TFW2005.com have interviewed Transformers: Animated Story Editor Marty Isenberg, discussing his role in developing the Transformers: Animated cartoon, his work on Beast Machines and other cartoons series and how he likes to write series.

TFW2005: What have been some things that you have found to be hard to cut out of a given story, Transformers or otherwise? Were there any concepts in a show you’re worked on that you’d have liked to explore further? How is it decided what stays and what is cut?

Marty Isenberg: The biggest factor is time. Not every great idea, moment, line of dialogue or bit of action can fit into a 22-minute episode of television. I’ve had to cut in script — or Matt has had to cut in storyboard — some stuff that absolutely pains us to cut. There are several stories we really want to do that for one reason or another we haven’t had room for in a Season. Sometimes I’ve managed to put stuff back in the comics that had to get cut for the show.

There are a couple of funny trick-or-treat bits we had to cut from “Along Came a Spider” for time. “Velocity” lost a really nice scene where Sari distracts Bulkhead and allows Bumblebee to sneak out. “Megatron Rising” lost a significant scene, but not for time. The animation that came back from overseas was simply unusable. So I can reveal here for the first time that the Dinobots were SUPPOSED to join the battle in Part Two, only to have Megatron singlehandedly defeat them one-two-three — basically to show what a badass Megatron is in his new body and how our heroes don’t stand a chance. Ultimately the episode worked fine without that scene, and I suspect there would have been some disgruntled fans upset about how easily the Dinobots were taken down.