Episode 1 - Day of the Dumpster

Summary: Rita escapes, Zordon recruits a team of teenagers, the Rangers visit exposition land, and eventually agree to become superheroes.

We have to say, we really love the pilot. It does a pretty good job of setting up everything. We get a lot of first in this episode - morphing, zords, power sword, Rita's headaches, Goldar running away from battle... you know, all the fun stuff.

Of course, we still have a lot to say about it.

First, the intro. We are fond of the introduction. In fact, we like the soundtrack a lot. Go Go Power Rangers! Although, really, they couldn't have found a better clip of Billy to use? Because he gets beaten up about a second after that one. And Zack is the only one of them whose little individual clip isn't from this episode. And really, attitude? Zordon doesn't actually say that in this episode, and while the Rangers are bullies, we don't really think that they have an attitude problem.

Yes, we said the Rangers are bullies and we mean it. Rewatching the show so many years later, that is the biggest problem we've found with the first season. They are really not nice people. They spend a lot of time being awful to Bulk and Skull. And while Bulk and Skull can do pretty horrible things (for example, the sexual harassment of Trini and Kimberly in this episode) the Rangers really enjoy tormenting Bulk and Skull. This is especially bothersome since... Bulk and Skull aren't very smart. The Rangers are always talking about not escalating fights, but they sure spend a lot of time calling Bulk and Skull names. We don't think that's fair.

On a related note, we do think that it's awesome that Kimberly tells Zack that she can handle herself. Of course, Tommy hasn't shown up yet, so Kimberly doesn't have to play damsel in distress.

Next, Rita. Oh, Rita. We love Rita on this blog. She's hilarious. But we have a few questions. First, what planet was her space dumpster on? That was clearly not the moon, and we don't think it was Mars either. It was so sunny! And how do the astronauts know about space dumpsters anyway? We do like that Rita invited them to her coming out party. Her coming out of the closet party.

To return to the Youth Center, we don't really think that Billy was doing that badly for a first class. And we're not surprised that he knew the answers to Jason's question about martial arts. I mean, Billy is the smart one. He wears glasses and everything! That's how you know who the smart one is on children's tv. We are surprised that Jason commented on how quickly Billy memorized something. It seemed pretty patronizing. However, Jason has nice arms, so we will forgive him. Of course, his making a fool of Bulk and Skull right after he talks about only fighting in self defense makes him lose a lot of the credit he gained.

We do love the first view of the Command Center. Or Exposition Land, which is the real purpose of it. We can't really blame the team for doubting - if a big giant floating head told you that an alien was invading and you were chosen to be a hero who got your powers from dinosaur spirits, I might not believe it either. Especially if a Mastodon was considered to be a dinosaur. Just saying. Of course, we find it hard to believe that Zack doesn't want to be a superhero, or that Billy would walk away from all of that technology. Or that Jason would give into peer pressure.

We did like what all of the Rangers stood for
Jason: bold and powerful (We have to agree with this one.)
Zach: clever and brave
Kimberly: graceful and smart (We buy the graceful part, but we had to pause the episode and laugh when they talked about how smart she was)
Billy: patient and wise
Trini: fearless and agile (only fearless until next episode, anyway!)

Considering how far away they appear to have teleported, walking didn't seem like a brilliant idea. And Rita, at least, is very good at the spying thing. She sees them almost immediately.

The first fight was a good introduction. They get beaten up by a bunch of putties and then Jason talks them into morphing. And of course, the second they morph, they get teleported downtown! They didn't even beat the putties yet.

We spent a few minutes arguing about how they knew how to call their Zords, before finally deciding that when they morphed they must have instantly gained the knowledge. Speaking of the Zords, we have to compliment Angel Grove on its very varied geography. Most cities don't have a desert and a glacier and a rainforest right near it. And that volcano might cause some trouble at some point.

So they summon the power sword and Goldar runs away. We're wondering if we should keep track of how many times this happens. They then return to the Command Center, and are told the three rules of rangering:
1-Never use power for personal gain
2-Don't escalate a battle unless forced
3-Don't reveal your identity.

We're sure they will break the rules many times.

We really can't comment on Kimberly's hair thing, because that joke was just lame.

List time!

Major inconsistencies: Goldar's wings. He has them for part of the episode, but not in the rest.

Quotable quotes: "Hey, nice stereo." - Kimberly, on her zord.

Number of times people get covered in food: 1- Bulk and Skull end up with smoothies on them

Billy speak: "Fully sentient multi-functional automaton!"
"Metamorphisis." Trini translation: "To change." (We are surprised that Kimberly has made it to high school without knowing that.)

Questions to ponder: How did Billy know it wasn't an earthquake?

Fish scale: 2 fish out of 5.