Power Rangers Dino Charge #1.2 “Past, Present and Fusion” Review

Summary: The pace speeds up for a messy slew of new developments, while retaining an air of mystery and potential.

If you have not seen this episode yet and don’t wish to be spoiled, don’t continue reading.

Recap

A teen named Riley, who lives on a ranch with his mother and brother, practices fencing. He finds his dog being attacked by a monster, and in trying to save him, Riley accidentally uncovers the Green Energem in a fossil. He decides to venture to the Dinosaur Museum to find more information, and signs up for a summer program to stay there. His scooter breaks down right where Tyler and Shelby are passing by, and they give him a ride. After the encounter a car wreck, the three of them harness the power of the Energems to rescue a man trapped under the car, and gain enough strength to throw the car into the sky. When they arrive at the museum, the three accidentally slip into an underground lab, where they find Ms. Morgan, Keeper, Chase, and Koda. Chase and Koda are Power Rangers, and Ms. Morgan and Keeper explain that the Energems can turn the three into Rangers too. They go after the ice monster, realizing there are now more monsters arriving on Earth. The Rangers morph as a team for the first time, and with the help of the T-Rex Zord, they are able to defeat the ice monster. Ms. Morgan informs them to keep it a secret, but Keeper suspects Sledge has returned. He has…and he has a slew of monsters in his ship to send down.

Review

Power Rangers can only take things slow for so long, right? After a refreshingly well-paced premiere, the second episode of Dino Charge packs in a whole lot, practically everything that most seasons cram into the first episode. With much less exposition and significantly more action, this is much closer to the Power Rangers show we’re used to, for better or worse. It’s a little messier, and sort of a step down from the premiere because of that.

It’s not to say that this episode is anything close to bad; it still bodes very well for this season, and is already better than anything the first season of Megaforce gave us. But it’s definitely an episode with a list of things to get to as quickly as possible. We aren’t able to sit on one development before a new one pops up; Riley is introduced and finds an Energem, and immediately runs off to the dinosaur museum. Tyler, Shelby, and Riley don’t even have a second to discuss their newfound powers and the coincidence of finding each other before falling into the Dino Lab. Keeper and Ms. Morgan throw out some vague exposition before the Rangers go off to fight a monster, except Tyler, who has to stay behind, until he immediately doesn’t and goes off to fight. All of these elements have the workings of good scenes, but it’s all surprisingly rushed given how carefully the first episode paced things out.

That said, it still works much better than I’m giving it credit for. Despite how the structure is rather weak, the episode accomplishes everything it sets out to do in very entertaining fashion. The focus is squarely on the Rangers this time around, and that’s the best part. Because episode one got all the backstory out of the way and set-up the main Ranger tidbits (sans Riley), this episode only needs to expand on most of those things. We have a better understanding for how these character will fit together now; Tyler is completely game for the fight, Koda and Chase are the seasoned veterans, Riley is the skeptical-but-focused newcomer, and Shelby is the seemingly incompetent one who’s out to show her worth.

Riley gets the whole beginning of the episode to expand on his background, and while it’s a bit hard to pin down exactly what his character is, his ranch-background and connection to his family is rife with possibilities for both fun and drama. We already have Riley’s immediate reaction be to tell his brother about being a Power Ranger before getting shut down, so hopefully that relationship will play a part as things continue. And special kudos to Camille Hyde this week, especially, for making Shelby very endearing where she could come off as insufferable. Much of the comedy comes from Shelby’s clutziness, and the scene where Ms. Morgan admits she has no idea why Shelby was picked to be a Ranger is hilarious. Hyde makes Shelby feel like a charming enough character that she’s worth rooting for. Likewise, it never seems like the group is being unnecessarily cruel to Shelby either.

This season still feels unique to Power Rangers in a lot of ways, even as we settle into more typical Ranger fare. Other than Shelby, these Rangers come from more far-reaching places, even if they’re indeterminate; Tyler has been travelling all over for his father, Riley is far enough away that he has to get a summer internship to justify travelling to the museum, Chase came from New Zealand, and Koda is definitely not from around here. It’s not unheard of to have Rangers pulled from all around, of course, but it usually only happens when they’re specifically recruited for a job rather than stumbling on artifacts. It makes the season feel much bigger, and even more believable considering the source of their powers. It’s a smart way to get the full team and status quo in place early in the series, while still keeping the “slow burn story” feeling of the first episode — we get the quick satisfaction of not having to wait for Ranger action, but still get to be more fully introduced to the characters gradually, just after-the-fact.

The idea that the Rangers all get their powers at different points also lends itself to the power source better. Though “Powers from the Past” seemed to be the beginning of the story, we learn this week that it’s actually in medias res for the larger story. Chase and Koda have been at it for a while, and there are tons of unanswered questions for how they joined up with Ms. Morgan and Keeper. And how/when did Ms. Morgan know about what Tyler and Riley did, or that the Energems picked those three in the first place? Not to mention how Keeper and Fury both survived the prologue, and how Sledge is still around 65 million freakin’ years later with no change. Much like Dino Thunder set up a lot of mystery around its villains and mentors, there is much to be explored about this team that we don’t know about. That’s a wonderful hook, even better since it potentially lends itself to origin story flashback episodes, like what RPM did so effectively.

The powerset is also a ton of fun, with much of the fast-paced chaotic fighting styles we saw in Super Megaforce. The particular stand-out, though, is the Zord/Ranger fighting duo. That may change once we start getting Megazords, but right now, that Tyler and T-Rex Zord are fighting together — Tyler jumping off and on while T-Rex Zord rampages around — instead of having a Ranger merely control the Zord is a new kind of cool. We’ve had plenty of sentient Zords in the past, but this is the first time a Zord seems like an ally in battle rather than a tool in the arsenal. The T-Rex Zord also looks generally awesome, with much less CGI than usual. The puppetry is quite elaborate, actually, and works so much better for dinosaur-like movement. The color-scheme of the Zord matches the suits, too; a bit gaudy and overly complex, but not necessarily hard on the eyes. The suits are taking time to grow on me, just because of how much is involved in the design, but seeing them in action smoothes it over for sure.

“Past, Present and Fusion” is definitely an episode that will end up playing better in retrospect once more of the mysteries are delved into. There’s a lot we don’t know about Dino Charge yet, but that might very well be the best thing about it thus far. We know the basics of Power Rangers and what that series entails, but the myriad mysteries and story possibilities mean there’s much more to look forward to than just the Zord battles. Though if this episode is any indication, even those may be something of a surprise.

Odds & Ends

• New Zealand is this show’s second star sometimes, and Dino Charge makes good use of the beautiful landscape. The sweeping shots at the beginning when Riley runs after his dog? Absolutely gorgeous.
• Alert: Riley, the Green Ranger, isn’t wearing any ounce green on his first introduction. This is weird and scary and I don’t know how to handle it.
• Curious to see if they delve into why this particular Dinosaur Museum attracted both Tyler (or Tyler’s father, rather) and Riley, if the Energem stuff wasn’t publicized. Or we can just assume in the Power Rangers universe, this is just The One Dinosaur Museum?
• So, it looks like we’re doing another Megaforce-like double morphing call…maybe? We get”It’s morphin time!” followed by “Unleash the power!”, but the “morphin’ time” bit could have just been for flourish in the first intentional morph. Guess we’ll see about that one. But in any case “Unleash the power” is totally awesome and appropriately sounds pulled right out of a 90s cartoon. The morphing sequence itself (which we oddly only saw for Tyler) is nice, too, elaborate enough to fit into the current series but not too obnoxiously flashy. Like that the white-shining body harkens back to Dino Thunder, too.
• So, Keeper’s mouth doesn’t appear to be CGI anymore, but the lip syncing is way off. At least they’re working on it.
• Tyler says “Final Strike!” just like in Super Megaforce. Is that going to be a trend, now?