Five Faces of Darkness, Part 1: Difference between revisions
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** Octane also makes his inauspicious debut here, without any sort of explanation or introduction, though it doesn't actually contradict anything to have him there. | ** Octane also makes his inauspicious debut here, without any sort of explanation or introduction, though it doesn't actually contradict anything to have him there. | ||
* The second cheering shot has Soundwave with a malformed, half-colored visor. | * The second cheering shot has Soundwave with a malformed, half-colored visor. | ||
* When Motormaster throws down his energon, Hook and Long Haul are standing nearby. When he falls over in the subsequent shot, they've both been replaced by generics in the same pose. | * When Motormaster throws down his energon, Hook and Long Haul are standing nearby. When he falls over in the subsequent shot, they've both been replaced by generics in the same pose. Also, after the Energon is thrown, Motormaster's mouth moves without us hearing any dialog. | ||
[[Image:Decepticons w galvatron.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Yeah! We're going to save that guy on the left from the deadly lava pools of Thrull!]] | [[Image:Decepticons w galvatron.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Yeah! We're going to save that guy on the left from the deadly lava pools of Thrull!]] | ||
* The third cheering shot ("Giiiiive till it hurrrrts!") features two more made-up Seeker models, a random blue guy, and ''Galvatron himself'' cheering for his own eminent rescue. | * The third cheering shot ("Giiiiive till it hurrrrts!") features two more made-up Seeker models, a random blue guy, and ''Galvatron himself'' cheering for his own eminent rescue. | ||
Revision as of 05:56, 8 May 2010
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 Boy, I sure did love that part in "Five Faces of Darkness" where Powermaster Prime, Mainframe, Cloudburst and Rev fought a giant floating Quintesson head. | |||||||||
| "Five Faces of Darkness, Part 1" | |||||||||
| Production code | #700-86 | ||||||||
| Production company | Sunbow Productions | ||||||||
| Airdate | September 1, 1986 | ||||||||
| Written by | Flint Dille | ||||||||
| Animation studio | AKOM | ||||||||
| Continuity | Generation 1 cartoon continuity | ||||||||
In the wake of Unicron's defeat, the battered Decepticons struggle to survive, and the Autobots enjoy a period of peace and celebration. But peace never lasts...
- Japanese title: 新たなる戦い (Arata Naru Tatakai, "The New War")
- German title: "Die fünf Gesichter der Finsternis, Teil 1" ("The five Faces of Darkness, Part 1")
Synopsis
The closing scenes of The Transformers: The Movie show us the destruction of Unicron and the Autobots escape, along with their victory celebration on Cybertron.
It is the year 2005. Autobots have reclaimed Cybertron while the Decepticons, now squabbling with each other for energon, retreated to the planet Chaar. Astrotrain returns to the planet with a pitiful number of energon cubes, resulting in a tussle as the Decepticons fight for their share. Cyclonus realizes that to return the Decepticons to fighting form, they need drastic measures.
Somewhere else, the first Galactic Olympics are being held. Blurr is griping about being stuck in a mission with Wheelie when he wants to join the events. But Perceptor wants them to go to Autobot City on Earth, to deliver the new transformation cog for Metroplex, as his old one was damaged during the battle the year before.
Meanwhile, the Galactic Olympics are being sabotaged. A Skuxxoid detonates the Olympic flame, raining smoke down on the area and allowing a group of Sharkticons to land. The Autobots fight back, but in the confusion, Spike, Kup and Ultra Magnus are kidnapped. Rodimus Prime immediately suspects Decepticon shenanigans and orders the planet quarantined, but they are unable to prevent the Skuxxoid's spaceship from taking off. Arcee and Springer set off to find a spacecraft of their own so they can pursue it.
Cyclonus, Scourge and the Sweeps sneak into Unicron’s head, still orbiting Cybertron. They're able to access Unicron's memory banks and watch footage of Rodimus's battle with Galvatron, culminating in the Decepticon leader being flung into space. Cyclonus then does some fast calculations and works out that Galvatron would eventually have reached the planet Thrull. There they see their leader soaking in the hot lava pools.
On Earth, Blaster and Outback go to the Federated Republic of Carbombya to investigate EDC reports of Decepticons in that country. Despite the country's ruler, Abdul Fakkadi, claiming that they would never harbour such criminals, the Autobots land. Outback, equipped with a “Decepticon detector”, then flushes out Dirge and Ramjet. The two Autobots get the coordinates of Chaar from them... which they report to Rodimus Prime who wants to go there to investigate.
Arcee and Springer, meanwhile, have pursued the Skuxxoid to an asteroid, which he ducks behind. The Autobots follow, only for their ship to be seized by a huge claw. They evacuate the ship, only to find that the "asteroid" is actually a disguised spacecraft. Springer hijacks it from the Skuxxoid, who escapes in his smaller ship and then calls his benefactor to confirm that the Autobots indeed suspect the Decepticons to be behind the disruption. The tentacled, egg-shaped benefactor listens to the report and then tunes out as he sees their prisoners, Spike, Kup and Ultra Magnus, being led by a Sharkticon.
Cyclonus, Scourge and the Sweeps return to Chaar, where the rest of the Decepticons are convinced that the solution to their problems is to have a strong leader again. They cheer when they hear that Galvatron lives, and are desperate enough that they give their remaining scraps of energon for reviving him. Rodimus Prime and Grimlock are spying nearby. Rodimus almost pities them, while Grimlock finds it funny (giving a rather possessed-sounding chuckle). Rodimus realizes that the Decepticons are too down on their luck to be the ones responsible for the kidnappings. Their cover suddenly gets blown and the Decepticons attack.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans | Others |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
Quotes
Cyclonus: Once Decepticons nearly held the quadrant through terror. Now we scrap like slaargs over a few energon cubes. Is this how you honour the memory of Galvatron?! Is this the fate of the mighty Decepticon Empire?!
Astrotrain: In the days of Megatron, it was not like this.
Cyclonus: You mean Galvatron.
Cyclonus and the Sweeps: Hail Galvatron! Hail Galvatron! Hail Galvatron!
Astrotrain: [Muttering to Menasor] Well, they were the same guy.
- —The Decepticons remember the good old days.
"Let's do it!"
"Didn’t you want to say something about concord and tranquility in the galaxy?"
"Aww, give me a break. Start the games!"
- —Rodimus Prime and Ultra Magnus open the Galactic Olympics
"Ah, Rodimus is missing a few chips."
"Nah, I was the same way until I got blown apart a few times."
- —Ultra Magnus and Kup
Rodimus Prime: This planet is quarantined. Nobody comes, nobody goes until we find Kup, Spike and Magnus.
Arcee: And what if we don't?
Rodimus Prime: Then we'll trash every Decepticon in the galaxy!
[A spaceship escapes]
Springer: So much for quarantine. I need a ship!
Arcee: And you’ll need a gunner!
[They both rush off, leaving Rodimus]
Rodimus Prime: Why’d I have to be the chosen one?
- —Rodimus is stuck with cleanup, while his former girlfriend runs off with his buddy.
Cyclonus: There’s nothing to fear; Unicron is dead.
[They hear a groan]
Cyclonus: Must be the wind.
Scourge: There is no wind in space.
Cyclonus: Quiet!
- —Cyclonus and Scourge learn that daddy's still home.
"Our charts don’t show any planets in that sector—no, wait. Here it is. I thought it was a smudge on the screen.
"Yeah, that fits the description of Chaar."
- —Rodimus Prime and Outback
"I say we pulverowderize the Autobots! I say we powderulverize 'em!"
- —Rumble's inspirational rally.
Wildrider: These guys better have some energon for us.
Dead End: Or what?
Wildrider: Or ... Well, I'll think of somethin'.
- -The Stunticons see the newer Decepticons return to Chaar.
Dead End: If we surrender our energon, we're doomed.
Breakdown: If we don't, we're doomed, too.
Dead End: Face it. We're doomed.
- -Dead End is being as optimistic as ever.
"These guys are hurtin'. I never thought I’d feel sorry for the Decepticons."
"Me Grimlock, not feel sorry. Me Grimlock laugh!" [snickers]
- —Rodimus Prime pities the Decepticons, while Grimlock mocks them with a disturbing chuckle.
Notes
Animation or technical glitches
"Five Faces of Darkness" is one (five) of the most notoriously error-plagued episodes in the entire series. Brace yourself...
- Quite a few Transformer voices appear to be processed with a very heavy bass end in this episode, including Rodimus, Arcee, Outback, and Springer.
- Chaar's moon and sun are bizarre. If the opening animation is to be believed, the moon takes about 20 seconds to orbit the planet, yet when we see it again later, it's just sitting there. The moon also appears to set with the red dusk sky behind it. The red dusk sky is a red dusk sky despite the sun having passed overhead in the opposite direction. The red dusk sky is also visible along the horizon in all directions. Maybe Chaar sits in a nebula?
- Long Haul is missing when the Constructicons combine.
- After he knocks Astrotrain away from the energon cube, Devastator's mouth does some lip-flapping, but there's no dialog to go with it.
- Menasor's "hi-yah!" sword grunts aren't in his voice. He sounds more like an unprocessed Astrotrain or Bonecrusher. When he finally speaks a non-grunt line, he suddenly goes to his own voice, right after a generic-voice grunt.
- Devastator goes from his usual eyeband, to two large separate eyes as he grabs the energon cube, to two small separate eyes as Menasor whacks him apart.
- Menasor's first sword strike clearly knocks Devastator into his components (well, some components, anyway; none of them look like actual pieces of Devastator.) Devastator then re-forms with no transformation noise.
- When Menasor smashes Devastator apart the second time, only Bonecrusher, Scavenger, Hook and Long Haul are shown. Bonecrusher shouldn't be there (he didn't "have the energy to hang on"), and Scrapper and Mixmaster are totally unaccounted for.
- As a shot hits the energon cube next to him, Kickback grunts with the same generic voice that Menasor had earlier.
- Kickback is drawn with the more toy-centric version of his insect mode, wherein his robot face is clearly visible on the bottom of his insect head; he even visibly emotes and looks around with it. Most episodes portray him with his robot face concealed in his insect mode.
- The vehicle-mode Sweeps first show up in their incorrect "early" models, with their robot-mode heads sticking out of the top. This model would appear again and again and again through the series.
- As Cyclonus and company approach, Astrotrain finally completes his transformation to robot mode, but with no transformation noise.
- The first Sweep to transform and land is also missing his transformation sound.
- Jazz is shown winning the first race in the Galactic Olympics, but a few seconds later an announcer declares that "the winner is Munka Spanka." It's possible a generic character was intended for use in the scene and Jazz was mistakenly picked at random; however, given Jazz's prominent survival of the movie, it seems more likely that an editing mistake failed to portray the passage of time (and other races) after Jazz's win. Fans also have speculated that this was an intentional name change, prompted by the fact that Scatman Crothers, Jazz's voice actor, had recently passed away, though why this would be necessary for a non-speaking part is unclear.
- The Quintesson monitor shows Magnus and company against a blue sky, when they'd been standing against an orange wall a second earlier.
- Improbable viewpoints:
- How did the Quints get that footage of the Autobots, anyway?
- Okay, maybe Unicron can monitor and record events within his own body. But does he really have a camera outside himself to show things like Galvatron flying out of him and off into the distance?
- In addition to lighting up, the button that the Quintesson pushes changes shape when pushed.
- One of the scrambling Olympians walks right through a column during the torch attack.
- Arcee and Springer's "cooking my sensors" lines carry an echo that shouldn't be there, as if they were in a soundproof room.
- When Rodimus starts shooting, he gets the second half of Optimus Prime's laser rifle sound effect. A second later, he gets the whole sound effect.
- How are the Sharkticons so consistently in shadow when everyone else is not?
- Rodimus is missing the "age lines" on his face as he threatens to trash the Decepticons, which basically makes him Hot Rod.
- The center piece of Rodimus's spoiler is yellow instead of orange as he watches Springer and Arcee leave the stadium.
- Cybertron's appearance has changed a LOT since the movie. The first shot shows it looking like one of its own moons, with almost no detailing. The second shows it with much more detailing, but still very different than its previous appearance.
- Cyclonus is far too large as he stands on Unicron's face, taller than Unicron's eyes. He should be a speck at that distance.
- One of Scourge's helmet rims is white instead of blue as he says the "no wind in space" line.
- Unicron's snoozing groan is recycled as Scourge spots Galvatron's hand on Thrall. Is Scourge supposed to be hearing Galvatron snore from across millions of miles of space?
- The helmet rim around Outback's eyes is consistently colored blue instead of light gray. This could be an alternate model sheet, given its consistency. Later episodes would show him with his eyes the same color as the rest of his face.
- Rodimus's "smudge on the screen" is a sharp, glowing, blinking dot.
- The Skuxxoid's ship is white when it leaves the Olympics planetoid, but light orange as Arcee and Springer pursue it through space.
- In an odd moment of humanizing, Springer and Arcee clench their eyes shut when their ship is grabbed by the claw.
- A repeat of the establishing shot of Chaar includes its moon (which, by the by, is a recycled Cybertron moon design.) This time, instead of warping around the planet, the moon is hanging in the sky, stationary.
- Two different pans across the assembled Decepticons show quite a few robots that don't correspond to any actual character. The characters are distant enough that the animators probably figured we wouldn't notice.
- Dirge is with the Decepticons on Chaar as they debate leadership. How'd he get back there from Earth? In the same shot, Soundwave's shoulder button is blue instead of white.
- Cyclonus has consistently had three Sweeps up to this point, but as they return to Chaar there's suddenly half a dozen of them.
- Drag Strip has a gray optic visor during the "I'll think of something" line. It should be red.
- The subsequent shots of cheering Decepticons are infamously screwed up. The first one features:
- Tantrum well before the Predacons have actually been introduced to the series. To be fair, the Predacons' later introduction is so ambiguous that it might not be a genuine screwup to have one of them present.
- An off-model non-conehead Seeker in Ramjet's colors
- Octane also makes his inauspicious debut here, without any sort of explanation or introduction, though it doesn't actually contradict anything to have him there.
- The second cheering shot has Soundwave with a malformed, half-colored visor.
- When Motormaster throws down his energon, Hook and Long Haul are standing nearby. When he falls over in the subsequent shot, they've both been replaced by generics in the same pose. Also, after the Energon is thrown, Motormaster's mouth moves without us hearing any dialog.
- The third cheering shot ("Giiiiive till it hurrrrts!") features two more made-up Seeker models, a random blue guy, and Galvatron himself cheering for his own eminent rescue.
- As the Decepticons rally to attack Rodimus and Grimlock, two Motormasters run past the camera.
- When Cyclonus fires on the rock outcrop, some guy in Fireflight's colors is behind him. The subsequent shot of charging Decepticons includes several made-up guys.
- The line of charging Decepticons at the end includes a Seeker in Silverbolt's colors.
Continuity errors
- Most of the character screwups on Chaar are probably just cheap/lazy/screwed up animation; in fact, all the off-model and made-up designs could really be excused as generic Decepticons we've never met before, if one is so inclined (and one is prepared to accept that for some reason, we never see them again, either.) However, Kickback and Shrapnel have a whole sequence dedicated to them landing, trying to munch an energon cube, and then fleeing, which is far too long and explicit not to be a scripted appearance. Both characters were supposedly reformatted into Sweeps during Transformers: The Movie.
- Why does Astrotrain wait until he's landed to gobble some of the energon he's struggling to reach?
- So why didn't Menasor grab and eat the energon cube he just fought so hard for?
- Perceptor's description of the transforming cog is rather confusing. He introduces it as Autobot City's transformation cog, but then says "it controls Metroplex's ability to transform". This begins an ongoing trend of the cartoon dialog treating the two as if they were one and the same, despite the animation showing them as two distinct (though sometimes related) entities.
- "How we gonna find the Decepticons? It's like looking for a needle in a haystack!" It would be, Blaster, except that they conveniently left their Decepticon insignias in place for you to see.
- How do Arcee and Springer hear the Skuxxoid's voice? He's inside a space ship, and they're on the outside. Does the ship have its own external atmosphere?
- Voice consistency for the show's more obscure characters took a nosedive after the movie, starting with this episode:
- Ramjet has nearly the right voice, but it lacks the clipped mannerism that characterized his speech throughout the second season. Instead of sounding like an enforcer, he sounds... cheerful. In fairness, he occasionally lost that mannerism during Season 2.
- Onslaught's lines, beginning with "I admire your passion, my friend...", are provided by Terry McGovern in this episode, as opposed to his regular actor, S. Marc Jordan. Jordan would later be replaced again by Steve Bulen for Onslaught's final line of the series in "The Rebirth, Part 3".
- Terry McGovern tries on a brand new voice for Wildrider's two lines. He'll also develop a hick accent that he didn't have before in "The Burden Hardest to Bear".
- We never do find out why Cyclonus is carrying around a big black box. It's not present in the next episode.
Continuity notes
- This episode picks up an unspecified amount of time after The Transformers: The Movie (which had played in theaters during the summer preceding this episode's debut), and draws directly on many of its events. References include the Battle of Autobot City, Unicron's head orbiting Cybertron, the loss of Optimus Prime, the rise of Galvatron, and more.
- The episode even opens with some of the closing scenes from the movie. The scenes were re-soundtracked with the cartoon's standard background music for television airing. A second movie excerpt, also resoundtracked, is used to show the end of Rodimus's battle with Galvatron.
- First appearances: Outback, Octane, Tantrum (who probably shouldn't be here yet) and Abdul Fakkadi.
- Dirge's "Death comes to he who crosses me," line is a slight paraphrase of a line cut from the original Transformers The Movie script, "Death comes to anyone who crosses me." It was to be delivered aboard Astrotrain as the Decepticons squabbled over leadership. Another iteration comes in the later episode "Starscream's Ghost" ("I know, I know - 'Death comes to anyone who hides behind my marker!'"), though Dirge is not mentioned by name.
Real-world references
- The Galactic Olympics are, obviously, based on the modern Olympic Games, including the opening parade of "nations" and the Olympic torch presiding over the events.
- Middle East tensions in the 1980s resulted in the poorly made (depending on whom you ask) spoof called Carbombya.
- In one scene, Blurr asks why Metroplex's new transformation cog wasn't shipped via Galactic Express, an allusion to the fact that John Moschitta had previously appeared in a series of Federal Express commercials.
- Star Wars sound effects:
- Kickback and Shrapnel fly in with Millennium Falcon engine whine, and take off with the ship's engine burst noise.
- Ramjet and Thrust get the TIE Fighter engine sound as they lose control amid Outback's explosive. Some Millennium Falcon engine whine can be heard as well.
Trivia
- In an interview with Flint Dille, he said that the Quintesson origin story came from "The Secret of Cybertron," an aborted script for the movie by him and his fellow writer, Jay Bacal.[1]
- When originally aired, this and the other four parts of the story all had a unique set of opening credits. Unfortunately, the DVD release of the mini-series only includes this opening on parts 3 and 5.
Home video releases
- VHS
- 1990 — The Transformers — Five Faces of Darkness (Family Home Entertainment)
- Laserdisc
- 1990 — The Transformers — Five Faces of Darkness (Family Home Entertainment)
- 1999 — The Transformers: 2010 (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.
- DVD
- 2001 — The Transformers: 2010 — DVD Box (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.
- 2002 — Transformers — Complete Original Series: Deluxe Edition (Sony Wonder)
- 2002 — Transformers — Five Faces of Darkness: Parts 1-5 (Sony Wonder)
- 2003 — The Original Transformers — Season 3 Part 1 (Kid Rhino)
- 2003 — The Original Transformers — Season 3 Part 1: Vol. 1 (Kid Rhino)
- 2004 — Transformers — Season 3 and Season 4 (Metrodome)
- 2004 — Transformers — Collection 4: Series 3.1 (Madman Entertainment)
- 2006 — Transformers — The Complete Generation One Collection (Metrodome)
- 2007 — The Transformers — Complete Collection (Madman Entertainment)
- 2008 — Transformers — Volume 07: Stagione Tre Parte Prima (Medianetwork Communication) — English and Italian audio.
- 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)
