A Blast from the Past.
I truly racked my brain trying to
think of what I wanted to do for today for a post. I didn’t really want to do
another X-Man: TAS episode as the next story is a multipart arc and I’d
prefer to just devote an entire month of posts to that. Then I remembered I did
a bunch of Beast Wars episodes and where we last left off was a good
one, so here we go again!
Last time on Beast Wars, the
Maximals had a difficult journey. Ambushed by Scorponok and Waspinator, an Energon
deposit blew up in the faces of Rhinox, Rattrap, Cheetor and Dinobot, severely damaging
their bodies and leaving them all blind. They had to make the journey across
the wilderness to make it back to base and get some repairs. Rhinox takes
command as his calm demeanor keeps the rest of his friends from panicking
despite the terrifying situation. They’re attacked by an anaconda that nearly
kills Cheetor but are able to free him and kill it. They make it most of the
way to base before they’re attacked by Terrorsaur, who’d been sent out to
finish them off after they lost Waspinator and Scorponok. Rhinox guides his allies
to fight the flying lizard by having them picture a targeting grid in their
minds and shouting coordinates at them. They take Terrorsaur down and make
enough noise to get Tigertron’s, who’d been searching for them along with
Optimus, attention and they’re taken back to base for repairs. Enough
recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?
The episode opens with a shot of
space. From the infinite blackness comes a flashing light, one that is revealed
to be a disembodied Spark, the soul/brain of all Cybertronian lifeforms. It
makes a beeline for the planet and enters the atmosphere. Planet side there’s a
massive storm brewing as lightning strikes the Axalon. The ship has taken
several strikes already, with Sentinel warning the Maximals the shields were
damaged. Fearing the worst, Optimus orders the spare weapons and ammo stored in
the hold under their armored flooring. The Darksyde isn’t faring any
better, taking several lightning strikes of their own. The Spark uses one to
enter the ship’s systems. The surge blasts Waspinator from his workstation.
Megatron demands to know the damage report, and Waspinator initially starts to
tell his boss how he’s doing before Megs tells him to shut up and tell him
about the damage to the ship. Scorponok radios in and says they’ve got an
electrical fire on their lower deck. Back at the Axalon, they get the
weapons and ammo stored right before Rattrap radios Optimus and Rhinox to ask
if they want the bad news or the worse news. Waspinator can’t get his terminal working
again, he hits it a few times before the screen starts going haywire moaning “Waspinator
does not understand.” An emblem resembling a pair of eyes appears on it and a voice
shrieks “I’ll bet Waspinator seldom does. But try not to let that depress you
bug face!” before something possesses Waspinator. For whatever reason
Terrorsaur watches the last of this and laughs.
Rattrap shows the others there’s a
giant hole in the side of the ship from that last lightning strike. Which is
only the bad news. The worse news is that the strike also took out all the
cameras AROUND the giant hole, so they’ve got just a gaping access point right
now. Optimus hopes the Predacons have their own problems thanks to this storm.
The smoke clears from the Darksyde,
Megatron ordering someone to figure out what happened to Waspinator. Waspinator
presents himself, in the lightning strikes we see Waspinator swap between
himself and a very iconic red fighter jet robot. Megatron wonders what happened
to his voice, as it’s now several octaves higher. He offers to introduce
himself, announcing that he is in fact Air Commander Starscream of the
Decepticons! Megatron calls his minions together, and Terrorsaur does confirm
he saw something jump into Waspinator. Blackarachnia points out that Starscream
is supposed to be ancient history. Starscream says he is ancient, but not
history. They give a history lesson for the kids that didn’t see the original
show, that the Decepticons and Autobots were the ancestors of the Predacons and
Maximals and they also warred against each other. The annals of Cybertron state
the Starscream was destroyed in the conflict. He tells the Predacons that he
was killed defending his leader Galvatron from the planet sized Transformer Unicron.
His body was destroyed but his Spark somehow endured and traveled through deep
space before arriving here. He swears his loyalty to Megatron and to fight as one
of his lieutenants. Megatron, not an idiot, asks why he should trust Starscream,
and Starscream says that he can help Megatron defeat the Maximals once and for
all.
We cut to the Axalon,
Cheetor is on watch, remarking how Energon Storms don’t really do much for the
scenery. He spies a Cyberbee flying by, transforming and fires at it. Inside,
Rhinox says they can fix that hole in the wall, but it’ll take time. Cheetor radios
in to report about the Predacons spying on them.
After confirming that Starscream
was telling the truth about the damage to the Axalon, Megatron is
willing to listen to his plan. Starscream insists they take this time to
attack. Megatron wonders if being in space that long has affected Starscream’s
mind, as they’ll be expecting an attack right now. Starscream then reveals his brilliant
strategy, to attack from the Northeast, on the opposite side from the hole, explaining
that the Maximals will concentrate all their forces by the hole and thus leave
everything else unguarded.
The attack goes just as Starscream
had proposed, with him and Blackarachnia slipping in and attacking first.
Optimus berates himself for not thinking of this and Megatron announces they
finally agree on something. They all try to shoot at Starscream and are shocked
when Waspinator’s body flies circles around them. Cheetor asks when the bugbrain
got moves like that and Starscream announces his possession of Waspinator’s
body. Dinobot shouts that that is impossible and gets shot in the back while
distracted. Optimus orders they fall back for now. Rattrap complains, but that’s
nothing new. Optimus grabs Dinobot and flies through Terrorsaur to get them out.
Airazor, who missed the fight but noticed the retreat, flies off to get
Tigertron, realizing this is an all hands-on deck situation.
Megatron along with the other Predacons
celebrate their conquest. To reward Starscream for his help in this coup, Megatron
names him leader of their new outpost, leaving Scorponok and Blackarachnia under
his command and ordering Tarantulas and Terrorsaur back to base with him. Inferno
is on vacation this week, I guess. When Terrorsaur complains, Megatron nearly
crushes his head and tosses him aside. Starscream says that his reward is
service, with Blackarachnia already guessing this is a lie. Megatron isn’t
completely certain of his loyalty either, so tells Scorponok to keep an eye on
him.
The Maximals regrouped in the woods
near the base. Cheetor sulkily says that he’s sure a Predacon is looking
through his stuff right this second. Rattrap tells him to go tell someone to
care. Optimus finishes looking over Dinobot, saying that he’ll recover. Dinobot
tells him they should have stayed and fought to the bitter end. Optimus agrees
it would have been a bitter end, but they can’t fight about this right now. He
lets us know that the situation is bad in no small part because any information
on Starscream was deemed classified by the Maximal elders, a plot point we’ll
get back to someday. Dinobot, thankfully, is a former Predacon and a student of
military history. He tells his allies about Starscream’s key personality
traits, ie, he’s a deceitful schemer and is widely considered to be the
greatest traitor in Decepticon history. The fact that you can’t trust Starscream
by himself for even five minutes gives Optimus an idea.
Meanwhile, Airazor catches up with
Tigertron and gives him the scoop on what’s happening.
At the Axalon, Blackarachnia
confronts Starscream, saying she studied Decepticon history and knows that
Starscream was executed by Galvatron himself, not Unicron. Starscream shrieks
that Galvatron was a fool and he deserved to rule. Three hundred years later
and the bot still holds that grudge. He asks why Blackarachnia didn’t expose
him, and she says she hoped he’d make her a better offer. Starscream thinks he’s
just earned himself a protegie since Blackarachnia is showing off some of his
favorite qualities in himself. Scorponok arrives and says that the Maximals are
approaching.
The Maximals arrive carrying Dinobot
on a litter. Optimus transforms and says they’re here to surrender. As they
wait for the Predacons to arrive, Dinobot stirs and Rattrap yells at him to act
more injured as he’s supposed to be half dead. They bicker for a minute before
Tigertron tells them both to zip it. Starscream arrives with his subordinates,
he says that this is awfully convenient. Optimus says that they have no choice
as Dinobot is heavily damaged and needs time in one of the CR chambers. Starscream
accepts this and has Optimus bring Dinobot inside. He tells Blackarachnia that
the first lesson is to always show compassion, it helps to hide your true nefarious
intentions. They bring Dinobot into the CR chamber and then Starscream orders
Optimus disarmed, chained in beast mode and locked in the hold. And Optimus
just smiles to himself.
Starscream announces to the
Maximals that Dinobot and Optimus will be executed unless they follow his
orders. Tigertron snarls at him that they’d had a deal, and Starscream shrugs
and says now they have new one. He orders the Maximals to attack the Predacon
base. Scorponok tries to stop this coup, but he gets shot by both Starscream
and Blackarachnia and sent flying. Rattrap calls him a scheming snake in the
grass, and Starscream says that flattery will get him flattened. The Maximals
move out.
In the hold, Optimus says he’s been
betrayed, shackled and caged… so, so far, so good. He uses his Gorilla strength
to rip himself free and then reveal the hidden weapons cache under his feet.
The Maximals begin to attack the Darksyde.
Starscream tells Blackarachnia that lessons 2 is that they’re always more
gullible than you’d hope. Optimus then charges in and says lesson 3 is to
disregard lessons 1 and 2. He shoots at them, popping the CR chamber to get
Dinobot out to even the odds. Starscream announces that that was impressive but
still has his superior tactics and speed. He rushes out the window, leaving
Blackarachnia behind but she quickly follows. Optimus tries to radio the others
but there’s too much interference. He flies off to get into range.
Rattrap and Cheetor try to get
close to the Darksyde but set off the proximity defenses. They call for
Rhinox help and he lays covering fire as best he can. Rhinox knows this is suicide
and calls a retreat. Starscream then flies in and orders them to attack.
Optimus flies ahead of him and says that Starscream is giving space debris a
bad name. The other Maximals want to help, but Optimus says that Starscream is
his. Starscream fires on Optimus, but he dodges the shots and punches
Starscream in the face, causing him to hit a rock. Megatron is watching from
the command center and announces that he’ll melt down both Starscream and
Blackarachnia to use their hides for aluminum siding. Optimus has Starscream on
the ground with his weapon raised. Starscream, consummate coward, tries to talk
his way out of the situation, suggesting they can work together. Not noticing
there’s a shard of Energon near his head. He turns and shrieks at Blackarachnia
to help him, thinking they can win together. Blackarachnia asks if all of his
dreams are in technicolor and raises her blaster, aiming it at the Energon. Waspinator
starts to have an Energon surge and shrieks that she betrayed him. She says she
studied with the best. Optimus says “Hasta la Vista, Starscream,” flying away just
before Blackarachnia’s bolt strikes. The explosion it causes is massive.
Later, Megatron puts Waspinator
back together. Back to normal, the Predacons resident punching bag announces
that he has a headache in his whole body. Blackarachnia explains that she was
only cozying up to Starscream to get him to reveal his plans and that she’d never
betray Megatron. Megatron clearly doesn’t believe it but is willing to let it
go this time.
The Maximals repair the base.
Optimus asks if Cheetor if he’s going to help. He says he’s taking some time to
just see if there are any new constellations. He then says “Twinkle, twinkle
little Starscream.”
We see Starscream’s Spark fly from
the planet. He is screaming to the void that he’ll be back, and even if it
takes a thousand years, he’ll have his revenge.
Growing up this was one of my favorite
episodes of the original Beast Wars season. Starscream was one of my
favorite G1 Transformers so seeing him here was just a treat. I didn’t know a
lot about him back then, but I’d seen the ‘86 Transformers: The Movie by
this point so I knew most of his lore. For those who might not have, the movie
began with the Decepticons performing an all-out assault on Autobot City, their
capital on Earth. In the fighting, Optimus was killed along with most of the
original Autobots, and Megatron was grievously wounded. Starscream personally
threw him out of their transport on the flight back to Cybertron and then won
the battle royal the Decepticons had for their new leader. He was crowned king
(I guess) and ruled the Decepticons for about 15 seconds before Galvatron,
Megatron’s upgraded form after striking a deal with Unicron, shot him through
the chest and killed him. In the third season, he returned as a spirit,
possessing Transformers and working for Unicron in order to get a new body. His
body is restored, but he’s shot again and left drifting out in space. Apparently,
his body has broken down over the centuries leaving him a disembodied Spark again.
Starscream’s original voice actor, Christopher Charles Collins, also originally
voiced Cobra Commander on GI Joe, but sadly passed away in ‘94 at the
age of 44 from encephalitis. This Starscream was voiced by Doug Parker, who
voiced Terrorsaur. Since Terrorsaur was already clearly inspired by Starscream,
this was an easy casting decision, I’m sure. He can’t go quite as high, or
maybe shrill is the better word, in his register as Collins could but it’s an
extremely good impersonation. I liked the showcase of Starscream, both his pros
(ie he’s a brilliant tactician and solid fighter) as well as his cons (he is
INCAPABLE of following anyone long term unless he’s scared of them). While he’s
full of himself, he’s not wrong that he’s an excellent warrior and strategist,
it’s just his utter lack of loyalty or backbone makes it that regardless of
era, no one is following him for long. A small detail I liked is that, usually,
Waspinator has the Predacon insignia on either side of his head. When he’s
possessed by Starscream, that symbol is somehow reshaped into the old
Decepticon logo. Like his body has to reflect that part of his Spark or
something. It was interesting to see how Starscream was viewed by Cybertronian history.
Again, for reasons I’ll explain in season 2, his history is classified among
the Maximals, and he’s the Decepticon’s greatest traitor. And yet it must not
be important enough for him to be common knowledge. Considering Blackarachnia was
a MAXIMAL Protoform until she was reprogrammed, she only could have learned about
Starscream from their archives on the planet. So, the information was there, I
guess everyone else was too lazy to do the research. His defeat was suitably
epic, and I enjoyed that Optimus was able to so quickly figure out a strategy
to overcome Starscream. At the end of the day, he’s his own worst enemy after all.
And that’s all I have to say about that. Next time… it might be high time to
talk about the Big Blue Boy Scout once again. See you then.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/135355713/
Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social
No comments:
Post a Comment