I'm watching my Beast Wars dvds again in anticipation of the upcoming botcon and the chance to meet David Kaye. I was wondering how some of the older fans felt when the writers started putting in references to G1. I barely saw three episodes of G1 when i was a little kid. (born in '86) So I wonder what it was like to hear just the mention of the autobots and the decepticons. I can't imagine what it was like to have starscream flying around again, albeit as a wasp and not chris latta. Oh, the Agenda with Ravage and of course the discovery of the Ark. What was it like?

 

I was part of the anti-Beast Wars camp when it came out, and didn't follow Beast Wars after the first few episodes. Didn't like how Primal and Megatron were named after their G1 counterparts, and how their heads shared stylistic similarities. Didn't like how they recycled G1 names for totally new characters, though I was a child back then and wasn't aware of the practical considerations for trademarks.

Who knew I was depriving myself of a very good series -.-;

I was able to watch the Agenda on Youtube, and I liked it. Ditto for Transmutate.

 

I liked it , and i still remember my reaction when i saw the ark  "holy F**king shiznat! there on earth!!!!!"

 

I was very little when G1 was having its heydey, and was only really introduced to the series in G2, which means I was still technically a kid when beast wars came out.

When Beast Wars started, I figured they'd go in an entirely new direction and have only minor contact to G1. When they started mentioning the "Great War", I was like "huh, maybe they mean G1, or another war", but didn't think much of it until Possession and Dark Designs, at which point I was like "holy crap that's awesome!". But they kept their distance from G1, and that's what I thought they'd do, albeit with a few minor references (eg. Unicron, Starscream's ghost, etc.). And then The Agenda happened. And I totally lost my shit. It was awesome. It was temporal planning to destroy the original series while an upgraded Ravage took potshots at the Maximals from a shuttle. It was amazing, and I couldn't believe how well they managed to make something completely new that was still faithful to where the franchise came from.

In short, it was great and I loved it. It had a really great feeling, that I didn't really feel until Animated came out and, while they didn't directly relate back to the other shows, Animated has managed to cram in LOADS of references, and do them right.

 

When I was watching Beast Wars I had forgotten almost everything about transformers' past. I was too young to keep track of it all. Then with the end of season 2 showing all that goodness, it rushed back to me like a doomtrain of happiness.

 

What's really funny is to watch the More Than Meets The Eye G1 miniseries after watching Beast Wars and see the part after the Ark crashed on earth and they show the landscape changing as the millions of years go by. That one or two seconds they devote to showing the time go by is where the Beast Wars writers fit the entire series! Totally brilliant.

 

Beast Wars was my G1 and I learned of the actual G1 by watching it. I saw Soundwave and Optimus Prime and thought, wow. I wanna watch THAT show. So, I found Transformers: the Movie in '99 and haven't looked back since.

 

I was like: "OMG No Wai!!"

 

I thought G1 was something made up for Beast Wars. I had seen the movie, but forgot it and never made the connection. Only later when the mighty innernetz hit did I start to put the two together.

 

After the initial surprise of the new direction of Beast Wars I quite enjoyed it anyway without any G1 references, but I was certainly very happy when more references started to creep into the show. I remember the epsiode before the Ark showed up I said to my friend who was watching with me 'Holy shit - I bet they're talking about the Ark!' and then I nearly hit the ceiling when the next episode came and there was the good old die-cast Autobot ship. Then I knocked my friend off the seat next to me as I punched him in triumph while yelling 'I farking told you so!'.  

I do sorta wish now they'd started the Beast Wars shows with a connection to G1 firmly in their minds so they could seed more in earlier, but as I know it BW was originally supposed to be totally unconnected to previous TF shows. Also, it gave the BW characters a chance to grow and viewers to get to know them properly before heading back into the days of G1 lore.
Would I have still enjoyed the show as much if G1 was never referenced in BW? Well, I was before those bits showed up anyways so yep. The G1 stuff was just the icing on an already yummy cake.

 

When I first saw G1 references in BW, I almost shed a tear. At the time I thought I'd never see Autobots and Decepticons again. Glad I was wrong.

 

I was shocked to see the references. I didn't get into Beast Wars until Season 2 and then rewatched Season 1 because I felt it wasn't Transformers. I think a LOT of hardcore G1 fans did the same thing until seeing Agenda. I felt it was the perfect combination of things to get fans and newcomers to the fray. I'm suprised they never did that with any of the other TF series without fouling things up.

 

I was in college when Beast Wars was on, which seems to be a unique perspective compared to the people who have posted their thoughts so far. I was 7 when G1 came out and stuck with it up to about age 12. I didn't watch Beast Wars regularly because I was much more casual back then. Basically I'd catch it periodically if I wasn't doing anything else. It was more about childhood nostalgia than active participation in a hobby. But, the direct references were pretty shocking. Things were very, very different in the 90's than today. There weren't many fansites, and the ones that did exist were were more depositories of information than communities. And I don't care what anybody says now, the prevailing opinion of what fans there were at the time up to the point that the G1 references started was that Beast Wars was a horrible abomination that was ruining the franchise. A lot of us have since come to our senses and recognize it as probably the best of all the shows (certainly a contender if nothing else), but back then the majority of people were brutal on it. That all changed somewhere in Season 2 when it became apparent the G1 references were lovingly crafted and weaved into continuity and not just name re-uses.

 

I loved the fact that BW was a sequel of sorts to the G1 saga. But "The Agenda" really blew my mind when I first saw it. I also liked how BW went on to set the stage for things to come, like the Nemesis crashing into the Ocean for example. Now ready for Megatron and the Decepticons to use as a base during G1. They did such an amazing job with BW.

 

I thought Starscream's Ghost and Ravage were excellent guest villans. Formidible and familiar. I liked how the discovery of the Ark and the realization the Predacons could change time really upped the stakes of the series. The Maximals were fighting for more than their own survival after that point.

 

I thought the ship they used as an underwater base was the one they built in MTMTE to get back to Cybertron. You know, the one Mirage sabotaged.

 

You're right.

The Nemesis crashed in the ocean while the Ark crashed into Mt St. Hillary. When BW Megs used it and it crashed, it crashed on land. That's exactly where G1 Megatron finds it in Microbots.

The Decepticon HQ in the cartoon was the starcruiser that was built during MTMTE, sabotaged by Mirage.

 

Correct, I had a memory lapse.

 

The initial links to G1 in Beast Wars was brilliant, made my day everytime one came up, Starscreams ghost was brillaint with the CGI's scene of Unicorn blasting starscream.

The Agenda was beyond awesome ! Seeing all the G1 characters CGI'd but in rehashed scenes from MTMTE, with the Ark and Cybertron etc and the inclusion of "When they awaken in 1984..." Immense !