Dark Awakening (episode): Difference between revisions
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"Great. What'll Daniel and I do when the air runs out?"<br> | "Great. What'll Daniel and I do when the air runs out?"<br> | ||
"Basically you'll have two choices: suffocate, or smother." | "Basically you'll have two choices: suffocate, or smother." | ||
:—As '''Spike''' wonders about the limited oxygen in the Autobot life pod, '''Rodimus Prime''' takes "deadpan" to a whole new level. | :—As '''Spike''' wonders about the limited oxygen for the first time in life in the Autobot life pod, '''Rodimus Prime''' takes "deadpan" to a whole new level. | ||
Revision as of 14:56, 23 March 2012
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 Yeah, let this be how the kids remember their hero. | |||||||||
| "Dark Awakening" | |||||||||
| Production code | 700-93 | ||||||||
| Production company | Sunbow Productions | ||||||||
| Airdate | October 1, 1986 | ||||||||
| Written by | Antoni Zalewski | ||||||||
| Animation studio | AKOM | ||||||||
| Continuity | Generation 1 cartoon continuity | ||||||||
Optimus Prime is revived as a zombie by Quintessons.
- Japanese title: コンボイの影 (Convoy no Kage, "Convoy's Shadow")
- German title: "Das Erwachen im Dunkeln" ("Awakening in the Dark")
Synopsis
On the run from Galvatron, Rodimus Prime, Arcee, Ultra Magnus, Kup, Spike and Daniel try the old "detonate three-quarters of the ship" trick to lose their pursuers. What's left of the ship can't support human life for long, however, so they take refuge on board the nearby Autobot Mausoleum, an interstellar tomb containing many of their deceased comrades, most notably the venerated Optimus Prime.
While exploring by himself, Daniel is stuck in a dark room with robot corpses and gets appropriately creeped out... particularly when he sees what looks like the fully animated form of Optimus Prime. When he finds the others he swears he has seen Optimus Prime alive. To satisfy his curiosity and against the opinions of the other Autobots, Rodimus opens Prime's tomb, only to find it empty. However, they cannot investigate further because the Decepticons have followed them inside and attack them (turns out Galvatron has wised up to the detonate-three-quarters thing.) The fierce battle that follows appears lost for the Autobots, when suddenly they are saved by none other than Optimus Prime. With their ranks bolstered by the mighty warrior's firepower, they quickly drive the freaked out Decepticons into retreat.
The Autobots are amazed and confused at Prime's presence. Optimus can give them no explanation to his apparent resurrection, just the typical near-death experience of seeing darkness and then a light at the end of the tunnel. Rodimus Prime eagerly (too eagerly) returns the Matrix of Leadership to him, despite Prime's bizarre behavior and damaged appearance, and against the advice of Kup and Ultra Magnus. Without the Matrix inside him, Rodimus reverts to Hot Rod and declares, "Let's party!" Optimus evidently has other plans and attacks the Autobots and sets the auto-destruct sequence to the mausoleum ship. He then departs and leaves the others stranded.
After returning to Cybertron, Optimus informs the Autobots that Rodimus and the others were killed by the Quintessons. This puts everyone in a pretty bad mood (Springer swears vengeance - particularly for Arcee - while Grimlock spends at least a minute stomping and thumping his tail). Optimus re-assumes command and orders an all-out attack on a supposed Quintesson base.
Hot Rod and his group manage to escape, mere moments before the mausoleum ship plunges into a star and explodes. They return to Cybertron, but find nobody around but the Dinobots. Turns out most of the Autobots have left to attack the Quintessons. They pursue their friends in their own ship, but arrive to find the fleet already being decimated by Quintesson missile fire. Their frantic calls to stop the attack are dismissed by Optimus as Quintesson tricks.
Hot Rod and the others finally manage to board the lead ship, and the former Rodimus goes "Optimus hunting" after his zombified mentor. When the two meet, Optimus starts to pound on Hot Rod, but as he's kicking Hot Rod's tailpipe he begs Hot Rod to defeat him.
Fighting against both Hot Rod and himself, Optimus flashes back to his own reanimation at the hands of the Quintessons, who stole his corpse and reanimated it with their own evil programming to lead all Autobots into a trap. Optimus is nothing more than a "mindless zombie", combined with "lingering remnants" of his personality and memories. Hot Rod is physically overcome by Prime, but the influence of the Matrix allows Prime to overcome the Quintessons' programming. Ending the fight, Optimus returns the Matrix to Hot Rod's chest cavity, restoring him to his status as Rodimus Prime. As Optimus Prime takes his leave, the other Autobots find their battered leader and inform him that the equally battered ship is being evacuated.
Optimus Prime takes control of the ship, and orders the Autobot fleet away from the Quintesson trap. As the stunned Quintessons watch, the Autobot fleet escapes. Optimus's final act is to pilot the Autobot flagship into the trigger zone of the Quintesson trap. With a massive explosion, the solar system is destroyed. As Kup bids his old friend farewell and the other Autobots mourn their lost leader a second time, Magnus remarks that the nova will be Optimus's memorial. Rodimus doubts he'll be the Autobot leader that Optimus Prime was, but vows to try.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans | Others |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
Quotes
"Great. What'll Daniel and I do when the air runs out?"
"Basically you'll have two choices: suffocate, or smother."
- —As Spike wonders about the limited oxygen for the first time in life in the Autobot life pod, Rodimus Prime takes "deadpan" to a whole new level.
"Hey, he's here, he's back, and who cares how!"
"Must... complete... plan..." Optimus abruptly walks offscreen.
"Yeah! What's the plan?"
- —Rodimus misses some critical clues from Optimus Prime's behavior.
Arcee: Sludge! Snarl! Oh, are we glad to see you.
Sludge: Me Sludge not glad to see you.
Snarl: You all dead! Rarrr!
Sludge: ...Maybe we dead.
- —Arcee freaks out the Dinobots.
Kup: Where is everybody?
Sludge: All go smash Quintessons.
Ultra Magnus: Quintessons? What do Quintessons have to do with any of this?
Snarl: They kill you! Optimus Prime say so! ...Uh-oh. Something not right.
- —The Dinobots start to comprehend that all is not well.
"This won't even be a war."
"Merely an exercise in... extermination."
- —the Quintessons nonchalantly slaughter the Autobot fleet
"Not a game! ...Matrix makes me too strong!"
"Now there's a unique complaint!"
- —Optimus Prime wails on Hot Rod, who takes it in stride
"Monsters... they made me a weapon, to destroy the very ones I loved in life. But you will save them... Rodimus Prime."
- —Optimus Prime hands over the Matrix.
- —Optimus Prime's last words. Or not.
Notes
- This episode originally aired early in Season 3. However, it was re-aired as the season drew to a close, as a lead-in to the latest episode, "The Return of Optimus Prime". The voiceover by Victor Caroli, described above, was added at this time, and subsequently became the more well-known ending. The original version was released on VHS by Kid Rhino, but when the company released the episode on DVD, the altered ending was the only one included (despite the presence of no less than three audio tracks on the disc). Observing the frustration this caused among American fans, DVD consultant Chris McFeely helped ensure the restoration of the original ending for Metrodome DVD release of the episode, with the alternate ending included as an easter egg. The original ending is also the version featured on the Shout! Factory DVD sets.
- This was one of twelve episodes of the original cartoon released as audio adventures by the German company Karussell Musik und Video.
Animation or technical glitches
- Early in the episode, a shot of the Decepticons flowing shows their group to contain a 1984 Seeker design with Dirge's color-scheme.
- One shot of the Decepticon fleet shows two Seekers colored in Blitzwing's colors.
- As Rodimus delivers the "I'd hoped never to see it again" line, Kup's eyes are gray and the triangles below them blue, rather than the other way around.
- As they approach the Mausoleum in their ship, the Autobots keep changing positions between shots. First Kup is up front on the right, then he's behind Rodimus on the left, then Rodimus is in the back right with Kup in front of him. Arcee moves from the front right to the back left, then back to the front right again.
- Also during the approach, the seats at the front of the ship appear and disappear between shots.
- Also during the approach, the large door with the Autobot symbol has a grey frame around it (with parts that overlap the right and left sides), but when it opens, the frame is gone.
- In the first closeup scene (after Daniel politely turns on the light on a tomb), Optimus has a much more damaged look (both chest windows are broken showing internal circuitry, his mouthplate is broken, and the overall look of the chest area is more worn out. For the remainder of the episode, he is drawn with the damaged look from the movie.
- When Cyclonus shoots Arcee, the blast comes from WAY too low from the gun, coming instead from his third knuckle.
- The top part of Ultra Magnus' back is sometimes colored grey when it should be red (such as when he shoots at Galvatron).
- When Optimus shoots at the Decepticons, Galvatron's Decepticon logo is missing its "eyes."
- Ultra Magnus yells at the other Autobots to "Hold your fire, we've driven them off!" but they've already stopped shooting!
- After driving the Decepticons off, Spike is not in the shot, even though he was right next to Daniel earlier.
- After driving the Decepticons off, Optimus walks up to the Autobots and the left side of his helmet is grey instead of blue.
- And after driving the Decepticons off, Optimus is still holding his gun, but when he asks about the Matrix, it's suddenly gone.
- For most of the episode, Optimus Prime's fog lights are colored in reverse (red with grey casings), and his back is colored grey (or baby blue at times) instead of red.
- Right after Optimus Prime shoots Hot Rod, Kup, Arcee, Daniel and Spike, the top of his helmet is colored gray.
- Hot Rod is occasionally drawn as Rodimus and even addressed as such a couple of times.
- As he notes the collision course with the sun, Magnus' mouth is red.
- As Springer comments on going after the Quintessons, his mouth movements don't sync with what he's saying.
- When boarding Ultra Magnus' "little improvisation," the camera shake isn't synced with the frames of animation, so it looks like there are two Arcees, Kups and Hot Rods.
- When he talks to the Dinobots on Cybertron, Ultra Magnus' mouth is red.
- When Perceptor shouts "They're alive!", Blaster (with a white helmet) and what appears to be a miscolored Jazz are standing in the background, despite the bridge looking somewhat empty, save for himself and Optimus.
- Not a glitch so much as a strange shortcut: the Quintessons' lines, "Perhaps we should seek some cover." and "No. Place your faith in our defense systems." are both recycled from "Five Faces of Darkness" Part 2.
- The Autobots the Quintessons fire upon seem to include Skydive, Slingshot, Powerglide, Skyfire, and (for some reason) Dead End. The former three even completely explode when struck by the missiles.
- As the Quintessons fire on the Autobots, an interior shot shows an Autobot with a purple symbol on his chest.
- As Hot Rod announces he's going "Optimus hunting," Wheelie is missing his Autobot symbol.
- As Optimus walks up to Hot Rod, his Autobot symbol is grey instead of red.
- Just before Optimus' flashback, his crotch piece and lower legs are dark grey instead of blue.
- When he puts Rodimus in the wrestling hold, Optimus' nose isn't drawn in.
- When Rodimus tosses him, Optimus' face is entirely colored in blue. As he lands, the top of Optimus' helmet is grey.
- When Rodimus tosses him, Optimus clearly hits a display monitor (which doesn't break) in its upper left corner, but when he lands, he's way over on the right side of the console.
- When Optimus gives the Matrix back to Hot Rod, Hot Rod's door is made up of the entire yellow (flame) part of his chest. In "Five Faces of Darkness, Part 4," the door was split in half and opened around the center of his chest.
- Hot Rod doesn't actually turn into Rodimus Prime when he's given the Matrix.
- Kup tells Rodimus the ship is being blown to pieces, but it seems perfectly calm (until the Quintessons notice it's heading for the detonator and fire on it, of course).
- When Optimus is in control of the flagship and orders the other Autobots to return, he has his left arm again... and the hand colored wrong (red).
- As the Autobots watch the explosion, Ultra Magnus' mouth is red, and his eyes are connected together like a visor.
Continuity errors
- Galvatron's starship, the Revenge, is shown to be perfectly intact here, despite being smashed by Unicron in the movie.
- Rodimus Prime and his crew were surprised to find the Autobot Mausoleum, suggesting they forgot where it was. Why didn't the Autobots just put the Mausoleum somewhere on Cybertron?
- When Daniel accidentally turns off a light and tries to turn around again, he sees Optimus Prime covered what appear to be spiderwebs. Leaving aside the question of organic spiders existing in an Autobot mausoleum and spinning webs to catch organic insects there, Prime has recently been worked on by the Quintessons, so there hasn't really been time for such webs to accumulate again. What, did Prime or the Quintessons set up some prop webs for atmosphere?
- How is Daniel able to reach the controls anyway? Did the Autobots design them to be human-sized?
- Shortly after Optimus Prime first awakens, Rodimus Prime states that Optimus has been dead "for years". Unless he means dog years, this is impossible, considering season 3 starts immediately after the 1986 movie. Also, Daniel is the same age he was when Optimus died. In actuality, Optimus probably hasn't been dead more than a few months. This works a little better in Japan, though, where the series takes place in 2010.
- It's never explained where Hot Rod and company obtained the ship that carries them away from the Mausoleum. Magnus just comments vaguely about "this little improvisation" in reference to the vessel.
- Optimus returns to Cybertron and speaks with several Autobots about what happened to Hot Rod and the others, but nobody asks how he's still alive, or offers to take him to Junk so Wreck-Gar can repair him fully.
- Skyfire reappears during the shot where Powerglide and several other jets are destroyed. Where's he been all this time?
- During the flashback to the Quintessons discussing Optimus Prime over his dead body, shouldn't the body still be grey (as it appeared after his death in the movie)? It's the usual colors instead.
- Until the Matrix overruns the Quintesson's programming, Optimus mouthplate doesn't move while he speaks. Not that this isn't a first. However, after that event the mouthplate moves along as Optimus is speaking.
- The Quintessons reprogrammed Prime to lead the whole Autobot fleet into the trap so they could reclaim Cybertron, but Prime leaves two Dinobots (of all Transformers) back at the base.
Continuity notes
- Besides Optimus, the interred Autobots whose names are read off by Daniel are Ironhide, Prowl, Ratchet, and Huffer. The first three were killed off in The Transformers: The Movie, all in the same scene, in fact. This is the first time we learn of Huffer's death, however. The absence of Brawn (also killed off in the same scene) has led to joking fandom speculation that he must have survived getting shot in the shoulder (bolstered by his and Huffer's animation-error appearance in "Carnage in C-Minor". Wheeljack and Windcharger's bodies weren't even mentioned, despite their offscreen deaths in the movie.
- It is later revealed that, while reanimating Optimus Prime into a zombie, the Quintessons analyzed his specifications and used them to build Guiltaur. Transformers 2010 Part 4
Real-world references
- Writer Antoni Zalewski recycled his own work for the opening scene of this episode, which is copied almost note-for-note from the 1985 "Ghost Ship" episode of The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians. The parallels include a pursuit through space, launching an escape pod ("We turned the cockpit into an escape ship just in time!"), right up to Spike's verbatim quote "It's the size of... Manhattan!"
Home video releases
- VHS
1988 — Transformers — Dark Awakening / Grimlock's New Brain (Tempo Video)
1990 — Transformers — Dark Awakening (Collins Video)
1990 — Transformers — Dark Awakening / Grimlock's New Brain (Abbey Home Entertainment)
1999 — The Original Transformers — Volume 2: Revenge of the Decepticons (Rhino Entertainment)
- Laserdisc
1999 — The Transformers: 2010 (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.
- DVD
2001 — The Transformers: 2010 — DVD Box (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.
2003 — The Original Transformers — Season 3 Part 1 (Rhino Entertainment)
2003 — The Original Transformers — Season 3 Part 1: Vol. 2 (Rhino Entertainment)
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)
2006 — The Best of The Transformers (Madman Entertainment)
2007 — Transformers — The Classic Episodes (Metrodome)
2007 — The Transformers — Complete Collection (Madman Entertainment)
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)
