MUNKY NOT TRUKK!! Let's Watch Beast Wars!


119 - Call of the Wild

Our episode opens in a forest, Cheetor is stalking an antelope through a dark forest. But the ground opens up and he falls in lava. Cheetor wakes up to the sound of the alarms. The Axalon is under attack and Sentinel's been taken offline (off-camera. Somehow). And we see it's only Tarantulas and Scorponok who are firing at the ship too. They begin taking out the autoguns. It takes Dinobot to grab Cheetor and go outside, deciding to do a sortie and do something about the Predacons. They charge the two Predacons, and Megatron comes out of cover and takes out another autogun. Waspinator and Terrorsaur arrives, and extract a component from the Axalon. Optimus finally decides to do something, and sorties after the fliers. Airazor sees the battle as she returns to base, transforms and goes after the flier. Optimus gets shot and crashes.

Seriously, in season 1, Optimus flying after Terrorsaur or Waspinator only to be shot and crash without accomplishing anything is almost a recurring gag. It happens almost _every_ episode. To the point where it loses all impact and becomes predictable. "Oh look. Optimus is flying somewhere. I wonder if he'll get shot and crash. Oh look. He got shot. What a twist!" It's almost like the writers gave Optimus flight solely because they needed him to be able to go places fast, but then realized he could end most episodes really fast if he were doing competent stuff while flying. So they make him crash. All the time.

Anyway, Airazor goes to catch her vertically challenged leader and gets shot for her trouble. She stops his fall, but for some reason, the damage she took (and which did not prevent her from flying, unlike Optimus') is so extensive it'll take several days in the CR Chamber to repair. So Waspinator gets blown to pieces. He's back up in a few hours. Optimus gets a hole blown in his chest, he's up in a few hours. Airazor's wings smoke a bit, but she can still fly... Several days of repair. That makes sense. Oh, and the best part: Optimus was shot by a giant missile from Megatron himself. Airazor... got hit by one shot from Terrorsaur's pistol. Oh, and Optimus' damage is so light he doesn't need to even go in a CR Chamber.

I wonder if it's a cheap ploy to keep her locked in a CR Chamber!

Anyway, after the Predacons retreat with their stolen components, the Maximals return to base, but then they begins suffering from Energon surge. Rhinox explains the thing the Predacons stole is what shielded the base from Energon radiation, and they'll need to remain in beast mode.

Megatron cackles and explains that his plan is in motion. And that it'll have effects on the Maximals.

Fast Forward 2 days and Scorponok sneaks up on the Axalons, beginning to take Pot shots at it. The Maximals turn Sentinel on. Don't use Sentinel at all. Optimus is having a dream that he's a gorilla, playing Tarzan, when Rhinox wakes him up. The Maximals complain it has been two days and they've not been able to get any sleep.

Okay, here's a random idea: Use Sentinel! Or here's another: Go outside, like 4 of you, and beat the ever loving crap out of Scorponok. If one gunshot from Terrorsaur can do so much damage to Airazor she's still not repaired, I am sure 4 of you can do more to Scorponok (who is alone, without backup). Megatron will run out of Predacons to send on pointless raids to keep you sleep deprived eventually. Or he'll be forced to send all of his forces on those raids to prevent you guys from beating them to scrap. Then he won't be sleeping either.

But instead the Maximals have opted to do nothing. And forbid one another from Transforming less they run out of fight time. Geez, if only Beast Modes came with self repair that gave you the ability to quickly regenerate your fight time. Oh wait. THEY DO. They feel their beast modes are taking over. They realize Tigatron must've dealt with this, but they've signaled him and have yet to hear from it. Geez, it's as if having one of your soldier only need to report once a week so it doesn't get in the way of his Granola Boy stuff is a dumb idea. The sleep deprivation gets them aggressive and when Scorponok's left (Not because they did anything. He just packed up and left.) they decide to catch some sleep.

All the Maximals have dreams where they are animals. When they wake up, the beast modes have taken over, and they act as animals. With Dinobot chasing Rattrap. Eventually they all leave the ship into the jungle outside the Axalon that never was there before or after. BTW, that paragraph? Three minutes of screen time (out of 20). That's how padded this episode feels.

Megatron sees this happening and says he knew this would happen, based on his research on Maximal Programming. So why the HELL is Dinobot affected? Because the episode is stupid. That's why.

And Megatron's organize himself a safari. He's got a Palanquin made of wood pelts and tusks. Blackarachnia's got a drum... Because... Wasting time when you can only spend so much time in Robot mode is good? I don't know.

He tries to shoot Optimus but misses. In the base, Airazor comes out of the CR Chamber. Tigatron is there, and sees what's happening in the Forest-that-Wasn't-There-Before-and-is-Apparantly-Filled-with-Cameras (Or FWTBAFC for short). Tigatron decides to help the Maximals, Airazor will go retrieve the stolen part form the Darksyde.

Lemme cover Airazor's part first, just because I want to make a point. Airazor swoops at the Darksyde, using a sonic boom to blow up the autoguns. Which is awesome. Inside, she finds the part, but expects a booby trap, and indeed, when she touches it, and autogun pops out. She shoots it, and hurries back to base.

Meanwhile, Tigatron finds each of the Maximals in beast mode, stares them them down, and makes them follow. Rinse and repeat a few time. He the gives them a speech on how they got to delete a programming block that keeps their beast half and robot half separated. Allow the the two to merge. This works, and the Maximals are back in control. This entire thing is about 3 minute and a half long (intercut in smaller bits with the Airazor stuff). I didn't cut anything major. That's how slow paced the episode is.

Anyway, the Maximals transform, we have a short, somewhat comedic fight with the Predacons, who begin feeling the effects of Energon surge (Geez, it's as if hunting them in the slowest manner possible was stupid).

After the battle, Optimus reflects that with the help of their beast nature side they are stronger than before. Not that it matters. This episode is filler and is never referenced again.
I really don't care for this episode. It's paced so slowly, filled with stupid bits and frankly, not that entertaining. The Airazor thing is fun, but that's 1 min of the ENTIRE length of the episode.

  • Cheetor's dream of being Cheetah before the events actually happen could count as another instance of his prophetic dreams. His death in the dream also mirrors the deaths of Scorponok and Terrorsaur.


nomuru2d 11th Feb 12
This was actually the first episode I ever saw. It's amazing in retrospect that I wanted to keep watching.
Eegah 11th Feb 12
This episode explains why the maximals can fight well in there alt modes.
LeithSol 17th Dec 12