The trick is, each season is only 22 episodes, potentially because of decade old Nickelodeon lore.

OH! I thought they were legit filming their own entirely original stories. I'm kind of disappointed that they are not now.

It depends on the season as to how "Original" you wanna be, but yeah, generally the non-suited stuff plus some suited footage (the zord interiors, shots with the some actors demorphed) is all new, with the fight scenes intersersed but recontextualised (as much as you can recontextualise 'spandex heroes whale on villain").

EDIT: Oh! There are a couple of wholly original footage stories - I think both tie Dino Charge and Ninja Steel openers were purely New Zealand based.

As for Orion vs Gai, ain't it interesting how Gai is the only human on a team of aliens, but Orion is the only alien on a team of humans?

I faintly remember these two shows, possibly because I was watching the corresponding sentai shows during the years in which they aired so when the Power Rangers adaptations rolled around, I remembered looking them off. Ninja Steel stoked my ire though, as I was/am a significant proponent of a specific Hurricanger ship, and I was affronted by what they turned episode #30 of the original show into. :p

Most of the recent actors are American who get shipped out to New Zealand, since that's still cheaper to do than base everything in the US.

The series does typically feature things like that. Granted, not usually to some highly dramatic degree, but it's there. Based on what you've said, the few shows that pop to my mind immediately are Lightspeed Rescue, SPD, and Beast Morphers.

That said, one bit of advice I'll give, and I know it's alot harder to do with some seasons than others, is to try to disassociate whatever seasons you do end up watching from their Sentai counterparts. It can really distract from the experience, I've found. Interpret that however you wish.

I'm almost disappointed, you know, as I quite liked it when everyone on the show as trying their best to do American accents, hahah.

Oh, thank you! I'm toying with re-watching In Space again, but a brief look at Lightspeed Rescue actually has really got my attention, and I'm definitely up for this. Thank you so much for taking the time to think about this, I promise to post an overly lengthy post about my opinion when I do watch it, lol.

In Space, much as I love it, is very much a season that relies on you having been with the show since the beginning, so I can easily see why anyone watching it without that context wouldn't get much out of it.

And glad I could help! Look forward to reading your thoughts on LSR!

I went to put it on earlier only to find Netflix has removed all their older Power Rangers shows, which is so frustrating. Hopefully these turn up again soon somewhere so I can get onboard and watch them!!

They recently announced that the series will be slowly going up for free on YouTube in the future, with the first season being Dino Charge. That said, if you don't wanna wait, there are plenty of uh... other, sites, you can find the seasons on.

Well, to be more specific, I'm still pretty sure Troy was actually a robot, but yes, Orion is the only member of the team from space :p

Andrew Hartford needed a bunch of prototypes before Mack, and one of them got loose. Doubly unfortunatly, the robot contained an experimental power source with a link to the morphing grid, as part of his early research into the morphing grid.

No joke that is legit the origin story of one of the player characters in the PR Tabletop Campaign I'm running, haha.

I feel so bad for Troy and Orion's' actors, as they're both actually rather good, but the people directing the episodes outright told them to act stiff and wooden, apparently. Really don't get the thought process behind that, given what little the character writing had going for it already.

Ah, I see great minds shitpost alike.

Just letting everyone know that the second half of Beast Morphers season 2 finally dropped on Netflix.

Will definitely do a write-up of my favorite episode, but me watching the rest of the season has gotta wait until I finish watching Wizard.

Well I just read Heir to the Darkness.

I’m not someone who grew up with In Space (I’m a child of the Disney Era) and my main experience with it was Countdown to Destruction being on a dvd of the best episodes of the franchise. That said, I like how the story kept the characters semi sympathetic, despite being villain protagonists.

And as for the contentious Flashman death-by-cameo? I’ve realised it actually does make some sense thanks to this comment.

So in a way, Astronema is a dark parallel of the Sentai Flashman, with the story showing us what happened if a captured child WASN’T rescued.

Upfront, this is not an April Fool's joke because I am in no way that clever. Sorry!

Beast Morphers

Pre-Show Preamble

Confused.

If I had to sum up my impressions and experience watching Beast Morphers in one word, it'd be confused.

Why? Well the short answer is that, to me, it felt like there were multiple difference voices, all trying to take the show as a whole into totally different directions in terms of, well, alot of things.

The lack of direction makes itself most apparent in the episode order, I feel, as many episodes and the lessons they impart on our heroes would make alot more sense and be alot more impactful if placed in different spots chronologically. Season 2 is especially guilty of this.

For example, the episode about the team taking the Beast Bots for granted is actually one of the earliest episodes we get in the show, when the audience barely knows the Beast Bots as-is. This would've worked way better as a season 2 episode, when the Beast Bots had been out of the spotlight, and would've made for an amazing set-up for the Beast X Mode episode.

Season 2 is where things got really weird though, because not only are numerous episodes ones that would've had way more impact had they been earlier on, but then all of sudden halfway through it becomes an Anniversary Season and I'm just left sitting here like "Wha...?" Heck, most of the Anniversary aspects don't even really make any sense in-universe, and most of them aren't even cool enough for me to easily ignore that.

Therefore it's my personal theory(which could easily be incorrect), that Saban and Hasbro both had two very different ideas on what they wanted Beast Morphers to be and alot of aspects of it are the result of compromise. While BM IS the first entry in the Hasbro Era, let's not forget that Saban Brands was still onboard as consultants, thus technically making the show the final entry in the Neo-Saban Era as well. And to that end, I still think that Ninja Steel is the best of the Neo-Saban Era, and Beast Morphers being towards the middle.

If there's a definite compliment that I can give Beast Morphers as a whole though, it's that it certainly did feel like everyone involved did want to put a small twist on alot of the formula that had been established up this point. To the point of giving the show a bigger budget than what Power Rangers normally gets. Also, when the show was good, I felt it was REALLY good. But when it was weak, it was Really weak. It overall made this entry really tough to rank for me. Also, bonus points for introducing Steel, who, if not for Titanium Ranger counting under the Silver category, would hands down be my favorite Silver Ranger.

And Steel is mainly what I'm gonna focus on in today's' episode. My favorite episode of Beast Morphers was...

Episode 18: Rewriting History

The set-up for this episode is that, in his increasing curiosity about what it's like to be human, Steel realizes he wants to take care of a pet, as they seem to bring people alot of happiness. Nate makes a deal with Steel that if Steel can take care of a potted plant for a week, then he'll take Steel pet shopping, a deal of which Steel gladly accepts. Steel names the plant Spot.

Meanwhile, Vargoyle uses a city-wide signal to alter the town's' memories; Making everyone believe that Blaze and Roxy are the Red and Yellow Rangers, and that Evox's' attacks never took place. The only one left unaffected is Steel, due to his unique DNA structure. So now it's up to Steel and an amnesiac Devon to save the city from imminent destruction.


As he's very much the main character of this episode, let's take a quick sec to talk about Steel, shall we? I love how much his design actually gets across despite its simplicity. He's very obviously a giant hulking robot, but things like his horn and the shell on his back very obviously signify his insect DNA, and having his color scheme be half gold is a great way of symbolizing his direct connection with Nate, his brother and the Gold Ranger. His personality is also incredibly fun, being a really cooky yet smart person whose curiosity often gets the better of him, but at the end of the day he's well-meaning and is worthy of being a Ranger just like everyone else on the team. He's an absolute joy to watch.

When Steel attempts to touch base with everyone else back at the, well, base, him and Devon are caught by Ben and Betty, the comedy duo of the show. And while I don't think the two are the best duo that the franchise has had, I do still like them overall. While alot of their slapstick can certainly be seen as redundant, the two really sell their reactions, and I gotta say, it actually is super refreshing to not only see a girl do slapstick for once, but also to have a comedy duo that's well intentioned and on the Rangers' side from the start.

And ya know, jokes being simplistic have never stopped me from giggling like an idiot over them in the first place anyhow.


Hahahaha, get rekt.

(And yes I know that moment is from a different episode hush.)

After escaping the siblings, Steel and Devon run into Vargoyle, who manages to make quick work of the two due to them not having their Morphers. Steel then holds Vargoyle off so that Devon can get their Morphers back with his super speed. But the biggest tragedy of all is when Spot sacrifices his life to save Steel.

RIP Spot 2020-2020

Also Ben and Betty go to Hell. No, seriously.


Anyway! Steel and Devon figure that the local radio tower would be the most optimal place to set up a memory scrambling device, and sure enough, they're right. Steel puts his life on the line for the mission, climbing an electrified tower to get to the device while Devon fights off Vargoyle. And I gotta say, props to the writers for giving a reason why they can't just shoot the device(it's shielded) and why Steel can't just get to it immediately(the tower being electrified).

Ontop of Steel's' heroism being on full display, Devon really shines in this episode too. Being one of the few episodes where he's actually reasonable(hilariously when he has no memory), as well as having a really, REALLY cool final fight with Vargoyle. I'm not sure if it's ripped straight out of Go-Busters or not, because Beast Morphers is actually pretty good about hiding stock footage, but either way, the super speed battle between the two is incredibly well done. Major props to whoever directed that fight.


In the end, Vargoyle is vanquished, and Steel manages to recover from his injuries, but Blaze and Roxy get away with stealing the Mega Transporters from Grid-Battle Force.


And hey! Steel manages to get his own pet afterall! But in a rather heart-warming moment, he gives his new puppy away to a little girl who really wants a pet herself, but has had no luck in finding one. I felt that was a rather nice scene to end on.

Overall, this episode showcases just how great Beast Morphers is when it has a clear focus and direction in mind. This episode is all about responsibility. How you take care of yourself, those around you, and just how your actions reflect upon others. Vargoyle was left to die by Scrozzle, Blaze, and Roxy due to his domineering over them, while Steel manages to reach out to everyone by putting their needs above his own, ontop of doing his best to be a responsible friend and pet owner.

After-Show Bonus

Listen to me and Name have fun with this episode HERE.

So! With me now being all caught up on every season of Power Rangers, here's how I personally rank them, from best to weakest!

1. Mighty Morphin' Season 1
2. SPD
3. Hyper Force
4. Lightspeed Rescue
5. Ninja Storm
6. Zeo
7. Time Force
8. Mighty Morphin' Season 3
9. In Space
10. Jungle Fury
11. RPM
12. Turbo
13. Wild Force
14. Dino Thunder
15. Mighty Morphin' Season 2
16. Ninja Steel
17. Samurai
18. Mystic Force
19. Beast Morphers
20. Mega Force
21. Dino Charge
22. Lost Galaxy
23. Operation Overdrive
24. Super Mega Force

The Vargoyle fight is not only lifted from Go-Busters, but it was his ONLY actual appearance in Go-Busters (the golden version from the not-Gavan two-parter was a separate mosnter with the same machine gun motif).

And thanks for pointing out how the gold parts on Steel still make some sense. I rem ever back when the character was making his early appearances, people were complaining that the removal of the gimmick where hey detach to allow for transformation into the gold Ranger rendered them meaningless (those who hadn’t seen the Sentai were wondering why he wasn’t the Gold Ranger, since he had parts of the suit on him).

For the record, the episode of Go-Busters that fight was lifted from was directed by Noboru Takemoto, while, probably more relevantly, the show's action director was Hirofumi Fukuzawa, who has been Super Sentai's action director ever since then. Before Go-Busters, he was primarily a suit actor who played roles including Shinken Red, a character which required a ton of very stylish and impressive work with swords both big and small, so I kind of expect him to have a good grasp on what makes a fight look cool. Early Go-Busters was full of very showoff-y fights like that which had a pretty different "language" to how Sentai usually is, and that was a particularly memorable one.

Oh, and yeah, I said early Go-Busters, didn't I!? You say Beast Morphers hid stock footage well, but even beyond that, one thing I found impressive about it is how willing it was to totally remix the Sentai episodes it was borrowing from in a way that would've been unthinkable for PR back during a show like Megaforce. This, and I believe quite a few other episodes are actually pulling from episodes before the extra Rangers even debuted, in this case turning a focus episode for Red Buster into one about Steel, who, for the record, is a character I enjoy at least as much as his Sentai counterpart. This is very high praise when you consider I'm saying Beast Morphers at all stacks up favorably to Literally My Favorite Toku Thing Ever. It's no surprise your favorite episode would heavily involve him.

Huh. Beast Morphers made a smart move in making them the same person, then.

I mean, not to sound like I'm talking down to anyone, but I felt that sort of color symbolism was kinda obvious...? Like, sure, the detaching thing would've been cool, but it's not like it's necessary for showcasing his connection to Nate.

That's actually some really cool trivia! Hopefully then I can expect to see some really cool fights when I get to binging Dino Fury!

Yeah, if nothing else, Hasbro was definitely willing to flex the money they were putting towards the show in season 1. Glad to hear you like Steel too!

also i thought your favorite toku thing was ghost have i been living a lie this whole time

Not a lie! It's just more like... like, how do I put this? I like a lot of things? They're both great?

(I should really talk more in-depth about Go-Busters some time...)

"They're carvings of dinosaurs. Could be millions of years old."

*props up bicycle against statue*

I assume one of the tropes in this category apply to this.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.p...othersTreasure

hahah, yeah, quite a few of these seem apt!

I feel like I wanna get back into watching PR again. But I'm so conflicted on what to start & why.

Like I'm curious about Mystic Force because it looks to have a different visual & atmospheric tone than Magiranger. But I have yet to see Magiranger so does that mean I should watch it before Mystic Force or after so I'm not constantly comparing the American adaptation to the source material?

Then there are shows like Lightspeed Rescue & Wild Force which I haven't seen in years & wanna refresh myself with. But I'm afraid of nostalgia making those seem better to me than they actually are/the shows not living up to my previous childhood memories of them, ya know?

I know for a fact that I wanna hit up a PR series soon, I'm just not sure how I should be going about it right now. Have any of you guys had this "conundrum" before or does it just not factor in your decision-making?

So I decided to start SPD. I'm 8 episodes in & I gotta say I really like it. Good blend of fun & serious, has a good setting & plenty of connections to previous series without letting them overtake what story they're trying to tell. Looking forward to the rest of the show.

Not any episode of Power Rangers (though I'm considering going back to watching the overall series at some point) but various clips of Robo Knight on YouTube. Why? Uh, no reason. *shiftyeyes*

And well, this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN4DZpRJBII

First Dino Charge, then Dino Thunder, and now, Jungle Fury.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QL8IuGzMwa0

A very cool interview with some of the cast.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nE7ES8Qkcn4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhrSCdaj1rE

Done as part of the MMPR Comics Kickstarter. They sadly didn't use the question I sent in, but it offered some nice insight into the cast and their characters regardless.

~DS' Movie Tour~

Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers The Movie

Look, everyone else was doing it and I wanted to be popular.

Jokes aside, I do feel that it's finally time to talk about the various Power Rangers movies like I said I would, starting with the very first.

And man, I feel like I could babble on about how much I love this movie for ages, but in the interest of your time and patience, I'll try my best to keep it brief. Because really, this is everything that I feel a Power Rangers movie should be.

Because when it comes right down to it, I think the thing that I love most about this film is its sense of fun and adventure. From the soundtrack, to the stunts, to the plot, to the effects, this is, in all ways, Power Rangers but on a much grander scale.

Heck, the film starts off with our heroes skydiving; immediately setting the tone and the mood carried all throughout the movie. So much of this story is built on rule of cool I can't help but love it. The new armored up suits, the crazy martial arts stunt work, the fact that each Ranger gets a new Batman-style gadget(although Adam's' Super Hearing was cut for time), it's so much fun!

The movie does a great job at feeling like a grand adventure too, what with the stakes being raised by not only including a really memorable villain in Ivan Ooze, but having the Rangers not only lose their powers, but also travel to a distant planet to get new ones while Zordon is slowly dying. This movie did alot of Firsts that would become staples later on, and also beat Kamen Rider to the punch at being an Alternate Universe movie.

Its script is incredibly quotable too. The two most famous quotes of course being Adam's' "I'm a frog" and Aishia's' "Boogie with the bear." But special shout outs to "Death could really use a breath mint" "Well of course I forgot; I never knew to begin with" and... basically everything that Ivan Ooze says, haha. I mean, I ask you all, would it really be Power Rangers without cheezey puns and one-liners? Haha. This rewatch also made me finally realize that Lord Zedd's' "Excellent" at the start of the movie was a pun, because I'm slow like that.

But I think the aspect of this story that goes incredibly overlooked, especially now that In Space has long since been a thing, is that this was the first time that the citizens of Angel Grove actually fought back. Well, more specifically it's the kids of Angel Grove who helps foild all of Ivan Ooze's' plots, but still, the spirit is there, and again, it helps add to escalated sense of scale that the film was so obviously gunning for. It helped that Fred was a likeable character, and I really do wonder if he did go on to be Zeo Gold in this timeline. Wouldn't that make for an awesome cameo in the future?

Overall, this is a really fun watch and I think it captures the overall spirit of Power Rangers perfectly. And that's all I could really ever ask for in something like this.

I watched this movie when I was a kid and it was not only one of my rare glimpses of the og Rangers (beyond that DVD with the fan-voted “greatest moments”), but it certainly made something of an impression on me.

One thing I find awesome that’s semi-related is that someone not only abridged this movie, but made it longer (which the thing itself points out misses the point of abridging it).

https://vimeo.com/104849378

I'll say this, everyone wants the next Power Rangers movie suits to he spandex or rather Black Panther or Spider-Man-ish, but this movie basically nailed the suits. Like I want to see the classic Ranger suits, but with armors, BUT still retain the core designs of the show.

If anything I liked that the 2017 movie went with armors, just the design itself is not great

Back in the day though watching this movie as a kid I remember being angry that Kimberly sits on the front of the Megazord cockpit haha. Nowadays, it feels very unique seeing the Red Ranger sitting on the side.

In terms of suit design, there have been plenty of times where things have been changed up, yet still faithful to the overall design philosophy of the original suits: The movie armors, the V2 suits, and even the comic-original redesigns. All have had their own flavor while in themselves looking great.

So I really have zero idea what they were thinking when it came to the suit designs of the 2017 movie.

This is what they were thinking

https://i.imgur.com/BhWeM9a.png

Completed

Mighty Morphin - Super Ninja Steel

In Progress

Beast Morphers (Episode 09)
Dino Fury (Episode 03)

I've been watching Beast Morphers and Dino Fury on Daily Motion and have the Ap on my I Pad.

Funnily enough I have actually been doing a thing for a couple of months or so now of rewatching an episode for each or most of shows I've finished from Sentai,Rider and now I'm actually on to Power Rangers! When I finish I don't know if I'll do other toku or maybe even other genres of TV show but I may have been partly inspired by various long-running UK TV shows doing a similar thing due to the lack of new content last year!

So because i have a commute for the month, I've been checking out Power Rangers Hyperforce! I never got into it at the time because I lacked the attention span to focus on a D&D Podcast, even in the background, but for a leisurely 45 minute cycle, it works pretty well. And, while episode 1 is a little slow to start, I'm enjoying it reasonably well. I'm midway through Episode 3 (I would've finished it today, had I not been pinged for COVID and thus have to isolate), and the interactions between the rangers are cute, the use of ranger lore which isn't just MMPR is cool (although we have crash landed in MMPR time, it still feels like it's own thing, not treating the whole thing as a big deal, probably helped by it being Ernie's and not the Power Centre or something), and while the sometimes unfocused nature is offputting, I guess that's just part of the deal with this kind of livestream.

Anyway, Vesper best ranger.

I absolutely love Hyper Force. Eddie is hands down my favorite Blue Ranger in the franchise so far.

Hoping you enjoy it as much as I did!

Update

Beast Morphers (Episode 11)
Dino Fury (Episode 12)

Watching Power Rangers VIA Netflix on my I Pad.

Is Nick done with Power Rangers? I saw #08 Unexpected Guest yesterday so I wanted to ask. I'm watching the last new Dino Fury episodes this week.

Watched the first 8 Episodes of Beast Morphers on Daily Motion so picked up with Silver Sacrifice on Netflix.

~DS' Movie Tour~

Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie

Fans have always disliked this movie, and I have zero idea why.

No joke, I love this movie almost as much as the first one, as it has a ton going for it that I feel goes unappreciated.

First off, and this is the big one for me: This movie, like the first one, really feels like they trying hard to go for an adventure on a much grander scale than that of your typical Power Rangers episode.

In this movie alone you have aliens, magic, interdimensional travel, demonic pacts, jungle expeditions, haunted ghost ships, new villains, new powers, violence more intense than what had been seen in Power Rangers up to that point(lots of choke holds in this one!), and a kid superhero, all at once!

Wait, what was that last one?


Ah yes, the moment that would live on in Power Rangers (in)famy forever. Justin, the new kid, replacing Rocky as the Blue Ranger. I never got the hatred for Justin. He was overall a well-rounded character, and this movie helps to serve as a nice introduction to his arc which would be dealt with in Turbo proper. I never once found him annoying or distracting.

The film has a great sense of comedy to go along with its adventure aspect too. There's of course the legendary scene between Divatox and Rita that everyone knows about, but there's a handful of other, smaller gags that never fail to get a laugh out me either. Highlights include the mustard gag with Lt. Stone, and Justin not knowing the proper way to Morph the first time he attempts it. Not to mention half the stuff Divatox herself says.

This film also puts a bigger emphasis on practical effects than attempting to do giant CGI like the previous film did. And even today alot of them look great! Whoever did the effect for Divatox's' submarine especially deserves a raise, because the scenes of it traveling, the sets designed for its interior, just everything about it was pulled off great! What CGI the movie does use is kept simple and actually looks alot better as a result, such as the magic sparks from Lerigot and the Rangers summoning their weapons for the first time.

Overall, I found alot to love about this movie, just as I did the previous one. Great action, great effects, great character moments, great comedic beats, a great musical score, and a wonderful introduction to a season that would unfortunately prove to be divisive among the fanbase. Many fans know about the Director's Cut that was buried deep down in Saban's' vault, and I agree that it is a darn shame that we're likely to never see it, because I feel like it'd make an already fun movie even better. Atleast we've managed to see glimpses thanks to the wonders of social media.

Great movie, just like the first one.

I agree that T:APRM is just as good as the first movie, even though (controversial view) I'm not actually that big on either even though as a kid in the early 00s I saw them on DVD and shown on TV on various occasions! When I first saw that first Turbo morphing sequence I thought it was one of the best I'd ever seen and I just always preferred Jason to Tommy in general lol. I just think it'd be a bit sad if people hated it solely based on Justin when to be fair, MMPR:TM is not that great and at least T:APRM was actually in continuity and I quite liked the zord fight too!