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Well here is the review of a Generation 1 Season 3 episode which takes place chronically in the middle to later half of the third season. This is one of my all time favorite episodes of Gen One altogether and it remains highly rated among TF fans.
Background Info
Well first of before we begin the review, there is already a major cluster foul up. The episode's title is Ghost in the Machine, which I suppose does accurately convey the meaning of the episode however this was not suppose to be the original title. They got the titles backwards. This title was suppose to be called Starscreams Ghost and the episode Starscream’s Ghost was suppose to be called Ghost in the Machine. Everyone got that? The reason being is that this episode is the 'sequel' to Starscream’s Ghost in which Octane is on the run from the Decepticons and accidently activates Starscream’s ghost while inside of the Decepticon crypt on Cybertron. That episode was called Ghost in the Machine since the creative team wanted the audience to be kept in the dark about Starscream’s ghost until he made his appearance half way through that episode unlike this episode in which Starscream starts causing havoc and grief right away. But since the titles got accidentally switched, the whole damn thing is now screwed up. So when fans start talking to me about Starscream's Ghost, I have to mentally rethink which episode they are talking about!
Well at any rate, this episode is the sequel to Starscream's Ghost. And that episode is the sequel to Thief in the Night. And that one was the sequel to the Ultimate Weapon. And that one was the sequel to Fight or Flee. Rather nice having a air of continuity there when many fans complain that the TF episodes are like Scooby Doo episodes and can be played out of place at random order. These strings of episodes cannot be played out of place in order to understand them. Kind of stupid since when these episodes aired back in 1986, they WERE played out of freakin' order so everybody was damned confused. Oh well...
Right here quickly is a record of why these episodes need to be played in order:
Fight or Flee- introducing Sandstorm. Before this episode, Sandstorm wasn't in the TF continuity.
The Ultimate Weapon-Metroplex beats Trypticon at the end
Thief in the Night- The Autobots are reflecting upon the above mentioned battle. Octane steals Trypticon from Dinobot Island and creates Super Energon. At the end he goes on the run.
Starscreams Ghost- Octane finds refuge with the Autobots and that of Sandstorm. While being chased, he accidently unleashes the ghost of Starscream.
Ghost in the Machine- the continuation of those events.
The Episode Review
The episode begins on the planet Charr which is the home world of the Decepticons after the events of the movie. This episode takes place only minutes after Starscream's ghost, Galvatron just blasted Cyclonus who was possessed by Starscreams Ghost who was in cahoots with Octane to overthrown him as leader. Galvatron blasted Cyclonus and made a gaping wound but in this episode, Cyclonus is perfectly fine. As well as the serious damage that Galvatron had inflicted upon himself by the Autobots is gone. Octane is nowhere in sight nor the previous events even mentioned.
Unlike Starscreams Ghost, the action takes place immediately and never slows down.
Starscream's Ghost attacks Scourge as seen at the ending of Starscreams Ghost. Under the thrall of Starscream, Scourge starts shooting everywhere at the Sweeps, Predacons, Cyclonus, and Galvatron.
"He dare attack me! Destroy him!" Galvatron screams.
"Wait Mighty Galvatron! He is not a traitor. He is only malfunctioning." Cyclonus says.
Doesn't it occur to either of these two idiots that Starscream just MIGHT be behind this? After all they found out in last episode that Starscream possessed Cyclonus, fooled Galvatron and tried to destroy him, then fled. Doesn't any of these idiots even remember last episode??
A rather funny exchange between Starscream and Scourge takes place throughout this episode.
"Give me that blaster" Scourge yells.
"No! Get one of your own!" Starscream yells back.
Scourge keeps blasting away and hits Galvatron and ,surprisingly, wounds him deeply. The other Decepticons lead by Cyclonus open fire at him in vain. The possessed Scourge escapes.
Galvatron is angry and Cyclonus and the remaining Sweeps go after Scourge who they all think is a traitor at this point. Cyclonus and the Sweeps pursue Scourge to Cybertron space where they can go no further because they run the risk of being detected by the Autobots. Cyclonus now deduces that Scourge has gone off to Cybertron to join the Autobots when in fact Starscream has led Scourge to Unicron's floating head in orbit around Cybertron.
Starscream/Scourge reactivate Unicron's main circuits and he awakens for the first time since the movie.
"I am Unicron. Who reactivates me?" Unicron says (Roger C. Carmel does his voice now who is also Cyclonus. You can easily spot the similarites between the two.)
Starscream leaves the body of Scourge and introduces himself and declares that he wants a new body.
"Yes, Unicron can grant your request, but first you must perform three labors." Unicron responds.
At this point I'd like to stop and comment on something here. How does Starscream even know of Unicron? Starscream was destroyed before Unicron made himself known to the main Decepticon army in the movie. And Starscream as a ghost was only reactivated last episode and had no time to familiarize himself with new updates. And if he did know about Unicron, then why didn't he just try to get a new body last episode instead of toying around with Cyclonus? And Unicron tells him to bring him the eyes of Metroplex and the body of Trypticon. WHAT? Both Metroplex and Trypticon were created after the movie and after Unicron was destroyed so how does Unicron, being deactivated, even know about these two? Metroplex is on Earth for crying out loud.
Okay, now that my venting is done..lets get back to reviewing the episode.
Scourge tries to escape but comes back seeing he has no place to go.
"Because of you(Starscream), Galvatron thinks I tried to kill him." Scourge says.
Also in this scene there is a blunder in which you can hear Starscream's metallic footsteps on the floor inside Unicron. If he is a ghost, you wouldn't be able to hear that.
Well now that Starscream and Scourge are partners in crime, they get underway to the first task that Unicron has set before them..
They set off on heir first task to bring Unicron the eyes of Metroplex that he may see again. So the unlikely duo are off to Earth.
Next scene we see Earth as Sky Lynx lands and drops Kup and Spike off at Autobot City to make a inspection.
Inside we see Powerglide, Warpath, Bumblebee, and Blaster in the command center. In the original script, Beachcomber and Cosmos were also standing around. Too bad Cosmos only appeared in two post movie episodes(Grimlock's New Brain and Five Faces of Darkness pt 5) and Beachcomber only appeared once in Five Faces pt 5 without any dialouge.
Kup makes his inspection and finds everything in tip top shape. But something really odd happens next. While Blaster is talking, he turns and sees Starscream coming up behind Kup and yells for Kup to look out. Then a explosion hits and Metroplex's security alarms have been rendered inoperative.
Okay if Blaster saw Starscream, then why didn't he tell anyone? And what was up with that explosion behind Kup? Starscream is a ghost and didn't carry a explosive device in so where did that come from?
"The explosion blew out Metroplex's security system. Readouts show that every entrance to the city is wide open and we can't shut them!" Blaster reports.
Bumblbee also indicates that the sensor grid in not working either which detects intruders. When Bumblebee reports this, his 'spare tire' on his back is colored black instead of yellow as it should be.
Kup sends Spike and Bumblebee to cover Metroplex's brain vault, Powerglide and Warpath to go get the Arielbots outside and set up a defensive perimeter, and Kup and Blaster cover the main command center.
Cut to Metroplex's brain vault. Scourge is now here and Starscream returns to his body.
"That's better! I was getting cold without a body" Starscream comments which gives us insight on the nature of 'spirits' of dead Transformers.
Back in the corridor, Spike riding inside of Bumblebee approaches.
"Just like old times, eh Bumblebee?" Spike comments which is a good reference to the first two seasons. This is the last time Spike and Bumblebee speak for the rest of the TF cartoon.
They approach the brain vault and see Scourge/Starscream removing one of Metroplex's eyes and run into him causing him to drop and break the eye on the floor. Bumblebee and Spike keep driving into Metroplex's voice command center and the door shuts behind them.
Starscream starts causing Scoruge to hit himself for dropping the eye and screams at him to be careful in getting the other one. They then set a photon charge which is a fancy way for saying "bomb".
Outside Powerglide finally meets up with Silverbolt and Skydive and tells them a red alert is going on.
"I don't see anyone" Silverbolt remarks and for some odd reason both he and Skydive's mouth moves as if they are both speaking at once.
Just then Scourge blasts out of Metrople and the Arielbots take off after him.
Metroplex awakens, relises his eyes are missing, and transforms and starts blasting everywhere. Rather odd of Metroplex to start doing this as it seems out of character for him. In past episodes he talks with a certain level of maturity but here he seems as dumb as a box of rocks like every Gestalt is as he starts screaming like the Incredible Hulk.
"I don't believe it! He shot me!" Powerglide states. What's funny is the timing of this line is off. Powerglide says this BEFORE Metroplex shoots him in the wing.
"Metroplex has gone crazy!" Silverbolt says as he dodges his blasts and breaks of from chasing Scourge.
Inside Metroplex Blaster, Kup, Bumblebee and Spike are thrown everywhere as Metroplex tosses around sorta like Perceptor, Brawn, and Bumblebee did while they were inside Megatron in episode Microbots.
Well the scene ends with the bomb(ahem, i mean photon charge) goes off knocking Metroplex out cold. He lands and transforms back into city mode.
After commercial break we come back and Kup and the others are repairing the damage done. What's odd is that it's still daytime but a nighttime scene is shown on the monitor in front of them. They start Metroplex back up again and everything works.
"Now we better tell Rodimus Prime the bad news" Kup says.
Shouldn't he have contacted Rodimus Prime immediately when this happened and not hours later? After all this is a major security threat to the Autobots. Kup could do this since Blaster is standing there with them and he has the ability to radio Cybertron as he did before in previous episodes.
Back on Charr, Starscream/Scourge lands and buries of the eyes. Starscream informs Scourge that they are here to steal one of Trypticon's eyes since Scourge broke the other of Metroplex's. I find it odd that Starscream travels all this time and distance to Charr from earth and just now tells Scourge what they are doing.
At the Decepticon city, Runamuck and Runabout complain about the perils of guard duty. These two characters are invisible in the third season lineup as characters. In fact this is Runabout's only appearance. Runamuck appeared in 'Chaos' and never again.
Starscream makes quick work of these two by possesing Runabout and making him blast Runamuck. In case you might be wondering, Runamuck is the white one and Runabout is the black colored one.
Runamuck manages to sound the alarm right before he passes out.
Astrotrain, Dirge, and Thrust(what happened to Ramjet?) are seen running around the city.
Scourge knocks over Astrotrain(by accident?) and Starscream possessed his body.
"What's the purpose in possessing Astrotrain?" Scourge asks.
"He's got more cargo space than you." Starscream replies."We need him to carry both eyes back to Unicron"
I really don't see what the problem is here. While Astrotrain does hold the most cargo space, In Rebirth pt 1 we see Scourge carry the clone Wingspan and the Key to the plasma energy chamber inside of him. If Scourge can do that then he can carry both eyes rather easily.
Dirge and Thrust try to stop Starscream and Scourge from escaping but to no avail.
Later back at Unicron, his new eyes are now in place and working fine.
Something weird here. First Unicron never had eyes before even in the movie. When Hotrod crashes through Unicron's eyes with the Quintesson ship, we see that Unicron's eyes are just green glass and nothing more.
Also if you think about this, Metroplex and Trypticon must be the same size as Unicron since their eyes fit perfectly in place in Unicron's eye holes. But yet at the end of this ep, we see Trypticon push Unicron's head towards Cybertron and Unicron's head is bigger that Trypticons entire body!
Now that Starscream is through with Astrotrain he dumps his body over Cybertron space to get blasted by the Autobots. Rather nice of him.
On Cybertron Blurr detects the aprroaching Astrotrain and no telling how many Decepticons are on board. Rodimus orders the Protectobots to intercept and destroy Astrotrain.
Hotspot and Groove move into place quickly at one of the main cannons. In the original draft, Streetwise and Blades are with them but are now absent here.
"Here he comes! Lock and Load!" orders Hotspot. A mistake here since when he says this, he has a mouth and Hotspot has no mouth but a face plate like Prime has.
"Locked and Loaded" relpies Groove. Groove's voice has changed since we last saw him in episode Revenge of Bruticus and B.O.T. in which Frank Welker did his voice then which sounded exactly like Trailbreaker. In fact this is the third and last time Groove ever spoke in the TF series and now that I think about it, both he and streetwise were only mentioned by name once in Return of Optimus Prime pt 1. And now that I think about it further, it's really goofy that Ultra Magnus named all the Protectobots by name in that episode who were introduced in the second season but the Throttlebots were not named and they were brand new in that episode. You would think it would be the opposite.
Okay, Unicron now tells Starscream to deliever Trypticon to him. So Starscream leaves Scourge behind and is off back to Charr.
The Autobots finialy get wise and Rodimus sends Sky Lynx and Ultra Magnus to investigate. Sky Lynx moves next to Unicron's head and there is a rather large metallic object right in back of Unicron with a hole in the bottom. It wasn't there a moment ago and it disappears after this scene. Anybody's guess as to what this is because I have no clue....
Ultra Magnus and Springer depart inside Unicron's head while Hotspot and Groove remain on Sky Lynx outside.
"I've got a bad feeling about this" Magnus says as he quotes the famous Star Wars line.
Scourge appears and attacks Sky Lynx. "Look out Scourge!" Hotspot yells but says it incorrectly. It should be "Look out, Scourge!" with the comma after 'out' and before 'Scourge'. It sounds like he is telling Scourge to look out.
"Get inside! Scourge has us zeroed in." Sky Lynx says which is funny since he has a Decepticon symbol on him.
In the third season we see Sky Lynx having a Decepticon symbol a lot since he was originaly suppose to be a Decepticon but we changed it because there wouldn't have been a counterpart to deal with Predaking.
Unicron awakens and zaps the Autobots right out of him with this electrical field. Rather good since he used the same zapping device in Grimlock's New Brain in which Strafe detroyed it there.
Something else I noticed is that Unicron's head is shaped more or less like a battle station as if it was suppose to be manned by personel. There is a floor there with ramps and doorways. In Five Faces of Darkness pt 1, Cyclonus reactivates a monitor which was at perfect level with him in size with a control board and everything.
After Sky Lynx rescues the fallen Autobots, Scourge returns back inside Unicron.
"It would be dangerous for me to remain" he says. Unicron warns him that he will remain or else what he has given him he can also take away. Which means Unicron could turn Scourge back into Thundercracker.
On Charr, Galvatron is still freaking out at Runamuck, Runabout, Thrust, and Dirge and how they let Starscream/ Scourge to get away.
"I want to know what's going on and I want to know now!" galvatron screams.
What's funny is he says this line before Trypticon starts to transform. The timing on various lines in this episode are way off in case you hadn't noticed.
Starscream possesses Trypticon and transforms him.
I'm not sure why Starscream is so hell-bent on getting a new body. He's causing so much more damage now than he ever did when he was alive. I mean right now he could destroy Galvatron in Trypticon's body. And when he gets a new body he looses all these powers and can get destroyed again.
Starscream takes off with Trypticon's body to Unicron.
Back at Unicron , Unicron tells Starscream to remove Trypticon's transformation cog and install it in his head. The Decepticons lead by Galvatron show up and attack Trypticon/Starscream and he fights back. In this scene we see Trypticon completely blow up two Sweeps and Divebomb as well. But Divebomb is back in later episodes just fine.
Also if you notice, Unicron has nostrils and he never did before. I wonder why? Unicron needs to breath, huh?
Scourge escapes and tells the Autobots about Unicron's plan to hook his head to Cybertron for a new body. Rodimus deduces that they attack them when they try to make the connection from within.
Inside Trypticon, Runamuck, Runabout, Thrust, and Dirge are walking around undetected.They make thier way to a room where it looks like Trypticon's motor skills are controlled. Thrust destroys the unit and Trypticon goes berserk. Starscream can no longer control Trypticon and he leaves.
Now that Starscream is just a ghost again, Unicron gives him a new body to connect his cables to Cybertron.
"Do it yourself!" Starscream laughs and breaks his deal with Unicron.
At the same time, Magnus and Springer plant energon explosives at the base of Unicron's head and take off. In the original script, Magnus was with the Protectobots instead.
The explosives go off and sends both Starscream and Unicron's head flying off of Cybertron.
The Autobots begin cheering as they watch Unicron's head getting blown away. In this scene, you can see Arcee in the background waving her arms even though she never appeared anywhere else in this episode.
Starscream in his new body tumbles off into space where Galvatron sees him and starts shooting at him but doesn't destroy him.
"In light of the information you gave us, i'm allowing you to go free" rodimus says to Scourge and Astrotrain.
okay, Scourge gave the Autobots information but Astrotrain didn't.
And when Rodimus says this, Warpath is standing in the background. Shouldn't he be on Earth?
The episode ends with Rodimus making a corney ,goofy joke about retrieving the eyes from Unicron and everybody stands around laughing like idiots. Unicron's head is in the background looking upon them and it fades to black.
Comments
Okay some comments now. If Unicron can create Transformer bodies out of nothing with all the sophisticated circuitry that a Tf has, then why couldn't Unicron just create a drone to connect his head with Cybertron instead of employing the services of Starscream?
I like how the tension between Galvatron and Starscream is carried over from the first two seasons. Megatron and Starscream were always at odds with one another and now it carries on through Galvatron.
I wonder why Ultra Magnus's mouth is always colored red while the other Autobots mouths are colored black? Not just in this episode but pretty much all in season 3.
I like how Bumblebee, Powerglide, Warpath, Groove, and Hotspot make small supporting appearences in this episode as they were characters from season two. It's nice to see them in action yet again even though they didn't have big roles here.
This episode flows nicely. Alot of action from start to finish and it hardly ever slows down to catch your breath. Having Starscream back again was brilliant as he was always one of the most popular characters in the TF series ever.
It's nice to see the TF story develop a bit further. In the first two seasons it was just Autobots vs. Decepticons. Now we have Unicrons head as a third party as well as the Quintessons.
It also seems like Rodimus is a big wimp in this episode. He sends Ultra Magnus to attack Unicron's head straight on while he remains back at head quarters. He also sends Magnus again to plant the energon explosives at Unicrons head while he supervises. It would have been better if Rodimus had been on the forefront with Magnus instead of lingering in the shadows.
Overall this is a excellent episode. The animation could stand to be a tad better but still it delivers. Combined with a great story and continuous action with a humorous relationship between Starscream and Scourge, makes this episode worth watching. This episode comes highly recommended.
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