‘THE WEB’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

I saw this ‘Beast Wars’ episode via GMTV on Early Bank Holiday Monday in the first week of May in 1998. This is a Cheetor-focused episode. I greatly enjoyed ‘The Web’, especially as it showcases Cheetor’s character and how reckless he can be as one of the Maximals. 🙂

In the episode, Cheetor volunteers to try out a new comm-link device which Rhinox has built for the Maximals across long distances whilst they’re stranded on ‘the mysterious planet’. In the process, Cheetor messes up the mission, as he comes across Scorponok in the story.

Cheetor tries to stop Scorponok from stealing a mega-canon that presumably belongs to the Predacons. Tarantulas appears from out of nowhere to distract Cheetor and he gets shot in the process by Scorponok. Optimus Primal is very disappointed with Cheetor. 😐

There’s a dream sequence featured in the episode where Cheetor easily defeats Megatron, Terrorsaur and Waspinator on Cybertron, but he’s unfortunately defeated by Tarantulas and Scorponok. That’s quite a disturbing dream sequence when you watch it.

Cheetor tries to redeem himself by going back to stop the Predacons from attaching their mega-canon to their line of defence at their base. Unfortunately, Cheetor gets captured by Tarantulas. He’s soon placed onto a deadly web where Tarantulas intends to torture him.

It’s also where Tarantulas intends to drain his energy and feast on him. This does seem bizarre, especially when you consider Tarantulas is a robot and you wonder how he can feast on Cheetor like a vampire. This plot aspect is never explored nor explained in the episode.

Whilst Cheetor is captured, Rattrap is the only one who can save him from Tarantulas. I greatly enjoyed the fight scene between Rattrap and Tarantulas in the episode, and it was great to see Rattrap rescue Cheetor, even though he can be quite a mean jerk in the series.

Rattrap brings Cheetor safely back to the Maximals’ base where Optimus, Rhinox and Dinobot are waiting. Thankfully, Rattrap doesn’t let on that Cheetor got reckless again with Tarantulas and all is forgiven between Optimus and Cheetor by the episode’s end. 🙂

‘The Web’ rating – 10/10