Deep Metal

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Looks trustworthy enough.
"Deep Metal"
Production company	Mainframe Entertainment
Airdate	November 1, 1998
Written by	Larry DiTillio
Directed by	Owen Hurley
Animation studio	Mainframe Entertainment
Continuity	Beast Wars continuity

Depth Charge arrives on Earth, continuing his obsessive quest to hunt down Protoform X.

Japanese title: えーいっ! (Eii!, "Rrray!")

Latin-American title: Metal de Profundidad

Italian title: Dal profondo degli abissi ("From the depths of the abysses")

Synopsis

On Earth, in their new base in the newly fortified Mount St. Hilary, Rhinox has trouble working with the hardware salvaged from the Axalon. Optimus Primal considers this as another reason they need help from the Maximal Elders to arrive soon as possible, but Rhinox doubts the help is coming. Yet as they speak, help from Cybertron is indeed coming—just not exactly the kind they were hoping for. In a sector declared off limits by the High Council, a mysterious Cybertronian hunts for Protoform X. However, his ship is soon pulled into a transwarp portal that suddenly appears.

I'm going to shoot first, and you're not.

Outside the mountain, Inferno leads Rampage in a planned invasion of the Maximals' current base. But the stranger entering Earth's atmosphere distracts Rampage away from the exercise, leaving Inferno to attack the Maximals on his own. The fire ant is easily defeated by a rock. It was a pretty big rock.

I am Batmanta!

Cheetor also notices the spacecraft descending and flies to check it out. Receiving a radio contact from Cheetor, Primal heads out to join him. Cheetor watches the spacecraft landing in a body of water, but in the middle of a radio update to Optimus, Rampage fires a rocket to blast the Maximal out of the air, saying this is between him and the visitor. Underwater, the newly arrived Maximal, Depth Charge, scans a manta for his beast mode and leaves his transport, eager to hunt Protoform X. Surveying the area, Depth Charge finds Cheetor sinking to the bottom of the water. Depth Charge rescues his fellow Maximal, but only gives his name and not much of anything else when he strands the cat-bot on an island.

Megatron, wondering where Rampage went after abandoning Inferno, sends Quickstrike to hunt the giant crab.

Underwater again, Depth Charge homes in on his quarry's signal. However, what he finds are nothing but rocks. Rampage then jumps from the ground and latches onto Depth Charge, greeting the Maximal as his "old playmate". The two battle, and Depth Charge lifts their combat into the air. Rampage blasts the manta and forces the fight onto the beach, but finds himself impaled on a stalagmite. While the two giant Transmetals are disabled, Primal arrives and meets with Cheetor, who fills in the Maximal commander on what's happened and tells him of Depth Charge...a name that Primal recognizes.

Come on, get up and fight like a fish!

Rampage heals and approaches Depth Charge, but Depth Charge awakens and fights back. The two show off their abilities, but Depth Charge wins the fight by throwing his tail-spike into Rampage's weaponry, causing explosive feedback. Quickstrike shows up and fires at Depth Charge with a disabling poison blast, but Primal easily takes out Quickstrike. But thanks to Quickstrike's interruption, Rampage has had the time to sneak away. Primal and Cheetor bring Depth Charge back to their base.

You are too big!

As Depth Charge heals, Primal and Rhinox explain that Depth Charge was in charge of security for Colony Omicron before Protoform X devoured all the other inhabitants of it. Seeking vengeance, Depth Charge captured the maniac and petitioned the High Council to find some way of executing him, but instead Protoform X was placed on the Axalon to be dumped. Depth Charge thus followed the Axalon through transwarp by tracking X's energy signature, intending to finish the job he started.

Depth Charge awakens repaired and exits the CR Chamber. He blows off the Maximals, showing obvious contempt for Optimus Primal. He leaves to go hunt Protoform X, with no interest in the rest of the Beast Wars and saving history. Meanwhile, Rampage destroys the vehicle Depth Charge used to come to the planet.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Maximals	Predacons
Rhinox (1) Optimus Primal (2) Depth Charge (3) Cheetor (7) Blackarachnia (8) Silverbolt (9) Rattrap (12)	Inferno (4) Rampage (5) Megatron (6) Quickstrike (10) Waspinator (11)

Quotes

"Someone's… coming. Someone… I remember."

—Rampage senses Depth Charge's impending arrival

"Inferno blow up, Waspinator must salvage. Waspinator blow up, nobody salvage! Why universe hate Waspinator?"

—Waspinator bemoans his fate at the hands of cruel writers destiny.

"I hate water."

—Cheetor, after finding both his commlink and jets are busted.

"Greetings, old playmate. So glad you could come!"
"X!"
"I'm called Rampage now! A bit obvious, but to the point. Don't you think?"

—Rampage and Depth Charge reintroduce themselves.

"Ignore the pain: it's only going to get worse!"

—Words to die by from Rampage.

"What's with him?"
"Eh, probably rust."

—Cheetor and Rattrap

"It's not revenge I'm looking for, it's justice."

—Words to live by from Depth Charge.

"X is not alone. He's a Predacon now under Megatron's control. There are six of them."
"I've gotta hand it to ya, Primal, when you screw up, you do it big time. But thanks for the tip."

—Optimus Primal attempts to warn Depth Charge, for all the good it does.

"So, you think he'll come back?"
"There was a time he would never have left. Rampage changed that."

—Cheetor and Optimus Primal, after Depth Charge departs

"It was really so very nice of you to come. So glad you could stay. Oh, we'll have such fun. Ho-ho, yeah! [crazed laughter]"

—Rampage offers a hearty welcome to his arch-nemesis.

Notes

Just tell 'em it was custom-made for ya.

• The temporal anomaly that transports Depth Charge to prehistoric Earth is never fully explained. It causes him to transmetalize, which would presumably make it related (or at least similar) to the quantum surge produced when the Planet Buster was destroyed. But the surge was long gone from Earth space by that point. In physical form, the anomaly more closely resembles the warp portals used by the Vok and their constructs, so it could perhaps be related to the destruction of the Metal Hunter. And given its time-traveling properties, it could even be related to the time storm from "Optimal Situation". The show provided no further explanation.

• Depth Charge's space craft totally looks like his vehicular alt mode.
• Waspinator appears in this episode and does not get scrapped in any way. Run for the bomb shelters, it's the end of the world!
• Rampage somehow senses the approach of Depth Charge before Depth Charge has even crossed through the temporal anomaly. One of the many unexplained mysteries about the full extent of Protoform X's powers.
• This was the first episode to have underwater scenes.

Technical/animation glitches

• When Depth Charge first scans his beast form, he yells "Maximize" to transform to beast mode instead of saying "Beast mode." He does this many more times over the course of the season. It could be that Depth Charge has his activation code keyed for activating his alt-mode (now his beast mode), while most others prefer to use it for going to robot mode.

Continuity errors

• How is Rampage eluding my scanners? Various episodes hinted that it might be related to Rampage hiding out underwater, but it's never made clear.

Transformers references

• The ground outside of the Ark's cave is rutted and charred, the result of the Maximals dragging in tons of salvaged Axalon bits behind the scenes in the previous episode.
• When Depth Charge first enters Earth's solar system, he is informed by his ship's navi-computer that the area was declared off-limits by order of the High Council. This particular bit of backstory never got explicitly mentioned on the show, but was spelled out by the story editors' posts on the Internet. Earth is off-limits because of some undecided-upon catastrophe, as well as to protect it from time-altering thieves such as Megatron.
• Notably, the episode refers to a "High Council" rather than the usual "Council of Elders" (and also refers to the Elders). This could just be an error, though if we take it literally then Cybertron has more than one branch of government; the Elders, however, are the ones who Rhinox says would send a rescue ship, so they'd be the primary Council.