NOTES TO WRITERS ABOUT THE SERIES PROGRESSION
This series is about the Maximals and the Predacons; their war with each other and their adaptation to a new world and new mysteries. It will be about their personality conflicts and their own internal emotional problems. It will also be about blowing the living hell out of large amounts of real estate; this is an action show, after all.
It is also a science-fiction show. CGI animation handles acting and emotion very well -- so well, in fact, that live-action directors are used to guide the on-screen emotions and expressions in the characters' faces. We want to use this. So write this not like a cartoon, but instead, write this as you might write a live-action TV series which just
happens to star gigantic transforming intelligent robot/animals with big-ass guns. Emotions, character conflicts, humor, and touching moments should play a large part.
Remember that the Maximal ship was carrying far more Maximals than are in our core group of characters. These are proto-form (pure robot -- with no acquired animal form yet) Maximals trapped in stasis pods in decaying orbits, wherein they will occasionally come tumbling planetward. So part of our heroes' quest will be to track down and restore their frozen compatriots -- while the Predacons will of course want to convert the protoform Maximals into additional Predacons.
Neither side has a working spacecraft. Both have adapted their original ships, converting them to fortress/command stations. Each would be served by obtaining valuable parts from the other. There are no vehicles at the moment, but they will be coming along, never fear.
In this show, the weapons and battle equipment are part of the creatures themselves. No one has a limitless supply of ammo. This is good. Once Waspinator, for instance, fires his two missiles, he's out of long-range armament until he can grow new ones, a process which we estimate will take a day or so. In the meantime, he must then close with his opponent and use his stinger, which allows us some nice hand-to-hand; tooth-and-claw; sword-and-stinger combat.
However, since this type of fighting is more difficult for the CGI process, please save it for the climactic battle scene.
As for combat and other physical damage, remember that the Maximals and Predacons are Robots and plenty tough ones at that but they can be blasted apart, lose limbs and malfunction. They can be repaired but major damage requires they be at their command bases. Repair is not a pleasant process so they try to avoid damage just like any human soldier would. We can show such action but don't be demolishing our heroes and villains every few seconds. Also keep in mind that the Transformers are more vulnerable to physical damage in animal form, though this can often be regenerated by a transformation. We'd prefer not to see animal limbs blown off however.
Remember this is a CGI show. Please study the information about CGI animation closely. We've tried to create good characters within our core group; please use them to the fullest -- BUT DON'T CREATE NEW ONES. Not even incidentals. We will be introducing new characters along the course of the series.
Let the Beast Wars begin!
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