Robot zombies? It could happen, and often did in “Transformers: Prime.”
Since “Transformers” has been remade so many times over the past 40 years, new cartoons will sometimes use a central gimmick to set themselves apart from the crowd. “Beast Wars” had robots that transformed into animals instead of vehicles. The 2003 anime series “Transformers: Armada” cashed in on the “Pokémon” craze and had the Autobots and Decepticons fighting over “Mini-Cons,” human-sized Transformers that could unlock great powers in the larger ones. The currently airing “Transformers: Earthspark” has introduced a new batch of characters called the “Terrans,” who are Transformers created on Earth instead of the metal planet Cybertron.
For the 2010-2013 cartoon “Transformers: Prime,” the gimmick was Dark Energon. “Energon” is the Transformers’ primary fuel source, and the literal lifeblood of their creator, Primus. Dark Energon (which glows a sickly purple instead of crystal blue) is the blood of Primus’ shadow self, Unicron. Since Unicron cannot create life, only pervert it, Dark Energon can reanimate dead Transformers as savage monsters called “Terrorcons” — again, robot zombies.
“Transformers: Prime” kicked off with the five part mini-series “Darkness Rising,” in which Megatron tries to use Dark Energon to create a Terrorcon army. To control them, Megatron infuses himself with a shard of the substance, making him extra powerful but also (even more) erratic. This plot climaxes 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 pop throughout the following two seasons of “Transformers: Prime.” In “Flying Mind,” it brings the Decepticons’ warship to life. In “Alpha/Omega,” Megatron forges a super-powerful sword (the “Dark Star Saber”) from Dark Energon. Then in “Thirst,” Starscream and Decepticon medic Knock Out accidentally kick-start a Terrorcon plague.
The “Thirst” Terrorcons are closer to vampires, even having nested mouths a la the Reaper vampires from “Blade II.” The basic set-up, though, lies with the 1985 zombie horror-comedy “The Return of the Living Dead.”
Return of the Living Dead made the apocalypse into a comedy of errors
With “Transformers: Prime” leaning on zombies already, a straight homage episode was inevitable. Since “Darkness Rising” already played the undead for horror, that homage chose instead to pull from a famous zombie comedy.
In “The 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 dead rising to make a hit movie (changing the details around to avoid a lawsuit), while the Trioxin was accidentally shipped to a medical supply warehouse. One day, warehouse foreman Frank (James Karen) shows the Trioxin to new guy Freddy (Thom Mathews), only for them to unleash it and start a zombie plague.
Their attempts to contain the outbreak fail at every turn. Stabbing a zombie in the brain, which movies tell us should make the undead just dead? Doesn’t work. (“You mean the movie lied?!”) Throwing a zombie in a crematorium? It contaminates the acid rain storm outside with Trioxin, making the outbreak spread to a nearby graveyard.
Several sources, including the “Transformers” Wiki, have previously noted how “Thirst” homages “The Return of the Living Dead.” The tell-tale sign is how the Terrorcons, too, can’t be killed with typical zombie-busting headshots. Knock Out, having apparently watched horror movies at drive-in theaters, learns the same lesson as Freddy: sometimes, the movies lie. Like in “Return,” Starscream and Knock Out refrain from alerting the proper authorities (in this case, Megatron) until the situation is already well out of hand. After all, if your boss was a thirty-foot tall shark-faced robot with a huge gun on his right hand, would you want him to know you’d screwed up like this?
Thirst is Transformers: Prime at its best
Though an amusing romp, “Thirst” cannot and should not be watched in isolation. It’s one of the last “Transformers: Prime” episodes (episode 60 out of 65), and the last relatively-standalone one before the final story arc kicks off. Even a few run-on sentences of exposition (i.e. Knock Out getting new viewers up to speed on Dark Energon) can’t carry the full impact.
Many subplots converge in “Thirst,” too. For instance, in season 1 episode “Stronger, Faster” the Autobot medic Ratchet refined a synthetic green-colored form of Energon that functioned like a steroid. (Ratchet, voiced by Jeffrey Combs of “Re-Animator,” playing around with a green liquid? Someone on the “Transformers: Prime” writing team was a horror fan.)
Knock Out got his hands on the Synthetic Energon at the end of “Stronger, Faster” and that finally pays off here; combining the “Synth-En” and Dark Energon is what creates the outbreak. However, “Thirst” also shows the consequences of long-running TV beyond just an ever-higher barrier to entry. By this point, the writers knew Starscream and Knock Out were the show’s MVPs, 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 smarmy performance as the self-obsessed Knock Out is what made the Decepticon doctor into the show’s most popular character too. (Knock Out? More like Breakout.)
The two Cons are both cowardly, selfish and hilarious, so watching them (fail to) manage a disaster of their own making turns “Thirst” into one of the must-see “Transformers” episodes.
