Stronger, Faster
From Transformers Wiki
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 More alive. | ||||||
| "Stronger, Faster" | ||||||
| Season | 1 | |||||
| No. in season | 22 | |||||
| Production company | Hasbro Studios | |||||
| Airdate | August 14, 2011 (Canada) September 17, 2011 (USA) | |||||
| Written by | Mairghread Scott | |||||
| Directed by | Shaunt Nigoghossian | |||||
| Animation studio | Polygon Pictures | |||||
 Watch this episode on YouTube
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Ratchet 'finalizes' the synthetic energon formula and uses himself as a test subject, but it ends up having some negative side effects.
Contents |
Synopsis
Ratchet checks out a sample of synthetic energon he's created, watched by Raf. Approving the stability of the energon, Ratchet tries it on a test engine, and it works fine. Raf's keen to try it on Bumblebee, but Ratchet says it'll require more testing first. Meanwhile, the base sensors pick up energon movement, but before Optimus Prime gives the order to roll out, Ratchet warns him about the depleted state of their energon reserves. Once Prime's team departs, Ratchet has the idea to try the synthetic energon on himself. The injection causes him to lose consciousness, and Raf rouses him from lying on the floor shortly afterward. The synthetic energon appears to be a success, giving him more fuel efficiency and better motor functions.
Meanwhile, Prime's team chases Knock Out and Breakdown through an icy canyon. The Decepticons aren't in any hurry to bridge out, as they're trying to "help" the Autobots run out of energon. Some Vehicons flying overhead blast the sheer sides of canyon, causing a rock fall that blocks off the Autobots' path. Arcee manages to drive over it in her motorcycle mode, despite Prime's warnings, and races after the two Decepticons, only to be hit by missiles from the Vehicons. She is swiftly surrounded by Decepticons, and things look grim until Ratchet comes flying through the GroundBridge and begins laying into them with gusto. Knock Out and Breakdown assume that the Ratchet's a new Autobot, but are forced to retreat as Optimus, Bulkhead and Bumblebee come into view, firing at them. Ratchet finishes off the last of the Vehicons, to stunned looks from his teammates.
Back at base, Ratchet reveals his secret to the other Autobots, but Optimus doesn't think it's a good idea to test the synthetic energon on Autobots, and he underlines the importance of Ratchet's job as medic. Some time later, Ratchet's retelling his fight to Bulkhead, and in demonstrating a move, manages to throw his fellow Autobot through a nearby wall. The other Autobots are startled at his new personality. Ratchet goes and injects more of the synthetic energon into himself. When the sensors light up once more, Prime prepares to roll out again, but Ratchet volunteers to go along.
As they head through a mountainous area, Ratchet moves ninja-style at the front of the team. They soon find some Vehicons and a miner drilling into a rock face, and Ratchet immediately moves in. When the miner makes a run for it, Ratchet gives chase and knocks him down with a well-thrown rock. The other Autobots find Ratchet forcibly interrogating the miner with his blowtorch. Optimus stops him from finishing off the prisoner and begins to lecture him on doing harm where none is necessary, but Ratchet is agitated, believing they should be more proactive. As the argument heats up, Ratchet even manages to antagonize Arcee by bringing up Cliffjumper, and calls Prime out for his many missed opportunities to kill Megatron. Prime decides to confine Ratchet to base. Though Ratchet appears to go calmly through the GroundBridge, moments later, he charges back out, flattening Bulkhead and racing off. Prime's team returns to base, but is unable to get a fix on Ratchet's signal.
In a Decepticon energon mine, Breakdown is chatting with a miner when Ratchet walks into the cavern. Elsewhere, Megatron shouts at Knock Out for not finding a new energon source, but they're interrupted by Ratchet dropping Breakdown on the floor. Megatron scoffs at the newcomer, until a punch from Ratchet sends him flying. However, Megatron is made of sterner stuff, and he gives Ratchet a savage injury, telling Knock Out to take a sample of the resultant leaking fluids so they can find out how Ratchet got so amped up.
On the bright side, as the synthetic energon drains out, Ratchet is rendered visible to the sensors in the Autobot base, and Optimus, Arcee and Bulkhead use the GroundBridge to attack the mine.
Knock Out completes taking his sample and moves in to finish Ratchet off with his circular saw. When the sound of approaching fighting distracts the Decepticon, Ratchet takes the opportunity to fight back, resulting in Knock Out's saw getting stuck in the wall. Ratchet promptly grabs the synthetic energon sample and smashes it. Knock Out is outraged, but once more has to retreat as the other Autobots arrive.
Ratchet is hooked up to a drip back at base, and he apologizes for his behavior. Optimus points out the new supply of energon they got from the mine, and Ratchet promises to do more testing on the synthetic stuff before using it on Autobots again. Optimus is just thankful they destroyed Knock Out's sample, unaware of the fact that back at the mine, Knock Out has found a single drop of synthetic energon.
Featured characters
(Characters in italic text appear only in flashbacks.)
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans |
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Quotes
"HOOAAH!"
- —Ratchet gets a new catchphrase. He needed that.
Ratchet: (clicks as he walks by) How's it hummin'?
Arcee: ...Did he just?
Bulkhead: Stronger, faster, studlier.
- —Yeah, he did.
"It's all right! I'm an emergency vehicle!"
- —Ratchet, engaging the Decepticons.
"Get melted, wheel-grinder!"
"Melted? Now there's a concept. (activates blowtorch) I won't ask you a second time! Where? Is? Megatron?"
- —A Vehicon Miner's insult to Ratchet backfires horribly.
"A direct assault on the Decepticons would only provoke retaliation...and lead to incalculable losses. I will not endanger innocent human lives."
"Yet you seem to have no problem endangering ours! Just ask Cliffjumper! Oh, I forgot! He couldn't be here today!"
"That's it!"
- — Optimus' principles don't sit well with Ratchet, who pisses off Arcee while making his point.
"Yeah, she's kinda domineering and the extra arms are weird, but... I find myself intrigued by her."
- —Breakdown chats to a miner about his thoughts on Airachnid.
(to Knock Out) "That is your fearsome new adversary? (Chuckles) He's Optimus Prime's medic!"
(to Megatron) "Oh no, Megatron, I am your doctor of doom!"
- —Megatron is unimpressed by Ratchet.
Notes
Continuity notes
- The synthetic energon created in the episode is derived from the formula transcribed by Bulkhead in the previous episode.
- Ratchet's description of the Autobots having fought numerous battles recently is accompanied by flashbacks to various battles from the "Darkness Rising" five-part pilot among others, including "Operation: Breakdown" and "Partners".
- The engine Ratchet uses to test the synthetic energon is a larger version of the device Ratchet built for Jack's science project in "Masters & Students". Thankfully, it doesn't flip out like Jack's did.
- Knock Out confuses Ratchet for a "new" Autobot. Which makes sense, since he hasn't encountered him before. Ratchet was with the other Autobots when they charged in to rescue Bulkhead from Starscream and Breakdown in "Operation: Breakdown", but it's entirely possible that Breakdown simply didn't see him, since he was focused on escaping and missing an eye at the time.
- While Ratchet concedes that Synthetic Energon needs more refining, it would not be mentioned again until "Project Predacon", over a year and a half later.
Real-world references
- Given that the plot centers on the idea of artificial enhancement, this episode's title is almost certainly a reference to the opening of the 1974 series The Six Million Dollar Man, which promised a cybernetic secret agent who was "Better, stronger, faster."
- That said, there's also the possibility it could be a reference to the original Action Masters commercial, in which Optimus Prime described the new breed of Transformer as "Stronger, faster, more alive!"
- It's also the same plot as about a billion after-school specials on the dangers of drugs.
- Ratchet referred to himself as Megatron's "Doctor of Doom." This goes without saying.
- Ratchet dabbling with a green liquid 'enhancement' is reminiscent of his voice actor, Jeffrey Combs, in the movie Re-Animator.
- Ratchet's short-lived new catchphrase, "hooah", is the battle cry/general term of acknowledgement of the United States Army.
Errors
- After Arcee continues to chase down Knock Out and Breakdown, air support arrives. However, when they shoot Arcee, Knock Out and Breakdown have vanished from in front of her. Furthermore, when the other Autobots finally climb over the rock pile to help Arcee, she is only a few yards from the pile, whereas she should be several miles away.
- When Arcee is hurt, she obviously couldn't move her leg, but when she walks through the GroundBridge she is magically healed.
- When Ratchet first injects himself, he drops the glass cylinder and it shatters on the ground. Later, when Knock Out collects a sample of the synthetic energon in a nearly identical cylinder, and Ratchet kicks it out of his hands, the cylinder flies across the entire room and lands without breaking. Then Ratchet throws it against a rock wall in the same room and it breaks instantly.
- Ratchet jumps onto and leaps off of a tree branch which seems totally capable of supporting all the weight of an SUV landing on top of it with all that force, then leaping off. Not so much as a wood chip or crack to be seen - though it does creak audibly.
- During his first fight with the Vehicons, Ratchet slices the arm off one and throws it to the ground, where it stays. When Ratchet moves on to his next opponent, the arm simply blinks out of existence.
- When Ratchet rears back to kill the Decepticon miner, his optics are colored with their normal blue light, rather than the green Synth-En infused color they have before and after.
- Bumblebee is shown returning with the other Autobots despite staying at base to operate the GroundBridge.
- The sample of synthetic energon Knock Out was holding was only about half full, but when Ratchet picked it up, it was completely full.
- Just before destroying the cylinder of synthetic energon, Ratchet's wound is not shown to be leaking. Mere moments after he's hit the ground, another puddle of energon has formed beneath him.
- Breakdown is knocked out by Ratchet just before he engages Megatron. When the Autobots show up at the end, however, Breakdown has vanished and he isn't shown fleeing with Knock Out.
- During Ratchet's first fight with the Vehicons, his shoulder pads clip into him several times.
Trivia
- The episode was first broadcast on Canada's Teletoon channel. It later first aired in the United States on September 17, 2011.
- When Ratchet transforms to attack the Decepticon miners, his license plate reads "449·EPQ".
- Even though Optimus said they don't harm servant class, upon entering the Decepticon mines, it would appear that he knocks the total mess out of a miner. He must really care about Ratchet. Though it may have also been in fact because the miners attacked them first.
- This was the last stand-alone episode until "Loose Cannons" in Season 2. It was followed by a seven-part story arc, a two-parter, and massive delays between episode airings.
- According to Mairghread Scott, during the first draft of this episode there was a line, during the scene where Ratchet berates Optimus for his perceived inaction against Megatron, which implied Elita One had died during the war and he was blaming Optimus for it, leading Prime to punch Ratchet. The line and punch were cut as the story editor didn't want Optimus to lose his cool during the scene.[1]
Foreign localization
Brazilian
French
- Title: "La Métamorphose de Ratchet" ("Ratchet's Metamorphosis")
- Original airdate: ?
German
- Title: "Gegen die Vorschrift" ("Against the Rules")
- Original airdate: 17 February 2012
Hungarian
- Title: "Erősebb, gyorsabb" ("Stronger, Faster")
- Original airdate: 7 February 2012
Indonesian
- Title: "Lebih Cepat, Lebih Kuat" ("Stronger, Faster")
- Original airdate: 28 September 2012
Italian
- Title: "Più forte, più veloce" ("Stronger, Faster")
- Original airdate: 10 December 2011
Japanese
- Title: "Kindan Henkei!? Ratchet Saikyō Densetsu?" (禁断変形!?ラチェット最強伝説?, "Forbidden Transformation!? Ratchet's Strongest Legend?")
- Original airdate: 1 September 2012
Korean
- Title: "Hapseong Eneojon" (합성 에너존, "Synthetic Energon")
- Original airdate: 8 November 2011
Polish
Spanish (Spain)
Home video releases
- DVD
2012 — Transformers Prime — Season One (Shout! Factory)
2012 — Transformers Prime — Season One Collection (Madman Entertainment)
2012 — Transformers Prime — Volume 5: One Shall Fall, One Shall Rise (Madman Entertainment)
2012 — Transformers Prime — Folge 6: Die Prophezeiung (EDEL:kids) — English and German audio.
2012 — Transformers Prime — Staffel 1 - Das Bündnis (EDEL:kids) — English and German audio.
2012 — Transformers Prime — Vol. 11 (Avex Trax) — Japanese audio only.
2013 — Transformers Prime — Vol. 5: One Shall Stand (Universal Pictures IT) — English, Italian, Dutch, French and Spanish audio.
2014 — Transformers Prime — Saison 1 Vol. 5: Un seul vaincra (Universal Pictures France) — English, French, Italian, Dutch and Spanish audio.
2014 — Transformers Prime — Saison 1: L'intégrale (Universal Pictures France) — English, French, Italian, Dutch and Spanish audio.
2014 — Transformers Prime — Season One: One Shall Stand (Universal Pictures UK)
2014 — Transformers Prime — Ultimate Autobots (Shout! Factory)
2015 — Transformers Prime — Season One (Universal Pictures UK)
- Blu-ray
2012 — Transformers Prime — Season One (Shout! Factory)
2012 — Transformers Prime — Season One Collection (Madman Entertainment)
2012 — Transformers Prime — Staffel 1 - Das Bündnis (EDEL:kids) — English and German audio.
