Megatron's Master Plan, Part 1
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 We're voting you off the planet. | |||||||||||||
| "Megatron's Master Plan, Part 1" | |||||||||||||
| Production code | #700-34 | ||||||||||||
| Production company | Sunbow Productions | ||||||||||||
| Airdate | October 14, 1985 | ||||||||||||
| Written by | Donald F. Glut | ||||||||||||
| Continuity | Generation 1 cartoon continuity | ||||||||||||
The Decepticons manage to turn the humans against the Autobots, and the Autobots are ordered to leave the planet.
- Japanese title: メガトロン地球征服作戦 PART I (Megatron Chikyū Seifuku Sakusen PART I, "Megatron's Plan to Conquer Earth PART I")
- Brazilian title: O Plano Mestre de Megatron Parte 1 ("The Megatron's Master Plan Part 1)
- Russian title: Главное злодейство Мегатрона (Часть 1) (Glavnoye zlodeystvo Megatrona (Chast' 1), "Megatron's Most Evil Deed")
- Italian title, dub 1: Autorobots in esilio-Parte 1 ("Exiled Autobots-Part 1")
- Italian title, dub 2: Il grande piano di Megatron - I ("Megatron's master plan - I")
Synopsis
The mayor of Central City is officially opening a new solar tower when his speech is interrupted by Starscream, Thrust, Dirge, and Ramjet. After the Decepticons realize there is no energy in the tower yet, guards come out with tanks and attempt to shoo them away. The tanks are destroyed and the guards escape with their lives, while the mayor calls for the Autobots.
An Autobot attack force, consisting of Optimus Prime, Ironhide, Smokescreen, Tracks, Warpath, and Bumblebee, arrives at the scene. Everyone transforms to robot mode except Tracks, who transforms to his flight mode and takes off after the Coneheads, who are making a quick exit. Tracks uses a radiator-mounted black beam gun to blind Dirge. Ramjet seeks revenge for this and knocks Tracks clean out the air. On the ground, Starscream is being hammered by laser blasts from Ironhide, Smokescreen, Prime and Warpath. Thrust saves him with a missile barrage. Smokescreen retaliates and fires his shoulder-mounted lasers, which damage Thrust's guidance systems. Beaten and battered, the Decepticons retreat.
The mayor thanks the Autobots and decides to honor them at City Hall. Spike Witwicky comments that it's about time the Autobots got some recognition for their actions.
In his office, Shawn Berger watches the events and is infuriated, since he wants to be mayor so badly. He sends his guards out, claiming he needs to think. He picks up an odd-looking cassette on his desk, which transforms into Laserbeak. The Decepticon grabs Shawn and flies out of the office and then out of the city, towards a mountain ridge.
There, Megatron, Soundwave and Dirge await Shawn's arrival. Megatron tells Shawn that he can help get the power that he so desperately desires, even two cities if he wants. In return, Shawn must use his wealth, power and influence to help the Decepticons. Megatron tells Berger that, like many others, he's been blinded by Autobot propaganda. He persuades Berger into thinking the Decepticons are good and the Autobots are evil and that all he needs is evidence. Berger agrees to help, and Dirge takes him back to his office. After Berger's departure, Megatron tells Soundwave that Berger "thinks he will be king, but he will be nothing more than a pawn!"
At a deserted oil field, Optimus Prime shows up with a group of Autobots: Wheeljack, Sunstreaker and Ironhide. Berger flies in a news helicopter overhead and records the Autobots stealing energy. Ironhide notices the helicopter and warns Prime, who begins to fire on it. Megatron, Starscream, Thrust, Dirge and Ramjet save Berger and drive off the Autobots. Wheeljack fires as he escapes and knocks off the camera beneath the copter. Dirge finds it and gives it to Megatron, who must return it to Berger, since it "contains valuable evidence".
At Central City's City Hall, the public is gathered and cheering the Autobots, who are rolling parade-style through town. The Autobots all transform and head towards the Hall. Inside, Optimus Prime is joined by Hound, Ironhide, Cliffjumper and Bumblebee. After a brief moment of reading out the wrong speech, the Mayor finally gets it right and proceeds to request the airing of a video of the work the Autobots did at the Solar Plant yesterday. However, Berger has had the tapes switched, and the audience sees the tape the Decepticons made. It shows additional scenes of Prime and Wheeljack turning the coneheads evil with a ray gun and Prime claiming that the Autobots will claim the Earth for their own once fully trusted.
Now hated by the public, the Autobots return to base. After a brief rest period, they end up being arrested by the mayor and Berger's private army. They and the Decepticons are taken to court. During the trial, Spike escapes and sets out to clear the Autobots' names, but Soundwave launches Ravage to slow Spike down. After slamming Ravage in a revolving door, Spike escapes. He later finds the tape room and watches one of the tapes...which reveals that the Autobots at the oil field were Decepticons in disguise. He starts to head back to the trial with the tape, only to find his path blocked by Ravage.
Back at the trial, without evidence, the Autobots are found guilty and are banished from Earth forever. Later that night, the Autobots are taken to a shuttle and forced to board by Megatron. They blast off, heading towards Cybertron.
Inside the Autobot base, Megatron and Shawn Berger are at Autobot Headquarters. As Berger watches, Megatron uses Teletraan I to reprogram the rocket's guidance systems for a one-way trip into the sun.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans |
|---|---|---|
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Quotes
"Ah, the power of public relations."
- —Megatron, possibly the most honest politician in the world.
"Hold the last order, Prime...I wanna throw some...dark on the subject."
- —Tracks demonstrates his black beam gun.
"Another raid to blame on the Decepticons...HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
- —Starscream as Optimus Prime with the creepiest laugh ever...(an early Nemesis Prime?)
"SAVE THE HUMANS!"
- —Megatron. No, this isn't miscited.
"Hey, guys, look. Berger dropped one of his video cameras. Let's make some home movies!"
- —Dirge thinks about a career as a camera man. Follow your dreams, Dirge!
"I knew the humans would turn on us someday. They're such undependable creatures. Inferior lifeforms."
"Ahh, I'm not so sure, Sunstreaker. Some of my best friends are humans."
- —Sunstreaker and Bumblebee discuss the worthiness of humans while Spike, Sparkplug, and Chip are right there.
Notes
Animation or technical glitches
- Solar panels aren't made of glass, but they're shown shattering as if they were.
- When the first tank driver opens his cockpit to bail out, the 'whirr' sound effect doesn't play until the canopy is already open.
- As Optimus runs toward the retreating Decepticons, he gets a multi-gun array of laser sound effects instead of his own normal gun noise.
- Spike's voice says "Your Mayorship", but Spike is nowhere in the shot; instead, Optimus is shown kneeling and extending a hand to the mayor.
- The window of Berger's office keeps changing size; in some shots, it's six panes wide (plus the curtains), while in others, it has 8 visible panes.
- Berger's office has a window that makes up only part of the wall; however, the outside shot of his building shows it to be made entirely of glass.
- Due to the limits of the show's stock music library, the marching band drummers are banging their drums but not making any sound.
- The Autobots walk up the steps of City Hall into a shadowy entryway. The shadowy entryway disguises the fact that there would probably only be human-sized doors there, rather than the Autobot-sized ones that would be required for the Autobots to actually enter the building. Nevertheless, in the next shot, the 'bots are hanging out in the mayor's office.
- Improbable viewpoints:
- If Megatron really wants to convince the public that his footage was "secured at great risk", he probably shouldn't have edited in five different points of view, including a tracking close-up of Thrust.
- Likewise for the interior shots of Autobot Headquarters. A close-up of Prime is taken from the point of view of someone standing right in front of him.
- Teletraan I gets a view of Berger's tanks that travels along with them.
- The animators missed the gist of a script line: Spike yells "We're coming with you!" to Optimus, but the animation has him turning toward Chip, who's right next to him.
- The shot of Berger's tanks shows a much more rugged terrain outside Autobot Headquarters than normal.
- Before the second commercial break, the Autobots are standing in the entryway to Autobot Headquarters, facing a large line of tanks. After the commercial break, they're in the open, with a handful of tanks surrounding them.
- As the Autobots drive off with Berger's army, the blades of the mayor's helicopter are layered in front of the copter's body, when they should be behind it.
- In its establishing shot, the stadium is wildly out of scale with the city streets surrounding it... unless the streetlights of Central City are 10 stories tall.
- Spike says "I knew there was something fishy" before he's even seen any of the footage.
- Where do the Seekers' wings go when they're inside their Autobot costumes?
- The crashing sound effects of Ravage bashing down the film studio door is barely audible.
- The top of Dirge's head is white instead of gray as the Decepticons march up to the Autobots.
- The Decepticons continue aiming their guns at the same spot long after the Autobots have left that spot.
Continuity errors
- Much like the events of "A Prime Problem", the basic premise of this episode requires incredible stupidity on the part of the players. In this case, however, those players are the entire human race! Thirty seconds of video footage and the crowd outside City Hall is throwing fruit at the Autobots. Why are the public so quickly swayed after the amount of times the Autobots have saved them in the past year or so? What kind of kangaroo court would convict on such incredibly flimsy evidence? What kind of absurdly inept trial lawyers would fail to examine every bit of footage available? How could Berger fail to notice Megatron cackling with mad glee as he sends his foes rocketing into the sun?
- There's really no reason for the Decepticons to hang around and fight once they realize the solar plant has no energy.
- Laserbeak kidnaps Berger in mid-day. When they arrive at the cliff, just outside the city, it's suddenly sunset.
- Starscream is part of the Decepticon group that repels the "Autobots" from their oil field raid... yet he's later shown to be playing the role of Optimus Prime in the same attack.
- The plot treats the lost video camera from Berger's helicopter as though it contains its own recording medium. It's far more likely that the medium would be inside the helicopter.
- The amount of time that Dirge spends filming is not nearly enough to account for the damning footage that Spike watches later on.
- Even if Autobot Headquarters is inside the city limits of Central City, a mayor isn't really a duly constituted law enforcement officer.
- Three little video tapes, and the mayor and a private army are knocking on the Autobots' door. So how come nobody ever tried to arrest the Decepticons?
- Spike could have just left the stadium through the normal exits, instead of leaping into the field and drawing the Decepticons' attention.
- Spike apparently marches into one of Berger's film studios like he owns the joint. And it's apparently deserted.
- What the hell kind of court can just order someone off-planet? Isn't there like an appellate court above them or something?
- Despite the fact that the events are clearly meant to affect all of the Autobots, only a fraction of them are seen onscreen in any one scene. Only ten of them bother to turn up to the trial, and around about twenty of them are seen being forced to board the rocket. As is clear from the next episode, there should be at least thirty of them.
Continuity notes
- Gadgets and powers:
- Turns out the Decepticons don't need Soundwave to make energon cubes. The Seekers can do it themselves.
- Laserbeak uses his eye beams again.
- In the oil field fight, Starscream is able to use his null-rays from his nose in jet mode, the first time he ever does this. (Of course, the fight was faked, so these null-rays presumably were as well.)
- Megatron can rotate a lens into the end of his fusion cannon. He uses it to reprogram the Autobot ship's flight path via Teletraan I.
- Autobot Headquarters has a retractable front door. Most of the time, the passageway is just left wide open.
- Wheeljack says that their external security has been breached, indicating that the Autobots actually do have some kind of security system outside their base.
- If Autobot Headquarters really is close enough to Central City to fall under its jurisdiction, then it almost certainly is the same city whose skyline is seen in "More than Meets the Eye, Part 1", and likely is the same city that Spike and the Autobots visit in "Transport to Oblivion", "Auto Berserk" and "The Immobilizer". Could "B.O.T." have been set there too?
Real-world references
- Star Wars sound effects:
- Laserbeak leaves the Berger, Inc. building with the Millennium Falcon engine burst noise.
- He continues his flight to the cliff overlooking the city with the TIE fighter engine noise, culled from one of the Death Star trench attack runs. Bizarrely, the fighter's target scope can be heard locking onto an X-Wing... as can Darth Vader's breathing!
- More Falcon engine noise can be heard as the Decepticons leave their headquarters.
- The sound of a hatchway opening/closing aboard the Death Star is recycled as the sound of the Autobot ship venting steam.
- Megatron makes a modestly clever reference to chess: "He thinks he will be king... but he will never be more than a pawn!"
Japanese version
- Cut: The scene where Spike, Sparkplug and Chip cheer for the Autobots during the Autobot Day parade was cut for time. These scenes featured signs that said "Autobot Day Parade", which likely contributed toward their selection for being cut.
Trivia
- Rather than a "next time" preview, the end of this episode got a special "To Be Continued" title card with a short voiceover from Victor Caroli.
- When released on video in the UK, both parts of this story were edited together as a 45-minute "movie" instead of a two-part episode.
Home video releases
- VHS
1986 — The Transformers — Megatron's Master Plan (A.M.T. Video Gems)
1988 — The Transformers — Megatron's Master Plan (V.I.P. Video Gems)
1998 — The Transformers: Generation 2 — Megatron's Master Plan (Behaviour)
2000 — The Original Transformers — Volume 10: Megatron's Master Plan (Rhino Entertainment)
- Laserdisc
1994 — Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers — Convoy Set (Takara) — Japanese audio only.
1998 — The Transformers — Autobot Edition (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.
- DVD
2001 — The Transformers — DVD Box 1 (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.
2002 — The Original Transformers — Season 2 Part 1 (Rhino Entertainment)
2002 — The Original Transformers — Season 2 Part 1: Vol. 3 (Rhino Entertainment)
2003 — Transformers — Season 2 Part 1 (Metrodome)
2004 — Transformers — Collection 2: Series 2.1 (Madman Entertainment)
2006 — Transformers — The Complete Generation One Collection (Metrodome)
2007 — The Transformers — Complete Collection (Madman Entertainment)
2008 — Transformers — Volume 04: Stagione Due Parte Seconda (Medianetwork Communication) — English and Italian audio.
2009 — Transformers — Season Two: Part One (Metrodome)
2009 — The Transformers — Complete Collection: Decepticon Edition (Madman Entertainment)
2009 — The Transformers — Season Two, Volume One: 25th Anniversary Edition (Shout! Factory)
2009 — The Transformers — The Complete Series: 25th Anniversary "Matrix of Leadership" Collection (Shout! Factory)
