Beast Machine Hunters> The First Story Bible part 3

Round three in Marv Wolfman’s story treatment for the original idea that evolved into Beast Machines. Last time we got as far as partway through page 3, learning a bit more about character motivations and that he was planning out four seasons. We ended up with two. One if you watched in Canada because YTV was impatient and Fox Kids wanted to schedule the next year early or something.

I don’t know how much influence Hasbro had at this point. We do know that the final toys didn’t matched the teased images for the characters we got in the Fox Kids first look promo print ads, and that the toy changes came so late that there were some discrepancies between the toys and the show models at times. Still, it is interesting to see if the original plans were any better than what we got…which wasn’t that great. Maybe the problem was how rushed the show was? YTV wanted it all at once, and I’m not sure how much time Hasbro and Mainframe had between the last of Beast Wars and the start of Beast Machines. Making a good show, including in CG with mostly new models, takes time…and this show clearly didn’t have enough to make it good. Let’s see what else they had in mind.

There are more battles to free Cybertron from Megatron’s control, and this time the two Vehicons are joined by a third, TANKORR, a giant tank/Transformer who can crumble steel under its massive treads. Tankorr pursues the now powerless Maximals. Tankorr is a sheer berserker power without reason and believes Megatron thinks too much to be their leader. If it were up to Tankorr, he would take to space and bomb Cybertron into submission. Tankorr is a ‘loose cannon’ that not even Megatron can control, and he believes he should be ruling Cybertron instead of Megatron.

We’ll come back to Tankor (final spelling with one “r”) later. Elements of this would show up in the final character, though his takeover plan is far different.

Optimus and his rebel band try to free Cybertron but because they lack transforming abilities they are helpless again (you’re missing a couple of letters–I don’t have an editor and clearly neither did Wolfman) Megatron and his transforming troops. They fight as best they can but in the end they have to flee to the catacombs. Meanwhile, Black Arachnia’s relationship with Skybolt becomes more intense and jeopardized the Maximals’s (him again) cause. Black Arachnia, the former Predacon, is under suspicion as being a Predecan traitor.

I’m pointing out his mistakes (like getting Predacon wrong only a few words after he wrote it the first time in this paragraph) because I make plenty of my own typos so I want you to know which is him and which is me. Now I have to ask…how many episodes were planned before the Transformers…transformed? It’s the gimmick the whole toyline is based on and not transforming for more than a two-part episode seems a bad idea. Also we have a jet dating a spider since Blackarachnia can’t transform. Is this the lost boss of Undertale? Tsunderplane’s sister, perhaps? No, I didn’t play the game but I did see Playframe’s playthrough. I’m also wondering that if, according to last chapter, the Transformers can’t exist without transforming, what condition are they in at this point?

The Maximals begin the campaign to free their world. Unfortunately for them, although they do free small bands of Maximal slaves, friends they have know before, they come no closer to learning where the rest of the Maximal population has been taken. Still, the Maximals can rejoice in their victories although the problems of Black Arachnia almost pull the group apart.

I don’t think Mainframe could have pulled this off. Their shows have very few characters, even in crowd scenes. Cybertron in Beast Machines allowed them to reuse character models but as “dead” Cybertronians. If it wasn’t for all the drones there wouldn’t be more than the Maximals, Megatron, and the generals. CG took more processing power, which is why Beast Wars had such a small cast compared to the hand-animated original series. That was ultimately to the show’s benefit as it allowed for more character-focused episodes but it was done out of necessity. I don’t see them pulling this many “bands of Maximal slaves” like the treatment is suggesting. None of Mainframe’s shows had a huge cast, not even movies like the Acceleracers shows or shows set in New York like Spider-Man.

Cheetor, who has deep feelings for Black Arachnia, is both hurt and angry because of her relationship with Skybolt. He tries to get closer to her but Black Arachnia is headstrong and doesn’t get his advances. Cheetor feels spurned and his hatred for Skybolt increases as does his sense of personal inadequacy. Although Rattrap is a friend of Cheetor’s he loves to cause problems and inflames the impulsive Maximals’s passion.

We get it, Marv. You hate Rattrap and want to write him as awful a mech as possible. Playing on Cheetor’s attraction to Blackarachnia in season three of Beast Wars might have worked. It would have been better than jerk who replace Rattrap as second in command or took command from Optimus for questionable reasons. I’m pretty sure Blackarachnia isn’t lovestruck enough to not figure out what Cheetor is trying to do but he is still a kid compared to her…however that works in Cybertronians. We don’t know what led to Blackarachnia becoming part of the Axalon stasis pod club. I never could tell if these were newly awakened protoforms or existing robots who went protoform to adopt local creature disguises to study alien animal life.

When the Maximal’s catacomb HQ is attacked and destroyed he is certain Black Arachnia has given Thrust their secret location.

I’m pretty sure spell check existed, but apparently he didn’t notice that Maximals’ keeps getting spelled wrong. This one makes it look like it’s just some mech named Maximal. Also, would you PLEASE decide if it’s Skybolt or Thrust holding Silverbolt’s spark? No wonder the spoilers got that wrong. This treatment gets it wrong quite often. I’m curious to see what happens when we get to the actual Beast Machines story bibles when we get to them.

It will later be revealed that in a jealous fit Cheetor himself accidentally gave the information to one of Megatron’s spies. When Cheetor discovers the truth, he decides he has no choice but to leave the Maximals.

Wolfman seems to be planning out every story in the four planned seasons. When I looked at the story bible for Batman: The Animated Series there was a section of possible episode ideas. It took me three installments to get through them all. Not all of them were followed and some were heavily changed. The Star Trek: The Next Generation story bible didn’t even offer any stories for season one and it was just one season’s worth of important info on the characters and how history changed in the 24th century. This treatment is doing a whole episodic saga and I’m not sure how I feel about that. It doesn’t allow for the writers to come up with anything on their own and this definitely isn’t episodic. I wonder if he went this long with a pitch for comic storylines? He’s not even going to be writing every episode.

As the battles for Cybertron continue we watch the Maximals learning their transforming lessons and advancing. Humor comes from the unexpected. In the beginning Rattrap, looking for his blaster, discovers nunchucks in his weapon’s holder. Being a novice he of course cant’ (that’s also him) use them properly, entangling not only himself but his friends in the

In the what? It doesn’t continue to the next page. (Actually, I found out why but you’ll have to see the closing paragraph for this installment.) Nunchucks don’t have a very long rope. The show ultimately gave him no weapon while the toy has a tail whip like his Transmetal toy in the Beast Wars line. Of course the toy also had optional legs that the show didn’t give him. A whip is not nunchucks.

Rattrap thinks this is all ridiculous. The big guy’s lost his mind and he wants no part of this training garbage. He’d rather go into stasis lock than be reformatted. That can wipe out everything that made Rattrap himself.

And you thought “The Weak Component” has a poor understanding of Rattrap? This is almost a form of suicide and whatever character mistakes happened in that episode some of them can be waved off at least. This? That is nothing like the Rattrap we know and love…but Wolfman clearly hates him so I’m not surprised.

On the other hand, Cheetor is overly enthusiastic. He loves the idea of finding out about Cybertron’s past and, in his upbeat manner, can’t wait to start the reformatting. Black Arachnia is suspicious. this (forgot a capital letter) former Predacon never trusts anyone, and she is not at all sure she wants to take part of anything that might change her. Her paranoia plays well into this situation. At all time we play against the Maximals’ (great Primus he got one right!) personalities. On the one hand, Black Arachnia feels the pain coursing through her. Should she trust something other than herself and give into the Oracom or should she hope she’ll survive long enough to regain the power of transformation.

So we’re redoing season three character arcs for Cheetor and Blackarachnia? Did he watch past season one?

Optimus, as leader, says they have no choice. They will all die unless they let the Oracom begin the training. Because they don’t have the matrix as Optimus does, they will merely be students.

The Oracom reformats and changes them. They, too, have pupils, and they also discover they now have new hand-to-hand weapons they will have to use rather than their old long distant blasters. Also, as they relearn the art of transformation, their weapons will change with the. The more they learn the more powerful they will become. All of them like that concept.

How do the weapons change? Because the toys are not going to have evolving weapons. This isn’t Magic Knights Rayearth. Wolfman’s plans are really bigger than either Hasbro or Mainframe would let him pull off. I know Hasbro doesn’t want to wait this long to show their toys characters transforming. That wouldn’t sell toys as fast.

LIke a martial arts white belt leading inexorably to a black belt, learning how to transform will take time for the Maximals. At first they have to undergo an elaborate ceremony before they can change. As they master it the ceremony will become shorter but no less intense. Rattrap finds this all ridiculous and makes constant fun of the ceremonies…until he needs to transform instantly and can’t. There should be part of an episode where a hapless Rattrap is trying to stay alive while trying to remember the proper chants.

Do I even need to say it anymore?

Half way through the season, the Maximals will find a chant that connects them directly to the matrix inside Optimus. The Matrix (is there a difference between the small m “matrix” and large M “Matrix”?) helps in their transformation. As the season progresses the change will become faster, but always accompanies by some manner of visual ritual which will both highlight the transformation and show how important it is. But even when they become masters they will no longer be able to instantly transform from robot mode to animal form which will put them at a great disadvantage as they continue their mission to free Cybertron from Megatron’s control. AS the season progresses, the Maximals reach the levels at different times allowing competition and a bit of jealously (?) to propel them forward.

I see the story potential there but that seems to be more of way too much involved in this process. Then Tankor enters the picture and we get another element that made it into the final show: whose spark he’s carrying. Although given the Thrust/not-Jetstorm mix-ups maybe Rhinox could have been Mirage.

Picking up a summons for help, the Maximals lead a raid against Megatron’s troops where they discover, to their horror that one of their old friends, RHINOX, has been captured. We will see Rhinox be taken into a bizarre place where his spark is removed from his body and transferred into something else that we don’t see. We leave the viewer with a sense of horror; what has happened to Rhinox and can he be cured? Rhinox will later turn out to be TANKORR, another new Vehicon (that you already introduces a few paragraphs earlier, Marv). Once they are reprogrammed the Vehicons have no memory of their Maximal roots.

This does come from Beast Wars, with the idea of shell programs being used by Tarantulas to turn the Maximal protoforms like Blackarachnia into Predacons, though Wolfman apparently didn’t now she lost that in season three when she got her Transmetal 2 body. Again, did he watch past the first season?

Although the Maximals have failed to save their friend, they learn that Megatron is using Maximals and their life-sparks for some unknown plan. Optimus swears to free his people from Megatron’s evil subjugation.

Something else we saw in Beast Machines. I think we’ll stop here. Join me next time as we start mid-paragraph…no, as I look at it I think the pdf file got a page order wrong. We’ll look into that next time because I’m not rewriting half this article. I’m reviewing it as I go through it, but at least we can’t blame Marv for this one. I think. It looks like we’ll be finishing this section of our multi-bible dive in the next two installments so don’t miss them. Or do. I won’t tell you how to live your life.