Time For Lightspeed

Power Rangers: Time Force, Episode 33

Original Airdate: 9-29-2001

Last Time: The Rangers fought a knight. Oh, you might be thinking, "One of Ransik's mutants was a knight?" But you'd be wrong, it was a completely unrelated villain who just kind of wandered into the show and ended up accidentally giving Wes his Battilizer. It was a....different sort of episode.

There's a thunderstorm brewing at a cemetery and a hand crawls out of the grave....but it's a woman's hand and the only female villain last season was.....was....NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Okay, okay, I can do this. I made it through Lightspeed Rescue, I can deal with it for one more episode.....Vypra rises from her grave, though I recall her being vaporized last season, but fine, and summons some new one-time only mooks. She then breaks into a museum where she gets foiled by when she can't figure out how to break a mystical crystal out of a glass case. Eric confronts her as she tries to leave the museum....and fuck, that's about the biggest mismatch in Power Rangers history. But, you know, we have to pretend that Vypra is a credible threat that requires ten Rangers to stop so she manages to get away. The Time Force Rangers show up and both they and Eric are confused by this new villain with severely limited acting ability. Credits!

Nadira gets woken up in the middle of the night and Ransik reassures that there's no such thing as ghosts. Yeah, but there's such a thing a terrible characters who no one ever wanted to see again. Vypra shows up and...holy fuck, has her acting somehow gotten worse? I mean, the actress playing Nadira is basically just hamming it up as much as possible, but she's so much fucking better than Vypra that it's a joke. Anyway, Vypra needs their help to steal something called the Solar Amulet which will free some sort of super-demon. Ransik is rather unimpressed by the plan, but well, Vypra promises that this new demon can destroy the Rangers.

The Rangers have also figured out what's going on and arrive at the museum at the same time as Ransik and his goons. The Rangers get caught up fighting Vypra's new goons as Ransik effortlessly retrieves the Solar Amulet. In the aftermath, the ol' Lightspeed Hummer drives up and Carter volunteers his help.

At the clock tower, Carter re-explains Vypra's plan. Fortunately, Carter can call on the rest of the Lightspeed Rangers for some cameos. First up, Dana is now a doctor, and yet still appears to exclusively wear miniskirts. Next, Joel and Ms. Fairweather are about to go on their honeymoon. Wait....really? But imagine the sort of hellbeasts that such a union would produce. Okay, Kelsey is....rollerblading. I guess gainful employment wasn't for her. Last up, Chad is a lifeguard. Wasn't he a dolphin trainer before? So isn't this a step down? You know, I don't think I really want to know how he was busted down from training dolphins to lifeguards....that story could be....unpleasant.

Elsewhere, Vypra is getting more screentime. I'd rather catch up with Captain Mitchell. Fuck, I'd even rather see what Ryan's up to. She starts summoning the super-demon as Carter and Wes track her down to a subway. Thus tussle for a bit, and Carter appears to be roughly a foot taller than Wes. Anyway, the Rangers get away and then....oh, no....not that....anything but that.....

....Okay, fine, Vypra pulls out the Vypari to go chase Wes and Carter down. Carter is forced to give up the amulet as Nadira has somehow captured the other Time Force Rangers. I bet you would have like to see how that happened, but well, this isn't a two-parter. The super-demon is summoned and he looks rather non-descript. The other Lightspeed Rangers show up, as it's time for the climatic fight. Eric then shows up with Ryan because he....I don't know, let's just go with the Rangers called Eric, who called Ryan, and then they had a lunch together, kibbitzed about the problems of being a Sixth Ranger and the decided to show up for the big fight scene. Except they showed up early and had to wait for everyone else to get there.

Time for the fight scene....wait, there's only five minutes left? Are you fucking kidding me? You know, this compressed crossover kind of makes me miss the Lightspeed team, even if they were kind of bland. Anyway, everyone who has a Battilizer uses them, and their clunky firepower kills the stunningly disappointing super-demon.

Later, the Time Force Rangers show off the clock tower and Joel is unimpressed, because the Lightspeed Rangers used to have an aquabase. Anyway, the Time Force Rangers give the Lightspeed Rangers some of those white jumpsuits that they've occasionally worn, and the Lightspeed Rangers give the Time Force Rangers their neat jackets. Wow, the Time Force Rangers sure won that trade. They then decide to dress in each other's Ranger outfits because....I don't know, this probably was a two-parter in some point, but Saban probably insisted that they needed to have an episode about an evil knight, so this story got way too compressed. Well, either way, Show Over!

Next Time: More Throwbacks!