The Core
| |||||||||
| |||||||||
| "The Core" | |||||||||
| Production code | #700-27 | ||||||||
| Production company | Sunbow Productions | ||||||||
| Airdate | October 29, 1985 | ||||||||
| Written by | Dennis Marks | ||||||||
| Animation studio | AKOM | ||||||||
| Continuity | Generation 1 cartoon continuity | ||||||||
Megatron tries to drill his way to the center to the Earth, while the Autobots harass Devastator with mind-controlling Dominator Discs.
- Japanese title:' デバスターを倒せ! (Devastor o Taose!, "Defeat Devastor!")
- German Generation 2 title: "'Erde in Gefahr" ("Earth in Danger")
Synopsis
At an underground cavern near a waterfall, the Constructicons are digging with a massive drill. However, the rock they're drilling through breaks, and only some quick work on Mixmaster's part plugs it up. Megatron orders Mixmaster to look over Scavenger's sensory equipment, while Starscream does his daily whine-about-Megatron's-nefarious-plan bit. Megatron counters that if they manage to tap into the Earth's molten core, it will give the Decepticons geothermal energy, a limitless power source. Starscream counters that if they breach the core, the Earth runs the risk of exploding. However, Megatron doesn't care: he's placed a space bridge near the drilling site, which will take the Decepticons to Cybertron if the Earth's stability should be threatened.
Meanwhile, Jazz, Prowl, Gears, Mirage, and Sunstreaker are driving around in that general area, when Sunstreaker realizes that there should be a river where they're driving through. The Autobots head to investigate, and see Mixmaster and Scavenger. The Autobots transform to attack, only to see that the Constructicons have disappeared, and to fail to notice Laserbeak above them. Informed by Soundwave, Megatron orders the Constructicons to destroy the Autobots and form Devastator. The Decepticon combiner knocks the Autobots off the cliff, but Mirage goes invisible on them. He remains undetected as Devastator attacks the others, and finds the drill. As Mirage rejoins the group, Jazz does a sound and light show which distracts Devastator, allowing Mirage and Sunstreaker to lasso his legs with a rope, allowing the Autobots to escape.
At the Autobot base, the Autobots use Teletraan I to calculate what will happen if the drill hits the Earth's core. The result will be total annihilation, but the Autobots have little hope of defeating the Decepticons with Devastator. Wheeljack and Chip Chase present Optimus Prime with their new dominator discs, which will be placed on the individual Constructicons and take control of them when they form Devastator. Convinced, Optimus Prime orders a commando team to plant the discs on the Constructicons. Heading for the drilling site, Ironhide freezes the falls, causing the drill to heat up. Scrapper orders the Constructicons to the surface, during which the Autobots plant a disc on each Constructicon. As the commandos are pulled out, Starscream has them dead to rights, but Megatron orders him to let them pass, saying that he knows of their plan to control Devastator. As Megatron positions the Decepticons, he orders the Decepticons to attack. The Decepticons fire on the still moving Autobots, who break formation, as the Seekers transform to bring the rain on the Autobots. Megatron orders the Constructicons to form Devastator, who grabs Prime. Wheeljack activates the discs, and Optimus orders Devastator to release him. Devastator follows the Autobot leader's orders, and attack the Decepticons. Megatron orders the Decepticons to retreat to the cave, and Devastator seals them in. Optimus orders the Autobots to break off, as they can finish the Decepticons at their leisure.
Within the caverns, Starscream whines about being trapped, not having enough water to keep drilling, and so on. However, Megatron reveals that this was all part of his plan: he has a device that will override the dominator discs and stored enough water to continue drilling for some time. He just didn't tell Starscream because he's a terrible actor. At the Autobot base, the Constructicons are helping with repairs, when an earthquake hits. Realizing that the Decepticons are still drilling, the Autobots head to put them out of commission. However, Megatron is aware of their coming, watching them through the Constructicons' eyes. The Autobots and Devastator head for the cave, and Devastator is set to destroy it, at which point Megatron uses his control switch to deactivate the discs. Devastator begins attacking the Autobots, so Wheeljack tries to boost power to the discs. Unfortunately, this fries Devastator's logic circuits and sends him into a killing frenzy, attacking both Autobot and Decepticon alike.
Finally, the drill hits the core, and the cave—and the earth itself—begin to come apart. Unfortunately, Devastator's rampage has damaged the drill's controls. Megatron orders the Decepticons to the space bridge, but Devastator damages it. Optimus convinces Megatron to give his control switch to Wheeljack, who uses it to deactivate the discs and bring Devastator back to normal. Devastator then heads to destroy the drill, while the Decepticons flee for their lives. Devastator succeeds, but is surprised by Megatron's absence. Chip tells Devastator that he ran, while Devastator believes that "Noble Megatron" merely left to plan their next attack and leaves (he really is as dumb as a post). Chip is somewhat saddened, as he was hoping that Devastator would join the Autobots. Optimus tells him not to let go of his dreams.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans |
|---|---|---|
|
|
|
Quotes
"Autobots, move out!"
- —Sunstreaker, thinking he outranks Jazz and Prowl.
"Traitor!"
- —Starscream to Megatron. No, you read that right.
"I do this only for the benefit of my Decepticons. It grieves me that you may also profit."
- —Megatron, agreeing to ally with the Autobots and lying through his teeth (he's doing it to save his own chassis).
"What's the matter, Chip?"
"I guess I was hoping Devastator might join the Autobots for good, but that's probably just a dumb old dream."
"Hang on your dreams, Chip. The future is built on dreams. Hang on."
- —Optimus Prime gives Chip Chase valuable words to live by.
Notes
Animation or technical glitches
- The first time Hook transforms to robot mode, his legs are white instead of green.
- At the scene where Mirage investigates the cave with the drill, three of the Constructicons can be seen there, while at the same time Devastator is outside fighting the rest of the Autobots.
- Once the Autobots subjugate Devastator, he's seen swatting Skywarp, but the next shot is of Thundercracker spinning off, and then the shot following that has Skywarp standing with the other Decepticons.
- Megatron has a red Decepticon symbol when he orders the Constructicons to stop the drill.
Continuity errors
- Many of the characters seem to act OUT of character in this episode. Megatron's never seemed like the caring kind before when it comes to his Decepticons, and Optimus Prime seems to be going against his "Freedom is the Right of All Sentient Beings" schtick with the enslavement of Devastator. It is possible, however unlikely, that Optimus viewed this as an acceptable strategy given that Megatron had already forcibly turned the Constructicons evil in the first place. By turning them into Autobots again they'd only be undoing the damage already done. Kind of.
- Though maintaining a consistent scale has never been a particularly important issue in Transformers fiction, this episode is a particularly notable offender, with Devastator's relative size fluctuating wildly: in some scenes Megatron appears to be almost half his height, whilst at other times the Autobots barely come up to the top of his foot. Chip's scaling is also wildly variable: when Sunstreaker rescues him from the cave, he appears knee-high to the Autobots, but in the very next scene he has suddenly become as large as Wheeljack.
- Devastator's transformations are unusually random and inconsistent in this episode: at one point Hook transforms into Devastator's head, whilst later it appears as though Scavenger transforms into Devastator's entire lower half, which seems to displace Hook and Long Haul from their normal positions and forgoes the need to involve Scrapper and Mixmaster altogether.
- While counting down the time before the drill hits the Earth's core, Prime says 10 seconds, then Megatron says 1 second immediately thereafter. Somehow, 9 seconds disappear without any editing or time lapse.
Transformers references
- Megatron takes a jab at Starscream's acting abilities, which we witnessed just one episode ago. He's no Beef, but he's just starting his career at this point.
Trivia
- Megatron stops Starscream from sniping the Autobots as Optimus Prime reels them up the cliff, arguing that killing six Autobots would be pointless since he plans on having Devastator destroy all the Autobots at the right moment. When that moment comes, there are still only six Autobots to be had. Should have gone with your gut, Starscream.
- This episode is one of a trio, including "City of Steel" and "The Autobot Run", that was animated by the Korean studio AKOM. They are distinguished by simplistic art, surprisingly high frame rates, some Hanna-Barbara-style animation shortcuts, and various character model oddities, such as Optimus Prime's white backpack (which would show up again in "The Rebirth") and Chip Chase's blue jacket.
