The Search for Alpha Trion
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 Disco didn't die. It just went into stasis lock. | |||||||||
| "The Search for Alpha Trion" | |||||||||
| Production code | 700-52 | ||||||||
| Production company | Sunbow Productions | ||||||||
| Airdate | November 12, 1985 | ||||||||
| Written by | Beth Bornstein | ||||||||
| Continuity | Generation 1 cartoon continuity | ||||||||
Discovering that his long-thought-dead love, Elita One, is in the hands of the Decepticons, Optimus Prime speeds to Cybertron on a rescue mission, only to end up discovering something about his own history in the process.
- Japanese title: アルファートリンを探せ! (Alpha Trin o Sagase!, "Finding Alpha Trin!")
- Brazilian title: À Procura de Alpha Trion ("Looking for Alpha Trion")
Synopsis
On Cybertron, three Female Autobots (Chromia, Moonracer and Firestar) sneak into Shockwave's headquarters under orders of Elita One. They raid Shockwave's stockpile of energon cubes to power their fight against the Decepticons, but on the way out, Moonracer accidentally trips an alarm. Shockwave, surprised to see female Autobots still alive, sends a sentinel after them.
The Female Autobots escape the sentinel and return to Elita One, though Shockwave deduces the approximate location of their underground headquarters. Shockwave contacts Megatron who sends Starscream, Astrotrain, Rumble and Ramjet to assist in the apprehension of the Female Autobots. Rumble starts an earthquake which damages their headquarters. Elita One attempts to lure them away from the base by attacking, but is captured. Rumble continues shaking things up until Starscream believes the base is suitably destroyed.
Megatron contacts Optimus Prime and shows him the imprisoned Elita One. Optimus rushes to her rescue, even though he knows it's a trap. Apparently, 4 million years ago, Optimus and Elita had a thing going. Right before boarding the Ark, Elita begged to go with him, but Optimus told her it was too dangerous. As they spoke, the Decepticons attacked and Elita vanished in the chaos, leaving Optimus to think she had perished. Not wishing to lose her a second time, Optimus heads for Cybertron via the Decepticon space bridge. Powerglide, Ironhide and Inferno become curious as to why Optimus is heading to Cybertron alone and follow in secret.
As soon as Optimus arrives, he is taken prisoner by Starscream, who dangles him over a barrel of acid. Rumble drops Optimus, but before he lands in the barrel, Elita uses her special power, which stops time. Elita rescues Prime, but at the cost of her own life force, as the special power uses up so much energy. Prime loads Elita into his trailer and races to find Alpha Trion, the only Autobot who can save her.
Back at Shockwave's headquarters, the Decepticons believe Optimus has perished. Just then, the three Autobots arrive and attack. In the Female Autobots' underground headquarters, Moonracer comes up with a plan to dig their way out. They detonate the energon cubes they had just stolen, freeing up their exit. Moonracer, Chromia and Firestar meet up with their friends Powerglide, Ironhide and Inferno, and together they take on the Decepticons.
Optimus eventually finds Alpha Trion, who uses his skill to repair Elita One as best he can. In the end, Alpha Trion instructs Prime to interface with her for a power transfusion, as he is the only Autobot compatible with her design. Prime remarks that only his creator should know that. After the transfusion, Elita One recovers, and the two then return to help the Autobots fight off the Decepticons. Outnumbered, the Decepticons retreat. Alpha Trion then sets the Female Autobots up with a new secret base, and the two Autobot groups bid each other farewell when one returns to Earth.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons |
|---|---|
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Notable Quotes
"Female Autobots? I thought they were extinct."
- —Shockwave obviously hasn't kept up to date on Cybertron's Discovery Channel.
"Such noble nonsense."
- —Shockwave disses Chromia and gives Megatron material to rip off.
"Elita One knows no fear!"
- —Elita One need not worry about Man-Thing, then.
"Optimus Prime, something rather exciting has been discovered on Cybertron. I thought you might like to know about it."
- —Megatron calls to say he's discovered girls.
"Please, let him go."
"Very well, my dear...let him go...into the acid!"
- —Elita One's plea to Starscream to free Optimus Prime doesn't have the expected result.
"How quaint! The girls have come to rescue their boyfriends!"
- —Jealous, Starscream?
"Alpha Trion...I never expected to see you again."
- —Optimus Prime doesn't have much faith in his deadbeat dad.
"Elita One, her lifeforce is almost drained."
"She used her special power. I warned her not to."
- —Alpha Trion despite being centuries old learns just now that females simply never listen.
Notes
Animation or technical glitches
- Rumble has only one gun on his back before the first commercial break. For the remainder of the episode, he has two.
- When Prime receives Megatron's call, he's missing his mouthplate.
- When Megatron tells Optimus about the Female Autobots and shows him "proof", as he asks "How's this Prime?", Elita One appears to talk along with him.
- When the Autobots are trying to work out where Prime had gone, standing at Teletraan I's control panel is a Reflector in a red and grey color scheme.
- Observing the spacebridge from afar, Ironhide notes, "If Prime got past those guards, so can [they]." The thing is, there are no guards, and there weren't any when Prime used the bridge, either.
- Prime is hanging precariously over the vat of acid in one scene, but when the perspective changes to a view from above the vat is missing.
- When Elita revives Optimus from her stasis field, he fades from his normal colors to green, rather than the other way around. Once the fade is complete, mind you, he jumps back to his normal colors when he starts to move.
- As the Decepticons are freed from Elita's stasis field, Starscream cheers, "But Prime has disintegrated!" as if responding to some unspoken line from one of the others. The missing line is also absent from the episode's shooting script.[1] It would seem likely that the missing line covered Elita One's sudden disappearance.
- Inferno gasps "It can't be!" in response to Prime's apparent demise, but Ironhide is shown speaking.
- Chromia's eyes are red during her line of "Ladies first."
Continuity errors
- When the Ark launched back in "More than Meets the Eye, Part 1", there was no indication of a Decepticon attack on the launch site, as this episode's flashback shows.
- Optimus Prime apparently had no idea that Alpha Trion was his creator, despite the fact that in "War Dawn" after being rebuilt, he was fully conscious and actually met the guy and even knew that Elita One was built by him.
Transformers references
- The episode marked the first appearance of female Transformers in official fiction.
- Alpha Trion's relationship to Optimus Prime would be touched upon again in "The Key to Vector Sigma, Part 2", and explained more fully in "War Dawn".
- "War Dawn" would also go on explain precisely why only Prime's power supply would interface with Elita's, as seen in this episode (because she was rebuilt using his schematics).
Trivia
- This episode is the fourth and final appearance of Prime's trailer's "artillery robot" in the animated series.
- This episode contains the rather infamous scene in which Prime connects a cable from his midriff to Elita's, and utters an audible, not-entirely-unpleasant-sounding groan as energy is transmitted through it, to her. Sexy.
- Ironhide must hate the wall in Shockwave's base, this is at least the second time he has blown through it!
- Moonracer seems to be calling Powerglide "Carglide" right after her claim of being the best sharpshooter in the universe.
- The only male Transformers seen to have 'girlfriends' in this episode ALL have red as part of their colour schemes.
- If we think about it, since Optimus Prime and Elita One have the same creator, they are, in some way, brother and sister, which just makes their relationship look plain weird. (Well, maybe not in Japan.) The events of "War Dawn" show that Orion Pax and Ariel existed as non-siblings before they were remade into Optimus Prime and Elita One, though Transformers has demonstrated somewhat puzzling definitions of siblings.
- Greenlight and Lancer went nameless for 25 years when they finally got their monikers in the Timelines text story Flames of Yesterday.
Home video releases
- VHS
1999 — The Original Transformers — Volume 2: Revenge of the Decepticons (Rhino Entertainment)
- Laserdisc
1995 — Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers — Megatron Set (Takara) — Japanese audio only.
1999 — The Transformers — Decepticon Edition (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.
- DVD
2001 — The Transformers — DVD Box 2 (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.
2003 — The Original Transformers — Season 2 Part 2 (Rhino Entertainment)
2003 — The Original Transformers — Season 2 Part 2: Vol. 6 (Rhino Entertainment)
2004 — Transformers — Season 2 Part 2 (Metrodome)
2004 — Transformers — Collection 3: Series 2.2 (Madman Entertainment)
2006 — Transformers — The Complete Generation One Collection (Metrodome)
2007 — The Transformers — Complete Collection (Madman Entertainment)
2009 — Transformers — Volume 05: Stagione Due Parte Terza (Medianetwork Communication) — English and Italian audio.
2009 — Transformers — Season Two: Part Two (Metrodome)
2009 — The Transformers — Complete Collection: Decepticon Edition (Madman Entertainment)
2009 — The Transformers — The Complete Series: 25th Anniversary "Matrix of Leadership" Collection (Shout! Factory)
2009 — The Transformers — Season Two, Volume Two: 25th Anniversary Edition (Shout! Factory)
