HOME | DD

Description

Made with DeviantArt muro

My quest to recap every show and movie in the Power Rangers franchise continues, this time covering Power Rangers in Space, the Power Rangers show I remember watching as a child.

Revisiting this show in its entirety was quite a treat for me, especially since I went to the trouble of catching up on Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, Power Rangers Zeo, and Power Rangers Turbo before doing so.

The Super Sentai show this one was a localized form of was Denji Sentai Megaranger, which actually dealt with virtual reality rather than outer space, but the space theme happened because Haim Saban misinterpreted the theme of that Super Sentai show. Nobody's perfect.

Picking up where Power Rangers Turbo left off, we see T.J. Jonhson, Carlos Vallerte, Ashley Hammond, Cassie Chan, and Alpha 6 in space to try and prevent Divatox (the main villain of Power Rangers Turbo) from destroying the Earth after she wrecked their lair and made them lose their powers. After seeing that Dark Specter has united all the major enemies of the Power Rangers following his subjugation of Eltar and capture of Zordon, our heroes end up encountering a Red Space Ranger, whose true identity is Andros from the planet KO-35.

Andros is distrustful of T.J., Ashley, Cassie, and Carlos at first, but he eventually realizes that he can't stop the villains alone, so he lets them become his allies. T.J. becomes the Blue Space Ranger, Carlos becomes the Black Space Ranger, Ashley becomes the Yellow Space Ranger, and Cassie becomes the Pink Space Ranger. Other than Alpha 6, they were also assisted by a computer named D.E.C.A. (to my knowledge, there's no official explanation for what the acronym stands for).

The main mode of transport for the Space Rangers was the Astro Megaship, which was able to transform into the Astro Megazord. They also had an autonomous starship Zord called the Delta Megazord and would later obtain the Mega Vehicles, five vehicles that combined to form a mecha called the Mega Voyager (A red humanoid Zord for Andros, a black space shuttle Zord for Carlos, a blue rocket Zord for T.J., a yellow starship Zord for Ashley, and a pink tank Zord for Cassie).

After Dark Specter saw that Divatox was too inept, he appointed Astronema as the leader of his forces against the Power Rangers, who had Ecliptor and Divatox's bumbling nephew Elgar at her side.

Bulk and Skull once again appeared as comic relief, this time hanging around with an eccentric scientist named Professor Phenomenus.

One notable thing about the show was that there was a crossover with Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation in the episode "Shell Shocked", where Astronema made the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Venus de Milo) evil and they reprogrammed D.E.C.A. The Turtles eventually came to their senses, restored D.E.C.A. to normal, and were on better terms with the Space Rangers.

Because Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation was produced in Canada and Power Rangers in Space was an American show, none of the actors from The Next Mutation reprised their roles. Leonardo was voiced by an uncredited Tony Oliver instead of Michael Dobson, while unknown actors voiced Donatello, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Venus instead of Jason Gray-Sanford, Matt Hill, Kirby Morrow, and Lalainia Lindbjerg.

After a while, it turns out that there is also a Silver Ranger, whose real name was Zhane and had been frozen for two years. His Zord was a jet called the Mega Winger and he eventually left the team to help some freedom fighters on KO-35 before rejoining the others in the finale.

Some new villains also started coming up. Ecliptor had an enemy in Darkonda, a minion of Dark Specter who had kidnapped Andros' missing sister Karone. Astronema ended up turning out to be Karone, having been raised to be evil by Ecliptor, but her reformation didn't last because Dark Specter had cybernetics used to force her back into evil.

The Space Rangers then found evil duplicates in the Psycho Rangers, who were temporarily destroyed, then made into data cards.

The finale had Dark Specter order all of the united villains (Rita Repulsa, Lord Zedd, the Machine Empire, Divatox, etc.) to attack the Earth, and the Rangers worried that they didn't stand a chance this time, especially since the united villains were clearly mopping the floor with the Aquitian Rangers, the Gold Ranger, the Phantom Ranger, and the Blue Senturion. Fortunately, Bulk and Skull encourage the citizens of Angel Grove to not give up hope that the Rangers will prevail.

After Dark Specter is destroyed, taking Darkonda's last life with him, Astronema takes command over the army of villains. Andros ends up finding Zordon and is asked to shatter his tube to end the growing threat of the evil forces. Andros can't bring himself to kill Zordon, but goes through with it after Astronema appears to die and he gets into a struggle with Ecliptor.

As Zordon dies, he unleashes a wave of energy that reforms some of the villains (Rita Repulsa, Lord Zedd, and Divatox) and destroys others (the Machine Empire, Elgar, and all the foot soldiers). Astronema ends up coming back as Karone, and we last see our heroes journey into space, which was made all the sweeter by Andros reuniting with his long lost sister and Zhane joining the group for their last hurrah.

To explain the bottom half of this picture I made, I recently found out about a fan theory that Zordon's wave didn't just reform or destroy all of the Power Rangers villains, but also did the same to the villains of every live-action Saban show. I found this theory interesting, as it does provide closure for all the shows that didn't end with a proper conclusion, and these shows after all were more or less in the same continuity.

To illustrate this theory that intrigues me so, I've drawn the belated conclusions to Saban's short-lived and unsuccessful localization of Kamen Rider called Masked Rider and Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation (which are the only non-Power Rangers Saban shows I've seen lately. I'll worry about VR Troopers, Beetleborgs, and the rest after I've completed my Power Rangers Recaps): Count Dregon has been purified of the wave and is ready to end his obsession with taking the Masked Rider powers and simply make peace with his father and his nephew Dex, while the Turtles and Splinter are surprised to see that the wave has destroyed Dragon Lord and the Rank and purified their old enemy Oroku Saki aka the Shredder.

Another interesting thing to note is that the finale of Power Rangers in Space was originally going to be the end of Power Rangers, period. I'm glad it's not, because I still intend to go through with this project, though it will be put on hold for a bit to finish a Power Rangers/MLP crossover I've been asked to do.

I look forward to doing the Power Rangers Recap to Lost Galaxy. Heck, I even feel tempted to eventually do Power Rangers Recaps for the Soul of the Dragon graphic novel (which will be posted after the recap for Power Rangers SPD) and the Power Rangers: Super Legends video game (I got the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo DS versions of the game for Christmas, and in spite of the criticisms, they both look like fun games to me).

This concludes the Zordon Era of the franchise. May his power continue protecting us all.

Power Rangers (c) Hasbro

TMNT (c) Nickelodeon

Kamen Rider (c) Toei

Description

Made with DeviantArt muro

My quest to recap every show and movie in the Power Rangers franchise continues, this time covering Power Rangers in Space, the Power Rangers show I remember watching as a child.

Revisiting this show in its entirety was quite a treat for me, especially since I went to the trouble of catching up on Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, Power Rangers Zeo, and Power Rangers Turbo before doing so.

The Super Sentai show this one was a localized form of was Denji Sentai Megaranger, which actually dealt with virtual reality rather than outer space, but the space theme happened because Haim Saban misinterpreted the theme of that Super Sentai show. Nobody's perfect.

Picking up where Power Rangers Turbo left off, we see T.J. Jonhson, Carlos Vallerte, Ashley Hammond, Cassie Chan, and Alpha 6 in space to try and prevent Divatox (the main villain of Power Rangers Turbo) from destroying the Earth after she wrecked their lair and made them lose their powers. After seeing that Dark Specter has united all the major enemies of the Power Rangers following his subjugation of Eltar and capture of Zordon, our heroes end up encountering a Red Space Ranger, whose true identity is Andros from the planet KO-35.

Andros is distrustful of T.J., Ashley, Cassie, and Carlos at first, but he eventually realizes that he can't stop the villains alone, so he lets them become his allies. T.J. becomes the Blue Space Ranger, Carlos becomes the Black Space Ranger, Ashley becomes the Yellow Space Ranger, and Cassie becomes the Pink Space Ranger. Other than Alpha 6, they were also assisted by a computer named D.E.C.A. (to my knowledge, there's no official explanation for what the acronym stands for).

The main mode of transport for the Space Rangers was the Astro Megaship, which was able to transform into the Astro Megazord. They also had an autonomous starship Zord called the Delta Megazord and would later obtain the Mega Vehicles, five vehicles that combined to form a mecha called the Mega Voyager (A red humanoid Zord for Andros, a black space shuttle Zord for Carlos, a blue rocket Zord for T.J., a yellow starship Zord for Ashley, and a pink tank Zord for Cassie).

After Dark Specter saw that Divatox was too inept, he appointed Astronema as the leader of his forces against the Power Rangers, who had Ecliptor and Divatox's bumbling nephew Elgar at her side.

Bulk and Skull once again appeared as comic relief, this time hanging around with an eccentric scientist named Professor Phenomenus.

One notable thing about the show was that there was a crossover with Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation in the episode "Shell Shocked", where Astronema made the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Venus de Milo) evil and they reprogrammed D.E.C.A. The Turtles eventually came to their senses, restored D.E.C.A. to normal, and were on better terms with the Space Rangers.

Because Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation was produced in Canada and Power Rangers in Space was an American show, none of the actors from The Next Mutation reprised their roles. Leonardo was voiced by an uncredited Tony Oliver instead of Michael Dobson, while unknown actors voiced Donatello, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Venus instead of Jason Gray-Sanford, Matt Hill, Kirby Morrow, and Lalainia Lindbjerg.

After a while, it turns out that there is also a Silver Ranger, whose real name was Zhane and had been frozen for two years. His Zord was a jet called the Mega Winger and he eventually left the team to help some freedom fighters on KO-35 before rejoining the others in the finale.

Some new villains also started coming up. Ecliptor had an enemy in Darkonda, a minion of Dark Specter who had kidnapped Andros' missing sister Karone. Astronema ended up turning out to be Karone, having been raised to be evil by Ecliptor, but her reformation didn't last because Dark Specter had cybernetics used to force her back into evil.

The Space Rangers then found evil duplicates in the Psycho Rangers, who were temporarily destroyed, then made into data cards.

The finale had Dark Specter order all of the united villains (Rita Repulsa, Lord Zedd, the Machine Empire, Divatox, etc.) to attack the Earth, and the Rangers worried that they didn't stand a chance this time, especially since the united villains were clearly mopping the floor with the Aquitian Rangers, the Gold Ranger, the Phantom Ranger, and the Blue Senturion. Fortunately, Bulk and Skull encourage the citizens of Angel Grove to not give up hope that the Rangers will prevail.

After Dark Specter is destroyed, taking Darkonda's last life with him, Astronema takes command over the army of villains. Andros ends up finding Zordon and is asked to shatter his tube to end the growing threat of the evil forces. Andros can't bring himself to kill Zordon, but goes through with it after Astronema appears to die and he gets into a struggle with Ecliptor.

As Zordon dies, he unleashes a wave of energy that reforms some of the villains (Rita Repulsa, Lord Zedd, and Divatox) and destroys others (the Machine Empire, Elgar, and all the foot soldiers). Astronema ends up coming back as Karone, and we last see our heroes journey into space, which was made all the sweeter by Andros reuniting with his long lost sister and Zhane joining the group for their last hurrah.

To explain the bottom half of this picture I made, I recently found out about a fan theory that Zordon's wave didn't just reform or destroy all of the Power Rangers villains, but also did the same to the villains of every live-action Saban show. I found this theory interesting, as it does provide closure for all the shows that didn't end with a proper conclusion, and these shows after all were more or less in the same continuity.

To illustrate this theory that intrigues me so, I've drawn the belated conclusions to Saban's short-lived and unsuccessful localization of Kamen Rider called Masked Rider and Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation (which are the only non-Power Rangers Saban shows I've seen lately. I'll worry about VR Troopers, Beetleborgs, and the rest after I've completed my Power Rangers Recaps): Count Dregon has been purified of the wave and is ready to end his obsession with taking the Masked Rider powers and simply make peace with his father and his nephew Dex, while the Turtles and Splinter are surprised to see that the wave has destroyed Dragon Lord and the Rank and purified their old enemy Oroku Saki aka the Shredder.

Another interesting thing to note is that the finale of Power Rangers in Space was originally going to be the end of Power Rangers, period. I'm glad it's not, because I still intend to go through with this project, though it will be put on hold for a bit to finish a Power Rangers/MLP crossover I've been asked to do.

I look forward to doing the Power Rangers Recap to Lost Galaxy. Heck, I even feel tempted to eventually do Power Rangers Recaps for the Soul of the Dragon graphic novel (which will be posted after the recap for Power Rangers SPD) and the Power Rangers: Super Legends video game (I got the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo DS versions of the game for Christmas, and in spite of the criticisms, they both look like fun games to me).

This concludes the Zordon Era of the franchise. May his power continue protecting us all.

Power Rangers (c) Hasbro

TMNT (c) Nickelodeon

Kamen Rider (c) Toei