[Androzani84]

Time for the second part of this week?s feature, with?

Time Force 5: A Blue Streak

We open at Nick of Time Odd Jobs, where the future guys have finished setting up shop, just as Wes pulls in in a fancy car (I imagine that ate into the budget, unless it belonged to one of the producers).



As Wes admires their handiwork and hears that Ransik?s been quiet (which is ironic, given how he?s one of the most talkative characters in the show), he finds that Lucas has a desire to take the car out for a spin, since apparently he?s a former championship race car driver (and we never learn why he quit, unlike Ayase.)



After some quick instructions on how to drive a 21st century vehicle, Lucas speeds off down the road, and ends up pulled over by the police for speeding, changing lanes and running a red light.



Lucas presents his license for inspection, but being a futuristic license with included hologram, the cop believes it?s a fake, and demands Lucas go to driving school. After writing tickets for his violations (in a more realistic show, Lucas would?ve got all three strikes at once and gone to jail).



Meanwhile, Ransik wonders how he can conquer the world since demanding the city surrender was ineffective. Frax suggests that they starve humanity, but Nadira shuts it down with an idea of her own: stealing money (translation: we needed to incorporate some Sentai footage of the bad guys robbing banks and not have it seem incongruous with the usual world domination).



For this plan, they unfreeze Mantamobile (who uses the Keys suit and footage from Timeranger 3), a master car thief (how that helps with stealing money, I don?t know, but I?m glad we?re finally getting some explanation as to why some of these guys were locked up. It?s one of the small details about Timeranger this show?s been missing so far).



Back with the Rangers, Wes helps Lucas study for the driving test by memorising road signs. (I?m guessing much like Timeranger, road laws are drastically different in the future)



Meanwhile, Mantamobile uses his tendrils to upgrade two random cars into more toyetic and evil models (look how black they are), so he and Nadira can begin their bank robbing scheme.



Meanwhile, Lucas shows up for his driving test (wow, that was a fast learning period), where he gets paired with Mr. Pickets, an instructor who looks like Bill Nye, sounds like Michael J. Fox and acts like he should be teaching a kindergarten rather than a driving test.



Lucas actually does well under him, to the point he passes the test? but then Nadira shows up to rob an armoured car (or as she calls it, a bank on wheels), and Lucas zooms off in pursuit, leaving the poor man screaming for dear life (In real life, he could simply use the brake on the instructor?s side of the car to stop anytime, but then we wouldn?t have to endure his Sheriff J.W. Pepper-esque antics), until the villains get away.

Lucas returns to the clock tower to report back on the problem. Fortunately, Trip has a solution, in the form of the Vector Cycles (just how much Ranger gear was on that ship? And how did it survive the explosion?).



At an input from Trip, the bikes are all grown to human size for the Rangers? use (ok, but how are they gonna get them out of the building? As established last time, they don?t have an elevator).



Anyway, within a few minutes they?re able to ride the machine give chase to Nadira?s crew and stop their next heist from succeeding.



They eventually corner Mantamobile at the quarry, leading to the fight footage of Keys seeing use.



Jen debuts her new weapon the V5 (the VolSniper?s equivalent) and does a double attacks with Trip to take out some Cyclobots.



After Wes and Lucas beat down Mantamobile with their Chrono Sabers, Circuit calls to reveal they can combine their V Weapons to for the Vortex Blaster to freeze him (and again, due to relics of the Japanese footage, the readouts call it the Voltech Bazooka).



They do so, but Mantamobile exposes himself, leading to our Megazord battle, with Keys? attempt to hijack control repurposed as Mantamobile launching an electric attack of some kind.



They defeat him be decombining and then recombining as Mode Red, before slashing Mantamobile down and re freezing him. And since we aren?t doing the mystery of who?s helping them in the future, Katie and Trip have different dialogue to Domon and Sion?s.



Katie: Why do they have to go back every time?
Trip: Unfortunately, we don?t have the technology to refuel here. Not yet, anyway

Sometime later, we cut back to the driving school, where Mr. Pickets is now in a sling, a neck brace and a bandage on his head as he passes another driver (I assume the injuries are from another driver, since there?s no way Lucas was driving anywhere near dangerously enough to cause injury, even with the need to tone down any potential danger).



And when Lucas comes back, because apparently he was failed for his attempted chase of Nadira (which given he had passed the test before that, is rather blatant unfairness, which would be grounds for Pickets to be fired)? which means the episode ends with Pickets running away for dear life.



Next time: Nadira ransoms some children for money? and plans to kill them anyway after being paid.

Final thoughts: On one hand, it?s good to get some focus on anyone other than Jen and Wes, and that little bit of world building from Trip towards the end is a nice little touch.

On the other hand, we get saddled with a rather thin plot blatantly designed to sell toys, the annoying driving instructor, who comes off as way too desperately trying to be funny, and Nadira?s weird habit of referring to money as ?cash? consistently, which comes off as awkward.