PRCF Wrap-up: Master Class (+ Season Rankings!)

When it comes to season ending cliffIhangers PR had over the years I'd put Dino/Cosmic Fury third after Alien Rangers/Zeo and Turbo/In Space. Kicking things off, it was great seeing things play out after the big opening scene that came out in advance. I really got to like how they did Squid Ink Inc, utilizing footage/monsters from KyuRanger and tossing in some from other sentai. I just wish their had been more time for the zords than just throwing them all in at the get go. Nice throwback to Zordnia plus gotta note how modern PR, without civilian fights, had Billy use the Lunar Lance in one episode more than basically all of MMPR. >_> Not to mention, how quickly Zedd was now willing to get his hands dirty and do things himself. Pretty awesome how the Dinohenge statues were destroyed.

With a lot happening offscreen , I thought they handled the bigger picture pretty well with cameos from Commander Shaw, in addition to Billy around and Mick recurring. Loved how Heckyl returned. Also liked how they utilized the Dino Fury cast including Slyther and Mucus being human once more. It felt like they were checking everything off a board, from Billy's classic dialogue to the girl power zord battle, and squeezing in the Cosmic Fury Blaster. 

"A countdown... to destruction?!"

Throughout the duration of watching this over several weeks, I was pretty glad I avoided spoilers mostly staying off X/Twitter. I did know about Morphin Master Zayto but it was kind of obvious they were building up to it. For a minute there, I thought Zedd's master plan was gonna be turning into Don Armage. Definitely didn't see becoming a Master coming, or Bajillia using him as a pawn. Plus using the Master Captivator to force a reverse Z-Wave, some great surprises to the storyarc which I loved in the old days (see rankings below). As soon as "Zayto" appeared to Aiyon in the void with blue eyes I knew it had to be Zordon, a great bookend for the show, while leaving the door open (but as all we know, it's not looking good). If there had been more time, would we have gotten an identities reveal a la In Space or perhaps Izzy and Javie telling their parents?

The returning Megazords was a great way of having other teams come to help - I was prepared we weren't gonna see much of on screen - if at all. Of course you have MMPR and recent teams, still very much around, while it's fun to imagine the Space Rangers still defending Angel Grove. Bringing back Galaxy Megazord was a bit of a surprise but it's pretty cool this follows being part of the captured Rangers in "ONCE & ALWAYS." The others in the cockpit besides Minh and Billy would've been nice but to end 30 years on this note was pretty awesome. And having another evil Ranger storyarc... Kai Moya was AWESOME and while I wasn't too bothered by the design of the CF suits, Ollie's corrupted DF suit was miles better. Fern becoming a Ranger (with a hand from Solon) was also nicely done.

So I'd say they covered every era of the show here, intentional or not. In addition to the SPD shoutout, Zayto suggesting Zedd could be redeemed someday was kind of  Disney-ish, while "nightmare Rita" felt like something outta Mystic Force/Overdrive. I mean, they  could've tried harder with that. Trapped in the nightmare, I felt like Zedd reverted to post-Wedding but they were apparently still not married. Doing this to rid of him once and for all was pretty good I thought, especially how much more of a force Zedd had become. There wasn't really a way for him to power up and not flat out kill the CF team without some Super Mega crossover.

In the end, aside from the lackluster handling of the zords, there's not much else I can be critical about, but I was kind of surprised at how bad some of the voice acting was. I wish the Zentinals had sounded more like Cogs, while the MOTDs especially in "ROCK OUT" were awful. Billy's instamorph with Heckyl was cool plus updating the morph again, but they pretty much had him off the side during group morphs. And with how long Scrozzle was around, I wish there had been a bit of closure than to leave it up to the viewer.

4/5 "BEYOND REPAIR" thru "ROCK OUT" and 5/5 for the rest.

SEASON RANKINGS

(1) RPM 

(2) DinoThunder 

(3) In Space 

(4) Lost Galaxy 

(5) Time Force 

(6) Season 3/Alien Rangers

(7) Lightspeed Rescue 

(8) Wild Force 

(9) Dino Fury

(10) Ninja Storm 

(11) Zeo 

(12) Cosmic Fury 

(13) Season 2  

(14) Beast Morphers 

(15) Dino Charge

(16) Season 1 

(17) Mystic Force 

(18) SPD 

(19) Jungle Fury 

(20) Turbo

(21) Operation Overdrive

(22) Megaforce

(23) Samurai

(24) Ninja Steel

 

Few thoughts on alternate MMPR DOTD

After seeing Adrian Carr's recent uploaded version of "DAY OF THE DUMPSTER" I couldn't help but wish it had been the one that aired. Between the first PMC way back in 2007, and around 11 years since I last watched the entire first season, I had forgotten Tony Oliver screened the chili scene, and the beginning of it ended up as the ending in "BIG SISTERS." But finally seeing the full episode, I thought it worked much better than the karate lesson we got instead, which was basically taken from "DARK WARRIOR."

I also really liked that there was a bit more ZyuRanger footage of Rita establishing her return before starting the attack on Earth. The first Putty fight wasn't all that different but originally was longer I thought was cool. We also get a completely different shot of the teens being teleported out of the Juice Bar for the first time and a third version of the original morphing sequence! Also one of the biggest surprises, this version used the Goatan zord fight from "LIONS AND BLIZZARDS" (called "Two-Headed Terror" here). I'm assuming that was changed to a fight with Goldar to raise the stakes a bit more for the premiere than to just use a standard monster. Even after 30 years, it's great to still be surprised by the show.