Beast Wars Episode Dissection: 'Beast Wars Part 1'
Last night in a fit of nostalgia I decided to re-watch the Beast Wars series. The show ended a good ten years ago but most of the first season episodes at least are easy enough to find on Youtube. So here are my thoughts on the first episode, Beast Wars Part 1:
Right off the bat it's obvious the 3-D animation isn't great by today's standards and watching it on Youtube doesn't exactly add much to the visual experience, and although it does get better as the series continues it still looks clunky by today's standards. But to me that isn't really an issue in a series that's as character-driven as this one, it's the voice actors that make this story 'real' not the graphics.
The introduction of the Maximals is handled rather clumsy as they introduce themselves in what I think is a bit of a cartoonish fashion. It was also never said why exactly the Maximals and the Predicons changed their names to suit their forms unlike the original Autobots and Decepticons who as far as I can tell kept their original designations. I guess you could say it's just an example of changing culture over time - or a giant plot hole on the part of the writers; whichever. ;)
Now that I'm more familiar with the Transformers fandom (is this a good thing?) I can understand the 'Trukk Not Munky!" knee-jerk reaction most of the older Gee-wuners have. But honestly? The original G1 cartoon is old news, as entertaining as it can be, and I think you can only rehash it so many times before it gets boring. In the Beast Wars series it's a completely different era and completely new set of characters and ideas. Optimus Primal is NOT Optimus Prime just like BW Megatron is NOT G1 Megatron, so can we please get over that and get on with the show?
For one I think Optimus Primal has it a lot harder than his namesake - he's not a military-trained person, he's the captain of an exploratory vessel who's been chucked head-first into a war. And he's stuck trying to wrangle a crew of misfits most of whom, I'm willing to bet, also don't have military training (Dinobot being the obvious exception, but I'll get to him later). And dear god, I'd forgotten what an utter ass-hole Rattrap can be, heckling Optimus about his inexperience and refusing to follow orders in a life-and death situation that almost got both Optimus and Cheetor killed. It's probably a good thing for everyone involved that Rattrap's attention was quickly diverted to harassing someone else *cough*.
As for Optimus's Predicon counterpart, I know the G1 fans will probably lynch me for this, but I like this version of Megatron better than the original. He’s intelligent, suave, and capable of being subtle and deceptive as well as utterly ruthless, both when dealing with his enemies and with dealing with dissent among his own crew. To me, he makes G1 Megatron seem like nothing more than a bully and a thug in comparison.
The relationship between him and Dinobot, who is his second in command at the start of the series, has always interested and disturbed me. They both give a sense of having known each other for a long time and perhaps were even friends once, but it’s obvious the friendship has soured. Dinobot challenging Megatron for leadership at the beginning of the series feels a lot less like an opportunistic grab for a power (a la Starscream) than the last straw for someone who’s been pushed too far. Interestingly enough Megatron doesn’t take Dinobot up on the challenge; instead he gets Skorponok to shoot him which implies that Megatron believes that in a straight fight there’s a good chance Dinobot might win or at least damage him badly.
When the two factions first meet I found the politics discussed interesting such as the implication that the Predicons as a race feel that they’re being treated poorly by the Maximals and that the peace and co-existence that they see as having been forced on them is basically Maximal propaganda. With my knowledge of history I can draw the parallels between the Predicons and Germany in the 20’s and 30’s who strongly resented how they were treated by the Allies at the end of the First World War. It’s a bit disappointing to me that these issues were never expanded on in the show or its sequel, Beast Machines.
So what do you guys think? Agree? Disagree? Got thoughts and ideas of your own?
X-posted to beast_wars