From: kendrick@io.com (Kendrick Kerwin Chua) Subject: TF Weekday - Beast Wars Part I Date: 1996/09/19 Message-ID: <51ri69$oua@pentagon.io.com> organization: Illuminati Online newsgroups: alt.toys.transformers TF Weekday Sept 16 1996 - Beast Wars Part I The EI/AD: Transformation? If we're to believe the Hasbro reps from Botcon 96, then the Beast Warriors are the Cybertronians who inadvertently invent Transformation and pass it on to 'later' generations due to their little jaunt through time. More on that in later reviews as the plot thickens; that, and there's not much else in a pilot episode you can peg as an Evil Invention/Alien Device. :) The plot: A transwarp opens in space; the Predacon ship drops back into normal space, pursued by the Maximal exploration vessel. A battle damages both beyond recovery, and the Maximals eject their suspended animation crew into orbit as each craft crashes into the planet below. Megatron examines the planet and his computer tells him that there is energon here, but its volume is so great as to interfere with normal robotic operation. No problem there... They simply scan the planet for dominant life forms and assume those alternate forms to protect themselves from the energon fields. The Maximals get the same idea, and we're introduced to them; Optimus Primal, an ape; Rattrap, a rodent; Cheetor, a cheetah; and Rhinox, a rhino. They ruminate over their precarious position. Back at the wreck of the Predacon ship, Dinobot is forcibly ejected from camp for questioning Megatron's judgement and challnging him for leadership. We learn that the Predacons stole a golden disk from Cuybertron and were looking for Earth; the planet that they've landed on doesn't seem to be it. After downsizing his forces, Megatron sends the rest of his boys out to seek and destroy the Maximals. Elsewhere once removed, Cheetor runs off from repair duty to carouse with the other cheetahs on the planet, only to run smack into Waspinator. Kitty transforms and attacks, but is at a disadvantage against Waspinator's flight and missile weaponry. The other Maximals arrive just in time to face off with the rest of the Preacons, who introduce themselves; Waspinator, Scorponok, Terrorsaur, Tarantulas, and Megatron. A fight ensues where Rattrap refuses to go out and rescue Cheetor; Primal goes himself and is damaged in mid-flight. The Maximals retreat, and the energon field build up disables the Predacons temporarily, keeping them from pursuing. On the way back to base, Primal chastises Rattrap for putting a kink in his tactics; the commander could have laid down better cover fire. At the stone bridge to the wreck, the Maximals discover Dinobot, who challenges Optimus Primal to a battle over leadership. End part I. The characters: It's just a pilot episode, so we don't get much of the characters... But Rattrap is crude and rude, Rhinox is calm but experienced... and respected too. Optims doesn't raise any objection over the guy's impromptu course correction out on the battlefield. Cheetor is impulsive, rash and sounds like he's heard one too many war stories. That he's drawn lanky and tall too pegs him as the teenage punk of the group. Primal, as we've said before, is a far cry from the perfect leader of old. Untested, inexperienced, he still has yet to earn the respect of his troops. And we don't know much about Dinobot yet other than he's very ambitious, which has it's good points and bad points. We don't get much out of the Predacons, but Megatron is nasty and enjoys his work, which sets him apart form the Megatron of old. Also, Waspinator speaks of himself in third person, which is a nice Cerebusian touch to the character... Anybody without a sense of self is bound to be a very loyal creature, provided you're able to win over his loyalty first. Bet on an episode where Wispy ends up being Megatron's last and best friend. And you gotta love Tarantulas' maniacal laugh, which happens to suit the eight machine gun ports he happens to have hanging off his arms in robot mode. The plot holes: They're less plot holes than they are vagueries to keep rabid fans like us from picking it apart, especially since we have six years of cartoon continuity from which to draw. Even considering this though, it's difficult not to ignore some things. The golden disk has already been figured out; it's the Voyager disk, a plate full of information on where to find Earth and what to expect to see. So did Megatron expect to be able to take over a populous, civilized world with only five subordinates? Surely an invasion force would be a little more carefully constructed. Waspinator and Terrorsaur succumb to the energon field build up at exactly the same time during the Really Big Fight at the End (RBFatE). Wasn't Wispy in robot mode for at least five or ten minutes longer than Terrorsaur was? And there seems to be a scene missing where Cheetor's gun bounces all the way from the valley up into the stones where Rhinox and Rattrap where under cover. Moving pictures: As we've pointed out before, there are a few animation shortcuts in BW unique to the technique... Multiple light sources abound but shadows are lacking. Also, joints and limbs seem to be attached as separate parts rather than as a whole animal; there's a sense of the flesh not being one piece that covers up the whole animal, especially when you look at Cheetor's shoulders or Primal's hips. But on the whole, movement is smooth and far superior to anything you can find in conventional animation... DInosaur tails thrash about, eyes are expressive and colorful (watch for robotic blinking, where the eye lights go out every now and again) and humanoid motion is way realistic. Where this motion fails is with random stuff, like explosions or falling rocks, which tend to interrupt the suspension of disbelief, especially when all of Waspinator's missiles explode exactly the same way no matter where they land or on whom. The postmodern stuff: This is a section I've added out of necessity... While the original Transformers show was a trendsetter which ended up being cited, Beast Wars is more of a trend reflector which borrows from other sources. Hasbro hasn't been at the forefront of the toy industry since stuff like Air Raiders flopped, Pixar beat Alliance to the punch with mainstream CGI, and it was Power Rangers that revitalized the animal and giant robot trends. As an unconcious result, Beast Wars is a very postmodern show, citing and referring to the world around it more than it creates its own. Case in point is this episode's Star Trek fetishes... Stasis pods, transwarp drive, energy shields around spacecraft are all drawn from Star Trek. The idea of a big captain's chair is a more subtle piece of theft too; in the original show, Prime sat at a navigational station in the Ark, and Megatron had an ornate but functionless throne in his space cruiser. Even more subtle is the way that Primal slaps his chest to activate his communicator, and the informal, non-militaristic optimism of the Maximal forces. Quotables: "A clever, underhanded sneak attack! I like you, pussycat..." "So, uh... This your first day on the job, or what?" "Shut up, Rattrap..." "Yes sir, Mister Leader sir! You know, I feel heaps better knowin' our lives are in your capable hands. We're all gonna die." "Hey, what's wrong? Is it my breath?" KKC would like to point out that this is a passive post made without being subscribed to ATT. Please direct all comments, criticism and corrections directly to kendrick@io.com. Thank you. -- Kendrick Kerwin Chua- kendrick@io.com- http://www.io.com/~kendrick