Call of the Wild

The Predacons steal the rectifier coil from the Maximal base, which causes the Maximals to revert into a more feral state.

Summary

A cheetah enthusiastically chases some antelopes, when the ground around it breaks up and it is sent falling into hot lava. Before the cat gets burned, the sequence ends, revealed to be a dream of Cheetor's. Cheetor awakens from his nightmare in time to hear the alarms triggered by a Predacon assault. As the other Maximals prepare Sentinel, Dinobot drags Cheetor outside to battle.

Primal exits the Maximals' control room via the roof hatch, but is unable to prevent Waspinator and Terrorsaur from grabbing a piece of Maximal hardware off the roof and retreating with the other Predacons. A well-placed rocket from Megatron prevents Primal from chasing the fliers. Airazor is just able to catch the Maximal leader before he crashes into the ground, but lowering Primal after taking a hit from Terrorsaur seriously taxes Airazor's systems. On the upside, the Predacons are no longer attacking.

Inside the base, recuperating, the Maximals suddenly feel the harmful effects of Energon build-up. Rhinox explains that without the rectifier coil the Predacons stole, the Maximals will be have to stay in Beast Mode. Meanwhile, the Predacons, after an uncharacteristically successful mission, enjoy a hearty laugh together.

Days later, Rhinox interrupts a dream Primal has (of being a real ape) to mention that Predacons are still haunting the local area. Rattrap suffers frustration from his Beast Mode's diminutive size and limb length. Primal and Rattrap almost get into a fight with each other, their minds suffering from bestial traits leaking into their personalities, but Rhinox lays down the line. Once the Preds leave, the Maximals take some much-needed rest.

In his dreams, Primal is tormenting by eyes glowing in the dark, Dinobot dreams of hunting surprisingly tiny hadrosaurs, and Rattrap dreams of rat stuff. The dreams overpower their respective dreamers, and the Maximals awaken, trapped in the mindsets of the creatures whose forms they wear. The animals all eventually exit their base. Their foes' intellects gone, Megatron and the Predacons begin their hunt.

Airazor exits the CR Chamber to meet Tigatron in the empty Maximal base. Tigatron resolves to reform his Maximal companions before they're killed, while Airazor has her own mission. She heads to the unoccupied Predacon base, deftly dodging the automated defenses. Inside, the rectifier coil is under no protection she can't destroy.

In the jungle, Tigatron comes to face the feral Cheetor and Rhinox. The two follow him for reasons their animal minds don't comprehend. Next Tigatron recruits the primal Optimus into his party, and finally Dinobot and Rattrap. His friends gathered, Tigatron speaks to the dormant minds of his friends. He explains how the schism that exists between the Maximal's two modes is a side effect of a programming block, and as long as that program exists, the animal and Maximal identities will never reach cohesion. Now embracing the beasts within, the restored Maximals are ready to "Slag some bot!"

Primal swings Megatron off of his throne as the two Maximal cats tackle the two Predacon goons who were carrying their leader. Dinobot's raptor mode conquers Blackarachnia. Rhinox knocks over a tree to ground the Predacon fliers, and a ratball special puts Rattrap into position to pump gunfire into Terrorsaur. After the Predacons start to feel the effects of Energon build-up, Megatron orders a retreat.

Quotes

"Predacons, fall back!"
"Now he tells me!"

—Megatron's order comes a wee bit too late to save Tarantulas.

"Hunting from the air with automatic weapons—now that's a sport!"

—Terrorsaur

"She stoops to conquer!"

—Airazor shows some wit.

"Rat...robot. Rat...robot. I'm a robot and a rat! Yeahh, I like it!"
"Hrmf, I do not see why."

—Rattrap and Dinobot

"Remember, do not fight your beast instincts. Let them help your robot both forms both in battle and in peace. But for now, let us maximize (transforms into robot mode), AND SLAG SOME BUTT!"

—Tigatron delivers solid advice.

Stats

Writers: Bob Forward
Original Air Date: January 7, 1997

Characters (in order of appearance): Cheetor, Scorponok, Tarantulas, Optimus Primal, Rhinox, Rattrap, Dinobot, Megatron, Waspinator, Terrorsaur, Airazor, Blackarachnia, Inferno, Tigatron

Notes

• In his beast dream, Dinobot is chasing a Parasaurolophus. While his toy bios and a previous statement from Rattrap seem to establish that Dinobot's beast mode is a Velociraptor, scaled up to match Dinobot's size, that would make Dinobot's Mongolian beast mode quite a traveler in order to hunt instinctively a North American Hadrosaur—which, by the way, was waaay to small for a Parasaurolophus. (It may have been a juvenile or infant, although the crest may have been too developed.) Although Dinobot may actually be a Utahraptor, which did live in North America, it still doesn't explain the size discrepancy, since while Utahraptors were bigger than Velociraptors, they were still considerably smaller than a full-grown Parasaurolophus.
• This episode may or may not get its title from the name of a song by Deep Purple or a novel by Jack London.
• This episode explores many themes that several of the same characters would later explore in Beast Machines. The idea of the Maximals taking on more bestial personalities because of their beast modes is used in the episode "Forbidden Fruit". A similar concept would have been touched on in the unproduced Beast Wars episode "A Greater Ape".
  
  
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