I actually quite liked the 2017 film, I can see it wasn't that great or particularly groundbreaking but given the obviously sparse amount of Power Rangers movies compared to Sentai I thought it was alright out of the three!

Time Force

Pre-Show Preamble

Time Force is a show that went way over my head as a kid.

I've noticed that as Toku fans continue to grow up and have kids of their own, many of them seem to grow this attitude that kids are being "talked down to."

Heck, during one episode of Let's Talk Toku, one of the guests showed this sort of attitude; Putting the latest seasons of Power Rangers down while praising the comics, at one point noting "My kids are not dumb."

And you know what? He's correct. His kids are not dumb. But you know who was a dumb kid(and in many ways still is)? Me. I was a dumb kid. I often did need things blatantly spelled out for me. I didn't often pick up on more subtle clues on the first view. Heck, I still don't.

Going around acting as though something should be "smart people only" is a quick way of not only coming off as a snob, but excluding a lot of people. Because that's what a fandom needs: Gate keeping! Now, should a story act as though its audience is brain dead? Of course not. But there's something to be said about reaching a common ground, you know?

I bring this up because, while I do love Time Force, especially nowadays, I can't help but wonder, how well did it go over with kids my age back when it first aired? Personally I stuck with it despite me not understanding half of what it was getting at, but I could easily see many kids dropping the show due to having less emphasis on over the top action that previous seasons had, on top of its very sophisticated themes and messages.

But, if there was one message the season had that definitely did resonate with me, it was the overall lesson that just because someone is different, it doesn't necessarily mean that they're a bad person. Growing up as a rather unpopular Latino, let's just say that there was definitely a layer that I really appreciated. Many argue about whether Time Force managed to convey it properly or not, but personally? I think it did. But now that I'm older, I get to cover what I consider the biggest overarching theme of PRTF: The Cycle of Hatred.

Episode 27: Frax's Fury

Frax is tired of Ransik treating him and his robots like garbage, so he opts to release one of the most dangerous mutants at their disposal: Venomark.

Venomark holds incredible significance, because his bite causes the victim's' flesh to degenerate slowly and painfully, and is the reason why Ransik needs to take serum for the rest of his life.

Needless to say when Venomark is released Ransik isn't pleased.


We learn more about Ransik's backstory than what we were initially told in episode 4. After his past fight with Venomark, Ransik was saved by a scientist named Ferricks, who devised a cure for the bite, the serum Ransik takes now. Unfortunately, because Ransik is a mutant, he needs to drink the cure forever.

It's here that Ransik makes a decision that seems to cause quite the controversy in the fandom: He proclaims that robots are beneath him, and only good as mindless slaves. Ransik then proceeds to kill Ferricks and steal his serum, and goes on to become the criminal leader everyone would soon know him as.

Many a fan, especially nowadays, cries foul at this, saying that it removes any sort of redeeming factors Ransik had, and that it makes the anti-prejudice message of the season as a whole ring hollow. I disagree. I'll get into it at the end of this, but trust me, I'll do my best to argue a case for why the story isn't nearly as misguided as many like to claim.

When the Rangers deploy to stop Venomark, they are soundly defeated, with only Wes escaping being bitten. It's here we get to see Ransik just utterly brutalize Venomark, with Venomark only being saved thanks to Ransik's' infection flaring up. Wes realizes that the serum is a cure and takes it to the only person he knows who can mass-produce the liquid quickly enough to save all of the people being bitten in the city.


Wes' relationship with his father is the the sort of character dynamic many seasons of Power Rangers would try to emulate ever since, and, in my opinion, only the original has ever done it right. Because, and this is just my impression, you are never once expected to actually like Wes' father, and Wes most certainly doesn't like him very much.

One of the strikes I had against RPM was the character of Colonel Truman, the father of Scott. On top of coming this close to outright telling Scott that he wished his brother had lived and not Scott, what infuriated me the most was how Scott's' entire arc revolved around trying to win his dad's' approval, when frankly, Truman was never realistically going to give it nor did Truman deserve the attention. I always felt it would've been far more poignant had Scott told his dad off and found his own way, rather than getting berated constantly and asking for more.

With Wes though? In this entire sequence alone, you can tell that he hates having to ask his father for anything, and is only putting up with the greedy old man for the good of everyone else. He knows his dad will exploit the serum for money. He knows it'll only make the Silver Guardians look better than the Power Rangers, but he's willing to swallow all of that for the greater good. NOT because he's trying to impress or win over his trash fire of a father.


When the cure begins to get distributed, we get a quick but great scene with Eric where he prioritizes curing an old woman on the brink of collapse. Eric is a cold guy, but he isn't heartless. Despite his demeanor, he is still a defender of the city and the people in it, and does his best to uphold that.

His Battlizer is also ridiculous and I love it. It's what's used to defeat Venomark.

The episode ends with one final twist...


Ferricks survived, and used the last moments of his life to convert himself into a cyborg; Frax. Now, Frax seeks vengeance for what Ransik did to him, diving into the same mindset many humans of the year 3000 have. Frax destroys what's left of Ransik's' serum stash, and leaves him shouting at the heavens, slowly dying of the disease he relied on Frax to help keep in check.

I feel that this episode more than any other emphasizes what Time Force is all about. Yes, what Ransik did to Ferricks was wrong, but that doesn't change anything. The humans of the future are still prejudiced against mutants, and what Ferricks did in response is ALSO wrong. The hatred Ransik faced in the future is what taught him that you're worthless if you're not domineering over others. The hatred Ransik then placed onto Ferricks and his robots then gave birth to the insane cyborg known as Frax, who, let's not forget, HAS been an active criminal up to now. Hatred only begets more hatred. It is not a cure, it is not a solution, it's only a downward spiral that runs deeper and deeper until it's all-consuming.

And on a more personal note... I don't think anyone here would try to claim this, as none of you give me that impression, but I have seen others online make this claim: No, it is not unrealistic that a victim of racism would in turn be racist. Source? My own family.

Oh yeah. I hate to say it, but bear minimum half of my family members have the mentality of "It's not okay for people to be prejudiced against me for being Mexican but it is okay for me to be prejudiced against other races/LGBT etc." It's a very unfortunate and ugly truth, because here's the thing. At the end of the day, all it has to do with is people. That's all it ever is.

And for those who try to claim Frax is justified, no, he isn't. Not only does he still take his vengeance out on those who are entirely unrelated(like the entire populace of Silver Hills in this episode alone), but, cliche as it is, two wrongs don't make a right. Wanna know what I was told growing up whenever anyone was being racist against me or my family?

"Ignore them."

Short of anyone actually physically attacking you, taking out your anger on those who show ignorance toward you only turns them into a martyr, and "proves" to them that you're every bit as bad as what they're claiming you are. Instead, work to educate, and spread joy and kindness towards those who deserve it. Lead by example.

Hatred cannot defeat hatred. Only love can do that.

After-Show Bonus

Episode 4 has no less than four different cuts due to 9/11 happening at the time. The point of contention being the scene where Ransik declares war on the city, and has some buildings blown up as an example of his power. The Netflix version unfortunately doesn't restore the original bit of the buildings blowing up, instead showing a mountainside getting destroyed. While I'm sad they didn't restore the original, it is certainly much better than the other two censored versions, which replace the audio of half or the entire scene with the theme song.

TBH, I haven't rewatched much of the PR shows since I saw them in their original run. Really only rewatched the ones I have a vivid memory of seeing. Turbo's "Trouble by the Slice" is one that left an impression on me as a kid and it never escaped me (The rangers almost get baked into a pizza for crying out loud ).

Time Force then I like to tell myself is my favorite seasons because it had a lot of elements that young me really enjoyed: Time travel from the future, Sci-Fi weapons and vehicles,robots with different alt modes. The only episode of Time Force that stuck with me after all this time is "Movie Madness"; a fun ep that uses almost entirely original footage and has the rangers trapped in different genre films. Great stuff

So thanks Dream, if I ever find the time to really deep dive into this season, to see if there's more to it then the fun factor that drew me in as a kid, your write up assures me of it

I am curious as to how they decided that Venomark was a "good" choice with regards to Ransik's disease. The Timeranger counterpart, Hell's Gate Prisoner Emboss, didn't appear till Timeranger 39. In Time Force, Ransik's disease was there pretty much in the beginning. Did someone examine Timeranger Criminals and decide to make Emboss/Venomark the reason for Ransik's disease given his nature, or did Emboss serve as inspiration for Time Force and convince someone that Ransik should have a debilitating disease and that Emboss/Venomark should be the reason for it!?

One of the things I love alot about the show in general, and something I very much miss about the Saban Era(although the other Eras do still have it to a degree) is that when PR goes wild, it goes off the rails into such insanity that you can't help but love it. Those two episodes are great examples.

Thank you! Rewatching Time Force every 5+ years since it came out has certainly been an experience, lemme tell ya. It's a season that I feel was more aiming for the long haul, despite being allegedly marketed towards 10 year olds.

That's a pretty good question. If I had to guess I'd say it was probably the former, but who knows? Either way it really ended up working out for them, huh?

We're in my top 6 now! Can't wait for you all to tell me how crazy I am for having this list in the order that I do! :lol

Zeo

Pre-Show Preamble

If you were to ask a given fan when Power Rangers truly started to evolve, most would reply with In Space, and I can't blame them. PRIS is what introduced alot of themes and ideas into the franchise that still continue onto this day. I am in no way denying its spot in Ranger history.

However, if you were to ask me that question, Zeo is the response I'd give. Even if it only came about due to running out of budget for original suit footage, PRZ was the season where everything changed.

New suits, a new character in Tanya, a new theme song, a new set of villains unrelated to Rita, and, most importantly, a new focus on furthering character development for the cast.

See, not many people give the season credit for this, but Zeo put alot of emphasis on balancing teen drama with the typical superhero action that the show had become known for. It was here that many characters who were originally left in the dust would get their due. Heck, it's the reason why I will always see Rocky and Adam as Zeo Blue and Green, respectively.

It was the point where the writers, directors, heck, the staff of the show at Saban in general seemed to collectively decide "You know, let's step this up a notch." They knew they'd have to put in the extra effort to win people over once the Mighty Morphin' name and aesthetic had been dropped, and I'd say they certainly succeeded! I remember back when I was first getting into the internet as a whole, MMPR fans and PRZ fans would go at it all the time over which was better. Zeo has a big fanbase!

And while the increased character development is what I mainly wanna highlight with this episode, it doesn't have to do with Rocky or Adam(well, sorta). Instead, it's about who else other than two of my favorite characters ever?

Episode 12: Instrument of Destruction

*ahem* Sorry, dunno what came over me there.

Anyway, the set-up this time is that it's Queen Machina's birthday, and because she likes classical music, King Mondo decides that the best course of action is to kidnap a mysterious piano player at Angel Grove High.

Adam is technically the protagonist this time around, as it's him we follow throughout a majority of the episode. He's the first to notice the Cogs sneaking around school grounds, and I just love that they actively dance while searching for the source of the piano playing. Never gets old.

Both parties reach the source at the same time, only for the mysteriously cloaked pianist to escape at the last moment. So now it's Cogs vs Adam, so what do the Cogs do?


They go "yeah-no screw this" and leave immediately. That still makes me laugh even today.

Afterward, Ms. Rodriguez reassigns both Adam and Skull to the same classical music class. Tommy and Kat are supportive of Adam and cheer him on, whereas Bulk makes the assertion that anyone who actually likes classical music is a total dweeb and not a cool guy, like him and Skull.

During the class, Skull actually compliments Adam on his piano playing skills. A rather subtle hint, I'd say.

Later, the cogs try to kidnap the Phantom Pianist again, but the Rangers who aren't Rocky and Tanya are there to stop them, and I feel like this whole scene really does go to show how much Adam's' character got expanded. He does some stuff that made me legit laugh like dancing with a Cog while beating other ones up, and then using another one as a surfboard.


The hunt doesn't stop there though, because Mondo later opts to just turn the school piano into the next Monster of the Week, Fortissimodo, which prompts the rest of the Rangers into action.


Ahh, this brand new Morphing Sequence. I wanna take a sec here to note for the longest time that I never got why they assigned themselves numbers like they did. I always figured "Well since Tommy is the leader, shouldn't he be Zeo Ranger 1?" It was only relatively recently that it hit me: Their number corresponds to the number of angles, points, or sides that their shape has. So the reason Tommy is Zero Ranger 5 is because his shape is the star: Five points.

The fight scene is fun like always, but the biggest takeaway in the episode is the final couple of scenes afterward. Adam discovers that Skull is the Phantom Pianist, and Skull fully admits that he's always had a fondness for classical music despite his punk rocker persona. Adam tells Skull he should be proud of his talent, but Skull thinks everyone will make fun of him for it, especially Bulk. Adam reassures Skull that if Bulk is truly his friend, then Bulk will support Skull all the way regardless.

The final sequence is just really well done in general. When Skull gets on stage, everyone on the ground floor is snickering, groaning, not expecting anything good, and then Skull plays and everyone is absolutely floored. The look on Rocky's' face especially never fails to get a laugh out of me. Bulk arrives soon enough, and when Skull begins to stammer...


Bulk admits that he was wrong to put the art down, and that he's proud of Skull for being able to create such wonderful music. It's a truly heart-warming moment that shows that yes, they might be trouble makers, but Bulk and Skull really are best friends to the end. True friends won't shun you for your interests and hobbies, and will instead embrace them with you.

Overall this episode offers a great life lesson on top of wonderful character moments. Bulk, Skull, and yes, even Adam, all get to shine here, and it's the episode that always comes to my mind first and foremost whenever I think of Zeo as a season.

After-Show Bonus

Zeo theme (as well as Dino Charge) to me were the perfect examples of how to incorperate elements of Go Go Power Rangers without sounding forced or lazy imo. Still mostly an original song but with an energy that allows the go go to feel natural and only having the guitar to harken back Go Go without taking away from the rest of the song.

I have to say Zeo is much more my bag than Mighty Morphin too. I am admittedly surprised it has that big a fanbase, but yeah, I'm a bit grateful for any truly original Power Rangers theme song tbh, I do also much prefer the tone to Mighty Morphin and of course I'm especially glad of Jason, he's always seemed that bit less overrated than Tommy IMO!

It's a really good song. Very smartly written too, because half the point of the lyrics is to tell viewers that despite how much things have changed on the surface, it's still the Power Rangers they all know and love.

Even if the background reason it came about isn't the greatest, making Jason the Gold Ranger was awesome and a great twist. I always liked how Jason was way more chill in this season compared to MMPR too.

Can we just stop for a moment and appreciate the orgasmic beauty that is Zeo's instrumental? I still remember how badass the use of the theme during Red Battlezord's first appearance.

Anyways, as someone who has lost faith towards the show aspect of the franchise and wonders if he still can call himself a fan, in Space fortunately helped me realize I still love Power Rangers.

zeo and ohranger are some of the most fascinating seasons for me because ohranger suffered so many behind the scenes issues and ultimately ended up being kind of a weird mess, but then zeo uses literally every element of ohranger they had BETTER than ohranger did.

mainly the villains, obviously. its weird that mondo is just actively a better antagonist than bacchus wrath was. also just cutting the weird shit with buldont and multiwa

Debatable. I much preferred Ohranger’s execution of its elements to Zeo’s.

You certainly won't hear me disagreeing with that!

Well I'm glad your love is still around! Hopefully Hasbro can manage to fully win you back with Dino Fury.

Ninja Storm

Pre-Show Preamble

Ah yes Ninja Storm, another season that, based on what I've looked up, wasn't too popular at first, but grew more fans as the years went by. Anyone else getting a feeling that if it's not a popular season, any given season of Power Rangers isn't allowed to be considered good until like 5 years later minimum?

And as you could probably guess by it being so high on the list, I absolutely love Ninja Storm! And no, I'm not covering "I Love Lothor!"

Friend: Even though it's fundamentally the best one of the season.

You hush.

Anyway! Ninja Storm was the first entry in the Disney Era and MAN did they start off great in my eyes! The tone, the style, the starting team only being three Rangers instead of the usual five... almost everything felt fresh and new! Especially that first bit, as this would be the first season to focus alot more on its comedic aspects. Old posts I dug up suggest that there were alot of people who didn't like it because the season didn't take itself too seriously.

...Which is really funny, because nowadays(especially during the twitch marathon), alot of people now praise it for the exact same thing.

Personally, I think it works out great, because this show is legitimately funny! And it's thanks to that that whenever the season does go for something more dramatic, it offers an excellent contrast, making me care about these likeable characters all the more.

And these characters certainly are a blast! I don't think there's a single character in Ninja Storm that I don't like. My favorite though is Dustin, who quickly became my favorite Yellow Ranger in the entire franchise(very closely followed by Chip in Mystic Force).

Now before I start, I just wanna say this write-up is gonna be really weird for me, because the episode I deemed my favorite is also the one that I deemed the funniest, so I dunno exactly how well I'll be able to portray that, considering humor is very subjective in general. But, I'll try, and I hope you all can atleast get a smile out of my highlights. With that, today's episode is...

Episode 15: Pork Chopped

It's a classic set-up we've seen a bunch of times before. Tori agrees to watch Shane at his skate demo, only for her to accept a date invite from Blake to go see a movie scheduled for the exact same time. Rather than like, simply call Blake and tell him she already had prior plans she forgot about, she instead uses her Ninja Speed to try and be in both places at once.

Hijinks ensue.

Lothor meanwhile uses the current split in the team to try and mount a surprise attack with his latest alien: General Trayf, a pig who has dimensional powers.

What really sells the scenario though, atleast to me, is that the comedy of the episode doesn't actually come from the cliched setup itself. Instead, like alot of the comedy this season, most of it comes from the genuine personality of all the characters involved. The cast really did a great job making all of their characters really likeable this season; Even the villains! I cannot stress this enough.


While Marah is keeping Shane and Dustin busy, Trayf traps the Thunder Brothers in a dimensional bag of popcorn(no I am not making that up), so that way they stay out of most of the action this episode. The magic in the bag is so strong that it even blocks them from Morphing! But you know what the worst part of it is? It's not even not real butter that's gonna end up destroying them.


(That's actually my favorite line in the whole season, by the way.)

When the Wind Rangers manage to track down Trayf, the big pig challenges them to follow him into his dimension of horrors, where he reigns supreme. With no other option, the Ranger jump in to find...


The fight is full of personality too, featuring highlights like Trayf shooting off dozens of exploding pig snouts and Shane surfing on a trashcan lid to attack mid-flight. Even Lothor loves this stuff, watching the fight from the movie theater. Private screenings, man.


I always dug how the Storm Striker was modular, meaning that any of the three Rangers could lead off and have a different finishing attack as a result. It's an idea I'd love to see used again. And if Sentai has done it since, feel free to lemme know. Rangers sure hasn't. The Megazord is cool too; I always liked how the artillery Zords popped out of its chest.

Oh right, Blake and Hunter. They manage to escape the popcorn bag by using their bio-electricity to pop all of the unpopped kernels at the bottom of the bag, thus propelling them back out into the world. The fight they get afterward is fun too, as they use the butter they're covered in to clown on a group of Kelzaks. Kind of a reverse scenario to the Jungle Fury episode I covered.

In the end, Tori learns her lesson about managing her time better, and declines Blake's' invitation to try their date over again. Blake mentions he's "not good with dates either" and respects Tori's' decision.

Still, he does now have a leftover ticket, so who to take to the movie?


Overall, this episode never fails to put a smile on my face. It oozes personality, has a bunch of great lampshades and comedic beats, and the action is creative and fun to watch. It really does capture the essence of Ninja Storm for me, and I couldn't ask for any better than that.

After-Show Bonus

Jason Chan was about 30 when he applied for the role of Cam, the Green Ranger. He actually only ended up getting the part because his agent lied to some of the higher-ups at Disney, claiming he was in his early 20s. Considering how amazingly the guy has aged, I'd've believed it too! Nowadays he directs his own independent films, and if you're curious, I'd recommend checking them out! They're definitely interesting if nothing else.

In all honesty, I thought the “artificial flavouring” gag was the best in this episode too.

And not to be a shameless self promoter, but I’ll be covering the Sentai episode this episode was adapted from on Tuesday, if anyone’s interested.

I'll be sure to read that post! Definitely curious if the episode is anywhere near as funny as this one is.

Lightspeed Rescue

Pre-Show Preamble

If any of you feel that I've been coming off as high-and-mighty towards viewers who didn't like specific seasons at first, only to come around to them later; First off, not my intent, but secondly, now you all get to know that I am in no way immune to that either.

Lightspeed Rescue is a season I remembered not really caring about all that much as a kid. I watched it, I enjoyed it, but similar to Lost Galaxy, it just didn't stick with me the same way alot of the other seasons did. This is one reason why my interest became quite piqued when it came time to rewatch it during the binge my friend and I did.

The other reason being that a second friend of mine, upon learning we had been binging the whole series, outright demanded that we wait up for him so he could join us for LSR. As it turned out, this was actually his favorite season growing up, with Carter being his favorite Power Ranger period. This was so unique to me, because while Carter had always had diehard fans online, I'd never actually talked to someone who liked him in person before.

So all three of us sat down, and within the course of a week we blasted through every episode. And I gotta say, it was probably the best rewatch I've had with almost any show ever. I could feel the love of the show just radiating off that friend of mine, and I in turn found a ton of things to appreciate about Lightspeed Rescue that many people, myself included, never actually seemed to give it proper credit for. There's the obvious one in the character of Ryan of course, but besides that...

I loved the characters, the actors, the musical score, the constant air of mystery the season had going for it, that for the first time the monsters were demons and not aliens, and I liked that there was a season that focused alot more on the, well, Rescue aspect of being a Ranger than beating up said monsters. This was also the first time that more than just the Red Ranger had a Battlizer(Blue and Green get in on it too), as well as the Ranger team themselves being brought together and funded by a sect of the government. Also, that underwater base effect is entirely practical and looks amazing even today!

It made choosing an out and out favorite episode this season really difficult, because there are a ton that I absolutely love. But in the end, I felt it only right that I cover what I consider not only the most important episode in the entirety of Lightspeed Rescue, but one of the most important episodes in Power Rangers history as a whole.

Episode 11: From Deep in the Shadows

The staff of the Aqua Base are testing a brand new Morpher, the Titanium Morpher, as a way to give Carter an upgrade. Unfortunately, the power ends up being too much for any normal human body to handle, so Captain Mitchell locks the Morpher away in his personal safe.

The scene here is actually really well edited, and displays some really good acting on the part of Sean CW Johnson as well as great body language from the suit actor for the Titanium Ranger bits. They did a great job syncing the two up!

It also happens to be the birthday of Ryan, Captain Mitchell's' son and Dana's' brother, who was lost in a car crash years ago. The two celebrate what would've been his 20th birthday, and Mitchell assures his daughter that whatever happens, he loves her, and to always remember that.


Late into the night however, a mysterious man sneaks into the underwater base, Solid Snake style, and proceeds to steal the Titanium Morpher for himself, but not before stopping to stare at some of the Captain's' personal belongings.

The next morning, Vypra attacks Mariner Bay, only this time with the goal of directly challenging the Rangers in mind.

And it's here that I wanna point out that this episode was actually directed by Jonathan Tzachor. Yes, the same guy who was made infamous for what he ended up turning Mega Force into. It really makes me wonder what happened to the guy over the years, because staff have claimed that when it came to PRMF, Tzachor didn't care about the Rangers as people, yet in this episode alone, he shows the exact opposite attitude. The directing is great here! There's a constant air of mystery and dread, and he even managed to get some of the better acting ever displayed from Jennifer L. Yen as Vypra. Just like... what happened, dude?

Anyway, after a brief scuffle, Vypra reveals that the demons have a new ally on their side...


The Titanium Ranger, and this is huge for a few reasons. First, as everyone here probably already knows, Titanium Ranger was the very first US-original Power Ranger, and a Sixth Ranger to boot. And man does he make a great showing! In this episode alone, they put alot of detail into practically every aspect of him.

First, all throughout the episode they make sure to keep his face atleast partially obscured, keeping his identity a secret. Second, what few times he does speak, he talks like the demons whom he's working with. Third, the fights with him are incredibly intense. Not just in terms of destruction, but in how he fights the other Rangers. Whereas the Lightspeed team fights using more refined forms of combat(or in Carter's' case, weapon use), Titanium attacks wildly; Using long sweeps and actively clawing at his opponents whenever he isn't using the Titanium Lazer. He even manages to reflect a direct blast from the Rescue Bird!

I also love how unique and dynamic his suit looks compared to the rest of the team. Granted, alot of that has to do with them repurposing a Turboranger suit in order to make it, but the gleaming gray with the gold accents and very unique visor shape all come together to make a really cool and memorable design for me. It's also part of the reason I wanna get around to watching Turboranger eventually.

The Rangers opt for a temporary retreat, and yet again, the sense of dread and mystery is great here. The team theorizes that they might have a traitor in the ranks, while the demons talk to the mysterious man from before, Morpher now attached to his wrist and still obscured in shadow.

When it comes to the rematch, Ms. Fairweather sends another dangerous weapon to aid the Rangers.


This episode also marks the debut of the V-Lancers, which have their own really cool finishing attack. While the V is obviously referencing the five Rangers, as a kid I always assumed it stood for Victory. In the end, Mitchell calls off the attack once Titanium Ranger's' eyes become revealed, and Mitchell realizes who it is.


This scene is what made a huge impact on that second friend of mine, and cemented LSR as his favorite season of Power Rangers. And yeah, I can totally see why. The entire episode essentially builds up to it, and it not only offers a nice twist, but is in itself a fantastic episode for future episodes to come. How is Ryan alive? Did Mitchell lie to Dana? How did he become allied with the demons? So many great questions for future episodes to dive into!

While the appearances of the Titanium Ranger are few, the staff made sure to make every one of them very memorable and very important to not just the plot, but many of the character arcs in play. They knew how important this character was in a meta sense, and made sure to make him every bit as important in the story. He was the start of yet another bit of evolution for the franchise, which can be seen even today as we continue to get more US original Rangers in the comics. Ryan went on to become my favorite Silver Ranger, and I don't see that changing anytime soon.

After-Show Bonus

While Ryan became my favorite Silver Ranger(even though I personally think he should be classified as a Gray Ranger), my actual favorite character in Lightspeed is Joel. Keith Robinson was actually the second choice to play Joel, and boy am I glad it worked out the way it did because Keith did great! His facial expressions never failed to get a laugh out of me during the episodes focused on him, and he just did a great job at making Joel likeable overall.

Podcast episode is HERE.

Top 3 now! Very curious to hear how you all feel about this next one...

Hyper Force

Yeah that's right, I'm counting it as an official season. Saban said it counts, a bunch of the Ranger alumni say it counts, the comics say it counts, and I see no reason to disagree with any of them.

In my experience, Hyper Force has been one of the most love it or hate it things that the PR franchise has ever produced. For the few of you who might not know, PRHF is not a traditional season of the show, but rather a recorded tabletop campaign taking place within the Power Rangers universe, with various ties to different seasons of the show therein.

The very nature of the project itself led to alot of contention as to whether the show should be counted as a "proper" season or not, ontop of some very... interesting, things that the plot of HF in general had to say in terms of various other seasons.

The divide made itself very apparent in my binge friend and I: I came out overall loving it, whereas my friend absolutely hated it.

And I won't lie, I totally understand why this show just doesn't work for many.

Like, I fully acknowledge the season has alot of flaws. The biggest one being that the plot is full of retcons ontop of being incredibly bonkers(and often not in the good way), but despite those issues, I overall had a really fun time watching this campaign. The biggest highlight being the players, who all did an amazing job at portraying their characters, leading to some of the biggest laughs as well as some of the most powerful character moments the franchise has seen.

The show was created as one of the many ways that Saban was celebrating the franchise's' 25th Anniversary, which I frankly feel was the best Anniversary the franchise has ever seen up to this point. We got so much out of that year, and Saban was determined to bring all of it together, most notably in the biggest crossover event in Rangers history:

Episodes 19+20: Shattered Grid

When Saban said that Shattered Grid would be crossing over the entire franchise, they friggen meant it! This two-parter is canon to the event, taking place inbetween issues 25 and 26 of the MMPR comics. Kyle Higgens is even a guest player this time around! As such, you probably already know what the set-up is: The Rangers detect a dark energy reading and go to investigate, only to discover that, somehow, everything they knew about the timeline has suddenly changed...


And right off the bat we get a great example where I feel this season really shines. When Zac Eubank(the GM) does his impression of Alpha, everyone just loses it. You can tell everyone is having a great time doing the show, and that positive energy is really infectious! I also get one of my favorite Vesper moments out of the opening exchange: #FindAndObliterateZordon

When the Hyper Rangers land in "New Tech City" the air is immediately different. The GM does a good job at describing the scene: Barren streets, a dead quiet, and the sun seeming to have left the area entirely. After immediately botching a stealth mission, they run into Captain Hicks(Higgens), who then leads them to Colonel Song(Malika Lim).


The majority of the first part is character interaction, and everyone plays off eachother great. From Marv assuring Vesper that they're a family now and they can't afford her running head first into danger, to Chloe sassing the grizzled old soldier, to Eddie freaking out that he doesn't wanna be interrogated again(a callback to the SPD episode), it's really entertaining!

My favorite bit though is when Vesper is being, well, herself, and when Song and her crew wonder if she's all there, the rest of the Rangers immediately jump to defend her weirdness. Those are the type of people you want in your life, guys!

Oh, and Song briefly mentions a lieutenant Victor. My personal headcanon is that he's an alternate timeline Victor Vincent from Ninja Steel.

Anyway, as it turns out, the defeat of Lord Drakkon didn't just magically fix everything for the world of the Coinless. His death ended up creating a power vacuum, with Scorpina from the main timeline jumping in to try and take his place. She plans to execute a bunch of prisoners the next night. The counterplan? Have the team split into two groups: The Hyper Force Rangers, Song, and Hicks leading a frontal assault on the prison camp, while the rest of the Coinless sneak in from underground to try and sneak the prisoners out.

I love the accidental foreshadowing done here too. When the Rangers theorize about what would've happened had the Zordon Wave never happened, Eddie shudders at the thought of Pumpkin Rapper coming back, and later on when thinking up a plan to free the prisoners, Jack brings up the possibility of planting a mole and creating a false flag operation.


Come the twist at the end of part 1 where it's revealed that Hicks was Pumpkin Rapper in disguise, everyone's' reaction matches my own, and everything only gets even better when Eddie starts actually matching Pumpkin in a rap battle. And I gotta say, Andre, Eddie's' player? He does amazing throughout this entire campaign. I'm not a huge fan of his YouTube content(nothing personal!), but he ended up making Eddie my favorite Blue Ranger, and antics like this are half the reason why. The other half is the really strong character moments he ends up getting during a handful of episodes. Great work Andre!

Part 1 ends with the discovery that Scorpina plans to revive Serpentera, Pumpkin Rapper self-destructing, killing what civilians and sentries hadn't been evacuated, and the arrival of Lord Drakkon himself.


In Part 2, things get really real really fast. And lemme just start by saying that JDF does an amazing job as Lord Drakkon all throughout this episode. He's clearly gotten into the swing of the game this time around, and he absolutely nails all of the dark humor throughout the entire episode too. I love the reaction everyone has when the GM reveals that Drakkon can not only use their power-ups, but receive energy from the crowd as well(which of course viewers donated energy to him).

He also manages to straight away make what I consider the most memorable moment in the entirety of Hyper Force with one single line.

"I cut his head off."

Needless to say, everyone, both in character and out, was absolutely floored by this. It certainly was a quick way to get everyone's' attention and get them to agree to a temporary alliance! What proceeds is actually a really interesting scenario where the team is forced to work with Drakkon, all while infiltrating and traveling through Serpentera itself, which is filled with death traps.


This is then followed up by a really involving action sequence featuring Scorpina sending an army to burn all of New Tech City down, Drakkon attempting to rips Marv's' Morpher clean off him, Vesper taking control of Serpentera, Song shooting a rocket through a guy, and my favorite bit, Eddie ricocheting a bomb off the trees into a nearby enemy truck. He won a marble contest when he was 9, afterall!


The final showdown ends with some pretty big shocks too. The ones that would likely stand out to most people being that Vesper gets her arm chopped off, Scorpina still being alive, Drakkon's' forces working on repairing Serpentera, and Alpha 55 getting a mysterious message from the future, prompting a direct hook into the comics proper. But to me, there was one twist that stood above those.

That Red Sentry's' name really was Georgie. Rest in peace.

Overall, yeah, Hyper Force certainly has issues, and it's most definitely not the kind of show that's for everyone, but for me, the characters that all of the actors bring to the table, ontop of just the sheer fun factor of the whole thing more than carries it for me. It's a damn shame that the show will likely never get a proper second season, especially given that atrocious ending. You can tell alot of love and care went into this; It was a real passion project! And on a more personal note, if not for this show, I never would've given tabletop gaming a try, nor would the current Power Rangers campaign that I run with my friends even exist. So because of that, this show will always have a special place in my heart, and be an important piece of Ranger History.

After-Show Bonus:

Despite the show effectively being cancelled, Hyper Force continues to get nods to this day, especially in terms of the comics. And Peter Sudarso has said that he'd have no problem playing Marv should the show ever get a direct reference in the live-action side of things. Personally, if Hasbro really is planning to make an animated Power Rangers series like many rumors suggest, I hope it's a direct adaptation of this. It'd almost be a total waste not to do that.

I had never heard of it then at one point I looked it up and I'm sorry, but tbh I was a bit disappointed to see basically just people playing a board game! It's fair enough for the people that like it and I'm not saying I'll never ever watch it or anything like that but it does look like something I'd have to be in the mood for I'm afraid!

Hey man, if it ain't your thing it ain't your thing, no shame in it.

S(pace)P(atrol)D(elta)

Pre-Show Preamble

Some people call Dino Thunder the "Time Force of the Disney Era." If I were to give any season that title, it would be SPD.

SPD is... how do I explain this? You ever watch a show, a movie, play a game, read a book, whatever, and within a given amount of time, something in the back of your brain just kinda "clicks" and you immediately think "Oh yeah, this is my jam through and through?"

To me that's how I know what I'm watching is something truly special. It happened to me with Android Kiakider, Kamen Rider Kuuga, s-CRY-ed, and so many other stories that I don't think this post needs to be bogged down with all of them. SPD is another one of those stories, because from episode 1, I was fully pulled in. Heck, I personally think that SPD has probably the best set of intro episodes in the whole franchise!

It's a season that I felt everyone went 120% in on. From great acting, to an amazing theme song, to really tight writing, to great practical effects, to fantastic characters, and to stylish and unique action scenes, SPD has absolutely everything. This made it really, really hard for me to pick a favorite, because I could probably gush about any given episode.

But, I think I found the one that best emphasizes most of these qualities.

It's a two-parter that I feel many people often forget about, and one that, if you really are someone who's looking for a direct comparison to Time Force, has probably the most blatant comparison you could probably make.

Episodes 14+15: Wired

Oh my GOD that theme song is so good! Ron Wasserman is king of this stuff!


This episode is all about a new cadet at the SPD academy, Sophie, and her attempts at working with everyone there.

She shows alot of promise! She's a good fighter, is excellent with machines, and has a likeable personality. She even manages to hit it off with Bridge; the two becoming quick friends.

It's clear something is up with her though, because she refuses to let Bridge read her aura, tries to sneak into the command center late into the night, seems oddly enamored with the new defense system that Kat is working on, and the monster of the week appears to be hunting her down specifically.

Side tangent: Bridge is my favorite character this season and my favorite Green Ranger in the entire franchise. He never fails to get laughs out of me, and is full of likeable personality thanks to a combination of good writing and great acting by Matt Austin.


Meanwhile, an alien named Valko works to become Grumm's' new second-in-command by awakening an ancient machine called Goradon, as well as hiring help from local black market dealer Broodwing. He claims he can control Goradon once he's found another machine: The Series-One Processor; Hyper Intelligent Encrypter.

I always loved Broodwing's' dynamic as a villain. He's a guy who's willing to provide any criminal service for the right price, and is a straight up weapons dealer. His design being based off of vampires also very obviously symbolizes how he's willing to suck people dry of their cash with no remorse, and it's that absolute thirst for money that turns him into an out and out third faction that the world has to deal with come the later parts of the show.

When it comes to the fight, Valko does a good job at holding everyone off, while the giant robot he paid Broodwing for attacks the Delta Base. I always loved how it wasn't always giant monsters this season. Many times the final fight at the end was between the Megazord and another giant robot; A nice shakeup from the norm.

The first part ends with a twist.


Sophie is a cyborg, revealed via a pretty good looking practical effect. Everyone on B-Squad feels betrayed, and they throw Sophie out of the academy on suspicion that she might be an enemy spy, because no robot can be trusted.

Part 2 begins with Bridge feeling like they might've made the wrong decision, and sure enough, once Cruger comes along and learns about what happened, he makes it perfectly clear: "Just because she is a cyborg does not make her our enemy." The team threw her out without doing a proper investigation, among many other things.

The team goes to their usual informant whenever they have to do an investigation: Piggy.


Piggy is a character I feel that alot of people nowadays miss the point of, especially thanks to the popular (misinformed) opinions of a certain internet critic of whom I won't name. Essentially what people often complain about in terms of him is how he's willing to help out both sides while not at all feeling bad about it.

Ignoring that he has a change of heart by the end of the show and earns redemption, Piggy is someone of whom I completely understand. He's someone who values his self-preservation above all else, ontop of someone who's been literally and figuratively thrown in the trash by society. Let's keep it simple here: If someone holds you at gunpoint and says "Tell me what I wanna know or I'll shoot" chances are, you're gonna tell them! So no, I don't feel his character arc is flawed, or that he's annoying, etc. I just see a guy who wants to stay alive and stay out of this ongoing war happening between the police and an evil overlord. Like, dude? Same.

Anyway, Piggy gives the Rangers a pretty solid speech about perspective and how humans aren't so different from those they show prejudice towards. Piggy might be selfish, but he ain't racist.

Later on, Bridge puts two-and-two together on how Sophie is the very machine Valko had been hunting for via doing his iconic handstand. And it's here I wanna do a small side tangent. Now, I'm no expert on the autism spectrum, so if I'm totally off base here, feel free to yell at me! But, while it's never been outright confirmed, I think that Bridge is the first Ranger we've had who's been on the spectrum, and if so, I feel is a great representation for that, as well as Doctor K from RPM. "Billy" from the 2017 movie? Not so much. Again, maybe I'm just super ignorant on it, and if so I apologize, but the couple friends I have who are on the spectrum seem to agree with my sentiment, so take that for what little it's worth, I guess.


The action starts once the Rangers manage to locate Valko and Sophie. I was always a big fan of the Judgement sequence, being a stand-in for the criminal of the week going to trial. Very fitting for a Ranger Team that's a police force.


This of course also extends to how the Rangers actively trap the criminals they fight in cards, which is of course sending them to jail/prison. From what I've been told, this is apparently something specific to SPD and not Dekaranger? If so then I'm glad they made that change because uh, let's just say that having a show where the police actively execute every criminal they come across, it uh... it ain't a good look, and let's just leave it at that. Please?


This episode is also the debut of the Delta Command Megazord, and lemme just say, the concept alone of a Command Center transforming into a Megazord? That's just cool on its own, but they go full out with it here by showing just how powerful this new machine is, as it makes quick work of Goradon, which had been actively slapping the Delta Squad Megazord around no problem up to now.

In the end, everyone apologizes to Sophie for mistreating her, and she gets transferred to another base to work IT, creating new programs for SPD as a whole to use.

Overall, I think what I love most about this episode is how it manages to be both subtle and unsubtle at the same time. There's of course the very blatant message about getting to know people before judging them and the anti-prejudice angle, but there's alot of quick and more subtle bits of the dialogue that really do manage to hit home on alot of things, mainly via casual racism.

For some examples, when Sky is explaining the Sophie situation to Cruger, he says "We kicked her... it out." which is a quick nod to transphobia. With Jack, he talks about Sophie "lying to them about what she is" which is a line that I feel is very much about the infamous "don't ask don't tell" policy in the military at the time. And another quick one is when the Rangers are doing their investigation, which establishes that Cyborgs are actually fairly common in the world by 2025, hammering home that they are their own people who are often unjustly treated by the system. These episodes have alot going for them in this respect, and I respect it!

SPD is an absolutely fantastic show about the idealism of law enforcement and how that can be challenged every day. It manages to have a great balance of cop drama, comedy, action, and character development that I thoroughly enjoy, and I highly recommend this season to anyone who's interested.

After-Show Bonus

One of the things I didn't like about Hyper Force is how, instead of using Sophie as the new SPD Green, they opted to create an entirely new character in Lina Song. I hope that in the comics, Sophie will later on get her chance to shine and be SPD Gold.

Also Kelson Henderson(Boom) is one of the best actors the series has ever been given and I hope he continues to be with the franchise for a long time to come. The characters he plays are always major highlights for me.

Not gonna lie, Goradon scared the heck out of me as a kid. Probably due to the size, or the slightly iffy CG.

And yes, the confinement part of the sequence was unique to Power Rangers. One guy pointed out it was probably done because while Dekaranger’s criminals had done stuff that would warrant a death penalty (murder, slavery, mass kidnapping among other things), most of SPD’s had done no worse than blow up a few planets due to the censors in the US being a lot stricter. So the Containment Cards were likely introduced to make the Rangers seem less harsh. The judgment sequences on the other hand are from Dekaranger (they were originally the Rangers asking the court for legal clearance to kill the scumbags and then incinerate their bodies)

Me and a couple classmates waaay back in the day got to meet Chris Violette (SPD Blue) circa 2007-08 ish

Basically, a make-up/prosthetics artist came to our school and did a demonstration. Chris was a guest because the two had worked on an independent feature film together. (Labou if anyone is interested, it looks fun! )

My classmates and I did the whole, "Wait, is that who I think it is? " until we finally asked him haha. Chris was a super nice and down to earth dude. He basically blew our young minds confirming that PR was based from Japan when I asked him if they had to dub some of the footage. He also signed a couple cards for us which I'll share later !

Speaking of SPD Blue, a great Sky focus episode I recommend is the "Reflection" arc. Won't spoil anything for anyone that hasn't seen it but I feel it's one of the more sophisticated and mature storylines done in PR

Thanks for the confirmation. I now appreciate SPD's' take on these aspects even more. And yeah, Gordon is one mean looking machine!

Bro! I'm super envious!

I am now tempted to watch a do write-ups on indie films Ranger alumni have been in.

how could you do this to me

Oh man, please do! Man, if I could get Walter Jones to personally sign something... Such a shame PMC can't be a thing for a long time to come.

Sky's' episodes in general are super brutal and mature. "Idol" is my binge buddy's' favorite SPD episode for those very reasons. But oh yeah, "Reflection" is really, really well done overall.

My number 1 spot is probably a surprise to literally no one. Let's do this.

Mighty Morphin' Season 1

Pre-Show Preamble

...

I...

...

I really don't know where to start.

Like, this show, this franchise, this genre... it just means so much to me guys, I dunno if I can even properly convey it. I'll just ramble and see where it goes!

Where do I even begin here? There's so many elements to Power Rangers that I almost feel contractually obligated to turn into a less articulate FS just at having a chance at gushing about everything I love so much.

As I've mentioned before, Power Rangers and I are the same age, so the show has been with me my entire life. Now you might be thinking, "How could possibly love MMPR so much then? You were like 0 years old when it aired!" To which I say you clearly don't get how huge it actually was.

Even by the time I became old enough to remember watching TV(around 4-5 years old), MMPR reruns were on all the time, going alongside whatever the latest season was. Not only that, but alot of the members of my family noticed how much fun I had with the show too, so they went out of their way to get me VHS tapes of past episodes(some of which I still have!).

Heck, a few of my cousins loved watching the show with me too! We'd always have a ton of fun cheering our favorite Rangers on, bragging about which one was the coolest, laughing at the antics of Bulk and Skull, feeling legit threatened whenever Rita's' monsters showed up, and of course, getting super excited whenever the Rangers or their Zords showed up to do something totally awesome! MMPR is responsible for some of the most fun I've ever had!

And speaking of getting super excited, need I remind everyone that this show has probably the greatest theme song of all time???

...What? You think I'm talking about "Go Go Power Rangers?" While that song is amazing, and features the sickest guitar solo I've ever heard in my life... No. The song I'm referring to is THIS masterpiece!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-z-ENnmCkQ

That song is doofiness and fun personified, and it never failed to get me in a good mood as a kid. Still doesn't!

There's so many aspects to this show and I honestly don't know how to properly go about talking about them all, so I guess I'll just try to bring them up as they become relevant in the episode. So with that, well, the episode that I chose is--

"Oh lemme guess! It's 'Green With Evil!' That's everyone's favorite!"

Well no actually it's--

"Oh well then it's gotta be 'Happy Birthday Zack' since it features your favorite monster of the week!"

Uh, I mean I do love that episode but--

"Oh wait-wait no, it's 'An Oyster Stew' because it has the Dragon Shield Black Ranger!"

Again, amazing episode but--

"Oh god it's gonna be something really stupid isn't it?"

Well I mean maybe try keeping an open mind--

"Already don't like it."

ENOUGH. LET ME EXPLAIN YOU A THING.

The one that ended up being my favorite episode, not just of this season, but of the show as a whole? It's none other than...

Episode 57: Enter... The Lizzinator

Yes, yes really. This is my favorite Power Rangers episode ever.

It's an episode that I've heard literally no one else bring up or cover before, and while I certainly understand why it's passed up, it's very special to me.


The set-up is that Kimberly's' younger cousin Kelly is trying to become the next big cheerleader at Angel Grove Junior High, in an attempt to follow Kim's' legacy, but just can't seem to get the routine down.

Kim does her best to help, but this only makes Kelly's' mood worse, saying she feels she can't measure up. Kim assures her that practice makes progress, and that Kelly shouldn't just give up over a few mistakes. Kim even insists that she only got so good through tons of hard work and practice; She's not perfect!


I... I love Rita Repulsa as a villain. This woman is petty personified. She's the type of person who, upon hearing a kid is bad at soccer, will create a soccer-themed monster not just as a way to kill a ton of people, but to make that kid specifically feel double bad about how much he sucks at soccer. And yes, that is almost word for word the plot of one episode.

So what's her plan this time? Well, she takes Kelly sucking at cheerleading as inspiration to really stick it to the people of Earth for daring to have lives not centered around her. But here's the thing; Her plan actually has a logic to it! She wants to kidnap Kelly specifically BECAUSE she's Kim's' cousin, which will make the Rangers alot more focused on finding her. Then, while they're distracted, she'll send down a monster to wreak havoc.

That... is actually kinda smart from a tactical standpoint. Stuff like this is why I love villains like Rita. Yes, she is incredibly petty and full of camp, but she also proves herself to actually be a legitimate threat time and time again. She's a Witch that went toe to toe with Zordon in ages past, afterall! You know, Zordon? The guy with so much good magic in him it can sweep across an entire known universe? Rita, Zedd, and a handful of other PR villains strike such a great balance of silly and threatening that I've seen so many other shows mess up.


Hahaha, that Putty going down the slide kills me.

We get our first action sequence here as Rita sends down a squad of Putties to distract Kim and Tommy while Squatt and Baboo kidnap Kelly. While this episode doesn't display the absolute best example of this, I really love that Saban made sure to hire actors who were either trained martial artists or experts in specific athletic activities and even let them choreograph alot of their own fight scenes. It really lends alot of authenticity to the show that, even nowadays, most other action shows and movies don't really have. Heck, in this scene alone we get to see Kim do a bunch of gymnastics, since Amy Jo is a trained gymnast.

Let's also not forget that whenever a fight breaks out we get that amazing soundtrack by Ron Wasserman.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qh8tLKLviGE


"DUDE!" - Me every time I see this.

When Jason is out on his own getting supplies for Ernie, Rita makes another smart move; Sending her newest monster, the Lizzinator, to ambush Jason. Jason puts up a valiant fight, but considering the dude gets hit by a flying car and is thrown through multiple walls, he's no match for the might of Rita's' newest monster, and is only saved by said monster's' own hubris. Did I also mention that Lizzinator sounds like Arnold Schwarzenegger? Because he does, and that's incredible. Finster must be a fan.

I wanna take this time to praise this show, the franchise as a whole, and also Super Sentai for their practical effects. It's an artform that dies out more and more as the years go on, but they really do help to make these shows feel incredibly real and impactful. You actually see Lizzinator lifting that very real car. You feel the impact as Jason gets beaten down, with sparks flying off his body. It's the type of thing you really can't properly replicate with CGI, and I wish it'd make a comeback in other media.


Later on, when Jason reports in to the Command Center, it turns out that Lizzinator is made out of super metal from another galaxy, meaning he's super tough. Zack shows concern over Tommy's' faulty Power Coin, but Tommy says it's a risk he needs to take for the good of everyone else.

And now to praise this show's' set design. When it came to designing every set they planned to use, there actually was a solid reasoning and logic behind each one other than "places kids/teens hang out at." The staff at Saban were actually heavily inspired by comic books, which is only fitting considering this is a superhero show. And the way they managed to achieve such good designs and effects while on a shoestring budget never fails to impress me. Heck, take the Command Center for example. It's iconic in design; looking like a room out in the middle of space. But you wanna know how they achieved that effect? By being in a big room with all the main lights off, and having Christmas lights lining the walls in the distance. Maybe I'm just dumb, but I personally never would've thought of that on my own.


Oh my god the Morphing Sequence. Talk about what might be the most iconic thing in the entire franchise.

Whenever you heard "IT'S MORPHIN' TIME!!!" you KNEW it was about to go down. You knew the Rangers were about to engage in an epic battle with whatever monster Rita had sent their way. And whatever else followed, it was gonna be hype as hell. Always worked for me!

Also am I... am I allowed to gush about what a great character Zack is? I'll save it for the end for those who don't care, but all you really need to know is that he's not only my favorite Power Ranger, but one of my all time favorite characters in anything ever.

Speaking of iconic shots...


I will never get tired of seeing Rangers flip over the camera.

The ensuing fight with Lizzinator is legit intense, featuring things like lazers flying everywhere, explosions, sick martial arts moves, and a Putty that can drive.


(Two of my favorite lines said in anything ever.)

Lizzinator then proceeds to show off his immense strength once again by lobbing huge boulders at Jason.


ONLY FOR TOMMY TO COME OUT OF NOWHERE AND DRILL KICK A CAR-SIZED BOULDER RIGHT BACK AT HIM!!!

Like, holy crap! That's one of the most hype things I've ever seen in my life! Is it any wonder Tommy has so many fans with moves like that?

In a nice character moment, Jason is too wounded to continue on, so Tommy does his best to hold Lizzinator off so Jason has time to recover. They also do a nice job at not going too far with Green Ranger here, as while he does clash with Lizzinator, you can see that none of his hits are causing any real damage.

In a nice twist, Rita doesn't even give the team a chance to go for the Power Blaster like they normally would, opting to instead say that epic line:

"MAKE MY MONSTER GROW!!!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItJvpeu-psU

When the Dragonzord proves no match for Lizzinator's' sheer strength, the Rangers call in the rest of the Zords, and the highlight during the Zord sequence is always Kim for me. As every Ranger drops into their cockpit, they always have a cool line to say like "READY FOR ACTION!" or "LET'S DO THIS!" But what kind of lines does Kim always contribute?


Shout out to one of my friends whose favorite character is Kimberly(she knows who she is). For the record, Kim's' best line ever is "Nice stereo!"

The Rangers of course end up saving the day by creating the Ultrazord and blowing Lizzinator to bits, but... what have Kelly, Squatt, and Baboo been up to this whole time?


Turns out Kelly has been doing cheers with the goon squad as not only a way to help her practice, but as a way of tiring Squatt and Baboo out so she could have a chance to escape.

See, here's what alot of kids media(atleast that I've seen) fails to mention about cheerleading: It's alot of hard work! One of my cousins was forced to be a cheerleader, and she hated it. She'd always tell me about just how stressful it was for her, especially physically, and it's something I'm happy Power Rangers decided to bring up, even if only a little bit. The season is aimed at 5 years olds, afterall.


And of course it wouldn't be a proper episode without the Real stars of the show showing up. After a funny bit with Bulk and Skull, the episodes ends with Kelly nailing her latest cheer, and making it onto the team she was trying out for.

...

Yeah, that's it.

What? You maybe expected something "more?" Something "deep and nuanced?" Maybe something that'd radically shift your viewpoint on PR?

Well, sorry to disappoint, because guys, here's the thing with me. The thing I love most about this franchise is, to put it simply, it's fun. This season is an absolute roller-coaster ride from beginning to end!

The music, the action, the pacing, the absolute insanity of everything that goes on. The show doesn't even give you proper time to think about it. It takes you along for a wild ride from the get go and I LOVE it. This also results in a universe that quickly establishes that anything goes.

Like, there could be an episode where someone goes "Hey yeah, I decided to take a trip to Mt. Rushmore to honor the God of Ducks who sits atop it sending down cotton candy to every kid who does a duck related deed so that way Truthcifer, a monster who eats people's' darkest truths, doesn't awaken" and I would 100% believe it.

But I gotta say, I think even all of that would ring hallow if not for the great characters attached, and what one in particular means to me personally.

As I mentioned before, Zack is not only my favorite character in the entire franchise, but one of my favorite characters period. He's energetic, he's funny, he cares about his friends, he lives life to the fullest, he's always there to support someone in need, and despite his own personal fears and fumbles, he keeps going. He's not strong because he's a Power Ranger, but because he keeps moving forward; trying his best to be there for those he cares about.

Zack was my idol growing up. Maybe you need to have grown up an unpopular and hated minority kid like I did in order to fully understand, but Zack always gave me hope for each day. I tried my best to be like him. He inspired me to come out of my shell, to try and connect with other people, and to help those I knew I had the ability to reach out towards, despite whatever me or my family faced on a day to day basis. But, just as Asumu learned in Hibiki, being exactly like your idol isn't the main goal, but rather to learn from them, and make your own life decisions from there.

Is he incredibly deep? No. Is his character arc super complex and one you need to sit down and think over? Also no, but that's not the point, nor does it need to be. Power Rangers is a show that creates heroes meant to inspire kids and to be people they can relate to... connect to in some way. To me, a true Power Ranger, hell, a true superhero, is someone who leads by example. Someone who is willing to be there for others in some way. They do things not because they should or they have to, but because it's a part of what they feel is right.

I know I'm awful with words, so I hope I was able to convey just how much this franchise has and always will mean to me. I think the best way to end all of this is with a quote from James W. Bates, who seemed to share my sentiments:

“On the outside people can think it’s a silly show and a cheesy show. But just like Superman works best when he’s pure Superman, not feeling angst and not being in the grey world of ugliness, Power Rangers works on the same level in that they’re aspirational characters. [...] We need good guys sometimes to just be good guys. Let’s aspire to work hard with friends to do good things. And that’s what I think the show should be and it mainly is and that’s why it works."

After-Show Bonus

I feel as though I've held the spotlight from you guys for way too long with this, so now I ask you all: What are some of your favorite episodes in the franchise?

YOU DID! I mean, that entire post was genuinely touching. Like, thank you so much for keeping this up over the past month to get to this point. This has been an extremely fun ride, and that passionate summary of a random "filler" episode made for one heck of a climax.

I— I don't like to say this when I have so many nebulous plans floating around in my brain at any given time, but one of my ideas for a big Kuuga rewatch style thread that I've considered more than most is actually just one where I would go back through at least the first season of MMPR and just kinda ramble about how goofy and fun each episode is, like exactly how you did here, but almost certainly worse.

This is a franchise that, as I mentioned at the start, I'm not consistently passionate about, but I very occasionally see this sort of elitist attitude crop up among toku fans that Power Rangers, and especially the MMPR days, is like this big embarrassment you're obligated to dismiss as cheesy kids stuff, despite that being exactly why most of us are here anyway, and I kinda wanted to do something to demonstrate that Mighty Morphin' was a phenomenon (and make no mistake, it was inescapably huge) for a legitimate reason, and that there was genuine value in that sugar rush of inspirational heroic energy and the simple positive values it always stressed, not in spite of how hopelessly silly it all was, but because of it.

And I mean, just sayin', but if you wanted to make a thread doing opinionated Ranger Recaps or whatever, I'd be reading it in a heartbeat. You have an infectious love for this franchise I don't think I could hope to match. I know I literally just said this, but thank you for doing this whole countdown. I didn't end up having too much to say, but I really looked forward to each and every one of these posts over the past few weeks. :thumb:

Thank you!! I'm glad I was able to get my feelings across. It's something I've been really bad with in the past.

Do it.

No jokes, no sarcasm. DO IT MAN!

I'll take any excuse I can to rewatch MMPR again, hahaha!

Oh for sure! I think it certainly says something that even after all these years, the behind the scenes drama, how kid's' shows have evolved in general... Everyone involved in the production of the show, from the set crew, to the actors, to the writers, they all look back on the show fondly, and are overall proud of what they ended up creating. And they should be!

I think I've mentioned it before, but elitism from Sentai fans is part of what made me hold off on watching the Japanese side of Toku for so long. Also part of the reason I like you guys here at TN: I haven't seen much of that.

THANK YOU!! AGAIN!!!

While I certainly could gush about a ton of episodes in this franchise, I'm also juggling alot at any given time, haha. Got a bunch of Toku anime to promote afterall!

But, whenever I get in the mood to watch a specific episode, or someone else brings up something they wanna talk about, I'll definitely post about it here. Heck, I do still have those movies to watch, afterall!

Thanks for reading along, and I'm glad you got enjoyment out of seeing me gush for a month straight, hahaha.

I’ll admit, this is an episode I didn’t really focus on that much when I watched for the first time. I got back into PR after dropping off midway through RPM by discovering that Power Rangers had an abridged series. And the guy who made it, rather than give this episode the full treatment, folded the driving putty scene into an adaptation of Mighty Morphin’ Mutants and the scene gave me one of my highlights from his series (“It’s confirmed. There are female putties and they can’t drive.”)

As for favourite episodes: It might take me a while to think about it and compose a full list, but I have some candidates.

Lightspeed Rescue Episodes 29-30 (Trakeena’s Revenge): Yes, I actually liked this two-parter. Given that I was someone who found Lightspeed in general fairly lacklustre compared to Lost Galaxy, I pretty much was going to have something good to say about this one. I also don’t mind the lack of dialogue between the two groups because I don’t watch team-ups to see people talking. I watch them to see them team up. It’s right there in the name of the genre. (Also, I’ve seen the Sentai version and didn’t think it was that good)

SPD episode 6: I like the idea that the good monster has been framed by a bad monster because he’s violent enough to be mistaken for a criminal. It’s also good to see Bridge doing some detective work for once in a cop show.

Jungle Fury episode 5: I love the main moral of “you can’t always win” and some of the shots showing Theo and Gakko on the side of the building are well staged. It’s also the last appearance of the “dramatic chanting” morph theme, which I prefer to the rock version that replaced it afterward.

Super Megaforce episode 5: I like how the episode basically makes Vekar the villain protagonist for the first half, complete with some of the funniest dialogue in the series (“We leave at once.” “For Earth?” “No, for Mars.”). And it has what is probably the best use of the ability to turn into any Ranger outside of the finale (as in, turning into different ones rather than a whole team change).

Super Ninja Steel episode 10: Honestly, I can’t say much about this one. It’s got a good line up of returnees who basically represent various notable aspects of the franchise, plus an admittedly epic final fight.

Crossover eps are always great. It's a shame they seem to just kinda come and go in waves nowadays.

It's the episode that made Bridge my favorite Green Ranger. An absolute classic!

I prefer the chanting morph theme too. Makes me wonder why they changed it.

Vekar is THE reason to watch SMF! That episode also makes me wonder just what the heck a "plain froyo" tastes like.

Dimensions in Danger is an awesome crossover. Such a shame it got cut down to one episode instead of getting to be its planned two-parter. I hope they release an extended cut one day, considering atleast one of the deleted scenes has been uploaded.

Probably a plain froyo would just be vanillia.

I thought about it, and I actually can't remember the Rangers eating any flavor other than "vanilla with toppings" so yeah, actually, you're most likely right.

Makes sense considering the guy who ordered it.

I've been watching MMPR Season 2 while I work recently. Gosh it's fun. It feels like if you took a slice-of-life teen sitcom and mashed it with a teen superhero show. It's not fine art, but it brings me joy. (Especially Bulk and Skull! They're such plops; I love them.)

I'd actually argue it being a bit wonky is better, since it makes things unexpected. Aisha's being a bit of a twerp and taking her newfound interest too seriously? Nevermind learning a lesson about chilling out a bit and being patient with people. Moral about teamwork, that'll do!

If anyone wants an example of how obnoxious the "Remastered" version of MMPR season 1 was with its "improved effects" skip to 14:27.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_yMHtq6FD0

There's a reason the comments are disabled on this video, haha.

I have something to contribute! For the first time in a while, I saw an episode of "new" Power Rangers whilst staying with my brother's family these past few days, and I thought it was... okay?

For the curious, it was an episode of Beast Morphers in which Space Sheriff Gavan portrayed a policeman named Charo (maybe?), and they teamed up to defeat a rhino with what might possibly have been an Australian accent, but probably was an attempt at a "British accent."

I don't really remember the original episode of Go-Busters this was based on, despite my great love of that show, but I was impressed at how blurred the lines were between the original footage and the new footage. It was interesting to see Putties from the original show back, although they didn't seem to serve a purpose other than to make people such as me, who were faintly aware of Power Rangers when younger, go, "Hey, look, it's those guys." This kind of did make me wonder why, if they're putting so much effort into the new material and Hasbro are making the toys now, they're not just making a totally original series.

Oh well, it was a fun episode, I thought. I think my only really complaint with it was based on the knowledge of Beet Buster's charisma, by which standards, I felt his boyish counterpart in this series did not measure up, but I fully accept that this is possibly a matter of personal taste.

Chaku to be exact, a nod to Gavan's transformation phrase jouchaku(蒸着). As for the footage not being so different, even if they use different cameras and whatever different settings, the overall level of hardware is similar probably compared to the MMPR days where the Power Rangers footage was filmed with a totally different camera common for American television shows at the time while Toei continued using old style film cameras that they still used since the 80s I assume judging by how similar film grain/aesthetics 80s and early-to-mid 90s toku shows by Toei share.

I was 50% right, then. :p

Good point about the film cameras, that probably accounts for a lot of the similarity in footage. I remember that even after the levelling out of technology, you could tell newer footage as New Zealand was so recognisable in the newer shows and I believe Sakamoto Koichi was really into wire-fu at the time—allow me a moment to pause and smile as I remember the bewildered reaction to his work on Magiranger—but now I'm assuming they're filming in America again and Sakamoto has been pinched by Toei so everything seems to be a bit more evened out.

I always find it difficult with Power Rangers as I have no fondness for it from my youth, being simply aware of it but not a fan of it, but if the characters are engaging, I'm happy to watch a season. Not that I disliked it, but Beast Morphers, however, doesn't really have what I'm looking for.

Nope still Auckland, New Zealand according to my findings. :lolol
Makes sense though; great scenery, cheaper to film there too probably, and I think it has something to do with the show being a great way to promote New Zealand for tourism reasons, etc.

I'd be happy to make some recommendations. Anything specific you'd wanna be looking for in terms of style, tone, etc?

It can be a weird feeling watching a Power Rangers show where the characters vary so much from their Sentai counterparts.

An instance of that which has always really stuck out to me, probably because it was the adaptation of Gokaiger, which was the first Sentai I actually watched, was in Super Megaforce, where they made the Silver Ranger a fairly serious character with a tragic backstory about his planet being destroyed... and then that's just completely at odds with the stock footage of Gokai Silver flailing around like the goofball Gai was.

Megaforce tried to cover for that to an extent by having some more comedic moments for their version too, but the body language was always so glaringly different it gave me a newfound appreciation for Gokai Silver's suit acting. It was fitting its new context so poorly I realized how specific and perfect it actually was for Gokaiger. :lol

Oh! That's a surprise! I guess they got better at making it look like America in the years since. Do they still cast actors from New Zealand, or are they shipping out American actors for the cast now?

That's super kind of you, thank you so much. As I say, I've never really been a big fan of Power Rangers because it doesn't occupy that nostalgia spot for me, but I remember there have been a few shows I have watched and enjoyed, usually whilst waiting for other programmes to come on, lol. The first of these, the one that really made an impact, was Lost Galaxy. I had watched some small amount of Gingaman previously—in fact, this was my first sentai series—but Galaxy seemed a lot more interesting to me. I ended up really liking the character of Karone and investing a lot in her, so it was sad for me when I went back and watched In Space and didn't really enjoy it (although maybe that was because I liked Megaranger too much). I also really liked Jungle Fury a lot more than I liked Gekiranger, and over Christmas, I watched that new Power Rangers movie from 2017, and I really liked the characters in that.

I guess I really like shows that feature characters who have doubts? Not overly angsty stuff, but I really like it when characters are conflicted about what is the right thing to do.

Gosh, that sounds like a really hard sell. I can't even begin to imagine how that works! *looks at wiki* wait, how are all these shows two seasons? Do they really film that amount of extra footage?