Enter the Nightbird

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"All right, now hit Starscream in the groin-plate."
"Enter the Nightbird"
Production code	#700-25
Season	2
No. in season	10
Production company	Sunbow Productions
Airdate	September 30, 1985
Written by	Sylvia Wilson Richard Milton
Animation studio	Toei
Continuity	Generation 1 cartoon continuity
Watch this episode on YouTube

The Decepticons capture Nightbird, a deadly ninja-bot, and turn her loose on the Autobots.

Synopsis

"No threat... not a threat at all."

The Autobots are busily constructing detection plates, a new invention of Wheeljack's which will make the base more secure by detecting intruders. They're interrupted in their work by a call from Doctor Fujiyama the Famous Scientist, requesting their help in guarding his latest invention during its unveiling to the world. His curiosity aroused, Optimus agrees when the doctor informs him that the invention is a sophisticated new robot. The Autobots attend the event, though Wheeljack and Ratchet are more interested in mocking the invention. Finally Dr. Fujiyama unveils Nightbird, a "female ninja robot". Predictably, the Decepticons attack and immediately have the upper hand because the Autobots won't fight in a hall crowded with humans. As soon as the humans are cleared out, Optimus orders a counter-attack, personally grappling with Megatron. The Autobots are soon fully occupied, allowing Thundercracker and Skywarp to tear the roof off the building, so that Starscream can lasso Nightbird and carry the robot away. Their prize obtained, the rest of the Decepticons retreat.

They retire to Megatron's temporary base, a masterfully disguised fortress, where Bombshell sets to work reprogramming Nightbird and tripling her power. Her first action on being reactivated is to immediately attack Starscream, which gains Megatron's approval. Soundwave gives her her new orders — infiltrate Autobot headquarters and steal the World Energy Chip from Teletraan I.

Meanwhile, Optimus is apologetic for their abject failure to protect the robot, and promises to return it to Dr. Fujiyama quickly and unharmed. The Autobots return to base, Ratchet carrying the injured Brawn. Nightbird soon arrives at Autobot HQ as well, avoiding a security camera by accessing the base through the top of the volcano, eavesdropping on Spike and Prowl's puzzled conversation over the Decepticons' latest plan. She neatly avoids Wheeljack's detection plates by magnetizing her feet and walking along the roof. Reaching Teletraan I, she removes the World Energy Chip, plunging the base into darkness and alerting the Autobots to the intruder.

Nightbird wants her own spotlight comic.

In her attempt to escape, she first encounters Mirage and bashes her way past the startled Autobot. A group of Autobots corners her, but are hampered by the promise they made not to harm her, and she is able to use her ninja abilities to blind them and effect a proper escape. The Autobots pursue her outside, where Optimus spots her on a clifftop and drops her with a stun ray. As Bluestreak approaches her, she suddenly jumps up and decks him before throwing more spinning blades at his comrades. Optimus stops Cliffjumper from firing on her, reminding him again of their promise to Dr. Fujiyama, then attempts to reason with Nightbird. The robot responds by attacking him with her energy sword and stealing his laser rifle, though she leaves her sword behind.

Watching remotely, Megatron and Bombshell are impressed with Nightbird's work. Starscream less so when Megatron suggests she would make a good replacement for the air commander.

Ratchet and Ironhide discover the absence of the World Energy Chip and notify Prime. Using Hound's sensors, the Autobots quickly relocate Nightbird, and Optimus attempts to lure her closer with her sword. She merely takes the weapon and knocks him down. The Autobots continue their attempts, unsuccessfully, to try to bring the ninja 'bot down.

Prime, taking advantage of the fact Elita's on another planet.

Meanwhile, Starscream has had enough of Megatron's insinuations about replacing him, and decks his leader. He's swiftly restrained by the other Decepticons and trapped in a cage. Megatron turns back to his spying and, seeing that Nightbird has finally been caught by the Autobots in an electro mesh prison, orders the Decepticons out on a mission to rescue her and the World Energy Chip. Optimus is able to retrieve the Chip from Nightbird, but it's dropped in the subsequent Decepticon ambush. After a brief spell in Bombshell's possession, Optimus regains the chip, but Megatron responds by freeing Nightbird from her cage and unleashing her on the Autobots.

Hell hath no fury like a Nightbird scorned.

Starscream uses a small missile to activate a button, freeing himself from the cage in the Decepticon base, and swiftly reaches the battle in time to watch Nightbird overwhelming Optimus with her combat skills. Seeking revenge, the Decepticon uses his null-ray on Nightbird, disabling her. Megatron is enraged and calls off the attack so everyone can pursue Starscream.

The Autobots make good on their promise by returning Nightbird unharmed to Fujiyama, who decides to put her in storage. Despite being neutralized, Nightbird casts a final, angered glare out at the cold, cold, world.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"Imagine, Autobots playing nursemaid to an Earth robot. It's probably just a glorified wind-up toy."

—Look who's talking, Wheeljack.

Ratchet: Dr. Fujiyama's doohickey's under that drape!
Wheeljack: If it walks, it probably needs a long extension cord.
Ratchet: Heh heh heh. I wonder if batteries are included? Heh heh heh.
Wheeljack: When they turn it on, it'll probably blow the lights!
Optimus: We're here to guard the robot, not make jokes at its expense.

—Wheeljack and Ratchet, masters of diplomacy

"Ah, why build a robot ninja, doctor? Isn't that rather dangerous?"

—The guy with the white mustache asks what we're all thinking.

"I bring you greetings, Optimus Prime...lethal greetings!"

—Megatron. His writers don't get paid enough.

"I love warping minds for you, Megatron...love it!"

—Bombshell, the spokesman for Grand Theft Auto.

"I'm open to suggestions...and you don't need to raise your hands before you speak."

—Shouldn't Optimus Prime have said something like "raise your finger components" instead?

"She's not so hot!"
"She's hot enough to replace you whenever I choose!"

—Starscream and Megatron utter the words that launch a thousand fanfics.

"Yes, you're definitely on my replacement list, Starscream.... Hahaha, she's everything I've always wanted!"

—Megatron. Aw, all he wanted was some love.

Notes

Production information

• First draft script: 4th December 1984
• Script revised by Ron Friedman: 8th December 1984
• Final script: 11th December 1984
• Main dialogue recording: 15th January 1985

Continuity notes

• Gadgets and powers:
  • Nightbird's gadgets: nunchaku (unused), a pair of sai daggers (also unused), a wrist-mounted grappling hook, magnetic feet (they also work on rocks!), fist-replacing sawblades, some kind of spin/make bright light/disappear gimmick, an endless supply of hip-stored energized shuriken, a lightsaber, another unused weapon the hilt of which is visible on her "backpack", a glowing magnetic tractor beam, and stereo speaker-nullifying metal donuts. Additionally, she vanishes after jumping over a cliff edge, leading Mirage to wonder if she has the power of invisibility.
  • Cliffjumper's glass gas is a fiery glue-like substance in this episode, which he fires from a retractable wrist nozzle.
  • Jazz deploys his sound and light show.
  • Mirage uses his invisibility trick.
  • Megatron whips an anti-matter blaster out of nowhere; the script for the episode doesn't describe it, and merely talks about Megatron aiming "his weapon" so this was probably supposed to be a reference to his black hole link-up ability that got warped into being a separate weapon due to a misunderstanding by the animators.
  • Starscream can fire a tiny little missile from an elevating launcher on his wrist.
• << Brawn vs. Soundwave, Round 5: As punishment for missing several short range shots, Soundwave blasts the floor out from under Brawn. Score: Brawn 4, Soundwave 1 >>

Real-world references

• The title could be a reference to the film Enter the Dragon. This would not be the last time the film is referenced in a Transformers series.
• Although it's subtle, Optimus understands Japanese culture enough to bow when ending the conversation. Quite impressive when you consider no obvious character would have taught him Japanese culture, shown by the fact that he doesn't know what a "ninja" is.
• Star Wars sound effects:
  • When Laserbeak blasts his way into the stadium, he emits the TIE Fighter engine noise.
  • Nightbird's lightsaber ignites with the standard Star Wars lightsaber effect, and gets the usual lightsaber-waving sound effects repeatedly when it's used.
  • The seeker ball that Luke trains with aboard the Millennium Falcon can be heard darting about as Nightbird waves her sword at the approaching Optimus Prime.
• Megatron's antimatter blaster uses the same sound effect as the heat rays from the 1953 film The War of the Worlds, a noise that crops up in the show on occasion.

Animation and technical errors

• Throughout the entire episode, the volume of the background music is a notch or two lower than normal, making it sound rather unemphatic.
• Coloring errors:
  • The top of Ironhide's torso is colored red instead of gray as Wheeljack says his "nursemaid" line. In the same scene, the bottom of Wheeljack's "ears" aren't flashing along with the rest of them.
  • As he and Ratchet crack jokes about the robot, the top segment of the side of Wheeljack's chest is colored windshield blue instead of metal armor white.
  • One of the fleeing humans falls down with debris falling from the ceiling. When someone helps him up, his clothes change from gray to brown as he begins to run again.
  • When Skywarp pulls the roof off the building, he's colored like Thundercracker.
  • Ratchet has no red detailing in ambulance mode as he offers a lift to Brawn.
  • Mirage's missile changes from gray to black when he loads Brawn into Ratchet.
  • Cliffjumper's brow is missing its details and color as he aims at Nightbird.
• The round auditorium building somehow contains a rectangular auditorium. Later shots show the auditorium as having a domed ceiling, which is consistent with the exterior shot but doesn't make a lick of sense spatially. As Optimus apologizes to Dr. Fujiyama later in the episode, the ruined auditorium is suddenly round. Also, the opening pan across the auditorium also shows it to be of incredibly huge scale.
• For the most part, the episode is amazingly consistent about where the Autobots are during the unveiling of Nightbird, but as the robot is revealed, Prowl and Mirage are shown right next to each other, when they were a hundred feet apart a second before.
• When Rumble and Frenzy break into the show room, Rumble's pile drivers are rectangular prisms instead of the usual cylinders.
• One gun, many lasers:
  • Frenzy's lasers pass right through the fleeing humans without affecting them. He's also somehow firing like 5 or 6 lasers at once from his two guns.
• How did Skywarp flip the roof upside down?
• Laserbeak cuts a portion of the ceiling with a laser, which falls from the other side of the building onto Ironhide.
• Megatron is shown firing at Optimus Prime at close range, but when Bluestreak rushes between them Megatron fires the same shot again.
• When Optimus Prime gets shot in the back by Megatron, he grunts and oophs in Mirage's voice.
• The "triple power booster" that Bombshell places in Nightbird's torso couldn't possibly fit in the space that's shown.
• Ratchet has a side hatch instead of his usual rear hatch as Mirage loads Brawn into him. Brawn is loaded in sideways, meaning Ratchet is wider than Brawn is tall.
• Mirage shines a light on Nightbird from an area of his chest that clearly is not a light of any kind.
• The first commercial break totally cuts off the background music in mid-phrase.
• When Nightbird's lightsaber is shot and deactivated, the sound effects continue for about two more seconds before they stop.
• Jazz's mouth disappears for a second as he goes to help Prime to his feet.
• Missing Seeker emblems:
  • Skywarp has no wing insignia as he watches the video screen in the Decepticon base.
  • Starscream has only one insignia as he punches Megatron. Skywarp has none a second later as he holds Starscream, and again as he backs away from the energy cage.
  • Starscream has no insignia as he lands at the battle site.
  • Thundercracker and Skywarp have no insignia as the Decepticons fly off after Starscream. In fact, Skywarp doesn't seem to have his insignia at any point during the episode. Seriously, is there a single episode where they didn't screw this up?
• Miscolored Seeker nosecones:
  • Starscream's top and bottom cockpit segments are yellow instead of gray as Bombshell challenges him.
  • Skywarp and Thundercracker both have all-yellow nosecones as they transform to leave the base.
  • Skywarp's nosecone is gray as he and everybody else transforms and launches during the start of the battle.
  • Starscream's nosecone goes from all-yellow to all-gray as he leaves the base and transforms.
  • Starscream's bottom nosecone segment is yellow instead of gray as he laughs at Megatron. As he transforms and flies off, his nosecone is entirely yellow. Seriously, is there a single episode where they didn't screw this up?
• Why does Hound's infrared beep? Is it a radar?
• As usual, Mirage only leaves footprints when he's invisible.
• "She jammed it!" Cliffjumper says, when Nightbird throws Bluestreak's missile into his glass gas nozzle. Couldn't he just... pull the missile out?
• The animators missed a note about what Starscream was supposed to do inside the energy cage. He's all like "You can't keep me in here, Megatron! AHHHHHHH!", as if he rushed the cage and got zapped by it or something, but the animation shows him just standing there, which makes it seem like he expects to shout the system down. Sure enough, the original script contains the following direction:

ANGLE ON MEGATRON as he moves closer to the cage.

MEGATRON: Well, I don't see why not...!

Starscream tries to punch at Megatron, but when his fist hits the power grid, it creates ELECTRICAL SPARKS. Starscream draws his hand back, holding it in pain.

STARSCREAM: (SCREAMS!)^[1]

• Hound is missing all his chest detail as Optimus reacts to Megatron's arrival. It suddenly appears as the Autobots attack.
• What on earth is that weird energy ripple sound effect as Starscream drops out of the sky? As Starscream lands, his eyes are blue instead of red.

The null ray is not putting up with any more of this ninjabot's guff.

• As Starscream knocks out Nightbird, the null-ray gets a truncated Autobot laser sound effect instead of the Decepticon sound.
• A dialog or script editing flub results in Starscream bizarrely gloating "Say good night to your Megatron!" after blasting Nightbird. Per the original script, the line was meant to go "Say good night to your <something>, Megatron!" The logical play-on-words candidate would be "Say good night to your Nightbird", but fan reports indicate otherwise. Whatever the original noun was, it was crossed out in black and the word "Robotessa" was hand-written in its place.^[2] The baffling question of what the heck a "Robotessa" is aside, this hand-written re-write was apparently overlooked when the dialogue script for the recording of the episode was written up, as the spoken line shows no signs of being edited or cut-and-pasted back together, indicating that Chris Latta genuinely spoke it aloud in recording as it appears in the show. It would make sense if Starscream was addressing it towards Nightbird, but he's not.
• The glow of Nightbird's eyes starts a second before the accompanying sound effect.

I'm certain this will never come back to haunt me.

• As Megatron oversees Nightbird's upgrades he is briefly seen with a purple Autobot emblem.

Continuity errors

They react to anything, therefore making us safe from everything!

• Wheeljack's detection panels don't make any sense. They're just glorified metal detectors, that react to metal, the very thing that the Autobots and Autobot Headquarters are made of. The Autobots put them all over the floor, to detect their flight-capable enemies. So does that mean the Autobots can no longer use that particular corridor?
• The scientists' reactions to Nightbird seem a bit overwrought considering that the robot has yet to do anything besides stand there.
• Dr. Fujiyama assures us that Nightbird is "not meant for battles or assassinations" as we pan over the robot. So... just what are those short knives and nunchucks and throwing stars meant for? Is Nightbird supposed to stab her way into "the horizons of robotic research"?
• The Autobots didn't think to post anybody outside the building? Since that's, y'know, where the Decepticons would come from?

"Welcome to our new secret base!"
"Our what base?"

• Why do the Decepticons need a whole new base just for the Nightbird project? What possible advantage does it serve?
• When Prime apologizes for losing Nightbird to the Decepticons, Doctor Fujiyama's response is that no one could have predicted it happening. Except... that's why he called the Autobots in the first place! Being a rather stereotypical Japanese guy, maybe he's just too polite to tell Prime that he botched it.
• Dr. Fujiyama's assertion that "the technical components are irreplaceable, and are needed for research" is... curious. If he built the thing himself, why would it be so impossible to manufacture new parts? Maybe it's like the Robo-Baby.
• This is the only time that Autobot Headquarters is shown to have an elevator going up into the volcano's cone. Earlier and later episodes contradict this notion. And just what are Prowl and Spike doing up there, anyway?
• How come the detection panels don't go off when Nightbird waves her hand next to them?
• Why is Prime helping repair Brawn? Repairs aren't usually his gig.
• Improbable viewpoints:
  • Why/how does Ratchet get a third-person view of Optimus and the others when he calls them up via Teletraan I?
  • How is Megatron watching the whole battle from his base? Is Laserbeak there keeping tabs or something? Or is this another instance of him putting cameras inside every random rock?
• At the end of the second act, Nightbird gets the drop on Prime and raises her sword as if to slice him in half. At the opening of the third act, however, she's just standing there in front of him, idly spinning the sword around, then turns and runs away for no real reason.
• Nightbird's "magnetic feet" reappear later in the episode, when she's climbing... a rock face.
• Optimus Prime makes the rather odd declarations that "I suspect Megatron could answer that question," and "Megatron! I knew it!" Considering he witnessed Megatron and his crew stealing the ninja, and now she's right there doing stuff, this isn't exactly Prime's finest detective work.
• "Watch how my anti-matter blaster eats up energy!" Megatron says. We feel this amazing breach of science needs no further elaboration. (The intended idea may have been that the blaster is highly energy-consumptive and could absorb the energy net as a power supply or something; however, what's shown instead is that firing the gun at the energy net somehow dissipates it.)
• "I'm so glad you have returned Nightbird... and not a scratch on her chassis!" What about that big hole in her back from just the previous scene?
• "Safely locked up... forever!" Why not just take her to pieces, then?

Trivia

• The first female ninja robot? So are there already a lot of male ninja robots running around out there?
• When the Autobots are chasing Nightbird up a cliff, Cliffjumper can't jump the cliff. This has been the source of much fandom snickering over the years. Congratulations, fandom; you get the joke. Good job.
• Back in the late 1990s, this episode was at the center of a huge and long-running fandom flap on alt.toys.transformers, initiated by certain Decepticon fans who interpreted Nightbird's scowl as a clear sign that she was a sapient life form, rather than a mindless automaton. In conjunction with certain lines of dialog from Megatron, some fans further concluded that Nightbird could be seen as a romantic foil for Megatron. These arguments and the opposing viewpoints led to much agony for everyone involved.
• The Dreamwave comic "Infestation" featured Nightbird in her own movie, aptly named Enter the Nightbird.
• Doctor Fujiyama the Famous Scientist!

Foreign localization

French

• Title (European French broadcast): "Initier la chauve-souris" ("To Initiate the Bat")
• Title (European French DVD release): "L'entrée de Nightbird" ("Enter the Nightbird")
• Title (Canadian French broadcast): "L'entrée du ninja" ("Enter the ninja")
• Original airdate: ?

• The European French broadcast title "Initier la chauve-souris" does not makes sense and is most likely not related to the episode.
• All the logo transitions were cut. It is unknown if it was that way for the original broadcast or if the episode was chopped for the DVD release.
• To avoid pronouncing their names, the line "Thundercracker and Starscream!" is changed to "Them again!"

Italian

• Title (dub 1): "L'arrivo di Ninja" ("The Arrival of Ninja")
• Original airdate: ?

• Nightbird is called by different names in this dub: Doctor Fujiyama introduces her as "Uccello Notturno" (literal translation of her English name), but later this name is never used again and she's instead called "Ninja-Robot", "Robot-Ninja" or simply "Ninja".

• Title (dub 2): "Progetto Nightbird" ("Project Nightbird")
• Original airdate: ?

Japanese

• Title: "Nightbird no Kage" (ナイトバードの影, "The Shadow of Nightbird")
• Original airdate: November 1, 1985

Mandarin

• Title: "Cìkè" (刺客, "Assassin")
• Original airdate: ?

Brazilian Portuguese

• Title: "A Ninja" ("The Ninja")
• Original airdate: ?

Russian

• Title: "Poyavlenie Goloobki" (Появление Голубки, "The Appearance of Darling")
• Original airdate: ?

Home video releases

LaserDisc

1994 — Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers — Convoy Set (Takara) — Japanese audio only.
1998 — The Transformers — Autobot Edition (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.

DVD

2001 — The Transformers — DVD Box 1 (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 — Bumper Collection Special (Metrodome)
2004 — Transformers — Collection 2: Series 2.1 (Madman Entertainment)
2004 — Transformers — Volume 5 (Déclic Images) — European French audio only.
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)

References

External links

• Digital restoration of first draft script, missing pages 40-42, originally submitted 4th December 1984
• Episode script, missing pages 40-42, as revised by Ron Friedman 8th December 1984
• Model sheets and background layouts