1.34 Green Candle Part 1

Episode 34, Season 1

Green Candle Part 1

Writer: Mark McKain & Stewart St. John

Director: Robert Hughes

Episode Summary:

Everything is normal as per usual in Ranger world - Zack and Tommy are sparring at the Angel Grove Youth Center and talking about *blush* the dance.  We learn that Tommy has been sweet on Pink Ranger Kimberly and can't bring himself to ask her to the dance.  Zack realizes how ridiculous this is and gives him sass.

Tommy decides to man up and ask Kim during a walk through the park except, sigh, Goldar has to go and ruin the moment.  The Putties wreak some havoc and end up bringing Tommy back to his second home - Rita's layer.  It is here that we learn the dastardly scheme Rita has worked up this week - STEALING TOMMY'S POWERS!

Apparently while evil, he touched some of Rita's green paraffin wax and she made a candle out of it and BOOM his powers will be hers. Whatever will the Rangers do?  At the same time she also releases a Cyclops monster who can shape-shift.  Tommy decides that instead of saving his powers he'd rather help his friends and save the world.  But oh no . . . the candle is still burning

TO BE CONTINUED!

Facts:

-First on-screen – Tommy and Zack

-First line – “You okay, man?" - Tommy

-Focus – Tommy 

-Last Line – “The Green Ranger's . . . finished." - Tommy

-Tommy touched Rita's wax

Observations:

Well, Rita finally came up with a scheme that's actually not bad.  Given, the writers had to find a way to write in Burai's death on Zyuranger without actually killing Tommy.  The kiddies would have the sads.  So it's a good way to end the *SPOILER* first Green Ranger era without completely crushing the dreams and hopes and delusions of American children.  Apparently Japanese children can take it.  But - this wax business is out of nowhere.  Could we maybe have set up this plot point sooner?  It's not like they didn't know Burai dies.

We also see Tommy getting dating advice from Zack - which is a big ouch to Jason whom I thought was his best friend.  But clearly Zack's got some moves, as we see when Angela rejects him (again).  But seriously, who are you going to get girl advice from?  Jason the jock, Billy the closeted gay guy, or Zack the guy who invented his own form of martial arts based on his hot dance moves.  I think the answer is clear.  Plus, as I've pointed out several times - definitely something going on with Trini and him so I think he knows what he's talking about.

We're left on the edge of our seats to ponder:

1) will Tommy lose his powers?????

2) will Kim go to the dance with Tommy?????

3) can Tommy actually dance?

1.20 Green with Evil Part IV: Eclipsing Megazord

Season 1, Episode 20
"Green with Evil Part IV: Eclipsing Megazord"
Writer: Gindy McKay and Stewart St. John
Director: Robert Hughes

Episode Summary:
Goldar is still destroying Angel Grove as per the end of the last episode and Rita is still planning on creating a solar eclipse to drain Megazord of its power and the Green Ranger will still be the one to destroy Megazord after all of this is done.  So the first nearly five minutes of the episode are simply recapping (and re-showing that Megazord eclipse footage for the third time) without any new action.  The Rangers attempt to morph but sparks come out of their morphers instead - turns out Alpha's computer usage is causing an inter-dimensional power surge that keeps the Rangers from morphing.  So we can't morph, we can't use the Zords yet, and the Command Center is basically broken - Mercury must be in retrograde.

Billy realizes he can connect these negative electrodes here and these postive electrodes there and voila we have power in the morphing grid again!  Our heroes morph and battle Scorpina while Squatt and Baboo dance a jig behind her.  We find out Zordon is in sector Q-9 and as Alpha tries to recover him, the Green Ranger enters the Command Center again to take out Alpha and send Zordon to a dimension where he'll never be recovered (bwahahaha!).  He commits the bad guy faux pas of talking too much and while he's telling Zordon exactly where he'll be sending him and that evil will triumph, Alpha's backup power kicks in and he captures the Green Ranger.  By far making him the most useful good guy in this saga.

Bulk and Skull try to escape Angel Grove on a bus only to have giant Goldar pick it up and dangle it over the Rangers heads.  If the Rangers try to save them, they'll drop the bus.  If they don't try to save them, they'll drop the bus.  What to do?  Let's get some Dinozord power in there, that's what!  Megazord saves Bulk and Skull and then goes after Goldar and by now a giant Scorpina as well (by the way, Scorpina loses all beauty when she grows) - Rita then conducts her spell and drains Megazord of its power.  She then brings in her beloved Green Ranger (teleporting him out of the Command Center) to finish off Megazord.  Giant Green Ranger does the job and the Zords all retreat into a fiery pit as the Rangers watch a part of themselves die. 

Back in the Command Center, Kimberly and the others decidedly give up since they can't use their Zords, Zordon's gone, and Rita has three major bad guys that can kick their butt at any time - they've deduced that they don't stand a chance.  Jason refuses to accept this from his teammates and Alpha agrees.  Zordon would never accept that.  But then Zack states "Zordon's not here" - BOOYAH!  Alpha tells the Rangers he locked on to some of the bio-something-or-other from the Green Ranger when he captured him earlier and the computer is trying to find an identity match to the DNA.  Guess what?  It's totally Tommy. The other Rangers can't believe it and Kimberly most of all is shocked that such a d-bag can be the Green Ranger.

Facts:
-First line - Zack "Goldar's blowing the world to bits!"
-Last line - Kim "I don't believe it, Tommy?"
-First on-scrren - All
-Megazord runs on solar power

Observations:
Rita is finally employing something the Rangers never do - strategy.  Seriously, she has a damn good battle strategy.  I fight the Rangers to either distract them or weaken them but pull back before I finish them to psych them out.  I take out their computers and advisor and most power weapons.  I taunt their humanity by challenging their compassion for Bulk and Skull.  Then finally I let it all loose and unleash my strongest warrior (Goldar), my most skilled fighter (Green Ranger), and my most sinister and evil henchwoman (Scorpina) AT THE SAME TIME IN GIANT FORM!  Maybe it's because she's had four episodes to bring this plan to fruition, but you have to give her credit for a well thought out plan that actually works.  We won't see this kind of ingenuity from the Rangers (then again, they're teenagers and not a centuries old witch).

This episode has more action to it than the last and actually starts to give some answers.  Tommy is our evil Green Ranger and all of his behaviour makes sense.  What I'm not understanding is how they didn't see this coming before.  He started out a nice guy and then turned into this jerk who is the last person Jason sees before he disappears (and then lies about it).  And also, Jason's fought Tommy in an exhibition match in Part I and fights him again in this episode and you can't identify his fighting style?  He does the same tornado kick in every episode how can you not pick up on it by now??  And his little "keeyah" sound??

Anyway, I'm realizing now that Alpha is a lot more useful than I gave him credit for when I first watched this show.  He single-handedly captures the Green Ranger (nobody else can lay a finger on him) and figures out his identity.  He finds Zordon even if just for a second (Billy's been tinkering with the computers for four episodes now and can't even do that).  Additionally, he gives a pep talk that trumps Jason's (the supposed leader).  While his "ai yi yi yi yi" might get annoying from time to time, I'm learning to look past that and to the part of him that is really helping this team progress the plot in this five-part mini-series.

How to Turn a Japanese Franchise into an American Cash Cow

Having not seen MMPR for more than a decade, it’s a very different experience to watch the show as an adult.  While I always enjoyed the US live-action sequences more than the fight scenes, it’s very obvious to me now that these are spliced from the Super Sentai series, Zyuranger.

Curious about the source footage, I checked out a few episodes of Zyuranger and the geographical similarities between Japan and Angel Grove astounded me.  Not to mention, both locations have identical city sky-lines.  And many Angel Grove buildings have Japanese-written signs – it’s uncanny really.

Each episode of Zyuranger has its own monster-of-the-week to go along with the storyline (similar to MMPR) except for one major difference: MMPR storylines were drafted to fit the Zyuranger fight footage as opposed to the other way around.  Why does Tommy always forget things and have to separate from the rest of the team?  Because the Green Zyuranger wasn’t in every fight scene due to his limited life (by his green candle – a storyline MMPR “borrowed” as well).  The Super Sentai series was a lot darker than MMPR – but I found the storylines a lot less believable (I say this without irony).

Most of Rita’s (Zyuranger – Bandora) monsters are inspired by what the teens are doing in real life (Lord Zedd carries on this tradition in Season 2).  Jason’s being held back by his teammates?  Let’s separate him from them by creating a monster that prevents his friends from being near him.  Kimberly is writing Tommy a song on her guitar?  Let’s create a monster that hypnotizes you with his guitar.  The US footage is very deliberately dictated by the Zyuranger footage as seen with the fact that a lot of storylines center around an unexplained (and never seen again) child - because Pandora is obsessed with hating children (understandably so).  Cheer up though, things will get better when we get about halfway through Season 1 when the source footage ran out and Saban paid Zyuranger to film more fight scenes for him to use.

Saban intended on getting in and making a quick buck off of action figures and didn’t anticipate the cash cow he created.  He used non-union actors, so he didn’t have to worry about their collective bargaining power and could just write someone off the show (cough, go to a peace conference much?) which meant he could pay actors very little and maximize his profit.  He cut costs by using the super cheap Sentai footage (essentially halving his production costs).  In summation: low costs, high revenue = PROFIT!

Please note that the Yellow Zyuranger is a guy named Boi.  Trini the Yellow Ranger is a girl.  They wear tight spandex suits . . . as if we wouldn’t notice.  Ever wonder why Jason and Tommy both have similar looking helmets (dinosaur teeth surrounding the eyes) – cos their Zyuranger equivalents are brothers.  Also, notice that the Green Zyuranger has a hard shield whereas Tommy the Green Ranger has a shield that looks like something my mom made. 

Looking ahead – I’ll provide a similar comparison between the source footage and the US storylines for Season 2 once I finish up with the Season 1 episodes (and subsequent analysis).  I guarantee once you hear how Saban spliced that footage - your mind will be blown and you will question everything you've ever known.  In the meantime, this youtube video summarizes the differences between MMPR and Zyuranger rather candidly.  Check it out.

1.3 Teamwork

Season 1 Episode 3
"Teamwork"
Writer: Cheryl Saban
Director: Robert Hughes

Episode Summary:
BFF Trini and Kimberly open this episode pleading with their fellow students to help them close an industrial dump-site in Angel Grove.  We meet Angel Grove High Principal Mr Kaplan who voices his support for the girls' endeavor.  Bulk and Skull tease Kim and Trini by throwing trash on the floor in front of them.  They throw a barrel at the girls which Kim flips over and Skull says something witty about her finally flipping over him.  Zack, Jason, and Billy all come up with lame excuses as to why they can't help their female counterparts do something that saves the world in a different way (sexism, much?) and leave the girls to take their petition to the dump-site alone.  Rita Repulsa is inspired to attack Kim and Trini before the boys can help and thereby weaken and ultimately destroy the Power Rangers. 

The girls have an awkwardly choreographed fight scene with the putties, Zack teaches Alpha 5 his brand of hip-hop martial arts (Hip-Hop Kido), the boys morph to battle Rita's Minotaur monster.  The girls beat the putties and morph to join the boys.  They form Megazord who (to me) looked like he was kicking the Minotaur's ass but apparently was not inspiring Zordon to give the Rangers their Power Weapons.  They combine their weapons and kill the Minotaur.  Back at school, the Rangers use teamwork to clean up the mess Bulk made earlier and confuse Principal Kaplan because, as children's shows have taught us, all adults are stupid.  Alpha 5 shorts the computers in the Command Center trying to practice Zack's patented Hip-Hop Kido, but obviously robots have no rhythm and the episode is given a humorous conclusion.

Facts:
-First Line - "Stop the pollution of our neighborhood" - Trini
-First on-screen Ranger - Kim
-Last Line - "Forget about the hip-hop, man, keep being a robot and keep that control console working." - Zack
-Zordon introduces the Power Weapons in this order
Power Lance (Billy), Power Bo (Kimberly), Power Sword (Jason), Power Axe (Zack), and Power Daggers (Trini)
-This is our first introduction to Principal Kaplan
-Walter Jones (Zack) is missing a finger
-A Ranger says "it's morphin time" for the first time

Observations: 
We see Saban's genius splicing the Japanese Sentai fight-scene footage with his American teenager footage in full-force in this episode.  Example, we see the morphed Yellow and Pink Rangers in the foreground with the giant Minotaur fighting the boys in the background . . . and they have an unexplained small child with them in the shot.   Additionally, this is the first time Zordon explicitly designates a leader - Jason.  His Power Sword holds the power to all the weapons, which kind of isn't too smart in case something happens to his sword.  I hope something doesn't happen that would isolate Jason from the team and jeopardize this.

Additionally, Zack's Hip-Hop Kido doesn't look anything like martial arts, but rather break-dancing.  But now I just sound petty.  The thing that stood out most to me in this episode is that Rita's plan is to isolate rangers from each other in order to weaken the team (hence the episode name) - which on paper sounds really smart.  So smart we'll see her do this about 120 other times before the series end.

Early Hypothesis:
Rita has difficulty accepting responsibility for her own actions.  She seems to blame either Goldar or Finster for her problems when both are merely trying to make her happy.  If she can do it so much better, why doesn't SHE go to earth and become giant and try to beat Megazord.  Frankly, I'd like to give Goldar a medal as the only bad guy who consistently battles and NEVER DIES. 

Also, I'd like to propose to the Baltimore Orioles - please sign Rita Repulsa, her throwing arm (and aim) is out of this world (literally).

1.2 High Five

Season 1 Episode 2
"High Five"
Writer: Steve Kramer
Director: Adrian Carr

Episode Summary: We open showing off Jason's amazing ability to climb a rope and Trini is concerned for his safety.  We are led to believe Trini is afraid of heights, however Ernie's Gym and Juice Bar suffered structural damage when Rita began wreaking havoc in the last episode.  Trini is just exercising caution since the rope is attached to the roof, srsly.  Billy arrives in his overalls and glasses and Jason sits on his head while coming down from the rope climb.  Wearing Jason as a boa, Billy swings back and forth comically while we, the audience, enjoy circus music.  We learn that Billy invented "communicators" which function as these devices that allow members of the team to communicate with each other regardless of their location.  Kim remarks that this is "so 90s."  Touché. 

The un-morphed rangers find out Billy's communicators tapped into the morphing grid (oops!) and they can teleport, too.  They encounter a group of Rita's Putties, Billy ends up on a rock formation which requires Trini to overcome her fear of heights to rescue him.  Rita's monster of the week, Bones, is a skeleton who transports the Rangers into a time-warp (has nothing to do with the plot) and Trini throws his head into a giant pit which destroys him.  Since we haven't used the Zords yet in this episode, Rita uses her magic wand to make a random monster grow.  He kind of looks like a medieval knight - but again, he has no relevance to the rest of the episode and disappears just as quickly as he shows up.  We end at Ernie's again and playful Zack scares Trini into climbing up the rope by wearing a skeleton mask (a la Bones).

Facts:
-First episode to focus on a specific character, Trini
-First line - "Okay Jas, let's see you do it." -Kimberly
-Last line - "ZACK!" - Kimberly
-Trini is afraid of heights and has a knack for tech language
-Kimberly first introduces the phrase "Morphinominal!" which she says twice in the episode
-Billy invents communicators and enables self-induced teleportation

Observations:  Bulk and Skull don't hit on Trini and Kim this time, but rather pick on Jason's climbing ability and call him "Monkey Man."  This prompts the sassy teenagers to encourage Bulk to climb a rope with no regard for his safety.  He's an overweight character with little upperbody strength, forcing him to climb a rope with no safety mat underneath caused him to hit his back on the floor when he fell.  So let's laugh at his failure?  Seriously?  Second, Zordon still has this weird English accent.  Third, what's with the random knight monster Rita throws into the mix?  Obviously it's for show-length and to have a chance to use the Zords in the episode (read: 30 minute toy commercial).  But it also shows how creative Saban is in incorporating the Japanese Sentai footage into the US format.  To the trained eye, we see two different episodes of Zyuranger used to bring us "High Five". 

Early Hypothesis: Also, what I'm noticing is that while Jason and Zack have the strength and martial arts training necessary to fight villains and Kim and Trini are both agile and can flip out of situations easily - the team really wouldn't be able to beat most of Rita's villains without Billy.  His communicators are carried throughout the entirety of the series - and at the time were kind of crazy since only Zack Morris had a cell phone.  He enables the rangers to choose when they teleport and allows them to coordinate from long distances.  Oh yeah, AND he knows martial arts (as we see in Episode 1), oh yeah, AND he's a trained gymnast (or, David Yost - the actor is).  Trini speaks tech, knows martial arts, and has the physical flexibility that Kimberly does (without the grace) - clearly she and Billy are the most valuble/undervalued members of the team.

1.1 Day of the Dumpster

Season 1 Episode 1
"Day of the Dumpster"
Writer: Tony Oliver and Shuky Levi
Director: Adrian Carr

Episode Summary:  Astronauts on the moon discover what one assumes to be a dumpster (from the episode's name) and inadvertently release an evil sorceress, Rita Repulsa, and her cronies dooming the world since her release party from 10,000 years of captivity includes destroying the nearest planet.  After 100 centuries of peace, Zordon, an interdimensional being who is also a wise wizard (and apparently English in this episode), orders his robot companion, Alpha 5, to recruit a team of "overbearing and overemotional humans" to become a team of spandex-clad warriors.  They reluctantly agree (after an initial refusal led by valley girl, Kimberly, and African-American, Zack - both well-developed stereotypes) to take on this responsibility and "morph" into these superheroes that command really big battle machines (Zords). 

Rita sends her favorite henchman, Goldar, to take down the Rangers (as apparently he's her only henchman who can actually fight - seriously, where'd she recruit these guys, Squatt and Baboo are a total joke).  Long story short, they fight, they command their Zords and combine them to become MEGAZORD! only to have Goldar escape at the last minute.  Everyone high-fives after Kimberly makes a joke about the helmet ruining her hair.  Silly humans and their humor.

Facts:
-First Ranger Line: "Nice recovery, Zack!" - Jason
-Last Ranger Line: "POWER RANGERS!" - All
-Kimberly is the first to receive her Power Coin
-Jason is the first to wear his ranger suit

Observations: Through exposition we learn that Kim and Trini have taken Jason's karate class as they make fun of class clowns, Bulk and Skull.  We also see that Billy is beginning his martial arts training by taking Jason's class.  Zack is first seen sparring with Jason at the episode's open (with Jason telling Zack he has a nice recovery - clearly Jason > Zack).  Thankfully, this explains why these five "random" teenagers all know martial arts.  We also note that when Zack fights Rita's Putties, he fights to hip-hop dance music, introducing us to his Hip Hop Kido.  Additionally, how conceited is Zordon that he names the battle machines the Rangers use after himself?

Also, I'm not entirely sure why there are astronauts on the moon in 1993.  I had to suspend my disbelief on that one a little.  Teenagers fighting alien monsters without parental consent I can buy, but American Astronauts walking on the moon in the early 90s?  Puh-lease.

Lineup:
Jason - Red Ranger - Tyrannosaurus
Kimberly - Pink Ranger - Pterodactyle
Billy - Blue Ranger - Triceratops
Trini - Yellow Ranger - Sabre Tooth Tiger
Zack - Black Ranger - Mastadon