TF Prime Review: Episode One "The Darkness Rising Pt. 1" by Scott Barker

 Episode One: "The Darkness Rising Pt. 1" By Scott Barker

Autobot debuts: Cliffjumper, Arcee, Bumblebee, Ratchet, Optimus Prime

Decepticon debuts: Starscream, Soundwave, Vehicons, Megatron

Synopsis: The episode begins wth Cliffjumper and Arcee on the road, tracking down an energon deposit on earth. Cliffjumper is regailing Arcee with his antics involving the local police and an incident with a traffic clamp. The Decepticons, including Megatron, have been inactive for a period of three years. Arriving at the energon deposit, Cliffjumper is almost immediately set upon by several Vehicons, nasty looking nameless troops for the decepticons. Cliffjumper, who'd earlier joked about not needing backup, now requests it, prompting Optimus Prime to call in Bumblebee, Ratchet and Bulkhead to rally together and prepare to arrive via spacebridge.

Cliffjumper puts up a brave fight but is immobilised by a massive explosion when the energon deposit is ignited by the decepticon warship from whence the Vehicons came. Unconscious, he is dragged away by the henchmen. Brought before Starscream, Cliffjumpers snide attitude is literally cut short by Starscream plunging a clawed hand deep into his chest, pulling out a handful of blue liquid, Cliffjumper slumping to the floor as a result.

The autobots, lead by Optimus, arrive via groundbridge, guns at the ready but find only the scorched energon deposit. When Ratchet tries to scan for Cliffjumper, he finds his life signal has suddenly stopped transmitting.

Soundwave arrives on the bridge and relays part of Arcee and Cliffjumpers earlier conversation to Starscream, who decides to take the offensive and launch a surprise attack on the autobots.

Optimus addresses his troops, telling them not to be blinded with anger at the loss of Cliffjumper and that they still have an obligation to continue the fight, to survive for the sake of any surviving autobots and for humanity. Arcee leaves angrily and Ratchet expresses his disapproval of involving humans any further. Optimus notes this, but says nothing.

The scene changes to Jack, who is working his job at a burger parlour. Irritated by rude customers. Arcee pulls into town, complete with hologram rider and is immediately pursued by two Vehicons, in thier vehicle modes: sport cars. Pulling up in the parking lot of the same burger joint Jack is working, Arcee deactivates her holographic rider 'Sadie' and parks.

Jack finishes work and noticed Arcee. He gets on and vows to one day own a bike like her. Mocked by his classmates for apparently talking to his motorbike, theyre cut off when the Vehicon twins notice Arcee and make thier move. Arcee takes off with Jack still astride her.

Arcee pulls into a backalley and tries to get rid of Jack but the Vehicons split up, one of whom chases Jack which forces her to pick him up again and take off onto the motorway. They pull ahead and Bumblebee arrives, slamming into the Vehicons to buy her some time. The Vehicons slam right back, knocking Bumblebee aside and continuing the chase.

The scene cuts to the underpass of the motorway where Rafael is playing with his remote control car, a yellow muscle car very similar to Bumblebee in appearence. His mother calls and he agrees to return home after five more minutes of racing. Trying to escape the Vehicons, Arcee veers offroad and leaps down into the underpass, landing just in front of Rafael. The Vehicons, catching up, drive down too and transform into thier robot modes. Arcee follows suit and engages them but is overpowered. Bumblebee arrives but is also overpowered by the pair. Rafael yells to them to distract them and saves Bumblebee in the process but gains the attention of one of the Vehicons, who heads for them. Rafael and Jack take refuge in a water pipe and, as Bumblebee takes down the Vehicon pursuing them, continue up the pipe to safety. Bumblebee and Arcee take up fighting positions and Bulkhead arrives on the scene. With the arrival of a third autobot, the Vehicons transform and retreat.

Back at base, Arcee and Bumblebee recount the events to Optimus, who is concerned for the childrens safety having been seen by the decepticons as thier possible allies.

At school, Jack tries to get Rafael to forget anything happened, but Bumblebee and Arcee turn up to take them to autobot base. A girl, Miiko, is sat on the wall of the school ,sketching Arcee and proclaiming her as the "coolest bike ever". Looking up from her sketch she sees Arcee is gone but spots her leaving and follows her. In an alleyway, Arcee relays Optimus's words to Jack but is spotted by Miiko in her robot mode, prompting her to tag along as well.

Arriving at Autobot HQ, the children are introduced to Ratchet, Bulkhead and Optimus Prime, who, at Jacks request, explains that they are here because a civil war on thier home planet has rendered it uninhabitable. Optimus explains that Megatron, a transformer he regarded as his brother, was corrupted by the war and as such now targets Prime and the autobots.

On the bridge of the decepticon warship, Soundwave reports to Starscream of a transmission from deep space. After 'making absolutely certain', Starscream approves the uses of the space bridge. A circluar portal activates in space and a gigantic ship flies through. The ship transforms into Megatron who proclaims he has returned.


(Initial!) Personal opinion: 
Its been a while since I watched a Transformers 'toon, the last one I watched religiously was Transformers Armada, Energon and Animated managed to completely pass me by. I decided to check out Prime on a whim and well, I was impressed. The style of the bots themselves is a mixture of the movie and G1, Optimus and the others have thier lips still and Megatrons face is kinda similar to his movie version (save for his awesome shark teeth). Its what Id have envisioned if I had to picture the movie versions prior to seeing the Bayformer movies.

The animation is completely CG, which looks glorious in motion, especially during transformations. The fights are brutal, mainly because, with the inclusion of the nameless henchmen, the autobots are able to kick serious metal. However, something that surprised me was just how nails the Vehicons were. Now, dont get me wrong, Arcee in this series has had a dangerously high injection of ninja, a far cry from her personality in G1. But the Vehicons hold thier own in a fight, the only reason they didnt defeat Bumblebee and Arcee was the arrival of Bulkhead. I admit, I laughed when the Vehicons turned tail at the idea of having to fight Bulkhead.

Starscream and Soundwave look excellent, theyve gone for a slightly different approach with both, Starscream has none of his more recognisable colors from G1, hes quite gangly, as is Soundwave who is no longer a tape recorder. To be honest his alt mode isnt very noticable. His head is now a take on the decepticon logo with an oscilloscope built in. Megatron however is horrific. His battle scarred face and shark grin are nightmarish and its great to hear Frank Welker again. His alt mode is colossal and this is one of the few incarnation of Megs where his fusion cannon actually looks small on him, hes THAT big.

This is probably the only time Optimus not having his battle visor doesnt bother me at all. Its ok with all the autobots, its not as abrasive as it was in the movies or in what Ive seen of screenshots of Animated. Its probably the lack of pouty lips that endears this to me more.

The Vehicons are suitably menacing for saying they all share the exact same alt mode and bot mode. Still surprised by how tough they were for saying they were only grunts, but then again its been something of a staple that the decepticons were always a big threat, it makes sense that thier ground troops be able to hold thier own.

The vehicles! As the designs borrow somewhat from the movie, Bee retains his camaro look, Ratchet is white again, Bulkhead is essentially identical to his animated persona except not quite as derpish. Arcee has been given a sleek motorcycle mode and Cliffjumper has become an all american muscle car, complete with horns on the hood. We didnt get to see Soundwave or Starscreams alt modes but given Soundwaves long arms, its likely he too has some kind of plane based mode.

And finally...the kids. Yes, this series of course has children who're teamed with the autobots. We have Jack, who is quite unassuming for a male lead, Rafael who is the obligatory nerd and Miiko who is...well, shes Miiko, we'll get to her. Jack is quite a likeable main character, especially in comparison to the kids from other series *cough*energon*cough* and, in a strange twist of the usual routine, doesnt actually want anything to do with the autobots. He's not wowed by the 15 foot talking motorcycle robot girl, he just wants to work his job, woo his classmate and one day "own a sweet ride" like Arcee. Rafael, bieng younger, is obviously more receptive to the bots, especially Bumblebee who he forms a bond with and is able to understand despite the fact Bee only speeks in bleeps and bloops. Miiko is the counter to the two guys, shes loud, shes thrilled at the concept of the bots and takes an immediate liking to Bulkhead who seems baffled at this small piece of meat that keeps making squeaky noises at him.

Onto the episode itself! Man that was a lot of waffle but thoughts on the episode itself! The series was a lot darker than I'd expected, considering it airs on the same Tv station as My Little Pony, I hadnt expected to see Starscream plunge his hand into Cliffjumpers chest and have 'blood' splatter to the floor. I was in my element watching it, Im not exaclty a die hard "DO IT THIS WAY OR ITS RUBBISH" kinda guy but this just pushed all the right buttons. Megs and Prime with thier oldschool voice actors, proper fight scenes, the biggest wind up in hiring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as Cliffjumper only to have him die a few minutes in and Arcee not bieng a wet blanket but bieng a ball of unbridled girlbot ninja fury as she whaled on the Vehicon. It was just good quality stuff. One point is the bots all seemed to forget they were armed, going at it wrestler style before the moment of clarity where they remember "oh yes, Im a fighting robot with laser gun arms!" and the shooting began. Definitely a series to keep your optics firmly set upon!

Best line: "Decepticons! I have returned!" - Megatron

"And I will call her Arcee, and we will be the bestest friends everest and-What? What do you mean Im paired with the big green one?!"