Megatron's Master Plan, Part 2

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Somewhere, a terrorist is crying himself to sleep.
"Megatron's Master Plan, Part 2"
Production code	#700-35
Season	2
No. in season	20
Production company	Sunbow Productions
Airdate	October 15, 1985
Written by	Donald F. Glut
Animation studio	Toei, Ashi Productions, Nakamura Production
Continuity	Generation 1 cartoon continuity
Watch this episode on YouTube

Having had the Autobots exiled from Earth, Megatron reveals the Decepticons' true intentions.

Synopsis

Victor Caroli provides a "Last time, on The Transformers" recap.

Wait, something's WRONG here...

As a marching band parades through the streets of Central City, Shawn Berger announces that today is Decepticon Day. Sparkplug and Chip immensely dislike the event, but Chip says that it's too late now for Spike to be searching for evidence to prove the Autobots are innocent.

Back in a video viewing room, Spike finishes watching another tape showing the Decepticons as the real culprits. He's about to leave when he meets Ravage. During a brief fight, in which Ravage slams into a TV screen, gets fried, smacked with an office chair, and then finally gets buried under a shelf of video tapes (poor kitty), Spike makes his escape.

At a nearby high school disco, Soundwave and his cassettes make an appearance. Rumble dances with the ladies, Ravage gets petted by some schoolgirls, and Laserbeak gives a real evil glare to a kid who's offering him a cracker (probably considering eating the kid instead).

In deep space, Cosmos is leading the rocket ship carrying the Autobots. Inside, Ironhide and Cliffjumper persuade Prime to turn around and head back to Earth. After the ship doesn't respond to Cliffjumper's control input, Hound uses his shoulder scanner to pinpoint their destination...the SUN! Cosmos finds he is unable to link up with Teletraan I as the rocket starts to overheat...along with the Autobots inside. Cosmos then comes aboard and starts working on the computer, but to no avail.

"Optimus...getting...hot..."
"Not now, Ironhide."

Inside the Decepticon base, Megatron looks on with glee as he watches the Autobots and their ship collide with the sun and explode. The Decepticons then leave for a press conference.

In the mayor's office in Central City, Spike shows the mayor the tapes he's found. The mayor can't bring back the Autobots, but now armed with the right evidence, he and Spike start a campaign to clear the Autobots' names.

At the press conference, Megatron reveals that he plans to conquer the planet and suck it dry of energy. He is now the marshal of Central City, newly christened as Megatronia One, and everyone will be made slaves to obtain energy for the Decepticons. A nearby screen shows the Coneheads running amok through Central City. Spike learns of the Autobots' destruction and escapes, but the tape of evidence is destroyed. Berger saves Spike from getting killed by Laserbeak, but their escape is short-lived, as they're all captured by Megatron.

Back in space, the Autobots have been saved by Trailbreaker's force field. They're attached to Cosmos, who is still heading towards the Sun, since his actions are controlled by Teletraan I.

It's hard being an opportunistic jerk!

Back on Earth, things are grim. All the humans have been enslaved by the Decepticons, and they're being forced to mine energy from every available source. Berger's received his reward: He too is cuffed and made to work in a power plant. One night, Chip breaks out of the power plant and sneaks on board a nearby truck. He heads for the Autobot base, where he sets to work at Teletraan I. He finds out that the Autobot rocket was destroyed and is about to learn more when Thrust breaks into the base, destroys Teletraan I and takes Chip back to the plant.

"Nothing has changed between us, right Prime?"
"I said 'not now', Ironhide."

Meanwhile, Cosmos realizes he's got control back and turns around. Back on Earth, an Air Force rescue attempt is easily thwarted by the Seekers and Blitzwing. Megatron has the humans cornered when the Autobots arrive. Optimus Prime assembles the entire '84 and '85 line his entire forces to combat the Decepticons, and they win, heavily damaging many of their foes, including the Insecticons and Constructicons. Having thoroughly lost their advantage, the Decepticons retreat.

The mayor acquits the Autobots, while Berger is taken by the authorities to face justice. With the Decepticons defeated, the Autobots transform and roll for home.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"Hey, get down Soundwave!"

—Rumble as he dances with the ladies.

"Uh, Laserbeak wanna cracker?"

—Male human teen who suspects Laserbeak wants to eat him

Ironhide: Are we going anywhere, Cosmos, or is this a tour of the stars?
Hound: Lay off him, Ironhide. He didn't cause our problems.
Ironhide: You're right! Maybe we oughta take it out on the one who got us into this mess!
Optimus Prime: I did what was necessary.

—Only Ironhide could get away with taking a shot at Prime like that.

"Is anyone brave, or stupid enough, to oppose us? This city is under martial law...and I am the marshal!"

—Megatron spells doom for the people of Central City...and makes a funny.

"Let us teach them a lesson in sorrow!"

—Dirge as he and the Coneheads terrorize Central City during the Decepticon-imposed martial law

"It is over. I saw the Autobot ship, like a silver bullet, streaking toward the Sun, and it collided—collided with destiny! I saw the end. They died in a cosmic funeral pyre!"

—Shawn Berger, destroying all hope

"You...pile of reject parts, I'll—"
"Reject parts? BWAHAHAHAHHAHA!"

—Chip Chase as Thrust destroys Teletraan I and, perhaps, mocks the handicapped

"You are going to face justice, and may it be kinder to you than it was to us. Autobots, transform and roll for home!"

—Optimus Prime, deciding not to have Berger sent on a collision course with the Sun

Notes

Production information

• First draft script: 20th February 1985

Continuity notes

"Objection!"

• First onscreen appearances of Cosmos and Astrotrain.
• Gadgets and powers:
  • Hound uses his missile launcher as a sort of radar-path-finder thing.
  • Starscream fires the null-ray from his finger.
  • Laserbeak fires his eye beams yet again to destroy the videotape.
  • Trailbreaker extends his force field to enclose the entire Autobot army, and seemingly radiates it from his entire body.
  • Ratchet can fire laser blasts from his hands. Sunstreaker, meanwhile, shoots blasts from the tips of his shoulders.
  • Following on from its introduction in the previous episode, multiple Autobot characters wield the new generic Autobot laser pistol design during the blow-out battle at the end. The pistol comes in a variety of off-white/grey/black colors, but notably, Bumblebee wields a blueish one. Someone must have made a note about this, because he'll use it again in this color in several future episodes, and it would be turned into an accessory for his Masterpiece toy.
  • Ironhide zaps Chip's energy bonds out of existence with a beam from his fingertip.
• Spike makes use of Ravage's tech spec weakness, blinding him with a studio spotlight.
• This episode goes to some lengths to show the full extent of both armies. Lots of characters such as Red Alert, Perceptor, Seaspray and Astrotrain show up for just a shot or two. Even the Insecticons can be glimpsed for a few frames in the Decepticon Day parade (only from the thighs down), and Grimlock is visible among the Autobots floating in space. It's almost shocking that Buzzsaw and Frenzy don't appear.

Real world references

• Star Wars sound effects:
  • The Millennium Falcon engine burst is combined with the Death Star superlaser firing noise as the Decepticons leave Decepticon Headquarters.
  • Thrust and Dirge both bear down on the city with some more Falcon engine noise.

Animation and technical errors

• Some of the show's stock background music is briefly repurposed as source music (music that's actually heard by the characters in the show), coming from a marching band. Unfortunately, the marching band's drumming doesn't actually match up with the musical drum beats. In the next shot, a trumpet is shown as the flutes cut in.
• The way the cymbal player is playing the cymbals is wrong. Playing them in this manner produces poor control of the sound and risks damage to fine cymbals, which are not designed for such usage.
• Thundercracker is shown alongside Megatron in the first shot of the marching Decepticons. Subsequent dialog and animation makes it clear that this should have been Starscream.
• Although only the voice of one child can be heard exclaiming “There they are!”, the lips of the entire crowd move in unison. Spooky.
  • Additionally, a mustache in the back clips over an arm in front of it.
• As he watches the Decepticon parade, the temple of Chip's glasses is missing.
• A short scene meant to catch us up with what Spike has been doing shows Spike viewing footage and Ravage arriving in the video room. But the footage Spike views is different from what he saw last episode, and Ravage now arrives through an open doorway instead of bashing down the door and wall.
• Barely disguised versions of Carly and Spike's character models are seen at the Teen Dance. Not-Spike is even wearing Spike's stock tan shirt and blue jeans.
• This being his first appearance, Cosmos's voice lacks the self-echo that would characterize it in his subsequent appearances.
• Improbable viewpoints:
  • Megatron gets a view from right alongside the Autobot ship as it approaches the Sun.
• Soundwave is missing his Decepticon symbol as Megatron turns away from watching the Autobot ship explode. It suddenly appears as he steps forward.
• The footage that Spike shows to the mayor is a third version of Starscream removing his Optimus Prime mask, despite Dirge only filming the scene once.
• Justin complains that he doesn't have any "metal-colored crayons" to finish coloring Megatron, even as he continues coloring him. Despite coloring Megatron perfectly thus far, his first stroke goes way outside the lines.
• Coloring errors:
  • In the opening shot of the press conference (seen up top), Starscream's helmet is light gray instead of dark gray.
  • Starscream's optics are mis-colored blue as he fires his null-ray finger.
  • Soundwave's ejection button is blue instead of white as he dispatches Ravage and Laserbeak to capture Spike.
  • Blitzwing's head is purple instead of yellow as he and Astrotrain guard the workers.
  • As the worker pushes a cart of energon cubes into the green truck, they do not possess their glowing effect
  • Optimus's headlights aren't colored in as he lectures Megatron.
  • One of the panning shots of shooting Autobots features Smokescreen with a blue head crest, which should be yellow.
  • Cosmos is missing the yellow coloration for the frames around his blue chest details during multiple moments in this episode.
• As Dirge fires on a woman's car, there is a truck to its left. Just as the car explodes, the truck disappears.
• Spike's mouth doesn't move as he says "Oh no" in response to Berger's rant.
• When Dirge and Ramjet fill up Energon cubes in the mine you can see Ramjet has Dirge's wing design on closer look
• Megatron's eyes light up, then dim, then light up again. An energy sound effect plays, but not till well after the second lighting-up is finished.
• Soundwave's mouth plate disappears after threatening "increase efficiency or be terminated" and firing on the slaves.
• When Megatron instructs Thrust to re-capture Chip Chase, his voice is not electronically enhanced.
• Teletraan I's screen displays Cosmos's name as "COSMS" [sic].
• The launching sound effect for Thundercracker and Skywarp plays before they've actually lifted off.
• Thundercracker transforms without the transforming sound effect.
• The Decepticons get the Autobot laser sound effect for their opening volley as they fire on the human jets.
• As the Autobots arrive at the battle site, Ironhide is drawn with Ratchet's ambulance lights on his roof. Ratchet is right next to him, with no lights visible.
• Starscream's "Yeeiiii!" begins before he's actually shot.
• The three panning shots of the various Autobots firing on the Decepticons are all repeated twice.
• Red Alert is standing amongst the minibots when firing and appears to be drawn to the same scale as the others such as Powerglide and Huffer standing either side of him even though he's actually taller than both

Continuity errors

• When Spike found the fishy video footage and was cornered by Ravage last episode, the trial was nearing its conclusion. Since then, the trial has concluded, the Autobots have launched into space, Megatron has paid a visit to Autobot Headquarters, and a Decepticon Day parade has been organized...and meanwhile, Spike is still facing off with Ravage.
• Ravage is seen at the Teen Dance...just one shot after his face-off with Spike. Did he really give up that quickly? (Both this and the previous snafu combine to make it clear that Spike's encounter happened much earlier than the subsequent events, and his escape from Ravage is only shown in this episode because it made a better cliffhanger that way.)
• Did Cosmos just not notice that they were heading toward the Sun?
• Okay, we can buy that Megatron shorted out the ship's guidance system by remote control and locked in its course. But how the heck can Teletraan I control Cosmos against his will? And if that's the case, why not just have Blaster jam the signal?
• Heck, maybe there's just something wrong with Cosmos, period. In spite of the fact that his method of propulsion involves thrusters, there are several shots in this episode he's seen flying through space while spinning on his own axis like a hubcap-shaped flying saucer from a bad 1950s science-fiction movie.
• Chip rolls out of the truck trailer at will, but trailer doors are generally designed to open only from the outside.
• Chip and Optimus Prime behave as if Cosmos is the only interstellar-capable Autobot at this time, which is only sort of true; there's Skyfire, but he had been written out of the show by this point, while Omega Supreme would not appear for another three episodes.
• Superhuman Spike:
  • Delivers several shoulder blocks in this episode that would destroy the largest linebacker. The first knocks over a massive standing shelf full of videos, allowing him to escape Ravage. The second, during Chip's escape, sends a cart full of energon cubes careening down the hall with enough force that it knocks Rumble into the wall several hundred feet later.
• The energy cuffs that the workers wear don't seem to restrain anything at all. Not only do all of the workers have full use of their arms, but Chip is completely unhindered by them during his escape.
• For that matter, pumping switches back and forth is not how a power plant works. Not any more, anyway.
• Why didn't Megatron tell his troops not to harm Teletraan-1? Basically, Thrust foiled Megatron's whole plan!
• Given the insane power of Megatron's fusion cannon blasting a hole in the wall where the humans were standing would have either severely injured or killed those standing within the blast range or destroyed the whole power station.

Trivia

"Good work, Trailbreaker."
"Prime...kill me...so tired..."

• Ramjet causes a building at least eight stories tall to collapse with zero warning. Some cracks on the building may be meant to indicate that it's abandoned, but otherwise, a lot of humans just died.
• As Thrust tries to batter his way through the roof of Autobot HQ, he needs to back up and try multiple approaches - which means we see his jet mode flying directly backwards like a car in reverse gear.
• Though he single-handedly saves the Autobots on his own initiative, Trailbreaker gets no lines in the episode and barely even appears except as a Jesus-like silhouette at the center of his force field.
• Judging by the girls surrounding him at the club, Soundwave is popular with the ladies.

"Quoth the raven, 'What a shine!'"

• When the Decepticon jets fly off to face the human resistance fighters, as Thundercracker passes the camera, his silver-coloured parts have an almost heroic, shiny gleam to them, which is unusual, given he is a villain in this story.
• The kid cheering for Megatron and company uses the same voice as Aron from the later episode "Child's Play", voiced by Mona Marshall.
• A large portion of this episode was actually added in at a later stage to bring it up to the required length—namely, Cosmos's inability to alter his flight path, Chip's escape and Thrust's blasting of Teletraan I. An Additional Material section was storyboarded and added to Act III of the episode.
• Chip rolls up a ramp to use Teletraan I, which is unique to this episode.
• The two sequences of Autobots transforming for battle are recycled sequences from "Atlantis, Arise!" played in reverse. They're played again, forwards this time, as the Autobots transform to roll for home.
• When released as a video in the UK, both episodes were compiled as a 45-minute "movie" instead of being treated as a two-part episode.
• Though most of the Autobot roster is shown, four of the five Dinobots are missing. (Grimlock can be glimpsed in the force field.)

Foreign localization

French

• Title (Canadian French broadcast): "Le plan de Megatron, partie 2" ("Megatron's plan, part 2")
• Title (European French broadcast): "Le piège se referme" ("The Trap closes")
• Title (European French DVD release): "Le plan directeur de Megatron, partie 2" ("Megatron's master plan, part 2")
• Original airdate: ?

• The title "plan directeur" sounds very... weird.
• All the logo transitions were cut. It is unknown if it was that way for the original broadcast or if the episode was chopped for the DVD release.
• When Cosmos asks what he should do and Optimus Prime answers "If I knew, I'd do it myself!", the dub added "idiot!" at the end. Poor Cosmos doing his best...
• One more time, when Soundwave says "Laserbeak, Ravage! Get him!", it was dubbed with "Ravage, it's your turn!" in order to not pronounce Laserbeak's name.
• It is the last time we can hear Jacques Ferrière in the cartoon, he leaves the dubbing team permanently for unknown reasons after that episode.

Italian

• Title (dub 1): "Autorobots in esilio - Parte 2" ("Autobots in Exile - Part 2")
• Original airdate: ?

• Chip is voiced by two different actors in this episode, while Spike changes actor ever more times. Voice actors Massimo Corizza and Giorgio Locuratolo voiced both for at least one line.
• At the beginning of the episode, instead of saying that Spike is searching for proof that the Autobots are innocent, Chip says that he's looking for the Autobot Headquarters, which is obviously not true. He also calls it "the secret Autobot shelter", despite it not being secret.
• After the news reporter says: «we've been had!», Megatron says: «No!» instead of: «Yes!»... what!?

• Title (dub 2): "Il grande piano di Megatron - Seconda parte" ("The Grand Plan of Megatron - Second Part")
• Original airdate: ?

Japanese

• Title: "Megatron Chikyū Seifuku Sakusen PART II" (メガトロン地球征服作戦 PART II, "Megatron's Earth Conquest Plan PART II")
• Original airdate: January 17, 1986

Mandarin

• Title: "Wēizhèntiān de Yīnmóu (Xià)" (威震天的阴谋(下), "Megatron's Conspiracy (Part 2)")
• Original airdate: ?

Brazilian Portuguese

• Title: "O Plano Mestre do Megatron, Segunda e Última Parte" ("Megatron's Master Plan, Second and Last Part")
• Original airdate: ?

Latin Spanish

• Title: "El Plan Maestro De Megatron Parte II" ("The Master Plan of Megatron - Part II")
• Original airdate: ?

Home video releases

VHS

1986 — The Transformers — Megatron's Master Plan (A.M.T. Video Gems)
1988 — The Transformers — Megatron's Master Plan (V.I.P. Video Gems)
1998 — The Transformers: Generation 2 — Megatron's Master Plan (Behaviour)
2000 — The Original Transformers — Volume 10: Megatron's Master Plan (Rhino Entertainment)

LaserDisc

1994 — Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers — Convoy Set (Takara) — Japanese audio only.
1998 — The Transformers — Autobot Edition (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.

DVD

2001 — The Transformers — DVD Box 1 (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.
2002 — The Original Transformers — Season 2 Part 1 (Rhino Entertainment)
2002 — The Original Transformers — Season 2 Part 1: Vol. 3 (Rhino Entertainment)
2003 — Transformers — Season 2 Part 1 (Metrodome)
2004 — Transformers — Collection 2: Series 2.1 (Madman Entertainment)
2004 — Transformers — Volume 8 (Déclic Images) — European French audio only.
2006 — Transformers — The Complete Generation One Collection (Metrodome)
2007 — The Transformers — Complete Collection (Madman Entertainment)
2008 — Transformers — Volume 04: Stagione Due Parte Seconda (Medianetwork Communication) — English and Italian audio.
2009 — Transformers — Season Two: Part One (Metrodome)
2009 — The Transformers — Complete Collection: Decepticon Edition (Madman Entertainment)
2009 — The Transformers — Season Two, Volume One: 25th Anniversary Edition (Shout! Factory)
2009 — The Transformers — The Complete Series: 25th Anniversary "Matrix of Leadership" Collection (Shout! Factory)
2011 — The Transformers — The Complete Original Series (Shout! Factory)
2014 — The Transformers — Season Two, Volume One: 30th Anniversary Edition (Shout! Factory)
2014 — Transformers — The Classic Animated Series (Metrodome)

External links

• Model sheets and background layouts
• Episode storyboards for Additional Material section