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. With Dino Charge currently on hiatus, our Flashback coverage will resume through the summer.
Episodes 20, 23-24: “It’s a Mad Mad Mackerel”, “A Star is Torn”, & “A Ranger Exclusive”
Originally aired: June 19, July 24, and July 31, 2004
Dino Thunder has a pretty specific obsession with satirizing the media, and three episodes of this flashback pod deal with that. Thankfully they weren’t in a row in their original airing, but I’m still talking about the latter two out of order, because it’s worth comparing them all at once. In doing that, it’s clear to see how much Dino Thunder really does recycle the “fame corrupts” plotline, even when it kind of subverts it.
That’s not totally uncalled for, necessarily, because two main characters are a wannabe musician and TV reporter, respectively. Rightfully so, all three of these episodes pivot from Kira or Cassidy. But we’ve also had both “Diva in Distress” and “Ocean Alert,” which dealt with music and movie superstars, respectively, and how easily stardom can compromise your own morals. “It’s a Mad Mad Mackerel” is essentially a combination of those two prior episodes, replacing a Baywatch parody with a kids’ show parody, and making Funky Fisherman learn the same lesson pop star Kylie did. The lesson isn’t bad, but it’s just retread of what we’ve seen before. That he learns a lesson at at all makes it better than “Ocean Alert,” but the lack of a real emotional arc that we can grasp, outside of a vague pseudo-friendship between Funky Fisherman and Marty the Mackerel, is significantly weaker than that of “Diva in Distress.” Aside from turning one of the opposing parties into a monster to draw out some sympathy, there isn’t much different.
“A Star is Torn” works the best of these three, because it’s essentially the sequel to “Diva in Distress” its predecessor failed at being. By putting Kira in Kylie’s place and giving her the same choice her friend had, it becomes a test: is Kira willing to compromise her artistic integrity for the same kind of fame? We already know from what we’ve seen that the answer would be an obvious no. But having children immediately ask for her autograph just because she’s dressed so weird and glamorously that she must be famous, is a surprisingly insightful manifestation of what empty fame actually is. The episode is smart to avoid the easy route that Lightspeed Rescue’s “In the Limelight” took, which saw its Pink Ranger tempted by fame and immediately turn into an ego-maniac. Kira doesn’t ever really fall for the cheap pop star facade, but she certainly has doubt in both directions.
The episode suggests that, where Kylie succumbed to the fame completely, Kira has people behind her who can nudge her in the right direction. When her friends aren’t available to give advice, she very nearly becomes seduced by idea of fame, even going so far as to produce the music video. (Even though they don’t make videos before getting signed onto a label and record deal, but…hey, it lets us see that glorious teapot-effect, so that’s worth all the suspension of disbelief.) It ends up falling to Conner to be up front with her; he’s someone whose opinion is no one likes to hear, but his worst attribute is also his greatest. Conner says exactly what’s on his mind, and that often leads to the most insightful observations. In this case, the lesson is simple: be who you are. Kira isn’t the Madonna/Lady Gaga type (before Lady Gaga was even a thing!) She’s best represented in that simple, but very-well rendered and honest music video created at the end of the episode, and that’s great.
And then there’s “A Ranger Exclusive,” which is the start of a good character story, even if an uneventful one as an episode. The media plays the least prominent role here, thankfully, mostly used pick up on the various threads from both the media-centric episodes preceding it: Kira and Devin’s jobs at the TV Network from “It’s a Mad Mad Mackerel,” and a dating website subplot in “A Star is Torn.” Kudos to the show for taking a tired joke — the anonymous dating site matched two totally opposite people together, how wacky! — and actually making it meaningful. It allows Ethan a previously untreaded path to seeing Cassidy as a person, and it works wonders.
Cassidy and Devin have been truly fun characters throughout this season as the Bulk and Skull-type stand-ins, but aside from Devin showing some Zeo-era Skull-esque likeability and even depth, Cassidy has yet to be anything more than a punchline. Her budding friendship with Ethan, however, yields a common theme this season: seeing people’s worth beyond what’s on the surface. As Conner proves, the person underneath doesn’t necessarily have to be different from the person you know on the surface. But they can be more worth your respect and acknowledgement once you see why they do what they do and how they can contribute. In Cassidy’s case, no, she’s not a terribly introspective or complex being. But she’s not totally oblivious or unempathetic; as Ethan explains, her insecurity prevents her from reaching out to other people, but she’ll be responsive other people reach out to her.
That simple thought totally explains her relationship with Devin: he might take her abuse because he has such little self-confidence, but she only opened up to him in the first place because he was probably the only person who had less self-confidence than she did. It’s not a coincidence that the two people she’s bonded with so far are Devin and Ethan now, two of the geekiest geeks on the show. Like a lot of characters on Dino Thunder, Cassidy doesn’t really change at all. But the more we learn about what makes her tick, the more she becomes a fleshed-out person that could potentially help us relate to people like her. Once she lets her friends in, she gets one of her greatest dreams fulfilled, and in turn uses that dream to support the great heroes who just-so-happen to also be her friends. It’s a pleasant case of everyone getting what they want, but that it happens only when you do good for other people and look past their flaws is the true point. Fame doesn’t corrupt this time, because it’s grounded in true heart and good intention.
Even when the Power Rangers parts of Power Rangers Dino Thunder fall flat (the “satellite wave to Jupiter” plot of “A Ranger Exclusive” is just all kinds of bizarre), the way this show respects is main characters keeps it grounded enough that these episodes aren’t a waste. Even considering it hammers in “Fame makes people bad” over and over and over and over.
Odds & Ends
- Oh, right. So, uh, in “A Star is Torn,” Zeltrax is seemingly destroyed. It’s totally anti-climactic, as you’d expect. I talked at length about Zeltrax’s complete failure of a story already, and the thoughts here are the same. They try to give Tommy and Zeltrax a good face-off in the (admittedly creepy) ship, and Tommy flashes back to Smitty and tells him he’s sorry during the final blow. It’s a noble attempt to amp up a story that’s been the epitome of haphazardly thrown in. But, really, even if you love Tommy with every fiber of your being…there is zero emotional resonance in this story whatsoever. Tommy seems fine after it’s all over. Just another day in the life.
- This week’s 2004 references: “What’s the matter? Find out you’re not the next Hilary Duff?” Also, all the sounds in Kira’s remix.
- The Funky Fisherman show’s make-up and costuming is very thorough. As creepy as the characters are, it totally looks like a weird kids show that would get bizarrely popular.
- The head of the news station is desperately looking for reporters because he has stories “coming out of his ears.” This alternate universe where there’s an insane surplus of journalism jobs seems magical.
- Cassidy’s breakthrough story is a very nice monologue about the Power Rangers, but…it’s basically a 20 second editorial about why the Rangers are great, which makes no sense. But, you know, that whole episode isn’t exactly a perfect representation of what journalism is, so whatever.
- “That Giant Fish Man would give anyone nightmares.” Darn right.
- “My armpits hurt!”
- There are so, so many fish puns in “It’s a Mad Mad Mackerel.” So, so, so many. Case in point:
“We’ll filet you!”
“And your fishy jokes!”
“Not before you catch my tuna surprise!”
Episode 21-22: “Copy That” & “Triassic Triumph”
Originally aired: July 10-17, 2004
Alright, time to talk about Trent again. “Copy That” is surprisingly subtle ending for the White Ranger saga, not to mention the beginning of a new era on the show — appropriately marked by Elsa’s new hairstyle and a slight change in credits, with both Anton Mercer and Mesagog listed. The main story is something of a misdirect, as it has the Rangers fighting a monster that copies their powers and weapons — a typical plot for Power Rangers. But in the background, we have the relentless internal battle between Anton and Mesagog, and their tug-of-war for their son. It’s firmly established in this episode that Anton isn’t the bad guy early episodes posited he was — he’s simply weak, and goes along with Mesagog’s plans because he knows he can’t beat him. He tries to convince the now fully-evil Trent to break away from the darkside, but Trent’s only interest is in the stronger, darker half of his father. While on one hand it simplifies the moral gray for Mesagog — Anton is good, Mesagog is bad — it also complicates it, because it’s apparent that Anton hasn’t done very much to try to stop or sabotage Mesagog until now. It’s the love for his son that’s caused Anton to start actively disobeying his other half, and that’s a meaningful development for his arc.
Trent’s part of this is a little weird; apparently now he’s interested in reverting the world to the dinosaurs, just like Mesagog. It makes sense that the White Ranger would be less chaotic evil once it and Trent’s personalities fully merged, but it’s a little silly to see him suddenly so loyal to Mesagog and gung-ho about this dinosaur plan. That said, the dad aspect is still at play here: Trent is rebelling one dad and totally obeying another, but neither is allowing him to make his own conscious choices. Of course, the episode stops being subtle when it has his evil father literally try to kill him and his good father rescue him, but hey, no one expects Power Rangers to be subtle.
The gift Anton gives Trent is freedom — from the evil of the gem, and from Mesagog. But there’s a catch: Trent is still going to be bound by the truth that his father is Mesagog, no matter how much good he tries to do. Trent swears to keep his father’s secret, the one last dishonest act Trent will commit. Even with good intentions, that’s bound to bite him down the road.
That’s apparent considering how he’s on thin ice in the episode’s follow-up, “Triassic Triumph.” That episode attempts to be a Conner-centric installment, but is far more interesting when seeing it from Trent’s point of view. The end of “Copy That” crafts a very genre-savvy use of its Copyotter monster, making a copy of the pure evil part of White Ranger. That’s partially to work with the Sentai footage, where the White Ranger took much longer to join the side of good. But it also showcases how easily the Rangers flip from trusting to hating him, and the guilt that causes for Trent. It makes sense that Tommy is the nicest to Trent throughout these episodes, considering he went through a similar ordeal. But unlike Tommy’s friends’ immediate welcoming of him to the team, Trent’s slow-burn turn to the darkside — and the fact that these Rangers are just generally more like normal people than their Mighty Morphin counterparts — makes it a much harder sell. They’re on decent terms by the end of this, but it’s clear that trusting Trent will be a continuing thread down the line.
Conner’s story falls rather flat, in that it doesn’t really reflect anything in the Ranger story. That would be fine if it was interesting on its own, but…it’s not, really. Conner gets jealous of a new soccer player thinking he’s stuck up, until it turns out the guy just doesn’t speak very good English and is nervous about it. I like Conner a lot in this story, don’t get me wrong, but there isn’t any arc that brings Conner to a conclusion. There’s a “don’t judge a book by it’s cover” story going on, but there isn’t any reason for Conner to figure out why he should apologize. He just decides to not a jerk after getting a power-up for whatever reason.
And that power-up is decent enough, even if the story around it is bland. There’s a running gag that Conner is the most overpowered character in the franchise, and the Triassic power is the start of it. The worst thing a team show can do is force its team members to give up all their power to one character instead of, you know, working as a team (watch the last run of Digimon Frontier/season 4 to see the trope used painfully badly.) It’s corrected a couple of episodes later in “A Ranger Exclusive,” but the fact that it was even a plot point is annoying. That said, the golden armor design is very pretty and appropriately triumphant, but not at all too gaudy. The unpainted shield looks like too much like styrofoam, but once the power is activated, it looks good. The character stories are what’s best about Dino Thunder, so any episode that focuses on the Ranger powers is going to be a bit less than desired, especially considering where we’re at now with Trent’s storyline.
Odds & Ends
- This week’s 2004 reference: Conner’s terrible, terrible sleeveless denim vest. Wowsers. Was that even in at this point?
- Trent’s awkward baggy ninja training outfit is also pretty bad.
- Anton’s Mesagog transformation is surprisingly horrifying by Power Rangers standards.
- Again, Elsa’s potential crush on the Black Ranger is brought up. It’s bizarre how this comes and goes, despite there barely being any foundation for the crush. I mean, other than them both being “old,” I guess.
- The Cassidy Copy subplot is cute, if only because it gets Devin wearing those dollar-store prop glasses. (We used those in a production of Twelfth Night back in high school around the same time this episode aired, actually.)
- Trent’s Super Dino Mode is the coolest of the bunch, with the spikes protruding everywhere, including his fist.
- The Shield of Triumph teleports the monster into a weird Triassic dimension that…looks like the Homer3 dimension from The Simpsons 1995 Halloween special from for some reason.
- In the scene where Conner is apologizing the Alexei, there’s an obnoxious buzzing sound in the background, as if there were locusts that they couldn’t shoot around or edit out. It’s bad.
