Pilot (Part 1)

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You kids these days don't understand, you weren't around to see Starscream dancing to Saturday Night Fever!
"Pilot (Part 1)"
Season	1
No. in season	1
Production company	Hasbro Studios
Airdate	February 21, 2015 (Australia/NZ) March 14, 2015 (USA)
Writers	Adam Beechen, Duane Capizzi
Director	Dave Hartman
Animation studio	Polygon Pictures
Watch this episode on YouTube

Assigned on a solo mission to Earth, Bumblebee unexpectedly finds himself saddled with a team.

Synopsis

You see? He lives in you!

Years after the Great War, a rebuilt Cybertron is once again a populous, thriving planet. Among its inhabitants is Lieutenant Bumblebee—now on street patrol duty—and his new cadet Strongarm. While Strongarm is slightly awed at getting to work with the great hero Bumblebee, she's surprised that he didn't get a better position than street cop. The duo receives an alert about an in-progress 211. They find Sideswipe driving around the statues of Kaon Plaza, scratching up the ground. While Bumblebee is in the middle of telling his partner that Sideswipe's not actually dangerous, he's suddenly distracted by a vision of Optimus Prime in a reflecting pool. Strongarm leaves him to his vision and heads off to deal with Sideswipe, and Optimus points Bumblebee to a diagram on a nearby building, indicating something to do with Earth. After an abortive attempt to stop Sideswipe, Strongarm manages to bash the renegade Autobot into the statue of Optimus Prime, and then slaps the cuffs on him, but to her horror, the damaged statue topples over, almost crushing Bumblebee. Snapped out of his trance, Bumblebee orders Strongarm to take the perp to the station while he heads towards the building Optimus pointed to.

On Earth, Denny Clay is moving a train car around his scrapyard when his son, Russell Clay arrives to stay while his mother's in Copenhagen. Russell is less than enthusiastic about this arrangement, but Denny shows off the 14th Street diner which he's recently had moved to the yard. Their discussion is interrupted by a loud boom from somewhere. Not far away in the woods, Fixit crawls from the shattered hulk of the prison ship Alchemor.

Ultra Magnus's daughter, folks.

On Cybertron, Bumblebee enters the Cybertron History Museum and pokes around the back rooms, where he finds a space bridge with Earth co-ordinates already input. Optimus speaks to him in an another vision, telling him he's needed on Earth. In the middle of the vision Bumblebee's found by Strongarm, who's followed him there as per a regulation which means she has to accompany him at all times. Naturally she also still has Sideswipe handcuffed to her, and after Bumblebee explains he's received a mission from Optimus, he tells Strongarm to try to get the space bridge working while he distracts the guards.

A news report about a meteor piques Denny's interest, and he suggests he and Russell go look for it, though first Denny has to talk to a man who wants to sell him some Billy the Breakfast Beaver figures. Russell opts to go look for the meteor instead of helping with the deal. At the crash site, Fixit attempts to send a mayday to Cybertron Control, reporting that he's lost most of the stasis cells the ship was carrying.

"No I'm not playing hard to get, I'm telling you, it's not that kind of phone line!"

Bumblebee manages to distract the museum guards for a brief time until they catch on to the fact that he's up to something. He's forced to deal with the pair, disabling them just as Sideswipe gets the bridge working. Ordering Strongarm to remain behind, Bumblebee charges through the open space bridge to Earth. Naturally Strongarm follows him with Sideswipe still cuffed to her, and though Bumblebee destroys the cuffs and orders Sideswipe to return to Cybertron, the punk runs off. Wandering through the woods elsewhere, Russell completely misses a set of giant footprints. Bumblebee and Strongarm find Fixit working on the wreckage of his ship, and he explains the situation with the missing prisoners. As the tracking systems come back online, Fixit detects a nearby Cybertronian signal. Figuring it's Sideswipe, Bumblebee and Strongarm head off to recapture the rogue Autobot.

The legend exists. A tasty one, too!

Sideswipe is testing out the acoustics in a nearby rock formation when he bumps into Russell. They're both recovering from the shock when Underbite strolls up. Sideswipe introduces himself, but is none the wiser when Underbite reveals his name, though Underbite clarifies that he's the Decepticon who ate Nuon City. Sideswipe and Russell run for it, and Underbite consumes a nearby derelict van for energy. The fleeing pair find a clearing where Sideswipe transforms. As Underbite catches up with them, Sideswipe's able to speed off with Russell, and eventually finds Bumblebee and Strongarm. The Decepticon chases all four of them back to the crash site, where Fixit and Russell hid behind the last intact stasis cell, shortly before Grimlock pokes his head out of the end of it. After Underbite knocks the Autobots aside, Grimlock manages to goad Underbite into wrecking the stasis cell he's trapped in, freeing him. This only keeps Underbite busy for a short time, and the Decepticon spots the scrapyard through the trees, driving off to investigate. As the Autobots recover from the fight, Fixit tells them that Underbite is a Chompazoid, and gains power by eating metal. The Autobots realize that the scrapyard has enough material to make the Decepticon unstoppable.

To be continued...

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"It's kinda weird. Like living in a scrapyard."
"Please, 'vintage salvage depot for the discriminating nostalgist'."

—Russell and Denny Clay

"Bumblebee, I knew you would understand."

—Optimus Prime

"PLEASE take me to jail. This place is so much worse!"

—Sideswipe on his trip to the Cybertron Museum

"You're a punk, you know how to take out security systems, don't you?"
"NO!" [pause] "Maybe."

—Strongarm and Sideswipe

"Now, I've reconned the crash site and we're missing most of our stasis cells. Several nearby have ruptured, their inmates are presumably at large."
"How many is 'several'?"
"Oh, a couple of hundred."

—Fixit and Strongarm

"You ever been to Nuon City?"
"Nooo."
"THAT'S 'CAUSE I ATE IT!"

—Underbite tells Sideswipe of his over eating habits.

"I hear fighting! Who's fighting? I wanna fight!"

—Grimlock's very first line in the series. Says it all, really.

"Hey! Aren't you Underbite, that 'con who ate that city?"
"FINALLY! What gave me away? The muscles?"
"The smell."

—Grimlock and Underbite

Notes

Continuity notes

• While it's not specified in the episode how much time has passed since the end of Prime, Bumblebee's later guest appearance in the Rescue Bots episode "Uninvited Guest" confirms a time gap of about three years.
• The opening shot of Cybertron is identical to how it looked in Prime and the War for Cybertron games.
• Bumblebee's narrating line "My name is Bumblebee, and I keep the peace around here..." is a direct reference to his final line at the end of Predacons Rising, in which he promises Optimus: "You can count on us to keep the peace."
• It's later revealed in the episode "Can You Dig It?" that Bumblebee and Strongarm were on patrol in Kaon.
• It is also revealed that the that the park they were in is called "Kaon Plaza" in the episode "Five Fugitives."
• In this and part 2, the capsules holding the Decepticons are referred to as "stasis cells", whereas in later episodes they're referred to using the more standard name "stasis pods". This change appears to have been made due to the amount of spitting the term "stasis cell" produced in the recording booth.^[1]

Transformers references

• The statues in Kaon Plaza depict the Thirteen Primes.

Real-world references

• "211" is actually the US police code for a robbery. Sideswipe just seems to be causing a public nuisance though.

Trivia

"It makes no logical sense! Why is this here!?"

• As with the following dozen episodes, this first premiered in Mandarin on Chinese streaming video site M1905.
• Before even scanning an Earth vehicle, Sideswipe's Cybertronian alt mode has a normal vehicle interior, including seats and seat belts, even though these would serve no practical purpose on Cybertron. Maybe it's a holdover from the Age of Wrath? Do Mini-Cons ride inside?
• Fixit states his favorite color is red.
• Strongarm throws Sideswipe into the shins of the Optimus Prime statue and it all comes crashing down. Either Strongarm seriously lives up to her name or the statue was made of sawdust.
• Just before Sideswipe does donuts in front of the Optimus statue, he uses his turn signal. How considerate of him (even though he used the wrong one).

Animation and technical errors

Foreign localization

Brazilian Portuguese

• Title: "Piloto - Part 1 " ("Pilot - Part 1")
• Original airdate: March 31, 2015

Chinese

• Title: "Dìqiú Rènwù (shàng)" (地球任务 （上）, "Mission Earth (Part 1)")
• Original airdate: December 31, 2014

Danish

• Title: "Pilot - Del 1 " ("Pilot - Part 1")
• Original airdate: ?

Finnish

• Title: "Pilotti - Osa 1 " ("Pilot - Part 1")
• Original airdate: ?

French

• Title: "Nouvelle mission sur Terre" ("New Mission on Earth")
• Original airdate: February 9, 2015

German

• Title: "Mission Erde - Episode 1" ("Mission Earth - Episode 1")
• Original airdate: March 28, 2015

Hungarian

• Title: "Robotok álruhában" ("Robots in Disguise")
• Original airdate: March 16, 2015

Italian

• Title: "Più di quanto non sembri, parte 1" ("More than how it looks like, Part 1")
• Original airdate: February 28, 2015 (preview in select cinemas); March 7, 2015 (TV airing)

Japanese

• Title: "Aratana Bōken no Hajimari" (新たな冒険のはじまり, "Beginning of a New Adventure")
• Original airdate: March 15, 2015

Norwegian

• Title: "Pilot - Del 1 " ("Pilot - Part 1")
• Original airdate: ?

Polish:

• Title: "Pilot - część pierwsza" ("Pilot - part one")
• Original airdate: March 16, 2015

Portuguese

• Title: "Pilot - Part 1 " ("Pilot - Part 1")
• Original airdate: March 2, 2015

Russian

• Title: "Пилот, часть 1" (Pilot, Part 1)
• Original airdate: August 3 (Along with "Pilot, Part 2")

Spanish (Latin American)

• Title: "Piloto. parte 1" (Pilot, part 1)
• Original airdate: March 31 (Along with "Pilot, Part 2")

Swedish

• Title: "Pilot - Del 1 " ("Pilot - Part 1")
• Original airdate: ?

Home video releases

DVD

2015 — Transformers Robots in Disguise — Collect 'em All (Beyond Home Entertainment)
2015 — Transformers Robots in Disguise — A New Autobot Mission (Shout! Factory)
2016 — Transformers Robots in Disguise — A New Mission (Primal Screen)
2016 — Transformers Robots in Disguise — Season One (Shout! Factory)

References