On the planet Cybertron, there is a war between two factions of transforming robots: the heroic Autobots and evil Decepticons. With the planet's energy supplies dwindling, the Autobots decide to search for more energy on other worlds. Learning of the Autobot's plans, Decepticon leader Megatron decides to go after them, leaving Shockwave in charge of Cybertron. The Autobots, lead by Optimus Prime, blast off in their ship, but are followed by the Decepticons. The Decepticons storm the Autobot ship and a battle takes place, but suddenly the ship goes out of control and crashes onto another planet: Earth. The Autobot ship crashes into a volcano, with all Transformers onboard it deactivated.

Four million years later, a volcano erupts, which turns the damaged ship's systems back on. It revives Skywarp, one of the Decepticons, who revives all of his comrades. The Decepticons are all given new transformation modes based on Earth vehicles and items, who then head out of the ship. Megatron intends to return to Cybertron, and wants to use the Earth's energy resources to do it. The Autobots have been left for dead, but thanks to Starscream shooting at the ship, the body of Optimus Prime falls into the repair beam, and he is revived. As he revives the other Autobots, Starscream, Soundwave and Rumble are sent to find materials to use to create a new space cruiser. They come across a power station, which Rumble breaks apart.

Hound and Cliffjumper are sent to spy on the Decepticons. Hound finds them, but a trigger happy Cliffjumper fires upon them. Realizing that their enemies still live, Megatron has Laserbeak sent out to deal with the Autobots, which leads to Hound getting blasted off a cliff. Laserbeak retreats and Hound is taken back to base for repairs. Meanwhile, some human workers are sent to the wrecked power station, but are chased away by Ravage.

Hound relays what he found out to Optimus Prime. Optimus has Jazz organize a strike team, as the Autobots move out. The Decepticons have attacked an oil rig, where they quickly realize the human workers there don't pose any threat to them. They begin using the rig's various machinery to fuel their energon cubes. Starscream thinks they can return home, but Megatron tells him this energy here is a mere fraction of what they'll need, he intends to suck the entire planet dry.

The Autobots arrive at the rig and start fighting the Decepticons, resulting in some of the energon cubes exploding. Megatron blasts the rig, causing it to crumble and fall apart. As the Decepticons escape with the remaining energon cubes, Optimus hears some of the humans, Spike and his father Sparkplug, calling for help. Optimus tries to lift up some debris but can't do it, so tells them to grab onto him and keep their heads above water -as the fire gets closer and closer...

Notes

-SCRIPT DIFFERENCES: Click here for details.

-What the heck did Soundwave originally transform into? He's briefly seen transforming into his original alt form right before Jazz goes past him. Most fans think it's some sort of lamp post. There's another one on the opposite side which doesn't move, is that a Decepticon as well?

-Unlike most of the other characters in this episode, Shockwave's toy wasn't available at retail when this episode was broadcast (September 1984). His toy would be on sale the following year.

-Reflector is the other character who had no toy on shelves at the time. It seems that Hasbro intended for the toy to be available, as Reflector makes several prominent appearances in the first season, but something changed which resulted in the toy being delayed. More on that later.

-Rumble is purple in the cartoon, whilst Frenzy (who'll be introduced later) is red. However for the toys, the colors were the other way around. More on that later too.

-This episode also introduces an Autobot called Hauler, who only appears in this episode, and has no dialogue. You only get to get a good look at his vehicle mode, although before this there is a panning shot showing all of the deactivated Transformers. There is a robot lying down with an orange & white color scheme, who is perhaps meant to be Hauler, but it's not clear. It seems Hasbro has intended for this character to be part of the first wave of the Transformers toyline, but then scrapped this plan very late on. A little too late it would seem, as clearly this episode had been animated and couldn't be changed. Whilst Hauler is never seen again, it's theorized that the character would be re-purposed into Grapple, a character who is introduced in the second season.

-The Autobots are able to fly in this episode, but later on in the series it's changed to something only Decepticons can do... in theory. Basically sometimes the Autobots can fly, sometimes they can't, it just depends on the writer.

Errors

-This shot of some Autobots accidentally gets played twice in the episode -the second time, Megatron can be heard saying "attack, attack!" so presumably there's some lost animation out there somewhere.
-Part of Megatron's left arm is colored like his hand during this shot.
-During this shot, Sideswipe's head is colored red instead of black.
-Frank Welker -who voices Megatron, Rumble, Skywarp and Soundwave -isn't listed in the voice acting credits for this episode, nor is he for the next two. This mistake was rectified from this episode and onwards.