A chance to go home.
Last time on Beast Wars, it
seems like the Maximals have a spy. After a third ambushed mission leads them
to losing the second Proto-form, accusations are thrown at Rattrap of spying
for the Predacons. He’s sent on a dangerous scouting mission in Predacon
territory and attacked by Terrorsaur. He begs for mercy and swears allegiance
to Terrorsaur. He’s brought into the Predacon base and helps Terrorsaur usurp
Megatron’s place. He and Megatron are put in holding cells while the Predacons
deliberate. It’s revealed that he’s on a spy mission FOR Optimus, investigating
the base. He finds that the Predacons got their hands on a Maximal decoder chip
and were using it to scan their communications. The Maximals attack the base,
freeing Rattrap and basically ruining Terrorsaur’s chances of ever running the
Predacons again. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.
We open in the space outside of
Cybertron. Maximal leadership has scoured normal space near the coordinates on
the Golden Disk and have concluded that the Axalon and its crew aren’t in normal
space. They elect to send transwarp probes out and try to search time for the
missing crew. I’m sure this’ll go off without a hitch.
One of the probes pops through a
wormhole and appears just over the alien world. The Maximals, Cheetor, Rattrap,
Dinobot and Optimus are on their way back to the base. Cheetor says that the
last one to the base is Predacon chow and runs off, and Rattrap chases after
him. Optimus, not in a playful mood, transforms into Robot mode and flies ahead
of them and lands in front of Cheetor. Rattrap asks if cats ever get tired of
being stupid. Optimus chastises the rookie for being careless outside the base,
as Predacons could attack at any time and tells him to pay attention. They
enter the base and find Rhinox trying to get a lock on a deep space signal.
With Cheetor and Rattrap’s help, they detect the temporal probe. The Maximals
might be able to go home if they can break through the Energon interference and
reach the probe. Rhinox tries to use the ship’s communicator to reach the probe,
but it doesn’t work. Everyone is depressed that the signal didn’t work, Rhinox
taking it hardest as his best attempt didn’t work. He gets an idea though. Temporal
probes can lock onto the transwarp signature of space crafts, which is what
allows them to track ships through time. While their engines haven’t worked
since the crash, if they can mimic the signature, it should be able to get the
probe’s attention when it swings back toward the planet at the end of it’s
sweep. The Maximals are excited at the prospect, except Dinobot who looks extremely
worried.
The Maximals begin setting up their
faux engine. Dinobot points out that they’re building in Predacon territory,
which seems… dumb. Rattrap agrees. Optimus says that it’s the clearest space for
them to build, and that Tigertron is patrolling nearby to give them early
warning.
Tigertron takes a moment to bask in
the natural beauty of the planet and muse is Cybertron can match it, when he
picks up a scent, Waspinator’s to be precise. He maximizes and then shoots the
bug down, Waspinator having been too busy whining to himself about being on
patrol again. Tarantulas sneaks up behind Tigertron and reveals that Waspinator
was a bait to get someone to test his “new toy.” A flying probe attacks
Tigertron, firing a purple energy pulse at him. Tigertron dodges around it.
Back at the relay array, they hear
the explosions of Tigertron’s fight. Optimus sends Cheetor to help Tigertron.
Dinobot wants to go with him, but Optimus tells him he’s needed to help them finish
the array. Dinobot is again clearly upset at the thought of the probe, and with
a little needling from Rattrap, finally reveals why. He might have joined the Maximals
here, but in the eyes of Cybertron he’s still a Predacon. When the Maximals
come to rescue them, he’s worried his fate will be lumped in with the Predacons
and may even be worse as he betrayed his commander. Optimus tells him that he
won’t let that happen and that he’s a Maximal now. Dinobot says he’s not sure
he wants to be and walks off.
Tigertron finally gets hit by the
device, and it forces him back into beast mode. Tarantulas terrorizes and it’s
revealed the probe seems to lock up Transformers ability to transform. He
captures Tigertron in an Energon net and goes in for the kill. Cheetor arrives tries
to free Tigertron, but he’s hit by the ray and forced into Beast Mode. He asks,
“Don’t cats ever get tired of being stupid?” echoing Rattrap from earlier. Cheetor
is captured in a net and Tarantulas chuckles to himself that that’s two down
four to go.
Rhinox meanwhile finishes working
on the copy of their transwarp signature and copies it to disk. He learns he
has 1.4 megacycles until the probe arrives and says he needs to get his gears
in high.
Optimus tries to reach the cats,
but they obviously can’t reply. He’s spied on by Scorponok, who copies his scan
to a disk and gives it to Terrorsaur to bring it to Megatron. We jump over to
the base, Megatron, Tarantulas and Blackarachnia are looking over the data and
wondering why the Maximals are building in their territory. Blackarachnia
suggests asking the cats and Megatron goes over to them. Cheetor refuses to answer,
but the Predacon scanners pick up the probe, Cheetor stupidly calling it that,
and Megatron figuring out what’s happening. He orders his soldiers to destroy the
array at all costs. Cheetor is obviously upset with himself for saying even
that little, but Tigertron tells him that they were going to attack the array regardless.
He says it at least got all the Predacons to leave and starts swinging his
cage. His plan is to slam their cages together to break them free.
Back at the array, Scorponok
attacks, shooting Dinobot in the back and trying to destroy the array. Optimus
shoots down his missiles, Rattrap blows his hand off and Dinobot uses his laser
eyes to blast him away. Rattrap and Dinobot giving each other the thumbs up for
the teamwork.
Tigertron and Cheetor free themselves,
Cheetor almost falling into the lava pit below. Tigertron gets him by the tail,
though and pulls him up. They head for the Predacon restoration chambers to
hopefully free themselves from the lock they were put in. I wonder why Megatron
doesn’t have those locked down, but whatever.
Optimus, Dinobot and Rattrap are on
alert for an attack, knowing that Megatron is going to attack in force. Rattrap
says maybe Rhinox will arrive first, but Terrorsaur flies in and shoots at
them. He flies off, as he was a diversion to let Megatron, Tarantulas and Blackarachnia
get into position. Dinobot charges Megatron but gets hit by the lens and reverts
to Beast Mode. Blackarachnia beats the oil out of him and drops him to the
ground. Rattrap shoots at her, saying nobody does that to his team and fires at
her until she falls off a cliff. Rattrap is hit by the lens and Beast Mode
locked at well. Tarantulas goes to attack Optimus, but He pulls out an arm cannon
and fires through his chest. He’s hit with the lens and Megatron fires a
missile at the relay array. Optimus grabs a steel beam and knocks the missile
away. Megatron charges him and pins him to the ground. He says that it’s over,
only for Rhinox to pull the ol shoulder tap and says, “Don’t count on it, motor
head” and punches him into next week. Rhinox goes to check on Optimus, but he
says to get the array working.
Rhinox gets the array ready, but he’s
hit with the lens before he can put in the disk and input the code to send
their signal. Rhinox brings the disk to Optimus and says he needs to put in the
code, but Megatron gets up and shoots the Array before they can. He goes to finish
them off, but Tigertron and Cheetor arrive, shooting the lens and destroying
it. Megatron is scared off, saying that the Beast Wars will go on until he is
victorious. Optimus gives Cheetor the bad news about them not going home today,
as the probe reenters transwarp space.
This was a fun episode. Even as a
kid I appreciated that there are a handful of episodes showing that Cybertron
is looking for the missing Transformers. Being lost in time as well as space complicates
search and rescue that much more. It’s been a while since I’ve watched another
show with survival elements, but I remember most go the Cast Away route
of not leaving the stranded characters side much if at all. Tarantulas’ one-off
weapon is pretty devastating. Transformers, regardless of faction or era, are incredibly
reliant on shifting between forms. Losing that always messes with them, as being
able to change on the fly is kind of their whole thing. Granted, this feels
less devastating to Optimus as he keeps his apposable thumbs, but got his ass
kicked thoroughly enough that he couldn’t just type the code in. Dinobot having
mixed feelings about returning to Cybertron is an interesting bit of character
development. Yes, while he seems to be integrating with the crew, at the end of
the day he is still a Predacon, was part of Megatron’s insurrection plot and
then betrayed that plot. Depending on how “in the know” the ruling body of Predacons
are in the plot, yeah he would be in for a real bad time back home. Dinobot and
his mixed loyalties and uncertain future post Beast Wars is a plot we’ll be
making regular visits back to, so be prepared. This episode did have some weird
editing choices, like repeat-repeat-repeating Optimus swinging the steel beam
to block the missile away, and also this weird bit where we see Megatron laughing
behind the explosion as Optimus and Rhinox are tossed in the air. It just looks
weird. It was good to see Tigertron again, this being the only time where he might
be upset at being stuck as a tiger. The dude is a major nature lover so being a
tiger full time is kind of his dream. It was also funny to see Rattrap and
Tarantulas say the same thing about cats and their stupidity. The Transformers
are stranded for a while longer. Next time, Optimus has to deal with some more
than average Rage, see you then.
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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
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