The Alien Invasion of Griffin Rock

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"The Alien Invasion of Griffin Rock"
Production company	Hasbro Studios
Airdate	March 10, 2012
Writer	Greg Johnson
Director	Patrick Archibald
Animation studio	Atomic Cartoons

Huxley Prescott causes panic when he reports that aliens have invaded Griffin Rock.

Synopsis

“And it's saved, by the blue Bot with a badge on his head!”

Huxley Prescott interrupts programming to cover a daring rescue, as Boulder and Graham Burns try to prevent a truck of dangerous chemicals from plunging from a cliff. As Boulder strains, the other Rescue Bots arrive. Aware they're being recorded, they first rescue the driver, and then pull the truck to safety. Unfortunately the tank pulls loose and falls, but Chase executes a daring last-minute save. For a moment, the Burnses think their cover is blown, but Prescott is distracted by what he believes to be a crop circle, but is actually just a path cut for Mayor Luskey and his wife to have their picnic.

Later in the fire house, Chase believe he will be reprimanded, but Chief Burns lets them all know that when lives are at stake, saving them takes priority over maintaining their cover.

“I don't know why I'm giving you instructions, because you're just going to ignore me either way.”

Doc Greene unveils the SETI dish he's built for Prescott, so Prescott can continue to try and find the aliens he believes are hidden in Griffin Rock. Greene instructs Prescott on the proper use of the dish and stresses the danger of overload.

Cody and the Rescue Bots sit down to watch a movie, and Cody selects The Natives of Tatui, a movie about explorers living on an island. Audio from the film is intercepted by Prescott, who excitedly cranks the dish up to maximum, believing he has heard a transmission from aliens. He's soon making an emergency broadcast to announce his discovery to Griffin Rock. The Burns family assembles in time for the phone to ring, as Mr Bufkin believes aliens have abducted his cows.

“This time, I'm stopping you in the road!”

Boulder and Graham are called to Mr Perkins's farm to check out reports of aliens in his wheatfields, to instead find cows. Dani and Blades head to the town square where a UFO is supposedly taking off, to find Milo in a balloon going alien hunting. Heatwave and Kade rescue Mrs Neederlander's cat from a tree and assure her he wasn't abducted by aliens. At that point, the power goes out all over Griffin Rock and air raid sirens sound. Chief Burns is approached by the panicking Mayor. Burns contacts base and tells everyone to get to the power plant, but is cut off as communications black out. Prescott makes another news flash warning everyone to get off the island. Predictably mass panic sets in as the island's population tries to evacuate, and a ferry is endangered as it's overloaded, forcing Dani and Blades to tow it to safety.

“On three – agh, just push!!”

The team reaches the power station and venture inside to find Cody, who has come to help. The Rescue Bots, left outside, are on-edge. Graham finds Prescott's SETI dish is responsible for the power drain which will eventually cause a massive explosion. Unfortunately the power drain traps the humans in the power plant, so the Rescue Bots must go driverless to deal with the dish.

Doc Greene, having figured out what the problem is, arrives at the dish first but is unable to shut it down. Frankie is surprised to see the Rescue Bots driving on their own, and as the bots deal with the dish, Prescott films them. The Burns family arrives to provide cover for the Rescue Bots, and Cody tells Prescott that the transmission he received was from The Natives of Tatui. As they leave, Doc Greene points out that Prescott's been transmitting everything. Prescott manages to dig himself deeper by subsequently mistaking Mr Buffkin's cows for aliens.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Humans
Boulder (3) Chase (6) Heatwave (7) Blades (10)	Mayor Luskey (1) Huxley Prescott (2) Edgar Prewett (4) Graham Burns (5) Kade Burns (8) Charlie Burns (9) Dani Burns (11) Cody Burns (12) Frankie Greene (13) Doc Greene (14) Mr Perkins (15) Milo (16) Mrs Neederlander (17) Mr Harrison (18)

Quotes

"Cody, this hurts inside."
"The natives have spears and blowguns!"
"Now you're talkin'!"

—Heatwave and Cody

"Just to remind you, we're aliens."

—Heatwave is tired of his team panicking.

Notes

Continuity errors

• The time on Prescott's digital watch seems to be permanently stuck at 12:53.

Continuity notes

• The parade footage Prescott interrupts is from last episode's Lobster and Technology Festival. Milo's balloon is one of the parade balloons from the festival, though it's unclear whether it's still filled with floatium.

Real-world references

• Crop circles are a real-world phenomenon caused by either aliens or hoaxers, depending on who you ask.
• Both the Rescue Bots and the residents of Griffin Rock appear to be movie buffs, as several real-life movies are referenced in this episode:
  • Huxley's line "Be afraid, be very afraid" is the tagline for the 1986 movie The Fly.
  • The aliens in Mr Perkins' cornfield are likely a reference to Signs.
  • Mrs. Prewett fears her husband Edgar is a giant cockroach, a rather specific reference to the villain of Men in Black.
  • Chief Burns's encounter with the Mayor after the lights go out is from the 1978 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
  • The cute alien who wants to call home is a reference to E.T.
  • The face-hugging aliens are, of course, from Alien.
  • The amorphous alien who eats cars may be a reference to The Blob.
  • The invisible alien that cannot see you if you are covered in mud is a reference to the movie Predator.
• The episode's entire premise seems to reference the public reaction to the 1938 radio adaptation of H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds (directed and narrated by Orson Welles), in which many people mistook the radio drama as an actual news broadcast and created mass panic.