When we left the previous series, Optimus Primal and his small gang of Maximals had finally defeated Megatron and the Predicons on pre-historic Earth. But something seems to have gone wrong on the way back to Cybertron. Now Optimus Primal, Rat Trap, Cheetor and Blackarachnia must reformat themselves with technorganic bodies and re-learn how to transform.
Meanwhile, on the other side of Cybertron, Megatron has enslaved the entire race of Transformers and extracted all of their sparks. In their place, he has unleashed mindless drones and three Vehicon generals.
Now not only will the Maximals have to fight off the legions of enemies, find the missing sparks and defeat Megratron, but the Orical (an ancient computer) has given them a new mission -- restore balance to Cybertron, and bring back it's organic past in a new technorganic future.
During the new war, the Maximals will discover what happened to some of their missing friends, like Rynox and Silverbolt. They will also meet new Maximals to help them on their way (specifically, the bat-transformer, Nightscream). Each episode in this one-season long series finally brings the original Transformer's story-line to a close (for those who don't know, or don't remember, the Transformers in Beast Wars and Beast Machines are the descendants of the original generation show).
Other changes in the series between the Earth-based, 3-season long Beast Wars and Beast Machines is the marked improvement in the CG. While the graphics of the first series were good for its time, the models and scenery still looked blocky and full of angles. And even though the visuals of this series don't compare to today's capabilities, there is a very noticeable difference, curves are smoother, lip-synching is a bit more dead-on, and the scenery is a bit less cookie-cutter.
Beast Machines: The Complete Series features commentary on several key episodes like "Fires of the Past", and "Endgame" parts 2 and 3. There are also various other interviews with everyone from the series developer to the story editor and even actor David Kaye, who voiced Megatron.
This is a collection that any Transformer fan would love to have in his or her collection. Between the exciting episodes and enjoyable interviews, this boxed-set successfully and wonderfully ends the CG "Beast" generation.
