Beast Machine Hunters> The First Season Guide part 1

Last time we finished off Marv Wolfman’s rather confusing story treatment. However, I have THREE bibles to work with here. Given that I wanted to do another of these story bible/writer’s guide reviews ever since I finished the Star Trek: The Next Generation guide and it’s been a long time since I had the opportunity I’m more than happy to continue.

The first season guide is over 40 pages and for some reason the cover page is the last page in the available PDF file. Since the pages are numbered this time I should have an easier time about it. Also, this file will allow me to copy/paste rather than having to transcribe from the original transcript, with some minor formatting fixes on my end. That means I can speed up things on my end and you’ll be sure any typos are theirs and not mine. Mine should be easy to spot as it will be in the regular text. I should also note that it’s the third draft, dated May 12, 1999. The final show aired in September, 1999. I don’t know if that’s a long enough turnover but if not it would explain some other flaws. Now you may want to get a copy for yourself and read along. I can currently help you there.

Depending on what nonsense TwitterX does by the time you read this, there you go. With that let’s get on to the actual story bible for the first season of Transformers: Beast Machines, this time written by the show’s head writers, Marty Isenberg and Bob Skir. I mention in the past that a lot of the anger and disappointment against this show was pointed at Skir since at the time he was doing Q&A articles on a Transformers fan site while Beast Wars head writers Bob Forward and Larry DiTillo did a mostly loved show and talked to fans directly on the newsgroup alt.toys.transformers, even hiring ATT member Ben Yee of Ben’s World Of Transformers as a consultant. Beast Machines however fell into the hands of Dan DiDio, who in DiDio fashion wanted something darker and displaced from previous continuity despite being a direct continuation with many of the same characters. Between this and Alex Kurtzman on Transformers projects you get an idea of how someone will approach another franchise by what they do to Transformers. That’s how we ended up with DiDio’s Darker DC and Secret Hideout’s Star Trek. So how does this new guide start out?

I am Transformed!

So echoes the fearsome battle cry of the Maximals — the steadfast team of cybernetic robot/animals first popularized in BEAST WARS.

TRANSFORMERS: BEAST MACHINES takes the Maximals to an entirely new realm as our heroes struggle to free their homeworld from the clutches of a megalomaniacal despot driven destroying any and all organic life.

So far so good.

Picking up where BEAST WARS ended, the new series opens as simian leader OPTIMUS PRIMAL, impetuous feline CHEETOR, calculating spider BLACK ARACHNIA and wise-cracking rodent RATTRAP discover themselves suddenly back on the Transformer homeworld of CYBERTRON — with no memory of how they got there! Instead of a hero’s welcome for winning the Beast Wars, our heroes are hunted by a mysterious new breed of Transformers: VEHICONS.

“Picking up where Beast Wars ended…” Someone needs to remind Dan of that. I see they’re still spelling Blackarachnia as two names instead of ones. Since Optimus Prime/Primal sometimes gets shortened to “Optimus” or “Prime/Primal”, I wonder if they’ll call her “Arachnia” before we’re through?

These vicious machines enforce the mad will of MEGATRON — the villainous renegade whom Optimus defeated in the Beast Wars… but who has returned with a vengeance. Megatron has wrested possession of Cybertron, leaving Optimus and his team constantly under fire and on the run.

Forced underground, the Maximals undergo a strange reformatting that not only alters their Beast/Robot bodies, but the very essence of how they Transform. No longer an instantaneous response, Transformation is now a disciplined skill that must be learned and refined like a martial art.

Beats requiring transformation just to survive. This is something we see in the final show. The Maximals have to learn to transform like it’s a chi power from some anime, focusing their minds to transform until eventually they can do it naturally and without even chanting the “I am transformed” mantra. Also if I write “I am transformers” one more time instead of “transformed” I’M going to need to center myself! This isn’t the Masterforce end credits song!

As they hone and perfect this new art of Transforming (some more successfully than others), the Maximals must find a way of freeing Cybertron. They are soon aided in their quest by the sole survivor of Megatron’s invasion: an orphaned Transformer-bat named NIGHTSCREAM.

The Maximals face their greatest challenges as they struggle to free their planet from Megatron and his Vehicons.

From what I’ve heard, Nightscream was Skir’s idea and we’ll get to going over his failings when it’s relevant.

BACKSTORY

When the Maximals awaken on Cybertron in the beginning of Episode One, they are exposed to a Transformation-freezing virus, which causes a memory glitch, leaving them with no clue as to how they got there or how Megatron came to conquer the planet.

Our heroes manage to piece most of the story together over the course of the first eight episodes. Here is a chronological thumbnail of what happened between the end of BEAST WARS, Season III and the beginning of TRANSFORMERS: BEAST MACHINES, Season I:

You mean they actually watched season three? One, I’m still not convinced Wolfman did. I checked and the only Beast Wars contribution he made was season one’s “The Probe”. Wolfman is a great writer, mostly known for this work with DC Comics like Crisis On Infinite Earths and the version of the Teen Titans that the two shows were based on. (The third was based on the original team minus Robin due to the usual rights nonsense.) That’s why I was on his case. I KNOW he’s better than that!

After a paragraph summarizing the end of season three of the previous show and the bit about Megatron being tied to the outside of the shuttle, we get on to what happened next, which we actually won’t see until later in the first season of this show.

While in Transwarp space, Megatron managed to free himself and disappeared into the folds of time and space. The Maximals pursued, but unwittingly emerged in orbit over Cybertron a good chunk of time (at least a year, possibly longer) after Megatron had already arrived on Cybertron!

I have to give them credit. They took a gag from the previous show and actually made it a plot point in this one, that the Maximals basically screwed up. On the other hand they didn’t have much choice. Megatron was really big…though I don wonder how Optimal Optimus fit in there. That version of Primal was also quite large and apparently even an Autobot shuttle has its size limits. It’s not like it’s Astrotrain.

In the interim, Megatron had developed and unleashed the Transformation-freezing virus on the unsuspecting Cybertronians. Unable to Transform, the Cybertronians fell into stasis lock, a lethal paralysis-like state. Many deactivated. Megatron emerged as a savior figure offering a means of survival by preserving their Sparks — the Transformers’ essential lifeforce — in a giant containment chamber until a cure for the virus could be found.

Megatron then recycled many of the fallen Transformers into VEHICON DRONES, Sparkless, mindless automatons that would respond only to his commands. He deployed his Vehicons to apprehend and/or terminate any stubborn survivors.

Megatron’s goal of machine-like purity is severely threatened by the arrival of the Maximals, whose Beast Modes Megatron fears will spread through the planet like a cancer.

Again, we don’t learn this until later in the season. The first few episodes are instead devoted to the Maximals learning to transform, adjusting to their new situation, and forcing Nightscrap on the audience.

As the Maximal ship approaches Cybertron’s atmosphere, it is shot down by the planet’s automatic defense systems. The ship crashes and the Maximals are instantly attacked by a battalion of Tank Drones. Optimus, Cheetor, Rattrap and Black Arachnia, protected by their Transmetal exostructures, manage to hold up under the attack. Rhinox and Silverbolt are not as lucky. While the Transmetal Maximals devolve back to their “natural” Beast Modes under fire, Rhinox and Silverbolt are taken into captivity, their Sparks removed and placed into the containment chamber.

Our heroes barely escape the Tank Drones, but succumb to the virus, which freezes up their Transformation abilities and creates memory glitches as we discover them in Episode One.

This is what happens in the first episode, though the attack we also don’t see until later. The show starts with the Axalon crew survivors minus Rhinox and Silverbolt stumbling around in their first bodies unable to transform and confused as heck. Cheetor and Blackarachina are no longer Transmetal 2, Rattrap is no longer Transmetal 1, and Optimus is back to his first monkey form until they find the Oracle.

Unlike the story treatment this guide has more dedicated sections, and up next is the beginning of the characters section of the guide. I think I’ll end here even though it’s a bit short so we can start on characters next time, though whether or not I’ll get to all of them or have to split it up into multiple articles we’ll find out when we return. Let’s see if Isenberg and Skir hated Rattrap as much as Wolfman and if they can keep track as to who Silverbolt’s supposed to be riding in.