[Plot Details][Opinions][Great Moments][Caption Weirdness][Rating]

Fallen Comrades In a Nutshell...
Optimus Primal has an out-of-body experience while Rattrap, Cheetor, and Rhinox race for the cure — I mean, for the stasis pod.

All The Gruesome Details

Warning! Warning! Major spoilers ahead! Proceed at your own risk!

Don't want to read everything that happened in the episode? Well, fine then! Be that way! You can just darn well click here and skip to the next part, you spoilsport.

We open with a shot of space above the planet. Bits and pieces of space debris are flying around...along with a stasis pod that soon begins reentry into the planet's atmosphere. As it streaks through the upper atmosphere, Rhinox picks it up on the Axalon's scanners, and reports that it's going to impact in the "northern sector." Optimus Primal alerts the other Maximals that it'll be time to move soon...

Up in the northern sector, meanwhile, the pod crashes within sight of a white tiger... And at Predacon Central, Terrorsaur reports the pod's arrival as well, all excited and ready to go. Megatron bursts his bubble (as usual) by insisting on waiting until the Maximals send out their only flyer (i.e., Optimus Primal) to go investigate the pod, giving the Predacons the perfect opportunity to take him out...

Back at the Maximal base, Cheetor takes exception to Optimus Primal's decision to venture out alone to go to the stasis pod's crash site. But Optimus Primal insists that he must get to the crash site before Megatron's flyers. Dinobot takes up the refrain of caution, citing the fact that Megatron can be unpredictable as reason to be cautious. Optimus Primal still refuses to be swayed from his determination to head out all by his lonesome, although he does at least allow Dinobot to go outside and have a look around before he himself ventures outside. So Dinobot heads out, scans around, sees nothing out of the ordinary, but is still not happy with the idea of Optimus flying off all by himself. (Though I really can't understand why...Dinobot was all too happy to see ol' Op bumped off back in "Chain of Command," but now he's acting like an overzealous bodyguard. You never can tell with some people...) So Dinobot heads back in, hoping to delay Optimus further by insisting on a more thorough patrol. But Optimus Primal, feeling the pull of a comrade in danger, brushes him off, heads outside, takes off...and is promptly shot in the back by Waspinator who, along with Terrorsaur, has been hiding among some rocks, just waiting for the Big Banana to show his face. A second shot from Terrorsaur puts Optimus down for the count, which really ticks off Dinobot. He shoots his eye lasers over toward where Waspinator and Terrorsaur are hiding, dislodging a really big boulder with Waspinator's name on it, and it crushes the poor unfortunate soul. Terrorsaur disintegrates the boulder, grabs Waspy and, their mission to incapacitate Optimus accomplished, they head back to their base, which ticks off Dinobot again because they had the nerve to run away from him. He fires a couple of eye laser shots after them, all clean misses.

Meanwhile, Cheetor's stuck his nose out of the base and, seeing Optimus down, runs to his side. The big guy's sparking and twitching. Apparently figuring that Op's not long for the world, Dinobot consoles him with the knowledge that he'll have a great funeral, "as befits a warrior who died in battle." (Methinks Dinobot's been watching Worf on Star Trek a bit too much... :)). Op, regaining consciousness, begs to differ, insisting that he's not dying. Dinobot, with distinct disappointment in his voice, asks if he's certain. Cheetor, annoyed with the whole exchange, tells Dinobot to knock it off and insists that they get Op back inside and into the CR Chamber. Optimus makes a feeble attempt at insisting on going after the stasis pod, but Cheetor's equally insistent that Op needs to worry about himself and let the others handle the pod. And then he asks Dinobot for help getting Optimus into the base. Dinobot reluctantly agrees...and then yanks poor Optimus up by the sticky-outy thing on his chest. (Well, better than pulling him up by his throat, I suppose...)

Back at the Pred base, Megatron's "disappointed" that Terrorsaur and Waspinator merely incapacitated Optimus rather than vaporizing him. (There's just no pleasing some people...) Terrorsaur argues that they did "knock him half to scrap" and that there's no way that he'll be able to fly to the stasis pod before the Predacons can get to it. True, Megatron's gotta admit...which means that the Maximals will send a land party, leaving only Optimus and maybe one other Maximal to guard the base. One can almost see the light bulb go off above Megatron's head... He orders Waspinator and Terrorsaur to the stasis pod's crash site. He, Scorponok, and Tarantulas, meanwhile, will head off to the poorly-guarded Maximal base...

Meanwhile, Cheetor, Rhinox, and Rattrap (riding on Rhinox's back) are running as fast as they can toward the crash site. But it's gonna be a looooooong run... Cheetor doesn't like the idea of leaving the injured Optimus back at the base while Rattrap's not too keen on the idea of Dinobot-as-nursemaid. Rhinox points out that there wasn't much choice, seeing as how Optimus has to recuperate and Dinobot's weapons were damaged in the battle (They were? Do I detect a plot convenience here?). They, meanwhile, have to run before the protoform inside the stasis pod gets exposed to the energon fields...but if they want to prevent that, they're too late, for the next shot we see in the crash path of the stasis pod, panning up the track to the pod itself. The lid pops open, a skeletal-looking hand reaches out...and then gets zapped by the energon, falls back into the pod, and the lid slams down.

When we return from the commercial, Rhinox, Rattrap, and Cheetor have arrived in the Great White North, falling snow and all. Unfortunately, Terrorsaur and Waspinator have arrived as well, flying through the snow (except during the shot of them flying across the face of the moon when, curiously, there is no snow...). The Maximals soon reach a very deep crevasse, spanned by only a thin, narrow ice bridge. Terrorsaur sees the Maximals approaching the bridge and tells Waspinator that they've got competition. But "Wazzzzpinator not think so!" They transform and attack the Maximals below, who also transform and fight back. But eventually, the Predacons destroy the ice bridge by the simple method of flying through it to disintegrate each end of it. That, of course, destabilizes it and sends the rest of it crashing to the bottom of the crevasse. So the Maximals are stuck on the wrong side of the crevasse. They'll have to find some way around it. "That was some cold slag," Rhinox notes, just before the Predacons do a victory flyover, cackling madly as they head off for the stasis pod.

Rattrap has the honor of reporting the problem to Dinobot back at the base. He's none too sympathetic, telling Rattrap, essentially, to quit whining and move. Rattrap huffily retorts that Dinobot can kiss his ass. (Well, he doesn't get to say all of that, because Dinobot strategically cuts off the communication...but you know that's what Rattrap said...)

Back at the base, Dinobot ponders the problem...and decides that he needs a second opinion. He orders the computer to activate Optimus Primal's "core consciousness" and, BOOM! Instant seance, complete with a computer-generated image of Optimus Primal's head, moving mouth and all! :) Gotta love it.

"Don't tell me," Optimus' consciousness says wearily. "Let me guess. Problems already?" "You bet your bippy," Dinobot replies. Well, not really... Actually, he reports that the others have been forcibly delayed and that the Predacons will surely reach the stasis pod first. He humbly (!) asks if Optimus has any ideas, bright or otherwise. Optimus Primal suggests contacting the pod via a laser pulse, since the commlinks will not reach, bouncing the signal off of something in order to achieve line of sight communication. Dinobot can work with that idea...

Meanwhile, Megatron, Scorponok, and Tarantulas have reached the Maximal base, just in time to witness Dinobot on the roof, fiddling with the laser array to set up the communication with the stasis pod's onboard computer. Megatron gestures for the other two Predacons to scatter while he goes off for a chat with Dinobot. He tries to sweet-talk Dinobot into turning against the Maximals, taking over their base while they're all out or incapacitated. Dinobot tells Megatron to "eat slag," whereupon Megatron orders Scorponok and Tarantulas, who have taken the opportunity to sneak up on Dinobot while he was distracted by his chat with Megatron, to "vaporize him!" They shoot Dinobot in the back (Cowards! :) ), he falls to the ground, Scorponok and Tarantulas take aim at him again, but Dinobot rolls out of the way, smacking his torn-up back into one of the base's supports (Ooooh, that's gotta hurt!) and manages to activate the autoguns. They take aim at both Scorponok and Tarantulas, who freeze in their tracks, lest the guns detect them.

Tarantulas gingerly tries to sidestep away...and gets blasted several hundred yards away for his efforts.

Scorponok's teeth chatter...and he joins Tarantulas.

The guns then turn upon Megatron, and he gives up the ghost, heading off to the stasis pod's crash site while the Maximals' laser sends instructions off to the stasis pod, bouncing the signal off of a moon. Up at the pod, the scanning equipment aboard the pod activates...and that white tiger is now only steps away from the pod.

Rhinox, Cheetor, and Rattrap see the laser signal bouncing off of the moon, but Cheetor, scanning off in the distance, announces that it doesn't matter because the Predacons are going to beat them to the pod. At the crash site, we've now got two white tigers roaring at each other (Gee, wonder where the other one came from...?) as Terrosaur and Waspinator approach. Waspinator believes that Megatron's going to reward him for reaching the pod before the Maximals, but Terrorsaur takes off in an effort to be the first there as Megatron approaches the tundra himself.

Back at the Maximal base, Dinobot's taking Optimus' spot in the CR Chamber and Optimus takes off for the pod's crash site.

At the crash site, the two tigers look on while Waspinator and Terrorsaur attempt to open up the pod. But the Maximals arrive and demand that they back off. But then Megatron arrives on the scene and "encourages" the Maximals to back off by the simple expedient of threatening to kill the tigers. Reluctantly, the Maximals back off, lowering their weapons. Megatron, triumphant, orders the pod open. Waspinator finally gets it open...but it's empty! Megatron wonders where the Maximal is...

Well, shut my mouth! If it isn't one of the tigers!

Tigatron maximizes and shoots Megatron, knocking him off of his feet. The other Maximals join in the party, Optimus Primal arrives to add to the fun, and Megatron realizes that it's time to go. The Predacons run off, and Tigatron fires a wrist-launched missile at the retreating Megatron, which hits home. Tigatron, satisfied with himself, transforms back to beast mode as Optimus Primal comes in for a landing and introduces himself. Tigatron reports that the crash damaged his identity circuits, to the point that he didn't know who he was, what her was, or which side he was on until he saw the Maximals willing to risk their lives for him and his tiger friend. Optimus is gratified to learn that Tigatron came through all right and begins to say that they'll all return to their base.

Tigatron, however, refuses to accompany them. He says, with a meaningful glance at the other tiger, that he's "still more tiger than Maximal" and that he prefers to stay in the wild with his "own kind." But he also says that the Maximals may count on his loyalty. They, apparently, can live with that. With a salute from Optimus, the other Maximals are off. Tigatron watches them go, intoning, "Let the trails lead where they may; I will follow."

Back to the top

Nightwind's Unsolicited Opinions

This is the first episode in which a brand-new character is introduced and, unfortunately, it sets a general pattern for character introduction episodes that isn't really changed until "Bad Spark" in Season 2. It's a character introduction episode that does everything except tell us a story about the new character. We learn nothing of Tigatron until the very end of the episode. It's even worse with Blackarachnia in "Double Jeopardy" and only slightly better with Inferno in "Spider's Game." "Fallen Comrades" is an episode that doesn't really focus on any one character. "Double Jeopardy" is a Rattrap show rather than a BA show. "Spider's Game," meanwhile, is much more about Tarantulas than Inferno.

This tendency is unfortunate, as far as I'm concerned. To me, if a new character is going to be introduced in an episode, then that episode darn well better be about the new character. But with first season introductions, that's not the case. "Spider's Game" shows us that Inferno's a nutball, and that's about it. "Double Jeopardy" tells us zippo about BA, which is unforgiveable. (Even more so because very little is done with her until "The Trigger," a full eight episodes after her intro. "Fallen Comrades," at least, is somewhat redeemed by the last few minutes of the episode...

In those last few minutes, what we do learn about Tigatron is interesting. I definitely like the "more tiger than Maximal" idea. In fact, one of my chief complaints about the entirety of the first season is that very little is ever done with the beast side of the Beast Warriors and then the whole Transmetal thing in Season 2 seems to totally nullify any "beastly" qualities the characters have, so that aspect of the characters was never explored to my satisfaction. (I know, I know, there's "Call of the Wild." That episode, my friends, was a valiant attempt at addressing the issue, but it just went horribly and absolutely wrong... But I'll save my rant about that until I get to that episode... :) ) In any event, when I heard the "more tiger than Maximal" bit, I thought it was very intriguing. I wondered how that quality would affect Tigatron. I looked forward to seeing the development of that aspect of his character. Mostly, though, I wondered just how far the writers of subsequent episodes would take the characteristic.

And when it turned out that they didn't take it anywhere, I was sorely disappointed. Tigatron did fill the bill as a character who was attuned to nature, who was more at peace alone in the wilderness than with a gang of his own kind (a quality I appreciate because I share it), but I never noticed anything distinctly tiger-like coming from him. Well, other than those sexy growls, that is... ;) And perhaps that's just as well. I would have loved to have seen it, given that I love the big cats almost as much as I love Transformers, so it would have been nice to see from my point of view. But it's also something that would have been difficult to explore within the confines of a thirty-minute show. Perhaps it's something best left to the fanfic writers in our Transfan ranks...

Now, by saying all of this, I'm not saying that I don't like Tigatron. The opposite is true, in fact; I like him very much indeed. But my appreciation of his character does not stem from his introductory episode. Rather, it's because of what he does and what we learn about him in subsequent episodes. Tigatron had a relatively weak introductory episode, but in spite of that he became a great character, well-defined even though he wasn't often in the spotlight.

There are a couple of other things worth mentioning in this episode, I think, things that caught my attention, at any rate...

The first is something to which I alluded in the "summary" of this episode--Dinobot's suddenly overprotective attitude toward Optimus Primal. This is something that seems to shift a few times during Season One. I'm not sure if it's just inconsistency between writers or a lack of decision about the issue or what, but I do know this: In "Chain of Command" Dinobot shed no tears over the apparent demise of Optimus Primal. In "Fallen Comrades," a mere two episodes later, Dinobot seems positively obsessed with Primal's safety. And then, three episodes down the line in "Gorilla Warfare," Dinobot's suddenly advocating sending a berserker Optimus Primal off to the Predacon base alone in order to find the cure for his condition. Almost makes me want to yell, "Make up your mind, Dinobot!" at the screen. I seem to do that a lot, with ol' Chopperface... :)

The second thing that's worth mentioning in this episode is Optimus Primal's dedication to the folks up in the stasis pods. He never again gets quite so worked up about a fallen stasis pod as he does in this episode, but it's nice to see that he does care...

Thirdly...I wonder how, exactly, Optimus Primal knew Tigatron's name...A minor thing, certainly, but it nags at me everytime I see this episode.

And the last thing about this episode that gets me to wondering is just why there is a white tiger wandering around the Arctic in the first place. 'Scuse me whilst I go off on a genetics/zoology tangent here... :)

The main reason why I think an Arctic-wandering white tiger is strange is the fact that none of the five subspecies of tiger--even the northernmost species, the Siberian--live anywhere near the open tundra. Tigers are creatures of dense forest, which is why they have the stripes. They help them to blend into the shadows cast by the vegetation of a heavily forested area. So a tiger has no business being on the tundra in the beginning of this episode.

Even a white tiger. After all, white tigers are not white because they live in the Arctic (which is why polar bears and snowy owls and Arctic foxes and such are white.) In other words, white tigers are not white for camouflage purposes. Nor are they albinos, for if they were, they would have no color in their coats at all and they'd have pink eyes. No, the whiteness is actually a recessive genetic trait seen in the wild in only Bengal tigers (which live in the hottest jungles of India, not in the Arctic.) It results in white tigers with black stripes and piercing blue eyes (Not green like Tigatron's, but I can live with the green eyes... :) ). They're extremely beautiful to look at, which is why they're deliberately bred for zoos, but with the stark white of their coats, they are much too easily seen by their prey and they generally die very quickly when born in the wild. (And, since the wild tiger population is rapidly dwindling, more whites are showing up in the wild due to inbreeding, which is yet another threat to the species.)

In any event, my point is that a white tiger would have just as much of a problem surviving in the arctic as it would in the jungle, and for the same reason: With the bold black stripes, their prey would see them coming a mile away. So what the heck was Snowstalker doing in the Arctic??? :)

Of course, I wouldn't expect the writers of the show to know any of this "tiger trivia." :) I just happen to have a fascination for the big cats, and since there are two of them on Beast Wars, I can't help but compare what I know to what I see on the screen. And it's unfair of me, I know. And, to be honest, even if the writers did know big cat trivia, I wouldn't necessarily expect them to adhere to it in their storytelling. I'm very willing to give them dramatic license in this case. But that doesn't mean that it stops me from wondering, of course... Which, as far as I'm concerned, is a good thing. After all, if a show doesn't make you think, then what's the point in watching it, eh? :)

Back to the top

Great Moments

The following exchange gets my vote for cutest moment in this episode:

(After Optimus Primal gets blasted by Terrorsaur, knocking him out of commission, Dinobot transforms into "Klingon Mode.")
Dinobot: "Fear not, Optimus. I shall ensure that your funeral is a glorious one, as befits a warrior who died in battle."
Optimus: "'Fraid I'll have to miss it, Dinobot. I'm not scrap yet!"
Dinobot: "Are you certain? It would have been a triumphant passage..."

My vote for best line, though?

(After Megatron opens the stasis pod, finds it empty, and asks where the Maximal is.)
Tigatron: "Right here."
I dunno, there's just something in the way that line is delivered that gives me goosebumps... Who, me? Lust after Tigatron? Nooooo... :)

Back to the top

Closed Captioning Weirdness
(Or, Sometimes What You Think They Say Is Not Really What They Say...)

1. Dinobot: "Permit me to lead a skeleton patrol" instead of "Permit me to lead a scouting patrol."
   (This "skeleton" thing happens twice. This is the first time and then a few seconds later Dinobot insists on a "skeleton" patrol. Both times after seeing this one, I had amusing visions of a bunch of skeletons marching in drill formation after Dinobot...)
2. The beginning of Dinobot's "Klingon" speech to the fallen Optimus Primal is "The end, bot Optimus..." instead of "Fear not, Optimus..."
3. Dinobot: "Now our premise eraser in position" instead of "Now, Optimus. Laser in position."
   (Say what?! I mean, I know that Dinobot was injured and sort of slurring his words here, but really...Then again, there are times in the Beast Wars series (and definitely in G1!) when a good "premise eraser" would be very helpful... :) )
4. Rattrap: "Ya thievin' brats" instead of "Ya thievin' Preds."
   (The Predacons are many things, but I wouldn't say that "bratty" is one of them...)
5. Rattrap: "You depraved water-stinkin' slag" instead of "You depraved wad of stinkin' slag."
   (That Rattrap! He's so eloquent...)
6. And, last but not least, "Tigatron" is spelled "Tigertron" in the closed-captioning, something that continues on and off during the rest of the series, though I won't point it out after this.
   
   

Back to the top

Totally Arbitrary Overall Rating, Just For the Heck of It

Overall, I'd give "Fallen Comrades" about a 6. It's got some definite weaknesses...but it's not terrible, and it does have some nice moments.