[DreamSword]

Episodes 21+22: Messenger

July 11, 2025. The day SPD fell.

Morgana is done playing games, and decides it's time to take on the Rangers directly, alongside two devious friends of hers.

We haven't really talked about Morgana much, and this being where she shows herself in full, I wanted to wait until now to do so. Cruger describes her as a twisted criminal with the imagination of a 10 year old, and he's not wrong.

She's also known as Mora, the little girl with the ability to create monsters for Gruumm. She cut a deal with the Emperor that he'd use his magic to keep her young so long as she served him. But it's not just her magic that Gruumm benefits from, because Morgana is an incredibly capable combatant, too.

I always saw her a sort of "Evil Ranger" in this show, even though she very much isn't a Power Ranger, what with having her very own spandex suit and materializing helmet. Not to mention her having a signature color with purple. But in the context of this two parter, the most important thing about her is that she and Z are both connected to the same boy: Sam.

And that's important because there's a new Power Ranger on the block: The Omega Ranger, the self-proclaimed "Force from the Future." The guy is incredible, having tech and abilities far beyond anything our Rangers currently have. His Zord is nothing to sneeze at either, since it can become a Megazord on its own. And one thing that immediately sets him apart from how SPD normally operates is that he's the first officer to just straight up execute a target.

Omega isn't all smoke though. He really does come from the year 2040, and traveled back in time in order to prevent the apocalypse caused from SPD's' downfall. And as a self proclaimed savior, he initially has a hard time working with the others; Telling them to stay out of the way so that way he can handle Morganna, Shorty, and Devastation all on his own. But in the end, even he doesn't have all the answers, and learns a valuable lesson in teamwork, and as such becomes the newest member of B-Squad, as well as the official Sixth Ranger of SPD, with his official color being White.

The biggest strength of this two-parter is that it does a great job at carrying its mood all throughout. Part 1 really does feel like a doomsday scenario all throughout its run time, to the point that they even fire the team cannon at the giant monster(which I think is a first?)! I remember as a kid not knowing how in the heck our heroes were supposed to make it out of this one alive. Meanwhile, Part 2 carries itself through with excellent action scenes and a high energy that never really misses a beat. Like, catching lazers in your hands? Throwing a giant smoke stack? Having an attack that's a reference to Kamen Rider Stronger? New Rangers in SPD certainly know how to make great entrances! And the bike handle Morpher is cool too!

It's all in all a great time, and signifies a significant turning point in the overall story for Space Patrol Delta. I enjoy them quite a bit, so you can pretty much consider the review over right here.

However, given the sort of reception that these episodes, and more specifically the Omega Ranger himself has garnered over the years, I feel like I need to address some things, meta-wise. So if none of that interests you, feel free to not bother with the rest of this post. Do note that it will also contain some light spoilers.

If you hadn't caught on before, the identity of the Omega Ranger is revealed to be none other than Sam. And that alone has caused quite a stir over the years. See, Omega is quite the controversial character; Possibly the most contentious Sixth Ranger in the franchise, due to how he was handled all throughout SPD's' run. To give the quick version of the argument: People didn't like that he was Sam, they didn't like that he was the sprite that arrived from the time vortex, and they didn't like his overall lack of screen time throughout the show.

Part of these complaints are explained by Disney once again screwing over the show runners. My understanding of the situation is that Omega was originally going to be another character entirely, but Disney wasn't willing to hire a new actor under Ranger Pay, and as such the team ended up hiring Brett Stewart to voice act, and came up with the idea that Future Sam's' body ended up as a light ball as a side effect of the time travel. This is of course a bit of a plot hole, given that time travel hasn't had this sort of effect on anyone else nor will it in future episodes. And after this bit of information got spread around, fans were quick to come up with judgment calls and what they felt were more proper solutions to the situation at hand and... I agree with none of them?

I'll say it right out the gate: I feel like the team behind SPD did the best with what they could at the time, even if I myself don't think the entire scenario is perfect. Having the Sixth Ranger be Sam makes alot of sense, especially thematically. He was the sixth child to be born with the same genetic mutation that the rest of B-Squad has, and the timeline would have him being in his mid twenties at minimum once he became Omega(funnily enough, this makes Sam both the youngest and oldest member of the team at the same time). It's a much better starting point than what many others have suggested: That being making Boom the Sixth. If you want the short version of that argument, Boom's' entire focus episodes goes against the very idea of him becoming a Power Ranger.

Claims that Sam gets literally no screen time nor character development doesn't hold any water with me either. Not only did he have that entire shared two-parter with Z, wherein we learned alot about him, but he actually has alot of moments throughout the show that speak volumes about his character, even within the second half of these two episodes. It's all but outright stated that he modeled himself after the B-Squad as he grew up; Most especially Z and Jack. As a Ranger he's over confident and showy, yet is still a good and caring guy at heart. When he tells the other Rangers to stand down, it's not a simple "I'm awesome and you guys suck" stance. He very much does it because he's concerned for the safety of his friends, and wants to be the one to save them just as they saved him. He comes from the bad future, and he doesn't want it happening again.

Granted, yes, I too would've liked to have seen atleast one or two episodes devoted to Future Sam in their entirety, but I do think we got enough out of him, and I'll be sure to point out some highlights as we go along.

But again, I'm not claiming the actor scenario(nor anything about Sam) is totally perfect. So what would I have tried to get away with in that scenario? Well...

Anyone remember Justin from Power Rangers Turbo?

Yeah, I personally would've just kept Aaron James Murphy, the kid actor who played Sam, around. Either via him becoming the Omega Ranger somehow or maybe even having him around to interact with his future self, whether it be directly or indirectly. And if they still wanted to play the arrogance angle, have it be where Sam is high off of all the power he suddenly wields after becoming the Sixth Ranger. But who knows, maybe that angle was considered and it just wasn't feasible for whatever reason.

In the end, I like these episodes and I like Sam, and I'll always be willing to stand up for both.