Warp

« Transformers: Cybertron ep 38 » Galaxy Force ep 39
Attack of the Super Friends Scene Change
"Warp" 超時空トンネル突破 () (Chōjikū Tunnel Toppa) "Breaking Through the Super Space-Time Tunnel"
Production company	TV Aichi, We've, Tōkyū Agency
Airdate	October 1, 2005 (Japanese) September 12, 2006 (English)
Writer	Manabu Ishikawa
Director	Matsuo Asami
Animation studio	GONZO, Ashi Productions
Continuity	Unicron Trilogy cartoon continuity

The Autobots head for the warp-hole leading to the alternate universe where Gigantion rests.

Synopsis

Give Optimus a shirt to rip off, and this could be straight from Superdickery.com.

In the Autobot base on Cybertron (which is still in the form of Primus's robot mode), Coby is working on a deactivated Scrapmetal. Optimus Prime checks in on him, and Coby enthusiastically replies he's been tinkering...though Optimus knows he's doing it to keep from being depressed about his brother Bud, who is stranded along with Jolt and Reverb aboard the missing Atlantis starship. Presently, Vector Prime contacts them, calling them up to the command room so that he can tell the assembled Autobots about the space-time tunnel he has discovered in the Skeleton Nebula, which leads to the alternate universe where Gigantion and the final Cyber Planet Key wait. He explains that the tunnel is only open for a few days before closing down for an entire year. Red Alert warns that travelling through the unstable, constantly warping tunnel could separate their minds from their bodies, a prospect that scares Jetfire considerably, though Red assures them all that they've created a vaccine program to keep them safe. Coby and Lori express some concern over their own well-being, but Vector Prime reminds them that human children and Mini-Cons are already immune to the tunnel's effects.

You wanna get that thing outta my driveway? I gotta get to work!

Wing Saber is ready and raring to go, but the Autobots have no ship capable of getting the non-flying Autobots there (or, as Leobreaker quips, a "really big slingshot"). Scattorshot grins that it's not going to be a problem, as he patches in a communication from Override who has returned to Cybertron with a surprise...the colony-ship that brought her ancestors and a Cyber Planet Key to Velocitron, the Ogygia. She recounts that Brakedown and Clocker had been searching for the legendary craft and finally uncovered it recently. As the Autobots prep the Ogygia and load it with supplies, Coby, Lori and Six-Speed pique Landmine's curiosity with a large crate that they are pushing into the bay. Coby simply says it's a surprise.

That's the look my dentist gives me all the time.

With the ship ready, the Autobots line up to install Red Alert's vaccine program, which apparently is done via injection. Leobreaker is apprehensive about needles, but not as much as Jetfire, the last Autobot in line. To try and avoid the shot, Jetfire suggests that he should stay behind to keep watch over the power-drained Primus...and then Primus steps in via glowing orb, saying his power levels are rising and he'll be just fine, thank you, so you can all go on to Gigantion. Shut down by god, Jetfire hems and haws a lot, then finally admits defeat and gets the shot, which Red Alert takes a mild sadistic pleasure in administering.

With everyone all shot up, the Ogygia takes off for the tunnel. Vector Prime warns everyone that the tunnel is unstable, and that even the psychic imprints formed by doubts, fears, etc. might distort the warp and basically destroy them. Coby grips Lori's hand to reassure her (aww). However, as they enter the tunnel, they come under attack from behind by the Atlantis! The Autobots realize they can't shoot back, because of their comrades trapped aboard the ship.

Speaking of, Bud peers out a window to see the Ogygia, confused by the appearance of what looks like another Atlantis. Jolt picks up Six-Speed's energy signature coming from it, which gets Bud excited and ready to act! He encourages the Mini-Cons to follow him: Jolt is scared, but Reverb doesn't hesitate.

Bud has been reading too many comics.

Another blast takes out the Ogygia's main engine, and the ship starts to sink towards the edges of the tunnel. Coby volunteers his mechanical skills to fix the engines, and Optimus sends Red Alert and Six-Speed to help him. The trio speed to the engine room, where Coby hits on the idea of re-routing the power from the weapons, which they are unable to use, to the engines. He and Six-Speed re-patch the cables and hit the activation switch at the last moment, bringing the engines back online and allowing the Ogygia to pull away from the tunnel edge. The celebration is short-lived, however, when Scattorshot reports that a gigantic asteroid is now right in the Ogygia's path, with no room to dodge and no weapon power to blast it! Things are looking bad, until Coby gets a communication from Bud on the Atlantis, who has a plan of his own.

Care Bears stare!

Bud, Jolt and Reverb start smashing up the engine room, which causes the ship to lag behind and give the Autobots some breathing room. Optimus Prime decides the only way to get past the asteroid is to get up close and personal with it, and all of the available Autobots with projectile Cyber Keys exit the ship and stand on its bow. As one, the Autobots unleash a mighty combined blast upon the asteroid, the power of their attack actually melting a hole clean through the gigantic space rock, which allows the Ogygia to fly through it safely.

A little later, Coby wakes up, having been knocked out by a jolt of a feedback when the asteroid was blasted, to find they have safely traversed the tunnel and are now in the alternate universe. The Autobots thank Coby for saving them, and they head for Gigantion...

...but they are not the first to get there. Guided through the fire dimension by Soundwave, Megatron and his Decepticons have made it to Gigantion first! Megatron surveys the planet and vows to obtain the fourth Cyber Planet Key and become ruler of the universe!

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"What matters is not how you start a race, but how you finish it."

—Optimus Prime

Leobreaker: Would you cool your turbines, Wing Saber?! Some of us can't just take off, y'know!
Wing Saber: Uh, I almost forgot! Not all Transformers know how to fly.
Snarl: That doesn't mean flying Autobots are better.
Hot Shot: Yeah, but where are we gonna find a spaceship?
Leobreaker: Or a really big slingshot?
Snarl: (falls over) Will you get serious?!

—The Autobots' "strategy" on how to get to Gigantion

"Hey, Big Sister! Where you been?"
"Well, I took your advice, Lori...and went shopping."

—Lori and Override as the latter returns with the Ogygia

So many quips, so little space.

Red Alert: This may sting a little.
Jetfire: All right, enough giggles. Just do it before I rust. DOOOOOOWWWWW!!!

—Pretty much one of the very few funny moments in this series.

"Are you Autobots or Autonots?"

—Bud

"I've learned from the Autobots that sometimes one must save the moment before he can save the whole day!"

—Coby

Notes

Differences with Galaxy Force

• Galaxy Force includes a "previously on" segment that summarizes the events of "Titans".
• The Skeleton Nebula is not named in Galaxy Force.
• In Galaxy Force, Leobreaker wonders what the odds are of another ship crashing nearby, causing Snarl to facefault. Like Bud's crack about the possibility of Cybertron transforming back in "Cybertron", this is terribly on the nose (and Snarl's reaction is a bit excessive), so Cybertron replaces it with the slingshot gag quoted above.
• In Cybertron, Coby guesses the name of the Jungle Planet's starship as "Brigadoon" (see "Real-world references," below). In Galaxy Force, on the other hand, he (correctly, somehow!) guesses it as "Lemuria". For the Cybertron dub, "Lemuria" was made the name of the Gigantion starship; the Jungle Planet's ship is later named the Hyperborea.
• In Galaxy Force, Coby responds to Vector Prime's warning to not let his emotions rule him by pointing out that he would not have been able to pass through the tunnel if he was not focused. In Cybertron, he instead makes the "save the day" remark quoted above.
• The Velocitronian ship is named "Mu" in Galaxy Force, another legendary continent. Cybertron calls it the "Ogygia" instead, mainly because "Mu" would have led to a number of bad jokes (sounding similar to the onomatopoeia of a cow's call).

Animation or technical errors

• When Override asks Jetfire why he thinks he should stay behind, it's Hot Shot who steps forward. Of course, we don't see anyone's lips moving...but characters in this series tend not to move unless they have lines...so take whichever way it works out that makes you happier.
• When Lori shields her eyes from the combined blast, her black sleeves seem to be missing.

Continuity or plotting errors

• Why doesn't Red Alert push the toggle switch to restart the engines, being right there and not apparently doing much, rather than have the two tiny beings that are smaller than the switch do it? Other than laziness, that is.

Continuity notes

• Coby's special cargo will come up again in "Giant" before getting its full reveal in "City".
• Red Alert's work on the vaccine program was introduced back in "Family".
• Sideways obtained the data on the location of the warp tunnel from Jolt's memory in "Memory".

Real-world references

• Vector Prime says "We have a long way to go and a short time to get there", referencing the popular Jerry Reed song "East Bound and Down" which was featured in the equally as popular action film Smokey and the Bandit starring Burt Reynolds.

• Just as the Atlantis is named after a "real" mythical lost land, so too is the Ogygia.

• Coby guesses "Brigadoon" as the name of another colony-ship. "Brigadoon" is actually a musical play from 1947, about a (made-up) town in Scotland that only appears one day every hundred years. Brigadoon is also the Japanese-given name of the Vok island seen in the Beast Wars two-parter, "The Trigger".

• Optimus gives the order "Second star to the right, then straight on 'til Gigantion!", referencing the directions for flying to Neverland in the "Peter Pan" stories. ("Second star to the right, then straight on 'til morning!") In a way, this mirrors Vector Prime's whole "happy thoughts" deal in the warp-hole later...intentional?

• Bud muses "Do Mini-Cons dream of electric ships?" This is a play on the title of the Philip K. Dick novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which was adapted into the movie Blade Runner.

• This is one reference-heavy episode! Wing Saber quips "It don't mean a thing if you ain't got that Wing!", a play on the jazz hit "It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)".

Trivia

• Dirt Boss is barely seen in the flashback to the Ogygia's uncovering; he's got his back to the camera in the slow pan across the crew. Apparently, he turned over a new leaf. (Hence his being listed as an "Other" in the cast list above.)
• Nemesis Breaker makes one of his two exceedingly rare robot-mode, non-stock-footage appearances here. The other is in "Escape".
• When Vector Prime used his Cyber Key back in Haven it resulted in the green "Tachyon Shield" followed by a red cannon blast. In this episode it only fires the cannon blast, while back in Critical it only created the shield.

Home video releases

DVD

2006 — Transformers: Galaxy Force — Vol. 10 (Victor Entertainment) — Japanese audio only.
2008 — Transformers: Cybertron — The Ultimate Collection (Paramount)
2014 — Transformers: Cybertron — The Complete Series (Shout! Factory)