Gorilla Warfare

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He will kill the first person who makes a dull surprise joke.
"Gorilla Warfare"
Season	1
No. in season	10
Production company	Mainframe Entertainment
Airdate	October 14, 1996
Written by	Greg Johnson
Directed by	James Boshier
Animation studio	Mainframe Entertainment
Continuity	Beast Wars continuity
Packaged with	Blackwidow
Watch this episode on YouTube

A virus, courtesy of Scorponok, turns Optimus into an overly aggressive fighting machine.

Synopsis

RRRAAAIIIDDD?!

While out on a specimen-gathering mission, Optimus Primal and Dinobot argue over the importance of studying the local flora. Primal finds it valuable, while Dinobot thinks the whole mission is pointless and dangerous. As he turns to leave, the plant Primal is studying shoots a seed pod at Dinobot that lands right at the top of his neck, right where he can't reach. As Dinobot struggles, Primal helps remove the pod and notes that they've learned something.

Just then, the pair are ambushed by Scorponok, who manages to implant a Cyberbee onto Optimus Primal's chest before being driven away. Back at the Axalon, Primal recuperates in a CR chamber while Dinobot explains that the bee is a viral mine designed by Scorponok to infect Optimus's core systems and humble his personality, making him too cowardly to lead adequately. Rhinox deduces that because the mine has infected all of Primal's core systems, removing the bee is impossible without killing the Maximal commander, and doing so would trigger a self-destruct that would destroy everything within sprinting distance.

Why does your shoulderpad have to be so big?

As they wonder what to do next, the CR chamber shakes and is blasted apart. Out stomps Optimus Primal, ready for battle. The cyberbee has had the opposite effect on Primal, turning him into a crazed berserker. Obviously, Scorponok's "notorious incompetence" has caused the Predacon's plan to backfire. Still, in his current state, Primal is now a danger to himself and his teammates, and is still at risk of perishing under the system drain of the mine. Primal orders his troops to lock him up.

I said, "No pictures!"

The Maximals debate over what to do next, knowing that Scorponok would have the anti-virus for the mine but unsure of how to acquire it. With what little bit of clarity he has left, Optimus Primal convinces Cheetor that they could use the mine against the Predacons, and Cheetor releases him. Primal wants to take advantage of their enemy's lack of knowledge of the mine's malfunction to launch a surprise assault. When brought to the rest of the crew, his plan is shot down as being far too risky and dangerous to attempt. Optimus accidentally shoots and activates an alarm, which then sets him into a tantrum. The Maximals try to stop him, but Primal shoves them all away and takes off for the Pred base on his own.

With their options running short, Dinobot ironically suggests they "think like the old Optimus" and proposes negotiating with the Predacons for the cure, but their attempt only serves to give the Predacons advance warning of Optimus Primal's new state and his oncoming assault... but not before Megatron kicks Scorponok for being an "incompetent bug." Now with the Preds on full alert and with no other course of action to take, the Maximals begrudgingly follow Optimus to the Predacon base to give him covering fire in his one-ape assault.

Oh, exploitable!

After blasting his way in, Optimus Primal takes on Tarantulas and pins him to the wall with his own weapon. Primal then breaks through another wall to grab Waspinator and blow him away. Outside, the Maximals take on Blackarachnia and Terrorsaur, giving Cheetor a chance to run inside the base.

After tearing through the Predacon crew, Optimus Primal ends up confronting Megatron, who teasingly dangles the cure in front of his nose while giving an ultimatum: Submit to him and live, or stay defiant and die from the mine.

When he says, "Pull my finger"... don't, okay?

Inspired by the plant specimen from his mission with Dinobot, Optimus chooses a third option and rips the bee from his chest, activating its self-destruct. He tosses it at Megatron and it attaches to the Predacon leader's back where he can't reach. Megatron drops the anti-virus and flees to Scorponok for help. Fortunately for Primal, Cheetor manages to arrive just in time to grab the cure and administer it to the Maximal leader before his spark gives out. Megatron reaches Scorponok, but not in time, and the Cyberbee blows just after the Maximals rush outside the base.

Optimus Primal recuperates in his quarters and finds Dinobot watching over him. Dinobot shares an uncharacteristic sentiment that he's glad Optimus is back and wanders out. Primal sees that the former Predacon has brought him a sample of the flower they were studying earlier. Awwww.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

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

Quotes

"Just because we bumped into Predacons is no reason to stop learning new things."
"Well, if we encounter any of Megatron's forces, you may learn that it is unwise to dally with plants."

—Optimus and Dinobot

"Yeeesss, from now on, I shoot my dinner salad before I eat it."

–Dinobot encounters hostile plant life for the first time.

"As much as I'd love to see the both of you scrap yourselves, save it for my birthday."

—Rattrap wants strange birthday presents.

Rhinox: "Optimus would get blown to scrap. Big problem."
Dinobot: "Well, that depends on your viewpoint."
Rattrap: "Hey, hey, hey, shut up!"

—The Maximals debate what to do with Optimus.

"We've got to stop him before he hurts himself!"
"Him? Try us!"

—Rhinox and Rattrap during Optimus' freakout.

"We must try to think what Optimus—the old Optimus—would do."

—... Is Dinobot feeling all right?

Notes

Script timeline

• First draft: 24th January 1996
• Second draft: 1st March 1996
• Finalised: 25th April 1996
• As Air: 2nd October 1996

Animation and technical glitches

• After the Maximals transform to engage Scorponok during his ambush, Scorponok is seen firing missiles at them. The animation pace for this particular sequence seems a lot faster than the pace for the rest of the episode.
• In the overhead shot of the opening battle, Scorponok is either floating on the surface of the water, instead of the rocks right in front of him, or the water is incredibly shallow.
• When Optimus Primal gets hit by the Cyberbee and falls back, his left shoulder-pad turns upside down, clipping through his upper arm.
• May not be much of an error, but once again, Scorponok's visor optics are red momentarily when he is first blasted by Optimus and finds himself on a loose log near the waterfall. It changes color again when he's discussing the anti-virus with Megatron and when Cheetor tries to negotiate with the Preds.
• When Optimus bursts out of the CR chamber, parts of his body briefly turn see-through due to the blurring effect of the steam.
• It's probably more due to computer limitations than an outright error, but Optimus' reflection on the containment cell's glass is heavily pixellated.
• Just before Cheetor brings Optimus back to the command center, the top of Rhinox's head is black and white in an overhead shot. Also, his jaw isn't moving as he speaks.
• In two shots just before and after Optimus starts going "ape slag" on the Maximals, Rattrap's shoulders are turned downward and the rods that normally connect them to his torso are pointing upward.
• When Rhinox orders Cheetor to enter the Predacon ship, his hip joint is clipping through his "skirt".
• Cheetor's sprints into the Predacon base rather unconvincingly, seemingly sliding sideways as he runs.
• Optimus' thigh clips through his shin as he collapses in Scorponok's lab.
• When Megatron approaches the exhausted Primal, the damage from the latter's head is missing.
• When Cheetor injects the anti-virus into Optimus, his fist painfully twists to the side, clipping through his wrist armor. Then, the virus container floats in the air for a second, before it drops to the ground. Cheetor never opens his fist during the process, and continues to grip air.
• Just before Cheetor and Optimus leave the Pred base, Rhinox, kneeling on the screen's far left, is slowly sliding sideways.
• In the same shot, Rattrap seems to be shooting the boulder he's hiding behind rather than bothering to raise his gun above it.
• Still in the above shot, Dinobot's eye beams just sorta end a few inches in front of Terrorsaur, and Terrorsaur's weapon blasts likewise simply vanish just before reaching their target. No wonder no one hits anyone.
• As Rhinox gestures for his fellows to leave, Dinobot's eyes remain green even after he stopped shooting his eye beam.
• The explosion actually appears in the air just slightly behind and above the Cyberbee, rather than coming from the thing itself.
• At the end of the episode, as Optimus lies in his bed, the plate behind his head clips into his mattress.

Continuity errors

• Belying Rhinox's claims that removing the bee would activate a self-destruct and destroy everyone in sprinting distance, Megatron and Scorponok manage to survive being at ground zero, despite the blast blowing a slag-off big hole in the Darksyde.

Continuity notes

• Aaaw, character development. How sweet. (And not just Dinobot. Rattrap also stops Cheetor and Dinobot arguing in order to get everyone to focus on Primal's condition. He's definitely a much changed 'bot from the jerk we met back in the first episode.)

Transformers references

• This episode has the first reference to a spark in any Transformers animated continuity, when Primal mutters "Spark... fading" after the Cyberbee is removed.
• If nothing else, this episode firmly cements "slag" as the Transformer swear-word of choice. (Or at least until Hasbro's UK branch coughed in the direction of the US branch). We also get Primal threatening to "smelt you all", which didn't catch on.

Real-world references

• We're still using "minutes" as a unit of time in this episode.
• In the scene where Primal bursts into the Pred base, he swiftly punches through the wall with Waspinator on the other side and drags him back through the hole. This could be a reference to a similar sequence in RoboCop, especially with Optimus' stompy footsteps beforehand.
• The episode title is a pun on the concept of guerrilla warfare. And though Megatron's comment that it suits Optimus makes for a nice joke and play on the title, it doesn't say much for the Predacon leader's knowledge of the tactics. True guerrilla warfare is built on surprise attacks, sabotage, ambushes, and deception. What it certainly isn't built on is insane and suicidal frontal assaults against superior numbers.
• Just before the cyberbee explodes, Megatron and Scorponok break the fourth wall and stare directly at us in horror and fear.

Trivia

• The Cybertronix on the screen in Scorponok's lab reads "you've got problems", though the text and message is upside down.
• Megatron spends the entire episode in beast mode (which, conveniently, makes it possible for Optimus to stick the Cyberbee on his back where his stubby arms can't reach it).
• Scorponok can apparently design viruses, which seems slightly at odds with his personality so far. (It really seems like it would be more Tarantulus's thing). That said, the virus does do the exact opposite of what it's supposed to, and that level of competency does seem more in-line with what we know about Scorponok.
• At no point during Beast Wars does Megatron ever call Cheetor by name. In this episode, he calls him "Pussycat" when Cheetor tries to negotiate with him.
• When escaping from the Predacon base near the end of the episode, Cheetor's line of "Time to fade, heroes!" is recycled audio from "Beast Wars (Part 2)".

Foreign localization

French

• Title: "Un Singe en Colère" ("An Angry Monkey")

• Title: "Méchant Optimus" (Canada, "Mean Optimus")

German

• Title: "Die Kampfmaschine" ("The War Machine")
• Original airdate: 6 June 1998

• As in Italy, this episode aired after The Probe.

Italian

• Title: "Gorilla dalla furia cieca" ("Running Amok Gorilla")

• The episode begins with the narrator making a reference to The Probe, since it aired before this episode in Italy.

Japanese

• Title: "Satsujin Virus" (殺人ウィルス, "The Deadly Virus")
• Original airdate: 3 December 1997

Portuguese

• Title: "A Guerra do Gorila" ("Gorilla Warfare")

Spanish

• Title: "Guerra Gorila" (America, "Gorilla War")

Mandarin

• Title: "Xīngxīng Chūzhàn " (猩猩出战, "Gorilla Battle")

Home video releases

All releases listed are in English audio unless otherwise noted.

VHS

1998 — Beast Wars — Beasties Escape (Alliance Video)
1998 — Robots-Bêtes — L'Évasion (Alliance Video) — French audio only.
1998 — Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers — New Weapon of Terror (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.
1998 — Beast Wars / Robots-Bêtes Three pack (Alliance Video) — Available in English or French audio.
2001 — Beast Wars: Transformers — The Beginning: Vol. 2 (Universal)
2002 — Beast Wars: Transformers — Volume 4 (Rhinomation)

LaserDisc

1998 — Beast Wars: Transformers — Maximal Edition (Pioneer LDC) — English and Japanese audio.

DVD

2000 — Beast Wars: Transformers — DVD Box (Pioneer LDC) — English and Japanese audio.
2002 — Beast Wars: Transformers — Volume 2 (Rhinomation)
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 2 — The Saga Continues! (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)