The Omega Train

« Transformers: Energon ep 44 »
The last train alive is not alone!
"The Omega Train" 爆走トレイン! オメガスプリーム () (Bakusō Train! Omega Supreme) "The Roaring Train! Omega Supreme"
Production company	TV Tokyo, NAS
Airdate	5 November 2004 (Japanese) February 4, 2005 (Canada) May 20, 2005 (USA)
Writer	Akira Okeya
Director	Dan Daiyū
Animation studio	Actas, Studio A-CAT (3D)
Continuity	Unicron Trilogy

The Autobots link up with resistance bots to plan a counter-strike while Galvatron continues to fall under Unicron's influence.

Synopsis

Rodimus, Jetfire, Cliffjumper and Landmine are positioning orbital debris between Cybertron and the warp gate, hoping to slow its departure, or at least distract Galvatron long enough for Optimus Prime and the others to reach Central City and stop Galvatron.

Optimus's team are being dogged by Constructicon Maximus and Bruticus Maximus. They give them the slip, only to stumble into an ambush set up by their own forces. Wing Saber's ragtag troops are delighted that Optimus Prime has come to rescue them. They are saved from the crushing reality of Optimus's mission by three Sentai-colored rhyming Omnicon fanboys who mob Ironhide, to his astonishment disbelief delight.

If Dogbert experienced "joy" it would look like this

Galvatron lurks around the control room with Six Shot, napping while standing up and alternately berating and physically assaulting the other Decepticon. He finds Six Shot's monomaniacal obsession with destroying Optimus Prime incredibly annoying, because it distracts from his own monomaniacal obsession with following whatever that little voice inside him demands—in this case, moving Cybertron.

Wing Saber's Autobots, still under the mistaken impression that Galvatron has captured Dr. Jones's family, are planning a rescue mission south of Central City. Prime sends Kicker, Hot Shot and Omega Supreme to rescue them—which turns out to be a really good idea, because Dr. Jones isn't going to stay un-captured for long...

Dr. Jones and Rad are looking for the hole Kicker fell through as a child to get to Primus, when Jones falls through himself and arrives in the Energon core. They're rescued by Primus's autonomic reflexes, but he's still "sleeping" off his recent exertion. Things go from bad to worse when Snow Cat, Demolishor and Mirage break into the core, having been mis-directed by Starscream into thinking this is the location of the Super Energon pool. Dr. Jones plays into their mistaken belief that this is a super-fun scavenger hunt planned for them by Starscream, and he allows himself to be led off as the next clue, hoping Rad will be able to escape. However, Mirage stays with Rad to guard him.

Optimus orders Ironhide to take a team of Omnicons and rescue Bulkhead from the medical facility where he was undergoing treatment. Agreeing to use his fanboys as cannon fodder a super-special out-in-front strike team, Ironhide leads the charge into battle while Optimus and Superion Maximus perform a feint against Constructicon Maximus, Bruticus Maximus and Scorponok to allow both teams to get away.

STOP. BEING. SO. STUPID.

Seeing Optimus in the air, Six Shot directs the energon grid to attack them instead of clearing the debris as Galvatron ordered. Goaded by Unicron, Galvatron violently beats Six Shot and re-directs the grid—without bothering to stop and see at what it was directed. Optimus and Superion Maximus escape, mystified at their close call.

Ironhide's rookies freeze at the first sight of actual live fire, but he gives them the ever-helpful advice to "just fake it!" Meanwhile, Kicker, Hot Shot, Omega Supreme and Arcee break through a troop of Decepticons—and happen upon a rail depot. Omega Supreme transforms into the titular Omega Train, and it's All Aboard for Central City!

Back on track, Cybertron cuts through the last of the debris blocking its path. The space-based Autobots are forced through the enormous warp gate by the approaching planet—and Cybertron follows soon after! The entire planet... has moved!

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"Get up here guys, it's Optimus!"
"What's the racket? Why all the fuss?"
"Hey, you're right! It's Optimus! The Autobots are here!"
"It must be severe!"
"There's nothin' to fear with the Autobots here!"

— The Rhyming Omnicon Fanboys make their singing debut.

"I have fans?"

—Ironhide, saying what we're all thinking.

Snow Cat: "What's that, buddy? It's not Super Energon? It's what's left of Cybertron's regular supply?"
Demolishor: "Ha! Like you can even understand what that Terrorcon just said!"
Snow Cat: "I can! We have a connection!
Mirage: "Bah! Starscream tricked us! Or maaaaybeeee it's some kind of scavenger hunt!"
(The Decepticons start dancing)
Snow Cat: "We found the first clue! WE FOUND THE FIRST CLUE! Oh man, I love riddles! Oo-ee-oo-lee-oo-hahaha!"

—The Decepticons being pure chaos.

"Me? Why me?"
"Because you're the smartest!"
"I'm smart enough to know you're full of lies!"

—Mirage knows darn well he's not the smartest, no matter what Snow Cat says

Notes

Lost in translation

• In the dub, Ironhide denies knowing his three fans. In Super Link, he does know them; they're his "underclassmen" (sempai/kouhai, it's an anime thing). The trio's rhyming schtick is a dub addition.
• The dub glosses over Unicron's influence on Megatron.
• The dub has Wing Saber stating that Galvatron has Dr. Jones and Kicker, as if they were prisoners. He's supposed to just be saying where he suspects they're located.
• The conversation among the Decepticons, upon finding Primus's chamber, is pretty mangled by the dub. It's supposed to have them thinking they've found the Super Energon, realizing instead that it's "Autobot Energon", then wondering why Galvatron only told Starscream where the Super Energon is. The dub has them identifying Primus as "what's left of Cybertron's regular [energon] supply", arguing over whether Snow Cat can understand the Terrorcons, randomly saying that Starscream tricked them, then suddenly concluding that it's a scavenger hunt.
• As Ironhide is stunned and amazed at getting his own team, the dub features the bizarrely inappropriate "catastrophe" background music, usually reserved for when something's gone disastrously wrong for the Autobots. Super Link has no background music in the scene.
• Team Ironhide's troops aren't supposed to be Omnicons, just regular Autobots.
• Ironhide's advice to his troops is originally to just keep repeating to themselves: "I'm awesome!" This is one of Ironhide's signature lines in Super Link, repeated whenever he achieves something, as well as in his commercial bumper. The dub changes it to Ironhide saying that when he's scared, "I fake it!" But then the troops somehow pick up various equivalents of the line themselves out of thin air.
• The dub omits several lines from Galvatron specifically stating his desire to cross over into "Alpha Q's universe", making it less clear why he's moving the planet. It's especially confusing near the end, when he says "we're finally on our way", as if the planet hasn't been moving all along.

Pain count

• "Uh?": 5
• Stock footage: 1
• Let's do it: 1

Trivia

• Cameos: Sally and Miranda Jones appear during Alpha Q's closing recap.
• Rad and Dr. Jones are apparently made of rubber. Not only did they somehow survive their fall down an elevator shaft in the previous episode, they fall at least 30 feet to the floor when Primus drops them.
• In what may be a first for the series, the dub team is clearly having a lot of fun with Team Ironhide's ridiculous troops.
• Omega's combined train mode, shown above, has his battleship half attached to the back of his train half. This is not possible with the toy but the two halves can combine the other way round, with the train's cab slotting into the battleship's engine compartment to create a "Cybertronian Armored Super Train".

Foreign localization

Italian

• Title: "Omega Express"

• Wing Saber doesn't say that Megatron has Dr. Jones and Rad, solving the mistake in the English dub.

Home video releases

DVD

2005 — Transformer: Super Link — Volume 012 (Interchannel) — Japanese audio only.
2008 — Transformers: Energon — The Ultimate Collection (Paramount)
2014 — Transformers: Energon — The Complete Series (Shout! Factory)