The show's opening two parter established that Cheetor was the young and impulsive member of the Maximal's group, essentially making him the surrogate for the show's primary target audience ofk children. Naturally, it makes sense that the first episode following the opening episode is a Cheetor focused one. While, like a lot of the first season, it's clear that the show's still trying to find it's footing, this is a pretty fun episode for the most part.
When testing a new portable communications device invented by Rhinox, Cheetor has a run in with Predecons Scorponok and Tarantulus, who have found a mega cannon that fell from one of the ships during the opening episode. Cheetor tries to ambush them, only to get offlined by one of Scorponok's missiles. When he gets back online, he's scolded by his fellow Maximals for trashing Rhinox's communicator, costing the Maximals an advantage. After further taunting by Rattrap, Cheetor impulsively runs off to take back the cannon from the Predacons only to be captured by Tarantulus. This leaves it up to Rattrap to rescue Cheetor before it's too late.
Plot wise, this isn't one of the stronger episodes. It's a pretty basic plot where Cheetor has to learn that rushing in headlong and treating combat like a game is reckless and has dire consequences. However, much like a lot of early Beast Wars, what makes this episode enjoyable is the characters and their interactions with each other.
First up - we finally get some characterisation for the Predacons (well, two of them anyway) outside of Megatron. Scorponok is established as being Megatron's second in command, and appears to be loyal to his commander (spoiler alert - this is about as much characterisation as Scorponok gets for the duration of his time on the show). However, the one that steals the show is Tarantulus. From this episode alone, we can tell that Tarantulus, much like Megatron, truly relishes being evil. Unlike Megatron, who's love for being evil comes from a place of fun, Tarantulus appears to take a more sadistic pleasure in doing evil deeds.
In this episode, he captures Cheetor, and attaches him to a web that will drain him of his energy. Once Cheetor is drained of energy, Tarantulus plans to feed on his body. This is a pretty dark and messed up idea to put in any show, let alone one for children, since when you get down to it, it's essentially cannibalism. What makes it more disturbing is that Tarantulus seems to take such pleasure in the act, to the extent that he could drain Cheetor's energy faster, but chooses to do it slower so that Cheetor suffers.
Cheetor gets the most focus this time around, with the episode being mostly seen from his perspective. His arc in this episode resolves around him basically treating the war like a game, and learning how that could potentially have fatal consequences. He starts the episode excitedly rushing in to test out Rhinox's new device, and upon discovering Predecon activity, he decides to deal with the situation alone rather than waiting for backup to arrive. Then later in the episode, after Rattrap provokes him, he rushes off to take out the Predacon's cannon only to be caught by Tarantulus. If it wasn't for Rattrap, he would have been done for, putting into perspective for Cheetor what could potentially happen if he doesn't think things through.
Rattrap also gets some focus this time around. Very true to his character, he's very reluctant to go after Cheetor after he runs off, having to be talked into it by Rhinox. Then at the end of the episode, rather than telling Optimus the truth about what happened to Cheetor, he lies and says that the two were just hanging out together. Cheetor takes this to mean that he was looking out for him, but Rattraps motivations for lying were more selfish and more about wanting to avoid getting on Primal's bad side.
The rest of the Maximals don't get much to do asides from little moments here and there. The idea of Rhinox inventing a communicator establishes his tech savvy nature, and during the scene where the Maximals are coming up with a plan to deal with the new Predacon cannon, Dinobot's suggestion is to just rush in all guns blazing. I like this as it shows his previous Predacon alleigience shining through, and of course that is going to cause tension between his new comrades who feel that a more strategic approach is required.
There's a couple of cool moments in this episode. The first is a dream sequence that Cheetor has while he's offline. This dream is set on Cybertron, the Transformers home planet, and features a shoot out between him and the Predecons. This ends with Cheetor gettng surprised attacked by Tarantulus, foreshadowing what's going to happen later in the episode. The sequence also starts with a shot of a jet fighter flying past, which can be identified as the treaturous Decepticon Starscream from the original Transformers series. This is the earliest link between Beast Wars and the original Generation 1 Transformers, an element that becomes more prevelant as the show goes on.
We also get a cool shoot out between Rattrap and Tarantulus at the end of the episode. What makes this fight so fun is the cinematography used. It's filmed as if it's a live action sequence, and it makes for a fun and dynamic action sequence to end the episode with a bang.
While this isn't the strongest episode of the series, it is still an enjoyable watch with some great moments between the characters, fun action sequences and a flirtation with some slightly darker ideas.
Next week: Cheetor and Terrorsaur end up swapping bases through a freak mishap in 'Equal Measures'
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