Working titles... (hopefully) "Bitch Wars" and "A Greater Ape."

The second episode has Optimus lose his memory and think he's a real gorilla, but a Predacon attack brings back his memories but his lady gorilla friend rejects the real Primal. ("Optimus's last chance" Forward and DiTillo called it") The episode was not made because of how many models they'd have to make. (Remember Beast Wars cost about $18 million, not sure how much that is in today's money) This could've been an interesting character focus episode for Optimus

"Bitch Wars" had Airazor and Blackarachnia leave their factions to form their own third faction, but it was not made because the writers had no idea how to handle it realistically and... yeah. The basic "Girls Night Out" episode which came to think of it, Airazor and Blackarachnia never interacted much aside from Airazor punching BA out a few times. You see I could buy Blackarachnia leaving the Preds for something, but Airazor leaving the Maximals just... sorry, there never was any conflict between Airazor and the rest of the Maximals and any attempt to have done so would've felt really forced.

Not including "Dark Glass" the unmade episode in Season 3 because... that episode absolutely should've been made, but what are ya gonna do?

 

Both of these always sounded pretty lame to me and I can easily see why they were shelved.

 

I can see why they were shelved, but I could definitely see Airazor trying to bring Black Arachnia over to the Maximals side with/instead of Silverbolt if she didn’t get all kidnapped and mutilated by the vok.

Huh, this gets me thinking how different the show may have been if Airazor became her Transmetal version and survive season 2 instead of Silverbolt getting introduced.

 

Huh. I never heard about these other unmade episodes. I think the Bitch Wars one sounds unworkable.
The Optimus one could be interesting. Overall though, I don’t think we’re missing much.

 

I like the idea of Bitch Wars. Air Razor never really got a spotlight episode. She was Beast Wars answer to Prime Arcee. A female character who was a competent soldier and not a damsel.

 

An Airrazor/Blackarachnia focus episode could have been great, but not with that specific premise.

Instead, maybe have the Maximals and Predacons stumble upon a Vok experiment that's designed to test the females of a given species, thus Airrazor and Blackarachnia are forced to work together to escape the experiment and rescue their respective teammates. Something along those lines.

 

I would have loved an episode like that. That would have been awesome.


Honestly though the Gorilla one was basically already done in that hunting episode where the Maximals are trapped in Beast Mode and Tigatron had to get them out so it was kind of redundant.

 

I'm much more upset that we never got to see Dark Glass.

 

Haven't seen them so I can't say.

 

I really wish we got to see Primal interact with a tribe of Gorillas, that would've been super goofy.  

 

There's a good reason these episodes went unproduced.

 

They both sound pretty bad. Though giving a spotlight episode to Airrazor would have been nice.

 

Personally, I would have loved that. Silverbolt always was a pretty unnecessary character for me. Before Beast Machines, he just never clicked with me.

A Blackarachnia/Airazor episode was a good idea, but the premise they came up with was just waaaay too goofy.

Only difference is that Airazor was at least likeable and had respect for each one of her peers. TFP Arcee wasn't likeable at all (she always felt like Headmasters Chromedome to me: an irritating, disobedient character who never learned the lesson).

The Spark was the closest we got to Airazor having a sort of spotlight episode. Yes, I know she only awakens near the end of the episode, but she really manages to leave a big impression by reducing Terrorsaur to pieces.

 

I really liked Prime Arcee. I hated Bulkhead though. His generic tough bot voice and that horrible head. At least Animated Bulkhead was a likeable underdog. Probably helped by having the same voice actor and similar personality to Broadway from Gargoyles.

Silverbolt was my favourite Maximal in Beast Wars though he lost his charm in Beast Machines. Only Maximal voiced by Scott McNeill who didn't make me cringe when he opened his mouth.

Rattrap was horrible on every level and Dinobot just sounded corny and badly acted.

 

The other way around for me. Bulkhead was at least a bit likeable, even if it wasn't a voice that I imagine coming out of him (I basically imagine more of a George C. Scott kinda voice for him). Arcee just wasn't likeable at all and it just gave me flashbacks to Headmasters Chromedome due to how unlikable she was (she constantly disobeyed orders and was never reprimanded, never learned her lesson and was really the character that I wish had died at the beginning).

I personally liked Silverbolt better in Beast Machines. The story arc of regret over his actions as Jetstorm really left a bigger impression on me. In Beast Wars, he was just there and felt like a very poor replacement for Dinobot and Tigatron (both of whom were better and more interesting characters than him). Hell, even Depth Charge made for a better replacement for those two despite being different from them (he was more of a loose cannon, but his constant spats with the Maximals felt pretty similar to those between Dinobot and the Maximals).

I honestly liked Scott better as Dinobot and Rattrap. Rattrap was irritating in his first few episodes, but by Power Surge, he just got better and better. And Dinobot I felt was Scott's second best role in the franchise (with Waspinator coming on top). He played the role to the hilt and really added a lot of nobility and passion that touched many people (Code of Hero just wouldn't have been one of, if not the best episode of the entire series without that performance). I also feel the writing for Dinobot was just superb and much better than anything we got with Silverbolt in BW.

Again, this is my personal view.

 

Dinobot and Rattrap were well written characters but I really hated their voices and Rattrap's face. A robot with buck teeth just looked stupid to me.

While Silverbolt was my favourite Maximal in Beast Wars, I still didn't like the animal head on the robot mode like Waspinator, Tigatron and Ravage.

I actually really liked Beast Machines when I first saw it in my early twenties. It didn't have the silliness of G1 and was well written. I did hate the non humanoid robot modes of the Vehicons along with their face designs.

I hated Beast Wars when I first saw it. I thought Scorponok was an insult to the conflicted villain of the Marvel comics and the aforementioned animal heads seemed silly to me. I wasn't a collector when they came out but a few years later Dreamwave and the G1 reissues drew me to the franchise and within 2 years I discovered the Agenda three parter on DVD and gave it chance.

I loved it especially when we saw the Ark from G1. It's funny how our tastes change at different times. I hated Starscream and Shockwave for always trying to overthrow Megatron but a few years later, in the later Marvel G1 comic, I grew to like them. Probably because I was more mature at 14 than 9. Mind you, in recent years I feel a lot less mature in my 40s than in my early 20s. 

 

I see.

Yeah, I do like Beast Machines too. I really enjoyed it and feel that sometimes it just gets too much of a bad rap.

Beast Wars was cool and the fact that they tied in the story arc to the original Transformers could have felt like a half-hearted attempt at fanservice if it hadn't been handled by the BW people, but they managed to make it work beautifully and it was basically there to make us understand where the Maximals and Predacons came from and what happened to the Autobots and Decepticons. Even if I didn't like Silverbolt and Scorponok (Quickstrike was a much better and interesting character IMO, so I was relieved when Scorponok was killed off), all the other characters were wonderful to me and had their own set of quirks and traits that made them stand out.

I always loved Starscream and Shockwave more than Optimus Prime and Megatron actually, even at a young age, when I was watching reruns of G1 and reading some of the Marvel comics that one of my cousins had. So you can tell that Possession became an immediate favorite of mine thanks to Starscream's presence.

And yeah, sometimes, age can work in funny ways.  

 

I love the Starscream episode in Beast Wars. I feel his voice was closer to Chris Latta than anyone since. Plus l loved Terrorsaur who shared Starscream's voice actor and was Beast Wars answer to Starscream anyway.

 

I did like Scott Whyte (Starscream from Transformers Devastation) a bit better, but yeah, Doug Parker made for one heck of a Starscream.

 

Interesting story about Chris Latta. I recall meeting Michael Bell once and we talked about him for a bit. I said "It's a shame he died so young." and Michael Bell replied "Well, when you live hard, you die young and he lived hard."