‘OTHER VOICES’
Please feel free to comment on my review.
This is the two-part season finale in Season 1 of ‘Beast Wars’. The first time I saw this two-parter was on Good Friday in April 1999 via GMTV. It was an exciting time for me, especially as the two-parter was shown as a double bill on Good Friday itself via GMTV. 🙂
It also left me rather traumatised because ‘Other Voices’ ends on a dramatic cliffhanger and one I wasn’t expecting. I must have replayed ‘Other Voices’ countless times on a recorded VHS to let it sink that the story ended on a rather tragic and gut-wrenching note.
Following on from ‘Before the Storm’, the mysterious aliens (later revealed as the Vok) whose artefacts that the Maximals and the Predacons have been stumbling upon on this mysterious planet have ‘finally arrived’. And they mean business when they’re ‘not happy’.
In ‘Part 1’, Rattrap and Airazor are sent to the site where the aliens make their landing. The site happens to be a large circular plaza of stone, pulsing with energy and containing a stable Energon crystal. Airazor tries to scan it, but gets zapped. Rattrap gets blasted away too.
Airazor ends up trapped inside the site once the crystal engulfs it in an organic dome-like structure. Or as Rattrap puts it, ‘a nutty alien bungalow’. Optimus Primal and Rattrap try to get inside, but Megatron, Scorponok and Terrorsaur help out with their biological weapon.
A ‘toxic sting’ from Scorponok, to be precise. Due to their truce from ‘Before the Storm’, Optimus and Rattrap are allowed inside to rescue Airazor. Whilst Rattrap gets Airazor out, Optimus attempts to contact the aliens. The aliens torture and scan Optimus in their dome.
Eventually, the aliens take the form of the head of Unicron to communicate with Optimus. I didn’t know who Unicron was at the time, and it’d be years later that I’d see the 1986 ‘Transformers’ movie to understand Unicron and his significance in ‘Transformers’.
The aliens are disappointed with the harm caused by the Maximals and the Predacons via their Beast Wars on the mysterious planet, which they consider their experiment. Despite Optimus’ pleas, the aliens start the ‘termination sequence’ to destroy the planet.
This involves transforming one of the planet’s moons into a powerful weapon, which leads into ‘Part 2’ of the story. In ‘Part 2’, the aliens begin to destroy the planet by firing an energy ray, which starts to superheat the planet. It was very frightening to see that in the story.
Whilst that’s going on, Tarantulas and Blackarachnia have infiltrated the Maximals’ base to acquire one of the stasis pods in order to escape the destruction of the mysterious planet. They’ve knocked out Rhinox and Dinobot in their process of infiltration.
Tarantulas’ endeavours are interrupted by Inferno, who has been ordered by Megatron to follow them. Inferno burns Tarantulas with his flame-thrower weapon, which wasn’t what Megatron had in mind. 😐 Blackarachnia ends up fighting and shoots Inferno in the face. 😮
Optimus, Rattrap, Airazor, Cheetor and Tigatron regroup at the Maximals’ base to find Rhinox and Dinobot up on the ceiling and encased in webs, just in time before the aliens fire their weapon on the planet. Rattrap and Airazor are sent to search for the spiders in the base.
Once they find Blackarachnia working on what Tarantulas was setting up with the acquired stasis pod, Rattrap informs Optimus. Optimus sees the stasis pod for himself and decides to use it to generate a transwarp explosion to destroy the aliens’ superweapon.
The scene where Optimus says farewell to his Maximals, just after Blackarachnia sets up the stasis pod for him, is very touching and quite emotional. I found it heart-wrenching as a kid when watching that scene, especially from rewatching it numerous times on VHS.
As Optimus pilots the stasis pod towards the alien weapon, his means of escape are thwarted, as Megatron has locked the stasis pod from his end. This story and Season 1 ends with the shocking death of Optimus Primal, as he gets blown up along with the alien weapon.
‘Other Voices’ is a very dramatic season finale to Season 1 of ‘Beast Wars’. It was very shocking how the story concluded with Optimus Primal getting blown up. I assumed the worst, especially with The End ? caption at the end, though I should have noticed the ‘?’ too. 😀
On Disc 4 of Season 1 of the ‘Beast Wars’ 15th anniversary DVD box set, there’s the ‘Maximise! Creating a New Breed of Transformer’ documentary, an art gallery and original character models to enjoy.
‘Other Voices’ rating – 10/10
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