[DreamSword]

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.