Before the Storm
From Transformers Wiki
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 "At last, I have located the greatest chocolate coin in all history, yessss..." | |||||||||
| "Before the Storm" | |||||||||
| Season | 1 | ||||||||
| No. in season | 24 | ||||||||
| Production company | Mainframe Entertainment | ||||||||
| Airdate | February 21, 1997 | ||||||||
| Written by | Larry DiTillio Bob Forward | ||||||||
| Directed by | Adam Wood | ||||||||
| Animation studio | Mainframe Entertainment | ||||||||
| Continuity | Beast Wars continuity | ||||||||
 Watch this episode on YouTube
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Inferno brings Megatron an alien golden disk that causes him to offer a too good to be true cease fire to the Maximals.
Contents |
Synopsis
Tigatron observes a strange energy pulse in a distant mountain. Simultaneously, within the Predacon base, Megatron is woken by his computer. It reports the energy anomaly, and that it is of alien origin. Megatron suspects this could be the start of something big and thus sends Inferno to investigate. The fire ant burrows into the mountain and recovers a strange discus.
Primal is on a scouting run looking for the energy anomaly that Tigatron reported. He sees a strange probe, and follows it. The probe stops and forms into a hologram of Megatron. He proposes to meet about a truce on neutral ground, between both leaders.
When they meet, Megatron insists that the truce is not an act of treachery. He explains that he has no time to fight Maximals, and he needs time to think. Primal reluctantly agrees to a truce, bound by Maximal code. Rhinox proposes that it's about the alien energy. Primal agrees, stating that something scared Megatron very badly. Rattrap is sent—despite his usual complaints—to infiltrate the Darksyde.
Meanwhile, Tarantulas hacks his way into a holding chamber to steal one of the Predacon ship's remaining transwarp cells. Waspinator surprises him and demands an answer, and Tarantulas easily defeats him. Megatron, watching the exchange, decides to let Tarantulas do his work, and throw another kink in it—Blackarachnia.
Airazor delivers Rattrap to the Predacon base—unarmed—and drops him off quickly before hailing the Predacon channels. Megatron casually disarms the perimeter defenses and asks Airazor to leave. As she leaves, he stops her a moment and suggests she take Rattrap with her. Foiled, they return to the base and report to Primal, but exchange knowing glances—the distraction was enough for Tigatron to make his entrance.
Blackarachnia surprises Tarantulas, and in the confusion, Megatron hacks the Transwarp cell and adds his own programming.
Tigatron hacks the Predacon database in a cool VR world, and discovers the second Golden Disk's datatracks. Terrorsaur finds Tigatron hacking and sounds the alarm, but Tigatron uses Terrorsaur and Scorponok's goonery against each other. Under orders not to fire, the Predacons chase Tigatron, leading into a battle with the rest of the Maximals.
Under the limitations of a truce, the Predacons and Maximals battle without using their weapons. Primal steals a wire from Inferno's rocket. Terrorsaur fails at dodging a piece of sheet metal that Cheetor and Rhinox move into position. The spiders are smart enough to avoid one trap set by Dinobot, but in doing so, are crushed by another. Without firing a single shot, the Maximals have won the day... unless, of course, Megatron intentionally let them get away.
On the Maximal base, Tigatron explains what Megatron discovered: a golden disk similar in size to the one Megatron originally stole, this one created by the same aliens who crafted the flying island, and seeded the energon on the planet. The disk itself was part of a signal that the aliens sent, ensuring that the planet received a message:
The aliens are on their way. And they are not very happy...
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Maximals | Predacons |
|---|---|
|
Quotes
"When Predacons talk truce, it just means they need time to reload their weapons."
"Under normal circumstances, yes."
- —Optimus Primal correctly assesses Megatron.
"Do you take me for a fool?"
"No. I take you for a Maximal."
- —Optimus Primal and Megatron
"What could I do? He was right, I'm a Maximal. I have to give peace a chance, no matter how unlikely it seems."
- —Optimus Primal channels John Lennon.
"Ehhhh we're gonna diieeee!"
"Isn't there a rule that heroes have to face destruction with dignity?"
"Hey! What's the use of dyin' if ya can't enjoy it?"
- —Rattrap and Airazor
"Well, well, looks like curiosity just claimed another cat."
- —Terrorsaur, finding Tigatron inside the Predacon Base
"There is a storm approaching. A storm of such magnitude, of such power... it is beyond imagination. And to think, I was once satisfied with mere energon. To think that my ambitions lofted no higher than the conquest of Cybertron. *laughs* *coughs* Well, no longer. For I have been given a glimpse of power. Real power. And that power shall be mine!"
- —Megatron starts to acquire a taste for godhood.
Notes
Script timeline
- Revised: 14th November 1996
- As Air: 26th March 1997
Animation and technical errors
- After Inferno transforms into robot mode to retrieve the alien disk, out of the three "bumps" adorning his forehead, only the middle one shows up. The other two briefly flicker in and out of existence in the wrong place as he takes off, then his head goes back to normal.
- When Megatron wakes up and the right-side panel on his chair warps back into shape, it's folded down farther than in the previous shot and clipping through some piece of machinery.
- When Optimus arrives at the neutral territory to talk with Megatron, his shoulder pads are missing. Megatron's ones are also missing when he speaks to Airazor.
- As Primal says "Megatron's found out something...", Cheetor's right leg is clipping into the machinery in the background.
- Blackarachnia's claws clip through her hip and legs multiple times as she "greets" Tarantulas in his lair.
- The container Tarantulas hides the Transwarp cell behind doesn't actually go in front of it, it completely clips through and goes around the cell.
- When Megatron turns off the monitor showing the two spiders bickering, both Tarantulas and Blackarachnia are missing their textures.
- Megatron's toothbrush clips through his knee when he pushes the switch to deactivate the auto-cannons.
- Before Airazor (seen through the view of Megatron's monitor screen) turns back to beast mode, her right arm briefly clips through her knee.
- After Tigatron has infiltrated the Pred base and we cut back to the Maximals, Cheetor is tapping the buttons on a control panel to browse through the holographic projections of the alien sites. In the next shot, the panel's gone, the lighting on the table changes, and the projections keep changing by themselves.
- Megatron's hand clips through the alien disk's pedestal as he goes on about "power".
- The hole on the Predacon ship that Tigatron escapes through has blurry instead of sharp edges.
- While screaming he's about to capture Tigatron, Terrorsaur's running speed is noticeably slower than the speed of his actual running animation cycle.
- Terrorsaur covers his face when he's about to slam into Scorponok, but just before they do so, he's running again as normal.
- Blackarachnia is partially submerged in the hillside as she and Tarantulas approach Dinobot's impromptu trap.
- While Megatron is in his closing words of the episode, he is missing his beast mode kibble, except the head of course. In fact, Megatron is missing most of his kibble throughout the episode, especially the pieces on his back (which form the sides of his beast mode). He does spend almost all this episode sat down in a chair or in the bath, so removing the kibble probably made it easier for the animators.
- Not so much an error as it is an animation oversight, but if you look closely as Blackarachnia runs after Tigatron (right before the scene cuts to Dinobot), you can see her holding a gun, despite Megatron's emphasis on "No shooting" mere seconds ago. Blackarachnia probably remembers this in the next scene involving her, as her gun is nowhere to be seen then.
Continuity errors
- How exactly Megatron managed to reach the truce location is a bit sketchy. Optimus was only able to reach it by flight, and yet there were no other minions to carry Megatron up to such a high location, yet towards the end of the conversation, he simply turns to walk away... must have been a hard fall down.
Continuity notes
- When Megatron checks the location of the Alien Disk, we see a very brief map of the planet. It matches similar views we've seen before, featuring Earth-like continents that aren't quite in the same places that they are on present-day Earth. The map indicates the alien structure to be located on the west coast of North America, which means that Tigatron had a hell of a long way to walk to get there and back from the apparently Africa-located Maximal and Predacon bases.
- Rattrap makes mention about having to infiltrate the Predacon base "again", referring to his earlier infiltration in "Double Jeopardy".
- While discussing the aliens, Cheetor looks at a hologram that alternates between the Standing Stones and the floating island, with the latter's destruction also mentioned by Tigatron at the end of the episode.
- Optimus Primal sneaks up on Inferno much the same way he did to Waspinator in "A Better Mousetrap", including announcing himself by tapping the Predacon on the head and waving.
- The Alien Disk sure looks like the Golden Disk which we saw way back in the first episode and haven't seen since, doesn't it? The similarity of design has never been explained.
- Gadgets and powers:
- Tarantulas can deploy a microphone from his helmet that allows him to mimic Megatron's voice.
- The golden sphere in the center of Tarantulas' forehead can detach and be thrown as a smoke bomb. This might be a reference to his original bio, where he was described as a ninja.
- Tigatron can pop out a cable from the left side of his hip, which he can use to hack terminals.
Transformers references
- When Megatron is talking to Inferno in his room, there is a Generation 1 Seeker head on his shelf, with an expression of pure horror. Either it's a reference to Starscream's treachery in a previous episode, or Megatron has some weird taste in ornaments.
- There's also a replica of Generation 1 Megatron's fusion cannon on the shelf below the head.
Real-world references
- On the shelf in Megatron's room (aside from the Seeker head and a picture of himself in his pre-Beast Wars body), there is a Transformer sized trophy and bowling pin. He must have been good at that non-sport before he traded his hand for another head.
- Megatron's system provides him with a "Code A T T alert"; later when accessing the transwarp cell's programming, Megatron uses code "A T T override". Both are shout-outs to the Usenet newsgroup alt.toys.transformers.
- As Megatron's screen unfolds, a rapid-fire sequence of images includes photographs of a NASA Space Shuttle lifting off, the Houses of Parliment in London, a oceanside sunset, a guy in a stocking cap, and several mountain ranges.
- Megatron mused that "There is a storm coming. A storm of such power, such magnitude, it is beyond imagination!" "Beyond Imagination" was at the time the website of James Hooks, a fan who'd had close contact with the series writers. His site took its name from a tagline for the original movie.
- The entire escape sequence contains a great deal of Looney Tunes-style sight gags. Scorponok's facial features contort wildly just before he collides with Terrorsaur; Blackarachnia and Tarantulas are squashed by an improbably fast rock; Terrorsaur flies into a sheet of metal, leaving a full-body impression; and Inferno comes to a dead halt in mid-air before realizing that his flight systems are disabled and that he's required to fall. A tiny poof of dust accompanies his impact on the ground far below.
Trivia
- Bob Forward has said this was originally planned to be part of a 4-part "Other Voices" but the plans were changed at the last minute—"Apparently anything more than a two-parter is too hard to schedule. Before The Storm had to be made into a stand-alone ep."[1]
- Despite the "stand-alone" claim, this episode is the most continuity heavy so far. It advances the aliens mystery, showing Megatron moving towards long-term plans of conquest rather than single-episode "destroy the Maximals" schemes, and makes several other references to prior episodes. Tigatron's declaration that the aliens are on their way and Tarantulas's determination to leave the planet all lead into the season finale. The episode even opens with a shot prominently showing the two moons, just for an extra bit of foreshadowing.
- This is the first time Inferno is seen referring to Megatron as his "Queen", which would become an occasional recurring gag throughout the rest of the series.
- The idea Maximals and Predacons have of "truce" is rather odd. Instead of meaning a full end of hostilities, it seems to be a rather literal-minded interpretation of a "cease-fire", merely prohibiting the use of guns (and probably other conventional weaponry); unusual and comic violence such as boulder-throwing or use of a metal plate is still possible. Also, punching is still allowed.
- Apparently, all you have to do to hack all of the Predacon ship's data is to play a virtual reality video game. The Predacons' computer virtual interface is similar to what's seen in early-to-mid 90s techno-films like Johnny Mnemonic.
- Blackarachnia can be seen trapping a red poison-dart frog in her webbing when Megatron communicates with her via computer.
- Waspinator breaks the fourth wall after Tarantulas throws him the bomb, looking at the camera as he wails "oh, no!"
- In this episode specifically, Megatron's dinosaur head-arm acts as if it has a mind of its own, albeit in small ways and mostly for the sake of humor (as this doesn't happen in any other episode). Before the Predacon computer wakes him up, the dino head-arm is "awake" and looking around. Similarly, when observing Tarantulas's break-in, his dino hand is looking up at him, and he pets it affectionately, as if it was, well... a pet. Just before Airazor calls the Predacon base, he is brushing its teeth with a toothbrush. It's not clear what's going on here or how this works or even whether it's merely a bit of particularly self-indulgent self-puppetry, but clearly, Megatron has a very special relationship with his right hand (though considering that it has a T. rex mouth... yikes.)
Foreign localization
French
- Title: "Le Calme Avant la Tempête" ("The Calm Before the Storm")
- Title: "Avant l'Orage" ("Before the Storm")
German
- Title: "Vor dem Sturm" ("Before the Storm")
- Original airdate: 12 September 1998
Italian
- Title: "Prima della tempesta" ("Before the Storm")
- Megatron's "Yessss!" is again translated as Sicuro! ("Sure!") from now on.
- At the end of the episode, Tigatron's line: «The ones who created that flying island that almost destroyed us» becomes: «And who created this flying island that we also destroyed».
Japanese
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- While slumbering at the beginning of the episode, in-between loud snores, Megatron mumbles, "Hot springs..."
- While brushing the teeth on his T. rex head/hand, Megatron grumbles about all the chives stuck in his teeth.
- As he's traveling through the "virtual reality" in the Predacon computer, Tigatron passes the time by singing a tune with lyrics made from his verbal tic, "Goza Goza Gozaruuuuuu--!"
- Most of the end "battle" was showcased in the clip movie "Clash! Beast Warriors".
Latvian
- Title: "Pirms vētras" ("Before the Storm")
Portuguese
- Title: "Antes da Tempestade" ("Before the Stoem")
Spanish
- Title: "Antes de la Tormenta" ("Before the Storm")
Mandarin
- Title: "Fēngbào Qiánxī " (风暴前夕, "The Moment before the Storm")
Home video releases
- VHS
1998 — Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers — Farewell Tigatron (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.
2001 — Beast Wars: Transformers — The Beginning: Vol. 4 (Universal)
1998 — Beast Wars: Transformers — Predacon Edition (Pioneer LDC) — English and Japanese audio.
- DVD
2000 — Beast Wars: Transformers — DVD Box (Pioneer LDC) — English and Japanese audio.
2003 — Beast Wars: Transformers — The Complete First Season (Rhinomation)
2011 — Beast Wars: Transformers — Season 1 (Shout! Factory)
2011 — Beast Wars: Transformers — The Complete Series (Shout! Factory)
2005 — Beast Wars — Classic Episodes: Volume 4 — The Predacons Advance! (Alliance Atlantis) — English and French audio.
2005 — Beast Wars — The Complete First Season (Alliance Atlantis) — English and French audio.
2006 — Beast Wars: Transformers — Season 1 (Madman Entertainment)
2009 — The Transformers: Beast Wars — Complete Collection (Madman Entertainment)
