Original Air Date: September 25, 1996
Writer: Larry DiTillio
Director: Nicholas Kendall
Script: Word format
Episode Synopsis
Terrorsaur discovers a floating mountain of energon crystals. Upon investigating the mountain of power, he accidentally absorbs unstable energon into his superstructure. The result is a super powered and larger Terrorsaur. Terrorsaur's first course of action is to challenge Megatron for leadership of the Predacons! As Terrorsaur races to the Predacon base, Cheetor sees all that has occurred and hurries back to the Axalon to report.
Terrorsaur challenges Megatron and after a powerful juel, destroys the Predacon leader. Terrorsaur suddenly feels the unstable energon leaving his system. He flies away, ordering the Predacons to prepare for battle with the Maximals. Scorponok decides to rebuild Megatron in Terrorsaur's absence while Tarantulas follows Terrorsaur to investigate his new
source of power.
Meanwhile, Cheetor reports the floating mountain to Optimus Primal and the Maximals. Optimus and Rattrap quickly mobilize and head towards the mountain to destroy it before the Predacons can use it against the Maximals.
At the mountain, Terrorsaur recharges. Optimus challenges Terrorsaur to an aerial duel. Meanwhile, Rattrap faces Tarantulas and defeats the arachnid before he plants the charges. Optimus puts up quite a struggle but Terrorsaur manages to shoot him down before needing to recharge again.
Terrorsaur discovers the charges Rattrap has set and abandons the mountain. Tarantulas also leaves. Optimus, too damaged to fly, takes Rattrap on his back and jumps off the mountain to escape the destructive explosion that follows. The two land in a jungle, tired but safe.
Back at Predacon base, Terrorsaur returns thinking he is still Predacon leader...until Megatron fully functional and operational shows up!
Comments & Questions
General Thoughts:
This episode uses a good "science fiction" plot device while giving us a good look at both Maximals and Predacons in one episode. As episodes go, this one was fairly even handed showing that sometimes, the Beast Wars can take place within the ranks of one faction.
Comments:
- In retrospect, Terrorsaur's reaction to seeing the Floating Mountain for the first time "By the Inferno" seems odd. However, Terrorsaur is definately not referring to the Predacon (later introduced in "Spider's Game") but rather the Predacon installation where new Predacon protoforms are created. However, once the character of Inferno was introduced, it was necessary to change the term to "The Pit", used from Inferno's introduction on.
This episode provides a bit of continuity from "The Web" where Scorponok originally found the "Mega Cannon". This cues the audience as to how the Predacons develop a defense perimeter as the season moved along.
Terrorsaur's challenge to Megatron reveals two things:
* Megatron and Terrorsaur have fought at least once before over leadership, with Terrorsaur as the loser.
* Such confrontations seem fairly common among Predacons. This was indicated by Dinobot's challenge in "Beast Wars" as well as the calm way which Megatron reacted to Terrorsaur's challenge.
This episode firmly establishes Scorponok as second in command of the Predacons, and that he is protective of the role, but loyal to Megatron.
Note the use of shadows as Cheetor charges at the Axalon. Use of shadows grows more and more scarce by this point in the season.
"Power Surge" offers fans a chance at seeing battle between two Transformers in beast mode (Rattrap and Tarantulas). Although this would occur again now and then throughout the series, as the seasons went along, this became more rare.
Optimus Primal's attitude of "Sometimes crazy works." shows an interesting aspect of Optimus Primal's leadership style. Plus this quote eventually made its way into the tech specs of the Botcon Japan exclusive toy Grizzly-1/Barbearian.
Terrorsaur turning white at the end out of fear was a funny touch, and a light hearted way to end the episode.
Questions:
1. Why does Terrorsaur's body and weaponry change once he touches the unstable energon?
As a result of his energon "power surge", Terrorsaur's form changes. This is consistant with the fact that the Maximal and Predacon bodies contain millions of tiny robots (nanites) that control their forms. Much like the Transmetals who would later be created due to a Quantum Surge, Terrorsaur's body had to grow and change to adjust to the high amount of power being coursed through it. Weapons are part of the Transformers' bodies so it is not unusual that Terrorsaur's guns and shoulder cannons grew as well.
