A Decepticon Raider in King Arthur's Court
Title card via TFWiki, fan-archive fair use
A time machine flings Spike, Hound and a Decepticon raider back to medieval Camelot.
Warpath and Hoist are battling it out with Starscream, Rumble, Ravage, and Ramjet. When the Decepticons retreat out of exhaustion, Rumble detects energy in a nearby cave, only for the Decepticons to get caught in a cave-in when they enter to investigate. While searching for the energy source, they accidentally activate ancient runes that transport them to Britain in the year 543 A.D. There, they are attacked by Sir Wigend of Blackthorn and his knights, who believe the Transformers are knights of an enemy realm, but they prove no match for the metal behemoths.
The Decepticons agree to help Wigend's knights win their conflict with rival Sir Aetheling the Red, but Starscream obviously wants to rule and have a land of his own. Nearby, Aetheling's daughter Nimue is spying on their conversation and runs to warn her father, but is detected by Ravage and pursued until the newly arrived Spike, Warpath and Hoist rescue her.
Aetheling decides to organize a jousting tournament in hopes of settling his feud with Wigend peacefully. After Spike fails in the tournament, Wigend sends Ramjet and Rumble to compete on his behalf (Rumble riding Ramjet in vehicle mode), but they are defeated by Warpath and Sir Aetheling. An enraged Starscream is sick of chivalry, kidnaps Nimue and threatens her life unless Sir Aetheling agrees to give up his realm. The Autobots give chase but cannot keep up due to lack of energy and collapse out of exhaustion. The chase is also observed by an owl, who flies off to inform his master, the wizard Beorht, of this new development.
Starscream holds Nimue prisoner in Wigend's castle, which he has commandeered, and forces its residents to construct and power a primitive electrical generator to keep the Decepticons energized. Having gathered sulfur, charcoal and rock salt to make gunpowder, Starscream then sends Rumble to get the last ingredient...potassium nitrate from lots of bird droppings.
Spike attempts to rescue Nimue from Wigend's keep, only to find Sir Wigend has switched sides and the two of them are now a happy couple. Despite feeling rejected, Spike still agrees to help fight the war against the Decepticons. Meanwhile, the Autobots and Sir Aetheling's knights charge towards the castle to battle it out with the Decepticons. The Autobots help the knights cross the moat and scale the walls, but they can't put up much of a fight due to their dangerously low energy levels. Starscream's gunpowder projectiles make short work of the invading forces.
Beorht the wizard appears and summons lightning that repowers Warpath and Hoist back up to fighting strength, though not enough to use their weapons. They take back the battle with Starscream and are victorious, destroying Starscream's power dynamo. Beorht concludes the robots are time travelers and that the cave they arrived in was the Dragon Mound, a time travel structure of his own design. He leads the Autobots and captive Decepticons back to the cave, only to find it guarded by the eponymous dragon. Starscream refuses to go any closer, but Beorht pulls out a pouch of "Dragon's Bane", his own name for gunpowder, noting that a little bit of it works every time. He throws the concoction at the dragon and it explodes, frightening away the beast.
Spike and the Transformers re-enter the Dragon Mound and return to the present. When they arrive back in their own time, they are greeted by multiple cannon blasts by Megatron. Starscream tackles his leader in a burst of enthusiasm at being back safely. Megatron, on the other hand, isn't nearly as happy to see Starscream, who has just ruined his shot...
—A ground-bound Ramjet learns that even a tough jet is no match for a tank.
—Starscream acting true to form.
—Ramjet examining the "wreckage" of Sir Wulf and his horse.
—Even trapped in the past, Starscream looks on the bright side, unaware his math is failing.
—"Sir" Rumble prepares to joust.
- The original broadcast version of this episode featured the misspelled title, "A Deceptacon Raider..." The error was corrected for the Generation 2 version of the episode. Likewise, when Kid Rhino recreated the title cards for their DVD release of the series, it was also amended. This flub seemed minor then, but years later...
- Per the dialogue script, Starscream was going to say the "Autobots have us trapped like robo-rats!" after the Decepticons were caved in by Warpath, but the line was shortened as-aired. Robo-rats would later be name-dropped in "Sea Change".
- Spike actually gets a kiss from a girl. What will Carly think?
- This episode is one of four pre-movie episodes in which Optimus Prime does not appear.
- Among the audience members watching the joust is a dark-skinned man whose outfit greatly resembles the one worn by Hank the Ranger in the Dungeons and Dragons animated series—not entirely surprising, as that program was produced by Marvel Productions, who partnered with Sunbow on Transformers, and both shows were animated by Toei. Next to "Hank" are a man with a shield and a woman in a cloak, but they do not otherwise strongly resemble Eric the Cavalier or Sheila the Thief, characters who were associated with magical versions of those items in the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon.
- Beorht wishes "godspeed" to the departing time-travelers, which has to be pretty rare as '80s cartoons go.
Screencaps via TFWiki (Teletraan I), used under fan-archive fair use.