Episode 96- The Great Bookala Escape

Today we learn Billy has an alien fetish! And that sets up for his send-off in even more disturbing ways.

I hated this episode when it first aired. I haven't watched it since then, and yet I remembered it. I wish I hadn't had to watch it today. I will never watch it again. And maybe, just maybe, one day I will be able to scrub it from my brain altogether.

So Billy, Aisha, and Adam are in the park. Doing... whatever supposedly-wholesome teenagers do in parks on sunny afternoons. A small spaceship crash lands and they go investigate. Aisha thinks there's a doll inside, but Billy sees some monitor somewhere that shows a heartbeat, so it's a living hibernating little... thing.

They remember they have communicators and contact Zordon. He says it explains why Zedd is heading towards Angel Grove in Serpenterra. So Zordon actually noticed evil-doing, but didn't bother to contact anybody? I'm beginning to think the only time Zordon actually WINS at anything is when he's in plastic packaging sitting on a shelf [photo courtesy of Bevo, who is awesomely dorky like we are].

They wrap the overly hot spaceship in a blanket and teleport to the Command Center, where they are joined by the others. Zordon tells them it's a Bookala, from the planet Bookala, and is just a space traveler. Billy has to take a large plastic diamond full of sparkly glitter and put it next to the little doll-looking-thing. It suddenly grows and comes to life while Billy comforts it and it learns English. It's almost like they tried to make him sound like Yoda but failed miserably and instead it's just really really offensive.

Zedd wants the diamond, so they break into Skull's dad's garage/basement/workroom place (or rather, they used the same set for this scene) and make a doll!Bookala while Billy fixes the spaceship. That's right, ladies and gentlemen, he FIXES THE SPACESHIP. Because apparently being a genius means you know absolutely everything ever EXCEPT how to properly insert a battery. Some random monster thing goes to get the diamond and attacks the rangers in very badly spliced footage, seeing as he's in a warehouse of entirely different lighting and proportion to the garage the rangers are in. He fails and they escape. So Zedd sends Goldar and they set up the plan with the fake ship.

Goldar actually succeeds for a change! Even Zedd is taken completely by surprise. He puts the fake diamond into Serpenterra and they go about their merry way, while the rangers send Bookala off in his repaired spaceship. As a present, because he's going to miss his BFF Billy, he makes it snow in Angel Grove for a few minutes (and TSB and I had a rousing discussion on the merits of snow... but she grew up with enough snow to be hassle and I, who have always loved having a good foot on the ground, spent 13 years in a climate where even the slightest hint of a snowflake was a sign of the impending apocalypse... you live somewhere hot enough to never snow, and you're going to want to see it. I'm just saying.) Anyway, it's cheesy and stupid and they say tearful goodbyes and then Bookala is thankfully on his way.

We rejoice, for this means the end of the episode! Right?

Or not. That's right, this atrociousness continues. Zedd is mad he got a fake diamond so he makes yet another monster out of the little doll!Bookala the rangers made to distract him. It grows, zords are called, the thundersabre is pulled, and the fight is over. At least it was a short fight.

Back at the Youth Center, Kim has received a postcard from Trini all the way from Torchwood Switzerland. Well, at least one of them still writes! Then Bulk and Skull, who have been trying to take pictures of the alien thinking it's a power ranger, come in and declare they have the identity of the power rangers. Only they ended up taking pictures of themselves and not anything else.

Frankly, I'm just glad the episode is finally over.

5 fish. Just... I'd like to forget this even exists.

Billy speak: borderline... "It appears to be an extra-terrestrial transport."