An old war rekindled.
This month is going to be a bit all
over the place as I catch up on a few movies, throw in some other shows and maybe
take another shot from the My Hero Academia glass. We’ll see where it goes. What
we’re going to start May with is summarizing the pilot episodes of a retro
favorite of mine that has recently begun moving onto The Transformers YouTube
page, Beast Wars: Transformers.
Some background. Beast Wars
began airing in 1996 and was a CGI animated sequel series to the G1 Transformers
franchise. Most of the lore I’m about to drop here is explained in bits in
pieces throughout the show’s run but much more so in the comic tie ins, or so I’m
told. It’s set roughly 300 years after the events of the final season of Transformers.
Between series, the Autobots won the Great War against the Decepticons, and the
two sides entered back into the unsteady truce that always happens when the “good”
society has the upper hand. They all know that the Decepticons can’t be trusted,
it’s in the name, but refuse to do anything about it because of principles. The
two sides went through a process later described as the “Great Upgrade” where
the giant machines of my 1980s born brother’s day were shrunken down into forms
just slightly larger than your average human. It’s said that these new bodies
are significantly more fuel efficient than the old models. The two sides changed
names to go along with this upgrade, the Autobots becoming the Maximals and the
Decepticons becoming the Predacons. No, it does not seem like they figured out
subtlety in the Great Upgrade.
Just prior to the show’s beginning,
a Predacon general assembled a small strike force of five other Predacons to
help steal the “Golden Disk” from their great library. The Disk combined with a
stolen warship dupped “The Darksyde” that has a transwarp drive, the Predacons
flew across time and space as part of nefarious plot. In honor of the Great Decepticon
war leader, the somewhat vain General decided to redub himself Megatron.
…
Some behind the scenes info here, early
in development, there was the idea that they’d eventually reveal this Megatron was
in fact the original Megatron just in a new body. They scrapped that sometime
after they began production, due in no small part to this Megatron’s Voice
Actor, David Kaye, having such a… vibe to him that no one would believe he was
the same Megatron or Galvatron we’d seen before.
Anyway, the Maximals, knowing
nothing good could come from the Predacons having a literal time traveling
warship, sent out an alert to all ships to chase that cruiser down and take it
out. Unfortunately, the only ship in intercept range was the Axalon, an exploratory
research vessel. Let’s see how this shapes out, shall we?
We open with the two ships coming
out of transwarp space and firing upon each other. The Axalon is heavily out
gunned and severely damaged within seconds of the fight beginning in earnest.
The helmsman whines that this is all ridiculous as they’re an exploration ship
not a battle cruiser, but the Captain tells him they had no choice. On the
Darksyde, Megatron’s Lieutenant tells his captain to finish them off now. Megatron,
being a sadist, asks where’s the fun in that? And goes for more disabling shots
to drag out the torment. The young cadet on the Axalon announces that their stasis
field is failing, and the science officer announces they’re going down. The
Captain, knowing that crashing would be dangerous, orders most of their crew, about
a dozen Maximals in stasis pods, to be launched into safe orbit as they fall. The
Maximals get a few lucky shots in as they fall, though, and the Darksyde also
crashes on the planet below.
The Captain asks for a damage report
and the cadet says that he really doesn’t want to know. Megatron asks his
computer if this is their intended destination, but it isn’t sure. It says that
the coordinates are correct, but the planet doesn’t match what their date says.
He tells it to forget about that for now and has the computer scan for Energon.
The computer informs him that there’s a massive supply of naturally occurring Energon
Crystals. Fun fact, this was the first series to introduce the idea that Energon
is a naturally occurring crystal as well as the refined cubes that Transformers
are powered by. It’s now a staple of the franchise. The computer tells him that
there’s too much Energon on the planet, and that exposure will cause their
bodies to overload if exposed for too long. Megatron, noting the lack of suitable
tech, says they’ll take on forms based on the most powerful local creatures.
His scientist activates their scans. Their scanners pick up the fossils of a
T-Rex, Pterosaur, and a Deinonychus (yes, you know it as a velociraptor), as
well as a tarantula fighting a wasp.
Back with the Maximals, their scanners
pick up a gorilla, mouse, rhino, and cheetah. After the scan is complete, we’re
introduced to our crew. We, to my knowledge, are never told what they’re names
were before the crash… but you must assume that other than maybe the Captain,
no one is going by the name they had on Cybertron. The cadet dubs himself Cheetor,
and he thinks he’s really pretty. The helmsman isn’t impressed, but then he chose
the rat and the name Rattrap, so his taste is questionable. The science officer
took the rhino and dubbed himself Rhinox. The captain emerges from the pod, revealing
his gorilla form and we meet Optimus Primal. He tells his crew that they need
to be careful, the Energon fields of the planet will cause their robot forms to
short out after a few minutes’ exposure (however long the plot needs for that
limit to be hit). He says that this is an unusual planet, wherever it is, and
Rhinox adds “whenever it is” too, and explains about the Transwarp transport. Optimus
also laments the fact that the rest of the crew is in orbit. Their pods should protect
them from Energon exposure, but instead of being like 12 to 6, it’s 4 to 6.
We jump over to the Darksyde, where
the Predacons are trying out their new forms. Megatron’s lieutenant, dubbing himself
Dinobot, realizes they aren’t on the right planet (they’d been going after
Earth but despite the animals being right, the two moons and other geological
data says that can’t be true) and is furious. He screams at his boss, calling
him an idiot and demands he surrender command. Megatron, not interested in
having an actual fight with Dinobot, says that leadership requires cunning and
cleverness. To demonstrate his acumen in both, he has his new Lieutenant, Scorponok,
blast him away with rockets. He dubs Dinobot a loser and orders his troop to
start searching for the Maximals. He doesn’t care they landed on the wrong
planet, as this one has enough Energon to fuel the Predacon’s entire galactic
conquest.
Back at the Axalon, Rattrap whines
(he does this a lot) about all the trouble they’re going through for that golden
disk. Optimus reminds him it’s one of Cybertron’s most carefully guarded
relics, so, yeah, it is worth the hassle. Rattrap points out that they’re
supposed to be explorers, and asks Optimus if he’s cut out for the commander
gig. Optimus tells him that they need to stop the Predacons from restarting the
Great War, and that they’re on an uncharted planet, so that’s plenty of
exploration right there. Rattrap says that he’d like a working spaceship too, to
which Optimus rolls his eyes and says there’s no pleasing some people. Cheetor
spots some cheetahs running, and wants to show off, chases after them. Optimus
orders Cheetor back but the comms don’t work after less than 100 meters due to
the Energon interference. Rattrap again mocks his “commander” asking if it’s
his first day, to which Optimus says shut up.
Cheetor catches the cheetahs,
scaring them and causing them to run faster. He continues the chase but ends up
running into one of the Predacons. This Predacon is a wasp who has dubbed
himself Waspinator, yes, it’s a Terminator reference. Cheetor “Maximizes,”
transforming into his robot form. Waspinator “Terrorizes” in response. For reasons
never fully explained, both sides need to shout out their respective code
phrases to transform. Seeing Cheetor being shot at from the ship, Optimus hops
on Rhinox, grabs Rattrap and they charge after him. Waspinator has Cheetor on
the ropes just as his crew arrives, but the rest of the Predacons arrive as
well.
Optimus asks Megatron why they need
to do this, when their sides have been at peace for centuries, but Megatron says
that peace for Predacons is just waiting for the right moment to strike.
Cheetor gets his gun working again, leaps out and shoots at Megatron. Megatron
announces that he likes that Pussycat for his treacherous, underhanded attack,
but he must die. We get out first role call transformation. In order, Tarantulas
the tarantula, Rhinox the rhino, Scorponok the scorpion, Rattrap the rat, Terrorsaur
the Pterosaur, Megatron the T-Rex and Optimus the Gorilla transform. The two
sides start firing and dodging around for cover. Cheetor tries to get back to
the others but gets knocked back and his leg pinned. Optimus tells Rattrap to
get Cheetor while they cover him, but Rattrap refuses. Optimus is obviously furious
at his insubordination, but leaps into the air with his Prime jets to save Cheetor.
He gets shot down, but he makes it Cheetor and grabs him. Rhinox forces Rattrap
to help him lay covering fire and the Maximals fall back. Thankfully, everyone
hits their Energon limit and is forced to revert to their beast mode hazmat
suits.
On the ride back, Optimus grabs Rattrap
and lays into him for not following orders. Rattrap gives him more lip, Optimus
telling him that he would never give an order he wouldn’t do himself. And
Optimus was better equipped for covering fire than Rattrap was. Rattrap says that
they made it out of there alive, so why get worried? Optimus says that that is
true, but it’ll take their beast modes time to do internal repairs. We learn
that the Maximals know that six Predacons were listed on the left, so one must still
be out there. Cheetor says maybe he was destroyed in the battle… but Rhinox
says they haven’t had that luck today. Which is proven true seconds later, when
they find the missing Predacon, Dinobot, standing at the only bridge to their
ship. He tells them that he’s taking over as leader of the Maximals, and they
will help him crush Megatron. He challenges Optimus Primal to one-on-one battle;
the winner will lead, and the loser will die. Neat way to start this series
off.
Believe it or not, this was my
original Transformers. My brother grew up in the 80s and because of him I
saw a fair number of toys, a few episodes of the show as reruns/video rentals,
but this was the first Transformers franchise that I watched from start
to finish. It will always hold a special place in my heart for that reason, but
also for surprisingly good storytelling. It’s also the first show I’d ever seen
that had character deaths. I’ll get into that if/when I hit one of those deaths.
I’ve since seen a LOT of Transformers media, and this show stands out
for a few reasons. The late 90s CGI has aged… okay, being not the prettiest but
still functional. Yes, we are just going to ignore the fact Megs and Dinobot
should probably have feathers to some degree or another, we didn’t know that in
the 90s. The heroes are also a bit different from other franchises. Instead of
the chosen hero and a group of ragtag military veterans, we have a ship’s
captain with a crew of not-soldiers. Rhinox is a scientist, Rattrap is a demolition
expert, and Cheetor is a kid. Cheetor is like half-Rookie Transformer soldier,
half-naïve human in terms of his plot beats. Rattrap and Optimus have a fair
amount of friction early on. I got the sense that they and Rhinox have known each
other for a LONG time, and while Rattrap was willing to follow Optimus as a ship
captain, he draws the line at military commander. Rattrap learns to trust the “Boss
Monkey” as he dubs him, though, and it’s a fun ride. As for the Predacons, we
only got a little on Megs and Dinobot. We get more of the others as we go, but
Terrorsaur, Scorponok, Waspinator and Tarantulas are kind of interchangeable.
Evil soldiers. Dinobot, while a Predacon, has a very strict honor code that he
follows. Both times he challenges for leadership, it’s a one-on-one trial by
combat. He doesn’t believe in sneak attacks, even if he wholeheartedly believes
in obliterating his enemies. Megatron, on the other hand, is an out-and-out sadist.
He loves toying with his enemies before attempting to destroy them. He’ll
gleefully put someone into a deathtrap to watch them struggle, even when a
quick kill is on the table. He also has this habit of asking himself rhetorical
questions and answering with an exaggerated “Yeeesss” or “Nooo,” which is just
fun. So yeah, Beast Wars: Transformers has begun, I’ll cover another
episode or two before diving into Ant-Man 3, see you there.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/83564520
Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
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