The Spark
| The name or term "Spark" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Spark (disambiguation). |
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 "I got your soul!" | |||||||||
| "The Spark" | |||||||||
| Production company | Mainframe Entertainment | ||||||||
| Airdate | November 11, 1996 | ||||||||
| Written by | Larry DiTillio | ||||||||
| Directed by | Colin Davies | ||||||||
| Animation studio | Mainframe Entertainment | ||||||||
| Continuity | Beast Wars continuity | ||||||||
| Packaged with | Rhinox, Gimlet | ||||||||
Rhinox and Cheetor assist a downed stasis pod and the damaged protoform within.
Synopsis
In orbit around the planet, a stasis pod is clipped by a piece of space debris, causing the pod to descend to the surface. Tarantulas and Megatron detect this, and dispatch Scorponok and Blackarachnia to capture it.
Meanwhile, Rhinox happens to be scouting the landing area in his beast mode, observing that the local raw energon deters the Predacons from properly fortifying the terrain. He witnesses the pod descending and, unable to radio for support, goes to recover the pod by himself. In another area, Cheetor sees the pod and, after radioing the news to Tigatron, heads to where he anticipates the pod will land.
Rhinox is first to reach the pod, but finds that because of the local energon, his robot mode is in risk of damage from prolonged exposure to the energon radiation. Worse, the protoform within the pod could expire if the pod itself isn't repaired soon.
Tigatron freezes Scorponok's journey to the stasis pod, but Blackarachnia paralyzes Tigatron with a dose of her cyber venom.
Cheetor arrives at the landing crater, and Rhinox tells him that his body contains a component the pod needs to save the protoform. Cheetor voluntarily deactivates to allow Rhinox to harvest the hardware that will protect the new Maximal from energon damage. While in deep sleep, Cheetor envisions himself learning about the concept of a Transformer spark from Rhinox. After Cheetor reactivates, a tense Rhinox installs the chip and gives the dormant Transformer a second chance.
Blackarachnia arrives and exchanges trash talk as she battles Cheetor, who uses his robot mode conservatively. Cheetor manages to shove her own venom dart into her forehead, knocking her out. Next, Cheetor faces Waspinator and Terrorsaur. With his robot mode pushed to the max, Cheetor uses his beast mode to draw the two fliers away.
Rhinox tries to interface his own systems with the stasis pod to assist the protoform, but is disconnected by feedback and left trapped in his own beast mode.
Cheetor fries Waspinator with some maneuvering around one of the local natural energon geysers. However, Terrorsaur is able to score a direct hit on Cheetor, and proceeds to the now-unprotected pod. At the last possible moment, the pod scans a bird circling overhead, providing the biological information needed to complete the new Maximal.
The fresh-from-case avian Transformer drags Terrorsaur away from the crash site. His attempts to fry the bird with gunfire are dodged. Announcing her name to be Airazor, the new Maximal transforms and blasts the Predacon to pieces.
Back at the Axalon, Rhinox and Cheetor introduce the rest of the Maximals to their new friend.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Maximals | Predacons |
|---|---|
|
Quotes
"Just as Megatron said! Just as Megatron said! Don't you ever get tired of grovelling to that saurian?"
- —Blackarachnia mocks Scorponok
"Bah, I'll tell you nothing, Maximal! Scorponok, terrori—" [is zapped and frozen]
"Sorry, I don't have time to play."
- —Scorponok and Tigatron.
"When a Spark goes online, there is great joy. When one is extinguished, the universe weeps."
- —Rhinox
"Whoa, that was ultra gear!"
- —Cheetor, coming out of his tripped-out dream.
"By the way, how do you dance with all those skinny legs?"
"Ugh, this must be my day for cats!"
- —Cheetor to Blackarachnia
"You don't know what fast is, furball."
"I know what ugly is, and you're it!"
- —Blackarachnia feels Cheetor's burn.
"Who dares attack Waszzpinator?!"
- —A better question would perhaps be who wouldn't dare attack Waspinator.
Notes
Animation and technical errors
- The appearance of protoforms continue to fluctuate; whereas in "Double Jeopardy" the protoform had Blackarachnia's head prior to formatting, Airazor's protoform has a blank head.
- When Cheetor reports the falling stasis pod to Tigatron, the white on his underbelly disappears in a few shots.
- As he experiences an energon surge whilst hiding behind a rock column, Cheetor's left arm loses its shine.
Continuity errors
- When Cheetor arrives at the pod, why does Rhinox ask him why he's there? Surely it's obvious!
- Rhinox changes to robot mode before making a dash for the pod, evne though in other situations where he needs to cover a long distance in a hurry, he stays in his beast mode.
- Interestingly, when Scorponok is frozen mid-command code activation, he's still in beast mode. Contrast with Tarantulas in "Double Jeopardy", who was similarly interrupted, but managed to transform to robot mode before getting shot.
Continuity notes
- One of the most important episodes in defining the physiology of Transformers, "The Spark" introduced and defined the concept of a spark to the Transformers mythos. Every subsequent series will go on to incorporate sparks in some way, and the concept will even be retconned back into the original Generation 1 continuity.
- This episode further confirms that the characters don't really need to say their activation phrases in order to transform. After Tigatron breaks cartoon convention and shoots Scorponok mid "Terrorize", Blackarachnia then sneaks up behind Tigatron and transforms without saying a word.
- Cheetor's youth really shows when he calls Blackarachnia "ugly". He doesn't seem to think so when he grows up a little, but right now she clearly has cooties.
- Gadget's and powers:
- Rhinox carries a selection of repair tools in a pouch on his left leg.
- Blackarachnia's cyber venom makes its debut here.
- Cheetor experiences another precognitive dream. His vision correctly predicts the last line in the episode from Rhinox: "When a spark comes online, there is great joy." Cheetor makes a face indicating he recognizes it, and smiles to himself.
Transformers references
- Rhinox refers to the Transformer race as "Cybertrons", the Japanese name for Autobots.
- Airrazor's toy wasn't designed to be female. Bob Forward and Larry DiTillio wanted a larger female presence on the show, and so when they decided to use Airrazor, they asked Hasbro who changed the pronouns on the toy's bio to be female.
Real-world references
- In the vision, Rhinox greets Cheetor with the line "what's new, pussycat?", referencing the Tom Jones song of the same name. The same reference makes a return in the next episode, suggesting that someone in the writer's room really liked this joke.
Trivia
- * Tarantulas snickers to himself after detecting the pod. When Megatron appears, realises that a pod has crashed and sets out to claim it, Tarantulus is visibly annoyed. Tarantulas's desire to obtain a pod for himself becomes a bigger plot point later on.
- Later stories (published after the show was over) would retcon Airazor's origin, establishing her as a character who had once existed on Cybertron before being transferred into a protoform aboard the Axalon. This revised timeline doesn't really gel with the episode itself - Rhinox's lines about sparks are pretty implicit that a new Transformer is being "born", as opposed to a pre-existing character returning to life. But then, that wouldn't be the only time something in the print stories doesn't quite line up with the TV series.
- Airrazor is the first character in Beast Wars (apart from Optimus Primal and Megatron) whose name doesn't directly reference the animal she transforms into. This pattern is largely followed for the rest of the series (and a good thing too, otherwise we could have ended up with Antercon, Wolfeaglebot, Scorpocobranok...)
Foreign localization
French
- Title: "L'Étincelle" ("The Spark")
- Title: "L'Étincelle" ("The Spark")
Italian
- Title: "La scintilla" ("The Spark")
Japanese
- Title: "Hayabusa Senshi Airrazor" (ハヤブサ戦士エアラザー, "The Falcon Warrior Airrazor")
- Original airdate: 17 December 1997
- During the scene where Waspinator chases Cheetor through the rocks, Waspinator spends the entire scene making mocking comments toward Cheetor (mainly questioning his speed and skill). When hit by the energon geyser, Waspinator shouts "bikkuri!" ("what a surprise!").
- As is rather well known, Airazor was made male for the Japanese dub of the series. A fairly effeminate male, but a male never-the-less.
Portuguese
- Title: A Centelha ("The Spark")
Spanish
- Title: "La Chispa" (America, "The Spark")
Home video releases
- 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 — Goodbye Rattle!? (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)
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)
2011 — Beast Wars: Transformers — Season 1 (Shout! Factory)
2011 — Beast Wars: Transformers — The Complete Series (Shout! Factory)
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)
