One of the best episodes of Transformers parodies the classic zombie movie

Zombie robots? It can happen, and it often happened in “Transformers: Prime.”

Since “Transformers” has been remade several times over the past 40 years, new cartoons sometimes use a central gimmick to differentiate themselves from others. “Beast Wars” had robots turning into animals Instead of vehicles. The 2003 “Transformers: Armada” animated series capitalized on the “Pokémon” craze and had the Autobots and Decepticons battle over “Mini-Cons,” human-sized Transformers that can unlock great powers in larger powers. The currently airing “Transformers: Earthspark” has introduced a new group of characters called “Terrans,” who are Transformers created on Earth instead of the metallic planet Cybertron.

For the 2010-2013 cartoon “Transformers: Prime”, the gimmick was Dark Energon. “Energon” is the Transformers’ primary fuel source, and the true lifeblood of their creator, Primus. Dark Energon (which glows a painful purple instead of crystalline blue) is the blood of Primus’ shadow self, Unicron. Since Unicron cannot create life, only corrupt it, Dark Energon can resurrect dead mutants as monstrous monsters called “Terrorcons” – again, robotic zombies.

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“Transformers: Prime” began with the five-part miniseries “Darkness Rising”, in which Megatron attempts to use Dark Energon to create a Terrorcon army. To control them, Megatron injects himself with a piece of matter, making him extremely powerful but also (more) erratic. This plot comes to a head in the season 1 finale, “One Shall Rise”, where the Autobot and Decepticons must ally to thwart Unicron from resurrecting himself.

Dark Energon continues to appear throughout the next two seasons of “Transformers: Prime.” In “Flying Mind”, he brings the Decepticon warship to life. In “Alpha/Omega,” Megatron creates a super-powerful sword (“Dark Star Saber”) from Dark Energon. Then in “Thirst”, Starscream’s medic and Decepticon Knock Out accidentally start the Terrorcon epidemic.

“Thirsty” terrorists are akin to vampires, even having webbed mouths Similar to the vampire Reaper from the movie “Blade II”. However, the primary setting lies in the 1985 zombie horror comedy Return of the Living Dead.

With “Transformers: Prime” already relying on zombies, a live tribute episode was inevitable. Since “Darkness Rising” already played the undead for horror, it chose this homage instead Adapted from the famous zombie comedy.

In Return of the Living Dead, the events of Night of the Living Dead actually happened, sort of. A military-designed chemical called Trioxin spilled and created zombies, but the plague was contained. George Romero then took the idea of ​​the resurrection of the dead to make a hit movie (he changed the details to avoid a lawsuit), while the troxin was mistakenly shipped to a medical supply warehouse. One day, warehouse foreman Frank (James Karen) shows new man Freddy (Tom Matthews) Trioxin, only for them to fire him and start a zombie epidemic.

Their attempts to contain the outbreak fail at every turn. Stabbing zombies in the brain, that’s what the movies tell us He should Make the undead just dead? It doesn’t work. (“You mean the movie lied?!”) Throwing zombies into a crematorium? He contaminates the acid rain storm outside with Trioxin, causing the outbreak to spread to a nearby cemetery.

Several sources including Wikipedia “Transformers”.you’ve previously noticed how “Thirst” pays homage to “Return of the Living Dead.” The tell-tale sign is how terrorists can’t also be killed with typical zombie-smashing headshots. Knock Out, having apparently seen horror movies in drive-in theaters, learns the same lesson as Freddy: sometimes, movies lie. As in “Return”, Starscream and Knock Out refrain from alerting the proper authorities (in this case, Megatron) until the situation is already out of control. After all, if for you The boss was a thirty-foot tall robot with the face of a shark and holding a huge gun in his right hand You Do you want him to know that you screwed up like this?

Although an entertaining romp, “Thirst” cannot and should not be watched in isolation. It is one of the last episodes of “Transformers: Prime” (episode 60 out of 65), and the The last relatively self-contained story before the final story begins. Even a few expositional sentences in succession (e.g. Knock Out to urge new viewers to follow Dark Energon) can’t carry the full impact.

Several subplots converge in “Thirst” as well. For example, in the Season 1 episode “Stronger and Faster”, Autobot medic Ratchet enhances a green synthetic form of Energon that acts like a steroid. (ratchet, Voiced by Jeffrey Combs from “Re-Animator”, playing with green liquid? One of the members of the “Transformers: Prime” writing team was a horror fan.)

Knock Out got the artificial energy at the end of “Stronger, Faster” and it finally pays off here; The combination of “Synth-En” and Dark Energon is what leads to the outbreak. However, “Thirst” also shows the consequences of keeping television on for too long beyond just an increasing barrier to entry. At this point, the book custom Starscream and Knock Out were the show’s two best players, especially when paired together, so “Thirst” takes full advantage of that. Steve Blum’s range as Starscream was undeniable, turning him from scary to silly on a dime and lowering or raising his voice an octave along the way. Daran Norris’ smooth and brilliant performance as the self-obsessed Knock Out is what made the Decepticon doctor the most popular character on the show as well. (Knockout? More like a breakthrough.)

The two cons are cowardly, selfish, and funny, so watching them (fail) manage a disaster of their own making turns “Thirsty” into one of the must-see Transformers episodes.