The continuity lesson of Beast Wars

[BWprowl]

In all seriousness, I was thinking about that a bit ago. Beast Machines could be seen as avoiding these problems by making even LESS reference to G1. Of course, the references they did make were weirdly garbled ("Iocon", the Prime statue with the discs) so who's to say whether it worked or now.

[Sparky Prime]

I don't really see that Beast Machines avoided problems by making less references to G1. Vector Sigma inexplicably being inside the Oracle for example. Or how about the Key to Vector Sigma being a computer program that could easily be copied, downloaded and made physical? What was the point of Alpha Trion's sacrifice in G1 if they could have just done that?

[BWprowl]

Or how about the Key to Vector Sigma being a computer program that could easily be copied, downloaded and made physical? What was the point of Alpha Trion's sacrifice in G1 if they could have just done that?

That can very easily be explained by advances in technology.

Totally.

[Sparky Prime]

That can very easily be explained by advances in technology.

Totally.

Advances in what technology? The Vehicons just inexplicably get a physical copy of the Key once the program is downloaded into them. There is no indication they possess the replication technology that would be required to make a physical replica like that.

[BWprowl]

How do you know it's physical? It could just be a hologram. Or Holomatter, for that (holo)matter.

[Sparky Prime]

How do you know it's physical? It could just be a hologram. Or Holomatter, for that (holo)matter.

At the end of the episode "The Key" we see Rhinox/Tankorr physically cut away the key from a dead hologram of himself, which then is deactivated. If the key hadn't actually become physical, why cut it away at all? Why not just shut down the hologram and manifest a new key? And then in "End of the Line" as Tankorr is about to use the key on Megatron, his systems freeze up and drops the key which we hear bounce on the floor a couple times rather than just disappear like a hologram would. Not to mention several times that we see the key we don't see any kind of holo-projector to make the image. So evidence from the show suggests it to be more than a hologram or holomatter.

And as another point of interest, they had pretty good holographic technology in G1 which further disproves it simply being a matter of advancements in technology.

[BWprowl]

Okay, in that case, it really was advancements in technology that let them replicate the key. Via...replication. Like the replicator, from Star Trek, y'know?

As you may be able to tell, this isn't a terribly important point for me. I honestly never worried about the key all that much. These are super-advanced alien robots using a program from a millenia-old supercomputer. I'll be damned if I'll ever fully understand how it all works, but the show was cool as hell, so I'm willing to accept that.

[Sparky Prime]

Okay, in that case, it really was advancements in technology that let them replicate the key. Via...replication. Like the replicator, from Star Trek, y'know?

That's why I said earlier there is no indication the Transformers possess the replication technology like that.

As you may be able to tell, this isn't a terribly important point for me.

Well that's fine for you, but it doesn't change that there are some problems Beast Machines has in reference to G1.

[BWprowl]

That's why I said earlier there is no indication the Transformers possess the replication technology like that.

Sure there is: They replicated the keys, didn't they?

Well that's fine for you, but it doesn't change that there are some problems Beast Machines has in reference to G1.

And that doesn't change the fact that I think BM is an awesome show that no amount of nit-picking can destroy. So nyeh.

[138 Scourge]

Things like this are why I don't even sweat continuity anymore.