Episode List

Season One

More Than Meets the Eye
Transport to Oblivion
Roll For It
Divide and Conquer
Fire in the Sky
S.O.S. Dinobots
Fire on the Mountain
War of the Dinobots
The Ultimate Doom
Countdown to Extinction
A Plague of Insecticons
Heavy Metal War

Season Two

Autobot Spike
Changing Gears
City of Steel
Attack of the Autobots
Traitor
The Immobilizer
The Autobot Run
Atlantis, Arise!
Day of the Machines
Enter the Nightbird
A Prime Problem
The Core
The Insecticon Syndrome
Dinobot Island
The Master Builders
Auto Berserk
Microbots
Megatron's Master Plan
Desertion of the Dinobots
Blaster Blues
A Decepticon Raider in King Arthur's Court
The Golden Lagoon
The God Gambit
Make Tracks
Child's Play
Quest for Survival
The Secret of Omega Supreme
The Gambler
Kremzeek!
Sea Change
Triple Takeover
Prime Target
Auto-Bop
The Search for Alpha Trion
The Girl Who Loved Powerglide
Hoist Goes Hollywood
The Key to Vector Sigma
Aerial Assault
War Dawn
Trans-Europe Express
Cosmic Rust
Starscream's Brigade
The Revenge of Bruticus
Masquerade
B.O.T

Season Three

Five Faces of Darkness
The Killing Jar
Chaos
Dark Awakening
Forever is a Long Time Coming
Starscream's Ghost
Thief in the Night
Surprise Party
Madman's Paradise
Nightmare Planet
Ghost in the Machine
Webworld
Carnage in C-Minor
The Big Broadcast of 2006
The Quintesson Journal
The Ultimate Weapon
Fight or Flee
The Dweller in the Depths
Only Human
Grimlock's New Brain
Call of the Primitives
Face of the Nijika
The Burden Hardest to Bear
The Return of Optimus Prime

Season Four

The Rebirth

[Plot Details][Opinions][Great Moments][Who's In It?][Rating]

Roll For It in a Nutshell...

Megatron stupidly stuffs antimatter into his own body while Chip Chase, a super-brainy friend of Spike's, lives out the ultimate fight-gamer's fantasy, courtesy of Prowl.

More Than...You Want to Know!

Warning! Warning! Major spoilers ahead! Proceed at your own risk!

Don't want to read everything that happened in this episode? Well, fine! Be that way! You can just darn well click here and go on to the next part, ya spoilsport!

It's a beautiful day a in the neighborhood, and beautiful day in the neighborhood...so Starscream, Thundercracker, and Soundwave are out cruising around, looking for stuff to steal. Starscream, puffed up with pride, announces that he's the new leader of the Decepticons…and then banks abruptly, nearly colliding with Soundwave, who shakes a fist after Starscream like an old woman shaking her fist at some rowdy young whippersnappers. As it turns out, the cruising Decepticons have targeted a hydroelectric generating station. As they're swooping in for the kill, so to speak, one of the workers at the plant comments that "those jets sound like they're going to land in our laps." And, as another worker points out, it's because they are about to land in the humans' laps. Starscream smashes through a window (Hey, at least this time it wasn't a wall…or a ceiling. The boy's never heard of doors, you know.) with the others on his tail. (Starscream: "Hi! My name is Starscream, and I'll be your terrorizer today.") The workers scatter, call for help, some cop-looking guys pointlessly shoot hand guns at the Decepticons. (Never ceases to amaze me. Those guys are walking around with guns bigger than your average human attached to their bodies, which they regularly shoot at one another, doing little damage…and the cops in the series think their little 9mm handgun is going to do any real damage? HAH!) Starscream, needless to say, isn't impressed. He does a bit of shooting of his own, sending the fuzz on their way…

"Who needs Megatron?" Starscream declares as he surveys the scene and rips apart wiring. (Well, Soundwave does, Screamer, but do you care? Noooo...) The Decepticons begin merrily making energon cubes, unmolested. Until the Autobots--or, as Cliffjumper says, "Your friendly neighborhood Decepticon wreckers"--arrive to molest them, that is.

Cliffjumper charges at Thundercracker, who grabs one of the building's ceiling support columns, rips it out, and uses it like a baseball bat to whack CJ far, far away. Undaunted, Cliffjumper teams up with Brawn (Call 'em the Testosterone Twosome.) for another round…except that Starscream has other plans, plans that include smushing the two little 'uns with...uh...a generator, I think. But Optimus, in turn, puts the kibosh on that, and grapples with The Screaming One since he doesn't have Megatron to play with today. The generator gets knocked out of Starscream's grasp and… Oh, wouldn't you know it? It crashes into the Decepticons' neat stack of energon cubes, causing them to go BOOM! In the aftermath, Soundwave calls for a retreat. (This apparently being what he's learned after eons of being a Disciple of Megatron.) Vowing that Prime will pay for his meddling (Cash or charge?), Starscream knocks Prime aside and high-tails it. Soundwave runs out of the building a little...er, oddly...little drunkenly, even. (Perhaps he was guzzling that energon while Starscream and Thundercracker were busy playing Whack-a-Bot.) He smashes through...Well, I guess it's supposed to be a fence except that it doesn't reach all the way to the ground. Looks more like a volleyball net, actually... Anyway, Prowl and Bluestreak pursue him, Prowl transforming and running into Soundwave from behind, making him sort of yell (A mighty strange thing, coming from Soundwave!) and sending him flying--as in, into the air--where a jet-mode Starscream scoops him up. (Er…At least, I think it's supposed to be Prowl that hits Soundwave. It's Prowl that transforms but Bluestreak who runs into Soundwave. There's a boo-boo in there somewhere. You figure it out.) As Starscream and Thundercracker fly off, (Well, they're both colored like Starscream, but I assume that one's supposed to be Thundercracker… And they look weird, with elongated noses. This ep is just chock full of boo-boos. HAH! I love it.) Bluestreak transforms and gives them a going-away present: an almighty zap from his shoulder cannons. And the Decepticons are outta there, limping all the way.

Optimus Prime, meanwhile, approaches Bluestreak and Prowl. Now follow me closely here. Bluestreak, in the previous scene, had just transformed to robot mode in order to blast the retreating Decepticons while Prowl had earlier transformed from robot mode to car mode in order to catch up with and run into Soundwave. OK? OK. Well, now Bluestreak's back in car mode and Prowl's transformed to robot mode! Optimus tells them to follow the Decepticons but admonishes them not to "bite off more than [they] can shred." The scene then cuts to…yep, Bluestreak in robot mode, who laughs without moving his mouth and says, "Who me?", a very Bluestreak-ian line. But then the scene switches back to a long shot of Optimus, a robot-mode Prowl, and a car-mode Bluestreak. I'm fairly certain that Bluestreak and Prowl are reversed in the long shots of this scene when it comes to who's supposed to be in car mode and who's supposed to be in robot form. But in any event, boo-boos aside, off the Mighty Datsun Patrol goes…

Thundercracker, meanwhile, is bitching as he and his compatriots fly off. "Some leader you turned out to be, Starscream!" he complains. (Aw, c'mon, TC! He didn't do any worse than Megatron ever does, in the end.)

And, back on Cybertron (To which, for those of you just joining us, Megatron had been accidentally transported at the end of "Transport to Oblivion," the previous episode. What's this? Continuity in G1? Holy cow!), Megatron, too, is bitching. He wants to get back to Earth because he fears the damage that Starscream is no doubt doing. (Me, I think Meg's worried that Starscream's doing too well…but that's just me.) Shockwave, perhaps tired of listening to Megatron's bitching and moaning, puts in a call to Earth to find out what Screamer's up to. Onto the viewscreen pops Starscream...and...uh...uh...Hey, I know! Let's call him Thunderwarp! He's a black jet like Skywarp with Thundercracker's red detailing. Megatron, noting their damage, begins his communication by announcing that the two jets look like Optimus Prime ran them through a laser-powered trash compactor. (HAH! :) And apparently he took TC to Maaco for a paint job afterwards.) He goes on to say, rather mysteriously, that they will "attack the laboratory as planned." (And...uh...They planned this when?) Thundercracker takes the opportunity to suck up a bit, lauding Megatron's leadership. (Knock it off, TC! You're making me retch!) And apparently, he makes Starscream retch, too. Screamer scoffs, "Leadership, my sine function." ("Sine function?" What the...? Does Starscream have a part-time job as a calculator or something???) Anyway, Starscream insists that they have to repair themselves before they can attack anyone or anything.

Well, they get "five billion astroseconds" to fix themselves, however long that is. (Though, if you ask me, five billion of any time measurement has to be a pretty long time… Megs is positively dilly-dallying.) But that's apparently when Megatron will make his return to Earth via the space bridge...except that he stalks off to the space bridge transmitter thingy and beams himself to Earth right that second, meeting with Rumble and Laserbeark on the other end of the journey. "Have a safe journey, Megatron," Shockwave says as a farewell to Megatron…with a telling, dramatic, and slightly ominous pause before the word "safe." Makes me wonder about that boy…

And speaking of Wonder Boys (How's that for a segue?), we're about to meet one now, in the form of Chip Chase, a super-intelligent brain in the body of a wheelchair-bound teenage friend of Spike's. As we learn as the series progresses, Chip basically knows everything and can do anything, earning him his status as Resident Wonder Boy.

In this outing--his first of the series--Chip is discovering a formula to make antimatter, or at least helping in the endeavor, but this is by no means his only amazing feat. Anyway, here he is with Spike and Bumblebee, pulling up to a lab that looks like a fortress, chatting with the guard who lets in Spike, his brainy buddy, and Bumblebee. (Who, in the words of the guard is not an "Autobot," but an "Aut-O-Bot." I jes' love that drawl.) Little does said guard know that Reflector is spying on them and makes note of the code he punches in to open up the main gate. (Which is "295," by the way. And that's important and there will be a quiz later, so remember it.) Reflector, his job done, transforms to tri-robot robot form and flies off as Spike, Chip, and Bumblebee meet with one Dr. Alkazar, who thinks he's in charge of the antimatter project. (Of course, we all know that it's really Chip that's in charge. After all, even Alkazar admits that without Chip, the antimatter formula would be a mystery to them. ) Alkazar gives Chip a computer disk (A state-of-the-art 5.25" floppy disk, to be exact. Hey, it was state-of-the-art in 1984!) that apparently contains a communications program that will allow Chip's computer to talk to the lab's computer (AKA "Betsy Brainiac") whenever he's feeling geeky. (Which, Chip being Chip, is all the time.) Chip can't wait to play with it, so...they leave! Bumblebee races out of the front gate. Destination: La Casa Chase.

Laserbeak, however, has other plans. He attacks, and BB and the humans only manage to escape by means of a well-placed underground parking garage. (Though I can't begin to figure out why 'Beak couldn't chase them just as easily down there…perhaps he's afraid of the dark?) In any event, Laserbeak flies back to Megatron, who decides to attack the lab before Starscream and Co. can join them because now the Autobots will know that the Cons are hanging out around the lab. So he, Soundwave and Co., and Reflector are off to go blow up some stuff and terrorize some humans.

Which, as it turns out, is probably a good idea on Megatron's part (For once!), because Bumblebee drops off Chip at his house, who announces that he's going to go online and warn the lab while Spike reports that Optimus is on his way there and Bumblebee's putting in a call to arms for Bluestreak and Prowl who, remember, are busily following Starscream, Thundercracker, and Soundwave.

In fact, Prowl and Blue are so busy doing that that they blow off joining the guys for the party at the antimatter lab, despite BB's insistence that it's an emergency. Prowl's response, "Yeah, and so is this!" (You tell him, baby!) As he and Prowl pull up to an aircraft hangar, Bluestreak chimes in that they've found Starscream's raiding party and that they're "munching jets for lunch." (Translation: The Cons are cannibalizing jets for replacement parts. Now what kind of wine goes with jet parts...?) Starscream, meanwhile, is bitching that Megatron can't be trusted. Bluestreak, who along with Prowl pulls up to the open hangar door and transforms, agrees. Prowl adds that the rest of the Cons' can't be trusted, either. And then Bluestreak decides it's time to kick keister and shoots Thundercracker. Soundwave ejects Ravage, Starscream takes aim…and suddenly the Datsun Brigade isn't quite so gung-ho anymore. It's four against two, after all. "Maybe we shoulda gone to help Prime after all?" Bluestreak says, aiming a look over at Prowl. Too late for it now, though. The Decepticons fire, Prowl takes a shot to the gut (Ouch!), Ravage tackles Bluestreak…and we go off to a commercial.

Snack time!

When we come back, the Decepticons have arrived at the antimatter lab. Reflector enters a code into the keypad at the main entrance. He enters "492." Which is wrong, according to what was entered earlier in the episode, as you know if you remember what I told you to remember. But the doors open anyway! Imagine that! Chip, meanwhile, is transmitting his warning to the lab. So as the Decepticons as usual blast their way into the lab (Which makes me wonder why they bothered with the passcode...other than it gave Reflector something to do in the episode, I guess... ), Alkazar transmits the antimatter formula to Chip's computer for safe-keeping. He claims to Megatron that he erased it, but Megatron, by the simple expedient of laying his hand on the console, can tell that he instead uploaded it to someone. So, bummed, the Decepticons settle in to track down that unfortunate someone named Chip.

Meanwhile, the Great Battle in the Hangar continues. Bluestreak tosses aside Ravage and Prowl shoots the Decepti-kitty. Uh oh. Why uh oh? Because that earns Prowl the Wrath of Daddy Soundwave, who growls as Ravage slinks behind him to nurse his wounds. (Growls! Soundwave! Growling! Geez, first he's lurching around drunkenly, then he's screaming, now he's growling. Is Soundwave OOC in this episode or what?) And then Soundwave shoots Prowl (Earning him my eternal wrath, don'tchaknow.) with an almighty zap…which makes Prowl's battle computer crash (Must've been running Windows ME.)...which makes him...helpless? (I'll help you, honey! ;) ) So what's a helpless, under-the-gun Autobot to do? Why, go online, of course, to find someone to tell him what to do! He puts out a heart-wrenching call for help thusly: "This is Autobot Prowl calling... I need help badly... My battle computer is down... Do you read me?" (Awwwww, pumpkin! My heart is melting! :) ) And guess who's online at that moment? (No, not me, unfortunately.) Why, yes, that would be Wonder Boy. "Don't worry! I'm assuming control now," Chip says. (Which is about the moment that I'd really start worrying, if I were Prowl...) But in the end Chip doesn't do a half-bad job, for a geek. Prowl flips around like a ninja and eventually engages in a bit of "Jet Judo" by commandeering a jet (One of the non-sentient ones, that is.) by the simple expedient of sitting on it, shattering its canopy with a whack from his elbow, and fiddling with the controls. The jet powers up, swings around, and starts shooting all of its ammo. "Now this is a human after my own central processor," Prowl marvels with a smile(!) as missiles fly and Decepticons retreat.

Megatron, meanwhile, has figured out where Alkazar sent the antimatter formula, so he sends Starscream, Soundwave, and good old Thunderwarp (Yup, he's back!) off to La Casa Chase, hard on the heels of getting their keisters kicked by a resident of La Casa Chase...er, sort of. Keister kicking by proxy, I guess you'd call it. In any event, the Decepticons arrive in front of Chip's house approximately two seconds after Megatron orders them to go there. Chip sees them and realizes what they're there for. So he promptly memorizes the antimatter formula...and rips up the floppy disk that he'd saved it on? (Man, he's strong. I mean, when you're confined to a wheelchair your upper-body strength increases, I imagine, but really!) In the meantime, Ravage busts into Chip's room. Chip tells him the info's gone, but Ravage fetches Wonder Boy anyway, and tucks him into a little compartment aboard Starscream. "Excellent, Ravage," commends Dad...though he doesn't sound like himself. In fact, he sounds just like Dr. Claw from Inspector Gadget...

Meanwhile, the Autobots are arriving at the antimatter lab at about the same time that Starscream and Co are arriving. The Decepticons transform and land on the outer wall of the lab. Spike, hitching a ride with Bumblebee, notices that they have Chip. And you know what that means, of course. Yup, queasy Autobots. They must now rescue Chip before they can kick 'Con keister... Never fear, though, because Optimus has a plan. (Insert whimper from Nightwind here...)

Inside the lab, Soundwave is rather miraculously extracting the antimatter formula from Chip's brain. Chip protests that the Decepticons can't use their research for destruction because "it's wrong!" Predictably, the Decepticons care little for human idealism. "Get rid of the boy," Megatron orders, though no one actually carries out that order, of course... But Megatron doesn't notice because it's time for him to make some antimatter!

Outside, the Autobots still haven't gotten their act together yet. Optimus asks where the heck Mirage has gotten himself to. Of course, he's right there. He was just invisible, just "getting ready." So, too, was Hound and his Holographic Horde o' Hounds. So the gang's all there so Prime decides it's time to begin…"Operation: Antimatter." (Insert "Mission: Impossible" theme here...) Mirage disappears, Hound utilizes the marvel that is modern holographic technology and makes himself look like a large, self-motivated boulder, and they head off toward the lab. Rumble, on the ramparts acting as a lookout, is easily fooled. Noticing RockHound (HAH! I kill myself sometimes. :) ), he asks, "Now what's that?" "Good question!" an invisible Mirage answers. Rumble turns to see who said that…and misses Bumblebee flying(!) over the outer wall. "I must have static in my rectifiers," Rumble says. (Hate it when that happens...) Mirage, the Voice From Nowhere, agrees, says it's the smartest thing Rumble's said all day. "R-Really?" Rumble replies all happily and then, realizing that he's going nuts he says, "Hey! What's going on?!" (You're hearing voices in your head, Rum. Welcome to my world.)

Meanwhile, the 'Cons are in "Mad Scientist Mode." Soundwave attaches himself to some lab equipment, beams to it the formula that he sucked from Chip's brain, and BOOM! Instant antimatter! (And it's special antimatter, to boot, considering that it doesn't engage in any mutual annihilation with the surrounding matter.) "Amazing!" Megatron marvels. "I've generated antimatter!" (Well, actually, Soundwave generated antimatter, dearie. You didn't do anything, Megs...) The Cons proceed to make antimatter energon cubes. Chip, who's still mysteriously alive, thinks that he's going to stop that, but that notion is squashed by Ravage, who promptly decks Chip, knocking him out of his wheelchair. Megatron orders the power increased, Soundwave glows an eerie blue color, the antimatter flows faster, and then Megatron orders someone to kill Chip. Thundercracker goes to comply...and is interrupted by the arrival of the Operation: Antimatter Team. The Holographic Horde o' Hounds confuse the Cons while Bumblebee and Spike swoop in to scoop up Chip. (Although I imagine that Spike yelling, "CHIIIIIP!" at the top of his lungs didn't do much to increase the stealth factor of the operation...) Starscream goes to shoot the rescue party…until Mirage reappears with a "Stick it in your optic sensor, garbage can!" and shoots Screamer. And the Bots are outta there...except that I still can't figure out how Mirage the Indy car managed to drive up a long flight of steps...but I digress. They drive through the corridors of the lab and bust through a window to escape, prompting Rumble to marvel, "Hey! Where'd they come from?" (HAH! I love that guy...)

Anyway, now that Chip's safe, the keister-kicking can commence. Optimus, with a trailer full o' Bots, ka-blams through the outer wall of the lab, ruining Rumble's happy day. He skids to a stop without jack-knifing himself and the Bots--Sideswipe, Jazz, Ironhide, and Bluestreak--roll out of his trailer and through the lab. They bust, Decepticon-style, through the wall of the main lab where Megs is holed up--only to be greeted by Megatron cracking open one of those antimatter energon cubes. The lab goes BOOM and Megatron gives us the old Evil Laugh™. And we go to a commercial.

More snacks!

Amazingly, the special antimatter didn't absolutely and utterly destroy any matter that it came in contact with. The Bots stagger out of the building, battered, coughing (!), but still very much in a non-obliterated state. (Though Bluestreak once again has become Prowl...) They limp back to their HQ for repairs. Inside, the Cons aren't dead, either. In fact, they aren't even coughing, even though they just experienced the same explosion that the Autobots endured with much more apparent damage... Megatron vows to reduce them to "dust molecules." (Funny…I didn't know that dust was a chemical compound.)

Back at Autobot HQ, Sparkplug sums up the Autobots' condition nicely: "You guys look like the guests of honor at a fifty-car pile-up." They all transform with much male moaning and groaning. "You guys are in pathetic shape," Ratchet says, dismayed. (Yes, Ratch. They know.) Sunstreaker, meanwhile, whines while Chip has a "Poor Me Party," blaming himself for Megatron getting the formula since he conveniently memorized it. Wheeljack ambles onto the scene (Hey, 'Jack! Where ya been all episode?), asserting that Chip couldn't have erased his brain and that he has a better use for it anyway. 'Jack's working on a project and he thinks Spike and Chip can help. (Be afraid, guys! Be very, very afraid!)

Later, the Bots are hangin' out. Prowl's standing around (Perhaps waiting for Chip to tell him what to do?), Jazz is chatting with someone off-screen. Bluestreak and Ironhide are having a heart-to-heart, the Lamborghini Brothers are arm-wrestling, Ratchet's leaning lackadaisically on Teletran One. (Perhaps he's waiting for the day's episode of "As the Kitchen Sinks" to begin?) The Decepticons, of course, ruin this idyllic afternoon by dropping in for tea. Optimus gives everyone a little Optimus Prime Patented Pep Talk (With demonic-looking flashing eyes, I might add. If I was a Con, I'd be runnin' from them-there blinky eyeballs)...and Sideswipe and Sunstreaker, Yahoo Lamborghini Brothers Extraordinaire, heed the call. They zip outside to practice their version of "Jet Judo" which, for them, is a full-contact sport. They take to the air. (Yes, the Autobots could fly at this point in the series. ) Sunstreaker takes on Thundercracker by standing between his tail rudders and making him fly around erratically while Sideswipe hangs from Skywarp's underside as Skywarp rolls to shake him. Unfortunately, the yahoo brothers both forget that Starscream's there and, to remind them, he rams Sideswipe and, as he and Sunstreaker (I guess Thundercracker managed to shake him.) float down to the ground thanks to the parachutes they conveniently have, Sunstreaker notes that their jet judo needs "a little more work." "Oh? What makes you say that?" Sideswipe quips.

Meanwhile, down on the ground, the Autobots are blasting the beejeesus out of the Decepticons in your standard "lots of gunfire but no damage" G1 firefight. Megatron stuffs some antimatter into his chest and transforms into, in his words, "the most powerful weapon in the universe." And into whose hands does this weapon fall? Why Starscream's, of course. All puffed up with pride, Starscream declares himself invinicible and proceeds to blast the beejeesus out of the Bots until Optimus Prime rams him in Mack truck mode, sending the MegaGun flying. Skywarp grabs it, aims…and his mindless fit of destruction is interrupted by one Spike, who...takes a power drill to Skywarp's ankle? Yup! Skywarp picks him up and levels one o' them arm guns at Spike. (YAAAY!)

Of course, Spike's foolishness was just a cover-up for the real plot, and while Skywarp's distracted, in rolls Chip who pops a little gizmo onto Skywarp's ankle. That gizmo was Wheeljack's mysterious project from a bit earlier in the episode. It's a link-up of sorts to Teletran One, which allows Teletran to take over Skywarp's body. Which is does. Skywarp, out of control and mightily resenting it, begins to blast the beejeesus out of the Decepticons. This mightily ticks off Megatron who transforms out of Skywarp's hand and announces that his on-board antimatter is about to go BOOM! So he ejects it. The little antimatter energon cubes belch out of his chest and go BOOM, like fireworks on the 4th of July, only much brighter.

In the aftermath, the Decepticons are all lying on the ground. Megatron lifts up his head and announces that they've been cheated of their victory. (And Megs should know! He's intimately familiar with cheating!) The Cons take off in a snit, Megatron of course yelling, "RETREEEEEEEAT!" at the top of his lungs. And all is well. The Bots are celebrating. Sunstreaker picks up Chip and sits him on his shoulder (Looky! Sunstreaker's got a Chip on his shoulder! Har har har...er...uh...sorry... :) ) and proclaims that he's a hero. Bumblebee puts in that Chip looked just like an Autobot when he "rolled for broke" (Apparently, BB doesn't see very well.), and Optimus proclaims that the Autobots are proud to count Chip as their little buddy. (They better be! After all, if not for Chip, the Autobots would be dead a couple times over...although that hasn't happened in the series yet...)

Megatron, meanwhile, is lamenting that "one small boy" came between him and "mastery of the universe." (And it's true! Yep, in the words of Thundercracker, "Some leader you turned out to be, Megatron!") But, of course, Megatron swears revenge. And his eyes glow red when he says it, so you know that he means it. Or...er...something like that anyway. Either that or he's possessed...

Back to the top!

Ahhhhhh, I just love this episode. :) Why? Well, it's certainly not for any profound reason, that's for sure. It's not because it's particularly well-written. It's definitely not because of its so-absurd-it's-funny "scientific" gimmick/plot device. So why do I like it? Simple, my friends, simple... It's because I absolutely adore Prowl, as you probably already know unless you're incredibly unobservant and haven't noticed the "Prowl Worshipper" button on the old home page. :)

Why do I love Prowl so? Well, I feel a bit of laziness coming on here... I wrote my little spiel about him in my little profile of him, soooo... Le quote:

"On the cartoon, Prowl's the character who isn't there, pretty much. I mean, he's there in the sense of he's in the show, yes. He's usually shown in "group shots" on the show. But he never gets to do much of anything, other than in "Roll For It," which is, in my opinion, a crying shame. Still, when he does actually have some lines in the cartoon, Prowl comes across as the strong, quiet, but eminently dependable type. He's not flashy, not given to outbursts of emotion, whether you're talking outburts of goofiness or anger or outrage or even just loopy laughter. He's not a "hero" hero, but he exudes a quiet, "you can lean on me" kind of strength. He's a soothing island of logic and calm amongst the pack of wacky and flashy characters like Jazz and Bluestreak and Cliffjumper and Sideswipe, et. al. that populates Autobot Headquarters early on in the series. And, on top of that, he's a police car...and I love a man in "uniform." ;)

In fact, I've noticed of late that Prowl tends to be popular with the female Transfans, in general...Is it the "cop" angle, I wonder? ...Or is it that tantalizing emotional reserve? Or is it both? Or something else? Whatever it is for everyone else, to me personally, Prowl has the same sort of appeal that Spock on Star Trek has--He's calm, sturdy, somewhat detached yet still inquisitive, brainy, outwardly unemotional...but somewhere deep down I just know there's an animal lurking within him... :) Would that someone would release it... ;) I know that's the appeal Prowl has for me, and perhaps that's his ultimate appeal to my fellow Chickbots, as well. :) I don't know. I do know that he was recently voted the "Sexiest Transformer," though.... He was! I swear! :) And I'm not arguing! ;)"

So there you go. Prowl's appeal in a nutshell. So, needless to say, whenever Prowl gets something to do--Heck, whenever the poor boy gets a line!--it just warms my li'l old heart, it does. :) Instant happy camper here! :)

So, in this episode, I bask in the glow of the whole scene in the hanger with Prowl (and, secondarily, Bluestreak) kicking keister...except for the...er..."remote control" part, which is kinda...silly? :) Then again, Prowl's pitiful, soulful, mournful plea for help just melts my heart, so even that is somewhat of a good thing, from my strange and twisted point of view. :) And I also must say that I have quite a giant soft spot for Bluestreak, too. He's one of those characters who, like Thundercracker, is "unsung" but with a really nifty TF Universe profile. So the fact that he gets something to do in the hanger scene (And before. I love the way he says "Come on, Prowl," as he and Prowl take off after Starscream's bunch, for instance.), makes it doubly nifty.

The other thing I like about the episode is Chip. Yes, I like Chip. Why? Because he is a geek. And not only is he geek, but he's even geekier than I am, which is quite a feat, let me tell you. :) I also like him because, other than in this episode where he fills the "human in distress" quota that plagued much of the first season of the series, Chip's useful. Yeah, yeah, he can sometimes have a bit of "Wesley Crusheritis," meaning that he solves the "Problem of the Week" when there are vastly more qualified Autobots in the immediate vicinity, making Chip look good at the expense of said Autobots, but still... Chip is, in general, an asset to the Autobots, not the liability that Spike often can be. (At least until Spike's a grown-up in Season 3. And then his son takes over the "annoying human in distress" role with a vengeance. :( ) I often think that Spike was created as a character that the pre-pubescent male target audience of the cartoon was supposed to want to be...but if I had seen TFs when I was a kid, and I had to pick a human that I wanted to be...Well, call me strange ('Cuz I am! :) ), but I'd want to be Chip, not Spike. No doubt about it. :) If I had to pick a favorite human character in the series...Well, actually Sparkplug would probably edge out Chip by a small margin. But Chip would definitely be right up there...though this episode isn't exactly one of his more shining moments.

He's rather like Prowl, in that regard. Lots to do in this episode, but none of it particularly...what's the word I want?...Well, none of it's anything that either will want to brag about, methinks; let's just put it that way. :) Nevertheless, I love 'em both, so this episode will get high-ish marks from me, despite...Well, despite the rest of the episode, basically....

Let's start with the antimatter. You know, the stuff that's the opposite of matter and when matter and antimatter meet there's a devastating and mutually-annihilating kind of explosion? So, let's just say that when Megatron cracks open that antimatter energon cube in the lab (Not to mention after he crams the stuff into his own body!) I'm rather surprised that anyone--Autobot or Decepticon--is left alive to walk out of the building after the resulting explosion. Methinks that one of two things happened. Either the writer of the episode had no clue what antimatter was or he just hoped that no one in the audience would know because it was a familiar sci-fi word of which he liked the sound and he wanted to use it or...or all of the laws of physics are wrong and matter and antimatter can cohabitate the same space without mutually destroying one another... Guess which explanation I'm going to use...? :)

And before I leave the topic of antimatter, it always strikes me as odd that humans come up with all of these inventions that the Decepticons end up stealing somewhere along the line. I mean, the TFs are way more advanced than the humans are, yet the Decepticons are content to sit back and wait for the humans to come up with something to steal and utilize against the Autobots? How lazy is that? :) It just strikes me as funny because wars, in general, are catalysts of technological advancement, each side trying to come up with something new and innovative that they can use to annihilate the other side. Given that the TFs war is immensely and unimaginably (at least for me) long, I find it hard to believe that the humans could come up with anything that the TFs hadn't thought of/discovered/developed millions of years ago in the course of R&D'ing new weapons o' mass destruction... Yes, yes, I know the "real world" reason that these plot devices (for that is what they are) exist...but I can still think of it as funny, can't I? :) After all, I don't live in the real world

And how 'bout that Chip, huh? Not only is he the übergeek, but he has a quite phenomenal photographic memory as well. He's got that antimatter formula memorized almost before Dr. Alkazar can finish transmitting it to him. Whoosh! He's good! :) And not only that, but he's strong! Have you ever tried to rip up a 5.25" floppy disk? No? Well, methinks that the writer hasn't either. :) Just for fun, I tried to rip up one that I had lying around from my bad old days of computing back in the early 90s...and I couldn't even begin to make a tear in the thing. Whatever they're made out of is strong! The only thing I can think of is that when Chip saw the Decepticons coming on down for tea, the resulting jolt of adrenalin made him momentarily super-strong. :) But if that isn't the case... Well, Chip's stronger than he looks, for sure! :)

Beyond that, there's really not much to say about this episode. It's another "Megatron unleashes the (not quite so) ultimate weapon and there's a big battle to stop him" kind of episodes, the kind that dominated the first season, which is why I'm not all that fond of the first season, when all is said and done. This one, though, does have its moments of fun; I have to give it that. But that's about all I'm going to give it! :)

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Great Moments

Well, as much as I think "Remote Control Prowl" is not the best idea that a writer ever had, I do love to see my favorite object of obsession kick butt in that scene in the hangar versus Starscream, Thundercracker, and Soundwave & Co. It'd be awesome if Chip wasn't involved at all, if Prowl's "badass-ness" in that scene was all his, so to speak...but even though it isn't, I still love to watch Prowl's version of Jet Judo, with him shootin' the jet's missiles at the 'Cons... ;) Ahhhhh...My heart's aflutter. :)

And speaking of "Jet Judo..." HAH! Sideswipe's and Sunstreaker's version simply rules, and I think the best part is Sideswipe's "Oh? What makes you say that?" line. :) I love it that Sideswipe and Sunstreaker are characterized as brothers and generally actually act like it, as well. :)

And this episode has one of my favorite bloopers, too. (Yes, for Nightwind bloopers count as Great Moments.) I love it when Soundwave says, "Excellent, Ravage"...and he sounds just like Dr. Claw from Inspector Gadget. HAH! :)

And "Rumble on the Ramparts," all adorably confused by the invisible Autobots! HAH! I just love that little guy... :)

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Appearance List!

In order of first line spoken, the characters who have lines in "Roll For It" are:

Totally Arbitrary Overall Rating, Just For the Heck of It

Let's see....Lots of Prowl. (Well, in a relative sense, anyway. Prowl never gets a lot to do, on the whole.) Lots of Chip, though not necessarily in a good way. Balance that against an absurd plot gimmick and, in the end, very little story... Oh, what to give it, what to give it??? Let's say...an 8. But that's solely because of Prowl's involvement, mind you. Without that, this one would be one of my "cellar dwellers." :)