Episode Review:

Review in a nutshell: “Other Voices Part 2” uses its dramatic plot to show the viewer something not always associated with the Transformers franchise: tension. Though some episodes in the next two seasons raised the stakes even higher, the concept of a planetary explosion may arguably have brought the show to its most thematically suspenseful moment.

Plot: The very beginning of this episode shows us the same “moon” and the bright light coming off of it that the previous episode ended with. Soon after, we see Tigatron and Cheetor observing the moon. Cheetor asks what it is and Tigatron informs him it is the “light at the end of the world”. Tigatron quickly receives a com-link communication from Primal who asks both of the Maximals to head back to base.

Rattrap, who is with Primal and Airazor, begins to despair, but Primal tells him that Rhinox will find a way to deal with the aliens.

The alien light quits shining off of Earth, and then stops radiating around the alien moon. Terrorsaur, watching on a Predacon computer, believes that the aliens have been scared away, and notices the moon is gone. Scorponok notes that the aliens must have destroyed it, but Megatron corrects them- it is still there (and never was a moon).

The moon briefly gives off an internal light, before huge segments of it shift around, and form a huge ring. Inside is revealed another metallic core, which also morphs, only into something more like a bowl than a ring.

Noting that this is to be the alien’s weapon for killing the Transformers, Megatron has the Darksyde’s shields put up. Megatron then scans for Tarantulas’ signature, and finds him at the Axalon. Megatron is pleased, and uses an alien frequency to scan the Axalon. He finds that two Maximals are out cold, but Tarantulas’ and Blackarachnia are active in the stasis hold, and Inferno is closing in on them.

Tarantulas, we then see, is working on making a stasis pod operational. Blackarachnia notices that there isn’t much room for both of them, but Tarantulas only regards her talking with annoyance. Blackarachnia, behind Tarantulas’ back, prepares to fire on him, but she herself is shot at by an unexpected blast. It misses, but the next doesn’t, and seemingly deactivates her.

We see it is Inferno who did the shooting. He attempts to contact Megatron, but before he gets a response, he is shot at by Tarantulas. Inferno catches the harpoon, before blasting away Tarantulas’ weapon. Tarantulas fires his automatic leg weapons, but Inferno merely shrugs it off before setting his opponent on fire. Tarantulas is deactivated.

Megatron’s computer informs him of this fact, and he gets angry.

Primal, Airazor and Rattrap arrive at the Axalon, and Airazor notices with surprise that the shields are down. Rattrap also sees that one of the moons is missing. Airazor then sees that Cheetor and Tigatron are closing in on the Axalon.

Inferno is lightly experimenting with the stasis pod that Tarantulas was working on, but Blackarachnia crawls on the ceiling above him. She tells Inferno he “mustn’t touch” the stasis pod, and he looks around confusedly. She drops from the ceiling and lands on him. It seems she may have bitten him with her fangs, but Inferno doesn’t seem to have been poisoned anyways. He throws her off, and promises to finish her off. She transforms, and a fight ensues, in which Blackarachnia becomes the victor.

She takes up the visor that Tarantulas was using to work on the stasis pod, puts it on, and then connects it to him, saying she needs his data tracks to finish working on the pod. We see her drop into a virtual representation of Tarantulas’ lab. She looks around, and picks up a transwarp cell (likely meant to represent the programs necessary to operate it), but soon an insane cackle echoes around. Shortly after, and Tarantulas head appears in multiple places, about as tall as Blackarachnia herself, floating in the air and cackling. Blackarachnia disconnects from the visor and screams for a while.

Primal and Rattrap finally enter the bridge of the Axalon. Primal calls out Rhinox’s name, but no response comes. Airazor, Cheetor and Tigatron soon follow into the bridge, and quickly discover than Rhinox and Dinobot are knocked out, and attached to the ceiling.

Primal orders Cheetor and Tigatron to get the knocked out Maximals into a CR chamber, and then sends Rattrap and Airazor off to see if the spiders are still in the ship. He informs them that he wants the spiders functional.

Megatron is informed that Tarantulas’ transwarp cell has been reactivated. Scorponok meanwhile points out the alien weapon. Its core heats up with a yellow energy in its center, which spreads to the edges of the core. The edges reflect the energy to one point of convergence, which then shoots off towards Earth (though, at this point in the story, it is still unknown that they are on Earth).

Primal boosts the shields on the Axalon, and is informed that the temperature outside is quickly rising. He realizes that the heat will ignite all the energon around the Earth.

Outside, fires are raging, and huge sections or rock are breaking apart and falling over.

Megatron realizes that the aliens are attempting to destroy the entire planet just to kill of the Transformers and notes “I rather like these aliens”. Terrorsaur and Waspinator panic, and Scorponok claims that Megatron will save them all. Megatron denies this, and says that he has left that job to Tarantulas. He tries to scan for the transwarp cell again, but with the Axalon’s shields up, he can not.

Blackarachnia finally notes that the stasis pod is ready. But Airazor and Rattrap have finally found her, and hold her at gun point.

The temperature outside is getting even hotter, and Primal asks for the shields to hold as much as is necessary. He almost shakes Cheetor, and asks how long Rhinox will be out. Cheetor tells him it would be at least a mega-cycle. Primal then is told by the computer than the entire planet would be destroyed in 28.5 cycles. Rattrap asks for him to come to the stasis hold.

Primal sees the stasis pod when he comes, and realizes it could fly. Blackarachnia informs him that pod’s system would only respond to her, and Primal commands her to change this. She denies this request.

Rattrap questions how its flight would help things anyways, and Primal reveals his plan to use it to fly close to the alien weapon and blow it up with a transwarp explosion. Blackarachnia realizes this is suicide, but Primal notes that it’s the only shot any of them have at survival. She takes the hint, and begins changing the systems to work for Primal. Primal also explains that it isn’t necessarily suicide, since he could fly away from the blast.

Eventually, the pod is ready for Primal, and he gets in. Blackarachnia makes a comment about it looking like a coffin. Airazor and Tigatron send Primal well wishes, Cheetor is unable to say anything, and Rattrap asks if he can have Primal’s quarters if he doesn’t come back. Primal tells them all that they’re the best crew he had ever worked with, but Blackarachnia derides this as slop. Airazor promptly punches her to the floor.

Primal closes the pod, and his battle mask comes over. As the hatch to the room opens, Primal narrows his eyes in determination, looking a lot like Optimus Prime. Then he casts off.

Without the transwarp cell cloaked by the Axalon’s shields, Megatron can now see that Primal is flying the pod instead of Tarantulas.

In the Axalon’s bridge, Cheetor manages to pull up a visual of Primal’s flight to the alien weapon, noting that Rhinox had once showed him how to get such a signal through the shields.

Primal finally comes within range of the weapon, and initiates the countdown for the explosion of the transwarp cell. He then attempts to get out of the pod. But it won’t open. Primal says this is impossible, but Megatron’s voice comes into the pod, and tells Primal it isn’t.

Megatron then comes through on a visual across the pod’s ceiling, and Megatron reveals his master plan. It was actually Primal’s too- that the pod would be flown to the weapon before detonating. But Megatron points out that his plan includes the flyer blowing up with it (he is able to control the pod because of the hacking of the transwarp cell that he did in the previous episode).

The Maximals, meanwhile question why Primal won’t leave the pod. Tarantulas’ voice comes through Blackarachnia and says that it is too late. Her eyes then light up green, and Tarantulas’ voice wishes Primal farewell before cackling.

Back at the pod, Megatron notes that Primal’s imminent death will seal the victory of the Predacons over the Maximals, before ominously concluding

“The Beast Wars are over, Optimus. You… lose.”

Primal says “no” while Megatron laughs in the background. Primal then shouts Megatron’s name seconds before the pod is set to explode. Then… 3… 2… 1.

The alien weapon sparks wildly before exploding in a huge fireball, which finally resolves in the expanding ring of a quantum surge. This surge is shown occurring with the Axalon in the background. The explosion is shown again, and this time we hear Primal’s final shout. The surge is then shown expanding with the Darksyde in the background. We are then shown many pieces of Primal flying through space as final confirmation of his death, and then the entire explosion one more time for emphasis.

The first season ends with a title shown across the Earth and space which says “The End?”

Review: Plot details can make things seem a bit dull, so I should emphasize- this episode is tense.

There is an interesting contrast in the scope of this episode’s setting in that it dwells primarily on an alien weapon bigger than the Earth’s moon, and the display of the Earth being superheated and shaking with various explosions, and then on the very confined setting of the characters. Since the Earth is being superheated, once everyone is inside, they stay inside. The only fight (well, technically two, but the second was really a continuation of the first) takes place in one room, and the one time somebody does venture out into the heat, they’re in a tight stasis pod. In that instance, the tight confines of the pod are shown in conjunction with the grand scale of the weapon, bring the contrasting ideas together.

But the entire thing is meant to show the fear of the characters or what the characters are afraid of. So when the large expanse of Earth and space is being used, things are shown to be cataclysmic. Things are blowing up left and right, fires are raging all over, and in space, a huge weapon is causing it all. Inside the ships, characters are panicking, or working furiously to stop their impending death. It isn’t quite claustrophobia, since the characters are actually relying on their ships to keep them protected. They want to stay inside. But it is that very fact which emphasizes what a thin line stands between them and their destruction.

Generally calm characters, like Megatron and Primal, are shown losing their composure at times (although maybe that isn’t so out of the ordinary for Megatron).

And just when it seems that everything could work out with nobody dying, Megatron finally reveals that Primal is going to die. This idea only lasts for about a minute, and we hope that Primal can get out, but he never does.

So, the tension lasts until the very end. And when the tension does conclude, there is relief in that the alien weapon has been eradicated, but Primal’s death leaves one wishing it hadn’t happened. This mixed resolution of relief and shock, may leave the audience member astounded- confused about whether or not they are supposed to be glad. This confusion is drawn out with multiple replays of the explosion, and then we are directly asked how the next part of the story will go.

All of this tension is further aided by the animation, which will be discussed below.

It may also be important to note that the dangerous situation in this episode seems to bring out the best and worst in many of its characters. Since this is the conclusion of the first season, it would seem logical that the character have been well established by this point. And the strengths and weaknesses displayed in this episode actually seem to be a resolution of what the characters having been dealing with internally, bringing another level of conclusion to the season.

Primal is shown to be somewhat panicked, and sometimes impatient. But he is also shown to be self sacrificing, and in the end, flies the pod that saves everyone.

Megatron is also shown to be angry and at times uncollected, but his master planning and general intelligence eventually provide a result which was better than he had hoped.

Tarantulas’ is shown to be rather weak, and is taken out by Inferno easily. Additionally, he is paranoid. Ironically, it is this paranoia which leads him to work on the pod, and his main strength- his mind- allows him to actually do that work. And without his work (and Blackarachnia’s) the pod wouldn’t be ready to fly and take out the planet-buster.

Blackarachnia also uses her intelligence to finish working on the pod, and uses her fighting ability to take out Inferno. But her selfish desire to not change the activation codes would have been everyone’s undoing had she not been reminded she was going to die with everyone else. Additionally, while she had no choice, her infiltrating of Tarantula’s mind to get his codes also becomes a problem for her later on.

Cheetor is overcome with despair, and can’t seem to say anything when Primal gets in the pod and prepares to shoot off. But his desire for Primal’s safety does lead him to set up the spectrum pulse so the Maximals can see what’s going on.

These character displays are made even more important since the general character situation is soon to be altered with the introduction of new beast warriors, and the reformatting of others.

And finally, the conclusion is more than just to this episode, or even the two before it. We finally see the end result, as mentioned earlier, of Tarantulas’ desire to leave the Earth, and we finally see what the aliens, who were at first hinted at, and then whose actions were explicitly shown, think of the Transformers, and how they are willing to act on that opinion. Also, by revealing on moon to be an alien machine, this episode sets up the fact (which will be fully explained early on in the next season) that the Beast Wars are indeed taking place on Earth.

Entertainment: Well, the thematic tension, as mentioned, is probably the strongest component of this episode’s entertainment.

But, there are other things to consider. There are some great lines, such as

“Brilliant. They're causing a chain reaction which will rip this planet to atoms

and destroy all traces of them... simply to deal with us! What sheer ruthlessness! What disregard for sentient life! I rather like these aliens.”

Or when Rattrap and Airazor point their guns at Blackarachnia, after she has helped disable Rhinox and Dinobot and is commandeering a stasis pod:

“Did you know we have a truce?”

(One of my favorite lines in the entire show.)

And the fight between Blackarachnia and Inferno is also one of my favorite fights in the show. Others may have been longer, but this one, in my opinion, was by far the most stylistic and interestingly choreographed until, perhaps, Depth Charge and Rampage started battling each other. This is mostly due to Blackarachnia’s acrobatics, and Inferno’s attempt, even for only a part of it, to engage her in hand to hand to combat.

Animation: Most of the animation seemed to serve the purpose of emphasizing the thematic nature of the episode. Before the planet buster activates, things are dark, and at times bathed in a falsely calming light.

As soon as the planet buster activates, the camera spends a considerable time shaking in many scenes. Rooms with windows, like the Axalon’s bridge, are tinted with the yellow light of the weapon’s heat ray. Soft but ominous sounds of explosions are heard outside in any scene inside a ship (o.k., that’s a sound effect, but still…). The Darksyde seems like it’s almost falling apart. Panels are hanging from the ceiling, and sparks are flying nearly everywhere.

Also, since a lot of the episode takes place inside ships, there was a lot more animation of mechanical settings, which may or may not have been to the animators’ benefit. I suppose I wouldn’t know. But it did all look neat.

This episode was, in general, well animated. This may have because the animators had had a lot of time working with these characters and settings, since it was the end of the season. It’s hard to justify saying something looks good without a visual aid, and it’s always up to the viewer to decide, but I do think it is animated well, and even better than some other episodes.

Overall: As this has one of my favorite fights and one of my favorite lines, but mainly because it is intensely thematic, this is one of my favorite episodes. Furthermore, I think Primal’s death might sometimes get overshadowed by Dinobot’s in season two. After all, Dinobot’s death drawn out and meant to be emotional, while Primal’s is meant to be sudden and shocking. But sometimes I think I may be more impressed (or rather, saddened) by Primal’s death because it is sudden and shocking. Either way, for all the reasons stated above, I would rate this episode 10 out of 10.

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