Episode 108- Storybook Rangers Part 1

Today we squee over our mutual adoration of books. That's really the best part of this episode arch, I think.

So we start out in a book fair at the high school. Stone Canyon apparently never had book fairs because Aisha, Adam, and Rocky are all marveling at the mere idea. Adam is lost in a book when Billy runs over, all excited at having found Quantum Physics Can Be Fun, which he's apparently been trying to find for a number of months. Rocky has found a book on meditation, which he tells Tommy would be great for their martial arts, and Tommy just takes it right out of his hand while asking if he can read it. Poor Rocky is just left there with his hand in the air where the book once was going "uh..." and looking like a lost puppy.

Kim says she loves fairy tales while looking through the books on the fairy tale table, because she always wanted to be a princess and get rescued by her white knight in shining armour or something like that. Kim, honey, you could be SO much more than a damsel in distress, though I do admit to loving fairy tales myself. Tommy throws out a line about a white tiger instead of knight and I have to roll my eyes. But I can't hate Tommy too much in this episode, much as I want to. Kim has found a book she adored as a little girl, a book her father used to read to her every night at bedtime, called Grumble the Magic Elf (my father read me Jeremy Mouse... so I totally get where Kim is coming from here). She gets very nostalgic and Tommy immediately buys the book for her. That earns him about a billion points in my sight, but alas, he'll probably lose all those awesome points within the next few episodes.

So Tommy, Kim, and Rocky agree to go meet Aisha, Adam, and Billy at the Youth Center. On the way, Kim is looking through her new book when Rita, while Zedd is napping, decides to beat the rangers by sending three of them into Kim's storybook. So she zaps the book with her awesome wand and then zaps Tommy, Kim, and Rocky into the book. Kim recognizes where they are and they begin the trek to the end of the story.

Meanwhile, Billy is wandering around the Youth Center while reading his new quantum physics book and Adam is sitting behind a pile of books at a table. Oh boys! We completely understand. We're the same way. Aisha joins them and asks about what books they're reading while they wait for the other three.

Meanwhile meanwhile, Bulk and Skull have found a book for Skull's mother about how to cook a Thanksgiving feast, and a book for themselves about how to make monsters. So they hightail it back to Skull's garage/workroom/whatever it is from previous episodes so they can make their own monster to attract the Power Rangers. They forgot batteries, though, so Bulk puts Skull in charge of finishing the monster while he goes to the store. Skull gets ready but then has misplaced the book, so he runs all over the place, up and down some stairs, into drawers and cabinets, and good holy hell this garage is ENOURMOUS. It's bigger than the houses I grew up in, based just on this scene. We theorize that it's not actually a garage but rather a TARDIS, seeing as it's much bigger on the inside. Seeing as Skull has a TARDIS, we can only assume he's a Time Lord. I'm now completely in love with this idea and we both spent a good bit of the next scene yelling at the screen for Skull to just open his pocketwatch! Open your watch, Skull! You could do AMAZING things!

Anyway, he eventually finds the book, but accidentally grabs his mother's Thanksgiving feast book and uses it to finish building the monster. Bulk comes back, all gleeful and ecstatic at the opportunity to animate his monster. Clearly, Bulk is a direct descendant of Dr. Frankenstein.

Back in the storybook, the Transported Trio run across Grumble the Magic Elf who is really just Ticklesneezer in a Santa suit. He's a very grumpy elf and I ADORE him and his grumblings. He has to get toys to kids and he's NOT happy about it.

The Non-Transported Trio are beginning to wonder what's keeping the others. Aisha calls it perfectly when she says Tommy is always late but Rocky and Kim really ought to be there by now. They can't find them back at the book fair, nor can they raise them on the communicators, so Billy says they should go tell Zordon. I know I should be surprised Zordon hasn't noticed anything amiss yet, but frankly I'm so used to Zordon!Fail that I knew he wouldn't know what's going on.

Zedd, having woken from his nap, decides he needs to keep the story from ending so the rangers can't ever escape it. He sends some putties into the book to steal the toys. They're rather ineffective putties and not at all Punctual Putties, but they eventually get the job done and leave Grumble without any toys, which he proceeds to, well, grumble about. The Transported Trio push forward through the story anyway, where they end up in a frozen snowy wasteland with a big monster that looks suspiciously like the Primator. They discover the morphers won't work and Rocky surmises it's because of the cold. I didn't know morphers could freeze. *sigh*

Back at the Command Center, Billy takes charge of the situation and says he's going to locate their communicator signals. Zordon tells him it's a good idea and that's about all the use he is. Billy finds the signals, figures out they're in a book, but nobody can figure out where the book is. Billy also manages to pull them up on the viewing globe and frankly, Zordon and Alpha are just useless here. Billy figures out the morphers are frozen and they all watch as the Transported Trio get attacked by the Snow Monster that isn't Primator (but really he is).

Fade to black and To Be Continued!

Fish: 3.5 It wasn't too bad, but there is an awfully big school of fish just swimming right out of Zedd's lack-of-logic here.

Billy speak: "Their morphers are experiencing hypothermal malfunctioning." OMG WE GOT BILLY SPEAK!

Nothing else that we keep track of, really. Though now I'm totally enamoured with the idea of Skull being a Time Lord, and I so want fic where he opens his Chameleon device!