I have to be honest and say that I wasn’t particularly impressed with the first episode of this two-part Beast Wars story. Frankly “The Trigger, Part 1” was the first episode of Beast Wars that I didn’t really enjoy and it felt far too much as if the story overall had too much material for a single episode, but not quite enough for a two-parter so extra was written to pad things out. Hopefully, things will pick up in the conclusion to the story…
The Trigger, Part 2 – Synopsis
Picking up from part one, Tigatron has signalled to the rest of the Maximals for help – it’s a race against time to stop the Predacons from taking control over the floating island and the devastating weapons that Tigatron and Airrazor have discovered there. But can the Maximals get there in time, or will it be too late and will Megatron finally get the victory he has always wanted?
While Blackarachnia and Scorponok continue their exploration of the island, learning more about its secrets, Tigatron focuses on protecting Airrazor who is still recovering from her injuries. Before Primal and Rattrap can arrive, they are intercepted by Terrorsaur and Waspinator who join in the assault hoping to stop the Maximal reinforcements before they get there.
After avoiding a number of traps, Blackarachnia and Scorponok manage to reach the obelisk at the centre of the island and once inside discover alien technology powering everything. Blackarachnia takes control and starts to attack every Maximal in sight, seeking not only to wipe them out, but Megatron as well…
At the end, Tigatron makes the painful decision to destroy the obelisk and in turn sacrificing the peaceful island he had found a connection with, feeling that it was the only way to save the Maximals. But that came at a price as just before it’s total destruction it sent a signal to one of the planet’s two moons, which re-directed it from another obelisk through a portal which opened briefly… but to where?
Business Is Picking Up
Part 2 of The Trigger is a much faster paced episode and more action oriented. There’s very little time wasted and it wraps up well with a satisfying cliff-hanger to be resolved later in the series. It’s interesting once again to see the clear difference between Tigatron and the other Maximals as he embraces his beast side more and is genuinely torn over his actions at the end. You do feel that none of the others would have hesitated the way he did.
The only real issue in terms of the story itself was the relative ease of which Tigatron managed to put the island’s power supply out of action. A couple of shots from his gun and that was it – somewhat reminscent of the assault on the Death Star so that part at least seemed like an anti-climax to the story.
Not Quite Flawless
Despite this being a better episode overall, it’s not without its faults. While spying on the Predacons and discovering that they know something is going on with the island, we see a visualisation of Airrazor’s eyesight. However, this not only zooms in to focus on a long distance (as you would expect with a hawk), but goes around corners, under objects and more. If she were in control of a drone, it would be fine but there’s no mention of such, just her eyesight.
There’s also another incident when the island fires on the Maximals and Blackarachnia talks about it needing time to recharge, although there’s no indication before in the story that it needs time to do that. It just seemed to be a convenient plot point to allow the Predacons to move without consequence.
Fun Times
Just like the first episode, it’s not without its light-hearted moments. While en-route to the island, there’s some comedic banter between Optimus Primal and Rattrap about the rather undignified way Rattrap is having to travel on Primal’s back. As you’d expect, these moments don’t detract from the story, but instead help to strengthen the characters and lift them above the often two-dimensional ones we were used to back in other animated shows of the 90s.
Overall
I’m glad to say that part two was a satisfying conclusion to the two-parter and I genuinely can’t wait to see the outcome of cliffhanger and the alien transmission. As a story, The Trigger also seems to be a turning point for Tigatron’s character as well. While we’ve always known that he was different to the other Maximals, this really set him apart more than ever and I’d say puts things in motion to create distance between him and the others. In his case, he truly is more beast than bot and this story will have repurcussions for him for the rest of the series.
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