The series that needs no introduction. Beast Wars is my personal favorite Transformers series of all time, so this is going to be fun. It's the show that rekindled my interest in Transformers and caught me off-guard so many times, I lost count.

Before I get into the retrospective, please have a look at the REAL opening credits. For some reason, the shortened version was used on the dvd box set. The quality of this video isn't great, but it's the only one I could find. Is the original intro simply lost to time (and degrading vhs tapes) now?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyJD2PL6408&feature=related

And if your're really curious, the hilarious japanese version.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGDOzMTpXpM


Beast Wars (part 1)
written by Bob Forward

on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-3X4A-QFV8&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdoVtqra39s&feature=related

The plot is bare bones, but here's what's happening. Two ships emerge from a transwarp rift in space locked in battle. Enjoy it while you can, because it's the last time you'll see both of these ships in flying condition. The lead ship, manned by a crew of Predacon criminals, cripples the pursuing Maximal ship, but rather than finish them off right there, the Predacon commander decides to have a little fun taking potshots at the helpless vessel.

Except that it's not so helpless afterall. The Maximal ship, the Axalon, ejects several stasis pods into orbit containing their dormant crew members, and prepares for one last round. Hehe, the ship lists and comes around, delivering the full force of its canons into the Predacon ship. Oh yeah! Direct hit! Those Predacons are going down! Both ships are pulled into the gravity of a nearby planet and careen towards the surface. If you look closely during this scene, you'll notice that the planet has two moons. Oooh, mysterious!

The ships crash but everyone survives. The Axalon lands in a moutainous region of stone and waterfalls. The river feeding the waterfall run directly below the Axalon. Very picturesque. I wouldn't mind visiting them at all.
The Predacon ship crashes into a volcanic region. The ground is black, punctuated by cracks that reveal flowing lava just beneath the surface. Not the greatest place to vacation, but they probably love the inhospitable nature of it.

Bad news all around for everyone. The planet is teeming with raw energon crystals. Usually this would be good, since Predacons and Maximals run on energon, but there's so much of it that they require some protection from its unique radiation (unique in that it seems to have no effect on organics at all). The answer? A new fur coat! Both crews adopt alternate forms based on the local animals, and now... now we get one of the more painful scenes in the entire series.

Cheetor: "Hey, look at me! I'm a cheetah! No, no, I'm Cheetor!
Rhinox: Ease back, Cheetor. Livin' large is for forms like me, Rhinox.

Wha... what are they doing? Naming themselves? Did they just change their names because they got new beast modes? I mean, it's not unheard of. Seems like any time someone gets a new coat of paint they have to go changing their name (Goldbug, Galvatron, etc.). But still, these introductions (except Rattrap) are on par with the horrible introductions of Beachcomber and Perceptor in G1. Well... maybe not that bad.

Oh yeah, so our valiant crew of Maximals now consists of:

Optimus Primal- a gorilla
Rhinox- a rhinocerous
Rattrap- a rat
Cheetor- a cheetah

Back at the crashed Predacon ship everyone's picked up new beast modes as well. We now have:

Megatron- a tyrannosaurus rex
Scorponok- a scorpion
Tarantulus- a tarantula
Terrorsaur- a pteranodon
Waspinator- a wasp
Dinobot- a velociraptor

The creativity that went into these names is just mind boggling. It's okay though, it's okay. Moving on! It seems Dinobot is raging about something. He's got the stolen golden disc in his hands and flings it away in anger. Seems they've landed on the wrong planet. They were looking for Earth but the two moons in the sky clearly indicate that they're on the wrong planet. Not to mention the lack of human civilization. Everything else screams out that this is Earth (the plant and animal life), but two moons! Two moons! No explanation! It can't possibly be Earth!

Dinobot immediately challenges Megatron for leadership of the Predacons. The big T-rex chuckles at this and has Scorponok blast Dinobot with a missle that sends him flying over the horizon. Who cares what planet they're on as long as there's butt-loads of energon to be had, right? That's Megatron for you, always looking at the big picture. Makes me wonder what Dinobot's big hang-up about it not being Earth was if that's the case.

Shortly thereafter we find the Maximals all hanging out and getting used to their new beast forms. Wonderful conversation between Rattrap and Primal on their whole predicament. Sets Rattrap up nicely as the pessimist (and realist) of the group. I like that he's not just automatically agreeing with everything Primal says and even questions his ability to step up to the plate as commander. We also get the first mention of the Great War and an explanation of why the golden disc is so important. Apparently it gives the location of a major source of energon. Well, that's been confirmed already. Doesn't stop Rattrap from complaining about something else.

Primal: "Just no pleasing some people"

Cheetor spots a couple real cheetahs sprinting across the vast, vast stretch of flat, textureless grassy plain. Aww, you know, this old, archaic CGI has a strange charm that way. More on that later.

Primal: "They're fast alright. You picked a good form, Cheetor."
Cheetor: "You think that's speed? You ain't seen the golden rocket!"

The... golden rocket? *smacks forehead*
So Cheetor goes chasing off after the cheetahs and manages to scare them off. And hey, he runs into a giant wasp. Based on nothing other than the reactions of the other cheetahs, he figures it's a Predacon in disguise. He transforms and starts shooting! OMG, Cheetor, what are you doing!!! Okay, so it really is a Predacon, but what flimsy reasoning!

It's Waspinator and he goes on the counter-attack! He's actually doing a pretty good job of keeping Cheetor on his toes, which is something considering how much of a bungler Waspy turns into later on. The Maximals see the explosions off in the distance and charge in to help.

Primal: "Take cover, Cheetor! We'll swat that pesky Predacon!"

Ehhh.... what can I say? It's the first episode. Things were... stupider back then. :) But no! There will be no swatting of Predacons today, pesky or otherwise! All the other Predacons have assembled on a ridge opposite of the Maximals with Cheetor stuck in the valley below! Time for some stern words! Primal tries to reason with Megatron and maintain the peace, but the big T-rex informs Primal that sometimes an enemy that looks peaceful is merely biding its time. And it's on!

Megatron takes a hit right to the face from Cheetor! That stupid kid again. He's going to get everyone killed. Well, no backing down now. A battle erupts and we learn that boulders are the perfect cover against plasma blasts. Rocks are so awesome. Anyway, Cheetor's still in trouble and Rattrap has no qualms refusing to save him. Primal dives into the valley himself, taking several hits along the way, before delivering the kid back to safety. They make a hastey retreat and before the Predacons can capitalize on their (small) victory, they're all hit with a wave of searing, crippling, energon radiation; the price of staying in robot mode for too long.

Later that evening... ooh, I like the nice, dusky lighting of this scene. Primal and Rattrap are riding on top of Rhinox back to the Axalon. Heh. Cute. He scolds Rattrap for disobeying his orders, yadda yadda yadda. Rattrap isn't exactly repentent, and tries to reassure the boss monkey that everything's fine.

Except that the only way back to their base is being blocked by Dinobot. Remember him? Yeah, the whole battle for leadership of the Predacons didn't work out so well, so now he's here to battle for leadership of the Maximals. Gotta' hand it to him. When he gets an idea in his head, he's persistent about it.

TO BE CONTINUED!

Some thoughts:
- I like how they conveniently set up for the introduction of new characters by ejecting the stasis pods into orbit. We won't have to worry about new guys just popping up with no explanation or have a bunch of guys all accidentally crash on the same planet as well.

- The CGI, oh my god, the CGI. It's very rough and dated looking, but at the same time it's kind of charming in that it's a sign of the times. As the show progresses, the CGI does get better but wow. For right now it looks a tad on the archaic side.

- The golden disc. If you take a good look at the golden disc, you'll see already that the writers are setting up something grander in scope.

- The Maximals get some good exposition in this pilot episode, but the Predacons are practically non-existent save for Megatron and Dinobot. I personally have typically always favored the villains in any piece of fiction, so it's a bit disappointing at the moment to see the Preds relegated to background fodder.

- No mention of Autobots or Decepticons, but we do hear mentions of the Great War and Primal asks Megatron why he would want to start all that up again. So connections to G1 are made, but as of this episode all we know is that there is *some* connection. I know the chief editors of the show always placed the era of the Maximals and Predacons 300 years post-Great War, but no mention of that is ever made within the show itself. Of course, it is just the pilot episode and I'm sure they didn't want to bog it down with any more details than was absolutely necessary.

And that's all for now. Wow, what a rocky start. :P













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Hrm... *grabs a few for LOLTF* These don't seem quite as sharp as the BM ones for some reason.

Actually, I think originally there was absolutely no plan to link it to G1. That only came later. The writers prior to BW had no experience with Transformers. In fact, originally Optimus Primal and Megatron were meant to actually BE them, with no link to them just being namesakes.

I still remember seeing this episode for the first time. It was mind-boggling in a sense. This was NOT the Transformers as we had seen them. It was definitely a kids show (hence simple names, simple introductions) but you see a Maximal leader who isn't so sure of himself.. and a crew that is totally not sure of him... You see Predacons that go beyond simply complaining behind the leaders back... they flat out challenge him! And a Predacon leader that knows how to use his people rather than bother to get his claws dirty.

Also, you get to see the first shot of the Beast Wars... shot by a Maximal!

I noitced that too, and that's after I advanced the scenes frame by frame to get them as sharp as possible. I'm not sure what's up with it. Rhino's fault maybe?

I know! I was like- he opened fire first! Of couse, hostilities had already been waged in space, but this technically was the very first, opening shot of the Beast Wars.

And something I forgot!

very possible, or maybe it litterally wasn't as sharp as Beast Machines was. Maybe the tech just wasn't there yet?


Yeah, I always thought it was great that they chose to have the first PvP shot fired done by none other than a 'Good Guy' Not that I for a moment believe that the Predacons wouldn't have done it given enough time, but still...

It is. I could prove it if BWTF was up. Ben Yee reviewed and compared the video quality between the Rhino and Australian release and Australian was much better. If I remember right, the show was animated in a PAL format and Rhine converted it into NTSC format, lossing quality along the way. Something like that at least, it's been awhile.

Heh. Leave it to Rhino. They always did cheap out on everything. Menus, extras, even their own logos! I hate that stupid Elvis-wannabe rhino and their stupid FBI warning page! Blah! :P

Also the Mysterious Planet wasn't, I believe, originally meant to be Earth. If BWTF was up you could see the first script very clearly says that gravity on this planet is wonky, mountains and rocks float for no immediately apparent reason. However, that was toned down and later assumed to be special with only two instances appearing in the show which were both depicted as unique.

By the start of Season Two, the writers had gotten a heavy duty crash course in Transformers Mythos(and were still getting jammed with it), and were thinking on their feet, ready to adapt their story which already had a number of openings they had intended from the start. In short: They were good writers.

Yeah, bit of a rocky start. Bit disheartening at the end in my opinion too(the last half of the third season I'm somewhat dissapointed in). On the whole it's still my favorite.

Dinobot knows Cybertronian Law. Or he watched Heavy Metal War and actually thought that it was a good idea that leadership is decided by gladitorial combat. Obviously, not everyone agrees with him. Waspinator takes a few hits before he becomes the bumbler we know best. At this point he's still pretty sane and intelligent. He's not speaking in third person(exactly), he's reporting in and declaring who the report is from. Cheetor... is Cheetor. Kid's gonna kill 'em all.

About 2 years ago I created a tiny little tribute website to Beast Wars. Under the character guide section I provided links to info about the animals that everyone turns into. Most of them went to the National Geographic site, but a few were unique. The T-rex page is my personal favorite. I always thought it would be cool and was surprised that no major sites did anything beyond the usual tech spec info. But anyway, here they are! Just the original cast for now.

Link to the character guide (pics are down, voice clips still work)
http://www.geocities.com/mako_crab/beastwars1.html

Optimus Primal is a GORILLA!
Rhinox is a RHINOCEROUS!
Rattrap is a STINKY RAT!
Cheetor is a CHEETAH!
Dinobot is a VELOCIRAPTOR!

Megatron is a TYRANNOSAURUS REX!
Scorponok is a SCORPION!
Tarantulus is a TARANTULA!
Terrorsaur is a PTEROSAUR!
Waspinator is a WASP!

nice! damn... thought you had reviewed Ep 2 already ( You got me started watching them again, watched 2 and 3 last night!)

I'll be doing episode 2 either tonight or tomorrow. I'm just lazy! .... and I've been taking screen caps of Cybertron like mad. I've just now finished the 2nd disc. :D

We're watching again, too!
And I realized the other night, if it weren't for Beast Wars, Icy and I might never have met and married. Makes me appreciate it on a whole 'nother level :)

BRING THEM HERE NOW!!! :dweller:

:lol:

I will be joinging you then, since evreyone is getting excited about it again. And to continue on Star's statement, it is because of Beast Wars that I came to AUG and met all of you. Since then, I have never been the same...

:dweller:

That's sweet! And the same is true for me. If it weren't for Beast Wars I never would have found this place. The AUG is my first home on the net.

*L* I can probably arrange that. :D

AUG was my first home too. I'm not sure exactly HOW I found it, but it was definitely at the beginning of the Beast Wars era. Beast Wars accelerated my already beginning return to Transformers (The return actually started with the Generation 2 series, and finding that I had a load of Transformers stashed at a friends house still from a garage sale two years earlier!)

Sorry for the delay. I've been working overtime taking delicious screen-caps of Cybertron. Now back to Beast Wars!

Beast Wars part 2
written by Bob Forward

on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGHDx4ht-Wg&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHwfqhlOPYA&feature=related

Dinobot stands between the Maximals and their ship, and he's not moving an inch. He again challenges Primal to a duel for leadership of the Maximals with the fate of the loser resting at the bottom of a very deep canyon. Primal tries to reason with him, but that goes all of nowhere. Time for some... Metal Kombaaat!

Hehe. Sorry, couldn't resist. They're fighting over a pit on a narrow bridge! And it's 1996! So anyway we get some of the most awesomely fake sword fighting of all time right down to the cliche'd locking of swords as the fighters practically touch noses and snarl compliments at each other. So cute. We get a good back and forth with each of them delivering some punishing hits, when Primal loses his footing and slips off the edge of the natural bridge.

His monkey feet grad the ledge and he hangs on for dear life! Ohh, but it doesn't look good. Dinobot slowly moves in for the kill. But instead of stepping on his monkey toes, Dinobot does the honorable thing and hoists him back up onto the bridge. He explains that he wouldn't have earned the right to lead by beating him in such a dishonorable way. And then adds....

Dinobot: "I prefer to beat my opponents the old fashioned way; brutally!"

More bad sword fighting! Yes! Just up on a cliff overlooking the battle are the Predacons though, and they've got a stake in this battle too. And they talk! The Predacons actually talk in this episode!

Tarantulus: The winner isn't what interests me.
Megatron: Nor me, no. How much more preferable it would be if they both lost, yes."

So Waspy is established as a simpleton. Scorponok is your average thug. Tarantulus demonstrates a bit more smarts than the others, and we already met Megatron last time. Nothing from Terrorsaur but it's still early. They all transform and start shooting at the battling warriors!

At the last second Primal grabs Dinobot and leaps off the bridge! The missles and energy blasts just graze them. Primal hangs onto the ledge with one foot and Dinobot with the other all the while the Predacons keep firing on them. Rhinox and Cheetor are practically leaping into the line of fire to save their commander, but Rattrap isn't interested in getting himself shot. That is, until Rhinox grabs him by the pelt and reminds him who he should really be worried about. Hehehe.
Rhinox runs over and picks Primal and Dinobot both up with one hand. ONE HAND!!! Dude! You don't mess with that guy.

They all run for the Axalon just as the missles completely disintegrate the bridge! They all just barely make it except for Rattrap. The bridge explodes beneath his feet and he just completely falls. Luckily for his sorry hide that Primal is more prone to save his comrades than Rattrap is. Primal grabs Rattrap's hand just as he disappears out of sight and pulls him back up to safety. Aww. Can we get a thank-you? Maybe? Please? No.

Slaggin' rat.

Well that was fun. Megatron isn't too happy that everyone survived but it turns out that all their stray missles hit a mountain off in the distance and blow its top off. Beneath the mountain is a massive, MAAAASSIVE deposit of raw energon crystals. Like, the whole mountain IS energon crystals. That's big. That's enough to power an entire Predacon revolution. Let's go get it! And so they're off. Oh, I did think it was cute how Scorponok pointed out the mountain before it detonated. That's just precious.

The Maximals take a moment to catch their breath. Cheetor spots the Predacons heading away.

Cheetor: "Megatron's on the move. Bearing 6175."

Ahhh, sounds like technical jargon. Or maybe like someone was watching too much Star Trek and it worked its way into their writing. Bearing 6175? Sure, it sounds technical and there's nothing really wrong with it. But how about say, "He's heading north." Or maybe even simpler, "He's heading towards that gigantic mountain of energon." Oh well, no big deal.

Dinobot points out that with that much energon Megatron would be unstoppable. Rattrap, not one to be impressed by Dinobot's ability to state the obvious, tells Rhinox to waste him. And Rhinox starts charging! Whoa! I had forgotten about this part! They really don't take kindly to Predacons around here, not even Predacon defects.

Primal puts a stop to the fighting and instead asks for Dinobots advice as the resident expert on all things Predacon. So blah blah blah, things are sort of smoothed over and the only option is to stop Megatron. So off they go.

Walking around, walking, walking. I do like these night shots. The stars, the two moons, the stonehenge. Stonehenge? Oooh, mysterious. Who put that there?

Sight-seeing is over. Waspinator and Terrorsaur are on the attack! The Maximals all take up defensive positions within a cave and return fire, but these two are a little too quick for them. Primal takes to the air and knocks them around a bit with some of the more powerful ammo he's packing. And don't you know Dinobot nearly brings the cave down on top of all of them in his exuberance to toast his old buddies? Rattrap doesn't take kindly to that and pounces on the traitor, driving the barrel of his gun into his forehead.

Thankfully by now Waspy and Terrorsaur have retreated due to energon build-up. Primal lands back at the cave entrance to find his crew at each others' throats. He breaks it up and really asserts his authority this time.

Primal: "Rattrap, you gonna' listen and that's that!!!

Yeah!
Laaaater... they finally reach the mountain and guess who's there waiting for them? Predacons! Long story short, they all get into a big fight and dogpile everyone. And since they don't dare transform into robot mode with all that energon around, it's tooth and claw and drool all over the place. Very awesome. It becomes pretty obvious that the Predacons are losing this one, so as a last ditch effort Megatron transforms and fires off a couple missles at Primal.

Dinobot deflects the missles! I guess he's not such a bad guy after all. But the missles slam into the energon crystals and that's everyones' cue to get the hell out of there. Ohhh, problem. Megatron is offline. See, that's what happens when you soak up too much energon radiation. The other Preds don't seem to mind leaving him behind though.

Seconds before the whole mountain explodes Megatron miraculously snaps awake and leaps off the mountain! He is so toast anyway. That long of a fall, plus he was closer to the explosion than anyone else. Plus it was a whole mountain blowing up with energon. So totally dead.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Maybe.

The Maximals celebrate their victory, but all Rattrap wants to know is if they can go home now. No, Rattrap. There's still the other Predacons to worry about. And there's still plenty more energon on the planet for them to harvest. And there's the issue of their ship not working at the moment. So for now let the battle be here, and let it be called....

Well you know the rest. :D

And that concludes the 2-part pilot to Beast Wars. Part 2 is already an improvement over part 1. We get a better feel for the group dynamic of the Maximals and the other Predacons even have a little bit of screen time too. Not much, but what can you do? We learn just enough about the planet to pique curiosity. Really, stonehenge? What's that about? And giant energon crystals? Those weren't present in G1. And the two moons. All very interesting. Not a bad pilot, but very cut and dry. It does its job nicely but doesn't do any more than it has to for now. Still, not horrible by any stretch of the imagination. Alright then, that's where I'll leave it.














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Insert Stephen Hawking joke here. I won't because I find it in bad taste, but it screams for it. Oh, and I already made a BS out of these pics, but I'll post it tomorrow.

G1 had them. They were called Korlonium crystals.

I still think it is funny that the reason Stonehenge is in BW is that it was in the Mainframe database for another show and it just looked cool.

Here's that BS I made last night:
http://z6.invisionfree.com/axalonundergrou...25#entry9329949

Greetings,

Sorry to come to the party late ;). Anyway, originally I was like many G1 fans in that I did not like BW because it was rewriting TF history. Since then it has been connected and Transformers history has been restarted so many times over, I guess it dosen't even really matter anymore. What did really win me over however was the early subtle , then later not-so subtle referrences to the original show. Original TF will always be my favorite, but BW is a close 2nd. I agree it like TNG to the original TREK, BW was better written, and produced with an overal superior quality, but it just wasn't G1. That aside however lets enjoy. I just rewatched a few epsiodes a couple months back so I probably wont be watching them anytime soon but I am enjoying the screen caps.

in 1996 I found a little site called BW Anonymous, interestingly a fan-fic site that I contributed 2 stories to. From There I somehow found Ben Yee's BWTF, and I think I actually contacted a few people from here over on Yee's message boards/chat room back when he had one. Then about a year later I ventured over to AUG and have been here ever since.

One highlight I can recall was being the first on Yee's message board to post the episode title's & directors for the BW season 3 episodes just after attending BC98. I actually had time to drive al the way home (about 400 miles) that night and post them on his site from a dial-up connection, heh thigns have come a long way in 10 years. Now most people can have video of an event up in minuets/hours ;)

Actually it was, in the episode "Dark Designs" BA states "Shrapnel? That was a Decepticon from the Great War three centuries ago!..." - referring to Waspinators delirious state after taking another hit and calling himself Schrapnel.

Actually, I remember you from BW Anonymous...

That and Bigbot.com were the first internet forums I ever posted on. Scary, eh?

It's so seldom I here the name Bigbot.com anymore... is that site even relevant to the fandom these days? When I first got into the fandom Bottalk was the first place I stumbled into. It didn't take me long to figure out that it wasn't my crowd and I went looking elsewhere. From there I found the Axalon. I don't even know how, but glad I did.

I posted this on the Allspark, but I just had to put it here too.

I'll tell you what though, I've been watching the Cybertron box set and it's just amazing how BAD the facial expression on the robots in that show are. They all have roughly the same 5 standard expressions and that's about it. Compared to even the first episode of Beast Wars, the robot and beast modes of the characters display a much wider range of expressions and it just keeps getting better as the series goes on.

In fact, I'm really at a loss to find any CGI cartoons on today that are capable of rivaling or surpassing Beast Wars, and this is a show that's 12 years old! Honestly, can anyone think of anything that comes even close? What all is out there?

http://www.bigbot.com/ is still around. Oddly enough it was one of the few sites blocked at my work becuase it supposeddly had connetcions to "video games"?? Anyway i sort of forgot about it also, but its still going. Looks like they mostly just scan the net for toy related news and ebay auctions/purchasing sites.

Bigbot.com sorta seemed to go down hill, at least forum poster wise, when BobSkir.com was started up.

Bigbot was how I found my way to the AUG. The DoM "attacked" our Cult of Zarak :shootemup: . Counter attacks ensued, Zabgoth :drunk: made peace :peace: (by bringing booze :Begorrah!: I believe) and it was all good very shortly. We found "Proof Predacons are Homosexual" :sexy: and then the RLD was restarted under my :relax management(ownership didn't come until later)...

Ahhh :Dreadlounge good times, good times...

The Web
written by Larry DiTillo

on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLt-uCxScrw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfa9c89okd4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D34A1l4y4Mk&feature=related

It's only the third episode, but for some reason this is one of my favorite and most memorable ones. It's also one of the few episodes that's Megatron-free, so it stands out just a bit more for that.

Right, so we begin at the Axalon. Rhinox has cobbled together a long-range communications device to help them stay in contact through all the energon interference. It's ready for a field test, which Cheetor is way too eager to volunteer for. Rhinox gives Primal a look like he just knows his invention won't survie the mission, but Primal gives Cheetor the go-ahead and tries to reassure the rhino.

Outside Cheetor sprints far away from the base. Optimus is surprised how well the new comm. is working. So far, so good, when Cheetor reports the sound of explosions.

Primal: "Cheetor, hold your position! I'll be right there!"
Cheetor: "I'm going in!"

.
.
.
.
Well no stopping him. Might as well let him get shot. Hm? Oh, I'm just assuming he will. He sneaks through rocky outcroppings and gets the drop on Scorponok, who's been busy digging a mega-canon out of the terrain. Apparently the big canon fell off the Predacon ship when they went screaming through the ozone layer. Minor detail, but whatever.
And speaking of minor details! I noticed in the pilot episodes that Scorponok had a very tiny Maximal badge on his chest. At first I thought it was just an animation error, since it was just the first episode. But here it is again! And he's got the Maximal badge on his missles too! Here I always assumed he just put the Maximal logo on his missles just because that's who he was sending them to, but hey... there might some history with this guy. Maybe he really was a Maximal at one time?
Anyway, Cheetor has Scorpy cornered at gun-point and it's all good. He tries to call back into the base. Hm. That's funny. No response. Red flag anyone? HOLY HELL!!!! TARANTULUS!!! Where'd he come from!? Cheetor freaks out and tries shooting at the spider, but he's already gone. Scorponok takes advantage of the distraction, transforms, and fires one of those Maximal missles at Cheetor, blowing him half to hell and rendering hmi slightly dead.
Scorpy and Tarantulus take off with the mega-canon just as Primal arrives to find a gutted Cheetor. Niiiiiiiiiiiiice.

Cybertron- night. Cheetor lounges atop a tower while Megatron, Waspinator and Terrorsaur fire on him. He doesn't even flinch. Their shots just fly by. Without even aiming he just fires off 3 vollies and wastes each of them. Soooo easy. By now it should be obvious this is just Cheetor's dreamland.
But Tarantulus is here to turn it into a nightmare. Suddenly Cheetor's not smiling anymore. Suddenly he can't hit anything anymore. Scorponok's here too! He fires that same death-dealing missle at him! It closes in! Cheetor's in beast mode and looking helpless and terrified. Out of nowhere we see Rattrap pop up swinging a knife. Whaaaat? What's that about?

Weeeeeird.

Cheetor wakes up screaming!!! And Rhinox promptly slams him back down on the repair table. He's back in the Axalon and in one piece again. Cause for celebration? Nooooo. The cat really stepped in it this time.

Rattrap: "You took a missle right in the chest plate. Guess you aren't as fast as you thought."
Rhinox: "And you got my comm. link trashed."
Primal: "WTF, Cheetor? wtf?"
Cheetor: "I couldn't let them get away with that canon!"
Rattrap: "Oh yeah, you took care of that real good, kiddo."

Primal leaves to call Dinobot in from the perimeter. They'll have to devise a plan quickly to take care of that mega-canon. Thanks a lot, Cheetor! Stupid kid. Rattrap is none too happy about the idea of raiding the Predacon base and volunteers Cheetor to lead the way.

Cheetor: "At least I'm not afraid to do it!"
Rattrap: "You know kid, that is why you mess up. You don't have the sense to *BE* afraid!"

Ah, love that line. Cheetor's all huffy and bolts out of there determined to show them what he has the sense to do. And another classic moment from Rhinox as he shakes his head slowly.

Rhinox: Mn nn nnn. You know what he's gonna' do."

And he'd be right. Cut to Cheetor, who's already in Predacon territory and spying on Scorponok and Terrorsaur as they mount the mega-canon in place. He's so busy watching them that he doesn't even notice a large rock move behind him. His leg is snared and down he goes down the hole!

He wakes up sometime later to find himself trapped in a stasis web and familiar laughter echoing through the cavern to greet him. Tarantulus is having fun watching him struggle and explains what a stasis web is. Turns out! Turns out that Tarantulus is... into... he's into eating other Transformers. He's a cannibal! The stasis web will slowly drain all of Cheetor's life-force and leave his synthetic flesh alive. That's sick and wrong in soooo many ways. He could crank up the web and drain his life really quick, but he likes the taste of slow-cooked cheetah better. And OMG, Tarantulus is climbing up the web! Gah!! As someone who hates spiders, the thought of a giant spider that close to my face is really creepy. Tarantulus has officially established himself as more terrifying than Megatron. Anyway, the clock is ticking!

Topside we find Rattrap hot on the trail of Cheetor. Some nice camera tracking makes this otherwise standard scene a bit more interesting. Nifty. He comes to the rock that acts as a secret passage into Tarantulus' lair and instantly smells something fishy. A hefty shove of the rock and he's in!

Down in the cavern the life monitors bleep and bloop with ever weakening sounds. It's not long for Cheetor now. Rattrap's got something to say about that though. Tarantulus nearly freaks out and whirls around. And the fight is on! You can see Cheetor's eyes light up with hope and he makes a snarky comment to Tarantulus. The crazed spider just laughs and cranks up the web to full power. Oh hell! Cheetor's got moments to live!

Rattrap runs and ducks behind the stalagmites, returning fire whenver he can. Tarantulus has a good bead on him though thanks to his thermal goggles. Realizing the situation, Rattrap produces a box from his forearm compartment that gives off a heat signature. He places it and runs...

... Just as Tarantulus closes in for the kill. He leaps around the stalagmite only to find the heat box and Rattrap directly behind him. It's all over, but Tarantulus isn't going down without a fight. He fires! Rattrap fires almost simultaneously! And the spider loses a leg! I swear, it's like they were predicting the whole, "Greedo fired first" thing from Star Wars special edition. Hehehe.

Rattrap rushes over to the computer that's controlling the stasis web. He fiddles with the controls, which only makes things worse. Cheetor is choking and gasping. Nearly dead! Rattrap shrugs his arms and realizes what he should've done in the first place; just shoot the computer. Ta-daa! Cheetor is free! Rattrap runs over and slices the web - wait... it's the exact same shot of Rattrap from Cheetor's dream! Cheetor had a premonition of the future? Whoa...

He catches the kitty as he falls out of the web and they're about to make their escape when Tarantulus shows up again. He's leaned up against a stalagmite and fires off a missle that hits the stasis web. The whole cavern blows up and Tarantulus is buried in rock.

Sometime later they both return to the Axalon where the others are still mulling over their plan to raid the Predacon base and take care of that mega-canon. Rattrap whips up a quick excuse to cover for the both of them, though Rhinox casts a knowing glance their way. Primal gives them both a hard stare like he doesn't quite believe their story at first, but then softens and apologizes for being so harsh earlier. They both seem to be off the hook.

In the hall outside Cheetor tries to thank Rattrap for saving his life, but the rat makes it plainly clear that he's not happy and that the only reason he covered for him is because he'd be in trouble too if Primal knew what had really happened. Rattrap storms off, but Cheetor is grateful anyway. Aww. :D

The end!
Couple things about this episode. First, I love the opening scene in the Axalon when Rhinox has finished his invention and again later when Cheetor is on the repair table. It's these scenes more than the action scenes that really defiine Beast Wars to me. These guys are already such strong characters that they could probably carry an entire episode just hanging out in and around the Axalon with no action from the Predacons at all.
Second, this is the first time Cheetor's had a premonition but it won't be the last. He has at least one more (The Spark, maybe Feral Scream part 2) and sees the spirits of his fallen comrades in a much later episode (Other Victories). What does it all mean? Well, if you ever thought that Cheetor was stepping into the role that Hot Rod served in G1, you might have an idea why these unique abilities are important... not to mention that Cheetor became the liaison of the Oracle at the end of Beast Machines...
Third and finally, Tarantulus is just cool. Cool and creepy. This episode stands out for the lack of Megatron and the emphasis on Tarantulus. He's established as the second major threat the Maximals have to watch out for early on and really excells as such. Plus I like that he has his own secret lair that the other Predacons aren't allowed in. :D
Alright that does it for this one. Next up; Equal Measures.














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Wow, it's amazing, Beast Wars lead me to this forum, and the one really big fanfic site whose name just escaped my mind XD.

And that lead to:
Wars
Blatent Pokemon rip-offs
Really crappy fight scenes
A trial that went beyond retarted
Multiple bannings
and so much crap it's coming out my ears!

Wait....Why did I get into this again?

Beast Wars Part 2:
I love the scene when Megatron is heading towards the energon. I wish they would have put a little drool in his mouth, though you can practically hear him salivating as he talks about it :lol:

Also, favorite charge scene in all of Beast Wars. Funny thing is, I was watching King Kong (the old b/w one) a few weeks ago, and maybe I was just imagining it, but some of the moves that Kong puts on the Tyrannosaurus made the fight here in the crystals seem earily familiar. I have to wonder if the animators didn't actually put a few of the similar moves in on purpose.



The Web:

heheheee...

When I rewatched this a week or so ago, I was kinda surprised that The Web was so early in the series. Only the third episode and we not only get our first scene of Cybertron, but we actually get the appearance of G1 Starscream in a nifty flyby. I remember we were jaw dropped by this. It may be well that this was the episode that cemented a lot of us to the Beast Wars!

Also, the first allusion to Cheetor's (or any bots) dream forseeing in the strange appearance of Rattrap at the end of his dream, heralding his rescue a short time later.

AAaaaand the beginnings of the Rat and Tarantula enimosity.

You mean animosity.

Enemosity has something to do with your butt. :P

maybe that IS what I meant!!!
rofl

Well, Tarantulas does have a big butt.

Post edited! The complete review is done!

For the pie.


AUG was the first internet forums I ever posted on, half a dozen (or so) servers ago.

:ultragear: - mmmm... pie...

:ilikepie: :ravenous: :glutton:

And FINALLY the next installment.

Equal Measures
written by Greg Johnson

on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-DFX9Ilzks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OxJaFfIFTI&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8AkjvxaVlw&feature=related

In the last episode Cheetor learned that disobeying orders, ditching the team, and running off on missions alone can have horrible, nightmare-inducing consequences. A powerful lesson indeed. Let's watch him do it again!

It seems the Maximals (or just Rhinox) have been busy. They're preparing to set up relay posts all throughout the area to help boost their communications range, but there's a fierce storm moving in, so the mission is off. Oh, and they have a bomb.
Cha-ching!
A bomb?! The Maximals are already planning to blow up the Predacon base! But... but aren't they going to wait for the Predacons to kidnap someone or threaten something first? It's in the rule book! Autobots must always sit on their duffs until the Decepticons do something! Oh riiight, right, right. Maximals and Predacons. I forgot. So the Maximals actually take the initiative and act first. That's just so cool.

Anyway the bomb isn't the main priority right now. Setting the relay posts is, but that storm is just too nasty and Primal isn't taking any chances. So the mission is off and Cheetor's pouting about it, because apparently the boss monkey thinks he's too slow to outrun a storm. It could just sound like the cat being a whiner, but maybe there's something more to it. He was the one that got Rhinox' comm. badge thingy destroyed in the last episode. Maybe he actually feels some kind of need to get this mission going to help make up for his stupidity last time? Maybe. Primal and Rhinox are in agreement though; with so much energon coursing through the land, they have to be extra careful about where they set the relay posts.

Primal and Dinobot have a tense little face-off there too. Apparently there's some issue with how they deliver the bomb to the Predacon base. Dinobot wants to blow up the base and everyone in it. Primal is more of the forgiving type and wants to spare the Preds if he can.

Dinobot: "What I know is this; if situations were reversed, the Predacons would spare the base and annihilate us."

Ooh, snappy! Snappy dialogue! I do like. So we have Dinobot and Cheetor both feeling put out. What's a surly raptor to do? Get the cat in trouble! The dinosaur finds Cheetor laying on a sturdy looking board in his room sulking. Dinobot prods Cheetor just a little and in no time the dumb cat is on the sly again and bounding out the Axalon hatch with a whole bag full of relay posts. And off in the distance the rumble of thunder signals a quickly approaching storm...

WHAM!
One relay post in! And he's off to the next!
WHAM! Another one's in! And he's off to the - BWAKOOM!!! Oh lordy, lordy! He's been struck by lightning! It's okay, he's getting up. Cheetor shouts at the storm clouds and... BWAKOOM!! A near miss! Doesn't Cheetor know that it's bad luck to have lightning strike in the same place twice?

Off to the next! Oh that stupid kid. He goes to place one more and gets struck by lightning again. Duh, Cheetor! You're the only piece of metal out here! You're a frickin' lightning rod! The relay post goes flying and strikes an energon vain. The whole ground begins to crack and tear open. The whole place is about to blow up, so Cheetor does what any of us would do.

Cheetor: "Pleeeease don't blow up! Please, please, please!!"

He grabs the relay post and struggles and wrestles to yank it out of the ground, but that's not happening. Another strike of lightning and suddenly Cheetor's gone!

Over at the Predacon base.... which, wow. Tangent!
Over at the Frankenstein place... hm. Yeah, the syllables match up and it even rhymes. Okay, that was random, pay no mind. Sometimes these things just pop into my head.
Anyway Terrorsaur is on monitor duty. Very dull, nothing happening. He says to himself that no Maximal would be stupid enough to do anything on a day like today. He gives them too much credit, because Cheetor materializes right in their base at that moment! Cheetor's disoriented, doesn't know where he is.

Terrorsaur: "Welcome to the dark side."

Ah, the moment that shall live on in infamy. You'll notice I didn't bother capitalizing "dark side". That's because I personally never read that line as being the name of their ship. I know the shallow Beast Wars Transmetals video game tried to make the name canon, and the japanese version of Beast Wars calls their ship the Terror Crusher IIRC, but as far as I'm concerned it has no name. For one, the video game was garbage. For two, the japanese version sucks. There you go. :D

Cute little moment where Cheetor yells out, "Maximize," before catching himself and realizing that he's already in robot mode. And the fight is on! They fly around the Pred base on hover platforms shooting up the whole joint. Cheetor wins the match by knocking Terrorsaur onto the same monitor that he entered the base with and just like that- Terrorsaur vanishes in a flash of light...

... and appears inside the Axalon! Terrorsuar's disoriented, doesn't know where he is.

Dinobot: "Welcome to enemy arms."

And there you go. No one runs around trying to claim that the Axalon is really called Enemy Arms. The Pred ship is not the dark side. Nyah nyah! :D They both transform and it's about to get ugly when Dinobot GRABS TERRORSAURS HEAD. He looks at the control panel that warped Terrorsaur into their base and figures out pretty quick what must've happened. Terrorsaur is all like, "Oh yeah, so that's how the kid got in our base too!"
With this INCREDIBLE advantage at their fingertips, Terrorsaur proposes an alliance between he and Dinobot. They'll trash the Maximals and take over the Predacons. And it's all possible because they have a localized worm hole. Uh huh. Dinobot smiles and plays along.

They take a stroll down the Axalon halls and it's just miraculous that they haven't run into anybody. Terrorsaur reveals how exactly he was able to activate the teleporter (completely by accident). Once Dinobot knows how to use it, he declares the alliance over and rams the pterosaur into a trash chute, ejecting him miles into the distance.

I love this next part. Dinobot turns and Primal's standing right there! Like he just walked into the scene, but he doesn't seem to be in mid-stride at all. He just turns and he's all surprised.

Primal: "Dinobot! Wha!?! Hey, you seen Cheetor? He's missing. So are those relay posts. I swear, if he ran off with them, it's his hide."

Dinobot: "As a matter of fact, he did. He's been captured and killed by Predacons by now, BUT TAKE HEART! We now have the ability to blow up their base."

Almost verbatim... almost. The new plan is to set the big bomb onto the teleporter and beam it directly into the Predacon base. Oh. Yeah.

At the Pred base Cheetor's still on the run, this time from Waspinator and Scroponok. They corner him in the ventilation duct and heat things up real nice for him. Scorponok fires a missle into the duct that gets Cheetor moving faster than he ever knew he could! The two Predacons lose track of their target and it's another game of cat and mouse. Cheetor decides that as long as he's here, he may as well roll with it and accesses their computers. He gets a quick overlay of the surrounding energon deposits and cross-references it with his own maps. It turns out that the same energon vein runs under both bases.

So the relay posts, combined with a strike of lightning and the energon vein all conspired to somehow create a teleporter. Works for me. The bad news is that an explosion at either base will destroy the other one. He's got to stop his friends from sending the bomb!

Only two things standing in his way; Waspy and Scorponok. He's been spotted (yes, I know he's a cheetah). :P Scorpy fires a missle that Cheetor deftly avoids and returns to its sender. They're done and Cheetor's on the move again. Back in the main control room he flicks a data-disk onto the teleporter pad. It disappears and in its place- the bomb!!! OH SNAP!! It's anchored to the control pad and has a 30 second timer!!! And Megatron and Terrorsaur just found him!

The data-disk travels through to the Maximal base. They give it a quick once over and realize that Cheetor is alive and they've just condemned themselves to destruction.

At the Pred base Cheetor convinces them to let him release the anchors on the bomb so they can get it away. There's like 8 seconds left on the timer before Megatron finally gives him the go-ahead. Are you kidding?! But it turns out that Cheetor's as quick with his hands as he is on his feet and those anchors come right off. He throws the bomb to Terrorsaur, who flies it as high as possible before getting nuked by the explosion. And with that, Cheetor hops onto the teleporter pad and disappears.

All the relay posts are destroyed on his rapid transit back into the Axalon. Another one of Rhinox's inventions that he destroyed! Everyone breathes a sigh of relief, knowing that they'll all live to see another day. Primal is much less harsh on Cheetor this time than he was in the last episode for basically disobeying orders *again* and screwing up another tactical advantage that they could've had. At least this time he brought some valuable information back with him, so they're not too mad.

Cheetor looks over to Dinobot, who just gives him this big toothy grin like... what is that grin about?

Dinobot (thinking) : I'm going to eat you tonight, Cheetor. Can you hear my thoughts. I'm. Going. To. Eat. You.

Cheetor smiles nervously back at him. Eheheh... you okay there, big guy?

Okay, okay, so they didn't really say that. Cheetor promises never to run off on his own again... until the next time. Oh you silly kid. The end!

If "The Web" highlighted Tarantulus, then this episode was all about Terrorsaur. Megatron puts in only the briefest of screen-time at the very end, making it yet again another show-piece for his minions. I never really thought about it like this before, but it makes sense and I like that they're making up for the Preds getting almost no time in the pilot episodes.
My favorite scene, again, is probably right at the start with all the Maximals tinkering away in the Axalon. There's just such a great dynamic amongst this team and I love seeing them go back and forth with each other. I like watching these 5 guys more than I did an entire army of REACTIVE Autobots in the original show. Yeah, I said it. :D

Next ep- Chain of Command!



"Restricted."










Whatchoo talkin' 'bout, Willis?

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Yay pie!

Primal looks like he wants pie... and now!

*L* I forgot the other pics. Direct links to the rest have now been added.

This was a fun ep! and I agree about the synergy between the Maximals. They make a great team to watch, and that probably added a great deal to this series prolonged storyline!

and you shouldn't have. The writers confirmed at some point that it really was just him talking, not meant to be a name. I'm sure the ship HAD a name, and Terror Crusher is kinda fun. But dark side was meant to be just that...