Airs on The Hub December 3rd, 2010

I have one problem with this episode.
Exactly how did the undead horde get off Cybertron and to the space bridge?
(I doubt that's very spoilery if you watched the previous episode.)

Also, nice to see that the 'cons have more than just car drones/generics, but I couldn't tell if they were using the same robot mode model.

Fantastic ending to a fantastic 5-parter.

I think the writers are having a bit too much fun with the Jack/Arcee dynamic...

very creepy stuff

i know its required that we get the classic lines " one shall stand.... " " light our darkest hour... " but, really? they need some new material.

still, great ending to the mini series. its gunna be a long wait till February.

But... Wasn't all that kind of stuff in the movies Bay's fault! It -couldn't- have been anyone elses right! /sarcasm

Look on the bright side, they are getting it out of the gate early on.

I'm fine with "light our darkest hour," but am getting a little tired of "one shall stand."


Oh, and it was fantastic.

Kinda disappointed that they brought Jack back in almost immediately after he left. Really neuters the point of him being opposed to this life if he jumps right back into it without any provocation.

Well he did get Miko's speech.

Arcee wanting to use Jack as a replacement for CJ doesn't sound healthy. I wonder where they're going to go with that relationship.

To the deepest depths of Deviant Art at this rate.

Yeah, so begins the hideously misguided creepers taking things out of the context of the situation and running free with it. It seemed like a genuine, well acted moment to me, too. Arcee was feeling the loss of Cliffjumper profoundly, I thought they did a fine job with it. It could have been much worse.

Steve Blum can sell it. He's the man, I tells ya. That was a fun conclusion! The action and movement were a lot less jerky and odd-looking than that of the last episode.

Yeah, it did come across as Genuine, and maybe a bit unhealthy for Arcee in the long run if she's using Jack to 'replace' Cliffjumper.

Overall, I really liked this. It's not my favorite series and it's not really grabbed me like Animated did, but It has my attention better then BW did at this point (5 eps in). But I feel like it could be a very good series and will definitely watch it in February, as there is a lot of potential with the characters. They do however need more Decepticons. With Megatron "dead" (I fully expect them to do like Animated and have him return by the end of the first season) that leave Starscream and rather mute Soundwave, alone with the Eradacons. I know we get two more later on, but I still would like to see a fuller cast of Decepticons. As the potential it has could quickly evaporate with only a handful of Decepticons, unless they do like Animated and give us other threats as well.

ZOMBIE" why am I here floating in space like this"

Man, the writers just can't help but go all GEEWUN with the dialog, can they?

Arcee sure did heal herself up real quick like there at the end. It was supposed to be a touching moment, but it turned out to be more confusing.

You really want to go back to the undead world surrounded by floating robot zombies, Ratchet?

HEY GUYS I BET MEGATRON IS TOTALLY DEAD FOREVER FOR REALS!

(I liked it.)

I'm a little disappointed (but not surprised) the Terrorcons were the zombies, I was hoping they'd be souped up Eradacons.


And I'm very disappointed that Cybertron is completely dead, call me crazy but I like it when they get off Earth and we get to see an alien world, the episodes where they went to Cybertron in G1 and the glimpses during BW (before BM) were always highlights for me.

it was a pretty good conclusion. I just hope they can keep it up as a full blown series

The G1-centric lines made me groan, but overall a decent conclusion to the first storyline.

And did anyone else get the impression that Optimus' speech at the end means the door might be open for non-Decepticon extra-terrestrial threats?

QUINTESSONS!
I want QUINTESSONS!

I liked it more then episode four.

A good introduction but I can't wait for things to "pickup" with new characters and whatnot. Having more then two talking Decepticons would help too.

That was so awkward. Ratchet reports that one of the Autobots' life signals is very weak, Bumblebee comes through the bridge carrying the wounded Arcee... and everyone just kind of stands around waiting instead of doing anything to help her until she opens her eyes and is apparently fine after all.

Cybertronian Faith Healing?

Man, that was cool.

I loved how cool Soundwave was.

The new Head Formation of Friendship.

I imagine Arcee was still banged up and likely got some repairs from Ratchet later on. Just because she was injured didn't mean she couldn't stand, necessarily.

Overall, though, pretty good. The Optimus VS Megatron battle was pretty rockin', though yeah.... The G1 movie lines were way forced. I thought Ratchet was going to say, "Lets light it up!" but instead said... yeah. ;;

"One shall stand, etc" was a bit forced in the 07 movie, too, though, so... eh. I can see what they're trying, but the less they do that, the better. It's also the only time they've done something like that in five episodes, so I'm fine so long as it doesn't become recurring.

I imagine we haven't seen the last of the Terrorcons, Dark Energon, and certainly not Megatron. I highly suspect Megs might have been blown back to Cybertron somehow, perhaps.

Jack/Arcee is a little... beyond subtexty, though. XD; "You were my first."

Oh, and I'll echo the sentiments that Steve Blum is the man.

"All hail Starscream."

Sure, it'll come back to bite Screamer.

But it's fun for now.

Miko: <takes picture>
Soundwave: <takes picture>

GawDAMN, Soundwave says so much without saying anything at all.

Also, I'm impressed that Bulkhead's dish-throwing last episode turned out to be a relevant plot point this one. Nice bit of continuity there, guys.

Overall... I'm seeing a series with a lot of promise. Really looking forward to February.


M "Not As Awesome A Fight Scene, But Shooting Galleries Rarely Are Interesting" Sipher

Oh Something else I forgot that I love. Bulkhead's Melee weapon is Mace!

It's been that for a few episodes.

Though this was the clearest shot we've gotten of it.

Soundwave really needs to quit tentacle-raping things.

Hey, hey. Cybertronians are a whole other culture.

For all you know, to Soundwave, it's like "hello" to us.

It's a wonder what leaving Prime's faceplate up the whole ep will do for ya.

Also, I can't be the only one that squealed at the "transwarp wave"?

It's funny, right now, it's not so much the LOOK of the un-faceplated face for Prime that bothers me, so much as...

It seems to be one of the bigger animation oddities, so far, and hopefully one they can get smoothed out now with some more time to work on things.

It strikes me that the facial animation on most of the characters looks well and good enough - I don't bat an eyelash at the humans, Arcee, or Bulkhead... and Ratchet? Ratchet's facial animation is absolutely gorgeous and further sells the character.

Now, of course, others have different opinions, but that's just my own self speaking there.

However, Prime minus his faceplate... I don't know. It's like his mouth movements don't have quite the love and attention that, say, Ratchet or Starscream does.

Nope, I thought that immediately seeing it.

Too bad it faded away so fast.


And I agree, the "Epic G1 Lines!" felt kinda forced and were almost annoying to me, but at least in their next fight Prime should have some fresh dialogue.

I really enjoyed their duel. The choreography has been great for all five episodes in the fight scenes. It's clear the animation team has constraints, but boy are they doing some wonderful things with their resources.

Cybertronian is the same as Japanese?

They have the overall same body shape, but have wings on their back and no wheels. You could get a glimpse when Bulkhead crushes one.



Okay--- until now, I was saying this show was "OK" - not good, not bad, just... mediocre.

Episode 5 changed that. Now, I am strongly disliking it.

"Hommaging" is one thing. Taking lines and scenes from previous series 99% , that's just ripping off.

The whole OP/Megs standoff from the 2007 movie, their lines from the 1986 movie, the way Starscream announces Megatron's demise on the bridge of the Nemesis from Animated... Do the writers have no talent of their own?

I kept telling Optimus and Ratchet to "Shut up!" angrily when I heard him quoting from the old series the upteenth time. Seriously, this is just episode 5, not a movie! They don't have to fire all the surprise hommages already! Bah...

That aside, the plot was... boring. I never thought a planet-wide reanimation of the dead could be so boring. Also, illogical things cluttered the series, like why didn't Megatron just blow Prime and co. with one shot from the Nemesis when they were standing on the bridge, offering themselves as juicy targets? Don't tell me the Con warship has no weapons.

My other main beef is Cullen. Yeah, I can't believe I am saying this. He is over-dramatic. He says everything in this "the fate of the world hangs in the balance" voice, which after a while, gets tiring and tested. I can imagine him talking about the weather or what he had for breakfeast in this same tone of voice... because it's the only way he talked in the past 4 episodes too. And speaking of voices, BB moved on from R2-D2 to straight-out mimicking Wall-E's voices...

The animation, apart from the nice opening scene of Prime's vision, was nothing spectacular. The zombie-bots all looked horrible and had monstrous faces, which is kinda odd, considering the Dark Energon should not have changed them, just re-animated them. Then there are the G1 Cyclonus-lookalike aerial drones... who have the same faces as the ground drones - cheap... And the streets and backgrounds have so little effort put into them, they look like they are from a PC game from 10 years ago (heck, those had better textures). Due to budget constraints (I guess), we also should believe the giant radiotelescope system is utterly empty and unguarded. Yeeeeaaah... no.

I'll continue to watch the series, because heck, it's a TF series... made in and for the western world and not Japan, for a change - but it'll be a task for me rather then enjoyment, kinda like how I watch Batman: Brave and the Bold, waiting for the scarce good episodes to pop up every now and then. I guess episodes written by the staff of Animated will have a better story, unless the executive producers (what's the difference between regular and executive producers btw, why do we need to see Orci and co listed twice in the credits?) lean hard on them to conform to the norm.

It's like they took all the quotable bits from previous incarnations and added zombies.

Did they really replace Animated with this? Why? If I weren't a fan of Transformers, Animated would still have entertained me, but I wouldn't have watched past the first episode of Prime.

If you weren't a fan of Transformers and 5 year olds you mean.

Just watched via Youtube. I liked it. This ep and the whole miniseries as a whole.

No, it's not "Animated." Which was a great show, yes.
And no it's not un-nitpick-able (One shall stand WAS forced, Ratchet should have run up and done SOMETHING to help Arcee).

But all in all it was well written, exciting, fun, and seemed to have a lot of potential. It's a show that I feel like if it keeps building on itself and it's continuity can become something quite awesome and was enjoyable as is.

Highlights of the miniseries:

*Starscream - Just PERFECT.

*Arcee, Ratchet and Bulkhead - great likable characters well acted.

*The Humans - Surprisingly they were done really well and a lot more realisticly than in past shows.

*That "War Zone" scene on the con ship. - Wonderful way to really show scale and danger of humans in a TF world. Actually the show's been pretty good about getting across the massive size of the TFs all around, but this was the best of it.

*Soundwave taking a pic of the Kids in responce to Miko - A little thing but a really cool moment nonetheless. Soundwave shouldn't be as cool as he is voiceless but they've sold him really well so far.


What I'd like to see more of:

1)Characters - Especially on the Con side but even the Autobot cast needs a few more faces.

2)Mythos building - Episodes that introduce new and interesting concepts and expand on things we've seen before. Backstory for the individual Autobots (and Cons) would be great too.

3)Variety - I want all the episodes to be easily distiguishable by their plots and settings, I want to be able to say "The one where they travel back in time." "The one in the amusement park." "The one where they find Skyfire in the Arctic." It's easy to get into a rut if your CGI budget limits your setting and characters and I want the show to stretch.

Looking forward to Feb.

I'll second everything you said, Zac.

This show was so much fun. It felt like the opening of Beast Wars all over again. Sure, the animation needs a bit of work, but they're already doing great things with it, Some characters haven't hit their stride, etc, but this was a really solid, fun new Transformers show, and I really enjoyed what was done with it.

I really can't wait for it to start fully.

Oh god that was awesome. And most importantly it isn't boring like animated was.

Can't wait for the full season now.

I completely agree. I'd rather have someone capable of voicing a variety of emotions and tones instead of just "over-dramatic". It gets boring very quickly. Optimus Prime here is less a character and more a one note stereotype.

Bumblebee is a complete non-entity for me. He may as well not be in the show and it wouldn't lose anything. The same with Soundwave.


At least in Animated we had a variety of different characters, each with their own unique characterisation and voices. Those were fun to listen to. The only character in Prime who comes close to being on the same level as an Animated character is Miko.

As I said, better to get them now and out of the way, then have them do it later. Just like How Animated got the whole "Resurrection of the Prime" out of the way in the third episode.



And blow up the Space bridge? Your talking about swatting flies with a Shotgun in an dynamite factory. You seen how big the Explosion was at the end when they reversed the polarities, why the hell would Megatron want to shoot a giant ass cannon at the keystone of his plan, that has enough Energon to make the death star look like a small explosion? You talk about using logic, but you seem to fail to see it yourself.




You mean the giant radiotelescope system that had a GIANT KILLER ROBOT inside it already, that has drones and Tentacles and is adept at hacking into computer systems? Yeah, there is NO way he could have taken out security or even diverted them away from the important areas.

I loved seeing the flying Eradicons. Really cool to see there will be different classifications of them. I am liking those guys. (This coming from a huge seeker/troop builder guy)
I have to say this series has me hooked. I went into it with an open mind and have not been disappointed. I am hoping they can continue this through the series. Bravo to all involved in this series so far.

You guys hit on all the negative points, so I won't rehash those. (Except, perhaps, that I commented to my wife "Goddammit, Ratchet, you're the medic--Do something!!!!" during that one scene.)

That said, awesome episode, easily the best of the five. All the episodes have great action scenes, the best we've gotten from a TF TV series. But this particular episode didn't have the Beast Machines-esque bad humor, unlikable characterization, or the forced drama from the previous four episodes.

There are a lot of shows that I didn't dig after watching their first couple episodes, but I quickly became a huge fan of. For example, Battlestar Gallactica and Transformers Animated. This episode gives me hope that the show will keep getting better and I'll become a fan of it as well as it progresses.

Edit--Oh, and I just wanted to add, I love hearing Welker as Megatron again. That guy rules!

Because firing high-powered weaponry at your own space-bridge is a stupid idea?

EDIT: Also, I think Cullen might be the second worst part of the series next to the wonky facial animation. He needs to pull the dial down from 11 and learn to properly express again. I was worried about Welker retaking his role, but I think he's one of the better Megatron voices. Like a better G1 Megatron, really.

There weren't any human guards. Or any personnel whatsoever. The kids commented on this. Maybe we're supposed to assume that Soundwave had already cleaned them out, but that wasn't made clear.

That's how I took it. "Oh they're aren't any guards or personnel." "well at least the Decepticons aren't here." Next scene: Soundwave in the base hacked into its computer. Its not flat out stated, no. But I feel that Soundwave being there and there no one else in the base is essentially 2+2=4. I don't believe everything needs to be spelt out for us. We seen how effectivly he was doing against the kids, only 'giving up' becuase he got the axe to cut the cords so they, nor anyone else, could interfere, not finishing them off becuase he's job is done and no one could undo it. Killing them woulda been a waste of energon.

Watch the scene where we find out Soundwave's in the satellite base again. There's a slumped over body next to a harddrive - decide for yourself his condition, since we don't see what happens to him afterwards. I was wondering too why there wasn't a single person there, but then that scene happened and I went "ohhh".

There is indeed! Good catch!

why, of all things, are we ragging on Orci and Kurtzman being listed twice in the credits? That in and of itself isn't odd at all; it's rather common in most productions.