Gustavo mutters about "Posession"

[Gustavo Wombat]

Traveling, so just a very quick review.

"Possession" is from the first season of Beast Wars, and the first thing
that you notice about it is that the animation looks more than a little
dated. Just getting that out of the way.

The episode was written by Ian Weir, who brought us such notable episodes
as "Dark Designs" (where Rhinox turns evil), "Code Of Hero" (a long, boring
snuff film with a few bits of exposition) and "Cutting Edge" (where
Megatron clones Dinobot to make cyborg raptors). I cannot say that I
actually love his work.

The plot of this episode is pretty simple:
- Starscream's spark possesses Waspinator
- Starscream points out a weakness in the Maximal base
- Predacons take over base and drive out the Maximals
- Predacons split into two commands, with Starscream leading Blackarachnia
and Scorponok
- Maximals surrender, in a ruse
- Starscream makes the Maximals attack Megatron, shoots Scorponok
- Optimus attacks Starscream along with Dinobot
- Blackarachnia backstabs Starscream
- Starscream's spark gets blasted into space and he curses.
- Waspinator is rebuilt

The various things of note that struck me while watching...

No one seems to care about Waspinator. Starscream takes over his body, and
everyone at the predacons base seems to be pretty ok with this, and view it
as an upgrade to their team. Poor Waspinator.

Starscream appears to have no particular military prowess -- he flies well,
but he doesn't seem to have any strategy. He first points out a weakness
that he saw, and has the Predacons attack the area that does not have a
bunch of Maximals repairing it -- which doesn't seem particularly
brilliant, but does surprise Megatron. Later, he has the Maximals launch a
frontal assault on the Predacon base.

After she backstabs Starscream, Blackarachnia' claims of having studied
from the master fall flat -- Starscream showed no mastery of any kind.
Perhaps she meant Tarantulas?

The Maximal plan makes very little sense. Primal apparently expects to be
left alone, and to be poorly secured, and he is. He is also counting on
Starscream inevitably betraying Megatron. An attack during the inevitable
betrayal would have been a much safer approach, and might have netted a few
prisoners -- which could have changed the course of the Beast Wars
tremendously.

Primal's expectation of the inevitable treachery is very similar to his
expectation of Evil Rhinox's inevitable treachery in "Dark Designs", also
written by Ian Weir.

I liked the idea of Starscream taking a protégée -- it fits with his nature
to want to have someone he can explain his brilliance to, and adding the
gender difference makes it a touch more believable. With so few female
Transformers, he is more apt to be welcoming to any which show an interest.
That said, we didn't get enough of it that it felt anything other than
forced.

We get some exposition about the Autobots being the ancestors of the
Maximals, and Decepticons being the ancestors of the Predacons. Skipping
over the fact that some of the Predacons have Maximal sparks, there is
still the question of what it means for robots to have descendants. I've
never liked this bit of exposition, since it asks more questions than it
answers.

The Maximal Elders have classified much of the history of the Great War,
but the Predacons study their history -- to the point where Blackarachnia
has access, despite being on a small Predacons ship, far from Cybertron. Is
Starscream's history in particular classified because of his mutant spark,
or is this just a whitewashing of history?

Starscream appears to have access to Waspinator's memory -- he knows
Megatron's name, knows of the Beast Wars, but presumably does not know that
this is prehistoric Earth (he would have taken Waspinator's body, headed to
the Ark, and then repaired his old body, or something like that).

We saw Starscream jump from body to body in G1, why didn't he seize
Megatron's own body?

Nice line from Megatron: "Perhaps the centuries of weightlessness have
taken a toll on your neurological circuitry" -- given that he will likely
be floating for a while after breaking free from the Autobots shuttle,
before taking over Cybertron, it might explain some of the changes in his
personality. On the other hand, since Starscream was just a spark, this
line also means that sparks have circuits, if it is taken literally.

The episode feels rushed -- there's enough plot here for 1.25 episodes, and
a lot of spots where some additional plot could be added to explore the
characters and their situations better. Starscream's "plot" is terrible,
for instance, and would benefit from more space to flesh it out.

This episode also feels a lot like "Code of Hero," where little bits of
important exposition are crammed into an episode filled with fighting,
while characters are never developed. And it's held in higher regard than
it should be because of the importance, rather than it actually being a fun
episode to watch. It's better than "Code of Hero", but it's not as good as
a lot of other episodes.

I think I would have liked to see this as a two parter, with shared writing
credit with one of the other writers -- someone who understands the
characters better.

Here's a thought experiment -- replace Starscream with an unknown
character, Predaconus or something, and then rename Galvatron and Unicron,
and drop the line about the Autobots and Decepticons. I think the episode
would be close to unwatchable. The exposition helps, and the nostalgia
helps, and the episode is sort of ok.

This is more of an important episode than an enjoyable episode, and every
time I watch it, I enjoy it a little bit less. I'm always surprised by how
much it doesn't work.




--
I wish I was a mole in the ground.

[Zobovor]

On Friday, October 14, 2016 at 11:01:37 PM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:

> No one seems to care about Waspinator. Starscream takes over his body, and
> everyone at the predacons base seems to be pretty ok with this, and view it
> as an upgrade to their team. Poor Waspinator.

Well, he is kind of an idiot. The biggest thing he had going for him was that he was one of the few Predacons who could fly, and Starscream was much more skilled in the air.

> Starscream appears to have no particular military prowess.

It's possible he was just jerking around with the Maximals and Predacons for his own amusement. His involvement in this episode appears to have no real endgame. Maybe he was eventually going to hit the Ark and assassinate Decepticon leader Megatron while he was still snoozing, but he had to get the Maxies and Preds out of the way first?

> The Maximal plan makes very little sense. Primal apparently expects to be
> left alone, and to be poorly secured, and he is.

I guess his plan could have worked if all the Maximals had been chained up. Assuming they all got locked up right next to the secret weapons stash, that is.

> I liked the idea of Starscream taking a protégée -- it fits with his nature
> to want to have someone he can explain his brilliance to, and adding the
> gender difference makes it a touch more believable. With so few female
> Transformers, he is more apt to be welcoming to any which show an interest.

"If Megatron can have his Nightbird, so can I!"

> We get some exposition about the Autobots being the ancestors of the
> Maximals, and Decepticons being the ancestors of the Predacons. Skipping
> over the fact that some of the Predacons have Maximal sparks, there is
> still the question of what it means for robots to have descendants. I've
> never liked this bit of exposition, since it asks more questions than it
> answers.

I've always figured it's a description of lineage. It was the Autobots who built the first Maximals and Decepticons who built the first Predacons. Sort of like how you could say the Ford F-150 is "descended" from the Model T. One couldn't have happened without the other.

> The Maximal Elders have classified much of the history of the Great War,
> but the Predacons study their history -- to the point where Blackarachnia
> has access, despite being on a small Predacons ship, far from Cybertron. Is
> Starscream's history in particular classified because of his mutant spark,
> or is this just a whitewashing of history?

It may have to do with their Protoform X experiments. If it were common knowledge that Starscream had a mutant indestructible spark, then others might have tried to duplicate the failed experiment and end up creating an army of unkillable Rampages.

Optimus Primal knew very little about Starscream, but he was aware of the Ark's presence on prehistoric Earth and its importance to history, and he knew about Ravage and that he was rebuilt into a Predacon. So, I'd say that it was Starscream, specifically, whose file was classified.

> We saw Starscream jump from body to body in G1, why didn't he seize
> Megatron's own body?

That would have been cool. Again, though, to what end?

> Here's a thought experiment -- replace Starscream with an unknown
> character, Predaconus or something, and then rename Galvatron and Unicron,
> and drop the line about the Autobots and Decepticons. I think the episode
> would be close to unwatchable. The exposition helps, and the nostalgia
> helps, and the episode is sort of ok.

In some ways, Beast Wars was always living in G1's shadow. They could have either chosen to ignore G1 entirely, and focus their worldbuilding on inventing a new history for the Beast Wars characters, or they could have cribbed from the existing Transformers mythos and built off the history that already existed. Either is a valid approach (and inventing their own history is generally what all new shows do), but I doubt Beast Wars would have had such a strong fan following if they hadn't built off of G1.

Speaking as a G1 fan, the show is far more significant to me when Rampage has a tenuous Starscream connection and the Maximals are fighting over the fate of the Ark and Optimus Prime. A new, invented history might have been interesting from an academic standpoint, but it wouldn't have been as meaningful to me.

> This is more of an important episode than an enjoyable episode, and every
> time I watch it, I enjoy it a little bit less. I'm always surprised by how
> much it doesn't work.

There are some ways in which it really falls flat. The show requires you to know who Starscream is, and care about him on some level. I wonder how many kids watching this in 1997 had never heard of Starscream, since he was turned into a ghost 11 years before this episode (and thus before most of the target audience was even born). I don't think Transformers was quite the cultural staple that it is now. It's quite possible to have never watched any of the cartoons or movies, but to have a basic understanding of who Optimus Prime is. He's an indelible piece of pop culture almost as important as Spider-Man or Captain Kirk. In the 1990's, though, Beast Wars quietly flew under the pop culture radar, as evidenced by the advent of the Michael Bay movies and the universal rejoicing that after a long absence, Transformers was "finally" back.


Zob (suddenly I am seized by an urge to take the Beast Wars Buzzsaw toy and stick a G1 Bumblebee head on it)

[Gustavo Wombat]

Zobovor <zm...@aol.com> wrote:
> On Friday, October 14, 2016 at 11:01:37 PM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the
> Seattle Wombats wrote:
>
>> No one seems to care about Waspinator. Starscream takes over his body, and
>> everyone at the predacons base seems to be pretty ok with this, and view it
>> as an upgrade to their team. Poor Waspinator.
>
> Well, he is kind of an idiot. The biggest thing he had going for him was
> that he was one of the few Predacons who could fly, and Starscream was
> much more skilled in the air.

Still, poor Waspinator.

>> Starscream appears to have no particular military prowess.
>
> It's possible he was just jerking around with the Maximals and Predacons
> for his own amusement. His involvement in this episode appears to have
> no real endgame. Maybe he was eventually going to hit the Ark and
> assassinate Decepticon leader Megatron while he was still snoozing, but
> he had to get the Maxies and Preds out of the way first?

I don't think Starscream knows where, or when, he is. He seems to have some
knowledge of Megatron and the situation on the ground, but I think he got
that from Waspinator.

>> The Maximal Elders have classified much of the history of the Great War,
>> but the Predacons study their history -- to the point where Blackarachnia
>> has access, despite being on a small Predacons ship, far from Cybertron. Is
>> Starscream's history in particular classified because of his mutant spark,
>> or is this just a whitewashing of history?
>
> It may have to do with their Protoform X experiments. If it were common
> knowledge that Starscream had a mutant indestructible spark, then others
> might have tried to duplicate the failed experiment and end up creating
> an army of unkillable Rampages.

I can see hiding the bit about Starscream's ghost, but even there...
Optimus knew about Protoform X. I don't know.

> Optimus Primal knew very little about Starscream, but he was aware of the
> Ark's presence on prehistoric Earth and its importance to history, and he
> knew about Ravage and that he was rebuilt into a Predacon. So, I'd say
> that it was Starscream, specifically, whose file was classified.
>
>> We saw Starscream jump from body to body in G1, why didn't he seize
>> Megatron's own body?
>
> That would have been cool. Again, though, to what end?

Or jump out of Waspinator's body before getting blasted, and taking someone
else's.

>> Here's a thought experiment -- replace Starscream with an unknown
>> character, Predaconus or something, and then rename Galvatron and Unicron,
>> and drop the line about the Autobots and Decepticons. I think the episode
>> would be close to unwatchable. The exposition helps, and the nostalgia
>> helps, and the episode is sort of ok.
>
> In some ways, Beast Wars was always living in G1's shadow. They could
> have either chosen to ignore G1 entirely, and focus their worldbuilding
> on inventing a new history for the Beast Wars characters, or they could
> have cribbed from the existing Transformers mythos and built off the
> history that already existed. Either is a valid approach (and inventing
> their own history is generally what all new shows do), but I doubt Beast
> Wars would have had such a strong fan following if they hadn't built off of G1.
>
> Speaking as a G1 fan, the show is far more significant to me when Rampage
> has a tenuous Starscream connection and the Maximals are fighting over
> the fate of the Ark and Optimus Prime. A new, invented history might
> have been interesting from an academic standpoint, but it wouldn't have
> been as meaningful to me.

I'm not arguing that it would have been a better way to go to create a new
backstory, just that it is a good way to weigh the episode. I don't think
the episode works at all without G1 nostalgia.

[Zobovor]

On Saturday, October 15, 2016 at 10:10:41 AM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:

> I can see hiding the bit about Starscream's ghost, but even there...
> Optimus knew about Protoform X. I don't know.

Well, part of the Axalon's mission was to take Protoform X and dump him off someplace. So, Primal would have been told about that much, if only because he was the ship's captain.

> I'm not arguing that it would have been a better way to go to create a new
> backstory, just that it is a good way to weigh the episode. I don't think
> the episode works at all without G1 nostalgia.

Yeah, that's definitely true.


Zob (going shopping later, yay!)

[Gustavo Wombat]

Zobovor <zm...@aol.com> wrote:
> On Saturday, October 15, 2016 at 10:10:41 AM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of
> the Seattle Wombats wrote:
>
>> I can see hiding the bit about Starscream's ghost, but even there...
>> Optimus knew about Protoform X. I don't know.
>
> Well, part of the Axalon's mission was to take Protoform X and dump him
> off someplace. So, Primal would have been told about that much, if only
> because he was the ship's captain.

He didn't need to be told at all.

"Here, dump this somewhere."
"What is it?"
"Classified."
"Ok"

But, we know that Optimus had dealt with Depth Charge in the past, which
suggests he had a greater knowledge of the program. I suppose it is
possible that Optimus is just playing dumb in this episode, unwilling to
acknowledge the classified information he was privy to.