13) “Forever Red” (Power Rangers Wild Force, Episode 34)
Ten Red Rangers from ten years of Power Rangers. Really, what more can you ask for? When the remnants of Zeo‘s Machine Empire band together to revive Lord Zedd’s fearsome Serpentara Zord, a special team of Red Rangers are brought together for a blowout battle on the moon. In a huge coup for the crew and the fanbase, every Red Ranger is accounted for (sans Rocky, who would’ve been shoehorned in anyway.) The plot of the episode doesn’t make much sense when you think about it, and the climax features one of the most obvious bits of product placement and bad CGI you’ll ever see, but it’s outshined by the sheer coolness of seeing such a feat of a team-up. It’s utter fanservice for the sake of fanservice, but it’s totally worth it.
14) “Lost & Found in Translation” (Power Rangers Dino Thunder, Episode 19)
After Disney’s takeover of the franchise, the series took a decidedly different route: a refreshing, but definitely divisive foray into tongue-in-cheek meta-comedy, beginning with Ninja Storm leaning more on affectionate parody. Dino Thunder, the succeeding season, balanced its lighter, comedic tone with legitimately good storytelling, but was still deliciously self-aware of the silliness of the franchise. “Lost & Found in Translation” is the most meta episode of the show ever made, as the Rangers watch a weird, Japanese-produced adaptation of their adventures–which in actuality is a straight dub of the Super Sentai source Power Rangers borrows its material from. While it appears to be poking fun at the Japanese material at first, the episode instead becomes a statement on both Power Rangers and Super Sentai purists: arguing over which is better is moot, because both are cool in their own ways.
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4 Comments
This a great list. I don’t think there’s anything I disagree with.
I have to disagree with one thing, overall.
The lack of positive mention to “Power Rangers-Ninja Storm”.
There were MANY very, very good episodes in that series, and felt it was far superior to “Light Speed Rescue”, including the Zords in the series. The commander and the team in LSR was completely lame and the acting was so, below par, I turned it off after 5 episodes.
The “Ninja Storm” was far better with the Zords, storyline (particularly with the Thunder Ranger issue), the the like-ablity of characters (The cross-over between the Wind Rangers vs. Dino-Rangers really should have made this list.)
The
Me personally? I prefer Ninja Storm to Lightspeed Rescue overall. But Ninja Storm works much better as the sum of its parts than it does with individual samplings. Lightspeed Rescue, conversely, has some really good individual episodes within the Titanum Ranger arc, even if the season as a whole is pretty weak (in my opinion, of course.) I rewatched a handful of possiblities to see what felt better, and Lightspeed Rescue’s episode just stood stronger on its own than any individual Ninja Storm episode or arc I tried again. Same with Jungle Fury. Believe me, I grappled with it for a long time.
Nice article! If I may, however, point out that Olivia’s last name is misspelled. It’s Tennet. Thanks.