Let's Watch Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue 1-10
 

Lightspeed! Rescue!

Carter Grayson leads the Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue against the imprisoned demons led by the evil Diabalico to save Mariner Bay! Along their adventures the Power Rangers will fight tough monsters, new monsters, team up with the Power Rangers Lost Galaxy, and even do battle against an all new Power Ranger, the Titanium Ranger!

Discuss the first 5 episodes!

Ya know, I was just meaning to make a Lightspeed Rescue appreciation thread. Not because it's my first Toku ever but it's the first series that I watched start-to-finish as a kid. It'll be a blast watching this again, thanks Kickback!


EDIT: Dammit! I just looked on YT & all the episodes that I've seen being there tons of times before are all gone. And before you guys say something like "Just watch it on Netflix", try telling that to an Aussie.
Aww, & I really wanted to do this too...

Okay, let me make myself clear: I LOVE THIS SHOW. This is my favorite of the post-Zordon era shows and easily in the running for my favorite season ever.

The first five episodes are:

Operation Lightspeed
Lightspeed Teamwork
Trial by Fire
Riding the Edge
A Matter of Trust

Operation Lightspeed is the "gathering the team" episode. I always liked the varied and unusual jobs which the Rangers had prior to joining the team, and them being recruited rather than "at the right place at the right time" was nice. Also, the fact that none of them new each other was cool as well. They had to learn to work together (as we will see in the following episodes). Their powers coming from Terran technology was a big deal for me as well, as was the Rangers demorphing in front of the citizens and having their identities be known. Ghouligan makes for a decent introductory monster, even if my friend Rett immediately recognized him as Monster Psycho Red. :) Strong introduction.

Lightspeed Teamwork introduced us to the Rescue Zords and the Rail Rescues. The coolest aspect of this is the Zords having to work together to put themselves into Megazord formation, which we had not seen since the beginning of Turbo, and really, even that was not as involved as this. The theme of rescuing people in peril is used very well, with Carter and Kelsey getting the people out of the building, and using the Rescue Bird as a tool and not just as a weapon. On the character side we meet Miss Fairweather, who rocks, and see the beginnings of her relationship with Joel, which was almost always a highlight. On the other side, Jinxer is introduced, and we get one of the most memorable monsters of the series in the form of Magmavore. Great episode overall.

Trial By Fire is one of my favorites of the entire season. The training exercise which opens the episode was another departure from everything that had come before. Carter and Captain Mitchell's interactions were a kind of tension which was new to the series, especially Carter's anger over the kid getting hurt because of Mitchell's orders. The Quake Stakes and the monster fight are sort of obligitory because the real story here is Carter learning that to be the commander means that he has to see more than the obvious and know when to trust his own superiors.

Riding The Edge is an episode which I remember mainly for it's incredible main setpiece (the shuttle rescue) and for the implied lesbianism between Kelsey and the shuttle pilot Nancy. The resuce of the shuttle is simply amazingly done, with each of the Zords doing something and working together in a logical, sensible manner to get the job done. Joel grabs the shuttle with his magnetic hooks, Dana clears the freeway of cars, Kelsey gets the shuttle to land on the back of Haz Rescue 4, and then Carter picks up the shuttle with Pyro Rescue 1's hands. Whirlin' was a good monster as well, because he (like Magmavore) was tied directly to the threat of the episode and not tacked on like the previous monster.

A Matter of Trust is the weakest of these five mainly because so much time is spent with the goofy fisherman guy who Dana has to babysit. Like Trial By Fire, its more about introducing us to the father/daughter & commander/subordinate relationships between Dana and the Captain. But it does have a better monster in Fireor, and have a couple of good action scenes with the 4 Rangers battling him while Dana deals with Vypra. Not the best episode of the bunch but alright.

Overall, I really enjoyed these episodes when I first saw and still dig them now. The thematic elements of this series shine in these early episodes and those themes would mostly continue on. We take that for granted now but this was groundbreaking stuff back in 2000. I cannot wait for Shout! Factory to release this season because it is on my "Must Buy" list.

Thanks for the great start to this new thread series!

I hate lsr cryog rangers

I have no idea what this is supposed to mean... and I don't like it one bit.

Did they ever explain why they went through all the trouble of making an underwater base so the demons couldn't reach them, because they're hurt by water: Yet. Made an access tunnel to the surface for which the demons could enter? Seems like a HUGE design flaw. I hope whoever designed that was fired... from a cannon.. into space.

Well, to be fair, the Cyborg Rangers were not done all that well. Good concept but the execution was not as sharp as it should have been. That's a later episode, though.

Two words my friend: "Plot Contrivance." To be honest I much prefered the way that the demons invaded in the finale, with Jinxer sneaking a Batling Summon card onto one of the Zords. Now THAT was creative!

I watched Episode 01 last night on Netflix, and I have to agree with something CookSux said on Twitter ... "cringing the whole way through". The music was awesome, but it just felt so forced. Gonna be a chore to get to Episode 02 when I have DaiRanger and Kamen Rider Ryuki to watch >_<

jixer is one make monster big

I've got the pilot on VHS, ready to relive the total cheese.