Beast Machine Hunters> The First Season Guide part 9

I was hoping to at least finish the season one guide before the Christmas break. Instead I’m not sure I’ll have the episode synopses done by today, the final day before I take time off. That will depend on the word count but I want a decent intro for anyone coming in on the homepage.

Last time on Beast Machine Hunters, we went over the rest of the worldbuilding for season one, explaining the nature of technorganics, the time measurements of the “Beast Era”, and how this series would differ from the previous one. Today we have episode synopses for the thirteen episodes that make up season one of Beast Machines: Transformers. I haven’t watched this show in years and I don’t have time to rewatch them with the guide so I’m going on memory here. Remember, each synopsis was written BEFORE the script, so this is what Bob Skir and Marty Isenberg wanted to get into the show. This is a bit more detailed than the suggestions seen in the Batman: The Animated Series story bible so this should be interesting. With all that out of the way let’s see how many episodes I can get through before the word count goes too long. Hopefully I do all thirteen, making the first installment of my return shorter.

EPISODE 1: “THE REFORMATTING” – Maximals Optimus Primal, Cheetor, Rattrap and Black Arachnia wake up back on Cybertron with no memory of how they got there. Unable to Transform out of their Beast Modes, they are driven underground by Vehicon Tank-Drones. Badly damaged, the Maximals have no alternative but to submit to the mysterious Oracle, which changes them into new Technorganic forms. A squadron of Cycle-Drones tracks them down. As the Drones attack, the Maximals are still unable to Transform out of Beast Mode until Optimus Primal discovers he is able to Transform through deep concentration, in the manner of the very first Transformers. Optimus defeats the Cycle-Drones and announces the Maximals training will commence at once.

The very first transformers created the art of transforming and it was a purely mechanical process, at least as established in the original cartoon this is supposed to be a future for. Then again, in case you forgot, Dan DiDio was the executive who insisted the previous show was “too continuity heavy” and ordered everyone to ignore it for this show. That’s how DiDio rolls, if what he did to  the DC Comics universe is any indication. I don’t miss him. He can do whatever he’s doing with Frank Miller, create a whole new universe, and I can ignore him the rest of my life without any concern.

EPISODE 2: “MASTER OF THE HOUSE” – Black Arachnia and Cheetor learn how to Transform just in time to help Optimus destroy a Mole Drone that attacks the Maximals’ temporary lair. Eager to seek out allies, Arachnia and Cheetor sneak away to the capitol city of Cybertropolis, only to discover all the Transformers on the planet have mysteriously vanished. Optimus and Rattrap help save them from an Aero-Drone attack. Looking for clues to the missing Transformers’ whereabouts, Optimus explores the Cybertronian Council Citadel, only to discover that his arch nemesis Megatron has taken over the planet. Optimus and Megatron battle. Megatron nearly finishes off Optimus there and then, but Cheetor, Black Arachnia and Rattrap get him out in the nick of time.

Now I wish I had the time to watch the episodes because I don’t recall Optimus and Megatron battling in this episode, at least not directly. I’m not even sure the reveal of what Megatron did to his own Transmetal 2 body happened here or that his anger could flip him into beast mode, which isn’t how it worked in Beast Wars but again…DiDio.

EPISODE 3: “FIRES OF THE PAST” – Black Arachnia, troubled by visions of a mysterious stranger calling to her, sneaks out to the Cybertronian Central Spaceport seeking out the Maximals’ ship for clues to their missing memories. Rattrap trails her and the two quickly find themselves under attack by Jetstorm, Thrust and Tankorr, three Vehicon Generals infused with individual Sparks by Megatron. In the course of the action, Rattrap discovers the Maximals can’t be tracked while in Beast Mode. Black Arachnia discovers the existence of their teammates Rhinox and Silverbolt. She tries to download her backup memories from the Maximal ship, but Megatron probes her mind and nearly discovers the location of the Maximal lair. Rattrap cuts off the download just in time, and Optimus and Cheetor help them escape the Vehicons. Unfortunately, the Maximal ship is destroyed in the process.

I can’t tell you if this happened or not. I literally do not remember this episode at all. It could have happened, but it does show me how unmemorable this show really is. At least I can’t blame Danny D for that. I think. So I looked it up and apparently that does happen in the story. Marv Wolfman did the episode and apparently built onto it (and I guess Megatron’s reveal did happen in episode 2). I still don’t remember it. So this is becoming less a look at the writer’s guide and more “do I even remember this”? That does not speak well to the show if I can’t even jog my memory. I can do that for the original show and for Beast Wars but so far not this one.

EPISODE 4: “MERCENARY PURSUITS” – Exploring a secret lab, Rattrap discovers a counter virus that he hopes will help him Transform. It works too well and he can’t stop Transforming. Meanwhile, Optimus uses the Oracle download to follow a Spark trail in the hopes of finding their missing comrades. They are instead led directly to Tankorr, who apprehends them and brings them back to Megatron. Optimus is able to reach Tankorr’s Spark and convince him to join their cause and fight against Megatron. Tankorr helps them escape, but Megatron zaps him back into obedience. In the battle, Rattrap finally stops Transforming but remains stuck once again in Beast Mode.

If memory serves, and we just discussed that it doesn’t with this show, the antivirus turned out to be a fake planted by Megatron. Making it not work because of the technorganic body versus the fully mechanical one could have been an option as well. One question I do have is why “transform” keeps getting capitalized. It’s just transforming. “Transformer” is capitalized when it describes Cybertronians who transform, which is most of them. Also the name of the toyline the franchise is built on.

EPISODE 5: “FORBIDDEN FRUIT” – The Maximals discover a new Beast Mode Maximal — a bat named Nightscream who was able to survive Megatron’s virus by eating fruit from a mysterious underground tree. Optimus convinces the Maximals to sample the fruit, since the Oracle is definitely putting them on the path of the organic. Only Cheetor refuses to eat the fruit. The other three Maximals revert to Feral Beast Mode and refuse to leave the tree, even when Jetstorm and a squadron of Aero-Drones attack. Cheetor has to destroy the tree to snap the Maximals out of their Feral Mode and fight the Vehicons. Unfortunately, Nightscream cannot survive without the fruit. Optimus uses the Oracle download to reformat Nightscream into a Technorganic Maximal, but the effort weakens him severely. Optimus names Cheetor as leader while he recovers.

It was an odd scene with the fruit. Rattrap says “we fuel up on Energon, period” as if both Maximals and Predacons hadn’t been eating meat and vegetables throughout the previous series. It’s never explained why the fruit turned them feral when Nightscream was fine, or how destroying the tree snapped them out of it. I know it’s a trope that you destroy the object of the mind altering or whatever and everything goes back to normal, but Mainframe is usually smarter than that. It’s not some machine or magic artifact or whatever broadcasting a signal. It’s a fruit tree. Unless the tree broadcasts something that affects eaters of the fruit, and this is never even suggested to the audience or by the Maximals, I don’t see how this worked.

So apparently the DUMB things are sticking with me. That’s even worse.

EPISODE 6: “THE WEAK COMPONENT” – Rattrap finally Transforms, but he proves to be as defenseless in Robot Mode as he was in Beast Mode. In desperation, he strikes a deal with a weakened, recovering Megatron: Rattrap will protect him for one night in exchange for a weapons array for his Robot Mode. Rattrap counts on his comrades staying to in the lair to protect the still-recovering Optimus, but they come up after him, and he has no choice but to fire on them to keep his end of the bargain and protect Megatron. The commotion brings the weakened Optimus up to surface. Megatron nearly convinces Rattrap to turn his back on the Maximals and destroy Optimus, but at the crucial moment, Rattrap points out that the time limit on his service to Megatron has expired. The terms of the deal force Megatron to let Rattrap and the Maximals walk away unharmed. Rattrap wins the weapons array fair and square, but throws it at Megatron’s feet, refusing to retain any ties to his enemy.

This is a very controversial episode to Beast Wars fans because Rattrap seems so out of character for where he was at the end of the series. This scene in particular comes to mind:

Missing from the scene I used (clips often have to get relinked thanks to YouTube, though they might have a point when you realize that it’s a multi-part upload of the full episode) is the part where Rattrap only shoots Nightscream, the one he didn’t fight alongside in the Beast Wars and the one who was most down on him. Rattrap’s new form allowed him to hack into computers using his tail as an interface in robot mode. The mode has wheels instead of feet, which is why EVERYONE was calling him useless except for Optimus Primal. Rattrap finds out as a result of their last attempt to find where Megatron is holding the planet’s sparks that Megs was injured, meaning they had the run of the place, but Cheetor didn’t want to listen (unlike in the previous show where Cheetor would follow Rattrap’s orders when Rattrap was second in command).

Then he overhears his “friends” going on about how useless his robot mode is. Remember, this is Rattrap, the guy who is used to being independent due to his growing up on the mean streets of Cybertron. Rhinox was his only friend in season one, though he eventually befriended all of them, Dinobot oddly becoming his best friend. All that’s gone now, he was considering his body useless, when in reality it would be the best for a scout to have a quick getaway and a way to hack into Megatron’s systems, because the show didn’t use the legs that the toy had. (Hey, can I add Rattrap to the list of “wheelchair bound heroes“? Then I can yell at Dan DiDio AND Russell T. Davies at the same time!) So Rattrap has no friends just as he learned to trust others, feels useless, and sees a chance to scam Megatron since his replacement as secondary just wants to twiddle his paws until Optimus is better and won’t hear anything else. That’s why he says they weren’t supposed to come. They weren’t planning on doing anything so it was an easy way for Rattrap to get what he wanted WITHOUT betraying his friends, or so he told himself. This is Megatron after all. If anything, letting them go was out of character no matter how “fair” they played it.

So yes, I’m one of the select few who defend Rattrap’s actions in this episode, or at least I understand his motivations and the others showing up did mess with Rattrap’s plans.

EPISODE 7: “REVELATIONS, PART ONE: DISCOVERY” – The Maximals stumble on a junkyard facility where the bodies of the Sparkless Transformers are stored while waiting to be recycled into Vehicon Drones. Battling the Vehicon Generals, Optimus severely overestimates his recovery and Cheetor ultimately has to remove his leader from battle. Meanwhile, Black Arachnia and Thrust get trapped in a recycling plant where the Transformers had their Sparks ripped out. The place brings back painful memories for Thrust, who gets his Spark ripped out from him a second time. Black Arachnia saves him and the two find themselves strangely attracted to one another. Any potential romance is broken up when the Maximals burst in to save Black Arachnia, but she’s left with the uncomfortable understanding that the Vehicons are actually transmuted Maximals, which Megatron has twisted for his own purpose. Suddenly the idea of destroying tons of Vehicons becomes less appealing to the Maximals.

This might have been where Blackarachnia started thinking Thrust was Silverbolt after he saves her from spark extraction, but not being sure why. Knowing now that it’s actually Waspinator and planned to be so, it does make sense. Waspinator was done with being evil. He came back to Cybertron possibly hoping for a new life after getting on the protohumans’ nerves, only to get his spark ripped out, which appears to be a very unpleasant process compared to what we saw in the Unicron Trilogy a few series later. Seeing Blackarachnia having hers ripped out probably brought those memories back and that’s why he saved her, even though the new Thrust shell program persona was not aware of any of this.

EPISODE 8: “REVELATIONS, PART TWO: DESCENT” – While Optimus recovers further and communes with the Matrix, Cheetor leads a mission to bring out Tankorr’s old Maximal personality by having Rattrap shunt into Tankorr’s mind with his multitasking rattail. Probing Tankorr’s mind, Rattrap sees a flashback of the Maximals getting shot down by Cybertron’s automated defense system and realizes that Tankorr was once their old buddy Rhinox. Meanwhile Black Arachnia, convinced Thrust was her lost love Silverbolt, tries to get a moment alone with the Cycle-bot to draw out his old personality. They are ambushed by Jetstorm, who rips out Black Arachnia’s Spark.

This makes my theory confusing. With Silverbolt actually inside Jetstorm you’d think also remembering his own spark extraction and this being his girlfriend would have kept Jetstorm from doing this, further cementing in Blackarachnia’s head that Thrust was actually Silverbolt…and at this point maybe it should have been from a narrative perspective. It’s possible that Silverbolt was unconscious during his extraction and Waspinator wasn’t, plus technorganic Blackarachnia looks very little like her old mechanical robot modes both before and after going Transmetal 2. It just feels like all of this was more for the twist than what made sense in the story.

EPISODE 9: “REVALATIONS, PART THREE: APOCALYPSE!” – Nightscream retrieves Black Arachnia’s Spark, but is unable to return it to her body, due to the Spark’s inner disharmony. Optimus contacts Black Arachnia’s Spark via the Matrix and guides her back. He also reaches Rhinox’s Spark, but is crushed to learn that Rhinox truly believes in Megatron’s world order and chooses to continue to serve him as Tankorr. Cheetor orders Rattrap to re-shunt into Tankorr’s mind and reprogram him back to his Rhinox personality, but Optimus refuses to tamper with anyone’s mind. His communing with the Matrix has led him to understands there is a bigger battle to be fought. They have been chosen to restore the organic to Cybertron.

I’m just copy/pasting, so “Revalations” is their typo. I make so many of my own so that’s why I bring it up. This is another controversial moment, and frankly I’m on the side of the haters on this one. “Tankor” (they keep writing it with two “r”s but it’s supposed to be one) is a fake persona created by a shell program. So freeing Rhinox from his Vehicon persona would make more sense. They were in favor of before when Megatron tried to turn him into a Predacon, only leaving him that way because Primal knew he’d force Megatron to turn him back once Rhinox tried to take over. This wasn’t Rhinox’s decision, and may have led to the smart Tankor and his actions later on.

Unfortunately that will have to keep until next year. Don’t worry, it’s only a few weeks. We should finish the episodes after that, with one or two more installments after that, then reach the season two guide. Depending on how that goes it may go quicker than this one if enough material was recycled. See you next year.