Lessons of the Past
From Transformers Wiki
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 Today's lesson: clip shows are fun! | |||||||||
| "Lessons of the Past" | |||||||||
| Production company | TV Tokyo,NAS,Studio Gallop | ||||||||
| Airdate | December 14,2001 | ||||||||
| Written by | Tom Wyner | ||||||||
| Director | Osamu Sekita | ||||||||
| Animation studio | Studio Gallop | ||||||||
We are forced to watch
Optimus view old footage
Seen it all before!
Contents |
Synopsis
Optimus,on the way to a rendezvous with theBuild Team,is interrupted by the Decepticons. They formRuinationasScourgedemands Optimus turn over theO-Parts.When he refuses they attack—and we pull back to find that Optimus,T-AIandKoji Onishiare watching footage of the fight. As Koji comments, it's a shame that they didn't find theprotoformsin the crashed Autobot spaceship. Although Optimus regrets they were unable to stop Megatron, T-AI points out that by the time they caught up with thePredaconleader, he'd already gotten the protoforms to an army base to scan new forms. T-AI replays footage of the action at the army base to remind him.
Optimus says that they must try to predict what the Decepticons will do by examining their past actions, and they decide to review the time whenScourgesabotaged the space bridge, beginning with the ambush ofX-Brawn.After they've reviewed footage of the entire incident, T-AI declares that the space bridge has been fixed and orders all Autobots to test it. After a short but successful test, Optimus declares it (and the Autobots) fit for duty.
Featured characters
(Characters initalic textappear only in pre-recorded footage.)
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Predacons | Humans |
|---|---|---|
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Notes
Production notes
- This is the second of threerecap episodescreated entirely bySaban Entertainmentfor the English dub, replacing the three recap episodes of the original Japanese version ( "Gigatron's Ambitions Revealed!","Assemble! New Troops",and"Gelshark's Blues"). As such, every single bit of animation in this episode is recycled from preexisting footage.
- Originally, the English dub wasn't going to have any recap episodes at all, with the initial episode count slated to be 36, three less than the original count of 39.[1]However, when "Attack from Outer Space","Landfill",and"Sky-Byte Saves the Day"were banned from U.S. broadcast due to censorship following theSeptember 11,2001terrorist attacks, that further reduced the episode total down to 33. To make up for the loss of the banned episodes, three brand-new recap episodes were created by Saban to restore the total back to 36 episodes. But then the three banned episodes ended up eventually airing in markets outside the U.S. anyway, bumping the total count back up to the original 39.
- This episode originally aired between "Peril from the Past"and"Maximus Emerges".It was also the last new episode to air in2001before the series resumed airing new episodes in February2002after a two-month hiatus. When the series was released on DVD in theUnited Kingdom,this episode was officially placed as Episode 26, between "Ultra Magnus: Forced Fusion!"and"The Two Faces of Ultra Magnus",the same place as the second recap episode fromCar Robots,"Assemble! New Troops",which was completely different from this episode. Where this episode focuses on just the Decepticons and the Build Team," Assemble! New Troops "focuses on the Decepticons, the Build Team,Ultra MagnusandOmega Prime.
- However, in both the episode's original broadcast order and its later official DVD placement, this episode is out of chronological order with the rest of the series (see the next section below for more).
Continuity notes
- Unlike "Hope for the Future", the official numerical placement for this episode simply doesn't work. "The Two Faces of Ultra Magnus" opens with both factions reviewing the events of "Ultra Magnus: Forced Fusion!", indicating that the former takes place not too long after the latter. With how serialized the Ultra Magnus mini-arc from "Ultra Magnus" to "Power to Burn!" is, there is simply no room for this episode to fit during it. Same goes for its original broadcast placement since "Maximus Emerges" follows closely after "Peril from the Past", offering no room for this episode to fit there either.
- The past events the Autobots observe on their monitors are from "Sky-Byte Saves the Day","The Decepticons",and, most especially,"Landfill",whose recap clips comprise a goodtwelve minutesof this episode's 21-minute runtime. This is likely because "Landfill" was one of three episodes banned from airing in the United States, and this episode recapping so much of its events allowed viewers to see a good-sized chunk of what they had missed from the debut episode of, well,Landfill.Consequently, theBuild Teamgets the lion's share of focus in this recap episode, making it feel like it should come during the Build Team mini-arc that runs from "Wedge's Short Fuse"to"A Test of Metal".At the very least, it must come at some point after" Sky-Byte Saves the Day "(the chronologically-latest episode reviewed in this one) and before"Ultra Magnus"(after which the series becomes too tightly-knit for this episode to occur anywhere at that point).
- The episode ends with the Autobots giving some final systems tests to the Global Space Bridge as though the Build Team was still performing some maintenance to the Space Bridge following the Decepticons' sabotaging it "Landfill", making it likely that this episode takes place a short time after that episode. However, in this episode, Optimus, Koji, and T-AI all act as if that sabotage happened awhile ago rather than very recently, and some of the events from "Sky-Byte Saves the Day" are also recapped in this episode, meaning it can't come any earlier than right after that episode. What's more, the Space Bridge still needing some repairs during "Sky-Byte Saves the Day"wouldexplain why Optimusdroveto theCGA Towerin that episode instead of using the Space Bridge to get there immediately. And the only ones who used the Space Bridge in that episode were the Build Team, which makes sense since they're the ones who maintain it and would thus be authorized to use it even when it's still undergoing maintenance. Therefore, this episode makes the most sense taking place chronologically between "Sky-Byte Saves the Day" and "A Test of Metal".
Foreign localization
Italian
- Title:"Insegnamenti dal passato"(" Lessons from the Past ")
- Megatron's line: "Thanks to you I can now begin scanning that tanker!" finishes when his mouth is already closed.
- Landfill's line: "I don't think so!" is voiced by Wedge's actor.
Portuguese
- Title:"Lições do Passado"(" Lessons of the Past ")
Home video releases
- DVD
2005 —Transformers: Robots in Disguise— Three-Disc Box Set: Part 2 of 2 (Maximum Entertainment)
2007 —Transformers: Robots in Disguise— Season Two (Maximum Entertainment)
2007 —Transformers: Robots in Disguise— Ultimate Collection (Maximum Entertainment)
References
- ↑"Unlike the Japanese series, this show will feature 36 episodes, removing the three" clip shows "that only featured cuts of old footage with the voices of characters discussing the various scenes in the off screen." —Ben Yee,Ben's World of Transformers, "Transformers: Robots in Disguise(Introduction) ", 2001(archive link)
