quote:Originally posted by Dev Em: Kinda throwin this in here...cause I don't know where else to put it. Gonna get the kids at least the first (maybe second too) season of the cartoon when we get taxes back.
If you have to choose one out of the three full seasons, I'd suggest going for Season 2. I don't think Season 3 should be seen by kids under 13 years of age.
Review: ...except that it takes forever for Starscream's ghost to actually show up! Until then we get a rather uninvolving story of the Decepticon Elite Guard pursuing Octane, whom Galvatron has branded a traitor (there's been a rumor going around for years that the episode was originally supposed to star Blitzwing, but Octane was substituted for him because Octane's toy was newer.) Overall, the plot convolutions don't really hold together as a story, making this episode more typical of a lesser cartoon than Transformers. But, hey, Starscream's back, and the next episode would showcase him to the fullest.
EPISODE 3.17, "GHOST IN THE MACHINE"
Written by: Michael Charles Hill & Joey Kurihara Piedra
Plot: Starscream's ghost possesses Scourge and re-activates Unicron's head, in the hopes of having his body restored. Unicron assigns the duo three tasks, which end up causing a great deal of chaos and destruction and may spell doom for Cybertron.
Review: The script is near-perfection, from Starscream and Scourge's banter, to a Spike/Bumblebee reunion ("Just like old times"), to the hilarious scene where Starscream possesses Trypticon and nearly stomps Galvatron to death, to Starscream tricking Unicron into giving him what he wants, only to have it seemingly taken away again. The ambiguity of his status at the end set up a possible return later in the season, which unfortunately didn't happen. And the animation is not nearly as good as the script deserves. But overall, this is one of the best Season 3 episodes.
NEXT: An episode written by a then-unknown PAUL DINI!!!!
Plot: The Quintessons trick Galvatron into releasing some of their monstrous bio-mechanoid genetic experiments. One monster proves particularly troublesome.
Review: Years before Batman: TAS made him a star, Dini contributed energetic and highly entertaining scripts to several 80s cartoons. Dini's one Transformers episode is no exception. The story's horror elements, which would have been jarring in the pre-movie episodes, fit the dark atmosphere of the post-movie episodes like a hand in glove. Add to that some of the best quality animation of the show's entire run, and you've got a winner.
Plot: An Autobot/Decepticon skirmish is interrupted when Daniel's dreams start turning into reality.
Review: I don't know whether this episode's incoherence, choppy pacing, and lack of flow are a deliberate design to create the sensation of a nightmare unfolding, or just clumsy editing, but I favor the latter theory. As with its immediate predecessor, "The Dweller in the Depths", this episode makes effective use of horror imagery, but in the end, it's too confusing to be fully involving as a story, and too indifferently animated and literal-minded to work as a purely sensory experience.
Plot: As Rodimus suffers a crisis of confidence, Protectobot First Aid's pacifism leads to the Decepticons' theft of Metroplex's transformation cog.
Review: Apparently a lot of people dislike this episode. I don't understand why that is. It has some great animation (the Metroplex/Trypticon battle in particular is absolutely spectacular), and it has a nice message about how even pacifists have something to contribute during wartime. And First Aid (voiced by Michael Bell) is a far more likeable and believable pacifist than, say, G.I. Joe's ludicrous Lifeline.
Plot: When the Quintesson Journal ends up lost amid the mess that is the planet of the Junkions, the Quintessons manipulate the Junkions' beloved television signals in an effort to control them. But things go very, very wrong.
Review: Another much-disliked episode that I've always liked. Once again, story editor Steve Gerber's satirical sensibility is stamped all over this one. If people complain that the Junkions are annoying, I think they're missing the point. The Junkions are SUPPOSED to be pop-culture-saturated idiots who can be easily manipulated. I also believe that if the episode weren't so poorly animated, it might be better appreciated. Its insights into the implications of mass media are eerily prescient, and admirably ambitious for a kiddie cartoon from the 80s.
EPISODE 3.22, "THE QUINTESSON JOURNAL"
Written by: Richard Merwin
Plot: At the end of the previous episode, the Quintesson Journal was lost in space. While this MacGuffin is frantically pursued by Autobots, Decepticons, and Quintessons alike, two warmongering alien empires stand at the verge of destroying each other utterly.
Review: Another underrated and uncommonly ambitious episode. That said, it's not as good as "The Big Broadcast." If only there were less screen-time spent on the chase after the Journal, and more screen-time looking at the tragic futility of the war between worlds and the Quintessons' profiteering (and also, of course, if only the animation had been better.)
Plot: Assisting the police on Earth, the Autobots run afoul of mobster Victor Drath, who recruits a strangely familiar character named Old Snake to transfer the essences of Rodimus, Magnus, Arcee, and Springer into organic humanoid bodies.
Review: A light-hearted change of pace reminiscent of Season 2's more offbeat moments, this is a delight from start to finish. Williams' dialogue is sparklingly witty (Rodimus after drinking coffee for the first time: "Ugh. Smells better than it tastes,") and her plot is clever. And for G.I. Joe fans who hated what happened to Cobra Commander in "G.I. Joe: The Movie," this gives us hope that he did return to sentience in some as yet untold story in the official G.I. Joe cartoon mythos.
Plot: An alien scientist, Primacron, creates a giant energy-absorbing monster, Tornedron, and anoints him Unicron's successor. As Tornedron goes on a rampage, Primacron's former assistant brings together all the beast-and-monster-Transformers in the hopes that their primitive instincts can come up with a way to stop Tornedron.
Review: A polarizing episode, which most people seem to either love because it has some of the best animation in Transformers history (this is the one Transformers episode animated not by Toei or Akom, but by TMS,) or hate because it has one of the worst cop-out endings in Transformers history. Me, I love it. The sheer dynamism and fluidity of the animation creates an dream-like effect, turning the episode into an experience in pure sensory overload.
EPISODE 3.25, "GRIMLOCK'S NEW BRAIN"
Written by: Paul Davids
Plot: After getting zapped by a live wire, Grimlock inexplicably becomes a genius, foiling a Decepticon plot by creating the Technobots, and eventually sacrificing his newfound intelligence for the greater good.
Review: I've always had a sentimental spot for the Technobots and their Decepticon nemeses, the Terrorcons, which is why I can't really bring myself to hating this inanely written and badly animated episode. Plus, it's got cute little Cosmos in it, too.
Plot: The Technobots assist Earth Defense Command Captain Marissa Faireborne in outwitting a slimy space mercenary and foiling a Quintesson plot.
Review: I really want to like this episode. I think Captain Faireborne is a great character and a showcase on her is most welcome to me. Plus I love the Technobots. But this one is an out-and-out dud. The animation is some of the worst of the season, and the mercenary is just too oily for the attempted romantic tension between him and Captain Faireborne to work.
EPISODE 3.27, "THE FACE OF THE NIJIKA"
Written by: Mary Skrenes & Steve Skeates
Plot: A small group of Transformers crash-land on a planet of barbaric super-humanoids whose psionic potential the Quintessons greatly fear.
Review: Good premise, weak execution. The already-muddled plot is not helped at all by clumsy storyboarding and mediocre animation.
EPISODE 3.28, "THE BURDEN HARDEST TO BEAR"
Written by: Michael Charles Hill
Plot: Frustrated to the breaking point with shouldering the responsibilites of leadership, Rodimus gets reckelss, and he's creamed by a couple of Stunticons who steal the Autobot Matrix and take it to Galvatron, who orders Scourge to destroy it. Instead, Scourge uses the Matrix on himself, becoming monstrously powerful and usurping the Decepticon leadership. Will Rodimus reclaim his burden -- and can he?
Review: This is a very good episode with a lot of things to like -- it's especially nice to have a guest appearance by Captain Faireborne in a good episode after the letdown of "Money Is Everything." And yet...and yet...I can't help but feel that, like "Fight or Flee," it would have been even better as a two-parter. I can't help but wonder if that's how it may have originally been planned, as it's more than obvious that it was originally meant as the season finale before the decision was made to bring back Optimus Prime in the two-parter that follows.
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EPISODE 3.29, "THE RETURN OF OPTIMUS PRIME PART 1"
Written by: Marv Wolfman & Cherie Wilkerson
Plot: Two space explorers save Optimus Prime's body before his ship detonates (see "Dark Awakening", its place in continuity now retroactively moved.) Their ship carries with it spores which induce mindless hatred and violence in both organic creatures and robots (?????) A foolish vendetta against all Transformers results in the spores infecting almost all Transformers, and soon most humans as well. Before Rodimus is infected, he commands Sky Lynx to find a Quintesson, the only ones capable of resurrecting Optimus Prime. The operation is a success, but now Optimus has a great challenge ahead of him.
Review: This plotting of this installment just reeks of seat-of-the-pants desperation. I have nothing against bringing Optimus back, even if it does invalidate the magnificent "Dark Awakening," but it could have been done much better. At least there are some well-animated action sequences, especially the Technobots/Terrorcons battle.
EPISODE 3.30, "THE RETURN OF OPTIMUS PRIME PART 2"
Written by: Michael Charles Hill, from a story by Cherie Wilkerson & Marv Wolfman
Plot: In order to stop the plague, Optimus must first ally himself with Galvatron, then battle Rodimus for possession of the Autobot Matrix. Order is restored, and the Autobots and Decepticons temporarily cease hostilites.
Review: A big improvement on Part 1, and I'm guessing it's thanks to Michael Charles Hill re-writing of what must have been a mess of an original script. And there's some very good animation here as well, especially the attacks by the giant spider and the energy leeches. Still, I think one's reaction to this episode will depend on whether or not they object to the very concept of bringing Optimus back. I have to say that, ultimately, it works for me. At the end, when he says, "Transform and roll out," my heart skips a beat.
NEXT: The three-part series finale, "THE REBIRTH."
Plot: The Decepticon's steal the Autobots' key to the plasma energy chamber in Cybertron. The pursuit of the key leads Autobots and Decepticons alike to the planet Nebulos. The mechanical/organic synergy is the crucial element to the Autobots coming out ahead.
Review: Not a bad start, although it goes downhill steeply from here. Also, despite holding over a lot of Season 3 characters, there seems to be a concerted effort to make this series finale special lighter in tone than Season 3, right down to bringing back Season 2 mainstay David Wise to pen the script. Unfortunately, budget cuts forced Wise to compress his inital 5-part story into 3 parts, with disastrous results. Due to the same budget cuts, Akom animated the special. It's not their worst work, and there's even the occassional well-done action sequence or the odd splash of bright colors -- but it's still not Toei.
EPISODE 4.2, "THE REBIRTH PART 2"
Written by: David Wise
Plot: Good and evil Nebuloids interface with Autobots and Decepticons alike, creating Headmasters and Targetmasters.
Review: A real clunker, low on action and high on stilted introductions to characters that will ultimately go nowhere.
EPISODE 4.3, "THE REBIRTH PART 3"
Written by: David Wise
Plot: The final showdown on Cybertron ends with the Decepticons sent free-falling through space aboard their battleship and Cybertron having its energy resources restored. The new Golden Age of Cybertron has begun.
Review: Overall, "The Rebirth" just gets worse every time I watch it. Among many other sins, writer Wise forgets that Galvatron is crazy but NOT stupid (and, to add insult to injury, he has actually has another character call Galvatron an idiot.) But ultimately, I understand that Wise had the thankless task of introducing a whole year's worth of toys in only three episodes, ending the show not on a note of transcendent joy but with a crass whimper. Sad.
I hope this thread has inspired at least a few people to search YouTube or wherever for the best Season 3 episodes, like "Dark Awakening," "Dweller in the Depths," "Webworld," "Chaos," or "Ghost in the Machine," among others. From what I've read on the internet, Seasons 3 and 4 are not a part of the Transformers reruns in current rotation. That's truly a shame, as I feel that some of the finest Transformers episodes came out of Season 3, and I don't want to see them neglected to the point of entering oblivion. Transformers Season 3 dared to try something different, dared to expect that its audience was growing up along with the show. I know I felt that way at the time and I loved the results. Hopefully in a modern-day context of grown-up viewers no longer shocked by its radicalism, and of tween and teen viewers with minds opened by the advances in animation over the past 25 years, Season 3 will become better appreciated over the years to come.
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Not sure what episodes he is watching (not paying that close attention) but Jon is loving the Generation 1 marathon on the HUB right now.
From: Turn around... | Registered: Jul 2003
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I'm glad Jon's enjoying it. Unfortunately, there are no Season 3 episodes in the current G1 rerun package.
On the other hand, I think Jon's way too young to watch Season 3 anyway. It might scare him.
Hannah, on the other hand, is about the perfect age for Season 3. Dev, how about if you let her look at this thread and, if she's interested, you could help her find Season 3 episodes on YouTube or wherever?
Oh, one other thing. If you're still thinking of buying one of the TF DVD sets when money permits, go for Season 2 Part 1. You get the best value for your money, as it has 28 episodes to Part 2's 21 episodes. Plus, most of the best Season 2 episodes are on Part 1 anyway.
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I grew up with Paul Dini's works (along with way too much anime) so I would like to watch Episode 18. If I have a general knowledge of the Transformers will I understand what is going on, or should I watch the previous episode?
-------------------- Go with the good and you'll be like them; go with the evil and you'll be worse than them.- Portuguese Proverb
From: Illinois | Registered: Jun 2010
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