Ghost in the Machine (G1)

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Screw you guys, I'm going home.
"Ghost in the Machine"
Production code	700-100
Season	3
No. in season	15
Production company	Sunbow Productions
Airdate	October 21, 1986
Written by	Joey Kurihara Piedra Michael Charles Hill
Animation studio	AKOM, Sam Young Studio
Continuity	Generation 1 cartoon continuity
Watch this episode on YouTube

Set on regaining a physical body, the ghost of Starscream possesses Scourge and makes a deal with the devil.

Synopsis

Your breakfast, Sir!

On Chaar, the Decepticons are following Galvatron, when Starscream's ghost appears and possesses Scourge. Despite his better efforts, Starscream forces Scourge to fire on Galvatron, then flees with Cyclonus in pursuit. Cyclonus follows as far as Cybertron, where he breaks off, assuming that Scourge has defected to the Autobots. But that is not Starscream's goal. He instead flies to the severed head of Unicron. Using Scourge to reactivate the Dark God, Starscream offers his services in exchange for a new body. Unicron agrees to restore him to life in exchange for three labors. The first labor is to bring Metroplex's eyes to Unicron. With nowhere else to go, Scourge agrees to serve Unicron.

There are no eye-drops for this.

On Earth, Kup arrives for an inspection of Autobot City, when Scourge and Starscream make their move. Destroying Metroplex's security system, the two Decepticons steal the eyes, but Bumblebee and Spike Witwicky cause Scourge to drop one, shattering it. Fleeing, Metroplex transforms, but cannot see, and begins firing on the Autobots. However, a photon bomb disables Metroplex, causing him to crash. Lacking one eye, the two head back for Chaar, where they dispatch the Battlechargers, outwit Starscream's former soldiers, and steal one of Trypticon's eyes. In addition, Starscream possesses Astrotrain to serve as their ride home, where Astrotrain is left to the mercy of the Autobots. Upon learning of what happened, Galvatron reacts in a rational, controlled manner... for Galvatron.

Galvatron settles an old score with the wall.

Pleased with his new eyes, Unicron informs Starscream and Scourge of their next labor: bring Trypticon to Unicron (should have told them that before they left). Starscream heads off to complete the task. Meanwhile, Rodimus Prime interrogates Astrotrain, who claims not to remember what happened, but Blurr reveals that Unicron has his eyes back! Ultra Magnus takes Sky Lynx, Hot Spot, and Springer to investigate, but Unicron drives them off. Scourge is becoming nervous, but Unicron warns his creation that he can take what he has given. On Chaar, Galvatron orders the Battlechargers and Coneheads to locate Starscream and Scourge, only for Trypticon to transform, under Starscream's control, and depart, with the Decepticons in pursuit.

As the Autobots prepare for the Decepticon assault, Unicron commands Starscream to remove Trypticon's transformation cog and place it in Unicron. The Decepticons arrive and attack, but Starscream uses Trypticon to disable their weapons. As the Decepticons flee, Unicron commands his minions to complete the third labor—connect Unicron's head to Cybertron, making it his new body. Scourge decides to book it, and Starscream is left to complete the task. Scourge tries to warn Galvatron, but he doesn't care. Scourge then heads to the Autobots, and warns them of Unicron's intentions.

Refusing to call AAA, Starscream prepares to jumpstart Unicron.

Within Trypticon, the Battlechargers and the Coneheads disable Starscream's control over Trypticon, so Starscream demands his body to complete the labors. Unicron restores his body, but Starscream (surprise, surprise), tells Unicron to connect himself to Cybertron. However, the Autobots manage to plant some energon cubes on Unicron's head. They detonate the energon, causing Unicron's head to return to orbit and Starscream to go flying. Thrown past the Decepticons, Galvatron orders them to fire on Starscream. When their shots begin hitting him, Cyclonus wonders why Starscream's ghost has lost control.

On Cybertron, Rodimus agrees to allow Scourge and Astrotrain to leave, in exchange for their help. He then tells the Autobots of their new mission to retrieve Metroplex's eye, but then reveals that he was joking, saying that the eyes were probably destroyed in the explosion.

Unseen by the Autobots, Unicron's eye twinkles in the night...

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"THERE IS NO REASONING WITH HIM! DESTROY HIM! HE'S LOST HIS MIND!"

—Galvatron, calling the kettle black.

"Decepticon intruders IN MY BRAIN!"

—Metroplex, on the perils of being city-sized.

"First, you two let Scourge and Starscream steal one of Trypticon's eyes. And then you two allowed Astrotrain to be used as their escape vehicle. So Scourge is helping Starscream voluntarily, and you four were unable to stop them! Well, all I can say is...BWWWAAAAAAA!"

—Galvatron, giving his outburst a rare preamble.

"Why did Galvatron have you attack Cybertron all by yourself? Are you stupid or just obedient?"

—Rodimus Prime, getting sassy with Astrotrain

"I don't have to show you no stinking passes."

—Starscream has picked up some Earth culture.

"Starscream! You are a dead mechanism!"
"Of course I'm dead, Galvatron! But not for much longer. And then are you going to be sorry!"
"I'm already sorry!"

—Galvatron and Starscream, bickering like old times.

"Unicron! If you want the connection made, you'd better give me a new body now!"
"You shall have it."
(Unicron shoots lasers from his eyes, and Starscream's body is reformed)
"I live again!"
"Now, do my bidding. Complete the connection!"
"Ha! Do it yourself!"

—Unicron bet on the wrong pony, and Starscream just loves being a prick.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

—Starscream auditions for the latest Star Wars movie.

Notes

Continuity notes

"Death comes to me. It just doesn't stay."

• This episode is the second appearance of Starscream's ghost. His first appearance was in the G1 episode "Starscream's Ghost". His ghost makes a third appearance in the Beast Wars episode "Possession" in which he takes over Waspinator.
  • Starscream is last seen tumbling away through space in his new body, damaged from Galvatron's attacks but still very much alive. This is sometimes seen as a point of conflict with his appearance as a ghost in the Beast Wars episode "Possession". Fans have reconciled this by speculating that he died again off-screen, or else traveled through time to the Beast Wars era (and back) before this episode took place chronologically. Alternatively, the Beast Wars cartoon does not follow strictly from any specific Generation 1 continuity, allowing the "error" to be dismissed entirely.
• The explosive that Scourge and Starscream use is a Photon charge. Hey, Hot Rod mentioned those in the movie!
• Speaking of dying, Dirge's appearance here - clearly scripted and complete with a single spoken line - rather flagrantly contradicts his two "deaths" and his seeming appearance in the Decepticon crypt.
• Only appearance of Runabout.
• Of all the Transformers Starscream is seen possessing in both this episode and "Starscream's Ghost", Scourge is the only one who puts up a fight for control of his own body and retains his memories of what happened while "under the influence". (This is admittedly inconsistent with the ending of the prequel to this episode, however.)
• Unicron displays the ability to electrocute the Autobots inside his head and expel them through his neck.
• Unicron off-handedly tells Scourge that "what I have given you, I can also take away", in reference to his creation of Scourge during the events of the movie.
• When the coneheads and Battlechargers run for their lives, Galvatron orders his troops to "hunt them down like the Marconian dogs". What?
• The Autobots plant "Energon explosives" to blow Unicron's head away.
• For some reason, all of the combiner teams in the episode only have two members present. When Galvatron addresses the Predacons in the first scene, it's only Razorclaw and Headstrong. When Kup later tells Powerglide and Warpath to find the Aerialbots, it's only Skydive and Silverbolt. Later on Cybertron when the Protectobots shoot down Astrotrain, it is only Hot Spot and Groove.

Real-world references

• The title's literal meaning obviously applies to the events of the episode, but the phrase has a history in philosophical discourse. It was coined as a pejorative against the mind-body split of Cartesian dualism, and by the time this episode was made, it had also been used as the title of a book and a rock album.
• Starscream delivers the line, "I don't have to show you no stinking passes".
• Star Wars sound effects:
  • Millennium Falcon engine burst as Scourge smashes his way out of Metroplex.
  • TIE Fighter roar as Silverbolt dives back toward Metroplex after the explosion, and again as Starscream exits Trypticon's body.
  • X-wing diving whine as Scourge flees from Unicron.
  • Lightsaber hum as Unicron recreates Starscream.
  • Death Star superlaser as Scourge and Astrotrain make their exit.

Animation and technical errors

• Wrong color models used by AKOM include:
  • Rodimus and Galvatron are both consistently colored using outdated color models; Rodimus's shoulder indentations are red instead of white, his pelvis-windshield details are white instead of light burgundy, and his gun is red instead of black, while Galvatron has pale purple "underpants."
  • Cyclonus's eyebrows are purple. His chin is still grey, though.
  • And of course the movie-original characters have colored mouths: purple for Galvatron, red for Ultra Magnus.
  • Scourge is consistently shown with the outdated "head-sticking-up" model of his hovercraft form.
  • The circle on Bumblebee's back is black instead of yellow.
• "There is no reasoning with him!" - Galvatron's head clips through his cannon barrel.
• Headstrong has Galvatron's cannon sound effect as he opens fire on Scourge.
• "He is a traitor! Give him no quarter!" - Headstrong is colored with Breakdown's color scheme.
• Scourge disappears into the sky... then is shown cruising along at ground level for a lengthy shot, then disappears into the sky again.
• Unicron's helmet was all gold the last time we saw it. Now it's blue with gold horns.
• After entering Unicron, Scourge/Starscream lands and walks forward for several seconds. The scrolling background behind him isn't long enough to make it through the whole shot, however - at one point it abruptly jumps back to the start.
• As he says, "Only three?," Starscream's eyes are suddenly huge.
• Scamper, shown at toy-based scale in one of Metroplex's vehicle bays as Sky Lynx lands, is HUGE, dwarfing the shuttle.
• In the next shot, Sky Lynx takes off again, but Kup and Spike are gone. And so is the giant Scamper!
• Kup and Spike enter Metroplex through an upward-sliding door... which disappears into a solid doorframe, with no gap to actually accommodate the door.
• Blaster's voice is missing its usual reverb effect.

• The Autobots react a little too quickly to Blaster accidentally turning on some music - the music and their laughter all occur at the same instant.
• As Blaster warns Kup, Kup's mouth is hanging wide open for no real reason. It's also colored the same light gray as his face.
• When Scourge first approaches Metroplex's eye, it's almost as big as he is. Later it's small enough for him to carry with ease.

Top this Putt-Putt.

• When Bumblebee and Spike discover Scourge stealing Metroplex's eyes, Bumblebee has enormous wheels.
• Bumblebee gets the wrong transformation sound effect (descending pitch) as he returns to robot mode.
• Just before setting the charge inside Metroplex, Scourge's eyes are green instead of red.
• "I don't see any enemy" - Silverbolt is the one speaking, but both he and Skydive mouth the line.
• After the bomb goes off, the next shot of the inside of Metroplex shows a star background on his monitor. A few shots later, it's the usual Earth sky.
• Metroplex has "regular" small eyes as he stumbles around firing, rather than his usual large goggles.
• An explosion comes out of each of Metroplex's eyes... without actually shattering his eyes or causing any visible damage.
• As Scourge exits Astrotrain/Starscream to dig out Metroplex's eye, he's still carrying Trypticon's eye. It disappears in the next shot.
• As he re-enters Astrotrain/Starscream, Scourge just sort of clips into him through a solid wall.
• When Galvatron is chewing out the four henchmen, Runamuck and Runabout switch places between the shot from behind and the following panning shot across their guilty faces.

• In a layering error, the "Unidentified craft" warning message that flashes up on Blurr's screen overlays his head.
• In his first several shots, Hot Spot has a mouth on his faceplate. It disappears between shots as he prepares to fire on Astrotrain.

• Groove has a totally different voice for his one line ("Locked and loaded!"), sounding somewhat like Beachcomber. Usually, he sounds more like a higher-pitched Trailbreaker.
• In the panning shot of the Autobots as Rodimus Prime asks Astrotrain if he's "stupid or just obedient," Rodimus' mouth doesn't move. In addition, the visual of space on the viewscreen behind them doesn't move with the pan.
• When he accuses Astrotrain of stealing Metroplex's eyes, Magnus's whole face is blue.
• As Rodimus realizes that Unicron has his eyes again, rough pencil marks are visible on him and Magnus.
• In the second shot of Sky Lynx approaching him, Unicron's eyes are missing again. Unicron is also shown in front of some massive hunk of space debris that's far bigger than he is.
• During Scourge's attack on him, Sky Lynx has a Decepticon symbol on his nose.
• Hot Spot says, "Look out, Scourge!" with the emphasis of the line suggesting that he's addressing Scourge, when he's actually reacting to Scourge.
• As he berates his troops, the tops of Galvatron's shoulders are missing their red squares.
• As Magnus's team floats through space, Springer is colored as Kup.
• When Trypticon approaches Unicron, Scourge is standing in Unicron's mouth. He vanishes between shots, however, and Unicron's mouth goes from having a hollow inside to being a solid gray field.
• Galvatron's squad includes three Divebombs. (One of them, along with a Sweep, is obliterated a moment later!)
• As Scourge is brought to Rodimus, an overhead shot shows Ultra Magnus with circular cogs on his shoulders instead of the usual white pillars.
• When Galvatron shoots at Starscream, his cannon sounds like a regular Decepticon laser.
• When Rodimus shakes Magnus's hand, Magnus has an Autobot symbol on his left shoulder. He should only have one on his right shoulder.
• As Rodimus jokes about recovering Metroplex's eyes from Unicron, a reaction shot shows Magnus's other (right) shoulder. This should have an Autobot symbol, but doesn't!
• The next shot shows a solid wall behind Rodimus even though he's still standing in front of the display (showing space).
• Rodimus's mouth isn't moving when he says "Just kidding."
• After Rodimus jokes about recovering Metroplex's eyes from Unicron, Hot Spot is shown with Ultra Magnus's color scheme.

Continuity errors

• While Scourge makes a respectable attempt at fighting off Starscream's control of his body in this episode, he displayed no such strength of will when he was possessed by the latter at the end of "Starscream's Ghost".
• Cyclonus won't go near Unicron's head because that would alert the Autobots, but they don't seem to notice Scourge approaching it.
• Putting one wire back together is enough to reactivate Unicron's mind! You'd think a body-consuming explosion would have done more serious damage.
• Powerglide's appearance seems to contradict "Dark Awakening", where he was among a fleet of Autobot ships getting blown up by the Quintessons. But considering the Aerialbots were also blown up, and recalling AKOM's propensity for grabbing whatever random animation model off the shelf, it's probably that episode which contains the error. (It would also be a serious violation of the cartoon's ethos to kill off any main character, especially one with a toy on the shelf.)
• And incidentally, Powerglide is implied to be one of the "Aerialbots" in both Silverbolt and Warpath's lines in the scene where they take off together. Though this may seem like less of an error retroactively in light of recent events.

• Starscream enters Kup's body and somehow immediately causes an explosion in a random wall that blows out Metroplex's entire security system.
• Following that scene, Scourge is already in Metroplex. Nobody noticed him fly to Earth? What happened to the Earth Defense Command satellites?
• What is Trypticon doing on that random planet? And why doesn't he notice Scourge stealing his eye?
• Although undoubtedly big, Metroplex and Trypticon's eyes should be way too small for Unicron to use as like-for-like replacements.
• Flying Autobots:
  • Magnus's team flies out of Sky Lynx and into Unicron's head with no obvious means of propulsion.
• Why don't the Autobots just blast Unicron's repaired circuits as soon as they enter his head?
• When Scourge approaches Galvatron he says, "Galvatron, don't shoot!" Galvatron states he couldn't even if he wanted to, because Trypticon neutralized their weapons. Yet, when Starscream's out of control body flies past him, he begins firing on him.
• Why doesn't Rodimus just jump inside Unicron's head and open the Matrix again?
• The plot seems to forget that Trypticon is still hanging out on Cybertron at the end of the episode! Once Starscream loses his control over him, he just vanishes from the story.
• Warpath and Bumblebee appear (for one shot each) on the Autobots' base on Cybertron at the end of the episode. Is there some reason why they made the trip there from Earth?

Foreign localization

French

• Title: "Le fantôme dans la machine" ("Ghost in the Machine")
• Original airdate: ?

• To date, and although there is probably one in existence, the European French dub of this episode is lost. The French DVD editions use the Canadian French dub instead.
• In the Canadian French dub, Rodimus Prime is still called Rodimus Primo instead of Rodimus Primus. The same goes for the Aerialbots, called that way instead of Aérobots.

German

• Title: "Der Geist im Roboter" ("The Ghost inside the Robot")
• Title (Generation 2 dub): "Starscream kehrt zurück" ("Starscream Returns")
• Original airdate: ?

Italian

• Title (first dub): "Lo spettro nella macchina" ("The Phantom in the Machine")
• Original airdate: ?

• Powerglide says that Metroplex shot him slightly before he actually shot him. Immediately after, Warpath weirdly calls him "robot". Also, Powerglide's line: «It just isn't my day» becomes: «My horoscope said not to leave the house».
• Starting from this episode, the Protectobots are called by their English name (although used as an invariable noun) rather than the Italian one.

• Title (second dub): "Il fantasma nella macchina" ("The Ghost in the Machine")
• Original airdate: ?

Japanese

• Title: スタースクリームの復活 (Starscream no Fukkatsu, "Starscream's Revival")
• Original airdate: March 13, 1987

Mandarin

• Title: "Guǐhún Zuòsuì " ('鬼魂作祟, "Ghost Haunt")
• Original airdate: ?

Brazilian Portuguese

• Title: "Fantasma na Máquina" ("Ghost in the Machine")
• Original airdate: ?

Russian

• Title: "Prizrak v mashine" (Призрак в машине, "Ghost in the Machine")
• Original airdate: ?

Home video releases

VHS

1987 — Transformers — Starscream's Ghost / The Nightmare Planet / The Ghost in the Machine (St. Michael Video Library)
1989 — Transformers — A Ghost in the Machine / Heavy Metal Wars (Tempo Video)
1989 — Transformers — The Action Adventure Collection II (Tempo Video)
2000 — The Original Transformers — Volume 11: The Decepticon Possession (Rhino Entertainment)

LaserDisc

1999 — The Transformers: 2010 (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.

DVD

2001 — The Transformers: 2010 — DVD Box (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.
2004 — The Original Transformers — Season 3 Part 2 & Season 4 (Rhino Entertainment)
2004 — Transformers — Season 3 and Season 4 (Metrodome)
2004 — Transformers — Collection 4: Series 3.1 (Madman Entertainment)
2006 — Transformers — The Complete Generation One Collection (Metrodome)
2006 — The Best of The Transformers (Madman Entertainment)
2007 — Transformers — The Classic Episodes (Metrodome)
2007 — The Transformers — Complete Collection (Madman Entertainment)
2007 — Transformers — Le Fantôme dans la Machine (UFG Junior) — Canadian French audio only.
2009 — Transformers — Season's Three & Four [sic] (Metrodome)
2009 — The Transformers — Complete Collection: Decepticon Edition (Madman Entertainment)
2009 — The Transformers — The Complete Series: 25th Anniversary "Matrix of Leadership" Collection (Shout! Factory)
2010 — The Transformers — Seasons Three & Four: 25th Anniversary Edition (Shout! Factory)
2011 — The Transformers — The Complete Original Series (Shout! Factory)
2014 — The Transformers — Seasons Three & Four: 30th Anniversary Edition (Shout! Factory)
2014 — Transformers — The Classic Animated Series (Metrodome)

External links

• Episode Dossier at The Cybertron Chronicle
• Episode dialogue script