Perceptor and a group of Autobots have been dispatched to investigate unusual chronal-energy readings emanating from an ancient bowl-shaped asteroid, and they discover that the Quintessons have created a time machine. Perceptor is wounded in an attempt to stop them from activating the time window, while the other Autobots are sucked into the machine and appear in Cybertron's past, eleven million years ago. They meet the ancient Autobot rebels, who are planning to revolt against the Quintessons despite the absence of their leader, A-3, who was plucked from his time and taken to 2006. The present-day Autobots find A-3 and protect him from the Quintesson attack on the time window, which had been left open and is causing the fabric of space-time to rupture. When the attack fails, the Quintessons convince the Autobots of the dangers and enlist them to shut down the time window. A-3 jumps back through the window, sends the missing Autobots back home, and uses his coda remote device to defeat the Quintessons' oppressive Dark Guardians and enable the slaves to seize their freedom.
Trivia Questions:
- Which Autobots were in that race that kept repeating itself?
- What kind of weapons did the Quintesson warships use?
Notes:
- When Rewind finally realizes what the Quintessons' plans are, he pops out of Blaster's tape compartment and transforms to robot mode. The Autobot slaves look really surprised at this, which makes sense, considering they haven't invented transforming yet. Wouldn't it be freaky if watching Rewind do this was what inspired them to develop a shape-altering defensive strategy to begin with? (Time travel stories are so wacky that way!)
- The coda remote within his Autobot insignia that A-3 uses to defeat the Dark Guardians is an aptly-named instrument. Not only does it indeed serve to conclude the Quintesson oppression over Cybertron, it's also a symbolic representation of turning the Autobots' slave brand into a symbol of freedom.1
- At the beginning of the show, the Autobots are flying in space toward the asteroid. I do wish the writers would make up their minds as to whether the Autobots are capable of flight or not. Compare this to "Five Faces of Darkness" part 3, when the Autobots are flung into space after Quintessa explodes, and they drift helplessly until, by random chance, they hit planet Goo. Now, even if the Autobots were equipped with perfunctory thrusters of some kind, that should be enough to propel them forward once in space. That explanation might explain this episode, but it contradicts "Five Faces of Darkness."
- Interesting that Rewind just happens to know that these asteroids are over a billion years old, considering that the Autobots themselves are only about twelve million years old. Compare this to "Madman's Paradise," with Rewind coming up blank about the chamber that led to the dimensional disk on Cybertron. He said that since it was pre-Autobot, there were no records about its use.
- I think it's weird that nobody seems to recognize A-3. It takes a wild bit of guesswork at the very end of the episode based on his name alone that enables the Autobots to connect him to Alpha Trion. It looks pretty obvious to me that they're the same guy! A-3's almost identical to Alpha Trion, except for the lack of a beard and cape, shorter moustache and somewhat less ornate helmet.
- The Big Question: Where are the Decepticons? We know from "Five Faces of Darkness" part 4 that the Quintessons created the Autobots and Decepticons at the same time. (Yeah, I know what "War Dawn" says about the Decepticons being new. I don't buy it.) It strikes me as odd, then, that the Autobots would be the ones to single-handedly drive the Quintessons away from Cybertron. The Decepticons would certainly be the more logical choice, given their superior combat abilities. What, do the Decepticons like being slaves, as long as the Quintessons sell them to planets where they get to do lots of conquering? Or did they not know about the upheaval at all? (I can't really think of a reason for the Autobots to have kept it a secret, though. If anything, a war with the Quintessons would weaken the Decepticon forces. You'd think the Autobots would want that.)
- During the space battle with the Sharkticons, when Rewind ejects and switches to robot mode, we don't hear the transforming sound effect until he's already in robot mode.
- Later, on the asteroid, after Perceptor is gunned down by the Quintessons, Rewind notes, "They got Perceptor!" but his face plate isn't moving.
- After the Autobots travel to Cybertron's past, as the gunnery tower starts firing on them, we cut to a reaction shot from Rewind. His face plate is moving as though he were speaking, but he's got no dialogue at all in this scene.
- The first time Perceptor shows up, his shoulder cannon is black instead of red.
- During the Sharkticon battle, Blaster ejects his cassettes without ever pressing his eject button.
- When Rodimus and Superion arrive on the scene, Perceptor is accompanying them, even though we just saw him gunned down a moment earlier.
- Close inspection of Superion's separation back into the Aerialbots reveals that Skydive and Slingshot were serving as the arms, Silverbolt and Fireflight formed the legs, and Air Raid was the main body! (I've heard of Scramble City, but this is ridiculous. The animators got it right later, when the Quintessons attack the asteroid and the Aerialbots combine again.)
- Rodimus Prime's outdated toy design is used in this episode, instead of the correct movie design. When Rodimus is examining the injured Perceptor, note the curved shape of his shoulders and the more defined chest, complete with pectoral muscles. They also use this design later when Rodimus is chatting with A-3, and again when the Autobots notice that there's something happening to the stars.
- After the first commercial break, the animation cels aren't overlapped correctly, so that Guardian Robot who's trying to stomp on the Autobots misses them completely. He's also about fifty times larger than he's supposed to be.
- Strangely, Beta's Autobot symbol is orange. It's consistent with her specific character model, since it's orange every time we see her. I just think it's odd, is all.
- When Beta's addressing the modern-day Autobots and the other slave robots come out of the woodwork, they all look like munchkins! They're only half the height of Beta, if that.
- When Rewind realizes what's going on and ejects himself, Blaster's cassette door opens sideways.
- Later, when Beta mentions A-3 and Rewind turns to her to ask where the guy is, his eyes disappear.
- Meanwhile, as the Quintessons are watching the ripples of energy on their viewscreen, the backlit rippling effect is glowing right through the Quintesson's tentacles.
- Curiously, the aliens working on the dam when the water spontaneously reverses direction are the exact same design as the soldiers who hauled off the Quintesson scientist back on the asteroid. (This is also the only time we ever see these particular Quintesson soldiers.)
- When Superion is clutching A-3 in his hand and then the chronal energy causes him to disappear, A-3 remains in place, but there's a big ol' black spot where Superion's hand used to be covering him.
- When the Autobots who are in the past first approach the Guardians, Wheelie is with them! In the next scene, Wheelie's still there, but he's colored like Rewind.
- By the way, in the grand tradition of "Five Faces of Darkness," the Quintesson cruisers still aren't rotating during flight in this episode, either.
- When the Quintesson is telling Rodimus to close the time window, there are two generic robots standing in the background. They're obviously meant to be Aerialbots, but they're drawn and colored the same as one another, and they don't conform to any of the existing characters.
- Back on Cybertron during the fight with the Guardians, Ramhorn collides with one of them who is the size of a normal Transformer. It's not even a cel overlap or perspective problem, this time. What, are there mini-Guardians too?
- When Rewind and Beta are cheering, Rewind's missing his Autobot symbol.
- At the end of the episode when Rewind arrives at his stunning realization, Blurr is missing his Autobot symbol.
- "Golly, Mr. Wizard, only one bowl?"--reference to Mr. Wizard's World, an educational science show that used to be on the Nickelodeon cable network. The kids who watched his experiments were utterly fascinated by the most positively mundane stuff, I swear.
- "And that's the way it is! Let's dance! You, too, can win!"--the first part is what Walker Kronkite used to say when he concluded his news reports. No clue about the rest, but apparently Sideburn watches the same shows as Wreck-Gar.
- "We've come a long way, baby!"--Incredulously, this is a reference to an advertising slogan for Virginia Slims cigarettes. Yeah, let's corrupt that young and impressionable target audience!
- "Four out of five robots agree that exceptional headache number one is a mad dog Guardian!"--This is a melding of two different types of pain-relief commercials. The first part is from those types of commercials that claim that four out of five doctors recommend Tylenol over aspirin. The second part was taken from an Excederin advertising campain that would refer to a stress-inducing situation as "Excederin headache #1." (In this case, they substituted the word "exceptional.")2
- Bumblebee, Springer, Swerve, and Wheelie. (Yeah, Swerve's there. Look closely.)
- Star bombs.
Acknowledgements:
1Jen One
2Princess Artemis
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This Page Created 12/8/2002
Last Update: 9/16/2002
©2002 Inspiration Studios