Spider's Game

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"Spider's Game"
Production company	Mainframe Entertainment
Airdate	January 6, 1997
Written by	Larry DiTillio
Directed by	James Boshier
Animation studio	Mainframe Entertainment
Continuity	Beast Wars continuity
Packaged with	Predacon Tarantulus

Tarantulas detects a new stasis pod and attempts to turn the protoform into a new Predacon.

French title: Inferno

French-Canadian title: Inferno

Japanese title: 地獄のアリ戦士インフェルノ (Jigoku no Ari Senshi Inferno, "Inferno, the Ant Warrior from Hell")

Latin-American title: Juego de Arácnidos

Italian title: Intrighi ("Plotting")

Brazilian title: O Jogo das Aranhas ("The Game of Spiders")

Synopsis

It was only after Tarantulas had finished hooking up his TVs that he remembered cable wouldn't be invented for a few epochs.

As another stasis pod leaves orbit and completes planetfall, Tarantulas sends out a magnetic pulse that disrupts the sensors at both the Predacon and Maximal bases. The pulse ensures that Tarantulas will be the first to arrive at the pod's landing site, within Grid Halex, and that he will be able to manipulate the protoform inside. Blackarachnia discovers what Tarantulas is up to and insists on accompanying him to the pod's landing site.

Tigatron also sees the pod arriving, but is unable to contact the Maximal base so he sets out to intercept the pod on his own. He is intercepted by Waspinator, who delays Tigatron until Airazor arrives and saves him. Tigatron tells Airazor to go to the pod and that he will join her there.

But the box said there were supposed to be ten live ants.

Arriving at the pod, Tarantulas and Blackarachnia are too late to hand pick an arachnid form for the protoform; however, Tarantulas is able to do some reprogramming and turn the protoform into a Predacon. The new Predacon, Inferno, emerges from the pod only to attack the other two Predacons, then begins marching about the stasis pod. Tarantulas deduces that Inferno's beast mode is dominating his logic circuits and that he thinks he really is a fire ant protecting his colony, which his mind concludes is the stasis pod. Blackarachnia tries to fire on Inferno, but Tarantulas stops her, saying he wants no damage to the pod.

Airazor arrives on the scene only to be attacked and disabled by Inferno and Blackarachnia. While Blackarachnia uses this opportunity to make nice with Inferno and start to win him over, Tarantulas uses it to accomplish his real goal - stealing the stasis pod. This act enrages Inferno who sets out in pursuit of Tarantulas, with Blackarachnia not far behind. Tigatron arrives and tells Airazor to find Optimus while he pursues the Predacons.

Whoops, sorry, I didn't see you there.

Nearing his lab, Tarantulas is caught by Inferno who demands the return of the "colony". Tarantulas ensnares Inferno in a web and is preparing to finish him off when Scorponok arrives and informs Tarantulas that Megatron wants the pod. Before that can happen however, Tigatron arrives and destroys the pod. His victory quickly turns sour as he is attacked by both Tarantulas and Blackarachnia, who inflict heavy damage on him. Megatron arrives on the scene shortly, and even though both of the spiders flee, Tigatron is still in trouble. Inferno breaks free of Tarantulas's web, enraged at the destruction of the colony. Impressed with new guy's violent attitude, Megatron directs Inferno's fury on Tigatron and is preparing to destroy him, when Optimus and Airazor arrive and blow Inferno into scrap.

Who buried the loyalists?

Megatron gathers up the parts of Inferno and has him restored, while Optimus and Airazor take Tigatron back to the Maximal base for repairs. Back at his lab, however, Tarantulas is lamenting the loss of the pod, revealing to Blackarachnia his beliefs that the planet they're on is doomed. From this, the black widow correctly surmises that Tarantulas was going to convert the pod into an escape shuttle, but is unable to wrench any more information about his motives for doing so out of him.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Maximals	Predacons
Rhinox (4) Optimus Primal (5) Tigatron (7) Airazor (9)	Tarantulas (1) Megatron (2) Scorponok (3) Blackarachnia (6) Waspinator (8) Inferno (10)

Quotes

"Besides, you're so cute."

—Blackarachnia to Tarantulas. Erugh.

"Ew, another insect. How depressing."

—Blackarachnia on Inferno's alt-mode.

"Spiders! Dare invade the colony? Inferno, terrorize!"

—Inferno's first words.

"As Cheetor would say, that flight mode is ultra-gear!"

—Airazor should find better people to quote.

"You won't be getting any of our secrets from that pod, Predacons!"
"And you won't be getting any older, Stripes."

—Tigatron and Blackarachnia.

"Oh, I like him, yeeess."

—Megatron on seeing Inferno in action.

"At least consider it; we could be a great team. ...Lunatic."
"Witch."

—Blackarachnia and Tarantulas contemplate working together again,

Notes

• After Tigatron hits his head, there's a cartoony, tweeting-bird sound.

Technical and animation errors

• Inferno's beast form seems to be way too large for the stasis pod he crawls out of...
  • His legs are also colored quite randomly. This means that when he first transforms to robot mode, his right leg suddenly goes from being dark red to a bright hue.
• As Blackarachnia throws Tarantulas off herself, he briefly passes into her back.
• When Blackarachnia hides behind a tree, her spider legs clip into its trunk.
• Then, as she transform, Tarantuals' forearms are on backwards. And when he transforms, his robot mode legs miraculously disappear, only to flip down from his body and retract into it again.
• As Airazor struggles to get up, the fingers on her right hand twist outwards two times.
• When Tarantulas transforms after Inferno finds him, the markings on his spider abdomen change as it becomes his back.
• Curiously, when Tigatron is injured near the end of the episode, his beast mode's face (which serves as his robot mode's chestplate) appears to be bleeding. Either this contradicts what Cheetor said to Tarantulas in an earlier episode when he said "I don't have real blood... only mech fluid.", or this lends credence to the theory that beast modes are wholly organic.
  • Alternately, it could be charring, as the same discolorations appear on his metal portions.
  • Or mech fluid could just be colored red.
• When Inferno breaks out of the web Tarantulas traps him in and fires his jets, his spinning abdomen is seen slashing through the back of his legs. (for a brief second anyway)

Continuity errors

• While other stasis pods are shown with hatch windows in outer space, Inferno's stasis pod does not have a window when viewed from the inside.
• Despite what the stasis pod says during Tarantulas's reprogramming of it, it had already started and finished scanning for DNA before the spiders even arrived.

Trivia

• While Megatron is complaining that repairing the computer is Tarantulas's job, you can see the words "eat me" on the screen in the Predacon variant of Cybertronix.
• This is the only episode of the series in which Scott McNeil voices just one character (specifically, Waspinator). The other fifty-one episodes saw him voicing two to four characters.
• At 1:45 you can hear a toilet flush when Optimus is running a 'strategic simulation'.
• It can be speculated that Inferno's faulty programming can be attributed to his pod already selecting his beast mode before Tarantulas began the reprogramming sequence. It is possible that without the Maximal or Predacon programming chips the pod began to program him with the basic instincts of an ant.

Home video releases

All releases listed are in English audio unless otherwise noted.

VHS

1998 — Beast Wars — Warning from Space (Alliance Video)
1998 — Robots-Bêtes — Alert Dans L'Espace (Alliance Video) — French audio only.
1998 — Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers — There are 2 Dinobots? (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. 3 (Universal)

Laserdisc

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

DVD

2000 — Beast Wars: Transformers — DVD Box (Pioneer LDC) — English and Japanese audio.
2003 — Beast Wars: Transformers — The Complete First Season (Rhinomation)
2005 — Beast Wars — Classic Episodes: Volume 3 — The Battle Rages On! (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)