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"The energon is shorting out our depth perception!"
"Beast Wars" (Part 2)
Season	1
No. in season	2
Production company	Mainframe Entertainment
Airdate	April 23, 1996 (preview),[1] September 17, 1996 (regular airing)
Written by	Bob Forward
Directed by	Steve Ball
Animation studio	Mainframe Entertainment
Continuity	Beast Wars continuity
Packaged with	Convoy
Watch this episode on YouTube

After a battle between Optimus Primal and Dinobot, a huge cache of energon is discovered.

Synopsis

I am the servant of the secret fire, wielder of the flame of Anor! The dark fire will not avail you, flame of Udun! Go back to the shadow!

Dinobot challenges Optimus Primal to mortal combat for the leadership of the Maximals. Rhinox wonders if the rest of them get a say, while Rattrap is indifferent and Cheetor offers to nail the Predacon himself. Optimus tries to talk sense to Dinobot, saying he's welcome to join the group, but not as leader. Dinobot is unimpressed; the two duel. Rattrap has to restrain Cheetor from joining in. Primal knocks Dinobot down, and the Predacon tells him to finish the job, but Optimus refuses, and Dinobot responds by blasting him, almost sending the Maximal leader over the edge. Dinobot helps him back up, stating that Primal slipped and that winning the fight that way would not have been honorable.

As they continue to fight, Megatron and his crew arrive, taking the chance to attack both combatants. Primal transforms to beast mode, pulling Dinobot out of the way of the missiles, but leaving the pair dangling over the ravine. Dinobot begins suffering from energon buildup, and pleads with Optimus to let him fall so that Optimus might save himself, but Optimus naturally refuses. The pair is saved at the last moment by Rhinox. This is the signal for another attack from the Predacons, which takes out the rock bridge. The Maximals (bar Rattrap, who has to be saved by Optimus) reach the other side of the bridge in time.

The Hills Have Energon... never coming to a theatre near you!

Megatron takes his frustrations out on Terrorsaur, but Scorponok points to where some of the Predacon missiles have struck a mountain, unveiling a massive cache of energon crystals. The Predacons set out for the mountain, but they're spotted heading for the energy crystals by the Maximals. Rhinox and Rattrap are ready to scrap Dinobot before starting out, but Optimus stops them. They set out for the mountain as well, though Rattrap is less than impressed with the news that Dinobot is coming too.

"Oh, so you think you're better than me just because you're a Deluxe?" "Let's see how many times they've reused your mold, vermin."

En route, Rhinox suggests Optimus fly ahead using his jets, but Primal believes there's strength in numbers. They spot a strange stone circle, obviously artificially built, but are interrupted in their discussion by the arrival of Terrorsaur and Waspinator. Optimus takes to the air and scares them off with a missile. As the two Predacons flee, Dinobot fires on them with his optical lasers, inadvertently blasting the ledge above them. Rhinox is forced to leap aside as a boulder comes crashing down on him, and Rattrap accuses him of intentionally trying to slag Rhinox. Optimus orders him to stand down.

"Darn it... how does King Kong do this trick?"

The Predacons arrive at the mountain, though as Tarantulas points out, the energy will force them to remain in their beast modes. The Maximals arrive at roughly the same time, and both sides eye each other across a pass through the top mountain. After the prerequisite speech from Megatron, both sides charge and begin tearing into one another in beast form. Despite biting a chunk out of Optimus, Megatron is thrown aside and, as a last desperate gamble, transforms and fires a missile on Optimus. Dinobot throws himself between the pair, knocking the missile with his tail and saving Primal, but the missile begins a chain reaction. Both teams quickly flee.

As the Maximals watch the resultant explosions, Dinobot explains that his actions are payment of a debt—he owed Primal his life; now they are even. Primal says that's good enough for the moment, and proclaims that the Beast Wars have begun.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"I still live! Finish it."
"That's not how we Maximals do things."
"Then that will have to change!"

—Dinobot and Optimus Primal

"What are you doing? You'd won."
"You slipped. To defeat you in such a manner would be lacking in honor. I would not have earned the right to lead. I prefer to beat my opponents the old fashioned way—BRUTALLY!"
[The two resume fighting]
"For a Predacon, Dinobot, you have qualities I could like."
"And you, ahh, have proved to be a worthy adversary. I will have you recycled with full honors."
"Well, that's. Just. Prime!"

—Optimus Primal and Dinobot

"The energon fields! I am shorting out."
"Hang on! You can't transform in this position!"
"Release me! Let me fall and save yourself."
"Now, where's the honor in that?"
[Optimus's hold on the rock bridge weakens]
"You have no choice."
"Then we both go!"

—Dinobot and Optimus Primal

"You're welcome."
"You're the leader. It's your, ah, job."

—A life-saving Optimus Primal and an ungrateful Rattrap

"Ease off, Rattrap! It was an accident."
"Says you!"
"That's right—says me! You wanna question my orders one. More. Time?"
"I… ahhhh… ya, I don't trust Predacons."

—Optimus Primal asserts command over Rattrap.

"Across the galaxy, it has come to this, Optimus Primal—face to face, tooth to claw. Yesss. Have you anything to say?"
"I'd say that's prime. Let's do it."

—Megatron and Optimus Primal, just before the big fight begins

"It is over, Megatron!"
"It is never over. Noooo! For if I must die, I shall take you with me!"

—Optimus Primal and Megatron

"So for now, let the battle be here, on this strange primitive world. And let it be called... Beast Wars!"

—Optimus Primal after the first of many battles.

Notes

Script timeline

• First draft: 22nd December 1995
• Finalised: 12th January 1996
• Revised: 19th January 1996
• As Air: 10th April 1996

Animation and technical errors

• The movements of the three Maximals watching the duel are repeated in multiple shots, resulting in Rhinox mouthing his "Don't we get a say in this?" line at least two further times in the background.
• When Dinobot transforms to fight Optimus he is an incomplete model: his eyes, his knee-pads and the bones around his ankles are absent. Also, a strange transparent grey shape also appears behind him for a moment.
• Immediately after this, while approaching Optimus, Dinobot's spinning blades are severely shortened and misshapen, making them appear to have been chibified. Then, as he readies himself for the duel, Dinobot at one point pokes his sword through his own chest.
• During the closeup on Rhinox as he reacts to Dinobot's first attack, his rhino hooves are missing from his foot.
• When Dinobot prepares for his big spinning jump attack, both his sword and rotating shield clip through his body all over the place multiple times.
• While Dinobot makes a huge leap towards Optimus, his blade clips through his right ankle just before the shot cuts.
• In the following reaction shot of Primal, his left upper arm is on upside down. Then in the next shot, his sword is clipping through his left leg.
• Optimus clips his blade through his right ankle just before he smacks Dinobot.
• When Waspinator first transforms, the bee-stripes on his thighs are mapped along the wrong axis.
• When the Predacons open fire on the rock bridge, Tarantulas appears to be blasting missiles from his armpits. These also clip through Scorponok's shoulder as they fly.
• In the low-angle shot of Optimus holding Dinobot while dangling from the bridge, Dinobot's leg briefly clips into the "camera".
• When Scorponok turns back into beast mode, the hind section of his carapace vanishes for a frame, revealing his robot mode leg joints.
• In the shot focusing on the Energon mountain, right before Optimus remarks "Raw Energon!", a bunch of rubble lining the exploded hole's bottom rim gradually fades into existence.
• As the Maximals start for the Energon mountain and Rattrap is left behind, if you look closely you'll see Optimus' legs are messed up – they're stretched to the ground and don't move as he walks.
• During the night scene, some of the stars on the night sky are very blatantly stretched vertically.
• After Waspinator transforms to attack the Maximals on the cliff side, both his feet are twisted to the side at an awkward angle, and there's an elongated green segment sticking out of his abdomen.
• The rock rubble on the mountainside is invisible yet again as the two flyers swoop toward the Maximals, and again gradually fade into view.
• As Rattrap ducks behind the freshly-blasted boulder when the Maximals come under flying-Predacon fire, the barrel of his gun clips through the rock.
• The "energy surge" effect on Terrorsaur and Waspinator lags one frame behind them as they're blown out of the sky.
• Often, when the Energon mountain appears in the distance, a large piece of energon in the foreground clips and flickers, making it appear as though the Energon is appearing and disappearing at random. This also happens in the shot of the energon when Optimus first climbs to the top of the mountain (before Megatron appears on the other side).
• After Megatron appears on the mountain, the sky background and the Predacons behind him all disappear for a frame before the shot cuts, leaving Megatron standing in a black nothingness.
• When the two teams smash into each other, Terrorsaur clips into Rhinox.
• Megatron's right leg jerks position suddenly right after Optimus smacks him in the jaw.
• When Megatron transforms to robot mode near the end of the episode, he almost immediately suffers an Energon surge. However, he appears normal as he fires a missile at Optimus.
• Though Megatron takes quite a chunk out of Primal's left leg during the final battle, the damage disappears when the Maximals retreat.

Continuity errors

• Throughout the duel between Optimus and Dinobot in the first half of the episode, the Axalon is often missing from its crash site in the background, and the Maximal bystanders also disappear, reappear or shift positions depending on the shot.
• When the Maximals and Predacons are charging towards each other in the big fight, it is established that all combatants were running almost side by side. Yet in each of the closeups of each combatant, it seems they are the only ones actually charging in the small crevasse.
• After the energon mountain explodes and the Maximals are seen ducking for cover, every shot showing Optimus Primal and Dinobot in the foreground features none of the other Maximals in the background, even though they were seen standing behind the pair moments earlier, and both Rattrap and Rhinox are seen when Rattrap thinks they have won. Oddly enough, Cheetor is no longer in the scene at all.
• The very same scene features a lot of rubble from the destroyed mountain in close-ups of Rattrap and Rhinox, but relatively little rubble when Optimus Primal and Dinobot are in the foreground.
• Scorponok directs Megatron's attention to the missiles approaching the mountain. The missiles then hit the mountain, revealing it to be full of energon. There's no reason to believe Scorponok knew the energon was there, so why did he care about the imminent impact of the missiles?
• Megatron deciding to destroy the mountain is...questionable. Though Optimus Primal managed to throw him into a rock face, Primal himself was down and crippled, while Megatron appeared ready to keep fighting.

Real-world references

• The standing stones glimpsed by Rhinox and Optimus have a strong resemblance to Stonehenge.
• When Rhinox charges him, Terrorsaur holds his wing out like a cape, in the style of a matador. Rhinox duly charges through it as Terrorsaur whips it back.

Trivia

• During the audio commentary for this episode on Madman Entertainment's Beast Wars Season 1 DVD, Garry Chalk's cell phone suddenly rings, forcing him to step outside, while Scott McNeil and Alec Willows crack jokes about it being Garry's mom on the line.
• At the end of the episode, Megatron transforms without his command code. The Maximals do the same when the Predacon fliers attack on the way to the mountain. This is a rarity in the early episodes, but becomes commonplace as the series progresses.

Foreign localization

French

• Title: "Animutants - 2^e partie" ("Animutants - 1st Part")
• Original airdate: ???

• Title: "Pilote 2" (Canada, "Pilot 2")
• Original airdate: ???

German

• Title: "Der fremde Planet, Teil 2" ("The unknown Planet, Part 2")
• Original airdate: 28 March 1998

Italian

• Title: "Un nuovo compagno" ("A New Mate")
• Original airdate: ???

Japanese

• Title: "Taose Destron" (倒せデストロン, "Beat the Destrons")
• Original airdate: 8 October 1997

• After Optimus declares to the skies that their conflict shall be called the Beast Wars, the Maximals all comment on how cool and dramatic his statement was (all except Dinobot, anyway, who remains a stick in the mud).

Polish

• Title: "Wojna bestii" ("Beast War")
• Original airdate: ???

Portuguese

• Title: "Beast Wars parte 2" ("Beast Wars part 2")
• Original airdate: ???

Spanish

• Title: "La guerra de las bestias [Parte 2]" ("The War of the Beasts [Part 2]")
• Original airdate: ???

Title: "Guerra de Bestias Segunda Parte" (America, "Beast War Second Part")

• Original airdate: ???

Mandarin

• Title: "能量争夺战" ("Grabs of Energon")
• Original airdate: ???

Home video releases

VHS

1996 — Beast Wars — A Feature Length Beasties Adventure (Alliance Video)
1996 — Robots-Bêtes — Une Adventure Cybernetique (Alliance Video) — French audio only.
1997 — Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers — Enter the Super Lifeform Transformers (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.
1998 — Beast Wars / Robots-Bêtes Three pack (Alliance Video) — Available in English or French audio.
2001 — Beast Wars: Transformers — The Beginning: Vol. 1 (Universal)
2002 — Beast Wars: Transformers — Volume 1 (Rhinomation)

LaserDisc

1998 — Beast Wars: Transformers — Maximal Edition (Pioneer LDC) — English and Japanese audio.

DVD

2000 — Beast Wars: Transformers — DVD Box (Pioneer LDC) — English and Japanese audio.
2002 — Beast Wars: Transformers — Volume 1 (Rhinomation)
2003 — Beast Wars: Transformers — The Complete First Season (Rhinomation)
2011 — Beast Wars: Transformers — Season 1 (Shout! Factory)
2011 — Beast Wars: Transformers — The Complete Series (Shout! Factory)
2014 — Beast Wars: Transformers — Chain of Command (Shout! Factory)
2005 — Beast Wars — Classic Episodes — Where the Beasties Began! (Alliance Atlantis) — English and French audio.
2005 — Beast Wars — The Complete First Season (Alliance Atlantis) — English and French audio.
2006 — Beast Wars: Transformers — Season 1 (Madman Entertainment)
2009 — The Transformers: Beast Wars — Complete Collection (Madman Entertainment)

External links

Official uploads (Japanese)

• Beast Wars Again re-airings:
  • "Beat the Destrons" on YouTube
  • "Beat the Destrons (Part 2)" on YouTube

References