Equal Measures: Difference between revisions
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* When Optimus is tossing the time bomb in one hand, it really doesn't move convincingly. | * When Optimus is tossing the time bomb in one hand, it really doesn't move convincingly. | ||
* After Cheetor escapes from the vents, he falls to the ground and his right forehead chevron kind of "twangs" forward. In the next scene he's in, it's back to normal against his head. | * After Cheetor escapes from the vents, he falls to the ground and his right forehead chevron kind of "twangs" forward. In the next scene he's in, it's back to normal against his head. | ||
===Continuity errors=== | ===Continuity errors=== | ||
Revision as of 03:26, 28 May 2011
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 Later they discovered Cheetor was sitting on the self-destruct button. | ||||||
| "Equal Measures" | ||||||
| Production company | Mainframe Entertainment | |||||
| Airdate | September 23, 1996 | |||||
| Written by | Greg Johnson | |||||
| Directed by | T.W. Peacocke | |||||
| Animation studio | Mainframe Entertainment | |||||
| Continuity | Beast Wars continuity | |||||
| Packaged with | Cheetor, Megatron | |||||
Dinobot manipulates both Maximals and Predacons around a teleporter that Cheetor has unintentionally developed between both bases.
- French title: Dos à Dos (Back to Back)
- French-Canadian title: Dos à Dos
- Japanese title: 時限爆弾転送作戦! (Jigen Bakudan Tensō Sakusen!, "Operation: Time Bomb Transfer!")
- Latin-American title: Medidas Equitativas
- Italian title: Pari opportunità per i Biocombat ("Equal opportunities for the Biocombats")
- Brazilian title: Medidas Iguais ("Equal Measures")
Synopsis
Optimus Primal watches a bolt of lightning shatter a mountain, revealing a cache of energon. Because of the hazardous conditions, he radios to his team to abort their current operation. The storm garbles the transmission, though, preventing the other Maximals from receiving it.
The mission involves energon monitoring devices designed by Rhinox, who has just gotten done building the last of them. Impatient to get going, Cheetor carelessly plays with one of Dinobot's projects, a time bomb, and accidentally drops it out the floor hatch... where it's caught by a returning Optimus, who reiterates his order for the mission to be scrubbed. Everyone's clearly upset over the development, not believing the storm to be that severe yet, but Primal is adamant; it'll have to wait until later. Dejected, everyone returns to quarters to wait out the storm.
In Cheetor's quarters, Dinobot meets with the cat-bot and endorses the mission being continued regardless of the danger from the weather and the energon. He points out that Primal clearly treats Cheetor like a child, even though with his speed, the cat-bot could easily outrun the storm and plant the devices before it hits. This appeal to vanity works, and Cheetor sneaks out to complete the mission.
In the field, Cheetor plants survey apparatuses in quick succession, but a bolt of lightning causes the cat accidentally to plant one of the posts dangerously close to an energon vein. He tries to remove the device and correct his mistake, but in the middle of his struggle, a second lightning bolt hits, and he finds himself suddenly teleported — onto a control panel in the Predacon base!
Terrorsaur "welcomes" Cheetor and attacks the Maximal, but Cheetor grabs a hover-platform and tries to escape. After being knocked off the platform, Cheetor lunges at Terrorsaur and pushes the Predacon onto the control panel he'd just arrived on, causing Terrorsaur to vanish. Scorponok and Waspinator arrive and chase Cheetor around the Predacon base, but lose him in the ventilation shafts.
Meanwhile, Terrorsaur finds himself in the Axalon command center, where he's given a warm reception by Dinobot. However, the former Predacon is more concerned over how the pteranodon arrived, eventually working out that a freak combination of the survey devices, the storm, and the energon created a transporter link between the two bases. Using this to his advantage, Terrorsaur seems to convince Dinobot into forming an alliance, suggesting they scrap the Maximals, then take over the Predacons and rule together... until Dinobot drops the charade and unceremoniously flushes the Pred out of the Axalon through a waste disposal unit.
Back at the Predacon base, Cheetor continues to flee while avoiding fire from Waspinator. He sneaks away from the two long enough to hack the Predacons' data files, and determines that both bases sit on a common underground Energon vein, so an explosion at one base would cause a chain reaction that would obliterate both ships. Cheetor is discovered as soon as he downloads this data to a disk.
At the Maximal base, Optimus confronts Dinobot on Cheetor's whereabouts. Dinobot tells him about the link and how the cat-bot has "surely" been destroyed by now, but convinces him that they could use the link to annihilate the Predacon base with the bomb, a plan Primal only agrees to as long as the bomb's timer is set with enough time to allow the Preds to evacuate. Just as the bomb is sent, though, Cheetor tosses the disk with the energon vein data onto the console, transporting both items simultaneously.
The Predacons finally corner Cheetor, but the bomb has magnetically locked itself onto the Pred console, forcing Megatron to let him go so he can release it. With a few seconds left, Cheetor throws it up to Terrorsaur, who flies it out of the base (and is blown up with it), while Cheetor escapes through the link. The Predacons' errant shots destroy the console instead. Furthermore, his return trip to the Axalon shatters all of the survey posts he's planted, ensuring the link is severed for good.
Afterwards, Rhinox and Rattrap congratulate Cheetor's prevention of the Maximal base from being destroyed by their own explosive, while Dinobot is in a bad mood as usual and leaves—though Cheetor apparently didn't tell anyone that Dinobot talked him into the whole thing. Primal still commands Cheetor to take more care to obey direct orders. Cheetor says he will—except when he doesn't—and scampers off, leaving Optimus steamed up with Rhinox and Rattrap to have a jolly laugh. But Optimus figures out Cheetor was funny, and gets in the jolly laugh with Rhinox and Rattrap.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Maximals | Predacons |
|---|---|
|
|
Quotes
"Defeating them does not mean we have to annihilate them. You seem to have trouble understanding that."
- —Optimus gently chides Dinobot for thinking like a Predacon.
"Shoulda known no Maximal'd be stupid enough to try anything on a day like this."
- —Terrorsaur underestimates the enemy again.
"Cheetor! Maximi- did that already."
- —Cheetor forgets that he already transformed.
"He's gone into the vents! You better report this to Megatron."
"Me?! You're second-in-command!"
"So make it an order!"
- —Scorponok and Waspinator establish the chain of command.
"Where'd he go?! Where'd I go?"
- —Terrorsaur realises he isn't in Kansas any more.
"Think of the cosmic magnificence. Together we'll overthrow these low-grade metal knock-offs you've joined, and then rule the Predacons with two iron fists! NOTHING CAN STOP US!"
- —Terrorsaur has such naive optimism.
"Hey! What are you doing? We're partners!"
"In case you had not realized, Needlenose... I am not a team player."
- —Terrorsaur, about to get launched over the horizon by Dinobot
"OK, OK, I'll never do that again! Until the next time."
- —Cheetor has learned nothing from this adventure.
Notes
- Dinobot is kind of a jerk this early on.
- And Cheetor needs obedience beat into him.
- And Rattrap just needs the snot beat out of him.
- This is the first episode where we get to hear Terrorsaur speak (Besides "Terrorsaur, terrorize!" that is).
- And natural Earth weather is extremely destructive. 2 bolts of lighting cause a mountain to implode.
- This episode marks the finalization of most of the Maximals' voices; Cheetor loses most of his whine, Rhinox gains a more expressive range, and Dinobot sounds a fair bit deeper.
Technical/animation glitches
- When Optimus is tossing the time bomb in one hand, it really doesn't move convincingly.
- After Cheetor escapes from the vents, he falls to the ground and his right forehead chevron kind of "twangs" forward. In the next scene he's in, it's back to normal against his head.
Continuity errors
- A major plot point is that due to an Energon vein running beneath both ships, the destruction of either Predacon or Maximal bases would destroy the other. This is never mentioned again and frequently contradicted due to the repeated explosions at both. While most of the planet's Energon was stabilized by the start of Season 2 (and thus wouldn't be an issue), the plot of Season 1 episode "Victory" revolves around... a massive explosion at the Predacon base. Arguably, either side could have harvested some of the Energon by then to sever the connection between the bases, but details like that were never really confirmed!
Transformers references
- When Cheetor appears before him, Terrorsaur greets him thus: "Welcome to the dark side!" The episode script reveals that this was simply Terrorsaur being dramatic. However, because Transformers fans can be incredibly literal, some fans speculatively latched on to the idea that Terrorsaur was welcoming Cheetor to the "Dark Side", supposedly giving the Predacon ship/base a proper name.
- This bit of fanon was made official by the video game Beast Wars Transmetals. Years later, the ship's name was further codified by the BotCon 2006 story "Dawn of Future's Past", which dodged trademark issues by giving it the intentional misspelling "Darksyde".
- This is what happens when fans are allowed to run things. Seriously.
- Curiously, at no point has anybody interpreted Dinobot's line as suggesting the Maximal base is meant to be called "Enemy Arms".
- Just before he drops him through the waste disposal unit, Dinobot insults Terrorsaur's beaky (and geeky) beast mode by calling him Needlenose, who was a G1 Decepticon Double-Targetmaster.
Home video releases
- VHS
1997 — Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers — Cheetus' Crisis (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.
2001 — Beast Wars: Transformers — The Beginning: Vol. 1 (Universal)
2002 — Beast Wars: Transformers — Volume 2 (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 1 (Rhinomation)
2003 — Beast Wars: Transformers — The Complete First Season (Rhinomation)
2005 — Beast Wars — Classic Episodes — Where the Beasties Began! (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)
