SYNOPSIS

The Command Center is on patrol in the Omega Quadrant. At the the UNECOM station there, the scientist Mobius has invented an inverter ray. His son Danny interrupts the experiment, damaging the device. After getting told off, Danny pinches a travel pod and leaves the station, just before it's attacked by the Renegades. Doctor Braxis and Cy-Kill strong-arm Mobius into working with them. The take him before the Guardians arrive and save Danny, and shoot down the station. Scooter and Leader-1 save it from destruction and find that Mobius is missing. They track the Renegades to Pluto, but Cy-Kill turns the inverter on the Command Center. When Mobius realises Danny has stowed away on the ship he turns the ray off. The Renegades withdraw after Crasher is injured, using Mobius as a hostage to cover their escape. Leader-1 guesses Cy-Kill is heading towards Gobotron.

He's right, and Cy-Kill gives the inhabitants two hours to declare him Overlord of Gobotron or he'll destroy the planet. Onboard the Command Center, Danny once again heads off by himself, this time to find his dad, and gets to the moon the Renegades are using as a platform for the inverter ray. The boy is caught and imprisoned with Mobius inside a forcefield. Then the Guardians arrive, and Cy-Kill orders the ray to be fired. While they fight, Scooter uses a hologram of Gobotron to confuse Braxis' aim. Mobius then manages to make a hole in the forcefield for Danny to sneak out. The boy then accidentally Astro-Beams Cy-Kill and Braxis to Gobotron. Cop-Tur and Crasher withdraw to collect them. Danny is then able to wreck the inverter in the same way he did previously, saving the planet.

NOTES

This is Scratch's first Guardian assignment. In vehicle mode, his headlights fire laser beams. He doesn't really do a lot at all, and has little in the way of personality apart from being unobtrusive. The Command Center has a tractor beam. Mobius resents UNECOM for posting him in a far-off station. How Dr. Braxis escaped from Earth custody where he was last seen in "The Final Conflict" isn't explained.

Aside from Zeemon, Hans-Cuff and (heh) BuggyMan, the population of Gobotron are represented by some wacky generics.

This episode was released on PAL VHS by Vestron in the UK, on the tape Genius and Son.

TRIVIA

Gobots Featured: Leader-1, Scooter, Turbo, Scratch, Cy-Kill, Cop-Tur, Crasher, Screw Head, Zeemon, Hans-Cuff.

Humans Featured: Matt, Nick, AJ, Dr. Braxis, Mobius, Danny.

Particularly Glaring Errors: Pluto is basically the Moon in Gobot-land. BuggyMan (a Renegade) appears alongside Hans-Cuff chasing Cy-Kill and Braxis at the end. Fair play to him for pitching in, though; aside from Hans, Zeemon and the Command Center team no other Guardians bother turning up despite Gobotron being in peril.

Moments of Actual Quality: None.

Unintentional Hilarity: Danny. What. The. Hell. Obviously the template for the Transformers character of the similar name, though.

REVIEW:

Hand-eatingly awful. Danny really is a little shit, and he looks completely bizarre with his space pyjamas and space pudding bowl haircut combo. Plus The Lesson is to muck around with your dad's highly dangerous projects, because you never know when it'll save the day.

There's not a lot else to the episode at all - another crazy superweapon, another lesson about appreciating other people being key to stopping superweapons, the usual. The animation is dull and unimaginative even on relative terms, and it's very dull.