A cross between our TV Flashback series and Power Rangers coverage, we’ll be looking back week-to-week at past Power Rangers seasons, beginning to end, to coincide with breaks during and between the current seasons.
Episode 3, “Wave Goodbye”
Originally aired: February 21, 2004
In the early days of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Zordon made it clear to the heroes that their futures as civilians came first. While they’d often have to abandon their fun or some smaller opportunities to save the world, for the most part, the show didn’t tend to get much drama out of the Rangers’ dual lives. Four out of the five original Rangers left when the opportunity of a lifetime came for them, and Zordon made it fully clear that they should pursue them. When Kimberly was offered the opportunity to move to Florida to work under an Olympic trainer, the biggest drama came from her own unwillingness to leave the line of duty. Hell, the entire senior Turbo team was forcibly retired at once after they graduated high school. It made sense for that stage of the show, where it was very much about idealized role models and morals rather than the more intricate mythology and stories that came after. These were your best possible iterations of teenagers, who recognized responsibility and were utterly selfless.
Flash forward ten years, and we now have Conner McKnight in a strikingly similar situation – he has the talent to get into a prestigious but time-consuming soccer program – but utterly different outcomes from every angle. There’s no extradimensional space wizard bestowing magic space powers on the most talented and morally right teenagers. These are a normal, flawed kids who reluctantly stumbled into being Power Rangers, led by a regular human who can only do as much as his own limited technology will allow. Dr. Oliver says he’s felt the same way as Conner too, but he hasn’t, really; he comes from an era of Rangers devoted to their cause. The Dino Thunder Rangers, at this point, haven’t really seen the full breadth of their threat, and have only been heroic because their hands were forced. The dino gems are fused to this team, which means it’s not so easy to just pass the power along to another person. Dr. Oliver doesn’t have the resources Zordon did, so if they want to stay a team, they need Conner on it, at least for the time being.
The solution to this is simple and hardly surprising – Conner, as Red Ranger, personally saves a little girl he’d met as a civilian from direct danger. In one fell swoop, it all puts things into perspective: He wouldn’t just be rejecting another responsibility if he bailed, he’d be affecting and endangering the lives of those around him. There hasn’t been a reason for Conner to be the leader of this team other than wearing red and standing in the middle, but he slips into the role exceptionally well once he grasps what’s at stake. It’s a typical Red Ranger story, and an even more typical one for virtually any superhero tale.
But what makes “Wave Goodbye” work better than it should is who this Red Ranger is. Conner is the dumb jock jerk stereotype through and through, but the fun thus far is that he fully understands and embraces that about him. Sometimes that means he’ll be a dick and say awful sexist crap without thinking, because he has no qualms about saying what he thinks. But that also means he’s impeccably in-tune with his own thoughts and desires. He is not a complex character, but that’s part of his strength; he knows he wants to play soccer, so he’ll skip school and get out of Ranger duties to do it. Then he sees that being a Power Ranger is very beneficial, and he decides that’s more important. After all, tho would turn their back on a little girl in danger? There’s not much to this resolution, but it fits Conner’s markedly uncomplex personality very well. He barely has a revelation when he rescues the little girl, he simply realizes, “Oh yeah, I guess this is better.” As much as Power Rangers is frustrating when it gets too simple, it’s pleasantly refreshing when a character just gets it. It makes him one of the biggest deconstructions of the stoic Red Ranger archetype, but still lets him fittingly settle in the role without much effort.
Episodes 4-5, “Legacy of Power” & “Back in Black”
Originally aired: February 21 & March 6, 2004
The first five episodes of Dino Thunder are essentially one solid arc that forms the core four-person team. Yeah, technically this is a three-team season, but the way things quickly progress from one to point to another still feels like an introduction, to both this season and its place in the series.
Between the Rangers and the audience, much knowledge is bestowed over these episodes. It’s established that Tommy was a long-serving Ranger, and that Hayley’s not only completely in the know, she’s the brains behind his operation. We learn Mesagog’s kind of silly true intentions: to return the world to its prehistoric roots (To which Tommy replies, “Why can’t you just wanna rule the Earth like all the other sickos?”) It also makes clear that every preceding season of the show has taken place in the same universe, even if it doesn’t always seem that way.
“Legacy of Power” is the 500th episode commemoration, which amounts to a clipshow in the most basic sense. Even for a clipshow, it’s admittedly a bit lazy – it often focuses on strangely specific details while skipping over key parts of the canon (particularly “Countdown to Destruction” and the Alien Rangers saga, among many others) and some seasons don’t mention more than that the Rangers exist.
But I find it hard to criticize, because the intention totally makes sense: show off just how expansive the world of this long-running show is. “Legacy of Power” doesn’t delve into intricacies in the mythology or any particularly good storytelling, but it’s upfront that there are a whole helluva lot of Power Rangers, all with diverse powers and backgrounds, and that’s enough to celebrate the longevity of the show. It hits many of the right nostalgia buttons, playing some famous scenes and throwing in great theme songs and music cues (loved hearing the “Tenga Bye Bye” song again.) If anything, it could have used more reactions from the current team; that their reaction to seeing Time Force inspires an idea to find them and help them time travel to save Dr. Oliver is inspired, and surprisingly genre savvy. They even fix a plot hole by revealing that Conner had a twin brother in Ninja Storm’s ninja school (James Napier also had a bit role as a student that season.)
Even though “Legacy of Power” is a clipshow, “Back in Black” doesn’t really have much to it, either. It’s an episode that builds on the nostalgic energy of the previous one, then drives that towards the stellar scene of Tommy morphing. But everything in between is strikingly straightfoward; the Rangers save Tommy, he gets saved, they fight with Zords. What keeps everything upbeat and entertaining before the morph is the slew of well-written one-liners and exchanges, with the snappy dialogue on the top of its game. After Tommy morphs, things are significantly less interesting; the Brachiozord doesn’t do much as a carrier zord aside from contributing the Cephalazord (somehow?), a weird little boxing-themed critter. I’ll be upfront with my lack of interest in the “loads and loads of Zords” concept some seasons have, because it usually leads to episodes’ final acts being all over the place. This doesn’t exactly sell the point; it’s very early in the season to be introducing two new Zords, and the fight puts the new Ranger on the backburner as soon as he’s introduced. It’s a weird way to end an otherwise solid pair of episodes.
Above all else, though, the story-driven reason for these episodes to exist is to segue into talking about Dr. O, who the Rangers finally learn is Tommy Oliver, the legendary Power Ranger. As Hayley puts it, “he’s not the oldest, just the best.” And with that, here’s where we need to talk about Tommy. He and his actor, Jason David Frank, have become sort of a controversial figure within the niche scope of Power Rangers for a lot of reasons, but it mostly comes down to overexposure on both fronts. He’s a character whose initial popularity was milked for a long time — for good reason, because goddamn did everyone love Tommy — but since the 90s nostalgia resurgence of the past few years, Frank has stormed back onto the forefront as the face of the franchise (a self-produced reality show, a Super Megaforce appearance, a campaign for a solo movie starring himself, etc.) Long story short: there are hundreds of Rangers and actors in this franchise, and people don’t get too happy when one out of those hundreds is declared the best, which he very much is in Dino Thunder.
The thing is, in 2004, the franchise had already become mostly invisible outside of the hardcore fans and child viewers. There wasn’t much Tommy-exhaustion by this point, and frankly, it was exciting to see the franchise bothering to acknowledge its history at all – a far cry from how much it’s pounded in Mighty Morphin throwbacks in the past few years. What’s important, and what was admirable about “Day of the Dino” especially, is that Tommy is only part of the set-up. What we see here is a vague rendition of a previous hero, a high school science teacher with a secret past as a Power Ranger that brings him back into the fold.
Tommy was never a champion of characterization in the old days, his “coolness” only defined by the plots he fell into. So in a way, “legend” or not, it makes him a solid candidate for this position. Tommy could literally go anywhere after his tenure on Power Rangers, because we never knew much about his true interests beyond being a Ranger and martial arts anyway. Does it seem feasible that he could get a PhD in Palentology in seven years? Not really, but people can change; and having Hayley in the mix posits that Tommy is merely the visionary (“A rocket scientist, he ain’t”), and makes this whole scenario loads more believable. But it still keeps him in his unique position: Tommy coming into this isn’t so much Tommy Oliver the character, but Dr. Oliver, the representation of Power Rangers who have moved on with their lives.
That’s why his triumphant morph in “Back in Black” works even from a post-Tommy obsession standpoint. It’s an answer to many of the big questions posed in “Day of the Dino,” and it’s the culmination of this first arc of the season. But more importantly, the Dr. Oliver video diary and Tommy’s place fighting alongside the new team solidifies his trust in them. It’s a fun play on passing the torch, letting a veteran have one last go while still having his proteges in the forefront. This is still the story of Conner, Kira, and Ethan, after all, and even though they stumbled into their powers, it finally feels like it’s also their calling.
Odds & Ends
- The Dino Thunder powers are odd. The Raptor Riders are, like, sentient cybernetic dinosaur clones, I guess? They’re more “alive” than the Zords seem to be, and even grow from eggs. But then, Hayley apparently found the Brachiozord in the forest, having grown from an egg (I think?) It’s all very strange — I get the bio-tech theme in general, but is the Dino Thunder equipment built to grow? Are they robot clones that develop as if they were alive? So many questions, especially with these much more living dino-like Raptor Riders. Except then the Rangers get motorcycles two episodes later. So…nevermind.
- Hayley and her Cyberspace cyber cafe (because this was 2004) and employee Trent all get introduced in “Wave Goodbye.” This season did a nice job setting up all its integral pieces very early.
- Conner’s accent slips reaaaal bad in “Wave Goodbye,” particularly when he’s angry and ranting.
- A few years later in Operation Overdrive’s anniversary episode “Once a Ranger,” every theme song for the respective returning Ranger is played except for the original Mighty Morphin theme. The excuse was always that Disney didn’t have the rights to the original theme (and presumably any pre-Disney themes), which is why when it was reacquired by Saban and Samurai redid the original theme song, it was a big deal. But then…how could Disney’s Dino Thunder use so much pre-Disney music in this clipshow?
- Tommy says his fellow Rangers “helped me destroy the Power Sword,” when in actuality Jason totally destroyed it all on his own. Way to take credit for it, jerk.
- Conner’s “Which one’s mine?” bit with the cycles is legitimately funny, and a justification for why a character like him is worth having around.
- There’s a very clever bit in “Back in Black” where Elsa and Mesagog coincidentally teleport in right as Mesagog is using his brain ray, so he accidentally hits them instead.
- All the civilian powers sort of make sense, but what the heck does invisibility have to do with a Brachiosaurus?
- “I’m so buggin’ I can’t even deal.”
- “That was sick, but not helpful.” – A good summary of all of “Legacy of Power” up until the end, really.
- “Well…Islands, they’re surrounded by water.”
- “I might be able to pull that look off. But these guys?” – Get it, Kira.
- In regards to Mesagog: “Uh, what part’s his face?”
- “Aren’t you a little old for this, Tommy?”
“I may be old, but I can still pull it off.” – Extra funny considering how Jason David Frank is still trying to “pull it off” ten MORE years later. - “I’m not intimidated by your teacher.”
- “Then you obviously have never taken one of his pop quizzes.”
- “Where are you going?”
“Shopping. I checked my closet, and there’s a serious shortage of black in there.” – The meta-comedy is on point this season, and I don’t think the show surpasses these heights until RPM five years later.
