Terminal Velocity
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.jpg) Are you sure this is a FIA Grade 1 circuit? | ||||||
| "Terminal Velocity" | ||||||
| Production company | Hasbro Studios | |||||
| Airdate | October 7, 2018 (Canada) | |||||
| Writer | Gavin Hignight | |||||
| Director | Jean Texier | |||||
| Animation studio | Boulder Media Studio | |||||
Bumblebee explores a nightmarish memory of his visit to Velocitron while Windblade pilots the shuttle in a relentless dogfight with the Decepticon Seekers.
Synopsis
A travel agency's commercial tells everyone about the wonders of Velocitron while cars race around a track. Suddenly, rust consumes the screen.
In the present day, Windblade reports to Bumblebee that she couldn't find any trace of a Decepticon signal she had been tracking. Back at the ship, Bee, bored with watching Earth TV, spots the cortical psychic patch equipment and decides to go for a dip in his own memory to see if he can find out if he can find any more useful info.
Bumblebee meets up with Hot Rod and Blurr on Velocitron. After some friendly little quips between the two racers, they decide to race, as Bee sees a news report about the Plague of Rust that is affecting remote areas of Velocitron. Turning back to the other two, he almost bumps into a stumbling bot with rust on their arm. He tries to bring it to the other two's attention, but they're already speeding away; transforming, he hurries after the two racers.
Upon Windblade's return to the ship, she discovers that the Seekers have managed to locate it, with Acid Storm and Thrust attempting to infiltrate the vessel. She knocks them down with her Sonic Blast, hurrying inside the ship where she sees Bee undergoing his memory dive. Observing that she hopes the memories he's recovering are important, she takes off as the Seekers, recovering, pursue.
Bumblebee catches up to Blurr and Hot Rod, who are preparing to start a race. Hot Rod asks what Bee had been trying to tell them, but caught up in excitement at the awesome-looking racecourse, he can't remember and shrugs it off. The three are quickly off, but soon discover that part of the track is closed for repairs - a fact Blurr had known and failed to mention, to Hot Rod's anger. The brewing argument is interrupted by the approach of a damaged track maintenance drone that crashes into the track just ahead of them. Deciding to take a closer look, they see that it is covered in rust, that spreads to the track and begins spreading rapidly. Desperately racing away from it and past some bots that have already fallen victim, a second drone seems to home on them, crashing just behind their fleeing wheels
Featured characters
Characters in italic text appear only in flashbacks.
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Others |
|---|---|---|
|
|
Quotes
"I could do this course with my optics turned off."
"Whatever you say, Hot Shot."
"That's Hot Rod."
"Hot Rod, Hot Dog, nobody ever remembers who comes in second place anyway."
- —Hot Rod and Blurr, oil and water.
Notes
Continuity notes
- Bumblebee has kept the Cube he and Windblade found in the scoutship's stores in "Cube".
- Bumblebee and Hot Rod are shown wearing Autobot insignias during their trip to Velocitron, and many of the Velocitronian civilans appear to be as well. This suggests that this adventure took place early into the war, following the events depicted in the first half of "Megatron Is My Hero"... raising questions as to whether Velocitron's fate was entirely an accident...
Transformers references
- The colony world of Velocitron makes its return to television for the first time in more than a decade; first appearing in the Transformers: Cybertron cartoon, it put in minor apperances in both the "Aligned" and the IDW Generation 1 continuities since then. Blurr makes his first (and only?) appearance as a Velocitronian, as per his "Aligned" counterpart.
- Bumblebee and Hot Shot are shown arriving and later leaving Velocitron via space bridge, a technology first established in the original animated series and later canonized in the Unicron Trilogy as the primary means of travel between Cybertron and her colonies. Notably, Cyberverse marks one of the first occasions where these space bridges are still functioning in the modern day, connecting Velocitron and other colonies to Cybertron.
- The Rust Plague, a re-imagining of the traditional Transformer ailment of cosmic rust, was first established in The Covenant of Primus as an apocalyptic plague responsible for cutting Cybertron's many colonies off from their ancestral homeworld. Whether by coincidence or design, several aspects of this backstory find their way into the episode — the decision to shut down the space bridge so as to prevent the spread of the disease to Cybertron, for instance, is lifted wholesale from the book.
- Blurr calls Hot Rod by the nickname "Hot Shot". Believe it or not, "Aligned" Rodimus went by "Hot Shot" in the Nintendo DS version of the War for Cybertron videogame.
- The plague victim's cry of "red rust" is also the name of another nasty rusting disease.
Real-world references
- With its wings retracted, the Decepticon scout ship bears a distinct resemblance to the Millennium Falcon, and some of the maneuvers Windblade pulls with it evoke the Falcon's nimbleness as well.
- The Plague of Rust victim in Blurr's hideout babbles "red rust", his voice making it sound a lot like "redrum".
- Blurr's final fate, his still-living body crumbling to dust and blowing away in the wind, seemingly evokes the infamous finale of Avengers: Infinity War.
Trivia
- Blurr's character bio on the Cyberverse site notes that he speaks remarkably fast, not unlike his G1 and Animated counterparts. However, he speaks normally here.
- The Plague of Rust carrier uses a recolored version of Wheeljack's animation model, with pink eyes and highlights and yellow "ears".
Animation and technical errors
- The deployment and retraction of the scout ship's wings is wildly inconsistent between cuts.
Foreign localization
Home video releases
- TBA
