The question of where Alpha Trion is just happens to be one of many philosophical questions in Transformers: What color are Frenzy and Rumble? Why is Grimlock an Autobot? Why do my shoulders hurt?
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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.
Japanese title: "Finding Alphatrin"
Detailed synopsis
Oi! You! Cut it out!
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.
I see a bearded man in your future.
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 their 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.
Self Defense against sexual harassment.
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 space bridge. 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 trailer and races to find Alpha Trion, the only Autobot who can save her.
Disco didn't die. It just went into stasis lock.
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.
You're lucky my chick's here, m—oh, hey, so's yours.
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 two Autobot groups bid each other farewell when one returns to Earth.
Stats
- Originally aired: 12th November 1985
- Written by: Beth Bornstein
- Production number: 700-52
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons |
|---|---|
|
|
Notable Quotes
"Female Autobots? I thought they were extinct."
- —Shockwave obviously hasn't kept up to date on Cybertron's Discovery Channel.
"Such noble nonsense."
- —Shockwave disses Chromia and gives Megatron material to rip off.
"Elita One knows no fear!"
- —Elita One need not worry about Man-Thing, then.
"Optimus Prime, something rather exciting has been discovered on Cybertron. I thought you might like to know about it."
- —Megatron calls to say he's found the females.
"Please, let him go."
"Very well, my dear...let him go...into the acid!"
- —Elita One's plea to Starscream to free Optimus Prime doesn't have the expected result.
"How quaint! The girls have come to rescue their boyfriends!"
- —Jealous, Starscream?
"Alpha Trion...I never expected to see you again."
- —Optimus Prime doesn't have much faith in his deadbeat dad.
Notes
Animation and/or technical glitches
Megatron has stolen my mouthplate! This time he's gone too far...
- When Prime receives 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. It is probably meant to be Windcharger.
- 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.
- Prime is hanging precariously over the vat of acid in one scene, but when the perspective changes to a view from above the vat is missing.
- When Elita revives Prime from her stasis field, he fades from his normal colors to green, rather than the other way around. Once the fade is complete, mind you, he jumps back to his normal colors 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, which would later appear in War Dawn with the introduction of Ariel, and in The Transformers: The Movie, with 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).
Miscellaneous trivia
- This episode is the fourth and final appearance of Prime's trailer's "artillery robot" in the animated series.
I can't wait for you to operate...When I get this feeling, I need Sexual Healing...
- 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!
- Also, when he does, the laser fire is coming out of his fingers! Holy slag!
- When Optimus brings Elita to Alpha Trion's base, he takes less than a second to examine her and say that he has "done all he could". Either he is a really competent scientist or a really lazy one.
- Moonracer seems to be calling Powerglide "Carglide" when she claims to be the best sharpshooter in the universe.
- All the male Autobots who went to Cybertron (Optimus Prime, Cliffjumper, Ironhide, Powerglide and Inferno) have red as the dominant theme for their body color.
