Part 2 and one into orbit to launch a satellite. Attack of the Autobots In real-life terms, Skyfire had been removed from the show by this point.
• Prime doesn't seem to hear Omega Supreme walk up to him until he's literally right next to him, despite his literally earth-shaking footsteps.

"YOU were one of the Guardian Robots? How come you're not blue?"

• This episode brings up some issues regarding the reprogramming of Transformer minds:
  • According to both Omega Supreme and Optimus Prime, the reprogramming effects of Megatron's Robo-Smasher can never be reversed, but in "The Core", Wheeljack and Chip Chase were able to sway the Constructicons to the Autobots' side with dominator discs.
  • Why does Omega Supreme hate the Constructicons if they were forced to obey Megatron? Shouldn't Omega Supreme's vendetta be against Megatron and not the Constructicons?
• Optimus Prime's surprise at Omega Supreme role as a Guardian Robot is odd, since - as we'll see in "War Dawn" - he looks just like a Guardian Robot.

If Floro Dery didn't design this, I'll eat an asteroid.

• Cosmos clambers up Astrotrain to steal a rock, then slips and falls, jarring Astrotrain... who simply sits immobile while Cosmos makes his getaway. This might be Astrotrain simply not noticing... but later, Prime's dialogue indicates that Cosmos was spotted, but nothing in the animation conveys it.
• Even though it's a tiny sliver of rock by cosmic standards, the creature's "egg" is depicted as having Earth-like gravity; enough so that Cosmos falls heavily when he slips off Astrotrain's wing.
• The alien creature is supposed to be organic... but it sure doesn't look the part. Not only does it have mechanically smooth limbs, it can shoot lasers out of its tail!
• As usual in the series, major roadways are empty when the Autobots need to fight. Here, the Golden Gate Bridge has no cars on it throughout the episode, including at the end when Optimus and Omega have their little chat!

Continuity notes

• We get a pretty consistent scale reference for Devastator and Omega Supreme; Devastator almost comes up to Omega's shoulders.
• Several ancient Transformers are shown, including "Doc" and a mustacioed Robo-Smasher victim. The latter, originally an unnamed generic, was retroactively identified as a Gyronian Sentry when he (they, as it turns out) appeared in the Collectors' Club magazine comic "Battle Lines".
• We also see Crystal City, though as depicted, it's more like a medium-sized building than a city.
• Where's the trailer go?:
  • When Prime transforms to summon Omega Supreme, he fills the camera... conveniently blocking our view of his trailer behind him. In the next wide shot of Prime, the trailer's nowhere to be seen.
• Apparently Omega can consciously alter his speech patterns, and chooses to speak in his usual manner on his own accord.

Real world references

San Francisco? That's in America, right? And everything in America looks like New York, right?

• San Francisco makes an appearance in Act 3, along with a pyramidal building that's presumably supposed to be the Transamerica Pyramid, and the (very badly proportioned) Golden Gate Bridge.
• Star Wars sound effects:
  • Millennium Falcon engine burst as the retrorockets engage to relocate the asteroid.
  • Deactivating lightsaber as the Decepticon docking tower rises from the sea.
  • Diving X-Wings as Cosmos takes off after stealing some ore.
  • Death Star superlaser and Falcon engine burst as the Constructions transform and take off from the asteroid.
  • Superlaser again as they flee from the splitting asteroid.

Trivia

• The uncharacteristic eloquence displayed by Omega Supreme in this episode was actually the result of an error by writer David Wise, who was unaware of Omega's normal speech pattern and scripted the episode with normal dialogue. Dialogue editors were forced to insert Optimus Prime's request for Omega to "talk like a normal Autobot" to make the flashback work.
• This episode's animation plays out as though the budget ran out in Act 3 - multiple shots are recycled, to nonsensical effect, as noted above.
• Ironhide facepalms!

Foreign localization

Italian

• Title (dub 1): "Il segreto di Megarobot" ("The Secret of Omega Supreme")
• Title (dub 2): "Il segreto di Omega Supreme" ("The Secret of Omega Supreme")
• Original airdate: ?

Japanese

• Title: "Omega Supreme no Himitsu" (オメガ・スプリームの秘密, "The Secret of Omega Supreme")
• Original airdate: March 7, 1986

Home video releases

All releases listed are in English audio unless otherwise noted.

VHS

1986 — The Transformers — Volume 12: "The Secret of Omega Supreme", "War Dawn", "A Plague of Insecticons" (Family Home Entertainment)

Laserdisc

1994 — Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers — Convoy Set (Takara) — Japanese audio only.
1998 — The Transformers — Autobot Edition (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.

DVD

2001 — The Transformers — DVD Box 1 (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.
2003 — The Original Transformers — Season 2 Part 2 (Rhino Entertainment)
2003 — The Original Transformers — Season 2 Part 2: Vol. 5 (Rhino Entertainment)
2004 — Transformers — Season 2 Part 2 (Metrodome)
2004 — Transformers — Collection 3: Series 2.2 (Madman Entertainment)
2006 — Transformers — The Complete Generation One Collection (Metrodome)
2007 — The Transformers — Complete Collection (Madman Entertainment)
2009 — Transformers — Volume 05: Stagione Due Parte Terza (Medianetwork Communication) — English and Italian audio.
2009 — Transformers — Season Two: Part Two (Metrodome)
2009 — The Transformers — Complete Collection: Decepticon Edition (Madman Entertainment)
2009 — The Transformers — The Complete Series: 25th Anniversary "Matrix of Leadership" Collection (Shout! Factory)
2009 — The Transformers — Season Two, Volume Two: 25th Anniversary Edition (Shout! Factory)

External links

• Dossier at the Cybertron Chronicle