Bee in the City

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"Bee in the City"
Original presentation	9:45pm on April 26, 2008 (BotCon)
Written by	Greg Sepelak and Trent Troop
Continuity	TransTech

Two Transformers and a human are zapped to another dimension. Fourth-wall-breaking hijinks ensue!

Synopsis

Professor Sumdac tests a new space-warp teleportation device, the Bi-directional Unified Transit Terminal, in an attempt to transport the Autobots home. His BUTT malfunctions, sending Sari, Optimus, and Bumblebee to the city of Axiom Nexus on an alternate version of Cybertron ruled by the TransTechs.

There, they are soon confronted by Officer Flareup, who notes that, by their very presence, they have violated the city's rules: no mechs named Prime or Megatron, no cosmic MacGuffins (in this case, the AllSpark Key), and absolutely no soliciting, rules established to preserve this Cybertron's utter lack of war. She takes them in for "processing", which turns out to be seventeen soul-crushingly boring hours of standing in line and filling out paperwork (or the digital equivalent).

As they finally leave, they encounter the morally ambiguous scientist Shockwave, a Subcommander Third Rank from the Menacing and Foreboding Sciences Division of the Axiom Nexus Military Intelligence Branch. Enforcing his will with a cadre of utterly silent soldiers, he takes Optimus Prime and Sari into custody as potential threats to planetary security, but ignores Bumblebee, reasoning the plucky, yellow, kid-friendly character will be essentially ineffective without a spunky human sidekick. Flareup is dismayed, noting to an indignant Bumblebee that she expected his group to receive no more than a fine and a deportation home, not a military arrest.

At Shockwave's lab, he prepares to experiment on Sari and Prime in some fashion to determine the extent of their potential threat. In particular, he is concerned about the potential effects of the AllSpark Key being present. After confiscating it, he begins examining Rescue Roy—er, Optimus, starting with a Routine Matrix check.

Elsewhere in the city, Bumblebee and Flareup meet Megatron, who is going by the alias "Joe" to avoid arrest or deportation himself. Learning about the AllSpark Key, Megatron is all too eager to gain this MacGuffin and utilize its power for his own nefarious plans. Once he determines that the other two have no idea who or what he is, he asserts that as a "heroic Predacon", he will help them retrieve their friends and the Key.

Bumblebee comes up with an initial plan involving a trained chimp marching band (which "Joe" naturally hates), but it predictably fails. Megatron comes up with a plan that will actually work: pretending he and Bumblebee are illegal Primes (Beeimus Prime and Joe Convoy) being transferred by Flareup.

Once they reach Shockwave's lab, Megatron has Flareup and Bumblebee run a distraction so he can knock out the TransTech scientist. Once that is done, Megatron reveals his true name and ambitions. He snatches the Key and uses it to bring to life a variety of Shockwave's lab equipment. However, Bumblebee and Sari introduce the new robots to the concept of bureaucracy. Less than thrilled with all the paperwork their new lives will entail just to be part of society, the new robot army turns on Megatron and drags him away. Shockwave provides Prime, Bumblebee, and Sari a way home, expediting their paperwork, and he and Flareup agree never to speak of the incident again.

Back home, Sari and her Autobot friends likewise agree never to speak of the incident again. Still, Prime finds the thoughts of a Cybertron without war so inspiring that he feels like bursting into song. Thankfully, the others shout him down first.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons/Predacons	Humans	Others
Optimus Prime (4) Bumblebee (5) Flareup (6)	Shockwave (7) "Joe" (8) TransTech Guard (10)	Sari Sumdac (2) Isaac Sumdac (3)	Narrator (1) Drive-thru speaker (9) Newly-created robots (11)

Quotes

Dr. Sumdac: "We're ready for a test run now. Here we go!"
Sari: "Hey! My Key is acting weird again."
Dr. Sumdac: "Oh, my! This is not going to turn out well!"
All: "ahhhhhhhhhhhhh."

—Sari, Dr. Sumdac, Optimus Prime, and Bumblebee show us a fine example of dull surprise.

"Hmm. No Megatrons, no Primes, no Cosmic MacGuffins, and no soliciting. By order of the Axiom Nexus... tourism board?!"

—Bumblebee reads the sign of rules in Axiom Nexus, unlike Megatron, Prime, and Sari!

"Begin proactive maintenance log: Subject A, adolescent human female, has regained consciousness and has demonstrated both an awareness of the narrator and an utter disregard for the fourth wall."

—Shockwave records his observations.

"Okay, so you've got some crazy no-Prime policy, I can roll with that. But why am I under arrest? I'm just a little girl. I'm no harm to anyone. Can you please just let me go, pleeeaaaase?"
"Child, the only way you could make me more suspicious is if you were wearing a yellow hard hat!"

—Despite Sari Sumdac's best efforts, Shockwave knows the deal with human companion characters.

"Items of cosmic significance like this AllSpark-powered key are contraband in Axiom Nexus, and I will not allow you to deus ex machina your way out of this."
"Deus ex machina isn't a verb."
"SILENCE!!"

—Shockwave and Optimus argue proper grammar usage.

"I shall begin with you, as to avoid delving too deeply into any dark secrets of this girl's past that the audience might find too interesting."
"What? It's not like I'm some hyper-advanced, human-like robot my dad made or anything. That's silly."

—Shockwave and Sari carefully avoid spoilers.

Bumblebee: "Uh, yeah. I-I'd like, um... whoo. Uh, y—lemme get a shake...some fries, side of barbecue sauce... uh, what's a Manwich? ...Ohhh, okay, yeah, I'll take one of those too!"
Loudspeaker: "Revah ruh rug reese, issra rayest ruh."
Flareup: "Bumblebee, what are you doing?!"
Bumblebee: "A contractually obligated gag."

"We need help. BIG help! Maybe we can rig up a communicator and call in Grimlock. Or maybe con Lugnut into helping us out."
"Oh, please. What do I look like, Scott McNeil?"

—Bumblebee's plan is shot down by "Joe". Maybe he should've tried asking Blitzwing instead?

Notes

Look to this day, graduates, as you meta-reference the world.

• The cast:
  • Tara Strong: Sari Sumdac
  • David Kaye: Optimus Prime, Megatron
  • Bumper Robinson: Bumblebee, Narrator
  • Marty Isenberg: Isaac Sumdac, Drive-Thru, TransTech guard
  • Anastasia Matejka: Flareup
  • Chris Ho: Shockwave
  • Pete Sinclair: Pete Sinclair
• Anastasia and Chris were the winners of the BotCon Idol voice acting contest held that weekend. Everyone played the parts of the newly created lab-equipment bots, with Marty Isenberg having their only line in English.

Transformers references

• Bumblebee ordering fast food is a reference to a longstanding BotCon voice actor panel tradition, which involves the attending actors performing their characters ordering at a drive-thru.
• Bumblebee is identified by Flareup as "a kid-appeal yellow-car-type", narrowed down to either "a Bumblebee or a Hot Shot", also referencing early Animated plans for Hot Shot to be the kid-appeal character of the crew. Various characters later "mistake" him for Wheelie, Side Burn, and Cheetor.
• Bumblebee yells out to a passerby, asking how they walk without knees. This was an incredibly common articulation issue of most figures pre-Beast Wars.
• Shockwave refers to Optimus as "Rescue Roy".
• When introducing himself to Bumblebee and Flareup, Megatron mentions that when he and his kind came in, it was believed that they would destroy the franchise, er, multiverse. Wonder where he got THAT idea...
• While masquerading as a Prime, Megatron identifies himself as "Joe Convoy", playing on the Japanese name for Optimus and his ilk.
• Bumblebee calls Shockwave "Shockblast", the "close enough" name used as a substitute for "Shockwave" for a time when Hasbro was unable to secure that trademark.
• In a sort of anti-reference, Prime and Bumblebee's "let us never speak of it again" conclusion provides an in-story reason for why none of this extra-dimensional silliness was ever mentioned on the actual Animated cartoon.
• Sari's befuddlement at a robot having high heels and Flareup's own distaste at having such an attribute is funny since so many fembots in the "Animated" universe have high heels, including Blackarachnia, Slipstream, and even their own version of Flareup.

Real-world references

• Professor Sumdac refers to Sari as "the joy and the laughter," a reference to actress Tara Strong's role as Bubbles in The Powerpuff Girls. Bubbles is proclaimed to be "the joy and the laughter" in that show's closing theme tune.
• Prime remarks that waiting in line for 17 hours "took longer than an InuYasha story arc". David Kaye played a recurring role in that series as InuYasha's brother, Sesshomaru. (David also punctuated the gag with a little fist-pump.)
• When Bumblebee places his fast-food order, the nearly incomprehensible drive-thru speaker replies "Sever your leg please, it's the greatest day." The line is a direct lift from the Homestar Runner cartoon "Drive-Thru" featuring a randomly-appearing, nearly incomprehensible drive-thru speaker.
• When trying to sneak Bumblebee and "Joe" into Shockwave's lab, Flareup tells the TransTech guard that it's a "prison transfer from cell block 1138". While the guard does not get the reference, it's a line uttered by Luke Skywalker in the first Star Wars film (which in turn is a reference to one of George Lucas's early films, THX 1138).
• Bumblebee tries to get the maniacally laughing (and coughing) Megatron's attention with a "Yo, Joe?" This is, of course, a reference to the battle cry of G.I. Joe from the eponymous '80s cartoon series. Flareup follows up with "Wrong convention", referencing Fun Publications' role in running the annual G.I. Joe convention.
• When Sari snatches Bumblebee's meal, Bumblebee laments "My manwich!", a line used by another of voice actor Bumper Robinson's characters, Dwight Conrad of Futurama.
• With the AllSpark Key in hand, Megatron claims he has "a big boost of confidence", a tag line from commercials Kaye narrated touting Enzyte, a non-prescription drug for... er, male performance enhancement. In a similar vein (Ha-haaa! Vein!), he also refers to himself as "the Keymaster" (much to Flareup's disgust), a reference to the movie Ghostbusters.
• One of the newly born lab robots, upon being told of the forms it will have to fill out, says "What you talkin' 'bout, Wheelie?", a reference to the catchphrase of a young Gary Coleman in Diff'rent Strokes.
• During the epilogue, Prime adds to the list of Bumblebee's misnomers by calling him "T-Bob", the robot sidekick from the '80s cartoon series/Kenner toy line M.A.S.K..

Trivia

• "Bi-directional Unified Transit Terminal"... mature as ever, eh, Sumdac?
• Sari is mistakenly described as an "adolescent", which is a teenager.
• After Sari's "human-like robot" line, Marty Isenberg put his finger to his lip and looked upwards in a very hammy faux-innocent look....

External links

"Bee in the City" Live Recording:

• Part 1 on YouTube
• Part 2 on YouTube
• Part 3 on YouTube