PRRPM #5: Handshake
In what looks like an enclosed area (“I like to live dangerously,” indeed!) Scott and Dillon are revving up their cars and bragging. Summer has to go get them because they don't hear their communicators over the music and engines.
Y'know, I'm still surprised to see Kelson Henderson isn't around. He's a great actor, it's just that his characters aren't so great, except for the ever-awesome Phineas. It's not his fault all he normally gets to play are guys like Flit. And here we’ve got two Flit-esquely useless bad guys... and he’s not either!
Speaking of Flit, I was so sure he was going to turn out to be the sixth (well, fifth) Ranger. You gotta admit he’d have made a more interesting one.
Meanwhile, Venjix cooks up a new monster: the Nozzbot. We have met the enemy, and he is Windex.
Turns out he’s a replacement for one of the usual baddies. Venjix says that for her failure, Tenaya’s gotta go! She doesn’t look impressed. At all.
You’d think he’d choose one of the other two first. Most likely the blue one. The gold one makes some of the monsters, but the blue one... what does he do?
The Doc introduces the Wolf Cruiser zord, and tells Dillon he’s gotta master his shield burst before he can take the wheel. Does Dillon believe in magic yet?
I never noticed the way you could see the shadows of a slowly turning fan blade on the wall of the lab until that fan became reeeeal important later.
Well, the Doc believes in using hidden cannons to get him used to relying on the shield at a moment’s notice. Dillon gets blasted across the room. Guess he didn’t believe. Ooh, this is gonna be fun.
Venjix sends the Grinders after Tenaya... and when they’re in pieces ten or so seconds later, he decides to waste the gold guy instead. The remaining Grinders start to sweep the floor... but he’s still talking. Too bad.
Meanwhile, Dillon’s walked out on shield practice, and goes to get something from the fridge... and a huge cannon emerges!
K: “Shall we begin?” Boom!
I can’t describe the full awesomeness here. The look on Dillon’s face and the way he went back, like, ‘what the...’
Dillon’s probably glad when the bad guys show up. They’re gentler than his boss.
Dillon’s gotta take Scott’s car ‘cause Flynn’s still working on his. Don’t know if I mentioned it before, but Scott’s car, driver’s seat is on the right. Dillon’s, it’s on the left. How’d these two cars wind up in the same place?
Hmm. What side of the car is the driver’s seat in Canada?
Again, how is it that all five Rangers have a different vehicle to take to the battle? And I mean civilian ones. Y’know, ones that definitely use gas, a limited resource in this one city cut off from the outside world by necessity? It’s... not like they can make more.
Dillon’s brooding personality totally doesn’t stand up to Scott’s driving!
“What the matter, Dillon, don’t you trust me?”
“I don’t know if I’m sure who I can trust.”
“If you were sure, it wouldn’t really be trust, then, would it?”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Haven’t you heard of downshifting?”
“Heard of it. Don’t buy it.”
Unmorphed Grinder combat. Poor Ziggy still hasn’t gotten the hang of it yet. (Seriously, how cool is it that Ziggy didn’t get the hang of it in one episode?)
Rangers do morph call one by one. The Engine Cell has a light that flashes before it’s plugged into anything. (Not important, I guess... just the kind of detail these things don’t usually have...)
Once morphed, Ziggy kicks one barrel to knock over some Grinders, but when he tries it with the next, it’s full! Rangers don’t hop on one foot and go ‘ow ow ow’ every day.
Dillon doesn’t bother morphing for the grunt portion of the fight. It’s not until Tenaya shows up that he needs to. Tenaya gets straight to it. What, no speech?
After a disturbingly Jungle Furyish fight, Dillon tries the shield, and Tenaya blasts right through it. The others save his butt by using the Road Blaster. Dude. And Tenaya totally manages to withstand it for a while and isn’t that hurt by it.
She’s pretty tough. Still not as cool as Camille. And the outfit is... not that interesting. Just plain and gray.
Back at the garage, Dillon says it’s Dr. K he doesn’t trust, and chews her out for staying behind the scenes. Also, it turns out Tenaya left her detachable hand behind.
Oh, boy. Addams Family time. The Thing. Tenaya’s hand manages to sneak into the lab and bring down the shield. And the team can’t leave the garage.
Here’s the good part. The Rangers vs. The Thing in their own garage. Ziggy even winds up playing whack-a-mole on the pool table.
And finally, Dillon makes the shield work. But only for the advertised five seconds. However, they’ve already got the hand right where they want it.
The most awesome Power Rangers moment since “artificial flavoring:”
K: “Shall we begin?”
Dillon: [Opens refrigerator]
BOOM.
The fridge cannon would’ve been cool enough on its own, but for it to return and get used in actual fight... awesome.
Meanwhile, the red-and-white minion proves he’s been paying attention. He asks if Venjix is going to make the monster grow now, or wait for the Rangers to defeat it first. He gets blasted for his trouble.
Y’know, Venjix really should have turned around and done the growing thing then. ‘Cause for the pinnacle of Venjix's robotic technology, the windex-bot doesn't do a heck of a lot besides standing around and getting shot at. And then Venjix makes it grow. Something tells me Shifter and Crunch are gonna be just fine.
At least, he does send in the moth planes when it’s suggested (after blasting him again.)
Y’know, it’s not often a villainous air force gets used against the Zords this way. Venjix does it, but... the first Machine Empire didn’t, Astronema didn’t... giant ground vehicles (and one air vehicle without any guns to speak of) are sitting ducks against planes. Most series with ‘em use ‘em to shoot at ground-bound Rangers.
You can also see how sentai’s budget’s increasing. Quadrafighters had about five or six scenes of flying around that were used repeatedly. These have a bit more freedom, though definitely some recurring shots.
Huh. Ziggy doesn’t have to master his suit’s power to get his Zord, which rolls out alongside the Wolf Cruiser. Apparently, it’s actually an orca, despite the toyline calling it a shark. (If it makes you feel any better... Tail Spinner does seem to be its name, not its attack, which is just Tail Spin, and the Rangers aren’t called [Animal] Ranger in-show, so... Shark isn’t part of the actual, in-universe name.)
Oh, and Dillon and Ziggy totally switch places. Dillon’s on the left and Ziggy’s on the right with the Zord summoning, and the second we go from Zord Summoning Stock Footage Space to Zord Combining Stock Footage Space, the green Zord is on the left and the black Zord is on the right.
However, they only stay on stock footage space long enough to grow to Zord size.
The new Zords finish off the jets and take a whack at the Nozzbot, who still isn’t doing anything. The standard finisher puts it out of its misery.
Venjix: “NO!”
Tenaya: “Hey, don’t look at me. I got your window cleaner into the city, didn’t I?”
...Oh, man. I knew something about her reminded me of someone. Tenaya is totally Shego.
Not the actress... I mean, Tenaya is exactly like Shego from Kim Possible. Separated at birth or something.
Back at the garage, Dr. K decides to reveal him/herself! It’s only what, five episodes in? I thought it was going to be the end of the season by the time we found out who. And it was going to turn out to be...
...Kelly. Who else?
Seeing Dr. K revealed, I couldn’t tell what was supposed to be so different about her, the thing about the dramatic reveal that’s supposed to make us say ‘wow.’ Femaleness? The voice was very female all along, even if the Rangers insisted on saying ‘he’ with someone who apparently never clarified one way or the other. She looks quite younger than the Rangers, but... if so, it’s not like she’s ten years old or something. [Shrugs]
“Real” entry on the way. Tomorrow, maybe. And I still need to find or make an RPM icon.
What's "pingback?"
Y'know, I'm still surprised to see Kelson Henderson isn't around. He's a great actor, it's just that his characters aren't so great, except for the ever-awesome Phineas. It's not his fault all he normally gets to play are guys like Flit. And here we’ve got two Flit-esquely useless bad guys... and he’s not either!
Speaking of Flit, I was so sure he was going to turn out to be the sixth (well, fifth) Ranger. You gotta admit he’d have made a more interesting one.
Meanwhile, Venjix cooks up a new monster: the Nozzbot. We have met the enemy, and he is Windex.
Turns out he’s a replacement for one of the usual baddies. Venjix says that for her failure, Tenaya’s gotta go! She doesn’t look impressed. At all.
You’d think he’d choose one of the other two first. Most likely the blue one. The gold one makes some of the monsters, but the blue one... what does he do?
The Doc introduces the Wolf Cruiser zord, and tells Dillon he’s gotta master his shield burst before he can take the wheel. Does Dillon believe in magic yet?
I never noticed the way you could see the shadows of a slowly turning fan blade on the wall of the lab until that fan became reeeeal important later.
Well, the Doc believes in using hidden cannons to get him used to relying on the shield at a moment’s notice. Dillon gets blasted across the room. Guess he didn’t believe. Ooh, this is gonna be fun.
Venjix sends the Grinders after Tenaya... and when they’re in pieces ten or so seconds later, he decides to waste the gold guy instead. The remaining Grinders start to sweep the floor... but he’s still talking. Too bad.
Meanwhile, Dillon’s walked out on shield practice, and goes to get something from the fridge... and a huge cannon emerges!
K: “Shall we begin?” Boom!
I can’t describe the full awesomeness here. The look on Dillon’s face and the way he went back, like, ‘what the...’
Dillon’s probably glad when the bad guys show up. They’re gentler than his boss.
Dillon’s gotta take Scott’s car ‘cause Flynn’s still working on his. Don’t know if I mentioned it before, but Scott’s car, driver’s seat is on the right. Dillon’s, it’s on the left. How’d these two cars wind up in the same place?
Hmm. What side of the car is the driver’s seat in Canada?
Again, how is it that all five Rangers have a different vehicle to take to the battle? And I mean civilian ones. Y’know, ones that definitely use gas, a limited resource in this one city cut off from the outside world by necessity? It’s... not like they can make more.
Dillon’s brooding personality totally doesn’t stand up to Scott’s driving!
“What the matter, Dillon, don’t you trust me?”
“I don’t know if I’m sure who I can trust.”
“If you were sure, it wouldn’t really be trust, then, would it?”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Haven’t you heard of downshifting?”
“Heard of it. Don’t buy it.”
Unmorphed Grinder combat. Poor Ziggy still hasn’t gotten the hang of it yet. (Seriously, how cool is it that Ziggy didn’t get the hang of it in one episode?)
Rangers do morph call one by one. The Engine Cell has a light that flashes before it’s plugged into anything. (Not important, I guess... just the kind of detail these things don’t usually have...)
Once morphed, Ziggy kicks one barrel to knock over some Grinders, but when he tries it with the next, it’s full! Rangers don’t hop on one foot and go ‘ow ow ow’ every day.
Dillon doesn’t bother morphing for the grunt portion of the fight. It’s not until Tenaya shows up that he needs to. Tenaya gets straight to it. What, no speech?
After a disturbingly Jungle Furyish fight, Dillon tries the shield, and Tenaya blasts right through it. The others save his butt by using the Road Blaster. Dude. And Tenaya totally manages to withstand it for a while and isn’t that hurt by it.
She’s pretty tough. Still not as cool as Camille. And the outfit is... not that interesting. Just plain and gray.
Back at the garage, Dillon says it’s Dr. K he doesn’t trust, and chews her out for staying behind the scenes. Also, it turns out Tenaya left her detachable hand behind.
Oh, boy. Addams Family time. The Thing. Tenaya’s hand manages to sneak into the lab and bring down the shield. And the team can’t leave the garage.
Here’s the good part. The Rangers vs. The Thing in their own garage. Ziggy even winds up playing whack-a-mole on the pool table.
And finally, Dillon makes the shield work. But only for the advertised five seconds. However, they’ve already got the hand right where they want it.
The most awesome Power Rangers moment since “artificial flavoring:”
K: “Shall we begin?”
Dillon: [Opens refrigerator]
BOOM.
The fridge cannon would’ve been cool enough on its own, but for it to return and get used in actual fight... awesome.
Meanwhile, the red-and-white minion proves he’s been paying attention. He asks if Venjix is going to make the monster grow now, or wait for the Rangers to defeat it first. He gets blasted for his trouble.
Y’know, Venjix really should have turned around and done the growing thing then. ‘Cause for the pinnacle of Venjix's robotic technology, the windex-bot doesn't do a heck of a lot besides standing around and getting shot at. And then Venjix makes it grow. Something tells me Shifter and Crunch are gonna be just fine.
At least, he does send in the moth planes when it’s suggested (after blasting him again.)
Y’know, it’s not often a villainous air force gets used against the Zords this way. Venjix does it, but... the first Machine Empire didn’t, Astronema didn’t... giant ground vehicles (and one air vehicle without any guns to speak of) are sitting ducks against planes. Most series with ‘em use ‘em to shoot at ground-bound Rangers.
You can also see how sentai’s budget’s increasing. Quadrafighters had about five or six scenes of flying around that were used repeatedly. These have a bit more freedom, though definitely some recurring shots.
Huh. Ziggy doesn’t have to master his suit’s power to get his Zord, which rolls out alongside the Wolf Cruiser. Apparently, it’s actually an orca, despite the toyline calling it a shark. (If it makes you feel any better... Tail Spinner does seem to be its name, not its attack, which is just Tail Spin, and the Rangers aren’t called [Animal] Ranger in-show, so... Shark isn’t part of the actual, in-universe name.)
Oh, and Dillon and Ziggy totally switch places. Dillon’s on the left and Ziggy’s on the right with the Zord summoning, and the second we go from Zord Summoning Stock Footage Space to Zord Combining Stock Footage Space, the green Zord is on the left and the black Zord is on the right.
However, they only stay on stock footage space long enough to grow to Zord size.
The new Zords finish off the jets and take a whack at the Nozzbot, who still isn’t doing anything. The standard finisher puts it out of its misery.
Venjix: “NO!”
Tenaya: “Hey, don’t look at me. I got your window cleaner into the city, didn’t I?”
...Oh, man. I knew something about her reminded me of someone. Tenaya is totally Shego.
Not the actress... I mean, Tenaya is exactly like Shego from Kim Possible. Separated at birth or something.
Back at the garage, Dr. K decides to reveal him/herself! It’s only what, five episodes in? I thought it was going to be the end of the season by the time we found out who. And it was going to turn out to be...
...Kelly. Who else?
Seeing Dr. K revealed, I couldn’t tell what was supposed to be so different about her, the thing about the dramatic reveal that’s supposed to make us say ‘wow.’ Femaleness? The voice was very female all along, even if the Rangers insisted on saying ‘he’ with someone who apparently never clarified one way or the other. She looks quite younger than the Rangers, but... if so, it’s not like she’s ten years old or something. [Shrugs]
“Real” entry on the way. Tomorrow, maybe. And I still need to find or make an RPM icon.
What's "pingback?"