Episode 40 - Doomsday Part 2

You know, considering how great part 1 of this episode was, you would think that part 2 would be awesome. And there are some good moments, but honestly we spent about half of it chanting fish at each other.

So, we open at the Command Center, and Zordon is going over the threat again, and he points out that Goldar hasn't brought out his awesome zord in 10,000 years. Of course Goldar hasn't brought it out in 10,000 years. He's been sealed in a can. While we're busy rolling our eyes at that, the next ridiculous statement is made. Apparently it requires 12 hours to charge back up the Megazord. Right now the Zords are only at half power. If they fight at half power and get destroyed, apparently it can destroy the grid. Wait, seriously? Since when does it take that long to charge up? And obviously they've fought at below half power before, considering that the Zords are currently charging. Fish fish fish.

So, they go, and promptly get beaten up. In fact, the Megazord gets its arm cut off. And seriously, that Zord has to be at least semi-sentient at this point, because while the Rangers are all freaking out (seriously, it's the best reaction shot ever) the Megazord manages to defend itself anyway. So they call in the Dragonzord, which promptly loses part of its tail. They keep getting beaten up, and then suddenly the Zords start to disintegrate, and seriously, that was pretty incredible. I mean, the special effects are ridiculous, but seeing the Zords get destroyed like that is pretty powerful.

The Rangers all abandon ship, and demorph back in the park. Apparently Rita is jamming the frequency of their communicators so they can't call the Command Center. Oh, and don't worry, because Billy's about to pull a Billy Ex Machina, and it turns out that the Zords have a failsafe where they teleport back to wherever it is they stay if they're about to be destroyed. If so, seriously, why haven't we heard about this before, and why was Zordon so busy going "blah blah destroy the grid" if you go?

So they head back to Billy's garage, and we get a shot of the Radbug. And I thought we've already established that if you can't contact the Power Chamber, you take the radbug. But Billy apparently has some wacky tool that will fix the communicators. Of course, there hasn't been enough drama in this episode yet, so Goldar and some putties show up to menace them.

Meanwhile, at the Command Center, Zordon is all "woe is me, I can't find the Rangers without their communicators", which is frankly bullshit. But Alpha tells us that since Rita's awesome moon palace is on Earth, apparently they can hack her systems now. I'm getting weird Independence Day flashbacks.

Back at Billy's garage, Goldar is still just standing there and being vaguely threatening. He hasn't even tried to attack yet. And he just watches as the Rangers teleport back to the Command Center.

And guess what? Apparently it must have been WAY MORE than 12 hours, because all of the Zords are just fine! Including Titanus, which must have been rescued from the sandpit by some flying sand-fish. Some other stuff might have happened at this point, but there was a long series of ????? and !!!!!! and flailing and screaming about fish and seriously, show, you could at least try to be consistent within the same episode. Zordon's big plan is that if they just keep changing Zord configurations, they can overwhelm Goldar's Zord. Which... apparently works. Big fight scene. Things blow up. Nothing to say about it really.

So after Cyclopsis blows up (it lost its head last time and still recovered!) Finster blames Goldar, and then Rita packs up her palace and goes back to the moon, and for some reason that makes the entire town reappear in the Park or wherever it was they were gathering.

Some little kids start arguing over which Ranger is the best. One boy likes the Red Ranger, another boy likes the Black Ranger, and a third boy likes the Blue Ranger. A little girl says she likes the Pink and Yellow Rangers, and seriously, couldn't you have gotten a second girl? Or maybe have one of the boys like one of the female Rangers? Is that too much to ask?! Of course, Tommy then makes an appearance (wearing all green, of course) and he tells them a secret - they are all the greatest. (I was really hoping he would say the Green Ranger is the greatest. Oh well.) So the Rangers show up and the all walk up and clap him on the shoulder, and seriously, how come nobody realizes Tommy used to be the Green Ranger?

The mayor makes a speech about how the Rangers are awesome, and that's the end of Power Rangers Day.

But wait, there's more! Back at the Command Center, Zordon says that while they haven't defeated Rita, they have dealt her a major blow. He then offers them the chance to quit. None of them do. Until they go off to a Peace Conference or move to a fish planet, anyway. That would be a great place to end the episode, except then Alpha says he caught a virus. A computer virus. GROAN.


Fish: Four fish. None of the Zord stuff made any sense.

Billy speak: "Rita's undoubtedly jamming the frequency"
"I'm adjusting the modulator to read an alternative signal"

Questions to be answered: What did the people in town experience while they were caught in the alternate dimension? What sort of events should happen at Power Rangers Day?

Episode 39- Doomsday Part 1

This episode starts with the news that it's going to be Power Ranger Day! There is going to be a big celebration in the park and the Rangers are going to make an appearance, all in celebration of the fantastic wonderful things they do to save the city.

Bulk and Skull hide in a corner and decide they want to pretend to be superheroes. They devise a plan to dress up and go to the celebration to reveal themselves as superheroes too. It's a pretty neat idea, but it's not going to go well because as we all know, Bulk and Skull just can't catch a break.

The park is set up with some really awesome, really wacky balloons. Jason and Zack are looking around for Billy, Kim, and Trini. They stumble upon Angela first and Zack asks her to hang out but she, per usual, turns him down. She does say she'd go on a date with him in a heartbeat if he were a Power Ranger! Oh Angela, if only you knew! They meet up with the others and have very loud conversations about wondering if it's time to morph into costume now. Secret identity: you're doing it wrong.

Bulk and Skull show up, change in a small photo booth, and then awesomely jump on stage. They look fantastic in their costumes! They introduce themselves as Bulkster and Super Skull: Boy Wonderful. I'm madly in love with them right now, Skull in particular. TSB has determined that Skull would make a great Robin one day and is intrigued by Skull/Dick Grayson. Hey, Batman exists in this universe. It could totally happen!

Rita plans to transport everybody to an alternate dimension and then take over Angel Grove. It's actually a really good plan. She starts with Bulk and Skull and within minutes, she's managed to teleport every single person except the Rangers. They contact Zordon and she takes her entire palace from the moon all the way to Earth. The palace is much bigger than it looks because underneath all that moon rock is what appears to be a skyscraper. She settles right in the middle of downtown Angel Grove. A prime location, I do believe.

The Rangers morph and call their Zords just in time to meet up with Goldar and HIS shiny new Zord! Yes, Goldar gets a Zord in this episode! It's name is Cyclopsis and it's insanely powerful. It's more powerful than Goldar is, which actually fits in continuity of the show, what with Zords generally being pretty badass compared to non-Zord-wielding Rangers.

The Rangers just can't beat this Zord, so with the MegaZord running on back-up battery power, they call in DragonZord. He is awesome, but still not powerful enough. The awesomeness that is Titanus shows up and lays the smackdown on Cyclopsis. It essentially BEHEADS him and that's the end of that fight!

Or is it? It's not! Rita sinks Titanus! She opens up a big hole in the ground and Titanus goes down! The MegaDragonZord tries to save him by grabbing him 'round his head and tugging, but Rita zaps them with her wand and Titanus is engulfed. It's really really sad. Poor Titanus, his little head poking out of the dirt while he sinks, crying in terror. Oh I could cry myself!

Rita summons Lokar and they know they're in trouble now. The Rangers, out of power, teleport back to the Command Center. Zordon tells them the residents of Angel Grove are safe in the alternate dimension, but they will be trapped there forever. Jason gets very emo and temporarily turns into Captain Obvious, stating that the Rangers are the only hope left for the residents of Angel Grove, but he look so wooby when he says it, I can't fault him for stating the obvious. Oh Jason, I just want to take you home and feed you cookies when you look like that. Zordon then basically tells them if they lose, the world is lost, and their friends and family will be trapped forever. No pressure or anything, though, right Zordon? Uh-huh.

We end with a To be continued.

That, dear readers, was an AWESOME episode.

List:

1 fish! Two episodes in a row we get only 1 fish.

Billy speak: "We can't allow him to gain a strategic advantage!"

A moment of silence, if you will, for Titanus.