The Rebirth, Part 1: Difference between revisions
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| File:Rebirth 1 title shot.JPG "Guys, I'm serious, we need a water cooler in here to converse about." "Damn it, Goldbug, we're robots. We don't drink water." | ||||||
| "The Rebirth, Part 1" | ||||||
| Production code | 6701-1 | |||||
| Production company | Sunbow Productions | |||||
| Airdate | November 9, 1987 | |||||
| Written by | David Wise | |||||
| Animation studio | AKOM | |||||
| Continuity | Generation 1 cartoon continuity | |||||
Galvatron invades Autobot City and then Cybertron with a plan to destroy the Autobots forever! This is something new?
- Japanese title: ヘッドマスター誕生 (Headmaster tanjō, "The Headmasters Are Born")
- German title: Die Wiedergeburt, Teil 1 ("The Rebirth, Part 1")
Synopsis
Goldbug is talking with the Technobots at Autobot City. Things have been quiet for the Autobots in the months since the return of Optimus Prime and the Hate Plague crisis. Not a word has been heard of the Decepticons in months. Who knows where they are. The answer? Right at their doorstep. Meanwhile, Ultra Magnus walks into a room to find Optimus on his knees. Optimus claims that he has been having visions since he opened the Matrix, and it's something big. Goldbug informs Optimus of the approaching Decepticon force, and Optimus realizes that what ever he's been sensing, it's starting right now.
Leading the Autobots out, the Decepticons attack. The Technobots and the Throttlebots take point, but the Decepticons have gotten some new raw power in Apeface and Snapdragon, while Mindwipe has some fun with Lightspeed. However, Punch sees Wingspan and Pounce enter into Autobot City. Transforming into Counterpunch, he follows to check up on their progress, where he sees them steal something from the vaults. The Clones quickly dispatch Punch, and take their prize to Scourge. Having claimed what they wanted, Galvatron orders a retreat. Optimus, realizing this was a diversion, runs into Autobot City, finding Punch and the vault. Horrified, Optimus orders everyone to board the ships and head for Cybertron.
On Cybertron, Blurr is racing with Hot Rod, with Daniel riding in Hot Rod. Blurr, however, loses control, while Daniel shoots several Decepticon targets and wins the race. Brainstorm claims that this is evidence of his theory that human partners would be able to assist the Autobots in the war with the Decepticons. Hardhead and Cerebros are unsure of the idea. However, Optimus contacts the Autobots, telling them Galvatron stole the Key to the Plasma Energy Chamber. This was the forge which was used to create the bodies of the original Autobots. Since the Quintesson rebellion, the key has been in the safekeeping of the Autobot leaders, who have been tasked with guarding the key with their lives. However, Galvatron intends to open the chamber and destroy Cybertron. The Decepticons arrive, and chaos ensues. The Aerialbots are quickly taken down by Sixshot.
During the onslaught, Kup and Hot Rod's team notice Scourge heading for the Plasma Energy Chamber. They pursue in an attempt to stop him, but when Scourge opens the chamber, he is nearly killed, but Spike and Cerebros manages to grab the key. The Autobots' ship is hit by a wave of energy from the Plasma Energy Chamber. Their ship is hurled off Cybertron itself. Discovering Scourge, the Decepticons reactivate him. Scourge explains what happened, and a team under Cyclonus heads out to find the Autobots with the key.
Meanwhile, the Autobot ship crashes on Nebulon. With the engines fried, the Autobots and the Witwickys decide to look for civilization. They're soon spotted by Duros and Pinpointer, who assume the Autobots are machines controlled by the Hive and alert the rest of their resistance group. The group soon captures the Autobots, and plans to destroy the Autobots with magnetic bombs, even though Spike tries to talk them down. However, the Decepticons show up. Spike finally convinces the Nebulons to release the Autobots. In the subsequent battle, Daniel is injured by Snapdragon, and Hot Rod, Kup, Blurr, Crosshairs, and Sureshot are taken captive. Some of the Autobots pursue them into the forest, but are quickly driven off by machines.
Back at the cave, Arcana and Firebolt manage to stabilise Daniel's condition, but the boy will have to be connected to life-support machinery. The Nebulan leader Gort explains that the Hive is a tyrannical group of telekinetics who have used machines to enslave Nebulon. The resistance members know the weak points of the machines, but they just don't have the firepower. Spike thinks that Brainstorm's idea of organic partners just might be the ticket. The Autobots agree to allow the Nebulons to use their heads as suits, except for Cerebros, who walks out, tired of fighting. Arcee asks to be Daniel's partner, and Spike agrees. As they remove their heads, Spike declares that they are about to become Headmasters.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
Quotes
"It's... starting."
- —Optimus Prime, foreseeing the end.
"Back off, Snapdragon!"
"NO!"
- —Freeway right before Snapdragon kicks him backwards.
"Fine. You deal with my Autobot counterpart. I've heard he's nearby."
[ducks around the corner, transforms to Punch]
"...Real nearby."
- —Counterpunch becomes Punch, uttering a classic line.
Kup: It might give us the edge if the Decepticons did return.
Crosshairs: That's not gonna happen!
Optimus: Kup! Highbrow! The Decepticons are heading your way!
Kup: How many of 'em, Prime?
Optimus: All of them!
Crosshairs: 'Course, I have been wrong on one or two occasions.
- —Crosshairs really needs to think before he speaks.
"Sixshot, show them what a one-robot army is!"
- —Galvatron prompts Sixshot to do the old sell-my-toy routine.
"I suppose it's the only meritorious way out of our meretricious situation."
"Yeah, me too. Like he said."
- —Highbrow and Hardhead on becoming Headmasters.
"My one wish... is to never fight again."
- —Cerebros, so pacifistic he won't even fight to help his friends.
Notes
Animation or technical glitches
- Daniel is gnawed and thrown around by Snapdragon, and yet, his uniform remains squeaky clean and show no signs of damage despite Daniel's injuries being described as 'severe'. That must be some tough fabric they use in the future.
Continuity errors
- Goldbug and the Technobots reminisce about all the "loose parts" knocked from the Decepticons after Optimus Prime was resurrected. When did that happen, exactly?
- Scattershot claims there's "about a hundred" Decepticons heading towards Autobot City, but the attacking force shown on-screen is barely a quarter of that number.
- The outside of the city is already smoking (burning?) before the Decepticons start their attack or fire a single shot.
- Soooo.... why do the Autobots rush headlong to meet their attackers instead of transforming the city to battle station mode?
- When the Autobots first met the Nebulans (only to get captured by them), why didn't they use the universal greeting? Perhaps the 'Universal Greeting' is only universally recognised by all mechanical lifeforms, and just gibberish to an organic lifeform like a Nebulan. Like a type of computer code. :)
Transformers references
- This episode takes place several months after "The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 2".
- While discussing the Headmaster creation procedure with Chromedome, Brainstorm mentions that it's possible for a Transformer to "download (their memories and personalities) into the auxiliary memory circuits in their chests". Assuming that the aforementioned hardware is a standard feature in all Transformers, it might explain why death is just a wee bit inconsistent in fiction. Not bad for a throwaway line!
Miscellaneous trivia
- "The Rebirth, Part 1", was to be the fourth season premiere, but due to declining interest, it simply was the first of the three final episodes (originally conceived as a five-part story), in which a slew of new characters and concepts were introduced, most notably the US animated version of the Headmasters.
- All these years of Blurr babbling when he panics...and Hardhead is the only one who thinks to cover his mouth?
- Then again, the animation makes it look like Hardhead is sweeping Blurr off his feet in a passionate French kiss instead of throttling him into silence, so who knows what's really going on?
- Okay. Whose bright idea was it to give Daniel a gun?
- The Japanese dub of all three episodes of "The Rebirth" were released exclusively on laser disk by Pioneer (and later on DVD as part of their Transformers 2010 box set). The dub for these episodes is unusual in that it primarily features Western names for characters rather than Japanese-exclusive ones. For instance, Hot Rod is referred to by his Western name rather than "Hot Rodimus", Kup is not called "Char" and so on. Some Japanese names are retained, such as Optimus Prime being called "Convoy". Even stranger, aside from several primary characters, nearly all the voices are different from the usual Japanese cast.
