Finally got the DVD set the other day.  Some observations having watched the first two DVD's:

 

So far a very interesting story.  I like a lot of the story elements, though some of the Maximals seem to have been dramatically changed in their outlooks.  Yes, it's supposed to be a "darker" series, but there's little "why" given as to why the characters have changed:

 

The bits and pieces about the Maximals' general distrust of Primal's leadership seems a bit arbitrary:  they're mistrusting him from the moment the show begins, despite the fact that they ought to be trusting everything he says - until they discover how badly things actually have gone. 

 

Cheetor's generally fairly pissy now, rather than just fun-loving.  He wasn't different in that manner at the end of the Beast Wars.  why suddenly now?  Black Arachnia has gotten fairly wimpy in her attitude, Rattrap certainly got very fearful, though that was a temporary setback. 

 

The big change is, of course, with Rhinox, and the only explanation I have for that change is that the process of becoming a Vehicon left him insane.  Unless there's more later that explains his radical change in outlook.  He was the most spiritual in nature of all the Maximals in BW, yet suddenly is quite different now.  Primal says something about his having "made his choice" in regards to his stand on tech vs. nature, but it sure doesn't seem like his "choice" was really his own.  It seems clear his mind has been damaged.

 

Otherwise the story is well-written, and obviously is designed from the beginning to have a full arc.  I won't say it's better written than BW, because, frankly, it isn't.  There's a lot of deus ex machina that goes on, which, to my mind at least, indicates some lesser story telling.

 

My biggest beef is with the designs in the series.  The story manages to offset them, but it's amazing how dull the Vehicon designs are.  You'd have thought that a show still intended to sell toys could have at least managed to find some design sense that would be attractive to the eye. 

 

Still, my complaints aside, it is a good series, and a decent continuation of the Beast Wars saga, even though in my opinion it is not as strongly written as Beasst Wars was.

All I wanna know is why Megatron hated organics...there's no explanation from anyone. Not even the writers really explained it properly. Yeah sure he arrived on Cybertron years before the Maximals did... but what turned him or twisted him to remove his beast mode? Everyone on the planet has a Beast Mode scanner attached to them. So it's not like he'd be an outcast.

It's the unexplained nature of the story elements that gets me.  It's not that I don't LIKE the changes, it's that they don't get explained in any meaningful way.

Bob Skir pretty much altered the characters to fit in with his story ideas rather than alter his story ideas to accomodate the characters.

 

also, i think that the only real reason why the sparks of Rhinox, Silverbolt, and Waspinator were used as the vehicon generals is because Bob Skir thought that would be more of an impact than if he just used some random cybertron civilians.

I rather like the designs of the Vehicons. Sure they probably could have been better, and they could do better w/ the technology of today, but overall I really really prefer the look of BM to BW (which I absolutely love).

 

I would agree that there seems to be some relatively unexplained changes in personality, but that could be due to the fact that they are all in shock from the events on Cybertron, and their changing roles w/in the group etc. I love how they changed Cheetor. He was vastly improved I thought (and he has the best designed look I think). The others, their personalities changed to fit the goals of the writers. Things had to change w/ this series and that included the established characters.

 

I think the story is pretty good. Granted they went overboard on some things, but overall it was a good change and it was very well done. I do wish they had explained a few more plot elements and some of the motivation behind the character's actions, but it was designed to be a short story arc, so they probably had to cut out quite a lot to fit it all into 26 episodes.

 

Now to await Madhammer's rant...

It's the unexplained nature of the story elements that gets me.  It's not that I don't LIKE the changes, it's that they don't get explained in any meaningful way.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'll never understand this point of view.....

Seems simple enough to me:

 

Same characters, suddenly radically different personalities.  Were they interested in actual continuity or not?  The answer seems to be "no."

 

And, no, I'm not going to concede that a writer should be allowed all the license they want in modifying things - not when something is billed as a sequel.

 

Still like it as a show unto itself, but there's a mountain of grains of salt to be taken here.

Seems simple enough to me:

 

Same characters, suddenly radically different personalities.  Were they interested in actual continuity or not?  The answer seems to be "no."

 

And, no, I'm not going to concede that a writer should be allowed all the license they want in modifying things - not when something is billed as a sequel.

 

Still like it as a show unto itself, but there's a mountain of grains of salt to be taken here.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The writers were very well aware of the characters as they appeared in Beast Wars. One thing you need to keep in mind is that there really wasn't a whole lot of character development at all in BW. Most of the characters in that show were essentially the same at the beginning and the end of the series. So all of a sudden to have character arcs -- SIGNIFICANT character arcs -- for these characters... well I can understand how it might be a bit off-putting.

 

But just to give you a run-down:

 

1. Optimus Primal: has the Oracle downloaded into him in episode 1, changing his focus and perspective.

 

2. Cheetor: is growing up and becomes increasingly frustrated with Primal's absentee leadership.

 

3. Rattrap: was never the "mighty warrior" type and preferred to rely on his gadgets and weaponry. After finding that he no longer had any of that, and after being rejected by the others for being "useless", he undergoes an identity crisis (which ends up being positively resolved).

 

4. Blackarachnia: is now 100% Maximal and is no longer fighting against a Predacon shell program.

 

5. Rhinox: was "changed" by Megatron, in his words, and the precedent of Blackarachnia in BW should be enough to explain how/why that all happened. He never got out of Tankor's body. Also watch "Dark Designs" if you want to see and evil Rhinox in BW. The two are very similar.

 

6. Megatron: despite what he says, he did very nearly lose the Beast Wars. Dinobot was part of Megatron's original crew, but he defected and ended up destroying the Golden Disk. And then at the end, TM2 Dinobot (Megatron's creation) gave the Maximals access to the Autobot shuttle that brought down the Nemesis. It's fair to say that Megatron's reliance on others didn't pay off the way he had intended. He was the one who got himself free on the way back to Cybertron, nobody else helped him do that. This would explain Megatron's desire for a singular mind ruling all of Cybertron (namely his). Similarly, all of Megatron's reliance upon his own beast mode (and his desire to "upgrade" himself) availed him nothing, as he still lost as a big powerful dragon thingy anyway. It's made clear in the second episode of BM that Megatron's organic purge is fueled by self-hatred; I believe that he blames the organic (and his reliance upon others) for his loss in the Beast Wars.

 

7. Silverbolt: really shouldn't need explaining, he was soul-raped by Megatron and discovered that he liked being evil. His sense of self has been shattered and he spends most of his time coming to grips with who he really is.

Seems simple enough to me:

 

Same characters, suddenly radically different personalities.  Were they interested in actual continuity or not?  The answer seems to be "no."

 

And, no, I'm not going to concede that a writer should be allowed all the license they want in modifying things - not when something is billed as a sequel.

 

Still like it as a show unto itself, but there's a mountain of grains of salt to be taken here.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Beast Machines is the 'Highlander 2:  The Quickening of the TF Universe'  :tflaugh  :tflaugh

 

I like the story, don't get me wrong, the spiritual nature of the transforming was interesting as a concept (although getting a little too New Age for my taste, but that was par for the course for a lot of shows at that time, ie end of the Millenium).

 

I guess it just comes down to preference.  No one is forcing anyone to watch it.  Just like no one is forcing anyone to anyone to go to a museum and look at 'Guernica'.

 

But like 'Guernica', you can't deny the impact it had.

7.

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Silverbolt: really shouldn't need explaining, he was soul-raped by Megatron and discovered that he liked being evil. His sense of self has been shattered and he spends most of his time coming to grips with who he really is.

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don't think he's seen that far into the series yet... doesn't that happen in season 2?

 

edit: that reminds me of sometihng...

 

back in 2000 IGN.com had a sci-fi site, and one of the things they'd do is review BM episodes as they came out. the guy they had doign them typically didn't like them, but he did take note of that plot point right there and said it was to be commended.