Cutting Edge

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Do you have sssome sssugar I could borrow?
"Cutting Edge"
Season	3
No. in season	4
Production company	Mainframe Entertainment
Airdate	November 15, 1998
Written by	Ian Weir
Directed by	Trenton Carlson
Animation studio	Mainframe Entertainment
Continuity	Beast Wars continuity
Watch this episode on YouTube

A new group of raptor clones attacks the anthropoid tribe, and it falls to Cheetor and Blackarachnia to defend them.

Synopsis

Just what we need, raptors with frick'n laser beams attached to their frick'n eyes.

Chak and Una, two anthropoid children, play, watched over by three older primates, the youngest of the which bearing a familiar hammer. But a large raptor with red, glowing eyes and laser vision arrives, attacks one of the older anthropoids, and begins to chase the leading anthropoid and the kids for their lives. The children hide and stay silent to avoid becoming snacks for the mechanical dinosaur. Optimus Primal and Silverbolt arrive in the sky to save the anthropoids from the evil dinosaur. Back in the Mount St. Hilary base, Rhinox analyzes recovered materials from the dinosaurs to deduce that Megatron must be masterminding the evil robot dinosaur's activities, and one raptor won't be the end.

Do you mind getting off my finger?

Rattrap, lurking about, spies on Blackarachnia carrying around some materials in a suspicious manner. She drops her cargo when the two anthropoids run past her, followed by their monkeysitter, Cheetor. Cheetor stops to explain why the kids are here, but is distracted by the sensation of being close to Blackarachnia. In the control room, Primal assigns Cheetor and Blackarachnia to take the kids back to their regular habitat (making Silverbolt act rather territorial). Once the four leave, Rattrap mentions to Rhinox that he saw Blackarachnia taking something from the classified area of the Maximals' base.

Blackarachnia must have watched Spider-Man 2.

Cheetor gives Chak a dizzying ride through the air, while on the ground, Una puts a coconut on her head and mimics Blackarachnia's behavior. Cheetor and Chak land and Blackarachnia professes her disdain for the adorable antics of the Neanderthals. A Cyber-Raptor attacks, and despite her own reservations about putting herself in danger, she fights to protect the human kids. Cheetor manages to damage himself with a grandstanding maneuver. After getting away, the Maximals find their radios are being jammed and Cheetor's flight ability is disabled; the two are on their own.

Megatron, watching the Maximals and their charges, sends Waspinator and Tarantulas (brandishing a new toy) and three additional raptors to attack the two Maximals in the field. Meanwhile, Primal and Silverbolt also go to reinforce the two Maximals who haven't radioed in a status report. The four remaining Predacons share a hearty laugh and prepare for an attack on the under-staffed Maximal base.

Those Robot Heroes are adorable.

Cheetor, Blackarachnia, and the kids come under attack from Predacon forces. While they take cover, Silverbolt and Primal arrive to protect their comrades. Tarantulas's new weapon is a Transmetal cyber venom which disables Primal, leaving him drunkenly singing about his Little Guy. Blackarachnia dives to use her own body to take a shot from Tarantulas meant for the two kids. One of the raptors gets close to Optimus, but is damaged by the sudden appearance of the hammer-wielding anthropoid. The damaged raptor jumps madly, stomping on Waspinator. Thanks to the anthropoid, Primal figures out that the raptors are vulnerable on the control units on their backs. Blackarachnia destroys the control unit on the remaining raptor, which takes out Tarantulas as it self-destructs.

Hammer time!

Megatron's attack on the Maximal base starts well. Quickstrike is sacrificed as a victim to an anticipated booby trap. After getting a radio message from Waspinator that the attack on the anthropoids has failed, Megatron, Rampage and Inferno push forward to claim the Ark—but Depth Charge arrives, giving Rhinox and Rattrap the opening they need to force the Predacons back into a retreat.

As Primal's group collects itself, the child anthropoids are delivered back into the care of their parents and wave goodbye to Cheetor. Blackarachnia smuggles some hardware from the damaged raptors. Cheetor congratulates Blackarachnia on her heroic actions, but Blackarachnia tells Cheetor she doesn't care for "nice kids". As she walks away under the wing of territorial Silverbolt, Cheetor mutters that he's not a kid...and maybe not so nice, either.

Meanwhile, Megatron determines that he can perfect the technology from the Cyber-Raptors by using it in conjunction with the other half of Rampage's divided spark.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Maximal	Predacons	Anthropoids
Optimus Primal (4) Silverbolt (5) Rhinox (6) Rattrap (7) Cheetor (9) Depth Charge (16)	Blackarachnia (8) Megatron (10) Inferno (11) Waspinator (12) Tarantulas (13) Rampage (14) Quickstrike (15)	Neanderthal Leader (1) Una (2) Chak (3)

Quotes

"Guys. Oh, they're only young once, but they can act juvenile forever."

—Blackarachnia, not appreciating the company she's stuck with.

"Oh great. I get stuck with the one cat in the world who lands on his head."

—Blackarachnia still not appreciating the company.

"The base is undermanned and unprotected, ours for the asking."
"Aww, now, we ain't gonna ask, are we? How's about we just blast our way in there, an' slag everybody 'n' TAKE IT?!"
"Mmmmm... okay!"

—Megatron gives Quickstrike exactly the right answer.

"Oh, heart of my heart, I saw. You were ready to sacrifice yourself."
"Ohh, it was an accident, okay? I slipped."

—Silverbolt and Blackarachnia, after the latter saves Una and Chak

"Quickstrike, you may lead."
"YEAH! That's what I like to hear!!"
"Royalty? Why was I not chosen?"
"Because, Inferno, when expecting booby traps..."
[Quickstrike falls for the old Giant Fist to the metal wall trap!]
"Always send the BOOB in first."

—Megatron uses Quickstrike to educate Inferno on the nuances of survival.

"Rattrap to Optimus… hate to interrupt your picnic, but we got big Pred problems!"
"Just hang on, Rattrap. You and Rhinox are our last hope. Defend the—defend the—[sings] There he is, my little guyyyyy! There he is; my little guy. Isn’t he cute?"
"That’s not what I wanted to hear."

—Rattrap finds that cyber-venomed Optimus Primal sure can sing.

"And I really thought, you know, we made a pretty good team, didn't we?"
"Listen, tabby, you're a nice kid—" [notices Silverbolt approaching] "—which is two strikes against ya, so don't go lookin' for strike three, okay?" [walks away with Silverbolt]
"I'm not a kid... and maybe I'm not so nice, either."

—Cheetor and Blackarachnia

Notes

Script timeline

• First draft: 15th April 1998
• Second draft: 29th April 1998
• Finalised: 20th May 1998
• As Air: 14th September 1998

Animation and technical errors

• When Optimus is singing over Rattrap's comlink, his voice loses its usual electronic flanging effect.

Continuity errors

• The anthropoids are much more civilized—having invented clothes and some rudimentary society—than their apelike behavior in their last appearance. Either they're very fast learners, or the Beast Wars have gone on for a really long time.
• The first raptor Blackarachnia and Cheetor fight wanders off, and doesn't turn up in the final battle (where there's only three from the Darksyde). Where did it go?

Continuity notes

• One of the hominids is still carrying around Dinobot's makeshift hammer that he discovered back in "Code of Hero".
• The cyber-raptors represent Megatron's second attempt at cloning Dinobot, after Clone One from season one's "Double Dinobot".
• There's a lot of foreshadowing for the upcoming "Feral Scream" two-parter and beyond:
  • Megatron is working on Transmetal 2 technology, using it to clone Dinobot.
  • Cheetor's maturing out of his "kid" behaviour and developing a romantic interest in Blackarachnia.
  • Blackarachnia is covertly attempting to become Transmetal herself.
• After a season of going solo, Tarantulas is once again working for Megatron, under undisclosed circumstances.
• Gadgets and powers:
  • Tarantulas fires a dart that carries "Transmetal cyber venom". It's unclear if this refers to cyber venom administered by a Transmetal, or cyber venom designed to incapacitate Transmetals, but either way it makes your head grow and causes you to sing deliriously.

Real world references

• Megatron, evidently not the only Beast Warrior with a penchant for the Bard, exclaims "Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war", a quote from Julius Caesar.
• As Primal is shakily recovering from the cyber-venom in the background of one scene, Silverbolt can be seen administering the "how many fingers am I holding up?" sobriety test.

Trivia

• This episode features the only time Tarantulas uses his spider leg guns in his Transmetal form. Though only in vehicle mode.
• The invention of the club appears to have led swiftly and mercifully to the invention of pants.
• Depth Charge arrives at the Ark just in the nick of time, without any previous establishment in the episode, making his introduction into the episode's plot a bit of a deus ex machina.
• Perhaps Megatron shouldn't have put the most vulnerable parts of his creations right on top of their backs, where they could easily be shot, smashed, etc.
• This must have been a bad day for Rampage, what with getting kicked out of the base by Depth Charge and, at the end, Megatron squeezing his half-spark just to gloat.
• When Blackarachnia blasts Waspinator, his eyes bug out of his head in typical cartoon fashion.

Foreign localization

French

• Title: "Désavantage" (Canada, "Disadvantage")

Italian

• Title: "Progetti oscuri" ("Dark Projects")

• Instead of saying that Blackarachnia is "a credit to her web-spinnin' species", Rattrap says that she is "a credit to all the insects who ever existed". The problem is that... spiders are not insects!

It's like an anime convention threw up.

Japanese

• Title: "Beast Wars Metals: Convoy Dai Henshin!" (ビーストウォーズメタルス コンボイ大変身!, "Beast Wars Metals: Convoy's Great Transformation!")
• Release date: 31 July 1999 (theatrical)
  • This episode was released theatrically as part of the 1999 Summer Toei Anime Fair, a triple feature of animated films based on Takara properties. It was preceded by several clips, prominently from "Optimal Situation", to establish Optimus Primal's new body. The other two short movies included were "Super Doll Licca-chan" and "Microman".
  • Its absence from the Beast Wars Metals series was filled by a newly crafted clip show, "Remix: I Forgot the Banana!".
  • Due to the relatively late theatrical release, the episode was not included on Pioneer's Japanese DVD box set of Beast Wars Metals, nor was it released on the reissue of that box set. The only Japanese retail release for this episode was on VHS. However, on April 27, 2016, fansub group Karyuudo Fansubs released an unofficial re-constructed DVD quality version of this episode.

Portuguese

• Title: "O Limite" ("The Limit")

Spanish

• Title: "La Nueva Tecnología" (America, "The New Technology")

Mandarin

• Title: "Shēng Sǐ Guāntóu" (生死关头, "Between Life And Death")

Home video releases

All releases listed are in English audio unless otherwise noted.

VHS

1999 — Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers: Metals — The Movie (Toei Video) — Japanese audio only.
2000 — Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers: Metals — The Movie (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.
2000 — Beast Wars: Transformers — Volume 1 (Universal)

DVD

2004 — Beast Wars: Transformers — Vol. 1 (Universal)
2004 — Beast Wars: Transformers — The Complete Third 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 3 (Madman Entertainment)
2009 — The Transformers: Beast Wars — Complete Collection (Madman Entertainment)