‘THE SPARK’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

I first saw this ‘Beast Wars’ episode on New Year’s Day in January 1999 – Friday, if you’d like to know. ‘The Spark’ was the first of two ‘Beast Wars’ episodes I saw on GMTV in the morning. The second was ‘Spider’s Game’. I greatly enjoyed this ‘Beast Wars’ TV episode.

In the episode, a stasis pod crashes to the mysterious planet our heroes are on. The pod is badly damaged. After seeing ‘Double Jeopardy’ many times on a recorded VHS, the word ‘stasis pod’ means a new Maximal or a new Predacon. I hoped that it’d be a new Maximal when I saw this episode.

Thankfully, I turned out to be right. Plus, I managed to record all of ‘The Spark’ on VHS compared to ‘Spider’s Game’, which I’ll get to another time. A race ensues between the Maximals and the Predacons to collect the pod, although we don’t get to see everyone. 😐

I mean, Optimus Primal and Rattrap don’t appear until the episode’s end and we don’t see Dinobot at all. Rhinox spots the stasis pod first and Cheetor spots it afterwards, informing Tigatron via comm-channel to give him backup. Cheetor meets up with Rhinox.

As Rhinox explains to Cheetor what’s happened with the stasis pod being damaged, we’re given some fascinating Transformers lore via a dream that Cheetor has about what a Spark is. The Spark is like a Transformer’s heart. I think ‘Beast Wars’ is the first introduce the Spark.

Very soon, the Predacons come to attack and steal the stasis pod. Thankfully, Tigatron freezes Scorponok with his energy weapon but is disabled by cyber-venom shot at him by Blackarachnia. Cheetor fights off Blackarachnia and he uses her cyber-venom against her. 🙂

It isn’t long though until Cheetor fights off Waspinator and Terrorsaur, which results in a chase scene where Cheetor is in beast mode. The chase scene is intense. Thankfully, Cheetor gets to outwit Waspinator. Unfortunately, Cheetor gets shot down by Terrorsaur. 😐

Thankfully, Rhinox saves the protoform robot inside the stasis pod and we’re introduced to a new lady Maximal named Airazor (voiced by the late Pauline Newstone). Airazor can transform from a falcon into a robot and vice versa. It was nice to meet Airazor in this story.

‘The Spark’ rating – 10/10