Beast Machine Hunters> The First Season Guide part 7

Last time on Beast Machine Hunters we finished looking at the quasi-spiritual lore of the show. Now it’s time for geographical history.

I’m disappointed in myself. I really should have found a way to include a line in the title explaining what we’re going over next, like I have with past story bibles. That’s on me. Now I’m stuck with the format I made for myself.

So what are we going over? Locations. I haven’t seen a lot about locations in the story showing up in the story bible. Sure, we looked around the Enterprise-D a bit, but not to the level Mainframe is with this one. This is quite the long bible, and I have one more before Beast Machine Hunters is finished, since I actually have the second season bible as well.

This time we’re taking a tour of Cybertron, to see what locations have been figured out in the series. I’m hoping to get it all in one part, but it might end up taking two. We’ll see what happens as we dig in to this installment.

CYBERTRON

The homeworld of all Transformers, Cybertron is a completely technological, non-organic planet — or so it would seem. By all appearances, Cybertron is entirely metallic and waterless, with no trace of rock, soil or sand. An oxygenated atmosphere exists (otherwise how would things blow up real good?) but no other natural life-sustaining evidence has thusfar been uncovered.

The Maximals are about to change that perception.

Haven’t seen a typo that wasn’t mine in a while. As a Bumblebee fan the idea that Cybertron was waterless confused me as a kid because Bumblebee loved to swim. In the Marvel comics he knew that before they ever stepped outside to learn about Earth, so that would presume at least at some point Cybertron did have water. The comic would also give us water as a cure for their version of the Scraplets, a transformer plague rather than the little metal ball things you know today. I guess if crabs can be an animal and an STD…

Late in our first season the Maximals discover fossilized animals buried deep within the planet’s core — evidence that organic life once existed on Cybertron and may yet survive again.

Which is why there’s a question as to WHY the Beast Warriors had to bring the organic back to Cybertron if animals already existed. We already know fossils are good enough to scan to create an alternate mode not just from Dinobot and Megatron back on Earth but Nightscream here on Cybertron.

NOTE: Cybertron has only one moon, but legend has it there was a second moon destroyed in a long-ago conflict (see TRANSFORMERS: THE MOVIE).

Again we have something from the G1 show included in the story bible that has no impact on the Beast Machines show. I thought they weren’t allowed to watch anything prior to this show?

MAJOR LOCATIONS
CYBERTROPOLIS

Cybertropolis is the capitol city of Cybertron. This imposing, sprawling metropolis takes up the equivalent of an Earth-sized continent. The buildings are so tall they block out most of the natural sunlight from the street level. Most structures are connected by a series of bridges and moving sidewalks at various levels above the streets.

The center of Cybertronian government and commerce, most of the Transformers live(d) and work(ed) in Cybertropolis.

So what happened to Iacon? Or was that just Cybertron New York City? Megatron really sterilized the place. A bunch of buildings that are useless with nobody inside them, no signs of commerce or road signs…Cybertropolis is kind of dull even for a ghost city.

THE CATACOMBS

Like many ancient Earth civilizations, the Transformers simply built their new cities on top of their old cities. Thus, below the surface of the planet lie layers and layers of remnants of increasingly earlier Transformer civilizations, discarded like obsolete old versions of computer programs.

I guess that answers my Iacon question.

It is among these ancient catacombs that the Maximals are able to make their base of operations. Since these ruins are no longer on line (or even remotely compatible) with the surface Cybertronian systems, Megatron and his Vehicons find it nearly impossible to track the Maximals among the labyrinthine catacombs.

And yet the catacombs are where all the organic and technorganic stuff went. Sometimes you have to wonder how much the Oracle was already doing. If the Oracle is or is tied to Vector Sigma, the original life-giving supercomputer allowed Galvatron to learn about the Plasma Energy Chamber and its key as part of a rather manipulative plan to restore Cybertron’s energy sources wasted by the numerous Autobot/Decepticon wars. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Oracle was the same kind of con artist.

THE MAXIMAL LAIR

The Maximals initially lead a nomadic existence underground, but eventually settle into a more or less permanent lair, located in and around a ruined Roman Coliseum-like structure where they conduct their Transformation training exercises.

Each Maximal has his or her own separate living area. The decor is sparse, but with a few personalized touches — indicative of the fact that they may be forced to flee at a moment’s notice.

That may have been the plan but it doesn’t match the execution. Until the farm in season two we don’t really see them stay in the same place for more than a couple of episodes, and these were two seasons of thirteen episodes apiece (combined into one in some areas, but that’s still twenty-six in all). I certainly didn’t see evidence of everybody having their own room.

MEGATRON’S PALACE

Megatron has turned the former Citadel of the Cybertron Council of Elders into his own personal palace and throne room. At the center of the throne room lies Megatron’s staging area, which is surrounded by floating orbiting fragments that assemble themselves into walkways as needed.

Megatron dangles from a vast array of cables which allow him to jack into and control his Drones any system on the planet (the underground catacombs excepted for reasons stated above). The cables can also transport him anywhere within the Palace. A series of floating screens allows Megatron to monitor his Drones or any sector on the planet (the same exception to the underground catacombs applies).

Megatron controls all the lighting in his staging area, often manipulating it for dramatic effect.

For his more private and intimate moments, Megatron can retract his cables, pulling himself up into a balcony/bell tower that looks out over Cybertropolis.

I think we do see the floating steps at a point or two, but not a full walkway. Of course that could just be my memory. I know he didn’t so much dangle from cables and hang from a harness, which admittedly DID hang from cable so I guess that counts. He also couldn’t appear in screens in the catacombs because there weren’t any. This became the Maximals’ safe area for a reason.

OTHER LOCATIONS

So far in our series we have established these additional locations:

Energon Refinery – just what it sounds like: a facility for refining raw Energon into the fuel source all Transformers know and love.

Oracle Chamber – a chamber buried deep within the underground catacombs where the Oracle first reveals itself to Optimus, briefly used as the Maximal lair. The Oracle itself has since faded away from the chamber.

Cybertron Archives – located in Cybertropolis, this is where they stor(ed) the backup memory files for every single Transformer. Megatron has since wiped those files clean.

Central Spaceport – located on the outskirts of Cybertropolis, virtually all travel to or from Cybertron would arrive or depart here.

Storage Warehouses – endless rows of huge Quonset-like storage chambers housing spare parts for Transformers, meticulously catalogued and stored. Hidden among these innocuous warehouses is the secret lab where Megatron developed his Transformation-freezing virus (although the lab itself was probably destroyed in the tussle with Tankorr).

Tree Chamber – Buried deep within the underground catacombs, this massive chamber once contained, enigmatically enough, an organic tree growing at its center. Cheetor destroyed the tree, but apparently a reformatted Technorganic seed subsequently took root.

Vehicon Manufacturing Plant – Just what it sounds like: a huge factory for manufacturing Drones and presumably experimental weapons as well.

Junkyard – This is where the bodies of the Sparkless Transformers are stored as they await recycling into Vehicons. It’s acres and acres of twisted, broken Transformers arranged into the walls and tunnels of a sickening symmetrical maze. At its center is a huge circuitry tower, within which is the actual recycling/Spark- extracting plant. Creepy, to say the least.

Most of these were one-shot locations. Except for the Oracle chamber this is a lot of detail for the writers. For the animators I could totally understand needing a list of locations and what should go with it but this is specifically the writer’s guide.

So that’s it for location, but it seems we’re returning to Cybertronian concepts as explored by this show. Geez, I’m only AROUND halfway through this guide!