Dark Voyage
From Transformers Wiki
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 "Dude... I've got some serious CAT-aracts..." | |||||||||
| "Dark Voyage" | |||||||||
| Season | 1 | ||||||||
| No. in season | 20 | ||||||||
| Production company | Mainframe Entertainment | ||||||||
| Airdate | January 27, 1997 | ||||||||
| Written by | Samuel Warren Joseph | ||||||||
| Directed by | Steve Ball | ||||||||
| Animation studio | Mainframe Entertainment | ||||||||
| Continuity | Beast Wars continuity | ||||||||
| Packaged with | Archadis | ||||||||
 Watch this episode on YouTube
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After an energon explosion, Rhinox must lead the blinded Maximals back to base.
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Synopsis
Rattrap burrows through some rocks to uncover a piece of valuable energon. Cheetor congratulates Rattrap's discovery, while Dinobot, disgruntled with the labour, discovers a deposit of surface energon several times the size of Rattrap's harvest.
Suddenly, a dart from Scorponok lands on one of the larger pieces of energon. Rhinox recognizes the dart as an explosive, and rushes to toss it away from the unstable energon. However, with the energon already fractured, there's no stopping the gigantic explosion. Once the fireball expands and rises into the sky, Scorponok and Waspinator are confident they've destroyed their enemies and return to base to report their conquest.
In the aftermath of the explosion, the four Maximals have all survived, but because of energon poisoning, all of them have lost their sense of vision. Cheetor, Rattrap, and even Dinobot panic and fret—until Rhinox puts his foot down and gets his team moving, in hopes they can overcome their disability and reach home—or at least avoid being easy targets, especially since they must reach an R-chamber before the energon poisoning extinguishes their sparks...in 60 cycles (approximately one hour).
Rhinox, at the front of the train of blind Maximals, comes to a sudden stop, causing the Maximals behind him to bump into his large posterior. Dinobot hops back onto his feet (and onto one of Rattrap's as well). Rhinox silences the group so he can use his ears to detect if something is near the group—his suspicion is confirmed as a large snake grabs Cheetor. Ignoring Rhinox's command not to panic, Dinobot comically runs into a tree. Rattrap fails to fight the snake off, but Cheetor is saved when the reptile decides that Rattrap would be a better meal. Luckily, Rhinox is able to save Rattrap by tossing the snake over the horizon.
Tigatron and Optimus Primal (finally!) decide to search for their comrades who never reported home. Scorponok and Waspinator, searching for evidence of the expiry of the Maximals, decide to follow the trail of energon radiation their enemies left as the four walked away from the area. Waspinator finds the four as they cross a log over a waterfall, and the Predacon easily unhinges the log, causing the quartet to plunge into the water far beneath. As Waspinator congratulates himself, Terrorsaur arrives, demanding proof of the wasp's endeavor.
The four Maximals all manage to wash up on a shore together. Dinobot feels doomed by the situation but Rhinox remains hopeful. The Predacon fliers pass overhead at high speed, finding their targets. In response, Rhinox commands his group to transform to their robot modes. Next, Rhinox instructs the group to imagine the targeting grid from their training. Using all his senses to extend his sensory awareness, Rhinox gives directions for Cheetor, Rattrap, and Dinobot to aim their weapons. Terrorsaur is hit, and the sound of fire alerts Tigatron to the missing group's location.
Another quick shot from Rattrap brings Waspinator down in flames as well, leaving the Maximals victorious despite their handicap. Before they can celebrate, the three gunners fall into stasis; being in robot mode for just a few extra minutes accelerated the energon contamination to near-lethal levels. Having transformed in reaction to the sound of something approaching, Rhinox loses consciousness as well-luckily, the sound was Optimus Primal, who retrieves the group before their sparks are extinguished.
Some time later, in the Maximal base, Rhinox exits the CR chamber and sees his comrades; literally, as they have all been cleansed of the energon poisoning. Rattrap and Cheetor thank him for getting them as far as he did, and even Dinobot commends Rhinox's leadership. For his part, Rhinox suggests that the whole ordeal was educational-the Maximals now have a greater appreciation for their senses and beast modes. With that in mind, the rhino-bot leaves to smell some flowers.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Maximals | Predacons | Others |
|---|---|---|
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Quotes
"Nice find, Dino-miner. You're even better at this than Rattrap!"
"Mmm. I'm better at everything than Rattrap!"
- —Cheetor and Dinobot
"Listen to me!! You've all got to calm down."
"Calm...down...? WE CAN'T SEEEEEEE!"
- —Rhinox's order and Dinobot's reaction
"What's happening? Are we under attack?"
"Don't. Panic."
"You won't get me!" [runs into tree]
- —Dinobot and Rhinox, the former clearly not listening.
"What irony. For a warrior like me to go out blind, wet and helpless."
- —Dinobot laments his situation.
"I'm gonna go smell some flowers."
- —Rhinox having recuperated.
Notes
Script timeline
- First draft: 28th February 1996
- Second draft: 9th April 1996
- Finalised: 25th April 1996
- Revised: 17th October 1996
- As Air: 13th January 1997
Animation and technical errors
- As Rattrap transforms at the beginning of the episode, his beast mode eyes briefly turn white before reverting to their normal colour as he completes his transformation.
- Dinobot's energon scanner is nowhere to be seen in the overhead shot of the Maximals prior to the energon explosion.
- When Rhinox jumps into the energon pit to grab Scorponok's dart, his butt briefly clips through his rhino skin "skirt".
- When Rattrap transforms just before the explosion, some of his robot bits visibly poke though his beast mode parts.
- As Rhinox explains the post-explosion situation to the other Maximals, the bottom of his chest (the lower jaw kibble) clips into his hip and his chest is also deforming weirdly.
- When Rattrap is in his robot mode, the underside of his chin and the inside of his mouth is white like his eyes in some shots. However, in other shots, such as when he submits to stasis lock near the end of the episode, the underside of his chin is red. This is likely due to the fact that the piece of his digital model that colors his eyes is the same one that colors the underside of his chin as well as the inside of his mouth, and his model was outfitted with an additional white bit for his eyes in some, but not all shots.
- After being blinded, all of Cheetor's normally blue parts are colored in silver. Unlike the above error with Rattrap there's no reason to assume that all of these parts are being colored by the same piece of animation as his eyes, making this error stand out more (especially in close ups of his normally blue robot face).
- The rhinoceros horns and ears on Rhinox's back are charred black following the blast, but on his beast mode, these parts seem to be colored normal. In fact, when he first turns into his rhino form, the tips of his horns appear white instead of black.
- Rattrap's and Cheetor's beast mode bits are normal-colored, lacking all the damage textures during their transformation back into beast mode after the explosion, but they reappear once the transformation is done. Rattrap's rat-eyes even have their pupils, which is incredibly odd, given that they accidentally turned white when he transformed while still in his unharmed state.
- After Dinobot steps on Rattrap's foot and the latter stands up, his front left leg momentarily clips into his chest.
- The tip of Dinobot's tail is clipping into the ground when the team are looking around in the jungle for the source of the noise.
- When Rhinox chucks the giant snake away, it clips through his legs and also through his head for a frame.
- When Optimus Primal tells Tigatron, "I'm going to put Sentinel on automatic and search from the air.", his left pectoral muscle is much smaller than his right, almost as if it's squeezing itself in. (Optimus's left, not the viewer's.)
- In the same shot, Optimus' hand clips through the piece of machinery in front of him.
- When Waspinator transforms to attack the Maximals crossing the log, some green robot part clips through and floats in his chest.
- A recurring shortcoming of the show's CGI causes all reflective surfaces, including water and various robot bits, to lose their shine if they're covered by transparent objects or effects. This can be seen when Waspinator hovers above the waterfall, and when Terrorsaur shows up a moment later – Waspinator's see-through insect wings "blot out" the shininess on whatever's behind them.
- When Terrorsaur arrives at the waterfall, the tip of his right wing kibble is deformed. It turns back to normal later.
- When Rattrap turns back into robot mode near the end, not only do his beast mode eyes turn normal during his transformation (only to go back to white afterwards), his rat form briefly sports a small black "ring" on its eye before he begins transforming.
- Waspinator is missing his chest-antennae when he hovers face-to-face with Terrorsaur.
- When Terrorsaur and Waspinator open fire on the Maximals on the riverbank, one of Waspinator's projectiles is flying straight at Rhinox's face, but when the shot cuts, the projectile suddenly changes position and none hit him.
- At the end of the same shot, when a small blast goes off right in front of the screen, all of Dinobot's shiny part turn flat-colored. His upper-body regions regain their reflective textures after a couple frames, but his legs remain wonky-looking.
- In the following shot, when Cheetor yells "Where are they?", his cheetah head chest-kibble has pupils.
- The CR chamber's door clips through the locking mechanisms, which strangely remain un-animated, as Rhinox emerges from the chamber.
- When Rattrap thanks Rhinox for helping them through the events of the episode (at the moment where Rhinox awakens in the CR Chamber), both his and Cheetor's face plates are charred and burnt, and their eyes are a flat shade of red and yellow respectively (instead of glowing red and yellow). When Dinobot speaks and they turns to face him, their face plates are as good as new.
- Dinobot also has flat red circles for eyes and some damage texturing on his helmet for only one shot during the final scene.
- In the final scene, while Rhinox is walking away in Beast mode, his movement speed is inconsistant with his walking speed, making him look as if he's sliding forward while walking.
Continuity errors
- Why the heck did Rattrap, Dinobot, and Cheetor decide to transform into robot mode when they're surrounded by raw Energon on the verge of an explosion? For that matter, why did they just stand there and stare rather than, y'know, running away?
- Waspinator and Scorponok are unaffected by Energon radiation in the wake of the explosion. It's possible that Scorponok's missile was somehow designed to reduce the range of the Energon wave, but it still seems like the Predacons should have been on the verge of stasis lock from Energon build-up.
- Rhinox says that their sight and "just about everything else" is broken, but apart from some sparks when transforming, the Maximals seem okay. Their other senses are working, their weapons are working, and they can change between robot and beast mode. The only issue (and granted, it is an important one) is the Energon poisoning that they are suffering from.
- Not to be a buzzkill, but getting found by Optimus at the end of the episode can hardly be seen as the end of the Maximals' problems. Let's review: the four of them are in stasis lock suffering from time critical energon contamination. They're still an unknown distance away from base. Past episodes have established that Optimus can only support Rattrap's additional weight for flight, so if he rushed back, then the other three would have to be carried back to base by the remaining two Maximals. Dinobot and Rhinox in particular are the two heaviest Maximals, and they would be truly "dead weight" for the journey. And finally, the Axalon has never shown more than two CR chambers on the bridge. Maybe they took turns? Basically...the writers yada yada yada'ed over a lot more than just bisque in those last few minutes.
Continuity Notes
- Rattrap claims that he used to be a miner.
- This episode was originally intended to be the twelfth episode of the season (which would have placed it between "The Probe" and "Victory"), with the intent of being the introduction for the concept of stasis lock. However, writing complications for the script pushed back its production and led to it airing closer to the end of the season. Still, a few elements of its original status as an early-season episode remain in the final version:
- Most notably, late-arriving characters Airazor and Inferno are completely absent from the screen. Though, Airazor is at least mentioned by Optimus (he said she was sent to look for the others in Grid Delta), which was a bit of a patch job in a later script revision to justify this episode coming so late in the season.
- Likewise, there are actually two instances of "Inferno" used as a curse, a habit that quickly stopped once the Predacon fire-ant appeared.
- The plot also seems to retread (on a simpler level) the concepts of the just-aired "Call of the Wild" ("We never really knew what we were capable of in Beast Mode. Apart from when we found out last episode, I guess, but Cheetor has a really bad memory so he needed to learn it again"). An earlier placement set somewhere between the "The Spark" (since, again, Airazor is mentioned) and "Spider's Game" (when Inferno was introduced) would have made this far less egregious.
Trivia
- The energon explosion at the beginning is a real pyrotechnic explosion superimposed over a CGI background.
- Since Cheetor was shown in "Beast Wars (Part 1)" to be the size of a real cheetah, that snake that attacks him must be truly gigantic—far larger than any living species and any fossil variety known to science when the episode was made. (Titanoboa would fit the bill, but it wasn't discovered until over a decade later).
- Speaking of the giant snake, when Rhinox flings it away in the jungle, it lands on an elephant.
- While blind, Dinobot's optics do not work for seeing, but they continue to function for shooting.
Foreign localization
French
- Title: "Voyage au Bout de la Nuit" ("Travel till the End of the Night")
- Title: "Sombre Voyage" ("Dark Voyage")
German
Italian
- Title: "Viaggio nelle tenebre" ("Journey into Darkness")
Japanese
- Title: "Jungle Guruguru" (ジャングルぐるぐる, "Around and Around the Jungle")
- Original airdate: 11 February 1998
- When Dinobot tells Rhinox to leave Cheetor behind, Cheetor can be heard pathetically whimpering, "How cruel."
- As Rattrap begins sniffing his way across the fallen tree spanning the river, while the other Maximals stand by waiting, Dinobot growls, "Be careful..."
- After Rhinox says he has some flowers to go sniff, he sings a melody to himself while stomping away, to the tune of his verbal tic ("Danaaaa danadana danaaaa!").
Portuguese
- Title: "Uma Viagem nas Trevas" ("A Journey into Darkness")
Spanish
- Title: "Viaje en la Obscuridad" ("Travel in the Dark")
Mandarin
- Title: "Hēi'àn zhī Lǚ " (黑暗之旅, "Dark Travel")
Home video releases
- VHS
1998 — Beast Wars: Super Lifeform Transformers — Resurrected Beast Power (Pioneer LDC) — Japanese audio only.
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)
