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Season Three, Episode 5: Feral Scream, Part 1
Reviewed by Blackjack

Episode Review

Completely mediocre. There are some precious scenes in here, like Dinobot's creation or Rampage being angry at Megatron, or Depth Charge being an ass, but the plot itself isn't that good. You never believe for once that Cheetor had actually died, and the faux-horror movie setting, while done decently, doesn't gel well with the very Looney Tunes takedown of the Predacons. The shadowed monster is very obviously Cheetor in a new body, so the audience, even Saturday-morning-children, wouldn't be fooled. The big event this episode, the introduction of Dinobot II, falls flat.

Another bad thing is the fact that they've got two episodes to introduce the whole concept of Transmetal Twos, but it's botched up pretty badly with no explanation on where the Driver came out from. The new Dinobot, while high on the coolness factor, seems to be just another sadistic, slovering monster like Rampage. Which is a shame, because now the Predacon goons seem to be split into two cliches — dumb thug that gets blown up every time, or super-powered sadistic monsters. The attempt at characterization for Cheetor fails somewhat, since we don't really get to see much of him. Not the best episode out there.

Notes

First appearance of Dinobot II (or Dinobot Clone or Transmetal 2 Dinobot) as well as Cheetor's Transmetal Two Body.

Megatron's creation of Dinobot II is based on the creation of the monster from Frankenstein, complete with lightning bolts and Waspinator acting all hunch-backed and 'Masteerrrrr' like Igor. Well, the creation of the Dinobot clone from 'Double Dinobot' is also based on Frankenstein, so might be part of Megatron's creepy little obsession.

Megatron created Dinobot with a 'blank Protoform', a protoform without a spark. Whatever that's supposed to be. A malfunctioned protoform? A protoform that died during the crash? In any case, it's never touched upon again in the series.

'Subgrid Zarak' is a reference to Lord Zarak, the Nebulan Headmaster partner of G1 Scorponok.

Megatron spins around and over a cliff in a manner similar to the Tasmanian Devil and Wile E Coyote from the Looney Tunes cartoon series.

Goofs

During the top panning shot of the Predacon base, the ship is reversed. Normally the right wing is the broken one and the left wing is whole, but it is reversed. On subsequent shots it's correctly shown.

Where did Megatron get the Transmetal Two Driver from?