Jim Shooters original treatment for The Transformers Part 3
Continuing the exploration into the origins of The Transformers story
In part 2 we worked through the first section of Jim Shooters initial treatment for The Transformers, bringing the story to the point where the Autobots and Decepticons crashed into Earth. In the third part we examine the main storyline that Shooter suggested. What was going to happen 4 million years later…
Four Million years later. This is how Jim Shooter moves the storyline of the Transformers from the battle on Cybertron to our world, Earth. His original treatment for The Transformers had told how the civil war had started and admitted that the Transformers origins were uncertain and unknown. His treatment from 1983 next turns to Earth.
Interestingly “Mount St. Hellens” was the original name of the volcano (this has been crossed out to read St Hilary). St Helens is a real volcano near Portland, Oregon, and had erupted on 18 May 1980. The decision to change the name to St Hilary, whilst keeping the general location, must have been a relatively late one (presumably to dodge the difficulty that an actual 1980 eruption would cause to the storyline).
In the early scripts for the G1 cartoon, the volcano was named ‘Crater Mountain’, in an early colouring book it was St Helens, and even as late as the 1990s, the real-life inspiration persisted – the Beast Wars Universe guidebook named it Mount St Helens.
The TFWiki suggests that the description given for Mount St Hilary in the comic has its closest real-life analogue in the form of Mount Hood. Mount Hood is only 50 miles from Portland and is a popular skiing destination (matching Ratchet’s encounter with skiers in the Mount Hood National Forest in issue 7 “Warrior School!”). It also straddles lush forests and dry deserts, two popular location-types in the original comics and cartoon.
Whatever the name of the volcano – it erupts! In doing so, it reveals the Autobots’ battered ship. It’s survived all this time because it still has ‘automatic force-shields’ which ‘helped protect the ship’s mighty hull’. The volcano does more than reveal the ship, though. It awakes the ships ‘brain’. Shooter is keen to note that a computer would ‘not be the right word’; brain is more appropriate. This brain, Shooter initially calls “Aunty” but this word has been crossed out and replaced with ‘the Ark’.
Both Aunty and Ark would be used in early Transformers material, although the name Aunty (used in the first issue of the US comic and subsequently in early UK stories), would fade into obscurity, whilst the name Ark would become the name of the ship itself, rather than the computer or brain.
Shooter continues:
“Her Its sensors are no longer fine enough to detect life, but she it does discover much mechanical activity. True to her its programming, Aunty the Ark begins to alter the structure of the ship’s inhabitants rebuilding them to resemble what she it detects in the environment according to standard first-aid/repair procedure.”
All of this is retained in the origins depicted in the cartoon and comic, although something shifted around the idea that its sensors were now unable to detect life due to the damage caused by the crash. The reason later given is that the Ark was not programmed to detect organic life, only mechanical. It’s a small point, but also an interesting one to note. What matters is that the Ark is unable to recognise friends from foes so repairs Autobots and Decepticons equally.
Also important, Shooter emphasises that Aunty/the Ark retains the robots’ ‘true, basic nature’. In doing so, Shooter gives a reason why the Autobots continue to resemble vehicles and the Decepticons weapons, aircraft, and communications devices.
The Decepticons depart, but before they leave, they try to shoot at the Ark. They fail. The Ark summons enough energy to raise the defensive shields. The Decepticon leader (no name as yet) realises that their energy levels are too low to fight. They retreat in search of a new source of energy.
This part of the story is similar, but not quite the same, as what is eventually depicted in issue 1 of the comic. It differs more from the cartoon (More than Meets the Eye Part 1) where Skywarp just happens to be the first to be reactivated. He is the one who puts his comrades into the path of the repair beam. The Decepticons in the cartoon depart, believing their enemy dead, but a parting shot by Starscream at the Ark accidentally knocks Optimus Prime into the repair beam.
Shooter continues:
“A day later, an Autobot shaped as a dune buggy sees a Decepticon infiltrate a human atomic energy plant. When he reports this, his leader is alarmed.”
No name yet for Optimus Prime or Megatron (at least here). The dune buggy Autobot will become Hound and Cliffjumper in the cartoon. They witness Starscream and other Decepticons attacking a power plant in the first episode.
Shooter ends this part of his treatment by asking questions. He suggests that the Autobots attempt to send a message to Cybertron (which proves impossible in both the cartoon and comic, until a bit later). In doing so they wonder if the war is still ongoing and if so, who won. Did anyone survive? Either way, the Autobots realise that they are on their own and must continue ‘the age-old struggle’ even on this ‘strange land, full of strange creatures…’.
Before Shooter finishes his main story description, he highlights in bullet points what he sees as the first adventure following this origin. He foresees all of the above to be ‘briefly told’ and that then the story would tell how the Decepticons establish a high-tech base and how humans become involved in the war. This fits perfectly with what we see in issue 1 of the Marvel comic. The origin is told in monologue and then we start to get real storytelling as soon as the Transformers are reawoken from their millions of years slumber.
In the next part of these essays about Jim Shooter’s original treatment for The Transformers we finally meet some human characters (who do get names) and Shooter offers some profiles (with names) for some of the main characters. Whilst not referenced in the main story outline Optimus Prime is named in the profiles as is Prowl and Starscream, but no Megatron.
The fourth part of this essay looking at the original treatment for The Transformers will appear next week. There we will look in some detail at the original character profiles suggested by Jim Shooter.