Franchise title: Power Rangers
Franchise air dates: August 28, 1993 – December 06, 2009
Created by: Haim Saban
Genre: action, adventure, fantasy, sci-fi, children’s programming
Check out the Wikipedia article to learn more.
Check out the Morphing Grid (the Power Rangers wiki) for more info.
Series title: Power Rangers: Wild Force
Series air dates: February 09, 2002 – November 16, 2002
Starring: Ricardo Medina, Jr. (as Cole Evans, the Red Lion Ranger), Alyson Kiperman (as Taylor Earhardt, the Yellow Eagle Ranger), Phillip Jeanmarie (as Max Cooper, the Blue Shark Ranger), Jack Guzman (as Danny Delgado, the Black Bison Ranger), Jessica Rey (as Alyssa Enrilé, the White Tiger Ranger), Ann Marie Crouch (as Princess Shayla), Phillip Andrew (as Merrick Baliton, the Lunar Wolf Ranger)
Check out the Wikipedia Article for a series summary.
Check out the Morphing Grid entry for more info.
Check out the IMDB page for more info.
Episode title: Forever Red
Original air date: October 05, 2002
Episode number: 10x34
Guest staring: Austin St. John (as Jason Lee Scott, the Red Ranger), [voice] David Bacon (as Aurico, the Red Alien Ranger), Jason David Frank (as Tommy Oliver, the Red Zeo Ranger), Selwyn Ward (as T.J. Johnson, the Red Turbo Ranger), Christopher Khayman Lee (as Andros, the Red Space Ranger), Danny Slavin (as Leo Corbett, the Red Space Ranger), Sean Cw Johnson (as Carter Grayson, the Red Lightspeed Ranger), Jason Faunt (as Wesley “Wes” Collins, the Red Time Force Ranger), Daniel Southworth (as Eric Myers, the Quantum Ranger)
Check out the Morphing Grid entry for an episode summary and other interesting info.
So for the last five months or so, I’ve been watching Power Rangers every morning.
Yeah. Power Rangers. So sue me.
Anyway, so I’m nearly done with the tenth season, Power Rangers: Wild Force (I’ll let that sink in for a moment; I’m a loser, I know), and I get to this episode Forever Red.
Squee fest like woah.
The basic premise for Forever Red is that every red ranger up to this point team-up to defeat a big bad. That’s ten, count ‘em, TEN red rangers. Why only red rangers? Who cares! It was awesome. Having watched every episode up to this point, it was a real treat to see characters from past seasons again, most of them for the last time (Tommy, you screen whore).
My only real complaint is that it should have been a two-parter. Apparently, ranger fans over analyzed this episode like crazy when it first came out because of how many power-related plot holes there are (since Jason, Tommy, and T.J. shouldn’t be able to morph because their power sources were destroyed). It would have been awesome if the first episode was about how some of the older rangers regained their morphing capabilities and stuff like that and the second episode was basically what they had aired. To be fair though, I doubt very many people had seen every season up to that point, and probably wouldn’t get it or care. Still, according to the Power Rangers wiki, they had a lot of cool ideas that were cut simply because it was a single 22 minute episode.
Some cool stuff:
• Bulk and Skull cameo! These guys are the best. I liked their ranger chess set too.
• Cole saying “Morphinominal!” I did a triple mental take at that one and giggled like a loon. “Morphinominal” was one of those silly phrases they said back in Mighty Morphin that is indeed a stupid phrase but has tons of nostalgia value to go with it. Hehe. “Morphinominal.”
• The fact that the big bad was trying to use Serpentara. Serpentara was this totally awesome Zord used by the big bad of season two, Lord Zedd, which made the rangers’ Megazord look like a flea and had the power to destroy a planet. Unfortunately for Zedd, he never could meet the power requirements to get it to do anything beyond fly around. True, they made Serpentara waaaay too small in this episode and destroyed it in a cheap way (like I said, 22 minutes – what can you do?), but it’s the thought that counts.
• “It’s morphin’ time!” I missed that phrase so much. I love you Jason and Tommy!
• Seeing all the morphing sequences one right after the other. Strangely, I found my favorite sequence was Leo’s, the Lost Galaxy Ranger. Kinda random (for me, anyway).
Anyway...
This episode also got me thinking about how I feel about each red ranger and which my favorite was. The reds tend to be one of my favorite characters each season (kinda unavoidable, since they tend to get the most screen time), so I really do like them all for various reasons.
My least favorite is probably Rocky (who wasn’t in this episode, but that makes sense since he would have had the same power source as Jason), but that’s not really his fault since he was the red ranger back when Power Rangers really should have been called “The Tommy Show” (seriously, Tommy’s a screen whore; and he comes back for Dino Thunder).
As much as I love Jason (he is the original red ranger, after all) and as much as I love Tommy (seriously, I remember totally crushing on him when I was a kid), Wes is probably my favorite so far. He went through more character development than any other character on Power Rangers (including screen whore Tommy, who was on four and half straight seasons, plus Dino Thunder), transforming from a spoiled rich kid to a real hero who held his responsibilities and his friends before himself. We see how his relationships changed too, most significantly with his father, his friend Eric the Quantum Ranger (who was also in this episode), and Jen, the Pink Ranger. He kind of has an unfair advantage, since he’s from Time Force, the best Power Rangers season hands-down (so far, anyway), but all the same, I adore Wes. He’s awesome. And kinda cute. One day I’ll put up my rants about Time Force (it seriously is that awesome) so you too can know of its awesomeness.
Maybe as some point I’ll go through all the red rangers and point out what I like and dislike about each character. But first, I’m almost done with Wild Force, and probably will be ranting about that season finale soon. Cheers!
P.S. This is from the Power Rangers wiki:
A scene between Tommy and Alpha 7 on the Megaship was cut that involved asking Tommy what was wrong, and Tommy replying that things have been awkward between him and Jason since they found those stories on the internet, in a reference to the slash fanfic of Dagmar Buse.That would have been the funniest damn thing ever. Don’t know what “slash” is? I’m not telling you. Look it up.
P.S.S. Wes talking about Tommy: "Hey, wait! I changed history! So why does he have and I don't?"
I'm in your fanclub Wes...
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