Morphenomenal Memories: 25 Years of POWER RANGERS

Post-Zordon Era (Lost Galaxy to Wild Force)

Moving forward from Countdown to Destruction, this era made its mark in history by establishing firsts in the franchise. For the first time in franchise history, the Rangers weren’t teenagers as most of them were already old enough to be among the working class.

Starting with Lost Galaxy, Saban adapted Sentai’s concept of a different team of Rangers per season. I enjoyed the idea because it paved the way for a much-anticipated yearly tradition in Sentai lore — team-up specials. While the first official Ranger team-up saw the Alien Rangers join forces with the Zeo Rangers in battle against two monsters created by the Machine Empire and Zedd & Rita respectively, the team-ups during this era involved two Ranger teams taking on villains from its preceding season.

And speaking of Lost Galaxy, the season that immediately followed In Space wasn’t completely devoid of holdovers. Aside from the Space Rangers teaming up with the Rangers, it had some callbacks the previous era — Alpha 6 became the curator of the Astro Megaship (now housed inside Terra Venture as a museum), Karone (the former Astronema) joined the team to replace the then-deceased Kendrix as the Pink Galaxy Ranger, and Bulk can occasionally be seen as a bartender for the Comet Cafe alongside Professor Phenomenus. But it was the stepping stone the franchise needed to move to the next phase. It slowly did away with its tropes during the Zordon Era, such as the comedic side-plots and the Rangers’ ability to teleport.

If there’s any season during this era that didn’t get enough admiration, I believe it’s Lightspeed Rescue. Among all of the “firsts” this era had to offer, this season had the most. For starters, it was the first season to have zero holdovers from the previous season outside of the team-up special. It was the first season where the Rangers’ powers were artificially created by modern-day technology as opposed to supernatural forces from seasons past. It was the first time the Rangers weren’t associated with one another prior to their recruitment and the first time their identities were known to the public. It was also the first instance wherein an entire family is part of the team, with Captain Mitchell serving as the mentor while daughter Dana and son Ryan are the Pink and Titanium Rangers respectively. As for the Titanium Ranger, it took me a while to figure out that he was a completely original creation by Saban since Lightspeed’s counterpart, KyuKyu Sentai GoGoFive, had no sixth man in their lineup — and also because I was introduced to the team through the video game adaptation of the season for the PlayStation. So I understood later on why Ryan went away from Mariner Bay for a time.

If I had to pick the best season during this era, it has to be Time Force. Its overall presentation and serious tone made it one of the most popular seasons and I’m not one to dispute that. The character development for everyone, from the heroes to the villains to the side characters, was on point. To give you an example, Ransik was designed to be the primary villain of the series. However, this was the first time in a while that a primary villain had some redeeming qualities such as his fatherly nature and his sudden change of heart towards humans at the end of the franchise, making him the first primary villain to willingly surrender to the Rangers. The chemistry between Wes and Jen may rival that of Tommy and Kimberly’s, though I wish it didn’t take so long for the two of them to admit their feelings for each other… fine, I still wish they kissed during the finale.

Wild Force marked Power Rangers’ 10th Anniversary and also the final season before the franchise set up shop in New Zealand to produce further episodes. Now with Disney at the helm, this season was among the forgettable ones. Because Disney had no plans to carry on with the series (Wild Force’s finale was called “The End of the Power Rangers” for Pete’s sake), this turned out to be one of the most bland and uninspiring seasons I’ve seen in all aspects, especially when you compare it to Time Force. Only Ricardo Medina, who played Cole, managed to be memorable from this season (although now, it might be for the wrong reasons) until now. Despite its forgettable nature, Wild Force managed to eke out two team-up specials, “Reinforcements from the Future” and “Forever Red”. Reinforcements of the Future was remarkable in its own right, but Forever Red was the team-up I anticipated the most. While it was great to see ten Red Rangers join forces to defeat the Beetleborgs Machine Empire, as well as a cameo by Bulk and Skull, it left a lot to be desired and it was thanks to Disney’s meddling. Instead of a two-part special with a more sensible approach of the Red Rangers using Zords to destroy Serpentera, we were treated instead to a rushed 30-minute special and an anticlimactic battle that showed Cole blowing up Serpentera with the Wild Force Rider. Imagine that, a Zord that was supposed to be 50 times bigger than whatever Zord the Rangers had was blown to bits by a modified motorcycle. I could go on and on about some of Forever Red’s inconsistencies but at the end of the day, I still enjoyed it.

The Post-Zordon Era showed much promise, especially during Time Force. Unfortunately, the last season under this era was a sign that the franchise would go downhill.