Beast Wars: Transformers

• Titled Beasties: Transformers in Canada
• Developed by Larry DiTillio and Bob Forward
• Based on the Transformers toy line by Hasbro
• September 16, 1996 to March 7, 1999
• First run syndication

Voice Cast

• Optimus Primal, G1 Megatron-Garry Chalk
• Megatron-David Kaye
• Rattrap, Dinobot, Waspinator, Silverbolt, Dinobot II-Scott McNeil
• Cheetor, Sentinel-Ian James Corlett
• Rhinox, the Vok-Richard Newman
• Tarantulas-Alec Willows
• Terrorsaur, Starscream-Doug Parker
• Scorponok-Don Brown
• Blackarachnia-Venus Terzo
• Tigatron, Tigerhawk, the Vok, Unicron-Blu Mankuma
• Airazor-Pauline Newstone
• Inferno-Jim Byrnes
• Quickstrike-Colin Murdock
• Depth Charge-David Sobolov
• Rampage-Campbell Lane
• Predacon Computer-Elizabeth Carol Savenkoff
• Ravage-Lee Tockar

The Transformers’ war continues on a hostile world.

I went into Beast Wars: Transformers with a little hesitation as I was (and still am) a strong fan of the G1 series. This was the first genuine post-G1 television iteration of the concept and I was hoping for something as entertaining that would connect with my childhood memories. The Transformers was a formative series of my childhood and despite the weakness of Season Three (we will not discuss that three-episode Season Four) it still stands as a classic of 80s animation.

All the way back in 1996 I wasn’t a fan of CGI animation. Shows like seaQuest DSV which employed computer graphics in the very earliest stages along with some other shows certainly demonstrated the limitations of the technique at the time. Even ReBoot, which had its fans then and still does now, did not visually impress me. I didn’t think it would look that good.

Admittedly, given its age, it visually does not look that good, but at the time it looked okay. I can’t say great, but it certainly looked okay. I that the backgrounds lack detail with far too much being very smooth as if it was all polished. And the characters are disturbingly static.

In concept I was bothered by Transformers dumping completely jets and planes and so forth in favor of animals. It just seemed a step too far. Admittedly, giant robots getting in fisticuffs is a bit much, but it felt like the envelope that allowed the suspension of disbelief had been pushed too far. I also take issue with calling this Beast Wars. This show wasn’t about a conflict between the complete forces of Group A and Group B. It was a face off against two groups from Group A and Group B. It would be closer to a gang war or neighborhood squabble than an actual war. Anywho…

From a story perspective, they took a more mature approach than one would generally expect which kept it in line with the G1 series. This show involved time travel and advanced aliens and some generally bigger concepts. Unlike the original, the stories were relatively connected with events referencing past episodes of the series or being driven by previous episodes. This was not so strong that you had to watch them all in order to get what was going on. Each episode contained enough in story info to keep the viewer knowledgeable.

In the series Megatron (not THAT Megatron) has stolen a Golden Disc for his own nefarious purposes and a group of Maximals on the Axalon captained by Optimus Primal (not Optimus Prime) are tasked with pursuing before they all crash on a strange world. There is the implication of time travel as they use something called transwarp drive. I never understood the functioning of that as it applied to this show and they never really explained it. But somehow, as was later revealed, they were in the past on Earth.

From the start it was somewhat connected to G1 but not overtly so. You could even see it occurring in a parallel reality but as Beast Wars: Transformers went on it became connected directly to G1 though here energon became a harvestable resource despite in G1 it being the result of storing energy and not something all its own.

This world they found themselves on had a very high level of energon and the beast alternate modes were to insulate themselves from the effects of the high energon levels. Yet as the show went on they portrayed the beast modes as the way things always were. Then again in G1 things changed as originally presented and were presented as always the status quo.

The characters themselves were okay. Not on the same level as before but okay. Megatron was appropriately evil and megalomaniacal. I dare say at points he was much more evil and devious than his namesake though not often enough. And that’s important to note. Very few of those who ever showed up in the show were the continuation of characters introduced in G1. There were some but not many. We got to see Starscream’s ghost (though how he time traveled is confusing) and Ravage appears as a bipedal Ravage with the ability to talk made an appearance.

The character of Tarantulas became everything that Starscream wished he could be. He struck out on his own and worked to subvert Megatron’s plans for his own ends. He was devious and underhanded and as big of a threat as Megatron yet a more complex villain as he was much more of a thinker and plotter.

The number of characters was pretty static through the entire run of the series with minimal additions through various means. That I’m guessing was because of factors involving the production of a CGI show. For the most part, the Maximals and Predacons we met in the beginning were the ones that made it all the way to the finale.

The voice work isn’t bad here. No standouts in my opinion but Gary Chalk (Megatron) and David Sobolov (Depth Charge) have done their fair share of work. There are no Peter Cullens or Frank Welkers in this. The talent level of Beast Wars is competent but not great. Chalk gets points from me for his connection to SG1 though.

The character designs were pretty good. They were there to largely sell toys which being a half hour commercial like its predecessor this was. And every time there was a refresh to the line the show followed suit. Something would happen in the show that requires the characters to alter their appearance for some reason.

There was a common thread throughout the series as well as each season. Events of the series built to a big climax to whatever had been going on. And they always felt very epic. And more importantly those events had impacts on what occurred later on in the show. It wasn’t just a big cool battle, but it was something important.

Playing into the time travel element, events of the story began to revolve around The Ark from G1 and the Maximals need to protect it from the Predacons. Megatron decided-consequences be damned-and was more than willing to destroy Optimus Prime in order for the Decepticons to win but clearly doing that has heavy consequences on the timeline which they certainly demonstrated. The show became extremely high stakes.

Beast Wars managed to connect itself to the G1 mythos yet be firmly its own thing. Not many spinoff shows can pull such a deal off. It used only as necessary what it had to but more often expanded upon its own mythology so that one did not need to be intimately versed in G1 to enjoy things.

That shows you how well constructed this show was despite any of my issues. Not great, but well done. There is plenty of action and plenty of cool visuals to sell the toys, but it also had good storytelling behind it. The people understood they had to present a good narrative in order to sell the toy. You need to show the play potential and they did that. It wasn’t must see viewing, but it was frequent viewing that you tried your best to get to.

Beast Wars: Transformers ultimately is a worthy addition to the Transformers mythology. There are great character designs and great stories that will keep you entertained from start to finish. If you like G1 Transformers, then you will like this.