"Desertion of the Dinobots" part 2 is episode #38 of the original Transformers cartoon.  Written by Earl Kress, the episode first aired on October 22, 1985, concluding the saga from the previous installment.

So we get a brief ten-second recap explaining that Spike and Carly have ventured to Cybertron, but they encounter "their deadly foe, Shockwave."  The recap seems to be deliberately positioning Shockwave as an important character in this story.  It was around this time, during the show's production run, that Hasbro had begun to ask for specific characters to be showcased during each episode. It's likely they had come to realize the cast had gotten large and nearly unmanageable, so this was their way of ensuring that the 1985 toys would be front and center, and that select characters would have a chance to shine.  So, they asked for a Blaster episode, a Seaspray episode, a Tracks episode, etc.  Oddly, they also asked for Shockwave to be featured, which seems odd considering they were already planning to kill the character off in The Transformers: the Movie. But, this was clearly his moment to shine, in a way that he never really got to before.

So as the episode proper begins, we've rewound time for just a few seconds, as Spike and Carly are still inside the space bridge teleport chamber, waiting for the doors to open.  Now, Shockwave is just standing there outside the teleport chamber like he's waiting for the elevator.  He's not carrying a miniature version of himself any longer.  The doors take their sweet time opening, because this was (probably) a 22-minute story that was artificially expanded into a two-part episode.  Spike and Carly just sit there as Shockwave's presence is revealed.  They do nothing as he trains his gun-arm on them and shoots. Already, the pacing of this episode is excruciating. There's zero suspense. Everybody is just going through the motions.

By the way, nothing explodes this time.  We know Shockwave has a command of the electromagnetic spectrum, and he can shoot x-rays, gamma rays, etc.  I'm not sure which of these settings can just up and selectively make objects disappear.  In any event ,he shoots the car, and only the car, and it simply vanishes into non-existence.  So, which episode is lying to us?  The beginning of this one, or the end of the last one?  These events are completely contradictory.  There's no reconciling them.

I also have so many questions about Shockwave's ability to make things dematerialize.  How does he target the car, but not Spike and Carly?  Better than that, though, WHY would he target the car but not Spike and Carly?  Is it some setting that makes metal objects vanish?  Well, that can't be right, because the rubber tires and hoses that are part of the car disappear, and the metal buckle on Spike's belt and the underwire in Carly's bra didn't vanish.  We're only thirty seconds into this episode and we're already at the point where it's stopped making sense to me.

Carly just sits there, complaining about the fact that her car is gone (and even using the pejorative "Decepti-creep"), rather than making the obvious move and running for her life from a huge killer robot with a gun trained at her head.  But, perhaps her lack of concern is justified.  Shockwave is plodding along, moving incredibly slowly as he "chases" them.  That's not even the right word.  This isn't a chase scene.  He's just sauntering along nonchalantly, clanking and clunking as he walks.  I mean, he's not taunting them or yelling, but I would expect that from Shockwave.  There's no logic in that.  But I would at least expect him to move with a little more purpose and speed.  He's acting like Marvin the Paranoid Android. "I suppose you want me to chase the humans now. And me, with this pain down all the diodes on my left side..."

He continues to zap equipment with snail-like reflexes—first a support column that the kids hide behind, and then one of his sentinel robots.  To serve as pointless padding, we get a close-up of Spike and Carly's legs as they run, for several agonizing seconds, as well as a riveting scene of Shockwave trundling after them lackadaisically.  This episode was animated by Toei's top-notch crack animation team, and yet it's such a waste of their talents.  I've never hated an episode this much that looked this good.

Finally, Spike and Carly escape through a gap, and Shockwave cannot follow.  They find themselves inside a large chamber with a glowing energy pool at the bottom.  Spike checks in with Sparkplug via thumb radio, and he confirms that they've stumbled into the master computer.  (On Teletraan I's monitor, it's labeled as the "DECEPTIKON COMPUTER BRAIN." Everybody knows "Deceptakon" is spelled with an "a.")  

Carly uses her car key to pry open a panel and tries to rewire the computer, but a stray electrical surge knocks her back and she nearly slides into the energy pool.  The pool fizzles out, and for a moment all is pitch black.  Then Spike produces a flashlight and claims Wheeljack gave it to him.  Carly has sprained her ankle, so she can't climb out on her own.  So, Spike slides down and they look for a way out together.  Teletraan identifies a ladder.  They manage to climb out of the computer room and find themselves on the surface of Cybertron.  

There's a moment when Spike observes a large stack of energon cubes and wonders where they came from, since the planet is supposed to be out of energy completely.  Sparkplug tells him not to worry about it, because their goal is to find the cybertonium.  I suppose it could just be another meaningless throwaway scene meant to pad out the episode.  But, I think it also speaks towards the idea that the Decepticons have partially accomplished their campaign to steal Earth's energy and repower Cybertron.  By the time of The Transformers: the Movie, we see the Decepticons have taken the planet and kicked the Autobots off completely.  As of this episode, they're part of the way to their goal.

Megatron contacts Shockwave and wants to know why he hasn't shipped the cybertonium to repair the Decepticons yet.  Shockwave apologizes that the space bridge is offline until the computer is fixed.  He also admits that he let Spike and Carly escape, a fact with which Megatron is none too pleased.  Shockwave promises he'll send a sentinel to take care of them.

Carly is limping along, leaning on Spike for support, when a rolling sentinel starts rumbling after them.  Despite rolling along after them like a broken-down farm tractor, it's still arguably more of a menace than Shockwave was. It's just slightly scarier.  They defeat it by waiting for it to come close and then they... close a door on it.  I wish I was kidding, but I'm not.

Carly is still stumbling along and almost falls over, so Spike finally just scoops her up.  I guess it's supposed to be a chivalrous moment, but Carly is visibly annoyed.  She finally resigns herself to allowing Spike to carry her around like a sack of potatoes.  Sparkplug provides directions through the thumb-radio and guides them to the location of Wheeljack's old laboratory.

Carly spots something lurking in the shadows.  It's animated entirely in dark blue paint, and its overall shape is vague enough (wings on its back?  Round cockpit on its chest?) that I guess it could be a Decepticon..  Carly taps a bunch of buttons and manages to hit the access code on the first try.  I guess either she's more of a computer genius than Chip Chase (possible) or she just thought to actually ask Wheeljack or somebody what the code was before they left (also possible).

Spike starts hunting for cybertonium, but when the mystery figure emerges again and starts pounding a hole in the ceiling, the kids get nervous and Spike starts frantically hunting for a weapon to defend himself with.  (Also, this is interesting.  This show tended to veer heavily away from religious in every way, shape, or form.  But, when Sparkplug is monitoring events, he offers a quick prayer and mutters, "Please, let there be something in there!"  It's vaguely-worded, of course, but he's pretty clearly speaking to God. As a point of reference, compare this to Spike's remarks in "The Rebirth" when Daniel is captured and Spike remarks, "What only knows what they're doing to him right now." What, indeed.)

It's always kind of funny for some reason when Spike starts toting around a gigantic Transformer-sized gun.  He did it in "Divide or Conquer" and he does it again in this episode.  He can hardly lift the thing.  (By accident or design, it's colored a lot like Megatron.)  He does manage to fire off a shot at whatever it is that's breaking through the ceiling.  (Close examination of this scene reveals that he doesn't pull the trigger.  There's no way he could reach it. I guess it's thought-activated. Sort of like when Arcee was carrying Galvatron's arm gun in "The Dweller in the Depths.")

So, the unknown assailant drops through the ceiling.  Oh, look.  It's Swoop.  What a shocker.  If it was important to keep his identity concealed for a moment, to generate some artificial suspense, at least Swoop wasn't vocalizing the whole time like Starscream was in "Auto Berserk."

Swoop reveals his version of what happened after the Dinobots went to Cybertron.  In part one of this episode, we saw how the Dinobots arrived in dinosaur mode, and basically tackled Shockwave upon arrival.  In Swoop's version of the story, the Dinobots are in robot mode, and Shockwave was waiting for them with a batallion of sentinel robots.  The Dinobots don't overcome Shockwave in this narrative; they're surrounded and captured, with Swoop alone able to fly away and escape.

On Tuesday, June 15, 2021 at 9:14:59 PM UTC-4, Zobovor wrote:
> So, which episode is lying to us?

Uh...maybe both?

> But I would at least expect him to move with a little more purpose and speed.

Yeah...I do like this episode, but this opening "action sequence" is pretty bad.

> This episode was animated by Toei's top-notch crack animation team, and yet it's such a waste of their talents. I've never hated an episode this much that looked this good.

Here I'll have to strongly disagree. I'm very glad this episode didn't end up in the Akom pile. I can just imagine how they would have bungled all these beautiful Cybertron scenes.

> Finally, Spike and Carly escape through a gap, and Shockwave cannot follow. They find themselves inside a large chamber with a glowing energy pool at the bottom. Spike checks in with Sparkplug via thumb radio, and he confirms that they've stumbled into the master computer. (On Teletraan I's monitor, it's labeled as the "DECEPTIKON COMPUTER BRAIN." Everybody knows "Deceptakon" is spelled with an "a.")

It is pretty cool how Teletraan can generate a pretty accurate visual representation of the scene. TF tech may as well be magic sometimes.
> Carly is still stumbling along and almost falls over, so Spike finally just scoops her up. I guess it's supposed to be a chivalrous moment, but Carly is visibly annoyed. She finally resigns herself to allowing Spike to carry her around like a sack of potatoes. Sparkplug provides directions through the thumb-radio and guides them to the location of Wheeljack's old laboratory.

I had forgotten Wheeljack's old lab was in this episode too. That place (or places...no reason he couldn't have more than one) sure turns up a lot in these "back to Cybertron" episodes doesn't it?
> So, is Swoop lying? Or is the space bridge creating alternate realities with radically different unfoldings of events? I really wish I knew. Because "Desertion of the Dinobots" part 1 cannot take place in the same continuity, or the same universe, as "Desertion of the Dinobots" part 2.

I'm no astro-physicist by any means, but this is actually as good an explanation as any I've read. Maybe a lot of inconsistencies in the show can be explained by Shockwave mucking about with the space-time continuum every time he activates the spacebridge, even if by accident. Based on Season 1 it seems like that thing is basically a trans-dimensional portal that enables you to bypass vast distances through space nearly instantly. That seems like the kind of thing that could have...consequences.

> Swoop reveals that the Decepticons are still searching for him, but that the other Dinobots have been taken to mine the cybertonium pits. Spike and Carly resolve to find it and free them. Carly, incidentally, has instantaneously recovered from her sprained ankle. When Spike takes note of this, she offers lamely, "I... I think it's better!" I guess our takeaway is that Carly was faking the injury so that Spike would carry her around, even though she complained very loudly when he started to do so? Man, I don't get women.

That's ok, women don't get women either. Carly was just playing hard to get.. I think women are actually easy to understand...IF you just throw logic and reason out the window. It's like that old Simpsons joke where Homer has "to think like Flanders" to find him, and somehow correctly deduces "the Springfield River!"
> Spike and Carly are total opposites. While Carly is enrapt with Cybertron's landscape and scenery, Spike just grouses about how big the staircases are.

Carly is my kind of girl. I love the scenery here too. Incidentally, Spike was punching way above his weight class when he landed her somehow.

> The trio encounters an old mass transit system with cylindrical cars that travel through some kind of glass tubes. It's like the elevators on the Jetsons. (Back in the 1960's, everybody thought pneumatic tubes were going to be the future.) Swoop manages to understand and operate the controls to the mass transit car, despite "Dinobot Island" establishing that the Dinobots don't know how to read.

That was several episodes back, maybe he learned? Also, in fairness, it was Spike who said they can't read, and he's a filthy anti-Dinobot racist.
> I will confess that the moment when the transport vehicle changes orientation and the kids freak out is kind of funny. You think it's going to launch, and instead it falls through the tube backwards.

I thought it was funny! Most of the (intentional) humor on this show kind of falls flat for me, but this was a cute moment.

> Eventually, the ride ends because one of the tubes is shattered. Honestly, I'm surprised the technology even worked at all. This is an example of how much padding was added to the episode to make it a two-part story. You could have removed the entire mass transit sequence and absolutely nothing important would be lost. It's just Swoop and the kids getting from point A to point B.

Sure, it's padding, but it's good padding. I tend to like tight, character driven stories and just wandering around enjoying the scenery. I enjoy this much more than the random tomfoolery of Part 1. That whole first act with the ultra-plane or whatever it was called was padding too.

> At one point, they find a room that contains... a bunch of dead robots? Empty shells? Not sure. They're just sitting there. Carly identifies them as the ancient ancestors of the Autobots. You can kind of tell they're early designs. Again, though, this is just such a pointless scene. It's completely random. It tells us nothing important and does not tie into the larger story at all.

It's world building. Maybe not very consistent world building with later parts of the franchise, but I appreciate the attempt. You just gotta sit back and take in the wonder of it all.

> If they were looking for filler content, a "B" story, then why not have Swoop bump into the Jumpstarters? Maybe the two could have befriended Swoop and they could have led our heroes to the cybertonium pits. Meeting them on Cybertron would make sense (the characters don't have Earth vehicle modes, after all).

This is not a bad idea at all. This is as good a time as any to ask...just why *were* the Jumpstarters not included in the cartoon, anyway? I've seen their character model sheets so I know it was at least considered at one point. I know Whirl and Roadbuster were imports from other toylines and Hasbro got cold feet about that kind of thing (Skyfire, etc) but weren't the Jumpstarters originally designed for Transformers? I checked the Walki. but you may or may not be surprised to hear that it wasn't much help.

> It kind of makes you wonder why Cybertron is essentially a big death trap.. Was it designed this way by the Quintessons? Maybe to discourage wayward slave robots from wandering around on the planet unsupervised? Or are these Decepticon-engineered traps designed to catch unsuspecting Autobots?

It could be, or it could even be an Autobot trap for Decepticons. Cybertron was a war zone for God knows how long, it could've been left by anybody. After all, there are still unexploded mines sitting around in the jungles of Vietnam and Cambodia, to this day.

> Okay, so they get to the cybertonium pits. Oh, wait. No, they don't. There's more filler content. It's probably the most egregious filler in any episode. It's essentially a "Secret Files of Teletraan II" segment, inserted into the middle of the episode content. An unseen narrator (voiced by Frank Welker) talks about the early days of the Autobot-Decepticon war, describing how Cybertron used to be peaceful until the Decepticons launched an offensive against the Autobots. Lots of colorful generic characters populate this segment, all designed by Floro Dery.

I love this part!

> While not quite as definitive as the Matrix flashback from "Five Faces of Darkness" part 4, this segment does establish how it was the Autobots who innovated the art of transformation as a tactic to counter the Decepticon offensive. Also, we learn that there have been periods where the Autobots have been in control of the planet and other times when the Decepticons were running things.
>
> There's a cool-looking purple robot with spikes on his body who appears to change sides. He's part of the footage showcasing the Decepticon offensive, but then he's shown during a scene demonstrating the Autobots' new transformation powers, fighting alongside that group.

You mean the guys turning into the tank and green car with the big guns? He didn't change sides, those are Decepticons. That purplish guy with the broad shoulders on the left of the screen was there before too.

> Sentinels are blasted, chomped, and melted until nothing stands between the Dinobots and their escape.

The lead guard (the guy with the monitor in his chest) definitely seemed like a sentient being, so that's at least one on-screen kill for Slag, maybe more if the same applies to the guys on treads. They're not really typically designed for Decepticons but then, neither is Shockwave.

>They find another pneumatic tube, flying into it rather than using a transport car. They make their way to the Decepticon command chamber where Shockwave awaits. Shockwave manages to score a hit and blasts Swoop's wing, but he just sails into the teleport chamber and escapes with the others.

On Wednesday, June 16, 2021 at 8:02:33 PM UTC-6, Sky Raider wrote:

> I'm no astro-physicist by any means, but this is actually as good an explanation as any I've read. Maybe a lot of inconsistencies in the show can be explained by Shockwave mucking about with the space-time continuum every time he activates the spacebridge, even if by accident.

I think we might be onto something here. And enough characters have gone back and forth over the space bridge that it would effectively account for any inconsistencies with those specific characters.

> Incidentally, Spike was punching way above his weight class when he landed her somehow.

I mean, you're not wrong. I think we all know that Carly was feigning interest in Spike to get to the Autobots. She was way more interested in them than she was in him. And she was very irritated when that Major Pictures movie director referred to her as Spike's girlfriend. Just throwing that out there.

> Sure, it's padding, but it's good padding. I tend to like tight, character driven stories and just wandering around enjoying the scenery. I enjoy this much more than the random tomfoolery of Part 1. That whole first act with the ultra-plane or whatever it was called was padding too.

I think the difference for me is that during the first episode, at least the random happenstance features most of the main cast. The second episode is basically entirely Spike and Carly and Swoop, which makes for a much less interesting character roster. Even with this tight character focus, we learn basically nothing about Swoop. He makes a few quips and he shoots some missiles. He could have easily been replaced with Hound or Powerglide or any number of Autobots and pretty much nothing would change.

> This is not a bad idea at all. This is as good a time as any to ask...just why *were* the Jumpstarters not included in the cartoon, anyway? I've seen their character model sheets so I know it was at least considered at one point. I know Whirl and Roadbuster were imports from other toylines and Hasbro got cold feet about that kind of thing (Skyfire, etc) but weren't the Jumpstarters originally designed for Transformers?
No, the Jumpstarters were originally Diaclone toys. They had spots for pilots and everything. The only reason we didn't see some of the import toys in the cartoon was because Hasbro had gotten them from Bandai, not Takara. The guys at Takara didn't want to advertise all those Bandai toys so that's why Roadbuster and Whirl and the Deluxe Insecticons were left out. They reached a compromise with Skyfire and allowed his inclusion as long as he didn't look like the Bandai toy.

I suspect the reason the Jumpstarters never showed up was because of the law suit between Hasbro and Sparkle Toys. They had produced knockoff versions of the Jumpstarters, reasoning that Hasbro's lack of a copyright stamp on the physical toys meant that it was okay. This law suit is probably what led to a) nearly the entire batch of 1984 toys being reissued in 1985, with Hasbro copyright stamps in place and b) the addition of the rub symbols to the toys, denoting them as "true" Transformers.

There were character designs made for Topspin and Twin Twist, but they never appeared in animation. They didn't even get toy commercial footage, which is kind of weird. But, anyway, I suspect Hasbro issued an edict not to use the characters in the show, just on the off-chance the law suit didn't go the way they wanted.

> You mean the guys turning into the tank and green car with the big guns? He didn't change sides, those are Decepticons.

Yeah, but tanks and cars are ground vehicles. Decepticons are usually air vehicles. Also, we see the tank guy and the car guy when the narrator is describing the Autobots developing new tactics (transforming), so what we're seeing is an example of Autobot technology. But, it's hard to discern eye color on some of these guys, and none of them are wearing Autobot or Decepticon badges. So, it's up in the air.
> One thing I noticed...see how there's only 4 Dinobots standing around? Where's Swoop? He's there, lying prone on the table in the bottom right when the shot pulls back. But he's really easy to miss, because his right wing is mis-colored orangey-gold like the table.

I only barely noticed this as I was writing my review. I hit the pause button on my video player (I tend to watch these episodes on my computer) during the big crowd scene. You can sometimes spot some cool stuff if you pause the episodes at just the right moment.

> Even Spike managed to contain his annoyingness a bit more than usual. Maybe Carly is good for him.

Spike actually isn't awful in this episode. It's certainly better than "Dinobot Island" when he's shrieking like a maniac every few minutes because some dinosaur is trying to eat him again.

> Didn't have time to type up a review of my own (I am absolutely swamped this summer) but I enjoyed revisiting the episode to talk a little shop here..

No worries! I'm thankful for your thoughts. "Megatron's Master Plan" is coming up next month, so get ready for it!

Zob (I'll have the bacon shawnburger with extra cheese, please)

I really enjoyed this thoughtful review, Zob. Thank you! (Thanks, also, to Sky Raider for the excellent follow-up). :)

Excited for the day when I can create similarly thoughtful, high-quality posts, but glad to express my gratitude and appreciation for them all the same. Part of what makes this group a continued pleasure to be a part of.

JB

On Thursday, June 17, 2021 at 6:09:05 PM UTC-7, Zobovor wrote:
> On Wednesday, June 16, 2021 at 8:02:33 PM UTC-6, Sky Raider wrote:
>
> > I'm no astro-physicist by any means, but this is actually as good an explanation as any I've read. Maybe a lot of inconsistencies in the show can be explained by Shockwave mucking about with the space-time continuum every time he activates the spacebridge, even if by accident.
> I think we might be onto something here. And enough characters have gone back and forth over the space bridge that it would effectively account for any inconsistencies with those specific characters.
> > Incidentally, Spike was punching way above his weight class when he landed her somehow.
> I mean, you're not wrong. I think we all know that Carly was feigning interest in Spike to get to the Autobots. She was way more interested in them than she was in him. And she was very irritated when that Major Pictures movie director referred to her as Spike's girlfriend. Just throwing that out there.
> > Sure, it's padding, but it's good padding. I tend to like tight, character driven stories and just wandering around enjoying the scenery. I enjoy this much more than the random tomfoolery of Part 1. That whole first act with the ultra-plane or whatever it was called was padding too.
> I think the difference for me is that during the first episode, at least the random happenstance features most of the main cast. The second episode is basically entirely Spike and Carly and Swoop, which makes for a much less interesting character roster. Even with this tight character focus, we learn basically nothing about Swoop. He makes a few quips and he shoots some missiles. He could have easily been replaced with Hound or Powerglide or any number of Autobots and pretty much nothing would change.
> > This is not a bad idea at all. This is as good a time as any to ask...just why *were* the Jumpstarters not included in the cartoon, anyway? I've seen their character model sheets so I know it was at least considered at one point. I know Whirl and Roadbuster were imports from other toylines and Hasbro got cold feet about that kind of thing (Skyfire, etc) but weren't the Jumpstarters originally designed for Transformers?
> No, the Jumpstarters were originally Diaclone toys. They had spots for pilots and everything. The only reason we didn't see some of the import toys in the cartoon was because Hasbro had gotten them from Bandai, not Takara. The guys at Takara didn't want to advertise all those Bandai toys so that's why Roadbuster and Whirl and the Deluxe Insecticons were left out. They reached a compromise with Skyfire and allowed his inclusion as long as he didn't look like the Bandai toy.
>
> I suspect the reason the Jumpstarters never showed up was because of the law suit between Hasbro and Sparkle Toys. They had produced knockoff versions of the Jumpstarters, reasoning that Hasbro's lack of a copyright stamp on the physical toys meant that it was okay. This law suit is probably what led to a) nearly the entire batch of 1984 toys being reissued in 1985, with Hasbro copyright stamps in place and b) the addition of the rub symbols to the toys, denoting them as "true" Transformers.
>
> There were character designs made for Topspin and Twin Twist, but they never appeared in animation. They didn't even get toy commercial footage, which is kind of weird. But, anyway, I suspect Hasbro issued an edict not to use the characters in the show, just on the off-chance the law suit didn't go the way they wanted.
> > You mean the guys turning into the tank and green car with the big guns? He didn't change sides, those are Decepticons.
> Yeah, but tanks and cars are ground vehicles. Decepticons are usually air vehicles. Also, we see the tank guy and the car guy when the narrator is describing the Autobots developing new tactics (transforming), so what we're seeing is an example of Autobot technology. But, it's hard to discern eye color on some of these guys, and none of them are wearing Autobot or Decepticon badges. So, it's up in the air.
>
> > One thing I noticed...see how there's only 4 Dinobots standing around? Where's Swoop? He's there, lying prone on the table in the bottom right when the shot pulls back. But he's really easy to miss, because his right wing is mis-colored orangey-gold like the table.
>
> I only barely noticed this as I was writing my review. I hit the pause button on my video player (I tend to watch these episodes on my computer) during the big crowd scene. You can sometimes spot some cool stuff if you pause the episodes at just the right moment.
> > Even Spike managed to contain his annoyingness a bit more than usual. Maybe Carly is good for him.
> Spike actually isn't awful in this episode. It's certainly better than "Dinobot Island" when he's shrieking like a maniac every few minutes because some dinosaur is trying to eat him again.
> > Didn't have time to type up a review of my own (I am absolutely swamped this summer) but I enjoyed revisiting the episode to talk a little shop here.
> No worries! I'm thankful for your thoughts. "Megatron's Master Plan" is coming up next month, so get ready for it!
>
>
> Zob (I'll have the bacon shawnburger with extra cheese, please)