New Season, new look.
Last time on Beast Wars, it
was a race against time to stop the apocalypse. The Maximals scrambled to find
a way to stop the Alien Doom Moon from destroy the planet. They discovered
Blackarachnia putting the finishing touches on a stasis pod that she and
Tarantulas modified to use as an emergency escape pod and elect to use it.
Optimus decides to use it and the Transwarp cell that Tarantulas stole to power
it to make a gigasized bomb to destroy the doom moon. He planned on jettisoning
from the escape pod at the last moment. This plan was thwarted by Megatron, who
had preprogrammed Tarantulas’ pod to lock the occupant inside. He announces his
victory in the Beast Wars as Optimus hurdled into the weapon, destroying it and
himself as he screamed “Megatron!” in fury.
The story picks up just after
Optimus’ death and the destruction of the doom moon. The Maximals watch in
horror as the signal cuts out. They watch the static so closely that
Blackarachnia is able to slip away while they’re in shock. Rattrap smacks a
console to get Sentinel online. It tells him that the doom moon is gone, but
Rattrap says that can wait and asks about Optimus. Sentinel confirms that he
was destroyed. At the Darksyde they get the same information and cheer. Megatron
takes compliments from his minions for a minute before announcing that they’re
going to attack the Maximals and destroy them all while they mourn their
leader. But before they can get to that, the computer warns of a quantum surge
headed towards the planet. He orders his men to prepare for the wave.
The Maximals try to come to terms
with Optimus’ death, everyone asking the big question, why didn’t Optimus
eject? Rattrap pulls out his blaster and says he knows who to ‘ask,’ and only
just then learns that Blackarachnia escaped. Tigertron prepares to hunt her
down when they get the Quantum Surge alert.
Blackarachnia tries to slip away
while in spider mode, crawling on the ceiling. She tries to escape, but her
eyes suddenly start glowing green, and in Tarantulas’ voice she says, “mustn’t
go yet partner.” She transforms in a panic and demands to know where
Tarantulas is. He reveals that by connecting their minds last time to try to
finish the escape pod last episode, she uploaded a copy of Tarantulas’ mind as
well. So, he’s in her head and able to take control of her body whenever he
likes. She tries to refuse him, but he says he doesn’t have time to play… but
then takes a moment to show her a mental image of herself stuck in his web as a
giant Tarantulas in spider mode hovers over her. Weird guy.
Both forces batten down the hatches
and prepare for the wave. The quantum wave hits both bases, causing massive
amounts of damage. We see close ups of Rattrap, Cheetor, Megatron, Scorponok,
Terrorsaur, and Waspinator getting filled with high energy particles and
morphing their super structures. Well, the first three anyway. Terrorsaur and
Scorponok crash into each other and fall into the lava pits and are seemingly
destroyed. Waspinator falls into one of the Restoration Pits and is shielded
from the effect. For characters like Tigertron and Airazor, though, the
particles just pass through them. Everyone passes out from the shock, though,
regardless of their reaction.
Blackarachnia is the first to wake
up, with Tarantulas telling her what happened and demanding she get his body
before the Maximals wake up. Tigertron and Airazor get up next and look over
the damage. The ship is in shambles, but Rattrap and Cheetor are looking…
different. The Quantum Surge has altered both their bodies into more metallic
forms, dubbed Transmetals by the show. They essentially look like Robot animals
in beast mode now instead of animals. They also have some spiffy new gear, as
Rattrap has wheels and Cheetor has jets that let him fly. His first test flight
has him crashing into a computer, and Rattrap drives into a wall to dodge him.
Rattrap mutters that this’ll take some getting used to.
Waspinator is the first to get up
on the Darksyde, he was shielded by the Restoration pit, and hasn’t been
turned into a Transmetal. Megatron on the other hand… well, we don’t see him
fully right away, we just see his silhouette and glowing red eyes. Waspinator
asks him what happened and Megatron says he’s had a change for the better.
Blackarachnia finds Tarantulas’
body and a damaged Inferno in the holding cells. She turns off the bars and is
shocked to see that Tarantulas’ body also got an upgrade. He tells her to hurry
and get it back to his lair. As she drags it off, Inferno comes back online.
Rattrap tells Tigertron and Airazor
to look for Blackarachnia while he and Cheetor check on Rhinox and Dinobot. Tigertron
thinks that she has to have escaped by now, but Rattrap thinks she got knocked
out by the surge too, so it makes sense to look. In the Restoration chamber,
Rhinox has a vision. He sees Optimus hurtling into the Doom Moon and dying in
the explosion, only for the explosion to morph into Optimus’ spark, an energy
silhouette of Optimus’ body raising out of it and flying away. He comes back
online and asks what happened. He’s briefly shocked by Rattrap’s new look,
before demanding Rattrap tells him what happened. While he catches Rhinox and
Dinobot up on the situation, Inferno gets himself back together and says he
needs to return to the Royalty immediately. We jump back to Rattrap finishing
the explanation and officially dubbing their new forms as Transmetals. Dinobot
makes a snide comment about how it’s an improvement but that’s not saying much.
They start to fight, but Rhinox tells them to knock it off. Dinobot briefly
tries to assert that he’s in charge now that Optimus is dead, but Rhinox grabs
him by the throat and lifts him off his feet. He pulls Dinobot in real close
and snarls, “I’m in a bad mood. Understand?!” Dinobot nods and that’s the end
of that argument.
Blackarachnia gets herself and
Tarantulas’ body out of the ship. She kicks the inert body out, causing
Tarantulas to yell at her to be careful. She tells him to back off or she’ll
activate her self-destruct and kill them both. She looks around and notes that
the landscape has changed after the alien’s heat ray. Airazor points out the
more things change, the more they stay the same, before punching her in the
back of the head. They try to recapture her, but both are blasted away by
someone’s attack. Rhinox hears it and orders Rattrap and Cheetor to go out and
help while he and Dinobot get Sentinel back online.
We see Megatron descend from on
high, Waspinator in toe. His transmetal form gave him large energy turbines
that allow him to fly. His T-Rex head is now incorporated into his chest,
giving him two free hands, but he can still carry his tail to use as a lance
like he did before. Blackarachnia begins to kiss his ass, but Megatron’s
backhands her and asks if she really thought he didn’t know what she and
Tarantulas had been up to. He puts his new lance-blaster to the back of her
head, but she stops him from firing. How? By pointing out that the Maximals
only lost Optimus, while the others are fully functional. And because he
arrived without Terrorsaur and Scorponok, she guesses he needs troops. He grabs
her and raises her to his face. He says she’s clever but warns her if she
betrays him again, she’ll suffer. Cheetor and Rattrap descend, and the
Predacons move to ambush. Rattrap warns Rhinox and Dinobot, and they prepare to
go help, but Inferno jumps them. And before Cheetor and Rattrap can go help
them, Waspinator attacks. Cheetor is knocked clear off the cliffside. He
transforms and tries out his new jets. He swings around, Megatron ordering
Blackarachnia to fire on him. She tries, but Tarantulas demands she get his
body out of there. She tries to resist but his control is too strong. She
swings away, and Megatron adds her to his shit list.
Cheetor faces off against
Waspinator and impresses him with his new jets. Rattrap compliments Megatron’s
new look and they decide to compare beast modes. Along with the jet turbines,
Megatron also has skates he can activate. He powers up his turbines and Rattrap
revs his engine, the rat and the rex playing chicken. Rattrap stiffens his tail
and slides sideways, tripping Megatron. Pissed off, Megatron transforms again
and starts firing on him. Cheetor meanwhile disarms Waspinator with his new
tail-whip, and Waspinator tries to flee. Cheetor chases after him but sees
Rattrap’s in trouble and circles around to help. He tries to fly tackle
Megatron, but Megatron dodges and he instead collides with Rattrap. Megatron charges
his blaster-lance, saying, “New packaging, same product, losers.”
Inside, Dinobot is duking it out
with Inferno. The ant gets the upper hand, but then Rhinox gets up and grabs
him by the head. He hurls Inferno out of the ship. Megatron sees and goes over
to investigate the state of his minion. He looks up in time to see Rhinox, his
machine gun out and revving up as he bellows, “MEGATRON!” Deciding he’s had
enough for today, he transforms into beast mode, grabs Inferno and flies off. Rattrap
gets up and tells Cheetor that a few flying lessons wouldn’t hurt. Rhinox asks
if they’re okay, and Rattrap says they are, but says that in his opinion the
Beast Wars just got a whole lot weirder.
We cut to a pair of Stasis Pods
that had crashed during the alien attack. Their DNA scanners activate and start
sweeping the area for lifeforms to copy, but their computer states there’s a
malfunction. We close on one of the protoforms punching through their pod,
their hand curling into a fist.
Well, that’s a hell of a way to
start a new season. Optimus- space junk, Scorponok- dead, Terrorsaur- dead, and
half the remaining cast get sleek new looks. The build up to the Quantum Surge
is great, with everyone ping ponging between emotional extremes as they try to
process Optimus’ destruction and possibly their own upcoming doom. And the
actual effect as Megatron, Cheetor, and Rattrap get their upgrade is so good
they add it to the opener. Their upgrade forms are all really cool in my
opinion. Cheetor is my least favorite, with Rattrap, and Megatron is the king
in this first episode. They somehow found a way to make a purple T-Rex cooler. If
you’re watching the show for the first time, the number of onscreen deaths may
have shocked you. Imagine how I felt at 6 years old watching it for the first
time. Yah, I’m pretty sure these were my first character deaths, ever. Believe
it or not, but there’s a production reason for that. At the end of the day,
Transformers franchises exist to sell toys. Ergo, a Transformer TV show needs
to introduce new characters to highlight new toys. But the technological
limitation of CGI animation at the time basically meant that the show’s staff
were already at the limit of the character models that they could save and use
in the animation process. Hey, back in the 90s, having 12 fully CGI animated
characters was impressive. I think a modern YouTube indie show could do about
as much, but that’s 30+ years of progress. Anyway, if they wanted to bring on
new characters, like the two teased at the end of the episode, two guys had to
get the ax. Interestingly, originally it was Scorponok and Waspinator on the
chopping block. But they floated the idea to some test audiences, and they were
appalled. Waspinator’s misfortune and cartoony dismemberments had become fan
favorite moments of the series, so they decided to swap which of the fliers got
the ax. In retrospect it makes me laugh that, with the death of Terrorsaur,
Megatron’s entire fighting force is made of bugs. How the mighty have fallen. And
it was fun seeing Rhinox get pissed off. He’s about two metric tons of anger
right now and seeing him unleash it on everyone that crossed him was delightful.
So, both sides have suffered losses, gotten some upgrades, and are still
reeling from almost dying. And two new Transformers are about to enter the
fray. It should be interesting. See you soon to talk about the Fusors.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/viewer-log-beast-137678091?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link
Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social
No comments:
Post a Comment