[7.7/10] I wanna admit to a little bias upfront here. I will cop to audibly gasping when I saw D.C. Fontana, the best writer from Star Trek: The Original Series in the opening credits for this one. So I expected an above average outing from Beast Wars, and I wasn’t disappointed.
One of Fontana’s trademarks, which came through here, is an emotional intensity and a focus on character and relationships. That plainly comes through with Black Arachnia, who faces a difficult scenario and comes out of holding onto who she is, but it also comes through in how her relationship with Silverbolt motivates each of them here, from who’s trying to save whom, to Silverbolt’s emotional turmoil during the procedure to save Black Arachnia, to the general fraught undercurrent that runs through the whole story.
Apart from Fontana, this is a really neat episode from a design standpoint. I love the representation for what removing the Predacon “shell program” in Black Arachnia’s system look like. The backdrop that resembles her design and color scheme, with an ominous hanging globule stylized to look like Tarantulas, and a little monitor bot that resembles Rhinox does a great job of signifying what’s going on and who’s responsible for each part of it during the internal sequences. That said, I think the new Black Arachnia design is another overly busy and kind of ugly Transmetal design (I much preferred the original look), but I’ve made my peace with that style in season 3.
Fontana also does a good job of adding urgency and suspense to the setup. We don’t just have Rhinox trying to shoot down Tanatulas’s shell program in a delicate, never-before-done procedure, but we have the Preds on notice and attacking the Maximals base as a distraction, and even Tarantulas himself pulling the plug before the procedure can be completed. THere’s some great editing that goes back and forth between the internal and external threats, and makes these moments that much more blood-pumping.
I was also very surprised when the show made it seem like Black Arachia had genuinely passed away. I should have known. It’s a very Star Trek move to have a seemingly permanent death undone by some alien mumbo jumbo, but the “alien driver’ reviving her was set up earlier in the episode, so it works for me. The show also has some credit from killing off Dinobot for real (more or less) that this could be with, so the mournful tones are all the more tragic and her eventual return to save the day is all the more triumphant.
Her take down of Rampage is a cool showcase for ehr new style and abilities, and the fact that it's her saving Silverbotl for once is a really nice touch. She’s still herself, which is reassuring.
Overall, this was another great outing from Fontana, who adds new dimensions to the show. I hope she continued to contribute to it from here!
Review by Andrew BloomVIP9BlockedParentSpoilers2020-08-17T22:07:30Z
[7.7/10] I wanna admit to a little bias upfront here. I will cop to audibly gasping when I saw D.C. Fontana, the best writer from Star Trek: The Original Series in the opening credits for this one. So I expected an above average outing from Beast Wars, and I wasn’t disappointed.
One of Fontana’s trademarks, which came through here, is an emotional intensity and a focus on character and relationships. That plainly comes through with Black Arachnia, who faces a difficult scenario and comes out of holding onto who she is, but it also comes through in how her relationship with Silverbolt motivates each of them here, from who’s trying to save whom, to Silverbolt’s emotional turmoil during the procedure to save Black Arachnia, to the general fraught undercurrent that runs through the whole story.
Apart from Fontana, this is a really neat episode from a design standpoint. I love the representation for what removing the Predacon “shell program” in Black Arachnia’s system look like. The backdrop that resembles her design and color scheme, with an ominous hanging globule stylized to look like Tarantulas, and a little monitor bot that resembles Rhinox does a great job of signifying what’s going on and who’s responsible for each part of it during the internal sequences. That said, I think the new Black Arachnia design is another overly busy and kind of ugly Transmetal design (I much preferred the original look), but I’ve made my peace with that style in season 3.
Fontana also does a good job of adding urgency and suspense to the setup. We don’t just have Rhinox trying to shoot down Tanatulas’s shell program in a delicate, never-before-done procedure, but we have the Preds on notice and attacking the Maximals base as a distraction, and even Tarantulas himself pulling the plug before the procedure can be completed. THere’s some great editing that goes back and forth between the internal and external threats, and makes these moments that much more blood-pumping.
I was also very surprised when the show made it seem like Black Arachia had genuinely passed away. I should have known. It’s a very Star Trek move to have a seemingly permanent death undone by some alien mumbo jumbo, but the “alien driver’ reviving her was set up earlier in the episode, so it works for me. The show also has some credit from killing off Dinobot for real (more or less) that this could be with, so the mournful tones are all the more tragic and her eventual return to save the day is all the more triumphant.
Her take down of Rampage is a cool showcase for ehr new style and abilities, and the fact that it's her saving Silverbotl for once is a really nice touch. She’s still herself, which is reassuring.
Overall, this was another great outing from Fontana, who adds new dimensions to the show. I hope she continued to contribute to it from here!