Teletraan I

The name or term "Teletraan" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Teletraan (disambiguation).

Teletraan I is an Autobot computer from the Generation 1 continuity family.

"Teletraan I, we need to ask you something."
"I doubt it's how my day was. It's always the same: 'Give me a visual, Teletraan I,' 'Analyze this energy signature, Teletraan I,' 'Put on some TV, Teletraan I.' Ingrates. I should've let the Decepticons slag you back in '84."

Teletraan I is the semi-sentient computer that runs the Autobots' spaceship/base, the Ark.

Teletraan I has extensive communications abilities and can monitor Earth's television and radio broadcasts to search for news that may be of interest to the Autobots. It also operates the Sky Spy and was responsible for rebuilding and reactivating all the Transformers aboard the Ark in 1984.

Fiction

Generation 1 cartoon

Voice Actor: Casey Kasem (English), Masashi Ebara (Japanese)

Teletraan I proved to be quite a capable mechanism for keeping the Autobots organised and up-to-date. It only has a few flaws, such as being unable to tell Autobots and Decepticons apart (it repaired everyone aboard when the Ark reactivated in 1984). Unsurprisingly for a computer belonging to a group of sentient robots, its verbal interface was very advanced. More than Meets the Eye, Part 1

Teletraan I was quite likely destroyed when Trypticon crumbled the volcano surrounding the Ark in 2005. Five Faces of Darkness, Part 5

Its link, if any, with the Teletraan II computer is unknown.

Beast Wars cartoon

Voice Actor: David Sobolov (English), ? (Japanese)

When inscribing his message into the Golden Disk, Megatron included the access codes to Teletraan I to carry out the attempt to destroy Optimus Prime before the Great War began on Earth. Blackarachnia managed to steal the codes, and after Megatron attempted to kill Prime, she used them to activate Teletraan I's repair equipment. The Agenda (Part III) Optimal Situation

Later, after the Maximals were forced to move into Mount St. Hilary after the destruction of the Axalon, Rhinox attempted to use Teletraan I's own shield system to protect their fortifications. However, Autobot technology and Maximal technology were too different to make a successful shield system. Changing of the Guard

After Blackarachnia transferred the access codes to Optimus Primal, the Predacons took control of Primal using a device created by Tarantulas. After Megatron merged his spark with his Decepticon ancestor and namesake, Tarantulas betrayed Megatron and set Teletraan I to self-destruct. Blackarachnia attempted to deactivate the overload. Teletraan I deactivated the overload and wished Blackarachnia to "have a nice day". Master Blaster

Spelling and pronunciation

Got that? Good, now forget it.

Because Teletraan I came from the non-written medium of television, its proper spelling is unclear, and fans have often spelled it with a single "a". This choice is backed up by Action Cards and the S.T.A.R.S. Tech-Spec Manual, which both say "Teletran I", and the Ultimate Guide, which says "Teletran-1". However, one sticker book is known to spell it "Teletraan 1", and none of these sources is superior to the rest. Therefore, this wiki defaults to the spelling used in the episode scripts and production bible: "Teletraan I", with two "a"s, a roman numeral, and no hyphen. Not only is its use more consistent and widespread over time than the smattering of obscure, contradictory published examples, but it also maintains congruity with "Teletraan II", whose episode-script spelling was also double-"a". For consistency's sake, the double-"a" remains our default when we translate Japanese names, or when the official English translation has never been seen written out.

Pronunciation has been a matter of much less contention, since the word was always pronouned "tell-uh-tran" in the original series. However, for some reason the Beast Wars voice actors pronounced the last syllable "tron". Perhaps in response to dissatisfaction among fans, in the final episode of the series, Rattrap annoyedly corrects Blackarachnia with the original pronunciation (to which Blackarachnia replies, "Whatever!").

Notes

So this is like... Auntie, but with curls?

• It appears that Yūki Ōshima had plans to use Teletraan I in his 15 Go! Go! series. A sketch of what seems to be a floating, glowing female head representing Teletraan I appears in Ōshima's 15 Go! Go! / Kiss Players compilation book. This was never seen in the actual series; it is unknown why the idea was dropped.