1.40 Doomsday Part 2

Episode 40, Season 1

Doomsday Part 2

Writer: Stewart St. John

Director: Terence H. Winkless

Episode Summary:

We pick up where we left off with our teens discussing their options at the Command Center.  Jason has this bright idea to take the Zords at half power to battle Cyclopsis and Lokar despite the fact that everyone in the room says “Jason that idea sucks” or “Jason, nobody’s ever done that before” or “Jason, everything in the entire morphing grid could disappear.”  So naturally we morph and head right to Megazord.

It’s dark out and Megazord seemingly has some upgrades in that it can function at night now (despite learning that it runs on solar energy in the Green with Evil mini-series).  Cyclopsis cuts off Dragonzord’s tail and Megazord’s arm and then beats him with it as all the Zords disappear and the Rangers de-morph and land (in daylight) on the stage at the Power Ranger Day festival.  Don’t worry, Billy informs us that along with the solar power issue, Zordon apparently upgraded the Zords to go to their hiding place and not die in the event that they were defeated in battle.  Thanks for letting us know that when Zordon was threatening Jason with the whole disappearing-in-the-morphing-grid business.

With Rita’s Palace on Earth, Alpha is able to hack her computer and get into her spells and learn what weaknesses Cyclopsis has they can exploit – turns out he can’t adjust quickly to changing battle modes.  The Rangers and Goldar visit Billy’s garage for some chill time before jumping back into their respective Zords and battling it out til the end.  For the record: Ultrazord 1, Cyclopsis 0.

Power Ranger Day is officially introduced by Mayor Kerrington as the Rangers shake everyone’s hands and pat Tommy on the back pitying him and his non-Rangerness.  The Rangers are given a choice at the Command Center – do you want to keep fighting evil or are you guys cool with all the work you already did?

Group high-five shouting “POWER RANGERS!” is their response – so I guess we’re getting a second half to season 1 after all!

Facts:

-First on-screen – Jason

-First line – Zordon – “Cyclopsis is one of Rita’s most terrifying creations.”

-Focus – All

-Last Line – All – “POWER RANGERS!”

-Rita and Zordon both store their pertinent information on computers

Observations:

The most interesting thing that popped out at me in this episode is the fact that Rita’s secrets and spells and everything is on her computer.  This almost passed me by when I remembered this is 1993.  Along with having a female mayor in Angel Grove, Power Rangers was pretty ahead of its time in converting all of Rita’s files to her computer.  However, we’re teaching the kiddies a bad lesson about hacking in this episode.  Still, this is part of what made Power Rangers so exciting at the time, we weren’t just dealing with crime fighters in spandex suits, we were dealing with technology and issues unique to this period in time.  A great combination of ancient magic and mythology with the computer age. 

This was supposed to be the end of the series – at this point Saban has burned out all the original footage from Zyuranger and didn’t know what to do with this runaway hit.  What we’ll see in the episodes that aired approximately 3-4 months after this episode is specially made footage dubbed “Zyu 2.”  This will be the only part of the Power Rangers series that does not follow Japanese aired footage.

That said, at the halfway-ish point of Season 1, we’ve seen the teens tackle pollution, friends with disabilities, responsibility, female empowerment, computer hacking, nuclear waste . . . very much issues of the time.  This is what newer seasons like Samurai have been missing.  The cutting edge of what’s happening now as opposed to sticking with formulaic topics.