Other Visits (Part 2)
From Transformers Wiki
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 All that trouble, just for a giant vacuum cleaner. | |||||||||
| "Other Visits" (Part 2) | |||||||||
| Season | 2 | ||||||||
| No. in season | 7 | ||||||||
| Airdate | February 15, 1998 | ||||||||
| Written by | Larry DiTillio | ||||||||
| Directed by | Colin Davies | ||||||||
| Animation studio | Mainframe Entertainment | ||||||||
| Continuity | Beast Wars continuity | ||||||||
 Watch this episode on YouTube
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With the alien craft in his possession, Megatron intends to use it to conquer Cybertron!
Contents |
Synopsis
The Beast Warriors lay inert after the Metal Hunter's energy surge... but the Transmetalized ones soon recover. Megatron begins investigating the alien base, finding it does not react to their presence. Tarantulas says that the surge has used most of their energy, and they must act quickly. Tarantulas activates the devices that the Predacons had previously planted around the alien site, creating a force field which repels a Maximal attack. Safe inside the web, Megatron casually uses the alien disk to enter the base, shrugging off Optimus Primal's warnings.
Primal sends Cheetor and Silverbolt to take Dinobot and Rhinox back to base for repairs, while he and Rattrap prepare to take down Tarantulas's shield.
Megatron boots Quickstrike into the main chamber of the alien base, but nothing happens. Tarantulas observes that their beast modes shield them from detection. Tired of hiding, Megatron transforms, but still nothing happens; he realizes that the quantum surge has rendered them invisible to the aliens.
Tarantulas hacks into the base's systems, but finds no trace of the aliens. A control interface appears, which Megatron activates with the alien disk. Energy surges down into him.
Rattrap produces a couple of bombs, which he and Primal use to take down the refractive web. Tarantulas realizes what's happened, and takes Quickstrike to defend the base, determined that it remain in Predacon hands. After they leave, the energy surge ends, a control chair descends, and Megatron laughs in triumph.
Primal and Rattrap puzzle over how to enter the base, only to have Tarantulas and Quickstrike pop out from a door and open fire. Primal charges and nearly makes it to the entrance, but the base rumbles to life just then, lifting off the ground. A single shot knocks out Primal and sends Rattrap flying away. A green energy beam scoops up all the Transformers and levitates them into the air. Only Rattrap avoids it, by diving into cover amid some boulders.
A giant version of Megatron's face emerges from the base, speaking to his troops. He tells Tarantulas that the aliens no longer matter, and that with his victory, their alliance is terminated—and thus drops Tarantulas back to the ground. The rest of his troops are repaired and, along with Primal, are brought inside the base. Just as Rattrap is wondering what else can go wrong, the base teleports away, and he finds himself held at gunpoint by a battered Tarantulas.
The alien base rematerializes over the mountaintop where Inferno found the alien disk. Megatron needs time to achieve his next goal; he sends Waspinator and Inferno on a special task.
At the Maximal base, Dinobot and Rhinox are back online. Silverbolt is unable to find the Metal Hunter; however, he does detect Rattrap incoming... along with Tarantulas! The spider wants access to the Maximals' computer system, which—after some initial distrust—he quickly uses to locate the base. He also scans Inferno and Waspinator, who are carrying Transwarp cells back to the base. Tarantulas urges an immediate attack.
At the Metal Hunter, Primal awakens to find that Megatron intends to take the base back to Cybertron. Again, he brushes off Primal's concerns about the aliens discovering Cybertron; he plans to destroy them, along with the Maximals and the Autobots. He reasons that the trophies of the base and Primal will convince the Predacon Alliance that conquest is the right path.
The Maximals attack, drawing out the Predacon troops and providing a distraction while Rattrap and Tarantulas infiltrate the base. With the Predacons drawn out, the Maximals fall back. Tarantulas sends Rattrap toward the control room, and vanishes.
Megatron engages a teleportation sequence, but Rattrap bursts into the control room and frees Optimus Primal. Megatron and Primal battle, while Rattrap attempts to stop the teleport sequence. Destroying the control chair doesn't do the trick, but just as Rattrap seems to have run out of ideas, Tarantulas arrives. He sends a download into the alien systems and hightails it out of the base, so even if the teleportation sequence is complete, the only thing that will be destroyed is the Metal Hunter. The combatants soon realize what's happened, and flee the alien base shortly before it teleports into space. A transwarp portal opens to receive it, but the base explodes before it can leave Earth.
Primal resolves to the gathered Maximals that, if Tigatron and Airazor's sparks are still online, they will recover them.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Maximals | Predacons |
|---|---|
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Quotes
"Megatron, don't! Their power is beyond what you can imagine. You can't control it!"
"I am power."
- —Optimus Primal and Megatron, just before the Predacons enter the Metal Hunter
"Oh, man! Looks like we lost this one big time."
"We lose when we quit, and I'm not ready to quit."
"I hate it when he talks like that."
- —Rattrap and Optimus Primal
"You do realize the web's the only thing keepin' that alien locker quiet."
"Blow it."
- —Rattrap and Optimus Primal, with the line that launched a thousand childish innuendos.
"Your turn to think of something."
- —Rattrap has done his bit.
"I'm getting sick of waking up in the slagging R Chamber."
- —Rhinox after getting knocked offline for the umpteenth time.
"Hhh! Your scanning system is pitiful. Did you learn nothing from the alien disk?"
- —Tarantulas isn't impressed by Rhinox's skills.
"This time, you lose, Megatron!"
- —Optimus Primal to Megatron after the Predacon's plans for glory are ruined.
Notes
Script timeline
- First draft: 27th August 1997
Animation and technical errors
- As Megatron regards the Metal Hunter's door, he puts away his weapon and takes out the Alien Disk. When the Maximals confront him (prior to Tarantulas activating the refractive web), his weapon is back in his right hand - and immediately after the web is activated and the Maximals repelled, it's gone again.
- When Megatron sends out the energy wave to revive his fallen troops, Quickstrike and Optimus Primal are not visible alongside them.
Continuity errors
- Last time, the aliens were prepared to blow up the entire planet to stop the Transformers. This time, they just send this plant base thing which makes a single attack on the Beast Warriors and then just sits there, waiting for Megatron to stroll right in. (Beast Wars Universe has shown that DiTillo's idea was that the Vok have been convinced that omnicide is wrong by Tigatron and was there to simply get them off the planet, but this never made it into the show.) In-universe, the Predacons theorize that their Transmetal bodies have made them impossible for the aliens to detect, rendering the weapon dormant. This implies that the energy surge at the end of last episode was just aimed at the regular Maximals and Predacons, and the Transmetalized Transformers got caught in the wave by accident.
- Even allowing that the Metal Hunter can't detect Transmetals, it seems woefully underwhelming for a super-weapon that Megatron hopes to use to conquer Cybertron. The Maximals' personal weapons seem perfectly capable of inflicting at least some damage after only a short time, leaving Megatron to claim that there are "too many". There are four, Megs. Four whole Maximals attacking. Two of which aren't even Transmetals. We're pretty sure that Cybertron has more than four Transformers living on it. The base is certainly a considerable step down from weapons the aliens have used before and will use later.
Continuity notes
- As seen in "Tangled Web", the Transmetal Beast Warriors are notably more resistant to energon radiation, surviving an energon overload with nary a scratch. The two Fuzors are also immune to the attack, suggesting some degree of Transmetallization.
- This episode highlights just how much Rattrap and Primal's relationship has changed over the course of the show. When the Maximals first crashed on Earth, his comments to Primal were cutting ("Y'know, I feel just heaps better knowing that our lives are in your capable hands"), he refused a direct order from Optimus to rescue a colleague because he didn't want to get shot, and he seemed generally unconcerned whether their leader was actually going to be killed at any point. Here, although he still makes sarcastic comments, they come across as banter rather than complaints ("Your turn to think of something"), and when given an order to attack the Predacons alongside Primal, he responds with an enthusiastic "right behind ya big buddy!". He's also unwilling to shoot Tarantulas as he believes the spider is their only hope of rescuing the Boss Monkey. Character development, ain't it wonderful?
- Rhinox notes that he's getting tired of waking up in the CR chamber, referring to the fact that this is the third time in 7 episodes that this has happened (although technically last episode we only see Optimus re-attaching his arm on an operating table. It's possible he'd been placed in a CR chamber before to do the initial repairs).
- The mountaintop that Megatron warps to was previously visited by Inferno in "Before the Storm", where he found a Golden Disk.
- The Predacon Alliance is mentioned for the first time in this episode. A little more about it will be revealed later on in "The Agenda (Part 1)".
- Despite Primal's assurance that Tigertron and Airazor will be found, this is the last time either character is so much as mentioned for seventeen episodes, when they are fused into Tigerhawk and return to Earth in "Other Victories", events which are in no way consciously initiated by the Maximals.
Transformers references
- Megatron gloats that his plan will wipe out both the Maximals and the Autobots. This can't refer to his other big scheme as he seems to want to leave Earth immediately for Cybertron. The most likely interpretation is that there are Autobots currently living on Cybertron alongside their smaller successors.
Trivia
- Before Megatron places the alien disk into the control column, he gives it a kiss for luck. Truly.
Foreign localization
French
- Title: "Les Visiteurs - 2e partie" ("The Visitors - 2nd Part")
- Title: "Les Visiteurs 2" (Canada, "The Visitors 2")
Italian
- Title: "Minaccia aliena - Parte 2" ("Alien Threat - Part 2")
Japanese
- Title: "E? Kao ga?" (え? かおが?, "Huh? The Face?")
- Original airdate: November 17 1999
- All references to the Predacon Alliance are omitted, replaced with more generic dialogue that no longer alludes to any kind of Predacon governmental entity at all.
Mandarin
- Title: "Zhēngduó" (争夺, "Contention")
Portuguese
- Title: "Outras Visitas Parte 2" ("Others Visits Part 2")
Spanish
- Title: "Otras Visitas (Parte 2)" ("Other Visits (Part 2)")
- Title: "Los Visitantes Segunda Parte" (America, "The Visitors Second Part")
Home video releases
- VHS
1998 — Beast Wars: Transformers — Series 2 / Volume 2 (Siren Entertainment)
1998 — Beast Wars — Optimus Lives! (Alliance Atlantis)
1998 — Robots-Bêtes — L'Empreinte D'Optimus (Alliance Atlantis) — French audio only.
2000 — Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers: Metals — Huh? The Face? (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.
2001 — Beast Wars: Transformers — Volume 6 (Universal)
- DVD
2000 — Beast Wars: Transformers: Metals — DVD Box 1 (Pioneer LDC) — English and Japanese audio.
2004 — Beast Wars: Transformers — The Complete Second Season (Rhinomation)
2011 — Beast Wars: Transformers — Seasons 2 & 3 (Shout! Factory)
2011 — Beast Wars: Transformers — The Complete Series (Shout! Factory)
2006 — Beast Wars: Transformers — Season 2 (Madman Entertainment)
2009 — The Transformers: Beast Wars — Complete Collection (Madman Entertainment)
