Power Surge (episode)
From Transformers Wiki
| The name or term "Power Surge" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, seePower Surge (disambiguation). |
| |||||||||
 Check outTHESE GUNS. | |||||||||
| "Power Surge" | |||||||||
| Season | 1 | ||||||||
| No. in season | 6 | ||||||||
| Production company | Mainframe Entertainment | ||||||||
| Airdate | September 25,1996 | ||||||||
| Written by | Larry DiTillio | ||||||||
| Directed by | Nicholas Kendall | ||||||||
| Animation studio | Mainframe Entertainment | ||||||||
| Continuity | Beast Wars continuity | ||||||||
| Packaged with | Waspeeter | ||||||||
 Watch this episode on YouTube
| |||||||||
Terrorsaur discovers a cache of energon on a floating mountain that gives him enough power to overthrow Megatron.
Contents |
Synopsis
A wild and free bird majestically soars through the air, experiencing the wonders of aviation as it feels the wind flow around its proud wings. The bird explores its domain with a grace and sincerity and deliciousness. The latter-most attribute is of interest to a hungryTerrorsaur,who quickly swallows the bird as a snack.
Terrorsaur discovers amassive mountain elevated into the sky—defying gravity. Flying closer, he discovers the mountain houses an incredible cache ofenergon.To check the energon's stability, he transforms into hisrobot mode,at the risk of having raw energon radiation harm his circuits. When he tries to take a sample for study, bolts of pure energy surge though him, greatly enhancing his abilities. Naturally, the first thing the overchargedPredacondoes is fly back to his base to overthrowMegatron.Luckily,Cheetoralso finds the airborne crag, and watches Terrorsaur leaving at top speeds.
Outside of thePredacons' crashed ship,Megatron shows his troops some newly installed territorial defenses. Terrorsaur arrives, and flowing with power, immediately announces that he's taking over the Predacons. Megatron obviously disagrees, and the two fight, but the pumped-up Terrorsaur easily blasts Megatron over the edge of a cliff, where he lands in pieces. With the remaining Predacons under his control, Terrorsaur announces theMaximalsare his next target. Cheetor, having followed Terrorsaur from the floating mountain, perceives the new developments as bad news.
Before he can lead the final battle against the Maximals, Terrorsaur finds his new charge has a short life and he must return to the floating mountain to reinvigorate himself.Tarantulasfollows in secret, eager to steal the source of Terrorsaur's new capabilities.Scorponokis left alone withWaspinator,so the two begin to re-assemble and repair Megatron.
Cheetor rushes back to theMaximal baseand scrambles onto the bridge, where he spits out an incoherent sequence of words vaguely relating to the current crisis. Giving explanations a second try, Cheetor explains the story thus far to his fellow Maximals.Rhinoxconcludes that the floating mountain isn't totally scientifically impossible, given enough energon.Optimus PrimalandRattrapprepare to destroy the entire island.
A weakened Terrorsaur flaps back to the island; on the ground, Tarantulas climbs a webline up to the suspended formation. Optimus and his cargo, Rattrap, arrive moments later. The two watch Terrorsaur re-charge his systems. To give Rattrap time to plant the explosives, Optimus Primal engages Terrorsaur in an airborne chase. Primal swiftly dodges most of what Terrorsaur fires, but eventually is hit by hisoptic blasts.He lands to deliver the finishing blast to Primal, who is now trapped in hisbeast modethanks to energon buildup. But before a final shot can be fired, Terrorsaur's energon enhancements run out again, and he is forced to go for another recharge, promising to return to finish Optimus.
Rattrap meanwhile, has been tussling with Tarantulas, the two of them staying in their beast modes as they wrestle. With a toss of mud, Rattrap blinds Tarantulas and the spider blindly runs off the side of the mountain to the ground far, far below. Rattrap is passed by the flapping Terrorsaur, and concludes that Optimus Primal must have lost their bout. Terrorsaur, meanwhile, discovers the timed charges Rattrap left and flees in panic, deprived of a chance to recharge.
The explosives detonate, causing the energon crystals to collapse and explode. Before the ground loses form, Optimus arrives to carry Rattrap away from annihilation. With his ratty companion, Optimus Primal swan dives off the exploding alp and somehow the two survive thanks to Primal grabbing onto a tree.
Terrorsaur, no longer having the mountain's resources to rely on, returns to base to meet a very, very angry repaired Megatron. He turns white as a ghost, squawking out "Help!"
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Maximals | Predacons |
|---|---|
|
|
Quotes
"Terrorsaur, you treacherous worm. I'll finish you forever!"
- —Megatron's famous last words.
"Well?"
"Well what?"
"If you're second in command, what is your command?"
"..."
- —WaspinatorandScorponok.Be patient, Waspinator.
"Demolition charges?! Th... They'll blow this mountain to PIECES!"
- —Terrorsaurrealizing the source of his energon addiction is coming to an explosive end.
"You do know... that was crazy."
"Eh, sometimes crazy works. By the way, you did good up there!"
"Eh, you weren't so bad yourself. But, er... don't tell anybody I said so!"
- —RattrapwitnessesOptimus Primalcoin his motto.
"BLASTthose Maximals! They destroyed my power source! But at least I got rid of Megatron... "
[But, when Terrorsaur lands, he sees, emerging, a fully repaired, and thoroughlyPISSEDMegatron.]
"Well well... LOOK WHO'S...BACK."
[Terrorsaur understandably turns as white as a ghost.]
"...help."
- —Terrorsaurreturns to see a very madMegatron,and pales at the consequences.
Notes
Script timeline
- Second draft: 20th February 1996
- Finalised: 13th March 1996
Animation and technical errors
- Terrorsaur's left hand pops off his arm for a moment when he first gets supercharged.
- When Terrorsaur begins destroying Megatron, a patch of "flesh" is blasted off his back, revealing metal underneath. In the following shot, however, his backside is intact, save of course for the broken-off kibble.
- Tarantulas shoots a line up to the floating mountain and begins scurrying up it—yet the mountain is revolving. What is his line anchored to?
- Optimus' arms are rather oddly contorted when he lands on the floating mountain, and his right elbow-hinge is twisted around.
- Freeze-framing reveals the pistons connected to Optimus's feet have come apart while he's being chased through the air by Terrorsaur.
- When Optimus hits one of the floating rocks during his clash with Terrorsaur, the falling debris simply clip through a larger rock floating below.
- Terrorsaur's eye-beams stop midair and fade to white before disappearing. One of his shots doesn't even hit Optimus – the beams freeze a little distance away from him.
- When Rattrap smashes Tarantulas against the rock, his hindmost spider-leg pops out of its socket.
- Rattrap's ear clips into his shoulder area when he pulls it back as Tarantulas confronts him for the second time.
- The jungle backdrop in the last scene with Rattrap and Optimus has areallylow resolution.
Continuity notes
- The PredaconAutogunsare introduced in this episode.
- Megatron's line "I thought you already learned your lesson about challenging me, Terrorsaur" suggests that this isn't the first time Terrorsaur has tried to openly seize leadership of the Predacons. Some possibilities are that this episode was meant to be set after "Double Jeopardy"(the absence of the PredaconAutogunsin that episode, alongside the currently "missing Blackarachnia", would both seem to reinforce that), or that Megatron has found out about the attempted coup in "Equal Measures".Alternately, it could just be that Terrorsaur did something" offscreen ", possibly before the series started.
- Tarantulas's interest in the floating mountain's energon is the first glimpse at his treacherous nature. The darkly amused chuckle he gives upon seeing Megatron getting his aft kicked doesn't exactly inspire confidence in his loyalties, either...
- When indicating where he saw the floating mountain, Cheetor points to a projection of the planet. It's similar to the one shown as the end of"Chain of Command",in that the continents look similar to Earth's, but they're too close together. Europe and Africa are far more northern relative to the Americas compared to where they should be. Cheetor appears to point to a location in North America.
Transformers references
- Terrorsaur eating the bird in the beginning of the episode may be alluding to his on-packagebio,where it is said that he "ingests entire flocks of birds by flying opened mouthed through their flight pattern". He apparently didn't have much of an appetite in this case.
- When Optimus Primal and Rattrap are flying to the mountain, Rattrap complains that if he wanted to fly, he'd have chosen abatas an altmode.
- After Terrorsaur informs the rest of the Predacons that "Megatron is scrap," he adds Megatron's practically patented "Yeess".
- A 'Con that wants to overthrow his leader? Where have we seenthisbefore? (In a twist on the usual formula,noneof the 'Cons take his coup seriously and happily bring Megatron back when he's not looking.)
Trivia
- Insecticonwas at one point slated to join the cast of theBeast WarsTV show. A remnant of this can be found in the script to "Power Surge" onBen Yee's website, where it is noted most of Insecticon's intended lines (including the"If you are second in command, what is your command?"exchange withScorponok) were transferred toWaspinator.[1]
- This is the only episode in the entire series where Waspinator both has a speaking role and doesn't get damaged in some way, shape or form. That and the fact he doesn't use his normal tic of referring to himself and others in the third person are probably explained by his role originally being meant for Insecticon, as above.
- Rattrap plays holographic cards. According to theCybertronixtext, he's playing old maid.
- When charging on the unstable energon, Terrorsaur appears to flicker in and out of existence. That can't be good.
- When Terrorsaur sees the newly repaired Megatron, his entire body changes from red to white in complete terror.
- The word"cycle"is used repeatedly in this episode, beginning the phasing out of human units of time that the series had been using up to this point.
- The concept of energon crystals supercharging a Transformer would be used again as an explanation forthe DX Convoy and DX Megatron toysin theTelemocha Seriesbeing of a much larger size than the other toys.
- Just prior to its debut in syndication, this episode was made available on DirecTV on a pay-per-view basis beginning onAugust 19,1996.
Foreign localization
French
- Title:"L'Énergie d'Énergon"(" The Energy of Energon ")
- Title:"Surcharge"(Canada," Overcharge ")
German
Italian
- Title:"Sete di potere per i Biocombat"(" Thirst for Power for the Biocombats ")
Japanese
- Title:"Kūchū Sanmyaku Dai Bakuha"( không trung sơn mạch đại bạo phá," The Aerial Mountain Explodes ")
- Original airdate:5 November1997
- Immediately before devouring the bird at the start of the episode, Terrorsaur shouts "Itadakimasu!" Because even a Predacon knows to mind their manners at suppertime.
- When Terrorsaur discovers the floating mountain in the original English version, he describes his thoughts and plans out loud by talking to himself. In the Japanese dub, this is instead framed as a conversation withNavi-ko.
Portuguese
- Title:"Surto de Energia"(" Power Surge ")
Mandarin
- Title:"Néngliàng Jùyǒng"( năng lượng cự dũng," Power Surge ")
Spanish
- Title:"Descarga de Energía"(" Power Discharge ")
Home video releases
- VHS
1998 —Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers— Convoy Disappeared (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.
2001 —Beast Wars: Transformers— The Beginning: Vol. 1 (Universal)
2002 —Beast Wars: Transformers— Volume 2 (Rhinomation)
1998 —Beast Wars: Transformers— Maximal Edition (Pioneer LDC) — English and Japanese audio.
- DVD
2000 —Beast Wars: Transformers— DVD Box (Pioneer LDC) — English and Japanese audio.
2002 —Beast Wars: Transformers— Volume 1 (Rhinomation)
2003 —Beast Wars: Transformers— The Complete First Season (Rhinomation)
2011 —Beast Wars: Transformers— Season 1 (Shout! Factory)
2011 —Beast Wars: Transformers— The Complete Series (Shout! Factory)
2014 —Beast Wars: Transformers— Chain of Command (Shout! Factory)
2005 —Beast Wars— Classic Episodes — Where the Beasties Began! (Alliance Atlantis) — English and French audio.
2005 —Beast Wars— The Complete First Season (Alliance Atlantis) — English and French audio.
2006 —Beast Wars: Transformers— Season 1 (Madman Entertainment)
2009 —The Transformers: Beast Wars— Complete Collection (Madman Entertainment)
