'Other Victories' began with a glimpse of the alien overlords who built Earth... didn't it?

The episode opened with a gas giant. Swimming among clouds were the Bokk... Beast Wars's aliens given a name for the first time. They appeared as crystal skulls with long tendril tails. I was disappointed. These gods were nothing more than giant silver skulls.

Yet, moments later I realized the genius of it. In 'Other Voices' the Bokk appear to Optimus as Unicron. Why?

"We have no physical form which you can comprehend."

The Bokk are Vorlon-esque creatures of Fire and Light. The Bokk are Energy and Thought.

The silver skulls were only a physical representation so that we could see what was going on.

Plus, the Bokk spoke English. Again, a representation. From 'Other Voices', we heard what their language sounds like. Remember? Short hard bark-like breaths.

Even their name given, Bokk, may not be real, but only chosen to identify themselves. It does fit with their linguistic style, though.

So, after seeing 'Other Victories' we can say that we know even less about the aliens than we did before.

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P. Tatara
5.8.1999