Power Rangers: Wild Force, Episode 34
Original Airdate: 10-5-2002
Last Time: Animus took away all of the zords....then changed his mind ten minutes later and pretended that it was all a test.
Okay, guys, this one is going to be a doozy, if only because trying to work in ten Red Rangers in twenty-two minutes, while also setting up why they and only they can stop a new threat is basically impossible. If there ever were a Power Rangers story that needed two parts, it's this one. Then again, the primary purpose of Power Rangers is to sell toys, and those toys get cycled out of the toy stores in a matter of months, so I can understand, from a purely economical standpoint, why they'd want to limit this to one part. Think about it this way, there are an infinite number of alternate realities, and that means that there are countless universes where this was a two-parter. Hell, there are countless universes where it's a three-parter. Actually, come to think of it, since there are an innumerable number of universes where any event has happened, that means that there are billions of universes were Forever Red was the only television program ever made. Wait, where was I going with this?
On the Moon, some Beetleborg rejects are ordering some Cogs (the mooks from Zeo) to excavate something that Lord Zedd left behind when he fled the Solar System. A guy in a cloak who happens to be Andros, watches and realizes that this might be a problem. Andros tries to run but get spotted by two of the villains, who choose to chase him....on horseback....on the moon....On the plus side, having lunar-based robots utilize light calvalry is something that's never been done before. Andros calls for his Galaxy Glider and gets out of there.
Somewhere on Earth, Bulk and Skull have returned! They're now working as bartenders at some sort of resort. Wait a minute, for the entire Lost Galaxy season, it was pounded into the audience's head that no one could get back to Earth from Terra Venture, and Bulk was on Terra Venture the whole time. It was stupid at the time, but the writers held fast to it. Now I'm not a continuity nerd or anything, but this episode is basically continuity masturbation, so you'd think you wouldn't want to fuck something like that up.
Anyway, the phone rings, and Bulk accidentally knocks Skull into a nearby swimming pool. Ah, those were the days. But, the episode then elects to depress me in a profound way, as it turns out that Bulk and Skull now work for Tommy at his resort. That's.....kind of soul-crushing, I mean, they deserve better than to work for someone like Tommy. Also, wasn't Tommy a race car driver last time we saw him?
Carter then shows up in Turtle Cove to retrieve Cole for a secret mission. Carter takes Cole to a secret NASADA base, where the space agency has only now recovered from losing all of those shuttles in the In Space season. Cole meets up with Eric and Wes, and Carter introduces them to....I'm not exactly sure who, as it's clear that Cole knows them, and Carter knows them, and Eric and Wes probably don't need to be told who they are. It's some rather poorly written exposition, although I understand why they did it. Then again, maybe Carter accurately pegged Cole as someone who needed extra assistance in keeping up with all of the Red Rangers. He also introduces T.J.....oh, fuck, everyone's going to die. Andros also shows up and explains that the leader of the Rangers for this mission will be....Tommy. Bummer. Couldn't have been Jason, eh?
Tommy explains that the remnants of the Machine Empire have come together on the Moon in order to invade Earth. Andros then shows off a new Astro Megaship to take them to the Moon. It's a volunteer mission, but, well, the other Rangers are just happy to be there. Andros asks where the hell Jason is, and a motorcycle pulls up in the distance. It's Jason, and he gives the team a look-over. The assembled Red Rangers move off to...wait, aren't we one short? Where's Leo, my second-least favorite Red Ranger? (Note: Apparently the guy who played Leo was still pissed about the....pacing issues in the teamup episide with Lost Galaxy and only showed up for a few reshoots. Not the world's biggest loss.)
On the moon, the head Machine guy shows off his new superweapon and vows revenge. On Mirinoi, Leo decides he probably should head out. On the Megaship, Tommy finally tells the team exactly what they'll be doing once they reach the moon with the help of some version of Alpha. Tommy explains that he and the other Zeo Rangers, who couldn't be here today, but send their regards, destroyed most of the Machine Empire, but that turned out to not quite be enough, as they've regrouped under General Venjix and are excavating Serpenterra. What's Serpenterra, you ask? Well, it was Lord Zedd's awesome gigantic zord that dwarfed any megazord ever built. Oh, it always ran out of power before it could do anything, but presumably this time will be different. Cole immediately leaps to the bold conclusion that the assembled strike force of Rangers should stop the evil robots from destroying the Earth. You know, watching Cole's actor going up against all of the other Red Rangers, who weren't exactly played by legends of the screen, makes me realize just how shitty the acting this season has been. On the plus side, the guy playing T.J. seems a lot better than the last time I saw him.
Anyway, the evil Beetleborgs are about to turn on Serpenterra when the Rangers manage to sneak up right behind him undetected. That's some piss-poor security, there, Venjix. It's time for the unmorphed melee. T.J. is still forgettable! Tommy still has his trademark battlecry! Jason is getting too old for this shit! Eric is still competent! Andros is still playing by a guy who doesn't do his own stunts! Carter still just shoots people in lieu of punching them! Eric should stop wearing that red beret! No one watched this episode to see Cole fight!
The generals decide to just go ahead and board Serpenterra while the Rangers are fighting the Cogs, and Cole tries to stop them. He fails, of course, but gets saved by Leo and Aurico (the Red Aquitar Ranger from the end of season 3, when they ran out of Sentai footage with the original suits but still had about ten episodes to go until Zeo). The Rangers reassemble and Leo unmorphs....and Aurico doesn't because they couldn't get the original actor.
The general pursue the Rangers and realize that they've inadvertently stumbled into the Red Ranger reunion. "It's Morphin' Time!" "It's Morphin' Time!" "Shift Into Turbo" "Let's Rocket" "Go Galactic" "Lightspeed Rescue" "Time For Time Force" "Quantum Power" "Wild Access" And Aurico is already morphed and Rocky....wasn't invited.
The Rangers work in pairs to defeat the Robot Generals, who have got to be gobsmacked by all of the Red Rangers in history showing up. Cole and Jason team up and Cole tries to be endearing by saying "Morphonomenal" his attempt fails. Wes and Tommy fight against the green robot, which ends when Tommy kicks the robot in the chest so hard that it explodes.
Meanwhile, Aurico and Eric team up in the "Do whatever the hell you have to, but we must have ten Red Rangers" fight. Leo and T.J. fight another general in a fight I will know as "the fight of the damned." Finally, that leaves Andros and Carter to eschew close combat altogether and just shoot their enemy until it dies.
Everyone's dead except for the guy Cole and Jason were fighting because Cole's final attack just wasn't good enough. Serpenterra takes off and Carter announces that there's no time to chase it in the Astro Megaship. Time for an epic megazord battle? Yeah, you wish. No, instead Cole calls on the new motorcycle that was awkwardly introduced at the end of last week's episode. He then starts driving it in space, which appears to have the same properties as an asphalt road in terms of manuevering the motorcycle, and then blows up the mightiest zord of them all by flying right into its mouth and firing some lasers. Man, you could not have scripted a more disappointing ending if you tried.
The Rangers then shoot the breeze about there old adventures and whose the best Ranger. Eric declares that the Q-Rex can kick the Dragonzord's ass. Wes claims that he changed the course of history...although it was never made clear that it was for the better. Andros claims to have saved two worlds. And T.J., in his very last T.J. moment, remembers the time he got his team cooked into a pizza. I will miss him most of all. Show Over!
Next Time: Hey, remember how when Master Org was killed, he didn't really die? Well, he's decided that to finally get back in the game by use of a ridiculously circuitous plot to defeat the Rangers.
Showing posts with label In Space. Show all posts
Showing posts with label In Space. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Friday, July 16, 2010
The Power of Pink
Power Rangers: Lost Galaxy, Episode 31
Original Airdate: 11-5-1999
Last Time: The Psychos showed up again, and it took two teams of Rangers teaming up to kill them....except Psycho Pink survived.
On Terra Venture, the Galaxy Rangers take the Space Rangers to meet the Galactabeasts. Cassie manages to climb up on the pink one, only to fall off. Incidentally, we'll be seeing a lot of Cassie this episode, as she was supposed to take over for Kendrix, but due to a contract dispute, it didn't happen, which makes this episode kind of awkward in places.
On the command carrier, Deviot is repairing Psycho Pink, and Trakeena wants her to destroy all ten Rangers. As is traditional for the Psychos, Psycho Pink immediately mutinies and escapes. Credits!
At the lab, Kendrix is studying the MacGuffin Book and sees a page featuring a giant sword. She finds out that the sword is called "The Savage Sword," presumably of Conan. Elsewhere, Psycho Pink is limping through town and uses a computer kiosk to find Kendrix, who has found the location of the Savage Sword. Psycho Pink bursts through the computer screen and steals the information from Kendrix's mind before departing.
Cassie and Kendrix meet up and start hunting down the last Psycho. They're able to catch up to her, but Psycho Pink gets away. Kendrix explains that the Savage Sword is super-powerful and if Psycho Pink finds it, the Rangers are boned. They head off to find the sword.
Back on Terra Venture, the other eight Rangers are having lunch when they're interrupted by Kendrix's warning and a flight of Sting Wingers. On some other planet, Psycho Pink manages to grab the Savage Sword, and Cassie and Kendrix start panicking. She starts beating them up and reveals that the magic sword gets more powerful everytime you hit someone with it. Meanwhile, the other Rangers are still fighting the Sting Wingers, which is notable only in that it's your last chance to see the Space Rangers fight some enemy mooks.
Back on the the planet, Psycho Pink forcibly demorphs Cassie, and breaks her morpher for good measure. This unleashes some sort of maelstrom of energy that forces Psycho Pink to drop the sword, but turns her into her monster form. The other Rangers finish off the Sting Wingers when the energy wave hits Terra Venture and starts doing damage to the colony.
Psycho Pink grows to giant-size, and Kendrix stares her down alone, as Cassie is too injured to do much of anything. The Galaxy Megazord shows up and starts fighting the monster, but isn't powerful enough. The Space Rangers decide to bring the Astro Megazord out of mothballs to help.
Meanwhile, the energy storm is still out of control, and it becomes clear that it's having some sort of effect on Cassie because of her morpher. Kendrix decides that she has to help and starts heading for the Savage Sword, but is repelled by the energy. She tries again and starts making it through the energy field, but gets badly hurt in the process.
The two megazords, however, are able to finish off Psycho Pink and now the Psycho Rangers are finally and forever defeated. And the day is sav-oh, wait, the energy thing hasn't been resolved yet. Kendrix is still making her way to sword and, by this point, everyone is telling her to stop before she gets killed. She...uh...doesn't. Kendrix manages to break the Savage Sword with her Quasar Saber, but gets vaporized in the process.
Kendrix's ghost appears and claims that she's okay. That's putting a hell of a positive spin on the situation. She disappears and her Quasar Saber flies off. On the plus side, Cassie's morpher is repaired.
Later, the Space Rangers depart, because the vacation is definitely over. The Space Rangers say farewell to their color counterparts, except for Cassie, because, well, you know. They finally fly away, and the Galaxy Rangers realize that they're still a member down. Show Over!
Next Time: The team gets a new Pink Ranger forced down their throats!
Original Airdate: 11-5-1999
Last Time: The Psychos showed up again, and it took two teams of Rangers teaming up to kill them....except Psycho Pink survived.
On Terra Venture, the Galaxy Rangers take the Space Rangers to meet the Galactabeasts. Cassie manages to climb up on the pink one, only to fall off. Incidentally, we'll be seeing a lot of Cassie this episode, as she was supposed to take over for Kendrix, but due to a contract dispute, it didn't happen, which makes this episode kind of awkward in places.
On the command carrier, Deviot is repairing Psycho Pink, and Trakeena wants her to destroy all ten Rangers. As is traditional for the Psychos, Psycho Pink immediately mutinies and escapes. Credits!
At the lab, Kendrix is studying the MacGuffin Book and sees a page featuring a giant sword. She finds out that the sword is called "The Savage Sword," presumably of Conan. Elsewhere, Psycho Pink is limping through town and uses a computer kiosk to find Kendrix, who has found the location of the Savage Sword. Psycho Pink bursts through the computer screen and steals the information from Kendrix's mind before departing.
Cassie and Kendrix meet up and start hunting down the last Psycho. They're able to catch up to her, but Psycho Pink gets away. Kendrix explains that the Savage Sword is super-powerful and if Psycho Pink finds it, the Rangers are boned. They head off to find the sword.
Back on Terra Venture, the other eight Rangers are having lunch when they're interrupted by Kendrix's warning and a flight of Sting Wingers. On some other planet, Psycho Pink manages to grab the Savage Sword, and Cassie and Kendrix start panicking. She starts beating them up and reveals that the magic sword gets more powerful everytime you hit someone with it. Meanwhile, the other Rangers are still fighting the Sting Wingers, which is notable only in that it's your last chance to see the Space Rangers fight some enemy mooks.
Back on the the planet, Psycho Pink forcibly demorphs Cassie, and breaks her morpher for good measure. This unleashes some sort of maelstrom of energy that forces Psycho Pink to drop the sword, but turns her into her monster form. The other Rangers finish off the Sting Wingers when the energy wave hits Terra Venture and starts doing damage to the colony.
Psycho Pink grows to giant-size, and Kendrix stares her down alone, as Cassie is too injured to do much of anything. The Galaxy Megazord shows up and starts fighting the monster, but isn't powerful enough. The Space Rangers decide to bring the Astro Megazord out of mothballs to help.
Meanwhile, the energy storm is still out of control, and it becomes clear that it's having some sort of effect on Cassie because of her morpher. Kendrix decides that she has to help and starts heading for the Savage Sword, but is repelled by the energy. She tries again and starts making it through the energy field, but gets badly hurt in the process.
The two megazords, however, are able to finish off Psycho Pink and now the Psycho Rangers are finally and forever defeated. And the day is sav-oh, wait, the energy thing hasn't been resolved yet. Kendrix is still making her way to sword and, by this point, everyone is telling her to stop before she gets killed. She...uh...doesn't. Kendrix manages to break the Savage Sword with her Quasar Saber, but gets vaporized in the process.
Kendrix's ghost appears and claims that she's okay. That's putting a hell of a positive spin on the situation. She disappears and her Quasar Saber flies off. On the plus side, Cassie's morpher is repaired.
Later, the Space Rangers depart, because the vacation is definitely over. The Space Rangers say farewell to their color counterparts, except for Cassie, because, well, you know. They finally fly away, and the Galaxy Rangers realize that they're still a member down. Show Over!
Next Time: The team gets a new Pink Ranger forced down their throats!
To the Tenth Power
Power Rangers: Lost Galaxy, Episode 30
Original Airdate: 11-4-1999
Last Time: The Rangers killed some time!
On some desert planet, Deviot retrieves some ominously familiar-looking key cards from a Jawa. The Jawa immediately turns of Deviot and tries to kill him, but we'll never know why as Deviot annihilates him instantly.
On the command carrier, Deviot explains that he's about to kick the shit out of the Rangers with what's on the keycard. Kegler starts asking something and Deviot responds with, "You need to stop asking questions before I have you destroyed." I love Deviot. He turns on a machine and brings the Psycho Rangers back to life. Credits!
Back on the desert planet, Andros shows up with his cloak and realizes that he's too late to stop the Psycho Rangers from coming back. So, going back to last season, this puts his failure streak at what, eight?
On the command carrier, the Psychos are being predicatably mutinous. Fortunately, the villains thought ahead and have planted some sort of restraining device on the Psychos, and they're shocked into compliance.
Elsewhere, Damon is carrying the groceries while Maya walks alongside him and eats an apple. The Psychos show up and capture them. Meanwhile, Psycho Blue and Pink also capture their counterparts.
Leo, the last remaining Ranger, is spazzing out in the forest when he spots a crying child, but it's really Psycho Red, who puts the hurt on Leo. Leo morphs, but it does him no good. Psycho Red introduces himself to Leo by spinning his head Exorcist style. Just as Leo's about to get his sorry ass killed, Andros shows up and blasts Psycho Red, and then escapes with Leo.
Andros takes Leo away from the battle and takes off his cloak. Leo recognizes as the old Red Ranger, and claims that he was there the day that the Space Rangers saved Earth. Um....everyone on Earth was there when the planet was saved. Leo asks who is Psycho Red, and Andros explains that, "He's everything you are, except the opposite, and twice as powerful." It's kind of impressive that he was able to come up with three statements that all contradict each other.
They head to the Megaship and Andros reconnects with Alpha. Mike's there too. The alarms go off and Leo wants to rush off to save his friends, but Andros suggests not being a moron. Instead, he goes to the "Power Vault," where the old space morphers lie in wait. Andros takes his and comes up with a plan.
At some factory, Trakeena is taunting the captured Rangers. Leo and Andros show up, and everyone's mildly shocked to see Andros. Trakeena is delighted at the prospect of killing two Red Rangers, and sends in the Psychos.
Meanwhile, the other Space Rangers have shown up at the Megaship and take back their morphers as well. Didn't Commander Stanton make a big deal about not being able to get back to Earth? How did they get to Terra Venture anyway? I'm going to make up my own continuity and claim that the called for a space taxi, but the driver was a militant Ukranian who was peeved at their 10% tip.
Back at the factory, Mike frees the other Rangers. They show up and tilt the numbers in the Rangers' favor. The other Space Rangers show up and make the odds even more stacked in the Rangers favor. Also, Carlos has cut his hair. I only mention that because when they morph, the old footage still has him with long hair. Then again, I don't know exactly what the producers were supposed to do about that. The assembled Rangers pose and colored plumes of smoke go off behind them.
Anyway, the Rangers fight the Psychos in pairs determined by Ranger color. The fights goes on for a while, and eventually both teams of Rangers use their ultimate attacks, and the Psychos just can't take the abuse and are destroyed. Later, on the Megaship, the teams of Rangers celebrate, evade questions about how exactly the Space Rangers got to Terra Venture, and the Space Rangers decide to take a vacation on Terra Venture.
At the fight scene, Psycho Pink has managed to survive, and Deviot comes along to salvage her.
Next Time: Okay, everyone who survives the next episode take a step forward....not so fast, Kendrix.
Original Airdate: 11-4-1999
Last Time: The Rangers killed some time!
On some desert planet, Deviot retrieves some ominously familiar-looking key cards from a Jawa. The Jawa immediately turns of Deviot and tries to kill him, but we'll never know why as Deviot annihilates him instantly.
On the command carrier, Deviot explains that he's about to kick the shit out of the Rangers with what's on the keycard. Kegler starts asking something and Deviot responds with, "You need to stop asking questions before I have you destroyed." I love Deviot. He turns on a machine and brings the Psycho Rangers back to life. Credits!
Back on the desert planet, Andros shows up with his cloak and realizes that he's too late to stop the Psycho Rangers from coming back. So, going back to last season, this puts his failure streak at what, eight?
On the command carrier, the Psychos are being predicatably mutinous. Fortunately, the villains thought ahead and have planted some sort of restraining device on the Psychos, and they're shocked into compliance.
Elsewhere, Damon is carrying the groceries while Maya walks alongside him and eats an apple. The Psychos show up and capture them. Meanwhile, Psycho Blue and Pink also capture their counterparts.
Leo, the last remaining Ranger, is spazzing out in the forest when he spots a crying child, but it's really Psycho Red, who puts the hurt on Leo. Leo morphs, but it does him no good. Psycho Red introduces himself to Leo by spinning his head Exorcist style. Just as Leo's about to get his sorry ass killed, Andros shows up and blasts Psycho Red, and then escapes with Leo.
Andros takes Leo away from the battle and takes off his cloak. Leo recognizes as the old Red Ranger, and claims that he was there the day that the Space Rangers saved Earth. Um....everyone on Earth was there when the planet was saved. Leo asks who is Psycho Red, and Andros explains that, "He's everything you are, except the opposite, and twice as powerful." It's kind of impressive that he was able to come up with three statements that all contradict each other.
They head to the Megaship and Andros reconnects with Alpha. Mike's there too. The alarms go off and Leo wants to rush off to save his friends, but Andros suggests not being a moron. Instead, he goes to the "Power Vault," where the old space morphers lie in wait. Andros takes his and comes up with a plan.
At some factory, Trakeena is taunting the captured Rangers. Leo and Andros show up, and everyone's mildly shocked to see Andros. Trakeena is delighted at the prospect of killing two Red Rangers, and sends in the Psychos.
Meanwhile, the other Space Rangers have shown up at the Megaship and take back their morphers as well. Didn't Commander Stanton make a big deal about not being able to get back to Earth? How did they get to Terra Venture anyway? I'm going to make up my own continuity and claim that the called for a space taxi, but the driver was a militant Ukranian who was peeved at their 10% tip.
Back at the factory, Mike frees the other Rangers. They show up and tilt the numbers in the Rangers' favor. The other Space Rangers show up and make the odds even more stacked in the Rangers favor. Also, Carlos has cut his hair. I only mention that because when they morph, the old footage still has him with long hair. Then again, I don't know exactly what the producers were supposed to do about that. The assembled Rangers pose and colored plumes of smoke go off behind them.
Anyway, the Rangers fight the Psychos in pairs determined by Ranger color. The fights goes on for a while, and eventually both teams of Rangers use their ultimate attacks, and the Psychos just can't take the abuse and are destroyed. Later, on the Megaship, the teams of Rangers celebrate, evade questions about how exactly the Space Rangers got to Terra Venture, and the Space Rangers decide to take a vacation on Terra Venture.
At the fight scene, Psycho Pink has managed to survive, and Deviot comes along to salvage her.
Next Time: Okay, everyone who survives the next episode take a step forward....not so fast, Kendrix.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Countdown to Destruction, Part II
Power Rangers in Space, Episode 43
Original Airdate: 11-21-1998
Last Time: The forces of evil decided to conquer the universe....and did. Dark Specter got killed and Astronema took over.
Well, it's the end of an era, the very last episode of what is called "The Zordon Era," which, of course, is kind of misleading as Zordon hasn't really been around for almost two season. More importantly, however, it's the end of a certain production model where actors would play the same characters for multiple seasons, until they entered into a contract dispute with Saban and were sent away, usually never to be seen again. Oh, it didn't make a lot of sense, "Your Zeo powers aren't enough to deal with this cosmic threat, so I got you some new car powers....they're definitely better." But, still, it was kind of nice to have the same characters last for more than thirty or forty episodes. Then again, given the Rangers we'll meet in the coming weeks, thirty or forty episodes can feel like forever.
On Earth, the Quantrons are still rounding up the citizens of Angel Grove as the Rangers look on. The Dark Fortress comes down, and Astronema beams onto one of the few remaining buildings to speak to her new subjects. She orders the Rangers brought to her by the next morning or the Earth dies. You know, given that she knows what the Rangers look like, and the people of Earth don't, that doesn't seem quite fair.
That night, the citizens are holding a meeting, and realize that they don't actually have a way to find the Power Rangers even if they wanted to. Bulk and Skull rally the citizens to have faith in the Rangers, who have never let them down. Except for the end of last season when they were utterly crushed. Final Credits!
The Rangers are also holding a meeting to determine whether or not to let the Earth be destroyed. Zhane shows up...oh, yeah, Zhane, I always forget about him. Then again, so do the writers. Carlos suggests forming an underground resistance, but T.J. decides that they can't risk people's lives unless there's a giant robot involved. Fortunately, Andros has the solution: go to the Dark Fortress and reason with Astronema. The Earth is boned. The other Rangers don't think that it's going to work. Andros, despite the fact that the Earth will be destroyed if he doesn't show up the next day, decides to go ahead with his plan. He has forgotten the lessons of teamwork. Ashley notices and tries to talk him out of it, and they almost kiss, but decide not to. Andros calls for the Battilizer armor and I have to look at its profoundly stupid design one last time.
It's the next morning, and Astronema wants the damn Rangers, who haven't shown. Bulk and Skull try to once more rally the crowd by invoking Spartacus and claiming to be the Rangers. The rest of the crowd joins in, and the villains, being fans of all of Kubrick's work, even those that may not comfortably sit in his ouevre, decide to honor this homage by crucifying the entire city along the nearest major road. No, not really, but that's what actually happened in the movie. Now, you'll see a lot of people saying about how awesome this scene is. It's really not that great. On the one hand, yeah, I suppose it's nice to see Bulk and Skull step up, but on the other hand, I just don't really see what's so great about it.
Anyway, it obviously doesn't really work because Astronema actually knows and has met the Rangers. Astronema decides to just kill them all and be done with it. The real Rangers, except Andros, decide that this has gone on exactly long enough and reveal themselves to be the Rangers. Bulk and Skull can't believe it. The Rangers decide to fight it out, and Astronema and Ecliptor decide to leave because...well, it's not like the Rangers are going to win against an army that conquered the universe. Bulk and Skull lead the citizens of Angel Grove to their deaths.
On the Dark Fortress, Andros has made it onboard. He manages to divert Ecliptor and his mooks, and makes it to Zordon. The giant head explains that Andros has done such a bang-up job of protecting the universe that every planet has either fallen to evil or is about to fall to evil. He goes onto explain that the only way to fix the Rangers' fuck=ups is to kill Zordon himself and release the good energy in his tube. Andros doesn't really want to do it, but Zordon explains that the sheer scale of this particular Ranger team's uselessness is such that there is none. Andros can't bring himself to do it, saying that Zordon "asks too much." In fairness, asking Andros pretty much anything is probably asking too much and collapses into a stress-induced brood.
Astronema shows up and decides to kill him. Andros tries to reason with her and, well, given how the season has gone, you can guess how successful he is at that. She beats him up for a good, long while. Just as Astronema is ready to deliver the killing blow, however, Andros grabs his drill-sword and reflects the attack back at her, killing her instantly. Ecliptor finally gets back to the scene and asks how Andros could kill his own sister. Ecliptor is justfiably pissed about his foster daughter's death and decides to kill Andros. Zordon, realizing that Senor Fuck-up, as he likely refers to Andros, is probably going to manage to lose his fight with Ecliptor, tells him to shatter the damn tube. Andros, having already bridged the whole "murdering my kith and kin" divide by killing Astronema, is now ready to comply, and kills Zordon...for the universe.
The tube explodes in a giant yellow light and Ecliptor is turned to dust, as are the Machine Empire. Zedd and Rita are turned into normal people, and Zedd now has the whole Northeasterner tennis shirt and shoulder draped over the back look. They decide to dance. Divatox is also turned into a normal person. Elgar, on the other hand, is turned to dust. I guess redeemability is based on how human you look. Anyway, with Zordon dead, the Rangers also lose their powers, and everyone in Angel Grove celebrates.
The Dark Fortress descends, however, and the Rangers assumes that it's because she won. Yeah, her army disintegrating was all part of the master plan. Andros gets off the Fortress cradling his dead sister's body. The Rangers are delighted to see him. Andros puts Astronema down and starts crying, and his tears bring her back to life...and make her good again....and change her hair and wardrobe. I'm guessing that the writing staff realized that they couldn't actually keep Astronema dead, but couldn't think of any way to plausibly bring her back to life and eventually just decided to punt.
Everyone's happy, which is weird, because you'd think people would be a little less than thrilled about the ressurrection of the woman who just almost killed them all. Later, on KO-35, the Rangers are preparing to disband as the Rangers are planning to leave Andros, Astronema and Zhane on KO-35 while they go back to Earth. On the bridge of the Megaship, which the former Rangers from Earth get to apparently keep, Ashley is bummed because she never got a chance to fuck Andros. But then, Andros, Zhane and Astronema show up. They all decide to go back to Earth. Season Over!
Next Time: Things begin to slowly get worse.
Original Airdate: 11-21-1998
Last Time: The forces of evil decided to conquer the universe....and did. Dark Specter got killed and Astronema took over.
Well, it's the end of an era, the very last episode of what is called "The Zordon Era," which, of course, is kind of misleading as Zordon hasn't really been around for almost two season. More importantly, however, it's the end of a certain production model where actors would play the same characters for multiple seasons, until they entered into a contract dispute with Saban and were sent away, usually never to be seen again. Oh, it didn't make a lot of sense, "Your Zeo powers aren't enough to deal with this cosmic threat, so I got you some new car powers....they're definitely better." But, still, it was kind of nice to have the same characters last for more than thirty or forty episodes. Then again, given the Rangers we'll meet in the coming weeks, thirty or forty episodes can feel like forever.
On Earth, the Quantrons are still rounding up the citizens of Angel Grove as the Rangers look on. The Dark Fortress comes down, and Astronema beams onto one of the few remaining buildings to speak to her new subjects. She orders the Rangers brought to her by the next morning or the Earth dies. You know, given that she knows what the Rangers look like, and the people of Earth don't, that doesn't seem quite fair.
That night, the citizens are holding a meeting, and realize that they don't actually have a way to find the Power Rangers even if they wanted to. Bulk and Skull rally the citizens to have faith in the Rangers, who have never let them down. Except for the end of last season when they were utterly crushed. Final Credits!
The Rangers are also holding a meeting to determine whether or not to let the Earth be destroyed. Zhane shows up...oh, yeah, Zhane, I always forget about him. Then again, so do the writers. Carlos suggests forming an underground resistance, but T.J. decides that they can't risk people's lives unless there's a giant robot involved. Fortunately, Andros has the solution: go to the Dark Fortress and reason with Astronema. The Earth is boned. The other Rangers don't think that it's going to work. Andros, despite the fact that the Earth will be destroyed if he doesn't show up the next day, decides to go ahead with his plan. He has forgotten the lessons of teamwork. Ashley notices and tries to talk him out of it, and they almost kiss, but decide not to. Andros calls for the Battilizer armor and I have to look at its profoundly stupid design one last time.
It's the next morning, and Astronema wants the damn Rangers, who haven't shown. Bulk and Skull try to once more rally the crowd by invoking Spartacus and claiming to be the Rangers. The rest of the crowd joins in, and the villains, being fans of all of Kubrick's work, even those that may not comfortably sit in his ouevre, decide to honor this homage by crucifying the entire city along the nearest major road. No, not really, but that's what actually happened in the movie. Now, you'll see a lot of people saying about how awesome this scene is. It's really not that great. On the one hand, yeah, I suppose it's nice to see Bulk and Skull step up, but on the other hand, I just don't really see what's so great about it.
Anyway, it obviously doesn't really work because Astronema actually knows and has met the Rangers. Astronema decides to just kill them all and be done with it. The real Rangers, except Andros, decide that this has gone on exactly long enough and reveal themselves to be the Rangers. Bulk and Skull can't believe it. The Rangers decide to fight it out, and Astronema and Ecliptor decide to leave because...well, it's not like the Rangers are going to win against an army that conquered the universe. Bulk and Skull lead the citizens of Angel Grove to their deaths.
On the Dark Fortress, Andros has made it onboard. He manages to divert Ecliptor and his mooks, and makes it to Zordon. The giant head explains that Andros has done such a bang-up job of protecting the universe that every planet has either fallen to evil or is about to fall to evil. He goes onto explain that the only way to fix the Rangers' fuck=ups is to kill Zordon himself and release the good energy in his tube. Andros doesn't really want to do it, but Zordon explains that the sheer scale of this particular Ranger team's uselessness is such that there is none. Andros can't bring himself to do it, saying that Zordon "asks too much." In fairness, asking Andros pretty much anything is probably asking too much and collapses into a stress-induced brood.
Astronema shows up and decides to kill him. Andros tries to reason with her and, well, given how the season has gone, you can guess how successful he is at that. She beats him up for a good, long while. Just as Astronema is ready to deliver the killing blow, however, Andros grabs his drill-sword and reflects the attack back at her, killing her instantly. Ecliptor finally gets back to the scene and asks how Andros could kill his own sister. Ecliptor is justfiably pissed about his foster daughter's death and decides to kill Andros. Zordon, realizing that Senor Fuck-up, as he likely refers to Andros, is probably going to manage to lose his fight with Ecliptor, tells him to shatter the damn tube. Andros, having already bridged the whole "murdering my kith and kin" divide by killing Astronema, is now ready to comply, and kills Zordon...for the universe.
The tube explodes in a giant yellow light and Ecliptor is turned to dust, as are the Machine Empire. Zedd and Rita are turned into normal people, and Zedd now has the whole Northeasterner tennis shirt and shoulder draped over the back look. They decide to dance. Divatox is also turned into a normal person. Elgar, on the other hand, is turned to dust. I guess redeemability is based on how human you look. Anyway, with Zordon dead, the Rangers also lose their powers, and everyone in Angel Grove celebrates.
The Dark Fortress descends, however, and the Rangers assumes that it's because she won. Yeah, her army disintegrating was all part of the master plan. Andros gets off the Fortress cradling his dead sister's body. The Rangers are delighted to see him. Andros puts Astronema down and starts crying, and his tears bring her back to life...and make her good again....and change her hair and wardrobe. I'm guessing that the writing staff realized that they couldn't actually keep Astronema dead, but couldn't think of any way to plausibly bring her back to life and eventually just decided to punt.
Everyone's happy, which is weird, because you'd think people would be a little less than thrilled about the ressurrection of the woman who just almost killed them all. Later, on KO-35, the Rangers are preparing to disband as the Rangers are planning to leave Andros, Astronema and Zhane on KO-35 while they go back to Earth. On the bridge of the Megaship, which the former Rangers from Earth get to apparently keep, Ashley is bummed because she never got a chance to fuck Andros. But then, Andros, Zhane and Astronema show up. They all decide to go back to Earth. Season Over!
Next Time: Things begin to slowly get worse.
Countdown to Destruction, Part I
Power Rangers in Space, Episode 42
Original Airdate: 11-20-1998
Last Time: The Rangers had to face car that couldn't be bargained with, couldn't be reasoned with and absolutely would not stop until a dune buggy killed it. It was kind of an anti-climax
On some bluff, Dark Specter decides it's time to stop dicking around and time to conquer the damn universe and orders all of his evil forces to attack. Astronema agrees and gives a speech of her own to the Quantrons that promises a universe devoid of happiness, and consisting only of chaos, anger and greed. You know, most empire-builders tend to frown on widespread chaos. Elsewhere, the Machine Empire (those guys from Zeo that no one particularly liked) give a similar speech. Divatox is also on the move fighting those Alien Rangers. Astronema also pulls rank on Zedd and Rita, who probably feel that for nostalgia's sake, they ought to play a bigger role in the grand finale. Astronema also reveals that she's now in possession of Zordon, who's not looking too good. She taunts him by showing the defeat of the Phantom Ranger, although that's not really much of an accomplishment. Credits!
The Phantom Ranger and Blue Senturion are overrun by the Machine Empire in a battle I can only describe as: The skirmish that no one cared about. Zordon tries to reason with Astronema, but it fails. On another planet, Zedd and Rita take out the Gold Zeo Ranger. The Machine Empire also starts attacking the KO-35 rebels. You know, guys, there are plenty of characters that people actually would want to see fight in this final battle, but it sure as hell isn't these guys. Zhane is there and volunteers to go to Earth to get the other Ranger's help. Unfortunately, he gets intercepted by some Quantrons. The Astro Megaship shows up and rescues Zhane.
On the ship, Zhane asks for the other Rangers' help, and Andros reminds him that the entire universe is being conquered. Zhane and Andros reach the bridge and they find out that Astronema has decided to send 1000 space fighter to attack Earth. The Rangers are dutybound to help. But the evil forces reach Earth first and commence their attack on Angel Grove. It gets blown up good. The Rangers arrive, and Zhane decides to keep the space forces busy while the Rangers land on Earth.
Of course, the Rangers can't fight off an army, and get overwhelmed. The Rangers fight back, and Andros uses the Battilizer. Ecliptor has had enough of that shit and finally blows it up. Ashley and Andros are involuntarily demorphed, but manage to get away when the entire army of mooks surrounding them decides to just stand there and watch them escape.
In space, Zhane summons the Mega Winger, and accomplishes nothing but flattening a few more buildings when his zord goes down in flames. The other Rangers also lose and have to run away. Later, the Quantrons are rounding up the population of Angel Grove. The Rangers regroup in the ruins and realize that they could not possibly suck any harder.
On the Dark Fortress, Astronema has decided to deal with the Earth problem once and for all by blowing it up with a super-torpedo. Darkonda decides to steal the weapon for his own purposes. Dark Specter shows up for a status update when Darkonda decides to cut the suspense and fires the super-torpedo at the big guy. Dark Specter goes down, but manages to take Darkonda, who was down to his last life, with him.
The remains of Dark Specter rain down on Earth, and Alpha calls the Rangers to share the good news. Ecliptor shows up in the sky to announce to everyone that Astronema has taken command. Divatox is less-than-pleased with the new management, but the rest of the villains take it in stride.
Astronema is considering what to do with her new power, when Zordon decides to try reasoning with her again. Since Dark Specter is dead, he's back at full strength. It does not work, and Astronema decides to conquer Earth. Can the Rangers turn this around? To Be Continued!
Next Time: The Space Rangers do what they do best, win by default!
Original Airdate: 11-20-1998
Last Time: The Rangers had to face car that couldn't be bargained with, couldn't be reasoned with and absolutely would not stop until a dune buggy killed it. It was kind of an anti-climax
On some bluff, Dark Specter decides it's time to stop dicking around and time to conquer the damn universe and orders all of his evil forces to attack. Astronema agrees and gives a speech of her own to the Quantrons that promises a universe devoid of happiness, and consisting only of chaos, anger and greed. You know, most empire-builders tend to frown on widespread chaos. Elsewhere, the Machine Empire (those guys from Zeo that no one particularly liked) give a similar speech. Divatox is also on the move fighting those Alien Rangers. Astronema also pulls rank on Zedd and Rita, who probably feel that for nostalgia's sake, they ought to play a bigger role in the grand finale. Astronema also reveals that she's now in possession of Zordon, who's not looking too good. She taunts him by showing the defeat of the Phantom Ranger, although that's not really much of an accomplishment. Credits!
The Phantom Ranger and Blue Senturion are overrun by the Machine Empire in a battle I can only describe as: The skirmish that no one cared about. Zordon tries to reason with Astronema, but it fails. On another planet, Zedd and Rita take out the Gold Zeo Ranger. The Machine Empire also starts attacking the KO-35 rebels. You know, guys, there are plenty of characters that people actually would want to see fight in this final battle, but it sure as hell isn't these guys. Zhane is there and volunteers to go to Earth to get the other Ranger's help. Unfortunately, he gets intercepted by some Quantrons. The Astro Megaship shows up and rescues Zhane.
On the ship, Zhane asks for the other Rangers' help, and Andros reminds him that the entire universe is being conquered. Zhane and Andros reach the bridge and they find out that Astronema has decided to send 1000 space fighter to attack Earth. The Rangers are dutybound to help. But the evil forces reach Earth first and commence their attack on Angel Grove. It gets blown up good. The Rangers arrive, and Zhane decides to keep the space forces busy while the Rangers land on Earth.
Of course, the Rangers can't fight off an army, and get overwhelmed. The Rangers fight back, and Andros uses the Battilizer. Ecliptor has had enough of that shit and finally blows it up. Ashley and Andros are involuntarily demorphed, but manage to get away when the entire army of mooks surrounding them decides to just stand there and watch them escape.
In space, Zhane summons the Mega Winger, and accomplishes nothing but flattening a few more buildings when his zord goes down in flames. The other Rangers also lose and have to run away. Later, the Quantrons are rounding up the population of Angel Grove. The Rangers regroup in the ruins and realize that they could not possibly suck any harder.
On the Dark Fortress, Astronema has decided to deal with the Earth problem once and for all by blowing it up with a super-torpedo. Darkonda decides to steal the weapon for his own purposes. Dark Specter shows up for a status update when Darkonda decides to cut the suspense and fires the super-torpedo at the big guy. Dark Specter goes down, but manages to take Darkonda, who was down to his last life, with him.
The remains of Dark Specter rain down on Earth, and Alpha calls the Rangers to share the good news. Ecliptor shows up in the sky to announce to everyone that Astronema has taken command. Divatox is less-than-pleased with the new management, but the rest of the villains take it in stride.
Astronema is considering what to do with her new power, when Zordon decides to try reasoning with her again. Since Dark Specter is dead, he's back at full strength. It does not work, and Astronema decides to conquer Earth. Can the Rangers turn this around? To Be Continued!
Next Time: The Space Rangers do what they do best, win by default!
A Line in the Sand
Power Rangers in Space, Episode 41
Original Airdate: 11-18-1998
Last Time: Alpha was Kevin McCallister in the Rangers' production of Home Alone!
Ashley and Andros are on a date, and are being stalked by an angry car. How do I know that the car is angry? It has red headlights. Ashley notices some kids playing hopscotch and she and Andros jump in. They then decide to head down a darkened alley. The evil car, which is more like a Humvee, and whose actual name is Tankenstein, almost runs them down. Ashley and Andros give chase and head down another darkened alley. Some people just don't learn. Tankenstein almost runs them down again. Credits!
On the Megaship, Andros and Ashley are explaining the car of doom, and Cassie ascribes it to a really bad driver. You see, this is why people make jokes about Asians being bad drivers! They decide to warn Carlos, who isn't at the meeting.
Where is Carlos? He's playing soccer. The ball gets kicked into the woods and Carlos decides to retrieve it. Tankenstein chases him down and teleports him away. Carlos lands on a trackless desert and can't get his communicator to work. T.J. and Cassie show up at the soccer field and learn that Carlos isn't around. They retrace his steps, and do a bit too good of a job as they also draw the attention of Tankenstein. Cassie and T.J. try to run away, but to no success, as they are also teleported to the desert.
Back on the Megaship, Alpha reports that T.J. and Cassie have also disappeared, causing Andros and Ashley to decide to confront Tankenstein. Elsewhere, Astronema orders Tankenstein to capture the two remaining Rangers. On Earth, Andros and Ashley are driving around in Ashley's yellow Gremlin, which may be the worst car I've ever seen, when they're set upon by Tankenstein. They decide to get out and fight on foot, and I would be remiss if I did not report that Ashley is wearing a small tank top and jean shorts. It's a good look for her.
Andros and Ashley morph and try to climb into Tankenstein, but it doesn't work. As per contractual requirements, Andros trots out the Battilizer, which does nothing of consequence as well. They both get sent to the desert. Tankenstein is also there, and starts barrelling towards the Rangers. The Rangers get the shit beaten out of them.
Just then, things take a turn for the fucking ridiculous as Zhane once again shows up in his dune buggy. You know, last time it was kind of dumb, but this time, it's kind of surreal, because he hadn't been in the episode at all up until this point. He somehow blows up the heavily armored Humvee in his dune buggy. Uh...kids at home, just remember that in real life every person who's tried to take on the might of a Hummer with a dune buggy has ended up dead or worse.
On the Dark Fortress, Astronema decides to give the sattelasers a go, and Tankenstein is reincarted as a giant monster of indeterminate nature. The Rangers call on the Mega Voyager, and this somehow takes everyone from the desert to a city. The Rangers blow off one of Tankenstein's arms with their missile, but it just grows back. The monster responds by cutting off one of the Mega Voyagers arms and basically trashes it. The Rangers are able to rally and mortally wound the monster, but it takes off and both it and the megazord go up in an explosion that looks suspiciously like the Challenger disaster.
Later, the Rangers crawl from the wreckage of the Mega Voyager and realize that they've managed to lose another megazord. How many megazord destructions has T.J. now been involved in, anyway? On the Dark Fortress, Astronema and Ecliptor are pleased with how things are going. Show Over!
Next Time: It's the end of the world, and I feel fine. Well, as fine as I usually feel. Listen, I feel good enough, okay? Stop hassling me.
Original Airdate: 11-18-1998
Last Time: Alpha was Kevin McCallister in the Rangers' production of Home Alone!
Ashley and Andros are on a date, and are being stalked by an angry car. How do I know that the car is angry? It has red headlights. Ashley notices some kids playing hopscotch and she and Andros jump in. They then decide to head down a darkened alley. The evil car, which is more like a Humvee, and whose actual name is Tankenstein, almost runs them down. Ashley and Andros give chase and head down another darkened alley. Some people just don't learn. Tankenstein almost runs them down again. Credits!
On the Megaship, Andros and Ashley are explaining the car of doom, and Cassie ascribes it to a really bad driver. You see, this is why people make jokes about Asians being bad drivers! They decide to warn Carlos, who isn't at the meeting.
Where is Carlos? He's playing soccer. The ball gets kicked into the woods and Carlos decides to retrieve it. Tankenstein chases him down and teleports him away. Carlos lands on a trackless desert and can't get his communicator to work. T.J. and Cassie show up at the soccer field and learn that Carlos isn't around. They retrace his steps, and do a bit too good of a job as they also draw the attention of Tankenstein. Cassie and T.J. try to run away, but to no success, as they are also teleported to the desert.
Back on the Megaship, Alpha reports that T.J. and Cassie have also disappeared, causing Andros and Ashley to decide to confront Tankenstein. Elsewhere, Astronema orders Tankenstein to capture the two remaining Rangers. On Earth, Andros and Ashley are driving around in Ashley's yellow Gremlin, which may be the worst car I've ever seen, when they're set upon by Tankenstein. They decide to get out and fight on foot, and I would be remiss if I did not report that Ashley is wearing a small tank top and jean shorts. It's a good look for her.
Andros and Ashley morph and try to climb into Tankenstein, but it doesn't work. As per contractual requirements, Andros trots out the Battilizer, which does nothing of consequence as well. They both get sent to the desert. Tankenstein is also there, and starts barrelling towards the Rangers. The Rangers get the shit beaten out of them.
Just then, things take a turn for the fucking ridiculous as Zhane once again shows up in his dune buggy. You know, last time it was kind of dumb, but this time, it's kind of surreal, because he hadn't been in the episode at all up until this point. He somehow blows up the heavily armored Humvee in his dune buggy. Uh...kids at home, just remember that in real life every person who's tried to take on the might of a Hummer with a dune buggy has ended up dead or worse.
On the Dark Fortress, Astronema decides to give the sattelasers a go, and Tankenstein is reincarted as a giant monster of indeterminate nature. The Rangers call on the Mega Voyager, and this somehow takes everyone from the desert to a city. The Rangers blow off one of Tankenstein's arms with their missile, but it just grows back. The monster responds by cutting off one of the Mega Voyagers arms and basically trashes it. The Rangers are able to rally and mortally wound the monster, but it takes off and both it and the megazord go up in an explosion that looks suspiciously like the Challenger disaster.
Later, the Rangers crawl from the wreckage of the Mega Voyager and realize that they've managed to lose another megazord. How many megazord destructions has T.J. now been involved in, anyway? On the Dark Fortress, Astronema and Ecliptor are pleased with how things are going. Show Over!
Next Time: It's the end of the world, and I feel fine. Well, as fine as I usually feel. Listen, I feel good enough, okay? Stop hassling me.
The Impenetrable Web
Power Rangers in Space, Episode 40
Original Airdate: 11-14-1998
Last Time: The Rangers fought the Psycho Rangers yet again, and won on something of a technicality.
In space, Alpha and DECA are playing that 3-d chess game from Star Trek. Alpha wins by psyching out the computer, and DECA accuses Alpha of "blunking." Andros points out that the word is "bluffing" and does not seem concerned that his shipboard computer is suffering from some sort of memory problem. The Rangers receive an incoming transmission that a NASADA astronaut is trapped on the planet Forza. First of all, I wasn't aware that NASADA was landing people on alien planets. Second, that name makes me think of Silvio Berlusconi. It turns out that NASADA isn't actually sending astronauts on interstellar voyages, but it's all part of a ruse. The astronaut turns out to be Darkonda, who's back from sabbatical. The Dark Fortress shows up and traps the Megaship in a web while the Rangers are on the planet looking for the astronaut. Credits!
On the planet, the Rangers are cut off from the Megaship, which causes them to lose their powers. What, you never remember that being part of the Rangers' powers....well....uh...you weren't paying close enough attention. Alpha calls down to the Rangers and explains the situation. Andros suggest firing the lasers, but they don't work. Astronema sends Darkonda to capture the Rangers while Ecliptor is sent to capture the Megaship.
Ecliptor, not one to waste time, beams onto the bridge and menaces both Alpha and DECA. He ends up getting crushed by a door as Alpha escapes. Ecliptor chases her into a cargo hold, and DECA banks the ship, crushing him with various debris. Alpha escapes again, taunting Ecliptor on the way out. I was wrong, this was Home Alone on the Megaship.
Darkonda is on the planet, ordering the Quantrons to get the Rangers. On the ship, Ecliptor angrily demands that DECA lead him to Alpha, which it does, but Alpha....sigh....come on, inner strength....Alpha has put some ball bearings on the floor and Ecliptor trips. The Rangers fight some Quantrons on the planet's surface and get captured.
Meanwhile, Ecliptor reaches the engine room just in time for Alpha to blow him out the airlock. Ecliptor, however, manages to hang on and close the doors and make some progress on getting control of the ship. He finds out where the Mega Voyager is, and decides to blow that up instead.
On the planet, Darkonda is about to execute the Rangers, when Zhane comes out of nowhere on a dune buggy. Oh yeah, Zhane. No one ever remembers him. Hell, I bet the Rangers watched him show up and said, "That's right, there's a sixth Ranger...I totally forgot." Up in space, Ecliptor manages to beam himself into the computer. Darkonda, having completely lost his mind, decides to charge directly into the path of the speeding dune buggy, and get run over and destroyed. The remaining Quantrons are so demoralized by this action that they just kind of give up and let the Rangers go.
Alpha calls in to explain that Ecliptor is about the destroy the Mega Voyager, so the Rangers send Zhane to stop him. He arrives just in time to see Eclpitor arrive with extra power which, for some reason, has turned him red. Zhane tries to fight him, but makes no headway. Ecliptor decides to get on with it and grows to super-size.
On Forza, Andros has a plan to get back onto the Megaship. It involves the Battilizer armor, making it a bad idea by definition. It works, but that doesn't make the Battilizer look any less ridiculous. Elsewhere, Zhane calls for the Mega Winger, which fails miserably. Ecliptor starts wrecking the Mega Voyager's base. The other Rangers show up in the Astro and Delta Megazords. The Delta Megazord moves into attack....and is promptly cut to little pieces and destroyed forever. He knocks down the remaining two megazord and decides to destroy Earth. The Astro Megazord follows, but can't stop him, and manages to get its sword broken in half. Fortunately, the Rangers once more escape certain defeat when Ecliptor runs out of power and has to shrink down to normal size. The Rangers fight him and foot and eventually take him down, but that only leads to him reverting to his normal black-and-green color scheme.
Later, the Rangers are taking stock: The Delta Megazord has fallen, never to rise again, and the Mega Voyager's base is in ruins. Fortunately, they're able to salvage the Mega Voyager itself, unfortunately, I've seen next episode. On the Dark Fortress, Astronema and Ecliptor are mildly pleased at their strategic victory, and Astronema has another plan. Show Over!
Next Time: The Sierra Club presents: The SUV That Killed!
Original Airdate: 11-14-1998
Last Time: The Rangers fought the Psycho Rangers yet again, and won on something of a technicality.
In space, Alpha and DECA are playing that 3-d chess game from Star Trek. Alpha wins by psyching out the computer, and DECA accuses Alpha of "blunking." Andros points out that the word is "bluffing" and does not seem concerned that his shipboard computer is suffering from some sort of memory problem. The Rangers receive an incoming transmission that a NASADA astronaut is trapped on the planet Forza. First of all, I wasn't aware that NASADA was landing people on alien planets. Second, that name makes me think of Silvio Berlusconi. It turns out that NASADA isn't actually sending astronauts on interstellar voyages, but it's all part of a ruse. The astronaut turns out to be Darkonda, who's back from sabbatical. The Dark Fortress shows up and traps the Megaship in a web while the Rangers are on the planet looking for the astronaut. Credits!
On the planet, the Rangers are cut off from the Megaship, which causes them to lose their powers. What, you never remember that being part of the Rangers' powers....well....uh...you weren't paying close enough attention. Alpha calls down to the Rangers and explains the situation. Andros suggest firing the lasers, but they don't work. Astronema sends Darkonda to capture the Rangers while Ecliptor is sent to capture the Megaship.
Ecliptor, not one to waste time, beams onto the bridge and menaces both Alpha and DECA. He ends up getting crushed by a door as Alpha escapes. Ecliptor chases her into a cargo hold, and DECA banks the ship, crushing him with various debris. Alpha escapes again, taunting Ecliptor on the way out. I was wrong, this was Home Alone on the Megaship.
Darkonda is on the planet, ordering the Quantrons to get the Rangers. On the ship, Ecliptor angrily demands that DECA lead him to Alpha, which it does, but Alpha....sigh....come on, inner strength....Alpha has put some ball bearings on the floor and Ecliptor trips. The Rangers fight some Quantrons on the planet's surface and get captured.
Meanwhile, Ecliptor reaches the engine room just in time for Alpha to blow him out the airlock. Ecliptor, however, manages to hang on and close the doors and make some progress on getting control of the ship. He finds out where the Mega Voyager is, and decides to blow that up instead.
On the planet, Darkonda is about to execute the Rangers, when Zhane comes out of nowhere on a dune buggy. Oh yeah, Zhane. No one ever remembers him. Hell, I bet the Rangers watched him show up and said, "That's right, there's a sixth Ranger...I totally forgot." Up in space, Ecliptor manages to beam himself into the computer. Darkonda, having completely lost his mind, decides to charge directly into the path of the speeding dune buggy, and get run over and destroyed. The remaining Quantrons are so demoralized by this action that they just kind of give up and let the Rangers go.
Alpha calls in to explain that Ecliptor is about the destroy the Mega Voyager, so the Rangers send Zhane to stop him. He arrives just in time to see Eclpitor arrive with extra power which, for some reason, has turned him red. Zhane tries to fight him, but makes no headway. Ecliptor decides to get on with it and grows to super-size.
On Forza, Andros has a plan to get back onto the Megaship. It involves the Battilizer armor, making it a bad idea by definition. It works, but that doesn't make the Battilizer look any less ridiculous. Elsewhere, Zhane calls for the Mega Winger, which fails miserably. Ecliptor starts wrecking the Mega Voyager's base. The other Rangers show up in the Astro and Delta Megazords. The Delta Megazord moves into attack....and is promptly cut to little pieces and destroyed forever. He knocks down the remaining two megazord and decides to destroy Earth. The Astro Megazord follows, but can't stop him, and manages to get its sword broken in half. Fortunately, the Rangers once more escape certain defeat when Ecliptor runs out of power and has to shrink down to normal size. The Rangers fight him and foot and eventually take him down, but that only leads to him reverting to his normal black-and-green color scheme.
Later, the Rangers are taking stock: The Delta Megazord has fallen, never to rise again, and the Mega Voyager's base is in ruins. Fortunately, they're able to salvage the Mega Voyager itself, unfortunately, I've seen next episode. On the Dark Fortress, Astronema and Ecliptor are mildly pleased at their strategic victory, and Astronema has another plan. Show Over!
Next Time: The Sierra Club presents: The SUV That Killed!
Ghosts in the Machine
Power Rangers in Space, Episode 39
Original Airdate: 11-13-1998
Last Time: Andros gained the most ridiculous armor ever constructed. It created a mixture of lust and disgust in my American male heart that is hard to express in words.
The Rangers have tracked down the missing people for Secret City to a cruise ship. Sometimes the Sentai footage is...unhelpful. The Rangers find out that no one's there. The camera is incessantly waving back and forth to indicate the waves, and it's rather distracting. The Rangers leave empty-handed. Credits!
It turns out that Astronema decided to put Secret City under the ocean. She makes the Quantrons bring Bulk, Skull and Phenomenus into some sort of lab. They're turned into datacards by some sort of machine. She is pleased, and calls in the next group.
On the Megaship, the Rangers finally find the Secret City. Andros suggest that they tunnel into Secret City from underneath by means of the Megatank. Unfortunately, the Sentai footage wants no part of that plan, and so instead we see the Megatank driving through a tunnel that appears to have already and then crashing into a wall of rocks. The Psycho Ghosts are also there.
The Rangers are trying to sneak into the city undetected, and are quickly found by some Quantrons. And we cut to Astronema who explains that this was all part of her plan. Andros and Cassie walk into a lab, and Astronema turns Cassie into a datacard with that same machine as before. Andros looks on stupefied. The other Rangers show up and Andros broods. Then Astronema turns them all into datacards....uh...okay, so that was Power Rangers in Space.
No, actually, as has become a tradition, though the Rangers have utterly failed, something intervenes to protect them from total destruction. In this case, it's the Psycho Ghosts, who realize that they can't destroy the Rangers if they're datacards. They hijack the machine and make themselves whole once more. They bring the Rangers back to life for the sole purpose of killing them again. But once again, fate intervenes and Ecliptor shows up to beat on the Psychos for their insubordination. The Rangers bravely run away.
The Psychos, however, quickly dispatch Ecliptor and catch up with the Rangers. Andros suddenly remembers that Zhane exists, and calls Alpha to tell Zhane to retrieve the datacards. The Psychos, as is usual, thrash the Rangers. Meanwhile, Zhane has showed up, only to be blocked by Ecliptor, who doesn't last long. Zhane finds the datacards and starts converting them back into people. Bulk, Skull and Phenomenus are first, and the professor explains to Bulk and Skull exactly what just happened. Bulk and Skull actually take it pretty well. Outside, the Rangers aren't doing so well, so Zhane suggest luring the Psychos to the control room.
In the lab, all of the people are back to normal, and the Rangers teleport them to safety. The Rangers get the Psychos to stand directly under the machine from earlier, and the monsters are turned into datacards. Unfortuately, this somehow causes Secret City to begin self-destructing and Zhane loses the cards. The Rangers narrowly escape but can't find Zhane. He shows up, and everybody's happy.
On the Dark Fortress, Astronema has the datacards and another plan. What deus ex machina will save the Rangers next time? Show Over!
Next Time: Die Hard on the Astro Megaship! Starring Alpha 6 as John McClane!
Original Airdate: 11-13-1998
Last Time: Andros gained the most ridiculous armor ever constructed. It created a mixture of lust and disgust in my American male heart that is hard to express in words.
The Rangers have tracked down the missing people for Secret City to a cruise ship. Sometimes the Sentai footage is...unhelpful. The Rangers find out that no one's there. The camera is incessantly waving back and forth to indicate the waves, and it's rather distracting. The Rangers leave empty-handed. Credits!
It turns out that Astronema decided to put Secret City under the ocean. She makes the Quantrons bring Bulk, Skull and Phenomenus into some sort of lab. They're turned into datacards by some sort of machine. She is pleased, and calls in the next group.
On the Megaship, the Rangers finally find the Secret City. Andros suggest that they tunnel into Secret City from underneath by means of the Megatank. Unfortunately, the Sentai footage wants no part of that plan, and so instead we see the Megatank driving through a tunnel that appears to have already and then crashing into a wall of rocks. The Psycho Ghosts are also there.
The Rangers are trying to sneak into the city undetected, and are quickly found by some Quantrons. And we cut to Astronema who explains that this was all part of her plan. Andros and Cassie walk into a lab, and Astronema turns Cassie into a datacard with that same machine as before. Andros looks on stupefied. The other Rangers show up and Andros broods. Then Astronema turns them all into datacards....uh...okay, so that was Power Rangers in Space.
No, actually, as has become a tradition, though the Rangers have utterly failed, something intervenes to protect them from total destruction. In this case, it's the Psycho Ghosts, who realize that they can't destroy the Rangers if they're datacards. They hijack the machine and make themselves whole once more. They bring the Rangers back to life for the sole purpose of killing them again. But once again, fate intervenes and Ecliptor shows up to beat on the Psychos for their insubordination. The Rangers bravely run away.
The Psychos, however, quickly dispatch Ecliptor and catch up with the Rangers. Andros suddenly remembers that Zhane exists, and calls Alpha to tell Zhane to retrieve the datacards. The Psychos, as is usual, thrash the Rangers. Meanwhile, Zhane has showed up, only to be blocked by Ecliptor, who doesn't last long. Zhane finds the datacards and starts converting them back into people. Bulk, Skull and Phenomenus are first, and the professor explains to Bulk and Skull exactly what just happened. Bulk and Skull actually take it pretty well. Outside, the Rangers aren't doing so well, so Zhane suggest luring the Psychos to the control room.
In the lab, all of the people are back to normal, and the Rangers teleport them to safety. The Rangers get the Psychos to stand directly under the machine from earlier, and the monsters are turned into datacards. Unfortuately, this somehow causes Secret City to begin self-destructing and Zhane loses the cards. The Rangers narrowly escape but can't find Zhane. He shows up, and everybody's happy.
On the Dark Fortress, Astronema has the datacards and another plan. What deus ex machina will save the Rangers next time? Show Over!
Next Time: Die Hard on the Astro Megaship! Starring Alpha 6 as John McClane!
Mission to Secret City
Power Rangers in Space, Episode 38
Original Airdate: 11-12-1998
Last Time: It was bad...that is all that needs to be said.
Near an abandoned building, the ghosts of the Psycho Rangers have returned. It's like they never left. The Rangers notice the strange reading and investigate. The Psychos try to attack, but, well, they're ghosts, and all the Rangers feel is a strange chill. The Rangers leave and the Psycho are left fuming. Credits!
At some outdoor cafe, the Rangers are eating lunch and Silvy the blackmailer is there. Andros doesn't know how to use chopsticks, and Ashley teaches him in a scene that's probably meant to be cute. Carlos, Andros and Silvy go off to get more food. A monster attacks the city, and he is confronted by Bulk, Skull and Phenomenus. Bulk's holding some sort of gun. Unfortunately, the gun turns out to be Phenomenus' new toaster...which has a trigger on it for some reason. The monster starts teleporting people away, including Carlos, Andros and Silvy. The other Rangers morph and try and fight him, but accomplish nothing. The monster abducts a few more people and leaves.
In the titular secret city, all of the abducted people wake up, and Ecliptor and some Quantrons show up to round everyone up. Andros and Carlos break off from the herd and try to morph...it doesn't work. The Rangers get beaten up by vengeful Quantrons, and are quickly captured.
In space, T.J. is technically in command, meaning that the Rangers are now completely doomed. They do, however, find the Secret City and realize that if they destroy an antennae on the inside, the force field will come down. T.J. has a plan! It involves them getting captured and sent to a place where they can't morph. Oh, T.J., never change. Alpha helpfully brings them some guns and bombs. They confron the monster again and are sent to Secret City. Once there, they elude some Quantrons and prepare to move onto to phase two, destroying that antenna. For some reason, this involves shooting up some sort of probe out of a flare gun, and the Quantrons pursue them.
Elsewhere, Andros and Carlos plot a breakout. Oh, and now Silvy knows that Andros is the Red Ranger due to an earlier scene where he briefly lost his morpher. Sure. Andros contemplates his battlizer, and more specifically, the ominous number 3 mounted therein. He doesn't know what will happen if he uses it. Andros uses the Battlizer to break his and Carlos' chains, and they head off, presumably to help the others.
Meanwhile, the other Rangers are still trying to destroy the antenna, but are forced to deal with wave after wave of Quantrons. Cassie and T.J. finally set the bombs just as Carlos and Andros run into the monster from before. Andros tries the Battilizer, but it isn't enough. Cassie and T.J. then realize that their now trapped on the top of a building that they've affixed bombs to, thanks to the Quantrons. Another brilliant T.J. plan, ladies and gentlemen! T.J. and Cassie are knocked onto the fire escape and detonate the bombs, causing the forcefield to fall.
Carlos and Andros are still losing against the monster, and Silvy, who has been watching the whole time, decides to gamble with Andros' life and hits the 3 button on his battilizer. This summons a new set of armor that comes complete with fake rubber muscles. So I guess we're supposed to assume that the Battilizer armor comes complete with a dose of quick-acting steroids. Anyway, the Battilizer armor is an American invention, and is basically emblematic of the American male psyche: chrome, lots of guns, and faintly grotesque-looking muscles. It also comes with a jetpack, which Andros uses to rescue Cassie and T.J. He also uses some missiles to blow up the monster, which is just as well, because I think the armor is to bulky to actually move in. This is proven when instead of fighting some Quantrons, Andros uses some sort of magnetic beam to steal their weapons and blows them up from a distance. Andros finishes the monster off with some more missiles. The other Rangers gush about the new, and affordable, Battilizer armor.
On the Dark Fortress, Astronema decides that she might as well fire the sattelasers. The Rangers trot out the Mega Voyager. Lamentably, the monster is still weak to getting shot with missiles, and dies a firey death. Astronema, realizing that her plan isn't quite working, decides to teleport the Secret City away. Elsewhere, the Psycho Ghosts are still talking about getting revenge. To Be Continued!
Next Time: Yet another fight with the Psycho Rangers that the Rangers win in an unsatisfying manner!
Original Airdate: 11-12-1998
Last Time: It was bad...that is all that needs to be said.
Near an abandoned building, the ghosts of the Psycho Rangers have returned. It's like they never left. The Rangers notice the strange reading and investigate. The Psychos try to attack, but, well, they're ghosts, and all the Rangers feel is a strange chill. The Rangers leave and the Psycho are left fuming. Credits!
At some outdoor cafe, the Rangers are eating lunch and Silvy the blackmailer is there. Andros doesn't know how to use chopsticks, and Ashley teaches him in a scene that's probably meant to be cute. Carlos, Andros and Silvy go off to get more food. A monster attacks the city, and he is confronted by Bulk, Skull and Phenomenus. Bulk's holding some sort of gun. Unfortunately, the gun turns out to be Phenomenus' new toaster...which has a trigger on it for some reason. The monster starts teleporting people away, including Carlos, Andros and Silvy. The other Rangers morph and try and fight him, but accomplish nothing. The monster abducts a few more people and leaves.
In the titular secret city, all of the abducted people wake up, and Ecliptor and some Quantrons show up to round everyone up. Andros and Carlos break off from the herd and try to morph...it doesn't work. The Rangers get beaten up by vengeful Quantrons, and are quickly captured.
In space, T.J. is technically in command, meaning that the Rangers are now completely doomed. They do, however, find the Secret City and realize that if they destroy an antennae on the inside, the force field will come down. T.J. has a plan! It involves them getting captured and sent to a place where they can't morph. Oh, T.J., never change. Alpha helpfully brings them some guns and bombs. They confron the monster again and are sent to Secret City. Once there, they elude some Quantrons and prepare to move onto to phase two, destroying that antenna. For some reason, this involves shooting up some sort of probe out of a flare gun, and the Quantrons pursue them.
Elsewhere, Andros and Carlos plot a breakout. Oh, and now Silvy knows that Andros is the Red Ranger due to an earlier scene where he briefly lost his morpher. Sure. Andros contemplates his battlizer, and more specifically, the ominous number 3 mounted therein. He doesn't know what will happen if he uses it. Andros uses the Battlizer to break his and Carlos' chains, and they head off, presumably to help the others.
Meanwhile, the other Rangers are still trying to destroy the antenna, but are forced to deal with wave after wave of Quantrons. Cassie and T.J. finally set the bombs just as Carlos and Andros run into the monster from before. Andros tries the Battilizer, but it isn't enough. Cassie and T.J. then realize that their now trapped on the top of a building that they've affixed bombs to, thanks to the Quantrons. Another brilliant T.J. plan, ladies and gentlemen! T.J. and Cassie are knocked onto the fire escape and detonate the bombs, causing the forcefield to fall.
Carlos and Andros are still losing against the monster, and Silvy, who has been watching the whole time, decides to gamble with Andros' life and hits the 3 button on his battilizer. This summons a new set of armor that comes complete with fake rubber muscles. So I guess we're supposed to assume that the Battilizer armor comes complete with a dose of quick-acting steroids. Anyway, the Battilizer armor is an American invention, and is basically emblematic of the American male psyche: chrome, lots of guns, and faintly grotesque-looking muscles. It also comes with a jetpack, which Andros uses to rescue Cassie and T.J. He also uses some missiles to blow up the monster, which is just as well, because I think the armor is to bulky to actually move in. This is proven when instead of fighting some Quantrons, Andros uses some sort of magnetic beam to steal their weapons and blows them up from a distance. Andros finishes the monster off with some more missiles. The other Rangers gush about the new, and affordable, Battilizer armor.
On the Dark Fortress, Astronema decides that she might as well fire the sattelasers. The Rangers trot out the Mega Voyager. Lamentably, the monster is still weak to getting shot with missiles, and dies a firey death. Astronema, realizing that her plan isn't quite working, decides to teleport the Secret City away. Elsewhere, the Psycho Ghosts are still talking about getting revenge. To Be Continued!
Next Time: Yet another fight with the Psycho Rangers that the Rangers win in an unsatisfying manner!
Andros and the Stowaway
Power Rangers in Space, Episode 37
Original Airdate: 11-11-1998
Last Time: The Power Rangers finally ended the Psycho Ranger arc and I won't have to see them again until...two episodes from now....great.
On yet another jungle planet, a small irritating alien is running away from some sort of angler fish monster. Andros is also on the planet, still looking for Zordon. He finds the alien, and is accosted by the monster, who claims that the alien is his servant. Andros, I beg of you, just walk away, just walk away. Credits!
Andros, not listening to reason, helps the alien, which can only speak in squeals, and forces the angler fish monster to retreat. Andros then leaves, and the alien has to start running from the monster again. On the ship, the Rangers are hanging out when the alien is revealed to have made it onto the ship. Every time the alien shows up, they play this horrible, treacly music that makes me want puncture my eardrums with a skewer. Ashley's response to the creature is to grab her gun and try to shoot it, but Andros stops her. Why, Andros, why? Ashley decides to name the alien she was about to murder 'Seymour' because, as Ashley explains, the alien obviously stowed away "to see more of the universe." Shut up, Ashley. Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up.
On the Dark Fortress, the angler fish monster, Jakkerak, wants Astronema's help in re-capturing Seymour. He manages to convince her by demonstrating his ability to turn things to stone with his lure. Later, Seymour has caused a huge mess in his endless quest for more food. The alien collapses, and the Rangers take him to the infirmary, where Alpha declares that it's just a bad case of indigestion. Meanwhile, Zordon bitterly, bitterly regrets giving Dimitria hiring and firing power for the Rangers. Andros keeps a bedside vigil.
After a while, Andros wakes up to find that Seymour is now the size of a man and is still hungry. This does not disturb Andros as much as it should. In the part of Angel Grove where only Japanese people live, Jakkerak has decided to attack some civilians in order to draw out the Rangers. It works and the Rangers fight the monster for the fate of Seymour. I think the loser has to take him.
On the Megaship, Seymour sees the fight and decides to waddle off and help the Rangers. On Earth, Jakkerak abruptly decides to leave. Back on the ship, the Rangers can't find Seymour and DECA explains that the alien left. We soon see that Seymour has gone down to the park to whine about accidentally making his friends fight a monster. Jakkerak soon finds him but Andros flies in to save Seymour again. Jakkerak vows revenge.
Andros takes Seymour to some sort of industrial park to try to cheer him up, he's also brought Seymour a cookie. Jakkerak shows up so that they can fight yet again. The other Rangers come by to give Andros time to get Seymour away from the battle. They fight, and Andros eventually reappears to give Jakkerak a headbutt. Jakkerak responds by turning Andros' feet to stone. Seymour wanders onto the battlefied, and Jakkerak captures him and kind of absorbs him so that Seymour's face is now sticking out of Jakkerak's torso. Carlos wants to shoot regardless, but Andros stops him. Damn it, Andros! Ashley uses her powers to look for a weak point, and she finds one right between the monster's eyes. Um...I don't think you need power to know that between the eyes is a weak point. The blasters knock Jakkerak down, and return Andros' feet to normal, but have no other effect.
Andros decides to go with plan B, appealing to the power of friendship, which somehow saves Seymour. Unfortuantely, this does little to stop Jakkerak from beating up the rest of the Rangers. Seymour tries to intervene, but well, Seymour just manages to get himself hurt. An enraged Andros finally shuts the monster down. Astronema calls down the sattelasers. The Rangers call on the Astro Megazord, some perfunctory fighting happens, and the monster is finished off by the Astro-Delta Megazord.
On the Dark Fortress, Astronema couldn't care less about the events of this episode, and decides to build herself an army instead. Back on the jungle planet, Andros and the Rangers send Seymour back to his planet and I don't have to see his stupid fucking face anymore. It may be the happiest ending in Power Rangers history. Show Over!
Next Time: Saban decides that Japan has not pumped out enough marketable toys this season, and is forced to take matters into his own hands with disastrous consequences!
Original Airdate: 11-11-1998
Last Time: The Power Rangers finally ended the Psycho Ranger arc and I won't have to see them again until...two episodes from now....great.
On yet another jungle planet, a small irritating alien is running away from some sort of angler fish monster. Andros is also on the planet, still looking for Zordon. He finds the alien, and is accosted by the monster, who claims that the alien is his servant. Andros, I beg of you, just walk away, just walk away. Credits!
Andros, not listening to reason, helps the alien, which can only speak in squeals, and forces the angler fish monster to retreat. Andros then leaves, and the alien has to start running from the monster again. On the ship, the Rangers are hanging out when the alien is revealed to have made it onto the ship. Every time the alien shows up, they play this horrible, treacly music that makes me want puncture my eardrums with a skewer. Ashley's response to the creature is to grab her gun and try to shoot it, but Andros stops her. Why, Andros, why? Ashley decides to name the alien she was about to murder 'Seymour' because, as Ashley explains, the alien obviously stowed away "to see more of the universe." Shut up, Ashley. Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up.
On the Dark Fortress, the angler fish monster, Jakkerak, wants Astronema's help in re-capturing Seymour. He manages to convince her by demonstrating his ability to turn things to stone with his lure. Later, Seymour has caused a huge mess in his endless quest for more food. The alien collapses, and the Rangers take him to the infirmary, where Alpha declares that it's just a bad case of indigestion. Meanwhile, Zordon bitterly, bitterly regrets giving Dimitria hiring and firing power for the Rangers. Andros keeps a bedside vigil.
After a while, Andros wakes up to find that Seymour is now the size of a man and is still hungry. This does not disturb Andros as much as it should. In the part of Angel Grove where only Japanese people live, Jakkerak has decided to attack some civilians in order to draw out the Rangers. It works and the Rangers fight the monster for the fate of Seymour. I think the loser has to take him.
On the Megaship, Seymour sees the fight and decides to waddle off and help the Rangers. On Earth, Jakkerak abruptly decides to leave. Back on the ship, the Rangers can't find Seymour and DECA explains that the alien left. We soon see that Seymour has gone down to the park to whine about accidentally making his friends fight a monster. Jakkerak soon finds him but Andros flies in to save Seymour again. Jakkerak vows revenge.
Andros takes Seymour to some sort of industrial park to try to cheer him up, he's also brought Seymour a cookie. Jakkerak shows up so that they can fight yet again. The other Rangers come by to give Andros time to get Seymour away from the battle. They fight, and Andros eventually reappears to give Jakkerak a headbutt. Jakkerak responds by turning Andros' feet to stone. Seymour wanders onto the battlefied, and Jakkerak captures him and kind of absorbs him so that Seymour's face is now sticking out of Jakkerak's torso. Carlos wants to shoot regardless, but Andros stops him. Damn it, Andros! Ashley uses her powers to look for a weak point, and she finds one right between the monster's eyes. Um...I don't think you need power to know that between the eyes is a weak point. The blasters knock Jakkerak down, and return Andros' feet to normal, but have no other effect.
Andros decides to go with plan B, appealing to the power of friendship, which somehow saves Seymour. Unfortuantely, this does little to stop Jakkerak from beating up the rest of the Rangers. Seymour tries to intervene, but well, Seymour just manages to get himself hurt. An enraged Andros finally shuts the monster down. Astronema calls down the sattelasers. The Rangers call on the Astro Megazord, some perfunctory fighting happens, and the monster is finished off by the Astro-Delta Megazord.
On the Dark Fortress, Astronema couldn't care less about the events of this episode, and decides to build herself an army instead. Back on the jungle planet, Andros and the Rangers send Seymour back to his planet and I don't have to see his stupid fucking face anymore. It may be the happiest ending in Power Rangers history. Show Over!
Next Time: Saban decides that Japan has not pumped out enough marketable toys this season, and is forced to take matters into his own hands with disastrous consequences!
The Enemy Within
Power Rangers in Space, Episode 36
Original Airdate: 11-7-1998
Last Time: The Rangers fought the Psychos again, and lost again. This time, they got the Mega Voyager stolen as well.
On the Megaship, the Rangers are searching for the Mega Voyager. Elsewhere, Dark Specter is still ordering Astronema to find out whose draining his energy, because he still hasn't twigged onto the fact that it's been Astronema all along. Ecliptor is worried that the Psychos, being psychos, will mess up the plan somehow.
And, in fact, Ecliptor is onto something, because the remaining Psychos are discussing yet another mutiny in order to finally destroy the Rangers. The mutiny commences as the Rangers are able to find the Mega Voyager and are about to head off when Zhane, killjoy that he is, points out that it's obviously a trap. The other Rangers argue that they found the Mega Voyager because of how lucky they are. Zhane comes up with a different plan.
The plan begins with the deployment of the long-neglected Megatank. However, the writers then show us the diversion of Zhane, using the Mega Winger and the Delta Megazord. I think those two scenes might be in the wrong order. Psycho Red and Black grow to giant-size to counter the megazords.
The other Rangers manage to get back into the Mega Voyager components, but it's all part of Psycho Yellow's trap. The Rangers have blown it once again. The Rangers form the Mega Voyager, but quickly realize that Psycho Yellow has infected it with a computer virus. She takes control and uses the Mega Voyager to pummel the other two megazords. The Psychos chain them up against a rock cliff with some sort of magical giant-manacle creating eyebeam from Psycho Black.
Fortunately, Ecliptor chooses this moment to summon Psycho Red and demand that he refrain from killing the Rangers. Psycho Red disagrees, and the two fight until the Psycho remembers that he can just teleport out and go back to killing the Red Ranger. He goes back to the battle and decides to corral Andros out of the Mega Voyager and start killing him in person. Andros predictably doesn't stand a chance against his Psycho counterpart until Alpha shows up in the Astro Megazord, and the fight goes back to giant-scale.
The Psychos send in the Mega Voyager to wreck the latecomer, however, and Andros realizes that he has to remove the virus from the Mega Voyager. He decides to do this by repeatedly slashing the Mega Voyager with the Astro Megazord's sword. He's not great with computers. Anyway, this method somehow works until Psycho Red starts interfering. Fortunately for the Rangers, Psycho Black stops him....for some reason. This causes Psycho Red to completely use it, and he manages to expel Psycho Yellow from the Mega Voyager. The Rangers also free the other two Megazords and a massive battle royale breaks out...and the Rangers lose once more.
Ashley comes up with a solution right out of a bad Star Trek episode when she suggests somehow capturing the energy of the Psychos and using it against the monsters. In practice, this involves standing still and letting the Psychos blast them for a while and then firing the Mega Voyager's weapon, a rocket, which somehow can channel the power right back at the Psychos. I don't know how you charge a rocket, but it works. The Rangers are exultant at the end of the Psycho Rangers arc.
On the Dark Fortress, Astronema is less pleased. Dark Specter has managed to figure out that the Psycho Rangers were responsible for his power loss, though seems happy to accept Astronema's explanation that she was totally responsible for their demise. Back on the Megaship, the Rangers officially end their war with the Psycho Rangers by crossing off the rest of the Psychos on their giant dry-erase board. As Andros walks away, however, he sees an ominous shadow, and it turns out to be Psycho Red! Actually, it's just Zhane who's decided to remind the audience what a douche he is by dressing up as the guy who almost killed Andros about a million times. Show Over!
Next Time: One Last Throwaway Episode
Original Airdate: 11-7-1998
Last Time: The Rangers fought the Psychos again, and lost again. This time, they got the Mega Voyager stolen as well.
On the Megaship, the Rangers are searching for the Mega Voyager. Elsewhere, Dark Specter is still ordering Astronema to find out whose draining his energy, because he still hasn't twigged onto the fact that it's been Astronema all along. Ecliptor is worried that the Psychos, being psychos, will mess up the plan somehow.
And, in fact, Ecliptor is onto something, because the remaining Psychos are discussing yet another mutiny in order to finally destroy the Rangers. The mutiny commences as the Rangers are able to find the Mega Voyager and are about to head off when Zhane, killjoy that he is, points out that it's obviously a trap. The other Rangers argue that they found the Mega Voyager because of how lucky they are. Zhane comes up with a different plan.
The plan begins with the deployment of the long-neglected Megatank. However, the writers then show us the diversion of Zhane, using the Mega Winger and the Delta Megazord. I think those two scenes might be in the wrong order. Psycho Red and Black grow to giant-size to counter the megazords.
The other Rangers manage to get back into the Mega Voyager components, but it's all part of Psycho Yellow's trap. The Rangers have blown it once again. The Rangers form the Mega Voyager, but quickly realize that Psycho Yellow has infected it with a computer virus. She takes control and uses the Mega Voyager to pummel the other two megazords. The Psychos chain them up against a rock cliff with some sort of magical giant-manacle creating eyebeam from Psycho Black.
Fortunately, Ecliptor chooses this moment to summon Psycho Red and demand that he refrain from killing the Rangers. Psycho Red disagrees, and the two fight until the Psycho remembers that he can just teleport out and go back to killing the Red Ranger. He goes back to the battle and decides to corral Andros out of the Mega Voyager and start killing him in person. Andros predictably doesn't stand a chance against his Psycho counterpart until Alpha shows up in the Astro Megazord, and the fight goes back to giant-scale.
The Psychos send in the Mega Voyager to wreck the latecomer, however, and Andros realizes that he has to remove the virus from the Mega Voyager. He decides to do this by repeatedly slashing the Mega Voyager with the Astro Megazord's sword. He's not great with computers. Anyway, this method somehow works until Psycho Red starts interfering. Fortunately for the Rangers, Psycho Black stops him....for some reason. This causes Psycho Red to completely use it, and he manages to expel Psycho Yellow from the Mega Voyager. The Rangers also free the other two Megazords and a massive battle royale breaks out...and the Rangers lose once more.
Ashley comes up with a solution right out of a bad Star Trek episode when she suggests somehow capturing the energy of the Psychos and using it against the monsters. In practice, this involves standing still and letting the Psychos blast them for a while and then firing the Mega Voyager's weapon, a rocket, which somehow can channel the power right back at the Psychos. I don't know how you charge a rocket, but it works. The Rangers are exultant at the end of the Psycho Rangers arc.
On the Dark Fortress, Astronema is less pleased. Dark Specter has managed to figure out that the Psycho Rangers were responsible for his power loss, though seems happy to accept Astronema's explanation that she was totally responsible for their demise. Back on the Megaship, the Rangers officially end their war with the Psycho Rangers by crossing off the rest of the Psychos on their giant dry-erase board. As Andros walks away, however, he sees an ominous shadow, and it turns out to be Psycho Red! Actually, it's just Zhane who's decided to remind the audience what a douche he is by dressing up as the guy who almost killed Andros about a million times. Show Over!
Next Time: One Last Throwaway Episode
Friday, July 9, 2010
Silence is Golden
Power Rangers in Space, Episode 35
Original Airdate: 11-6-1998
Last Time: The Rangers managed to bump off another Psycho Ranger, but only after two, count 'em two, more unsuccessful T.J. plans.
On the Megaship, the Rangers have somehow managed to make last episode's moronic chessboard planning session look intelligent by printing a large poster of the Psycho Rangers and crossing two off in order to mark progress. Earthside, Cassie is doing some shopping and has allergies. On the Dark Fortress, the Psycho Rangers have upgrading their abilities to be able to track the Rangers by voice throughout Angel Grove. Astronema, realizing that once again the Psychos are threatening to actually win, and thus not drain more of Dark Specter's power, slows them down by ordering them to capture the Rangers alive. Ecliptor is worried that they're focusing a bit too much of their efforts to destroying Dark Specter rather than the Rangers, but Astronema disagrees. It occurs to me that the last few episodes haven't really been about the Rangers saving anythng so much as them being easily-led dupes serving Astronema's master plan. Credits...in Space!
The Psychos descend to Earth and disguise themselves as normal people. The hunt begins. They quickly hear Ashley use a payphone, and swoop in to capture her. Psycho Yellow bursts into the phone booth only to realize that it's only another girl wearing yellow who sounds like Ashley. Ashley, however, is nearby and overhears the conversation and figures out that they can now track the Rangers by voice.
On the Megaship, Ashley explains the situation to everyone but Cassie, who they can't contact because of the whole voice thing. Andros has an idea....page her and tell her to call them. Probably could have just explained the situation in the page itself, but sure. Andros explains that Cassie can't say anything, morph, or use her communicator. This leads to a number of scene where Cassie forced to navigate life without making a noise, like when someone gives her back the bags she left behind, or when she bumps into someone. She does, however, sneeze, and that's enough to give the Psychos a scent.
Meanwhile, the other Rangers are having a tough time finding Cassie. Wait, they are? I mean, it's not like they're looking for someone who doesn't want to be found or anything. On the park, however, Cassie accidentally runs into a writer's desire to make an homage to The Untouchables and a stroller threatens to roll down some stairs. She's forced to yell in order to save the baby, and the Psychos lock onto her voice. Fortunately, the Psychos get distracted by Zhane walking by in a clown outfit and some tapes of their voices. The other Rangers celebrate and decide to fight the Psychos....I guess because they figure that they'll eventually win a straight-up fight. And, by virtue of outnumbering the Psychos 2-to-1, they do. The Psychos grow giant-sized, and the Rangers call out the Mega Voyager. And thus the Psychos take a 3-to-1 numbers advantage, and use to beat on the Mega Voyager for a while. Zhane, however, has managed to figure out the numbers game brings in the Mega Winger and the Delta Megazord. It doesn't work though, and the Psychos start dragging the Mega Voyager through a portal. The other Rangers, remembering how well abandoning their zords worked last season, suggest that they abandon ship, but Andros is resistant to the idea. So the other Rangers knock him out and drag him off the megazord. The spirit of Turbo lives on!
Elsewhere, Dark Specter is complaining to Astronema that even more of his power has been drained. She promises to redouble her efforts to find whose doing it. You know, Dark Specter, you'd think eventually you'd get a little suspicious about this whole situation. On the Megaship, the Rangers vow to find the Mega Voyager. Astronema and the Psychos have another meeting, and this time Astronema promises to totally let them actually kill the Rangers this time, no fooling. Show Over!
Next Time: The Rangers fights the Psychos....again, but for the last time...this arc.
Original Airdate: 11-6-1998
Last Time: The Rangers managed to bump off another Psycho Ranger, but only after two, count 'em two, more unsuccessful T.J. plans.
On the Megaship, the Rangers have somehow managed to make last episode's moronic chessboard planning session look intelligent by printing a large poster of the Psycho Rangers and crossing two off in order to mark progress. Earthside, Cassie is doing some shopping and has allergies. On the Dark Fortress, the Psycho Rangers have upgrading their abilities to be able to track the Rangers by voice throughout Angel Grove. Astronema, realizing that once again the Psychos are threatening to actually win, and thus not drain more of Dark Specter's power, slows them down by ordering them to capture the Rangers alive. Ecliptor is worried that they're focusing a bit too much of their efforts to destroying Dark Specter rather than the Rangers, but Astronema disagrees. It occurs to me that the last few episodes haven't really been about the Rangers saving anythng so much as them being easily-led dupes serving Astronema's master plan. Credits...in Space!
The Psychos descend to Earth and disguise themselves as normal people. The hunt begins. They quickly hear Ashley use a payphone, and swoop in to capture her. Psycho Yellow bursts into the phone booth only to realize that it's only another girl wearing yellow who sounds like Ashley. Ashley, however, is nearby and overhears the conversation and figures out that they can now track the Rangers by voice.
On the Megaship, Ashley explains the situation to everyone but Cassie, who they can't contact because of the whole voice thing. Andros has an idea....page her and tell her to call them. Probably could have just explained the situation in the page itself, but sure. Andros explains that Cassie can't say anything, morph, or use her communicator. This leads to a number of scene where Cassie forced to navigate life without making a noise, like when someone gives her back the bags she left behind, or when she bumps into someone. She does, however, sneeze, and that's enough to give the Psychos a scent.
Meanwhile, the other Rangers are having a tough time finding Cassie. Wait, they are? I mean, it's not like they're looking for someone who doesn't want to be found or anything. On the park, however, Cassie accidentally runs into a writer's desire to make an homage to The Untouchables and a stroller threatens to roll down some stairs. She's forced to yell in order to save the baby, and the Psychos lock onto her voice. Fortunately, the Psychos get distracted by Zhane walking by in a clown outfit and some tapes of their voices. The other Rangers celebrate and decide to fight the Psychos....I guess because they figure that they'll eventually win a straight-up fight. And, by virtue of outnumbering the Psychos 2-to-1, they do. The Psychos grow giant-sized, and the Rangers call out the Mega Voyager. And thus the Psychos take a 3-to-1 numbers advantage, and use to beat on the Mega Voyager for a while. Zhane, however, has managed to figure out the numbers game brings in the Mega Winger and the Delta Megazord. It doesn't work though, and the Psychos start dragging the Mega Voyager through a portal. The other Rangers, remembering how well abandoning their zords worked last season, suggest that they abandon ship, but Andros is resistant to the idea. So the other Rangers knock him out and drag him off the megazord. The spirit of Turbo lives on!
Elsewhere, Dark Specter is complaining to Astronema that even more of his power has been drained. She promises to redouble her efforts to find whose doing it. You know, Dark Specter, you'd think eventually you'd get a little suspicious about this whole situation. On the Megaship, the Rangers vow to find the Mega Voyager. Astronema and the Psychos have another meeting, and this time Astronema promises to totally let them actually kill the Rangers this time, no fooling. Show Over!
Next Time: The Rangers fights the Psychos....again, but for the last time...this arc.
Five of a Kind
Power Rangers in Space, Episode 34
Original Airdate: 11-5-1998
Last Time: Ashley and Cassie fought about who had to do the chores, this somehow taught them the power of friendship which somehow killed Psycho Pink...somehow.
Dark Specter is having another conference with Astronema about his fading powers. He's apparently figured out that the source of his problem is Earth, and orders Astronema to keep an eye out for anyone draining his powers. Astronema lies that she'll totally get right on that. Dark Specter isn't exactly the smartest guy ever to rule all that is evil.
On the Megaship, the Rangers are strategizing about the Psychos. This involves a chessboard and action figure mockups of the Rangers and the Psychos. Fortunately, T.J. has a plan! It involves them switching opponents to knock the Psychos off balane. Er...weren't there a couple of battles over the last couple of episodes where one Psycho Ranger was powerful enough to take on the entire team? The other Rangers can't see how this plan could possibly fail. Credits!
The Psychos have decided to cut through the planning and have just shown up in the middle of Angel Grove. The Rangers show up to use T.J.'s brilliant plan. It works right up until the Psychos realize that they're also allowed to switch who they're fighting. Zhane shows up and threatens the Psychos that anyone who messes with the Rangers messes with him...and then stands around for a while before finally deciding to help out. He is promptly knocked out by Psycho Blue.
On the Dark Fortress, Astronema is watching the battle when Dark Specter calls in to tell her that his power is being drained at that very moment and asks Astronema to stop whoever's doing it. Realizing that her cover's about to be blown, she recalls the Psychos. On Earth, the Rangers have once again won, in the sense that they were only almost brutally killed. They notice T.J. isn't moving much. Well, in fairness, if you follow a T.J. plan, you're going to get a T.J. result.
Later, T.J. is in the infirmary recovering from his head wound. He realizes that his plan was a complete failure. Elsewhere, the Psychos aren't pleased that they've been prevented from killing the Rangers yet again. They plan another mutiny. Astronema doesn't really care so long as they burn off more energy.
Cassie decides to bring T.J. some food, but finds him reviewing footage from their last fight, either to formulate another foolproof T.J. plan, or because his massive head trauma destroyed his memory of the fight. The color on the monitor glitches out, and T.J. has another plan! He plans for everyone to dress up as the Blue Ranger, although his demonstration on the action figures makes it clear that they would still be distinguishable by their different sizes...but, hell, why not?
On Earth, another Psycho vs. Ranger fight breaks out, this time with the Rangers are dressed in blue. They are soundly trounced by the Psychos yet again. Suddenly, a guy claiming to be Psycho Silver shows up. He also beats up the Rangers. Unfortuantely, the Psycho Rangers can't hold it together and Psycho Blue makes the others leave so he can kill Psycho Silver and the Rangers by himself. Psycho Silver reveals himself to be Zhane in disguise. He and T.J. finish Psycho Blue off. Astronema decides to fire the ol' satellasers. The Rangers call out the Mega Voyager and Winger. The Mega Voyager manages to get frozen, until the Rangers turn up their heater. Psycho Blue doesn't last much beyond that.
Later, Astronema and Ecliptor discuss their dwindling Psycho reserves. They agree that three is enough, but two probably wouldn't be. The remaining Psychos aren't exactly thrilled that they keep getting killed off one by one. Astronema decides that it's probably best to destroy the Rangers sooner rather than later, and comes up with a new plan.
On the Megaship, the Rangers are making sure that the Astro Megaship, and thus the Astro Megazord still work, in case they need them. T.J. is doing some welding near the operational energy reactor. That seems...unwise. He and Andros discuss the fact that the Rangers' past few victories have comely mainly due to the infighting of the Psychos rather than any sort of success on their part, and are kind of worried. And with that, Show Over!
Next Time: Mo' Psycho Fights!
Original Airdate: 11-5-1998
Last Time: Ashley and Cassie fought about who had to do the chores, this somehow taught them the power of friendship which somehow killed Psycho Pink...somehow.
Dark Specter is having another conference with Astronema about his fading powers. He's apparently figured out that the source of his problem is Earth, and orders Astronema to keep an eye out for anyone draining his powers. Astronema lies that she'll totally get right on that. Dark Specter isn't exactly the smartest guy ever to rule all that is evil.
On the Megaship, the Rangers are strategizing about the Psychos. This involves a chessboard and action figure mockups of the Rangers and the Psychos. Fortunately, T.J. has a plan! It involves them switching opponents to knock the Psychos off balane. Er...weren't there a couple of battles over the last couple of episodes where one Psycho Ranger was powerful enough to take on the entire team? The other Rangers can't see how this plan could possibly fail. Credits!
The Psychos have decided to cut through the planning and have just shown up in the middle of Angel Grove. The Rangers show up to use T.J.'s brilliant plan. It works right up until the Psychos realize that they're also allowed to switch who they're fighting. Zhane shows up and threatens the Psychos that anyone who messes with the Rangers messes with him...and then stands around for a while before finally deciding to help out. He is promptly knocked out by Psycho Blue.
On the Dark Fortress, Astronema is watching the battle when Dark Specter calls in to tell her that his power is being drained at that very moment and asks Astronema to stop whoever's doing it. Realizing that her cover's about to be blown, she recalls the Psychos. On Earth, the Rangers have once again won, in the sense that they were only almost brutally killed. They notice T.J. isn't moving much. Well, in fairness, if you follow a T.J. plan, you're going to get a T.J. result.
Later, T.J. is in the infirmary recovering from his head wound. He realizes that his plan was a complete failure. Elsewhere, the Psychos aren't pleased that they've been prevented from killing the Rangers yet again. They plan another mutiny. Astronema doesn't really care so long as they burn off more energy.
Cassie decides to bring T.J. some food, but finds him reviewing footage from their last fight, either to formulate another foolproof T.J. plan, or because his massive head trauma destroyed his memory of the fight. The color on the monitor glitches out, and T.J. has another plan! He plans for everyone to dress up as the Blue Ranger, although his demonstration on the action figures makes it clear that they would still be distinguishable by their different sizes...but, hell, why not?
On Earth, another Psycho vs. Ranger fight breaks out, this time with the Rangers are dressed in blue. They are soundly trounced by the Psychos yet again. Suddenly, a guy claiming to be Psycho Silver shows up. He also beats up the Rangers. Unfortuantely, the Psycho Rangers can't hold it together and Psycho Blue makes the others leave so he can kill Psycho Silver and the Rangers by himself. Psycho Silver reveals himself to be Zhane in disguise. He and T.J. finish Psycho Blue off. Astronema decides to fire the ol' satellasers. The Rangers call out the Mega Voyager and Winger. The Mega Voyager manages to get frozen, until the Rangers turn up their heater. Psycho Blue doesn't last much beyond that.
Later, Astronema and Ecliptor discuss their dwindling Psycho reserves. They agree that three is enough, but two probably wouldn't be. The remaining Psychos aren't exactly thrilled that they keep getting killed off one by one. Astronema decides that it's probably best to destroy the Rangers sooner rather than later, and comes up with a new plan.
On the Megaship, the Rangers are making sure that the Astro Megaship, and thus the Astro Megazord still work, in case they need them. T.J. is doing some welding near the operational energy reactor. That seems...unwise. He and Andros discuss the fact that the Rangers' past few victories have comely mainly due to the infighting of the Psychos rather than any sort of success on their part, and are kind of worried. And with that, Show Over!
Next Time: Mo' Psycho Fights!
A Rift in the Rangers
Power Rangers in Space, Episode 33
Original Airdate: 11-4-1998
Last Time: Carlos get outsmarted by a little girl, and we all learned that blackmail is an excellent tool for getting what you want.
Cassie is doing some sweeping while Andros and Ashley have something to eat. Ashley asks Cassie if she's done washing Ashley's sheets. Ashley decides to head off with the table a mess, much to Cassie's displeasure. Ashley's response is to wipe the debris from the table to the floor. Cassie is not exactly impressed with this course of action, and Ashley questions why things should ever be cleaned, since they're just going to get dirty again. Things break down and Carlos and T.J. attempt to arbitrate, but to no avail. Credits? Credits!
On the Dark Fortress, Astronema pleads ignorance as to the knowledge of the identity of who is stealing Dark Specter's power. As you might recall, Astronema is the one draining Dark Specter's power to fuel her Psycho Rangers and weaken her boss. Psycho Yellow comes in and has a plan to defeat the Rangers. Astronema is unimpressed, as beating the Rangers isn't actually her priority at the moment. Elsewhere, Psycho Yellow inspires Psycho Pink to mutiny and help her destroy the Rangers on their own.
Back at the Megaship, Cassie is still pouting about the unfairness of chores or something. T.J. decides to nip this plot in the bud and has them both sit down and talk. Like every great T.J. plan, it doesn't work. The Rangers are alerted to an attack by Psycho Pink. They arrive, and Psycho Pink shows up with some Quantrons to fill out the fight scene. The fight begins, and Psycho Yellow watches from a distance in order to strike the Rangers when they're weak. And she does, managing to trap Ashley in a pair of manacles and dragging her away. Cassie feels bad about being mean to Ashley right before she was beaten and captured.
In some sort of evil cave, Psycho Yellow is trying to drain Ashley's power, but is interrupted by Psycho Pink, who's pissed that they didn't capture Cassie instead. You know, the big problem with the Psycho Rangers arc is that the Rangers keep losing, but keep getting bailed out by the villain's own treachery. Which is fine on a certain level, I suppose, but kind of unsatisfying given that the Rangers never really manage to do much other than survive. Anyway, Psycho Yellow and Psycho Pink bicker and Ashley escapes.
On the Megaship, Cassie is still depressed that she was mean to Ashley while the other Rangers try to find her. Back on Earth, Ashley is still running away from the Psychos. Psycho Yellow catches up to her, and is about to drain her energy when she gets interrupted by Psycho Pink again. Ashley manages to slip away again....but Psycho Pink finds her again quickly. Cassie shows up to save Ashley, and the other Rangers also show up and take off Ashley's manacles. The Rangers still get beaten up until Ashley notices a hole in Psycho Pink's visor from one of her fights with Psycho Yellow. They manage to finally take Psycho Pink down, but this just causes her to turn into a giant flower monster.
On the Dark Fortress, Astronema and Ecliptor watch the fight, and decide to let Psycho Pink continue, as she's using a ton of Dark Specter's energy in the process. The Rangers call the Mega Voyager, and Zhane shows up in the Mega Winger to pick up a paycheck. The Rangers eventually call for the missile, but the megazord loses all power. This turns out to be a temporary setback, as the Rangers manage to destroy Psycho Pink.
Later, Astronema is lecturing the remaining Psychos about the importance of following the plan. Psycho Red points out that they would have won had they just been allowed to attack, but Astronema isn't willing to move up her timetable. Back on the Megaship, the Rangers are reasonably pleased with killing on the Psychos, and Ashley and Cassie resolve their stupid chores dispute from earlier. This involves duping poor T.J. into doing the cleaning for them by means of a staged fight. The moral of this story is that if you fight over chores, you will never be able to defeat the psychopathic murderers who have targeted you for death. Show Over!
Next Time: T.J. gets hit in the head repeatedly. Unsurprisingly, this leads to another T.J. plan.
Original Airdate: 11-4-1998
Last Time: Carlos get outsmarted by a little girl, and we all learned that blackmail is an excellent tool for getting what you want.
Cassie is doing some sweeping while Andros and Ashley have something to eat. Ashley asks Cassie if she's done washing Ashley's sheets. Ashley decides to head off with the table a mess, much to Cassie's displeasure. Ashley's response is to wipe the debris from the table to the floor. Cassie is not exactly impressed with this course of action, and Ashley questions why things should ever be cleaned, since they're just going to get dirty again. Things break down and Carlos and T.J. attempt to arbitrate, but to no avail. Credits? Credits!
On the Dark Fortress, Astronema pleads ignorance as to the knowledge of the identity of who is stealing Dark Specter's power. As you might recall, Astronema is the one draining Dark Specter's power to fuel her Psycho Rangers and weaken her boss. Psycho Yellow comes in and has a plan to defeat the Rangers. Astronema is unimpressed, as beating the Rangers isn't actually her priority at the moment. Elsewhere, Psycho Yellow inspires Psycho Pink to mutiny and help her destroy the Rangers on their own.
Back at the Megaship, Cassie is still pouting about the unfairness of chores or something. T.J. decides to nip this plot in the bud and has them both sit down and talk. Like every great T.J. plan, it doesn't work. The Rangers are alerted to an attack by Psycho Pink. They arrive, and Psycho Pink shows up with some Quantrons to fill out the fight scene. The fight begins, and Psycho Yellow watches from a distance in order to strike the Rangers when they're weak. And she does, managing to trap Ashley in a pair of manacles and dragging her away. Cassie feels bad about being mean to Ashley right before she was beaten and captured.
In some sort of evil cave, Psycho Yellow is trying to drain Ashley's power, but is interrupted by Psycho Pink, who's pissed that they didn't capture Cassie instead. You know, the big problem with the Psycho Rangers arc is that the Rangers keep losing, but keep getting bailed out by the villain's own treachery. Which is fine on a certain level, I suppose, but kind of unsatisfying given that the Rangers never really manage to do much other than survive. Anyway, Psycho Yellow and Psycho Pink bicker and Ashley escapes.
On the Megaship, Cassie is still depressed that she was mean to Ashley while the other Rangers try to find her. Back on Earth, Ashley is still running away from the Psychos. Psycho Yellow catches up to her, and is about to drain her energy when she gets interrupted by Psycho Pink again. Ashley manages to slip away again....but Psycho Pink finds her again quickly. Cassie shows up to save Ashley, and the other Rangers also show up and take off Ashley's manacles. The Rangers still get beaten up until Ashley notices a hole in Psycho Pink's visor from one of her fights with Psycho Yellow. They manage to finally take Psycho Pink down, but this just causes her to turn into a giant flower monster.
On the Dark Fortress, Astronema and Ecliptor watch the fight, and decide to let Psycho Pink continue, as she's using a ton of Dark Specter's energy in the process. The Rangers call the Mega Voyager, and Zhane shows up in the Mega Winger to pick up a paycheck. The Rangers eventually call for the missile, but the megazord loses all power. This turns out to be a temporary setback, as the Rangers manage to destroy Psycho Pink.
Later, Astronema is lecturing the remaining Psychos about the importance of following the plan. Psycho Red points out that they would have won had they just been allowed to attack, but Astronema isn't willing to move up her timetable. Back on the Megaship, the Rangers are reasonably pleased with killing on the Psychos, and Ashley and Cassie resolve their stupid chores dispute from earlier. This involves duping poor T.J. into doing the cleaning for them by means of a staged fight. The moral of this story is that if you fight over chores, you will never be able to defeat the psychopathic murderers who have targeted you for death. Show Over!
Next Time: T.J. gets hit in the head repeatedly. Unsurprisingly, this leads to another T.J. plan.
Carlos on Call
Power Rangers in Space, Episode 32
Original Airdate: 10-31-1998
Last Time: The Rangers got beaten up by the Psycho Rangers....several times. So, you're probably jazzed to see where that's headed, eh? Too bad.
At the Surf Spot, Carlos is playing an arcade as a little girl watches intently. The game is WWF Superstars, which, if I recall correctly, wasn't exactly spectacular. Also, by 1998, it was damn old. Then again, by 1998, arcades were already on their last legs. The little girl's mother comes to retrieve her daughter, and it turns out that the mother used to teach Carlos. She asks Carlos to watch her daughter for a minute, and Carlos shows off his ability to lose at video games. Carlos challenges the girl to do better, and she does...a lot better. Carlos looks on shocked, as, by the rules of manhood, he has just been completely emasculated. The mother walks off and Carlos walks away. As he leaves, his communicator goes off. Wait, wasn't there a big deal last episode about how they couldn't use the communicators or else the Psycho Rangers would show up and blow them to bits? Anyway, Carlos, being Carlos, decides that a photo booth is a keen place to morph and protect one's secret identity.
The Rangers sans Andros arrive and begin their fight against the monster, which is kind of hard to describe, it's kind of like an armadillo, maybe? With a satellite dish as some sort of collar. Back at the Surf Spot, the little girl, Silvy, finds the photos and realizes that Carlos is the Black Ranger. Carlos isn't doing so great so far in this episode. Credits!
At the monster fight, Andros finally shows up, but the fight ends inconclusively as the monster decides to flee. On the Dark Fortress, the Psychos really want to kill the Rangers, but Astronema disallows such action. Up in the Megaship, Carlos is doing some studying when a robotic voice informs him that he has email. Ah, to live in the 1990s, when AOL still ruled the internet, and voices told us things like "Welcome" and "You've got mail," but those days are past....long past. Anyway, the email tells Carlos that someone knows his secret identity, and demands he meet the holder of the information in person. You know, given that the Rangers' archenemies already know the Rangers' secret identity, I don't why it matters if a little girl knows. I also don't understand why they're doing the blackmail plot for the second time this season.
Carlos, assuming that the Psycho Rangers are planning to blackmail him with his secret identity, instead, you know, gutting him like a fish, heads to the arranged meeting spot. Silvy shows up and Carlos does his damnedest to brush her off. Silvy has to spell it out for him that she's his blackmailer. Carlos is dismayed in the most theatrical way possible. Later, we learn that Silvy has used her incriminating photos to make Carlos go shopping with her. Well, he's still doing better than Cassie did with her blackmailer, at least. Then Silvy gives Carlos a pager so she call him at any time. Carlos has been completely outmanuever by a ten year-old.
On the Megaship, the Rangers are discussing the Silvy situation. Carlos is ready to law down the law right up until he remembers that that's not how being blackmailed works. Silvy summons Carlos to the carnival. Carlos goes along with it. Afterwards, Silvy is willing to give him the photos in exchange for a moon rock. This sets Carlos off and he starts yelling at the girl, instead of simply going to the damn moon, getting a rock, and sparing us the back half of this episode. I mean, fuck, one their Megazords is based on the moon. He storms off.
Later, Carlos is still fuming about Silvy. Ashley comes in and explains that there's something Carlos needs to know about Silvy. Good, I was worried that Carlos had done enough dumbass things this episode. Ashley takes Carlos to see a doctor, who explains that Silvy moved to Angel Grove a while ago so that her brother could receive medical treatment, so she doesn't have any friends around. Oh, and her brother's dead too. The doctor, realizing the need to really hammer the point home, shows Carlos a picture of Silvy's dead brother holding a rocket, and explains that they both wanted to be astronauts, and that Silvy promised to get him a moon rock. Leave it to Carlos to somehow come out the bad guy after being blackmailed. He decides to go get the moon rock.
At the local graveyard, Silvy is talking to her dead brother about her promise to get him a moon rock. The monster shows up to terrorize the little girl. She's able to use her pager to contact Ashley, who'd be given the device by Carlos. The Rangers show up to save the day and the monster goes down. The fight moves onto the giant-sized round and the megazord of the week is...actually first the Rangers try to shoot it with their blasters, which never works on giant-sized creatures. No, the megazord of the week is, in fact....the Mega Voyager! On the Dark Fortress, Astronema realizes that the episode's running short, and asks where the Psychos are. Turns out that they're on Earth and Psycho Red manages to capture Silvy. He demands the Rangers fight him, and they agree. This proves to be a poor choice as Psycho Red manages to defeat the entire team single-handed. The Rangers are only saved by Psycho Black, who hates the Rangers so much that he can't bear to see someone else kill them. They both decide to leave. The Rangers have once again won by default! Hooray!
On the Dark Fortress, Astronema is rethinking her plan in wake of the hopelessly mutinous nature of the Psychos. She decides to take out the Rangers one by one, and chooses to start with the Pink Ranger. Down on Earth, Carlos takes Silvy home, and she gives him back the pictures. He gives her a moon rock. So, I guess the moral of today's episode is that blackmail works, and works well, and only fools would disdain its use. He then takes her to space, reinforcing that lesson. Show Over!
Next Time: Ashley and Cassie fight over chores! Wait, that can't be right...
Original Airdate: 10-31-1998
Last Time: The Rangers got beaten up by the Psycho Rangers....several times. So, you're probably jazzed to see where that's headed, eh? Too bad.
At the Surf Spot, Carlos is playing an arcade as a little girl watches intently. The game is WWF Superstars, which, if I recall correctly, wasn't exactly spectacular. Also, by 1998, it was damn old. Then again, by 1998, arcades were already on their last legs. The little girl's mother comes to retrieve her daughter, and it turns out that the mother used to teach Carlos. She asks Carlos to watch her daughter for a minute, and Carlos shows off his ability to lose at video games. Carlos challenges the girl to do better, and she does...a lot better. Carlos looks on shocked, as, by the rules of manhood, he has just been completely emasculated. The mother walks off and Carlos walks away. As he leaves, his communicator goes off. Wait, wasn't there a big deal last episode about how they couldn't use the communicators or else the Psycho Rangers would show up and blow them to bits? Anyway, Carlos, being Carlos, decides that a photo booth is a keen place to morph and protect one's secret identity.
The Rangers sans Andros arrive and begin their fight against the monster, which is kind of hard to describe, it's kind of like an armadillo, maybe? With a satellite dish as some sort of collar. Back at the Surf Spot, the little girl, Silvy, finds the photos and realizes that Carlos is the Black Ranger. Carlos isn't doing so great so far in this episode. Credits!
At the monster fight, Andros finally shows up, but the fight ends inconclusively as the monster decides to flee. On the Dark Fortress, the Psychos really want to kill the Rangers, but Astronema disallows such action. Up in the Megaship, Carlos is doing some studying when a robotic voice informs him that he has email. Ah, to live in the 1990s, when AOL still ruled the internet, and voices told us things like "Welcome" and "You've got mail," but those days are past....long past. Anyway, the email tells Carlos that someone knows his secret identity, and demands he meet the holder of the information in person. You know, given that the Rangers' archenemies already know the Rangers' secret identity, I don't why it matters if a little girl knows. I also don't understand why they're doing the blackmail plot for the second time this season.
Carlos, assuming that the Psycho Rangers are planning to blackmail him with his secret identity, instead, you know, gutting him like a fish, heads to the arranged meeting spot. Silvy shows up and Carlos does his damnedest to brush her off. Silvy has to spell it out for him that she's his blackmailer. Carlos is dismayed in the most theatrical way possible. Later, we learn that Silvy has used her incriminating photos to make Carlos go shopping with her. Well, he's still doing better than Cassie did with her blackmailer, at least. Then Silvy gives Carlos a pager so she call him at any time. Carlos has been completely outmanuever by a ten year-old.
On the Megaship, the Rangers are discussing the Silvy situation. Carlos is ready to law down the law right up until he remembers that that's not how being blackmailed works. Silvy summons Carlos to the carnival. Carlos goes along with it. Afterwards, Silvy is willing to give him the photos in exchange for a moon rock. This sets Carlos off and he starts yelling at the girl, instead of simply going to the damn moon, getting a rock, and sparing us the back half of this episode. I mean, fuck, one their Megazords is based on the moon. He storms off.
Later, Carlos is still fuming about Silvy. Ashley comes in and explains that there's something Carlos needs to know about Silvy. Good, I was worried that Carlos had done enough dumbass things this episode. Ashley takes Carlos to see a doctor, who explains that Silvy moved to Angel Grove a while ago so that her brother could receive medical treatment, so she doesn't have any friends around. Oh, and her brother's dead too. The doctor, realizing the need to really hammer the point home, shows Carlos a picture of Silvy's dead brother holding a rocket, and explains that they both wanted to be astronauts, and that Silvy promised to get him a moon rock. Leave it to Carlos to somehow come out the bad guy after being blackmailed. He decides to go get the moon rock.
At the local graveyard, Silvy is talking to her dead brother about her promise to get him a moon rock. The monster shows up to terrorize the little girl. She's able to use her pager to contact Ashley, who'd be given the device by Carlos. The Rangers show up to save the day and the monster goes down. The fight moves onto the giant-sized round and the megazord of the week is...actually first the Rangers try to shoot it with their blasters, which never works on giant-sized creatures. No, the megazord of the week is, in fact....the Mega Voyager! On the Dark Fortress, Astronema realizes that the episode's running short, and asks where the Psychos are. Turns out that they're on Earth and Psycho Red manages to capture Silvy. He demands the Rangers fight him, and they agree. This proves to be a poor choice as Psycho Red manages to defeat the entire team single-handed. The Rangers are only saved by Psycho Black, who hates the Rangers so much that he can't bear to see someone else kill them. They both decide to leave. The Rangers have once again won by default! Hooray!
On the Dark Fortress, Astronema is rethinking her plan in wake of the hopelessly mutinous nature of the Psychos. She decides to take out the Rangers one by one, and chooses to start with the Pink Ranger. Down on Earth, Carlos takes Silvy home, and she gives him back the pictures. He gives her a moon rock. So, I guess the moral of today's episode is that blackmail works, and works well, and only fools would disdain its use. He then takes her to space, reinforcing that lesson. Show Over!
Next Time: Ashley and Cassie fight over chores! Wait, that can't be right...
Rangers Gone Psycho
Power Rangers in Space, Episode 31
Original Airdate: 10-30-1998
Last Time: Astronema got reprogrammed to be more evil than ever before and Zhane came back. It was a pretty depressing episode.
The Rangers fight an owl monster, and manage to beat in within thirty seconds. It goes giant-size, the Astro Megazord takes another thirty seconds to finish it off again. The moral of today's episode is to work smarter, not harder. Show Over! er....Credits!
On the Megaship, Andros decides to use his new, more powerful brooding to ruminate on the fate of his sister. Ashley shows up and decides to cheer him up. They go down to the Surf Spot, because nothing will take your mind off of your brainwashed sister planning to murder you and your friends like $2.99 onion rings. Some nearby girl apparently has a computer that makes the exact same sound as the Rangers' communicators, and it throws them off. They all seem to be impressed with the late-90s PDA, which probably was impressive at the time, but well, it isn't now.
Carlos and Cassie get some drinks from the bar area, despite they're being a waitress three minutes ago, and see a news report that several building have been destroyed downtown. Um...isn't this the sort of thing that Rangers should really be monitoring? They get even more confused as the Power Rangers seemingly show up and start shooting at civilians. The real Rangers head down and confront their evil dopplegangers. The real Rangers get their asses kicked for a while, and then the evil Rangers reveal themselves to be the Psycho Rangers, complete with evil costumes. They give a speech about how they're better than the Power Rangers, and then prove it by beating them up again. The Psychos then proceed to drain some sort of information from the Rangers in order to learn how to defeat them even more comprehensively. Zhane shows up and drives the Psychos away with a combination of lasers and his personality.
On the Dark Fortress, Astronema is debriefing the Psychos and orders them to finish the job. Back on Earth, the Psychos scan the city for the Rangers. Elsewhere, Andros and Ashley are concerned about their new nemeses. They decide to head back to the ship. Nearby, some kid is using one of those PDAs from earlier, and manages to inadvertently draws the Psychos to use location with the communicator sound. Similar scenes occur throughout the city. On the Megaship, the Rangers note the seemingly random attacks, and call Zhane to warn him. Predictably, this draws in the Psychos, who swiftly capture Zhane.
Up in space, Andros has figured out that the Psychos are tracking them by the sound of their communicators, which they, therefore, can no longer use. T.J. realizes that he may have accidentally gotten Zhane captured. He and Andros head down to Earth and find Zhane's morpher. They head back up to the ship, and find that he's been taken to an abandoned mansion, and the Rangers make haste to rescue him.
At the mansion, the Rangers accidentally run into an invisible wall surrounding the house, and decide to morph, but realize that the Psychos will hear them. They come up with a plan to distract the Psychos that involves the oft-ignored Megatank. It works, and the Rangers move in, only for the much faster Psychos to catch up to them and stand in their way. They fight again. Inside, Zhane escapes by knocking over a pot and using a rather dull-looking piece of pottery to cut his ropes. I guess the network was a bit leery of Zhane playing with broken glass, and decided that broken pottery was okay, though. Outside, the Rangers get blasted some more. Fortunately, the Psychos are mysteriously teleported away just as the Rangers are defeated. Zhane comes out of the house, and they decide to retreat back to the ship.
On the Dark Fortress, the Psychos complain about not being allowed to finish the job, but Astronema will have none of it, and blasts them with some sort of electricity for their insolence. Ecliptor comes in and asks what's going on. Astronema explains that the Psychos are fueled by Dark Specter, and she plans to use them to drain her boss's power and take his job. It's not the worst idea she's ever had. Show Over!
Next Time: We learn an important lesson about blackmailing...well, another important lesson, I guess.
Original Airdate: 10-30-1998
Last Time: Astronema got reprogrammed to be more evil than ever before and Zhane came back. It was a pretty depressing episode.
The Rangers fight an owl monster, and manage to beat in within thirty seconds. It goes giant-size, the Astro Megazord takes another thirty seconds to finish it off again. The moral of today's episode is to work smarter, not harder. Show Over! er....Credits!
On the Megaship, Andros decides to use his new, more powerful brooding to ruminate on the fate of his sister. Ashley shows up and decides to cheer him up. They go down to the Surf Spot, because nothing will take your mind off of your brainwashed sister planning to murder you and your friends like $2.99 onion rings. Some nearby girl apparently has a computer that makes the exact same sound as the Rangers' communicators, and it throws them off. They all seem to be impressed with the late-90s PDA, which probably was impressive at the time, but well, it isn't now.
Carlos and Cassie get some drinks from the bar area, despite they're being a waitress three minutes ago, and see a news report that several building have been destroyed downtown. Um...isn't this the sort of thing that Rangers should really be monitoring? They get even more confused as the Power Rangers seemingly show up and start shooting at civilians. The real Rangers head down and confront their evil dopplegangers. The real Rangers get their asses kicked for a while, and then the evil Rangers reveal themselves to be the Psycho Rangers, complete with evil costumes. They give a speech about how they're better than the Power Rangers, and then prove it by beating them up again. The Psychos then proceed to drain some sort of information from the Rangers in order to learn how to defeat them even more comprehensively. Zhane shows up and drives the Psychos away with a combination of lasers and his personality.
On the Dark Fortress, Astronema is debriefing the Psychos and orders them to finish the job. Back on Earth, the Psychos scan the city for the Rangers. Elsewhere, Andros and Ashley are concerned about their new nemeses. They decide to head back to the ship. Nearby, some kid is using one of those PDAs from earlier, and manages to inadvertently draws the Psychos to use location with the communicator sound. Similar scenes occur throughout the city. On the Megaship, the Rangers note the seemingly random attacks, and call Zhane to warn him. Predictably, this draws in the Psychos, who swiftly capture Zhane.
Up in space, Andros has figured out that the Psychos are tracking them by the sound of their communicators, which they, therefore, can no longer use. T.J. realizes that he may have accidentally gotten Zhane captured. He and Andros head down to Earth and find Zhane's morpher. They head back up to the ship, and find that he's been taken to an abandoned mansion, and the Rangers make haste to rescue him.
At the mansion, the Rangers accidentally run into an invisible wall surrounding the house, and decide to morph, but realize that the Psychos will hear them. They come up with a plan to distract the Psychos that involves the oft-ignored Megatank. It works, and the Rangers move in, only for the much faster Psychos to catch up to them and stand in their way. They fight again. Inside, Zhane escapes by knocking over a pot and using a rather dull-looking piece of pottery to cut his ropes. I guess the network was a bit leery of Zhane playing with broken glass, and decided that broken pottery was okay, though. Outside, the Rangers get blasted some more. Fortunately, the Psychos are mysteriously teleported away just as the Rangers are defeated. Zhane comes out of the house, and they decide to retreat back to the ship.
On the Dark Fortress, the Psychos complain about not being allowed to finish the job, but Astronema will have none of it, and blasts them with some sort of electricity for their insolence. Ecliptor comes in and asks what's going on. Astronema explains that the Psychos are fueled by Dark Specter, and she plans to use them to drain her boss's power and take his job. It's not the worst idea she's ever had. Show Over!
Next Time: We learn an important lesson about blackmailing...well, another important lesson, I guess.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Dark Specter's Revenge: Part II
Power Rangers in Space, Episode 30
Original Airdate: 10-29-1998
Last Time: Dark Specter, inspired by Deep Impact, decided to throw an asteroid at Earth. The Rangers repeatedly failed to stop it.
In space, the Rangers are still failing at keeping the sky from falling. A mysterious new zord appears to save the day, and it turns out to be Zhane who's piloting it. Terrific. It's called the Mega Winger as a tribute to Zhane's favorite band. The Rangers manage to save the Earth. Credits!
On the Megaship, Zhane explains that he got his new zord from the refugees he helped. I guess the moral of the story is that people shouldn't be so worried about refugee groups, because they can easily build giant robots if the need arises. The other Rangers explain the Astronema situation to Zhane, who is delighted that he can potentially fuck her without the whole "evil" problem.
Down on Earth, Bulk, Skull and Phenomenus have crash-landed and mistake the scrublands around California for an alien world. Elsewhere, Zhane and Andros have decided to hijack a space fighter and sneak onto the Dark Fortress. Andros decides that this would be an appropriate time to disapprove of Zhane going out with his sister. Zhane makes some excuses, but Andros can't let it go. They observe Darkonda ordering Elgar to high alert. The Rangers immediately manage to fool him by disguising themselves as Quantrons. They quickly locate Astronema who is ominously sitting in her chair. She's got some sort of metal thing on her head, and is now even more evil than before. She sends Ecliptor to destroy them.
Zhane wants to flee, but Andros refuses to leave his sister...for about ten seconds before he decides to bail as well. They eventually manage to fight their way off of the station via stolen space fighter. Andros is oddly jaunty about leaving the Dark Fortress, considering all he's been through.
Back on the Megaship, Zhane explains the new situation while Andros broods. On Earth, Phenomenus has a rare moment of lucidity when he realizes that the existence of a pay phone and a human shoe means that they never left Earth after all. They get attacked by a monster, though. The Rangers head down to help them out. Phenomenus' tenuous hold on sanity continues as he confidently predicts that the monster is going to be destroyed in short order. The fight goes smoothly, and in no time at all, the satellilasers are fired and the fight moves onto the bonus round. The Rangers call the Mega Voyager, but chains shoot out of the ground and trap it. The Rangers quickly break free, and Zhane decides to help out in the Mega Winger. Their combined efforts are enough to kill the monster, which was some type of bird, in case you were wondering. It's basically a long commercial for the Mega Winger, as is tradition when introducing a new megazord.
Bulk, Skull and Phenomenus congratulate the Rangers in person, and the Rangers agree to fly them home. Up in the Dark Fortress, Astronema proves her new evilness by forcibly ejecting Darkonda. On the Megaship, DECA explains that some machine is making Astronema evil, and that it could theoretically be removed. Andros vows to get his sister back, hopefully for more than one episode this time. Show Over!
Next Time: Astronema decides to make her own Power Rangers! With hookers! And Blackjack!
Original Airdate: 10-29-1998
Last Time: Dark Specter, inspired by Deep Impact, decided to throw an asteroid at Earth. The Rangers repeatedly failed to stop it.
In space, the Rangers are still failing at keeping the sky from falling. A mysterious new zord appears to save the day, and it turns out to be Zhane who's piloting it. Terrific. It's called the Mega Winger as a tribute to Zhane's favorite band. The Rangers manage to save the Earth. Credits!
On the Megaship, Zhane explains that he got his new zord from the refugees he helped. I guess the moral of the story is that people shouldn't be so worried about refugee groups, because they can easily build giant robots if the need arises. The other Rangers explain the Astronema situation to Zhane, who is delighted that he can potentially fuck her without the whole "evil" problem.
Down on Earth, Bulk, Skull and Phenomenus have crash-landed and mistake the scrublands around California for an alien world. Elsewhere, Zhane and Andros have decided to hijack a space fighter and sneak onto the Dark Fortress. Andros decides that this would be an appropriate time to disapprove of Zhane going out with his sister. Zhane makes some excuses, but Andros can't let it go. They observe Darkonda ordering Elgar to high alert. The Rangers immediately manage to fool him by disguising themselves as Quantrons. They quickly locate Astronema who is ominously sitting in her chair. She's got some sort of metal thing on her head, and is now even more evil than before. She sends Ecliptor to destroy them.
Zhane wants to flee, but Andros refuses to leave his sister...for about ten seconds before he decides to bail as well. They eventually manage to fight their way off of the station via stolen space fighter. Andros is oddly jaunty about leaving the Dark Fortress, considering all he's been through.
Back on the Megaship, Zhane explains the new situation while Andros broods. On Earth, Phenomenus has a rare moment of lucidity when he realizes that the existence of a pay phone and a human shoe means that they never left Earth after all. They get attacked by a monster, though. The Rangers head down to help them out. Phenomenus' tenuous hold on sanity continues as he confidently predicts that the monster is going to be destroyed in short order. The fight goes smoothly, and in no time at all, the satellilasers are fired and the fight moves onto the bonus round. The Rangers call the Mega Voyager, but chains shoot out of the ground and trap it. The Rangers quickly break free, and Zhane decides to help out in the Mega Winger. Their combined efforts are enough to kill the monster, which was some type of bird, in case you were wondering. It's basically a long commercial for the Mega Winger, as is tradition when introducing a new megazord.
Bulk, Skull and Phenomenus congratulate the Rangers in person, and the Rangers agree to fly them home. Up in the Dark Fortress, Astronema proves her new evilness by forcibly ejecting Darkonda. On the Megaship, DECA explains that some machine is making Astronema evil, and that it could theoretically be removed. Andros vows to get his sister back, hopefully for more than one episode this time. Show Over!
Next Time: Astronema decides to make her own Power Rangers! With hookers! And Blackjack!
Dark Specter's Revenge, Part I
Power Rangers in Space, Episode 29
Original Airdate: 10-28-1998
Last Time: Astronema resolved to mend her evil ways. Her first action in pursuit of this goal? Treason!
On the Megaship, Andros is giving a tour of the ship to Astronema. DECA calls into to summon Astronema to the bridge for a meeting of unknown purpose. The other Rangers announce that they've made Astronema an honorary Power Ranger. Huh. I guess they didn't take her many, many plans to kill them all personally. They also give her a new uniform that is not form-fitting. This is rather disappointing.
Meanwhile, Darkonda decides to perform some experimental brain surgery on Ecliptor to make sure that no incidents like the one from last week happen again. Darkonda starts up a menacing-looking drill and....Credits!
Back on the Megaship, Astronema has changed into her new outfit and either cut her hear or stopped wearing that wig. Incidentally, being made good has somehow also cured her of her overacting. On the Dark Fortress, Darkonda pronounces Ecliptor's procedure a success, and Dark Specter orders him to destroy the Earth.
Down on Earth, Bulk, Skull and Phenomenus are camping out in the wilderness. Bulk asks the professor what insane thing Phenomenus is doing this week. The old man explains that they're hunting aliens. He finds a giant asteroid heading towards Earth. Phenomenus explains that the Earth is doomed. Bulk and Skull are concerned.
In space, the Rangers almost crash into the giant asteroid and Dark Specter calls in to demand the return of Astronema in exchange for the astroid not destroying Earth. Andros refuses to play ball, and decides to blast it with lasers. It accomplishes nothing. Andros has another idea that involves setting bombs on the face of the asteroid. Christ, didn't he listen to the scientist from Armageddon? You have to drill into the asteroid first and then plant the bombs. You also need a team of heroic blue-collar white Americans to do it. Not oil drillers, though, they're a bit out of favor at the moment. Maybe coal miners or something. Darkonda and some Quantrons show up to stop the Rangers. It doesn't work as Carlos, Cassie and Ashley use their individual Mega Voyager vehicles to destroy the space fighters and Andros and T.J. finish setting the bombs. The bomb plan also fails, however.
The Rangers regroup on the bridge, and Astronema suggests that she sneak back onto the Dark Fortress and reprogramming the asteroid to not hit Earth. Well, that's a unique spin on the formula of asteroid movies, I suppose. Of course, the reason that it's never been tried is because asteroids can't be reprogrammed, but sure, why not?
Back on Earth, Bulk & company are watching the gates of NASADA. Phenomenus manages to stop the commander's car and warns him about the oncoming asteroid, and that only NASADA can stop it, preferably with a crew contained Aaron Eckhart and Robert Duvall.
Elsewhere, Astronema has managed to make it onboard the Dark Fortress. She's back in her old outfit and has new evil wig. She's about to reprogram the asteroid when Ecliptor shows up to inform her of how stupid a plan that is. Also, he's there to reveal that he has new cybernetic parts that make him double-evil. He captures her in hopes of doing the same for Astronema. The Rangers, who have been listening by radio this whole time, are bummed. The commander of NASADA calls in to ask them to do something about the asteroid. T.J. has a plan! He intends to use the Megazords to steer the asteroid away from Earth.
In front of the NASADA building, the commander calls a press conference to inform the world of its imminent destruction. He helpfully compares it to the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs. He doesn't take questions. Fortunately, Phenomenus is there is to talk to reporters, and he encourages everyone to panic. Bulk and Skull take him away before he calls for widespread looting and end-of-the-world orgies.
In Space, the Rangers call out the Astro Megazord, the Delta Megazord and the Mega Voyager to stop the asteroid. On Earth, Phenomenus manages to find an experimental space craft, and decides to get off this rock with Bulk and Skull. The experimental space craft turns out to be stock footage of the Saturn V. It launches, using stock footage of is clearly a different rocket, as Saban uses as much public doman footage as he can find.
On the Dark Fortress, Darkonda is pleased with how the day has gone. In space, the Rangers realize that they've managed to fail yet again. To Be Continued!
Next Time: The Earth is saved but only at tremendous cost: the reintroduction of Zhane.
Original Airdate: 10-28-1998
Last Time: Astronema resolved to mend her evil ways. Her first action in pursuit of this goal? Treason!
On the Megaship, Andros is giving a tour of the ship to Astronema. DECA calls into to summon Astronema to the bridge for a meeting of unknown purpose. The other Rangers announce that they've made Astronema an honorary Power Ranger. Huh. I guess they didn't take her many, many plans to kill them all personally. They also give her a new uniform that is not form-fitting. This is rather disappointing.
Meanwhile, Darkonda decides to perform some experimental brain surgery on Ecliptor to make sure that no incidents like the one from last week happen again. Darkonda starts up a menacing-looking drill and....Credits!
Back on the Megaship, Astronema has changed into her new outfit and either cut her hear or stopped wearing that wig. Incidentally, being made good has somehow also cured her of her overacting. On the Dark Fortress, Darkonda pronounces Ecliptor's procedure a success, and Dark Specter orders him to destroy the Earth.
Down on Earth, Bulk, Skull and Phenomenus are camping out in the wilderness. Bulk asks the professor what insane thing Phenomenus is doing this week. The old man explains that they're hunting aliens. He finds a giant asteroid heading towards Earth. Phenomenus explains that the Earth is doomed. Bulk and Skull are concerned.
In space, the Rangers almost crash into the giant asteroid and Dark Specter calls in to demand the return of Astronema in exchange for the astroid not destroying Earth. Andros refuses to play ball, and decides to blast it with lasers. It accomplishes nothing. Andros has another idea that involves setting bombs on the face of the asteroid. Christ, didn't he listen to the scientist from Armageddon? You have to drill into the asteroid first and then plant the bombs. You also need a team of heroic blue-collar white Americans to do it. Not oil drillers, though, they're a bit out of favor at the moment. Maybe coal miners or something. Darkonda and some Quantrons show up to stop the Rangers. It doesn't work as Carlos, Cassie and Ashley use their individual Mega Voyager vehicles to destroy the space fighters and Andros and T.J. finish setting the bombs. The bomb plan also fails, however.
The Rangers regroup on the bridge, and Astronema suggests that she sneak back onto the Dark Fortress and reprogramming the asteroid to not hit Earth. Well, that's a unique spin on the formula of asteroid movies, I suppose. Of course, the reason that it's never been tried is because asteroids can't be reprogrammed, but sure, why not?
Back on Earth, Bulk & company are watching the gates of NASADA. Phenomenus manages to stop the commander's car and warns him about the oncoming asteroid, and that only NASADA can stop it, preferably with a crew contained Aaron Eckhart and Robert Duvall.
Elsewhere, Astronema has managed to make it onboard the Dark Fortress. She's back in her old outfit and has new evil wig. She's about to reprogram the asteroid when Ecliptor shows up to inform her of how stupid a plan that is. Also, he's there to reveal that he has new cybernetic parts that make him double-evil. He captures her in hopes of doing the same for Astronema. The Rangers, who have been listening by radio this whole time, are bummed. The commander of NASADA calls in to ask them to do something about the asteroid. T.J. has a plan! He intends to use the Megazords to steer the asteroid away from Earth.
In front of the NASADA building, the commander calls a press conference to inform the world of its imminent destruction. He helpfully compares it to the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs. He doesn't take questions. Fortunately, Phenomenus is there is to talk to reporters, and he encourages everyone to panic. Bulk and Skull take him away before he calls for widespread looting and end-of-the-world orgies.
In Space, the Rangers call out the Astro Megazord, the Delta Megazord and the Mega Voyager to stop the asteroid. On Earth, Phenomenus manages to find an experimental space craft, and decides to get off this rock with Bulk and Skull. The experimental space craft turns out to be stock footage of the Saturn V. It launches, using stock footage of is clearly a different rocket, as Saban uses as much public doman footage as he can find.
On the Dark Fortress, Darkonda is pleased with how the day has gone. In space, the Rangers realize that they've managed to fail yet again. To Be Continued!
Next Time: The Earth is saved but only at tremendous cost: the reintroduction of Zhane.
The Rangers' Leap of Faith
Power Rangers in Space, Episode 28
Original Airdate: 10-24-1998
Last Time: Astronema defected and the Rangers decided to marginally trust her in order to save Zordon.
On the Megaship, Astronema has been chained up in the engine room. Andros brings her some food. Astronema claims that she isn't hungry, and they have a heart-to-heart about trust. She also asks about her parents, but they are apparently missing as well. Ecliptor is Andros' father! Well, no, not really. Later, the Rangers finally arrive at the planet where Zordon is being held.
Andros and Astronema go to the bridge, where Andros explains that they have to put on chains in order to create the illusion that Astronema has captured them. T.J. and the others, method actors all, decide that this means that they must use real restraints. Astronema says 'please' and 'thank you' to Alpha, and Andros is pleased because no one would ever use such words as mere pleasantries. She calls into Dark Specter and gets him to lower the forcefield around the planet.
The Rangers throw off their shackles and T.J. assumes command. The Rangers are completely and utterly doomed. An alarm goes off as some space fighters show up to escort the Megaship. T.J. agrees to follow them. Thirty seconds later, T.J. decides to blow the Rangers' cover and lose the escorts. The Megaship gets hit by lightning and the ship crash lands. Astronema uses the confusion to escape. The other Rangers are pretty sure this is all a trap, but Andros won't believe it until every last one of the them is dead due to his sisters' machinations.
Leaving the Megaship, the Rangers trudge through the jungle looking for Zordon. The Piranhatrons are there, and the Rangers aren't sure what that means. Darkonda shows up and starts taunting them. The rest of the Rangers are bogged down in combat, and so Andros heads off to find Zordon alone. The other Rangers manage to get captured, but Astronema shows up to help out Andros. Ecliptor also shows up to kill Andros, but Astronema's pleas destroy his resolve. Apparently they didn't build him evil enough. Darkonda uses the opportunity to slash Ecliptor across the back for about the 5oth time this season, knocking him out.
Andros and Astronema finally find Zordon, who "can't believe that you are still such a fool." It turns out that, in fact, it was a trap, and it's not really Zordon. Although, at this point in the season, I bet the real Zordon doesn't really disagree. Darkonda steps out of the jungle to capture Andros, who feels rather betrayed at the whole turn of events. Darkonda, despite Astronema having helped the bad guys successfully capture all of the Rangers through a devious trap, decides to question her loyalty some more. She knocks him around for such effrontery. Dark Specter, however, decides not to take any chances, and orders Astronema to kill her brother. She does and the series ends.
Well, not really. She orders Darkonda to kill them and then blasts him once his back is turned. Who's the real traitor here? She frees the Rangers and they all escape. Darkonda manages to get back up and the Rangers and Astronema are surrounding until Ecliptor decides to blow Darkonda to bits with his eye beams. He decides to cover their escape, and the Rangers make it back to the Megaship, and they leave the planet.
On the Dark Fortress, Darkonda is put in charge until Astronema returns, a remark that puzzles him. Dark Specter explains that he has a plan to make sure she and Ecliptor are never disloyal again. Meanwhile, the other Rangers apologize for not trusting Astronema. Astronema claims she's never had a friend before...which has got to be a bummer for Ecliptor. Show Over!
Next Time: A trip down memory lane to the blockbuster summer of 1998!
Original Airdate: 10-24-1998
Last Time: Astronema defected and the Rangers decided to marginally trust her in order to save Zordon.
On the Megaship, Astronema has been chained up in the engine room. Andros brings her some food. Astronema claims that she isn't hungry, and they have a heart-to-heart about trust. She also asks about her parents, but they are apparently missing as well. Ecliptor is Andros' father! Well, no, not really. Later, the Rangers finally arrive at the planet where Zordon is being held.
Andros and Astronema go to the bridge, where Andros explains that they have to put on chains in order to create the illusion that Astronema has captured them. T.J. and the others, method actors all, decide that this means that they must use real restraints. Astronema says 'please' and 'thank you' to Alpha, and Andros is pleased because no one would ever use such words as mere pleasantries. She calls into Dark Specter and gets him to lower the forcefield around the planet.
The Rangers throw off their shackles and T.J. assumes command. The Rangers are completely and utterly doomed. An alarm goes off as some space fighters show up to escort the Megaship. T.J. agrees to follow them. Thirty seconds later, T.J. decides to blow the Rangers' cover and lose the escorts. The Megaship gets hit by lightning and the ship crash lands. Astronema uses the confusion to escape. The other Rangers are pretty sure this is all a trap, but Andros won't believe it until every last one of the them is dead due to his sisters' machinations.
Leaving the Megaship, the Rangers trudge through the jungle looking for Zordon. The Piranhatrons are there, and the Rangers aren't sure what that means. Darkonda shows up and starts taunting them. The rest of the Rangers are bogged down in combat, and so Andros heads off to find Zordon alone. The other Rangers manage to get captured, but Astronema shows up to help out Andros. Ecliptor also shows up to kill Andros, but Astronema's pleas destroy his resolve. Apparently they didn't build him evil enough. Darkonda uses the opportunity to slash Ecliptor across the back for about the 5oth time this season, knocking him out.
Andros and Astronema finally find Zordon, who "can't believe that you are still such a fool." It turns out that, in fact, it was a trap, and it's not really Zordon. Although, at this point in the season, I bet the real Zordon doesn't really disagree. Darkonda steps out of the jungle to capture Andros, who feels rather betrayed at the whole turn of events. Darkonda, despite Astronema having helped the bad guys successfully capture all of the Rangers through a devious trap, decides to question her loyalty some more. She knocks him around for such effrontery. Dark Specter, however, decides not to take any chances, and orders Astronema to kill her brother. She does and the series ends.
Well, not really. She orders Darkonda to kill them and then blasts him once his back is turned. Who's the real traitor here? She frees the Rangers and they all escape. Darkonda manages to get back up and the Rangers and Astronema are surrounding until Ecliptor decides to blow Darkonda to bits with his eye beams. He decides to cover their escape, and the Rangers make it back to the Megaship, and they leave the planet.
On the Dark Fortress, Darkonda is put in charge until Astronema returns, a remark that puzzles him. Dark Specter explains that he has a plan to make sure she and Ecliptor are never disloyal again. Meanwhile, the other Rangers apologize for not trusting Astronema. Astronema claims she's never had a friend before...which has got to be a bummer for Ecliptor. Show Over!
Next Time: A trip down memory lane to the blockbuster summer of 1998!
Astronema Thinks Twice
Power Rangers in Space, Episode 27
Original Airdate: 10-23-1998
Last Time: Andros finally figured out that Astronema was his sister. Darkonda seemed pretty insistent that Astronema would betray them all, but no one listened to him.
On some planet, I'm going to guess KO-35, Astronema is trying to recover memories of her childhood by walking around the deserted streets. She suceeds and realizes that she is, in fact, Andros' sister, Karone. Andros shows up to try to convince Astronema some more. She responds by blasting him with her staff and leaving. Darkonda looks on and is pleased with the progress of his latest scheme to wreck Astronema's confidence in her evil, which I suppose will lead to him getting her job. He has a good laugh, but Ecliptor shows up to finally fulfill his series long ambition of murdering Darkonda. Credits!
Darkonda and Ecliptor get down to it, and have a fight that lasts about forever. I suppose it's about as good as a swordfight between two guys in bulky stryofoam costumes as can be expected. It keeps going and going until Darkonda decides to absorb Ecliptor again, but it doesn't take and Ecliptor finally finishes Darkonda off. Ecliptor immediately realizes that there ought to be a body, and figures out that Darkonda has once again escaped.
Elsewhere, Darkonda comments on how he only has five lives left. Darkonda argues to Dark Specter that they should just kill Astronema now and be done with, but Dark Specter decides to go with a loyalty test instead. Darkonda also suggests destroying Eclitpor, but Dark Specter is unmoved. On the Dark Fortress, Ecliptor tries to deliver some important news, but gets bogged down in a heart-to-heart with Astronema. Ecliptor explains that he was built to be evil, but in the grand scheme of things, Astronema's morality is about as stable as the sexuality of a freshman at Smith College. Ecliptor also explains that both Darkonda and Dark Specter know that she knows who she really is. She decides to pre-emptively prove her loyalty by sending a monster to destroy the Red Ranger.
On KO-35, Andros is still chilling and looking for Astronema. The monster shows up and they fight. Andros gets his morpher knocked off. Astronema shows up to watch the fight in person and sees Andros getting demolished without his morpher, which Astronema has picked up. She gives Andros back his morpher and decides to leave. Yeah, she's not passing that loyalty test. He morphs, the other Rangers show up to fulfill their contractual obligations, and the monster gets destroyed.
The monster grows to giant-size and the Rangers use the Mega Voyager to destroy the monster again. On a bluff, Astronema has chat with Dark Specter about maintaining her evil-ness. He orders her to destroy her brother. On the Megaship, the Rangers debate Astronema's current level of evil. They're cut short when Astronema asks Andros to meet him alone on KO-35. Andros heads down and makes another pitch for goodness. She ultimately agrees to defect and lead him to Zordon. Upon their return to the Megaship, the Rangers are not enamored of Andros' faith in his sister. Astronema explains that the Rangers will need her help to get onto the planet where Zordon is being held. The Rangers agree to do it if they can lock Astronema up. I don't really know how that makes walking into a potential trap any safer, but it's T.J.'s idea, after all. Astronema agrees and they all head off to save Zordon. Will they succeed? To Be Continued!
Next Time: The Rangers walk into a trap and fail to save Zordon.
Original Airdate: 10-23-1998
Last Time: Andros finally figured out that Astronema was his sister. Darkonda seemed pretty insistent that Astronema would betray them all, but no one listened to him.
On some planet, I'm going to guess KO-35, Astronema is trying to recover memories of her childhood by walking around the deserted streets. She suceeds and realizes that she is, in fact, Andros' sister, Karone. Andros shows up to try to convince Astronema some more. She responds by blasting him with her staff and leaving. Darkonda looks on and is pleased with the progress of his latest scheme to wreck Astronema's confidence in her evil, which I suppose will lead to him getting her job. He has a good laugh, but Ecliptor shows up to finally fulfill his series long ambition of murdering Darkonda. Credits!
Darkonda and Ecliptor get down to it, and have a fight that lasts about forever. I suppose it's about as good as a swordfight between two guys in bulky stryofoam costumes as can be expected. It keeps going and going until Darkonda decides to absorb Ecliptor again, but it doesn't take and Ecliptor finally finishes Darkonda off. Ecliptor immediately realizes that there ought to be a body, and figures out that Darkonda has once again escaped.
Elsewhere, Darkonda comments on how he only has five lives left. Darkonda argues to Dark Specter that they should just kill Astronema now and be done with, but Dark Specter decides to go with a loyalty test instead. Darkonda also suggests destroying Eclitpor, but Dark Specter is unmoved. On the Dark Fortress, Ecliptor tries to deliver some important news, but gets bogged down in a heart-to-heart with Astronema. Ecliptor explains that he was built to be evil, but in the grand scheme of things, Astronema's morality is about as stable as the sexuality of a freshman at Smith College. Ecliptor also explains that both Darkonda and Dark Specter know that she knows who she really is. She decides to pre-emptively prove her loyalty by sending a monster to destroy the Red Ranger.
On KO-35, Andros is still chilling and looking for Astronema. The monster shows up and they fight. Andros gets his morpher knocked off. Astronema shows up to watch the fight in person and sees Andros getting demolished without his morpher, which Astronema has picked up. She gives Andros back his morpher and decides to leave. Yeah, she's not passing that loyalty test. He morphs, the other Rangers show up to fulfill their contractual obligations, and the monster gets destroyed.
The monster grows to giant-size and the Rangers use the Mega Voyager to destroy the monster again. On a bluff, Astronema has chat with Dark Specter about maintaining her evil-ness. He orders her to destroy her brother. On the Megaship, the Rangers debate Astronema's current level of evil. They're cut short when Astronema asks Andros to meet him alone on KO-35. Andros heads down and makes another pitch for goodness. She ultimately agrees to defect and lead him to Zordon. Upon their return to the Megaship, the Rangers are not enamored of Andros' faith in his sister. Astronema explains that the Rangers will need her help to get onto the planet where Zordon is being held. The Rangers agree to do it if they can lock Astronema up. I don't really know how that makes walking into a potential trap any safer, but it's T.J.'s idea, after all. Astronema agrees and they all head off to save Zordon. Will they succeed? To Be Continued!
Next Time: The Rangers walk into a trap and fail to save Zordon.
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