The Search for Alpha Trion

Discovering that his long-thought-dead love, Elita One, is in the hands of the Decepticons, Optimus Prime speeds to Cybertron on a rescue mission, only to end up discovering something about his own history in the process.

Detailed synopsis
On Cybertron, three Female Autobots (Chromia, Moonracer and Firestar) sneak into Shockwave's headquarters under orders of Elita One. They raid Shockwave's stockpile of energon cubes to power their fight against the Decepticons, but on the way out Moonracer accidentally trips an alarm. Shockwave, surprised to see Female Autobots still alive, sends a sentinel after them. The Female Autobots escape the sentinel and return to Elita One, though Shockwave deduces the approximate location of their underground headquarters. Shockwave contacts Megatron who sends Starscream, Astrotrain, Rumble and Ramjet to assist in the apprehension of the Female Autobots. Rumble starts an earthquake which damages the headquarters. Elita One attempts to lure them away from the base by attacking, but is captured. Rumble continues shaking things up until Starscream believes the base is suitably destroyed.

Megatron contacts Optimus Prime and shows him the imprisoned Elita One. Optimus rushes to her rescue, even though he knows it's a trap. Apparently, 4 million years ago, Optimus and Elita had a thing going. Right before boarding the Ark, Elita begged to go with him but Optimus told her it was too dangerous. As they spoke, the Decepticons attacked and Elita vanished in the chaos, leaving Optimus to think she had perished. Not wishing to lose her a second time, Optimus heads for Cybertron via the Decepticon spacebridge. Powerglide, Ironhide and Inferno become curious as to why Optimus is heading to Cybertron alone and follow in secret.

As soon as Optimus arrives he is taken prisoner by Starscream, who dangles him over a barrel of acid. Rumble drops Optimus, but before he lands in the barrel, Elita uses her special power which stops time. Elita rescues Prime, but at the cost of her own life force, as the special power uses up so much energy. Prime loads Elita into his cab and races to find Alpha Trion, the only Autobot who can save her.

Back at Shockwave's headquarters, the Decepticons believe Optimus has perished. Just then, the three Autobots arrive and attack. In the Female Autobots' underground headquarters, Moonracer comes up with a plan to dig their way out. They detonate the Energon cubes they had just stolen, freeing up their exit. Moonracer, Chromia and Firestar reunite with their boyfriends Powerglide, Ironhide and Inferno, and together they take on the Decepticons.

Optimus eventually finds Alpha Trion, who uses his skill to repair Elita One as best he can. In the end, Alpha Trion instructs Prime to interface with her for a power transfusion, as he is the only Autobot compatible with her design. Prime remarks that only his creator should know that. After the transfusion, Elita One recovers and the two then return to help the Autobots fight off the Decepticons. Outnumbered, the Decepticons retreat. Alpha Trion then sets the Female Autobots up with a new secret base and the Autobots bid farewell to their gal pals.

Stats

 * Originally aired: 12th November 1985


 * Written by: Beth Bornstein


 * Production number: 700-52

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

Notable Quotes
"Female Autobots? I thought they were extinct."
 * -- Shockwave after his computer monitors detect a group of female Autobots raiding the Decepticon energy store on Cybertron.

"Such heroic nonsense."
 * -- Shockwave when Moonracer says that the female Autobots will always survive.

"Elita-1 knows no fear!"
 * -- Elita-1.

"Please, let him go." "Very well my dear... let him go... into the acid!"
 * -- Elita-1 pleading Starscream to free Optimus Prime to which the Decepticon Air Commander complies but not in the way the female Autobot expected.

Animation and/or technical glitches

 * When Prime recieves Megatron's call, he's missing his mouthplate.
 * When the Autobots are trying to work out where Prime had gone, standing at Teletraan I's control panel is a Reflector in a red and grey color scheme.
 * Observing the spacebridge from afar, Ironhide notes, "If Prime got past those guards, so can [they]." The thing is, there are no guards, and there weren't any when Prime used the bridge, either.
 * When Elita revives Prime from her stasis field, he fades from his normal colours to green, rather than the other way around. Once the fade is complete, mind you, he jumps back to his normal colours when he starts to move.
 * As the Decepticons are freed from Elita's stasis field, Starscream cheers, "But Prime has disintegrated!" as if responding to some unspoken line from one of the others. The missing line is also absent from the episode's shooting script.

Continuity errors

 * When the Ark launched back in More Than Meets The Eye, Part 1, there was no indication of a Decepticon attack on the launch site, as this episode's flashback shows.

Transformers references

 * The episode marked the first appearance of Female Transformers in official fiction...and they would not appear again until the introduction of Arcee.
 * Alpha Trion's relationship to Optimus Prime would be touched upon again in The Key to Vector Sigma, Part 2, and explained more fully in War Dawn.
 * War Dawn would also go on explain precisely why only Prime's power supply would interface with Elita's, as seen in this episode (because she was rebuilt using his schematics).

Miscellanious trivia

 * This episode is the fouth and final appearance of Prime's trailer's "artillery robot" in the animated series.
 * This episode contains the rather infamous scene in which Prime connects a cable from his midriff to Elita's, and utters an audible, not-entirely-unpleasant-sounding groan as energy is transmitted through it, to her. Sexy.
 * Ironhide must hate the wall in Shockwave's base, this is at least the second time he has blown through it!
 * When Optimus brings Elita to Alpha Trion's base, he takes less than a second to examine her and say tha he "done all he could". Either he is a really competent scientist or a really lazy one.