Day of the Machines: Difference between revisions
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* Prime's whole face is the same blue color as his helmet as he offers the humans a lift down from their window. | * Prime's whole face is the same blue color as his helmet as he offers the humans a lift down from their window. | ||
* "Personnel" is spelled with only one "n" on the TORQ Project's building sign. | * "Personnel" is spelled with only one "n" on the TORQ Project's building sign. | ||
* Is that supposed to be Hook lowering the cargo pipe onto the tanker? 'Cause he's colored yellow instead of green, and has an inexplicably radioed-in voice, and isn't quite on-model, and he never actually transforms, and... maybe it's not supposed to be Hook. | * Is that supposed to be Hook lowering the cargo pipe onto the tanker? 'Cause he's colored yellow instead of green, and has an inexplicably radioed-in voice, and isn't quite on-model, and he never actually transforms, and... maybe it's not supposed to be Hook. Hound does however refer to him by name. | ||
* Laserbeak's feet aren't fully drawn as he carries Spike past the camera. | * Laserbeak's feet aren't fully drawn as he carries Spike past the camera. | ||
* Laserbeak is shown outside the force field as he flies over Hound. He should be inside. | * Laserbeak is shown outside the force field as he flies over Hound. He should be inside. | ||
Revision as of 14:54, 11 June 2010
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 Big Brother is watching you! | |||||||||
| "Day of the Machines" | |||||||||
| Production code | #700-24 | ||||||||
| Production company | Sunbow Productions | ||||||||
| Airdate | October 10, 1985 | ||||||||
| Written by | David Wise | ||||||||
| Continuity | Generation 1 cartoon continuity | ||||||||
Megatron's latest scheme involves using the most powerful computer on Earth to control machinery remotely.
- Japanese title: コンピュータの反乱 (Computer no Hanran, "The Rebellion of the Computer")
- Brazilian title: Dia das Máquinas ("Day of the Machines")
Synopsis
Megatron and Soundwave (the former disguised in a guitar case!) not-so-silently infiltrate Quantum Laboratories, a top-secret facility where the world’s most powerful computer, TORQ III, is housed. Megatron reprograms the computer with his own personality and gives it the power to control remotely dangerous machines of all types through the use of "Remote Control Circuit Linker cards."
At the same time, scientist Dr. Paul Gates of Quantum Labs muses with a colleague about the dangers of machine sentience and that, in the wrong hands, TORQ III might be too powerful. Since Fate is both cruel and timely, the very scenario they were discussing comes true when TORQ III locks them in their office and announces that he’s taking over.
Megatron is using TORQ and the circuit linker cards to remotely control fleets of oil tankers. This alerts Teletraan I, who notifies Optimus Prime. Prime then receives Dr. Gates’ distress signal; Gates fills him in on TORQ III’s rebellion and asks to be rescued.
Hound and Skyfire are assigned to investigate the tankers, and Spike tags along. Prime leads a group to Quantum Labs, where they immediately come under attack by machines controlled by TORQ. Overwhelmed, Prime orders in the Dinobots (minus Swoop) to come help, and they smash, chomp and melt down all of the machines. Grimlock makes his usual pompous comment about having to save Prime’s bacon when things get rough. Afterward, Prime rescues Dr. Gates and they advance toward the buildings, meeting lots of resistance from TORQ’s machines.
Meanwhile, Hound, Spike and Skyfire sneak aboard an oil tanker and infiltrate the Decepticons' oil platform. Their attack falls short when Spike is captured and they are forced to surrender.
After smashing more remote-controlled machines at Quantum, Prime decides to explore inside TORQ’s maze-like complex alone. As Optimus moves in closer, one of the machines places a circuit linker card on him, making him Torq’s slave, and he is brought into the computer’s domain. But—surprise, surprise—Prime rips the card off his body, saying it was a dud he placed in the robot’s claw, and he disables TORQ with a well-placed punch to the control panel. At the oil platform, Soundwave senses TORQ's demise; Megatron takes over control of the tankers with a gargantuan remote control device.
Dr. Gates lends the Autobots a high-speed hydrofoil to reach the Decepticons. Back at the oil platform, Spike has hatched an idea to use an electromagnet (which happened to be in their cell) to immobilize Rumble and Ravage. Skyfire easily smashes through the cell door and Hound disables the force dome that was protecting the platform. The rest of the Autobots arrive and a battle ensues. Prime faces down Megatron and manages to wrest a remote control device from his hands, then tosses it back to him. Megatron lands on it, crushing it, and comes back up spitting mad. He retaliates by activating the self-destruct mechanism on the platform.
The Autobots escape, but Prime stays behind to find Hound, Skyfire and Spike. He rips apart the platform deck, revealing the missing team members, and Skyfire flies them out of danger.
Finally, Prime says goodbye to Dr. Gates, who makes a parting comment about machines being unreliable, and then quickly retracts the statement when he realizes his gaffe. The Autobots laugh at the ungrateful human's hubris.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans | Others |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
Quotes
"Illegal access! Illegal access!"
"It certainly is."
- —TORQ III is reprogrammed by Megatron
"Good grief. More bad news. This isn’t one of our shining days."
- —Optimus Prime as TORQ's machines surround his troops.
"We help! ...Hmm. Always get Autobots out of messes they get into."
- —Grimlock laments at yet another Autobot bungle he is called upon to resolve. Forcefully.
"It's a safe bet those doors are locked."
"Fortunately, I have a delicate lock-picking technique."
- —Dr. Gates and Optimus Prime, right before Prime "delicately" blasts his way into TORQ's building.
"Come and get me you metal-headed dumb-dumb."
"That's one stupid Decepticon."
- —Skyfire and Hound accurately assess Frenzy's level of intelligence.
"What do you say, guys? Can you bash it down?"
"With a smile on our lip components!"
- —Spike and Hound discuss the finer points of Cybertronian facial structure.
"I'll take that transmitter, please."
"The transmitter is mine!"
- —Optimus Prime is always polite. Megatron, not so much.
"You took the word right out of my mouth. It was in there with my foot."
- —Dr. Paul Gates after he tells the Autobots that all machines are unreliable.
Notes
Animation or technical glitches
- As the security guard closes the Lost and Found cage's gate, his hand phases through the cage door.
- Soundwave's cassette door is blue instead of white before he releases Laserbeak.
- The access hatch in Megatron's head simply appears out of nowhere on his forehead, and likewise vanishes after closing.
- There's no evidence of the bizarre war machines in the Hall of TORQ when Megatron and Soundwave arrive. They suddenly appear once they're needed for the plot.
- Teletraan I has the radio-transmission muffle on its voice as it reports the oil tanker movements to Optimus Prime.
- Prime comments that the tankers are converging near Decepticon Headquarters, but the graphics show them in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Decepticon HQ is somewhere near the Pacific coast.
- After he transforms, Prime's cab wheels are somehow in front of his trailer. (Sure is a pretty sequence otherwise, though!)
- Prowl's face changes from gray to white as he turns to look at Wheeljack after the first commercial break.
- Snarl's tail is white instead of gold as he smashes the tank.
- Slag sure does spend a long time staring at the machines, growling and very pointedly moving his mouth. Was he supposed to have some dialog? Sludge does nearly the same thing before Prime uses him as a ladder.
- Prime's whole face is the same blue color as his helmet as he offers the humans a lift down from their window.
- "Personnel" is spelled with only one "n" on the TORQ Project's building sign.
- Is that supposed to be Hook lowering the cargo pipe onto the tanker? 'Cause he's colored yellow instead of green, and has an inexplicably radioed-in voice, and isn't quite on-model, and he never actually transforms, and... maybe it's not supposed to be Hook. Hound does however refer to him by name.
- Laserbeak's feet aren't fully drawn as he carries Spike past the camera.
- Laserbeak is shown outside the force field as he flies over Hound. He should be inside.
- Skyfire's chest cockpit is white instead of blue as he drops his gun.
- Sideswipe's head is colored red instead of black as he flees from a Torq-controlled machine.
- The claws holding Sideswipe's wrists just kind of randomly let him go for no reason.
- Prime's eyes are red instead of blue as the tentacle machine drags him toward its spinny things.
- Soundwave reports that "ORQ" [sic] is no longer functional.
- The Decepticons sure take their time getting yanked back by the electromagnet, whose effect should be instantaneous. It also doesn't seem to bother the Autobots, who run right through the spot where the Decepticons were standing when the magnet grabbed them.
- Hound's missile, supposedly removed by the Decepticons, is suddenly back in place as they run out of the cell. (In a nice bit of continuity, his launcher does remain empty after he destroys the force field generator.)
- Soundwave's optics are white when he notifies Megatron that the force field is down.
- Sparkplug is suddenly standing, unsheltered, in the middle of the Autobots, who were in a raging firefight just seconds before.
- Skyfire's chest is missing his Autobot symbol as he and Hound react to the platform's explosions. The same error repeats in the episode's closing scene.
- The bottom of Prime's waist is about twice its normal size as he and the other Autobots react to Dr. Gates' "unreliable" comment.
Continuity errors
- Considering how easily they move around the complex, blowing holes in stuff, it's not at all clear why the Decepticons needed to go through the trouble of sneaking into the place in their alternate modes.
- How do the remote linker cards grant control of machines just by being hooked to random parts of them, not their computer circuits?
- Since when do oil tankers travel in enormous fleets? Is this World War II?
- The Dinobots disappear from the story after their one battle, despite the fact that the Autobots meet more resistance before they reach TORQ III. Also curious is Swoop's total absence.
- Prime claims that he inserted a dead circuit linker into the claw of TORQ's "friend". However, the animation basically allows no opportunity for this to happen. Furthermore, the circuit linker that he took from Sparkplug earlier sure didn't appear to be "dead"!
- Superhuman Spike: Spike picks up a metal electro-magnet which is nearly as big as he is.
Continuity notes
- Gadgets and powers:
- Megatron's gun mode actually shrinks to a human adequate scale, the only time we see him do this.
- Skyfire once again uses his jet-with-legs half-transformation.
- Ironhide destroys one of TORQ's machines by walking right through the blast it's emitting and sticking his finger in its hose. He is old because he is hard!
- Hound fires his shoulder missile for the first and only time ever.
- This is one of Optimus Prime's shining episodes. He defeats TORQ III almost singlehandedly; he destroys Megatron's remote control device and foils the tanker stealing plan; and he saves Spike, Skyfire and Hound from sinking with the oil platform. No wonder he's in charge!
Real-world references
- Pre-Megatron TORQ III bears some passing resemblance to Oz, the Great and Powerful!
- Paul Gates, the scientist of Quantum Labs, could be a nod to the co-founders of Microsoft, Paul Allen and Bill Gates.
Trivia
- Like a handful of other Season 2 episodes ("Autobot Spike", "Atlantis, Arise!"), this one begins with a short narrative voiceover from Victor Caroli. Unlike the others, this one actually conveys some information that isn't immediately conveyed by the animation (namely, what Quantum Laboratories does.)
- Script writer David Wise had previously used the concept of a computer able to remote-control machinery being taken over by a villain in a He-Man and the Masters of the Universe episode also named "Day of the Machines". The same episode also featured a small energy-based creature and Man-At-Arms shrinking himself to fix the computer.
- This is one of two episodes (the other being "Attack of the Autobots") not initially aired in Japan during the run of Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers. The episode was eventually dubbed in 1990 and released on Pioneer's laserdisk set of the series. As such, it was retroactively added to the series official episode list as episode 74, a numbering reflected in Transformers Generations.
- Having been dubbed several years after Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers had ended, not all the original cast members were able to return. Frenzy (originally voiced by Ken Shiroyama), Bluestreak (originally voiced by Kōki Kataoka) and Wheeljack (originally voiced by Osamu Saka) were replaced by Katsumi Suzuki.
Home video releases
- Laserdisc
1995 — Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers — Megatron Set (Takara) — English and Japanese audio.
1999 — The Transformers — Decepticon Edition (Pioneer LDC) — English and Japanese audio.
- DVD
2001 — The Transformers — DVD Box 2 (Pioneer LDC) — English and Japanese audio.
2002 — The Original Transformers — Season 2 Part 1 (Rhino Entertainment)
2002 — The Original Transformers — Season 2 Part 1: Vol. 2 (Rhino Entertainment)
2003 — Transformers — Season 2 Part 1 (Metrodome)
2004 — Transformers — Bumper Collection Special (Metrodome)
2004 — Transformers — Collection 2: Series 2.1 (Madman Entertainment)
2006 — Transformers — The Complete Generation One Collection (Metrodome)
2007 — The Transformers — Complete Collection (Madman Entertainment)
2008 — Transformers — Volume 03: Stagione Due Parte Prima (Medianetwork Communication) — English and Italian audio.
2009 — Transformers — Season Two: Part One (Metrodome)
2009 — The Transformers — Complete Collection: Decepticon Edition (Madman Entertainment)
2009 — The Transformers — Season Two, Volume One: 25th Anniversary Edition (Shout! Factory)
2009 — The Transformers — The Complete Series: 25th Anniversary "Matrix of Leadership" Collection (Shout! Factory)
