From kendrick@io.com Fri Nov  3 11:36:29 CST 1995
Article: 25375 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 11/3 - Nightmare Planet
Date: 3 Nov 1995 11:28:38 -0600
Organization: Illuminati Online
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Status: RO
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TF Weekday Nov 3 1995 - Nightmare Planet

The EI/AD: A dream machine that's keen to glean unclean scenes from
Daniel's dreams seems to be this episode's evil scheme.

The plot: Rodimus makes a house call to help the Witwickys deal with
Daniel's nightmares, but Daniel is abducted by the Quintessons.
Investigating strange magnetic signatures, Prime, Magnus, and Springer
are attacked by the Predacons and then by huge appartions out of
mythology and fiction. Springer and Razorclaw are taken by a huge dragon
where they grudgingly work together to save a myseriously lucid damsel-in-
distress. Meanwhile, Prime and Magnus work with the other four Predacons
to try and figure out why Cybertron is a blasted landscape all of a
sudden. The appearance of a giant Galvatron is the clue Rodimus needs to
figure out that they are living in a world created by Daniel's
nightmares, amplified by the Quintesson machine. However, the more they
turn up the juice on the machine, the more outs and help Daniel provides
due to Rodimus' advice about lucid dreaming. With the help of the maiden,
the Autobots get to Daniel's physical body. Prime shields Daniel as the
machine blows up, killing the three Quints. After the fantasy ends, the
Predacons are unable to continue the fight due to damage, and fly off.
Daniel later wakes up, with Rodimus by his side, having conquered his
nightmares.

The characters: Why are they calling Daniel 'Danny' all through this
episode? Chalk it up to bad continuity, but it doesn't hurt the flow of
the story at all. Springer gets to act like the daring hero he is... Ever
notice how uniquely macho Springer looks and acts? More than Brawn, and
much more than Sideswipe or Sunstreaker, Springer is maleness incarnate
windshield to wheelbase, and he gets to act it out in that silly castle
sequence. The magic dragonlance and riding around on top of Razorclaw
happen to be nice freudian symbols too. Speaking of which, Razor is
fleshed out for the first time in the whole series. Stuck in the dungeon,
he is quiet and calculating, not wasting a bit of energy on anything he
doesn't see as immediately profitable. Check out the voices on the other
Predacons... Headstrong's snorting and Divebomb's squawking add so much
to the life of the characters. Cool scene where Tantrum uses the electric
bolts from his horns to blast a venus flytrap. And for once, the
Quintessons are scary. They're using mysterious technology to alter the
universe that the Transformers are living in. For once, they come off as
powerful and threatening, rather than silly and annoying. Too bad they
die at the end... Do we see any more Quints until the 'Return of Optimus
Prime?' I'm not sure if we do. Oh, and Magnus is more or less useless
here. Rodimus is so confident and capable that he really doesn't need the
safety net that Magnus otherwise represents. Funny that the Witwickys
seem to live on Cybertron. How do we know that they live on Cybertron?
Because their doors are freaking Transformer-sized, is how we know.

The plot holes: Besides the silliness of the dream machine (how do you
create 'demons' out of an organic being's ephemeral dreams, anyway?) the
only holes are really tiny ones. Why don't the Transformers get confused
as to why their planet is no longer their planet? They seem to act like
jaded actors, taking in their new surroundings as if it were just another
day at work. Interesting how the Quintessons don't bother to move Daniel
off-planet in order to make their operation a bit more secure too.

Moving pictures: The animation in this episode rocks, and it's not hard
to figure out why. Between the subtle reflective surfaces of each
Transformer's armor, the upward 'camera' angles and the depth of the
backgrounds, everybody looks big. And one of the biggest problems they
have is making Transformers look big. With Daniel tied down on a table
for scale purposes, the Quintessons look huge too, with overbearing faces
that are detailed and frighteningly deep. The fact that the room they're
working in is crowded too makes them seem that much larger. Too bad
Rodimus occasionally has red eyes, or that the Monsters seem to change
size at will.

The cuts: Can't tell. First time I've seen the episode, although I feel
like some of the bit between the Hydra and the amusement park is missing.

Toys they should reissue: I'm ready for a new Rodimus toy, don't know
about the rest of you. I imagine that if they don't do a silly detachable
trailer that they could fit a reasonably posable and solid metal body and
limbs into the ol' Winnebago.

Quotables:
"Galvatron can be any size he wants!"

"How did you know to do that?"
"I spend time talking TV with Wreck-Gar."

KKC, cool episode. I wonder if Call of the Primitives has animation this
cool...
--
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