"Now you are but a single atom. Soon, you shall be much more. Much more. Begin with a flame. Now, Tornedron, grow on energon."

Tornedron is a being made of energy, created by Primacron. Primacron is pleased with his new creation, and says he will succeed where his predecessor failed. His predecessor forgot who ruled him, but he will not. Tornedron is sent out into space.

On the Earth's moon, a major battle is happening between the Autobots and Decepticons. The Decepticons have got the advantage in terms of numbers, but they suddenly stop firing and vanish. As the Autobots wonder about what's going on, the Decepticons make a sudden charge.

The Autobots also charge, and the battle resumes. Meanwhile, on Cybertron, Kup says they have a stage one alert. Tornedron lands on Cybertron, and takes the form of a spider. He's seen by Blades, Slingshot and Wheelie.

They start firing at Tornedron, who absorbs their blasts and grows larger. He then drains them of their energy.

Tornedron then sucks all of the energy from Cybertron itself, leaving it a dead world, whilst he grows even larger. Primacron says he has already done more than his predecessor -Unicron!

Back on the moon, the battle continues. Rodimus says to try and hold out until Sky Lynx gets here, as Grimlock uses his tail to trip up Headstrong. As Grimlock declares he's a stealthy fighter, a voice calls out to him, telling him to come. The voice says for all of the primitives to come, as the Dinobots stop fighting and try and work out where the voice is coming from.

Rodimus wonders what's wrong with the Dinobots, and Springer thinks they're losing their minds -if they had any minds to lose! Galvatron sees the Dinobots have stopped fighting, and calls on the Predacons and Terrorcons to move in.

The Terrorcons form Abominus, and Rodimus says they're in big trouble. He tells the Dinobots to get off their butts, but they continue to just stand there.

However, the voice then calls out to Predaking and Abominus, telling them to come. They transform back to their individual selves, as Galvatron contacts Trypticon and tells him to show the others how to fight. Trypticon then flies in.

Sky Lynx then also arrives, telling the Autobots that superior forces are taking over. Springer says that Commander Modesty is here, but Rodimus says as long as he delivers, he doesn't care about his ego. Sky Lynx and Trypticon start shooting at each other.

But the voice then calls out to them, and tells them to put down their hostilities, as there are more important battles for each of them to fight. Soundwave then says he's malfunctioning, as he ejects four of his tapes without wanting to. Ravage and Ratbat are sent out...

along with Overkill and Slugfest. Blaster says something is happening to him as well, as he ejects Steeljaw and Ramhorn without wanting to. With the primitive Transformers all assembled, Grimlock says he must answer the call -even though he doesn't know who is calling, and where they are calling from.

Sky Lynx says that his superior talents will guide them there. Trypticon says they must answer the call, and allows all of the Transformers to board him.

With the primitives all loaded up, Trypticon and Sky Lynx take off, and leave the moon. Neither the remaining Autobots or Decepticons have any idea about what is going on, but Galvatron sees them as deserters, and wants to make them pay for their disloyalty. He, Cyclonus and Soundwave also leave the moon and go after them. Moments later, Tornedron arrives on the moon.

He quickly absorbs the energy from the moon, along with the Autobots still on it. He then heads towards Earth, and Soundwave says he detects trouble. Galvatron tells him to fear not, as he believes Tornedron is probably some useless Autobot weapon. But Tornedron then passes through them...

...and drains them of their energy, before doing the same thing to Earth. Meanwhile, Sky Lynx says he's tracking the waves to the center of the galaxy, but even his advanced technology can't pinpoint their exact destination. Grimlock says he doesn't know where he's going.

Headstrong says that's not surprising -Grimlock doesn't know nothing! The other Dinobots take offense at their leader being mocked, and decide to fight the Predacons. The Predacons decide to stomp them first, and start firing.

Hun-Grr says the Terrorcons will fight everybody, and a battle begins. Grimlock uses his flame breath to set a bunch of Decepticons ablaze...

...and soon everyone is getting thrown around. Sky Lynx tells the bozos if they want to scrap this quest before it's even started, and tells Trypticon to shake them up a little. Trypticon shakes himself, causing everyone inside him to tumble.

Grimlock says that maybe it would be better if they fight later. Sky Lynx says it's curious that the closer they get to the caller, the older the space junk becomes. He believes they are being called to a very ancient and sacred place. He then sees a small planet and tells Trypticon to prepare to land, as he believes they're coming home.

As the primitives land on the planet, they are seen by Primacron, who doesn't like this. Meanwhile, the primitives disembark from Trypticon and take a look around, but Grimlock says if he knew the call was from a place like this, he wouldn't have answered.

Sky Lynx transforms and says as he's the commander, he'll propose their battle plan. Razorclaw says only he commands the Predacons, whilst Hun-Grr says Sky Lynx will only command the Terrorcons over his rusting carcass.

Sky Lynx says their brutishness is matched only by their stubbornness, but then realizes they aren't alone. They see a strange creature, and Grimlock decides it's a dangerous enemy. He charges, despite Sky Lynx warning him not to, but as he approaches, the creature vanishes. Grimlock ends up tumbling down a cliff.

Grimlock says that from now on, he'll follow others. Sky Lynx says leading the group will be difficult, even with his skills, but he says they'll have to find the alien. Most of the primitives head into a cave, whilst Trypticon has to wait outside.

Sky Lynx tells everyone that before they do anything, they must think if it's what he would do if he were in their position. If they do that, they won't go far wrong. The group continue to walk until they come across a strange entity in the cave, which says he's summoned them here to tell them a tale of long ago. Near the beginning of the galaxy, an organic being known as Primacron built some of the primitives...

As Primacron's powers grew, so did his ambitions. His creations were bigger and bigger, until finally, he created the monstrous Unicron. But Unicron decided to rule himself, and tried to dispose of Primacron.

Primacron's base was hit, but Primacron survived. But he, the Primacron's assistant, escaped to this dead world.

As with all tyrants, Unicron came to his end. Primacron vowed not to make the same mistake again, and instead of creating a beast of matter like Unicron, he created Tornedron, a cloud of living energy that, like a cannibal, feeds on energy. Tornedron can leave suns dark and planets inert, making them blank slates to do with as he pleases.

The voice tells them that Primacron is a creature of sophisticated brilliance, and his powerful brain conceives of infinitely complex plans. But perhaps he thinks too hard, and perhaps their simple instincts can defeat his plans. Therein lies their greatest hope... therein lies their greatest fear. Outside, Tornedron arrives on the planet. Trypticon starts shooting at him...

...but Tornedron takes the form of a dragon, which gets larger and larger. He drains Trypticon, and as the other primitives get back outside, they see that Trypticon is falling over. They all start to run, and whilst most of them get out of the way, Grimlock is still lagging behind.

Trypticon falls onto him and crushes him. Sky Lynx yells at Tornedron that he will suffer his rage, and starts firing, but Tornedron quickly drains him.

With Sky Lynx down, the remaining primitives flee. Slag says he'll lead the Dinobots away, until he gets a better idea. Razorclaw tells everyone to split up, as Tornedron can't follow them all.

Primacron has Tornedron split himself into several separate entities, which chase after the primitives. The cassette primitives are quickly drained, as Headstrong decides he's had enough of running -he'd rather die fighting!

Razorclaw says he's right, and the Predacons transform into Predaking. He confronts Tornedron, who takes the form of a giant robot. Predaking is quickly drained of his energy.

Tornedron takes the form of a three headed serpent and confronts the Terrorcons, who fire lasers and rocks at him, but they get drained as well.

The Dinobots fight Tornedron next, but they meet the same fate as everybody else. With the primitives defeated, Tornedron heads back to his creator.

However, it's revealed that Grimlock has survived, as he blasts his way out of the ground. He sees Tornedron heading into space, and the voice tells Grimlock to search for Primacron's lair, and destroy it. Grimlock blasts off and heads after Tornedron.

Primacron suddenly notices that Tornedron is no longer responding to his commands. He orders Tornedron to stop, but Tornedron takes the form of a face, and tells his master he doesn't take orders from him -instead, he will drain his life force next. Primacron thinks this is impossible, as he has fail-safe systems atop fail-safe systems! Tornedron tells him there's nothing like dining at home -or is that on home?

Grimlock smashes his way into Primacron's base, and says he's here to save the universe. He laughs at Primacron, and is very amused that all this trouble has been caused by such a little wimp. Primacron says he'll make no more, if they survive this. Grimlock orders him to make everything like it was before.

Primacron says they're finished, as he's amplified the energy parameters, minimized the drive augmenter, redirected the ion flow -he's tried everything! Grimlock says he'll solve the problem, and pulls a lever down. Primacron says of course -the reverse switch -why didn't he think of that?! Grimlock tells him it's because he isn't a smart primitive like he is.

The energy polarity of Tornedron is reversed, causing him to head back to wherever he has been and restore the energy to anyone and anything he has taken it from. Soon, all of the primitives are restored, as is Cybertron, Earth and the moon. The Autobots on the moon wonder what happened.

Grimlock says he's saved the universe, and starts stomping around with joy. He destroys Primacron's base in doing this, and Primacron yells at him for ruining his lab. Grimlock tells him that's the smartest thing he's ever done!

NOTES

-The Secret Files segment for this episode is about cassette Transformers.

-As you might have noticed from the above images, this episode's animation and art is really high quality, this is the best looking episode of the series by far. The episode was meant to be animated by Toei, but they sub-contracted it to Studio Look -click here for more details.

-When Kup first starts talking, you can very briefly see Windcharger running out of the shot:

Which is a bit surprising since he was seemingly killed off in the Transformers movie... I guess he got better?

-Overkill and Slugfest make their debut in this episode... and do nothing. They are seen flying out of Soundwave and transform, but then they aren't seen again. As Laserbeak and Buzzsaw are missing, some fans believe they were switched out at the last second for Overkill and Slugfest, as they had new toys (that weren't even on store shelves when this episode first aired in 1986 -they'd be out in 1987) -but that's just speculation.

-The voice that calls the primitives is referred to as the Oracle in the dialogue script, but this name is never spoken in the episode itself. Instead the Oracle refers to himself as "Primacron's assistant".

-When Primacron's assistant dies, there is a shot of his corpse and the Autobot Matrix of Leadership rising out of it. This scene has caused a great deal of confusion with fans to what it means, so much so that the wrier of the episode was asked about it... and he didn't have a clue! Some believe that the appearance of the Matrix was an error, but it's unknown what the real intention of the scene was.