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Gustavo mutters about "The Search for Alpha Trion"
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Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats
May 15, 2018, 1:37:50 AM5/15/18
to
That's this month's cartoon viewing club thing, right?
I have a sinus infection, and keep choking on chunky post nasal drip goodness, so this will likely be briefer than it otherwise might.
"The Search for Alpha Trion" is written by Beth Bornstein, who wrote "Child's Play" and "Nightmare Planet" -- two fine and radically different episodes. She also wrote episodes of Batman: TAS, JEM, GI Joe, Plucky Duck, He-Man, Dinosaucers, My Little Pony, Thundercats... she wrote one to four episodes of each, and apparently cannot hold down a job.
We open on Cybertron, where three foxy, foxy fembots are breaking and entering. They are good girls gone wrong, pushed by economic hardships to make decisions that they won't be happy with later. It's a classic story, from the streets of Bangkok to the streets of Cybertron.
They steal some energon and there is a thrilling escape.
Some interesting things about the little heist:
- They cut a massive hole in the wall of the Decepticon headquarters
- They find a secret control panel behind another wall, which opens the door to the energon
- Elita's orders were to only take one stack of energon
- Moonracer triggers an alarm when she goes towards the second stack
- Shockwave is surprised that there are female Autobots on Cybertron
So this whole scenario brings a bunch of questions:
- How does Elita-1 get information on the Energon warehouse down to the level of stacks of energon cubes?
- Did someone disable the security on the smaller stack?
- Have the Autobot females made similar raids in the past? If so, how does Shockwave explain the holes in walls and missing energon? If not, how to the female Autobots survive?
Maybe the other Decepticons on the planet would sometimes steal, and Shockwave calculated that it was more efficient to let it go on than devote resources to stop it, and the female Autobots were just a rounding error.
An interesting thing about the character models is how frumpy the female autobots are in robot mode. Typically, we would see female robots rendered as some kind of creepy sex toy, showing an ideal body that humans are incapable of matching. I don't think that the character designers here are any more pure, just that they have different tastes.
The rest of the episode just isn't very interesting. But there are some interesting bits in it.
When Elita-1 is told that the base might have been compromised, she does what any female leader would do... checks with the nearest man! Oh, wait, that's sexist and terrible. Huh. And wouldn't this be a planned for contingency? It's the big threat, so you would expect some kind of plan for it. Also, Alpha Trion just tells them to find another base.
Thrust's character model in Ramjet's colors is really quite nice.
Moonracer cannot get out of the way of a falling beam.
Elita-1 has a second special power not explicitly mentioned -- she can make use of perspective to her own benefit. During battle she does a backflip onto what appears to be a tall distant tower as if it were a small close tower, but then it is a tall distant tower. She does similar things with incoming missiles.
Optimus wouldn't let the females join them on the Ark because it was "too dangerous" and because he is an overprotective sexist asshole. He then watches as they get destroyed (or so he thought) proving that it wasn't any less dangerous to stay.
After sitting around, discussing what much have been the emotional ways out of the base, Chromia says "there must be some logical way out of here"
Starscream should have just shot Optimus in the head rather than doing an elaborate acid bath thing.
The Decepticons don't even notice that Elita-1 has vanished. Women are frequently ignored.
All the Autoboys in this episode are primarily red.
Starscream makes the sexist comment about how the females have arrived to save their boyfriends. The females then each have a scene where they demonstrate who their boyfriend is before they save him, except for the one who has no boyfriend, and is thus not dignified with a name or character moment.
Chromia and Ironhide should have spent less time flirting, and more time killing Starscream.
Alpha Trion is disappointed that Elita-1 used her special power even after he warned her not to. I think he must warn her not to before every mission.
Alpha Trion's lab is green, not the autobot gold, or Decepticon purple. There is a computer thing with two blue screens, which looks like that weird green TF:Prime Beast Tracker Optimus Prime toy. You cannot have a box with two windows on it in this cartoon without it looking like Optimus Prime.
Optimus and Elita-1 have no clear memory of the events of War Dawn.
Lots of scenes where someone should talk less and shoot more. The opponents just stand there, until the tables are turned, and do the same thing.
Starscream runs at the sight of Optimus.
All the females are very excited with how quickly Alpha Trion made up their new base with such advanced equipment. Men just do everything better. Wait, no, that's sexist.
I get a weird feeling that Inferno and Firestar's rescue missions were generally caused by one of them putting Autobots in jeopardy.
How does Elita know what a father is?
And, Optimus and the Autoboys don't bring any of the female Autobots back with them, and they are never seen again. Oops?
The question of what happened to the female Autobots has a pretty obvious answer: Once Shockwave knew they existed, he hunted and killed them.
Or this: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/alt.toys.transformers/qQRA3AMTRYA/ZE_6ndysAgAJ
You know, for an episode entitled "The Search for Alpha Trion", there's not a whole lot of searching for Alpha Trion. Optimus knew exactly where to look. I think there was a huge chunk of this episode ripped out, eliminating every bit of strategy and almost all the character moments. This isn't an episode, it's a sketch of a two-parter.
I have a sinus infection, and keep choking on chunky post nasal drip goodness, so this will likely be briefer than it otherwise might.
"The Search for Alpha Trion" is written by Beth Bornstein, who wrote "Child's Play" and "Nightmare Planet" -- two fine and radically different episodes. She also wrote episodes of Batman: TAS, JEM, GI Joe, Plucky Duck, He-Man, Dinosaucers, My Little Pony, Thundercats... she wrote one to four episodes of each, and apparently cannot hold down a job.
We open on Cybertron, where three foxy, foxy fembots are breaking and entering. They are good girls gone wrong, pushed by economic hardships to make decisions that they won't be happy with later. It's a classic story, from the streets of Bangkok to the streets of Cybertron.
They steal some energon and there is a thrilling escape.
Some interesting things about the little heist:
- They cut a massive hole in the wall of the Decepticon headquarters
- They find a secret control panel behind another wall, which opens the door to the energon
- Elita's orders were to only take one stack of energon
- Moonracer triggers an alarm when she goes towards the second stack
- Shockwave is surprised that there are female Autobots on Cybertron
So this whole scenario brings a bunch of questions:
- How does Elita-1 get information on the Energon warehouse down to the level of stacks of energon cubes?
- Did someone disable the security on the smaller stack?
- Have the Autobot females made similar raids in the past? If so, how does Shockwave explain the holes in walls and missing energon? If not, how to the female Autobots survive?
Maybe the other Decepticons on the planet would sometimes steal, and Shockwave calculated that it was more efficient to let it go on than devote resources to stop it, and the female Autobots were just a rounding error.
An interesting thing about the character models is how frumpy the female autobots are in robot mode. Typically, we would see female robots rendered as some kind of creepy sex toy, showing an ideal body that humans are incapable of matching. I don't think that the character designers here are any more pure, just that they have different tastes.
The rest of the episode just isn't very interesting. But there are some interesting bits in it.
When Elita-1 is told that the base might have been compromised, she does what any female leader would do... checks with the nearest man! Oh, wait, that's sexist and terrible. Huh. And wouldn't this be a planned for contingency? It's the big threat, so you would expect some kind of plan for it. Also, Alpha Trion just tells them to find another base.
Thrust's character model in Ramjet's colors is really quite nice.
Moonracer cannot get out of the way of a falling beam.
Elita-1 has a second special power not explicitly mentioned -- she can make use of perspective to her own benefit. During battle she does a backflip onto what appears to be a tall distant tower as if it were a small close tower, but then it is a tall distant tower. She does similar things with incoming missiles.
Optimus wouldn't let the females join them on the Ark because it was "too dangerous" and because he is an overprotective sexist asshole. He then watches as they get destroyed (or so he thought) proving that it wasn't any less dangerous to stay.
After sitting around, discussing what much have been the emotional ways out of the base, Chromia says "there must be some logical way out of here"
Starscream should have just shot Optimus in the head rather than doing an elaborate acid bath thing.
The Decepticons don't even notice that Elita-1 has vanished. Women are frequently ignored.
All the Autoboys in this episode are primarily red.
Starscream makes the sexist comment about how the females have arrived to save their boyfriends. The females then each have a scene where they demonstrate who their boyfriend is before they save him, except for the one who has no boyfriend, and is thus not dignified with a name or character moment.
Chromia and Ironhide should have spent less time flirting, and more time killing Starscream.
Alpha Trion is disappointed that Elita-1 used her special power even after he warned her not to. I think he must warn her not to before every mission.
Alpha Trion's lab is green, not the autobot gold, or Decepticon purple. There is a computer thing with two blue screens, which looks like that weird green TF:Prime Beast Tracker Optimus Prime toy. You cannot have a box with two windows on it in this cartoon without it looking like Optimus Prime.
Optimus and Elita-1 have no clear memory of the events of War Dawn.
Lots of scenes where someone should talk less and shoot more. The opponents just stand there, until the tables are turned, and do the same thing.
Starscream runs at the sight of Optimus.
All the females are very excited with how quickly Alpha Trion made up their new base with such advanced equipment. Men just do everything better. Wait, no, that's sexist.
I get a weird feeling that Inferno and Firestar's rescue missions were generally caused by one of them putting Autobots in jeopardy.
How does Elita know what a father is?
And, Optimus and the Autoboys don't bring any of the female Autobots back with them, and they are never seen again. Oops?
The question of what happened to the female Autobots has a pretty obvious answer: Once Shockwave knew they existed, he hunted and killed them.
Or this: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/alt.toys.transformers/qQRA3AMTRYA/ZE_6ndysAgAJ
You know, for an episode entitled "The Search for Alpha Trion", there's not a whole lot of searching for Alpha Trion. Optimus knew exactly where to look. I think there was a huge chunk of this episode ripped out, eliminating every bit of strategy and almost all the character moments. This isn't an episode, it's a sketch of a two-parter.
Zobovor
May 15, 2018, 10:51:09 PM5/15/18
to
On Monday, May 14, 2018 at 11:37:50 PM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:
> [Beth Bornstein] wrote one to four episodes of each, and apparently cannot
> hold down a job.
I think a lot of the time, freelance writers would submit story ideas to multiple series simultaneously. The fact that she landed multiple successful scripts speaks favorably. It's got to be hard to write for a show as a freelance writer. A lot of shows have a very specific flavor and tone.
> How does Elita-1 get information on the Energon warehouse down to the level
> of stacks of energon cubes?
Well, the Decepticons didn't make it a secret that they were collecting and storing energy. Chromia is using a scanner thingy at the beginning, so maybe she was using that to detect the energon supply?
> Have the Autobot females made similar raids in the past? If so, how does
> Shockwave explain the holes in walls and missing energon? If not, how to the
> female Autobots survive?
I feel like this is the first time they've attempted something like this. There's a tension during the mission that makes me think they're resorting to desperate measures.
> An interesting thing about the character models is how frumpy the female
> autobots are in robot mode. I don't think that the character designers here
The official animation models for Chromia and Firestar and Moonracer have all surfaced, and they seem shorter than they appear in animation. They're only about six heads tall (Optimus Prime is closer to ten heads in height). They're built like teenagers. Nightbird's model is the same way.
> When Elita-1 is told that the base might have been compromised, she does what
> any female leader would do... checks with the nearest man!
Alpha Trion was the guardian of the Matrix of Leadership for a while. So, while Elita doesn't have the Matrix and lacks access to the wisdom of the ages, Alpha Trion comes close. Talking to him is no different than Prime looking into the Matrix for answers.
> Optimus wouldn't let the females join them on the Ark because it was "too
> dangerous" and because he is an overprotective sexist asshole.
Well, the girls probably spent four million years believing the boys were dead. So, it was kind of a dangerous mission.
> Alpha Trion's lab is green, not the autobot gold, or Decepticon purple.
Quintesson colors!
> There is a computer thing with two blue screens, which looks like that weird
> green TF:Prime Beast Tracker Optimus Prime toy. You cannot have a box with
> two windows on it in this cartoon without it looking like Optimus Prime.
I totally agree.
> Optimus and Elita-1 have no clear memory of the events of War Dawn.
Optimus doesn't remember anything about "War Dawn" until the Aerialbots jog his memory at the very end of the episode. There's a continuity of consciousness between Orion Pax and Optimus Prime (Optimus' first words to the Aerialbots after being created are to describe the regrets he had as Orion Pax) so he clearly remembered his life as Orion Pax at one time. But, as we've seen countless times, Transformers cannot store millions of years' worth of memories.
> How does Elita know what a father is?
Shrug. How does Nosecone know what a father is?
> You know, for an episode entitled "The Search for Alpha Trion", there's not a
> whole lot of searching for Alpha Trion.
Yeah, but it's a cool-sounding and mysterious title. There are no bell jars in "The Killing Jar," and there are no night scenes in "Thief in the Night," and there are no cats in America.
Zob (and the streets are paved with cheese)
> [Beth Bornstein] wrote one to four episodes of each, and apparently cannot
> hold down a job.
I think a lot of the time, freelance writers would submit story ideas to multiple series simultaneously. The fact that she landed multiple successful scripts speaks favorably. It's got to be hard to write for a show as a freelance writer. A lot of shows have a very specific flavor and tone.
> How does Elita-1 get information on the Energon warehouse down to the level
> of stacks of energon cubes?
> Have the Autobot females made similar raids in the past? If so, how does
> Shockwave explain the holes in walls and missing energon? If not, how to the
> female Autobots survive?
> An interesting thing about the character models is how frumpy the female
> are any more pure, just that they have different tastes.
They seem like they're built like female mannequins with some shoulder armor and wheels tacked on in places. I don't get "frumpy" from their designs at all.
The official animation models for Chromia and Firestar and Moonracer have all surfaced, and they seem shorter than they appear in animation. They're only about six heads tall (Optimus Prime is closer to ten heads in height). They're built like teenagers. Nightbird's model is the same way.
> When Elita-1 is told that the base might have been compromised, she does what
> any female leader would do... checks with the nearest man!
> Optimus wouldn't let the females join them on the Ark because it was "too
> dangerous" and because he is an overprotective sexist asshole.
> Alpha Trion's lab is green, not the autobot gold, or Decepticon purple.
> There is a computer thing with two blue screens, which looks like that weird
> green TF:Prime Beast Tracker Optimus Prime toy. You cannot have a box with
> two windows on it in this cartoon without it looking like Optimus Prime.
> Optimus and Elita-1 have no clear memory of the events of War Dawn.
> How does Elita know what a father is?
> You know, for an episode entitled "The Search for Alpha Trion", there's not a
> whole lot of searching for Alpha Trion.
Zob (and the streets are paved with cheese)
Gustavo Wombat
May 16, 2018, 5:34:24 AM5/16/18
to
Zobovor <zm...@aol.com> wrote:
> On Monday, May 14, 2018 at 11:37:50 PM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:
>
>> [Beth Bornstein] wrote one to four episodes of each, and apparently cannot
>> hold down a job.
>
> I think a lot of the time, freelance writers would submit story ideas to
> multiple series simultaneously. The fact that she landed multiple
> successful scripts speaks favorably. It's got to be hard to write for a
> show as a freelance writer. A lot of shows have a very specific flavor and tone.
Way to ruin my joking version of your review structure starting with behind
> On Monday, May 14, 2018 at 11:37:50 PM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:
>
>> [Beth Bornstein] wrote one to four episodes of each, and apparently cannot
>> hold down a job.
>
> I think a lot of the time, freelance writers would submit story ideas to
> multiple series simultaneously. The fact that she landed multiple
> successful scripts speaks favorably. It's got to be hard to write for a
> show as a freelance writer. A lot of shows have a very specific flavor and tone.
the scenes information about the episode and it’s creators.
>> How does Elita-1 get information on the Energon warehouse down to the level
>> of stacks of energon cubes?
>
> Well, the Decepticons didn't make it a secret that they were collecting
> and storing energy. Chromia is using a scanner thingy at the beginning,
> so maybe she was using that to detect the energon supply?
Decepticons.
>> When Elita-1 is told that the base might have been compromised, she does what
>> any female leader would do... checks with the nearest man!
>
> Alpha Trion was the guardian of the Matrix of Leadership for a while.
> So, while Elita doesn't have the Matrix and lacks access to the wisdom of
> the ages, Alpha Trion comes close. Talking to him is no different than
> Prime looking into the Matrix for answers.
was lame, but it happened. And then other people compared Barack Obama to
Curious George, because of the ears.
Context matters.
We see these characters for a single episode, so care should be taken to
make sure they don’t seem like they are deferring to a male.
>
>> Alpha Trion's lab is green, not the autobot gold, or Decepticon purple.
>
> Quintesson colors!
consistent they are with green.
>> You know, for an episode entitled "The Search for Alpha Trion", there's not a
>> whole lot of searching for Alpha Trion.
>
> Yeah, but it's a cool-sounding and mysterious title. There are no bell
> jars in "The Killing Jar," and there are no night scenes in "Thief in the
> Night," and there are no cats in America.
--
I wish I was a mole in the ground.
Zobovor
May 16, 2018, 6:33:11 PM5/16/18
to
On Wednesday, May 16, 2018 at 3:34:24 AM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:
> Way to ruin my joking version of your review structure starting with behind
> the scenes information about the episode and it’s creators.
I think you mentioned being sick, so it's possible you're in a bad mood. For the record, I wasn't trying to ruin anything. I was just responding to what you wrote.
> Way to ruin my joking version of your review structure starting with behind
> the scenes information about the episode and it’s creators.
Zob
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