Beast Machine Hunters> The First Story Bible part 1

If you missed the debut article Beast Hunters was the working name of Beast Machines: Transformers. A 12 page pitch was recently recovered, linked to in that article, along with other material we’ll be reviewing in this series. This original treatment was written by Mark Wolfman, a noted comic and show writer, and would explain the planned premise of Beast Hunters as a TV show.

Of course this all depends on what Hasbro wants to go with. The Beast Machines toyline, as it would end up going by of course, was a refresh of the Beast Wars toyline, attempting to keep the concept fresh while still telling new stories with these old characters. The idea was go back to Cybertron and have the beasts versus the vehicles as the main gimmick of the line. As it went on, Battle For The Spark was a subline within Beast Machines that introduced a gimmick where you pressed on the “spark chamber” to initiate some action feature. Basically they shoot their guns when you punch them in the soul.

Tonight I begin my look at the treatment to figure out what was different between the version they planned and the version they got.

Now you can read along with me. Let’s see what the original evolution revolution would have looked like. As I write this I don’t know how far I’m going but I imagine this part will use two articles so I can talk about what they have in here.

The treatment starts off by asking us to imagine, like Wolfman was trying to channel John Lennon or something.

Imagine…

…a long time ago, somewhere in the universe, far from the sun that would later spawn the planet Earth, a sentient essence came into existence that would birth a race of living robots…The Transformers!

Going by G1 cartoon only, that’s not quite accurate. While one of the Beast Wars writers (I don’t remember if it was Bob Forward or Larry DiTillio) loved using comic references, the original cartoon didn’t have Primus in the origin. Created by the Quintessons as goods for sale, divided into consumer goods and war machines, the future Transformers ended up being given life by the supercomputer Vector Sigma. How has never really been explained.

Imagine…

…millions of years later, a tension filled cold war has long been brewing between the Autobots’ successors, the strong and valiant MAXIMALS and the Decepticons descendants, the dark, feral PREDACONS. Until now the spar of war has not ignited.

Imagine…

…today that wars begins when MEGATRON, long-lost leader of the Predacons, returns to conquer Cybertron. Maximals can no longer transform and become easy prey for Megatron’s troops.

We don’t really know what happened to Megatron/Galvatron in the G1 period of the timeline, at least in the US made shows. Last time we saw him he was spinning off into space aboard Scorponok with Zarak. Beast Megatron was never the leader of the Predacons, just commander of a splinter group who thought the Tripredicus Council was dragging their heels in restarting the war and putting the Predacons on top of the food chain.

Only four Maximals: OPTIMUS PRIMAL, BLACK ARACHNIA, CHEETOR, AND RATTRAP, stand between freedom for Cybertron and Megatron’s plans to take control of the very essence that created them and to use it’s fearsome power to make the universe his own.

I don’t know if Wolfman had the same “ignore the original shows” edict that DiDio slapped onto Bob Skir and Marty Isenberg so I don’t know if he’s referring to Vector Sigma, the aforementioned supercomputer, or the Plasma Energy Chamber, that was a plot device in Beast Machines and important to the plot of the original series finale.

Imagine…

BEAST HUNTERS

And the world can live as one?

Next up comes the story, and they had some big plans for this show, at least in Wolfman’s treatment.

  The Story…

Optimus Primal, Black Arachnia, Cheetor, and Rattrap, four Maximal robots who can transform between robot mode and animal mode, return to Cybertron after a long, fruitless journey to find other Transforming races.

No, that was the plot to later series Transformers Cybertron, which took place in a different continuity. The Maximals’ original mission before being the only ship in the area with a transwarp drive, was to release Maximals onto other worlds. They would adopt a local form and blend in, learning more about the planet and the animals on it, plus a secret side mission to dump the messed up Protoform X somewhere that it couldn’t hurt anybody again. Instead they ended up on a strange planet with raw energon crystals that damaged their systems, and the covering of the beast modes protected them from the radiation, “too much of a good thing”. Megatron actually left with them, but his final Beast form making him too big to ride in the ship, they tied him to the outside, a joke that came back to haunt them in Beast Machines.

Happy to return home they fail to notice until it is too late Megatron’s troops surrounding the landing dock. As they descend they are attacked and their ship is damage. Only through Optimus’ leadership do they manage to fly away before crash landing in Cybertron’s distant ancient ruins.

Also not what we eventually got. Yes, the Vehicons attack the ship, but they actually make it crashland on the spaceport and the Maximals eventually stumble onto the Oracle. We do see the ruins of Old Iacon later in season one, but only for one episode. We do get Wolfman’s description of Cybertron and how it would have been depicted.

Cybertron has a long, winding history and its surface is a patchwork of time. Transformers live, work, and play here and its many wonderous cities reflect their culture.

Cybertron is an incredible and varied world. Immense high-tech silicon-based skyscrapers reach toward the sun collecting the energy that powers the planet. In the cities, the sides of many buildings are like computer monitor screens that allow Transformers to plug in and retrieve information anytime. Transformer and environment work hand-in-hand on Cybertron where everything had long ago been design to work together like the perfect machine that it is.

These guys actually stepped out for milk.

Outside of various uplink ports that Rattrap’s new form can use to hack into computers we don’t see a lot of this. Cybertron has already been “sterilized” by Megatron when the Maximals return and there is no sign of Cybertronian society. Apparently Megatron managed to arrive with enough time to clear everything out before the Ark‘s shuttle arrived. Wolfman also mentions sports domes that hover over the city and that the Transformers “care, they desire, they eat, and they enjoy fun and sports”.  We know Cybertronians CAN eat by this point because of their beast modes, a way to burn nutrient, but energon is still their basic fuel, and any other energy types they’ve used in the franchise were converted into a sort of artificial energon, based on its depiction in most of the franchise.

The ultra-futuristic sections of the planet stand cheek to jowl with areas that date back to Cybertron’s earliest beginnings; the ruins of long forgotten temples, early energy stations, long-abandoned moving roadways and more. The Old and the new provide a fantastic world unlike any we have ever seen before.

Not bad ideas but I’m not sure Mainframe could have done all this justice even with the Fox Kids budget. Oddly I think we saw hints of this in the Machinima “Prime Wars Trilogy” shows.

And looking over Megatropolis, the new capital city of Cybertron, is the evil Megatron’s impenetrable fortress.

Through action the Maximals discover Megatron had conquered Cybertron while Optimus and his friends were gone. Almost all Maximals were either destroyed or taken elsewhere. At the same time, those few Maximals who were left behind are now Megatron’s slaves and are tending to the machinery that is Cybertron.

Instead the place was overrun by drones he was forced to give a spark-infused General to because drones lack reasoning skills. Otherwise, no slaves. Again, I don’t think the budget would have allowed for that given the limitations in CG like having too many characters on screen at the same time slowing their computers down.

Megatron orders tow of THE VEHICONS, his brand new vehicle transforming troops, to search out and destroy his foes, but to capture Optimus alive. SKYBOLT, an extremely high-tech flying jet-like Transformer, bombs the ruins with his laser blasts and missiles. Skybolt is daring, inventive, and deadly: a Top Gun pilot gone to the dark side.

“Skybolt” would later be named Jetstorm by the time of the toyline and show’s release. How much influence Mainframe had on the toyline is not in my field of expertise so I don’t know who opted for the change or why.

THRUST, a super-speed motorcycle/Transformer, manages to chase down Black Arachnia. She tries to battle the cycle/Transformer but is defeated. Thrust, silent, deadly and brooding is ready to destroy Black Arachnia, but for some reason he hesitates. There is a moment of connection between these two that is palpable, and that moment is enough for Black Arachnia to escape.

By the end of season four, we will learn that Megatron’s troops are rebuilt and reprogrammed Maximals. Thrust will turn out to be SILVERBOLT, a Maximal who had been in love with Black Arachnia. But don’t underestimate him. Thrust’s reprogramming is complete and he will turn on his once fellow Maximals and destroy them if ordered. Still, Thrust’s unthinkable Romeo & Juliet relationship with Black Arachnia will cause tension throughout the season and force her fellow Maximals to wonder where lies Black Aracnhia’s loyalties.

This is interesting to me because I was in alt.toys.transformers, the Transformers newsgroup on usenet (yes, it still exists; wonder if they remember me?) when a bunch of episode spoilers were dropped in for the first season (or half-season if you’re Canadian because YTV wanted the full show now instead of splitting it into two seasons like Fox Kids did). It was revealed there that Thrust would be Silverbolt, but when the episode aired it turned out that Jetstorm was the Silverbolt carrier. I’m still of the theory that they changed it to mess with the leaker. This also seems to be a step back for Black Arachnia’s character growth if her Maximal allies don’t trust her. The previous show already had trust issues until Black Arachnia’s Predacon shell program was removed.

The Maximals try to transform to battle the Vehicons only to discover to their horror that they no longer can. Rattrap strains, thrashes and comedically does everything he can to transform but fails miserably. As Megatron’s trops swing in to attack, Rattrap’s panic over not being able to change adds even more humor to the story.

Note: The sometimes outrageous humor in Beast Wars has always been up front and center. Although this story is very serious, character humor will always be obvious. Our characters crack wise, react humorously and engage in practical, if not deadly jokes whenever possible. War may be hell, but it can also be funny.

Outside of a few choice episodes, I don’t think the humor was “up front and center”, but they usually knew when to be serious and when to add some levity to keep things from getting too dark. Rattrap’s inability to transform for the first few episodes wasn’t really a source of humor but was more about his character arc, which led to the rather controversial episode “The Weak Component”.

We’re only on page three, the post is already late tonight, but I’m just under 2000 words. We’ll call it here for tonight, and next time see how the Maximals learned to transform in this early version compared to what we got.