Renegade Alliance

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Challenge of the GoBots ep 9
(Broadcast Order)
Challenge of the GoBots ep 17
(Story Order)
RenegadeAlliance cykill and alvanar.jpg
"Renegade Alliance"
Production code 0142-8508
Production company Hanna-Barbera
Airdate September 26, 1985
Story by Jeff Segal and Kelly Ward
Teleplay by Don Goodman
Animation studio Wang Film Productions

Cy-Kill dupes the alien adventurer Alva-Nar into attacking GoBotron with his mighty armada.

Synopsis[edit | edit source]

RenegadeAlliance renegades abducted.jpg

As the Guardians depart GoBotron in their Command Center, the Renegades launch a sneak attack aboard Thruster, striking the Guardian vessel from behind. Turbo fires back, knocking out Thruster's stealth device. Looking for a quick means of escape, the Renegades spy a strange-looking alien ship nearby, with a weapon of planet-shaking power mounted on its bow. Curious, Cy-Kill orders them in for a closer look, but when they get near, the ship seizes them in an energy field and drags them away, through a peculiar cloudbank. On the other side of the mists, the Renegades discover the ship is just one of a huge battle fleet commanded by a massive mothership, into which Thruster is carried. There, the Renegades are greeted by the armada's commander, Alva-Nar of the planet Nar-El, who introduces himself as a noble adventurer. Cy-Kill convinces the alien that the Guardians are the bad guys, and he sends his fleet to attack the Command Center as it draws near, following Thruster's trail. Alva-Nar brings the Guardians aboard his ship to verify Cy-Kill's claims with a truth scan; Leader-1 is happy to oblige, but Cy-Kill initially refuses, only acquiescing when Alva-Nar becomes suspicious. Cy-Kill is able to trick the Truth Scanner by carefully phrasing his answer so as not to actually lie, stating that "the Guardians are trying to eradicate us," which convinces Alva-Nar to side with the Renegades. The alien teleports the Guardians back to the Command Center, and announces his intent to help Cy-Kill "liberate" GoBotron.

RenegadeAlliance listening in.jpg

Cy-Kill immediately begins plotting to take control of Alva-Nar's fleet and use it to conquer the universe. The villains quickly takes control of GoBotron's Industrial Moon Zeta Three to use as a staging base, dispatching guards Staks and Wrong Way, who flee to GoBotron to warn the Guardian Council. Leader-1 tells the council to sit tight, and sends Turbo and Scooter down to the surface of the moon to investigate. They easily sneak by the parked ships—in which Scooter is puzzled to detect no lifeforms to pilot them—and listen in on Alva-Nar and the Renegades as the alien's computer divulges a battle plan for the attack on GoBotron itself the following day. The news that the attack will take only three minutes is alarming, but they come away with a piece of vital information: the ships are just drones, programmed and controlled by Alva-Nar himself. The pair attempt to return with this news to Leader-1, but their departure is detected by Alva-Nar's computer, and Cy-Kill sends Crasher and Cop-Tur to stop them. Leader-1 arrives to join the fight, but after a few blaster bolts are traded, Alva-Nar has a reluctant Cy-Kill call the Renegades off, on the basis that they're wasting time, and there's nothing the Guardians can do to stop them anyway.

RenegadeAlliance tampering with drones.jpg

The Renegades return to Alva-Nar's ship, where he sternly warns them that, after GoBotron has been reclaimed, there will be peace, not further reprisal against the Guardians. The Renegades all nod, though Crasher can't fully suppress her trademark cackle. Simultaneously, the Guardians exploit Alva-Nar's disinterest in them to sneak back to where his drones are parked, so that Scooter and Turbo can attempt to reprogram them manually. Scooter accidentally activates one, which takes off with him stuck inside. Cy-Kill boards another drone and gives chase, blasting Scooter's drone to bits and leaving the little Guardian floating in space. Leader-1 speeds to his rescue, but this escapade has given Turbo the time needed to take control of the drone he was working on, which he uses to attack the returning Cy-Kill. After shooting Cy-Kill out of the sky, Turbo abandons his drone and leads Crasher a merry chase across the moon, while Cop-Tur and Alva-Nar recover the badly-damaged Cy-Kill for repairs.

RenegadeAlliance avenger computer.jpg

The Guardians prepare through the night for the impending attack, while Alva-Nar uses his ship's facilities to repair Cy-Kill. Just as the attack is set to commence the next day, Cy-Kill makes his play to take over the drone fleet... only to find that Alva-Nar's computer refuses to take orders from him! Deploying a battery of weapons of its own, the computer forces Cy-Kill to cede command back to Alva-Nar, who agrees to continue with the attack on GoBotron all the same. The fleet moves into the planet's atmosphere and soon comes under fire from the Guardians' prepared defenses... but Alva-Nar refuses to fire a single shot in return, and instead orders Cy-Kill and the Renegades off his ship. Realizing that Cy-Kill's failed takeover bid has made the alien wise to their true natures, the Renegades have no choice but to depart aboard Thruster, reluctantly flying right into the barrage of Guardian fire going on outside. With their weapons systems disabled by Alva-Nar, the villains cannot shoot back, and only just manage to limp away to safety when their stealth device finally recharges at the last minute. Alva-Nar apologizes to the Guardians and makes peace with them, then departs to continue on his adventures. Scooter is just glad the whole thing is over, and is exasperated when Leader-1 suggests they head after Cy-Kill right away!

Featured characters[edit | edit source]

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes[edit | edit source]

RenegadeAlliance truth scanner.jpg

"Maybe we should give up."
"I will not tolerate defeatism, Cop-Tur!"
"Sorr-ryyyy. Only kidding."

Cop-Tur and Cy-Kill


"Those Renegades couldn't tell the truth if all their diodes depended on it!"
"You see how vicious they are, Alva-Naarrrrr!"

Turbo and Cy-Kill


Alva-Nar: "How long should the attack take?"
Computer: "All variables considered... about three minutes."
Cy-Kill: "That long, huh? Hahahahaha!"

Notes[edit | edit source]

Continuity notes[edit | edit source]

RenegadeAlliance staks and wrongway.jpg
If Primus were GoBotron, we'd assume this would be his butt.
RenegadeAlliance cykill damaged.jpg
  • When Cy-Kill scolds Cop-Tur, quoted above, Cop-Tur responds with a drawled "Sorr-ryyyy." This will become his catchphrase of sorts, often repeated when Cy-Kill lays into him for messing up.
  • Frank Welker provided Staks' sole previous speaking line in "Earthbound," but he does not reprise the role for the series proper, with a new actor taking over the character as of this episode.
  • Spatially-challenged Guardian Wrong Way makes his debut in this episode in terms of broadcast order, but he will later appear in the "GoBotron Saga" mini-series, which is set before "Renegade Alliance."

Continuity and plotting errors[edit | edit source]

  • It's not clear exactly where the Renegades launch from when they fly out in Thruster to intercept the Command Center. The green metal walls suggest Roguestar, but there's never an external view of the ship. They might have just been waiting on GoBotron itself—the scene of Thruster exiting a weird morphing "portal" is re-used animation of the ship leaving the Renegade Fortress from "Battle for GoBotron."

Animation and technical errors[edit | edit source]

  • Scooter's got a weird "overbite" in the first scene.
  • There's a moving starfield visible through the window of Thruster while the ship is still docked inside wherever it is it's supposed to be.
  • As Thruster rises up the launch tube, the exit portal has straight edges, as if it has ordinary blast doors that "iris" closed. In the next shot, however, as the ship emerges, the grid-like surface the portal is built into warps and the portal "morphs" closed (right).
  • When the Renegades launch their attack on the Command Center, the inside edge of Turbo's right "shoulder pylon" disappears as he leans in to look at the screen, and it stays gone for the rest of the scene.
  • Crasher's got a weirdly tall neck as the Renegades approach Alva-Nar, and her shoulders blink grey as she walks.
  • After Alva-Nar turns to face the Renegades, Crasher's "domino mask" is colored the same yellow as her eyes.
  • The normally-black detailing around the edges of Cy-Kill's "cheek stubble" is the same grey as the stubble itself when he tells Alva-Nar "because they're Guardians!"
  • It's apparent that Alva-Nar is supposed to teleport the Guardians from the bridge of the Command Center onto his ship (since he teleports them back), but the animation doesn't convey it properly, just fading from one shot to the next.
  • Cy-Kill is missing his stubble as he tries to get out of being truth-scanned.
  • Cy-Kill's black cheek detailing is grey again as he plots to take control of the fleet.
  • Scooter's face slips out of alignment with the rest of his body just a little bit, a couple of times, as he and Turbo sneak up on the fleet down on the moon.
  • When Cy-Kill and Crasher laugh at Cy-Kill's joke about the length of the attack, quoted above, Crasher's mouth doesn't move.
  • When Alva-Nar and Cop-Tur rush out to recover the damaged Cy-Kill, the Renegade leader is missing his right arm. But in the subsequent scene of him being repaired, it's his left arm that's missing.
  • Scooter's nostrils are grey instead of black in two shots during the final scene. As he bids Alva-Nar farewell, his eyeballs are orange and his pupils are white. Horrifying!

Trivia[edit | edit source]

  • This is the first episode of the series to not feature any of the Guardians' human allies—a rare occurrence that will not often repeat.

Home video releases[edit | edit source]

VHS

1985 — Challenge of the GoBots — Volume VI: "Speed Is of the Essence," "Renegade Alliance," and "Cold Spell" (Vestron Video, USA)
1986 — Challenge of the GoBots — Renegade Rampage: "Renegade Rampage, Part I", "The Renegades' Rampage, Part II" and "Renegade Alliance" (Vestron Video, UK)

DVD

2015Challenge of the GoBots — The Series, Volume One (Warner Archive Collection)