Episode of the Week

[The Doctor]

I don't actually mind the crappy animation that much as I never expect top-tier quality from that iteration of Transformers cartoon anyway. And the story is strong enough I find it easy to overlook. A word on the pacing though: it's bang on.

-Ralph

[Andy Turnbull]

Akom are to blame for the animation in the episode. Cheap and shoddy for the most part, Bruce Timm fired them from Batman:TAS for their persistently sub-par work.

My favourite episode of S3 and probably the best-written of the entire Sunbow run. It starts in media res and keeps on running, as Ralph says the pacing is spot on, and even the moments when it slows down are still building towards the next scene and it's great. Stands up to rewatching and one of the few episodes that is fun to watch because it's actually good and not just because it's bonkers or hilariously bad.

Andy

[The Doctor]

Yeah, I watched it again last night and it still held up really well. It's remarkably close to the tone of the Marvel comics.

-Ralph

[legios]

We haven't had one of these for a while, may I humbly suggest as our topic of discussion for this week the first episode of Transformers: Victory:"The Brave Hero of the Universe: Star Saber"?

Karl

[The Doctor]

It's great. It's just great. Er, yes.

-Ralph

[Grand Moff Muffin]

I like the opening wild west sequence, especially with its random appearance of the little elephant thing seen amongst the fleeing citizens.

The rest of the episode is generic yawn, sadly.

Martin

[legios]

The first episode of Transformers: Victory is very tradtional, that is the first thing that strikes me about it. In context, coming after Masterforce, which was such a wide diversion from previous Transformers series it almost had more in common with Ultraman and the Super Sentai shows that in did with 2010, this traditionalism is all the more apparent. The show draws up its lines very clearly - the Destrons are evil and want to steal energy from the beautiful planet Earth and Star Saber, leader of the Cybertrons will fight with all his might to protect the Earth from them. Star Saber even gets a face-off with the evil Deszarus where he gets to declare that out loud.

In plot terms the episode is fairly generic - the Destrons attack the moon, fight the Cybertrons to a bit of a stalemate, and then the two leaders show up to fight out their duel until the Cybertrons win and the Destrons retreat. The same basic plot of a lot of the episodes of the Sunbow series all told.

Now that probably sounds like I dislike the episode, which is probably unfair. There are things about it I do like, even if it doesn't have anywhere near the "oomph" of Masterforce's opening episode. The voice-cast is pretty good, with some decent vocal presence too them, and it is nice to see a Transformers battle where low-tech style weapons come into play - the use of swords, maces and a bow etc make for some close-quarters fight staging that we haven't really seen much of before. The latter factor is far prefereable to the inconclusive "we can't hit things at ten paces" gun-fights that occupy so much of Headmasters. This episode also has the debut of the Dinosaur Force who are wonderful because they are rubbish. What makes it marvelous is that there is no pretence that they are anything other than rubbish. Unlike Sunbow Starscream, who the show kept trying to convince us was a threat to Megatrons leadership and a powerful Decepticon warrior regardless of how often he was demonstrably rubbish, the Dinosaur Force are clearly meant to be rubbish - we know it, the show knows it and in their heart of hearts they know it. But despite that they try hard to be evil Destron Warriors anyway. There is something about that I find absurdly endearing.

It is very nicely animated too. Sure, some of the inbetweens are a little iffy at times, but the stuff that is heavily key-framed and has the "a" animation team on it is rather good. (The colour work is rather nice as well). Overall I'd rate it far higher on a technical level than much of the Sunbow show.

The opening sequence, where the shows production team clearly set out to establish Star Saber as the ultimate lone hero, is also superb. Not only does it launch whole-heartedly into Western pastiche - the High Noon shots, the pseudo-Moriconne music - but it also references Samurai dramas, in the dramatic framing of the sword-drawing (they come back to that theme later as well, when we learn that Star Saber's chi is so strong he can not only deflect arrows with his sword but send them hurtling back to their firer). Yes, it is pastiche but is has a bit of bare-faced cheek to it and the gumption to go all out for just a few minutes.

I swither on Victory quite a bit, and on this episode in particular. On the one hand it is extremely traditional and I get a little bit of a feeling of having seen it all before. On the other hand I think it is rather well animated and I do like some of the individual elements. It is one of those episodes that I have to be in the right mood to enjoy. Whilst some shows I can just stick on no matter what I'm feeling, I really need to be in the right frame of mind to enjoy this.

That said, I would chose this over the majority of Sunbow episodes in a heartbeat, and it doesn't make the despair rise within me like most episodes of Headmasters...

Karl

[charlesrocketboy]

Today's ep, from Beast Wars:

DEEP METAL

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Was this the one that introduced Depthcharge?

He was the only Maximal in the series who didn't annoy me. Actually good at his job. It was two groups of amateurs trying to fight a war, and then dropping a professional soldier into the mix. Would have brought the story to an end real quickly, so they had to make him blinkered on revenge to reduce his effectiveness.

If he hadn't got that vendetta thing going on, he'd have beaten all the Predacons on his own in no time, as demonstrated at 1:45 in this clip (wrong episode I know, sorry).



Martin

[Deleted]

I've got that episode on DVD but have only watched it once and can't really remember what happens in it.

[legios]

Deep Metal. The first Beast Wars episode that I actually saw all the way through, and therefore the episode that is ultimately to blame for the fact that I am on the Hub. (That's right, it is all Depthcharge's fault that you have to put up with me....).

This episode is very much Depthcharge's show - as underlined by the fact that most of the rest of the Beast Wars cast make little more than cameo appearances. Instead the episode is primarily devoted to giving the new character an impressive and attention debut. If that is what it set out to do then it certainly achieves that very effectively. Having the stage pretty much to himself allows Depthcharge free reign to demonstrate not only his capability in combat but also a certain degree of flair and quick-thinking as well as showcasing his personality. And he certainly doesn't waste the opportunity. Launching straight into a no-holds barred brawl with Rampage we are left in no doubt, even before Primal tells us, that there is unfinished business here, and a driven determination on Depthcharge's part to finish it.

It is interesting to note that Depthcharge is the first true Western archetype to appear in Beast Wars. The series had flirted with some staging homages in the past, but hadn't really lifted a character wholesale. (Quickstrike doesn't really count - he's more a generic henchman who happens to have a southern drawl). But Depthcharge goes the whole hog with the Western theme. He;s something of a cross thematically between the characters in The Searchers and Colonel Mortimer in For a Few Dollars More in his determination to track down a murderer who has escaped the reach of justice, no matter what the cost to himself. His personal style and a lot of the voice performance come from another Western hero mind you, in this regard he is closer to Mortimers colleague/rival -the nameless Bounty Killer played by Clint Eastwood in the abovementioned film.

Actually, Depthcharge is one of my favourite Beast Wars characters. He always manages to seem capable and dangerous - he is not a Maximal you would want to be on the other side of a fight against, and has a personality that makes him an excellent straight-man for the rest of the cast into the bargain.

Plot-wise there isn't a lot going on in this episode - Depthcharge tuns up, has a fight with Rampage and we learn a bit about what exactly Depthcharge's attitude problem is all about. However, the execution of it more than makes up for the rathe lightweight plotting. The episode is really about showcasing Depthcharge, and it does what it sets out to do very, very well.

Watching it again I can see why it made a good impression on me when I first bought the VHS release in a sale, and why it convinced me to stick around and see some more.

Karl

[charlesrocketboy]

Apr 14, 2009 20:44:54 GMT legios said:

The episode is really about showcasing Depthcharge, and it does what it sets out to do very, very well.

It's also a great showcase for Rampage too. After being a generic henchman in Agenda, he's now back to being a creepy, gibbering, sociopathic horror that can shrug off hideous injury.

[grahamthomson]

The bit about Cheetor hating water always tickled me for some reason.

Plus the water animation looked pretty good for its time/budget.

[The Doctor]

Good episode. Very enjoyable.

-Ralph

[legios]

Apr 14, 2009 21:46:31 GMT @grahamthomson said:

Plus the water animation looked pretty good for its time/budget.

Water is something that you can see them get better at animating when you watch Beast Wars in order. They start out quite ropey at it, but clearly manage to find better methods as they go along, because by Season Three they are doing a much better job - which is indeed impressive considering the fairly low budget they were saddled with.

Karl

[charlesrocketboy]

To continue S3 Beast Wars, how about CROSSING THE RUBICON.

Transmental 2 Blackarachnia being uber-powerful and wisecracking (and looking really ugly) cocks up the end of the episode, as does the fact that there is no reason for the Driver to do that.

But the bit before that, with Silverbolt heading out to murder Tarantulas - and not in combat, he's going to kill him when he's beaten and helpless - is rather interesting. It's one of those moments in the Beast Era where it seems Silverbolt isn't as pure and noble as he appears, and where you can see why Graham writes him as a nasty git in No Grand Ambition.

[The Doctor]

One of those episodes I can remember nothing about!

-Ralph

[legios]

Crossing the Rubicon is one of those episodes which might as well have "New Toy! Buy me!" stamped on it at regular intervals in many ways. The plot seems mostly there as build-up for the last half of the last act, which is there to give Blackarachnia a chance to demonstrate how awesome, cool and powerful her new Transmetal 2 form is. In the grand tradition of new toy intro's, she will strangely enough not retain this level of (alleged) awesomeness in future appearances.

I've never really understood the fascination of Blackarachnia as a character to be honest, and this episode points up exactly why. We are expected to accept that she is one of the "good guys", and yet her entire motion in this story is that she wants to have more power. She lies, steals and cheats to gain personal power and yet the story seems to think I will still identify with her as a hero. I'm afraid that doesn't really work for me. She would make a perfectly decent villian, but as written here I don't really see her as being on the side of light in this one.

The Silverbolt plot-thread is decent enough, if pushing at the edges of the character a little bit. I understand what they are getting at - love can make people do strange and extreme things - but it seems like a long step from the Silverbolt we saw in things like Transmutate to this particular reaction. The voice actor does a nice job with it though, it is quite well played.

I don't think it helps that part of the story is resolved by pure Deus Ex Machine either. The Transmetal Driver brings Blackarachnia back to live because........ well because it does, now look - shiny new toy! The internal logic of the script it left flapping a little more than Beast Wars usually did. For a brief moment it almost heads into the reaches of Sunbow logic.

Of the new character introduction stories that Season Three was burdened with, Crossing the Rubicon was arguably the weakest. As much as anything, this may be because it feels more like just that - a story that exists for the purpose of the introduction and doesn't really have much reason other than that to exist. It doesn't really impact greatly on the status quo of the series, or really set up andy story threads that run further than the single episode. There is just something about it that almost feels perfunctory in some way.

Karl

[blueshift]

Yeah season 3 did devolve into 'buy our toys' too much. Especially bad since most of the TM2s were ugly as hell!

[legios]

Actually, I like most of the new toy introductions. Cheetor's mutation involved a little bit of character development for him, with him acting a little bit more grown-up by the end of the story, Tigerhawk's arrival was all part of the process of demolishing the status quo towards the end of the series and Depthcharge's debut set us up a new character dynamic with the addition of a fairly memorable new maximal. It is really only this particular story that I find doesn't have something else going on other than "buy new toys".

Karl

[charlesrocketboy]

Apr 26, 2009 19:57:52 GMT legios said:

I've never really understood the fascination of Blackarachnia as a character to be honest, and this episode points up exactly why. We are expected to accept that she is one of the "good guys", and yet her entire motion in this story is that she wants to have more power. She lies, steals and cheats to gain personal power and yet the story seems to think I will still identify with her as a hero. I'm afraid that doesn't really work for me. She would make a perfectly decent villian, but as written here I don't really see her as being on the side of light in this one.

Dinobot acts like a tosser a lot of the time as well, but a key difference there is the others call him on it and get annoyed. Who goes "oi, B.A., stop that!"? Optimus sometimes, in a sighing "oh that whacky Blackarachnia!" way, and Rattrap. And we're meant to side against Rattrap here. It doesn't help that she's only switched sides because, as a Maximal protoform, she has no other choice, but it's treated like she DID switch for moral reasons (Dinobot, by contrast, got to remind us a few times that he originally joined for ignoble reasons). Considering she spent TWO YEARS trying to kill everyone...

It's probably the fact she's a woman that's doing it. Dinobot's flaws and bad side are a problem, her's are tintillating; Rattrap's sniping at Dinobot is a rivalry between two equals, his sniping at Blackarachnia is him being petty. Most crucially, we're meant to think Silverbolt's "I won't strike a woman!" top be chivalrous and good, not idiotic and patronising (she's made of metal and has machine guns on her torso!).

We're also not meant to think his constant pursuing her and never leaving her alone while telling her to join his gang is creepy stalker crap. (It is, y'know.)

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Just watched an episode I've never seen before, tying in with this week's Ark Addenda:

WEBWORLD!





An extremely offbeat episode in which Cyclonus takes Galvatron to have his insanity treated by psychiatrists. His sophisticated treatment mostly consists of shooting him with ray guns.

Martin

[Deleted]

I haven't seen that episode for a while but when I did see it I thought it was a bit rubbish.

[Benn]

Really? I laughed. I thought it was quite good, if only for Galvatrons increasingly hysterical reactions...

[Grand Moff Muffin]

It diverted me for 20 minutes, on account of being so unusual for a TF cartoon. But the ending was a bit flat, what with the Deceps just going back to how they were as if nothing had happened.

Martin

[Grand Moff Muffin]

The Ark Addendum goes Webworld mad...

boltax.blogspot.com/2009_11_01_archive.html

Martin

[The Doctor]

One of the more memorable season 3 episodes.

-Ralph