Dinobot Island, part 1

Powerglide and a rocket-pack wearing Bumblebee are heading toward an area in the sea where Teletraan-1 has been detecting strange energy wave readings, and as they check in with Optimus Prime they then see purple swirls before them and head right in. They get through the waves but no sooner have they done this Bumblebee finds himself under attack by a pteranodon!
 

Thanks to Powerglide shooting at it though it drops Bumblebee and the two Autobots land on a strange island, where Bumblebee quickly determines that his island looks a lot like how the Earth would be millions of years a go when the dinosaurs ruled. And just as he realises this, a T-Rex stomps over towards him but before it gets a chance for a snack, Powerglide and Bumblebee depart.
 

When the two get back to base and tell the story of their brief adventure, Spike is really interested but Cliffjumper says that they have enough trouble with Dinobots, never mind actual real dinosaurs. Wheeljack then tells everyone that lately he has trained the Dinobots to be slightly smarter and decides to give the Autobots a demonstration, and gets Blaster to transform.
 

Grimlock then arrives and transforms, and uses his newly-developed and highly accurate laser breath to hit different buttons on Blaster's cassette player mode, which plays different tunes. The other Autobots are impressed with this but the noise gets the attention of Sludge and Slag, who also want a go at showing how great they now are, but they end up colliding with Grimlock instead.
 

This results in a lot of chaos happening in the base with fires being started and general damage being dished out to the computers, almost including Teletraan-1. As Grapple, Smokescreen and Hound look on, Red Alert and Inferno transform and after going past several Autobots, including Tracks and Hoist (the two next to Brawn) start to put out the fires as Optimus tells Grimlock to stop stomping around and get the other Dinobots to calm down. They do this by transforming and Optimus says that the Dinobots don't have enough room to train in the base and Bumblebee suggests that they should move out to that island that went to earlier.
 

Outside the base, Ravage and Soundwave are up to no good and hide round a corner when a secret door opens on the Autobot base, and out step the Dinobots and a few of the other Autobots. Spike gets into Powerglide who than takes off and leads the other Dinobots toward the island, with Optimus saying that the Dinobots are to return once they have mastered their powers and become less clumsy.
 

Soundwave has heard everything though and reports it back to Megatron, who is intrigued by this mysterious island, and he tells Soundwave to dispatch Laserbeak to follow the group of Autobots and find out more.
 

Meanwhile the Dinobots soon reach the island, which Spike decides to call "Dinobot Island" and as the group lands on it, so does Laserbeak. They all see that this island is not only a prehistoric place but also a place of energy resources - something that Laserbeak takes note of as he flies back to the Decepticon base. As the Autobots have a quick look round, Spike wanders off and ends up being caught by a pterosaur!
 

Swoop comes in though and saves Spike by scaring the flying lizard off with a couple of laser blasts, and then takes him down to a nearby lake. As Swoop goes to rejoin the others Spike wants to take a quick look round but then another dinosaur rises out of the lake and tries to eat him!
 

It takes another save thanks to the Dinobots to save Spike and he and Powerglide decide that it is time for them to go to let the Dinobots train alone, and soon the two of them are off back to Autobot base.
 

At the Decepticon base, Laserbeak reports back and all of the other Decepticons find out about Dinobot Island, and Megatron sees that the island is rich in energy they they could plunder. Starscream shows concern over the strange energy readings that Laserbeak also found but Megatron silences him and then tells everyone that they are to move out to the island immediately.
 

As the Dinobots are busy training, the Decepticons arrive on the island undetected and Megatron immediately orders for them to steal all of the energy they can, despite Starscream's warnings about the unstable energy wave readings they found out about earlier. Soon, the like of Thundercracker and Blitzwing are out filling up energon cubes. However, Swoop sees them and tells Grimlock, who decides that they will go and make them leave the island.
 

Meanwhile Spike has taken out a load of books from a library about dinosaurs, saying he'd rather read about them as it is much safer. But then, a bright light swirls before them and out comes a barbarian riding on a woolly mammoth! Bumblebee says that the light must be some kind of time warp but he has no idea how and why it appeared, as the barbarian goes on a rampage.
 

As Thrust, Ramjet and Skywarp pack together more energon cubes they see the Dinobots heading towards them, but Megatron says he'll deal with them and herds together a load of real dinosaurs by shooting at them and they all go into a stampede straight towards the other Dinobots, who are trapped near the edge of a cliff.
 

All of the Dinobots crash into each other and then fall off the cliff and into a pit of tar, where they quickly sink as Megatron bids them farewell and starts to laugh quite hysterically. Is this the end of the Dinobots?

This is the point in the series where it starts to get a bit silly in terms of new characters, with nine new characters introduced in this episode - six Autobots and three Decepticons. None of them are given and backstory to where they have come from (the show's writers were just told to use them) and most of them don't even have lines in this episode -none of the new Decepticons do and only a few of the new Autobots actually talk.

This led to another problem - many more Autobots were introduced in this season than Decepticons, which explains why so many of the good guys get killed off in the movie.

And many of these new characters this season will vanish just as mysteriously as they appeared in the third season, by the way.