Spider’s Game and Call Of The Wild Review

This is Megatron. This is the glorious Megatron.

And this episode of the Beast Unleashed podcast

features Stephen C. Phillips, Mike Blanchard,

and Michael Wilson. Hello and welcome to the

world's first ever Beast Wars Beast Machines

Review podcast. This is the Beast Unleashed podcast

brought to you by the Geekcast Radio Network.

I am your host TFJ and Mike and I'm joined by

Pecan Court Michael. Hello. Hey, how's it going?

It's going and we killed Steve Megatron. His

cold rotting corpse is half buried in the backyard

even as we speak. Yes, and he's spraying DNA

all over himself. Ew. Today we will be covering

three more episodes of Beast Wars Season 1. And

before we get into the reviews or the general

chat here, we got our first review on iTunes

by one of the listeners, Godspeed. He writes,

the title of the review is the first of its kind,

a fun and lighthearted review of the 90s classic

Beast Wars show. The geeks involved dig into

the characters, toys, and history of this cult

Transformers offering. Give it a try. So thank

you, Godspeed, for that. Nice. Very, very much

appreciated. Everybody should be leaving us iTunes

reviews. It's the best way to help the show.

What's been going on with you, Mr. Wilson? Not

a whole lot. Did I mention that Aidan graduated

from preschool? I read the blog post. Oh, okay,

fantastic. I think. Didn't you write a blog post?

I did. Yeah. Yeah, so he was recommended that

he's at his age level for speech, so he's no

longer going to speech therapy. Well, we'll have

him checked out again when he's five, but we've

got a ways to go yet until then, so. That's two

years, yeah. Yeah, yeah, so right now he's just

only taking his private Preschool classes everything

else he's done with so he has he has graduated

He's graduated. That's funny. Oh Is the vacuum

getting tired yet? No, he's just stubborn as

usual. Oh No, I meant the vacuum from having

the kid riding on it all the time. Oh I thought

you had the vacuum rider. Well that too, which

is like a caiman rider except oh boy. We're not

good We're not getting into that because this

episode will be released way before Toycast episode

50. We will save that You got to admit though

that was original I mean At least he put effort

into it. Oh, yes. I mean, you know, you can't

account for taste Yes I've just been podcasting

my butt off. I think I'm up to about 90 % of

Toycast 50 done. We did the segment where we

announced the winner. Toycast 50 will actually

mark the Geekcast radio's first ever more than

four person call. I had myself and five other

people on a call for the Radio Free Cybertron

segment. Surprisingly, it went very well. Not

saying that's going to happen all the time in

the future, but It's the 50th episode. I was

trying to go for something a little bit bigger

Yeah, well, we don't normally give away toys

either But that's true too didn't hurt. I normally

give away all spark almanacs Yes Oh, let's see

what else have I been up to. I've actually been

getting my podcasting hat very, very wet because

I'm going to have another geek show on. Your

hats? Whatever. Your hat is wet? What is that

a euphemism for exactly? Nothing. Get your dirty

old man mind out of the freaking gutter. I got

a wet hat over here. I would have said chops,

but you would have taken that somewhere else

too. Wet Choppers? Oh, Gussie. Gussie! This is

just so wrong. Anyway, um... Well, I just, you

know, through the magic of Twitter and Facebook

and all that happy crap which a lot of people

don't like, well, especially Twitter, a lot of

people don't like it or don't understand it or

don't care. Really? Well, just from what I've

heard. Uh, not like a lot of people that use

it, but a lot of people that don't use it. That

have just heard rumors about it. I think it's

pretty mainstream by now. I didn't realize there

were people who didn't use Twitter. That's odd.

Oh boy. So yeah, through that, I've made some

more podcasting friends. I'm actually probably

going to have them on an episode of GeekCast

Radio, probably Monday. I think, I don't know

what the topic will be off the top of my head

at this point, but the day this goes up, we'll

be recording that episode of GeekCast Radio Podcast.

Let's see, just the usual stuff, Tooncast and

M -Wire, and just planning for this 50th episode

for ToyCast. Other than that, not much else is

really going on with me. Yeah, I think that...

It sounds like you're busy. No, no. You know,

honestly, you know, as much as I joke about,

you know, what the hell were Steve and I thinking

running an entire network of podcasts, honestly,

even though it does take time and effort for

the most part, it's really not a lot of time,

especially with the fact that we've built up

backlogs. Like Tooncast, I have that backlogged

all the way up to episode 51, and we just released

episode 44. So yeah, and and toy cast that's

backlogged up to episode 55. I think Wow, yeah,

well hell you were in two of them a couple of

them. Yeah. Yeah, yeah I Think episode 53 is

gonna be our finest hour Really was I in that

one? Yes the one where we did the ending with

the scholastic and the animated kids version

of the Almanac. Oh, yeah, I gotta do a review

of that. Yeah, you do. YouTube video now. Yeah.

Well, not right now. Not as we're doing this.

Not right this second. Yeah, yeah. Now, like

this weekend. Get it done. I will get around

to it eventually. Yeah, huh. Just like you'll

get around to opening all those damn toys you

have stacked up in your office. One of these

days You keep telling yourself that and you're

gonna end up, you know, 60 years old saying oh

my god I've had these toys for 30 years and I

still haven't opened them. Exactly. I'm pristine

at mints and box Hell by that time they'll probably

be worth actual money. They might be Who wants

these 30 -year -old movie toys? They'll be on

transformers 44 by then Generation 41. It's like,

man, I feel really old. I thought it was bad

when Generation 40 came along, and where's my

Viagra? Yeah, watch out for the year 2015. We're

going to run into some issues there. I finished

the Cobra attack. All right, so we're going to

get into some episodes today. DNA Sequencers

Online. The activation sequence has already begun.

I must work fast! Maximal programming chip cannot

be accessed. Pausing DNA scan. New programming

accepted. Scanning for compatible lifeforms.

Now, all I have to do is... Compatible lifeform

found. Beginning replication. No! What's wrong?

My intent was to create another of our kind,

but the pod's computer has already selected a

form. Can't you stop it? No! But whatever it

is, it will be a Predacon! Another insect. How

depressing. Are you sure it's a Predacon? I am

Tarantulas, your creator. Identify yourself.

Spiders! Dare invade the colony! Inferno! Terrorize!

destruction to all who threaten us the royalty

commands it first up today is spiders game oh

crap why crap just by the title I can already

tell I'm not gonna like this one I don't think

that's the key I mean I like tarantulas and he's

a spider And I like Blackarachnia, and she's

a spider. I like her later on. I don't like her

in these early episodes. She's very flirtatious

in this one. Towards tarantulas, which is just

nasty and disgusting. Yeah, because it occurred

to me in this episode that neither one of them

have hands. Yeah, that kind of sucks. Yeah, it's

kind of weird looking. So, the original air date

for this was January 6, 1997, and it was written

by Larry Dottilio. From his lair, Tarantulas

discovers a stasis pod descending from orbit,

so he disables power at both the axilon and the

dark side, so he can reach the protoform first.

Blackarachnia appears and offers her services,

and the two spiders set out to the pod's landing

site. Unaware that Tigatron has also headed there,

Tarantulas is planning to reprogram the nascent

Maximal. as a Predacon and to alter the stasis

pod DNA scan so that the new Predacon, Beast

Mode, is an arachnid, making this new recruit

more loyal to tarantulas than to Megatron. I

mean, they kept remaking Blackarachnia over and

over and over again, but... Oh, yeah, but she

gets better with time. Oh, absolutely. Yeah,

she's like a fine wine. By the time you get to

Transformers Animated, she's got a ponytail.

That kind of rocks. Okay, then. Yeah, I throw

a rock at him. That's a Batman the Animated series

reference that some people will get and some

people won't get. I was going to take it one

further and say, I got a rock. Which some people

will get, some people won't get. Yeah, it's probably

a Monty Python thing. No, it's a Snoopy thing.

Oh, okay, yeah. We've had so many technical difficulties

trying to get this episode recorded that, yeah,

my brain is fried, so yeah. I got a rock. I got

a rock. Okay, uh, notes. I have, um... Two notes.

No, I actually have more than that. I actually

have almost a full page, but it's done up between

a half page and the top page of the next page,

if that makes any sense. Wow. Megatron, always

assuming the Maximals are doing something. That

was when the power went out. He said those Maximals

must be making a sneak attack. Yeah, well, I

mean, he wouldn't expect tarantulas right off

hand. And neither would the Maximals. Well, the

Maximals wouldn't. Megatron should. Another moment

where neither Transformer says terrorize before

transforming. This is in relation to... Tarantulas

and Black Arachnia when they transform into spider

mode as they're leaving his lair. Uh, okay. Yes.

I mean, it's just a little nitpick, but it's

like, holy crap. Ever since we started this show,

everyone, for the most part, and I'm sure the

Maximals have done this too, I just haven't noticed

it yet, but everyone has said, terrorize or maximize

before transforming. It's just one of those things.

It's kind of like an activation code. Well, it

is an activation code. I mean, hell, they even

call it an activation code in Beast Wars Part

1 or Part 2, where Dinobot says, I've already

changed my activation code. Right. Uh, Austinator

Splat Alert. Oh, I love these. Air Laser shoots

his wings off. Clips his wings. I like how his

eyes bug out. No pun intended. Do they? So you

know, I noticed the slapstick with Tigatron,

where a Waspinator shoots him right in the sack,

and he goes flying. And when he hits the ground,

he kind of looks up and he's got tweet, tweet,

tweet, tweet. I could do without that, to be

honest. I thought that was kind of lame. But

you know, it might be pre -programmed into their

skull that whenever they get knocked unconscious,

they get a time that sounds like birdies. Which

would be lame too, but... I don't know if you

recall my comment two weeks ago about Airazor's

eye scanner thing mode, her iris moving around

in her eye. Well, this time around we have her

sonic scan eye. It's much less creepy than the

one two weeks ago. It's so less creepy that I

didn't even notice. Exactly. See, I take up all

the little things for that part. Airazer is awesomely

badass against Waspinator, but she gets blindsided

by Blackarachnia? Bad form. It's right after

she nixes Waspinator. Oh no, Waspinator shoots

something, shoots a missile at her, and she just

kinda like backhands it. It's the next thing

you know, Blackarachnia comes out of nowhere

from behind and she gets... Basically, my point

is air razor is meant to look super badass like

she can handle whatever Here comes this spider

up behind her. Long up behind her. Long up behind

her came this spider. Oh, that doesn't arrive

at all. Holy crap I need to stop with the whole

trying to be that crappy wheelie piece of shit

All right Inferno's first appearance Let's see

Why is Inferno crazy? Because he's an ant and

he's obsessed with the colony. Yeah, but why?

Is it because he's an ant? Yes. Okay, all ants

are crazy, is that what we're saying? I just

didn't quite get it. I'm like, okay, now they

reprogrammed him to be a Predacon, but now he's

insane. Well, it works later on for the most

part his insanity works for the comedy relief

part I don't know the whole inner workings of

an of an anthill but The best thing I can equate

it to is bees where you have the queen bee worker

bees drones and that whole type of thing Maybe

this is the same thing. I mean hell he you know

later on we will get him calling Calling Megatron

my queen in royalty and all that. I do wish he

would stop calling me that. I kinda like the

fact that he doesn't have his own internal agenda.

He's not another pterosaur who wants to be in

control. He's not another tarantulas who has

his own thing going that has nothing to do with

power. Well, maybe it does have anything to do

with power, but not overtly. Not like Pterosaur.

Not the Starscream way, but just the sneaky,

underhanded kind of way. So I mean, Inferno's

got his own twisted personality. He's got his

own twisted personality? I would say that he

does not have an agenda. Honestly, if I was comparing

him to anyone outside of his psycho part, I would

compare him to G1 Shockwave. Because he is that

he is like overtly loyal to Megatron. He's he's

kind of like another Scorponok, but with the

Waspinator comic part So it's kind of like yeah,

it's kind of like you Fuse or to Waspinator and

and Scorponok together Okay, and you get inferno

all traitors to the colony must Yeah, I like

that he says oh He's like you will burn Maximal,

and I'm thinking this guy is cool Yeah, yeah,

he's kind of cool. This is just a cool guy I'm

not really too thrilled with his alt mode, but

I can overlook it It's not as bad as the spiders,

but and speaking of the spiders You liquid butt

juice yuck I almost could not watch the rest

of the episode after I saw Tarantulas spewing

crap out of his ass. It's a tow cable. It didn't

help that he was like straining. I know. It's

like he was trying to fart out web shooters.

That was bad. But it seemed like there was a

lot of stuff coming out of people's butts today.

Tarantulas has his towing web and Inferno's flight

mode is just, you know, it's like duty man. Yeah.

He's just kind of like, I ate my beans today.

And then he flies off. I was surprised that there

wasn't more butt extrusion going on in this episode.

Well, let's move on from that. Whoopsie, Tarantulas

plans foiled. And that was when, I think it was

Inferno that blew up the colony, or Megatron

did, or somebody blew up the colony. Tigatron

blew it up. Oh yeah, Tigatron blew up the...

the stasis spot. Tigatron's like, uh uh uh, you're

not getting any maximal secrets today. Oh yeah,

that's right. Um, as I was watching the episode

I made a note that I'm noticing that this is

really, it's more of a Predacon episode than

there's hardly any maximals that show up. I mean

yeah, Tigatron and Airazor are there, but not

until the end do you actually see the rest of

the crew. I think that they're really trying

to build a dynamic between Tarantulas and Blackarachnia

in this episode. Well, yeah, she was hanging

all over him. Yeah. In the beginning, it was

really funny, because after Tarantulas takes

everybody out, right? Yeah. He's in his lair,

and he's like, hee -hee -hee, I just took everybody

out. And Blackarachnia sneaks up behind him.

And he acts like he just got caught watching

porn. I guess anything's better than Spider -Cat

rape. spider -cat what spider -cat oh it's spider

yeah maybe he was no just no just no don't even

spider -cat okay my final note sounds like a

gore song you and your gore my final note is

poor scorponok But I love Megatron throwing Inferno's

head at him. Also, this shall start a count of

Inferno's splats, and I am putting Steve in charge

of that whenever he revives himself from the

backyard. Zombie Steve. Yes. So that's all I

have for this one. Oh. Well, something that you

may not have noticed. Is this the first stasis

pod that hasn't crashed? This one actually has

like thrusters and it lands nicely on the ground

and actually is able to scan things around it

without being broken. Scans the anthill, which

just happens to be right next to it. Foreshadowing

there. You see the anthill and it's like, oh,

he's going to be an ant. Yeah, I'm trying to

think. There was no crashing involved this time.

Right. Well, several times it's been a race to

fix the broken pod. Right the pod before stasis

lockers the only way I could argue it would be

that When the ship crashed the axon crashed in

Beast Wars The Beast Wars two -parter they didn't

They kind of like fell open The the stasis pod

so I'm assuming that those that the the original

five or six or however many there are Or four

or whatever I'm assuming that their stasis pods

will remain intact. But I don't actually know.

I believe you're right. This is the first one

that we've actually seen land successfully. Up

to this point, I thought they were just supposed

to crash. I didn't realize they had their own

propulsion and stuff. I did like, however, though.

You mentioned the anthill. I like how tarantulas

has caught another spider and put it in almost

like a birdcage. Well, no, it wasn't a birdcage.

It was almost like a, um... It's kind of like

one of those glass jars you would see a porcelain

figurine in. Yeah. Like a ballerina thing. And

he goes to put it up on the thing. And I'm thinking

about this as I'm watching. Wait. You should

have done that fucking before you even started

the... Before you started taking the damn chip

out of the thing. He goes to put it up. Life

form has been found. Noooo! You monk. I wonder

where he pulled it from. I don't want to know.

I really don't want to know. That's why the towing

web was all stuck up in there. Yeah, stop it.

Everyone was a much better shot in this episode.

Yeah, a lot more character development outside

of the main Maximal team because like I said,

you don't see them until the end. Yeah, this

is mainly a Predacon slash Tigatron dash air

razor episode because you very rarely see Primal

and the rest of them until the very end. Yeah,

I was really surprised too because Primal actually

had one line Rhinox got a cameo. He just kind

of stood there. He didn't actually say anything

Yeah I think that character. Not sure. One of

the episodes today that we will be discussing,

I don't know if it's this one or any of the other

two, but I believe it was said that it was the

only episode in Beast Wars on the wiki that said

that, one of these episodes, I don't remember

which one, was the only episode where Scott McNeil

only voiced one character, which was Waspinator

for the most part. Oh, that's right, no Dinobot

this time. Yeah. Yeah, because DinoBot shows

up in the next two episodes, yeah. You have any

other notes? Well, I noticed this was at least

the second time that Tigertron's had his ass

handed to him. Oh, yeah. In recent memory. But

he had a really nice damage model this time around.

And I know I point this out every time somebody

gets blown up really good. But, you know, after

they catch him at the second time and just, you

know, put the smackdown on him. He just looked

really, really tore up. I thought it was cool.

He actually alluded to the fact that he might

have almost died, because he said, oh, well,

Airazor saved you. And he says, well, that's

another of my nine lives I owe her. Oh, that's

what I was thinking. He got his ass handed to

him twice in this episode. So it wasn't just,

you know. Twice recently, it was twice in one

episode that he gets beat up. Yeah, um... I don't

know. I like Tyga Tron's robot mode. Yeah. But,

I don't know, I'm just not a fan of him, really.

I don't know, it's just... It's not really anything

that I don't... I mean, I can't really pinpoint

what I don't like about him, but I just... I'm

rooting for Cheetor. Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!

Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Oh, Christ, we are

not going into Cheetos commercials. Let's do

the molesting cheetah here. You know what's really

creepy is the Cheetos commercials I've had lately

have had this animatronic -looking, almost Ray

Harryhausen -esque Chester Cheetah, who's about

two foot tall and kind of standing next to people

and interacting with them, and it's really creeping

me out. See, I haven't even seen a Cheetos commercial

in forever, so... Oh, God, is it creepy. Yeah.

Anyway, digressing. Yeah, so Tigatron gets a

nice damage model, and the Axelon gets a snow

model. Yeah, I did notice that. That was kind

of awesome. That was cool. I was like, you know,

they're really pulling all the stops here. I

think because they didn't have as many characters

this time around, they were able to add some

new models. that we haven't actually seen before,

which I thought was kind of cool. Yeah, it was

kind of cool, I think. Of course, after that

one scene where we see the snow model, it immediately

goes back to the normal landscape, though, I

think. Oh, did it? I thought it did. I don't

know. I'd have to go back. After that, I think

they actually went inside the ship, which was

normal. Right. No, but as quickly as I could

have sworn, as the episode closed, I thought

they I thought they shot out of the ship. I thought

the camera went out of the ship as it closed,

but I don't know. One of the things I'm noticing,

I don't know if it was this episode or if it's

any of the ones we're on top of today. Sometimes

when they do a comedic ending, they will use

like the Looney Tunes close with the circle.

Like say you have a scene with Optimus, Cheetor,

Rhinox, and Rattrap. and say they're saying a

joke about Dinobot. And they all have a chuckle

in them. And they all have a chuckle, and as

the fade -out goes in, as the fade -out happens,

it fades out into a circle and it kind of goes

BLEEP and the circle closes and then it goes

to the credits. So that kind of reminds me of

Looney Tunes a little bit. I didn't even notice

that. I'll have to... Don't have to get this

particular fade out. Yeah. Yeah, I liked uh,

I Liked the black arachnia flirtiness at the

end where you know, she's like we should work

together lunatic No, no, no, no wrong it's She

calls him a lunatic and he calls her a witch

He wanted to say bitch though. Probably but it

was yeah That's the way I heard it. Yeah, well,

you're a dirty old man, so... Well, he could

have been a little more elaborate. That's not

really dirty. True. Any other notes on this one?

No, I think that about covers it. I mean, it

was a good episode. Alright. I like to see tarantulas...

You know, being schemey. Any episode that doesn't

have tarantulas is my favorite episode. You just

gotta think against spiders. Damn right. Alright,

we are gonna move on. Hear me, fellow Maximals.

I know you are frightened, but I can help you.

Access Maximal Core Consciousness. Passcode?

Tigatron! Silence! That's better. Now listen

well and learn. Oh, come on! You can't tell me

old Megs would have forgotten a booby trap. Gotta

love him. Now, if only Stripes is doing okay.

Once we were merely robots in disguise. But on

this planet, we Maximals have become something

more. Maximal programming was designed to block

our beast urges. But that has proven to be an

error. Our beast forms are part of us. Fighting

their nature only made them stronger. We must

accept both beast and robot forms. Feel your

core consciousness. Find the programming block

and delete it. Bring your beast and robot forms

together. Let them work in harmony. And let them

both make you stronger than you were before.

Programming block deleted. Programming block

deleted. Programming block deleted. Programming

block deleted. Yes, I understand. Rat, robot.

Rat, robot. I'm a robot and a rat. Yeah, yeah,

I like it. I get it now. Thanks, Tigatron. Whoa!

And talk about your nick of time! Up next is

Call of the Wild. This original air date was

January 7th, 1997. It was written by Bob Forewood.

Very cool. During a Predacon attack on the Axlon,

Megatron sends Pterosaur and Waspinator inside

the ship to steal an energon shielding component.

Without it overloading the effects of the planet's

energon fields begin to wear away at the Maximals.

They stay in beast mode to lessen the effects,

but over time the Maximals begin to lose their

personalities and intelligence as their animal

instincts take over. Dun dun dun! Uh, yeah. I

don't need notes from the peanut gallery on that.

Um... Yeah, it's just supposed to be DUN DUN

DUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

I mentioned in Spider's Game everybody seemed

to be a better shot. They were just boom, one

hit, one kill, right? And it all went away this

episode. Well, in the beginning battle, they

did an excellent job of hitting a lot of the

autoguns. Maybe not really hitting the actual

Maximals, but in that beginning battle they did

hit a lot of the defenses. I kind of chalked

that up to luck, because they were basically

just shooting for 10 minutes straight, and didn't

actually hit the guns until almost toward the

end. So I was like, oh, they just happened to

hit it. Damn. Oh, OK. No, I'm listening to what

you're saying, but I'm looking at one of my other

the hell the note means. Okay, um Megatron on

the chair and the tribal drums is funny as hell

Because they're walking through the jungle and

they're carrying him like a tribal thing or I

don't know Yeah, safaris there we go tonight

we hunt yes This episode focuses on Optimus and

Rhinox's butts way too damn much. It's like every

shot of them, like actually being the wild animals

they are, are butt shots. I kid you not! You're

just way too familiar with Optimus's ass by the

way. No, no, no, no, no. How many times do we

have to see the monkey butt? Well, you got your

monkey signed. That's right, my monkey was signed,

but not on his butt. Let's hope not. Gary Chow,

rub my monkey's butt. It didn't happen like that.

There was no rubbing of butt involved. The beast

to bot ratio learning begins here, laying seeds

for the future. What? That was an awesome note!

Come on! I'm writing comedy gold here! Come on!

That was nicely foreshadowed, sir. Yes, exactly.

Oh, at the end after they finally get that programming

chip deleted. Okay, that's fucking cool the Rhinox

rat trap double team When they're fighting at

the end, oh my oh He just wings a rat at him.

Yeah, and then that trap does like a triple flip

backspin Half axle quarter axle, whatever the

hell he did his leg. Yeah, it was just fucking

cool You know, I I might be spoiled as far as

you know watching Transformers Regular transformer

looks like a car, you know rushing in an enemy

in car mode Transforming just before they hit

and and then tackling him and then throwing him

to the ground Spinning turning back into a car

and spinning around around him again not today

Galvatron exactly Exactly, and that's that's

what I'm used to so for for me to see Rat trap

being flung through the air in rat mode and then

spin, transform, turn around and shoot somebody,

that is old hat almost. I don't see that as a

big deal. But here it's like, ha ha, look what

we can do. Well, exactly. See, to me, it plays

into what... I was going to say TerraCon or Tyga,

TerraSaur, I don't know, I was trying to make

some weird combination between TerraSaur and

Tigatron, but when Tigatron was telling them

all this stuff about deleting that Maximal programming

thing, I thought it was very cool. Yes, we have

seen it before, the whole, you know, do a super

move and then turn around and do another one,

but I just, it goes to show you how well Rhinox

and Rattrap compliment and anticipate each other

in battle, I think. When did they get a chance

to work together? It was almost as if they had

planned it that way. Well, yeah, they probably

did. Oh, I don't know that. That's the last note

I have, because, yeah, I just ended up watching

this one after a while. Because overall, I really

don't like this one. I'm surprised you didn't

break out the waspinator splat alert. I didn't

see it. Where was it? He gets hit by a tree!

Oh, yeah, that's right! Rhinox picks up a tree

and whacks him with it. Well, at least... Oh,

that's why I didn't notice that he didn't put

a Gatling gun up his butt. Oh, yeah. He didn't

get the Gatling gun, but he got wood. Eww! Okay,

we don't need Wasp on wood. Wasp on wood. Knock,

knock. Knock, knock on Wasp's back door. It's

my wood. All right. Cheetor had his foreshadowing

dreams again. His ESP dreams. Did he? In the

beginning, he woke up from a dream that... Or

I should say nightmare. Oh, yeah, but that ties

in specifically to this episode, though. That's

not a... Right, but it was something... It was

kind of like when... Oh, God, what was the episode

where he had to plug into Rhinox's... Now that

you bring that up, I love it when he wakes up

and he runs into the control room. Rattrap's

like, uh, well, it would be good if you had transformed.

Oh yeah, Cheetor, maximize! You forgot to transform!

I'm just kinda clueless. But then Dinobot comes

over and just scoops him up by the scruff of

the neck, you know, like a kitten and just carries

him off. I thought Dinobot looked a lot bigger.

than Cheetor at that point. Well, they're not

the same scale at all. Dinobot is bigger than

a lot of them. I think Dinobot is the biggest

out of those two, obviously, and then obviously

Rhinox in robot mode are bigger than he is, but

I don't know. He looked about a third bigger

than Cheetor there, but then when they were outside

he was about a head taller. It seemed about right,

but when DinoBot came along and just scooped

him up like that, I thought, wow, he's looking

kind of small. What happened there? Yeah, I'm

not really sure. Kind of strange. You mentioned

Megatron. His Tonight We Hunt episode out there.

Yes. But I was surprised that he didn't have

a pith hat. the most dangerous game? I doubt

it. You've heard the premise before. It's literally

an island. There's a rich hunter that lives on

the island. And whenever a ship lands on the

rocks, then whoever survives the crash, they

get captured. And then the rich hunter hunts

them. Oh, wait. Because man is the most dangerous

game. Oh, oh, wait. Oh, wait. You've seen this

a thousand times. No, no, no, you have no idea

what I'm flashing to right now. Oh my god. Lord

Chumlee. Yeah, exactly. Wow, I can't. Right,

that was the most dangerous, or a rehash of the

most dangerous game. In fact, I think the episode

was called the most dangerous game. or a dangerous

game, or something like that. I'd have to go

back and look. You know, it's funny, for everything,

and honestly, no disrespect to Mr. Forward, or

to Mr. Natilio, or eventually Mr. Skier down

the line, everything that they've said in interviews,

that, oh, we didn't want to make it like the

old series, or, oh, we didn't want to do this,

or, oh, we didn't want to do that, it's all fucking

- They borrow a lot of ideas. Yes, they do. I'm

not complaining about that. I like the tie -ins.

Obviously especially when we get the like super

in -your -face. Hey tie in this is Optimus Prime's

face on fire You know in season two obviously

I I enjoy it, but I Find it very strange that

they that they've said on the interviews on the

DVDs and and I don't know if they've said it

in cat conventions or not you're the convention

go or not I but it's like They say all this stuff

and then yet again here we have this series and

it may just be us fans reading into it But the

continuity is there. Yeah Yeah, I I don't know

so much about you know forward but I want to

say Bob Skier when he was doing Beast Machines

yeah, yeah there was a He did a blog where he

would answer questions about it and people would

ask him questions and he would answer. It's interesting

to go back and read that because, well, you already

know all the answers now because it's done and

over with, but at the time, people were like,

you know, who's this particular vehicle in general

going to be? Oh, I'm not telling, you know, that

type of thing. Now you know, but back then you

didn't. Interesting stuff, but he actually did

say, yeah, we went back and did our research

this time. And because they got things like the

key to vector sigma and You know the oracle things

like that that they drug out from from you know

earlier lore, right? but they It's like at what

point did you go back into your research because

you know here we are not even well probably two

-thirds of the way through the season one and

There's been an awful lot of of, you know, G1

references. Yep, very much so. What else for...

Yeah, this is Call of the Wild. Call of the Wild,

right. The energon field buildup within the base

caused by a stolen rectifier coil. Yeah. This

is Technobabble's plot, is what this is. I'm

waiting for Q to show up and, you know, tell

them... Tell them that, you know, Maximals are

not fit to live because, you know, whatever reason

Q comes up with for them not to live. Or if you're

going with the, instead of the classic Q, if

you're going with the John Cleese Q, just wait

for him to show up and say Rattrap is a half

-it. No, I was referring to the John Delancey

Q from Star Trek Next Generation. Oh. See, Steve

would have gotten that, but... Yeah, well, you

said Cube, not Cube. No, his name's not Cube,

he's Q. John Lancy played a character named Q.

He was an all -powerful, god -like character

who just decided, I think in the first episode,

in fact, that man was a nuisance and didn't deserve

to live. And it was up to Captain Picard to kind

of argue the case of man in a court of intergalactic

law, or cosmic law, almost. You know, the only

Q I know is the only Q that matters, which is

Desmond Llewellyn, so... That was a Star Trek

reference, Steve would have caught it. No accounting

for taste, again. Shut up! But yeah, the Maximals

end up, you know, having animal dreams because

they're stuck in beast mode. And they all become

more beast -like, but why... Why are all their

animal dreams nightmares? Don't animals have

normal dreams? Just like here's me. I'm a bunny

rabbit. I want a cloud I'm dancing around and

eating strawberries, you know, their dreams are

like I'm being chased by eyeballs that scare

me For a second there. I thought you were gonna

throw Snoopy into the bunny dream Snoopy can

be there sure You know Snoopy had big red eyes

and was chasing you through the dark that wouldn't

be so pleasant You know, it's like Joe wild animal

stalking his prey But I just thought it was strange

that they're having these dreams and you know,

especially like optimus he's seeing these angry

red eyes It's almost like, you know Halloween

red eyes Coming from the dark Didn't even look

like eyes, just kind of looked like almost like

butterfly wings with spots in the middle. They

were freaky. Yeah, they were. Freaking me out,

man! But, uh, Dinobot, uh, you know, he's not

so much waking up from his dream, but, uh, you

know, he's sleepwalking, I guess you would call

it. Because, well, we'll get to that later, but

he's sleepwalking and he's chasing Rattrap around.

He's like, I'm gonna eat ya! And I'm thinking,

this is going to be awful. He's going to eat

Rattrap and then, you know, pick little bits

of him out of his teeth and fling them on Optimus's

face. Ew! What happened to Rattrap? Dinobot will

say. That's another type of subject. Another

slice, anyone? OK, yeah. Knock that crap off.

Yeah, I caught it bad time. Knock that crap off.

Nice. All right. All right, you know what I'm

just gonna rattle on forever The Maximals end

up with red eyes Because they're sleepwalking.

Yeah And then you know, we're getting back to

the sleepwalking thing and I'm I'm I don't want

to say sleepwalking but that's almost what it's

like because at the end Tigatron gathers them

all together and kind of overrides into their

core consciousness Oh, he specifically says,

access Maximal's core consciousness, passcode

Tigatron, and almost in unison, all six or seven

of them, code accepted, code accepted, code accepted,

code accepted, code accepted. It's like super

speed of code accepted. And they all go, oh,

yeah, but the thing is, is that it's like we've

seen DinoBot access Optimus' core consciousness

while he was under. Right. So, I'm thinking,

is that the deal? They're having nightmares,

but then they're all sleepwalking? Well, it seemed

to me like they were awake. They were just kind

of more beast than robot. I like how - Their

consciousness had become beast -like, as opposed

to them actually sleepwalking. Yeah. I dunno,

it's one of those... It seems strange. Yeah.

Why would you have red eyes while you're sleepwalking?

It makes for a cool look, but... Contacts? I

intend to walk in my sleep. I better put in my

red contactor. I was thinking my Marilyn Manson

contactor. I need one big white eyeball and one

small black eyeball. I think I'm gonna go sleepwalking

that. I gotta scare the fuck out of somebody.

Oh wow. I love how Tigatron just kind of like

Like when he when he's rounding everybody up.

I like how he just looks at them like really

fiercely like It's almost like and I hate to

I hate to bring this up But we just recorded

to nest episode 51 for backlog. It's almost like

he gave them the Care Bear Stare The Care Bears

Stare yeah, I got I thought he just kind of moseyed

on up and looked at me and goes, you, come here.

You know, I'm not going to argue with that. Sure,

I'll follow your ass around for a bit. You, yeah,

you, come here. I was like, okay. And that kind

of comes into play with my earlier note of the

ape and rhino butts. all you see is, is Vane's.

Come here. Yeah. Wow. Sweet cheeks. Wow. Well,

no, it's like, how does, how does, how does the

Care Bear's stare tie into Alvin with his ass?

I don't, I don't get it. No, no, no, not the

Care, no. When he was rounding them up, every

shot that you saw of the group. Tyga Tronin was

in front, Optimus and Rhinox were heading up

the rear with their giant asses right in the

camera frame. It has nothing to do with the Care

Bear Stare. Okay, good. I'll just talk of ass

that's confusing me. I'm not sure what we're

getting at here. Did you choose a quote of the

episode? Because I got one. Don't even remember.

Go ahead. He says, hunting from the air with

automatic weapons? Now that's a sport. Oh yeah,

okay. I thought that was, in fact, I thought

maybe that came from somewhere else. Maybe he

was quoting from somewhere. Because they do that

from time to time. Yeah. And I googled it, and

there are like hundreds of responses, but they're

all pterosaur quotes. People love this quote.

People put it in their bylines. People put it

in their blogs. It just pops up all over the

place. I thought that was funny. But no, as far

as I can tell, it doesn't actually come from

anywhere. It only comes from Terasaur. But it

was a funny line. Yeah, it was. I figured if

it actually came from somewhere, I would have

noticed it in the TF Wiki, but they didn't mention

it either. But it sounds familiar. I'm just not

sure where. It probably goes to some old hunting

game from some TV show or something. Not the

exact quote, but like, hunting in the early morning

dawn, this is a sport, or hunting for... It all

goes back to that whole thing of the ultimate

game, which is hunting for humans or hunting

for a giant optimist's head. I am Lord Chumbly,

I want his head! On my wall? Off with his head!

I have no idea why, I just want his head on my

wall. Okay, anyway, before we get into the obvious,

uh... Yeah. I want his head between my... I was

gonna say, you know, before it was like, who

doesn't want a little head? Now it's like, who

doesn't want a big head? Oh god. I don't know,

I... I... Yeah, I don't think I'm qualified to

have a big head. I'm uh... Okay, yeah, uh, other

about it. Okay, so we're gonna move on. I feel

like I got hit by a whole Pred fleet. Diagnostic.

The explosion must have knocked out my internal

systems. Including my optic sensors. I'm blind!

My eyes! My eyes! Dinobot? Rhinox? Where are

you, buddy? It's darker than the inferno out

here! Rhinox! Rat Trap! Help me! I can't see!

What have they done to my eyes? Rhinox, help

me! What happened? Where are we? Listen to me.

You've all got to calm down. Calm down? We can

see! The energon explosion contaminated our systems.

Our optical sensors, and just about everything

else, are offline. So, uh... So what do we do?

We've got to transform. It'll slow down the contamination,

and possibly regenerate our system's... beast

mode. Beast mode. Beast mode. Beast mode. Slag!

That was weird. And I still can't see. Me neither.

I'll tear Scorponok's processor up for this,

and Waspinators too. It's worse than I thought.

Our only chance is to make it back to the base.

Are you insane? How can we get to the base when

we can't see? There's more than one way to see,

Dinobot. Besides, we don't have a choice. If

we don't reach an R chamber in about 60 cycles,

the contamination will put our sparks out for

good. And finally up today is the throwaway episode,

Dark Voyage. Original air date was January 27th,

1997. It was written by Samuel Warren Joseph.

Don't know who the hell that is, but... He's

probably blind. Well, God, I hope not. Yeah,

because you're making fun of him now. Well, I'm

legally blind. Well, I'm handicapped very often.

Is that like a recurring theme with you? Well,

all right. Well, as far as the handicap go, I

am one of them. I have a mild case of cerebral

palsy. And this isn't news to anybody. I've mentioned

this in my podcasting career before. I have a

mild case of cerebral palsy. I am termed legally

blind by the government, the state, whatever.

Really? Without correction, I have 2200 vision.

With correction, with glasses, I have 2060 vision.

Wow. I can see stuff up close, but I cannot see

stuff in the distance. Like, all right, say...

I thought I had bad eyesight, to be honest. Say

you stop... Well, I have, along with the cerebral

palsy, my condition with my eyes is called optic

atrophy with nystigmatism. And optic atrophy

is nerve damage to the eyes, to the optic nerve.

Yeah, yeah. Which they don't have a surgery for.

No, no, you can't fix that. So, alright, say

I'm sitting here in my apartment and there's

a stop sign out by the trash can. I can see the

shape, I can see the color, I can kind of make

out the letters, but I can't actually read the

word stop. I mean, I know, I'm not color blind,

I know the difference between colors. Right.

and all that, but it's just the distance. It's

a stop sign. It's just the text. You have trouble

reading it. Yeah. It's the distance thing. Oh.

So anyway, finally up today. Anyway, yeah. Dark

Voyage, which I already mentioned the title of

it, Rattrap, Cheetor, Dinobot, and Rhinox investigate

a huge store of energon, but come under attack

by Waspinator and Scorponok. When the energon

is destroyed in the firefight, the Maximals take

heavy damage from the resulting explosion, low

on power, self -repair systems down, and worst

of all, sightless, the beleaguered. and blind

maximals must somehow make it back to base. And

of course, well no, I was going to say of course

my first note, but that's actually my second

in the very beginning of the episode looked awfully

like one you would see in a live action film.

Yeah, I was actually thinking it was another

Michael Bay moment. No, no, no, no, no, no. Michael

Bay needs to stop raping my childhood like Starscream

raping metal bugs. No, it did. It looked like

it was like they actually pulled it directly

out of some explosion fest. Next note is blinded

maximals, and I wrote that note as soon as DinoBot

said, are you crazy? None of us can see! Three

blind mice. Four blind mice. Yeah, that actually,

that shot with Dinobot's mouth wide open and

the white eyes, that was actually going to be

the episode arc for this episode. That was very

scary. Yeah, it was one of the choices. The Inferno

art actually won out though. Oh yeah, I like

the Inferno art better. Yeah. Yeah. Energon contamination

can put out sparks. Really? Well, it's just like,

I thought it was more like a poison. I mean,

just like with regular people, if poison goes

too far, it's gonna kill you. Okay. Alright,

I can see that, but yeah. Alright. No, I can

see the point now, but just when Rhinox said

it in the episode, I'm like, really? Yeah, well

probably you know up until now every time they're

worried about energon It's because of energon

overload, and they just transform and they're

okay But you know here. I don't think it was

the same thing It wasn't because they had gotten

contaminated from the explosion because they

were sitting on a giant pile of energon And they

have energon poisoning, or food poisoning, or

whatever. They ate too much energon. No, they

got drunk on energon. Energy! Krimzik! Krimzik

wasn't drunk on energon. No, he's just feeding

off energy. But anyway, DinoBot runs into a tree

and gets flattened. This reminds me of Sludge's

Looney Tunes moment in TFTM. They're not gonna

catch me, Slam! Oh, that was wrong. And it was

nothing but a snake. Well, no, that snake fucked

them up pretty bad. Snake fucked up Chiyo pretty

bad, but yeah, it's... It's almost like a 3D

version of Ka. Trust in me... You don't like

Disney, so you... No, not really. I was thinking

more like Ice -T in Anaconda. Oh, okay, well

yeah, I don't like those movies, so you know,

whatever. There's no spiders in those movies.

I don't like snakes either, so. Oh god. Anyway,

thank god there were no snake transformers. There

are some. I don't want to know. Anyway. I got

a couple. Oh, no, it was the flying scene. Okay.

Waspinator getting revenge on Rhinox. Because

when he was like, um... When he was that I think

that actually may be one of the quotes for the

episode I may I may have grabbed that audio.

I don't remember But when he was flying when

they were on the bridge at close to the end of

the episode on the bridge getting ready to cross

Yeah, he's like oh I see maximals. There's something

wrong. They can't see yeah So my note was Waspinator

getting revenge on Rhinox for all those Gatling

gun blasts. Two more here. Palms up, everybody.

It's Mystic Rhinox. Rhinox the Zen Master. Yes.

Oh, and this has got to be the best splat for

Waspinator. wasn't it a splat alert he went skipping

across the water like the rock he did dude do

stu stu stu stu stu stu stu stu stu stu stu stu

stu stu stu stu stu stu stu stu stu stu stu stu

stu stu stu stu stu stu stu stu stu stu stu stu

stu stu stu stu stu stu stu stu stu stu stu stu

stu stu stu stu stu stu stu stu stu stu stu stu

stu stu stu stu stu stu stu stu stu stu stu stu

stu stu stu stu stu stu stu stu stu stu stu stu

stu stu stu stu stu stu stu stu stu stu stu stu

stu stu stu stu stu stu that. I think every episode

should have a Team Rocket moment. This is what

freaked me out there, is that when they all fall

in the water, what does it matter if they fall

in the water? Do they need to breathe? I don't

know. I know earlier when Cheetor was being constricted

by Ka, he actually said, I can't breathe, because

he was being squished. Couldn't much talk either.

But yeah, I just thought it was strange. I was

like, what were the robots? I can give Colette

credit though for that voicing though, because

that was pretty good voicing. I don't know what

other stuff Ian James Quillett is done outside

of Chidor. I haven't looked at his IMDB recently,

but I gotta give the guy credit for doing that,

because not a lot of people can pull that off.

Yeah, no, it was well done. It was nicely done.

The, uh, uh, shard harness on Chidor's back.

I thought that was kinda, that's the first time

we've actually seen him with, uh, any type of

apparatus on him in beast mode. Which I thought

was neat, but they're out there looking for energon.

It seems like every time the Maximals are out

searching for energon, they fall right into a

trap. Yeah, they probably do. They should probably

stop that. Yeah. Send out like a drone or like

one of those, you know, cassettes with an arm

in the front of it just pulls out. energon shards,

you know, one of those deals. Yeah. Rather than

actually going out and getting their ass handed

them again. Oh, you mean like a Sentinel Prime

shield? The giant shield that Sentinel Prime

has an animated that kind of morphs. It's kind

of like a Green Lantern ring without the ring.

Oh, I was thinking about In G1, Soundwave has

that drone cassette. It pops out, it's got little

wheels on it, and the little arm comes out of

the top. But it's a cassette. Some garage shop

just made a toy out of it, I think last year.

Yeah, the cassettes, yeah. You know what? That

reminds me of... Oh, what was it? Oh, yeah. The

burnt toaster. The burnt toaster bot. That's

what the cassette girl... Oh! Okay. Yeah. Dektor.

Maybe. This episode, I think, really shows what

a great leader Rhinox could be. Yeah. If he were

interested in being a leader, which I don't really

think he is, but if he was, I think he'd be able

to lead fairly well. Course it would have to

be in that mystic pose the entire time Exactly,

you know yeah, you'd have to be in like lotus

right? You'd have to have the Chinese music accompanying

him. Did you notice that yeah in that pose? Yeah,

yeah, he's like doing yoga. Yeah, it's a rhino

doing yoga. It was very messed up But no he keeps

it real. You know he's like all right everyone

else is freaking out going. Oh my god. Oh my

god He's like hey calm down. It's gonna be all

right We'll figure it out." And he leads everybody

back. Well, not all the way back, but pretty

close to back. It worked out. But at the end,

he's like, no, I don't want to be leader. I'm

just going to go smell some flowers. He does

that a lot. But yeah, I think it was a bit of

a throwaway. There wasn't as much going on here.

No life -or -death decisions being made Nothing

really earth -shattering discovered. It was just

you know it was one of those things where it's

kind of like another self -discovery episode

much like call of the wild was where They can

use their other senses type of thing I Yeah,

I suppose, but I mean I Think in call of the

wild toward the end When they all discovered

that they could be a robot and a beast at the

same time and they didn't have to be mutually

exclusive And it may be the first time you'd

seen primal kind of like in robot mode beat his

chest and roar You know and I kind of showed

oh, he's a robot, but he's still a beast You

know and they can they you know they they can

be the same at the same time Whereas and I think

that's It shows itself later on. I think they're

like, well up to this point we've just been a

robot or we've just been a robot that looks like

a beast. Whereas now we were saying in any future

writings we can take advantage of our beast selves.

Whereas up until this point they didn't. So even

that was expanding the writing a little bit.

This episode, nah, not so much. We proved we

can smell. I can smell the water. I can smell

the swamp. I you know, I think I hear shit going

on over there Let's go that way, you know, and

which is nice, you know that they've all Got

more than one sense I'm thinking Jesus your robots

turn in the robots use your internal radar and

Find your way home. I know but they shouldn't

yes units, you know, I mean come on, honestly

The GPS units were broken. That's the whole point

though That that was the matrix of leadership

in this episode that was the plot device in this

episode because their internal organs were dead

The beast forms were not repairing themselves

or repairing their robot forms because of the

energon contamination and Every time they transform

it gets worse and worse and worse. So yeah I

suppose. This is probably one of the only episodes

that I will say of the entire Beast Wars 3 seasons

that does nothing for, uh, for continuity, uh,

furthering the story of the Beast Saga overall.

Uh, does nothing for continuity whatsoever. Well,

I think there's more than just this one. Well...

There are, the bad ones are out there. I'm sure

oh no. Yeah, well, I'm not saying there aren't

but I'm saying as far as this episode so far

out of the ones we've covered this one does the

least as far as Furthering the continuity of

the show. Oh So any more notes You know oddly

enough I have this notebook that I'm I have all

my notes from all the episodes in And I was just

looking through very quickly for the word throwaway.

Because I was going to say, no, this episode's

pretty much a throwaway up, and so is this one.

But offhand, I'm not seeing it. Other than that,

no. I think that about covers. Oh, and my notebook

are little pictures that Aidan drew for me. This

is a little moon and a little sun. That's so

cute. He's adorable. Okay, yeah, don't know.

No, I think we're good. Alright, that'll be it

for this episode. You will probably hear the

quote of the episode and then the outro. You

are listening to the Beast Unleashed podcast.

Where are they? No, we're Scrapman, we're Scrap!

How can we hit what we cannot see? Maximals,

listen to me! Picture a targeting grid in your

head. Like the one we used in practice simulations.

Do you see it? This is absurd! Concentrate! You

can do it! I... I can see it! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah,

me too! But... They're coming in! Stand your

ground and listen for my instructions! Get ready!

Cheetor Vector 5 -3 -7! Rattrat Vector 5 -4 -2!

Dinobot Vector 5 -5 -4! On my mark... FIRE! This

is Megatron, and you're listening to the Beast

Unleashed Podcast. Oh, yes! This is one of two

quotes of episode seven. Hunting from the air

with automatic weapons! Now that's a sport! This

is the second of two quotes of episode seven.

Like I said before, that's going to do it for

us here on the Beast Unleashed Podcast. I'm sure

Steve will find some way to revive himself for

episode 8, seeing as how it's covering a couple

of his favorite episodes. So thank you for joining

us here on the Beast Unleashed Podcast. Several

ways to get in contact with us or leave feedback

for the show, you can visit the website geekcastradio

.com, join the forums, PredatorEmpire .com slash

Nexus, leave the show's feedback in iTunes. Thank

you again, Godspeed for the review. More people

need to leave us reviews, please. You can follow

us on Twitter. Beast Unleashed is the show Twitter.

Mine is TFD1Mike. What is your Twitter? T -Con

Court, Michael. You can become a fan of ours

on Facebook search geek cast radio network You

can call the voicemail line tell us the show

you living message for and your name the number

is 502 -526 -5821 We hope you enjoyed this episode

of the beast unleashed podcast join us next time

We were reviewing three more episodes from Beast

Wars season one those being the supremely awesome

episode possession The completely suck episodes

of the low road and law of the jungle for now.

I am TFG one Mike with Michael Wilson. Thank

you for listening until next time