The Time Shadow

Power Rangers: Time Force, Episode 9

Original Airdate: 3-31-2001

Last Time: It was a Jen episode....I already had to write about it once, and that's enough.


At Mr. Collins corporate headquarters, Mr. Collins is showing off his company's latest invention....a giant drill armed with lasers. Is Mr. Collins secretly a Bond villain? Mr. Collins proclaims that his new weapon will make the world "a safer place." As long as the world cedes control to him by midnight! The scientists describe its features to the press as the camera pans over to a beaker ominously filling full of sand.

Outside the building, the monsters decide more rock, less talk and attack. They first hit the special Japanese-only lobby on the way to the labs. Listen, I know that the writers want to get the most out of their expensive Sentai footage as possibly....but unless these monsters have a special sense that allows them to track and attack concentrations of Japanese people, I don't think that these scenes blend well.

Anyway, the monster makes his way to lab and steals the special sand from before. He then leaves. Credits!

The Rangers attack the monster, but can't stop the monster from handing the super-sand off to Frax. Wes rescues the scientists and recognizes his dad, but since they have a secret identity this season, he can't say anything. The Rangers kill the monster, who appears to be a hammerhead shark armed with a shotgun, who then grows. This proves costly, as the monster has somehow littered the battlefield with giant grenades. No, I don't know when he did it either. The Time Force Megazord gets badly damaged, but the monster still gets killed by the Time Jet.

Meanwhile, in the year 3001, the leader of Time Force orders the megazord repaired at all due time. Now, you might ask yourself, "Wait a minute, it's the future, who the fuck cares exactly when the damn thing is fixed, so long as it eventually is, you can just send it then." But time travel doesn't work that way because then there'd be no opportunity to introduce a new toy.

This conversation is monitored by a shadowy figure in a shadowy room, who starts testing a mysterious giant robot that will save the Rangers in roughly fifteen minutes. This guy will reappear, so I might as well give him a name...Let's see how about the Anonymous Learned Eavesdropping eXchanger, or Alex for short. The new robot is tested, and it looks like a giant robot ninja. Great.

Back in the past, Mr. Collins and the scientist discuss why the villains stole the super-sand. Conclusion: They don't know exactly. In Ransik's Playhouse, Ransik apparently didn't learn the lesson last time his trusted a Cyclobot to give him a massage, and ends up destroying a couple of them in a rage. Frax looks on and it appears that serious cracks have developed in the robot/mutant alliance. Frax turns the sand into a magic crystal. At the clock tower, the Rangers chime into explain to the auidence that the crystal is a powerful energy source that shouldn't be discovered yet, and may change the course of history. It seems like wrecking downtown with giant monster fights every day may also fuck up the timeline a bit.

Anyway, Frax refines the crystal further, and plugs it into his warbot to finally prove that robots are the superior form of life. Using his mighty robo-logic, Frax then cancels the normal-size fight and immediately makes his robot giant. The Rangers call for the Time Force Megazord, but the future men tell them that it's too badly damaged at the moment.

In Mr. Collins office, a scientist bursts in to tell him that the city's under attack. Mr. Collins orders his super-drill launched to give the world a...demonstration of its power. The super-drill engages the giant robot and has some initial success before the robot's shield go up. The robot then destroys the super-drill. Now how will Mr. Collins hold up the American Government for money?

Meanwhile, Alex sees the trouble the Rangers are in, or maybe he's just found a thousand year-old recording and launches the Time Shadow Megazord to help the Rangers. Back in the present, the robot's about to kill the Rangers when the Time Shadow causes a solar eclipse and then emerges to kick the robot's ass. The Rangers catch up to Frax who sends in some Cyclobots to cover his escape.

Later, the Rangers discuss the Time Shadow with Time Force HQ, who apparently know nothing about any new megazord. Elsewhere, Alex contemplates the Time Shadow. Show Over!

Next Time: Katie gets her own episode! Not a good episode, though...