Roll for It

Generation One >  Season 1 The Decepticons seek a powerful antimatter formula, and the Autobots with their new human ally Chip Chase try to stop them.

Detailed synopsis
Act One: Starscream, still in command of the Decepticons after Megatron’s disappearance in the Space Bridge, leads Thundercracker and Soundwave in attacking a hydroelectric power generator. The Autobots respond quickly, as Optimus Prime arrives with an assult team. The battle is short, as a thrown piece of equipment destroys the Decepticon store of Energon Cubes. With little to show for their efforts, the Decepticons retreat. Optimus Prime sends Prowl and Bluestreak to follow them.

Meanwhile, on Cybertron, Megatron resumes contact with Earth. Despite his absence, Megatron commands that their scheduled attack on an antimatter laboratory will continue as planned in five billion astroseconds. The battle-damaged seekers set out to find repair parts in the interim, to be ready for the attack, while Megatron boards the Space Bridge for transit back to Earth.

Bumblebee drives Spike and Chip Chase to the isolated antimatter laboratory where Chip works. As the security guard punches the access code to let them in, his actions are carefully spied by Reflector, who is perched outside in camera mode snapping shots. Inside the massive lab, Chip and Spike are greeted by Dr. Alcazar, who gives Chase a 5.25-inch floppy disk that will enable Chip’s home computer to interface with the one at the lab.

As Bumblebee drives away, he is attacked by Laserbeak. Spike directs Bumblebee to take cover in the underground parking garage. With Bumblebee having escaped, Megatron realizes Optimus Prime might be tipped off to their laboratory attack. Rather than wait for Starscream and his team, Megatron orders an immediate strike.

Bumblebee drives Chip home, where the young scientist hopes to warn the lab of the impending attack. Bumblebee tries to call in Prowl and Bluestreak as backup, but they’re tied up attacking Starscream’s group, who are raiding the Ace Aircraft Factory for parts.

Act Two: Megatron’s attack group arrives at the antimatter laboratory. Reflector punches in the access code, and the Decepticons march inside. Dr. Alcazar receives Chip’s online warning at the last possible moment, and succeeds in erasing the antimatter formula from his computer. Megatron detects that Alcazar has uploaded the formula to someone else. He lets Alcazar go.

In the aircraft factory, Prowl is injured by Soundwave’s blasts, and his battle computer goes offline. Desperate, Prowl scans for another online computer to hook up to. Traversing the phone lines, his signals find Chip’s computer, which has also received Dr. Alcazar’s antimatter formula. Chip assumes control of Prowl, using his desktop terminal to guide Prowl through combat maneuvers. With Chip in command, Prowl takes control of one of the surplus jets, and fires its rockets at the Decepticons. Starscream and his cohorts flee the battle.

Megatron determines where Alcazar sent the formula, and communicates the location to Starscream and his team. Soundwave dispatches Ravage to retrieve Chip. Chip memorizes the antimatter formula and destroys all evidence of it just as Ravage breaks in to his house and fetches him. The Decepticons take Chip to the antimatter laboratory, where the Autobots are just arriving. Prime sees that the Decepticons have a human hostage, and begins formulating a plan involving Mirage and Hound. These deceptives Autobots are able to outsmart perimeter guard Rumble with their holographic ruses, allowing them and Bumblebee to sneak past.

Inside, Soundwave uses his scanning abilities to extract the formula from Chip’s brain. Megatron orders Chip disposed of, and begins creating antimatter with the equipment in his lab. Just as Thundercracker moves in to terminate Chip, the infiltrating Autobots attack. Bumblebee and Spike rescue Chip, and the Autobots race away, taking Chip to safetly.

Next, Optimus strikes, driving through the lab walls and unleashing his warriors. But it may be too late, as Megatron throws an antimatter-powered Energon Cube at the Autobots, creating a tremendous explosion.

Act Three: Injured Autobots emerge from the devastated laboratory. Prime orders a retreat to headquarters, so that his soldiers can tend to badly needed repairs. The Autobots limp back to the Ark, where Ratchet and Sparkplug immediately get to work. Chip laments his inability to keep the antimatter formula from falling into Megatron’s hands, but Wheeljack tries to console him. He’s got a plan for the formula, and could use Chip and Spike’s help.

The next day, the Decepticons, powered by antimatter Energon Cubes, attack Autobot headquarters. Megatron turns into pistol mode, and Starscream fires his antimatter-bolstered bolts into the Autobot ranks. Prime manages to knock the pistol from Starscream’s grip, and Skywarp recovers the weapon. Just then, Chip affixes a control device onto Skywarp’s ankle, a transmitter that enables Teletraan-1 to take control of the Decepticon warrior.

Under Autobot control, Skywarp begins shooting randomly into the countryside, and Megatron’s antimatter ignition temperature reaches near critical. He transforms into robot mode and expels the remaining antimatter Energon from his body. It detonates, devastating the Decepticon forces. Megatron orders a retreat, but swears vengeance. Meanwhile, the Autobots congratulate Chip for his heroics.

Stats
Original airdate: October 13, 1984

Production number: #700-02

Written by: Douglas Booth

Featured Characters
(''Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Notable Quotes
"Can the chat and start kickin' pig-iron!" -- Brawn, heading into battle.

"Starscream! Thundercracker! You two look like Optimus Prime ran you through a laser-powered trash compactor!" -- Megatron.

"Stealing the antimatter formula is gonna be a piece of oil cake!" -- Reflector, thinking he is clever.

"Let's cook a few crankcases!" -- Bluestreak, heading into battle.

"Now this is a human after my own central processor!" -- Prowl, commenting on Chip's computer-control.

"There's no one here! I must have static in my rectifiers." -- Rumble, hoodwinked by Mirage and Hound.

"Stick it in your optic sensor, garbage can!" -- Mirage, heading into battle.

"Gosh! You guys look like you were the guests of honor at a 50-car pile-up!" -- Sparkplug Witwicky, upon seeing the battle-damaged Autobots return to base.

"I get the feeling our jet judo needs a little work." -- Sunstreaker to Sideswipe after their failed bid to stop the seekers.

"You may not be an Autobot, but when you rolled for broke back there you sure could've fooled me." -- Bumblebee congratulating Chip.

Animation and/or technical glitches

 * Thundercracker is repeatedly depicted with Skywarp’s colors in the opening scene, or in some cases, with Starscream’s hue.
 * As Soundwave prepares Energon Cubes, the interior of his chest-compartment is not illustrated, instead showing a solid wall of blue.
 * When Soundwave runs through what appears to be a chainlink volleyball net, the net is animated as if the background art is sliding, but the background is sitting still.
 * Prowl and Bluestreak also switch color and bodies in this episode.
 * The security guard’s access panel has digits 1-9 and a variety of mathematical commands, yet lacks a zero.
 * When Megatron orders the attack on the laboratory, the Decepticon insignia in his chest is not shown.
 * When entering the jets base, Prowl's and Bluestreak's Autobot insignias are not shown.
 * When the Decepticons are fleeing the jets base, Skywarp (who hasn't been shown before, except as an error replacing Thundercracker) appears besides Thundercracker and Starscream.
 * The shot of Soundwave ejecting Ravage to retrieve Chip is supposed to take place outdoors, but the background art is that of the hangar interior seen earlier
 * Ravage breaks through Chip's front door, taking most of side window with him. After he open Chip's bedroom door and absconds the human, he leaps through the now-repaired side window and, and the front door is undamaged as well.
 * Soundwave’s line of dialogue, “Excellent, Ravage” is heard without its sound processing, so that Frank Welker’s “Dr. Claw” voice is quite audible.
 * When Megatron throws the antimatter Energon Cube, it is not colored in.
 * When the Decepticons are loading the anti-matter powered Energon Cubes, two Starscreams are shown (one as a jet and one as a robot).

Continuity Errors

 * Reflector is shown watching for the password to enter the lab. If the Decepticons have an assortment of weapons, couldn't they just blast the door open?  That, or the door is immune to Decepticon weapons.
 * When confronted by Starscream’s raiding party, Bluestreak quips “Maybe we should have gone to help Prime after all.” It was Bumblebee who had requested help, not Prime.
 * While Chip tries desperately to contact Dr. Alcazar via his computer, he never tries with the piece of equipment right next to his computer: his telephone.
 * The security access door code is 2-9-5 when the security guard punches it and 4-7-2 when Reflector punches it in.
 * Ratchet is shown as both a member of Prime’s attack group, and also waiting for them to return at the Ark.

Transformers References

 * The Space Bridge, first appeared in Transport to Oblivion, reappears in this episode.
 * The para-sail like parachute used by Mirage in the More Than Meets The Eye, Part 3 is shown again, this time used by Sideswipe and Sunstreaker.
 * The Autobots' ability to fly, seen in More Than Meets The Eye, is shown again in this episode, when Sunstreaker and Sideswipe are defending the Ark.
 * Cliffjumper uses the phrase “your friendly neighborhood Decepticon wreckers,” which is both a reference to Spider-Man and also the first time the phrase Wreckers is used.

Real-World References

 * Reference

Miscellaneous trivia

 * Bumblebee can reconfigure his interior to accommodate Chip’s wheelchair and turn his door into an entry ramp.


 * Signage in the city includes an ad for Prim Cola


 * Megatron can detect specific computer activity by placing his hand over the machine.


 * The antimatter formula includes handwritten screens with the following written on them:

AH ONNAG MOSHII

DOKOKANI EE ONN

AGA ORANKNAA

KYOUMO HAYO KA

EETE NEYO

….. El HABARA

….. MOU DOUTEI

….. SUTETAKAI

….. SONOUTHI

….. TORUKO IKO

….. UZE


 * Chip’s phone number is 94-7244


 * The lab's computer is weird. It loads floppy disks backwards...unless the good doctor is befuddled and inserted the disk the wrong way.