(no subject)
Um..Power Rangers and Dr. Who.
- (Sorry in advance for saying certain words over and over and starting successive sentences with "the.")
- Power Rangers. I have long stood by the belief that Power Rangers in Space was the best Power Rangers series, but I have been watching the even newer ones and I must say Power Rangers S.P.D. is strong contest. Here comes some compare/contrast. Please note this is based on dwindling memories of Space and about ten episodes of S.P.D.
- While Space has a deeper, more emotional storyline and sleek, uniform uniforms, S.P.D. takes everything else. (The S.P.D. suits come close, though, and the Space suits even show up in S.P.D.)
- The pretense for the series allows for much more variation in the events that take place. The Rangers are not fighting off monsters that attack them, rather they are patrolling space and capturing criminals. The conflicts are isolated incidents independant of each other. This allows for a different style of pursuit: clues, detective work, hide and seek type deals, etc.
- The pacing and structure of the episodes are very creative. They completely ditch the traditional formula. Quite frequently an episode will begin with a zord battle or end with a foot soldier fight. No episode ever seems excessively rushed like most kids shows and cartoons (that's another story). It still's got to be done in thirty minutes, though..
- Also, rather than trying to revamp existing weapon, zord, monster, etc. concepts, S.P.D. embraces the past without straight-up copying. They are like subtle tributes. The most apparent example of this is the mounted cannon-like finishing weapon they use or the car zords similar to Power Rangers Turbo.
- While I am on weaponry, I may as well give props to Space. During battle, they continuously use the various weapons they had at their disposal (ex: I believe Andros used the Spiral Saber.) unlike other series that seem to use their weapons only at special occasions.
- The fight scenes are pretty excellent.
- The supporting characters are way, way, way multifaceted (fig n lit) i.e. not Bulk and Skull, not yet Stargate.
- Really, the only bad thing is the Rangers' humanoid dog commander's mouth. He is a puppet and it barely moves when he speaks.