I'm glad Airazor gets to do something cool, and Megatron's big game hunt was hilarious. But I agree that not very much happens in this episode.

You know, I remembered that I never felt particularly invested in Tigatron when watching the series, and now I know why...the writers don't have a firm grasp on how to write his character.
The whole episode is a bit anticlimactic, I agree.

Why does Cheetor keep having weird dreams? Do they ever explain this?
Also, yay for good use of 3D animation!

Dinobot does what we all want to do to Season 1 Cheetor.

Sending those two seems like it would be a disaster waiting to happen, but it apparently works, so...

Megatron thought that that wouldn't be dramatic enough.

If it wasn't for the fact that it's useful for transportation, I'd say that Optimus might as well not have a flight mode at all.

This may be Terrosaur's greatest victory in the series.

I'm glad the writers have found a way to use that trope in a way that makes sense.

You guys spent entire episodes in beast mode earlier in the series! Why is this suddenly a problem now?

Scorponok's life is pain.

Blackarachnia is awesome.

You're right...there doesn't seem to be any particular reason for this plan to require them to be in their beast modes.

Apparently Cheetor is the only one who gets to have weird trippy dreams.

Props to the voice actors. They're fantastic.

Seriously, if being stuck in beast mode causes these problems, why were they apparently unaffected by it in all those earlier episodes where they spent 80% of the episode in beast mode?
I think it would be kind of funny if being stuck in car mode made the Autobots think they were real cars. Someone should write a story about that.

Props to them for creativity in dinosaur choice, even if they messed up the scale.
The dinosaur information is fascinating!

This looks bad. It looks really, really bad.

It's especially weird because Dinobot is a Predacon. He changed his activation code, but that doesn't mean he rewrote his entire programming, does it?

  I love how Megatron's being carried by all his underlings, and I agree with you that Blackarachnia probably chose to do the war drum because it was the easiest job.

This is a neat-looking shot. And it does make sense to target Primal first.

This scene sums up the two of them, and the way they're poorly utilized, perfectly.

Well, Inferno is a few matches short of a matchbox...

That's awesome. Too bad she never gets to do anything like that again.

SCIENCE!

I'm terrible with passwords (I basically use the same one for everything) and even I make better passwords than that!

That seems like surprisingly poor planning on Megatron's part.

BUY THEIR TOYS!

Convenient!
If they were going to bring these ideas up, they really should've elaborated on them more in the rest of the series.

This looks awesome.

And Dinobot seems like the type to enjoy fighting in beast mode anyway.

  Cheetor!

A weird end to a weird episode.

 

AT LAST! BEAST WARS IS COMPLETE!

I noted elsewhere that Inferno is basically the polar opposite of Tigatron. Tigatron has an ice gun, Inferno has a bigass flamethrower. Tigatron destroyed Inferno's colony, Inferno burns down the environment Tigatron reveres. Tigatron is nearly always calm and centered, Inferno is in a constant psychotic episode. Tigatron is an independent spirit, while Inferno is blindly loyal to Megatron. Tigatron's main method of long-range travel is running, Inferno's main method of long-range travel is flying. And in the end, Tigatron (as Tigerhawk) sacrifices himself willingly, Inferno is sacrificed unwillingly.

IT BEGINS!

Blackarachnia's too independent, Tarantulas wants a good obedient spider waifu.

THEM! THEM! THEM!

Other series like Double Dragon, where he played the big bad, Shadow Khan, most excellently. Please tell me I'm not the only one who watched Double Dragon religiously as a kid.

That exact thing ends up happening in Animorphs. Apparently ants are just that hardcore.

Hoo boy, better not make a drinking game out of that.

David Kaye is a treat EVERYWHERE.

Subtle facial animation, it's a lost art.

DUH DUH DUH!!!

Ooooooooh, they fuckin'!

You're far more merciful than I would have been.

I CAN SEE THE FUTURE!!!!

Rattrap calls'em likes he sees'em.

They stole their mcguffin!

If God had meant for Optimus Primal to fly, he would have made him a bat.

Blackarachnia continues to give no fucks, and it is glorious.

Quality voice acting in Transformers media, it's a lost art. Thanks Hasbro.

They were going to fix that in the next software update, but Optimus and friends missed it when they crashed.

Is that not what happened to Tracks?

So help me Primus, if Kingdom Dinobot does not come with that Duckasaurus, I'm going to be upset.

It's terrible, I know Jurassic Park came out at around this time, there is no excuse!

I like how 100% done with everything she looks in that screenshot.

Beast Wars predicted Harambe, everybody!

Of course Inferno has bad aim, he's used to just burning everything.

DON'T CALL ME AN IDIOT!

I'm surprised it didn't take Rattrap six episodes to get it.

Like Blackarachnia, Dinobot also gives no fucks.

OH GOD, THE CRINGE! IT BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURNS!

 

"When is it a good time to post Queen?"

"Yes."

I think what works with Inferno is they went all-in with him. No holding back, no subtlety or anything like that. "FOOOOORRRR THE ROOOOOOYYYYAAAAALTYYYYYY!" And we couldn't be happier with the psycho.  

I don't think she ever will. Sad.  

See, Terrorsaur? This is how it's done!

It would make sense for them to be better-protected from EMPs than the 'regular' hardware.

Gee! Looks like this pod will produce a normal, mentally-stable Transformer!  

The way he was shaking here, part of me wonders if this was too much even for him.

I don't mind it if it's Waspinator. he's like the Dinoforce of Beast Wars.  

Why wouldn't this be automatic period?

I know this guy and have loved him in everything I've seen/heard him in.  

They really should've swapped their optic designs. Neither looks right in the mode they're used in.

Oh, no! Airazor forgot to upgrade her software.  

Well... it's no hard rule, far as I know. In the Beast Machines toyline there was an insectoid Maximal. I owned it, still find it to be cool.

Even worse. Airazor had parts put into her from Cheetor in her debut episode! She was doomed from the beginning!  

And after season two Blackarachnia wouldn't have had any fighting partners.  

It's always nice to see the animation improving like this.   It's one of the really better things Beast Wars does.

oh, this was intentional.  

Hey, hey! The crow's nest itself is valuable. That would be a loss for the Predacons.

hey, every army needs their cannon fodder.  

Such little details of characterization that bosst this show.

And at least this one can shoot, too.

feels like Megatron's trying to be sadistic, here. It can work... but feels a bit of a stretch, here.

I've always found it odd they didn't have a backup for something this vital.

Them being asleep was... just odd to me. I mean they're still robots underneath the fleshy bits. recharging, okay. But sleeping?

Hey! That's Dinobot's job!  

Rojixus speaks for me.  

Why is it so damned bad?! Might be the worst walk cycles in the series! he's Waddlebot!

Okay, just for this image? Almost worth it. Almost...

Sums up both Airazor and Tigatron perfectly.

he's used to using a wide-angle flamethrower. "BUUUURN!!"

Quite OOC for him. More in service of the plot.

Back when they waged their bat-tles to de-stroy the -evil forces of. The Decepticons?

This is something in a throwaway episode that begs to be explored more. Why the barrier? Why the separation between the beast and robot modes? Is it just for beast modes? How did this happen?

Honestly, just add some little energon around her lips and it'll look like he's slicing her up but fierce!

FEEL THE POWER! THE POWER OF THE UUUULTIMATE WARRIOR!" *Snort*

 

Hey everyone.

Just wanted to check in and say that I'm not dead  

It's been a weird week and the time I expected to have to watch some episodes just hasn't materialized. I'm literally paused on the title and writer credit for Dark Voyage right now as I write this.

That said, I have tomorrow free and it's the start of the NHL's free agency period, which gives me an excuse to sit in front of the TV with my laptop out while I wait for hours to find out that my team is doing nothing of consequence. For anyone who's not a sports person, the translation is that I can use a lot of that time to multitask and trying to get back on track for this week's cache of episodes is part of that. Also I'm going to look back over the previous run of comments to see if there's anything I really want to remark about. I have a feeling there was but honestly I can't think back as far as Monday anymore.

 

Last update before I actually get back to posting content:

I'm in the process of finishing Law of the Jungle now. I decided to watch everything and then post so that hopefully the crunch of doing it all in 2 days wouldn't feel quite so draining/daunting. So expect basically all of this week's episodes to be posted between this afternoon and the end of the night or possibly (hopefully not) Monday. Then I can move on to getting a jump on the coming week which wraps up season 1 and try to make sure that week like this doesn't happen again. Thankfully the weather is kind of cooperating because it's supposed to rain all week which means when I'm home I'm not doing anything outside and that means more time to watch cartoons.

 

EPISODE 20: Dark Voyage
"The Maximals learn the value of their beast forms... what do you mean "we did that last episode"? "


This seems like it should be a good idea for a plot, but somehow it mostly just feels like a waste because it accomplishes nothing new and then tries to play off its lesson as something that it turns out was just explored in the previous episode. This is made even worse by the fact that the interesting aspect of this episode (the journey the gang takes while blinded) at times feels a little bit glossed over.

so ultimately the episode comes up short on a few fronts and that ends up wasting some good Rhinox work, nice visuals, and (depending on if you like that sort of thing or not) some extra cartoony slapstick elements.

I don't want to call this a bad episode for it. It's not. It's enjoyable enough. It's just sort of "meh" in its enjoyableness.

Spoiler

-Our writer credit for this episode is Samuel Warren Joseph. He seems overly qualified to be a cartoon writer (his IMDB profile says he has masters degrees in English and Creative Writing and a degree in Film) but most of his listed work is 80s and 90s dabbling in various cartoon series. Mostly he wrote a bunch of episodes of Dennis the Menace, 1 episode of the original DuckTales, 1 episode of Batman The Animated Series, and this. In fact this show was the last thing he has credited on IMDB until the 2015 movie he wrote and directed called "Window of Opportunity." It has a middling IMDB score, no reviews, and stars a bunch of actors I've never heard of. Make of that what you will.

-Rattrap and Cheetor are out looking for energon. And Rattrap digs up a rather small crystal from a rock pile. Seems like he's working harder, not smarter. I mean... we've seen the entire planet is teeming with the stuff. You practically can't set foot outside either faction's base without tripping over a flying mountain, a flying island, a chasm (which may or may not be flying) or a cliff side filled with massive crystals. And yet the Maximals are scrounging and digging like they're prospecting for gold?

-Dinobot is less enthused to be doing the job. But then his scanner goes off and leads him to.. a small gully filled with crystals. Really, he needed the scanner for that? It's all right out in the open.

I can totally see how he couldn't find that without the scanner.​

-But the gang's celebratory mood is cut short by a random missile that falls in between them and embeds itself in the energon.

-Turns out it was fired by Scorponok, who along with Waspinator, is surprisingly self-assured as he gloats that he didn't miss the Maximals, he made the smart move of setting the energon to explode and probably kill all of them at once.

-In fact it looks like the whoe purpose of the missile was to do this? It's got a weird blinky set of colored panels on the side and it sounds like its resonating as it sits there, attempting to destabilize the crystals. So I guess this is more of Scorponok's savant-like weapons ability?

He can make this but somehow can't always string together complete sentences.​

-Rhinox chucks away the missile but it's too late, the whole vein of energon is going to explode. So the Maximals all do the smart thing and run away... Or not. Instead they do the dumbest thing possible: standing around at ground zero and transforming even though that would expose them even further to the energon since their beast modes are insulated.

-And then it explodes in a terrible real live fireball overlaid onto the CG. The show never did get fire right.

​

-Scoponok really liked that explosion. He probably loved all the Bay movies.

-Cut back to the crater where the Maximals were and there are vultures circling overhead. But for what? They're robots, not biological corpses.

-They aren't even corpses of any kind since we see Rhinox's hand sticking out of the rubble and twitching.

I'm not dead yet. I think I'm getting better.​

Cool shot though.

-Everyone wakes up to realize they're blind (signified by blank white optics. Even the optics on the exposed head portions of their beast bodies that are visible in robot mode (on Cheetor, Dinobot, and Rattrap's chests or on Rhinox's back) are white too. It's kind of odd but also cool looking) And for some reason Cheetor's face has also changed color, going from blue to a sort of muted steely/silvery gray. That doesn't make a lick of sense. The others have a bit of charring or blackening on them like soot or burns, but it somehow bleached Cheetor's face?

The explosion revealed Cheetor's deepest, darkest secret: he's normally wearing makeup because he thinks the blue looks cooler.​

-Rhinox's beast parts really clip into each other when he twists at the waist.

-"I'll tear Scorponok's processor out for this! And Waspinator's too!" Damn Dinobot, Waspinator didn't really do anything.

-And just because this wasn't all dangerous enough, Rhinox reveals that if the don't get healed in 60 cycles (I can never remember what scale they intend "cycles" to be on. minutes? hours? I think it's usually minutes, but the whole issue of time units is so random that it's hard to keep it straight) they'll all die from what amounts to radiation poisoning. Because we needed a ticking clock too.

- Rhinox starts leading the gang back to the base by having them walk single file, holding the tail of the bot in front of them. Except he sucks at being the engine of this train since he comes to a sudden stop and causes a total pileup behind him, complete with tire screeching noise and comedy crash/bang sounds.

-Primus! A gigantic snake drops from the branches and wraps itself around Cheetor. So it's not just the Maximals and Predacons that are massively out of scale beasts, now we've got a snake big enough to strangle a full grown cheetah (we have seen in the pilot that Cheetor is one of the handful of characters whose beast mode is properly to scale.). But not just that, the snake's body is pretty much as big around as Cheetor is too. So it's MASSIVE.

-Rhinox tells everyone not to panic, so of course Dinobot panics and goes full Wile E Coyote, plowing headlong right into a tree, even squishing up flat against it from the impact and we hear some tweeting bird sounds.

"Who put that there?"​

-The snake continues constricting Cheetor, to which he says he can't breathe (or rather he gasps it since he, y'know, can't breathe). Buuuuut he's a robot. Why does he even need to breathe in the first place?

This would look a lot more gruesome if Cheetor's body wasn't clipping through the snake and the snake didn't have a weird dead-eyed stare.​

-Somehow the snake manages to look both incredibly creepy and very fake at the same time.

-Rhinox catches the snake at the last minute and manages to chuck it off into the distance where it lands with a cartoony thud and apparently also hit an elephant judging by the noise.

-Meanwhile, away from everything we find that Optimus, Airazor, and Tigatron are searching for the others. Airazor doesn't appear in the episode though. The closest we get is the sound of a hawk/falcon screech as Tigatron surveys the forest from his mountaintop perch.

-Waspinator uses his scanners to search for traces of the Maximals and sees a fluorescent trail of energon leading away from the explosion site. I'm not sure if it's intentional given the time frame and when shows like CSI got popular and made all these forensics tropes more prominent, but the glowy blue energon trail looks like when they use luminol or a black light to track blood trails.

David Caruso stars in CSI: Not-Earth, only on CBS. ​

-Cheetor was damaged by the snake attack and now he's being carried around on Rhinox's back. So he's graduated from figurative dead weight to now being literal dead weight.

-I almost want to feel bad that Scorponok and Waspinator's ineptitude is spelled out for Megs when Tarantulas detects "walking energon" that indicates the pair failed to kill anyone. But they did this to themselves.

-I've generally ragged on the show for not being great at water (though what 90s CG is?) but the glassy look of the water as it bends over the falls is kind of cool even if doesn't look terribly realistic.

The characters can't see this, so be glad you can.​

-Waspinator has the drop on the Maximals as they cross the log over the waterfall. They don't know he's there right away. They can't see. He transforms without his activation code. By all appearances he has them dead to rights. So what does he do? Misses his first shot badly as it hits the cliff beside the log and causes it to tilt towards falling off the cliff. Why not just shoot dead center, blow up the log, and kill them all right then and there?

-Poor Waspinator. After believing the Maximals were dead before (they weren't), now he thinks that knocking them into the water instead of blowing them up is sufficient to kill them this time too (spoilers: it isn't). He's not learning from his mistakes.

-Suddenly the whole river is really foggy. Way to cover up that you don't want to render way into the distance on long shots, guys. Reminds me of the ill-fated Superman 64 game and its "kryptonite fog" to compensate for the game's piss-poor draw distance.

-Huh. Dinobot's optics might not work, but he can still shoot his laser eyes.

-Rhinox sits up on his hind legs to listen for the incoming Predacons, adopting a sort of buddah statue/meditating sort of pose because... reasons?

Sadly for Takara, "Lucky rhino" statues didn't catch on in Japan the way that lucky cat ones did.​

-And of course Tigatron shows up on scene as the battle is ending. Reinforcements never seem to arrive unless they're fashionably late.

-Though it's not before Waspinator makes one last gasp at attacking and gets *Looney Tunes'd* by a shot from Rattrap, causing him to skip across the water with his back end on fire.

-And then the Maximals all pass out because *gasp* being in robot mode makes them more susceptible to energon poisoning. What an unexpected development!

-But in spite of the ticking clock and danger and all the apparent risk that they'd be permanently dead if they conked out in the field, Optimus and Tigatron somehow managed to haul all 4 of them back to the CR chamber in time and everyone's OK with no apparent permanent repercussions.

-Rhinox then gives us the "I learned something today" speech, saying that the Maximals never knew what they were capable in beast form and "now they know"?

Huh?

First off, they know exactly what they're capable of in beast form. They learned it last episode. Literally the episode right before this one.

And second, they didn't actually do anything in beast form in this episode except grope around blind. They didn't make creative use of their abilities all that much, and the fight at the end necessitated them transforming. So what did they actually learn?

Really, they could've come up with a moral about working through adversity or working together or how they can even fight without all their senses. But saying that this is a wake-up call about the value of their beast forms? That's just.... nonsense.

-For an episode that had a surprising amount of slapstick cartoon comedy given its dark subject (pun intended), it unsurprisingly ends on a very Looney Tunes style iris out.


Optimus' "that's just prime" & derivatives: 0 ____(series total - 7)
Cheetor's totally radical expressions: 0 _________(series total - 21)
Megatron's "yyyyesss": 0 _____________________(series total - 38)
or "no....": 0 _________________________________(series total - 7)
Rattrap's "we're all gonna die.": 0 ______________(series total - 3)
"Shut up, Rattrap.": 0 _________________________(series total - 1 (1x Optimus)
Comical Waspinator Scrapping: 1 _______________(series total - 7)
Inferno wanting to "buuuurn" things: 0 __________(series total - 3)




Pros
+Rhinox in charge

+Some good cartoony slapstick

+Nice visuals



Cons
-The "we learned about our Beast forms" ending bit makes no sense

-Especially since we just did an episode about the value of beast modes.

-Not enough time was spent on the journey and the gang learning how to adapt.

 

EPISODE 21: Possession
Even hundreds of years into the future, Starscream still can't get the job done.


This is a great episode if you like G1 fanservice and the opportunity that it takes to tether some of the series to the greater scope of Transformers history in a more concrete way than we've gotten in the past. It also does well to make the best use it can from an iconic classic character in Starscream as a means of injecting a different dynamic into the series. Starscream comes in, gets an advantage in the only way he can and then is undone in the exact way you'd expect for Starscream given his history. It all makes sense clicks in just the right way to feel like the writers understand who Starscream is and how to use his character without resorting to him being a shallow caricature of what he's supposed to be.

The story also makes excellent use of Blackarachnia as Starscream's protege, further establishing her as an effective character in that duplicitous role and foreshadowing how her character is going to evolve over the course of the series. And it goes a ways to help establish her as one of the breakout stars of a series full of potential breakout characters.

It's not all sunshine and energon cubes though. I do feel like they missed an opportunity to have more Megatron/Starscream interaction to play off their potential dynamic as it differs from Screamer and the G1 Megatron. I also am left to question that even if the Maximals' plan to defeat Starscream makes sense if it's not just a touch too easy. And in that ease the impact of the episode is reduced a bit and it makes it slide a bit more towards simple fanservice with no broader or longer implications other than what it milks out of these 22 minutes.

Still, it's a pretty strong effort, it's just held back from breaking into the top tier.

Spoiler

-Back from writing Dark Designs, this episode is the second of Ian Weir's 4 Beast Wars scripts.

-Because of a storm the Maximals are storing all their ammo in a cargo hold. They have a lot of missiles for what was supposed to be an exploration ship.

-Meanwhile the Pred base has a fire that distracts Megatron away from the control center so that Waspinator can futz with a computer before a familiar(ish) voice greets him with an insult.

-Waspinator shows up in the hold of the Pred base where the fire was and a lightning flash reveals a Starscream model that is.... definitely some kind of Starscream model

I suppose it's just heavily based on the Marvel Comics design where he had a blue face and a white helmet but yeesh, it looks questionable.

Maybe this is why Cheetor thinks that painting his face blue is cool.​

-Our Starscream voice is being done by, unsurprisingly, Terrorsaur voice actor Doug Parker. It's pretty good. Better than most people tend to do when they try to emulate Latta's unique Screamer voice. Though it also very much retains the Terrorsaur sound that he uses for his regular role (Which itself was meant to be very Starscream-ish). It's a good effort, but it does make it odd that Terrorsaur gets lines in this one (and seemingly with a slightly deeper voice than normal to differentiate the two. Kind of like how Wheeljack often inexplicably gained an accent when he had episodes that heavily featured him and Sparkplug.)

-Blackarachnia and Megatron then infodump the basics of the great war, our strongest tie back to G1 yet. Of course it also makes things a little shonky considering that Marvel-comics-model Screamer gives us his version of events where he died "defending" Galvatron from Unicron. This would seem to strongly tie BW to the Sunbow cartoon continuity (as would the whole "ghostly Starscream" thing from G1 Season 3. But don't get too attached to one continuity or the other.

I almost want a sort of "drunk history" style show that's just Starscream retelling his personally slanted versions of events in an attempt to make himself look like the greatest Decepticon who ever lived.​

-Hammy Starscream vs Hammy Megatron. There's so much ham that this series has just been declared non-Kosher.

-Cheetor sits outside the Axalon when he spots a cyber-bee. And... he actually hits it? Amazing! But of course Cheetor can't get a "real" win because we don't get to see him hit the thing. It just cuts from him opening fire to him holding the smouldering remains of the gizmo.

-Eventually the Predacons launch their attack and Cheetor is suitably outclassed by Starscream. So what does Cheetor respond with? Silly childish insults! He calls Waspinator (since he doesn't know Starscream is in the picture) "buzz brain" That's just barely *totally radical* enough to count.

-Best Megatron line of the episode and we're not even halfway through yet. Dinobot takes his eye off the battle to remark that Starscream being present is impossible, so Megs shoots him in the back and mocks "We must pay attention, Dinobot. Otherwise dearie me, look what happens..." It's great.

-I kind of get the sense that some of these episodes are done out of production order. the previous episode only featured a mention for Airazor, had no Inferno, and even used the "by the inferno" curse that mostly gets phased out because of Inferno the character. This episode has Airazor, but doesn't seem to have Inferno in the Pred ranks.

-The Maximals regroup in the jungle. Cheetor: "I'll bet one of them's in my room right now going through my stuff!" Yes. Because that is what's important...

-And Rattrap agrees with me.

-Optimus reveals that historical records on Starscream were declared classified by the Maximal elders. Whose stupid idea was that? "Hey guys, let's take all this historical data on one of the most treacherous Decepticons of all time and who has shown a history of being unkillable and let's lock it away so nobody can know anything about him!" Genius!

-Back at the Axalon Blackarachnia reveals that the Preds have complete files on Starscream including the truth that he was killed by Galvatron after betraying him. It seems incredibly backwards that the Preds would be the ones with all the open data on Starscream while the Maximals hide it all. It would make more sense that the good guys want to log all the failings and weaknesses of enemies for study while the Decepticons/Predacons would be more likely to hide the history of Starscream's treachery to prevent anyone from being inspired by him and to be able to twist his legacy to their uses.

-It's also becoming increasingly clear that they're only referencing Starscream betraying "Galvatron" (when in fact he only met Galvatron for like 5 seconds before he got scrapped) to avoid the confusion of referring to G1 Megs and BW Megs by the same name

-A small detail that's hard to notice all the time but is a nice touch: The Predacon insignia on Waspinator's head are replaced by Decepticon symbols while he's possessed.

So Starscream could remodel Waspinator's body enough to give him Decepticon insignia but not, say, alter his color scheme or give himself null rays or whatever?​

-Starscream also totally cops a feel of Blackarachnia's ass. What a cad.

I guess we can add "creepy perv" to the list of Starscream traits now.​

-The Maximals approach the base with a wounded Dinobot being dragged on a stretcher by Rhinox. That stretcher clearly has handles on the back side, why isn't Optimus helping to carry it?

Optimus is totally that guy who's always mysteriously "busy" whenever you need help to move.​

-They come to surrender. Cue dejected looks from everyone. Especially Cheetor.

-Predictably Starscream takes the surrendering Maximals and forces them to do his bidding, attacking the Darksyde in a suicide mission, turning his back on Megatron and taking out Scorponok and revealing his true Starscreamy colors. Curse his sudden but inevitable betrayal.

-Starscream told Scorponok to keep Optimus in a hold somewhere. We also know that the Axalon has a brig/prison area given that Optimus was held there in Gorilla Warfare. So where does he end up being put? He's tied ot a wall in a regular corridor of the ship. Good job!

-An easily escapable wall as he just pulls his restraints out with little effort. If I didn't know better I'd almost think Scorponok purposefully half-assed it to let Starscream get caught up in his own conniving, double-crossing nature. But of course that would require Scorponok to be smart enough to consider such a thing...

-Also Optimus escapes and raids a weapons cache without Blackarachnia and Starscream either passing him by as they return to the bridge from the ship's roof or without hearing all the noise he would make as bolts and restraints clatter to the floor.

-Predictable Starscream continues as he runs from the fight against Optimus as soon as he's legitimately threatened, in the process alienating Blackarachnia by abandoning her too. So he's now pretty much backed himself into a corner having pissed off Megatron by betrayal, Blackarachnia by betrayal, the Maximals by manipulation, and has nothing to show for it. Yep, it's a perfect Starscream portrayal alright.

-The Maximals at the Darksyde find that Optimus has escaped and they can abandon Starscream's orders. So Rhinox declares "it's tramplin' time!". And then he immediately receives a cease & desist letter from the lawyers at Marvel Entertainment and the estate of Stan Lee.

-Suddenly all of Starscream's vaunted speed vanishes and Optimus is able to get in close for an easily telegraphed punch that sends him sprawling back into a boulder, splattering against it like a cartoon. So even when Waspinator isn't Waspinator he still gets *Looney Tunes'd*

Universe hate Waspinator enough to punish Starscream by proxy.​

-Megatron gets to watch the whole thing on a video screen and declares he'll have both Starscream and Blackarachnia's hides. *yes*

-In fact he'll melt them down and use them for aluminum siding *yes* indeed. So... Transformers made of aluminum is confirmed canon?  

-Perfectly Blackarachnia betrays Starscream at the last moment, leaving the cornered and defeated Decepticon to get hit by an energon explosion as BA detonates the exposed crystals he was laying near. This is enough to force the Decepticon's spark from Waspinator's body and restore us to the status quo.

-BA claims her betrayal was part of the plan to keep Starscream under watch for Megatron's sake. Megatron is less than trusting of her explanation. *no*

-Back at the Axalon everyone is cleaning up the mess the Preds caused. Everyone except Cheetor. Because he's a lazy, useless idiot.

-In space Starscream's disembodied spark declares that he'll be back. Spoilers: he wasn't. Though he does say he will return even if it takes 1,000 years. That would actually make for a good plot for a future series. Set it 1,000 years after Beast Wars (so in like the year 3,000+) and, setting aside that G1 happened over millions of years and the time scale would be nonsense, have Starscream return to a new generation of Autobot/Decepticon fight so far removed from his era that nobody even knows that much about who he is. Or have him have become some sort of Loki-esque trickster deity that the bots believe was a myth rather than a real person.

Optimus' "that's just prime" & derivatives: 0 ____(series total - 7)
Cheetor's totally radical expressions: 1 _________(series total - 22)
Megatron's "yyyyesss": 2 _____________________(series total - 40)
or "no....": 1 _________________________________(series total - 8)
Rattrap's "we're all gonna die.": 0 ______________(series total - 3)
"Shut up, Rattrap.": 0 _________________________(series total - 1 (1x Optimus)
Comical Waspinator Scrapping: 1 _______________(series total - 8)
Inferno wanting to "buuuurn" things: 0 _______________(series total - 3)




Pros
+Starscream

+Starscream doing Starscream things

+Blackarachnia is a nice choice of protege for him

+Success through exploiting Starscream's starscreamy weaknesses

+canonizing elements of G1 fiction more concretely.



Cons
-Not enough Starscream vs Megatron for my liking

-The Maximals' plan is a little too easy

-The one-off nature of this appearance almost makes it seem more like simple fanservice than anything really woven into the fabric of the series.

 

EPISODE 22: The Low Road
"*sigh*"


I came into this episode remembering only the ending and fully expecting to hate it because of that taint.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the terribly, depressingly stupid way that it concluded: most of the rest of the episode was pretty good.

This is one of the best episodes so far for the Dinobot/Rattrap odd couple type relationship and it makes better use of the pair than we've gotten so far. A lot of their banter is quite enjoyable and carries things a decent ways.

Blackarachnia also continues to get all the low-key great moments in the series as an excellent shifty, selfish, self-interested character scheming her way to her own ends without rocking the boat too much.

And then there's the "hostage" bit near the end involving Tarantulas that got one of the loudest belly laughs for me out of the series so far. It's one little moment, but it's such a great moment played by everyone involved that it really picks things up.

It's honestly only in the closing moments of the episode that things really fall apart because of the dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, DUMB way that Megs and the Predacons are defeated. If not for that ending this might've been an A- episode, having lost a bit of a grade because I question if it maybe has pushed too far into the realm of cartoony silliness at times. But then that end comes and it sours me so much on what has happened that I just can't give this a better grade than it got. Because it sits trapped between the two extremes of what it offers and there's not really any reconciling the two sides. So we end up in a weird situation where an episode I thought might threaten for an F ended up being mere C and somehow managing to make that feel like a proper win for it.

Spoiler

-You have Bob Forward to thank for this one. Yep, the guy that made the series also came up with this. Not his best moment. He's even admitted as much himself.

-For once it's Rattrap complaining about some manner of non-combat job while Dinobot argues in favor of its necessity as the pair chop down wild bean vines that are suddenly growing everywhere around the ship/base.

-This is all a setup for Dinobot to bend over to pull out some of the vines and give Rattrap the opening he needs to golf a bean plant right into his comrade's backside, knocking him down in vaudevillian fashion.

I'll bet you never thought the most blatant ass shot in the entire series would come from a character other than the one who was apparently "inspired" by a stripper.
*alternate take*
"That's Cybertron's ass."​

-Of course Rattrap didn't think this through, as Dinobot promptly goes absolutely mental and tries to tear Rattrap's optics out.

-And then the Predacons attack right then because of course they do. And hey look, it's Inferno. He's been gone for a couple episodes. And the first thing out of his mouth is crazy screaming. Fitting.

-Continuing my running trend of pointing out small touches in design and visual choices that make the show enjoyable: I really appreciate that Inferno's gun vents the fire/propellant/excess energy from shooting on either side of the barrel rather than just doing the standard issue muzzle flash out the end. It makes his gun visually distinct in how it fires and adds character to it.

Inferno just likes seeing the fire shooting out of the sides every time he pulls the trigger.​

-This is also the debut of a huge "loading dock" type access bay/elevator at the rear of the Axalon. I'm pretty sure we never see it again after this episode and that's too bad because it's a cool setup.

-All the times Rhinox uses his chainguns the animators have done a good job of showing casings ejecting form the sides (if we ignore that there's no way those small boxy guns have enough storage space in them to hold all the bullets he usually fires. Not unless we presume that it has some sort of matter replicator tech built in that creates the bullets as they're being fired. And now we get the long awaited visual gag of him standing almost knee-deep in a pile of casings as he fires continuously at the Predacons.

reloading is for chumps.​

-Props to the sound editor too for all the little jingling noises as the shower of casings hit the ground.

-The Maximals have to wait to engage Sentinel until everyone's in the base. But isn't the point of Sentinel supposed to be that it has a program to distinguish between friendlies and targets? So why can't they just have turned the guns on right away to provide cover fire even if the shield doesn't go up at the same time?

-Tarantulas shoots Rhinox with some weird gizmo that is discovered to be an injection system for an "energon discharge virus". Basically he's going to hiccup out laser beams of energon until he burns through his entire power supply and is killed as a result.

-There's some rubbery cartoon stuff going on with Rhinox too when he sneezes. his head stretches and squashes out of shape. It's certainly not a new trick since the show has reveled in using cartoon physics to let Waspinator get scrapped, but it's a little off-putting the first time you see it in this context.

-Just for good measure he also ejects energon on sneezes and even a burp. Just setting us up for things to come.

-This gives us an excuse plot for an odd-couple team-up of Rattrap and Dinobot having to band together to track down Tarantulas to get an anti-virus. So of course the first thing they do is bicker at each other even while the comm is open. While Cheetor is listening in.

-"Sheesh, and they call me the immature one." Just because they're fighting doesn't mean you're not a dope, Cheetor.

-Optimus then admits that the two working together here is a gambit to get them over their infighting. Or kill each other in the process.

-Dinobot smells something that will lead him to Tarantulas, but it becomes a joke with Rattrap saying "so I had a limburger sandwich for lunch. I'm a rat!"

This raises the most important question of the series so far:

How the hell did Rattrap get actual cheese on prehistoric Earth Not-Earth? For that matter, how did he get a very specific kind of cheese?


"You can make cheese out of energon!"

-Dinobot spots Tarantulas who runs off like this is a Looney Tunes cartoon. zippy sound effects and legs kicking in the air and everything. I always knew this series took a lot of cues from classic cartoons, but I don't think I was ever aware of how much it borrowed and how frequently before now.

-Tarantulas leads the pair into a trap whereupon they fall through a hole and onto a giant metal slide that drops them down into one of the spider's many lairs. But all I can pay attention to is that someone managed to think enough about this scene to make sure to include a shower of sparks trailing Dinobot as he sides down the tube thanks to his metal body grinding against the also metal slide. Again, it's the little things.

-Tarantulas then corners them as they hit the bottom of the slide, but he ends up getting conveniently taken out by a boulder that rolled down behind them after being jarred loose from the ceiling during their trip. And it's still all very cartoony and fun.

-Back at the Axalon they've hooked Rhinox up to the ship's power circuitry with jumper cables , but somehow they still haven't figured out that maybe they should put him outside. Certainly a ship as advanced as the Axalon has external power hookups, no?

-Cheetor calls Rhinox's sneezing "sinus torpedoes" Yeah, that's close enough. Ding *totally radical*

-Cheetor then can't locate Rattrap and Dinobot on the scanners, calling it "bummer news" That's two *totally radical* bits in quick succession.

-And where the hell are Tigatron and Airazor in all of this? Surely the timeliness of getting Rhinox a cure should be more important than just "we have to let those two work out their problems" plots that Optimus has hatched.

-  I paused to write the above comment. Less than 5 seconds after I unpause? Optimus: "*sigh* Better call Tigatron and Airazor."

THANK YOU!

-Megatron sees the virus' effectiveness from a distance and is pleased. *yes*

-Cut back to Rattrap and Dinobot dragging the unconscious Tarantulas through the cave to find an exit. But when they start bickering again the Predacon wakes up and tries to get the jump on them, only to get simultaneously punched out by both Maximals for interrupting their fight. And that gives us some psychedelic visuals to represent Tarantulas getting the sense knocked out of him.

and tweety bird sound effects.

-It does also give an opportunity for a really cool scene transition, going from the shifting colors of Tarantulas' heavily concussed state to the multicolored fluid burbling in one of his pieces of lab equipment.

and yes, if you look closely that is a picture of Megatron with darts thrown into it in the background.​

-It's rather amazing that Scorponok is able to handle all the glass lab equipment with his pincers without shattering it.

-As our heroes continue to fight with each other, Dinobot makes a somewhat odd reference to "silicon valhalla" I wonder if this was a sort of prototype reference to the Allspark as it existed in the BW continuity (as the sort of afterlife-ish repository of sparks of fallen heroes, rather than the Creation Matrix style macguffin from the bayverse and other later cartoon continuities)

-Optimus suggests Rhinox should eat something in beast mode to restore his energy. This is the first time that we are told that beast modes apparently include biological functions like the conversion of consumed food into energy. I remember the time that Tarantulas talked about eating Cheetor and it was all but stated that the consumption was pointless from a nourishment standpoint and was all about Tarantulas being a creepy bastard.

-So while everyone else heads off to find Megatron and beat him into giving them the antidote, Rhinox starts eating the beans outside the base.

-Blackarachnia finds the countervirus in Tarantulas' lab, but Megatron stops her from smashing it to keep it away from the Maximals. He wants to retain it as a bargaining chip. *yes*

Like the last time this was a plot point, I ask: Why would he need to have the real deal to serve as a bargaining chip? All he needs is the Maximals' knowledge that he has an antidote. He could even just put some colored water in a jar and pretend it was the countervirus. They wouldn't know the difference until it was too late.

-BA then almost breaks the fourth wall to tease Megatron about how his "yes" statements always come off like he's talking to himself.  

-As the Maximals arrive at the entrance to the main portion of Tarantulas' lab, where the Predacons are waiting for them after having spotted the intruders on security cameras earlier, Dinobot emerges with Tarantulas, telling Megatron not to shoot because he has the spider-bot as a hostage.

Megatron: "Why... so you do!" *blasts Tarantulas*

This was probably the biggest laugh the series has gotten out of me so far. David Kaye's delivery of that line is perfect as is the timing between it and him slagging his underling with total disregard.

-Rattrap uses the distraction to get the drop on the Preds and disarm everyone and then out of nowhere Rhinox sneezes his way through a stone wall and into the lair with the rest of the Maximals. But I thought Rhinox was supposed to stay behind and eat? And Optimus and Airazor flew so they would've gotten there much faster than the two cat-bots. And why is Airazor doing the leg cling pose like some bad Conan knockoff (or the original Star Wars poster)? Questions abound!

Optimus Primal living out his secret super sentai dreams.​

-Another little touch that I love but haven't pointed out: every time Rhinox transforms it starts with him jiggling his wrists a little bit before he stretches his arms out to set up to become his rhino forelegs.

-Oh no. Oh god. Here it comes....

-Yep. This is the episode where Megatron is defeated by an energon powered super fart brought on by eating a field full of beans. Complete with orbital view of the explosion.

*sigh*​

I'm not even going to screencap that for one brief moment when Rhinox lifts his tail there's a clearly visible dark spot that I suppose is supposed to be his organic beast-mode rhino anus. This is a time where I'm not thankful for the level of detail that the animators put into things.

-Back at the base the Maximals have rigged up the countervirus retrieved in the aftermath of... that... to the equivalent of those beer hats that let you drink from cans slotted into the sides of the hat. This episode really is keeping it classy.

I almost expected the straws to be bendier/loopier.​

-And as final indignation, Megatron and the rest of the preds are strung up in a tree outside the ruins of Tarantulas' lab, presumably put there by Rhinox's earlier... explosion. And Megs counts this as "The most humiliating defeat of my entire career.... *yes*..."

"We will never speak of this again."​

that about sums it up.

and we finish with an iris out.

Optimus' "that's just prime" & derivatives: 0 ____(series total - 7)
Cheetor's totally radical expressions: 2 _________(series total - 24)
Megatron's "yyyyesss": 2 _____________________(series total - 42)
or "no....": 0 _________________________________(series total - 8)
Rattrap's "we're all gonna die.": 0 ______________(series total - 3)
"Shut up, Rattrap.": 0 _________________________(series total - 1 (1x Optimus)
Comical Waspinator Scrapping: 0 _______________(series total - 8)
Inferno wanting to "buuuurn" things: 0 _______________(series total - 3)




Pros
+The Dinobot/Rattrap stuff is great

+The exterior area of the Axalon is a cool new "set" that is never really used again

+Blackarachnia continues to be fun

+Dinobot's hostage gag is hilarious.



Cons
-The ending

-Is it too much cartoony craziness?

-The ending

-That the only thing people remember about this episode is how it ended

-That even Bob Forward admits this is going to be his defining contribution to Transformers.

-Why?

 

  It is kind of weird that those two episodes came out back-to-back. I wonder if that was the original plan or if the episode orders got switched around.

Yeah, it's not as impressive or as intense as it could be.

Rhinox, as always, is awesome. But my favorite part was the slapstick of Dinobot's constant freakouts.

Yeah, he does seem a little overqualified to write a bunch of cartoons.

Maybe the flying islands are too hard to reach for a research project?

It was hidden by the power of plot.

You know, I would actually believe that Scorponok is a savant in weapons engineering. He does seem to make a lot of weapons, and most of them work. And whenever he's using them, he also gets exponentially smarter.
Or it could just be that the writers weren't sure what they wanted to do with him. But the idea of him being a savant is more interesting.

I rewatched this episode recently, and I remember wanting to yell "WHY ARE YOU JUST STANDING THERE?" during this scene. They don't even try to run!
And why on Earth do they transform? Even if they didn't think they could outrun the explosion, staying in beast mode would have to be safer.

  That is hilariously terrible. (It was SUPER noticeable when I watched the episode.)

  Maybe Michael Bay should've made a movie about Beast Wars Scorponok and his inexplicable ability to be intelligent only when explosives are involved.

That is a cool-looking shot. And a great Monty Python reference.

Yes, the way the animators portrayed the effects of the explosion was interesting, but also really bizarre. Especially Cheetor's face. I can understand needing a visual shorthand for them being blind, and the blackening, but why would Cheetor's face change color?

Guilt by association? Or maybe Dinobot just really hates Waspinator's voice?

I don't think the radiation poisoning actually increased the tension at all when I was watching the episode. It just seemed like an unnecessary extra detail.

Waspinator is glad that the Universe is inflicting pain on someone else for a change.

Given the size, it pretty much has to be the Titanoboa, an extinct species of snake. The weird thing about that is that the Titanoboa apparently wasn't discovered until after this episode was written, so at the time, a snake that large would've been seen as a flat-out error.

It's weird how well the Looney-Tunes esque humor works for Dinobot. You wouldn't think that that would be the case, but it is. He was my favorite part of this episode.

He can't breathe for the same reason that the Autobots and Decepticons cough in reaction to smoke. And the same reason that Galvatron was apparently trying to strangle Hot Rod in the 1986 movie.

It's creepy because it's a huge snake. It's fake because it's badly animated. And Rhinox must be incredibly strong to toss such a gigantic snake that far.

Thus continuing the grand tradition of no one knowing what to do with her.

I didn't notice that while watching the episode, but you're right. It really does look like that's what's going on.

Cheetor has still done nothing to make me like him. He does get good, right? When does that happen?

I remember thinking that the water looked very...off...when I watched the episode, but it does kind of look cool, too.

Because Waspinator isn't a tactical genius, and, more importantly, because the Universe hates him.

]
Waspinator, of all characters, should never tempt fate. Fate already has it out for him.

Given how damaged he is, it's weird that his laser eyes, which are presumably a part of his body, still work.

Maybe it's an attempt to remind the audience that he's the spiritual one? He does kind of look like he's meditating.

Another fine example of how the show didn't know what to do with Tigatron.

I told you you shouldn't have tempted fate, Waspy.

Yet another example of why the "energon build-up will kill us" thing probably wasn't the best call, plot-wise. It leads to contrived scenarios like these, where everyone has to act like idiots to facilitate the plot.

They moved at the speed of plot.

Your suggestions for a moral to be learned from this episode makes much more sense than Rhinox's.

Yeah, this episode is a bit jarring tonally, isn't it? The characters are seriously injured and facing death, but at the same time, Dinobot is basically a Looney Tunes character. Weird.

 

EPISODE 23: Law of the Jungle
Jokes on them, most of this episode doesn't happen in a jungle.


This one is kind of the opposite of The Low Road. Knowing that this was a quieter, moral-driven episode I thought it might really like it as a good example of the character-driven stuff that Beast Wars does well. And I did like those parts. But I ended up being surprised by how unexpectedly bland a large portion of it is and how it kind of wraps up a somewhat weak ending that doesn't feel like it properly fulfills the promise it sets itself up with.

The use of Tigatron here is leagues better than the last time he was the focus of the moral of the story in The Trigger. His arguments and his issues are far more sensible and don't feel quite so disconnected with reality as they did then. It also gives us an unlikely pairing of him and Dinobot that is far more effective than I figured it would be and makes me sad they didn't do more to play with the unique dynamic the two characters have as the warrior-philosopher types of the Maximal crew.

There's also a lot of fun Waspinator stuff that does sort of pigeonhole him into a more simpleton/childish attitude, but succeeds because he's just so damn endearing in the process.

The unfortunate flipside is that the episode ends up feeling kind of empty. I don't miss the fighting , though it does come across like the let-down form the slam-bang start is what drives home how slow and thin most of the episode feels. I don't need constant action and I like more plot-driven stories, but something about this one just felt like there should've been more to it. Also while Tigatron is an improvement over The Trigger, he's not entirely out of the woods when it comes to the writers not fully "Getting" how to make the best use of his unique character voice. I also can't help but feel like Snow Stalker's death to drive the emotional core of the episode is a little flat because we've only seen the character for like a combined 3-5 minute before now. There's no time to bond with her as part of Tigatron's life in order to empathize with his pain to the maximum amount. So her dying mostly leans on how sad we feel for an innocent animal being killed vs a sentient character. That makes the death come across a bit manipulative, like the trope about books that earn a Newberry medal because they kill a beloved pet or animal companion in the process of teaching the child readers about how to deal with sensitive topics like loss and grief in a somewhat calculatingly brazen manner.

So that's two straight episodes that end up kind of middling. For a show with the rep of Beast Wars, I'm mildly surprised and also a little pleased that merely being "average" for 2 straight episodes counts as a quality drop for it.

Spoiler

-This episode's writer is Mark Leiren-Young in his only Transformers contribution. He seems to have largely moved into the sphere of documentaries, but not before writing a couple of ReBoot episodes (good ones too, including the X-Files parody one that co-starred Gillian Anderson), Stickin' Around, Dan Ackroyd's PSI Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal, and Canadian fantasy series Blood Ties and The Collector. He also wrote two episodes of the utterly reprehensible ReBoot sequel "The Guardian Code" that turned the series into a lazy Sentai-style show style knockoff (in the vein of VR Troopers or Superhuman Samurai Syber Squad) starring real humans. I've only seen parts of the series, but he does look to have written the one episode that featured guest appearances from the original cast of characters (though reviews of said episode all say that it comes off as a mean-spirited jab at fans of the original series seemingly becuase they disliked the direction the new show took and the new showrunners were bitter about the lack of fan support. Now I'm mostly just mad at how Mainframe squandered the ReBoot name after years of promising that they'd resolve the cliffhanger from the last original movie and their last gasp before the crap new show got cancelled was to call their longtime fans a bunch of basement dwelling losers who wasted their lives obsessing over a cartoon for two decades)

Also according to the wiki, in spite of being credited to Leiren-Young, Bob Forward later said in an interview that the script was heavily rewritten by Larry DiTillio.

-Oh look, the same snake model as they used 2 episodes ago. Except normal size. And it's all for a weird sort of "food chain" sequence where a snake eats a toad, then gets grabbed by a falcon.

-5 seconds into Dinobot and Cheetor talking and Inferno pops up in the background holding a giant missile thing and screaming "FOR THE ROYALTY!!!!" Man, his crazy goes 0 to 100 in no time at all.

-And the cluster bomb thing he brings out is really cool and innovative as a weapon.

-A break from last episode's super cartoony violence, Dinobot lands hard from the explosion and it just looks painful instead of silly.

Dinobot should set aside his pride and attend Rattrap's hot yoga classes​

-Hard to get a screencap of it, but it's a rare instance of Cheetor using his secondary gun (the thinner barrel and the flat "Wings" of Cheetah hide pattern above the top as opposed to the "Guts" look of his normal gun. It also fires a different bolt with a different noise). I appreciate the variability of multiple characters having different weapons but it always seems a little random in terms of when they do or don't get used. Though at least he doesn't have like 6 different weapons the way Terrorsaur does.

-  good Waspinator comedy as he and Terrorsaur gripe about Inferno attacking before the signal was given, then in spite of Terrorsaur ordering Waspinator to change strategy, Waspinator refuses to actually engage until Terrorsaur specifically gives the "attack!" signal. Up to and including telling Terrorsaur he's not doing anything until the signal comes. His sort of earnestly simple tone of his lines makes me smile.

-Cheetor radios out that it's a "Code R" because Dinobot is hurt and he's pinned down. Between this and Optimus declaring "Code X" when he came upon the critically damaged Maximals in Dark Voyage it's neat getting that there's whole set of situation designations. Though it also kind of feels like there really isn't a strong theme or predictable pattern to determine what each code means. X is likely "serious, life or death injuries" or a sort of "officer down" scenario, but what is Code R exactly? Is it officer down & under fire? is it just being pinned down? Is it just a severe backup call? IT would've been nice just to give Cheetor a specific call for assistance along with the "code R" designation just to help explain it a bit more.

-Optimus is also at another one of those field radio/scanner stations like we saw Tigatron have a few episodes ago. I'm curious about how many of those exist and how often they get slagged considering they would likely be undefended 90% of the time.

-I don't always like that it seems like they only have 1 beast model for any of the characters' beast modes, meaning that any other actual organic animals of that type look identical, but it works here as Waspinator sees a tiger on a ledge and assumes its Tigatron, only for Tigatron to be the other tiger just out of frame on a ledge above.

-Aww, it's the first use of Inferno's flamethrower mode on his gun and he doesn't scream that the Maximals need to BUUURRNNNNN!!! when he does. That's too bad. Missed a prime opportunity.

-Tigatron also tells Inferno to "give my regards to The Pit", the first use of that term for Transformers hell. Presumably they switched away from calling it "The Inferno" once we had Inferno the character since that would've been super confusing.

-The errant shot from Tigatron taking out Inferno detonates the entire Predacon weapons cache on top of a nearby mountain. I'm not sure what's more surprising here:

1) That they had so much ammo sitting out in the open on top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere

or

2) that the mountain didn't explode to reveal that it was secretly full of energon crystals the whole time

-But regardless, it causes a landslide that kills the organic tiger from earlier, who Tigatron identifies as "Snowstalker". That makes me now wonder if Tigatron gave her that name or if somehow he knows how to "speak" tiger and can learn the other animals' self-identity. Regardless, I do believe that's our first actual casualty of this series if you discount things like that tiny random butterfly that died during the end of The Trigger. First of many!  

Not an energon crystal to be found. That's even more unrealistic than the giant boulders that are out of scale with the rest of the mountain.​

-Tigatron's desperate rush to the landslide to find his buried friend is handled kind of oddly. He starts sprinting, then looks at his gun briefly before tossing it away (I get discarding it, but looking at it seemed kind of pointless. It's not like he needed to consider anything, just chuck it) and then within seconds he's at the landslide and digging in spite of the fact that Snowstalker appeared to be more than halfway up the mountain in her initial scene.

-Credit for not actually showing anything but a shot of Tigatron when he (presumably) finds her corpse. Not that I'd expect or want to see crushed organic tiger in a cartoon that was always rated TV-Y7, but it's more impactful to just focus on his desperate and mournful reactions.

-And then he crosses his arms over his chest as he gets angry about her death.

Tigatron was doing the "Wakanda forever" pose before it was cool.​

-After the act break we track a single, ornately rendered snowflake as it falls. It's a big step up from the rather questionable snow that fell in earlier episodes.

I wonder how much that solitary snowflake cost to render. It's probably a couple thousand dollars  ​

-And then Tigatron quits being a Maximal because of the loss and damage caused. It's a reasonably sensible (from a writing standpoint) and emotional response. For once Tigatron's moralizing actually makes sense, unlike his whole schtick during The Trigger.

-I never noticed before but Tigatron sheds a single tear as he bids goodbye to Cheetor and Dinobot. I tried for several minutes to get a good framegrab of it but I just couldn't get one where you can clearly see it. Nice touch even if it doesn't make ton of sense.

-Inferno's POV scanner shot includes a small display of his own beast mode in the corner. Huh.

Nobody ever knew of Inferno's secret vanity.​

-Dinobot makes the surprisingly selfless decision to go address Tigatron and his decision to quit. It sounds like he's going off to scrap him, but we know he doesn't and it helps show him growing out of his full-blown Predacon manner of thinking.

-Cheetor sees Optimus and says "Thank the Matrix." I can't recall but this might be the first (or at most second) Matrix reference in the series so far?

-Waspinator really feels like he's been made extra childish in this one as he, Terrorsaur, and Inferno discuss chasing down Tigatron to deal with him. It actually kind of works.

-And we get our second casualty in Beast Wars as some random antelope is taken down by a tiger (a tiger so lazily recolored orange from the generic Tigatron beast mode model that for a long time I assumed that it was another white tiger and was just somehow creatively lit for the scene.)

-Dinobot uses this as proof that Tigatron needs to fight because that's "the law of the jungle" (title drop, woo!) but it's kind of a shonky analogy. That tiger hunts because it's the natural order of things and it needs to do so to survive. It also hunts specifically what it needs and doesn't go about indiscriminately slaughtering whatever is in its path until it decides "OK, I'll eat this one. The other ones were just practice". The Cybertronian conflict is an artificial, social construct with little in the way of unavoidable survival need since it's just the two sides fighting over ideologies and power. I get what he's trying to do here, but it really doesn't work.

-Tigatron brings up the point I just made, that the war isn't about survival. Dinobot counters by saying that Predacons live for conquest and that in a sense the Maximals defending themselves is a survival matter. Ok, it makes a bit more sense now. He should've led with that.

-Also we get some Cybertron shots. First is the ugly, ugly, ugly global shot of the planet from The Probe, and then is the Darksyde (or a similar ship) trashing the surface, which looks pretty cool even if there's nary a bot to be found in it.

Oh no, the abandoned warehouse district!​

-Aww, the overlaid image of Megatron cackling doesn't match up to the sound of his laughter.

-Dinobot's aggressive pressure of Tigatron is suitably in character and offers the nice bit of layering for a bit to let the viewer decide if he really intends to scrap Tigatron or if he's merely trying to pressure/scare him under the guise of unchecked aggression.

-Woof, Dinobot's transformation looks extra rough from behind.

-Terrorsaur has a weird definition of "ambush". He claims that's what they'll do to Dinobot, but then the attack includes a flare being sent up in spite of the fact that all 3 Predacons are right next to each other, them loudly announcing their presence as they transform, and then flying into view to cover the distance from where they reveal themselves to Dinobot's position. This gives him more than enough time to clock all 3 of them as they close in and prepare. Except he waits long enough to transform that he basically gifts them success.

-Dinobot can retract his head into his torso like a turtle in order to dodge an attack. And rotate his head a full 360 degrees to sweep his laser eyes at the enemy.That's kind of weird/creepy and cool at the same time.

-Optimus in mid flight gets a computer warning that his power cells are getting low and that he has to transform. I'm not sure if this is a bit of a writing flub and they're meant to be indicating his time in robot mode before energon surges build up (ie the power cells of his energon field dampeners) or if he's somehow just low on overall battery. Because the latter is kind of an oddity considering he wasn't part of the significant combat before now and all we've seen him do is fly from the outpost he started at to meet up with the other Maximals.

-Optimus also continues his ongoing terribleness at aerial combat. He takes out Terrorsaur and Waspinator in one shot, but then allows Inferno to get the jump on him and goes down in one hit.

-Inferno's mad cackling is great. Almost as great as Tarantulas. Add in Megatron and eventually Rampage and this is a series that is full of outstanding crazy/hammy villain laughs.

-So Tigatron's gun not only has a freeze ray setting, it also shoots fire ******ant foam. If he ever knew his Autobot/Decepticon history he should know to use that in combat since G1 showed us it was a mighty weapon against the Decepticons.  

Only you can prevent forest fires.​

-I wish they did more with Tigatron's reluctant warrior personality than they did in the show. It works better than out-of-touch eco-nut. (he's still a bit eco-nutty within this episode, but it's not quite as dumb as he was during The Trigger)

-Kind of a weak ending. Tigatron mopes, declares that he's going to protect the planet, and then the camera pans away with a bit of a fanfare and... that's it. Feels like there might've been plans for another scene here and they just ran out of time.

There were none this episode.

Optimus' "that's just prime" & derivatives: 0 ____(series total - 7)
Cheetor's totally radical expressions: 0 _________(series total - 24)
Megatron's "yyyyesss": 0 _____________________(series total - 42)
or "no....": 0 _________________________________(series total - 8)
Rattrap's "we're all gonna die.": 0 ______________(series total - 3)
"Shut up, Rattrap.": 0 _________________________(series total - 1 (1x Optimus)
Comical Waspinator Scrapping: 0 _______________(series total - 8)
Inferno wanting to "buuuurn" things: 0 _______________(series total - 3)




Pros
+A better use of Tigatron

+The initial battle is really cool with the cluster bombs

+Waspinator

+Tigatron and Dinobot's talk is good and is a nice use of both of them as characters

+a fairly quiet episode where the philosophical debate is at the heart instead of just the action



Cons
-Maybe it's the lack of overall action but things feel kind of muted.

-Some of Tigatron's whinging is nonsense still.

-It feels like there should've been more to it than what we got.

-It's a little hard to mourn a dead character that we had no attachment to (it feels like the fact that it's an innocent/defenceless animal is the only reason it even feels impactful at all.)

 

Phew. 4 reviews in 1 night.

Never again  

 

Such is the fate of all Starscreams. Just ask Terrorsaur.

G1 Starscream was a standout character in the original series, and the Beast Wars writers handled him wonderfully (which is really impressive, since the producers had evidently never watched the show before starting work on Beast Wars). He plays off everyone else really well, to boot.

Blackarachnia is awesome, as always. The way her style of treachery contrasts with Starscream's is great.

Perhaps they were worried that the writer would fall into the trap of making the relationship too similar and so just decided to avoid them interacting altogether? It does seem weird that they didn't have them interact more.

Although considering what we later learn about what the ship was carrying, maybe them having all those weapons actually makes sense...

It's a passable G1 Starscream interpretation, but it's definitely not a spot-on impersonation. (I don't think I've ever heard anyone do a spot-on impersonation of Chris Latta's Starscream, though, so it's certainly not the actor's fault.)

I like the lightning strike reveal (it's appropriately horror-esque), but it is weird that they apparently based Starscream on his Marvel Comics design rather than the more familiar one from the cartoon. Especially since his death, as described, doesn't match any of Marvel Starscream's deaths.

Like I said, he does a good job. It's just that Chris Latta is apparently the only person who can do that voice perfectly.
I agree that it seems weird that they gave Terrorsaur lines in this episode (though the fact that they were voiced by the same guy does explain why they didn't have Starscream either possess or team up with Terrorsaur. You'd never be able to tell which one was talking!)

Yeah, Beast Wars isn't clearly in continuity with any particular version of G1. Although since they went with the cartoon death, it seems like Starscream should be in those colors rather than his Marvel colors. Also, if they ever made a show of Starscream retelling the war with himself as the hero, I would watch it, because it would be amazing.

You really think they would've mined this kind of interaction. It's got great comedic potential, and, as you pointed out, this Megatron is drastically different from old Buckethead.

Since the show seems to want the audience to like Cheetor, it seems weird that it also makes him so incredibly incompetent. And not just in a "he's young way"...Cheetor is incompetent in a "terminally stupid" way.

Case in point.

I love Megatron's vaudevillian tendencies.

It really does seem that way. It would also explain why we had two "beast modes are important" episodes back-to-back.

Because Rattrap is smart, and Cheetor is not.

Well, these ARE the same Maximal Elders who said "Hey guys, let's try to replicate the unkillable spark of one of the most treacherous Decepticons of all time!" Good decision making is not their strong suit.

Maybe the Predacons are secretly huge history buffs?
I guess it's also possible that this particular group of Predacons just hacked into the Maximal Elders' secret files and found the information they classified.

I think you're probably right about that.

That is a cool detail.

As creepy as this is, somehow Tarantulas' relationship with her is still creepier.

He's punishing Rhinox for delivering that nonsensical moral from last episode.

Starscream's gonna Starscream!

Apparently Scorponok's savantism doesn't extend to securing prisoners.
I agree that Scorponok isn't smart enough to do something like that intentionally.

He's being protected by the power of plot.

Starscream is Starscream, no matter the timeline. And we love (to hate) him for it.

Rhinox is awesome, as always.

Well, the Universe hates Starscream, too...

Blackarachnia is awesome, but it's good to see that Megatron doesn't fall for her ruse.

Seriously, Cheetor eventually becomes a decent character, right? Because right now I'm almost as frustrated with him as with Headmasters Chromedome.

That would be an awesome plot.

 

The Wicked Dinobot of the West.

Personally, although Doug Parker is decent, I still find Scott Whyte and Charlie Adler to be better at replacing Chris.

LOL, friggin' pimp daddy Screamer. What a lucky bastard.  

Personally, I don't find this to be as annoying as the constant fanservice we get in TFA (which is one of the many reasons why I'm not fond of that show), and at least Starscream does have a sort of role rather than just being an unremarkable cameo that has nothing to bring to the story.

Hell yeah, Airazor. Giving BA a run for her money in the sexiness department.  

Seriously, I can accept kid Transformers and belching, but pissing and farting... no way. That is crossing the line. A super belch would have been much better.

Or maybe have him "fro up".  

This is a great approach. I always like when they use it. A lot of times, things look much better or impactful in the imagination than on the screen. It's one of the reasons why stuff like the shark not being shown for most of the first Jaws movie or us not seeing Janet Leigh being stabbed in Psycho (instead seeing quick cuts as she is being killed, but never seeing the body itself) still is powerful to this day. Imagination is a great tool that really adds impact to a lot of stuff.

*sigh* I feel like I'm really the only person here who liked the Tigatron episodes.  

 

That's a good description of how I feel about this one.

I'll be honest. That's the only thing I remember about this episode, so I can see why. I actually thought that if any BW episode got an "F", it would be this one.

Yay for good character work! This is proof that the best comedy often comes from character interactions.

I agree that the ending is terrible, but not quite terrible enough to give the episode as a whole a flat "F". Compared to stuff like "B.O.T." or "The Emperor of Destruction Vanishes on an Iceberg", it's a work of art, and it's probably better than 80% of Headmasters episodes even with the awful ending.

Maybe today is opposite day.

You know, I'd kind of forgotten just how vaudeville-esque Beast Wars was in the humor department. Every other episode seems like it's in the Looney Tunes universe....but because of the great character work, it doesn't hurt the show like the slapstick in, say, Super-God Masterforce.

YIKES! A bit of an overreaction there, Dinobot...

This animation is awesome. And so is Inferno. I'm glad to have him back.

Yeah, that would've been a cool recurring feature.

Rhinox, the animators, and the sound editors are amazing.

That sounds like a horrific way to go. So basically, it's perfect for a Tarantulas invention (though I am a little surprised that it wasn't Scorponok who made it, honestly, considering that he seems to be the weapons guy).

Rattrap/Dinobot interactions! YAY!

Cheetor, you don't get to call other people immature. You're still too annoying at this point.

This is a good idea on his part. Good to see that Primal is making good decisions (unlike Ginrai, Fortress Maximus, and sometimes Star "Stock Footage Addict" Saber).

  Also, why do robots eat cheese? Do they get nutritional value out of it? Does Rattrap just like the taste?

Neither was I.

Good animation work, good character work, and good humor. The perfect trifecta!
Also, it's hilarious that Tarantulas has a slide that leads down into his evil lair. "WHEEE!"

Cheetor...please stop before you become the next Headmasters Chromedome.

More props to Optimus for intelligent decision making!

That looks really cool.
Dinobot and Rattrap's arguments are always enjoyable, and it's great that they punch him for interrupting their argument.

This episode has lots of fantastic visuals.

Maybe it's linked to his weapon-designing savant ability?

It does seem appropriate for Dinobot to specifically mention "Valhalla", since he's a dedicated warrior.

This issue is endlessly confusing, and never properly explained.

That is a good question. I can see why he would want to HAVE an antidote, just in case Tarantulas or Blackarachnia or Terrosaur (well, probably not Terrosaur, actually, since he's a moron) blasted him with it, but there's no reason for him to actually take it with him to their meeting.

Blackarachnia is awesome.

It's a great scene, and perfectly encapsulates this particular Megatron.

It looks like they're posing for a photo shoot! Nothing about this makes a lick of sense.

  WHY WAS THIS NECESSARY?

It really does...
It's too bad, because the rest of the episode is actually really funny.

 

I'm glad to see they finally managed to use Tigatron in a decent way.

Is it just me, or does he get gradually dumber over the course of the show? Maybe it's brain damage from getting Looney Tunnes'd all the time.

I honestly think the biggest problem with this episode might be due to the fact that the writers are uncomfortable with Tigatron.

Again, the worst episodes in this show are better than 80% of Headmasters.

Interesting! Rewind approves of this trivia!
Also, that seems like a nasty way of responding to fan's criticisms. Yikes.

Does being small make it look more or less fake?
It also raises the question of why they made that new rat model in that one episode, since they reused the snake model here.

Inferno is incredibly over-the-top; it's great.

It's interesting to see the contrast between serious violence and slapstick comedy in terms of animation, and neat that they coexist rather peacefully in the same show.

I would totally believe Cheetor just forgot he had that weapon until now.

Waspinator is wonderful. And probably has brain damage.

More potentially-interesting ideas that are never properly explained.

That's a clever use of not having many models to work with. I'm surprised they didn't use that more.

That's disappointing.

I actually think that 'the inferno' is a cooler name, but I understand why they switched it.

Scorponok may be a weapon-making savant, but he's not a weapon-storing savant.

If he can speak with animals, that's awesome (and fits his character).
RIP Snowstalker. Too bad we don't really have an emotional connection with you...

The animation seems to have taken a hit in quality in this episode compared to the last one.

I applaud the animators for their good work in animation his reactions here.

HURRAH! An actually good Tigatron moment!

Maybe it's because of the fixation he has on his alt mode?

Hurrah for character development!

It does; it fits better with his 'victim of the universe' role than his earlier cockiness did. Either that, or it's the result of brain damage.

Seriously, this makes that second rat model endlessly confusing.

Yeah, that analogy doesn't really work (even though Dinobot is the sort who might actually think that it does). Points for trying, though.

This is a nice exchange; it shows the fact that both characters are intelligent.

I'm not sure what's happening here, but it looks really, really cool.

This is why Dinobot is my favorite Beast Wars character.

It seems like Dinobot and Rhinox in particular were hard to animate.

Terrosaur is enough of an idiot that I'd believe that he actually thinks that loudly announcing one's presence is the key to a successful ambush.

That sounds awesome and incredibly painful at the same time.

Optimus should really just stop flying in battles altogether.

It really is.

Why doesn't he use this thing more often?

I agree that they should've done more with that idea than they did. I don't mind his connection with nature, but the writers don't seem to know how to utilize it in a way that doesn't make Tigatron seem dumb.

Yeah, that's a weird way to end it.

 

One more bit of bookkeeping tonight:


Watch Period: Monday, October 12 until Sunday, October 18 at 11:59:59pm Pacific Time

1) Before the Storm
2) Other Voices (Part 1)
3) Other Voices (Part 2)
4) Aftermath

It's what I'm unofficially calling "The Vok Quadrilogy" as we pay off those alien teases from the rest of season 1 and cross into season 2. This also officially puts us at the halfway point of the series since season 1 is as long as seasons 2 and 3 combined (26 episodes for season 1 to 13 episodes apiece for the second and third seasons)

 

For me, I always wondered... do they not have radar? Echolocation? Something along those lines?

Damn! Reminds me of Weird Al. In his behind the Music episode, he said after college the places he applied to said he was over-qualified.

It's a hidden classic on par with Casablanca! or not.  

Dammit, Liege. He's a warrior, not a geologist!

Gotta be honest. That's a damned cool piece of kit Scorponok's got, there. And it worked like a charm!

   Oh, my god! That's fucking horrible! I would've taken the badly-done CGI over that!

Visual shorthand for the audience.

It is quite cool.

Cheetor's such an idiot, he screws up the damage-visual!

Maybe he's hoping Cheetor 'accidentally' is left behind?

Must be the distant ancestor of the snake that wrapped itself around Starscream in one G1 episode.

At this point, we should just accept Transformers do... something with gas?

Well, uncanny valley and all that.

See? The Maximals don't have anything like that? I find that to be implausible, to be honest.

Oh, Waspinator. This time you can't even blame the universe for this.

Eh, it's a stock ending for this kind of plot.

i'd say that's a much better moral than the one the show tried to give out. No wonder TF didn't do those PSAs like He-Man or GI Joe. I mean I know they had them filmed, just never aired.

I do.   And I think it is a great episode.

Is it just me, or does he look a bit... oddly-proportioned?

I think he did a great job with it.   And as I said before, when the OG Starscream comes back, he possesses Waspinator. Must be the ultimate sign that Terrorsaur's days are numbered, looking back.

Has anyone ever tallied up the BW references to Sunbow, to Marvel and those that could be either?

Off to the side BRIAN BLESSED and Raul Julia look on and nod approvingly.

With his 'skill', the thing just spontaneously caught on fire!

it's not even a 'good' insult.

Rattrap speaks for all of us, there.

hey, you know what Starfleet did when Q revealed himself? Call in their captains and hold a fucking meeting so they'd know what was going on with the trickster. Starfeet-1, Maximal Elders-0.

Ah, the 'One Steve' limit. I have a fanverse with various characters from the continuities mixed together. When someone asks why there's two Bulkheads, i simply tell them I worked for about eighteen months I worked with four other guys with the same first name as mine.  

it's a small touch, but those add up to big things.

it's Scorponok. We're lucky he didn't saimply have Optimus pinkie-swear he wouldn't escape!

Hmm... no. You're right. he was being an idiot.

Is this off a checklist? I think it's off a checklist.

Ooh, I wish i could dig out my Trilling 30 Rhinox and ML Ben Grimm...

That reminds me of something I read on a brainstorming thread on another message board, that the events of G1 become more akin to myth, and stuff from Marvel, Sunbow, even Dreamwave or IDW and the Japanese series all get mixed together. So in a quiet moment Blackarachnia asks about the Carwash of Doom.   And Starscream's all like, "Okay, okay! It happened, but in my defense I had nothing to do with it!"

Well, I mean he's chopping and slicing stuff up. That's gotta appeal to the old ultra-violence!

gotta make up for lost time!

He probably modified the gun to do that.

Oh, god. They did that in one of the Hot Shots movies.  

That'd be a nasty way to go. So right up Tarantulas' alley.

You're still the immature one, Cheetor. And borderline useless, too.

Why not? It can do just about everything else!

And we love the show for these little things and touches and extra effort.

Primus bless this show for having the characters actually think!

I like it. Dinobot's a warrior, so he'd reference one of the more-famous warrior heavens.

This is neat, having them be multi-functional. Makes sense since not every planet is bathed in energon radiation.

It's all she can do nowadays.

God dammit, BW. You took the slapstick too far!

is... he gonna watch American football, now?

This might be the most humiliating thing that happens to him period!

Having those two interact more is a damned missed opportunity. i always wanted to see how Tigatron would've reacted to Rampage, or Depth Charge!

it's the Circle of Life!

I think it's because he's not flattened out, and the way he lands just looks painful!

This won't be the first time this comes up. Codes are rarely kept straight in fiction, least the fiction I've seen.

I'm curious what they're using to make them.

I'm wondering why they put it there.

Sometimes-a lot of times-the imagination is what's best.

And considering how rough it looks from every other angle...

It's Terrorsaur. You expected competence from him?  

We appreciate it. Great job.  

 

Which is odd for Rattrap. If anyone would be working smarter, it's him.

No, he just orders all his stuff from the Sharper Image.

Of course he did, those movies were made specifically to appeal to someone with Scorponok's intelligence level.

Vultures are just dumb, apparently.

How odd that the explosion only takes out their optics and ONLY their optics. Literally everything else works, yet their optics just magically don't.

It's still smaller than that giant snake that attacked Starscream in that one episode. I think it was Hoist Goes Hollywood.

Vulnerability: Dinobot's greatest fear, right alongside his fears of emotional intimacy and loss of honor.

Because Waspinator likes to pick on anyone he thinks is weaker than him. Since he's usually the weakest around, it doesn't normally come up.

HOLY CONTRIVANCE, BATMAN NYX!

This whole episode was nonsense.

Walk softly and carry a big stick.

Terrorsaur's ventriloquism is on point!

This Starscream is actually from the same universe that the Galvatron from Target: 2006 came from.

I'm beginning to suspect the Maximal Elders weren't very good guys. If only some future series had expanded on that...

First off, no one will ever be inspired by Starscream. Second, Galvatron would very much be interested in reminding everyone of the price of betrayal.

It's good to be the Air Commander

Starscream's gonna Starscream.

Blackarachnia's gonna Blackarachnia.

Rattrap almost never thinks these things through, it's almost as if he wants Dinobot to rough him up. I won't kinkshame him.

He was off literally driving the ancestors of the Subatlanticans into the sea.

I'm sure Rhinox appreciates putting his life in jeopardy just so Rattrap and Dinobot can work on their couples therapy.

My headcanon is that Dinobot heard about Valhalla and thought it was an awesome concept (which it is) and then conflated it with Silicon Valley.

I suspect Megatron liked doing that.

Just wait until Beast Machines!

GEDDIT? IT'S THE THEME OF THIS EPISODE! GEDDIT? GEDDIT?!

That's because Inferno is always at 100.

No, the Maximals really are fighting for survival. If Megatron wins, he's just going to kill them all, and I doubt Megatron would care if Tigatron told him he was tired of fighting. Pacifism in the face of all-out aggression is just a more self-righteous way to commit suicide.

I feel like I lose either way because I just don't like Tigatron as a character. Probably not to the extent @TheUltimateBum seems to hate Silverbolt, but it's really close.

 

Optimus Primal does mention that the Maximal Council had classified information about Starscream, I have no idea if the writers intended to do anything with that info when they wrote it into the 1st season but the line sets up intrigue that get's followed up on in S2. When Rampage was introduced he was giving a back story that tied him into a classified illegal &/or immoral Weapon X like program of the Maximal High Council a program that had the goal of cloning/replicating of Starscream's indestructible spark

 

It's a testament to how well the original Starscream was conceived/written/performed that the BW writers managed to do better justice to his concept than they did some members of their own cast, including their own Starscream.

I think it should've been easy to make their relationship different. G1 Megatron usually tended to fall for the initial stages of Starscream's treachery until he eventually regained his position because Screamer either failed to account for how strong Megatron was or because he was generally pathologically incapable of thinking more than 1 move ahead. BW Megs, being a schemer and a devious/cunning operator himself, he would've had a sort of "the student can't hope to surpass the master" type vibe. Starscream springs a trap and Megatron has a countermeasure. Starscream tries to sway the loyalty of some of the other Predacons, but Megs has made a career out of expecting that half his army is out to backstab him. Starscream pulls of some gambit that looks like it succeeds and buys him brief superiority, but Megatron's all like "You really think I wouldn't be prepared for X? I let you win because it's easier to let the Maximals scrap you than it would be to do it myself. And much more... entertaining.... yesssss...."

I imagine it probably came down to an issue of time as well. This was just a 22 minute show. They wouldn't have had enough time to do a lengthy bout with Megatron and still get the rest of his plan off as it happened.

I'm not sure anyone can do a convincing impression of Latta's Starscream. There are ones that come close, but rare is the one that makes me believe, even for a moment, that I'm listening to the genuine article.

Latta's vocal range was pretty impressive overall. Or at least he had a small handful of distinctive voices. Usually when I hear a voice actor do a live action role I can hear the characters they voice in them. But Latta showed up 4 times on two Star Trek series and I don't think I ever put it together that it was him until I was browsing his IMDB page some years later (of course he was also credited by his other legal name: Christopher Collins so that helped obscure things).

It is weird that they chose the comics design. I would've said it was based on the toy, but G1 toy Starscream had an all black head with gold optics so who knows.

I always sort of liked the idea that was set forth for Beast Wars where it treated G1 with broad strokes, taking from any continuity it wished and making any specifics of the earlier portion of the franchise out to be more like myth and legend rather than tying themselves to a specific verison of events with no wiggle room. But when you think about it in retrospect it almost seems like they backed their way into that explanation because they did this episode with elements that didn't fit together and then made that explanation as a cover for the inconsistency.