Transformers: Robots in Disguise Episode Guide

Episode 36: Mistaken Identity
Original U.S. air date: March 2, 2002
Written by: Michael McConnohie

Scourge is still trying to gain control of Fortress Maximus, and now believes that capturing Koji, the Autobots' human friend, is what he needs. A first attempt to kidnap him after school is blocked by the car brothers, and when he reports back to Galvatron, Sky-Byte decides that capturing Koji himself is what he needs to regain Galvatron's favor.

Meanwhile, Koji is getting tired of having Autobot bodyguards everywhere he goes, and his best friend Carl is amazed at Koji's stories about controlling Maximus and adventuring with the Autobots. They decide to switch clothes before leaving school one day so Koji can get some time to himself, but Sky-Byte mistakes Carl for his target and takes him to Galvatron. They soon realize the error, but Scourge realizes that perhaps any human will do to control Maximus, not just Koji. When Movor reports from orbit that Maximus has resurfaced in the South American jungle, Scourge, Galvatron and Sky-Byte go there with Carl and Cerebros.

Once there, Scourge commands Carl to tell Maximus to activate and transform to robot mode. Carl is then taken by Maximus into the command module, and is excited at the power he has at his control. Now that Maximus/Carl is under his control, Scourge orders him to crush Galvatron and Sky-Byte, and Carl readily cooperates for a chance to help the Autobots. But Maximus fails, reporting a "frequency access error," and when the Autobots arrive via the global space bridge, Koji gets Carl to leave Maximus. Galvatron paralyzes Scourge for his betrayal and orders Sky-Byte to take him back to their headquarters.

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Galvatron is advertised with four new modes in addition to the six possessed by Megatron, despite the fact that the Megatron toy can transform into anything the Galvatron toy can. (In fact, one Japanese fan once created over a hundred distinct transformation modes for the toy, although most require a lot of imagination to identify them.) This episode demonstrated the first and last appearance of the "iron mammoth" mode, which uses Megatron's dragon tail/jet nosecone to form the trunk and the dragon/bat/jet wings to form the ears. It's pretty hideous even when you do get a good angle on it, which the episode never did.

It's not obvious at first that Galvatron has deliberately left Cerebros behind with the Autobots, apparently giving up on controlling Maximus after seeing that Scourge's best idea wasn't able to hurt even him.

My parents phoned on Friday evening.

General conversation, nothing unusual, then my mother says, apropos of nothing: "oh and you're so funny – trying to wind us up like that!" I don't know what she means, and I ask her, not particularly interested at first.

She says they had a message on their answering phone, from a journalist, who wants to speak to them about their daughter.

"What?" I said – now I am listening properly. They had tried to call him back on the number he left, but didn't get through. It takes a while to convince them that this is not a prank.

I am alarmed now; I ask them for the number. There is a tug of war over who will phone the journalist, but I am more insistent. When I call, the lady who answers tells me to phone again on Monday.

It is a long weekend. There is no-one else in the flat, I had nothing planned, and I silently reviewed my life for anything of journalistic interest. I once enjoyed a flirtation with a politician as a teenager, it didn't come to anything: would that be it? But how would they have found out? Why would it be interesting? It was exciting for me at the time, but in the grand scheme of things, someone saying 'the FTSE' whilst holding my toes is not exactly headlines. Did they want material for an article on young women's drinking habits? Then again, why me?

Monday comes. I tentatively dial the number. The journalist I speak to takes a moment to recognise my name, and then brightens.

Him: "You live in London!"
Me: "No, I live in xx"
Him: "You work as a model!"
Me (increasingly baffled): "No, I work in a bank"
Him: "You're going out with xx" (famous celebrity)
Me: uncontrollable laughter.

I realise they have got the wrong person. I am highly entertained, until I realise that the tabloids have unwittingly reported this. People phone my parents and want to know if this is true, other people ask my friends.

I leave a bar one night the next week, and when my phone signal has returned, there is a message from someone wants to speak to me about it – from the Royal Mail. I wonder why on earth the Royal Mail would be interested in it? The postal service?

I later discover that it was a drunk friend pretending to be a journalist, a victim of malapropism, too inebriated to say 'the Daily Mail'.

I wonder what the celebrity thought about this, if he read it; I have never trusted the papers since.