The Reformatting, Master of the House, Fires of the Past

Sentinel Online, now loading the Beast Unleashed

podcast. This is David Sobolov, voice of Depth

Charge in Beast Wars, and you're listening to

the Beast Unleashed podcast. This episode of

the Beast Unleashed podcast features Stephen

C. Phillips, Mike Blanchard, and Michael Wilson.

Prepare to be reformatted. Remember this, the

seeds of the future lie buried in the past. To

unleash the warrior within, you must tame the

beast without. Seek a balanced, optimist body.

Transform your destiny. Transform and transcend.

Hello and welcome to the Beast Unleashed podcast,

which is now transformed and transcended from

Beast Wars into Beast Machines. We are brought

to you by the Geekcast Radio Network. I am your

host TFG1 Mike. I'm joined by Pecan Court Michael.

Hello. Hey, how's it going? It's going and Steve

Megatron. Hello. Hello. Today we will be traveling

down a very very dark tunnel and reviewing the

first three episodes of Beast Machines season

one So what's going on guys? Not much not much

Did I mention that I swung by Toys R Us and Found

a masterpiece Grimlock. Oh cool I'm very happy.

It's a a weirdly shaped package. It kind of looks

like it would be a square package or rectangular

package, let's say, from the front, but then

in the back they actually slope it downward in

order to make room for his tail. So it's kind

of neat. I'm seriously tempted to take it to

Slagacon to have Greg Berger sign it in October.

You should. I think I might. I mean, it's literally

a three -hour drive. to get down there, so I'm

not sure if I'm going to bring the boy. But I

don't know. I think I might. And I've also got

a Beast Wars Depth Charge that I might take down

for David Soboloff to sign. I've got one in the

box. I might dig that out of the closet and take

that down for him to sign too. Awesome. Yeah,

if I decide to go like I said, it's a three -hour

drive. It's ridiculous Well, it's better than

a three -hour tour That you never return from

I would totally be the professor So I'm not even

gonna ask that question. I'll ask that up there

Okay. Oh Screw it. I'm on as it was so who would

Chrissy be? Mary Ann or Ginger? Christy would

definitely be the Ginger. Oh, wait a minute.

Now, Ginger was the model, wasn't she? I don't

know. Well, I don't know who's who. There was

like the Marilyn Monroe, and then there was the

girl next door, Professor's Assistant. And Christy

would totally be the girl next door. OK, there

we go. Think I think ginger was the model. Yeah,

I don't remember Steve what are you been up to?

Um not much at all Watching videos yes trying

to obtain a actual score from Beast machine it

doesn't exist Yes, I know that no no I mean even

in file format like with what Brian sent us.

I know I shouldn't be bringing this up on air

but screw it, I already said it. I emailed Brian

earlier and asked him and he said that they don't

have it. You know, the Japanese are really big

about releasing CDs of the score from their animated

series. I'm really surprised there isn't a Beast

Wars Returns score on CD. Usually they would

they would release them with like a special Toy

attached in the box to put a lot of the time

that changed the music. Yeah see if Rather that

makes sense. Yeah, but I know for beast wars

returns. They use the fat planets music well,

it's fine, but We all know how I feel I'm all

about the US continuity so If there's gonna be

a soundtrack it better be a official US release

from the show Maybe I mean like for Transformers

animated the Japanese opening music and the intro

the video intro. It's really nice I Just I don't

get into Japanese music I will agree that the

opening animatic for Japanese animated is cool,

but the music sucks I like it. Alright. I should

probably point out that we are probably still

going to keep up the dark humor, but it's not

going to be so much of badgering people and stick

them, mash them, whatever the hell, and there's

not going to be any monster -ish flat alerts.

Because Beast Machines as we've said is very

very dark Michael when did you first did you

catch up with this when it first aired or no?

I did I was just getting back into Transformers

when this came out and I was excited to see it

and I Remember, you know having to wake up in

the morning on Saturdays to see it which you

know It wasn't on really early in the morning,

so I think it was like 10 or 11 o 'clock or something.

But, you know, for someone who doesn't really

want to wake up on Saturday morning, it was a

chore. But no, I watched it religiously. It was

a great series. And, you know, I can just imagine

what it was like for Steve to watch Beast Wars

when it originally came out. But yeah, I was

watching that one, watching the Beast Machines

series on TV. so that was uh i wasn't i i don't

know what i was doing what was that 2001 or 99

and 2001 see no it was 99 to 2000 yeah 99 2001

that's what i corrected myself right yeah um

where what would help no i i i know i wasn't

watching this series i caught it much later I,

on the other hand, remember watching the Fox

Kids commercial, which Sabin had created for

a big promo from random clips from Beast Machines,

pumping you up for it for when it came out. Now,

when I first saw information on this, I wasn't

too keen on it, but I figured, what the hell?

I made it through Beast Wars, you know, hopefully.

have something I don't know that would resemble

that and Upon watching it I It was quite impressed

from the transition your head exploded Yes, is

that clip the same preview clip that's on the

Predacon Empire site that you linked earlier?

Yes. Yes. It's the one that says transformation

revelation Yeah, I wasn't really digging the

music so much but But the clips were interesting

I'm including it anyway in episode 20 and after

the outtakes so Well, we should say he already

included it in episode 20 because this will be

released after episode 20 It was alright, but

I I want to say the way they structured the first

three episodes where What happened? Oh, I don't

know what happened. Why can't I transform? I

don't know why I can't transform and then you

get to the next episode and Oh look Gothamus

can transform and you know, then they get the

next episode No, everyone else can transform

now, but they draw it open very slowly in layers.

Yeah, whereas the preview And it's a lengthy

preview. That's a couple minutes there The preview

pretty much just says it shows you everything

from the first three episodes. It's like, okay

Here's everybody transforming. Here's all the

via cons. Here's the generals. Here's Megatron.

Oh, and I think because it's a preview It's just

like a movie trailer. They show you all the good

parts, you know, I Suppose You know, I just felt

that it gave away too much. Yeah, I think I'd

prefer like a teaser Just like you know the background

of the bright background light with just the

silhouettes walking forward would have been enough

We should mention you know because I when I actually

when I bought this DVD set I actually got this

first I bought this off of eBay And then I went

through Rhino to get the Beast Wars seasons later

So I actually had this first, and I actually

watched this first, and I watched a lot of the

commentaries and stuff that are on here. There's

three different commentaries on this DVD set

for Beast Machines. And, you know, people always

say, oh, well, it's not Beast Wars, it's not

blah, blah, blah. Honestly, you know, this is,

technically, this is Beast Wars Season 4 and

Season 5. Oh, yeah. To be season four and season

five because Bob skewer even says, you know,

we have these characters. Let's build on that

and let's, you know, they're up until beast machines.

You know, we had seen bits and pieces of Cybertron

and G1, but there was never actually a cartoon

of Transformers set on Cybertron. Right. Until

now, you know, and and I like that. And I just

I don't understand where the hate from Beast

Machines comes from. i guess i can kind of understand

a little bit on the character side of it as far

as some of the developments in some of the attitudes

of the characters will kind of get into that

but uh... this is a huge huge departure a huge

huge gamble and i think it paid off in spades

uh... you i could argue either way to be honest

you just like to argue that's all it is i i do

you know i i really like the series I like the

animation and I like the character development,

but on the other hand, the characters are really

wonky in the sense that, you know, what the hell

happened to Optimus Primal? I want to call him

Optimal Optimus, but it's like, okay, he starts

off just very, you know, I want to say angry,

and then you go from angry to Zen Master, and

then you go from Zen Master to angry again. And

it's like, well, shouldn't he be a little more

optimist? And granted, he lost the giant Autobot

body that he had in B -Sport Season 3, which

would make anyone a little upset. But what exactly

is going on with him? In his head, I can see

that, yeah, the whole planet's dead. It's all

my fault. You know, but still, you know get together

guy So let's um, let's get into some episodes

because I think Michael is just reading his notes

now because we're kind of talking about the actual

show here so First up is the reef formatting

What in the name of Gouda happened to you? If

you want to survive, you must allow the Oracle

to reformat you. First up is the reformatting

the synopsis. There is no booklet for Beast Machines

which I guess kind of sucks considering I had

to copy all of it off the DVD case and put it

into words. So the synopsis is as follows the

Maximals awaken on Cybertron unable to remember

how they got there and capable of transforming

their hunted down by vehicle transformer drones

known as via cons First off and this is probably

something that I'm gonna say every single episode

between now and the time we stop talking about

the actual episodes the music kicks ass I love

the music in this show The theme song is very

upbeat and it's also dark as well It is just

so awesome Around that same time we also had

Like Batman Beyond Yes, I think that was like

a I don't want to say a trend but you know, you

saw that that Like the techno beat. Yeah a lot

of cartoons at the time And Batman Beyond, I

remember, had it and it was really cool. But

arguably Beast Machines had done it better. I

don't know. Chris Carter, who did the Batman

Beyond stuff, he's a really good musician. And

he's a really good composer. And he really did

some good music in Batman Beyond. But that's

a completely other show and other topic. Michael's

gonna disagree with me on this because we kind

of talked about this earlier before the recording

The explosions in the fire effects in this show

are amazing I am going to disagree with you and

basically the problem I have with the fire effects

was that It's not that they're bad because it

kind of looks like something blowing up, but

it looks like water That's like red water that

just kind of expands out Uh, and in too many

cases, it's kind of mushroom cloudish. Yeah.

More of a, I mean, it's like, does every explosion

have to look like a big mushroom cloud? That's

kind of strange. But I don't know, if you kind

of explain it like, oh, it's not fire, it's plasma.

Or, you know, it's plasma. It's the plasma energy

chamber. I'm just saying, you know, there's a

form of matter called plasma and it's like superheated

solids It's not quite liquid and it's not quite

solid, but it's not really fire either if that

makes sense, but in Beast Wars They knew they

couldn't do fire right and it wasn't until the

very end of like season 3 where they even tried

earlier if there was a big explosion with lots

of fire they would have Literal fire superimposed

on top of the CGI right and that didn't look

awful It didn't really look in in place. It didn't

look like it was supposed to be there, but it

didn't look awful. Whereas here It it doesn't

look right still I mean, but at the same time

everything else looks so good that you can kind

of forgive it as a as a style It's part of this

the visual style of the show to do it that way

and they stay very Consistent with it at least

I mean later on you don't see actual fire up

here They they still have this weird, you know

liquid plasma clouds expanding. Yeah So wait

if they don't transform out of beast mode they'll

shut down Hello, they spent like 48 hours in

Beast Wars in beast mode If they remove that

particular code I Think that what happens is

they're all poisoned and basically the poison

not only Causes them not to be able to transform,

but it's also killing them most likely the way

I saw it is that the inability to transform was

just a side effect of the circuit degradation

caused by the the poison You know, they're gonna

die anyway, basically. So it's just kind of lucky

that they happen across the Oracle Yeah, the

the transformation lock virus Not only did that

but it wiped part of their memory Yeah, and just

you know, so that's that's why they're having

such issues Yeah, quite some time actually. Yeah,

pretty much the whole first eight episodes Cheetor's

designs get better and better. So does Primal.

No. Not at all. No, I like Primal. I'm saying

as far as like their Beast Wars Season 1 styles.

Oh, no, no, no. I'm not talking about that. I

wrote that note after the reformatting. No. If

you want to talk about the Beast Wars 1 styles,

I hated those things. Cheetor looks like somebody

scratched his face all to hell. uh... black arachnia

is blue she was never fucking blue when she first

showed up in in season one of the story she was

black hello black will spider uh... i mean the

the black arachnia original beast wars model

in in this looks like a repainted tarantulas

honestly it seriously does because she has all

eight eyes on her face just like tarantulas did

You know, it just looks like a repainted tarantulas

thing, but what I meant by Cheeto's designs get

better and better was after the reformatting

and seeing him finally transform into robot mode.

His cat mode... It's okay, I like it, but it's

not my favorite cat mode of his. But the robot

mode kicks ass. I like the cat mode. He's purple.

Oh, I like it! It's just not my favorite. I'm

not a fan of the transformations all together

Are we getting ahead of ourselves because I don't

think they actually transform in this one. Well,

I'm just you know, it does no Okay primal is

the only one in the first episode that transforms

It doesn't look bad when he does it in this episode,

but in the next episode It gets weird. Yeah,

it doesn't look bad But I am NOT a fan of the

head designs like I miss the the primal primish

look oh okay yeah bodies I don't mind his beast

phone their new beast forms as much see I hate

Primal's beast mode in this I'm not bothered

by it it doesn't look bad it actually is more

detailed than what they could come up with in

season one of Beast Wars it looks more authentic

in the places that are actually ape. Yeah. So,

we all know that I'm a cheater fanboy, but dammit,

the Beast Machine's speed and the moves that

he has are just awesome. That move, the back

and forth, when the motorcycle drones was chasing

him. The pinball move? Well, I mean, Megatron

said it in Feral Scream. That are not in Feral

Scream, but after Feral Scream happened in season

3 of Beast Wars. He said ah You know a maximal

moving at Mach 2. He got hit. You know he got

himself Transmetalized or whatever so they specifically

say how fast cheetor can go in Beast Wars I don't

know how fast he can go in this but just the

speed effects that they put on him I think are

just amazing Well, I think here. It was just

a blur. He just kind of blurred later on when

they show him like in robot mode actually running

it's he's kind of almost in slow motion yeah

you know it's like the six million dollar man

it's just it's a cool effect and my final note

for this one was so training for the maximals

and destruction from megatron megatron didn't

have a lot to do in this episode and I was kind

of feeling sorry for Steve because Megatron's

got like one line at the very end. I was actually

questioning Steve earlier before we recorded

this episode if he could actually do the dark

Megatron because he's mainly Beast Wars Megatron.

That's very similar. No it's not. They're very

similar, but there's not as much of a light -hearted

tone. to the voice, it's more of a deeper, darker

rendition of it. It's the David Sobeloff Megatron.

You can kind of go that way. I mean, it's much

more difficult to do than the Beast Wars one,

which just kind of rolls off the tongue. So Steve,

what did you think of the first episode of Beast

Machines? I... I liked it. I like, now, much

like Beast Wars, you know, how Nemesis did the

whole thing with the butterfly in the beginning

of the first episode of it and ending with one

in the last, this one ends with a... Strange

flower that happens to be growing It opens up

on that which comes back to play later. Yeah

They have you know primal running and then the

tank chasing them and I just liked in general

how they You know, it just kind of starts off

in a cliffhanger like okay what the hell happened

between Beast Wars and Beast Machines and I like

the effect that they tried to do with the original

Beast Worms, trying to make them look more updated

than what they were. Granted, some of them, the

colors were way off. But the overall design look

was better. I did like how Primal tried to transform

and you could see part of his old form kind of

pop out a little bit in there. Yeah. however

it you know obviously didn't work the new beast

forms like I said I'm not a big fan of them but

it they are more detailed and much more than

just the beast forms like the tanks the robots

I mean everything just overall detail has jumped

tenfold since season three of Beast Wars oh yeah

and it wasn't even that long of a time period

between them. The whole jumping back to Transformers

Generation 1 as far as the kind of an Oracle

-ish thing, you know, like Vector Sigma, Oracle,

all that kind of ties back in. I just like how

the overall effect of it worked. And how deep

they had to go into Cybertron, similar to the

Keta Vector Sigma. So I mean it's... What were

you going to say? Sorry. I just jumped in there.

I like the way that they kind of spelunked all

the way down to the center of the planet. You

know, where they actually pass by older civilizations.

It's like, here we're passing through... You

know, the age of plastic, you know, and now we're

passing through the Stone Age and... Diecast.

Yeah, and now we've hit Bedrock, you know, and

there's nothing here but this weird Stargate.

I was wondering if you were going to make a Stargate

reference. Of course I'm going to make a Stargate

reference. I saw that and I was like, oh my God,

they're totally Stargating into wherever the

hell... It looks like they're going right into

deep space. And it was weird, because it was

open. And not only did it resemble a Stargate,

but it had the water effect. Not as pronounced

as Stargate, but there was these huge bubbles

of free -floating water floating past their heads.

Yep. Makes me wonder if that's where they really

got that from. I think Stargate predates that.

That's what I thought. Yeah. Stargate was, what,

on Season 11? when they cancel it a few years

back so yeah but it's restarted several times

so there's no oh it has right but i'm fairly

certain that the original stargate you know the

movie at least uh you know predates uh beast

force yes uh you're talking about the movie i

thought you're talking about sg -1 well in either

case well yeah the phenomenon yeah it starts

before this but uh Did think it was kind of screwed

up in this how they could no longer maximize

how I mean Granted Primal's new form does kind

of resemble his Beast Wars form his first form

in some ways and It resembles his like optimal

body in some ways Such as the hands and the arms

kind of are like his optimal optimus body For

his new transform right his head looks nothing

like anything that he's ever had It just looks

like an ape head stuck to a robot body his chest

kind of has some elements of the original Chest

just kind of meshed in there the shoulder pads

are back So, I mean it's it's kind of a and he's

got his you know prime jets kind of so I mean

it's kind of a touch back to the original but

with a reimagining Yeah, that's one thing I noticed

about Optimus throughout the entire... I'm just

gonna go ahead and say it, five seasons. I mean,

because, you know, same characters. He's had

a flight mode in every single rendition of it.

He has never been without a flight mode. I'm

actually looking at my cabinet. I've got a Beast

Machines shelf. And in the back of it I've got

the, what do they call them, Air Assault Optimus

Primal? That's the actually detailed Ultra figure?

Yeah, the big one. The one that came out in the

Rid line? Yeah, he's got articulated fingers,

so he's actually flipping me off as I speak.

Actually wanted that but it was the more so the

fact that I wasn't as big of a fan back then

and Kind of wish I did have it but you know,

it was obviously a lot better detailed than the

deluxe figure which looked nothing like him Now

the deluxe figure the the opening series one

or the blast punch Last punch wasn't deluxe.

He came in a box Yeah, the Blast Punch, I believe,

was the same as the Air Assault. Yeah, close.

Pretty close. Not nearly as detailed, but I really

liked Blast Punch when it came out. But the original

Deluxe was black with clear blue and it looked

like ass. It did, yeah. I like the foreshadowing

at the end of the episode, though. with Megatron

hovering over the Citadel. Yeah. He's like, all

your base belongs to us. He more so just kind

of chuckled over top of them and watched. Yep.

You got anything else, Steve? For a starter of

a, you know, basically a what you thought was

a tight up cut up. you know, ending at the end

of Beast Wars and coming back as a cliffhanger.

I like it. Yeah, I really like how they have

to find out. That's one thing I'm probably going

to bring up throughout the podcast or through

at least the first eight episodes of the Beast

Machines. I really like how it's a search mission

as far as they have to find out what the hell

happened to them. I don't really much like the

running gag, but quite literally in quotes. running

quotations all the time. But I like how they

kind of reintroduce you to them. They kind of

give you a little bit, but they also pull it

back. And a lot of my notes or not really a lot

of my notes, but a lot of like almost every episode

that we do from here on out, I'm going to be

saying, wow, that was a quick episode because

honestly, these episodes go like that. I mean,

This episode went severely fast. I thought not

in a bad way, but It's like it started gave you

all this stuff and then holy crap. It's over

like what the hell There's so much action. Yeah,

it's just sprints by you. Yep What about you

Michael how do you how'd you like the reformatting?

To be honest, I think I would have been happier

if they just would have landed and everything

would have been fine. Hey, we're home, and everyone's

happy to see us, and look, we got Megatron tied

up. Isn't this great? I thought that would have

been better. But this is okay, too. Sure. I liked

the... To digress, I liked the lighting effects.

Aside from the fire, the plasma, the lighting

effects were awesome, and the cityscapes were

just amazing. This is a huge cry from the tundra

landscapes they started off with in Beast Wars,

or even at the end where they graduated all the

way up to… Realistic looking, you know backgrounds

and yeah and water. Yeah. I mean they not that

they weren't doing fantastic, you know landscapes

and Beast Wars, but here we've got a city they

have modeled an entire city and You can see all

the way back to the horizon in most cases. So

It's just really amazing what they've managed

to do with the visuals here when optimus prime

Oh Well, sorry how to miss primal yeah, we don't

actually see optimus prime until later, and he

gets blown up But yeah optimus primal's oracle

vision you know where he he'll where he finally

gets the call from the oracle and He's running

and he sees like this little kind of a willow

the wisp type of thing flash and show him the

direction He needs to go in yeah that reminded

me a lot of Uh, Dragon's Lair. Do you ever play

Dragon's Lair? No. That's my pre -date view.

Definitely pre -date, Steve, but you can get

it on DVD now. I think they're gonna re -release

it in HD here pretty soon, but Dragon's Lair

was a video game, uh, back when I was in my early

teens, I want to say, and it wasn't like 8 -bit

or like an Atari game. It was a cartoon on Laserdisc.

And it was directed by, I want to say, Don Bluth.

And basically the way you played it is you'd

watch a little cartoon clip of Dirk the Daring

going through the dragon's castle, trying to

get to the dragon's lair. And a visual cue would

light up. And if a door flashed in front of you,

then you would push up. on your joystick, or

if a door flashed to the left of you, then you'd

have to time it just right and hit left. And

if you did it just right, in the right direction

and the right timing, then Dirk would survive

and he would jump toward the door. If you didn't,

there'd be a really nasty death scene for him.

So what does this have to do with the oracle

visions? Sorry. When his eyes would glow... This

little willow the wisp like lighting effect that

would shoot off in a certain direction, right?

And then he would go this way and and everybody

would follow him, right? It's like well, you

know if you don't follow him if you don't follow

the willow the wisp in the right direction at

the right time The vehicles are gonna catch you

and you're gonna die. Oh, okay. I guess that

was the point but yeah, if you go on if you go

on YouTube and Do a search for like Dirk the

daring deaths. There's an entire like Video of

just him dying over and over and over again throughout

the movie Yeah, anyway, sorry to drag you down

that rat hole, but Did you notice it at one point?

There's a moon in the sky Yep, it's a moon. It's

not a unicorn head. I Think I may have figured

out why Why? Think that this may actually predate

Beast Wars What it would have to predate g1 that's

what I'm thinking I Just I was watching this

the other day and something kind of made me think

that like a couple little minor clues in the

first three episodes Kind of made me think that

this was Something of before g1 like he massively

wipe them out beforehand somehow not contaminating

the timeline that's impossible I understand that

but there's several things that are yet aren't

there okay it's I don't know there's you'll that

I'll explain as I find more it could have been

well It could have been Moonbase 1 or Moonbase

2. Oh wait, shit, Unicron ate those. Yeah, Moonbase

1 and Moonbase 2 look like little Cybertrons

orbiting Cybertron. Whereas this looks like a

moon. Maybe in the future the Maximals rebuilt

and made Moonbase 3 and made it look like a Death

Star. That's no star. That's not a moon. That's

a unicorn. Well no, I think it would have been

cooler to see a unicorn head. And I want to say

that in Season 2 you actually see a unicorn head

floating in the sky. No you don't. That's Megatron's

head. Oh, I know what you're talking about, but

no, I think there's a unicorn head orbiting the

planet. I think you see it in Season 2. I don't

remember exactly, and I'll have to go back and

watch them all again, but... I believe it shows

up. But knowing that, I was surprised to see

this moon. Anyway, once Optimus Primal finally

figures out how to transform, he has this force

blast ability. I'm thinking he's got to shout

Hajuken. What I was thinking and it's a no good

man what mega man mega man shot Where he powers

up? Yeah I like you where he just pulls back

and says hard Yeah, I've got a note about optimal

optimuses Shooting power for the next episode

but What else you got, Michael? Uh, that's pretty

much it. Overall? Yeah, I mean, I think we covered

it, but... No, I know, but I mean, I was, I didn't

preface the question, but overall, what did you,

you know, just... Oh, over, yeah, overall I think

there's, uh, again, there's a lot of running.

It's just a lot of the Maximals running away

from Veikons that are shooting at them. And that

pretty much characterizes the first three episodes.

Maybe more, but it's the first three that I watched

or re -watched recently. Yeah, I think they stop

for a few minutes to catch up on, oh, what the

hell happened to us? But for the most part, it's,

oh, I'm being chased and I'm being shot at. This

kind of sucks. But because of that it means there's

a lot of action going on and a good third of

the episode is just explosions and then Kind

of crappy plasma mushroom cloud looking stuff.

I disagree. Yeah. Yeah But yeah, like I said

a good third of the episode is just explosions

as they run away So, you know, it's not like

y 'all and I'm bored. I can't watch this anymore

I mean you're drawn in that the action is is

you know focusing your attention, but because

of that It goes by really quickly Yep. And really,

I didn't have a whole lot of notes. I don't either.

Yeah, I mean, I literally had to stop and think

about the episode after it was over. Because

just watching it, you don't want to stop to take

re -watch it. He makes it sound like that's a

bad thing. No. I've watched it three times in

the last week, but... Nice. All right, so I think

we're gonna move on Surprised to see your old

nemesis optimus primal I believe we have some

catching up to do a few memory gaps to fill Let's

start with the Beast Wars They are over you lost.

Oh There are a few loose ends running about But

then I see you brought them right to me. We've

got to lead them away from the Council Citadel.

How about leading them away from us? Your new

beast modes may protect you from my virus, but

they won't save you from my Veer Kongs. The wave

of the future. Transformers without sparks. No

more individual minds. Just one single guiding

intelligence. Mine! Split up! We can disperse

their fire! I control all of Cybertron! to a

single elegant machine. A vision of technological

purity and order. And you, all Mongrels, would

contaminate that vision with your accursed beast

-modes. My memory's a little faulty, Megatron,

but I seem to recall you picking up a beast -mode

yourself. And wiped it clean from my cell, like

a virus. The same way I wiped this planet clean.

The same way I intend to... Up next is Master

of the House. Seeking out the allies Black Arachnia

and Cheetor discovers that the entire population

of Cybertron has mysteriously vanished. Rescuing

them from a Veikon attack, Optimus learns the

truth about Cybertron. And again, like we've

said... You know, these episodes, they pretty

much bring you in from moment one. My first note

came when Blackarachnia finally transforms. She

has four eyes too many. That's kind of creepy.

Technically she should have eight eyes, so she

has two eyes less than she needs. I don't mind

the two eyes where they're supposed to be on

her face, but once her forehead lifts up and

you see these other four eyes, I'm like, oh god.

It's creepy. Ah, yuck. You know, it's too bad

we don't see black arachnid vision with like

three sets of eyes. You mean like how we had

the cheesometer and uh... Exactly. This is the

two abuse whores. Yeah, well they always had,

you know, like... Vision from of characters point

of view where they'd be like a screen around

it with a gauge or or something You know like

where you'd have zoom -in effects or something

strange like that. Yeah. Well, it's no wonder

silver belt doesn't want to come back Let's not

Even a rat trap says she's ugly as hell Cheater

doesn't seem to think so Well cheaters been carrying

a torch for her for the last several seasons,

so Even when she was a bad guy. He said he was

still like poor rat trap I'm so transformed.

I can't even believe it. I I just think that

rat trap just gets the worst treatment in this

because you know Regardless of what he's done

in Beast Wars with all his comedy and you know,

we're all gonna die now and everything else Basically

went from cheeto are always getting the blame

for stuff now. It's rat trap. I just I don't

like that I think the characters have come along

yes, I understand that him not being able to

transform as an issue, but I Don't know I just

So topside to find a new base, how does black

arachnia know that this is a computer terminal

I mean See this is my problem with beast machines

is We never really got to see who the proto forms

were beforehand Or are not really the pro forms.

Well, yeah, I guess yeah, I guess it would be

proto forms But like the the stasis pod people

from from Beast Wars You know, we never really

saw who they were before who they became so If

we really look at it, and this is the first time

she's on Cybertron, how the hell does she know

that the computer terminal that she goes to is

a computer terminal? That made no sense to me

whatsoever. Let's see, yet she had extensive

Predacon and Maximal background information,

history information. But the whole point of these

three episodes is they don't know what the hell

happened and there's problems with their memories.

It has more so to do with their experiences,

not what they know what things are. Okay, alright.

It's more so wipe their experience of everything,

you know, predating when they woke up on Cybertron.

Okay, that's fine. And Michael kind of mentioned

this as my version of what Optimus's power is.

First Depth Charge had the pizza throwing gimmick,

now Optimus does. But his have blades This is

like throwing a chainsaw at you Yeah, I think

one of the biggest problems I have with This

series is that The whole learning to transform

thing I hate that Oh yeah. I follow G1 US continuity.

I follow when Rodimus went back in the Matrix

and the whole story of the Quintessons. They

invented the art of transforming. They didn't

have to fucking learn how to do it. Well apparently

here they do. Well apparently that's fucking

stupid. In the G1 continuity it states that You've

got your Autobots and your Decepticons. And the

Autobots, because they were, I don't want to

say inferior, but they just didn't have the ability

to battle that the Decepticons had. They weren't

military hardware. So they had to learn how to

transform in order to escape or elude their enemies.

Yeah, but still, I just, I don't... One of the

reasons why I kind of got off on this whole I

hate the fact that they have to learn to transform

is I seriously doubt, my note actually was, I

seriously doubt in the heat of battle they have

time to fucking learn how to transform. Well

no, they find a place to hide. I know, but my

like, stopped in the middle of the Viacom battlefield.

He's like, okay, find the still point, find the

still point, and Blackjack is like, dumbass,

we don't have time for that, let's go. That was

the point of the note, and that's why I said,

why the hell do they have to learn how to transform?

Where's time? Yeah. It's basically to keep Rattrap

from being able to transform. Yeah, that's true.

It's like, sorry Rattrap. Yeah, you can't find

your center, so you suck. Or worse, you can transform,

but the minute you get frazzled, you lose your

transformation ability. Yeah. Now, once Cheetor

does transform and we get to the point where

Optimus says, you know, go help Rattrap, and

the jet drone is getting ready to slag Rattrap,

and all of a sudden you see Cheetor just slicing

and dicing. I was like, now that's the way to

shred some bread or via con, whatever. Well,

you know, they never actually gave them a name

of the via cons up until now. It was closer to

the end of the episode where Megatron is expositioning

and he said, oh, my via cons. And it's like,

oh, well, that's what you're calling them. Okay.

Well, fine. You know, whereas in, in the book,

and the booklet inside the cover of the DVD,

they say, oh, these are via cons. But it's like,

well, how do you know they're called via cons?

Well, that's the other thing. I mean, you know,

the whole thing about, and I'm sorry to cut you

off there, but the whole thing about in Beast

Wars, how in some of the synopsises before they,

or synopsi, before they learned. before they

learn that that's prehistoric earth it says in

the synopsis prehistoric earth before we even

get to the episode that they learned that the

planet they're on is prehistoric earth in beast

wars so again rhino you jackasses well nobody

said rhino was smart fucking asshats just have

nothing good to say I'm having trouble pronouncing

anything tonight, so don't listen to me. Yeah,

so no, it's all that drunken rage. The Cycle

Drones remind me of the Junkions. They're indestructible

and they're everywhere! And I like how one of

them just lowers himself so he can launch his

buddy across, you know, a ramp. Kind of like

the Junkions. That's what I thought of when I

first saw that. For mindless drones, they work

together pretty well. Well, they aren't technically

mindless considering Megatron controls each and

every one of them somehow. Yeah, they're under

Megatron's control. Hmm, we have upgrades with

multi -processor support. How big is the RAM?

Oh, it's plenty big. Got an ego to power behind

it. Oh, damn. And I, like, we've talked about

how Megatron was comedic in Beast Wars. And,

you know, Steve, this is your cue here. And he

doesn't say anything. To do what? Yeah. No, but

he - No, but you're supposed to - You're supposed

to say something in the Beast Wars Megatron voice.

Anything. It doesn't matter. I don't care. Something

funny. Careful and don't wake up the beginning

at the end Okay, well, I was thinking more along

the lines of rubber ducky, but funny here. Yeah,

I feel pretty And my note for Megatron in this

episode in all capital letters in about six exclamation

points yikes Dark Megatron cuz holy crap the

voice change between Beast Wars and Beast Machines

is just wow It almost reminds me of when he went

season 2 when you see him change into From his

pre -transmental form to his transmittal form

when he tells, you know Waspinator you said a

change for the better, right? One of the other

things that you can tell Megatron's been Through

a hell of a lot and and I do like how his head

kind of heralds back to his His transmetal form,

yes first transmetal form the eye detail like

you can see the the irises and everything else

it's not just one fluid color right there's an

actual eyeball in there and you can still see

many elements to his face however he's got some

random mask yeah well he's that's a part of his

of his head gear to to controlling the drones

but as far as like his his head underneath it

He has physical damage See I I'm gonna have to

go back and watch it I'm gonna have to look at

it next time he pops out of his little head press

thing or his little head Okay, well, I'm gonna

have to go back and look because I wasn't really

noticing that part about him I mean the first

thing I thought of when I saw him was oh gee,

it's Megatron with a shredder mask Yes, that's

kind of what I thought when I saw that. I was

thinking Hannibal Lecter. That too. But he has

a scar across his head, on his face, just above

his eye, making you wonder, where the hell did

that come from? Well, you kind of get the impression

that there was a lot going on between the end

of Beast Wars and the beginning of Beast Machines,

but... That's kind of untold territory Yeah,

that it's it leaves a lot to be you know figured

out or to never be discovered just kind of depends

on What you take away from this when you watch

it right Yeah, I personally think it has more

so to do with his random skirmishes in the process

of dominating Cybertron Right, yeah, but I honestly,

I thoroughly enjoyed the Dark voice a lot more

than I do the Beast Wars voice. I mean, the Beast

Wars voice is awesome. Don't get me wrong, it

is. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with

it, but I really like what K did with putting

him over the top dark. Moving on. I got two more,

and then we can go to either Steve or Michael,

whoever wants to go after me. Okay, Cheetorite

can now fly just with his blades as a wing. I

so don't like that. He's more of gliding, and

I agree with you, I don't really like that, but

it is kind of cool when they show a close -up

of him doing it. I thought that was kind of cool,

but overall, yeah, I'm not really a fan of that,

but it, eh, whatever. We kind of brought this

up, actually I had to cut Michael off in the

intro because he was bringing up the fact of

the failure. So Optimus failed somehow and then

let Megatron laugh and end the episode and this

again goes to the whole cliffhangerish type of

deal things. I mean, you know, just finding out

that they've come back here to a dead planet,

and that Optimus really did. They didn't win

the Beast Wars like they thought they were going

to. The other thing that we should probably bring

up is the time portal thing, or the time travel

thing, or the space time hyperspace. Transwarp.

Transwarp, shit, whatever the hell it is. Megatron

out of course I'm jumping ahead here but when

we find out what actually happened later on in

the series Megatron broke free and he got to

Cybertron first so that's the I mean if if he

hadn't a broken free and they got back to Cybertron

they would have won oh yeah no doubt about that

however I think he had enough power for one and

two I'm sorry if you're gonna hold a prisoner

you lock them inside some kind of a chamber kind

of like what ravage did you don't tie them to

the outside of the ship and expect them to hold

still when there's a transport you know launch

going on with the ship I know they had some cheap

shackles on his arms and his you know torso and

his feet and of course It really wouldn't take

him much to get out of that here. Let's freeze

one here snap freeze one there Such a Looney

Tunes moment over here because if you really

think about it the the ship the Autobot shuttle

from the Ark is a giant rock and Megatron is

the coyote and The shackles and the shackles

are made by acne There's actually a scene in

an earlier episode of East Wars where they Secure

optimus primal to the to the one of the halls

and in the in the Yes, is that what it was? And

he basically just you know pop pop there goes

my arms. All right, we're done He got out very

easily And he just puffed out his chest. Okay,

we're free, then what's next? Okay, weapons.

Yeah, pretty much. So the question becomes, did

Megatron free himself and just kind of jump out

of the transwarp? And that deposits him a decade

or two sooner? Or, you know, what exactly happened

there? They don't answer it. They never answer

it. They never really explain what happened.

I personally think when he broke off of the ship...

he tumbled back like he was still going forward

in time and it's all possible that it's you know

it's still you know around the beast horse time

i don't think they landed exact i know he didn't

land exactly where he was supposed to but i think

it's still post you know post g1 uh i don't think

you'd have a huge statue of Optimus Prime with

the gold disc in his hands. Yeah. See the thing

is... But the golden disc was destroyed. Which

is another thing that makes me think that it

was, you know, that he came back before he stole

the disc. In a sense. See the thing is though,

the way I look at it is that it's... say you

have Megatron dropped off and then all of a sudden

they're there and they're being fired upon and

of course we're so jumping ahead to future episodes

but the thing of it is Megatron landed first

and say they came out of hyperspace three weeks,

month and a half, two months later so you know

some time has passed Well they came back I like

to think right after they left pretty much No,

you're not understanding what I'm saying originally

oh Okay, no as if you know they just left Cybertron

and then they were coming back to exactly when

they You know went through transwarp space to

the Beast Wars world. Yeah It already gotten

there first Right right right I guess I mean

it still could have been that two month time

period in between when one arrived before the

other but I'm saying he probably came back just

before he stole the Golden Disks or shortly right

after and those could just be statute ones. Right,

right. So I mean it's right within that same

time period. Alright, Michael why don't you go

with your notes. Okay. I was going to say that

Megatron had to have arrived with enough time

before the Maximals that he would be able to

not only take over the planet, but also set the

planetary autoguns to fire on them when they

finally did come out of Transwarp. And then once

that happened and the ship came down, you really

don't know how much time had gone by between

the time that they were shot down and the time

that they woke up. Because they also got poisoned.

had a memory loss so you know who knows what's

going on and it's too bad that they never went

back and explained that well they did show at

one point later on as far as them getting infected

with the virus and being chased in their you

know end of Beast Wars look right and it shows

what happens to some extent but not in full detail.

So I mean, we'll get to that later when that

shows up, but... Well, the big question becomes,

what happened that caused them to go from their

Transmetal forms to their Original Beast forms?

That is explained when we get to it a little

bit later in the next couple episodes. Well,

yeah, we'll talk about it later. But you know

now that they can everyone can transform with

the exception of retrap. I'm not sure if I dig

it You know optimus primal transformed in the

first episode and He you know it glows and your

body kind of morphs. It doesn't so much Restructure

itself it just morphs right and that's that's

okay, but what's really creepy is when you know

black arachnia starts transforming and cheetor

starts transforming their limbs aren't Shifting

like with optimus primal his legs just kind of

change shape but with cheetor he literally grows

legs out of his back and Absorbs his arms into

his chest So it's not like your arms are transforming

into four paws Your arms are being sucked into

your body and your four paws are growing out

of your chest and then flipping around That's

just creepy looking It is and then with like

black arachnia she's growing tiny little arms

out of her chest and Then they grow into longer

arms which then spread out on the either side

of a rack and she definitely has a rack And then

her spider legs are sucking into her backside.

Like I said, it's just creepy looking. Dad, what's

Iraq? It's a country. It's a country. With a

lot of sand. Hills and dunes. The Iraq! The Iraq

doesn't like it when you put all that stuff in

it! The Iraq is going to explode! I'm sure I

sent you that link before, right? Steve Jobs

in the Iraq? Yeah. Yeah, funny, funny stuff.

Dated at this point, but still funny, funny stuff.

What else you got, Michael? There is a scene

where Optimus Primal says, Tudor, you're going

with Blackarachnia. And to split everybody up,

right? I'm going this way with Red Trap. You

guys are going that way. they inevitably decide

that they're gonna go topside, despite the fact

that they're not supposed to. But Cheetor actually

says, what? And it's like, why would you complain

about being paired up with Blackarachnia? You'd

think that you'd be chiseling in your pants right

about now. He might have been complaining about

not being allowed to go topside to begin with,

but the timing was such that it sounded like

he was complaining about being paired up with

her. I think he was just complaining at Primal's

decision -making, like he's going to continue

to do. Yeah. Well, it gets to the point where

he doesn't listen to him at all. Well, and we're

jumping ahead of ourselves here, it gets to the

point of him where he just fucking takes over

because Optimus can't make a fucking decision.

Well, yeah, eventually... That's way down the

line, but I mean, yeah, that is the beginning

of it. Eventually, Optimus is so paralyzed by

his... neuroses you know that he can no longer

lead but this is but right now he's still trying

to make command decisions he's saying you know

you two go this way you two go that way or later

on when they're actually in the middle of a battle

he's saying everybody pull back you know and

everyone's like fuck off i'm doing my own thing

and you know which is not again not really in

character for them They've spent the last several

seasons learning how to be soldiers and how to

work under Optimus Primal's leadership. But here,

they're like, hey, I got a new body. Screw off.

Well, I don't even think it's that. I think it's

the fact that no one knows what happened to Cybertron

at this point. They want to find out where Optimus

wants to learn What the Oracle was trying to

tell him and everything else Right, you know,

they're the ones that want to go on the offensive

because these these drones Because we don't find

out I mean I Don't even think that they Did Optimus

encounter Megatron in this episode? Yes Okay.

Yeah, the first episode same thing in this episode

up until that point They don't even know that

Megatron's there Right. I mean, if you look at

the first two episodes, up until the middle point

of this episode here, you don't even know who's

controlling the drones or whatever else, so it

would make sense for them to try to go on the

offensive and try to find out what happened because

they don't know. But I do agree with you that

they've been training in soldiers and all that

stuff and following Optimus and all that stuff,

but all that will come up later. Yeah, yeah,

but yeah basically When people complain about

them not acting in character. This is part of

it. Yeah Here's my bullet point jet drones are

my favorite I Like the jet drones and the cycle

drones, I really don't care for the tank drones

other than I like them all but I like I like

the jet drones the best. I like this first set

of generals. Well, we haven't even got to generals

yet. Yeah, without yet. It shares the bodies,

the forms. Right. The tank, the jet, and the

motorcycle. Right. And the last thing I was...

Well, maybe that's the last thing, but yeah,

let's say the last thing. Cheetor's bot mode.

Reminds me of the ant in in Bugs life from Pixar.

Oh jeez. I'm serious. No, he does Yeah, cuz he's

like tall and skinny with these great big eyes

Purple eyes at that. No, no if you take the ant

from Bugs life, right and you paint him yellow

He'd look just like cheetor and you give him

scimitars the swords that he spins around and

glides with and shit Yeah, he would look just

like Cheetor. Oh, and about the scimitars. When

these toys came out, I want to say in 1999, at

the BotCon that year, the Lucas Brothers put

out an expansion pack or an accessory pack. and

with you know parts from from beast machines

and one of the items in there are the scimitars

that uh the the uh they weren't called voyager

but the not not the deluxe but the size class

bigger than the deluxe uh cheetor cheetor came

in a box so whichever size the ultra no ultras

were huge these were kind of these were kind

of smaller than deluxes Oh, Megas. They were

bigger than Deluxe, but yeah, Mega. Bigger than

Deluxe, but smaller than a Voyager. So I think

they were called Mega. Yeah, you're right. But

the Mega -sized Cheetor, you know, he's tall

and lanky. He can barely stand up on his own.

But the Lucas Brothers accessory pack had scimitars

for him that he could carry. Oh, cool. It was

terribly cool. It also came with the key to Vector

Sigma. Yes. We'll get into that. Yes, later.

Much, much later. There's also a scene, and no

context here, this is just something I wrote

down toward the bottom of the page here. Toward

the end, they all jump down a garbage chute.

It's like, we all gotta get away! And they jump

down this garbage chute. Oh, at the end, where

they're trying to drag... Pop from the cell.

Yeah, and Rattrap uses his tail to unscrew the

screws. And I'm just assuming it's a garbage

chute, but it makes me think it's a garbage chute

when I parallel it with Star Wars. Yeah, but

the difference is, it was a garbage chute, not

a garbage barge, because they were stuck in a

compactor in Star Wars. Well, technically it

wasn't a barge, it was a planet, it was a moon.

So they're on this fake moon in a garbage can.

My favorite line is, what a wonderful smell you've

discovered. That's no moon, it's a battle station.

That's no moon. It's a unicorn. I so won a unicorn

head floating in orbit. Alright, you got anything

else Michael or should we move on to Steve's

thoughts for this? That's pretty much it, yeah

that's all I got. Steve? I would say for this

episode, I like this because once again, we hit

the return of Megatron. But he much changed Megatron.

Well, yes. In any case, I like how they finally

learned how to transform, obviously, the exception

of Rattrap, which Rattrap's hilarious, despite

the fact that he's at a disadvantage. I would

say that Primal really starts kind of losing

it because he's trying to fathom how the hell

this happened and nobody wants to listen to him

except for Rattrap because he's defenseless.

I like, I'm sorry to interrupt you, I like Rattrap's

line. I got news for ya, monkey boy, we ain't

got years! In learning about transforming. He's

got a few more episodes before he figures it

out himself. Yeah, let's, yeah. So go ahead,

Steve, continue. Alrighty. I like how Primal

finally gets to the Citadel. Mm -hmm, and It's

like what is this place and then all of a sudden

you hear Megatron's theme music Yeah, which in

itself is enough to make you It just go in awe

yeah I That's that's all I could it's it's at

that point. It's very jaw -dropping holy shit.

What is this and then it's like Holy shit, it's

Megatron, but this is not the Megatron we used

to know No, this Megatron is a bad ass now I

wish That they would have made a ultra class

figure of this in detail Like with his outer

armor and everything And then having the dragon

form actually in detail, too. Yeah That would

have been nice. Nevertheless, it'll never happen,

but we did get that piece of shit mega figure

Yeah, you know you bring that up Michael talked

about the Beast Machines Megatron with the the

rolling bat wings to make the cape and he showed

me a picture of it and I hate that figure I hate

I know but I hate the Beast Machines Megatron

because Number one if you're gonna have and I

know they weren't all about screen accuracy back

then But if you're gonna have a screen accurate

character, you can't have his fucking dragon

feet poking out of the bottom of the fucking

cape Exactly, and it wasn't rippled like that.

It was like flat Yeah, so they should have had

panels that flipped down or something to make

it appear even mm -hmm I think at that price

point. That's about the best they could do though

Would have paid more to have an accurate figure

Hmm. Oh, no, definitely. Yeah. No if they have

made an ultra size that looked better or had

a better transformation honestly start with the

Transmetal to dragon form and then Wrap the yeah

wrap the body around it put the helmet on it

wrap the body around it, you know, it would have

been awesome. I would have And probably to this

day if they would make a masterpiece figure of

it, I would buy it But that is just me Awesome.

Yes, it would it would be very awesome But um,

I I like how dark Megatrons become like I've

been kind of flip -floppish on this series Off

and on I like it, but don't like it. I don't

but it's more so certain episodes or aspects

of it Those come later this however was one of

my favorite episodes especially with Just how

Megatron introduces himself when primals like

You know what is this place and then Megatron's

like it's my throne room optimus primal You know,

just all emotionless and without the lighter

tone that he held in Beast Wars. Right. Yeah.

Yeah, that confrontation scene is just awesome.

I like where he goes, Let's start with the Beast

Wars. They're over. Basically, he's like, I see

you have a few other loose ends running about,

but then again, you're bringing them right here.

But yeah, I love all the quotes Megatron spouting

off, basically gloating to primal. where Primal

of course pisses off Megatron to the point that

the system crashes short -circuiting every drone

and Megatron falls out of his uh his harness

yes his harness and goes back to dragon mode

and you see this heavily heavily uh changed in

color uh patched up cyborgish robot it's It's

more like a mutated dragon. It looks like Orokosaki

spread mutagen all over the body of the Transmetal

2 dragon form. It looks like he's practically

techno -organic. Yep. In that form, just for

the fact that he has so much of actual machinery

showing of the form and yet there's still beasts

remaining. Yep. It looks like he actually tried

to tear his skin off himself. Yeah. Yeah. I will

peel it layer by layer. And plus there's, uh,

you know, again, you don't really know how much

time has passed since Beast Wars, so I mean,

he could have had a lot of time to experiment

on himself. Yep. You would have thought... With

him being the only transformer left and having

a diagnostic drone that he could just transfer

his spark into a new body and Completely cut

out the middle man of having to worry about eliminating

it from his original body We'll get to that later

actually Which is very very very friggin disturbing

and it pisses me off But you would have thought

he would have done that originally just because

who's to challenge him. Yeah, that's true. Well,

it's possible that, you know, grasping his straws

here, but it's possible that he lost his ability

to move his spark from one body to another because

he mingled it with a G1 Megatron. I don't think

so because... And again, we're jumping way ahead.

We're guessing. No, I know. I'm jumping way ahead.

In a future episode, the drone even says that

to him. Why not just move your spark into a completely

robotic body? And he's like, I can't take the

chance of my spark even being vulnerable even

for a moment. And Optimus is right. Megatron

still... Deep down, wants that beast form even

though he denies that he wants it. He wants to

pet the dragon head. He wants the dragon head.

But he doesn't have the pool to play around with

anymore. Come play in my pool. Okay, do you have

anything else for this one, Steve? No, I think

that's it. We are moving on. Get Ston to Megatron.

The spider's heading for her old ship. But don't

worry, she'll be cold, slag, long before she

gets there. Looking for backup memory, are we?

Careful, Black Arachnia. You never know who you'll

find in there. Viacons, cancel the attack! Say

what? Allow the Arachnia to access her computer.

When she does, I will access her core processor

and learn the location of the Maximal base. Oh,

man! I gotta stop! And finally up today is Fires

of the Past. While searching for clues to their

missing memories, Blackarachnia and Rattrap encounter

Jetstorm, Thrust, and Tankor, three deadly new

Veikon generals created by Megatron. Did you

guys watch the commentary for this episode? No.

I didn't I only took one note, but I did watch

it and it was very interesting. It was more of

The commentary is with Bob Skier and Marv Wolfman

because Wolfman actually wrote this episode Marv

actually was the one that create the series Bible

for Beast Machines, but Fox didn't want him working

on it for some strange reason didn't want him

as a writer on the show But Kind of getting ahead

of ourselves here, but the original name for

Jetstorm was Skybolt, but Skeer said they changed

it because then everyone would immediately know

who it was, who it originally was. Yeah, I only

have four notes for this episode. It was just

so good. The truth shall set you free and give

you lots of guilt. It drives him insane. Yes,

yes it does. And I think I can answer my own

question here, but the question is so does Megatron

know which three sparks he chose? I think he

does. Oh he knows. I think he did it on purpose.

Yeah. Because he even says when they go to capture

or when jetstorm thrust and tank or going after

black arachnia He's like, oh going to a spaceship

or whatever. He's like, you know, no let her

you know Let her go in there. She's not gonna

she might not like what she finds or whatever

So yeah, he knows oh man There's a goddamn scooby

-doo gag in Beast Machines There's a Scooby -Doo

gag in Beast Machines. The gag is the running

about. You're meddling, dog. Oh, yeah. That's

about as close to silly as we're gonna get, I

think. Yeah. And that wasn't really silly, considering

that if they had been caught, they would have

been eaten. Yeah. Maybe not eaten. Not eaten,

no. Certainly a rock would not fall on their

head. True. Something bad would happen. They

would get blown to smithereens. The fires of

the past. Where's Rhinox? And Silverbolt. Because

Rattrap is like, because the whole point, and

one of the reasons why I really like Beast Machines

up until we get a certain god damn bat. They

send, you know, we talked about this already

this episode, that Primal Sins, you know, either

him and Cheeto, or him and Black Arachnia, or

vice versa, him and Rattrap, or whatever. It's,

you know, all these different combinations of

the four. And this one is all about Black Arachnia

and Rattrap learning the truth. And Black Arachnia

is like, oh, there was, you know, all six of

us, and Rattrap's like, six? What are you talking

about? Because nobody remembers Rhinox and Silverbolt.

All right, that's kind of hard to believe Well,

it's part of their more recent memories though.

So you would think that I don't know Maybe Megatron

went in there, you know and deleted that part

or so. I don't know Steve, why don't you go ahead

this time around? Already shut up each other

Don't get me started you keep saying it not me

Anyways, I like how, you know, we have the quirky

three generals, which just goes to show you Megatron

can't do it on his own. Yeah, he can't. Granted,

he has fail safes, but despite that, it's nice

to see some kind of quirky characters. And for

those that don't realize this, Thrust is basically

inferno. Well the voice in the voice but also

in the sense of how loyal Yeah, I didn't get

that so much from him well You get that throughout

the entire series is what I'm getting at. It's

more so I mean granted he hangs around like waspinator

does but He's loyal like inferno So I will agree

with that because I mean jetstorm is loyal as

well Obviously tank or and again, I really don't

want to reveal even though everybody Again, I'm

should already know everybody should already

know but I really just for our own sake of conversation

I don't want to jump so far ahead where we you

know, you know what I mean? But You know when

you said thrust is kind of like Inferno, well

the first thing I thought of well well yeah Jim

Burns voiced them both And you know that's where

part of it comes in but the other part is You

know just in general that character yeah But

I did like how Megatron chose three particular

sparks out of his big array of sparks Clearly

knowing who he was putting where and using the

irony of them, you know of who they happen to

be It was also odd to see a statue of prime getting

blown to pieces with holding two different golden

disks and Seeing the prime had smashed into the

ground poor optimus Even in death, he can't get

a break wasn't that one of the things that he

was in pieces he was ahead of his time Michael

wasn't that oh wait never mind I won't ask that

question you didn't get into that panel somebody

no no you wait did you go to the Peter Cohen

panel yeah yeah you didn't get into the autograph

that's what it was in the panel didn't somebody

ask him what he was Something about Optimus Prime

didn't they ask him what he regrets most or what

he doesn't like most about it And he said something

about I wish they'd stop making me die all the

time But it's just so damn good at it so good

at dying But I like how black right here gets

bonked on the head and all of a sudden starts

having random visions of the beast of Earth and

of their fallen comrades. And it was pretty cool

to see them actually go into a computer system

and having Black Orania go into like a, at the

time they had virtual reality video games that

were similar in style to what she's got on her

head. I don't remember what it was called. It

was like VR or something. I don't know. And then

you have Megatron hacking right behind her. Hmm.

Yeah trying to find out information, but she

gets an exact schematic of the The ship and gets

into that computer system, which of course has

all their information and it shows maximal signatures

inside From what yes six of them from what the

computer showed and You know rad traps like oh

we had more people and then all of a sudden Wagner

But the black right here remembers who yep, they

all were and then Jetstorm shows up and he's

I I really like thrust is is awesome Jetstorm

is just hilarious. I love Jetstorm in this series

He's just so funny. He's like your situation

actually matches your location terminal. I just

I love that She's like a best lines. Well, he's

like a smart ass cocky Version of Starscream

who can actually back it up and the thing about

it is if you really look outside of the whole

little romance They tried to set up with the

with the red herring that is thrust as far as

black arachnid situation goes That reminds me

I gotta tell Steve something later off here anyway

With that whole situation, if you look at Jetstorm

in Blackarachnia, he's always calling her Spider

-Babe or Baby Cakes or whatever else. So that's

another little indication of who he is. Yeah,

I'll buy that. For how much? Yeah, I can see

that somewhat. Sure. What else you got, Steve?

I like that Megatron. freaking flips out again

with his beast form and this time yeah the diagnostic

drone premiered in this episode yes and he shot

him well he didn't just shoot him with a big

fire yeah and it didn't do anything it charged

the clipboard the clipboard but it didn't do

shit to the drone well yeah Like oh look, it's

the fake plasma fire. Oh, it didn't do anything

Damn, you know why bother running away when it's

just gonna kind of cloud around you and dissipate

You know, I am pretty much betting that throughout

the rest of this podcast when Michael keeps bringing

up the fake plasma fire It's just like in season

one of Beast Wars. He kept saying oh, well, it's

good enough animation for 1996 Well, this is

fantastic for 1999 Well, yeah, and the fact that

they didn't just superimpose actual fire on it,

you know, I mean they're trying Anything else

Steve yes, I have a few more things and then

I'll be done I Like how they had show accurate

this to the season 3 granted it was only probably

like six months between You know to maybe maybe

a year at most between series but uh they they

did a good job showing these season three bodies

of these characters um they they have um what

is it uh they just kind of appeared and floated

by for half a second you didn't really see i

guess if you paused it And to look at I didn't

actually pause it but the the body's just kind

of floated by very quickly Wasn't it wasn't so

quick. It wasn't like split second thing, but

it wasn't they were fast. Yeah, yeah Slow blink

and you'll miss it. Yeah slow blink This is the

only thing I'm taking from the wiki Megatron

is looking at the computer screens and the text

in Predacon version of the Cybertronics language

message term says this, these flowers taste funny.

And then there's another one that says we are

the McAnimators from McMainframe. And then there's

another one that says smoke some ganja. And then

there's another one that says if you can read

this, seek help. See that's right And Although

used much less frequently Megatron utters. Yes.

Oh He starts using it a lot more when he gets

a real body but But it's it's more Sir, it's

more sinister. Oh, yeah What about you, Michael?

Let's see. When Blackarachnia is in La La Land,

or what I consider La La Land is kind of like

her sepia -toned Beast Wars forest, the forest

looks better than Beast Wars ever did. It does!

It looks really cool. And then she finds Silver

Bowl. And it's like, wow, is it really Silverbolt?

Or is it, you know, I mean, she's starting to

remember Silverbolt. And at this point, it's

like, all right, Cheetor, give it up. You're

not getting any. Just not gonna happen. You know

what I mean? As much as you'd love it, sorry.

She remembers Silverbolt now, and that's it.

End of story. Well, you know, I disagree with

that because, I mean... And again, I'm so jumping

ahead here. When we eventually do get Silverbolt

back, he basically jumps down Cheetor's throat

and she comes to Cheetor's side and says, hey

look, a lot has happened. He's not a kid anymore.

Granted, Cheetor's probably never gonna get in

the spider pants, but at least there's a mutual

respect between the two of them. Spider fans,

spider fans. Holds a giant spider beaver. Okay,

yeah, yeah, yeah. What else? What else? To digress.

To digress, yeah. This has got to be the first

use of split -screen animation. And that's something

that they start using a lot in this series, where

you're kind of... splitting the screen in half

with like a jagged white line and so as you can

see from two different points of view at the

same time so that's kind of neat and it goes

so far as to have a like a picture -in -picture

view right so while you've got Jetstorm talking

and expositioning let's say then you've got like

a little square that pops up so you can see Retrop

run away or whatever And then the square closes

and then appears on the other side. Yep, you

know and red traps still running away and That

reminded me and you're gonna hate this but it

reminded me of the g2 cyber No That's right Little

boxes opening up with alternate scenes inside

you pop up pop up video almost Pop up video I

can forgive the cybernetic space cube. Fuck.

No But that's where it reminded me of and I was

like, oh, that's kind of cool. Yeah, I like that

And you know lastly and Venus Torso She must

have screamed herself horse while running away

from the three generals yeah, because if you

watch that scene like from the moment they introduced

the generals and Black arachnia and retro started

getting their ass handed to them uh... she makes

the weirdest sounds you know and it's it's almost

like you know like i don't know if you watch

anime i don't think you watch anime but like

uh... if you've got an enemy who's so overpowering

that he's you know it's like haha i'm here to

kick your ass uh... the uh... the good guy in

this case uh... you know black arachnia is so

Don't I don't want to say I don't say scared

But yeah, it's like, you know, they're basically

pissing their pants and the sound effect for

pissing your pants is And they do that they just

sit there You know and again you get that a lot

in like Dragon Ball, but here you've got Venus

Torso going Yeah, and then when she's not making

that noise like holy shit, I'm shitting myself.

She's screaming blowing through the air, and

ah, I'm running away, and ah, and she's screaming

a lot. And I'm thinking, man, she had to have

walked out of that recording studio just nursing

her throat at that point. Yeah, I'm gonna tell

you right now, I do not like the animal sounds

that comes out of Black Arachnia or Rattrap.

I don't like them, either one of them. Really?

I don't like them. Now, are you saying animal

sounds or the screaming? No, the animal sounds.

Oh, yeah, like the sounds that come out of Rattrap

are... I can't, I can't do it justice, but it

doesn't so much sound like a rat. No, it sounds

like a rattlesnake, but anyways, go ahead, continue.

Something like that, yeah. No, that's about all

I got, and it's based on the fact that, you know,

again, they spend the whole episode running away.

It's like, so what are you doing? I'm running.

We're running some more and things are exploding

around us. It's great, you know, and again it

draws the attention it keeps you watching it,

but It goes by very quickly because again, it's

there's it's not like Hey, we're gonna talk for

half an hour and it's really deep heavy stuff

that you really have to listen to it's We're

running and we're screaming and shit's blowing

up and then optimus comes in and saves us and

that's it We're done. Some of the few notes that

I have are just, here's the storyline, but for

the most part, it's just straight action. It's

still fun. Oh yeah, and that's what makes this

series so awesome. It's all in -your -face action

with a little bit of story here and there, and

then the story will progress as we get further

and further into the series. So if we set our

piece on fires of the past or fires from the

past or whatever the hell the name this episode

is Yes, the fires the of the past And like code

of hero the code So we're gonna go to some quotes

and then we'll come back with the outro We'll

return to the beast unleashed podcast after this.

Hey This is Cheetor, and you're listening to

the Beast Unleashed Podcast, Ultra Gear. Here's

quote number one. What is this place? You might

call it my throne room, Optimus Primal. Megatron.

What have you done with the Council of Elders?

Alas. are no longer in control. Cybertron is

now my domain. You may bow before your new lord

and master. Quote number two. Alright boys, let's

barbecue us some beasties. And quote number three.

What do you say we give these new bods a test

drive? Now, back to the Beast Unleashed podcast.

That's it for episode 21 of the Beast Unleashed

podcast. We covered the first three episodes

of Beast Machines overall. I really love this

series in general, but this is a nice way to

start it, don't you guys think? Oh yeah. Yep.

Yep. Thank you for joining us here on the Beast

Unleashed Podcast. There are some ways you can

contact with us or leave feedback for the show.

Visit the website geekcastradio .com. Join the

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your Twitter? PconCTMichael. And Steve? SCP21.

Follow us or become a fan on Facebook, search

Geekcast Radio Network. Join the voicemail. No,

the voicemail line is still broken. We hope you

enjoyed this episode of the Beast on Leash podcast.

Join us next time when we will be reviewing three

more episodes from Beast Machines Season 1, those

being Mercenary Pursuits, Forbidden Fruit, and

The Weak Component. For now, I am TFG1 Mike with...

Michael Wilson. And Steve Megatron Phillips.

Sorry. I was supposed to wait for you this time,

wasn't I? Oh, geez. I don't even know anymore.

No, I think I was. I'm sorry. I didn't wait last

time. I did wait last time and then screwed it

up. So thank you for listening. Until next time.