From kendrick@io.com Thu Oct 26 08:59:01 CDT 1995
Article: 24947 of alt.toys.transformers
Path: news.io.com!io.com!not-for-mail
From: kendrick@io.com (Kendrick Kerwin Chua)
Newsgroups: alt.toys.transformers
Subject: TF Weekday 10/26 - Dark Awakening
Date: 26 Oct 1995 08:58:46 -0500
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TF Weekday Oct 26 1995 - Dark Awakening

Ok, so they're showing them a little out of order. Ok, so they left in
the silly 'Tune in tomorrow!' voiceover at the end. Doesn't matter. This
is one of those few episodes you watch reverently, a bold episode that
withstands the disgraces of commercial interruptions and SciFi Network
editing.

The EI/AD: A control chip planted inside the corpse of Optimus Prime by
the Quintessons is this episode's evil invention.

The plot: Led to the Autobots by the Quintessons, the Decepticons blow
away an Autobot cruiser, leaving Rodimus and co. drifting helplessly in a
life buoy. They find shelter in the creepy deep-space Autobot mausoleum, a
last resting place for the Autobots who died in the last great battle at
Autobot City and with Unicron. Perusing the markers, Daniel happens upon
the animate image of Optimus Prime. Spooked enough to be suspicious,
Rodimus opens Prime's casket to find it empty. Suddenly the Decepticons
appear, attacking everyone until Prime reveals himself, driving Galvatron
away with fear and superior firepower. In a makeshift hangar that Optimus
has supposedly built, Rodimus becomes Hot Rod again, handing over the
matrix only to be gunned down by Optimus, who is muttering about
completing some mission. Optimus escapes in a ship to arrive on Cybertron,
after setting the mausoleum on a self-destruct course into a star. He
claims that the other Autobots died to save him, and that he's finally
come to lead an attack on the Quintessons. While Optimus mobilizes the
entire Autobot force, Rodimus and co. escape the mausoleum on another
ship. They arrive at a Cybertron inhabited only by two Dinobots, and rush
out to stop Optimus. Meanwhile, the Quintessons review their plan to
destroy every Autobot in an elaborate trap, and chuckle at their flawless
Optimus zombie. While the Autobot fleet is getting shot down, Rodimus
boards the Autobot flagship and faces down Optimus in a hand-to-hand
fight. Rodimus is losing the physical fight but Optimus is losing the
psychological one, his own values and morals conflicting with the mission
implanted in him by the Quintesson programming. As Rodimus is beaten,
Optimus finally takes control of himself and hands the matrix back. The
other Autobots evacuate the burning ship while Optimus pilots it on a
suicide mission to destroy the new Quintesson base. As the Autobots
escape, Rodimus ponders his own leadership ability.

The characters: Optimus is resolute and indomitable, as ever. You can
hurt him but you can't make him what you want him to be, he is only what
he is. I guess this is a pretty unexplored side of Optimus; his
confidence and resolve. If we thought of everybody as strong individuals,
maybe there wouldn't be as much personal manipulation around as there is.
Rodimus still has this case of hero-worship, but it doesn't overshadow
his duty. He's willing to face off with what is essentially the cosmological
god of his universe to set that universe right. The Quints are a little
more emotional than they usually are; in FFOD they discuss chuckling over
killing the Autobots before they laugh about it. Here they laugh
maniacally with no motion made on the floor first. Oh, and count on the
Dinobots to be a source of funny quips in an otherwise serious episode.

The plot holes: Why is a hole is being burnt in Rodimus when Optimus has
him in a nelson hold? There's no visible source of heat or damage to
indicate why Rodimus suddenly has thoracic ventilation. Also, why do the
Decepticons need Quintessons to point out when and where Autobot ships
are taking off and whom they're carrying? Don't they have intelligence
gathering methods of their own? Two plot holes that aren't important until
'The Return of Optimus Prime' are Prime's non-greyness and the fact that
he and the ship seem to survive out in space, even after being blown away
by the Quintesson space trap.

Moving pictures: Watch for two Dirges in the fleet of Decepticon ships
following Rodimus. Watch also for exploding Aerialbots and Powerglide
shrapnel before the second commercial break. Watch the same laser blasts
happen again _after_ the commercial break, only to miss and NOT kill any
of these characters. Do watch for generic exploding Autobots inside the
flagship when it gets hit, though. The animation in this episode, as a
whole, is fairly average. But this is one of those few episodes that is so
creepy and so memorable that nobody really pays attention to the
animation... It could have been stick figures and still carry the same
emotional weight.

The cuts: This is the first time I've seen this episode all the way
through. I've seen the Japanese language one, but that was heavily edited
down. Whatever they cut, I hope they had good reason.

Toys they should reissue: Every time they kill Prime, they bring him back
with some new toy or new gimmick. In Japan, when the Headmasters series
appeared in Japan, Rodimus was still in charge. I'm not quite sure if
Prime never returned at all, or if he got killed again in a fight with
Galvatron (I'm told the latter is true, but I'm too confused at this point
not to claim ignorace.) Prime was going to return for sure in the
Transformers Zone series as a Powered Master, a motorized truck with a
battlestation mode that was capable of launching Micromaster cars. I'd
like to see this toy in America, the Star Convoy figure. Only the first
episode of the Zone series was ever made, BTW. The rest of the story was
told in comic-book format, and Zone was the last TF animation ever. For
the moment.

Quotables:
"You all dead! Optimus say so!"
"Maybe we dead too."

KKC, hm. I have a hell of a lot to think about today. People I respect
are giving me conflicting bits of advice on what to do with the rest of
my life. People I love are nowhere near me to help me figure out what to
do with the rest of my life. For once, the rest of my life is MINE, and
nobody else's.
--
Kendrick Kerwin Chua - "London? You put the Eiffel Tower back... in London?!"
kendrick@io.com - WTB: 1980s Transformers, US and Japanese, and GIJoe figures
Necronomcon FAQ home page at http://www.io.com/~kendrick/necronomicon or anon
FTP at io.com:/pub/usr/kendrick -Personal home at http://www.io.com/~kendrick