Another day, another doomsday weapon.
Last time on Beast Wars, the
aliens returned. The Maximals realize their wandering allies Tigertron and
Airazor were headed towards another alien area. They tried to warn them, but
Megatron has been placing jamming towers all over the area so they could reach
them. Optimus, Silverbolt, and Cheetor raced towards them, but arrived too late
to help. Tigertron and Airazor are beamed off the planet, they promise they’ll
find each other wherever they go. Using the fact that most of the Maximals
aside from Rhinox were out, Megatron attacked the Axalon with Inferno and
Blackarachnia to steal back the Alien Golden disk. They do so and escape before
the others return. While the Maximals repair Rhinox, Megatron begins working on
a plan to handle the aliens. Tarantulas joins the Predacons to tell them that
he’s quitting working for Megatron but will work as a contractor here to get
his anti-alien weapon ready. Everyone gathers at the site, the Predacons laying
some sort of device around the plant that sent Tigertron and Airazor away, and
the Maximals to fight them. Before a scrap can start, though, a new plant-based
alien temple forms and everyone is knocked out by an EMP. Enough recapping. Let’s
get to it, shall we?
The episode begins with everyone
still out after the EMP pulse. The Transmetals are the first to recover,
Rattrap remarking that he’d forgotten how “fun” Energon surges were to Optimus.
At the temple, Megatron remarks once again that he likes these Aliens, with
Tarantulas yelling at him they’d still be in stasis lock if it wasn’t for their
upgraded forms. Megatron walks over to a sealed tunnel, touching it, but the
temple doesn’t react. Tarantulas thinks it’s because the temple used up most of
it’s energy with that blast, and that they’ll need to act fast before they can
recharge. Optimus, Rattrap, Cheetor, and Silverbolt try to stop them, but Tarantulas
activates the devices they’d implanted. Turns out they were piece of a portable
forcefield to keep the Maximals out. Megatron uses the Alien Golden Disk to
open a doorway. Optimus yells at him to not do it, as the aliens power is beyond
him, but Megatron scoffs and says he is power. He, Tarantulas and Quickstrike
revert to beast mode and go inside. Rattrap whines they lost this one big time,
but Optimus says they lose when they quit and he’s not quitting. He orders
Silverbolt and Cheetor back to base to get Rhinox and Dinobot back online. He
asks Rattrap if there’s a way to take out Tarantulas’ shield web, Rattrap says
it’s doable but asks what they’ll do once they’re through, since Megatron took
the key to the site with him. Optimus says they’ll think of something. Rattrap
scoffs at the idea that ‘they’ will do anything, implying it’ll be up to him to
break it open, and mutters ‘that’s just prime.”
Megatron and his arachnids enter
the main area of the alien site. He and Tarantulas kick Quickstrike into the
area first to test for booby traps. Nothing goes off, Tarantulas thinking their
beast modes have hidden them from the scanners. Megatron transforms, saying he’s
done hiding. The aliens still don’t react, confirming Megatron’s theory that
their upgraded forms render them invisible to the aliens, with Tarantulas
countering that they’re now ‘one’ with their technology.
Rattrap has formulated a plan to
break the shield, planting demolition charges on both sides of the web. Megaron
finds a control panel for the site and places the golden disk on it. He gets
hit with an energy surge that keeps the others from getting to him. Rattrap
blows the web, rocking the whole structure, and Tarantulas tells Quickstrike to
help him keep the Maximals out. Once he’s alone, the surge ends and a control
chair comes down for Megatron as he laughs evilly.
Quickstrike and Tarantulas pop out
and start firing at the Maximals. Optimus transforms into beast mode and uses
his flying board to rush the Predacons. Before he can get close enough, though,
the ship starts to take off. Both bugs leap from it. The alien ship targets
Optimus and blasts him, knocking him and Rattrap off. A tractor beam activates
and lifts the Predacons and Maximals skyward. Rattrap gets missed because he
hides behind some rocks. Megatron’s face forms on the side of the alien ship,
he says that he has control of the Alien ship, so the alien’s presence doesn’t
matter. He drops Tarantulas, saying their alliance is over. He then reactivates
his troops and brings them and Optimus inside. The ship teleports away and
Rattrap is held at gunpoint by Tarantulas.
Megatron teleports them to a snowy
mountain, the one Inferno confirms is where he found the alien disk. They’ve
got Optimus strung up by his arms. Blackarachnia asks why they’re here instead
of attacking the Maximals. Megatron tells her that they will, in good time. He
orders Inferno and Waspinator to do something important.
At the Axalon, Cheetor and
Silverbolt work to try to find out what’s happening. Sivlerbolt says that he’d
have better luck sniffing the alien horror out than searching for it with their
scanners. Rhinox and Dinobot recover, Rhinox saying he’s getting sick of waking
up in their R Chamber, but Dinobot saying it’s better than the scrap heap. They
ask what’s going on and Cheetor says they aren’t really sure at this point.
Silverbolt detects two signals approaching, Rattrap and Tarantulas.
Inferno and Waspinator transport
some cargo for Megaron, Waspinator whining that this job doesn’t feel important.
Inferno says any job for the royalty is it’s own reward, and Waspinator calls
him a kiss ass. Well, he uses the term suck-up, but his tone is kiss-ass.
Tarantulas insists that he can find
the vessel if he’s given access to the scanners, but Dinobot is keeping him at sword
point and telling him no. Tarantulas reasons that if Megatron wanted to attack,
he’d be doing it by now, he wants to know why. Cheetor is for scrapping
Tarantulas. Rhinox asks Rattrap his thoughts, and he says the spider is their
best bet at finding Optimus. Rhinox gives him access but tells him to be
careful. Tarantulas does find them in a few keystrokes, complaining that their
scanners are pitiful. He also detected the two bugs, revealing their cargo is
transwarp cells, he insists they attack at once.
Optimus wakes up as Blackarachnia says
the transwarp cells are hardwired. Megatron notices and tells Optimus he’s glad
he’s awake. Megatron would hate for him to miss their journey home. Optimus is
shocked to hear Megatron wants to return to Cybertron with this thing, saying
the aliens will destroy their world if they find it. Megatron says he’ll
destroy the aliens, after the Maximals, and the Autobots as well. This sounds particularly
insane because remember, the Autobots are defunct. They transitioned to the Maximals
300 years ago. Optimus tries to transform but is shocked by his bindings. Megatron
says there will be no heroics from Optimus here today. He’ll use Optimus and the
vessel as trophies and convince the Predacon alliance that conquest is the only
way forward.
The Maximals launch an assault on
the base. Optimus tells Megatron to cancel his appearance, but Megatron is
still confident that more trophies will just make him more persuasive. Silverbolt
blows a hole in the side of the ship. Megatron curses them, and orders his
soldiers to face them. Tarantulas and Rattrap slip inside, as the attack was
just a distraction to get them in. The others fall back. Tarantulas slips away
when Rattrap’s back is turned. Megatron begins gloating, powering up the
transwarp cells and saying they’ll be home in a few nano clicks. Rattrap comes
in and asks if he was really going to leave without saying goodbye. They take
shots at each other, Megatron missing, but Rattrap hit his target, Optimus’
bindings. Optimus flies around and knocks Megatron from his control chair. He
asks Rattrap if he can stop the teleport sequence. We see the Golden Disk flash
and one of the symbols light up. As Megatron and Optimus wrestle in Beast mode,
Optimus tells Rattrap to destroy the control chair. Rattrap does but it doesn’t
stop the countdown. Tarantulas slips in and infects the transwarp cell with
special data tracks. He races away after and Rattrap announces the ship is
going to blow. Megaron bites at Optimus,
misses and shocks himself on a pylon. Optimus tells him this time, he loses.
Everyone falls back, escaping just before the ship teleports up into space. It
explodes spectacularly, Rattrap complimenting the sight. Cheetor asks what
about Tigertron and Airazor, and Optimus tells him if they’re still alive, they
will find them.
Man, the aliens are like 0-2 on sending
death weapons to get rid of Transformers. That’s got to piss them off. I think
it was interesting to be reminded that both Optimus and Megatron of this era
aren’t the de facto leaders of their factions. Since they’ve been butting heads
on their little castaway island this whole time, it’s easy to forget that there
are entire command structures above them. There’s the implication that despite
his ship’s crew size and their current assignment, Optimus is important enough
that Megatron bringing him in as a POW would be a feather in his cape. I think
that’s been implied for a while, but this is the first time I can recall that
it suggests Optimus isn’t just an unlucky explorer that got a crap assignment. Whatever
Megatron’s plan is, it seems like it’s monumentally huge. Something that involves
the Autobots 3 centuries after they were rendered defunct by the Great Upgrade
has to be. You might be wondering why I’m not commenting on the episode itself…
but that’s because this is a plot they’ve done before. This is just the flying
island story if Megatron got there first, and the island could get them back
home. Preds get weapons, preds nearly use weapons, Maximals blow it up. The only
difference is that this is the end of the Alien Golden Disk as it went down with
the ship, and Tigertron and Airazor’s departure. There’s not too much to say on
that plot line. Don’t get me wrong, I like the episode, it just followed a
formula closely. Next time, we learn about a very special bit of cargo the
Maximals were carrying, secret to almost all of them save their captain and
science officer. This’ll be exciting. See you there.
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Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social
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