A Decepticon Raider in King Arthur's Court

The Transformers go to the sixth century but avoid Camelot, as it is a silly place.

Detailed synopsis
The episode starts with Warpath and Hoist battling it out with Starscream, Rumble, Ravage, and Ramjet. But the Decepticons retreat out of exhaustion, sensing energy in a nearby cave. The cave transports them to 543 A.D., where they are greeted by Sir Wigend du Blackthorne and his knights, who believe the Transformers are knights of their enemy realm. Nearby, Nimue, princess of that enemy kingdom, is spying their conversation and runs to warn her father, Sir Aetheling the Red, but she bumps into Spike (literally). The Decepticons agree to help Blackthorne's knights win their conflict with Aetheling, but Starscream obviously just wants to rule and have a land of his own. Spike agrees to enter the tournament between the two kingdoms (which has been rigged by the Decepticons, of course), but quickly fails.

Ramjet and Rumble then enter the tournament together (Rumble riding Ramjet in vehicle form), but are defeated by Warpath and Sir Aetheling. An enraged Starscream kidnaps Nimue and holds her hostage unless Sir Aetheling agrees to give up his realm. The Autobots give chase but cannot keep up due to lack of energy and collapse out of exhaustion. Starscream then holds Nimue prisoner in Blackthorne's castle, which he has commandeered, and has its residents construct and power a primitive electrical generator to keep him energized. Starscream then sends Rumble to get potassium nitrate (in other word, LOTS of bird crap) to make gunpowder. Spike attempts to save Nimue from Blackthorne's keep, only to find she and Sir Blackthorne are now a happy couple. Feeling rejected, Spike still agrees to help fight the war against the Decepticons. Meanwhile, the Autobots and Sir Aetheling's knights charge towards the castle to battle it out with the Decepticons, but the Autobots can't put up much of a fight due to their dangerously low energy levels.

A wizard named Beorht then appears to aid the Autobots and summons lightning that fills Warpath and Hoist with enough energy to fight. They continue the battle with Starscream and are victorious. Beorht then leads them all back to the cave in which they arrived, only to find it guarded by a dragon. Starscream refuses to go any closer, but Beorht pulls out a pouch of "dragon's bane", noting that a little bit of it works every time. He throws the concoction at the dragon, and it explodes, frightening away the beast. Spike and the Transformers are now all able to return to the present. When they arrive back in their home era, they are greeted by multiple cannon blasts by Megatron. Starscream tackles his leader in a burst of enthusiasm at being back safely. Megatron, on the other hand, isn't nearly as happy to see Starscream, who has just ruined his shot...

Stats
Original airdate: 24 October, 1985

Written by: Douglas Booth

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

Notable quotes
"Oohh! I just changed heads last week!"
 * —A ground-bound Ramjet strangely comes off second best after attempting to ram Warpath.

"Out of the way, Rumble! It could be dangerous. As your leader, I must take the risk. Anyway, I'm lower on energy than you!"
 * —Starscream acting true to form

"Huh! Inferior construction, even for an Autobot. One good whack, it breaks right in two!"
 * —Ramjet examining the "wreckage" of Sir Wulf and his horse.

"What's more important is that we have 1,451 years to go before we have to worry about the Autobots and that bungler Megatron!"
 * —Even trapped in the past, Starscream looks on the bright side, unaware his math is failing.

"Whatcha waiting for, Red Knight? Don't you wanna rumble with Rumble?"
 * —"Sir" Rumble prepares to joust.

"Starscream, lower the drawbridge! Uh, I got your stupid potassium nitrate!"
 * —Rumble, carrying a pot of bird droppings while also covered in same.

"What's the matter? Aren't you glad to see us?" "RRRRAGGGH!!"
 * —Starscream asks a rather loaded question of Megatron.

Animation and/or technical glitches

 * Princess Nimue has cleavage that appears and disappears from shot to shot and sometimes frame to frame. And no, you are not a pervert if you watched the episode six times to chronicle this error.

Continuity errors

 * When Ramjet rams into Warpath in the jousting duel, his canopy is smashed and nose cone crushed in, yet less than a minute later, he's back to normal when the remaining Decepticons attempt to flee with Starscream.


 * The historical accuracy of some aspects of this episode is somewhat lacking. (No! Really?)  Whilst the recipe for gunpowder expressed in this episode is roughly correct, gunpowder would not make its way to medieval Europe for another eight hundred years or so, and then only from the Far East.


 * Even making allowances for the story being set in the enlightened and (presumably) advanced kingdom of Camelot, plate armour of the kind worn by the various knights in this episode was not introduced into medieval Europe until around the year 1400. Even so, one should be fair to the writers and cartoonists, given that major motion pictures like Excalibur also made this error (or used it for dramatic effect because audiences would easily recognise a stereotypical "knight" as opposed to a historically accurate version).  Additionally, in one respect, the defect can be excused: Hoist's creation of a suit of armour for Spike with 900 years' worth of technological innovations can be regarded as a pretty smart tactical move.

Miscellaneous trivia

 * The original broadcast version of this episode featured the mis-spelled title, "A Deceptacon Raider..." The error was corrected for the Generation 2 version of the episode. Likewise, when Kid Rhino recreated the title cards for their DVD release of the series, it was also amended.
 * Starscream's math is out by about a decade - 543 + 1451 = 1994, rather than the correct 1984.
 * Spike actually gets a kiss from a girl. What will Carly think?

Keywords
Dragon's Bane, Dragon mound