From kendrick@io.com Wed Oct 18 10:49:09 CDT 1995
Article: 24580 of alt.toys.transformers
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From: kendrick@io.com (Kendrick Kerwin Chua)
Newsgroups: alt.toys.transformers
Subject: TF Weekday 10/18 - Five Faces of Darkness Part II
Date: 18 Oct 1995 10:47:07 -0500
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TF Weekday Oct 18 1995 - Five Faces of Darkness Part II

The EI/AD: None really, unless you want to count the big Skugzoid ship.

The plot: Rodimus and Grimlock are discovered on Charr and attacked by the
starving Decepticons, only to be rescued by Springer and Arcee, who have
finally figured out how to drive the Skugzoid ship. Stopping off at an
asteroid for repairs, Rodimus seems to die. Actually, he's taking a trip
down amnesia lane as the Matrix reveals to him that the Quintessons are
responsible for the kidnappings of Ultra Magnus, Kup, and Spike.
Meanwhile, Cyclonus and the Sweeps rescue Galvatron from the plasma baths
of Throe, discovering that he's gone nuts. Rodimus and Co. head to
Quintessa over Springer's better judgement, where Magnus and Kup are being
grilled by the Quints. Spike thinks to ask what crime they are being
charged with, and the Quints answer 'Theft.' Rod fakes out the Quints with
an empty ship, rescues everybody, and they board a ship brought out by the
Aerialbots, bringing along Deliberata, a Quintesson who wanted to martyr
himself to get the Bots into the Sharkticon pit. The remaining Quints fly
away on their ship, and blow up Quintessa with the intent of destroying
the Matrix... To be continued.

The characters: Grimlock really sets the stage for your comic-relief
Dinobot in this episode, demanding that Rodimus wake up when he might
actually be dead. That kind of naivete is completely absent from
Springer, who thinks that inheriting the matrix is a Bad Thing(tm),
either out of humility or fear. Rodimus is hard-headed and stubborn,
which actually keeps everybody out of trouble except for him. Cyclonus
gets a little enigmatic... On one hand he's fearlessly and guilessly
loyal to Galvatron, and on the other hand he's unwilling to risk his own
life to fish Galvy out of the plasma baths. Speaking of which, Galvatron
is less scary when he's crazy. He's still focused on a particular brand
of conquest and evil, but he just doesn't have his whole heart in it the
way he did in the movie. Oh, and the Quints would be much much scarier if
they had any sense of comic or tragic timing. You need to cut off your
interrogation subjects quicker, you need to make it more clear that you
know everything that they're thinking. The Quint should have come
straight out of 1984.

The plot holes: Not many, seeing as how the plot didn't go very far in
this episode, although I am stuck wondering what's going on with Blurr
and Wheelie right now. Prime's journey through the matrix seems to
suggest that the Transformers have origins directly related to the
Quintessons, but it would have been nice to work in some standard
mythological or psychological references to make that connection clear.
Oh, if they could have radioed the Aerialbots to come get them at
Quintessa, why couldn't they have called for backup BEFORE they got
there? More to the point, how did Springer know to get to Charr and
rescue Rodimus and Grimlock in the nick of time? Lots of unexplained
loose threads that make the story look ragged, but it still manages to
hold together. Oh, and that ship that the Aerialbots arrive in? It's
supposed to be Broadside, but it turns out not to be later on when it
gets blown up in the next episode. Anybody care to count how many times
you see an alliegiance stamp on an inanimate transport or spaceship? Not
many.

Moving pictures: Not much to say, except we seem to have a lot of rogue
jaws and lips flying around off their faces and with no dialogue. Also,
there's very little transformation going on in this episode... Kup turns
into his truck mode once, Magnus transforms once, and the Aerialbots all
transform off camera at the end, and not much more.

The cuts: Grimlock's demand that Rodimus wake up whilst enroute to the
asteroid is cut, as is Arcee's first comment about Rodimus' life force
being weak and unstable. A tiny bit of the firefight between Galvatron
and the Sweeps is also cut out, as is a little bit of the bludgeoning
that Rodimus takes from the starving Quints on Charr. Curiously, they did
NOT cut any of the intro recap of the first episode, which is mostly
out-of-place dialogue repeating what the narrator has already said.

Toys they should reissue: Hm. Nobody appears in this episode that they
can really re-issue without a rerelease of the movie. Although they might
be able to get away with a new Gnaw toy, marketed as just a Sharkticon
and made really cheaply. Watching Masterforce has inspired me to go
around picking up all the loose and damaged Seacons I can find so I can
have hordes of faceless fishies. I wouldn't mind having ten or twelve
Sharkticon toys either.

Quotables:
"Those miserable Skugzoids!"
"They can't possibly be working with the Autobots!"
"Ah, they'd sell out to anybody for the right price."
"If anyone would know, Swindle."

"Rodimus Prime, me Grimlock demand you wake up!"

"Pay us no mind. We like to watch."

"You are the Autobot known as Kup, and you are Cybertron's chief of
security."
"Nah, my name's Teaspoon, and I'm Cybertron's chief dishwasher!"

"What is the status of Cybertron's defense systems?"
"Total shambles after the last war. Three kids and a dog could take the
planet."

"I told you this thing would stop on a proton."
"Yeah, and that's the first thing you've said that's actually turned out
to be true!"

"Let's get to the ship!"
"There's a problem with that; we don't HAVE a ship!"

KKC, as bad as these episodes are, they get in a lot more quotable
material, it seems. Or maybe I just know these episodes better, having
watched FFOD like 20 times in my life. :)
--
Kendrick Kerwin Chua - "London? You put the Eiffel Tower back... in London?!"
kendrick@io.com - WTB: 1980s Transformers, US and Japanese, and GIJoe figures
Necronomcon FAQ home page at http://www.io.com/~kendrick/necronomicon or anon
FTP at io.com:/pub/usr/kendrick -Personal home at http://www.io.com/~kendrick