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Beast Machines

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The logo of Beast Machines.
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The logo of Beast Machines.

Beast Machines was an animated television series produced by Mainframe Entertainment that was a direct sequel to Beast Wars and is the final television series to take place within the continuity of the original Transformers series. The cause of much controversy among the fanbase, the show ran for two seasons, airing on Fox and YTV from 1999 to 2000. Of the Transformers animated series produced in North America, Beast Machines was the only one to have been completely conceptualized and outlined in advance, lending it a more serialized and linear storyline than the others although the quality of the storylines themselves have been heavily debated amongst fans. The Beast Machines intro theme was "Phat Planet", by Leftfield.

Contents

Characters

Maximals

Optimus Primal
Leader of the Maximals. Beast mode is a techno-organic gorilla. He was the first to transform into his new robot mode. Optimus Primal's leadership is judged in the series when he continues to rely on the Oracle. He has a very bad temper, mainly because of what the evil Megatron has done to his homeworld of Cybertron and also the Maximals have lost two of their friends (Rhinox and Silverbolt). He has insights into the past and future and can reformat other transformers. However, he is still full of valor and heroism, and can make wise and noble decisions. He often argues with Cheetor about what to do in the early episodes. He dies at the end of both seasons, reborn at the start of season one and sacrificing himself and Megatron at the end of season two to transform Cybertron into a techno-organic planet. His main weapon was laser discs that could be fired from his torso, his arms could be used as both shields and a way to reflect enemy attacks
Cheetor
Second-in-command. Beast mode is a techno-organic cheetah. He is the second to transform into his new robot mode. Cheetor has gone from a immature child at the start of the Beast Wars to a mature, but still hot-headed adult in the Beast Machines. Cheetor is now second-in-command of Maximals, but still looks up to Optimus as his idol. However, the two can get into heated arguments when either of them make rash decisions. Cheetor's new beast mode allows him to move much faster than before and he can easily confuse a Vehicon drone (as seen in Reformatting). Cheetor was one of the four Maximals to appear on Cybertron with no memory of what happened before. Cheetor survives the Beast Machines war and appears to become the leader of the Maximals, and the Oracle's new representive as Optimus was previously. Cheetor's weapons included an enhanced super speed (to the point of the original Transformers' Blur) and a pair of sabers which he pulled from his back.
Rattrap
Intelligence and surveillance expert. Beast mode is a techno-organic rat. Wisecracking spy Rattrap appeared on Cybertron with no memory of how he got there, and hid aboard a cargo vehicle until he was discovered by Optimus, unable to transform like the gorilla. He is the last out of the original four Maximals to learn how to transform, because he was impatient, but he discovered his short wheeled robot mode has no weapons! He nearly became a Vehicon to get weapons from Megatron, but he sooned realised his mistake and rejoined the Maximals. Rattrap sooned learnt he could access the computers of Cybertron and gain secret information. Near the end of the series, Rattrap fell in love with fellow Maximal, Botanica. Rattrap had no direct weapons to speak of, hence part of a character flaw, but he had a visor that he could use to scan his peripheral environment and use on computer systems to hack them.
Blackarachnia
Saboteur. Beast mode is a techno-organic black widow spider. Despite her Predacon past, Blackarachnia is now a true Maximal, but still has her crafty and sinister personality. She mainly spends most of the first series looking for and freeing her beloved lover, Silverbolt from the clutches of Megatron. She eventually frees him from his evil form Jetstorm, but he is bitter about his revival. In the end, Blackarachnia and Silverbolt are properly reunited. Her weapons include a very limber athleticism, webbing and powerful fighting skills.
Nightscream
Young impetuous hothead, Nightscream was a sole survivor of the eradicating virus that infected cybertron and was inadvertently merged with the beast mode of a bat, later reformatted by Optimus to a techno-organic form of the same animal. He often finds conflict with the others and hides his emotions moreso than the others, but still comes across as an oversensitive child. His robot mode weapons included a hypersonic scream and the capability of flight as his wings transfer to his heels in this mode.
Savage/Noble
Although not considered an official member of the Maximals, Savage/Noble still does count as one. After his discovery as the beast Savage who was attacking both sides in the fight, Nightscream persuaded him to join their team. He accepted, and became a force against Megatron. Unfortunately, Noble was killed soon after.
Botanica
A curious Maximal discovered after Megatron and Optimus Primal's consecutive attacks changed the face of the planet towards Techno-organic. Botanica is a calm minded spiritually oriented female who, due to being crossed with a plant life has an innate awareness of the new growth on cybertron. She becomes the love interest of Rattrap and battles with the Maximals in the final fight against Megatron and his Vehicons.
Silverbolt
One of the original six Maximals to survive the Beast Wars and Blackarachnia's lover. He disappeared when the Maximals returned to Cybertron, and it was later revealed he had been captured by Megatron with Rhinox, his spark implanted in the Vehicon General Jetstorm. Blackarachnia learnt that Silverbolt enjoyed being Jetstorm, but didn't believe it was him. She managed to reformat him into a Maximal again with a samurai-like appearance a beast mode of a condor. However, he was bitter to his friends about being transformed but still helped the Maximals. In the last episode he survived and appeared to regain his former noble personality.
Rhinox
Although never appearing physically in the show, Rhinox appeared several times. He was captured by Megatron alongside Silverbolt and became Tankor. Rattrap awoke Rhinox's memories, but instead of rejoining the Maximals, Rhinox shocked everyone by revealing he planned to cleanse the planet of all of this chaos and rule over it himself. He used Megatron and Optimus to activate the Key to Vector Sigma to carry out his plan, but Megatron knew of his betrayal and paralyzed him. Rhinox/Tankor was killed at the end of Season 1. Realising his mistakes, Rhinox stayed in the Matrix for his transgressions.

Vehicons

Megatron
The antagonist of the Beast Wars series. Megatron is more of a mind than a body for the first season, controlling his Vehicons from the Counsil of Elders stadium but due to a side effect from his Key of Vector Sigma and Optimus' organic reactor he changed and for a short time became a wolf-like creature named Noble. He gains a body back and becomes more god-like in power eventually taking hold of Optimus Primal's previous Optimal Optimus form and using it to attack the Maximals. Megatron was destroyed when Optimus sacrificed himself and threw himself and Megatron into the Cybertronian core.
Jetstorm
Raving, sarcastic and all around thorough villain, the Vehicon Jetstorm always had something to say with a very vicious snap to it. During the first season of Beast Machines, Black Arachnia uncovered that he was actually Silverbolt, his spark moved into a new body. Upon returning to a Maximal form, Silverbolt regretted being changed back as he loved the freedom from the shackles of his normally intense nobility that his natural form brought. Jetstorm was per his name a powerful blue jet.
Tankor
Large, powerful, but dull witted, Tankorr was usually the first and most blunt of the Vehicons to attack the Maximals. His slow witted thinking threw off his true personality as the spark that resided in him was none other than that of Rhinox. After awakening, he insisted on the necessity that organics have no place on Cybertron and became the enemy of his former allies. His vehicle mode was that of a large tank.
Thrust
Smooth talking and confident, Thrust had a very low, whispery voice when he spoke. He was very adreneline-charged and often enjoyed attacking the Maximals, though he was cautious and didn't attack them alone as often as Jetstorm had. He was third in command following Jetstorm, and it was uncovered by Black Arachnia that his spark was actually that of Waspinator. Some fans weren't sure of this as Waspinator was left in peace after Beast Wars, stranded on ancient Earth. One can only surmise that Megatron traveled back and took the former Predacon's spark.

English Cast

Maximals

Optimus Primal in Robot Mode
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Optimus Primal in Robot Mode

Vehicons

Beast Machines Megatron
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Beast Machines Megatron

Plot summary

[Spoiler warningSpoiler warning]: Plot and/or ending details follow.
Megatron, founder of the Vehicons and ruler of Cybertron
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Megatron, founder of the Vehicons and ruler of Cybertron

As the new series begins, the surviving Beast Wars Maximal team (Optimus Primal, Rattrap, Cheetor and Blackarachnia) returned back to their homeworld (consistently pronounced "Cybetron"), but the planet is without power. No other signs of life are present, with the exception of a new race of Transformers known as the Vehicons, who are out to take over Cybertron and will stop at nothing to destroy the Maximals. The Maximals found themselves stuck in their animal forms, and with no ability to transform into their more powerful robot forms. Optimus Primal was then summoned by an ancient super computer called "the Oracle".

The Oracle's cryptic messages foretold of a great change to come for the planet of Cybertron. It "reformatted" Optimus and the Maximals in order to better equip them to face the threat to Cybertron, that being a virus that had been engineered by the rogue Predacon Leader Megatron. It was revealed that Megatron had escaped during "Transwarp" from the pre-historic past of the Beast Wars and had arrived in an unspecified amount of time before the Maximals exited Transwarp Space. Thus, Megatron had conquered the entire planet with his virus and extracted the Sparks of the entire race.

The Vehicons were shown to be a race of drones, automated and controlled by Megatron from the former Maximal Citadel. Without Sparks of their own, the Vehicons at first proved to be easily defeated by the Maximals as the strain of multi-tasking (running the entire Planet and controlling the Drones) proved to be difficult for Megatron. Megatron thus took three Sparks and created three Vehicon generals to take command of their respective drones. The Tank Drone Commander was named Tankor, the Cycle Drone Commander was named Thrust and the Aero Drone Commander was called Jetstorm.

It was later revealed that the Sparks used to create the Generals were all known to the Maximals, two of which being former comrades and being forced by hard wired programming to battle their friends, the other being the only Predacon, other than Megatron to survive the Beast Wars. The Maximals discovered Jetstorm, Tankor and Thrust are really Silverbolt, Rhinox and Waspinator. After having his memories awakened by Rattrap, Tankor rebelled against Megatron and secretly began to plot to take over Cybertron for himself. Apprehending and reprogramming Megatron's Diagnostic Drone, Tankor discovered the Oracle and learned of the existence of the Key to Vector Sigma, a device which could transform organic matter into "technomatter", Tankor faked his demise and allowed Megatron to learn of the Key's existence.

Megatron sought to use the Key as a weapon to destroy the Maximals, however Tankor used the Oracle to arm Optimus Primal with control of the Plasma Energy Chamber, a device that could destroy most forms of technology. Tankor then set up a show down between Megatron and the Maximals in which he intended to seize control once they destroyed each other, however, Megatron had hard-wired programming into Tankor's body which caused him to shut down when Tankor tried to physically confront Megatron. Megatron and Optimus Primal both unleashed their weapons against each other and Cybertron itself was nearly destroyed, but the Oracle, on behalf of the Allspark, intervened and prevented any harm to come to Cybertron.

Megatron, Primal and Tankor were apparently temporarily destroyed, however because of their link to the Oracle itself, they were each given the opportunity to choose their own destiny. Optimus Primal chose to return and carry out the will of the All-Spark. Rhinox was freed from the hard wiring that made him Tankor and he thus chose to rejoin the Matrix in atonement for his misguided deeds as Tankor. Megatron chose to separate the organics from his body (his driving desire since returning to Cybertron, as he began to abhor organics from his experience in the Beast Wars, and came to the conclusion that organics had no place in a mechanical race) and succeeded in doing so, however his Spark was trapped in the wrong half and he became a totally organic Transformer known as Savage and Noble.

His intended form, that being an enormous battle station in the shape of an altered version of his head (and able to transform into an alternate form of a powerful spaceship) was released on auto-pilot into the sky above the Maximal Citadel. As Savage and Noble, Megatron tricked the Maximal Nightscream into believing Noble to be another survivor of Megatron's virus and used the Maximals to gain entry to the Citadel where he was able to extract and free his Spark from his organic form (the organic body lived on as a feral beast that followed Nightscream around but never showed anymore than basic intelligence) and Megatron was able to interface with his battle station form and remotely took control of Cybertron once again. The Maximals discovered an organic "Core Liquid" and a chamber containing fossilized animal bones, and were able to awaken Silverbolt from within the form of Jetstorm and reformat him into a Maximal once more.

However, his experience as Jetstorm turned him bitter, and Silverbolt lost his charismatic Chivalry that was his main character trait. It was never explained how or why the fossils were there, and this became a sore point in the Transformers fanbase. Cybertron was always portrayed as having evolved as a purely machanical planet, so this addition of the story launched massive speculation that this planet may not be Cybertron at all.

Having lost two of his original Generals, Megatron used the Sparks of two Transformers (that were said to be the greatest generals in Cybertron History,) and thus two new Vehicon generals were created: Obsidian and Strika. The Maximals also gained another member when an exploration ship returned to Cybertron in answer to a false distress beacon set up by Megatron to lure wayward Maximals back home, and to their doom.

Having adopted an alternate form based on the dominate life form of the planet she was sent to explore (that of a sentient plant) the newcomer called herself Botanica. This character proved to cause the most disapproval with the Transformer's fan base, as she was totally divorced from any thing ever to appear in the Transformers stories before. Botanica proved to be very powerful, and became central in Optimus Primal's plan to reformat the entire planet, and introduce organics to Cybertron, as he believed the Allspark wanted him to do.

The Maximals then learned that the Sparks of the former inhabitants of the planet were being held within the massive battle station that was Megatron's new body. After launching an attack against Megatron in which the Maximals were nearly defeated, Nightscream witnessed the destruction of Savage and Noble by Megatron and, in a rage, was able to depolorize Megatron's Spark and force it from its battle station shell. The Maximals then gained control of the battle station and thus control of the displaced Sparks as well. Megatron was forced to inhabit an off-line Diagnostic Drone as his Vehicon army mounted a massive attack in an effort to reclaim his former base. Megatron's forces were able to deplete the power reserves of the battle station and force it to crash, then the Vehicon's vast numbers overwhelmed and defeated the Maximals, extracting their Sparks and adding them to the collection in the process.

However, before his capture, the Maximal Cheetor was able to use the anti-gravity engines of the battle station to launch Obsidian and Strika into orbit around the planet. The only Maximal that was left to face Megatron was Optimus Primal, but to Primal's dismay, Megatron had taken a new form: one based on Primal's own former "Optimal Optimus" body, but stripped of its organics. Megatron then released all of the captured Sparks and absorbed them into his own(causing his form to swell in size) in order to create one perfect being. Megatron then blasted a hole to the core of the planet, exposing the organic core liquid.

Megatron separated Optimus from the Oracle, reformed the Key to Vector Sigma, and began to convert the organic core into technomatter. Once completed, Megatron intended to transfer his own consciousness into Cybertron itself, turn it into a perfect techno-sphere, and use Cybertron as weapon to conquer the Universe. However, the Allspark again intervened and allowed Optimus Primal to escape. Primal then interrupted the conversion process and tackled Megatron, knocking them both over the edge and into the organic core below. As they hit the core, Primal unleashed the reformatting process, releasing the Sparks that were absorbed within Megatron and apparently turning the entire planet into a technorganic bio-sphere. The Maximals awoke in their own bodies while the population was reborn into the new bodies of the reformatted Vehicon drones, including Waspinator who returned to his original form (but with Thrust's head). Waspinator's final words recall an end to the previous series: "Wazzpinator never gets what Wazzpinator wants." Even with this victory, Optimus Primal and Megatron perished together.

Spoilers end here.

Episode List

Season One

Episode Number Title Airdate
01 The Reformatting September 18, 1999
02 Master of the House September 25, 1999
03 Fires of the Past October 2, 1999
04 Mercenary Pursuits October 9, 1999
05 Forbidden Fruit October 16, 1999
06 The Weak Component October 23, 1999
07 Revelations (1): Discovery October 30, 1999
08 Revelations (2): Descent November 6, 1999
09 Revelations (3): Apocalypse November 13, 1999
10 Survivor November 27, 1999
11 Techno-Organic War (1): The Key December 4, 1999
12 Techno-Organic War (2): The Catalyst December 11, 1999
13 Techno-Organic War (3): End of the Line December 18, 1999

Season Two

Episode Number Title Airdate
14 Fallout August 5, 2000
15 Savage Noble August 19, 2000
16 Prometheus Unbound August 26, 2000
17 In Darkest Knight September 2, 2000
18 A Wolf In the Fold September 9, 2000
19 Home Soil September 16, 2000
20 Sparkwar (1): The Strike September 23, 2000
21 Sparkwar (2): The Search September 30, 2000
22 Sparkwar (3): The Siege October 7, 2000
23 Spark of Darkness October 28, 2000
24 Endgame (1): The Downward Spiral November 4, 2000
25 Endgame (2): When Legends Fall November 11, 2000
26 Endgame (3): Seeds of the Future November 18, 2000

Other Info

Written into a special edition Comic-con comic book was a character by the name of Primal Prime. Appearing only in this book he was a side character to the Beast Machines story and later was written into the toy lines of both Beast Machines and Transformers: Universe. In the Universe story line he combined with Apelinq to create Sentinel Maximus.

Beast Machines Toys

The Hasbro toys for Beast Machines are famous for the fact that many bear little resemblance to the characters on the show, in both shape and color, and they were scaled out of proportion to each other. The reason for this was that although basic concept sketches were made of the major characters, the show creators and toy creators developed the characters independently from that point in the first year. After the first year of toys was released, a number of slightly more show-accurate toys were released.

Many of the characters created as toys never made it on the television series, although some did appear in the comic books.

The toys released in the Beast Wars Returns (a release of Beast Machines in Japan) toyline by TakaraTomy were redecoed to more closely resemble the show colors. Molds for the 'drones' in the Vehicon army , which bore more resemblance to the Vehicon leaders, were redecoed and used as the Vehicon generals in the Beast Wars Returns line.

A line of simple McDonald's Beast Machines toys was sold which did look more like the show characters, and this line was recolored for release in other countries by other fast food restaurants.

Non-Show Characters

Beast Machines Mirage
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Beast Machines Mirage

A number of characters appeared in the Beast Machines toy line who didn't make appearances in the television series. These included:

Transtech

After Beast Machines ended, Hasbro planned a follow-up series called Transtech. The series was supposedly to bring back some of the characters who died in Beast Wars along with some Generation 1 characters, all in new, more organic-looking bodies, though with vehicle alternate modes instead of the animals used in Beast Machines. Many concept sketches and even a few toy prototypes were made, but Hasbro scrapped the idea in favor of bringing to Hasbro markets.

Concept sketches or prototype toys have been seen for Blackarachnia, Cheetor, Depth Charge, Megatron, Nightscream, Optimus Prime, Scavenger, Shockwave, Soundwave, Starscream and a new character called Immorticon. There were also rumors of a Transtech Dinobot.

It is generally believed that the concept for Transtech Cheetor inspired the design of Transformers: Cybertron Brakedown and the concept for Transtech Megatron inspired Armada Megatron.

Transformers: Universe

The storyline of Beast Machines is continued in the short-lived comic book by 3H Publishing, which has stories taking place during the second season of Beast Machines (In the Transformers: Wreckers comic) and after the Beast Machines story (in the Transformers: Universe comic).

Controversy

As early as its premiere episode, Beast Machines provoked much debate among fans about whether the new series' creative team was portraying the individual characters and the broader Transformers backstory as well as the creators of Beast Wars had done. Much of the criticism focused on character portrayals and actions that were perceived as inaccurate and inconsistent with how the characters were established in Beast Wars. In addition, there was much debate over perceived continuity errors in regards to the broader Transformers backstory. The ending of Beast Machines proved to be extremely controversial. Detractors believe that the "reformatting" of Cybertron, from purely metallic (as it had been portrayed in Generation 1) into technorganic, diminished the traditional qualities that had made the Transformers mythos special. While Beast Machines has always been a controversial series, it has gradually become more popular over time, particularly in retrospect after ' and ', both which met with even heavier abuse for their perceived general low quality. The newfound positive reception, however, is still not considered universal amongst fans of the Beast Wars/Transformers mythos.

Theme Songs

Opening/Ending

External links

 

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