Desertion of the Dinobots, Part 2
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| File:Desertion of the Dinobots 2 title shot.JPG Dessert of the Dinobots, tonight on Food Network. | |||||||||
| "Desertion of the Dinobots, Part 2" | |||||||||
| Production code | #700-37 | ||||||||
| Production company | Sunbow Productions | ||||||||
| Airdate | October 22, 1985 | ||||||||
| Written by | Earl Kress | ||||||||
| Continuity | Generation 1 cartoon continuity | ||||||||
With the Dinobots having deserted the dying Autobots, Spike and Carly must find them and save the Autobots.
- Japanese title: ダイノボットの逃亡 PART II (Dinobot no Tōbō PART II, "Desertion of the Dinobots PART II")
Synopsis
The space bridge doors open, and Spike and Carly find themselves facing the business end of Shockwave's gun arm! He fires a ray that vaporizes Carly's car right out from under them. Fleeing through Decepticon Headquarters, the two humans manage to take refuge inside a small hole in a computer, a space where Shockwave won't fire after them for fear of damaging the equipment. Carly attempts to work the machine, but is hit by a surge of electricity and falls into a nearby pit, damaging the computer, but also twisting her ankle in the process. Megatron contacts Shockwave and orders him to send Cybertonium before the Decepticons die, but Carly's tinkering has left the Space Bridge non-functional.
Using Wheeljack's thumb radio, Spike makes contact with Sparkplug, who is pretty much the only person standing at Autobot Headquarters, as the Autobots are all shut down. Sparkplug uses Teletraan I to guide them out of the computer and toward Wheeljack's old lab. Carly gets them through the door, but before they can start looking for Wheeljack's stash of Cybertonium, someone or something starts pounding on the roof. Spike finds a rifle and blasts the intruder, who is revealed to be... Swoop!
The errant Dinobot explains that the Dinobots were captured by the Decepticons after a fight in Decepticon Headquarters, and taken to the Cybertonium Pit. The three are guided by Sparkplug to a mass transit system. Unfortunately, the tube carrying their car is damaged, and they can no longer communicate with Sparkplug. Deep underground, the three are nearly killed when they activate old defense systems. Swoop saves the day, but his wings are damaged.
Reaching the surface, they find an abandoned city, which has clearly seen better days. Carly discovers a records room, with a datatrack which explains the history of the terrible war between the Autobots and Decepticons. Swoop says that he never knew the war had gone on for so long, but they are soon captured by a Sentinel.
Taken to the Cybertonium Pit, they discover that Shockwave altered the Dinobots' memory circuits, making them think they're loyal to the Decepticons. Carly is able to repair their memory circuits, and the Dinobots thank Carly and Spike for rescuing them (except Slag, of course). Now that the Dinobots are themselves, Spike comes up with an escape plan. He and Grimlock start arguing, so the Sentinel decides to remove the humans. When the force field surrounding them comes down, the Dinobots destroy the drones. The Dinobots take the kids to an access tube, and Grimlock carries them up.
Meanwhile, Sparkplug sends a message to Cybertron, saying that he has managed to direct the space bridge to land outside the Autobot base. Shockwave contacts Megatron, saying that he has sufficient Cybertonium, and the Space Bridge is repaired, but that he has lost control of the destination site. Having overheard this, the Dinobots overwhelm Shockwave, and although Shockwave is able to hit Swoop, the Dinobots and humans manage to escape back to Earth with a shipment of Cybertonium.
At the Autobot base, Optimus Prime awards Spike and Carly with medals, making them "Honorary Autobots". Grimlock decides to follow the Autobot leader's orders, and the Dinobots rejoin the Autobots...until Grimlock no longer feels like following Prime's orders.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans | Others |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Quotes
"That was my car, not an Autobot. Decepticreep!"
"I don't think he cares, Carly."
- —Carly and Spike after Shockwave destroys Carly's car
"He won't blast one of his own robots."
- —Spike Witwicky, having learned nothing of the Decepticons in the past two years
"The more I see of this planet, the more I like it."
"The more I see of it, the more tired I get."
- —Carly as she marvels at Cybertron while Spike despairs over the huge stairs
Spike/Carly: WHOA!
Swoop: Why you make that noise?
Spike: Because we just left our stomachs back up there. Hoh-oh!"
Swoop: Me glad me not have stomach to leave.
- —Spike and Carly get a tiny bit of motion sickness sympathy from Swoop.
"Metal of good old days not so good."
- —Swoop doesn't think much of the traps in the tunnels. He's going to think even less of the guys who built them.
"Almost forgot—me Swoop can transform!"
- —In standard Dinobot fashion, Swoop hits on a solution for getting around with a damaged Pterodactyl wing.
"Millions of years ago, Cybertron was a planet of peace...until the Decepticons, lusting for power, began a terrible war. Not designed for combat, the Autobots were overwhelmed and subjugated by their evil opponents. While many Autobots fled Cybertron, a few valiant survivors devised new tactics and launched a counter-offensive on their arch-foes. And thus began a terrible series of wars. Many times, both sides have claimed victory, but this has been short-lived, for the Autobots have overthrown Decepticon tyrants, and, likewise, Decepticon treachery has toppled many a peaceful Autobot ruler. And to this day, the war rages on."
- —Computer activated and telling the history of the Autobot-Decepticon conflict to Carly, Spike and Swoop.
"No! Me hate you!"
"Well, I'm not nuts about you, either!"
"Me not do what you say!"
"You lunky bag of bolts, you can't do anything!"
- —Grimlock and Spike fake a fight within the Cybertonium Pit.
"Intruders!"
- —Shockwave displays a talent for understatement as he is ambushed by the Dinobots.
Slag: Even though Dinobots not like it...
Snarl: ...We take orders from you now...
Grimlock: ...Until next time me Grimlock no feel like it.
- —A warm fuzzy moment, Dinobot style.
Notes
Animation and technical errors
- One of Teletraan's displays labels Spike and Carly's location as "DECEPTKON COMPUTER BRAIN".
- During the final scene, Swoop can be seen being repaired, but his intact wing is the same color as the bed he's lying on, and his beak is red. And Ratchet, standing at the foot of the bed, is red and gray.
Continuity errors
- At the end of Part 1, Shockwave fires (with two guns!) into the opening Space Bridge elevator door, triggering a huge explosion. At the opening of this episode, however, he's just standing there when the elevator doors open. He fires a ray that vaporizes Carly's car out from under its two human passengers, but doesn't cause any human-eviscerating explosions. (Could have been Shockwave imagining what he would like to do, but ended up actually doing something that wouldn't lead to the destruction of space bridge.)
- Incidentally, the ability to vaporize an entire automobile's worth of mass would seem to be a pretty useful power for an evil robot, but it's never seen outside of this episode's opening sequence.
- Spike and Carly happen upon a stack of energon cubes, and the script makes a point of having Spike wonder aloud where they came from, since Cybertron is supposed to be out of energy. Sparkplug tells them to leave the cubes, and that's all that said about them. Okay, so... where did they come from?
- Spike has got to be some kind of superhuman; he lifts a metal gun that's bigger than he is! He also manages to hold back an approximately 20+foot tall metal door weighing several tons from crushing him and Carly.
- Sparkplug says he's altered the space bridge destination by tapping into the Decepticons' computers. He never mentions how he managed to build an entire space bridge receiver ring right outside Autobot Headquarters.
- When Carly and Spike reach Wheeljack's lab, Carly opens the door without ever knowing the pass code. Could she be a master hacker, or does Wheeljack just have lousy security? He also has a Decepticon symbol on his doorway, but this could have been put there by Shockwave when he locked it prior to "Divide and Conquer".
Transformers references
- The ships used by fleeing Autobots in the datatracks are the same type as the Ark.
- The episode suggests that the Autobots created the art of transforming, something that the "Five Faces of Darkness" also corroborated.
- This was the first episode where a Transformer that isn't a hologram or a clone is shown to be destroyed.
- For the most part, this is the last time the Dinobots would be shown as rebellious, intimidating warriors in the original animated continuity, as by their next appearance in The Transformers: The Movie they are happy to work with other Autobots, and by Season 3, are generally used as comedic foils.
Trivia
- Carly doesn't appear entirely thrilled with the whole "honorary Autobots" thing. Not surprising, considering everything that happened to her in this episode.
- "Photon Light" sounds redundant.
- Apparently Cybertron has an atmosphere with a high oxygen content and similar gravity as compared to Earth. What a coincidence...
- Oddly, the tense music playing when Sparkplug is waiting for the Space Bridge to activate continues playing for a good length of time after it's obvious that Spike, Carly and the Dinobots have made it back safely.
