Fire in the Sky



While siphoning the Earth of its energy, the Decepticons uncover a long-lost colleague of Starscream.


 * Japanese title: "Skyfire's Return to Life"

Synopsis


What’s this? A blanket of snow over the Ark's volcano? The Autobots and Spike engaged in a snowball fight? In July? In the middle of the desert? Something is amiss with the world’s weather. According to Teletraan I's scans, temperatures are 40 degrees below normal and falling rapidly.



Somewhere in the Arctic Circle, the Decepticons have tapped a crystal shaft leading directly to the Earth's core to siphon the planet's heat energy into Energon Cubes. While excavating the icy caverns surrounding the crystal, Rumble uncovers a Transformer frozen in the ice. Starscream recognizes it as his old colleague Skyfire.

The Autobots finally pinpoint the source of the Earth’s energy drain, and Teletraan I confirms Decepticon activity surrounding a crystal outgrowth in the Arctic Circle. Optimus Prime hastily assembles an assault team, and they roll out, with Spike and Sparkplug accompanying.



The Decepticons have hauled the frozen titan out of the ice and proceed to repair it. Starscream explains his past: millions of years ago, before the final falling out between the Autobots and Decepticons, Starscream and Skyfire were both explorers. They were charting an unknown planet, Earth, when a storm separated the two and Skyfire was lost.

Skyfire awakens and Megatron welcomes him to the Decepticon cause. Though Skyfire is grateful for having been thawed out, he shows doubts about being a warrior rather than a scientist. He commits to the cause out of loyalty to Starscream. When the Autobots arrive in the Arctic, Skyfire targets them for destruction.



Skyfire opens fire, scattering the Autobots. Spike tumbles through the ice into the arctic waters. Sparkplug pulls him out, but they are trapped on an ice floe. They cry out for help. Skyfire is intrigued by the new lifeforms and tries to befriend them, not realizing that they are terrified by Decepticons. Spike and Sparkplug try to explain that it’s the Decepticons that are the true monsters. The naïve Skyfire takes the humans to Megatron to prove the Decepticons’ good intentions. Megatron and Starscream promptly imprison Spike and Sparkplug behind bars of ice, and plan their execution, leaving Skyfire troubled.



Optimus leads his Autobot team into the icy caverns, but a cave-in splits the team in two. Prime’s group finds the humans and frees them, while the other team – including Ironhide, Ratchet, Hound and Gears – find the crystal shaft tap. Megatron discovers this second group and has his soldiers capture them. To test Skyfire’s loyalty, Starscream orders Skyfire to execute the captives. Skyfire refuses, and in a fit of rage, Starscream blasts his old friend. Starscream then blasts the prisoners to pieces.



Well, not really. Once again, one of Hound’s holograms has saved the day, creating the illusion of blasted Autobot parts. When Starscream departs, Hound drops the illusion. An ailing Skyfire awakens and is pleased to see the Autobots functioning. The disparate Autobot teams unite as Ratchet repairs the fallen titan. Laserbeak spies Ratchet’s work and reports to Megatron. The Decepticon leader chews out Starscream for failing to kill the prisoners. Megatron orders his soldiers to attack.



As the battle progresses, Prime and Megatron each grab shards of crystals and engage in a duel. Skyfire appears on the battlefield, and Megatron orders him to attack Prime. Skyfire refuses, and proudly declares himself an Autobot, attacking Megatron and his Decepticons instead.

The battle takes to the air as Starscream and Skyfire engage in an aerial dogfight. A midair collision sends Skyfire out of control. In a last ditch effort, his blasts bury the crystal, but Skyfire crashes into the ice. The Autobots mourn Skyfire’s heroic sacrifice.

Stats
Original airdate: December 8, 1984

Production number: #700-04

Written by: Alfred A. Pegal

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

Notable quotes
"Not snowman, Spike. Snowbot! There's a flurry in a hurry!"
 * A snow-covered Jazz, surprising Spike

"Okay, Spike. You rat on me, I'll splat on you!"
 * Bumblebee, after Spike warns Ratchet about Bumblebee's incoming snowball

"Ironhide's carrying too much lead in his caboose!"
 * Ratchet, predating the "junk in the trunk" standard after they all fall through an ice sheet

"I'm a scientist, not an executioner!"
 * Skyfire objecting to Starscream's demand that he execute the captive

"He won't be forgotten, Spike. He will live forever... so long as freedom exists. We shall remember you, Skyfire."
 * Optimus Prime's eulogy for Skyfire

Animation and/or technical glitches

 * When the Autobots roll out, the background is moving far too quickly, making the Autobots appear to be sliding across frame while transforming. It doesn't help that they aren't drawn very well, either.


 * Right after he wakes up, Skyfire has a red Decepticon insignia in his chest in one shot, before they actually imprint the symbol on him.


 * In the Rhino DVD version, Skyfire's Decepticon insignia is colored red in several shots.


 * When Skyfire is talking about how he doesn't harm the innocent, his mouth isn't moving.


 * When Bumblebee tells Optimus that he can't find Ironhide and the others, the animation makes him look like he's flying. In the same scene, Optimus is shown with his trailer, though it wasn't there before, and it isn't there in the next shots.


 * Megatron’s order to Skyfire to destroy Optimus Prime is voiced, oddly enough, by Optimus Prime.

Continuity Errors



 * As Optimus Prime muses about how the heat from the Earth's core is being drained away, Gears can be seen in the background sitting in front of a console with a very small screen. But during the closeup of Gears, the screen is much larger.


 * Starscream transforms into an F-15 millions of years before his arrival on Earth, or the invention of jets.


 * In the flashback sequence, the Earth appears to be going through an Ice Age. This cannot be the Ice Age of the Pleistocene, since the Ark would have been buried for a million years when this Ice Age began.


 * It's never adequately explained where Skyfire got an Autobot badge from.


 * Were Starscream and Skyfire really friends? Starscream seems to shoot his old friend and call him "Traitor!" quite a lot. Then again, Starscream is a royal jerk.


 * What exactly do green crystals have to do with the Earth's core?


 * The Japanese ordering of this episode places it way after many episodes featuring Skyfire, when he's first introduced in this one.

Miscellaneous trivia

 * Soundwave can transform his right forearm into a cylindrical electricity firing module capable of generating a million volts.


 * Aside from astroseconds, Transformers also use astrominutes as units of time.


 * In a rather odd shot set up, Skyfire is too big to fit into a cave that Megatron and Starscream stand in. He’s forced to peer through the cave’s opening.


 * Prime’s Combat Deck cannons make a rare appearance in this episode, emerging from a non-transformed trailer.


 * Megatron can rotate his lower torso 180 degrees, which makes for some cool hand-to-hand combat maneuvers.


 * Spike and Sparkplug have fashionable fur-lined cold-weather hardhats with ear flaps.


 * This episode was produced as the seventh in the season, though it aired after the eighth-produced episode, "S.O.S. Dinobots".


 * The chapter stops for this episode on the Rhino DVD are Opening / Snowbot / At the Arctic Circle / "Destruction to Autobots" / An Illusion / Skyfire is Gone


 * The Autobots can apparently drive from North America to the Arctic in a fairly short amount of time.