Beast Wars- this one has been nagging me since I was a kid

[Molyneux]

I do have to echo the dissatisfaction over the deaths of Terrasaur and Scorponok...that led to the one and only fanfic I have ever written.

When Beast Wars came out, I barely even remembered Transformers. I loved it as a kid, but had lost interest as I grew older - it was only BW that managed to grab my attention for the franchise once more. Even now, I think of David Kaye as Megatron before I think of Frank Welker.

[JME2]

Even now, I think of David Kaye as Megatron before I think of Frank Welker.

And likewise, Gary Chalk as Optimus. This actually makes re-watching Stargate SG-1 amusing given his supporting role as Russian Colonel Chekov.

Interestingly, it was supposed to be Waspinator that died with Scorponok. But he was too much of a hit with both fans and the writers, so Terrorsaur bit it instead. I didn't mind considering he was Starscream Lite. Besides, Waspinator was my favorite Predacon after Megatron and gave us classic bits like this:

"Oh, sure, don't mind Waspinator! Waspinator just lie here and suffer, drag himself to CR Tank"

[Crossroads Inc.]

I will say Waspinator's gags did bring up one of the few things I didn't like about BW, and that was the "fall apart" gag.
When you had characters arms legs and heads all comically falling apart, it is hard to take damage to them seriously. I mean you could chalk it up to just "site gags" from the producers, but there was a lot of parts where after a "Fall apart" gag, I was saying to myself "Why don't the Maximals gather up the pieces so they can't be rebuilt?"

That said Waspinator, someone who started as really just a 2dimensional comic relief, even he grew and was significantly developed throughout the series.

[JME2]

That said Waspinator, someone who started as really just a 2dimensional comic relief, even he grew and was significantly developed throughout the series.

One of my favorite Waspinator bits isn't even a comedic moment. It's in "Coming of the Fuzors - Part 1", when he realizes the significance of both the solitary moon and the Golden Disc.

I always liked that dumb, incompetent Predacon whipping boy was the first one to figure out they were on Earth after all (or at least on screen, given Megatron and Tarantulas already knew as we later saw).

[Skylon]

On Terrasaur and Scorponok, looking back at things, I felt they were killed off largely because it started to feel like a copy of Soundwave and Starscream all over again.
You had the fiercely loyal and logical one and then the crazed high pitched guy out to stab the boss in the back, and who was a flyer to boot. Now that is a bit of a stab in the dark really, originally I thought it was just to sell toys at first, but Swindle already covered that.

As for Tigertron and Airaiser, well I assumed that was to 'balance out' the deaths of Terrasaur and Scorponok, but that goes back to their deaths being rather needless.

All the above died literally due to the fact that in the end, Beast Wars was a toy commercial. There were only so many characters Mainframe (the show's animators) could have running around, and new characters were going to be introduced so starting season 2 they began axing characters. Hasbro suggested Terrorsaur and Waspinator get killed. The creators fought to keep Waspinator (thank God) and got Hasbro's permission to kill Scorponok instead.

To avoid the cheap deaths of those two, the writers, realizing they'd eventually need to kill a Maximal decided to try and avoid a cheap-o deaths they were forced to do for Scorponok and Terrorsaur (and to an extent Airazor and Tigatron), and instead crafted a "grand death" for Dinobot. It also lead to the "everybody dies" end of season 2, as the writers decided "kill them all, let Hasbro sort 'em out."

[Swindle1984]

I will say Waspinator's gags did bring up one of the few things I didn't like about BW, and that was the "fall apart" gag.
When you had characters arms legs and heads all comically falling apart, it is hard to take damage to them seriously. I mean you could chalk it up to just "site gags" from the producers, but there was a lot of parts where after a "Fall apart" gag, I was saying to myself "Why don't the Maximals gather up the pieces so they can't be rebuilt?"

That said Waspinator, someone who started as really just a 2dimensional comic relief, even he grew and was significantly developed throughout the series.

The cartoonish moments in the series, such as Waspinator falling apart (and apparently Rattrap DID keep pieces of Waspy as souvenirs, according to dialogue from the series finale), Waspinator getting flattened when Optimus smacks him between his hands, Rhinox farting the Predacons into oblivion, etc. did stand out from the rest of the series. Even as a kid, I felt like it detracted from the seriousness of the show.

Still, I can dismiss the Waspinator moments as Waspinator simply being frickin' immortal, supported by both his ability to survive damage that killed other characters and his temporary possession by Starscream's ghost.

Terrasaur and Scorponok dying still irritates me. Sure, they were the most dispensable cast members, but it gets even more egregious when they fell into lava and instantly died, but then in season 3 Tarantulas tosses Megatron into lava and he not only survives, it even allows his beast form to change species when he mutated due to G1 Megatron's spark. Sure, he was a transmetal by that point and the other two weren't (though I recall at least one of them glowing the way others did shortly before mutating into transmetals), but it's still annoying.

Tigatron and Airazor... yeah, it balanced the two sides a bit, but it wasn't done nearly as horribly. This sort of thing had been hinted at by the aliens throughout the series, and they eventually make a (sort of) comeback for season 3 as Tigerhawk, with the same voice actor as Tigatron.

And then he dies for no reason in the finale two episodes later.

It's too bad they didn't get to stretch out the finale the way they wanted to. Or "film" Dark Glass and the other episodes they dropped.

[Molyneux]

Terrasaur and Scorponok dying still irritates me. Sure, they were the most dispensable cast members, but it gets even more egregious when they fell into lava and instantly died, but then in season 3 Tarantulas tosses Megatron into lava and he not only survives, it even allows his beast form to change species when he mutated due to G1 Megatron's spark. Sure, he was a transmetal by that point and the other two weren't (though I recall at least one of them glowing the way others did shortly before mutating into transmetals), but it's still annoying.

If I remember correctly, both Scorponok and Terrasaur were glowing as they fell. The writers wanted to leave a loophole to possibly bring them back later as Transmetals.

[Crossroads Inc.]

That is true, and I remember noticing that as a kid. Looking at the others, all of the "orginal" cast went Transmetal. the 'native born' ones, Tigertron, Airazer, Black Archnia and Inferno, they didn't. I always assumed being made on Earth somehow made them immune to the shockwave that transmetled everyone else. On Rhinox, I figured he didn't change because he was inside one of the reapiring canisters when the shockwave hit. I assumed Waspinator didn't as well because he was Blown up at the time, I think.

The one loophole to that is of course dinobot, I have NO idea why he didn't get an 'upgrade' other then if he did he would be too badass to have in the show anymore

[Swindle1984]

Everyone who was in a CR chamber/hot tub being repaired didn't turn into a transmetal. I know this accounts for Rhinox and Waspinator, dunno about the rest who didn't transform. It's been too long since I saw the series and I don't own the DVD's (yet).

According to the Beast Wars Encyclopedia (or whatever it was; a four-part book series that was terribly, TERRIBLY made, with typos, contradictions, poor artwork, miscredited artwork, etc.), Scorponok and Terrasaur survived, they were just trapped beneath the magma for the rest of the series.

Sort of a I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream fate, if you ask me. And if they survived, like Megs did, I gotta wonder why there was never any attempt to recover them.

[JME2]

And if they survived, like Megs did, I gotta wonder why there was never any attempt to recover them.

Are you referring to Megs' final Transmetal transformation?

It might have occurred to him to do so if the Vok hadn't come a knocking and flattened the Predacon base.

[OmegaChief]

The one loophole to that is of course dinobot, I have NO idea why he didn't get an 'upgrade' other then if he did he would be too badass to have in the show anymore

Dinobot was also in a Maximal CR chamber, as both he and Rhinox had been spider-chowed in the season 1 finale.

[JME2]

Sort of a I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream fate, if you ask me.

I take it then that you too are a browser of TV Tropes?

[Swindle1984]

Sort of a I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream fate, if you ask me.

I take it then that you too are a browser of TV Tropes?

It ruins your life.





The animation errors in the show are... interesting. Most of them are in season one. There's a lot of examples of Predacon/Maximal logos getting switched; it's most noticable in the episode where Cheetor gets teleported into the Predacon base. Note the missile Scorponok fires at him has a Maximal logo instead of its usual Predacon logo.

Waspinator's butt was missing stripes in a couple scenes.

The episode where Tarantulas goes into Jeffery Dahmer mode on Cheetor has another animation error, a pretty major one. During Cheetor's nightmare sequence, Rattrap suddenly appears wielding a knife and then is gone a second later, not mentioned or relevent to the rest of the dream in any way. It's the exact animation of Rattrap cutting Cheetor down from Tarantula's web later in the episode; they fucked up and inserted it into the dream sequence by accident.

Season two has, during Dinobot's cremation scene, Rattrap in his season one form instead of his transmetal body like he should be.

[JME2]

It ruins your life.

You'll get no argument from me.

[LMSx]

I wholeheartedly support all Beast Wars discussion.

About.....let's call it 5 or 6 years ago I torrented the whole thing again and watched it. It was originally watching Beast Wars that lured me online, and from a TF discussion board thread about SW v. ST I found StarDestroyer.net.

Wasn't S1 as long as seasons 2 and 3? I was a little surprised about that. There's some non mythology fluff in S1, especially compared to the taut, lean Season 2 which was totally ace. I also enjoyed that you could observe the advancement in CGI technology as the show went on, particularly the innovation of "water" in Season 3. I wonder how Mainframe would have done it today.

From what I remember, it's not a capital letter Awesome series, but certainly one that reached a legit, solid level of quality.

[Swindle1984]

I'd love it if they went back and reanimated Beast Wars with modern CGI and maybe brought back the writers and voice actors to make a few new episodes.

And left the guys who wrote Beast Machines out in the cold. Even the voice actors hated what was done with their characters. Scott Mcneill was especially vocal about it.



Incidentally, I got to talk to Gary Chalk and Scott at Botcon 2001. Scott revealed that Waspinator spent his downtime bowling.

I was also present for the infamous "your voice is a like a 12" penis; you gotta keep it hard or it's no good, no matter how long it is" comment.

[JME2]

Incidentally, I got to talk to Gary Chalk and Scott at Botcon 2001. Scott revealed that Waspinator spent his downtime bowling.

I was also present for the infamous "your voice is a like a 12" penis; you gotta keep it hard or it's no good, no matter how long it is" comment.

[JME2]

Also, I remember a fan theory from the 90's that Megatron's rubber ducky was secretly manipulating everything that happened in Beast Wars from behind the scenes.

Speaking of Megs, I couldn't resist posting this bit involing David Kaye and Meg's rubber ducky.

[Swindle1984]

Also, I remember a fan theory from the 90's that Megatron's rubber ducky was secretly manipulating everything that happened in Beast Wars from behind the scenes.

Speaking of Megs, I couldn't resist posting this bit involing David Kaye and Meg's rubber ducky.

Frankly, having any of the voice actors improv their characters ordering in the drive-through at McDonald's is a BotCon tradition that should continue forever.


Tarantulas: "With friiiiiiiiiies! Lots of friiiiiiiiiiiiies! MWA-HAHAHA!"

Waspinator: "Wazzpinator just want date with machine that talks like me!"




Also, Autobots suck at golf.

Optimus: "Where's my five iron?"

Megatron: "I stole it!"

[JME2]

Frankly, having any of the voice actors improv their characters ordering in the drive-through at McDonald's is a BotCon tradition that should continue forever.

Tarantulas: "With friiiiiiiiiies! Lots of friiiiiiiiiiiiies! MWA-HAHAHA!"

Waspinator: "Wazzpinator just want date with machine that talks like me!"

LMAO. I would have loved to hear that sketch.

[JME2]

Frankly, having any of the voice actors improv their characters ordering in the drive-through at McDonald's is a BotCon tradition that should continue forever.

Tarantulas: "With friiiiiiiiiies! Lots of friiiiiiiiiiiiies! MWA-HAHAHA!"

Waspinator: "Wazzpinator just want date with machine that talks like me!"

LMAO. I would have loved to hear that sketch.

Never mind; I found it.