A Bridge Too Close, Part I

Closer... closer...

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The Decepticons kidnap Bulkhead to aid in Megatron's ultimate plan to take over Cybertron.

Summary

Now serving under Megatron, the Constructicons have completed construction of the villain’s space bridge. They are rewarded for their efforts by being officially branded as Decepticons, with a color-change for their eyes and armor thrown into the bargain. At Megatron’s instruction, Professor Sumdac fires up the bridge, but when it fails to activate due to the professor’s simple lack of understanding of the technology, Megatron realizes that he will require additional help...

"There's something in your eye." "No, there isn't!"

On Earth’s moon, Starscream gloats over five new clones of himself, to which he is in the processing of putting the finishing touches. The final clone is completed and, like its fellows, brought online with a tiny chip of the AllSpark that gives Starscream life. Immediately, however, Starscream has to wrestle with the various wacky personalities the clones have wound up with, each one an exaggerated aspect of his own: a coward, a sycophant, an egomaniac, a pathological liar... and a short-tempered female who declares that Starscream not ask what aspect of his personality gave birth to her.

Megatron contacts Shockwave on Cybertron in order to have him track down the top space bridge engineer on the planet. Shockwave is surprised to report that the engineer in question is on Earth—it’s Bulkhead! Megatron decides to capture Bulkhead personally and instructs Lugnut and Blitzwing to pick up an item from Sumdac Tower to aid in “convincing” the Autobot to help them. When Lugnut points out that Sumdac cannot be trusted in the base alone, Megatron decides to take the professor with him. As all this scheming goes on, however, someone else is listening in—the mysterious “Blue Racer” that Bumblebee recently encountered.

At the Autobot base, Bulkhead is working on his latest painting, an abstract rendition of Sari. Unfortunately, backseat artistry from the other Autobots winds up ruining the painting, and Bulkhead goes for a walk with Sari to vent a little. Bumblebee follows to apologize, but just as he catches up to them, Megatron appears in the sky overhead and opens fire. Using Sumdac as a human shield to stop the Autobots from firing back, Megatron continues to rain destruction down on the Autobots as Bumblebee and Sari argue over whether or not Sumdac has been working with Megatron. Suddenly, the Blue Racer speeds onto the scene, and Bumblebee, believing the enigmatic speedster to be working with Megatron, chases him off through the city and manages to run him off the road. When he attempts to report his success to Bulkhead, though, there’s no response—because Megatron has captured Bulkhead and is airlifting him away. Bumblebee’s failure is compounded by the next turn of events: The Blue Racer reveals himself to be Blurr, a fast-talking member of the Cybertron Elite Guard who has been covertly monitoring Megatron’s activities.

Back at the Decepticon headquarters, Bulkhead refuses to help Megatron, so the villain unveils the fruit of Blitzwing and Lugnut’s labor: a Headmaster unit! Faced with the threat of once again having his body taken over and being used to destroy his fellow Autobots, and failing to elicit any help from Scrapper or Mixmaster, Bulkhead relents and agrees to work on the space bridge.

At the Autobots’ base, Blurr relates his mission to Optimus Prime and company and brings them up to speed, quite literally. While Prime leads the rest of the team to the Decepticon base, the location of which is provided by Blurr, Ratchet and Sari head for the Autobot ship to try to get it online one last time. Just like last time, their efforts lead to nothing, forcing Ratchet to attempt one last drastic approach: using the AllSpark fragments the Autobots have gathered to jump-start the ship’s systems.

Why, I'm beside myself! And myself! And...

Prime’s team is led by Blurr into the Decepticons’ coal mine base, where they are immediately attacked by Lugnut and Blitzwing. The fight is a brief one, as Blurr uses his super-speed to bind the odd couple with stasis cuffs. Meanwhile, as the space bridge nears completion, Bulkhead insists on modifying many aspects of Sumdac’s design, and winds up in an argument with the human, which Sumdac interprets as Bulkhead trying to sabotage the bridge deliberately. When the bridge is activated, however, it functions perfectly—Bulkhead knew fully well that Sumdac’s design was wrong, and he corrected it! As the bridge flares into life, Prime’s team bursts into the main chamber, but they are instantly immobilized by cement booties, courtesy of Mixmaster. With the Autobots out of the picture, it seems there is nothing to stop Megatron now...until the roof of the cavern explodes, and Starscream and his clone army make their grand entrance!

To be continued…

Stats

• Written by: Marsha Griffin
• Directed by: Ben Jones, Christopher Berkeley, Shunji Oga
• Original airdate: June 28, 2008

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans
Bulkhead (14) Bumblebee (15) Blurr (16) Optimus Prime (17) Ratchet (18) Prowl (19)	Megatron (1) Lugnut (2) Blitzwing (3) Scrapper (4) Mixmaster (5) Starscream (7) Egomaniac Starscream (8) Sycophant Starscream (9) Liar Starscream (10) Coward Starscream (11) Female Starscream (12) Shockwave (13)	Isaac Sumdac (6) Sari Sumdac (15)

Quotes

"Ah, never before have I seen such an impressive group of fighting machines! And pretty good-looking, if I do say so myself."

— The ever-humble Starscream comments on his clone army.

Coward Starscream: "Us? Against Megatron?!? ARE YOU INSANE?!? *Meekly* Ah, I think I just sprang an oil leak..."
Egomaniac Starscream: "Silence, you fool! Megatron is a worthless pile of scrap metal compared to my genius."
Sycophant Starscream: "Brilliant observation! Brilliant! But your genius pales in comparison to the genius of our leader, the original Starscream."
Starscream: "Mmm, I could listen to this one all day!"
Liar Starscream: "What are you talking about? I am the original Starscream!"
Starscream: Liar! I am the original Starscream.
Liar Starscream: I never said I was the original Starscream.
Starscream: You just did right now.
Liar Starscream: No I didn't.
Starscream: Yes you did.
Liar Starscream: No I didn't.
Starscream: Yes you did!
Liar Starscream: No I didn't.

— Best introdump ever?

"This Autobot is a rather unique case. According to his file, he scored higher than any other Cybertronian scientist on his space bridge apptitude test, yet seems to have no other discernable skills."

—Shockwave cannot fathom the logic of Bulkhead being a genius.

Sari: "I just didn't think my head was so big."
Bulkhead: "That's your leg."

— Oh, the irony!

"As improbable as it may seem by the looks of you, I have it on good authority that you are quite the genius when it comes to space bridge technology. Equally improbable is the fact that I now need your help."

— Megatron questions the latest plot twist.

Megatron: "Refuse to cooperate with us, and I will have no choice but to cut off your head and replace it with this Headmaster unit."
Bulkhead: "Been there, done that. The answer's still no!"
Megatron: "Ah, so very brave of you. Of course, your suffering will be relatively insignificant compared to what your friends will endure when I destroy them using your body—" (Megatron activates the Headmaster unit) "—starting with Professor Sumdac."
Bulkhead: "No! You wouldn't!"
Megatron: "Let's test that theory, shall we?"

— THIS is a KIDS' SHOW?!?

"Yo, Megs! I hate to complain, but we're running a little low on oil..."

— Mixmaster displays ball-bearings of chrome steel.

Other notes

Animation errors

• When Mixmaster encases Optimus and Prowl in concrete, his colors shift back to his neutral, pre-Decepticon color scheme.

Continuity errors

• Bulkhead and Professor Sumdac see each other during the battle against Megatron...but a few minutes later, in the Decepticon hideout, the two of them appear to have forgotten that and are each astonished the other is there.

Transformers references

• Megatron extending his fingers seems quite similar to Scrounge's ability, though Scrounge uses his fingers for reconnaissance while Megatron can control at least one type of robotic device with them.

• Shockwave's report on Bulkhead appears to be in the form of Tech Specs.

Real-world references

• The restoration of Omega Supreme's memory is very similar to the scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey when Dave Bowman takes HAL-9000's higher functions offline (just in reverse).
• In The Bridge on the River Kwai, Alec Guinness is a prisoner of war who is forced to build a bridge. Even though the bridge will help his enemies, he builds the bridge to the best of his ability just to demonstrate how capable he is. In "A Bridge Too Close"...replace "Alec Guinness" with "Bulkhead".
• The title is a reference to the movie A Bridge Too Far.

Miscellaneous trivia

• It's pretty awesome that they gave pretty much all of the heavy exposition to the guy who talks really, really, really fast.
• OK, so Starscream had dozens of clones, but only took five to attack Megatron? And he took the five with personality issues?
• Issac Sumdac seems to really doubt Bulkhead in this episode. How cruel.

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