The Core
From Transformers Wiki
| The name or term "Core" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Core (disambiguation). |
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| "The Core" | |||||||||||||
| Production code | #700-27 | ||||||||||||
| Season | 2 | ||||||||||||
| No. in season | 12 | ||||||||||||
| Production company | Sunbow Productions | ||||||||||||
| Airdate | October 29, 1985 | ||||||||||||
| Written by | Dennis Marks | ||||||||||||
| Animation studio | AKOM | ||||||||||||
| Continuity | Generation 1 cartoon continuity | ||||||||||||
 Watch this episode on YouTube
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Megatron tries to drill his way to the center to the Earth, while the Autobots take control of Devastator with mind-controlling Dominator Disks.
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Synopsis
At an underground cavern near a waterfall, the Constructicons are digging with a massive drill. However, the rock they're drilling through breaks, and only some quick work on Mixmaster's part plugs it up. Megatron orders Mixmaster to look over Scavenger's sensory equipment, while Starscream does his daily whine-about-Megatron's-nefarious-plan bit. Megatron counters that if they manage to tap into the Earth's molten core, it will give the Decepticons geothermal energy, a limitless power source. Starscream counters that if they breach the core, the Earth runs the risk of exploding. However, Megatron doesn't care: he's placed a space bridge near the drilling site, which will take the Decepticons to Cybertron if the Earth's stability should be threatened.
Meanwhile, Jazz, Prowl, Gears, Mirage, and Sunstreaker are driving around in that general area, when Sunstreaker realizes that there should be a river where they're driving through. The Autobots head to investigate, and see Mixmaster and Scavenger. The Autobots transform to attack, only to see that the Constructicons have disappeared, and to fail to notice Laserbeak above them. Informed by Soundwave, Megatron orders the Constructicons to destroy the Autobots and form Devastator. The Decepticon combiner knocks the Autobots off the cliff, but Mirage goes invisible on them. He remains undetected as Devastator attacks the others, and finds the drill. As Mirage rejoins the group, Jazz does a sound and light show which distracts Devastator while Mirage and Sunstreaker lasso his legs with a rope, allowing the Autobots to escape.
At the Autobot base, the Autobots use Teletraan I to calculate what will happen if the drill hits the Earth's core. The result will be total annihilation, but the Autobots have little hope of defeating the Decepticons with Devastator. Wheeljack and Chip Chase present Optimus Prime with their new dominator disks, which will be placed on the individual Constructicons and take control of them when they form Devastator. Convinced, Optimus Prime orders a commando team to plant the disks on the Constructicons. Heading for the drilling site, Ironhide freezes the falls, causing the drill to heat up. Scrapper orders the Constructicons to the surface, during which the Autobots plant a disk on each Constructicon. As the commandos are pulled out, Starscream has them dead to rights, but Megatron orders him to let them go, saying that he knows of their plan to control Devastator. As Megatron positions the Decepticons, he orders the Decepticons to attack. The Decepticons fire on the still moving Autobots, who break formation, as the Seekers transform to bring the rain on the Autobots. Megatron orders the Constructicons to form Devastator, who grabs Prime. Wheeljack activates the disks and Optimus orders Devastator to release him and attack the Decepticons. Devastator follows the Autobot leader's orders. Megatron orders the Decepticons to retreat to the cave and Devastator seals them in. Optimus orders the Autobots to break off, as they can now finish the Decepticons at their leisure.
Within the caverns, Starscream whines about being trapped, not having enough water to keep drilling, and so on. However, Megatron reveals that this was all part of his plan: he has a device that will override the dominator disks and stored enough water to continue drilling for some time. He just didn't tell Starscream because he's a terrible actor. At the Autobot base, the Constructicons are helping with repairs, when an earthquake hits. Realizing that the Decepticons are still drilling, the Autobots head to put them out of commission. However, Megatron is aware of their coming, watching them through the Constructicons' eyes. The Autobots and Devastator head for the cave, and Devastator is set to destroy it, at which point Megatron uses his control switch to deactivate the disks. Devastator begins attacking the Autobots, so Wheeljack tries to boost power to the disks. Unfortunately, this fries Devastator's logic circuits and sends him into a killing frenzy, attacking both Autobot and Decepticon alike.
Finally, the drill hits the core and the cave—and the earth itself—begin to come apart. Unfortunately, Devastator's rampage has damaged the drill's controls. Megatron orders the Decepticons to the space bridge, but Devastator damages it too. Optimus convinces Megatron to give his control switch to Wheeljack, who uses it to deactivate the disks and bring Devastator back to normal. Devastator then heads to destroy the drill, while the Decepticons flee for their lives. Devastator succeeds, but is surprised by Megatron's absence. Chip tells Devastator that he ran, but Devastator believes that "Noble Megatron" merely left to plan their next attack and leaves (he really is as dumb as a post). Chip is somewhat saddened, as he was hoping that Devastator would join the Autobots. Optimus tells him that the future is built on dreams and not to let go of his.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans |
|---|---|---|
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Quotes
"Autobots, move out!"
- —Sunstreaker, thinking he outranks Jazz and Prowl.
"It's like shooting dynametal ducks in a beryllium barrel."
- —Starscream wonders if they store beryllium baloney in beryllium barrels.
"Traitor!"
- —Starscream to Megatron. No, you read that right.
"DEVASTATOR! DEVASTATOR! HEEEEELP!!!!"
- —Starscream running and waving his arms at Devastator like an idiot.
"I do this only for the benefit of my Decepticons. It grieves me that you may also profit."
- —Megatron, agreeing to ally with the Autobots and lying through his teeth (he's doing it to save his own chassis).
"What's the matter, Chip?"
"I guess I was hoping Devastator might join the Autobots for good, but that's probably just a dumb old dream."
"Hang on to your dreams, Chip. The future is built on dreams. Hang on."
- —Optimus Prime gives Chip Chase valuable words to live by.
Notes
Production information
- First draft script: 21st December 1984
- Dialogue recording: 28th January 1985
Continuity notes
- Devastator wants to squash the Autobots like "mechano-ants".
- Megatron takes a jab at Starscream's acting abilities, which we witnessed just one episode ago. He's no Beef, but hey, he's just starting his career at this point.
- Megatron specifically says Starscream's acting wouldn't fool a "Saturnian simpleton". As it would turn out in "The God Gambit", the beings that on live on Saturn's moon Titan were kinda dumb.
- Hook can "perform flawlessly to within one five hundred thousandth of a Cybertronic mini-inch".
- Gadgets and powers:
- Everyone's arms are completely hollow in this episode. One character after the next retracts their hands into their wrists:
- Starscream reveals an improbably large drill in place of his retracted hand.
- Mirage has a tow cable in his wrist.
- Ironhide retracts his hands to fire an improbably huge torrent of blue liquid that freezes the waterfall.
- Sunstreaker, Jazz, and Wheeljack all retract their hands and replace them with wrist-rockets. Wheeljack is supposed to be able to do this according to his tech spec; the ability appeared very briefly in "The Autobot Run", and he also flew without retracting his hands in "A Plague of Insecticons" and "S.O.S. Dinobots".)
- Jazz also has a grappling hook/tow line. Of all these gimmicks, this is the only one that's actually appeared before, way back in "More than Meets the Eye, Part 2" and Part 3.
- Jazz also uses his standard sound & light show. It's... not as impressive as it could be.
- Hook uses his crane mode hook as a welding tip.
- Optimus Prime's trailer has a crane and a pyramid-shaped cage to lift the five Autobots.
- Starscream has a hand-held rifle which he attempts to use on the retreating Autobots after they place Dominator Disks on Devastator.
- Bluestreak's missiles break apart into shards after launch.
- Everyone's arms are completely hollow in this episode. One character after the next retracts their hands into their wrists:
- For the first and only time in the series, Chip appears but Spike doesn't.
- The Autobots would finally have a combiner team to call their own in "The Key to Vector Sigma, Part 2".
Real-world references
- Star Wars sound effects:
- As often happens, Laserbeak gets the TIE Fighter engine sound just after he flies over the Autobots.
Animation and technical errors
This being one of the Season 2 AKOM episodes, many characters have unusual color schemes which persist through the entire episode. This includes:
- Megatron's gun barrel is dark gray.
- Gears' truck mode is red with blue fenders instead of blue with a red camper top. His white robot bits are colored light gray.
- Prowl is a light gray instead of white.
- Optimus Prime's backpack is white instead of red.
- Chip has a blue jacket instead of brown. This is good, though. It means that, unlike a lot of cartoon humans, he actually changes clothes.
- The circle on Bumblebee's back is dark gray instead of yellow.
Errors not attributable to model sheets include:
- It seems unlikely that the metal ring surrounding the drill would fracture in exactly the same way as the rock surrounding it.
- Hook's first transformation is bizarre. His crane mode cab just kind of disappears into his stomach... only to reappear as his foot a second later.
- Scavenger's voice gives the "emergency!" lines that follow, but Scrapper is shown. It's not clear from the animation who's actually speaking, though.
- Michael Bell's performance of Scrapper is noticeably higher-pitched and more manic than usual in this episode. He's cranked Scrapper's usual vocal "scratchiness" up a bit too, at times adding a protracted rasp between sentences.
- When the Constructicons are all shown zapping the fissure shut, all the other cracks are gone.
- Subsequent shots of the drill show no trace of the Constructicons' ad hoc ground repairs. Did they pave them over??
- Missing Seeker insignia:
- When he's first seen sitting at the console, Starscream is missing the Decepticon emblems on his wings.
- Starscream has only one wing emblem as he watches Megatron walk through the holographic rock wall.
- The Seekers are all missing their wing emblems as the Decepticons launch their counterattack on the approaching Autobots in the canyon.
- Starscream's missing his wing emblems yet again as he turns and says "You thought of everything".
- Starscream's got only one emblem as he runs crying to Devastator for help. Seriously, how hard is it to keep track of two emblems?
- It's not indisputably an error, but Starscream's hand makes none of the typical whirring/sliding noises as he retracts it and replaces it with the drill (which, holy cow, where does he keep that thing?)
- The animation of the Autobots driving up the slope out of the riverbed is crude and mistimed—Mirage drives all the way into the slope before he tilts to start climbing it. The other Autobots all tilt up as a group, even though they're in a line.
- Laserbeak's missing his transformation sound as he returns to Soundwave's chest compartment after sighting the Autobots.
- As Laserbeak plays back the Autobots' words, a second voice seems to be echoing Jazz's "Constructicons!"
- As the Constructicons all transform to vehicle mode, both Hook and Mixmaster suffer from their feet failing to become the corresponding part of their vehicle modes. All of the Constructicons have completely changed positions from where they were standing in the preceding shot.
- The boulder that Devastator uses against the Autobots is never seen to hit bottom.
- As usual, Devastator's combination sequence is screwed up. In addition to lacking any transformation noise, Long Haul only forms about half of his actual contribution, with Hook getting the rest. At least they got the other four guys correct!
- Three of the Constructicons are shown monitoring the drill, while at the same time Devastator is outside fighting the rest of the Autobots. (More than six Constructicons? Madness!) In the same scene, Starscream's missing one of his wing emblems yet again.
- Both Mirage and Sunstreaker drive through the tow line as they wrap it around Devastator's feet. As Devastator falls from their snare, he has two eyes instead of his usual visor.
- Coloring errors:
- Wheeljack has some strange white areas on his head when he's first seen inside Autobot Headquarters.
- Wheeljack's roof is orange instead of white as Chip leans out his window.
- Skywarp and Starscream both have yellow nosecones as they transform back into robot mode en route to the space bridge.
- Once the Autobots subjugate Devastator, he's seen swatting Skywarp, but the next shot is of Thundercracker spinning out of control. Then Thundercracker immediately flies back in again and is swatted off, screaming in Starscream's voice. The shot following that has Skywarp standing with the other Decepticons.
- Megatron has a red Decepticon symbol when he orders the Constructicons to stop the drill.
- The center line on Scrapper's face mask disappears as he orders the Constructicons to the surface.
- The Constructicons' elevator isn't animated, making them appear to just levitate into the air in vehicle mode. A whirring effects noise, and a lack of glow effects, makes it seem that this was not supposed to be the levitation beam used earlier by Starscream and Megatron. A second later, however, they do drive off the levitation beam, complete with glow effect.
- There is no way Ironhide has room for that much of the water-freezing liquid inside him.
- There's an existing Dominator Disk on Scrapper upon which Prowl sticks another one.
- Appearing/disappearing Autobots:
- Ironhide is shown retreating into the cage at the bottom of the cliff, even though he was never shown to have left the top of the cliff. He seems to have taken Sunstreaker's place. As the cage begins to rise, Sunstreaker reappears (with a strangely miscolored or off-model head), but Jazz is missing.
- The roster of Autobots on the return mission to the cave fluctuates all over the place. Prowl, Jazz, Ironhide and Sideswipe are shown leaving Autobot HQ (and Devastator apparently just sits there while the Autobots move out!) When they arrive at the cave, Hound and Wheeljack have replaced Prowl and Ironhide. After Chip is trapped in the cave, Ratchet shows up among Devastator's victims. After the commercial break, Ironhide is back with the group. As the earthquakes begin, Sunstreaker shows up out of nowhere to rescue Chip.
- Five Autobots fit inside Prime's pyramid cage, which then fits inside his trailer. Huge trailer, or tiny Autobots?
- As he ejects Ravage, the inside of Soundwave's chest compartment is bright yellow.
- Devastator's second combination sequence contains the same visual errors as the first one; plus, Hook's mass includes Bonecrusher's scoop.
- As Devastator blasts the Decepticons' cave shut, the frozen falls spontaneously unfreeze for no apparent reason.
- Bumblebee is with the cheering Autobots as Devastator flies out of the canyon, despite not being seen anywhere else in the episode.
- Again, the metal in Autobot Headquarters splits as though it were rock.
- After Hook repairs Jazz, he drives over to Devastator and transforms into nothing but his head.
- When Devastator blasts the cave entrance open again, the falls are once again frozen!
- When the combined doohickeys zap Devastator back under control causing the Constructicons to disengage, the left arm transforms into Scrapper, while the right leg transforms into Bonecrusher.
- Third Devastator sequence: worst one yet! Scrapper's not really visible at all. Scavenger and Mixmaster form not only the legs but also half of Long Haul's bits (the same incomplete half that Long Haul himself formed the first time around!) Long Haul then splits in two to become the rest of Devastator's torso, including everything formed by Hook, and Bonecrusher and Scavenger's vehicle treads. Bonecrusher and Hook then form the arms. When he's finished forming, Devastator's torso plate is green instead of purple.
- Wheeljack's ears don't flash as he and Prime snicker at Chip's "Mr. Nobility" line.
- Though maintaining a consistent scale has never been a particularly important issue in Transformers fiction, this episode is a particularly notable offender, with Devastator's relative size fluctuating wildly: in some scenes Megatron appears to be almost half his height, whilst at other times the Autobots barely come up to the top of his foot. In one scene, vehicle mode Bonecrusher seems to be almost as high as robot mode Megatron. Chip's scaling is also wildly variable: when Sunstreaker rescues him from the cave, he appears knee-high to the Autobots, but in the very next scene he has suddenly become as large as Wheeljack.
Continuity errors
- Megatron's assertion that the Earth's core is the richest source of energy in the galaxy is not even remotely true, even within the bizarre realm of the cartoon's physics. Heck, just within our own little Solar System, the Sun is immeasurably more potent.
- Why the heck is Sunstreaker giving orders to a group that includes Prowl and Jazz?
- What kind of tree branch (growing out of a cliff, no less) is strong enough to support a falling Transformer?
- Jazz and Sunstreaker both use wrist-rockets to lower themselves into the canyon. According to the tech specs, that's really supposed to be Wheeljack's schtick.
- How does freezing the waterfall stop the whole river? Wouldn't it make more sense to break the dam that's diverting the river upstream?
- How did the Constructicons not notice the Autobots as they were placing the Dominator Disks on them?
- How did Megatron figure out the Autobots' strategy?
- Is Devastator really the only one who can stop the drill? Can't anybody just shoot the thing at its source?
- Why do the Constructicons all feel the need to simultaneously transform to robot mode (then have a little out-of-character heroic chat) when ordered to transform to Devastator? This is one of the episodes where they are assumed to need to be in vehicle mode—which they are already in—to combine.
- The whole countdown to the Earth's core, down to the second, is patently ridiculous. The boundary of the Earth's core is not nearly so neatly defined. And penetrating it with such a comparatively tiny drill would be unlikely to shatter the planet.
- While counting down the time before the drill hits the Earth's core, Prime says 10 seconds, then Megatron says 1 second immediately thereafter. Somehow, 9 seconds disappear without any editing or time lapse. A lot more than 1 second elapses before Devastator destroys the drill.
- How did Devastator get all the way from near the earth's surface to near its core so quickly? How did he slow himself at the end to avoid crashing? And how did he withstand the heat down there, when his component parts are not even very keen on ordinary lava?
- While we're at it, if everyone was so concerned that the drill was going to destroy Earth, then why would Devastator go underneath the drill to stop it? If they were cutting it so close, wasn't anybody in the least bit concerned that Devastator might break into the core on accident?
- Also, Devastator's strategy for stopping the drill shouldn't have worked. It should have impaled him. (Them? It? Ah, whatever.)
- Where did the fleeing Decepticons think they were going, anyway?
Trivia
- Prime sure goes along with the notion of enslaving one of his enemies pretty readily, huh? What happened to his ol' "Freedom is the Right of All Sentient Beings" schtick?
- The Earth's core is believed to be around 3959 miles below the surface. So like, is the Decepticon's drill four thousand miles long? That means that before they started drilling, if the tip was touching the Earth's surface, the top would be in outer space. How did no one notice that?
- After all the fuss the others go through while getting into the canyon (wrist rockets, grappling hook slides), Prowl just jumps down.
- Jazz skips his dominator disk onto Scavenger, like skipping a rock on water. Stylish!
- When Megatron orders a retreat, cat mode Ravage flies off into the air alongside his comrades.
- Megatron stops Starscream from sniping the Autobots as Optimus Prime reels them up the cliff, arguing that killing six Autobots would be pointless since he plans on having Devastator destroy all the Autobots at the right moment. When that moment comes, there are still only (give or take) six Autobots to be had. Should have gone with your gut, Starscream.
- A deleted sequence near the end featuring the Constructicons is present in the dialogue script. It's a little hard to figure out what they would've been doing, but Mixmaster takes the "cackling witch" part of his Bio literally with the dropped line "Boil, boil, toil and trouble...acid eat and rocks go bubble!" - an intentional mangling of the witches' chant from Macbeth.
- This episode is one of a trio, including "City of Steel" and "The Autobot Run", that was animated by the Korean studio AKOM. They are distinguished by simplistic art, prominent use of the Constructicons, surprisingly high frame rates, some Hanna-Barbara-style animation shortcuts, and various character model oddities, such as Optimus Prime's white backpack (which would show up again in "The Rebirth") and Chip Chase's blue jacket... not to mention a crapload of animation errors. Sheesh, AKOM.
- Optimus Prime's last lines in this episode - "The future is built on dreams" - is notable as Peter Cullen's words of encouragement to a young fan of Optimus Prime in real life, dying of a terminal illness. To this day, when interviewed about this line, Cullen will invariably be moved to tears by its memory, such was his love for the child. A true man amongst men, if there ever was one.[1]
Foreign localization
French
- Title: "Le forage" ("The Drilling")
- Original airdate: ?
- This episode is one of those that has never been released on DVD in French.
- The Constructicon curse continues, as Mixmaster's first lines in vehicle mode are missing from the dub.
- Sunstreaker's line at the river "Okay Autobots, move out!" is also missing.
- Jacques Ferrière vanished again. He will be back next episode.
German
Italian
- Title (dub 1): "Al centro della Terra" ("To the Center of Earth")
- Original airdate: ?
- Title (dub 2): "Il nucleo" ("The Core")
- Original airdate: ?
Japanese
Mandarin
- Title: "Dìqiú Héxīn " (地球核心, "The Core of the Earth")
- Original airdate: ?
Brazilian Portuguese
- Title: "O Núcleo" ("The Core")
- Original airdate: ?
Russian
- Title: "Yadro" (Ядро, "The Core" )
- Original airdate: ?
Toys inspired by this episode
- Masterpiece MP-52 Starscream Ver. 2.0 (TakaraTomy, 2021)
- One of the accessories included with this version of Starscream is the drill arm he uses in this episode.
Home video releases
1995 — Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers — Megatron Set (Takara) — Japanese audio only.
1999 — The Transformers — Decepticon Edition (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.
- DVD
2001 — The Transformers — DVD Box 2 (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.
2002 — The Original Transformers — Season 2 Part 1 (Rhino Entertainment)
2002 — The Original Transformers — Season 2 Part 1: Vol. 2 (Rhino Entertainment)
2003 — Transformers — Season 2 Part 1 (Metrodome)
2004 — Transformers — Collection 2: Series 2.1 (Madman Entertainment)
2006 — Transformers — The Complete Generation One Collection (Metrodome)
2007 — The Transformers — Complete Collection (Madman Entertainment)
2008 — Transformers — Volume 03: Stagione Due Parte Prima (Medianetwork Communication) — English and Italian audio.
2009 — Transformers — Season Two: Part One (Metrodome)
2009 — The Transformers — Complete Collection: Decepticon Edition (Madman Entertainment)
2009 — The Transformers — Season Two, Volume One: 25th Anniversary Edition (Shout! Factory)
2009 — The Transformers — The Complete Series: 25th Anniversary "Matrix of Leadership" Collection (Shout! Factory)
2011 — The Transformers — The Complete Original Series (Shout! Factory)
2014 — The Transformers — Season Two, Volume One: 30th Anniversary Edition (Shout! Factory)
2014 — Transformers — The Classic Animated Series (Metrodome)
