Beast Machines: Transformers

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Beast Machines was an animated television series produced by Mainframe Entertainment that was a sequel to Beast Wars. The show aired on Fox and YTV from 1999 to 2000. The show initially proved unpopular, mainly from accusations of inconsistent portrayal of characters returning from the previous series. It ran for two seasons, the backlash is still felt today. Story editor Robert Skir ran a message board during the show's run and after several unfortunate comments made to fans, he was asked by Hasbro not to attend the Transformers convention. Skir has taken the brunt of the abuse, although Marty Isenberg and Marv Wolfman had at least as much, if not more, creative input into the series as Skir. In recent times, Beast Machines' popularity has increased, particularly in retrospect after Transformers: Armada and Transformers: Energon, both which met with even heavier abuse.

The toyline itself also proved unpopular. Hasbro brought in a new team to design the series, but many of the earliest toys either didn't appear on the cartoon, or were very inaccurate to the series. Many core show characters also didn't appear as toys until a year after their appearance on the series.

It started to air in Japan in 2004 under the title of Beast Wars Returns on a special Takara subscription service. Toys were only available at Toys R Us Japan.

English Cast

Maximals

• Optimus Primal, voiced by Gary Chalk
• Cheetor, voiced by Ian James Corlett
• Rattrap, voiced by Scott McNeil
• Blackarachnia, voiced by Venus Terzo
• Silverbolt, voiced by Scott McNeil
• Nightscream, voiced by Alessandro Juliani
• Botanica, voiced by Kathleen Barr
• Savage/Noble, voiced by David Kaye

Vehicons

• Megatron, voiced by David Kaye
• Diagnostic Drone, voiced by Christopher Gaze
• Tankor, voiced by Paul Dobson(1-10) & Richard Newman (11-14)
• Thrust, voiced by Jim Byrnes
• Jetstorm, voiced by Brian Drummond
• Obsidian, voiced by Paul Dobson
• Strika, voiced by Patricia Drake

Japanese Cast

• Convoy, voiced by Takehito Koyasu
• Cheetas, voiced by Wataru Takagi
• Rattor, voiced by Kappei Yamaguchi
• Black Widow, voiced by Ryoka Yuzuki
• Nightscream, voiced by Nobutoshi Kanna
• Megatron & DoubleChanger, voiced by Shigeru Chiba
• Jetstorm/Silverbolt, voiced by Mitsuo Iwata
• Tankor, voiced by Daiki Nakamura

Plot Summary

As the new series begins, the surviving Beast Wars Maximal team returned back to their home world, 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.

It is unclear if there were any Predacons left on Cybertron at this point. In "The Agenda part 1" of Beast Wars, the leaders of the Predacons (The Tri-Predicus Council) were shown to inhabit an artificial satellite, and it has been speculated that the Predacons were banned from the Planet's surface by this point in the story, since their ancestors the Decepticons had lost the Great War.

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 Maximal 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 the 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. Jetstorm was really Silverbolt, Tankor was really Rhinox, and Thrust was really 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 "Techno-Matter", 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 devise that could transmute metal or Techno-Matter into Organics or "Technoganics". 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 All-Spark, intervened and prevented any harm to come to Cybertron.

Megatron, Primal, and Tankor were apparently temporarly 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 retuning 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 on 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/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 Space Ship) was released on auto-pilot into the sky above the Maximal Citadel. As Savage/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 fan base. 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 Maximals (that were said to be the greatest Maximal 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 from 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/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 counciness into Cybertron itself, turn it into a perfect Techno-Sphere, and use Cybertron as weapon to conquer the Universe. However, the All-Spark again interveined and allowed Optimus Primal to escape. Primal then interupted the converson process and tackled Megtron, knocking them both over the edge and into the Organtic Core below. As they hit the Core, Primal unleased the Reformatting process, releaseing 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. However, Optimus Primal and Megatron apparrently perished.

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 returning faces from Beast Machines. Generation 1 characters were also supposed to make a comeback. The series was never produced, but some designs are available to be seen on the Internet, and fanfiction and fan designs have been made as well. Many of the design concepts were eventually modified and used in Transformers Armada, Energon, and Cybertron. Character designs include: Depth Charge, Optimus Prime, Cheetor, Megatron, Silverbolt, Shockwave, and Starscream.

External links

• Beast Machines at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• Ben's World of Transformers
• Transformers Toys Database
• Transformers @ The Moon