Megatron's Master Plan, Part 2
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 Somewhere, a terrorist is crying himself to sleep. | |||||||||
| "Megatron's Master Plan, Part 2" | |||||||||
| Production code | #700-35 | ||||||||
| Production company | Sunbow Productions | ||||||||
| Airdate | October 15, 1985 | ||||||||
| Written by | Donald F. Glut | ||||||||
| Continuity | Generation 1 cartoon continuity | ||||||||
Having had the Autobots exiled from Earth, Megatron reveals the Decepticons' true intentions.
- Japanese title: メガトロン地球征服作戦 PART II (Megatron Chikyū Seifuku Sakusen PART II, "Megatron's Plan to Conquer Earth PART II")
Synopsis
Victor Caroli provides a "Last time, on The Transformers" recap.
As a marching band parades through the streets of Central City, Berger announces that today is Decepticon Day. Sparkplug and Chip immensely dislike the event, but Chip says that it's too late now for Spike to be searching for evidence to prove the Autobots are innocent.
Back in a video viewing room, Spike finishes watching another tape showing the Decepticons as the real culprits. He's about to leave when he meets Ravage. During a brief fight, in which Ravage slams into a TV screen, gets fried, smacked with an office chair, and then finally gets buried under a shelf of video tapes (poor kitty), Spike makes his escape.
At a nearby high school disco, Soundwave and his cassettes make an appearance. Rumble dances with the ladies, Ravage gets petted by some schoolgirls, and Laserbeak gives a real evil glare to a kid who's offering him a cracker (probably considering eating the kid instead).
In deep space, Cosmos is leading the rocket ship carrying the Autobots. Inside, Ironhide and Cliffjumper persuade Prime to turn around and head back to Earth. After the ship doesn't respond to Cliffjumper's control input, Hound uses his shoulder scanner to pinpoint their destination...the SUN! Cosmos finds he is unable to link up with Teletraan I as the rocket starts to overheat...along with the Autobots inside. Cosmos then comes aboard and starts working on the computer, but to no avail.
"Not now, Ironhide."
Inside the Decepticon base, Megatron looks on with glee as he watches the Autobots and their ship collide with the sun and explode. The Decepticons then leave for a press conference.
In the Mayor's Office of Central City, Spike shows the Mayor the tapes he's found. The Mayor can't bring back the Autobots, but now armed with the right evidence, he and Spike start a campaign to clear the Autobots' names.
At the press conference, Megatron reveals that he plans to conquer the planet and suck it dry of energy. He is now the marshal of Central City, newly christened as Megatronia 1, and everyone will be made slaves to obtain energy for the Decepticons. A nearby screen shows the Coneheads running amok through Central City. Spike learns of the Autobots' destruction and escapes, but the tape of evidence is destroyed. Berger saves Spike from getting killed by Laserbeak, but their escape is short-lived, as they're all captured by Megatron.
Back in space, the Autobots have been saved by Trailbreaker's force field. They're attached to Cosmos, who is still heading towards the Sun, since his actions are controlled by Teletraan I.
Back on Earth, things are grim. All the humans have been enslaved by the Decepticons, and they're being forced to mine energy from every available source. Berger's received his reward: He too is cuffed and made to work in a power plant. One night, Chip breaks out of the power plant and sneaks on board a nearby truck. He heads for the Autobot base, where he sets to work at Teletraan I. He finds out that the Autobot rocket was destroyed and is about to learn more when Thrust breaks into the base, destroys Teletraan I and takes Chip back to the plant.
"I said 'not now', Ironhide."
Meanwhile, Cosmos realises he's got control back and turns around. Back on Earth, an Air Force rescue attempt is easily thwarted by the Seekers and Blitzwing. Megatron has the humans cornered when the Autobots arrive. Optimus Prime assembles the entire '84 and '85 line his entire forces to combat the Decepticons, and they win, heavily damaging many of their foes, including the Insecticons and Constructicons. Having thoroughly lost their advantage, the Decepticons retreat.
The Mayor pardons the Autobots, while Berger is taken by the authorities to face justice. With the Decepticons defeated, the Autobots transform and roll for home.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans |
|---|---|---|
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Quotes
"Uh, Laserbeak wanna cracker?"
- —Male human teen who suspects Laserbeak wants to eat him
Ironhide: Are we going anywhere, Cosmos, or is this a tour of the stars?
Hound: Lay off him, Ironhide. He didn't cause our problems.
Ironhide: You're right! Maybe we oughta take it out on the one who got us into this mess!
Optimus Prime: I did what was necessary.
- —Only Ironhide could get away with taking a shot at Prime like that.
"This city is under martial law...and I am the marshal!"
- —Megatron spells doom for the people of Central City...and makes a funny.
"It is over. I saw the Autobot ship, like a silver bullet, streaking toward the Sun, and it collided—collided with destiny! I saw the end. They died in a cosmic funeral pyre!"
- —Shawn Berger, destroying all hope
"Let us teach them a lesson in sorrow!"
- —Dirge as he and the Coneheads terrorize Central City during the Decepticon-imposed martial law
"You...pile of reject parts, I'll—"
"Reject parts? BWAHAHAHAHHAHA!"
- —Chip Chase as Thrust destroys Teletraan I and, perhaps, mocks the handicapped
"You are going to face justice, and may it be kinder to you than it was to us."
- —Optimus Prime, deciding not to have Berger sent on a collision course with the Sun
Notes
Animation or technical glitches
- Some of the show's stock background music is briefly repurposed as source music (music that's actually heard by the characters in the show), coming from a marching band. Unfortunately, the marching band's drumming doesn't actually match up with the musical drum beats. In the next shot, a trumpet is shown as the flutes cut in.
- Thundercracker is shown alongside Megatron in the first shot of the marching Decepticons. Subsequent dialog and animation makes it clear that this should have been Starscream.
- As he watches the Decepticon parade, the temple of Chip's glasses is missing.
- A short scene meant to catch us up with what Spike has been doing shows Spike viewing footage and Ravage arriving in the video room. But the footage Spike views is different from what he saw last episode, and Ravage now arrives through an open doorway instead of bashing down the door and wall.
- Barely disguised versions of Carly and Spike's character models are seen at the Teen Dance. Not-Spike is even wearing Spike's stock tan shirt and blue jeans.
- This being his first appearance, Cosmos's voice lacks the self-echo that would characterize it in his subsequent appearances.
- Improbable viewpoints:
- Megatron gets a view from right alongside the Autobot ship as it approaches the Sun.
- Soundwave is missing his Decepticon symbol as Megatron turns away from watching the Autobot ship explode. It suddenly appears as he steps forward.
- The footage that Spike shows to the mayor is a third version of Starscream removing his Optimus Prime mask, despite Dirge only filming the scene once.
- Justin complains that he doesn't have any "metal-colored crayons" to finish coloring Megatron, even as he continues coloring him. Despite coloring Megatron perfectly thus far, his first stroke goes way outside the lines.
- In the opening shot of the press conference (seen up top), Starscream's helmet is light gray instead of dark gray.
- Starscream's optics are mis-colored blue as he fires his null-ray finger.
- Spike's mouth doesn't move as he says "Oh no" in response to Berger's rant.
- Soundwave's ejection button is blue instead of white as he dispatches Ravage and Laserbeak to capture Spike.
- Megatron's eyes light up, then dim, then light up again. An energy sound effect plays, but not till well after the second lighting-up is finished.
- Blitzwing's head is purple instead of yellow as he and Astrotrain guard the workers.
- Soundwave's mouth plate disappears after threatening "increase efficiency or be terminated" and firing on the slaves.
- When Megatron instructs Thrust to re-capture Chip Chase, his voice is not electronically enhanced.
- Teletraan's screen displays Cosmos's name as "COSMS" [sic].
- The launching sound effect for Thundercracker and Skywarp plays before they've actually lifted off.
- Thundercracker transforms without the transforming sound effect.
- The Decepticons get the Autobot laser sound effect for their opening volley as they fire on the human jets.
- Optimus's headlights aren't colored in as he lectures Megatron.
- As the Autobots arrive at the battle site, Ironhide is drawn with Ratchet's ambulance lights on his roof. Ratchet is right next to him, with no lights visible.
- Not truly an error, but the two sequences of Autobots transforming for battle are recycled sequences from "Atlantis, Arise!" played in reverse. They're played again, forwards this time, as the Autobots transform to roll for home.
- Starscream's "Yeeiiii!" begins before he's actually shot.
- The three panning shots of the various Autobots firing on the Decepticons are all repeated twice.
- One of these panning shots features Smokescreen with a blue head crest, which should be yellow.
Continuity errors
- When Spike found the fishy video footage and was cornered by Ravage last episode, the trial was nearing its conclusion. Since then, the trial has concluded, the Autobots have launched into space, Megatron has paid a visit to Autobot Headquarters, and a Decepticon Day parade has been organized...and meanwhile, Spike is still facing off with Ravage.
- Ravage is seen at the Teen Dance...just one shot after his face-off with Spike. Did he really give up that quickly? (Both this and the previous snafu combine to make it clear that Spike's encounter happened much earlier than the subsequent events, and his escape from Ravage is only shown in this episode because it made a better cliffhanger that way.)
- Did Cosmos just not notice that they were heading toward the Sun?
- Okay, we can buy that Megatron shorted out the ship's guidance system by remote control and locked in its course. But how the heck can Teletraan I control Cosmos against his will? And if that's the case, why not just have Blaster jam the signal?
- Chip rolls out of the truck trailer at will, but trailer doors are generally designed to open only from the outside.
- There are a lot of missing Autobots in this and the previous episode. In particular, the Dinobots, who did not stop fighting and leave Earth on a similar previous occasion, are not seen boarding the ship. Grimlock seems to be present in the force field, but it seems rather unlikely that they would give up the fight on Prime's orders.
- Chip and Optimus Prime behave as if Cosmos is the only interstellar-capable Autobot at this time, which is only sort of true; there's Skyfire, but he had been written out of the show by this point, while Omega Supreme would not appear for another three episodes.
Continuity notes
- First onscreen appearances of Cosmos and Astrotrain.
- Gadgets and powers:
- Hound uses his missile launcher as a sort of radar-path-finder thing.
- Starscream fires the null-ray from his finger.
- Laserbeak fires his eye beams yet again to destroy the videotape.
- Trailbreaker extends his force field to enclose the entire Autobot army, and seemingly radiates it from his entire body.
- Ratchet can fire laser blasts from his hands.
- Ironhide zaps Chip's energy bonds out of existence with a beam from his fingertip.
- Spike makes use of Ravage's tech spec weakness, blinding him with a studio spotlight.
- This episode goes to some lengths to show the full extent of both armies. Lots of characters such as Red Alert, Perceptor, Seaspray and Astrotrain show up for just a shot or two. Even the Insecticons can be glimpsed for a few frames in the Decepticon Day parade (only from the thighs down), and Grimlock is visible among the Autobots floating in space. It's almost shocking that Buzzsaw and Frenzy don't appear.
Real world references
- Star Wars sound effects:
- The Millenium Falcon engine burst is combined with the Death Star superlaser firing noise as the Decepticons leave Decepticon Headquarters.
- Thrust and Dirge both bear down on the city with some more Falcon engine noise.
Trivia
"Prime...kill me...so tired..."
- Ramjet causes an building at least eight stories tall to collapse with zero warning. Some cracks on the building may be meant to indicate that it's abandoned, but otherwise, a lot of humans just died.
- Though he single-handedly saves the Autobots on his own initiative, Trailbreaker gets no lines in the episode and barely even appears except as a Jesus-like silhouette at the center of his force field.
- Judging by the girls surrounding him at the club, Soundwave is popular with the ladies. Trust women to be attracted to something large, cold and mechanical.
- When the Decepticon jets fly off to face the human resistance fighter, as Thundercracker passes the camera, his silver-coloured parts have an almost heroic, shiny gleam to them, which is unusual, given he is a villain in this story.
- The kid cheering for Megatron and company uses the same voice as Aron from the later episode "Child's Play".
- As is made evident by the shooting script for this episode, a large portion of this episode was actually added in at a later stage to bring the it up to the required length—namely, Cosmos's inability to alter his flight path, Chip's escape and Thrust's blasting of Teletraan I.
- When released as a video in the UK, both episodes were compiled as a 45-minute "movie" instead being treated as a two-part episode.
