The Web

2011-08-18T00:45:53Z

69.179.76.78: /* Technical/animation errors */

{{episode
|series=BWtoon
|ep=3
|image=The Web Cheetorinweb.jpg
|caption=Cheetor trains to be a traffic warden.
|title="The Web"
|production company=[[Mainframe Entertainment]]
|airdate=[[September 18]], [[1996]]
|written by=[[Larry DiTillio]]
|directed by=[[C. Michael Easton]]
|animation studio=[[Mainframe Entertainment]]
|continuity=[[Beast Wars continuity]]
|packaged with=[[Rhinox (BW)#Beast Wars Telemocha Series|Rhinox]]
}}
'''While testing a new communications device, [[Cheetor (BW)|Cheetor]] runs into trouble.'''

:''French title:'' '''La Toile''' ("The Web")
:''French-Canadian title:'' '''La Toile'''
:''Japanese title:'' チータスの危機 (''Cheetus no Kiki'', "Cheetus's Crisis")
:''Polish title:'' '''W sieci'''
:''Portuguese title:'' '''A Teia'''
:''Spanish title:'' '''La telaraña'''
:''Latin-American title:'' '''La Telaraña'''
:''Italian title:'' '''La ragnatela''' ("The spiderweb")

==Synopsis==
At the [[Maximal]] base, [[Cheetor (BW)|Cheetor]] enthusiastically volunteers to field test a new comlink [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] has developed to aid long range communication. Cheetor is instructed to take care of the device and not engage any [[Predacon (BW)|Predacons]]. After Cheetor bolts out of the room, Rhinox expresses a bit of doubt, but [[Optimus Primal|Optimus]] is confident that he'll do fine.

[[Image:The Web Cheetor commsdevice.jpg|left|200px|thumb|The WWF likes to keep track of their animals.]]
Five [[units of length|microquads]] away, Cheetor hears an explosion, caused by [[Scorponok (BW)|Scorponok]] trying to recover a mega-cannon from one of the two ships. He radios a report to Optimus and heads off to investigate, openly defying his orders of avoiding any trouble. Primal leaves to recover Cheetor before something bad happens. Cheetor finds Scorponok and radios to Rhinox that he's going to take immediate action. He holds Scorponok at gunpoint, but [[Tarantulas (BW)|Tarantulas]] surprises Cheetor, giving Scorponok the time he needs to take him out with a missile. By the time Optimus arrives, the two Predacons are gone and Cheetor is left heavily damaged. As he lays unconscious, he dreams...

[[Image:The Web Cheetordream.jpg|right|200px|thumb|This would be so much cooler with a tight rope.]]
:''On [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]], [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]], [[Waspinator (BW)|Waspinator]], and [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] all open fire on Cheetor, who merely laughs at his attackers and blasts them away with ease. But from the darkness within an empty water tower, the glowing eyes of Tarantulas taunt Cheetor. He opens fire again, this time finding his accuracy sorely diminished. Suddenly Scorponok transforms and attacks, and out of the blue Rattrap appears for a split second. With his blaster exhausted, Cheetor is unable to do anything but watch as a missile from Scorponok closes in.''

Cheetor reawakens on the ''[[Axalon (BW)|Axalon]]'', having been repaired by Rhinox. Cheetor tries to explain to the Maximals gathered around him that he had to take immediate action to stop Scorponok's recovery of the cannon, but Optimus and the others are still disappointed in him for losing both the communicator and the cannon because of his impulsive actions. Once Primal leaves, [[Rattrap]] gives Cheetor a hard time, causing the cat bot to snarl back and rush out of the room again. Rhinox makes Rattrap face up to what Cheetor is surely going to do, so Rattrap relents and agrees to go after him.

In Predacon territory, Terrorsaur and Scorponok install the newly recovered mega-cannon. Cheetor tries to sneak past them, but is so focused on waiting for the correct moment that he doesn't notice Tarantulas emerge from the ground behind him, and is quickly ensnared.

[[Image:The Web Cheetor Tarantulas.jpg|left|200px|thumb|Hey, aren't you supposed to buy me dinner first?]]
Cheetor awakens in a dark cavern, stuck to an energy web that restricts his movement. Tarantulas explains to him that the [[stasis web]] is draining his energy slowly, leaving the delicious body ripe for consumption. Tarantulas crawls over his captive's body and laughs with delight at the thought of his meal.

In the ''Axalon'''s control room, Optimus, Rhinox, and [[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]] look over a holo-map of the [[Darksyde|crashed Predacon ship]]. Primal prepares to send Rattrap on a scouting mission, but Rhinox covers for his friend and says that the rat is talking to Cheetor.

Unknown to Optimus, Rattrap is already in Predacon territory, following Cheetor's trail. Rattrap finds Tarantulas's lair, and engages his Predacon nemesis. While the two battle, Tarantulas increases the rate at which the web drains energy from Cheetor. Tarantulas hunts Rattrap through the cavern with a thermal scan, but Rattrap fools him with a "hot box" and blasts the unfortunate spider.

[[Image:The Web Rattrap rescue.jpg|right|200px|thumb|You realise this means we're married?]]
After destroying the energy web, Rattrap grabs Cheetor and gets ready to leave, but one last blast from Tarantulas forces Rattrap to make his exit by diving away from a large explosion... which causes the cavern to collapse upon Tarantulas.

Back at the base, Rattrap lies to Optimus and claims he and Cheetor were just hanging out together. The act spares Cheetor from Primal's anger. In private, Rattrap emphasizes to Cheetor that he was only lying to cover his own hide... but Cheetor is still grateful to his pal.

==Featured characters==
{{featuredcharacters
|h1=[[Maximal]]s|c1=
* [[Optimus Primal]] (1)
* [[Rhinox (BW)|Rhinox]] (2)
* [[Cheetor (BW)|Cheetor]] (3)
* [[Rattrap]] (9)
* [[Dinobot (BW)|Dinobot]] (10)

|h2=[[Predacon (BW)|Predacons]]|c2=
* [[Scorponok (BW)|Scorponok]] (4)
* [[Tarantulas (BW)|Tarantulas]] (5)
* [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]] (6)
* [[Terrorsaur (BW)|Terrorsaur]] (7)
* [[Waspinator (BW)|Waspinator]] (8)
}}

==Quotes==
"You know, that is why you mess up, kiddo. You don't have the sense to BE afraid." 
"OH, YEAH? I'll show you what I have the sense to do, motorhead! You and Big Bot!"
:—'''Rattrap''' and '''Cheetor''' trade manly quips.

"I don’t have any real blood, just mech fluid." 
"Oh, my filters will adjust. It is the act I enjoy more than the nourishment."
:—'''Cheetor''' finds out '''Tarantulas''' is one sick puppy.

"I hate that rat."
:—'''Tarantulas'''

==Notes==
===Technical/animation errors===
* Being an early episode, Cheetor and the other characters pretty distinctly pronounce his name as "Cheater".
* Also as an early episode, the Maximals and Predacons both also still use human time unit here and there. Their own [[units of time]] would not become more firmly established until later.
* There also seems to be a great deal of confusion as to what color Scorponok's eyes are supposed to be, changing between red and yellow intermittently.
* During Cheetor's first dream, as Megatron rapid-fires his purple lasers, the laser's own animation for leaving the gun don't appear, making it seem as if the gun's jammed.
* As Cheetor is held captive by Tarantulas, his energy readout clearly drops to dangerous levels, yet in the next few subsequent shots, the levels are at maximum.
** Compounding on this problem, in the shot ''directly after'' Tarantulas turns the energy web to full power, it's shown at half power again. Whoops.
* When Tarantulas gets blasted away by Rattrap, he's apparently missing a considerable chunk of his chest, because you can clearly see his exposed inner joints, and some weird distorted pieces around the them. It is as though his left breast turned inside out. Strangely, once he's done falling to the ground, his chest is normal again.
** Also in this shot, Tarantulas' gun clips though his left arm.
* In a similar case to Scorponok's eye color dilemma, Cheetor's eyes also very briefly turn reddish-brownish as he turns away from the others at the very end of the episode.
* Scorponk's missle launcher has the Maximals sign on it when he fires

===Continuity errors/notes===
* Cheetor wakes up after having been repaired by Rhinox, when generally the characters just emerge from a [[CR chamber]]. Based on this and the Maximals talking about the need for internal repairs in [[Beast Wars (Part 1)|the opening episode]], it appears they haven't got the Chambers working yet.
* The Maximals have been stranded for at least a month (the time it took Rhinox to make the comlink). Either way, it becomes somewhat of a moot point in later episodes as the Maximals manage to communicate through interfaces on their bodies (Presumably, Rhinox upgraded them to compensate for the lost comlink.)
* The incredibly dangerous "mega-cannon" that is the focus of the early part of the episode is never mentioned again and the Maximals never seem to destroy it or even delay its installation.
*Optimus mentions that Rhinox doesn't have the parts to build another comlink. Even if it did work, he wouldn't have been able to make any more for the rest of the team.
* The first time Scorponok transforms to robot mode, right before he fires at the rock, his eyes are red instead of their usual yellow.
** Also, Scorponok's voice sounds extremely less childish in this episode than in the preceding one. This is the first of many more 'mature' voice changes throughout the series, intentional or otherwise.
* Rattrap calls Tarantulas "eight eyes" even though his beast mode has nine.
* Tarantulas makes the first reference to the 'Inferno' (the Transformers version of Hell) in this episode. It's possible he was just talking about the subsequent Energy Web explosion, but unlikely.

===Transformers references===
* In Cheetor's dream, you can see [[Starscream (G1)| Starscream]] in his Earth vehicle mode flying over Cybertron for a few seconds: the [[Decepticon]] [[Insignia|sigil]] on his wing is the first direct Beast Wars reference to either the [[Autobot]]s or Decepticons.

* Cheetor's dream also contains a brief vision of Rattrap's rescue attempt before it actually happens. This is the first of several dreams, precognitive and otherwise, that Cheetor would have through the series.

*When Cheetor is knocked unconscious by Scorponok, his face bears a striking resemblance to his toy's, rather than his animation model's.

==Home video releases==
{{homevidnote}}
;VHS
[[Image:Flag of Japan.png|20px|Japan]] 1997 — ''Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers'' — Cheetus' Crisis ([[Geneon Universal Entertainment|Pioneer LDC]]) — Japanese audio only. 
[[Image:Flag of UK.png|20px|United Kingdom]] 2001 — ''Beast Wars: Transformers'' — The Beginning: Vol. 1 ([[Universal]]) 
[[Image:Flag of USA.png|20px|United States of America]] 2002 — ''Beast Wars: Transformers'' — Volume 1 ([[Rhino Entertainment|Rhinomation]])
;Laserdisc
[[Image:Flag of Japan.png|20px|Japan]] 1998 — ''Beast Wars: Transformers'' — Maximal Edition ([[Geneon Universal Entertainment|Pioneer LDC]]) — English and Japanese audio.
;DVD
[[Image:Flag of Japan.png|20px|Japan]] 2000 — ''Beast Wars: Transformers'' — DVD Box (Pioneer LDC) — English and Japanese audio. 
[[Image:Flag of USA.png|20px|United States of America]] 2002 — ''Beast Wars: Transformers'' — Volume 1 ([[Rhino Entertainment|Rhinomation]]) 
[[Image:Flag of USA.png|20px|United States of America]] 2003 — ''Beast Wars: Transformers'' — The Complete First Season (Rhinomation) 
[[Image:Flag of Canada.png|20px|Canada]] 2005 — ''Beast Wars'' — Classic Episodes — Where the Beasties Began! ([[Alliance Atlantis]]) — English and French audio. 
[[Image:Flag of Canada.png|20px|Canada]] 2005 — ''Beast Wars'' — The Complete First Season (Alliance Atlantis) — English and French audio. 
[[Image:Flag of Australia.png|20px|Australia]] 2006 — ''Beast Wars: Transformers'' — Season 1 ([[Madman Entertainment]]) 
[[Image:Flag of Australia.png|20px|Australia]] 2009 — ''The Transformers: Beast Wars'' — Complete Collection (Madman Entertainment)

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[[Category:Beast Wars episodes]]
[[category:Beast Wars Telemocha Series]]
[[Category:Pack-in material]]

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The Web