[Androzani84]

Here we go with week 6, starting off with...

Timeranger Case File 06: The Imposter Invitee 19/03/2000

Once more, we open with the Londarz, who are in the middle of a fancy dinner (how does Gien eat? Damn if I know), while Dolnero and Gien wonder how to stop the Timerangers from cutting into their profits by recapturing their recruits.


Lila is in an unusually good mood, she explains because she already thawed and sent out a criminal. And then we meet said criminal as she comes across a businesswoman heading home.



Rouge freezes the woman in place, before assuming her appearance and heading into the jewellers the woman is manager at, sending the guard away so she can take a diamond.



The next day, the staff of Tomorrow Research is sitting down to a breakfast of bread and ham. (I?m guessing that's the Japanese version of a cheapskate's meal)



He suggests that Tatsuya go to his father to ask for money, but the latter refuses to even consider it.



Then Yuri brings up a news story about how the Moon King diamond was stolen by a woman who looked exactly like the manager (presumably, the fact the manager was found lying nearby with no diamond or idea what they were talking about was enough of an alibi). But Tock takes note of a tattoo on the imposter's neck, and recognises her from her jewel theft cases in 2991, 2994 and 2998.



Tatsuya is surprised that minor crimes are worthy of being freeze-compressed, but Yuri points out that once you've committed a crime enough times, it stops being a minor crime.



Tock then explains that he recognised her by one simple limit to her shapeshifting powers.



Back at Londarz, Rouge presents Lila with the stolen Moon King, promising to make her theft even better with her next target.



It turns out that Yuri has had Sion crunching the data and figured out where Rouge will strike next.



The Moon Queen (wow, creative naming there, whoever found those diamonds) is about to go on display at a fancy upper class wedding anniversary held by its owner. And luckily, the team has one member who just so happens to be part of Japan's elite (and unfortunately, doesn't have any better ideas compared to Yuri?s).



(Why Yuri went with a leather jacket and skirt over something fancier... I've got nothing)

Fortunately, Tatsuya just has to mention that he's an Asami and the guards at the gate let the group in.



And for even further embarrassment for our Red, even the party's host joins a group fawning over him (despite looking old enough to be his mother).



Someone explains to the other 4 that the Asami name is just THAT respected within Japan. But Yuri simply sees it as an opportunity to look around and check the necks of every woman to make sure that Rouge isn't already there.



Yuri in particular bumps into a lady in the bathroom... who then gets accosted and replaced by Rouge (missed her by that much).





Domon meanwhile has stopped to fix his appearance, which Ayase chides him for.



Sion comes across the disguised Rouge, but she stops him from getting close to her scarf covered neck. Meanwhile, Tatsuya's dad arrives at the boat for the party? accompanied by his wife! (That's right, PR fans. The "all mothers are never mentioned" rule is not in effect here)



The two head to the houseboat, where Asami Sr. learns that his son is on the boat from the doormen. Meanwhile, the Timerangers report back to each other on their lack of progress.



As for Tatsuya, he's sick of all the attention he's been getting from the rich mothers and fawning young men.





With the excitement over, the host starts her speech, at which point Sion singles out the woman he failed to search before, who Yuri recognises because she didn't have a tattoo when they met... but she also didn't have a scarf either.



Having cornered a prime suspect, the Timerangers head to investigate... except for Tatsuya, who gets caught up in an unwelcome reunion with his father, who chews him out for supposedly abandoning his attempts to be independent.



But even without him, they're able to successfully expose Rouge by getting wine spilled on her, causing her to show off her neck... and the tattoo.



The 4 drag Rouge off the boat, with all 5 transforming to do battle.



Back on the boat, Tatsuya's dad continues to chew him out, and tries gently persuading him to own up to his heritage and come back, as if nothing happened.





This gives Tatsuya the will to speak up and announce he'll escape the fate of being an Asami by any means necessary.



He thus runs onto the deck to strip off his bow tie and dinner jacket to make an announcement, before leaving.



But he still takes the time to advertise his business before leaving.



As he goes, Asami Sr looks on, surprised that his son is going through with what he himself never had the nerve to.





Tatsuya goes to work, changing into his Chrono Suit.



His showing up doesn't do much to turn the tide, as the fight continues as it was proceeding before. Until Domon accidentally shoots Rouge's compression seal, triggering a rebound.



And unlike pretty much every other bad guy to grow giant, she doesn't want to do so, making her displeasure known.



Summoning Time Robo just gives her someone to complain to.





So, Yuri, Ayase and Tatsuya decide to make her an offer she can't refuse.







Rouge agrees, but gets terrified when Tatsuya begins brandishing the sword, due to her fear of getting hurt.



With Rouge's co-operation restored, Tatsuya slashes her gently, freeze-compressing her. Meanwhile, Tatsuya's parents leave the party, with his mother having picked up the business card he left behind.



Back at the dock, Tatsuya contains Rouge, staring longingly at her, before insisting everything?s alright. And the episode ends by revealing that the tux Tatsuya was wearing is a rental, with the others making him get the jacket back so they can get a return on their deposit.
Next time: Domon reverts to his old, pro-fighter persona after getting amnesia in Timeranger Case File 07: Domon is Hospitalised.




Final thoughts: Not the most action packed episode, but it more than makes up for it. There's a bit of amateur spy work, a greater look into Tatsuya's psyche and we see that his dad isn't just some controlling curmudgeon, but that he fully expects Tatsuya to grow as a person now that he's independent and actually has some sympathy for his son leaving the Asami name behind, since he tried doing the same. And Rouge was fairly fun for a one off villain, especially the very unique premise of a monster not wanting to grow big.

[Androzani84]

And now for the second part of our weekly feature, with…

Time Force 6: A Parting of Ways

I was going to open on a Doctor Who gag, but I haven’t seen that episode in anywhere near long enough to describe it for the purposes of a joke.

But talking of openings, the Rangers are already battling a mutant, namely the one from the first episode (who the credits name Flamecon).



After Wes single handedly takes him down in a choppily edited fight with the speed you’d expect from a Mary Sue character, Flamecon grows giant, and the Rangers summon the Time Fliers to combine into Jet Mode (so we’re just dropping that in here with no buildup? Great) and use their tornado attack against him.



After they defeat Flamecon with the Megazord, we cut to Wes, moping in the clock tower, with no reference at all to what just happened. (Seriously, what the hell was the point of that? Did Lynn and Marchand really want to use that footage, but couldn’t come up with an episode for it? Or was this episode significantly under running?)



Why is he mopey? Because he immediately afterwards heads to meet with his dad, who intends to pay his son’s way into Harvard(!) so he can take over the company (now renamed from Biosynth to Bio-Lab). But the talk gets derailed when a kid throws a ball at the old man’s car while playing baseball.



Mr. Collins decides he’s going to keep the ball to teach the poor kid a lesson (to be honest, this is standard old people behaviour). But he makes the mistake of handing the ball to Wes, who gives it back to the kid.



Meanwhile, in a reversal of roles, it’s Ransik who’s in the middle of a pampering session, as the Cyclobots give him a massage.



And whereas Nadira’s antics slightly irritate the Cyclobots, Ransik full on beheads one (and in a subtle bit of acting and an unusual amount of nuance not usually seen in even the more sympathetic PR villains before and since, Frax goes to help the poor robot put his head back on).



And then Nadira enters, still desperate to get her hands on “cash” (Seriously, why does she consistently use that? It’s just awkward. They’re not trying to match any lip flaps), unleashes a new mutant (not one of Marvel’s The New Mutants) to do so. Only he’s missing a head.



Because this guy’s mutation is that his head is a separate being to his main body (that must be a nightmare to live with on a day to day basis).



After the two halves rejoin, Nadira introduces him as Tentaclaw, who was arrested back in the future for kidnapping the Mayor (the Mayor of where? London? Hamburg? Paris? Rome? Rio? Hong Kong? Tokyo? L.A.? New York? Amsterdam? Monte Carlo? Shard End? Okay, I’ll stop). Her plan is to kidnap someone important and extort a ransom for their safe return.



The target Tentaclaw chooses? Why, a school bus full of children, of course!



His head flies onto the bus and teleports the body inside so he can knock out the driver and seize control.



Circuit takes note of this and the Rangers soon appear to give chase, but Tentaclaw is unfortunately able to drive the bus and fend them off at the same time.



And so, Tentaclaw gets away with his spoils, leaving behind a ransom note made up of letters cut out of magazines (I understand the normal reason this is used is to prevent the police from matching handwriting, but why do they do it here? Nadira’s not going to have any records for another thousand years).



Wes takes the note to his dad, who is in the middle of a business meeting to buy the companies from two failing rivals for $10 million altogether (What a coincidence).



When Wes reveals the ransom demands and insists his dad pay it, the latter is overwhelmed, and in a rather good bit of acting from Edward Albert, regretfully declines, telling Wes to take the note to the police. And instead of doing this, Wes chooses to mope until his family’s resident Jeeves gives him a pep talk about doing the right thing.



Meanwhile, Nadira begins to regret sending Tentaclaw to find a hostage when she has to put up with the children crying, but refuses to let Gluto eat them. Not out of moral standards, but because she hasn’t been paid up. (I am starting to suspect that it wasn’t just shoplifting Gluto was accused of)



Wes proceeds to get the money by lying to one of the business clients to get him to hand over the cheque he was given for his company (I guess this man’s 3 starving children can suck it, Wes).



Wes then trades the cheque for a briefcase full of bills (Did the bank teller not check who the money was made out to? Or did Wes cross out the name of the beneficiary to write his own? Because given how unheroic he’s being so far, I wouldn?t put it past him), which he takes to a rendezvous point. And when he learns that Nadira has no intention of giving the kids back, he fights her to reclaim the money.



And then it turns out that actually paying the ransom turned out to be unnecessary, as Jen and the others have found Tentaclaw’s hideout and the kids.



But it’s not until Wes shows up that the kids are freed from their forcefield (and as it turns out, the kid from earlier is among the kidnapped).



And then after a meaningful echo of what Wes said to the kid earlier, he stops to stare as the Rangers begin to do battle (It’s probably meant to hint that the kid figured out Wes is the Red Ranger, but it’s not entirely clear).



The fight begins in earnest after he leaves (read: they can switch to the stock footage), with Wes identifying and exploiting Tentaclaw’s weakness.



The Rangers then form the Vortex Blaster and successfully(!) shrink Tentaclaw’s head. (That’s the first time in either show this thing has actually worked)



But Tentaclaw’s now headless body proceeds to grow giant, declaring that he doesn’t need a head to destroy them.



The Rangers face him in the Time Force Megazord Mode Blue and instead of freezing him as per normal, they summon the Time Jet and use a charge attack to blow up Tentaclaw’s body (I guess the message of this episode is clear: kidnapping children means you deserve to die)!





Later, Wes’s dad chews him out, having found out that he stole the money, which gets interrupted when reporters enter the room to congratulate Mr. Collins for supposedly being willing to save the children. (How did that bit of gossip leak out?)



And to add insult to injury, Wes forces his Dad to donate every penny of the ransom to childrens’ charities live on air.

Mr. Collins: Anything for the little tykes!

And Wes, having decided he doesn’t want to turn out like his dad, leaves the house behind (with only the butler watching him go), with the episode ending on him moving into the clock tower with the others.



Next time: The villains actually wise up and deprive the Rangers of their Megazord, before sending out a giant monster. By which I mean, they break Circuit after stealing him from under Trip’s nose.

Final thoughts: The episode was supposed to show Wes seeing his dad as a greedy, amoral businessman and leaving that behind, but that just doesn’t come through at all. The only reprehensible thing he actually does is steal the kid’s ball (and the fact he tells Wes to throw it in the trash indicates that he would have let the kid pick it back up anyway). He seems reasonably overwhelmed when told about the ransom, and his suggestion to leave it to the police isn’t a particularly terrible or close-minded one. Meanwhile, Wes steals money that was being used for a legitimate business transaction, one that must’ve taken weeks or months to be agreed upon, despite being told not to, all for the purposes of acquiescing to a demand he has no reason to acquiesce to, and he’s supposed to be the good guy here.

But aside from that, the episode isn’t bad. Tentaclaw has a fairly unique gimmick (and as mentioned above, a very notable demise), they work well with what would otherwise be a rather standard stock plot (only in a series mostly focused on special effects and action scenes does a mundane hostage situation feel fresh), and we actually have a guest child actor who can convincingly act (at least, by Power Rangers? low standards).