Ranger Red
It’s good to see Red get a focus episode. I was loving the Ziggy and Dillon show, but... there are five of ‘em. I was starting to get worried at this point. When I first saw that the Black Ranger was the one with the mysterious past, and Green was his sidekick, I was pleased because it meant stuff like character arcs and mysterious pasts were finally getting spread around, instead of only Red Rangers (and sixths, just for their introductory arcs) being allowed that sort of spotlight. I wanted there to not be a Nick, not for the Nick to simply wear a different color this year, and Dillon was starting to edge into that territory. He and Ziggy are fun, but yeah... let’s see everyone get a turn.
We start at a playground. The woman with the baby is singing “This Little Light of Mine,” the same song Theo butchered once upon a time. Was that a homage?
And is “This Little Light of Mine” its real name? Most songs are generally called by whatever line is most memorable/repeated...
Grinders show up to ruin their day, and Scott and Ziggy show up to save it. Love Zig’s attempt to do the heroic one-liner thing. Definitely needs to work on his technique.
The Grinders actually wait for him to finish... but not for Scott to explain.
So anyway, the Grinders attack and Scott... starts swinging the baby carriage around.
With.
The.
Baby.
In it.
There’s gotta be something in the superhero manual about not using baby carriages as blunt instruments. Yeah, you gotta feel so much safer with these guys defending the world.
However, Scott does see the baby in the carriage, and then give this nervous laugh. He didn’t know the baby was still there.
Pleasantly reminded of the old-school grunt fights. Playgrounds were a popular place for the Putties to pop up and mess with the Rangers just for the sheer amusement value. (Well, it was usually a precursor to the evil plot of the week, because letting the enemy know you’re about to make your move is such a great tactic.)
Thing about the old fights is this: they used the location, the scenery, as places to throw Putties into/off of, and as bars to do various and probably unnecessary acrobatics on in your attack, making the whole thing look cooler and be less monotonous. The right location, actually put to work, and it doesn’t have to be scenes of grunt-kicking that look just like the last. It's good to see that this is returning.
The Grinders are a lot weaker this time around. They start to spark and get all electric-y after one hit, or one shove into something that’s not terribly hard. Actually, it starts once Ziggy first notices the woman isn’t standing next to him anymore.
Oh, at one point, the baby goes flying into the air and Scott must catch.
Which means he’s holding the baby when he has to catch Ziggy with the carriage. The way Ziggy landed, he coulda broken his neck just as easily.
That baby is going to have Shaken Baby Syndrome like whoa. Seriously, you can get brain damage from this kind of treatment. I can see the baby growing up to be an angsty Black Ranger who has no memories and can’t bring himself to ever go near a playground for some strange reason.
Once it’s all over, the mommy is just glad to get away from the scary, dangerous people... and the Grinders, too, probably.
Once everyone gets together, they find out that the monster’s underground, so they call for the new Zord.
The Croc Carrier goes nuts and immediately starts wrecking town.
I take it back. No way the woman’s concerned in the least about Grinders at this point. Our intrepid heroes are ten times scarier.
That ‘communications tower’ the Croc Carrier trashes? It’s totally Tokyo Tower.
Flashback to Scott’s past. Scott’s piloting run, which wasn’t going so well, turns out to be a simulation. Scott’s in the Air Force? Cool! Wonder if he knows Taylor.
And Colonel Truman was... his colonel. That has to suck. And the more things change, the more they stay the same: Most unique series ever and Red’s still got daddy issues.
Oh, as for Scott’s mom? Good question. She never gets a mention.
Of course, that’s about par. Most of the time we only see one parent, and the other is likely to never get a mention. It’s also something that’s withstood all the many changes over the years, no matter who was in charge of the show, to the point that I’m sure nobody questioned Mack’s lack of any sign of a mom ever having existed. Of course, it turns out there was a very good reason with him.
However, it doesn’t seem that Scott’s a robot... so far.
Seriously, this is the rule, not the exception. It’s one thing when you don’t see the families much or at all, but when a parent and child are main characters... by the time you’ve followed them an entire season and there’s no evidence of the other parent’s existence, you gotta wonder.
To recap, let’s start from the end and work our way back:
•Scott: Dad’s around. Mom is never mentioned... but since we never follow Col. Truman home and Scott lives on Rangers’ base, we can’t quite say she doesn’t exist.
•Mack: Dad’s around. Mom is never mentioned... turns out that’s ‘cause there isn’t one.
•Leelee: Mom’s around. She had Dad turned into a worm. Even this kinda one-off mention is kinda rare.
•SPD: Not quite the same situation, but it’s worth noting that Jack and Z being on the street really seems unlikely given their parents status as SPD pioneers and Doggie having kept an eye on all the kids from birth.
•Trent: Adopted by Mercer so lack of a Mrs. Mercer isn’t quite as unusual.
•Alyssa: Mom wasn’t around when Dad was in town, as far as I remember. That’s about all there is to go on.
•Wes: Dad’s around. Mom is never mentioned.
•Ryan and Dana: Dad’s around. Mom gets one-off mention that makes it sound like she’s dead.
•Olympius: Mom’s around. Dad is never mentioned. But who knows how it works with demons?
•Magna Defender: Is the father of Zika, or was until Scorpius totally killed a kid onscreen. Dude. Mom is never mentioned. Wonder if she’s got cool armor, too. Given that their planet was being invaded, her fate seems easy enough to guess, but there’s one problem with that: Magna Defender’s revenge thing was about his son, not about a wife and a son.
•Speaking of Scorpius, his daughter Trakeena adds to the “Dad’s around, Mom is never mentioned” list.
•Andros: Worth mentioning. His mom was heard on a videotape of him and Karone playing as kids. No reason Dad couldn’t have just been inside. One must wonder if Andros’ family was able to evacuate when KO-35 was invaded, or if they got blowed up.
•Justin: Dad’s in a few episodes. Mom died previously. Geez, some producer has mommy issues. Is it you, Sakamoto? ‘Cause Koichi Sakamoto may be the only one who was there for every last one of these cases.
•Divatox: Mom arrives to help out with one plot. Dad was banished to a dimension of eternal misery and could be heard screaming when the portal was opened. DUDE.
•Rita: Yup, the first PR main villain ever. Guess what? Her dad arrives late in MMPR. Her mom? Not so much. One-off mention of childhood incident, and Rita’s childhood was a few gazillion years ago. Current status: good question.
Seriously, writers! There’s such a thing as family therapy! Use it!
Of course, most of the families are likely stable two-parent ones... we just don’t see the families much. That “One Ranger or villain is the child of the mentor or the big nasty, the other parent never gets a mention” thing keeps recurring, and gets to look like the rule for this reason. I always found it odd, even as an elementary schooler watching MMPR before school, that the parents of the Rangers were so seldom seen. (“Parents day” introduced us to the day-one Rangers’ families, but most of the later ones were never seen and often not discussed.)
Especially since most Rangers are teenagers. How do Rangers explain their long absences? Vida spends days and nights as a vampire and the Rangers are very busy those nights with looking for her and trying to keep her in the base... the Space Rangers seemed to live on the ship, Wild Force lived on the Animarium and Max couldn’t be more than fifteen... list goes on. I don’t know who’d have more ‘splennin to do, the ones who seem to live on flying islands and spaceships, or the ones who live at home and are constantly being absent for lengths of time that could not have gone over well.
I really wish we’d gotten to see Billy explain moving off-planet to the ‘rents.
Annnnnyway, it turns out Marcus is the only one ever to beat the simulation. We don’t know if it’s ‘cause he snuck in and reprogrammed it.
Worse, it’s Marcus’ decision as to whether or not Scott will advance. Unfortunately, we don’t know what he picked ‘cause that’s when the whole destruction-of-the-world stuff started.
Back in the present, the Rangers have to save the townspeople from the damage. Later, Doc K says “You’ve allowed the target to escape.” Uh... no, you allowed the target to escape. ‘ Cause the Rangers had to stop your toy from squishifying the populace.
Ziggy’s just glad to have caught the Doc having made a mistake, which she says has actually happened before, once.
Turns out the Doc needs a certain piece of Applied Phlebotinum with a decently long name to make it work. There’s only one known: the one used to enhance Marcus’ plane on their expected-to-be-a-suicide mission to cover the evacuation to Corinth.
Marcus: “What’s the matter, little brother? You wanna live forever?”
How come nobody ever says “Yeah, I’d kinda like to?”
Interestingly, it looks like the Rangers are not under the control of Col. Truman. Don’t know if I said that before, but this is the first clear case of Truman saying no to something and Scott saying “Ranger business, not your area! Sorry, Pops.”
Of course, he doesn’t have to help them, either. He’s not going to give Scott he coordinates. Naturally, he just steals ‘em.
Scott had said before that he’d have to go alone, because the more bio-signatures, the more likely detection became. However, he coulda told the others first.
Ooh, the disk doesn’t just have the coordinates, it’s basically the black box. The Rangers get to hear of the final battle, where Marcus draws the Grinders away, and is shot down. Scott’s hit too, and has to eject.
Oh, and we see the plane next to Scott go up in a fireball. Usually in a kids show when that happens you see a parachute, no matter how improbable it is that whoever it was could’ve detected impending doom and ejected. But not this time.
I don’t know if that’s supposed to be Marcus or not. Marcus was much closer to the ground than that, it seemed...
Eventually, Summer arrives on a motorcycle to patch up Scott and get him through the enemy fire still raining down.
In the present, Scott finds plane wreckage, a gadget that doesn’t particularly look like the Overthruster as seen in hologram before, and an envelope marked “confidential.” No sign of Marcus.
Is it because mangled corpses that have been allowed to decopose for a handful of years aren’t very kid-friendly, or is it because Marcus walked away, hmm?
Grinders on motorcycles show up, along with the MOTW, and Marcus throws the device. It goes “boom.” So I’m going to guess that’s not the component they need.
Ah, there it is. And it does look like K’s diagram.
It’s not the other Rangers who bail Scott out, but the Colonel and a group of soldiers. Awesome.
Of course, he’s gotta chew him out some more, and bring up Marcus again. Scott says that Marcus would have done no differently. Will we ever find out for sure?
Col. Truman: “What are you waiting for, the light to change? Get going!”
They get back to the city, but can’t get the shield up in time to keep the bad guys out. That means it’s time for Scott to go to work.
Funny how grunts seem to multiply. There are one or two, then there are more, then the other Rangers show up and they’re an army. Or are there just a ton outside and the shield’s still not up yet?
Monster fires... weird red liquidy-ray. That’s the best I can describe it as. It does only the usual blowing of stuff, though. Don’t know if it has a name.
Fortunately, Venjix is kind enough not to make it grow before Dr. K. has time to get the Croc Carrier working, and Ziggy and Dillon are sent out.
It takes two Engine Cells! Dillon and Ziggy each have to summon half of it and power it up, It combines and goes to work.
It’s got the Bear Crawler’s favorite grunt-dispatching strategy: just chomp the planes that fly low enough. Why they don’t just stay out of tooth range is beyond me... as is why Dr. K. only put actual guns in two of the Zords!
The Croc Carrier combines with the Tail Spinner and Wolf Cruiser to make the Valvemax Megazord. Whose toy was totally called the Velocimax Megazord. Which was an infinitely better name.
Of course, its previous name was even better. Predazord, awaken!
No, really. Wolf and shark for arms, croc (okay, gator) just so honking big it makes the other 90%? Totally the Predazord.
After a shooting match with the Wolf arm, the tail of the Shark arm blows him away. You know, I never did know why a Zord will do something as part of the Megazord that it did on its own all along but it’s just stronger in Megazord form. Going on some of the finishing moves, it could be that it’s putting five Zords’ worth of power into the attack instead of just one... or it could be that it’s just cooler that way.
Then the finisher. The croc mouth rises for the Predator Wave!
Aw, no Predator Wave. Too bad. The finisher’s just a generic slash strike from the arm Zords, followed by a quick bite from the croc mouth. [Pouts]
Daddy Zeltrax apparently doesn’t like Hicks complimenting Scott. And Dr. K is napping now. So adorable.
Meanwhile, Truman reads Marcus’ recommendation, which is of course that Scott passes with flying colors.
This is also Judd Lynn’s first episode back, after so long. Wild Force was season nine, Overdrive was fifteen, which makes this seventeen... eight years. That means if you’re the age at which you’re expected to watch this show, you probably weren’t alive when he was last around. If you were six, you’re fourteen now and pretending you were never into something so silly.
I doubt the youngest person reading this or others like it is fourteen. Don’t worry, your secret’s safe with me.
Sadly, the same behind-the-scenes drama that saw Eddie Guzelian replaced with Judd Lynn also resulted in the departure of Jackie Marchand. We were so close to having the Judd and Jackie team back! So close!
Anyway, you’d think I’d be happier about Judd Lynn’s return. He’s the guy behind most of the pre-Disney PR! Everything will be as it was! Yay!
But I actually found it kind of scary. I don’t want to see what was return just yet... I wanted to see what is taken to the conclusion those who started it would have brought it to.
Also, keep in mind that not all of the seasons Judd Lynn’s name is on were created equal. Turbo, most hated season ever and reason the next season was almost the last. Space, the next season, the original’s only competition for the “beast season ever” award. Lost Galaxy, I never hear come up, and it seems to not be good when it is. Lightspeed nearly the new Turbo in terms of hate. Time Force... seems much more popular now than it seemed when it came out. I’ve gotta say “seems” because my fandom participation level wasn’t so high then. But certainly it seems to nearly be the new Space nowadays.
So, if we get the best-case scenario out of the current state of affairs: Not-seen-since-1995 MMPR reruns and new toys that actually look like the Rangers bring people back, and there’s enough renewed attention for a new season... well, that season is even more make-or-break than RPM, which (not being on Toon Disney anymore and ABC affiliates treating it however they please - namely, badly) doesn’t have enough exposure to “make” anything, no matter how good it is. The people back after however long giving one more chance to the show need to see... an RPM.
And we can’t know what the people behind two megahits, two megalosers, and one “oh, yeah, that exists” would make number six.
Of course, one megahit doesn’t mean Eddie Guzelian and whoever all else we have to thank for RPM would have made it any more consistent. But still...
Guess we just have to hope for the best.
We start at a playground. The woman with the baby is singing “This Little Light of Mine,” the same song Theo butchered once upon a time. Was that a homage?
And is “This Little Light of Mine” its real name? Most songs are generally called by whatever line is most memorable/repeated...
Grinders show up to ruin their day, and Scott and Ziggy show up to save it. Love Zig’s attempt to do the heroic one-liner thing. Definitely needs to work on his technique.
The Grinders actually wait for him to finish... but not for Scott to explain.
So anyway, the Grinders attack and Scott... starts swinging the baby carriage around.
With.
The.
Baby.
In it.
There’s gotta be something in the superhero manual about not using baby carriages as blunt instruments. Yeah, you gotta feel so much safer with these guys defending the world.
However, Scott does see the baby in the carriage, and then give this nervous laugh. He didn’t know the baby was still there.
Pleasantly reminded of the old-school grunt fights. Playgrounds were a popular place for the Putties to pop up and mess with the Rangers just for the sheer amusement value. (Well, it was usually a precursor to the evil plot of the week, because letting the enemy know you’re about to make your move is such a great tactic.)
Thing about the old fights is this: they used the location, the scenery, as places to throw Putties into/off of, and as bars to do various and probably unnecessary acrobatics on in your attack, making the whole thing look cooler and be less monotonous. The right location, actually put to work, and it doesn’t have to be scenes of grunt-kicking that look just like the last. It's good to see that this is returning.
The Grinders are a lot weaker this time around. They start to spark and get all electric-y after one hit, or one shove into something that’s not terribly hard. Actually, it starts once Ziggy first notices the woman isn’t standing next to him anymore.
Oh, at one point, the baby goes flying into the air and Scott must catch.
Which means he’s holding the baby when he has to catch Ziggy with the carriage. The way Ziggy landed, he coulda broken his neck just as easily.
That baby is going to have Shaken Baby Syndrome like whoa. Seriously, you can get brain damage from this kind of treatment. I can see the baby growing up to be an angsty Black Ranger who has no memories and can’t bring himself to ever go near a playground for some strange reason.
Once it’s all over, the mommy is just glad to get away from the scary, dangerous people... and the Grinders, too, probably.
Once everyone gets together, they find out that the monster’s underground, so they call for the new Zord.
The Croc Carrier goes nuts and immediately starts wrecking town.
I take it back. No way the woman’s concerned in the least about Grinders at this point. Our intrepid heroes are ten times scarier.
That ‘communications tower’ the Croc Carrier trashes? It’s totally Tokyo Tower.
Flashback to Scott’s past. Scott’s piloting run, which wasn’t going so well, turns out to be a simulation. Scott’s in the Air Force? Cool! Wonder if he knows Taylor.
And Colonel Truman was... his colonel. That has to suck. And the more things change, the more they stay the same: Most unique series ever and Red’s still got daddy issues.
Oh, as for Scott’s mom? Good question. She never gets a mention.
Of course, that’s about par. Most of the time we only see one parent, and the other is likely to never get a mention. It’s also something that’s withstood all the many changes over the years, no matter who was in charge of the show, to the point that I’m sure nobody questioned Mack’s lack of any sign of a mom ever having existed. Of course, it turns out there was a very good reason with him.
However, it doesn’t seem that Scott’s a robot... so far.
Seriously, this is the rule, not the exception. It’s one thing when you don’t see the families much or at all, but when a parent and child are main characters... by the time you’ve followed them an entire season and there’s no evidence of the other parent’s existence, you gotta wonder.
To recap, let’s start from the end and work our way back:
•Scott: Dad’s around. Mom is never mentioned... but since we never follow Col. Truman home and Scott lives on Rangers’ base, we can’t quite say she doesn’t exist.
•Mack: Dad’s around. Mom is never mentioned... turns out that’s ‘cause there isn’t one.
•Leelee: Mom’s around. She had Dad turned into a worm. Even this kinda one-off mention is kinda rare.
•SPD: Not quite the same situation, but it’s worth noting that Jack and Z being on the street really seems unlikely given their parents status as SPD pioneers and Doggie having kept an eye on all the kids from birth.
•Trent: Adopted by Mercer so lack of a Mrs. Mercer isn’t quite as unusual.
•Alyssa: Mom wasn’t around when Dad was in town, as far as I remember. That’s about all there is to go on.
•Wes: Dad’s around. Mom is never mentioned.
•Ryan and Dana: Dad’s around. Mom gets one-off mention that makes it sound like she’s dead.
•Olympius: Mom’s around. Dad is never mentioned. But who knows how it works with demons?
•Magna Defender: Is the father of Zika, or was until Scorpius totally killed a kid onscreen. Dude. Mom is never mentioned. Wonder if she’s got cool armor, too. Given that their planet was being invaded, her fate seems easy enough to guess, but there’s one problem with that: Magna Defender’s revenge thing was about his son, not about a wife and a son.
•Speaking of Scorpius, his daughter Trakeena adds to the “Dad’s around, Mom is never mentioned” list.
•Andros: Worth mentioning. His mom was heard on a videotape of him and Karone playing as kids. No reason Dad couldn’t have just been inside. One must wonder if Andros’ family was able to evacuate when KO-35 was invaded, or if they got blowed up.
•Justin: Dad’s in a few episodes. Mom died previously. Geez, some producer has mommy issues. Is it you, Sakamoto? ‘Cause Koichi Sakamoto may be the only one who was there for every last one of these cases.
•Divatox: Mom arrives to help out with one plot. Dad was banished to a dimension of eternal misery and could be heard screaming when the portal was opened. DUDE.
•Rita: Yup, the first PR main villain ever. Guess what? Her dad arrives late in MMPR. Her mom? Not so much. One-off mention of childhood incident, and Rita’s childhood was a few gazillion years ago. Current status: good question.
Seriously, writers! There’s such a thing as family therapy! Use it!
Of course, most of the families are likely stable two-parent ones... we just don’t see the families much. That “One Ranger or villain is the child of the mentor or the big nasty, the other parent never gets a mention” thing keeps recurring, and gets to look like the rule for this reason. I always found it odd, even as an elementary schooler watching MMPR before school, that the parents of the Rangers were so seldom seen. (“Parents day” introduced us to the day-one Rangers’ families, but most of the later ones were never seen and often not discussed.)
Especially since most Rangers are teenagers. How do Rangers explain their long absences? Vida spends days and nights as a vampire and the Rangers are very busy those nights with looking for her and trying to keep her in the base... the Space Rangers seemed to live on the ship, Wild Force lived on the Animarium and Max couldn’t be more than fifteen... list goes on. I don’t know who’d have more ‘splennin to do, the ones who seem to live on flying islands and spaceships, or the ones who live at home and are constantly being absent for lengths of time that could not have gone over well.
I really wish we’d gotten to see Billy explain moving off-planet to the ‘rents.
Annnnnyway, it turns out Marcus is the only one ever to beat the simulation. We don’t know if it’s ‘cause he snuck in and reprogrammed it.
Worse, it’s Marcus’ decision as to whether or not Scott will advance. Unfortunately, we don’t know what he picked ‘cause that’s when the whole destruction-of-the-world stuff started.
Back in the present, the Rangers have to save the townspeople from the damage. Later, Doc K says “You’ve allowed the target to escape.” Uh... no, you allowed the target to escape. ‘ Cause the Rangers had to stop your toy from squishifying the populace.
Ziggy’s just glad to have caught the Doc having made a mistake, which she says has actually happened before, once.
Turns out the Doc needs a certain piece of Applied Phlebotinum with a decently long name to make it work. There’s only one known: the one used to enhance Marcus’ plane on their expected-to-be-a-suicide mission to cover the evacuation to Corinth.
Marcus: “What’s the matter, little brother? You wanna live forever?”
How come nobody ever says “Yeah, I’d kinda like to?”
Interestingly, it looks like the Rangers are not under the control of Col. Truman. Don’t know if I said that before, but this is the first clear case of Truman saying no to something and Scott saying “Ranger business, not your area! Sorry, Pops.”
Of course, he doesn’t have to help them, either. He’s not going to give Scott he coordinates. Naturally, he just steals ‘em.
Scott had said before that he’d have to go alone, because the more bio-signatures, the more likely detection became. However, he coulda told the others first.
Ooh, the disk doesn’t just have the coordinates, it’s basically the black box. The Rangers get to hear of the final battle, where Marcus draws the Grinders away, and is shot down. Scott’s hit too, and has to eject.
Oh, and we see the plane next to Scott go up in a fireball. Usually in a kids show when that happens you see a parachute, no matter how improbable it is that whoever it was could’ve detected impending doom and ejected. But not this time.
I don’t know if that’s supposed to be Marcus or not. Marcus was much closer to the ground than that, it seemed...
Eventually, Summer arrives on a motorcycle to patch up Scott and get him through the enemy fire still raining down.
In the present, Scott finds plane wreckage, a gadget that doesn’t particularly look like the Overthruster as seen in hologram before, and an envelope marked “confidential.” No sign of Marcus.
Is it because mangled corpses that have been allowed to decopose for a handful of years aren’t very kid-friendly, or is it because Marcus walked away, hmm?
Grinders on motorcycles show up, along with the MOTW, and Marcus throws the device. It goes “boom.” So I’m going to guess that’s not the component they need.
Ah, there it is. And it does look like K’s diagram.
It’s not the other Rangers who bail Scott out, but the Colonel and a group of soldiers. Awesome.
Of course, he’s gotta chew him out some more, and bring up Marcus again. Scott says that Marcus would have done no differently. Will we ever find out for sure?
Col. Truman: “What are you waiting for, the light to change? Get going!”
They get back to the city, but can’t get the shield up in time to keep the bad guys out. That means it’s time for Scott to go to work.
Funny how grunts seem to multiply. There are one or two, then there are more, then the other Rangers show up and they’re an army. Or are there just a ton outside and the shield’s still not up yet?
Monster fires... weird red liquidy-ray. That’s the best I can describe it as. It does only the usual blowing of stuff, though. Don’t know if it has a name.
Fortunately, Venjix is kind enough not to make it grow before Dr. K. has time to get the Croc Carrier working, and Ziggy and Dillon are sent out.
It takes two Engine Cells! Dillon and Ziggy each have to summon half of it and power it up, It combines and goes to work.
It’s got the Bear Crawler’s favorite grunt-dispatching strategy: just chomp the planes that fly low enough. Why they don’t just stay out of tooth range is beyond me... as is why Dr. K. only put actual guns in two of the Zords!
The Croc Carrier combines with the Tail Spinner and Wolf Cruiser to make the Valvemax Megazord. Whose toy was totally called the Velocimax Megazord. Which was an infinitely better name.
Of course, its previous name was even better. Predazord, awaken!
No, really. Wolf and shark for arms, croc (okay, gator) just so honking big it makes the other 90%? Totally the Predazord.
After a shooting match with the Wolf arm, the tail of the Shark arm blows him away. You know, I never did know why a Zord will do something as part of the Megazord that it did on its own all along but it’s just stronger in Megazord form. Going on some of the finishing moves, it could be that it’s putting five Zords’ worth of power into the attack instead of just one... or it could be that it’s just cooler that way.
Then the finisher. The croc mouth rises for the Predator Wave!
Aw, no Predator Wave. Too bad. The finisher’s just a generic slash strike from the arm Zords, followed by a quick bite from the croc mouth. [Pouts]
Daddy Zeltrax apparently doesn’t like Hicks complimenting Scott. And Dr. K is napping now. So adorable.
Meanwhile, Truman reads Marcus’ recommendation, which is of course that Scott passes with flying colors.
This is also Judd Lynn’s first episode back, after so long. Wild Force was season nine, Overdrive was fifteen, which makes this seventeen... eight years. That means if you’re the age at which you’re expected to watch this show, you probably weren’t alive when he was last around. If you were six, you’re fourteen now and pretending you were never into something so silly.
I doubt the youngest person reading this or others like it is fourteen. Don’t worry, your secret’s safe with me.
Sadly, the same behind-the-scenes drama that saw Eddie Guzelian replaced with Judd Lynn also resulted in the departure of Jackie Marchand. We were so close to having the Judd and Jackie team back! So close!
Anyway, you’d think I’d be happier about Judd Lynn’s return. He’s the guy behind most of the pre-Disney PR! Everything will be as it was! Yay!
But I actually found it kind of scary. I don’t want to see what was return just yet... I wanted to see what is taken to the conclusion those who started it would have brought it to.
Also, keep in mind that not all of the seasons Judd Lynn’s name is on were created equal. Turbo, most hated season ever and reason the next season was almost the last. Space, the next season, the original’s only competition for the “beast season ever” award. Lost Galaxy, I never hear come up, and it seems to not be good when it is. Lightspeed nearly the new Turbo in terms of hate. Time Force... seems much more popular now than it seemed when it came out. I’ve gotta say “seems” because my fandom participation level wasn’t so high then. But certainly it seems to nearly be the new Space nowadays.
So, if we get the best-case scenario out of the current state of affairs: Not-seen-since-1995 MMPR reruns and new toys that actually look like the Rangers bring people back, and there’s enough renewed attention for a new season... well, that season is even more make-or-break than RPM, which (not being on Toon Disney anymore and ABC affiliates treating it however they please - namely, badly) doesn’t have enough exposure to “make” anything, no matter how good it is. The people back after however long giving one more chance to the show need to see... an RPM.
And we can’t know what the people behind two megahits, two megalosers, and one “oh, yeah, that exists” would make number six.
Of course, one megahit doesn’t mean Eddie Guzelian and whoever all else we have to thank for RPM would have made it any more consistent. But still...
Guess we just have to hope for the best.