Energon was hated, but it's quite possible that Beast Machines is even more reviled. Afterall, this is the show that turned Optimus Primal into a religious zealot with a garden, the origin of Cybertron was completely reworked, technorganics were foisted upon us, and the returning characters from Beast Wars were completely different! God, no! Whyyyyy? *SAWB* Whyyyyyyyyy?!?!?!

Actually, I like this show. It took me 2 complete viewings to realize that I did like it, but now it's my favorite TF show ever second only to Beast Wars (sequels always have a hard time topping the original). Anyway, I'm going to do one episode per week so that I'll finish this thing at the exact same time TF Animated finishes its first airing. At least that's the plan. I'll try not to do more than one a week. And because Mach Saber always says that no one ever has any good pics of BM up, I'll be doing a little something extra.

Energon was hated? I didn't hate Energon... the only series I *hated* was Armada. Energon was passable, and Cybertron better.

As far as Beast Machines, yes, it actually was a decent show. However, it fell short of a few goals and seemed to come to an overly-hurried end. Plus, the characters underwent a complete personallity switch between BW and BM that made things... awkward at time (most notably with Rattrap)

Then there was Botannica... :wall:

My only real problem with BM was the ending, where they turned Cybertron Technorganic. If Skir wanted to make a new race among the others, that's cool, but there's absolutely no need to make them all Technorganic, along with the whole planet.

I prefer to think that only the surface was reformatted, like Cybertron was given an enormous Pretender shell.

Well, I hated BM Rattrap, too. He was the polar opposite of his character in BW. It was just a sad attempt to make TF PC.

I've posted my love about Beast Machines in the past (look at it this way - of the 4 Mosaics pieces that are BM orientated, 2 are mine).

The gap, I think is between what was attempted and what we got - ideal versus execution.

It's the Babylon 5 of Transformers, it explores morality, justice, peace, choice, religion, hope, idealism, fanaticism, loyalty, evolution, love, the legacy of the past, conformity, leadership and more.

Each of the core characters have a "quest" to go in throughout the series.
Blackarachnia is on a quest for love.
Nightscream has survivor guilt and is on a quest to deal with that and find acceptance.
Rattrap needs to find his self worth.
Silverbolt needs redemption.
Megatron wants peace. His sort of peace, naturally, but peace none the less.



Which rather brings me to another point - BM Megatron is the ONLY "Bad Guy Leader" in Transformers who hasn't wanted destruction of something and conquest as his goal. He wants peace - he's GOT the conquest bit already.
Like Hitler, he wants a society built in his image, and peace as dictated by him.

Well... the general opinion then. A lot of people seem to hate BM, but I personally really enjoy it. And besides, the first half of Energon was really well done, I though. Right then! Onto the first episode!

Got a case of Skir-vy? Clear that right up with a little vitamin Crab! Okay here we go, hee! :D

Episode 1: The Reformatting
written by Marty Isenberg and Bob Skir

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

We begin with an extreme close-up of a flower growing out of the cracks in the metal surface of planet Cybertron. A familiar form comes running towards the screen; Optimus Primal, and as he passes out of view, a tank tread crushes the flower underfoot. That, in a nutshell, is the theme of the entire show in 5 seconds.

A swarm of tank drones is chasing after Optimus Primal, who is having some serious difficulty transforming. Every time he tries, he crackles with sparks and electricity and remains firmly locked in beast mode. Outnumbered and outgunned, he runs for his life, but the tank drones are all over him! Suddenly his eyes light up with an eerie glow that directs him towards a passing railcar. He leaps onto the roof the railcar and finds Rattrap there also in hiding.
Rattrap likewise is unable to transform. Between the two, they quickly deduce that they've been infected with some kind of virus that prevents them from transforming and has clouded their recent memories. Ah, cute little writer's ploy; the characters that can't remember a thing. Provides a wonderful excuse for the cast to give us plenty of exposition. Thankfully they don't dwell on it too much since they're being chased around by killer tank drones and such. Speaking of which, the tank drones blow up the railcar moments after Primal and Rattrap leap off. Hehe. Nice. The white light that's been guiding Primal points him in a new direction and off they go.
They're chased down an alley and boxed in, but Cheetor is lurking high above and leaps down onto one of the drones, blocking his shot. For the first time today the Maximals are back on the offensive, proving that they've still got what it takes even in beast mode. Very cool. Kinda' makes me think back to that old BW episode, "Call of the Wild" where they all had to deal with that. Anyway, they thwart the tank drones for a few moments and make a hasty escape.
It's not long before more drones are on them though and the re-introductions are put on hold. A large hole is blown into the ground and the Maximals waste no time taking advantage of it (Primal sees the white light again and it goes down the hole). They fall through a black abyss for a long, looooong way (it had to be long since they were falling through the entire commercial break). They land in Blackarachnia's web and - and - yeah!

Okay, I just have to say that Blackarachnia's always been my favorite character since I saw "The Trigger parts 1 and 2". Here, it just makes me happy that she was the last one to be found. Like, I don't know why- it just makes her seem... don't know. Kind of special like they were saving the best for last. She's got some great pessimism right off the bat, first being disappointed that it was the Maximals that fell into her web and not some drones. She had hoped to destroy a few before she went offline herself. Then with thick sarcasm she says how wonderful meeting up with them was since they can all go offline together.

Primal isn't ready to give up though and they continue downwards. Some real nice scenery of ancient Cybertronian civilizations that have long since been built over. Very cool. They're all climbing down Blackarachnia's energon string, but she's finally over-exerted herself and plunges into the darkness. The other Maximals, all feeling the effects of the virus, also lose their grip and fall far below.

And they fall into... nothingness. No light, no shadows. They can't see anything. And they all know they're going to die down here in this dank pit. But Primal won't hear it! He grabs a brick (is it a brick?) and hurls it through the air, shattering a ... some kind of hologram? Coolies! Nice trick. They find themselves standing before a roaring wall of fire, which also turns out to be a hologram. Once Primal clears through it, he discovers the Oracle behind it; a sort of mystical super computer with omnipotent whatchamathings and whodidits. Apparently it can see the future and has been in existence since before Cybertron came into existence... which we get to see by way of a trippy vision that it gives to Primal.

In the vision we see what looks like Earth. It could be any planet really, but it's blue and has white clouds and all that. It undergoes a technological revolution in moments, which I take to mean was the last few million years of Cybertron all condensed into a short span. Nice, nice. And then we get those tidbits of wisdom from the Oracle:

"The seeds of the future lie buried in the past."
"To release the warrior within, tame the beast without."
"Transform your destiny. Transform and transcend."

Got that? Cool. Anyway, Primal re-emerges from the Oracle looking all sharp with a brand new body that's a mix of technological and organic elements. Looks good, actually. A lot more commanding than his regular gorilla look from earlier in this episode. The virus is cured, though he still has memory loss. Hey, at least he's not in immediate danger of dying, right? The other Maximals step into the light of the Oracle too and all emerge with brand new technorganic bodies. Hehee, I love how Blackarachnia is the tallest of all of them in beast mode!

Suddenly- motorcycle drones! Ooh, and they look cool. Well not exactly. Their wheels look cool. Not so sure about the rest of them, but I just like that they used what could be considered the most state-of-the-art wheels currently here on Earth instead of the usual spokes that you always see in cartoon bikes. Very, very cool especially for anyone that's a motorcycle enthusiast (I'm not, I just happen to know about that one aspect and think it's cool). The Maximals are all ready to transform and kick some butt, when... when they can't transform! What?! Oh holy hell!!! RUN! RUUUN!!!

Some more good bits of the Maximals using only their beast modes to beat up on the bad guys. Who needs robot modes with moves like these, right? And probably my favorite little squeel moment- Blackarachnia lies in wait for a cycle drone and you can hear the old spider theme from Beast Wars remixed and playing in the background! It sounds a little bit more whymsical. I'm not sure if that's the right word to describe it; more feminine perhaps since it's just Blackarachnia now and there's no sign of Tarantulus. Yeah, sure, that works. Whatever you want to call it, I love it and as far as I recall this is the only time in the entire show that they play it, so enjoy it while you can.

The cycle drones dish out some good moves too. Man, this is just sad. They fight better than most of the Decepticons in the other series and they're just DRONES. Some good strategy like using other cycle drones as ramps to clear a huge chasm. And when Primal finally transforms and carries 2 cycle drones over the chasm, threatening to drop them unless they give him information, they rev their engines and burn out in his hands forcing him to drop them to their deaths. Now sure, they're only drones, but whoa! How do you fight an enemy that has no fear of dying?! Already I love the Vehicons.

Primal informs everyone that according to legend (ACCORDING TO LEGEND NOW) the first Transformers to come to Cybertron had to learn to transform like it was a martial art or something. It required purity of spark and years of training, blah blah blah. Primal figured it out pretty fast. I bet those old Transformers are rolling in their graves, hehehe. So he leads the other Maximals off to begin their training.

And elsewhere... somewhere dark and unpleasant... hooked up to a mass of cables running from the back of his head and upwards into the unknown heights of the ceiling above: Megatron. Alive. And aware of the Maximals' presence on *his* Cybertron...

And as promised: a little something extra.











I really love the backgrounds in this first episode. The shadows and lighting especially are the best ever seen in a TF cartoon. And check out the symbols engraved around Primals' collar. Anyone know Maximal?

Those are just designs, as they don't match the Maximal alphabet used in BW & BM.

Ah. Oh well.

Those are damn nice screen grabs Mako!

Thanks! I figured I'd just grab a handful of my favorite shots from each episode. Little something to look forward to.

I forgot to put one up. Here we go:





And yes, I'm a sucker for the background on this show. Love 'em!

You kidding me. Enegron, Cybertron, and Armada make Beast Machines look like god.

All of which we also got in Beast Wars and half of which we got during the run of G1, just not as in depth.

I'm not an avid hater of the show or anything, hell, I hunted down the box set. The writing was hit or miss quite a lot, the characters were vastly different as far as personalities go. I mean, if they wanted to give us a new set of main characters, then just do so. The introducing of organics to Cybertron seemed like it was a virus rather than a meaningful part. I agree with BZ on this, if they had wanted to put in a new race of Transformers, then just do so, but why force it on everything? It's been said countless times, but I'll also repeat, the morphing was a little silly. Yes, there has been shape-shifting and size morphing in the whole of Transformers, but it was never so blatant. It also got repetitive, which is why I have a hard time watching the episodes in one sitting.

On the positive side for me, yes..it was a very pretty series. The direction was one I have never considered. I found myself rooting for the real hero of season 1, Rhinox. His reasoning was quite sound and he wanted to include the Maximals in his plans. I was really disappointed to see how all of the characters were dealt with after season 1, aside from the splicing of Megatron's body. The deflated Primal was a bit silly. I want to like it, I just found myself rolling my eyes a bit much.

Beast Machines is my favorite one. Visually, of course. The story was so-so. I always beleived they would continue on the CG medium, but i guess it's cheaper this way.

BM disappointed me when it was new. I still loved to watch it, but it pale to BW. It was not until the Armada era and the release to DVD that actually appreciated the series.

I got to thinking about some of the comments I've been reading on the various boards that I've posted this to and I think I realized what it is about the IDW Beast Wars comics that are disappointing to me; BW and BM took risks. Big risks. When BW came out the whole fandom erupted into insanity and we got Trukk not Munky for years to come. When BM came out we got even more insanity and the whole show just turned Transformers right on its head.

The IDW comics though... what have they done? Sure, the stories are okay, but they haven't exactly taken any risks. Whereas BW and BM were about small casts and large character development, the comics are the reverse; massive roster and a focus on plot development instead. What bums me out the most is that after the first mini they're already bringing Shockaract into the mix and trying to tell an epic saga without any of the foundation required to justify it yet. It'd be like if you saw the 1986 movie without having ever seen the cartoon show first. You wouldn't care that all these bots and cons were dying because you simply wouldn't know who they were or why it was important.

I'm pushing for an IDW version of Beast Machines that DOES do different things.
We open "in the middle of a story", everyone is already Technoganic (or similar, maybe something akin to Transmutate the God's "movie look"), Silverbolt is present, but he's weak, and a broken spirited figure, Megatron is an ally of the Maximals, Primal is missing....

(throughout the series explanations are made, how they got their bodies, why Silverbolt is so weak, who the Generals are, who the Generals answer to, where Primal is, can you trust Megatron, etc etc).

It's been bouncing around in my head for ages, but with IDW doing a new version of Generation 1, I reckon BM of all the other series deserves another chance to shine.
What follows is how I think the series should start.



Part 1: Small Victories.

The voice was cold and logical. Precise yet rich in colour and with a subdued wit hidden only by choice. "Report my Generals"
"Damn animals got away" a purple figure, resting on a single tyre said.
"Tankor smashed" a hulking nightmare of blue and silver rumbled.
"What we need is an advantage. Flight perhaps..." the voice said. A computer panel flickered into life, showing the figure of an animal, a wolf fused with a hawk, that was suspended in a tank of bubbling liquid.
"And I have all that I need. However, I do wish to know how the Virus will affect something like that with two base deoxyribonucleic acid chains"

*****

The cavern wasn't large, but it was safe. The atmosphere was, to be blunt, depressed. Possibly even morbid.
A feline animal limped into a corner to brood. A spideresque, yet oddly femine, being stalked around the room, angry. A third figure, rodent-like, clenched it's fists and punched rock to expel his anger. Watching this sad scene was an ape of a being, his shoulders were slumped and his demeanor reflecting that of the rest of the figures, deep anger mixed with sadness.

A fifth figure, a massive reptilian figure, walked up behind the ape and said, in a rich fruity voice, deep as you'd expect from a figure that resembled nothing more then a quasi-technological Tyrannosaurus Rex, "Primal, a word"
"Not now Megatron" the ape said, his voice empty, totally devoid of his usual jovial tones.
"Yes now, Primal. I see what you do, but I intend to do something about it." Megatron glared at Primal, and cast a tired eye over the others.
"How? We've tried frontal assaults, we've tried covert actions. All we can do is run. We can't transform, the Vehicons have seen to that"
"I know all that. But what you haven't considered is how it works"
"All I can think about are my missing friends. You wouldn't know about that"
"Perhaps you're right. That just allows me a clearer view of what we need to do"
"What?" Primal, despite the fact he was talking to someone who should be his prisoner, and for the longest time was his deadliest enemy, he was starting to sense a ray of hope in Megatron's voice
"Nearby, not to far from the entrance to our ertsze base, is a little "contingency" ferreted away by my late, but not lamented, lackey Tarrantulus. Namely, a small laboratory. Nothing special, just a few comptuers and a CR chamber..."
The thought of access to a CR chamber and something to analyse the virus that trapped them in their new technoganic beast modes, was too tempting to pass up.
"MAXIMALS!" Primal shouted, mustering confidence from an unknown source "I think you should hear this..."

*****

Stalking through the empty metal streets where they had once made their home, was not a happy experience. It was made worse by the constant complaining of one member of the team "we're all going to die" was a common epithet along with comments about the trustworthiness of Megatron. "Rattrap," snapped the spider "shut up now, or I swear I'm going to shove so much webbing down your throat that your tail will stick to walls"
"Don't worry on my account, dear Blackarachnia" Megatron said
"I'm not." Blackarachnia shot back quickly.
"We're there" Megatron announced finally. He smiled a predatory smile and faced a blank wall.
"Well that's nice" Rattrap said "where's here?"
"What sort of spider makes his lair obvious?" Megatron asked rethorically.
He indicated a spot on the wall with his head, and Blackarachnia clambered up and pressed it.
The wall clicked and a doorway slowly swung open.

*****

"Cheetor, stand over there" Megatron pointed as best he could with his small arms. The feline walked over to a raised platform and asked "what's this?"
"It's a complex scanning array. Tarrantulus designed it to locate weaknesses in individual Maximals. His hobby I suppose..." Megatron trailed off.
"I'm in one of that freak's machines? Count me out"
"Cheetor," Primal's voice carried a renewed air of authority "Megatron and Blackarachnia are needed to examine the readouts, and only Rattrap and I have hands to operate it. I'm sorry"
"Well that's just prime" Cheetor moaned.
With a rattle and a whine, the machinery sparkled into life, and washed Cheetor with a rainbow of scanning rays. It was not long before information was streaming into the screen that Megatron and Blackarachnia were examining.
"Fascinating" Megatron said simply.
"You've got that right" Blackarachnia said, hanging from the roof on a strand of webbing.
"It's not totally organic, nor is it completely technological" Megatron said
"It locks onto base DNA, in my case that of my original form, and reasserts it"
"All our original forms" she added "and then links with our protoform aftershadows, effectively initiating a system wide "reboot" for want of a better word, that merges our natural technological nature with the organic structures we added while on Earth."
Megatron again took up the explanation "and then locks us in our alternative, in our cases beast, modes. Presumably when used on the inhabitants of this city it locked them in some sort of immobile form, ripe for capture. We have been incredibly lucky"
"Lucky? All our families missing, our friends captured, our planet conquered. Yeah, really lucky" Rattrap snapped.

"Well kiddies, you're luck's just run out!" a voice shouted from outside.
Hovering above the bridge was a blue form, another Vehicon.

:blink: mkes no sense, but ok......

I am with RB in "extremely disliking" Armada, but BM is down there also. Visually and scriptwise BOTH shows are so different yet for me they BOTH represent what is bad about Transformers (both bad shows, one from North Amwerica, the other from Japan).

I still hope for the day that we get a Transformers show that gives us the BEST of both worlds (top notch Japanese animation with Nortgh American writers of the best (award winning) quality).

Master of the House
written by Marty Isenberg and Bob Skir

On YouTube:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Fairly simple story, this one. The Maximals are still in hiding underground and learning to transform. Blackarachnia and Cheetor express a desire to go topside and find out what's going on. Primal says no! NOOOO!!! A big ol' burrowing drill drone busts in their living room and wrecks the furniture. Primal dispatches it with ease and decides it's time to pack their things and go find a new home. Now here's the critical mistake on his part:

Primal: "We'll go in pairs. Cheetor and Blackarachnia; you go that way. Rattrap, you're with me."

Ohhhh yeah! The two Maximals that wanted to go topside are paired together and sent off alone! Do we think they'll go topside? Do we, do we!?!?! YES, we do!

And in no time flat Blackarachnia and Cheetor are looking for that new home... in Cybertropolis City; otherwise known as the topside. And yes, it's a horribly unoriginal name for the city. Just because it's planet CYBER-tron doesn't mean everything has to have the word "Cyber" in it.

Anyway, they find out the town is completely deserted and their are no records of any sort in the community database. The whole thing has been wiped clean. The bit that I like is how this is technically Blackarachnia's first time on Cybertron. She hasn't spent any sort of time on the surface yet and already she knows about the Info-Core, how to access it; all those things. I always thought of her as the historian in Beast Wars and she proved it with her intimate knowledge of the Great War and the G1 cast. Here, she shows that despite being stranded on prehistoric Earth for her entire life up to this point, she nonetheless educated herself on the current technology of her homeworld as well. And everyone thought she was sneaking data disks from the Maximals to build some super weapon. She just wanted to read the newest issue of "Popular Mechanics"!

So they learn that everyone is missing and the planet-wide database has been wiped clean. Cool. And then a whole mess of Aero drones show up to congratulate them! Quick little battle. Love watching Blackarachnia's legs walk in beast form. Really, when you look back at BW her legs were so stiff and unnatural. Here, wow, each leg is individually animated to take full advantage of the environment. Have I mentioned she's my favorite character? :P

Primal and Rattrap show up to deliver some much needed back-up and once the excitement has died down, Cheets and BA reveal what they've learned (they are so paying for disobeying orders later- just you wait). Primal decides that they should all go to the citadel of the Maximal Elders. Surely if any place still has anything on record, it's there.

So they get there- and oh hey- a whole bunch of Tank drones are waiting to greet them. No problem. Just let the other Maximals deal with them. Primal runs inside the citadel and comes up against more cycle drones. Those things love him.
AND! AND! Oh what the hell? Giant, extreme close-up of the wheel on a cycle drone and it's got spokes. What was I talking about last episode? That's right, how I like them for not having spokes. Dang it! What was I thinking? The break is still mounted to the rim and not to any disc break in the center of the wheel, so that must be what I was thinking. In that respect it's similar, but dangit! I could have sworn their wheels had no spokes! I don't know if I can ever recover from this letdown.
.
.
.
Okay, I'm back. So Primal just plows his way through the Cycle drones. No challenge whatsoever. Kind of a cool moment where one cycle drone forms a ramp and the other leaps into the air off it, firing shots at Primal all the way down. Now that's just a cool move!
*glares at Decepticons*
Where's your cool moves, guys?

Ah, but even cool moves can't stop Primal. He gets to the center of the citadel and runs into his old buddy, Megatron! Now I'm just going to say, watching Megs descend from the ceiling connected to a huge mass of cables that run directly to his head/harness just looks cool. It almost looks like a weird mass of black ink. You'll just have to see it in motion to get the full affect.

Primal is surprised, yes? He's even more surprised when Megatron claims to have won the Beast Wars. Now, for anyone that may be thrown for a loop by this, remember that just because a character says it doesn't mean it's true. It's Megatron. And Primal is still suffering recent memory loss. Of course Megatron's going to dick with him! He's Megatron! It's what he does! And even if the Maximals did win the Beast Wars, Megatron still wound up in control of the entire planet. Is he honestly going to count that as a loss on his part? Hell no!

Okay, okay, so outside the Maximals are having a pretty good time trashing Vehicons. Not too hard, it seems. Megatron is displeased by this, especially since he's directly controlling all of the drones. So it's really him they're beating, because he can't command his drones more effectively. Awww. He loses it and transforms back into dragon mode! Oh yeah, so much for technological purity of Cybertron! Oh- did I mention that Megatron really hates organics now? Yes, he's all about making Cybertron into the ultimate technological spheroid in the universe. Right. So having a beast mode is a bad thing. Kinda' conflicts with his new ideology. Looks like he's been doing some heavy surgery on himself though, trying to remove the organic elements of his beast mode. Nasty but cool looking. I see now why he wears a shower curtain, er- a robe. And headlock! Primal has his ugly dragon head in a headlock! Man, all that power and Megatron goes down like a baby. Or maybe Primal's just that much of a badass. Take your pick.

Megs cuts the speeches short and just blasts Primal. I see he's finally learned a little bit from his BW days. Hehehe. The other Maximals make it inside the citadel, are completely swarmed with drones, and must drag Primal off forcibly to escape. I like that bit- how Primal doesn't want to leave. He wants to stay and keep fighting; end it right here, but really, I guess the rest of his team would be scrap by the time he was done with Megs.

Sometime later... down in the caves and underground tunnels we find the Maximals. Primal blames himself for the planetwide conquest that Megatron has visited upon them. Great. Now he feels all guilt-ridden. Well, I guess it's understandable since Megs was basically his responsibility and now this guy has wiped out all life on the planet. Yeah, that might weigh down on him a little.

Alright that's all for this one. In a nutshell, Maximals go topside, find out that the planet is devoid of all life, and learn that Megatron is the culprit and new master of the whole world. Oh, and before I wrap this one up, I've decided to keep a running tally of all the times that Primal communes directly with the Oracle since everyone always says he became way too dependant on that thing. So far we have:

Primal Communes with Oracle: 1 time (the first time in "The Reformatting")
Nothing in this episode.

And that's all for this week. And now a little something extra:

I've got my little Cycle Drone figure right here. The FRONT wheel has spokes, the REAR wheel does NOT. Which might be a little odd, but that's the way the figure is.

Right, because the drones are SUCH a threat, not two scenes ago:

I'm sorry, that was one thing I never got, the Vehicons were never suitable threats to be run from. Yet the Maximals run, run some more, get beaten while running, run a bit more, get away, get found, run some more, stop and declare this to be the final battle with no more running, win with ease against an uncountable horde that looks to be made of tissue paper, enjoy their victory, more drones show up and the Maximals run, run some more(repeat).

Aha! So I wasn't just seeing things! That makes me so much happier now! And the running thing- well, whatcha' gonna' do? At least it's not AS bad now as when Botanica shows up and easily wipes out an entire battallion of tank drones with one hit. Yeah, let's not put her on the front line or anything.

Fires of the Past
written by Marv Wolfman

On YouTube:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

The Cybertron Info-Core wasn't much help last episode. Let's check out the Cybertron Archives! Yeah, that'll work! And so continues the tradition of having the word "Cyber" in everything. Cyber City. Cybertron Info-Core. Cybertron Archives. Cyber puberty (no joke). And so on and so on. Rattrap's inside the building while outside a whole bunch of tank drones arrive on the scene. They take a little time out of their day to blow up a statue of the original Optimus Prime before going after the Maximals.
Now two things about this statue. First, I'm amazed that Megatron has had the time to wipe out nearly every single digital record on the planet, yet here this statue is. Either it somehow escaped his notice or he hasn't been in total control of the planet long enough to erase all traces of the past. Second, the statue is holding two golden discs. Yes, they look kinda' like the golden discs from Beast Wars. No, that's not possible. One of the discs could be the one the Predacons stole prior to the Beast Wars starting, but the 2nd golden disc must be something entirely different. I don't know why everyone loves golden discs so much on Cybertron, but there you go.
Wow, that's a lot of typing and I haven't even gotten into the episode yet. OKAY! So Rattrap exits the building and informs Primal that all the records inside the archives have been deleted as well. Primal is in shock!
We get a brief glimpse of Megs in his citadel watching the battle on the monitor. He lets out a mighty chuckle and states that he's wiped out four million years of Transformers history. Why four million? Why not all of it and start from scratch? I don't get it. So everything up until around the time that the original Megatron and Prime left the planet and crashed on Earth is cool, but everything inbetween is not? Don't get it. Anyway! Cheetor and Blackarachnia are playing with some tank drones when Primal orders them to fall back, but no worries- they got it handled.

Or not.

Blackarachnia gets nailed by a tank drone and goes unconcioius. She drifts through a dreamworld of brightly lit forests, when a crack in the ground expands into a canyon and sends her falling. A ghostly voice and shadowy figure save her from falling. Could it be... Back to the battle! She's alive and getting carted around by Cheetor. This battle is officially over as they all retreat to their base.

And back home Primal is just so upset. Ooh he's mad. And not even Rattrap can make a snarky remark without getting yelled at. Hey, no picking on the rat! He's already having a bad day, you leave him alone! Everyone's in beast mode except Blackarachnia, which is really funny since Primal ordered her to transform and she just sat there in robot mode without hardly acknowledging him. Cute. Just then she has another flash! Another fracture of a splintered memory coming to the surface! And then it's gone...

Over at the citadel Megatron's a tad upset. His Vehicon drones keep getting beaten despite possessing better weaponry and greater numbers. His diagnostic drone (1st appearance!!!) hovers into the room and suggests that perhaps it's because the drones don't have free will like the Maximals. Megs is just about to blast the drone, but stifles his rage and considers the idea. Desperate times call for desperate measures, yes? Far below Megatron's control center the floor begins to light up with rows and rows of cylinders set into the ground. Three of them shoot up out of the ground and travel up to Megatron. They open and reveal 3 sparks inside. Ooooooh. I sense much fun coming on.

Topside we find Blackarachnia sneaking her way onto the tarmac (there's a word I don't get to use enough) of the space port. She's followed by an equally elusive Rattrap, who wants to know what she's up to. She reveals that she's been having momentary flashbacks, but that they only occur when she's in robot mode. She's gotten the idea that by locating the Autobot shuttle that they came home in, she can piece together her missing memories. Interesting line from Rattrap (before she told him all that) where he asks if she's planning to use one of the shuttles to escape Cybertron. There's the issue of getting past the orbital defense satellites, but it makes me wonder if any of them had ever considered escape as an option. Oh well, not really important.

Just then! OMG, it's .... three Vehicons: one of each. A tank, a jet, and a motorcycle. No big deal right. Right? OMG!!! They're talking! The Vehicons are talking! And they're showing off their sparks! Aren't they proud? They've got sparks! Now they're almost like real Transformers! Brings up another issue; in Beast Wars we saw a couple times where someone would remove their spark and still be alive (Transmetal 2 Dinobot did this in Nemesis part 1). And here again we see them alive and functional despite their sparks being outside their bodies. How in the world does this work? Shouldn't they be dead the moment their sparks leave the body? Food for thought.

No time! The Vehicon trio is on the attack and really messing with Blackarachnia and Rattrap! Tankor is... a very *VERY* original name for a Vehicon that transforms into a tank. Yeah. And Tankor is chasing Rattrap around and blowing up everything in sight! And he's a complete moron. Rattrap outwits him in no time.
Moving on! Blackarachnia takes on Thrust, the cycle Vehicon. And! AND!! I'm not crazy! I see the front wheel on Thrust has spokes, but the back wheel has none! I was right after all! Thrust's back wheel is the coolest wheel in all of Transformers history. Tut tut tut! Don't argue. It is. And you know it is. Nothing else is that cool. And Thrust fires on Blackarachnia while doing a wheelie! Wheely? Wheelie? Whatever. But what a cool move! Even Blackarachnia is stunned by its coolness.

*glares at Decepticons*
You guys are just letting me down over here. You know I want to stick up for you, but what do you give me? Nothing that cool.

She escapes from Thrust but Jetstorm (the jet Vehicon) is right on top of her and laying down a firing spread. She snags him with a string of cyber-web, but I don't think it had the desired affect. Whatever she was planning went right out the window... along with her. Jetstorm takes her for a crazy ride through the skies while dodging in and out of buildings and slamming her into support beams and all kinds of horrible, pain-inducing things. The strand is thankfully cut and Blackarachnia lands right on top of Rattrap. They haul ass the hell out of there!

*huff huff*

... settle down... it's all quiet now. Maximals running and sneaking through the space port extra careful like, while the Vehicons patrol the area slowly like sharks hunting prey. BA and Rattrap make it into a hangar bay (I think that's what it is) where she accesses a terminal that tells them where their ship is. It also reveals that there were six Maximals aboard.
Rattrap is especially shocked to hear this. Since, you know, there's only four of them and he can't seem to remember who the other two are. Which brings up another question for me- I thought Megatron's virus only scramled up their recent memories. Why would they forget long-time friends? I mean, Primal and company seem to remember everything else fairly well. It's the whole reason Blackarachnia came to the space port; she remembered their ship. And even if one person couldn't remember who the other two Maximals were, you'd think the virus would work differently on different people. Someone else should remember the others. And it could be funny, like they're trying to convince everyone else that these two other people really did exist and everyone would just think they're crazy.
Whoa. Tangent.
Anyway, seeing as how this could be important to know, Blackarachnia finds out where their ship is docked so they can check it out in person. Who knows- there might be some allies inside!
Just about that time Jetstorm blows a hole in the door and we get one of my favorite lines of the episode, "Well, well well. Your situation exactly matches your location; TERMINAL!"
*swoon*
I love Jetstorm. He's just so delightfully evil. Big fight! Jetstorm gets caught in some webbing and goes down. BOOM! Thrust and Tankor explode onto the scene! Big chase. The Maximals dive into the sewers and escape yet again!

Minor altercation in the sewers below. Rattrap is being a dick again, so Blackarachnia leaves him behind. More like he opted out of helping her. She keeps heading towards the hangar where their ship is docked.

And as he's running back to base, Rattrap is spotted by the Vehicons! Or at least that's what he thinks. Turns out that somehow they missed him entirely, but they did pick up Blackarachnia's signal halfway across the spaceport. They all take off to intercept her and Rattrap figures out pretty quick that their beast modes hide them from Vehicon scanners. Handy to know.
Along the way he overhears their transmissions to Megatron and learns that while Blackarachnia is downloading their mission logs and everything from the ship, Megatron intends to access her mind and discover where the Maximal base is. Not good. Not so much.

Inside the hangar bay- sure enough it's the Autobot shuttle. Looks pretty good in this light. Almost like it's haunted. In that respect... it almost is. Blackarachnia climbs inside and wastes no time jacking into the ship's computer. A flood of memories comes over her and she finally remembers the two missing Maximals; Rhinox and her knight in shining armor, Silverbolt. The tender moment is ruined when Rattrap bites through the cables. At first Blackarachnia is all hella' pissed and ready to kill, but when she realizes that Megs was inside her head and made a backup of her memories just now- she blows the whole computer.

That... doesn't make Megatron too happy. Send in the Vehicons! Quick battle this time. Primal and Cheetor drop in through the glass ceiling, which never ceases to remind me of Val Kilmer as Batman in that horrible movie, and escape with their comrades. Huge explosion rocks the place and completely blows up their shuttle. Cute bit where Cheetor lets out a laugh as they narrowly evade the huge fireball.

And outside, of course Primal must give the big speech about how they blew up their ship for no good reason. What? Dude, you didn't even remember there was a ship! Just shut up and go find a tree to climb or something. Scratch your butt, monkey. BA and Rattrap hold off on telling Primal what they've learned for now, because... I don't know.

"Hey, we're in really big trouble. Let's make it worse by telling him that his best friend just died. Oh wait- yeah, let's hold off on that."

Maybe something like that? Anyway, great episode. I liked it a whole lot and I absolutely love Jetstorm and Thrust. Tankor is an idiot. Just your typical gigantic brute with a two syllable vocabulary. Primal is just being unhelpful in this episode. He does little else aside from yelling at his troops whenever they do anything. Granted, he always has good reason to be yelling, but this is maybe a bit too much. Good episode for Rattrap too. He's not hating on himself at all in this one. And Blackarachnia, always glad to see her Predacon roots shine through. Yup, yup. Alright that wraps it up for this one.

Now then to the running tally:
Primal communes with the Oracle:
Reformatting: 1 time.
Master of the House: 0 times.
Fires of the Past: 0 times.

Next up: Mercenary Pursuits


But first a little something extra:













And because I can't bring myself to toss good pics, but at the same time don't want to clog the thread with a ton of pics, here are some direct links for anyone that cares.

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd160/MakoCrab/FotP1.jpg
http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd160/MakoCrab/FotP2.jpg
http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd160/MakoCrab/FotP3.jpg
http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd160/MakoCrab/FotP4.jpg
http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd160/MakoCrab/FotP5.jpg
http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd160/MakoCrab/FotP9.jpg
http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd160/MakoCrab/FotP12.jpg
http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd160/MakoCrab/FotP13.jpg
http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd160/MakoCrab/FotP14.jpg
http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd160/MakoCrab/FotP15.jpg

Jetstorm was the best part of Beast Machines, I miss him...

Great, now you have me wanting to buy the DVDs.

Didn't think I'd be able to pull off another BM joke, but here's to trying.



This does bring up a question though. What if the Vehicons had their original personalities from the get go? We know Megs could just change a character's mind, Rhinox is proof of that (Dark Designs as well as BM) in more ways than one. And then there's Obsidian & Strika who have just been basically brainwashed. Hell, why did Megs give these characters new personalities to begin with? Rhinox and Silverbolt would have been waaaaay more helpful.

Except that Obsidian and Strika weren't brainwashed. As the guardians of Cybertron, they reasoned that Megatron himself *IS* Cybertron now since he's got his brain hooked up to literally the whole planet.

My bad. Fox never reaired the 2nd half of season 2, so I've seen Obsidian and Strika the least (Yes, I have the DVDs, but I can't ever make it off the first disc :P).

Since you began this, you prompted me to rewatch the series as well. I really enjoyed it. Now that the series has had some time apart from "it is not as good as Beast Wars" issues, it is much more fun to watch. It is much different than Beast Wars and I did see room for improvements, but overall it was good.
It is not often that a cartoon series builds each episode as one large storyline. Not even BW did that. BM would have been a much better series if it would have lead to Transtech and continued the story instead of ending on such an extreme point.

Yeah, that's one of the biggest problems with BM, it ended abruptly, with a drastic ending, and the entire last half of the final season felt rushed.

It didn't help at the time that Bob Skir was pimping his 'Action Man' cartoon with every breath he took. It was like he was already jumping ship before the writing was ended. At the end, that was what seemed to incur the most fan-wrath.

I know Skir takes most of the blame for what was bad about BM, and rightly so, but has anyone else known his Partner in Crime from that show, Marty Isenberg, is involved with "Animated" ??

****I know this is also slightly off topic, but just for the record, these 2 individuals did "ruin" Transformers for a time with BM, but they did do amazingly well with "Godzilla:The Series".

I own the BM DVD set as well because I am an animation completist. I think I've watched them all through once just to make sure they worked. I know a lot of people are giving this show a second chance and enjoying, and that is great for them. For me the few glimpses of promise dregged up mostly by G1 referrences and plot devices were ultimately ruined by the ending of this series.

Yeah, its been brought up several times in the discussion of TF:A episodes. Mostly by BZ.

*L* I keep posting the links to the eps on youtube. I know it's not quite the same, but until you buy the dvds, it's a nice substitute.

And Jetstorm- man, I love that Vehicon. I don't think there was ever a single moment he was on-screen that I didn't enjoy. Even his "death scene" is memorable as the most disturbing death I've personally seen in a TF show. The part where Blackarachnia encourages him to die and walks him through his last moments always struck me as particularly morbid.

And O. Supreme, hey thanks for at least checking out my retrospective and posting in it. I know it's not your favorite show, but it's nice to hear what everyone thinks, not just the people that like it. :thumb:

Mercenary Pursuits
written by Michael Reaves

On YouTube:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Another seemingly straight-forward episode that takes a few nifty plot twists. Basically Megatron is disappointed with the Vehicons' loss to the Maximals last episode. Although, I bet if you asked Primal, he'd think he was the one that lost last time out. Oh well. Megatron sweetens the pot a little, saying that whichever Vehicon brings him the Maximals first will get a special prize. If you've forgotten what the prize was, then tighten those seatbelts! It's cool!

The happy-go-lucky Vehicons head off and it's not more than a minute into their little adventure when Thrust starts playing tricks. He and Jetstorm get into a knock-down, drag-out fight over who's going to be the one to get the prize. C'mon guys! Is that any way for a team to act? They're so busy beating each other up that they don't notice Tankor has gone off alone to look for Maximals.

And somewhere deep underground Primal is holding a vigil for Silverbolt and Rhinox but vows to locate them wherever they are. Rattrap is bummed out by this and just knows they'll be looking for them for the rest of their lives.
Shut up Rattrap!!!
Primal's detecting a spark... now lest anyone thinks that's a bit strange, remember that even during Beast Wars Primal began to exhibit the ability to communicate with the spark of another person. Remember when he contacted the spark of a feral TM2 Cheetor in "Feral Scream part 2"? So there you go. Not out of place at all. Plus he's like the emissary of the Oracle, so I'm sure he's got a few extra tricks up his sleeve. Moving along!

Primal takes Blackarachnia with him and sends Cheetor and Rattrap off together. I like how after the last two episodes of Blackarachnia wandering off and dragging Cheets and RT into trouble with her, he's decided to bring her with him this time. Surely her sneaky ways won't be tolerated with him around!

Well, he's right... she does behave in this episode. Turns out that Cheetor and Rattrap are just as bad on their own though. They (Rattrap) bust into a warehouse and discover a crazy laboratory inside. In fact, by some random coincidence- like the craziest luck in the world- this happens to be the very lab where Megatron cooked up the transformation lock virus that wiped out the whole planet. It also happens to contain a counter-virus; a transformation enhancer!! Oooh, Rattraps' eyes are glossed over with joy! But wouldn't you know, Cheetor wants to play it safe and report their findings to Optimus first. Sure, sure, just leave Rattrap there while you run off to find the boss monkey. Nooooo, Rattrap wouldn't dare use the counter-virus while you're away. *ahem* To quote Tarantulus, "Don't cats ever get tired of being stupid?"

Cheetor catches up with Primal and Blackarachnia, who have both caught up with the spark that he detected earlier. Turns out it's Tankor! They manage to evade him and their beast modes keep him from finding them again. It's all cool. They're going to make a quiet retreat, when Rattrap shows up and starts transforming all over the place. Good gravy, man, he's .... he's!!! Well if you're reading this chances are you know what his robot mode looks like by now. He has no legs!!! OMG, his legs are gone!! What kind of cruel joke has the Oracle played on him!? No, in place of his legs are wheels! Two wheels! Like the big fat wheels from his old Transmetal rat-rod mode. Oh god, this could take some getting used to. And Cheetor's all aghast like, "Don't tell me you used the transformation enhancer."

*smacks forehead*

Of course he did, you fuzzball! Tankor detects Rattraps' ugly ass robot mode and starts blasting away. All the Maximals make a run for it, but the rat is having all kinds of problems returning to beast mode. Some weird screw-ups in there. Hehehe.
Big fight! Primal decides that stealth is no longer an option and they get into a big ol' fight with Tankor! The big guy does a pretty good job of fending off Primal, Cheetor and Blackarachnia. Nice moves, but are they cool moves? Ehhh... not so much. The lame-o Decepticons catch a break this episode. Tankor drops a dome on the Maximals and they're all trapped inside. Sweet! He's won the contest, he's won the contest!

And then Thrust and Jetstorm showed up. In light of Tankor's victory, they team up together and mess him up with - gasp!!! Cool moves!!! You suck, Decepticons!! YOU SUCK!!! Tankor crashes to the ground in mid-charge. His canon goes off but completely misses his foes. The stray shot hits some sort of tank... water-tower... volatile thing and the whole city block blows up. The Maximals get out from under the dome just in time to get caught in the explosion. Heh, that's kind of funny seeing as how they would've been okay if they were still under it. Anyway, Tankor is the only one left standing and hauls them all off to see Megatron.

And now for the prize! Are you ready? This is so cool. The prize for capturing the Maximals is to have his spark removed!!! And Tankor is cool with this. In fact, he really, really wants to have his spark removed. Megatron assures him that both he and his Vehicon buddies will all have their sparks removed and Tankor's all like, "NO! Tankor not share prize!" Wow. Uh... okay. But how will you know if he removes your spark first? Ah, Tankor. You never think these things through.

Now wait a minute... either I'm seeing things or the big scar that goes through Megatron's eye keeps switching sides. It is! It really is! It's either that or he's got the exact same scar on both eyes. Maybe he had an itch and scratched it with his dragon claw, I don't know. Weird, but whatever.

While Megatron is chatting with Tankor (using recycled dialogue from earlier in the episdoe- c'mon guys, how hard is it to come up with two new lines?) Rattrap is still suffering from the enhancer and can't stop transforming back and forth. The shifting of his body finally breaks the energy bonds that were holding him and he frees everyone else in no time. Big battle!
Wait? What? Um... Megatron seals the doors shut and removes the lego-bridge, so the Maximals automatically think, oh we should try and escape now since he's making it hard to escape. No, you idiots! Take him down!! It's three (and a half) of you against two of them! Ah, whatever. I guess I can accept it seeing how Tankor messed them all up earlier. Otherwise I'd be really skeptical.

Tankor fires, Primal deflects the shot, and it hits the giant mass of cables that Megatron's hooked up to. By jove, I don't think he's got control of the entire planet for the moment! Megatron puts the bridge back together and orders Tankor to pursue and destroy them! And then the cool part- Primal manages to contact Tankor's spark and convinces him to rebel against his programming. Megatron is in disbelief as Tankor turns around and heads right for him. Now why would Tankor roll up instead of firing that canon of his? For as much as he loves blasting everything with that canon, you'd think so, right? Could be that his programming prevents him from firing on his master. Mmmaybe... there's some stuff to help back up this theory later on in the series, but I won't get into that now.

Anyway, it turns out that even when he's not connected to everything, Megatron still wields quite a bit of power and starts shooting lightning at Tankor! It fries his treads, so he transforms and keeps stomping forward! More lightning! More stomping!! The tension is crazy! Can Tankor do it??? No. He really can't. Realizing this, Tankor blasts a hole in the front door, allowing the Maximals to escape. Primal invites him to come with them and he does. It's very cheery.

Sometime later... they're all cruising through the underground tunnels when Megatron accesses Tankors' mind and deletes all his memories from the last day. And just like that, Tankor the ally is now Tankor the destroyer. A couple quick stompy stomps, parries, and which-a-watch-ah and Tankor accidentally blasts himself straight up through the ceiling and all the way to the surface where he lands on Thrust and Jetstorm.

And below- Cheetor is wondering why Primal even thought he could recruit Tankor to their side. Primal says he felt something familiar in Tankor's spark... ooooh.... now remember that scene at the start where he was saying how they'd find Silverbolt and Rhinox. And how he detected a spark when they ran into Tankor... and and .... yeah, we all know Tankor is one of those two guys. But which one?!!?!

Ahh... you know, have to play it up in case there's anyone reading this that doesn't already know. And that's all for this one!! Another good episode. Bare bones plot, but some cool little developments in there all the same.

And how's that running tally going?
Primal Communes with the Oracle:
The Reformatting: one time
Master of the House: zero times
Fires of the Past: zero times
Mercenary Pursuits: zero times

And as always- a little something extra:















http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd160/MakoCrab/MP3.jpg
http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd160/MakoCrab/MP4.jpg
http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd160/MakoCrab/MP5.jpg
Too silly to pass up
http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd160/MakoCrab/MP10.jpg
http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd160/MakoCrab/MP11.jpg

*mental note, Mako must do ALL screenshots for AUG when it's back up...*

*takes a bow* You're too kind. :wub:

Ahhh..... mm...... you know I already have the review for Forbidden Fruit done. Nice pics to go with it and everything. I'm just sitting on it until next Friday. You have no idea how much it pains me to stick to my own schedule. I want to put it up now! Alas, I vowed one a week and that's what I'll do. But my original plan of ending my BM retrospective at the same time as TFA's first season ends is now thrown off anyway due to Cartoon Network's screwy scheduling. Blah. Kills me. But oh well, what can you do, right?

*looks at the clock*

It's close enough to Friday. :D

Forbidden Fruit
written by Steven Melching

On YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptYhfDi3Zfw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0ZvKN096tM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMzbmZ0K2Qc&feature=related

We open this episode at the Maximal shack in the midst of a training session. It's only 30 seconds into the episode and I can't help but laugh at the image of a cheetah doing kung-fu. Beast Wars may have been more comical and light-hearted, but they never stooped to kung-fu kitty! Hoo boy. So Cheetor is fighting Blackarachnia and generally she's winning. Even after he gets a good hit in, she messes him over to win the fight. Cute. Primal keeps tossing little pointers out there like,

"Now amidst the chaos find your center, your stillpoint."
and...
"Reach out to the Matrix, Cheetor. Don't give in to emotion."
and when Cheetor screws up...
"How do you expect to master your new body if you keep turning your back on the Matrix, the source of our very sparks?"

To which Cheetor responds, "In the heat of the battle I have to follow my instincts not blind faith." Score! Perfect response. I've been keeping a running tally of all the times Primal talks with the Oracle in an effort to (hopefully) show that he doesn't rely on that thing as much as people seem to think, but the mysto-babble isn't helping any.
Oh yeah, Rattrap has a particularly harsh line, "Save your advice for Silverbolt and Rhinox!" Double Score! It seems the Maximals aren't interested in taking up theology at the moment, but even Cheetor and BA think that was way too low.

Anyway, that's the last we hear of Primal's mysto-babble for this episode and thankfully there's still another 17 minutes to go. Turns out they're being spied on by a bat, so Primal leaps high into the shadowy rafters of their base and grapples with the animal. Everyone is surprised to see an animal on Cybertron! Blackarachnia says, "Who knew there were animals *ever* on Cybertron?"

Grimlock knew!



The bat lets out an ear-piercing scream and slips out of Primals' grip. It flies off and the Maximals all give chase. They're interested in capturing it before the Vehicons do, because... you know... Vehicons wouldn't know what to feed it..... yeah. :D
Good chase through some of my favorite scenery on Cybertron. I really love these tunnels. Unfortunately most of them only look good in moving shots. I took some pics, but only a few are truly postcard worthy. So after chasing this bat through maze-like tunnels, Cheetor goes to robot mode and is able to pin it down. And that's when the bat, Nightscream, starts talking.

*takes a deep breath*

Heeere we go. Let it be said that Nightscream's voice actor, Allesandro Juliani, is pretty cool. He's on the new Battlestar Galactica and he's just cool there. But even after all this time I still hate Nightscream's introduction. I wound up liking the character later on, but right now he's just annoying.
Thankfully Jetstorm shows up to break up the annoyance and we get a nice little fight out of it. His small unit forces the Maximals into retreat and they give chase. More tunnels! More sweet architecture! I don't know why, but I'm a sucker for nice backgrounds. And every word out of Jetstorm's mouth is pure bliss.
*swoon*
The flying rodent shows up again and uses his horrible shrieking to screw up the targetting systems of the Aero Drones. They all start firing on each other and it's not long before Jetstorm is the only one left. The Maximals all gang up on him and he's really put off by this- like he wasn't ganging up on them a second ago! *L*

Oh shudder, it's- I mean Nightscream's talking again.

Nightscream: "You guys suck! You led the Vehicons right to me. You're all stupid-heads! I hate you all."
Primal: "WAIT!"
Nightscream: *grumble* "You'll never find your way out of this maze in time. Follow me."

Yeah, that doesn't seem like an odd conversation does it?

You know what it is? It's that he really thinks he's doing the Maximals a favor and letting them know how completely dead they are without his help. Well, not too full of his own ego is he? Like the Maximals couldn't possibly survive without him. Sure, sure.

So they're all walking down some more tunnels and Primal's telling Nightscream all about their adventures up to this point. We get this line:

"And that's when I bonded with the Oracle; a device that allows me to interface with the Matrix, the spark that shares it light with us all."

Sooo.... maybe I was wrong about the whole spark abilities thing last episode? Maybe. Although, the Oracle did describe Primal as, "a receptive spark." What makes him more receptive than the others? Whatever. Minor point. Moving along.

Primal asks the question we've all been dying to know; what happened to everyone? Nightscream goes into flashback mode and we get some sloppy looking cityscapes and generic, boxy robots walking around. We're treated to a quick montage of the virus working over the planet and then Vehicons mowing down whoever was left. And apparently boxy Nightscream fell down a hole and wound up way below the surface. When he woke up, he looked like a bat and couldn't remember how to transform.

This part I don't quite get. He's not technorganic yet (and you know it's coming). He should still have an activation code and everything. Just say, "Nightscream, Maximize," and you're good. And obviously he survived Megatron's virus the first time. It's why he was being hunted by Vehicons. And also, if he did contract the virus, he'd be dead by now. The only thing I can figure is that he was so badly damaged from the fall, that his internal repair systems couldn't fix everything. That could make sense.

They finally reach Nightscream's little pad and lo and behold! There's a tree growing in the center of it! Now that is something. No one can figure out how it's even alive down here considering a decided lack of light and water and all that. Details, details. Bat boy offers up some of the tree fruit to our hungry Maximals and they all decide a snack would be tasty indeed.

Cheetor: NEVER!!! I'll never eat fruit! Energon period! You work for Megatron, I know it!!! Kill! Kill!!!

Primal: Hey! Just settle down, man. Maybe fruit is good for our technorganic bodies. *munch munch* Me monkey now. Me eat fruit, get strong.

Oh ho hooo! That can't be good. Cheetor walks off in a huff and Nightscream follows. The bat is all apologetic like he didn't know the fruit would cause everyone to revert to their base animal instincts. I... don't quite understand why it would. I know for a fact that Rattrap ate an apple in Beast Wars, not to mention all the animals and stuff the Predacons were always eating. I can only figure that it's technorganic fruit. Technorganic!? Why yes! More to that in a second.

Jetstorm has shown back up and he's brought more drones with him this time! Cheetor and Nightscream try to warn the others, but they're too involved with snacking. Go ahead, take away their snacks. See what happens.
Oooh, that was a bad idea. The Maximals are all bearing down on Cheetor now! Explosion! The Maximals are all sent flying across the room! Jetstorm flies in delivering yet more witty lines within moments. The guy never disappoints.

*grabs Spiderman by the collar and smacks him hard*
THAT'S
*smack!*
HOW
*SmacK!*
YOU
*SMACK!*
DO IT!!!

Sorry. Tangent. I've always hated Spiderman, that's all. Cheetor's in robot mode and fending off the drones, but the other Maximals are completely oblvious and lumber back toward the fallen fruit. Now that's just sad. They're not even trying to fight back or dodge and the drones still can't hit them. It's not like Cheetor's deflecting every shot. Nightscream's all like, "We have to snap them out of it," and this gives Cheetor the idea to cut the tree down. I'm pretty sure that's not what Nightscream had in mind. Er.... yeah, he's over there freaking out now. The entire tree disintegrates into energy dust or something, lending further credit to the idea that the tree isn't purely organic. And destroying the tree "wakes up" the other Maximals, which is something I'm relatively sure wouldn't happen with normal fruit. Anyway, in the middle of Nightscream freaking out he gets blasted by Jetstorm! Yay!!

Primal goes over and reformats the little bat into a brand new technorganic bat. And why is it every time a character with bat wings makes a grande entrance, they must unfold their wings all dramatic like? Nothing wrong with it; it always looks cool. It's just that everyone does it. That dude from Underworld Evoltuion, the bat gremlin in Gremlins 2 (I apologize in advance for making anyone remember that movie), etc. etc.

Hm. I kind of like his technorganic beast mode. Not too shabby. He flies around and transforms and Rattrap says, "Oh you have got to be kidding me!"
Rattrap is in disbelief not that the kid was able to transform within seconds of getting his new body, whereas even Primal took a few minutes to get the hang of it, but at how ugly Nightscreams' robot mode really is. As weird and funky as Rattraps' robot mode is, Nightscream dethrones him in terms of ugly. Bat wings on his ankles, a hunch on his back, a jelly curl hairdo, spindly fingers; take all that and add in the weird proportions of a technorganic body and it's just a mess. I hope he stays in beast mode most of the time.

Nightscream attacks Jetstorm with the dentures of death and drains him of energon. How is a vampire bat not cool!? How have they managed it!? Ugh! *throws arms up in the air*
Well the battle has died down and the dust has settled. Primal is totally weak from reformatting Nightscream, which you'll notice he never asked for. Seriously guys, just hijack a CR chamber for a couple hours. Why was it necessary to reformat him? Could've been cool if Nightscream simply had a natural immunity to Megatron's virus. Anyway, Primal is all messed up and puts Cheetor in command for the time being. He says that it was wise of him to trust his instincts instead of going on blind faith. Aww. Nightscream officially joins up and reveals his name for the first time and we're all done with this one. Almost forgot- as they walk away a seed from the fruit tree sprouts roots and grows like an insane weed into the ground! Purely organic? Not likely. Also kind of interesting- you'll notice that the seed is right in the center of a scorch mark on the ground that looks suspiciously like a skull. Coincidence? I think not!

Not a bad episode really. Aside from Nightscream being annoying and Primal belching out mysto-babble at the start, it was pretty good. The other Maximals and Jetstorm were a real treat in this episode and I love the underground scenery. This episode always stood out to me for that reason alone, and I think it's one of the few times where we get a good look at it. And now for the running tally!!

Primal Communes with the Oracle:
The Reformatting: 1 time
Master of the House: 0 times
Fires of the Past: 0 times
Mercenary Pursuits: 0 times
Forbidden Fruit: 0 times

And a little something extra:













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Doom Seed

Ah, one of the plot lines that was totally and completely dropped. What were the insane seeds? Why did they cause the reaction they did? Were there other trees? At the end, we see a flower... the techno-organic flower. Why would that be there if this stuff causes near insanity?

Ah yes, Evil foes who are utterly incompetant(How many Aero-drones where there? Cheetor could defend his unresisting allies from them for how long?), a plotline that doesn't make sense(That darn tree!), and annoying/ugly cast members(How could Nightscream be so... so... how he was?)

On the whole I think this episode sums up what I didn't like about BeastMachines. Maybe not completely, but it does a good job.

I will admit, Jetstorm has some great lines(as always, though at times I think it's the delievery of the lines that makes them good, not the actual content), and we're treated to some very cool in motion flying scenes.

Seriously though, the tree is said to be purely organic(By Law Of Fandom if any canon character says it, it's true until they are directly contradicted, even if there is circumstantial evidence to the contrary. One of the stupidest Laws Of Fandom I've ever found). Even assuming I accept the fast growing feature(BeastWars had a fast growing plant, though it only went from seed to rooted sprout fast, it didn't really grow all that fast) as just a dramatic trick, the tree breaking down into "magic dust"(looked to me like it was a hologram fading, see the Tankor clone being cut apart later on) looked REALLY odd. I mean, for crying out loud, they could have simply had the tree slide on it's trunk(which they did) then cut to reaction shots with a big loud brushy crash sound if it was so hard to animate a falling tree.

Also, we learn here that Technoganic Maximals either can't (sanely) eat organic material like their previous versions(Nightscream was a Synthflesh IE Season One BeastWars bat and he could eat them just fine. In BeastWars they were shown eating things just fine too. Even Wild Beans!). Factor that into the other problems Technorganic has and I strongly believe that those forms are DOWNGRADES rather than the upgrades everyone else claimed.

Let's ignore my paranoid theories that the plantlife on Cybertron is downright HARMFUL to the planets Eco("Cyber"?)-system. The fact that plants are invading it makes me think we have a morphobot infection.

Nightscreams origins I can actually accept pretty well, though I would have liked more than blocky bots in the flashback. I think the Blocky bots drives home the point about BeastMachines having a different look than prior. They couldn't even take preexisting character parts and slap them together to make a suitable silloette of a Bot about Town like they did in BeastWars and again later in Energon/Cybertron. Nightscreams character design itself... I normally love bat designs. How could you screw up a bat design? Well, they did. I mean, the toy had a third mode of a swing set... some one explain that to me.

:lol: I don't detest it as much as JW%, but I would agree that this episode also sums up for me what I didn't like about BM. More simply put, the fact that this tree was never explained or returned to.

As JW% said, it didn't appear to be techno-organic, simply organic. I think their not being able to eat it doesn't represent a lack of technology though, I think there was potental or hope that later they (writers) could return and use this in the storyline. After all, g1 bots couldn't eat/drink plantfoods as far as I know. I could be wrong there.

I also don't think that it was just because it was organic that it was giving them chip-flashes. I think there was something more insiduous (hell, in my TFemail game, that's the whole THRUST of the storyline now that we're post-Spark Wars.) Maybe the plantlife wasn't Cybertronian (aka from Primus) after all?

The fossil bit was odd too. but that just goes back to the whole 'Cybertron' vs 'Chewygreennougatcenter-tron.'

The Insecticons were devouring entire forests in G1, so no problems there. Purely organic? Not a problem for ancient, archaic Decepticon tech. But technorganic bodies can't handle it? No way. It's just too lame. And besides, there's just no way that tree was purely organic. Just. No. Way.

I like the morphobots idea. I had completely forgotten about those. I've got a good pic of them somewhere here... have to load it up later. Good pull.

100% true! It's like later one when they encounter the hate plague. Except it's not the hate plague. Nightscream says it reminds him of the old hate plague and everyone nods their heads. And based off that, suddenly it's a strand of the hate plauge the Megs developed and used and ..... blah. Whatever. It's not. Where would Megs even find those same spores again? Why would he go to the trouble? The symptoms are the same but the cure is different. In fact, as I recall they never did really cure it. They just found a way to coexist with it. Stupid Law of Fandom.

I didn't actually say that, but it's true enough(technorganic materials seem to have a different look, though one could argue we don't have a large enough selection of both kinds of plants to judge). My words were that the tree is said, by the characters, to be organic. Meaning purely organic. Which means it must be so until directly contradicted.

The tree isn't really forgotten after this either I don't think. I believe they come back here to do their gardening(or at least collect seeds) later on. I'm not sure, it's been a bit without the exact lines, but that's how I remember it. And the tree is simply wonderful, the new Cybertron that we must all embrace because it's what Oracle Primal wants. Which means that while it COULD have turned out good, comming back and showing that the brain washing fruit from the psuedo tree is indeed sinister, they forget about anything sinister in favor of promoting Nature over Technology.

Actually, I could accept the fossil bit, on certain terms. Fossils could have been brought to cybertron after all, they didn't need to form naturally there(heck, the fossils could have been the Techno-Oraganics that the Dweller of the Depths :dweller: devoured). Unfortunately, these terms are laughed at and thrown away by Beast Machines for more nonsensical suggestions. (the fossils were always there, having survived Hundreds of billions of years without being noticed despite being obvious on the wall there... oh yeah and Primal and his crew needed to go to Earth to bring back beast modes, because clearly these fossils arn't enough to get a scan off of despite Nightscream scanning them).

Once more, we're given "It may sound strange, but accept it for now and we'll show you it's not what it seems!" leads to "it sounded strange, we never got back to it, glad you accepted it for what it is!" which, to me, was the whole of Beast Machines.

That's my opinion of Beast Machines as a whole. I'm not saying it doesn't have good points. It has them. It has some cool concepts, good characters(well... the vehicons at least), and honestly has the best still frames of ANY transformer series to date(I'd say animation as well but it's possibly tied with BeastWars final season). But far too many moments didn't just crop up, but were intentionally designed to be major points in the story that I looked at and said "No way".

If it was a little throwaway moment, or if it was a mistake, I could accept it. G1 had massive amounts of those. Optimus Prime rebuilt as an alligator for Ironhide to wrasle? An army of evil(but nontransforming and unarmed) TRAINS? The surf'n Autobots? Frenzy is magiced into a talking tree? Powerglide gives his heart to a Paris Hilton parody? And that's just the cartoon, the comic had some even worse moments during Budinzky(I misspelled that didn't I?). On the whole however, those terrible "No way. That's just too lame" were mistakes that were easily swallowed up by the intentional "Hey, that's really cool!" moments. Beast Machines, they made the lame parts were intentional and I got the feeling the cool things were actually the accidents.

I dunno. Found 'em in a Cybertron "biological weapons" lab somewhere? I mean heck, in Eugenesis Galvatron finds a Scraplet within a glass sphere on cybertron, and uses it in the books ending as a weapon of mass destruction, and I accepted it.

Yeah, just finished the book. Good book really, bridges the gap between the end of the extended(by fanworks) UK comic and BeastWars/machines(yes, they even set up that Cybertron was indeed an organic paradise before it was "Cyber-formed" assuming you believe the source... honestly I've heard the Quintessons give out so many origin stories I've stopped believing them, and this version is just more fanfiction anyway).

Actually, the symptoms weren't even 100% the same. We can go into that when you get to that episode I guess.

But it is one of the "unwritten laws"(I'm sure someone somewhere has written them, check Wikipedia) that applies to all fandoms and was quoted to me, repeatedly, while I was trying to defend the still developing Beast Machines(and to some extent Beast Wars). The idea was that my optimistic views on things("Maybe our main character DOESN'T have all the answers! Maybe he DOESN'T know what's going on! That would be cool!" "He does, it's not going to be cool, now shut up.") was based more on my interpretation of parts of the show, rather than the show as a whole as it was intended. Well, the show as a whole as it was intended I didn't like!

You know, I'd actually have probably enjoyed Beast Machines more if I hadn't been a part of the fandom. Instead I was dealing with Bob Skir's site while debating with others about the meaning of the shows "clues" and "hints".

Then again, I was a part of the fandom during Beast Wars, and we got words from on high with that show too(admittably, Bob Forward and Larry DiTillo(please tell me I've got that spelled right) filted their stuff through Benson Yee). And I liked going over meaning of plot points BeastWars with fellow fans a heck of alot more. Maybe I wouldn't have liked Beast Machines any better. Who knows.