Survival of the Silver

Power Rangers in Space, Episode 20

Original Airdate: 10-3-1998

Last Time: Astronema and Ashley switched places to settle a bet to see whose job was harder.

On the planet Mojave Location Shoot V, the Rangers are taking soil samples so that they can....Anyway, Carlos catches something in the corner of his eye but no one else sees it. It turns out the Rangers are being followed by mysterious robed figures. The Rangers swiftly come under attack, and decide to retire to the Astro Megaship. Credits!

The Rangers manage to make it back to the Megaship, mainly by slaughtering the natives with blasters. The natives get their revenge by damaging the engines. The Rangers realize that the ship is damaged and everyone but Andros heads off to the engine room for emergency repairs. They fix the engines, but find the secret chamber from last episode in the process. Cassie and Carlos head inside and find an ominous life support system. The Rangers realize that Andros has been keeping a frozen Ranger on his ship. Andros decides to dispel the air of mystery by walking in and explaining that the guy in the freezer tube is Zhane, the Silver Ranger.

Andros decides to have a expositionary flashback, and recalls how he and Zhane were best friends and teammates until Dark Specter attacked KO-35. Zhane somehow managed to make a monster explode right on top of him, and so Andros put him in cryogenic suspension. Having had this heart-to-heart talk about the costs of heroism, Andros directs Cassie to go retrive the soil sample from earlier. Cassie quickly discovers that the sample was actually an egg, who subsequently hatched into a man-sized monster. But the surprises don't end there! The monster also knows how to use the controls and locks Cassie in the room with him. That is one amazing monster. Cassie, realizing that she is up against a monster of Alien-esque biological impossibility, asks what Ripley would do, and decides to blow the monster out into space.

Cassie rushes to the bridge and informs the others of what happened. The power runs out and the Megaship starts crashing towards the planet from the beginning of the episode. Also, the monster is still clinging to the hull of the ship. The ship crashes and briefly loses power. The monster rallies the natives of the planet against the Rangers, who realize that they need to make external repairs. Some of the natives make it onto the ship. DECA reports that the healing chamber is also damaged. The Rangers are losing against the monster, and Zhane flatlines. Andros realizes that Zhane is dead and immediately drops his drill-sword and begins some emergency angsting. He then decides to kill all of the natives as revenge. On the bridge, the natives are almost through the door. But then...Zhane comes back to life! He's also fully healed, and more importantly, has an innate desire to destroy any native that objects to the Rangers' appropriation of their planet's resources.

Zhane clears the natives from the ship and then turns his attention to the monster. The alien responds in another language, and Zhane responds by declaring that he'll make the alien eat his words, even though Zhane himself does not understand them. So, the people of KO-35 were basically imperialist dicks, weren't they? Zhane calls for his silverizer, a truly terribly-named weapon that can switch between gun and sword. He blows up the monster good. The monster somehow becomes giant-sized however, so the Rangers call on the Astro Megazord. It proves to be not enough, so the Rangers decide to go with the Astro-Delta Megazord. That does prove to be enough and so the monster, probably known in his own language as "The Guardian of the Sacred World" is annihilated by the Rangers.

Later, Andros explains the current situation to Zhane, and introduces the rest of the Rangers. It becomes apparent that Ashley is not picky about which human-looking alien she sleeps with first. Show Over!

Next Time: Andros and Zhane must learn the most important lesson of all: bros before hos.