The Fall of GoBotron
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| "The Fall of GoBotron" | |||||||||
| Production code | 0142-8534 | ||||||||
| Production company | Hanna-Barbera | ||||||||
| Airdate | November 13, 1985 | ||||||||
| Story by | Kelly Ward, Jeff Segal, John Loy and Peter Anderegg | ||||||||
| Teleplay by | John Loy | ||||||||
| Animation studio | Wang Film Productions | ||||||||
When Renegades attack!
Synopsis[edit | edit source]
Small Foot is held at gunpoint by the treacherous Master Renegade. Crasher boards the Command Center to collect the Master Renegade and Turbo is able to blast her into the GoBeing, sending them both skittering out of the airlock into the Renegade shuttle. Scooter jumps to the controls of the Command Center and the Guardians escape to GoBotron to inform the Guardian Council. The Council reacts with panic but Zeemon is more practical, and orders the Guardians to go to Stage 6 Renegade Alert. Meanwhile the Master Renegade's weapon has done considerable damage to Small Foot, causing her transform circuits to totally vanish. Rest-Q tells Matt, A.J. and Nick that her circuitry looks as if she had never even been put through the Modifier. Matt suggests putting her through the machine a second time. Professor Von Joy sets the machine up and the process is a success. However, Roguestar has finally been completed and appears in the fourth sector of GoBotron with Cy-Kill and the Master Renegade masterminding the attack. Van Guard and Scratch detect it and raise the alarm but the ship unleashes a huge fleet of Thrusters. The Guardians begin launching their Command Centers and manning turrets in response. Leader-1, Turbo and Scooter are unable to reach their ship due to the Renegade artillery, with Leader-1 instead heading into the fray in jet mode. However, he is gunned down by Roguestar's weaponry. Turbo and Scooter are able to meet up with Small Foot, Matt, A.J. and Nick but a Thruster blows a hole in the ground in front of them and the three Guardians and their passengers fall through. Turbo and Small Foot are able to stop without damage while - obviously - Scooter completely fails to stop and crashes through a further wall. He is unharmed but seems to have disturbed something as a strange hand moves behind him.
Above the battle is not going well for the Guardians; Path Finder and Wrong Way have their Command Center shot down and are hit themselves escaping, while return fire from Roguestar destroys a turret manned by Night Ranger and Defendor. Under the surface the Guardians and their human friends have awakened another heavily modified GoBeing, and Turbo suggests taking the groggy figure to headquarters. They find the base has been all but levelled; Rest-Q calls them over to one of the few remaining secure areas and puts the stranger into a repair bay. He tells them the battle is going poorly, with Staks the latest casualty. Meanwhile Leader-1 regains consciousness but is too badly injured to avoid capture by Crasher. In the medical bay at the headquarters the stranger revives and makes wise-sounding but pointless remarks about the Battle of GoBotron beginning. He tells the gathered Guardians and humans he is the real Last Engineer and that the Master Renegade stole his ship and left him trapped on the planet. They are interrupted by Cy-Kill, who broadcasts a demand for surrender and announces the capture of Leader-1, who he plans to disassemble at the Prison Moon. The Guardians are crestfallen but Sparky announces she has a plan. Scooter, Small Foot, Sparky, the Last Engineer, Matt, A.J. and Nick board a shuttle and slip by the Renegade defences. As Sparky was once assigned to a security team on the Prison Moon she knows the facility incredibly well, finding an abandoned tunnel to get them past the Renegades now swarming all over the Moon.
Cy-Kill and Spike watch from Roguestar as Psycho fires up the Prison Moon's Disassembler as Stinger and Stallion load Leader-1's unconscious body into the machine. Sparky leads the Guardians into the Prison Moon and Turbo takes out Spoiler but Leader-1 is already inside the machine when they arrive in the Disassembler room. Turbo blasts Stallion but Psycho activates the controls seconds before he is also shot. Small Foot takes out Stinger but Scooter is unable to reverse the controls and Leader-1 is shaken into his components and fired out into space in a pod. Block Head and Bad Boy arrive in the Disassembler room but are taken out by the Last Engineer, who has a plan. The Master Renegade meanwhile reacts with disgust at seeing his old enemy. The Guardians chase Leader-1's parts in their shuttle and Turbo is able to catch the pod before it gets out of reach, and the shuttle heads back to GoBotron. However, the Renegades have all but conquered the planet - though Cy-Kill and the Master Renegade immediately begin to clash over the control of GoBotron. The Last Engineer meanwhile guides the shuttle into a service canal under GoBotron. They travel to Dome 7, where Scooter draws Geeper-Creeper and Slicks away from their sentry positions, allowing the Last Engineer and the humans to slip inside. Turbo, Small Foot and Sparky fight the Renegades while the Last Engineer salvages parts from the Modifier. The are discovered by Loco but the Last Engineer blasts him. Outside, Greeper-Creeper is knocked out but Slicks is able to make a distress call and escape while BuggyMan joins the battle, chasing after Scooter. Sparky heads off to help him; when the Last Engineer and the humans return a Thruster has arrived overhead and they're forced to head back underground. Sparky is able to ram BuggyMan off the road but the pair are unable to head back to their friends. The Last Engineer meanwhile had been able to create a revised Modifier at his underground lab that recombines Leader-1's parts. The Guardians and their allies celebrate - Turbo even bear-hugging the unfortunate Last Engineer - but then Crasher and Fitor burst in, having discovered the lab.
Featured characters[edit | edit source]
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Guardians | Renegades | Humans | Others |
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Quotes[edit | edit source]
Notes[edit | edit source]
 This episode has continuity problems that might be from it being aired out of order. |
Story Order[edit | edit source]
- Story Order: "The GoBotron Saga" is the largest continuity headache of the original Challenge of the GoBots run. Aired as episodes 41-45, it was nevertheless clearly intended to immediately follow the original five-part pilot. Regular characters and concepts like the Monster GoBots and Courageous were given origin stories in this Saga.
- Specifically here Roguestar is mentioned as just being completed and it's clear none of the Guardians have seen it before.
Continuity notes[edit | edit source]
- Gadgets and Powers:
- Scooter uses a holographic double to divert the Renegades away from Dome 7.
- At least one Thruster is equipped with a gigantic TV screen on the underside.
- Not really a power but Geeper-Creeper and Slicks both yawn.
- There are different Modifiers, with the one used on Small Foot being set for Earth-type vehicles.
- After being glimpsed in part 1, the Last Engineer makes his full appearance in this episode. Numerous other Guardians and Renegades from the second wave of the toy line also make their debut in this chapter. Spike / Sky-Jack and Stallion makes their first broadcast AND chronological appearances. Other chronological debuts include:
- Professor Von Joy, Scratch and Defendor - first appeared in "It's the Thought that Counts"
- Van Guard, Spoiler and Slicks - first appeared in "Speed Is of the Essence"
- Wrong Way - first appeared in "Renegade Alliance"
- Night Ranger and Sparky - first appeared in "Steamer's Defection"
- Stinger - first appeared in "Whiz Kid"
- Block Head - first appeared in "The Seer"
Continuity errors[edit | edit source]
- Turbo blasts Crasher in such a manner that she falls forward into the Master Renegade and then turns at a 90 degree angle to fly out the airlock. It's like the "magic bullet", but with hand-blasters.
- Once the hostage situation is resolved the Guardians have Leader-1, Turbo, Path Finder, Blaster and Flip Top at fighting strength, maybe with Hans-Cuff as well, while the Renegades seemingly have just Cy-Kill, Crasher and Cop-Tur... so why do the Guardians run for home and just leave the Master Renegade to form an alliance with them? They could surely radio the Guardian Council events?
- Small Foot didn't appear to be seriously injured by the Master Renegade, but she is suddenly under Rest Q's care with a mysterious injury that made her transforming circuitry disappear...allowing the audience to see the Modifier for the first time.
- So after stumbling into a mysterious hidden chamber in the Moon of Knowledge and finding a clue to the Last Engineer's final fate, then going on a wild goose chase across the galaxy to Antares III, the Guardians find the Last Engineer after centuries when a stray Thruster blast creates a hole in the road, they fall in, and Scooter then crashes through a second hole, all completely at random. It's like slipping on a banana peel and finding Jimmy Hoffa under a table when you fall.
- Why didn't the Last Engineer tell anyone that the Master Renegade had taken his place before just picking a random place to go into hibernation anyway?
- It's really vague how Sparky's team just fly past Roguestar and what the 'last of the Guardian fleet' thing is about. It feels like a line about the other Command Centers being holograms or somesuch is missing.
Animation and technical errors[edit | edit source]
- Cy-Kill pronounces "Roguestar" as "Rog-U-star".
- Van Guard speaks both his lines and Scratch's while on monitor duty.
- Crasher's pupils are missing when she asks to fire on Leader-1 from Thruster.
- Rest Q suddenly has a mouth when he finds the team with the Last Engineer.
- When the Guardians break in to save Leader-1, Cy-Kill's lips mouth "What?", but no sound comes out.
- In the Disassembler room Cy-Kill frequently responds to and sees things he shouldn't be able to as he's just an image on a screen. You could be charitable and say we don't see what he's actually watching but either way he shouldn't really keep turning every time someone walks into the room
- Slicks's mouth doesn't move when he calls for reinforcements.
Real-world references[edit | edit source]
Trivia[edit | edit source]
- Imagine spending decades in cryogenic sleep and the first thing you see when you wake up is Scooter.
- For his second and last appearance Psycho has a slightly modified character model, with a small mouth and tiny glowing eyes added to his head. He's also coloured correctly, or at least closer to his toy.
- Disassembling bad guys and firing their parts into deep space might be a pragmatic military and law enforcement plan but it really doesn't feel like something the good guys in a cartoon should be doing.
- Why Sparky never gets a regular stint on Earth is one of the great mysteries of GoBots. Perhaps she has better things to do that hang around with the regulars, who treat her like dirt even though she's about their only hope.
