Before you say I am beating a dead horse, hear me out.
If you ask anyone, what is the worst episode of the G1 cartoon, it's very likely B.O.T. will come up in the discussion. This episode is a B-List episode, and it shows. With its many animation errors and lackluster plot. If you been on TFwiki, you know what I mean. It's bad when TFwiki can make legitimately funny jabs at the episode.

This episode would be fine if it were mid-season, but this is actually the last episode before the Movie. So it's a damn shame as this is the last time we are actually seeing some of these characters, prior to some of them being murdered or forgotten.

I'd thought I would take a more critical look at the episode, and figure out why it doesn't work. I never watched every episode of the G1 cartoon, so there might be episodes I may find worse. But, B.O.T. is up there.

The Combaticons enter a city for no reason. No brief dialouge exchange of them explaining what their objective is, just them aimlessly doing nothing. They transform and drive for a bit (yes Blast-Off and Vortex too), then transform into Bruticus just because. Bruticus is destroyed by Defensor with a single shot, and he simply leaves. Swindle is left as the only one who survived. I think a better opening would of been the Combaticons fighting the Protectobots, and losing. As then they would of had an mission.

What I listed above happens under 1 minute.

Swindle buys spare parts for his teammates, and sells their weapons and computer systems. Megatron plans on destroying the moon, and needs Bruticus to do it (seemingly forgetting he has 2 other combiners on his team.) Skywarp goes to the Combaticon's base (Yes they have a base.) And finds parts, and follows the trail to Swindle at a junkyard. Starscream comes and effortlessly picks Swindle up.

Megatron threatens if the other 4 Combaticons aren't rebuilt, a bomb in Swindle's head will go off. So Swindle goes across the world to search for parts, and rebuilds the Combaticons. But... he couldn't find Brawl's personality component.

Then the episode becomes boring. Two kids, Martian and Roland have to get a blue ribbon at the science fair, and are forced to work with Elise Presser. Unlike other one-off human characters these kids aren't interesting, and Martian and Roland get barely any consequences for their actions except a slap on the wrist. And Elise is constantly peer pressured by them.

The students decide they want to make their own robot for the science fair after seeing the Protectobots, eat shit Wheeljack. Grab Brawl's personality component and they have their own robot. But, because Brawl is evil he destroys things. Brawl leaves to God knows where.

The kids send a S.O.S. signal to the Autobots, which if contacting them is that easy they probably get many prank calls or they had nothing better to do today. The Autobots answer the call, and lose to bot. The Gears fail to destroy a damn wooden door, and Bot destroys a concrete wall. Proving robots who been fighting a war for millions of years are weaker than a robot built by kids using one of the least intelligent Decepticons.

The size of the Autobots is inconsistent. Sometimes they are their regular height, or are small enough to attempt to open a wooden door or enter a building.

They enter a building, and run up the stairs. Ironhide says fire at nothing, they fire, there is an explosion, then he declares they hit whatever target they were trying to hit. The kids, who are inside of an elevator, are stopped by Brawl holding the elevator cables. Swindle shoots Brawl, and runs off with Brawl's personality component. He returns to base, and Brawl is saved. You know this task will be easier if the other 3 Combaticons helped.

The kids go to find the Component of a goddamn Combaticon. They go near the ocean, where the Decepticon base is located, and conveniently Megatron just happens to say they will test their cannon on the Autobot base. The kids tell the Autobots, and Optimus says the only way to defeat the Decepticons is to contact the Protectobots. Who have a base as well.

I want to mention the many pacing issues. The episode is too fast and too slow at the same time. There are scenes where characters say one word sentences and it quickly cuts to the next scene. There are scenes that can easily but cut out of the episode. And there are scenes that are just boring exposition dumps.

Megatron arrives, and the Decepticons are easily flanked. Bruticus, despite being strong enough to manhandle both Devastator and Menasor, is struggling to fight back. Starscream points out how he's doing nothing, characters point out the obvious a lot.

Oddly some of the characters don't even speak. Which gives me the impression that this episode's low character count, is probably hinting at budget limitations. Optimus Prime, Ironhide and Streetwise all speak. (Probably cause their all voiced by Peter Cullen.) While someone like Blast-Off and Vortex don't even grunt.

B.O.T. and the kids save everyone. And the Martin and Roland make some bad puns, and Elise suggests they build another robot. Martin and Roland smugly tape her mouth and take her away, the Autobot look on saying nothing. What a whacky way to end an episode. Again, this is the last episode before the Movie.

Yeah, the episode is bad. But, in a way it's charming. The strongest parts are the unintentionally hilarious animation errors, weird continuity and how rushed it is. The worst parts are everything else.

 

There's a lot of issues, but it's hard for me to be totally critical on just about the only pre-season 3 episode to feature The Protectobots.

 

I'm so glad I forgot this episode existed.

 

I can honestly say I don't think I've seen this episode. I've heard *of* it, but haven't seen it. Reading all of these plot points, I can honestly say I don't remember one bit of it visually. I'm guessing that's a blessing in disguise.

 

I don't think B.O.T is the worst episode in terms of G1's simplistic cartoon continuity. There's other episodes that are far worse like the Sea Spray mermaid episode. It's a decent Decepticon solo episode, but not as a send-off for the G1 movie that was coming next. I think G1 needed a season 2.5 (a dubbed Scramble City) to have had a proper send off. Bear in mind I don't keep up with Tfwiki's outdated fandom standards anymore so I don't know what else they'd consider to be "TEH WORST EPISODE OF X EVER!!11!!"

 

B.O.T. is clunky, but for me, it's more of a so-bad-it's-good thing. For me, really bad as in "so-bad-it's-painful" episode is this one (and seriously, this comes from someone who loves season three for the most part):

 

Carnage in C Minor is the worst episode ever. Stupid story terrible animation. But I have to agree with what someone said earlier. Considering how few episodes featured the Protectobots and Combaticons (especially the Protectobots) it's a worthwhile episode for that fact alone.

 

Was B.O.T really that bad? Tbh I kinda liked that episode growing up because of the Protectobots. I mean, Defensor practically one-shot Bruticus (who was a pretty bad threat). I can think of even worse episodes like Carnage in C Minor and the mermaid episode.

 

Yes! This! Obviously continuity is a tricky thing, but I'm amazed that there hasn't been a comic or something that bridged this gap yet, that I'm aware of. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong!

 

I'm still surprised we never got an official dub of Scramble City, even as an extra for something. There's no replacing the G1 voice cast, but there's probably enough VA's in house that can do a close job for a 20 minute special.

 

I actually like Carnage in C Minor because it features post-movie Soundwave, and it's one of the few episodes that shows a human (well, humanoid alien) actually getting hurt during a Transformers battle.

It's funny that the creators actually managed to have someone getting squashed. Yes, he lived, but still kinda out there.

 

No offense, but 90% of your post was just you saying what happened in the episode, and not all that different from TFWiki’s description. It might have been nice if you’d been a little more descriptive about why you think this was the worst episode ever. For example, one of the things I think made this episode so damning was the completely misogynistic treatment of Elise by two teenage boys who are really nothing more than a couple of hoodlums, and her teacher for forcing her to help these two morons when he really should have just expelled them. Try putting duct tape over a teenage girl’s mouth and then dragging her out of a room today, and see how well that goes down.

 

There's Transformers: Reanimated, which makes scripts of episodes made to fill the gap between season 2 and season 3:
TRANSFORMERS: REANIMATED – Based on the original cartoon series, The Transformers: ReAnimated, bridges the gap between the end of the seminal second season and the 1986 Movie that defined the childhood of millions.

 

Carnage is actually a fun episode. It may have the crappiest animation (although Toei has done just as bad as AKOM did in this episode, just look at Child's Play, Nightmare Planet and Fight or Flee), but I think the story is fun and pretty exciting. Plus, it has Broadside in it and he is tons of fun IMO.

 

I don't think it is a bad episode, but rather a bad send off for season 2.

 

BOT is only the 2nd worst G1 episode. Call of the Primitives is the worst. BOT, while stupid, with annoying guest characters, at least didn't feel like a fantasy Grimlock dreamed up.

 

Grimlock saving the universe is everyone's fantasy.

 

I personally enjoy Call despite its stupidity. At least it doesn't bore me or make me pull my hair like Fight or Flee did.

 

I did really enjoy Call just because of what it helped do in the long run. But if anything it was one of the best animated episodes of G1.

 

I actually enjoy thos episode mainly due to the trouble Swindle causes and Megatron being a parent by telling him to clean up his mess.