The Energon Pub

Several of the original voice actors from the Transformers Beast Wars show will be coming together to talk with us and we need some questions. So far we have Garry Chalk, Lee Tockar, Alec Wilows, David Sobolov and Doug Parker. So if you have a question for the cast in general or a question for a specific cast member, let us know. We can't promise it will be used, it is a roundtable discussion that will flow at the pace the voice actors decide. The video will then be uploaded as a future news story for you all to see. The roundtable discussion will be supervised by me and moderated by Jon Bailey, so we will have not one, but two Optimus Primes in one sitting (even though this won't be about Optimus Prime).
We will be taking questions written on our boards, as a reply to this post, as well as any questions found in the Facebook comments for this post.

Here are a some sample questions to get us going:

For the Whole Crew: What impact did Beast Wars have on your career? When looking back at your time on the show, what are you most fond of?

For Gary Chalk: Your voice for Optimus Primal is similar to your natural voice, with a bit more gravitas. Was there ever an attempt, either by your or as an ask from the production, to make it closer to the G1 incarnation of Optimus Prime?

For Lee Tockar: Was the idea for having Ravage sport a Russian-style accent yours or the studio's? And was it a nod to the fact that Ravage was a soldier in a totalitarian regime?

For David Sobolov: Is your Depthcharge voice the same voice you would have used if you were cast as Batman?

This sounds amazing. I hope it goes well for all of you.

You 100% do NOT have to use this question/comment However...If time and circumstance permits to ask David Sobolov -If he remembers running into a Seven Year Old boy and his Father at Botcon 2013 in the restroom. He admonished us in Shockwave's Voice "Washing Your Hands is Logical". That young man is 15 now, and I am proud to say he always washes with soap, and I like to think our good hygiene has helped during the pandemic (not that we weren't washing before... ). So, I just wanted to say Thank You to Mr. Sobolov for his kindness in entertaining a young fan, and his father (a lifelong fan), and imparting my son with some practical wisdom.

To Alec Willows:

Did you enjoy your characters insidious proficiency at circumventing both Maximals and Predacons and doing his own thing/existing apart?

As the voice of Tarantulas. did you look for a redeeming quality in him as a character?

To Scott McNeil: Was voicing so many different characters a major challenge, or did you relish putting your voice acting skills through their paces?

For Gary Chalk:

"Out of all the Transformers TV shows that you lent your excellent voice to, which show was the most fun to do, and why?"

For Garry Chalk and the actors (who come to accept the interview) whose characters could appear in Netflix's TF Kingdom, such as Ian Corlett (Cheetor), Scott McNeil (Dinobot, Rattrap and Waspinator), Venus Terzo (Blackarachnia), Pauline Newstone (Airazor), Blu Mankuma (Tigatron) and Richard Newman (Rhinox):

Unfortunately David Kaye confirmed to us in a live stream that he will not play Megatron in TF Kingdom, can you confirm his participation? It would be epic to hear his voice once more in the leader Maximal.

RacerCheetor wrote:For Garry Chalk and the actors (who come to accept the interview) whose characters could appear in Netflix's TF Kingdom, such as Ian Corlett (Cheetor), Scott McNeil (Dinobot, Rattrap and Waspinator), Venus Terzo (Blackarachnia), Pauline Newstone (Airazor), Blu Mankuma (Tigatron) and Richard Newman (Rhinox):

Unfortunately David Kaye confirmed to us in a live stream that he will not play Megatron in TF Kingdom, can you confirm his participation? It would be epic to hear his voice once more in the leader Maximal.

I can already tell you that none of them are returning since the Netflix show is non union.

Also for the question on which Transformers series Gary liked to work in best, it's Beast Wars. The only other TF series he was in were ADR (meaning dubs) and he hates those as do many voice actors. Voice actors really hate having their voice acting be restricted. Hence why Ian (voice of Cheetor) is really not fond of his time as Goku even if it's his claim to fame for many fans.

william-james88 wrote:

RacerCheetor wrote:For Garry Chalk and the actors (who come to accept the interview) whose characters could appear in Netflix's TF Kingdom, such as Ian Corlett (Cheetor), Scott McNeil (Dinobot, Rattrap and Waspinator), Venus Terzo (Blackarachnia), Pauline Newstone (Airazor), Blu Mankuma (Tigatron) and Richard Newman (Rhinox):

Unfortunately David Kaye confirmed to us in a live stream that he will not play Megatron in TF Kingdom, can you confirm his participation? It would be epic to hear his voice once more in the leader Maximal.

I can already tell you that none of them are returning since the Netflix show is non union.

Also for the question on which Transformers series Gary liked to work in best, it's Beast Wars. The only other TF series he was in were ADR (meaning dubs) and he hates those as do many voice actors. Voice actors really hate having their voice acting be restricted. Hence why Ian (voice of Cheetor) is really not fond of his time as Goku even if it's his claim to fame for many fans.

Ohh...

If that's the answer, then I'm going to take some time to ask another question.

It is a shame though, as the only one I'd want to ask a question of is Campbell Lane. Who passed away some time ago now. The rest have probably been asked the same questions ad nauseum for years. Like those press junket things actors have to do for film promotions. As such, I couldn't think of anything original I'd ask the others.

They all did amazing work though. An all-star cast, with every season.
Although I struggle to remember much of anything Airazor related. Even her voice.

For the whole crew: Did you audition for/were ever asked to come up with a voice for a character that ultimately never appeared in the final show?

For David Sobolov: Every time you return to voice Transformers,it always something different from before.Is there anything or any character that you would like to try in the future,when dealing with voicing Transformers?

For Alec Willows:What inspired your Tarantulas laugh?

For Doug Parker:Terrorsaur way of speaking was something that you had free range to come up with?

For Gary Chalk:Is there any leaders(real or fictional) that inspires you,when voicing Optimus?

For Lee Tockar:The Russian accent that you used with Ravage was something that you came up with?Did you have practice doing it before or after?

For everyone:With the rumors of Beast Wars characters appearing in the live action movie series,how you would feel to return to voice them?

- For Doug Parker: What it felt like when Terrorsaur dies in the 1st season. I expected it to have more participation or even have its Transmetal version? (He was shining but he fell into the lava before)

- For David Sobolov: What do you think when fans compare Depth Charge to Batman, because of how serious, mysterious and secretive?

- For Garry Chalk: A burning question: do you have any comments from Ron Perlman taking on the character of Optimus Primal in Machinima's TF Power Of The Primes?

RacerCheetor wrote:- - For Garry Chalk: A burning question: do you have any comments from Ron Perlman taking on the character of Optimus Primal in Machinima's TF Power Of The Primes?

Of course it never hurts to ask, but from past experience, (when I attended Botcon 98) I'm guessing he'll say he didn't even know such a thing existed, or that Ron Perlman even did it. Gary Chalk is a stand up Actor no doubt, but he really doesn't watch or follow any show that he is involved in, even BW . Of course that was 23 years ago, it's possible he may have decided to start watching some of the shows/characters he's involved with in order to be more relatable/accessible to the fans...but I'm not sure.

The same can be said of Peter Cullen. He's been asked many times what he thinks of Gary Chalk as Optimus Prime. he simply states, he's never heard Gary do the voice, so he can't answer. In fact, it's only been in recent times that he has (unintentionally because he didn't even know who they were) criticized both Jon Bailey and Jake Foushee, and that was more a criticism of the industry itself, and how it was doing business, or approached a production, not the actors themselves.

Ohh, scratch that earlier message! One question actually came to me today at work.

For the whole crew: Were you involved in any preliminary work for the cancelled TransTech series?

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:
For the whole crew: Were you involved in any preliminary work for the cancelled TransTech series?

That's really good question.I wonder if Mainframe at the time,were in the talks about making a new Transformers show after Beast Machines.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:Ohh, scratch that earlier message! One question actually came to me today at work.

For the whole crew: Were you involved in any preliminary work for the cancelled TransTech series?

oooouuuu, I like this one