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 31-32: “Thunder Storm”
Originally aired: October 2-9, 2004
As much as I railed against the aimlessness and lack of momentum in this part of Dino Thunder, this pause turns out to be the perfect time for the traditional team-up episode; aside from a couple of early installments, most team-ups don’t really add much to the main storyline. “Thunder Storm” is along those same lines, pausing whatever Elsa’s threat meant at the end of last week’s episode for this little getaway. And boy, is it worth it.
Season crossovers tend to be hit-or-miss with Power Rangers, and there’s never been a solid formula for how those team-ups occur. Luckily, that means they’re all pretty unpredictable (sans the inevitable double-team explosion shot) and even the weakest crossovers generally feel fresh in their own ways. In this case, there wasn’t a team-up episode with the previous team in Ninja Storm thanks to the drastic change in production location, so the Dino Thunder team-up, at the time, was more unpredictable than perhaps any other. This was the first Disney era team-up, and since the past couple of seasons had arguably succeeded in taking Power Rangers in wildly different directions in tone and style, returning to a then eight-year-old tradition would be a true test.
Luckily, “Thunder Storm” hugely benefits from these circumstances. The set-up is simple: Lothor crawls his way out of the Abyss of Evil the Ninja Rangers trapped him in at the end of Ninja Storm, traps the current Wind Ninja students, tricks the original three Wind Ninja Rangers into wearing defective morphers that turn them evil, then teams up with Mesagog to take out Reefside — where the Dino Rangers reside — while Cam and the Thunder Rangers enter the Abyss of Evil to retrieve their powers and break the spell on their friends. Well…okay, maybe the set-up isn’t that simple.
Still, the it’s worth noting that transition from Ninja Storm to Dino Thunder is perhaps the most fluid transition between standalone seasons since In Space to Lost Galaxy. There have been a couple of direct references to Ninja Storm before, with Mesagog casually mentioning previous big bad Lothor in the premiere, Conner mentioning his twin brother at the Ninja School, and then Hayley mentioning having previous correspondence with Cam in this episode. More importantly, both share a sardonic, but affectionate comedic tone, though Dino Thunder borders less on straight parody and more on slight meta-comedy. And the characters share their Buffy-esque awkward misfit backgrounds, with lots of sarcastic energy, wit, and teen-speak. As such, the Ninja Storm characters all integrate remarkably well into the Dino Thunder show, and feel less like special guest stars and more like seasoned characters in this world.
It’s not to say the latter Saban seasons didn’t feel in the same world, of course. But the pseudo-reboot that the beginning of Ninja Storm created an opportunity to start anew. It’s not a new continuity, but with limited ways to reference and cross over with the Saban-era seasons after moving across the world, Ninja Storm made some of its own rules for what a Power Rangers season could be. That let Dino Thunder trod further and more confidently, and lets “Thunder Storm” work so swimmingly. While the “heroes fight each other and then team-up” is an oft-used comic book device — we’re getting Batman v Superman next year, after all — Power Rangers hadn’t used it in their crossovers at this point, and have yet to use it this effectively since then. The set-up with the Ninja Rangers getting new morphers that turn them evil is a genuine surprise, actually, with the unused premise lending to a smart bait-and-switch. As familiar as the crossover idea is, it’s placed in a very new context in many ways.
With that in mind, this is simply an insanely fun installment of the show. Every fight sequence is phenomenally choreographed, the best on Dino Thunder all season and some of the best in the whole franchise. American fight footage is sometimes a bit too heavy on the wirework and explosions — and “Thunder Storm” is, as far as I can tell, 100% new footage — but it’s tempered appropriately, and mixed with ambitious stuntwork. The first morphed fight between the morphed Red, White, and Yellow Rangers is the weakest one, but everything following is downright amazing.
The unmorphed battle between the six is the best use of civilian power we’ve gotten, with moments like Kira’s scream deflecting Tori’s water beam and Conner superspeeding his own fall. The music is particularly good in this sequence, and James Napier, Kevin Duhaney, and Emma Lahana finally get to show off martial arts moves we surprisingly haven’t seen much of this season. The ninja theme of the rival Rangers means the Dino Rangers have to step up their game, and the different styles of each character collide in the extended battle sequence. As much as the spandex outfits are great fun, there’s just something undeniably cool about unmorphed fights on Power Rangers, perhaps because it allows the Rangers to get more down and dirty.
The unmorphed fight is the definite highlight of the episode, but that doesn’t mean the blowout battle at the climax is anything short of astounding. This fight is a no-hands-barred battle royale that pulls out every possible non-Zord power-up from both teams. We get individual weapons, Super Dino Modes, Super Samurai Mode, and both Red Ranger Battlizers firing together, all mixed with impeccably choreographed stunts and explosions that, for once, don’t seem overindulgent. I’m not a fan of motorcycle battles normally, but even those are well-handled; the core three from both teams ride together and actually fight on the cycles instead riding in front of explosions, while Cam rides on the back of Trent’s ATV and fights, and Ethan even brings out his Hovercycle and it isn’t annoying.
The two-parter’s biggest problem is how segregated all the characters are. The evil Ranger conceit is a double-edged sword in this case; on the plus side, it’s a creative way to enter the Ninja Rangers and get some stellar tension and fight scenes out of it. It also gives Cam, Hunter, and Blake more to do, as they’re tasked with retrieving their powers and turning their friends good. The downside is that the core three Ninja Rangers are rather underserviced, spending the bulk of the time under a spell or in the midst of battle. It’s not to say Pua Magasiva, Sally Martin, and Glenn McMillan don’t get much to do — they’re very fun as their snarky evil personalities — but they don’t get much time playing their actual characters outside of their reintroduction. And even then, we see mostly see them in their accomplished Ninja teacher roles; it’s a wonderful affirmation about how much they grew by the end of Ninja Storm, but also a little disappointing that we didn’t get the awkward camaraderie that made them so fun in their own season.
Cam, Hunter, and Blake get a number of moments, on the other hand, with Cam’s signature sarcasm and exasperation stealing the show (like he often did in Ninja Storm, too.) But they’re all isolated from the current team until the last third of the team-up, which is disappointing. Trent and Tommy, meanwhile, get next to nothing to do, with Trent barely even appearing or mentioned until part two’s climax. As much as this episode masters the action, it seems to have trouble taking the steps to bring the Rangers together, resulting in a clunky compilation of scenes with different characters rather than a flowing, intertwined narrative.
Lothor gets a huge chunk of the screentime, oddly enough. That’s a ballsy decision considering he’s one of the more divisive villains in the franchise, but I tend to prefer the comical, even bumbling Big Bads as long as they’re well-acted (Divatox comes to mind as a prime example.) Grant McFarland was at his best in Ninja Storm when he played up the comically self-aware side of Lothor, and while there are shades of that in “Thunder Storm,” it’s a generally darker, more vengeful take. That’s probably to match wits with the more sinister Mesagog, but it would have been nice to see the two very different types of villains clash personality-wise as much as with their fists. It still would have worked, narratively, since Mesagog is generally annoyed with even this darker Lothor, and rather brutally and humiliatingly beats him at the end. This is a case where more comedy from Lothor could have worked, given we already had the evil Rangers and forces from the Abyss of Evil to complement it.
But even at the worst, this two-parter manages to juggle not just the Rangers, but also the side-characters; though it often underserves some of the Rangers overall, all 20 or so characters featured get at least some kind of memorable moment. Most of the comic relief relies on Marah and Kapri, who are a fun enough comedic duo for the installment and get their own little hero moment at the end. We even get an amazingly meta moment from Katrina Devine, noting the similarities between her two characters Cassidy and Marah (“Did you see that girl? She is so stunning… But I am so much prettier.”)
“Thunder Storm” is very clearly not a character-centric piece. While that makes it less solid in the context of a very character-driven season, there are enough things supplementing it to make this an incredibly fun ride. We get some of the best action the show has put out, and while the narrative itself is a little clunky, the basic story — new Rangers fight evil old Rangers before teaming up — is a fresh twist on the crossover tradition. It’s easily one of the best team-ups in the franchise, and a highlight of Dino Thunder simply because it pulls out all the stops.
Odds & Ends
- The opening credits for both episodes replace the regular team shot with the full Ninja Storm/Dino Thunder team-up explosion shot from this episode. Does any other season crossover do that?
- Jeffrey Parazzo plays Trent as extra snippy and annoyed with Kira in his first (only?) scene in part one. Maybe he was annoyed at how little he was given to do in this team-up.
- Jason David Frank also seems incredibly bored throughout the entirety of the episode, so maybe they were both annoyed at their lack of utilization.
- Absolutely love the subtle continuity nod to “Legacy of Power,” as Kira notes that she recognizes Blake but can’t pinpoint where she knows him from. It’s never explained in the episode, but it’s pretty obvious that she recognizes him from Tommy’s Ranger history video, and just didn’t put two-and-two together. The same thing would end up happening in Super Megaforce.
- Good attention to detail with Sensei being tied up — it’s not just rope, it’s evil rope with purple lightning sparking.
- Not a fan of making guy vs. guy and girl vs. girl in battle instead of lining up the colors. When the Rangers have their face-off in the Cybercafe, they’re lined up and glaring at their respective color counterparts. So why is every fight Tori/Kira and Dustin/Ethan? It’s unnecessary.
- There aren’t a ton of meta-jokes in this crossover (surprising considering it features two of the most meta teams ever) but the few there are work, like Lothor and Mesagog commenting on the inconsistent number of Rangers on these two teams.
- Power Rangers doesn’t do jump cuts very often, but I like Blake’s “never going back to the Abyss of Evil” joke.
- “It’s a pleasure to see y’all!” – As a Southerner, it’s really weird to hear someone from New Zealand say “y’all,” and there’s a lot of emphasis on it. I can’t tell if I love or hate McFarland’s delivery.
- “Evil Power Rangers? How is that even possible?” – Come on, Kira.
- “Dude, she’s kinda cute, don’t you think?”
“Yeah, in a crazed Ninja-Terminator sort of way.” - “My bell is seriously wrung!”
- “Let’s be careful, but let’s get it done.” – The entirety of Tommy’s “inspirational” motivation speech. Yeah.
