Battle Stations

« Transformers: Energon ep 19 »
Never let you get between me and my guitar. No use to keep trying, you won’t get very far.
"Battle Stations" 恐怖! ユニクロン始動 () (Kyōfu! Unicron Shidō) "Terror! Unicron Activates"
Production company	TV Tokyo, NAS
Airdate	14 May 2004 (Japanese) July 3, 2004 (English)
Writer	Shōji Tonoike
Director	Kei'ichirō Kawaguchi
Animation studio	Actas, Studio A-CAT (3D)
Continuity	Unicron Trilogy

The Autobots take on Unicron, luring him into a running battle within the space bridge.

Synopsis

Attack pattern alpha, go now!

Kicker recaps the Miranda II's mission, Alpha Q's plans, and Rodimus's reappearance.

The Miranda II approaches Unicron, and her crew prepares for battle. The plan is to fry Unicron from the inside with the energon grid.

The Decepticons note the ship's approach; Megatron has Unicron open fire. The Autobots fire back. It doesn't seem to do any damage, but they continue forward and infiltrate Unicron. As they fly amid Unicron's inner workings, Megatron has Unicron stir, and huge panels threaten to crush the ship. Optimus Prime orders a withdrawal. The panels close in, damaging the energon grid antennae. The ship barely escapes; Unicron growls and glows with energy.

Misha can't raise the energon grid; the Omnicons report the antenna damage. Optimus Prime decides to lure Unicron into the space bridge. As the bridge activates and the Miranda II heads toward it with Unicron in pursuit, the Decepticons decide to attack. Prime and some others counter-attack. The ship enters the space bridge; Unicron follows, straining the gateway... but both make it through intact.

Transformation? In my Transformers?

Aboard Unicron's head, Rodimus's contingent watch the battle. They're amazed to see Unicron's body just disappear. Alpha Q wonders if there's no way to stop Optimus from destroying Unicron. Rodimus says it's out of his hands. Ironhide stirs, calling out Kicker's name.

In the space bridge, Kicker responds to Ironhide's call, and tells the Omnicons to drop him off at "the sky bridge", where he and Ironhide got separated. In the midst of the battle, Prime tells him that though Ironhide's decision was a bad one, they can't help him now. Kicker says that he won't let his partner down, despite Misha's pleas.

Prime relents, despite Jetfire's protests. With Prime's blessing, Kicker rockets off the ship's hull toward a warp gate that suddenly appears in the space bridge warp field. Grindor comes with him.

BRAINS!

Rodimus and the others note that Ironhide is awake; Alpha Q orders Scorponok to tend to him.

Kicker begins searching for Ironhide.... and is joined by Misha. She defends her actions, saying that Ironhide is her friend too.

The Decepticons suddenly remember that they can transform, and do, lending the unstoppable power of a flying space dump truck to their side. Optimus orders the Omnicons to send the Miranda II toward Unicron at full speed. As the battle continues, Unicron overtakes the ship, actually bumping into it. The ship approaches the exit gate. Prime orders everyone to re-board the ship, and contacts Rad, who says he's ready. Unicron, and all the combatants, arrive at Cybertron.

Rad activates Cybertron's energon grid. The energon towers open fire on Unicron. Megatron partially transforms Unicron to crush Prime, but an energon blast destroys his arms. The assault continues, inflicting further damage on Unicron. Megatron finally relents, and retreats.

Kicker has a sudden premonition, and warns Misha to take cover. Team Rodimus's ship emerges from a warp gate. Rodimus asks them to come with him; Kicker hesitantly agrees.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"Remember, team! Our ultimate goal is to hit Unicron with everything we've got in order to put him out of commission for good."

—Optimus Prime really does not trust his troops' memories.

"I can hardly wait to see the look on Prime's face when he's defeated."'

—Megatron should really already know what that look will be.

"Ohh.. agh.. can somebody get the number of that asteroid?"

—Ironhide thinks asteroids have insurance.

"I gotta shake this cat. His yodeling is drivin' me nuts!"

—Hot Shot, pursued by Snow Cat.

"Misha! Take cover!"

—Kicker warns Misha to seek cover... while they float aimlessly in the empty void of outer space.

Notes

Differences with Super Link

• Continuing Energon's ceaseless efforts to paint Alpha Q as a villain, Kicker's recap focuses on Alpha Q's effort at reviving Unicron, rather than Megatron as in Super Link. Energon's narration is also heavily padded out with a ton of extra verbage.
• Super Link opens with Prime noting that, if Unicron activates, they must immediately lure him into the space bridge. Energon doesn't bring up this plan until the middle of the battle, after Unicron is already active, and replaces it with some random "be ready to act on the double" chatter. Prime finally mentions the space bridge plan as if it were just a random thought: "What if we could lure it into the space bridge?"
• Energon further makes it sound like the plan is to fly inside Unicron and destroy him from within with the Miranda II's energon grid. This is actually what seems to happen in the animation... yet in Superlink, the dialog seems to be referring to Cybertron's energon grid.
• In Energon, Unicron growls as Megatron activates him. These growls were performed by the same voice actor from Armada.
• During the scene of the Decepticons watching the Autobots enter the space bridge, Energon omits a couple of key points. First, Starscream has a short line reacting to Tidal Wave's question, explaining why Snow Cat hits him and speaks to him. Second, the impetus for the attack is that they know the Miranda II's energon grid is down. Third, the point of the attack is stop the Autobots from escaping. Fourth, Megatron's threat to devour Earth is omitted.
• As the Miranda II approaches the space bridge, several of Energonss lines make it seem like Prime's troops are off flying around in space, away from the ship. All are contradicted by the animation, which clearly shows Prime's group standing on the Miranda II's hull:
  • "Stay close to the ship!" (originally a command to keep the Decepticons away from the ship)
  • "Why are they taking their time getting to the space bridge?" (originally a complaint that the space bridge wasn't ready yet)
  • "Hurry men! To the space bridge!" (originally an order for the ship to enter the space bridge.)
• Energon is missing some animation effects after Unicron enters the space bridge. Super Link features green glowing space behind the flying Decepticons, rather than normal space.
  • Alpha Q's holo-viewer-globe-thing is left out of one the subsequent shots, with a black void in its place.
• Kicker's statement about "the sky bridge" is Energon nonsense. In Super Link, he requests the Omnicons to set up a "link-up gate" for him.
• Prime and Kicker's argument is a bit more coherent and forceful in Super Link, with Prime clearly ordering Kicker to forget Ironhide (since he left without orders), and Kicker clearly ignoring Prime's order. Jetfire's subsequent statement that they'll have to use force to stop Kicker is an Energon insertion.
• In Energon, Scorponok says that Alpha Q has wanted to meet Ironhide for a while now when it should be the other way around—Ironhide wanting to meet Alpha Q. Given that Ironhide had been unconscious on the floor in front of Alpha Q for quite some time, this addition isn't entirely nonsensical and kinda makes sense to a degree.
• Strongarm's statement that "we're still pointing directly at Unicron", when Prime orders engines to full throttle, is Energon nonsense. Both the plot and the animation show that they're fleeing from Unicron.
• Misha's responses to Kicker, when they meet up in space, are all Energon alterations. In Super Link, she says she was worried she'd never see him again.
• Super Link uses a different still shot of Unicron after he emerges from the space bridge.
• Prime's Megatron... when will you learn is an Energon addition, which rather disrupts the flow of Prime's obvious doubts about destroying Unicron.
• Jetfire reports "warp field dead ahead" as Unicron escapes, as if they've been looking for it and are flying toward it. He's supposed to be just reporting that a warp was detected, explaining how Unicron escaped.

Pain count

• "Uh?": 8
• "There's no time": 3
• "We've gotta": 1
• "We're a team": 1
• "We're counting on you": 1
• "You can't be serious": 1

Animation and technical errors

• The Autobots and Omnicons working the controls of the Miranda II, are hilariously bashing at the buttons with closed fists.
• When Prime tells Hot Shot and Jetfire to stand by to attack, it's Inferno and Hot Shot that reply. Prime presumably meant Inferno, as he and Hot Shot were the ones at the helm.
• The music that plays when Unicron semi-transforms is hilariously inappropriate.
• More of a real-world error: Misha's space helmet has a gap in the back to let her hair flow out.
• Snow Cat yells "transform!" using Starscream's voice.

Continuity notes

• Grindor briefly appears in robot mode for the first time since "The New Cybertron City".
• Gadgets and powers:
  • Snow Cat uses his guns in vehicle mode (however, he's not fully transformed into Hyper Mode as his skis are all folded away).
  • Likewise, Demolishor uses his Hyper Mode transformation in vehicle mode.
  • Hot Shot opens his car doors in vehicle mode and deploys his arms—something the toy is capable of. Unfortunately, he's wielding two of his rifles, despite only being shown to have one.
  • Megatron deploys Unicron's arms in planet mode.
• Powerlinx forms:
  • Optimus Prime Super Mode
  • Powerlinx Inferno with Hot Shot

Continuity errors

• Grindor pretty much comes out of nowhere. He hasn't been seen at all since the Miranda II left Earth.

Trivia

• During Kicker's narration in the beginning, the flashback to Unicron from Armada is shown again.
• The clip of Demolishor using his Hyper Mode with an army of Divebombs flying around him was reused from the previous episode.

Foreign localization

Italian

• Title: "Sfida a Unicron" ("Challenging Unicron")

• Kicker never talks about the "sky bridge". He simply asks to drop him out of the ship.

Home video releases

DVD

2004 — Transformer: Super Link — Volume 005 (Interchannel) — Japanese audio only.
2008 — Transformers: Energon — The Ultimate Collection (Paramount)
2014 — Transformers: Energon — The Complete Series (Shout! Factory)