Depth Charge
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about the Beast Wars character "Depth Charge". For the real-life explosive, see depth charge.
Depth Charge is a character in the Beast Wars: Transformers universe.
| Transformers character | |
 Depth Charge in his final form. |
|
| Depth Charge | |
|---|---|
| Affiliation | Maximal |
| Sub-Group | Transmetals |
| Function | Marine Commander |
| Partner | Shark Drone |
| Motto | "Follow my orders or get out of my face!" |
| Alternate Modes | Transmetal Manta Ray/Cybertronian Spaceship Cybertronian Submarine |
| Series | Beast Wars Transtech Transformers: Universe |
| Voiced by | David Sobolov (English) Kiyoyuki Yanada (Japanese) |
Contents |
[edit] Beast Wars
He was originally a Maximal Marine Commander on Colony Omicron, the leader of his own squad in charge of security. When Protoform X escaped custody on Omicron, the colony was wiped out - with Depth Charge being the sole survivor. This left Depth Charge with a deep hatred for Protoform X, along with a large amount of resentment towards himself for failing to save Omicron and his troops.
After four stellar cycles, Depth Charge chased Protoform X, encountering him and suffering defeat at many locations - including Starbase Rugby. (This is an "in-joke", and refers to an online Transformers store called Rugby's Starbase). Eventually, Depth Charge recaptured Protoform X and requested that X be terminated for his crimes. Instead, Protoform X was taken by the starship Axalon and sentenced to be abandoned in space.
Depth Charge was not satisfied with this ruling. He decided to find Protoform X on his own, and finish what had been started. His search lead him through an anomaly in space, and landed on prehistoric Earth in the middle of the Beast Wars (specifically, just at the start of Season 3 in the Beast Wars TV show). He became a transmetal in the process, and scanned the beast form of a manta ray, which could also be converted into an aerial mode.
[edit] Animated Series
Protoform X (now known as Rampage) was indeed on prehistoric Earth. Depth Charge was shocked to find the crew of the Axalon (who had long since been thought lost) on Earth as well, but did not care about the war they were involved in. He still held a deep resentment of the other Maximals for not destroying Rampage when they had the chance, and chose to operate solo in pursuit of Rampage.
Depth Charge was a quiet, brooding warrior, traumatized and obsessed with killing Rampage. He 'joined' the Maximals but preferred to work by himself and did not get along well with the rest of the team, particularly Optimus, whose orders he often ignored or outright disobeyed. However, he was a great asset to Optimus Primal's team, being the only water-based Maximal. Depth Charge continued his rivalry with Rampage until the bitter end, dying when he impaled Rampage's spark with a piece of raw Energon, thus causing an immense explosion. (Ironically this was the one fight with his nemesis in which Depth Charge was not hunting Rampage and actually wanted to avoid, not because he did not wish to fight “X” but because at the time he was attempting to stop Megatron from acquiring the Nemesis starship.) An interesting fact was that Rampage actually stopped resisting Depth Charge's attempts to impale his spark, and laughed insanely as Depth Charge finished him off, implying he wanted to be destroyed, either to end his suffering or to take his greatest adversary down with him.
"I've gotta hand it to you, Primal. When you screw up, you do it big time." - Depth Charge confonts Primal in "Deep Metal"
"It's not revenge I'm looking for. It's justice." - Depth Charge's words of explanation to Optimus in "Deep Metal"
"Raw energon, right through your twisted spark. TAKE IT! TAKE IT STRAIGHT TO THE PIT, YOU SICKENING PIECE OF SLAG!" - Depth Charge's last words.
Depth Charge was voiced by David Sobolov in the English speaking version and Kiyoyuki Yanada in the Japanese version. Despite having appeared in only 7 episodes of the third season, Depth Charge has gone on to become one of the most popular characters in the Beast Wars fandom, rivalling even Dinobot. This is possibly due to his darker, more ruthless personality, compared to the other, more humorous and lighthearted Maximals.
[edit] Transtech
After the Beast Machines line ended, Hasbro planned a follow-up series called Transtech. The Transtech concept was a line intended to take Transformers to their most futuristic. Hasbro commissioned sets of designs from Draxhall Jump. The series was supposedly to bring back some of the characters who died in Beast Wars along with some Generation 1 characters, all in new, more organic-looking bodies, though with vehicle alternate modes instead of the animals used in Beast Machines. Many concept sketches and even a few toy prototypes were made, but Hasbro scrapped the idea in favor of bringing Car Robots to their markets as Transformers: Robots in Disguise.
Concept sketches or prototype toys have been seen for Blackarachnia, Cheetor, Depth Charge, Megatron, Nightscream, Optimus Prime, Scavenger, Shockwave, Silverbolt, Soundwave, Starscream and a new character called Immorticon. There were also rumors of a Transtech Dinobot.
The Transtech incarnation of Depth Charge turned into a Cybertronian submarine.
[edit] Transformers: Universe (2004)
In the Transformers: Universe toyline and comic series, Depth Charge is brought back to life as an Autobot to aid in the battle against Unicron. Primus revived Depth Charge to assist Optimus Primal in battle against the Decepticons. He does this by aiding the Autobot King Atlas in his evacuation efforts. Depth Charge is initially angry at having been revived, no doubt believing that without Rampage to hunt his life is pointless.
Brought back from the other side of the Matrix by Primus and Optimus Primal, Depth Charge knew his role in the upcoming war against the monster planet, Unicron, had only just begun. Having finally dispatched his longtime adversary, Protoform X (known as Rampage during the Beast Wars), this solemn, no-nonsense warrior immediately volunteered to assist King Atlas in operating and maintaining a refugee network within the monster planet himself. Depth Charge demands nothing less than perfection from his comrades. Anything less is unsatisfactory in his eyes and he has no problem letting any lazy Autobot know about it!
His fusion-powered cybershark drone conducts recon missions and doubles as a reinforcement in battle. It can also covert into a hand-held blaster, firing dual quantum torpedoes. Depth Charge's beast form is optimized for underwater combat and can withstand the deepest oceanic pressures. Offensive weaponry in this form includes his drone and an ionic launcher mounted on the forward section of his manta ray mode. His intermediate space-cruiser form can maintain planetary orbit for brief periods of time. In robot mode, he launches ionic discs from his chest and wields an Energon-cutlass for hand-to-hand combat. Defensively, his wings can double as shields against most energy-based beams and missiles. Can also act as solar converters to store energy for prolonged missions in the ocean depths.
Although Depth Charge is a skilled warrior in any situation, his abilities underneath the waves is second to none.
2004 redeco of Beast Wars version, came with a Cybershark drone. Hasbro designer Aaron Archer claimed at BotCon 2004 that this toy's color scheme was meant to resemble Boba Fett's Slave-1.
