Chain of Command (BW)

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An armed society is a polite society.
"Chain of Command"
Season	1
No. in season	5
Production company	Mainframe Entertainment
Airdate	September 24, 1996
Written by	Jesse Winfield
Directed by	Andrew Doucette
Animation studio	Mainframe Entertainment
Continuity	Beast Wars continuity
Packaged with	Cheetus
Watch this episode on YouTube

After Optimus Primal is abducted by an alien probe, the remaining Maximals must decide on a new leader.

Synopsis

No wonder Stonehenge is popular.

The Maximals detect an energon crystal under the cairn in the Standing Stones. Rattrap thinks it reeks of 'bait' and Rhinox notes that the energon on this planet isn't natural, as it does not conform to the planet's geology. The Predacons attack, putting an end to the discussion. During the battle, Terrorsaur purposely fires directly on the buried energon crystal, causing it to destabilize. His prize now useless, Megatron orders a retreat while the Maximals head for cover as it builds to overload. But instead of a debilitating energon wave, it sends a signal to the stars, depleting the crystal's energy. With the Predacons gone and the energon reduced to dust, the bewildered Maximals return to base.

You are getting sleepy...

Later, an alien probe emerges from transwarp space and enters the atmosphere. The Predacons initially mistake it for a stasis pod, but Rhinox immediately recognizes it as something else. Both sides head to intercept it at the Standing Stones. Optimus Primal and Dinobot confront Megatron and Waspinator, but when they transform and begin to battle, the probe puts out an energy burst that renders them unconscious and causes Primal to vanish into thin air.

A disoriented Dinobot awakens in the Axalon's CR chamber and, seeing three angry Maximals standing over him, momentarily mistakes it for a Maximal Torture Chamber. The probe, as it turned out, somehow dumped Dinobot, Megatron and Waspinator outside of their respective bases. Believing Primal to be destroyed, Dinobot attempts to take command of the Maximals. Rhinox heads off a fight between Dinobot and Rattrap by insisting on a secret ballot, the traditional Maximal method for resolving such problems.

After the vote results in stalemate, with two votes for each contender, Dinobot giddily rebukes the shortcomings of their peaceful solution. He declares that he will break the tie by force and prepares to attack Rattrap. Before the fight can begin, they are contacted by Optimus Primal, who is not dead. Primal's body has been digitally stored, but his consciousness remains active within the probe. Optimus puts Rattrap in charge. Dinobot glares at him.

"How's it going?"
"Good, good".
"... you just welded your hand to it didn't you?"
"Yes, yes I did".

Megatron, also believing Primal dead, sends Scorponok and Waspinator to the Standing Stones while the other Predacons attack the Axalon. Dinobot fights Megatron one-on-one, ignoring Rattrap's order to disengage and reset the Axalon's failing shield circuitry. Rattrap scrambles and is able to restore the shields at the last moment. The Predacons retreat when Dinobot beats Megatron back, and Dinobot apologizes to Rattrap for not following his orders, affirming himself "dishonored". Dinobot's uncharacteristic deference and respect makes Rattrap uncomfortable, and he brushes it off.

The Maximals prepare to fight G1 fanatics.

The Maximals head to the Standing Stones with a device Rhinox has built to attempt to extract Optimus from the probe. The Predacons attack them at the Stones, Rhinox unloading his frustrations on Waspinator when his device malfunctions, blasting him to bits with his chaingun. Waspinator shorts out and comes in contact with one of the stones which activates, revealing the entire Standing Stones site is a single device. The probe opens in response, and Primal materializes. The Predacons retreat before his considerable firepower, but the probe dematerializes before the Maximals can decide what to do with it.

Optimus commends Rattrap on his performance as commander, though Rattrap is more than happy to hand the title back. The Maximals are left wondering what the probe's purpose was, and Rhinox ominously observes the aliens have learned they have the ability to reason... and of their destructive capabilities.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"Hey power down! You're on our side now, remember?"
"And Maximals don't have torture chambers! Though, you know... I could get behind that idea."

—Cheetor and Rattrap to Dinobot

"Wait, stand by here! Who died and made you Prime, scaleface?"

—Rattrap trying to show Dinobot who's boss.

"Megatron back! Megatron back! Scorponok alone with Tarantulas and Terrorsaur. Very bad!"

—Scorponok loses coherence under pressure.

"I know just how the weakling Maximals will respond to Optimus's death. Confusion! Bickering! Recriminations! The perfect opportunity for a surprise attack."

—Megatron deals with loss like a true villain.

"Ha ha, great system, your 'democracy.' No mechanism to break a tie!"

—Dinobot, who's actually a socialist, believe it or not.

"Make a device to extract physical molecular structure from an alien probe? Man, I've gotta be a miracle worker!"

—Rhinox, channeling Scotty.

"You were selfless in putting that shield back online. I ought to have followed your command. I... am dishonored."
"Ehh... next time."

—Dinobot and an uncomfortable Rattrap

"But why would they want to know? And more importantly, who are they? Friends, enemies, or... something more?"

—Dinobot, on the mysterious aliens

Notes

Script timeline

• First draft: 9th January 1996
• Finalised: 15th January 1996
• Revised: 26th January 1996

Animation and technical errors

• If that's a solar eclipse in the opening shot, how come there's light coming from below the horizon?
• When Waspinator first appears, his beast mode is all messed up with random bits being misaligned and sticking out of him oddly.
• During the initial fight, as Waspinator and Terrorsaur swoop up towards Optimus, Terrorsaur's upper body distorts for a fraction of a second before the shot changes.
• When Optimus is zapped into the alien device, his right gorilla hand is missing, his arm ending in a stump.
• Some of Rattrap's fingers are clipping though his hip as Rhinox announces the second vote for Dinobot.
• Both times when Rhinox says "Oh no", his lips don't move.
• When Dinobot executes his flying kick, his foot actually passes through Megatron's head. This is more apparent in the closeup shot.
• When Dinobot blasts away Megatron with his eye beams, the jaw of Megatron's T. rex head dislocates and snaps way wide open.
• Then, as Megatron lands and gets up, his dinosaur head clips through his leg.
• As Rhinox exclaims "This whole place is a single device!" and the view zooms out, Cheetor in the back keeps twitching and jumping poses between frames, as if he was still firing his gun.

Continuity errors

• Considering future revelations regarding the planet the Beast Wars occur on, the shots from space in this episode are odd. When the Standing Stones are first activated, we see a shot of the planet from space with the beam apparently originating from a large, unknown continent. When the Probe arrives we see it heading towards a continent that doesn't seem to match the earlier one. And the final shot of the episode also shows the planet, this time with a continent that looks the same shape as South America, but with Mexico missing. This time there's a continent to the right that could be Africa, but it's far too close if it is, and above is something that could vaguely be Europe if you squint, but it's also in the wrong place. It's possible that the vague geography was intentional on the part of the writers, to deliberately obfuscate future developments.
• The dialogue makes it very clear that the incapacitated Dinobot and Predacons did not return to base under their own power, but through some outside force. No one seems particularly concerned by this, though. Did the probe take everybody home? A genuine deus ex machina to move the plot forward?

Continuity notes

• The Maximals are not entirely convinced Dinobot didn't off Primal himself for the job, as he attempted to 3 episodes prior.
• The episode opens with the second moon eclipsing the sun. The moon's unnatural nature will again be mentioned in "The Trigger, Part 1", and it plays a critical role in the season finale.
• Megatron initially mistakes the alien probe for a Maximal stasis pod. Later episodes will show that a falling stasis pod is a big deal for both sides, as it gives them a chance to add a new member to their respective army.
• The ongoing Vok storyline put in its first appearance since "Beast Wars (Part 2)", it will feature again in "The Trigger, Part 1". The Vok will not be named until the series is almost over.
• Scorponok exhibits his "babbling" personality in this episode as, apparently, being left alone with the scheming Terrorsaur and Tarantulas while Megatron is undergoing major repairs makes him extremely nervous. Given Tarantulas's dietary habits, this might be understandable...
• This episode features the (fairly awesome) debut of Rhinox's "Chaingun of Doom" (occasionally called the "Chaingun of Command" after this episode). It also involves the first time Waspinator is blown to scrap.

Real-world references

• Rattrap mentions "B-movies", a uniquely human concept.
• The "Standing Stones" resemble many European stone circles, of which Stonehenge is the most famous. (However, the shot from space of showing the location of the Standing Stones certainly isn't Britain, and doesn't resemble Europe either.)

Trivia

• The initial fight by the Standing Stones features shadow, a rare luxury in early Beast Wars episodes.
• Optimus Primal is reading late at night below the Axalon when the probe comes down, a rare quiet character moment.
• During the battle at the Maximal base, Megatron tries to gain the upper hand by ramming his face into Dinobot's airborne foot. Megatron clearly fails at this attempt and takes note to dodge easily evadable flying kicks in the future.
• It is fairly certain that Rhinox is the one who voted for Rattrap and Cheetor is the one who voted for Dinobot. Rhinox was clearly unpleasantly surprised by the second vote for Dinobot, and when Optimus tells them that Rattrap is in charge, Cheetor is seen visibly annoyed in the background while Rhinox happily pats Rattrap on the back.
• Scorponok's missiles sport a Predacon insignia instead of the Maximal logos they've carried until now. Apparently the original idea was that the Maximal insignia showed who the missiles were intended for, but fans were confused as to why Scorponok, a Predacon, would have a Maximal logo on his weapons, so they changed it.
• On three separate occasions, the Maximals stand at the Standing Stones staring at them while Predacons sneak up behind them. It's a good thing that Megatron seems to prefer dramatically interrupting the Maximals while they are speaking rather than just, y'know, shooting them in the back.

Foreign localization

French

• Title: "La Disparition" ("The Disappearance")

• Title: "Disparition" ("Disappearance")

German

• Title: "Rangordnung" ("Rank Order")
• Original airdate: 3 May 1998

Italian

• Title: "Il passaggio del comando" ("The Passage of the Command")

• Rattrap's line: «And Maximals don't have torture chambers. Though, you know, I could get behind that idea» is changed to: «And then Maximals never had torture chambers. Though, thinking about it, maybe we have them, Cheetor».
• Scorponok's line: «Megatron back! Megatron back! Scorponok alone with Tarantulas and Terrorsaur... very bad!» becomes: «Megatron is back! Megatron is back! But now I can only count on Tarantulas and Terrorsaur», and then Tarantulas's line: «You and Waspinator were returned to us, badly damaged» is changed to: «That's true, the boss and Waspinator came back, but they're quite battered». This was possibly caused by a mistranslation.
• The narrator says something else which makes little sense... once, he states: «Rattrap doesn't trust Dinobot at all. When Optimus is not around, he's in charge, showing he's full of courage and wisdom». Well, firstly, saying that "he's full of courage and wisdom" is... debatable, at least, and then, the sentence make it look like Rattrap is always Optimus's substitute when he's not around, but it doesn't look like that's the case.

Japanese

• Title: "Kieta Convoy" (消えたコンボイ, "Convoy Disappeared")
• Original airdate: 29 October 1997

Portuguese

• Title: "Cadeia de Comando" ("Chain of Command")

Spanish

• Title: "Cadena de Mando" (America, "Chain of Command")

Mandarin

• Title: "Jiērèn zhī Zhēng " (接任之争, "Dispute of Succession")

Home video releases

VHS

1996 — Beast Wars — A Feature Length Beasties Adventure (Alliance Video)
1996 — Robots-Bêtes — Une Adventure Cybernetique (Alliance Video) — French audio only.
1998 — Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers — Convoy Disappeared (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. 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)
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)