Equal Measures
From Transformers Wiki
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 Later they discovered Cheetor was sitting on the self-destruct button. | |||||||||
| "Equal Measures" | |||||||||
| Season | 1 | ||||||||
| No. in season | 4 | ||||||||
| 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 | ||||||||
 Watch this episode on YouTube
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Dinobot manipulates both Maximals and Predacons around a teleporter that Cheetor has unintentionally developed between both bases.
Contents |
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 Predacon 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 Terrorsaur arrived at the Maximal base, 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 |
|---|---|
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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.
"YOOOOOW, BULLET TRAAAAAAAIN..."
[An explosion sends Cheetor crashing into the wall!]
"Comin' through."
- —Cheetor narrowly escapes being turned into a charbroiled cheetah!
"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
Animation and technical errors
- In the opening shot, a segment of the mountains on the screen's left side reveals a gap in the mountain's computer model just a few frames before the shot cuts.
- The collapsing mountain seems to be sucked into the Energon cache after being hit with lightning, and before the lightning strikes, there's a bizarre flickering texture on the mountain's right side.
- Following the collapse, some energon crystals within the mountain keep flickering in and out of existence.
- When Cheetor walks over to the bomb, the two kibble panels on his back keep clipping through his cheetah leg kibble, and they don't seem to move together with the rest of his torso. When the bomb drops and he moves about, the panels remain stationary.
- When Optimus is tossing the time bomb in one hand, it really doesn't move convincingly.
- When Rhinox reacts to Optimus' announcement about being stalled, his rhinoceros skin "skirt" is clipping into his thighs.
- Shadows are inconsistently rendered in the beginning scene in the Maximal base. Rhinox, standing behind Rattrap, is fully lit at first, but at the end of the scene, there's a shadow cast over him.
- The shot of Cheetor descending out of the base, as the "camera" spins around him, is rendered very oddly. Parts of the Axalon that look like they should be behind the cliff face appear in front of it, and as Cheetor dashes away, he overlaps a metal bar that's much closer to view.
- As Cheetor jumps across the rocks, his feet don't always touch the terrain.
- Cheetor's mouth doesn't move as he shouts "Maximize!" while out in the field.
- Before Cheetor turns into robot mode, he has red eyes as a cheetah. When his beast model is replaced with his mid-transformation model mid-movement, his eyes turn green and his spots rearrange themselves between frames. After he goes back into cheetah mode a few seconds later, the cheetah model again has red eyes and a different spot-arrangement, both of which change yet again as the lightning strikes near him.
- When Cheetor activates the first survey post, his left thumb clips into his chest.
- The little red bit on the top of the first survey post that Cheetor plants keeps blinking in and out of existence. While this might have been on purpose, to simulate a blinking light, none of the other posts do this.
- Cheetor doesn't really grab the Energon post's handle, his fist simply clips through it.
- When the lightning-bolt strikes him, you can tell by his shadow that Cheetor is actually floating a few inches above the ground.
- When Terrorsaur floats closer to the monitor screen on his platform, the tip of his right wing passes between the platform and his foot.
- As he reaches for his gun while dangling from the Predacons' flying platform, Cheetor's left elbow briefly turns inside-out.
- In one shot, when Terrorsaur is shooting at Cheetor's platform, the reflection textures on his grey elements near his gun disappear in sync with his blasts, due to the blast effects somehow "blotting them out". Strangely, this error doesn't occur in his closeup shortly thereafter.
- When Scorponok and Waspinator transform into robot mode, the latter already has various robot parts sticking out of him in his wasp form. Both his beast and robot mode abdomens exist at the same time, his robot crotch is poking through his underside and one of his robot legs is sticking out of his behind. Also, the stripes on his thighs are aligned the wrong way, a common error in early episodes.
- When Cheetor transforms to beast mode to jump into the vent, his various robot and beast parts all seem to appear and disappear randomly, out of sync with his usual transformation.
- Scorponok's eyes are weirdly distorted as he arrives to the vent. Also in this shot, Waspinator's left wings don't seem to "flap up", only down.
- In addition, Scorponok's visor shifts between yellow and red quite randomly, as it often happens in most episodes.
- Though a common cartoon convenience, both Waspinator's repeated shots and Scorponok's missile take an inordinately long time to reach Cheetor, and the distances between them jump back and forth between shots.
- As Cheetor hurries through the vent, none of the holes Waspinator has blasted into it are visible.
- 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.
- Before Terrorsaur begins pruning his wing, the right side of his pterosaur chest appears to be sunken into his body.
- Scorponok's right claw is clipping though his thigh as he and Waspinator watch the missile chase Cheetor.
- Just before Optimus comes into frame to ask Dinobot about the survey posts, his fingers are visible at the left of the screen as the camera swivels.
- When Optimus asks Dinobot if he's sure about the bomb's timer, his right arm seems to jump position between frames.
- Two green bits are clipping through the opening hatch on the Predacon ship on either side.
- As the roasted Terrorsaur lands, his leg briefly clips through his wing.
- When Cheetor is zapped back home, blowing up all survey posts along the way, the posts are replaced by noticeably thicker, different-shaped exploding objects a few frames before they're supposed to blow.
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 this is never established!
- Despite making a big deal about how they should be killing Predacons when they get the chance, Dinobot doesn't avail himself of the opportunity when he's alone with Terrorsaur, instead harmlessly firing him out of the ship.
- When trying to outrun the explosion chasing him down the vents, for some reason Cheetor decides to transform to his robot mode, even though it's been strongly implied that he's faster in beast mode.
Continuity notes
- The weather on prehistoric Earth appears to be extremely destructive. Two bolts of lightning cause a mountain to implode. This might have something to do with the abundant energon, although there's nothing in the show to back this up.
- This is the first episode where we get to hear Terrorsaur speak (Besides "Terrorsaur, terrorize!" that is). It's also the first time he is shown to be the series' resident Starscream, possessing a flight-based alternate mode and already plotting behind his leader's back.
Transformers references
Real-world references
- Cheetor name-drops the Tom Jones song, "What's New Pussycat?" as an expression. This reference would later be said again in "The Spark" and "The Trigger, Part 1" back to back.
Trivia
- The cheetah silhouette poster hanging over Cheetor's bed reads "RESTRICTED" in Cybertronix.
- 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. As it was in response to Cheetor wondering if he had died and come to the afterlife, Terrorsaur was basically messing with him by saying a more colorful (and kid-friendly) version of "Welcome to Hell!" 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 subsequently 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.
- 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.
- Plenty of alternate transformation schemes in this episode. Most of Cheetor's transformations involve his cheetah mode splitting in two through the middle (even the tail), and his cheetah head flipping down to be the chest of a fully-formed robot that's curled up within this beast "shell", already wearing most of his beast kibble. Dinobot also shows off a pair of transformations radically different from – and even more cheaty than – his normal one.
- Waspinator speaks in first-person in this episode.
- Just prior to its debut in syndication, this episode was made available on DirecTV on a pay-per-view basis beginning on August 19, 1996.
Foreign localization
French
- Title: "Dos à Dos" ("Back to Back")
- Title: "Dos à Dos" (Canada, "Back to Back")
German
Italian
- Title: "Pari opportunità per i Biocombat" ("Equal Opportunities for the Biocombats")
- Terrorsaur's line: «Welcome to the dark side!» is changed to: «Welcome in the wolf's den!» («Benvenuto nella tana del lupo!» in Italian). If any Italian ever tought the name of the ship was Tana del Lupo ("Wolf's Den") is unknown.
Japanese
- Title: "Jigen Bakudan Tensō Sakusen!" (時限爆弾転送作戦!, "Operation: Time Bomb Transfer!")
- Original airdate: 22 October 1997
- Terrorsaur's line, "Welcome to the dark side!" was rendered as "Yōkoso, kaku!" meaning "Welcome, stranger!" (with plenty of caw caw caw noises added to the end, as is Terrorsaur's vocal tic in Japan). Thus, any silly ambiguity as to the proper noun status of his line is eliminated (not that it would matter, as the Predacon's ship received an official name in Japan long before it got one in the West: "Terror Crasher").
Polish
- Title: "Równe szanse" ("Equal Chances")
Portuguese
- Title: "Medidas Iguais" ("Equal Measures")
Spanish
- Title: "Medidas Equitativas" (America, "Equal Measures")
Mandarin
- Title: "Yī Mài Xiàng Lián " (一脉相连, "In One Vein")
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)
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)
2011 — Beast Wars: Transformers — Season 1 (Shout! Factory)
2011 — Beast Wars: Transformers — The Complete Series (Shout! Factory)
2014 — Beast Wars: Transformers — Chain of Command (Shout! Factory)
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)
