Closer... closer...
Template:Episodenav
The Decepticons kidnap Bulkhead to aid in Megatron's ultimate plan to take over Cybertron.
- German title: "Die Weltraumbrücke, Teil 1" ("The Spacebridge, Part 1")
Summary
Megatron swears in and brands Mix and Scrapper as Decepticons thanking them for building their Space Bridge. They also have a color-change for their eyes and armor thrown into the bargain. Issac 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... Cut to Starscream, he begins to add pieces of the AllSpark fragment embedded in his head to his clones. The clones and Starscream start to bicker with one another until a Blackarachnia version tells him that each clone represents a side of him. When Starscream asks the Blackarachnia version what side he represents, she tells him not to ask. Starscream sighs and says, "This is going to be a long orbital cycle".
Back down underground, Megatron is receiving an update briefing that the Decepticon uprising is weakening the Autobot forces. Megatron loves the news, but has another task: track down the top Space Bridge technician and deliver him to Earth. His liaison checks on the network for that individual, but it turns out that the leading technician is already on Earth. It turns that it’s Bulkhead, who scored higher than anybody else. However, he has no other discernable skills. While Megatron and his liaison are speaking, an unknown blue sports car is driving in an unknown place. The monitor within the vehicle is playing a video of the conversation. When Megatron says that he will make Bulkhead an offer he cannot refuse in order to finish building the Space Bridge, the vehicle makes a 180-degree turn and takes off in the other direction.
At the Autobot base, Bulkhead is painting a portrait of Sari. She complains about being tired and asks for a break. Nobody understands the painting that he calls Picasso-like art. The other Autobots are trying to give advice on how to make his painting better, but they only wind up making it worse. Bulkhead grows upset and goes to find another canvas. Sari scolds the other Autobots and follows him. Megatron is speaking with Lugnut and Blitzwing that he will deal with Bulkhead alone while he wants his top lieutenants to pick up something for him at Sumdac Tower. Lugnut speaks of his unease with leaving Sumdac under the guard of the Constructicons. Megatron agrees and takes Sumdac with him. Sari is trying to comfort Bulkhead, but Bumblebee comes and makes it a little worse. But the consolation process is interrupted when Megatron swoops in and attacks him. Sari finds out that her father is alive and well (sort of) in the front compartment. Megatron transforms into robot mode and strategically places Sumdac square on the Decepticon logo on his chest. Bumblebee prepares to shoot, but Sari and Bulkhead tell him that doing so will hurt Isaac. Using Sumdac as a human shield to stop the Autobots from firing back, Megatron starts to rain destruction down on the Autobots as Bumblebee and Sari argue over whether or not Sumdac has been working with Megatron. Just then, the mysterious sports car shows up again and Bumblebee leaves Bulkhead and Sari behind to intercept the vehicle. Once he stops the car, he radios Bulkhead but sees Megatron hauling away Bulkhead’s unconscious chassis. Turning his attention back to the mysterious car, Bumblebee tells “Zippy” to start talking. The Transformer is revealed to be Blurr, a member of the Elite Guard. He begins his speedy rant that he is an Autobot intelligence agent, sent to Earth to monitor Optimus Prime and the Earth Autobots and monitor Decepticon activity. He says everything was going according to plan until he intercepted a feed from a known Decepticon double agent and came to stop Megatron from abducting Bulkhead.
Bulkhead is being hauled into the Decepticon headquarters by Lugnut and Blitzwing. Megatron tells him that if he does not cooperate, he will cut his head off and replace it with the Headmaster that he took from Sumdac Tower. Using Bulkhead’s own weaponry, he will destroy the people he cares about starting with Isaac Sumdac. As Megatron threatens him, he sees the Constructicons and pleas for their help, but they do not remember him since their memory wipe. Defeated, Bulkhead agrees to finish building his Space Bridge. Back at the Autobot base, Blurr is briefing the Autobots on everything that has happened. The Autobots are shocked to hear that Bulkhead is the leading Space Bridge technician on all of Cybertron. To save him, Optimus Prime mobilizes the Autobts and also promises Sari that he will bring Isaac back safely.
Meanwhile, Bulkhead and Isaac are arguing about where to put a certain component for the Space Bridge. After a bit, Isaac begins to think that Bulkhead is trying to sabotage the construction to the preposterous things Bulkhead is saying. Bulkhead becomes angry at the thought that people do not think he knows what he is talking about and tells Isaac that he will be the authority. Isaac goes along, still believing that he is trying to sabotage the Space Bridge. Back in space, Starscream is lecturing his clones of purging the world of Megatron and taking over as Decepticon leader. Once they were ready to depart, Thundercracker pushes Starscream aside, stating, "You second-rate clones aren't even worthy to breathe my exhaust fumes!" As the clones take off towards Earth, the original Starscream realizes that he must be a bigger pain in the gearshaft than he thinks. Slipstream bitingly noted that Starscream has finally "arrived at the party", then childishly claims that she wasn't starting anything.
Ratchet and Sari are on the Autobot ship and find that nothing is working. Ratchet has the idea to put the remaining AllSpark fragments into the AllSpark chamber of the ship and have a chance at jumpstarting the ship. Meanwhile, Blurr, Prime, Bumblebee, and Prowl drive up to secondary entrance of the excavation tunnels that Megatron and his Decepticons are operating out of. The Autobots enter the tunnel and believe that they are in the clear but are ambushed by Lugnut and Blitzwing. After a brief struggle, Blurr literally runs circles around the two Decepticons, who emerge with Stasis cuffs around their wrists. Further in the tunnels, Bulkhead pleads for Megatron to let him and Sumdac go now that they have finished his Space Bridge. As a demonstration that it works, Sumdac, who still believes that Bulkhead was trying to sabotage the construction, activates the Space Bridge, only surprised to see that it actually works. Megatron begins his conquest speech but is blown away when the Autobots blow out a section of the wall in the tunnel. The Constructicons ambush the Autobots, only in time to see Starscream and his clones entering and circling above.
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 |
|---|---|---|
|
|
Quotes
"Ah, never before have I seen such an impressive group of lethal fighting machines! And pretty good-looking, if I do say so myself."
- — The ever-humble Starscream comments on his clone army.
Skywarp: Us? Against Megatron?! Are you INSANE?!? [meekly] Ah, ah... I think I just sprang an oil leak.
Thundercracker: Silence, you fool! Megatron is but a worthless pile of scrap metal compared to my genius.
Sunstorm: Brilliant observation, brilliant! But your genius pales in comparison to that of our leader, the original Starscream.
Original Starscream: Mmm, I could listen to this one all day...
Ramjet: What are you talking about?! I am the original Starscream!
Starscream: Liar! I am the original Starscream.
Ramjet: [sheepishly] I never said I was the original Starscream.
Starscream: You just did right now.
Ramjet: No I didn't.
Starscream: Yes you did.
Ramjet: No I didn't.
Starscream: Yes you did!
Ramjet: No. I. Didn't.
Slipstream: Ugh! Haven't you figured it out yet? He's a pathological liar. Each of us clones represents one aspect of your personality. [points to each clone in turn] He's a coward... he's an egomaniac... he's a suck-up... he's a liar.
Ramjet: I am not!
Starscream: So, which part of me did you come from?
Slipstream: Don't ask.
Starscream: [sigh] This is going to be a long orbital cycle...
- — Best introdump ever?
"I just didn't think my head was so big."
"That's your leg."
- — Sari and Bulkhead. Oh, the irony!
Sari: No, don't shoot! You'll hit my dad!
Bulkhead: She's right!
Bumblebee: So what are we supposed to do? Fight him with snappy comebacks?
- — Bumblebee conveniently forgets his normal attack strategy.
Bumblebee: All right, Zippy, start talking!
[Blurr transforms from vehicle mode to robot mode]
Blurr: First of all, the name's not "Zippy"! As a matter of fact, I don't believe I've ever met another bot named Zippy, so one can only assume that you came up with "Zippy" in reference to my speed, which may be technically accurate, but lacks a certain creativity!
Bumblebee: Eh...eh-eh...
Blurr: More to the point, the name's Blurr! I'm an Autobot intelligence agent, sent to this planet by the Elite Guard to keep an eye on Optimus Prime and his crew as well as monitor the Deception activity, and you, my friend, have just blown a decacycle of covert surveillance designed to uncover Megatron's plot to conquer Cybertron. Everything was going according to plan when I intercepted a communication between the Decepticon leader and an unknown double agent! They were in the midst of plotting the abduction of an unsuspecting Autobot, which now, from the status of the current ground situation ,appears to have been successful. Got that so far?
Bumblebee: Uh...could you repeat the last part?
Blurr: Which last part?
Bumblebee: Oh, everything after "The name's not Zippy."
- — It took Bumblebee a long time to get Blurr to start talking. From this point on, he doesn't shut up.
Bumblebee: Woah, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Back up!
Prowl: Did he just say Bulkhead?
Optimus Prime: Our Bulkhead?
Ratchet: An expert? On anything?!
- — The Autobots aren't terribly impressed with Bulkhead.
"I must be a bigger pain in the gearshaft than I thought."
- — Starscream openly admits one of his primary faults.
Optimus Prime: The area is clear. No sign of any Decepitcon energy signatures.
[The Autobots are attacked by Lugnut and Blitzwing]
Bumblebee: Whoa!
Icy Blitzwing: Unfortunately, ze same cannot be said for your energy signatures, Autobots.
'Lugnut: Our signal dampeners created by your human professor have been quite useful.
Bumblebee: (activates his stingers)
Icy Blitzwing: (freezes Bumblebee's stingers)
Optimus Prime: (uses his ax, but gets stopped by Blitzwing)
Hothead Blitzwing: Is it hot in here or is it me?! (shoots fire)
Bumblebee: Thanks, Blitzbrain.
"Okay, I give. I'm officially no longer the fastest thing on wheels."
- —Bumblebee is humbled after seeing Blurr's speedy takedown of Blitzwing and Lugnut.
Notes
Animation errors
- When Mixmaster encases Optimus and Prowl in concrete, his colors shift back to his neutral, pre-Decepticon color scheme.
- When Megatron attacks the Autobots, his cockpit changes from black to grey for a brief moment, then back.
- Blurr's mouth disappears for a frame after he introduces himself to Bumblebee and is pointing at him for the second time.
Continuity errors
- Not so much an error as a quirk: During the engagement in the mines, Icy Blitzwing is scowling noticeably, while Hothead Blitzwing is...smiling???
Transformers references
- Shockwave's report on Bulkhead appears to be in the form of Tech Specs.
- After branding, the Constructicons' colour schemes match those of their Generation One counterparts.
Real-world references
- 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.
- Among the parts needed for a space bridge are "hollow cathode tubes", parts which until recently made up computer monitor displays.
Miscellaneous trivia
- So in all the months that Isaac Sumdac has been missing, it never occurred to anyone that the Decepticons kidnapped him? Perhaps everyone thought he was dead.
- All of the heavy exposition is given to the guy who talks really, really fast. Handy.
- Megatron initiates new Decepticons by branding the symbol onto them with cattle brands. How bovine.
- This is not the first time Bulky has transformed his kibble into a chair.
- Starscream opens a hatch on his head to pick parts from his Allspark fragment to bring the clones to life, suggesting that in all of the episodes when you do see it, he has his hatch open, exposing the Allspark fragment.
- Sunstorm, the Sycophant Starscream was called a "Suck Up" in the episode, but it is revealed he is a Sycophant Starscream.
- Blurr finally transforms into his humanoid mode.