Other Voices, Part 1

	; Another floating head!?
	"Other Voices" Part 1
Season	1
No. in season	25
Airdate	March 31, 1997
Written by	Larry DiTillio; Bob Forward
Directed by	Colin Davies
Animation studio	Mainframe Entertainment
Continuity	Beast Wars continuity
	Watch this episode on YouTube

The plans of both Megatron and the mysterious aliens are coming to a head as one of the two moons transforms.

Synopsis

Some women can't be trusted, especially spiders.

In a flash of light, a power anomaly emerges from a wormhole above the planet and descends to the surface. The aliens have arrived.

Rhinox detects the arrival and alerts Optimus Primal, who hopes the truce is still holding. He flies off to meet Airazor and Rattrap at the landing site located in Grid Trion.

Tarantulas is programming his stolen transwarp cell, when Blackarachnia pays him another visit. She tells him she can get them inside the Maximal base to steal a stasis pod. Megatron monitors the entire discussion between the two spiders and sends Waspinator to the location the aliens are anticipated to arrive at.

Rattrap and Airazor reach the site, which is a large circular plaza of stone, pulsing with energy and containing a stable energon crystal. When Airazor tries to scan it, it zaps her, blasts Rattrap away, and engulfs the entire site inside an organic dome-like structure with Airazor inside

The aliens don't like mimes in an invisible box.

Airazor awakens inside the "nutty alien bungalow", where a garbled alien voice speaks to her. She assures the aliens she means them no harm, but they have no such compunctions and painfully scan her until she converts to beast mode. After the scan ends, they are left with one word of information: "Cybertron".

Outside, Waspinator arrives to "secure the area", but Rattrap drives him off with a vigorous bout of fisticuffs.

Optimus Primal arrives and surveys the situation. Rattrap's efforts to use a laser to cut through the dome structure are ineffective. Megatron then arrives with Terrorsaur and Scorponok. He mocks Optimus for thinking that simple laser could get through the structure, commenting that the aliens can "create energon itself". He then has Scorponok fire a "toxic sting" that eats through the structure. Primal and Rattrap venture inside; Rattrap drags the semi-conscious Airazor out, while Primal stays to confront the aliens. A series of whip-like metal tentacles ensnare him and lift him up into an agonizing scanning grid.

Tarantulas and Blackarachnia have made their way to the Maximal base, where Blackarachnia activates a device that creates a small opening in the shields. The spiders move in, unaware that they are being followed by Inferno, who notes that they're up to no good and develops his own entry by digging a tunnel below ground.

Rattrap pulls Airazor out through Scorponok's opening just before it self-seals, to find himself facing Predacon guns. The truce is over.

Primal usually has to pay for this treatment.

Optimus Primal's scan ends, and to address him, the aliens (having no form he could comprehend) take the form of a "figure of authority"—the head of Unicron. The aliens tell him that the Transformers have contaminated their experiment, which will be "sterilized". Primal pleads for a chance to fix the damage, and for the lives of the planet's native creatures, but the aliens are dismissive, citing greater dangers unknown to Primal. The conversation ends with the aliens activating a "termination sequence".

That can't be good...

The alien construct begins to pulse with building energy. The distraction proves enough for Rattrap and Airazor to overpower the Predacons. With renewed urgency, Optimus Primal breaks his bonds and flies right through the dome; the Maximals beat a hasty retreat—as the dome bursts open, spewing a directed geyser of energy into the sky. The energy activates hidden systems on the second moon, burning away its earthen surface to reveal an endless grid of weapon-like emplacements that begin powering up. The moon itself begins to change its shape, and the alien energies cause the orbiting stasis pods to tumble out of orbit.

Rhinox observes all this at the Maximal base, taking measures to track what's happening even as the sensors begin to fritz out. Thus engaged, he doesn't see the spiders coming up behind him till it's too late. Dinobot is likewise gunned down in short order. Staring at Rhinox's displays, Blackarachnia wonders what they're looking at, to which Tarantulas replies: "The beginning... of the end."

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Maximals	Predacons
Rhinox (1) Optimus Primal (2) Airazor (7) Rattrap (8) Dinobot (12)	Tarantulas (3) Blackarachnia (4) Megatron (5) Waspinator (6) Scorponok (9) Terrorsaur (10) Inferno (11)

Quotes

"Not fair! Waszzpinator always gets slag assignments!"
"May I remind Waspinator that the current ceasefire applies only in reference to Maximals..."
(gulp) "_{Waszzpinator go.}"

—Waspinator and Megatron discuss the fine print.

[in a high-pitched voice.] "Waspinator thinks area is secure now."

—Waspinator after receiving a brutal beatdown from Rattrap.

[Rattrap has just brutalized Waspinator]
"I swear, I can't take you anywhere!"
"Hey, e-heh, just keeping the peace."

—Optimus Primal and Rattrap

"Aah, would I could have that sound to lull me to sleep each night."

—Megatron enjoying the soothing lullaby of Optimus Primal's agonized screams.

"It is too late. You and your enemies have already contaminated the project. The harm has been done. That which does not become part of the one—shall become void."
"No—wait! We can fix whatever damage was done."
"We are not interested. The experiment will be sterilized."
"You can't do that! There are living creatures here. You, with all your power—even you have no right!"

—The Vok refuse to bargain with Optimus Primal

Notes

Script timeline

First draft: 29th August 1996
Second draft: 5th November 1996
Finalised: 11th November 1996
As Air: 22nd March 1997

Animation and technical errors

When Waspinator announces to Rattrap that he's securing the area, his insect wings are missing (though you can still hear the buzzing). They pop back into existence as he transforms into robot mode.

Continuity errors

Tarantulas and Blackarachnia's plan to bypass Sentinel, sneak into the Axalon, and then modify and reprogram a stasis pod on the fly while squatting in enemy camp seems to have one glaring oversight: Don't the Predacons already possess a functional stasis pod? The one Blackarachnia herself arrived in?

Continuity notes

This episode heavily follows on from where the status quo was left last episode... everyone is still worried about the imminent arrival of the aliens, the Maximals and Predacons currently have a truce, Waspinator is being repaired after Tarantulas blew him up, and Tarantulas himself is actively trying to escape the planet for reasons that will shortly become clear.
Back in "The Trigger, Part 1", Rhinox observed that one of the moons was lighter than it should be, suggesting that it wasn't a natural celestial body.
This is the first of several episodes centered on the aliens, all with "Other V*"-styled titles: "Other Voices", "Other Visits", "Other Victories".
"Scan complete, this is the specimen we analyzed before."—The Vok previously analyzed Optimus in "Chain of Command".
While fighting Waspinator, Rattrap pulls off the same beast mode rolling-maneuver he used back in "Call of the Wild".
This is the first time we've seen the original Golden Disk since the first episode. Perhaps Megatron has finally realised what planet they have actually landed on...
Gadgets and powers:
- Rattrap carries a cutting laser in his arm compartments.
- Scorponok's stingers are venomous, allowing him to blow a hole in the Bio-Dome.

Transformers references

Unicron is, of course, originally from "The Transformers: The Movie". The Vok's Unicron hologram is solely a visual reference, and is not meant to suggest any connection between the aliens and Unicron. The Vok mention that they learned about Unicron from Optimus's datatrax, suggesting that not all information about the Great War was sealed away by the Maximal Elders.
The Unicron hologram's statement "That which does not become part of the one—shall become void" may be a reference to Unicron's quote from The Transformers Universe: "That which does not become a part of me shall become one with the great void." It might also be a twisted reference to a certain Autobot mantra, which wouldn't be the first or last of such references.

Real-world references

While rescuing Airazor from the alien structure, and arguing whether to leave Optimus Primal behind or not, Rattrap misquotes two lines from Alfred, Lord Tennyson's 1854 poem, "The Charge of the Light Brigade", changing them slightly for the occasion.

Trivia

The Vok claim that "there is more danger than you know", suggesting that the destruction of the Earth is necessary to forestall some greater threat. This idea was never touched on again. They likewise claim that their true forms are incomprehensible, although later episodes would also ignore this statement.
Terrorsaur is strangely quiet in this episode, not even crying out when he gets shot by Rattrap. (On the other hand, Dinobot is on screen for less time but does get to speak one whole word: "Invaders!")
In a line originally in the script but not included in the episode, Rattrap described the Bio-Dome as "creepier than Crystal City on Constructicon day."
The start of the audio commentary for this episode with fan consultant Ben Yee and story editor Larry DiTillio on the Madman Entertainment Beast Wars Season 1 DVD is almost inaudible. As Larry DiTillio is trying to explain something, something happens that is very difficult to make out, with Ben Yee suggesting they start over.
Bob Forward has said this was originally meant to be a 4-parter but the plans were changed at the last minute—"Apparently anything more than a two-parter is too hard to schedule".^[1] Despite his comments, this episode follows on almost directly from Before the Storm (as noted above). This ability to link episodes together without making them explicit two-parters will become more and more common over the next two seasons.
After Waspinator is defeated by Rattrap, he has exactly the voice you'd expect from someone who's been kicked in the nards.
At the beginning of the episode, Tarantulas has a series of purple bars and a series of red bars on a computer screen. In Cybertronix, they are labeled "bass" and "treble".
This is the last multi-parter to feature a "Next time on Beast Wars" segment (which is probably for the best, as this one basically spoils the final moments of the next episode).

Foreign localization

French

Title: "Les Voix d'Autre Monde - 1^re partie" ("The Voices from Another World - Part 1")

In the "Next time on Beast Wars" segment, Megatron's last phrase "I rather like these aliens" is replaced by "I love suspense". However, the accurate translation is used in the next episode for the same scene.

Title: "Les Voix 1" (Canada, "The Voices 1")

German

Title: "Andere Stimmen, Teil 1" ("Other Voices, Part 1")
Original airdate: 19 September 1998

The dub's translator seems to have misunderstood that Unicron's head is merely an image created by the Vok, as Primal refers to it as Unicron even after the aliens have explained that it's only a projection. Also, Primal starts the conversation by addressing the aliens in plural but switches to a singular "you" midway through.

Italian

Title: "L'arrivo - Parte 1" ("The Arrival - Part 1")

Despite the fact that Unicron's head is only a hologram and not the actual character, Optimus once calls it "Unicron".

Japanese

Title: "Kyōfu no Daiō Arawaru!" (恐怖の大王現る!, "The Great King of Terror Appears!")
Original airdate: 18 March 1998

As Airazor flies over the wastelands with Rattrap on his back, they have a pun-filled discussion complete with animated captions overlaid on the screen breaking down the linguistics of 人生 (jinsei, "human life") and ネズミ生 (nezumisei, "rat life").
"Robo Noogies" is changed to クルクル攻撃 (kurukuru kougeki, "Whirling Attack").

Portuguese

Title: "Outras Vozes Parte 1" ("Other Voices Part 1")

Spanish

Title: "Otras Voces Primera Parte" ("Other Voices First Part")

Mandarin

Title: "Tiān Wài Lái Kè " (天外来客, "The Alien Comes to the Earth")

Home video releases

All releases listed are in English audio unless otherwise noted.

VHS

1998 — Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers — To Protect the Peace... (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.
2001 — Beast Wars: Transformers — The Beginning: Vol. 4 (Universal)

LaserDisc

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)