The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1
From Transformers Wiki
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 And there was much rejoicing (yay). | |||||||||
| "The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1" | |||||||||
| Production code | 700-115 | ||||||||
| Production company | Sunbow Productions | ||||||||
| Airdate | February 24, 1987 | ||||||||
| Written by | Marv Wolfman Cherie Wilkerson | ||||||||
| Continuity | Generation 1 cartoon continuity | ||||||||
An embittered scientist uses the body of Optimus Prime unleash a dangerous plague on the Autobots and, ultimately, the universe.
- Japanese title: コンボイの復活 パート1 (Convoy no Fukkatsu Part 1, "The Resurrection of Convoy Part 1")
- German title: Die Rückkehr von Optimus Prime, Teil 1 ("The Return of Optimus Prime, Part 1")
Contents |
[edit] Synopsis
While on a deep-space mission to test a new heat-and-radiation-resistant alloy that they have developed, scientists Jessica Morgan and Gregory Swofford detect a ship carrying Optimus Prime's body Dark Awakening on a collision course with a planetoid orbiting a star they are researching nearby. Despite Gregory's reservations (his face was scarred in a previous scuffle between Optimus Prime and Megatron, which he blames on Optimus), he is talked into helping Jessica rescue Prime's body before the ship collides with the planetoid, the impact of which also sets off the star into a supernova and coating their ship with unusual spores.
Upon return to Earth, Jessica's father studies the spores and learns that they are not only alive, but are an incredibly contagious viral agent that induces hatred and destructive urges into whoever they contaminate. After a new scuffle between the Technobots and Terrorcons over the new alloy gravely injures Jessica, her father is convinced by Gregory to try and resurrect Prime's body as a carrier of the spores against the Autobots, a sentiment exacerbated when it's learned Jessica was paralyzed from the waist down in the accident and now needs a special exosuit to walk. However, when reviving Prime's body turns out to be impossible for them, Gregory and Jessica's father decide to use it as bait for the other Autobots. Dr. Morgan forces Jessica to lure them into a spore trap at the lab.
The trap goes off without a hitch, mostly due to Rodimus' reckless haste in recovering his predecessor's corpse in lieu of caution, and several Autobots—including Superion and Defensor, two of the most powerful Autobot gestalts—are infected. The Decepticons have learned about Optimus Prime's recovery as well, and have shown up to terminate the former Autobot leader permanently, but are instead infected themselves. Fortunately, Rodimus, Jessica, and Galvatron manage to escape unharmed, the former two with Optimus' body; a few other Autobots manage to escape infection as well, but are badly wounded while attempting to subdue a sickened and crazed Superion.
Back at Autobot City, Rodimus pleads to Wreck-Gar to try and repair Prime, but Prime is too far gone even for Junkion medical experience. Desperate, Rodimus contacts Sky Lynx and orders him to locate and bring back a Quintesson, remembering that they had once before restored Optimus to life. He then sets about disconnecting Metroplex to keep the city-former from becoming infected. However, just as he finishes the final steps to do so, an infected Ultra Magnus appears. He gives chase to Rodimus before he's temporarily subdued by Wreck-Gar...who ends up becoming infected, and infecting Rodimus in return.
With the Hate Plague, as it's now called, rampaging even to the ends of the galaxy, Sky Lynx finds an uninfected Quintesson who he saves from infected Sharkticons in exchange for reviving Optimus. The Quintesson warns that—should anything go too awry during the process — there's a good chance that Optimus will never live again. It's touch-and-go for a while, but eventually, the Quintesson manages to pull through and Optimus is restored to full life, declaring that "no force in the Universe can stop me."
[edit] Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans | Others |
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[edit] Notable quotes
"Computron think too much!"
- —Abominus, who subsequently shoots Computron
"Why do I keep seeing you in my dreams, Optimus? Are you telling me I'm not the leader you were? I already know that, Optimus. I always have."
- —Rodimus ponders in front of Optimus's memorial statue in Metroplex.
"Where's that punk Rodimus Prime?! I want him!"
"There you are, you wimp!"
"You can't escape, Rodimus! I can track your gas fumes anywhere!"
- —Several lines from infected Ultra Magnus as he tracks down Rodimus Prime. In virus veritas, indeed.
"The Autobots are acting like madmen!"
"It's a madness plague, Galvatron. If one of those Transformers touches you, you're infected."
"You're lying!"
"Fine. Whatever makes you a happy Decepticon. Just watch your rear thruster."
- —Galvatron and Rodimus Prime
"I'm a doctor, not a forklift!"
"His engines, they cannae take the strain!"
"He's dead, Jim."
- —Wreck-Gar's inspired medical descriptions of Optimus Prime's condition
"It's over, kid. I've won!"
"Don't believe it, old friend!"
- —Infected Ultra Magnus blocks Rodimus Prime, who evades him.
"Like I said before, kid. It's all over. What...? ARGH!"
"And as I said before: Don't believe it."
- —Infected Ultra Magnus corners Rodimus Prime, only to be lassoed by Wreck-Gar.
"I'm a pepper! Wouldn't you like to be a pepper, too?"
- —Wreck-Gar merrily spreads the infection.
"They've all gone mad. This is no place for me!"
- —The irony is lost on Galvatron.
"The world needs a leader now!"
- —Sky Lynx on the reactivation of Optimus Prime
"I've done it! Optimus Prime lives!"
"It's true. Our leader is back."
"Yes, Sky Lynx, and this time, no force in the universe can stop me."
- —Quintesson and Sky Lynx as the decidedly confident Optimus Prime is revived
[edit] Notes
[edit] Animation and/or technical glitches
- When Rodimus is done talking to Optimus's statue, his head slides backwards. Twice.
- When Gregory and Jessica's father rush at the hospital and find the Autobots, Swindle is amongst them.
- When Defensor is shown after the Protectobots combine, his left arm is missing.
- When Soundwave looks down after having Ratbat inserted into him, his faceplate stays in its old position of looking upwards.
- When Ratbat is inserted into Soundwave, he is white instead of a purplish-magenta colour.
- Also pertaining to Soundwave, when he says "Ratbat has returned. Ratbat, report!", his vocoded voice sounds more high pitched than usual.
- In one scene, Bruticus is the same size as all the regular Decepticons, or the regular Decepticons are the same size as Bruticus.
- Before entering the lab to retrieve Prime's body, Rodimus gives orders to Defensor...though Defensor is shown as the one making all of those orders.
- In the same scene as above, Goldbug is somehow right in front of Defensor, but Bumblebee wasn't rebuilt into him yet.
- Quite often, the red halos around infected Transformers are out of step with the animation or visible through objects in front of them.
- When Wreck-Gar is about to infect Rodimus, Rodimus is all red before he's been infected.
- During Brawl's rampage, he somehow manages to infect an inanimate truck.
- As an unconscious man leans against this truck, a pair of infected people fight over both him and the truck, overlapping them as if it they weren't there.
- When Defensor picks up a stone monument to throw, the monument gains a red aura around it, but does not become red. The red aura disappears when the monument is thrown.
[edit] Continuity errors
- More or less this entire episode is a massive continuity error, as it purports to pick up at the end of Optimus Prime's last prior appearance in "Dark Awakening", yet actually presents entirely different conditions. In the prior episode, Optimus Prime lost an arm and half of his face (on top of his longstanding physical damage still left from the animated movie), but was still alive as he managed to steer his ship at high speed through the heavy fire of a massed Quintesson spacefleet, deliberately ramming a detonator that caused a binary supernova and obliterated the ship and the entire solar system around it. Yet in this new episode, Optimus Prime is shown completely intact and pristine, albeit dead, as his (completely different) ship drifts, slowly and alone, through a system in which the sun is about to go nova from natural causes.
- Jessica Morgan and Gregory Swofford detect life-signs aboard Optimus Prime's ship, but the Autobot is dead.
- Even though Ratbat's reconnaissance recording consists of nothing more than an ambiguous, one-line statement by Jessica Morgan - "My father has his body in the lab." - Galvatron immediately knows that she's referring to Optimus Prime.
- If the Quintessons really are "in hiding in the far reaches of the galaxy" as Sky Lynx claims, then how did any of the at-the-time-still-Earthbound Hate Plague carriers manage to find them, much less get all the way out there to infect them in the first place?
- For that matter, how the hell did these theoretical Hate Plague carriers manage to beat Sky Lynx to the Quintessons?
[edit] Real-world references
- Wreck-Gar's lines: "I'm a doctor, not a forklift!" and "He's dead, Jim," reference popular quotes from Star Trek medic Dr. Leonard H. McCoy.
- Similarly "His engines, they cannae take the strain!" comes from another Star Trek character, namely Montgomery Scott (AKA Scotty), though this is often claimed to not be attributed to the character except for its use in parodies.
- Wreck-Gar's comment: "I'm a pepper! Wouldn't you like to be a pepper, too?" is a reference to an old Dr Pepper ad campaign in the late '70s to early '80s.
[edit] Trivia
- The Hate Plague appears to affect Sharkticons differently from how it affects Transformers and humans. While other organisms become incredibly aggressive, Sharkticons seem to become obsessed with infecting everyone else.
- When Jessica Morgan asks who built Optimus Prime in the first place, Rodimus Prime responds by saying the Quintessons did so, yet Optimus was modified from Orion Pax, who was repaired by Alpha Trion, though he might have meant who built Optimus in his original form.
- Jessica Morgan and Gregory Swofford are able to lift, push and pull Optimus Prime's massive body out of his chair and onto their ship without any mechanical assistance or devices except a rope. There's no gravity in space, but objects still have mass and therefore inertia.
- The Hate Plague can apparently infect any creature, both purely mechanical and biological.
- Even though it occurs in a flashback, this is technically the last appearance of Megatron in the original American series.
[edit] Home video releases
- VHS
- 1987 — The Transformers — The Return of Optimus Prime (Family Home Entertainment)
- 1987 — Transformers — Die Rückkehr von Optimus Prime (Erster Teil) (Polyband) — German audio only.
- 1988 — Transformers — The Return of Optimus Prime: Optimus Prime the Ultimate Robot (Tempo Video)
- 1989 — Transformers — Headmasters / The Return of Optimus Prime (Tempo Video)
- 1991 — Transformers — Headmasters / The Return of Optimus Prime / Cosmic Rust (Tempo Video)
- 2000 — The Original Transformers — Volume 7: The Return of Optimus Prime (Kid Rhino)
- Laserdisc
- 1999 — The Transformers: 2010 (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.
- DVD
- 2001 — The Transformers: 2010 — DVD Box (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.
- 2004 — The Original Transformers — Season 3 Part 2 & Season 4 (Kid Rhino)
- 2004 — Transformers — Season 3 and Season 4 (Metrodome)
- 2004 — Transformers — Collection 5: Series 3.2 (Madman Entertainment)
- 2006 — Transformers — The Complete Generation One Collection (Metrodome)
- 2007 — The Transformers — Complete Collection (Madman Entertainment)
- 2008 — Transformers — Volume 08: Stagione Tre Parte Seconda e Stagione Quattro (Medianetwork Communication) — English and Italian audio.
- 2009 — Transformers — Season's Three & Four [sic] (Metrodome)
- 2009 — The Transformers — Complete Collection: Decepticon Edition (Madman Entertainment)
- 2009 — The Transformers — The Complete Series: 25th Anniversary "Matrix of Leadership" Collection (Shout! Factory)
- 2010 — The Transformers — Seasons Three & Four: 25th Anniversary Edition (Shout! Factory)
