And Then There Were 10

And Then There Were 10 is the first episode of Ben 10.

Synopsis
Ben gains a device, the Omnitrix (Original), which allows him to transform into many aliens with incredible powers!

Plot
A smaller ship is being blasted by a large, grey, and orange one, piloted by Vilgax. The smaller ship ejects a pod towards Earth and causes damage to Vilgax's ship. This causes Vilgax horrible injuries. The smaller ship is then blasted to pieces.

Meanwhile, on Earth, a 10 year old boy named Ben Tennyson finishes school for the year. His life is shown here; he first gets in trouble for flying a paper airplane into his teacher's head and started to learn before he got into trouble but every one saw. He then tries to stop the school bullies, Cash and JT, from beating up Jamie. Ben gets beaten up and hung by his underwear in a tree with Jamie. His grandfather, Max Tennyson shows up in his RV and helps Ben and Jamie get down. As Ben enters the RV, he tells Max how much he has been looking forward to their camping holiday, until he spots his least-favorite cousin, Gwen (who claims that "someone" persuaded her mother this would be good for her). They start calling each other names. When they arrive at the campsite, Ben and Gwen see that Max wants them to go on a flavor ride which includes eating worms. (they decide to work together on saving food for the entire summer). Later, Ben goes for a walk alone, until he sees a shooting star.

The star is actually the pod jettisoned at the start. It hones in on Ben and he just barely jumps out of the way before it hits the ground. He fell into the crater it created. The pod opens to reveal a watch-like object; called the Omnitrix. It latches itself onto Ben's left wrist, scaring him. After failed attempts to get it off, the faceplate pops up and shows the silhouette of an alien. Thinking this is cool, he pushes the faceplate back down, and transforms into Heatblast. Heatblast screams and runs around in a panic, terrified because he's "on fire", but realizes that he isn't getting hurt and decides to test his power out, launching fireballs at the trees and ends up starting a forest fire.

Gwen and Max notice the smoke and both grab a fire extinguisher and rush to try and put it out, only for Gwen to find Heatblast attempting to stomp out the fire (only making it worse). Gwen is terrified at his appearance and as Heatblast tries to reason with her, she hits him with the fire extinguisher, sprays him with it and tells him to stay down. Heatblast retaliates by lighting her shoe on fire (getting a cheap laugh in the process while Gwen puts it out) and convinces her who he is after insulting her. Gwen asks what happened and Heatblast tells the whole story in a matter of seconds, finishing just as Max appears. Heatblast is just about to tell the whole story to Max, but Gwen interrupts and reminds them of the forest fire. Max tells Heatblast to start a new fire and let it burn into the old one in order to put them both out; it works, but most of the forest is destroyed just as the park rangers show up.

Back on Vilgax's ship, Vilgax is fairly torn up, on life support in a large tank with his legs and left arm missing. He sends two drones to retrieve the Omnitrix. Meanwhile, Heatblast explains his story to Max. Gwen asks Max if he thinks Ben will stay a "monster" forever, but then Max says he is an alien with a grim expression on his face. This gives him weird looks from Heatblast and Gwen. Then a beeping sounds and Heatblast turns back into Ben in a flash of red light. Max says Ben should not mess around with the Omnitrix and he goes to investigate the spot of the crash.

Ben decides to try the Omnitrix again. Gwen watches as Ben turns into Wildmutt and he discovers his sense of smell by dodging her. Wildmutt goes into the woods to have some fun. His sense of smell detects two drones and he jumps, almost hit with a laser. One of the drones chases Wildmutt until he bites the drone. Wildmutt defeats the first drone, but then the Omnitrix times out and he reverts back to Ben. He is knocked to the ground and is getting targeted with the laser from the second drone.

Gwen appears and hits the second drone with a shovel repeatedly, destroying it. Then, Vilgax learns about the destruction of the drones and sends a bigger one to Earth. It lands where Ben found the Omnitrix, destroying the pod. Max comes by later and thinks he has a bad feeling about it. Max lectures Ben back at the RV. The radio then talks about an attack of some sort from a giant robot. Ben realizes it must be a drone. Ben, Max, and Gwen go near the campsite. Ben turns into Diamondhead and fights the drone while Max and Gwen evacuate the area.

Diamondhead learns he can reflect the blast and destroys the drone. Vilgax learns of the destruction of the drone and says that the Omnitrix's user is a worthy adversary.

It is morning and Max and Gwen are packing. They wonder where Ben is and XLR8 shows up, saying he had to take care of something. Cash and JT are shown with wedgies on a tree, wondering what happened.

Major Events

 * The Omnitrix is sent to Earth and locks onto Ben's wrist.
 * Vilgax starts hunting down Ben and the gang to take the Omnitrix.
 * Vilgax is injured during a space battle with Xylene and has to have his body restored during his quest for the Omnitrix.
 * Ben first transforms into Heatblast, Wildmutt, Diamondhead and XLR8.
 * Ben starts his summer trip with Gwen and Grandpa Max.

Omnitrix Alien Debuts

 * Heatblast
 * Wildmutt
 * Diamondhead
 * XLR8

Characters

 * Ben Tennyson (first appearance)
 * Gwen Tennyson (first appearance)
 * Maxwell Tennyson (first appearance)
 * Cash (first appearance)
 * JT (first appearance)
 * Ben's Teacher (first appearance)
 * Jamie (first appearance)

Villains

 * Vilgax (first appearance)
 * Vilgax's Drones (first appearance)

Aliens Used

 * Heatblast (first appearance)
 * Wildmutt (first appearance)
 * Diamondhead (first appearance)
 * XLR8 (first appearance; offscreen transformation)

Errors

 * When Ben leaves the classroom, for a few seconds, his collar is white instead of black.
 * When Ben was turning the dial for the next alien to turn into, the Omnitrix's ring is grey instead of black.
 * In many scenes, the button on the Omnitrix moves. In some scenes, the button is on the other side of the Omnitrix and sometimes it appears on both sides.
 * When Ben tries to get the Omnitrix off with a stick, the stick is able to fit underneath the watch, yet when the stick breaks, no part of it seems to have stayed under the watch.

Allusions

 * The title And Then There Were 10 is a reference to the detective fiction novel And Then There Were None, written by Agatha Christie.
 * The space battle at the beginning is a reference to the opening scene of Star Wars Episode IV.
 * Two Ben 10: Omniverse (4th Ben 10 Series, set 5-6 years after Ben 10) episodes share almost the same title as this episode (And Then There Were 10).  Those names are And Then There Were None and And Then There Was Ben.

Trivia

 * The trio's first stop is Yosemite Park.
 * When Cash is bullying Jamie, he has a cash register design on his t-shirt.
 * Grandpa Max immediately recognizes Heatblast as an alien. He then tries to cover up his knowledge by saying that it's obvious. This was the first of several references to his knowledge about aliens that led to his secret being revealed in Truth.
 * The events of the episode are referenced in the pop-up version of Washington B.C. and are stated that a news report of the episode's events are what inspired Dr. Animo to complete his mutation research.