Show Guide

Beast Wars: Transformers

1996 Syndication Ended 30 min Action, Adventure, Science-Fiction
8.5our take /10
7.4IMDb /10
Trapped on a primitive planet, two opposing factions, the Maximals and the Predacons, of Transformers, a race of sentient robots, fight over its precious Energon. Soon they discover that there are other forces at work on the planet - a powerful alien race that

Our Review

The 1996 CG sequel that shouldn’t have worked: the Maximals and Predacons — descendants of the Autobots and Decepticons — crash on prehistoric Earth, scan animal forms, and wage a war that the writers (working on a toy-commercial budget) built into a genuine saga: the Vok’s alien experiments, the Golden Disc, the transmetals, and character deaths that stayed dead — unheard of in kids’ TV.

Dinobot’s honor arc — the Code of Hero episode, his sacrifice played against Hamlet — remains the greatest single character arc in Transformers fiction, and the show’s connective tissue to G1 (the Ark, the… — the revelation of who’s sleeping under the mountain) gave it mythic weight. The best-written Transformers story in any medium.

Verdict: Watch it. Maximize.

Seasons

Beast Wars: Transformers — Season 1

26 episodes
Season 1 of Beast Wars: Transformers premiered 1996-09-16 and ran 26 episodes through 1997-04-01.

Beast Wars: Transformers — Season 2

13 episodes
Season 2 of Beast Wars: Transformers premiered 1997-10-26 and ran 13 episodes through 1998-03-13.

Beast Wars: Transformers — Season 3

13 episodes
Season 3 of Beast Wars: Transformers premiered 1998-10-25 and ran 13 episodes through 1999-05-07.