Last week, Prime and I took in a viewing of the first four episodes of Transformers. So, to celebrate forty years of Autobots and Decepticons, why not have a weekly rewatch? So let’s get started! As Powerglide would say: And away we go!
More Than Meets the Eye: Part 1
Synopsis: On the distant planet of Cybertron, life existed. Not organic but inorganic; beings known as Transformers. They were divided into two groups–the Autobots and the Decepticons–and were engaged in a civil war that threatened to drain their planet of what few resources still existed. The leader of the Autobots, Optimus Prime, and his crew, set out to look for more resources and energy to turn the tide of battle, only to be followed by the villainous Megatron and his Decepticons. Crash landing on a small planet, they are reawakened four million years later to start the conflict anew!
The Episode: We start out with a beautiful shot of deep space and catch a glimpse of Cybertron. To say that the visuals were more than enough to catch your interest is putting it mildly, because that shot of Cybertron is lovely.
We’re quickly introduced to the situation: there’s a war, and we have both good guys and not so good guys. We also get our first look at the Autobots and it’s not the big guys, if you will.
We see Wheeljack and Bumblebee swiping energy conductors and hoping that the energy can last a while. However, as they’re trying to get back to Iacon, they’re caught by the Decepticons and have to fight their way out. Bumblebee gets injured, but they make it back.
However, Soundwave sends his pet Laserbeak to spy on them and discovers that the Autobots are planning on leaving Cybertron in order to find energy elsewhere. Soundwave heads to the Decepticon base with this information in order to alert the others.
At the Decepticons’ base of operations, Megatron decides to intercept the fleeing Autobots and leaves his most loyal Decepticon, Shockwave, as “guardian” of the planet. Starscream, always one to stir the pot, swears that if he was the Decepticon leader, he would have won the war by now.
The Autobots take off in their shuttle–the Ark–and the Decepticons give chase. Immediately, there’s trouble ahead when a pair of asteroids collide and spew debris in the Ark’s path, which slams into both ships. Ironhide uses the ship’s lasers to clear a path, but they soon detect another ship. Realizing it’s the Decepticons, the Autobots try to outrun their pursuers, but the Decepticons lock onto the Ark with a tractor beam and board. Since the weapons are now out of energy, the Autobots prepare to battle the oncoming Decepticons. Since no one can stay at the Ark’s helm, the ship gets pulled towards a small, insignificant, but bright blue little planet. Optimus Prime tries to regain control of the ship, but it’s too little, too late.
The Ark crashes.
The year is now 1984. Seismic activities from the volcano rattle the ship and reactivates the onboard computer, which sends out a small drone to scan the native life in order to use the forms as blueprints to repair the damaged Cybertronians. The first repaired is Skywarp, who quickly gets to work restoring the other Decepticons, chief among them being Megatron. Once the Decepticons are restored, they leave the Ark, and Megatron notes that an inordinate amount of time has passed and they’re on a completely alien world, but their mission is still the same: they need to find energy.
Starscream, whom Megatron saw fit to repair, starts blasting the Ark as a sort of middle finger to Optimus and the Autobots.
We’ll refer to that as mistake number two. The first? Megatron deciding to revive Starscream. Trust me on this.
The shots from Starscream’s null ray cause Optimus Prime to fall into the repair beam, and he’s repaired. So, thanks for that, Starscream!
The Decepticons find an area to begin building another cruiser, and the Autobots are repaired. Megatron has plans of getting off this planet, while Starscream has plans to become the Decepticons’ new leader. Soundwave, Rumble, and Starscream secure materials from a power station nearby; Optimus Prime sends Hound and Cliffjumper on patrol to find out what the Decepticons might be planning. The pair discover what the Decepticons are planning, but rather than simply head back to Prime, Cliffjumper decides to take a shot at Megatron, which he misses. The two get chased by Laserbeak, and Hound winds up injured.
While Hound gets rescued, a couple of workers find the power station wrecked and end up getting attacked by Ravage. After repairing Hound, he reports everything to Prime, so Optimus assembles a group of Autobots to go after the Decepticons.
Laserbeak reports that he’s found a new energy source: an off-shore oil rig.
On the oil rig, we see a father and son duo among the other workers: Sparkplug and Spike Witwicky. It’s just a normal day until the giant alien robots fly down and begin attacking the rig! The human workers try to fight back, but it’s futile; most are either tossed into the waters below or jump overboard of their own volition. The Autobots arrive and try to repel the Decepticons, but Megatron and the others have already gathered a good amount of energon cubes and take-off, but not before Megatron blasts the rig’s supports, trapping Spike Witwicky and his father! The floating oil is set afire by another blast, and the Decepticons fly away, triumphant.
Optimus Prime strains to lift the fallen scaffolding, but can’t. He tells the helpless humans to hold on and keep their heads above the water…
TO BE CONTINUED!
My Thoughts: Wow. Where do I begin?
Starting this story on Cybertron was probably one of the best ways to grab my interest; I have a huge spot for science fiction, being a Star Trek and Star Wars fan. So, from the very start, this had me hooked. We also don’t get treated to “the big guys” immediately, as the first Autobots we see are Wheeljack and Bumblebee.
Fun fact: Bumblebee wasn’t my favorite off the bat. In these first episodes, I really didn’t have a favorite. Yet. Maybe the closest one was Optimus Prime and Ironhide. But it wasn’t Bumblebee! That came later.
The action, the pacing, and the story were more than enough to garner my attention. But it was the characters that sold me.
While the Autobots were immediately likable to me, the Decepticons were immensely hate-able. Megatron was an abusive authoritarian jerk, Rumble was a big mouthed bully, Starscream was a power-hungry little snot, you get the idea. The Autobots quickly became the guys I was cheering for and hoping would win, while I wanted the Decepticons to remain perpetual losers. I may not have had a favorite character at that point, but I knew exactly where I stood: beside the Autobots.
Also: I don’t know who’s idea it was to end this one on a cliffhanger, but WOW. Did that ever work! I had to come back and see what was going to happen next! Honestly, that was a great idea, and it kept me hungry for more!
Speaking of cliffhangers, it’s time for me to hit pause on this rewatch. But I’ll be back again next week, with the second episode of More Than Meets the Eye! Til all are one!
Iacon East 