TF Views

Still binge-watching old Transformers series with my oldest daughter, and now she's been going through the original G1 series. I have fun hearing about five seconds of an episode and naming it (from the other room sometimes) and quoting dialogue before the characters say it, and just generally being a nerd and making her roll her eyes at me. I have no idea how so much of this stuck in my head, I guess I just really got into it when it first aired.

But she watched an episode yesterday that I knew about but have apparently never seen: The God Gambit. I had absolutely zero memory of this episode at all, which is a strange experience for me. Cosmos has found some energy readings but is shot down over Titan, with Astrotrain, Starscream and Ramjet pretending to be gods to the local alien population, while Jazz, Perceptor and Omega Supreme go to resolve the situation. It's a rare thing to watch a "new" G1 episode, so this was a treat.

I've been rewatching G1, and I just saw this episode for the first time about a week ago. It's an interesting one.

I just got done watching G1 a few weeks ago and I had seen that one several times, but I don't think it's one that ever got aired that often, making it more obscure. It is one of my favorites though, probably because it's so similar to so many episodes of the original Star Trek. I mean, how many episodes of Star Trek showed the Enterprise crew convincing people that a supposed "God" was nothing of the sort?

It does have a bit of a Trek feel in that regard. I was just surprised to see Astrotrain bullying his way to command of the situation and Starscream going along with it. Normally it would be Starscream insisting that he's the one in charge.

Omega Supreme has to be taken off the table until the last minute, because otherwise the episode ends the moment he arrives, since no one's a match for him.

Of all the eps, I actually remember watching this one a few years ago when I tried to watch all of season 1 and 2. It did indeed have a Trek feel to it, not just in storytelling but in scope since there were so few villains and only a handful of Autobots to oppose them.

I've found a second G1 episode I had absolutely no memory of, "BOT". It's the final episode of season 2, and apparently Brawl's brain gets used to build a robot by three annoying kids. This one falls into the "so bad it's at least oddly entertaining" category. Kind of a downer to go from this to the movie. What a bit of tonal whiplash that was.

andersonh1 wrote: ↑Tue Oct 20, 2020 8:04 am I've found a second G1 episode I had absolutely no memory of, "BOT". It's the final episode of season 2, and apparently Brawl's brain gets used to build a robot by three annoying kids. This one falls into the "so bad it's at least oddly entertaining" category. Kind of a downer to go from this to the movie. What a bit of tonal whiplash that was.

I also love how the Protectobots show up out of nowhere, complete with their own base and everything. Also a jarring whiplash compared to the two part episodes that the other combiner teams got.