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Originally Posted by CookSux

03 - Trial by Fire

-This episode's cold-open begins with the Power Rangers crew getting ready to train for... being in shape? You'd think that they'd do Ranger specific exercises and leave this civilian crap to the support crew. Unfortunately, they don't have one... so it's up to five teenagers to save thousands of lives. For Carter's episode, he's the focus of this training exercise. In my eyes, the scene where Carter shoots the edges of the door, looks like it was done on purpose based on how the scene was shot. We know he did it on accident, so why did the director choose to put focus on certain story-telling mechanisms when it portrays something entirely different? This show is done by amateurs. Either way, I don't think Mitchell's reaction to this small error should be as erratic as it was. Carter just missed two shots... He's a fireman, not a sniper. But wait... let me guess... if the writers didn't want to be predictable, then this wouldn't be a point of conflict by the final act of the episode right?

Well, training was something we had never seen Rangers do before this episode. Doing martial arts, sure, but organized Ranger training was a Totally New Concept (TM), one which further helps sell the concept of the team as not a magically appointed band of teenagers but a team of professional Rescue Soldiers. It's a training course; not every single piece of training that you do on the job translates 100% to your actual job functions. Clearly (from the fact that Mitchell is timing them and evaluating their performance enough to give them a score) this is an evaluation course moreso than a "Let's go learn how to be Power Rangers" exercise.

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-By now, we've seen the monsters hanging out inside something that looks like a palace. Where exactly is this located? If they have this area locked down, then why bother branching out for more space? Not cool.

This one I will agree with you on, it's never really explained to my satisfaction (until close to the very end) just where the heck the demon's palace is. At least when the monsters were on the moon we knew that they were, ahem, ON THE MOON.

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-When Carter decides to narrate his past, he uncomfortably grabs the injured kid's hand. Who thought that this would look natural at all. The Red Ranger's origin story is too bizarre for me. Follow along with me for a moment. 1) Carter wakes up, and his apartment is on fire. 2) Instead of running for the door (which is clearly not on fire), he just collapses. Okay, fine. 3) Fireman runs in and holds a collapsing beam for Carter to run through. 4) Once Carter makes it to safety, the mysterious fireman just stands there and takes his mask off? Uhmm okay, so he's like 15 feet away from the door... come on! The beam he held up disappeared, and there wasn't even a simulated ceiling collapse. The door just closed as the camera panned out.

This scene is utilitarian more than anything else. It's certainly not elegant, that's for sure. But we get some more background on Carter and plant the seeds for future subplots (that's why the mask is coming off). Expecting subtlety out of a PR show from 2000 is a false expectation.

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-Individually, the Zords don't really do much for me. The Megazord is even worse. It's one ugly robot, and its stretchy arms are a lame ability.

Different strokes for different folks, then. These Zords are about the only ones in this era that have any real character and do anything on their own other than "fly together and merge."

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-During this episode, Carter learns that he should assess every situation and not be hasty; this will make him a better Ranger according to Mitchell. This sort of development should have been written for someone like Chad instead. Granted Carter had zero personality before this episode, he is still a fireman at heart. I'm sure he was very considerate of his surroundings. We were introduced to him as being the daring guy that would jump out of a window to save a girl.

The difference being that as a fireman you normally are carrying weaponry and not actively trying to hurt and/or kill monsters. Its a different sort of skill set and Carter has to learn to do what he does in the context of the fight against the demons. Like I said, it's an evaluation. Clearly Mitchell and Lightspeed know that Carter has the right skillset they want to be Red Ranger but he has to translate those into the ones specific for this task.

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