The Quintessons, as part of a new attempt at regaining Cybertron, unleash the most dangerous creature known.
Dweller in the Depths (Japanese title: "Vampire of the Planet Seibertron") is the twenty-second episode of the third season of The Transformers and is the eighty-seventh episode of The Transformers series overall. It is overall the eighty-seventh episode of the G1 Era of The Transformers.
Synopsis[]
We'll avoid the obvious two-faced jokes here.
On Cybertron, the Autobots have just successfully activated Perceptor ’s new power core, which should be able to triple the planet's energy reserves. A short distance away in their ship, the Quintessons watch, disgusted by the success and progress of their creations. One Quintesson unveils a plan to release the Dweller, one of the early biomechanical experiments called Trans-Organics that were developed by the Quintessons that predate the creation of the Transformers. Unable to even perform rudimentary assignments, the Trans-Organics were unstable monsters that were eventually sealed away in a hibernation chamber deep within Cybertron.
In true horror movie style, the girl grabs the most phallic weapon she can to defend herself.
On Charr, Galvatron is lamenting his Decepticon troops incompetence when the Quintessons beam down to talk. The Quintessons inform Galvatron about the Autobot's new power core but purposely give him the wrong location. Galvatron, Cyclonus and the Sweeps arrive on Cybertron, and break into the tunnel that leads below, soon pursued by Ultra Magnus, Arcee, Kup, Springer, and Wreck-Gar. The Decepticons uncover the storage chamber of the Trans-Organics, and accidentally release them from their stasis pods. The creatures soon attack both the Decepticons and the Autobots.
In trying to escape, The Decepticons makes it to the chamber of the gigantic leach monster, the Dweller who quickly manges to drain the enegry of Scourge and a Sweep and nearly Galvatron. The rest Decepticons then escape the Dweller who follows them to the Autobots and the Trans- Organics who are quickly destroyed by it. Ultra Magnus nearly has his energy drained before being saved by Wreck- Gar, but unfortuantly is caught by the net and has his enegry drained as well along with another Sweep are is put into a pod. Springer breakes into the pod but it is already too late as Wreck Gar has been turned into an Energy Vampire and turns Springer into one as well.
Wreck-Gar, Springer and the other Energy Vampires attack, While Galvatron and his remaining Decepticon forces maneges to trap Kup,Ultra Magnus and Arcee with the Vampires and the Dweller. Arcee is caught in th Dweller net as the Energy Vampies gets closer, but a quick call by Kup maneges to save her but is turned into one himself. Ultra Magnus and Arcee beaks down the rubble and escapes with the Dweller and the Vampires following. The Decpeticons are being chased by the Vampires and try to shoot them down, which is no use because Cyclonus explains the Vampires are drawn to their enegry. Galvatron throws the last Sweeps to the Enegry Vampires, which Cyclones and Galvatron tries to get away but the Dweller uses its net to capture Cyclones with Enegry Vampires getting him to. Galvatron then tries to give the Arcee and Ultra Magnus to the Dweller but its no use as all three of them escape.
Catch the red eye.
The two Autobots make it back to headquarters where they update Rodimus Prime and Perceptor of the situation, the energy vampires bursting in right behind them. Perceptor determines that the vampires are suffering from a unique form of energy depletion and that a power surge should restabilize their levels. The Autobots form a chain with Perceptor at the end who plugs himself into the console and they inject the crowd of vampire with an Energon surge. The surge returns the Autobots and Decepticons to normal. Cyclonus, Scourge, and the other Sweeps quickly escape and rejoin Galvatron.
Meanwhile, The Dweller is breaking free to the surface, getting bigger from its energy absorption, and heading for Perceptor's generator. Knowing that it will be unstoppable once it has attached itself to it, Perceptor uses the emergency eject switch to launch both the generator and the Dweller on top of it into space. Floating far away from Cybertron, The Dweller instead attaches itself to the ship of the Quintessons who started everything in the first place.
Stats[]
Original airdate: October 30, 1986
Production number: 700-107
Written by: Paul Dini
Featured characters[]
Notable quotes[]
Why can't I get any loyalty out of my troops that I'm always shooting at or throwing at big slobbering monsters?!
"You cringy, cowardly, weak-willed fools! Why am I still stuck on this worthless, cosmic trashbin! Why have I not retaken Cybertron?! And most importantly, why have I been saddled with such a useless pile of rusting junk for followers!"
"But mighty Galvatron, we humble Sweeps need energon to-"
"Its power you want?! I will give you power!"
- -- Galvatron in his rage demands to know from Scourge and the Sweeps why he isnt victorious. He takes out his frustrations on them until the Quintessons arrive.
"Quintessons! You betrayed us to the Autobots, why should we listen to you?"
"Hehe. Please Galvatron, you can't lay one bad experience on the doorstep of the whole Quintesson race. Besides, how can you be so certain that we were the ones who betrayed you?"
"Well...you all do look alike."
- -- Galvatron and the Quintessons as the latter manipulate the Decepticon leader as part of their new plan to retake Cybertron.
"YO JOE! Here I come to save the day. Ayay-yaya-yai! Can this be... the end... of little Wreck-gar? Oh no!"
- -- Wreck-gar as he saves Ultra Magnus from the Dwellers energy draining web only to be trapped in it himself and getting his energy stolen by the beast.
Cybertron has a C.H.U.D. problem too.
"Come on Wreck-gar buddy! They haven't canceled your series yet!"
- -- Springer as he frees the energy drained Wreck-gar from the Dwellers rear pouch.
"Be a good soldier and help him."
"Galvatron, NO! I beg you!"
- -- Galvatron sacrificing another Sweep to the energy vampires that are approaching.
"I don't know what that thing is back in the tunnels, but even if it gets me as well, I'll die with the satisfaction that the universe will have two more Autobots to mourn!"
- -- Galvatron as he is about to attack Ultra Magnus and Arcee, not realising that the Dweller is fast approaching.
Trivia[]
- TBA.
Notes[]
How to bully a Sweep.
- This isn't the only energy leech to plague the Transformers as a few episodes later Tornadron will make an appearance in Call of the Primitives.
- Oddly, one of the transorganics (the gorilla with tentacles) vaguely resembles the D&D demon prince Demogorgon.
- Galvatron is up to his
underling managementminion bashing in this episode. He takes great pleasure in kicking the bolts out of his followers.
- 1. Select minion.
- 2. Let him babble.
- 3. Swing a fist.
- 4. Watch him fly!
Animation and/or technical glitches[]
They learned the hard way why those Japanese school girls were running away.
- When the Dweller reaches Cybertron's surface, Streetwise and Groove are seen shooting at it, but Streetwise is colored like Optimus Prime and Groove is colored like Wheelie.
Continuity errors[]
- "Through the ages, many groups of Quintessons have tried to retake Cybertron, but none have succeeded." Their efforts must have been very subtle, as nobody, on either the Autobot or Decepticon sides has had any awareness of them over the last 9 million years. There was even a four million year period where most of them were offline on a distant planet, yet they still don't seem to have done much about this ambition. Unless Shockwave and his crew fended them off and never told anyone.
- Galvatron's claim that the Quintessons "betrayed us to the Autobots" doesn't really describe any of the Decepticons' encounters with them; presumably it's in reference to their deceitful alliance in "Five Faces of Darkness, Part 5".
- Why are Arcee and Magnus trembling at Galvatron's approach? Even if it was in character for either of them, they've already had like two fights with him in this episode alone!
- Galvatron and the Decepticons were trounced by the Dweller - but then Arcee is able to use Galvatron's cannon to blast the Dweller through a wall and force it to retreat.
Transformer references[]
- The Quintessons remark on the Autobots ancestors being the ones responsible for their exile from Cybertron.
Real-world references[]
- This episode is heavily influenced by the writings of H.P. Lovecraft.
- Wreck-Gar quotes the catchphrases of both the G.I. Joe team and Mighty Mouse.
- While "Ai-yai-yai" is a fairly generic cry of distress, his TV-mania almost certainly makes it a quote from Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz) in I Love Lucy.
- "Can this be...the end...of little Wreck-Gar?" parodies the dying words of Edward G. Robinson's title character in Little Caesar.
- Wreck-Gar even stays in character after he's a vampire, crying out "Feed me!" before latching on to Springer - a moment of genre-savvy gallows humor, as he's quoting the ravenous plant Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors.
- "Y'all don't come back now, ya hear?" plays on a line made famous in the closing theme song of The Beverly Hillbillies.
- Star Wars sound effects:
- Lots of clashing and sparking lightsabers when people's energy is being drained (or restored), and again when Magnus blasts the pile of rubble away from the Dweller chamber.
- Millennium Falcon engine burst as the power core is jettisoned.
Miscellaneous trivia[]
- Paul Dini, writer for this episode, would later go on to create "Batman: The Animated Series", and later on, the entire "DC Animated Universe". He's also the creator of DC character, Harley Quinn.
