Power Rangers Month - Ranking the Seasons Part One: #17-14

Welcome to the beginning of Power Rangers Month, where I'll analyze every season, ranked from worst to best in my own opinion. Since we're at the bottom of the list, let's try to get through these. And it should be no surprise what's up first.

17. POWER RANGERS MEGAFORCE (2013-2014)

Adapted from Tensou Sentai Goseiger and Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger

Neo-Saban Era

Man, f*** this season.

I've given my thoughts on this before, but allow me to sum up my previous post about this season: With lazy editing and tons of plot holes, this season lures fans in with nostalgia but puts little to no effort in the final product, despite having years to plan. Hell, they were too lazy to even edit out Sentai teams that weren't adapted into Power Rangers!

Since my reactionary post though, I have had some time to reflect and new thoughts I'd like to share.

First off, I'd like to apologize for blaming the Saban company as a whole for Megaforce and apparently not caring about how the franchise is run anymore. The blame lies with then current show runner, Jonathan Tzachor. Since then, he has been replaced as of Dino Charge, most likely and justly fired after Megaforce.

Secondly, I have forgiven the re-use of the original "Go Go Power Rangers" theme for both Megafoce and Samurai. Samurai was the first season Saban produced since getting the rights back from Disney, so they were trying to invoke the same feeling of Mighty Morphin'. With Megaforce, it was the anniversary season, so it also makes sense. I'm just glad that Dino Charge's theme song brings something new.

While I said before that the show had no interesting character or development, I was wrong. Two do stand out. The first is Robo Knight, who filled the sixth Ranger spot for the first year. He's a robot whose mission is to protect the environment, so basically a mix of Robocop and Captain Planet. At first, he works alone and doesn't care about working with the Rangers. But over time, he begins to work more with the team as well as understand what it means to be human, eventually giving up his own life to save the Silver Ranger's.

On the villain side, there was Vrak, who was more or less the main villain for the first year of the show. While the show had too many villains that were generic and evil for the sake of being evil, Vrak did stand out because he had some charisma. He actually lasted the longest out of all the villains and was able to give the Rangers the most trouble and their devastating blow, cutting them off for a time from their Super and Legendary powers and being responsible for Robo Knight's death.

Still, two stand-out characters in two years of a series doesn't help when everyone else is two-dimensional. Hell, Gia the Yellow Ranger didn't get a single focus episode!

I think I may know the main root of Megaforce's problem is. With Saban's deal to air the show on Nickelodeon, they are only allowed 20 episodes to a season, as opposed to an average 40 of past seasons. For that reason, Saban has had to use the same Sentai footage for two years of Power Rangers in order to complete a series that before would have been done in one. Samurai (adapted from Shinkenger) was on for two years, Dino Charge (adapted from Kyoryuger) is currently on it's second, and I assume this will be the norm from here on out.

With Megaforce, however, the decision was made to use two different Sentai for each year. The first year was based on Goseiger while the second was Gokaiger, Super Sentai's 35th Anniversary season. There in lies the problem. They had to condense a Sentai with nearly 50 episodes down to 20 for Power Rangers. That begs the question, can an adequate Power Rangers season be done in just 20 episodes? Possibly. For the first year of Megaforce based on Goseiger, I found it was almost on par with Samurai. If it had stood on its own, it may have worked. But when things went Super into the Gokaiger footage, that's when things fell apart.

Now, what would I have done: skip Goseiger and adapt Gokaiger for two years. I heard somewhere that Saban's prohibited from skipping a Sentai series due to contract, but I'm calling bull on that because they skipped over Go-Busters to adapt Kyoryuger into Dino Charge and are planning to skip over ToQger to adapt Ninninger for the announced 2017-18 series, Ninja Steel.

As for story, here's my pitch: the Zangyack Empire has sent an armada led by Prince Vekar to conquer the Earth. Lord Zedd after being turned good by the Z Wave has become the wizard Gokai, similar to how Rita became the Mystic Mother in Mystic Force. Setting up a headquarters in a nexus point of the Morphing Grid on Earth, Gokai is able to channel the powers of Rangers from the past, future, and other realities (explaining how they'd use SPD and RPM). Gokai recruits Troy, Noah, Gia, Jake, and Emma to fight the Zangyack by becoming the Megaforce Rangers, using their new powers and zords, as well as those of the past Rangers.

Throughout the season, past Rangers would guest star in episodes dedicated to their seasons (and I mean EVERY season) and give guidance to the new Rangers. However, they wouldn't be able to use their own powers because they're currently tied to the Megaforce, and as established in past seasons, a duplication of Ranger powers causes a strain on the Morphing Grid and harm those involved.

As opposed to how it was actually done, the Silver Ranger would be from Earth and be someone who has studied Ranger exploits since he was young and the original Mighty Morphin' team arrived. Impressed with his bravery to help the Rangers without powers of his own, Gokai gives this person the Silver Ranger powers and the ability to become past Sixth Rangers.

As the show would near it's end after Vekar is killed, his father Emperor Mavro arrives to finish the job, and he is revealed to be Zedd's/Gokai's brother. While the Rangers are distracted in a battle that destroys the rest of the armada as well as their own Zords, Mavro attacks their headquarters, killing Gokai and stealing the Ranger Keys. Using the Ranger Keys and the Morphing Grid, Mavro kidnaps all the past Rangers and forces them to battle the Megaforce. After freeing the past Rangers from his control, Mavro summons one last large army of X-Borgs, and thus begins a true Legendary Battle. We would see teams work together that hadn't before, like RPM and in Space or Jungle Fury and Lightspeed Rescue. Turning their attention to Mavro, the Rangers use their team finishing moves to destroy him. And all the while, the extended version of "Go Go Power Rangers" would be playing in the background.

Now I know this Legendary Battle would be mostly just stuntmen in the suits, but even if they did have short cameos, it would have been fine since they would have proper screen time in a previous episode. Hell, even if they just got Tommy to guest star and speak on behalf of all the past Rangers, it would have been fine.

Honestly, I think I just put more thought into how Megaforce could have been than Jonathan Tzachor. If anyone knows of a way to reach him, please share this with him. Show him how it's done.

But I guess I've dwelled too long on what could have been and what we actually got. On to the next season.

16. POWER RANGERS OPERATION OVERDRIVE (2007)

Adapted from GoGo Sentai Boukenger

Disney Era

Man, f*** this season. 

Okay, I promise that's the last way I start these analyses, but both Megaforce and Operation Overdrive are the seasons that I just straight up hated. I cut Overdrive some slack because of Megaforce, because they at least put effort into it. Or at least tried to. Boy did they try.

I guess I should have been tipped off by how this season would go by the theme song. I mean, did you watch the video I posted? There's a reason Power Rangers is supposed to have rock themes. It gets you pumped up! Overdrive's? What am I supposed to do with that?

I think what really clinched it for me that this was the worst season at the time was the episode, "Out of Luck". When the Red Ranger is cursed with bad luck by a monster, it gets to near Looney Tunes levels with how much bad stuff happens to him. Hell, a boulder comes out of nowhere and runs him over! But if that wasn't bad enough, the other Rangers give him their good luck charms to try to help, and we get...this:

I mean, my God. I know this may sound dramatic, but this moment actually made me question my love for this franchise.

When it comes to the Rangers, they're really not that likable. Most of the time, I found them whiny, selfish, dumb, or jerky. I do admit though that unlike Megaforce, the Rangers here do have some personalities and go through some development. Out of them, the only ones I believe worth talking about are Mack the Red Ranger and Tyzonn the Mercury Ranger.

Tyzonn fills the Sixth Ranger role this season and is an alien from the Planet Mercuria and the last remaining member of a rescue team that were killed by the Fearcats, one of the villain factions of the season. While his introductory episodes give him a tragic background, for the rest of the season, he doesn't get much focus or development, and without spoiling anything, even his character arc gets resolved pretty lazily. Orion, the Silver Megaforce Ranger, had a very similar background to Tyzonn's, and gets about the same treatment, if not worse.

Mack is the son of billionaire adventurer Andrew Hartford, who creates the Overdrive powers and recruits the Rangers to fight this season's villains. While initially reluctant, Andrew doesn't want Mack to be the Red Ranger but approves once he proves himself. Later on, we get big twist this season where Mack finds out he's actually an android built by Andrew. When I first saw this, I just hated it and fueled my rage for this season. But now, I can at least say it's something original and did create dramatic tension between father and son, though it would have helped if there had been more build-up. However, that doesn't excuse the fact that after finding out about this revelation, Mack becomes down right suicidal during missions because he feels expendable for being a machine. It doesn't make him heroic, it makes him look like an emo brat.

When it comes to the villains of the season, there's a lot of them, but not as many as there were in Megaforce. It makes them easier to keep track of but they're also not very memorable or have much motivation other than being evil. That's all there is to say pretty much on that front.

If there's any likable character, it would be Spencer, the Hartford family butler. He's funny, gives advice, and even helps the Rangers out in the field.

Now I can't talk about this season without bringing this up. 2005-2008 is what some fans call the Kalish era of the show named after the showrunner at the time, Bruce Kalish. One of the aspects most infamous of his seasons are the overuse of explosions during fight scenes, earning the name Kalish-splosions. For most of his seasons, the explosions ranged from minimal to moderate use. But with Overdrive, he really kicked it into high gear. With the number of explosions happening during this season, I remember being bored out of my mind, usually working on something else while watching the show. It's as if Michael Bay got control of Power Rangers. On that note, for the love of God, don't let Michael Bay anywhere near the new Power Rangers movie!

If there's anything that helps this season, it's the 15th Anniversary Special, "Once a Ranger". When Rita and Zedd's son Thrax unites the villains and cuts the Overdrive Rangers off from their powers, past Rangers return to help. Adam as the Black Mighty Morphin Ranger, Tori as the Blue Ninja Storm Ranger, Kira as the Yellow Dino Thunder Ranger, Bridge as the Red SPD Ranger, and Xander as the Green Mystic Force Ranger.

While it does make the past Rangers look better than the new ones, this is actually my favorite anniversary special. It was just so nice to see competent Rangers this season. In fact, it made me wish that these were the Overdrive Rangers recruited (save for Bridge since he's from the future). Adam and Kira would still be Black and Yellow while Xander and Tori become Blue and Pink. Mack and Tyzonn could stay on. And when it came to the anniversary special, first, have it set between "Face to Face" and "Man of Mercury" before Tyzonn officially joins the team. Thrax would unite the villains and kidnap the veteran Rangers, leading Mack to put out the call to other past Rangers to help. My picks would be Tommy as the Red Zeo Ranger, Carlos as the Black Space Ranger, Dustin as the Yellow Ninja Storm Ranger, Ethan as the Blue Dino Thunder Ranger, and Vida as the Pink Mystic Force Ranger. They save the Rangers and we get a team-up fight where all the colors match.

It's a bad season, but no longer the worst. If you had the choice to watch Operation Overdrive or Megaforce...well let's just not pick either. We got 15 more seasons to cover more worth watching. Well, not by much with our next season, but I digress.

15. POWER RANGERS TURBO (1997)

Adapted from Gekisou Sentai Carranger

Saban Zordon Era 

When I was a kid, I liked Turbo. But growing up and looking back, it was quite clear the writers were having trouble with what to do with the franchise. What resulted was the season that nearly killed Power Rangers, and no other season has ever earned that title.

Though I guess the problem I had with the show as a kid was with how much they were changing things, seemingly just for the sake of it.

The first was the replacement of Rocky with Justin, the first and only child Ranger in the whole franchise. Behind the scene, Rocky's actor, Steve Cardenas, suffered a back injury and had to leave the show. A similar reason was used within the series. I used to think it was cool to have a Ranger who had my name, but little did I know later on that Justin is one of the most hated Rangers of the franchise. To be honest though, I thought Blake Foster, Justin's actor, did alright with what he was given to work with, especially for a kid actor. He wasn't terrible, but I think people were just annoyed by the idea of a kid Ranger.

Following that though, Zordon and Alpha 5 left to go home to Eltar, replaced by new mentor Dimetria and a new jive-talking Alpha 6 (who said "Yo, yo, yo" instead "Aye, aye, aye"). Dimetria was okay, but I hated Alpha 6 even as a kid. I'm just glad he got a new more tolerable voice the next season.

But then came the biggest change the franchise had up to the point. Tommy, Adam, Tanya, and Katherine all left the show with the two parter "Passing the Torch" and their powers were given to newcomers TJ, Carlos, Ashley, and Cassie. Now this, isn't the first time actors have left and replaced by new ones, but it happened gradually and had some build-up. Rocky, Adam, and Aisha had a few episodes helping the Rangers as civilians before taking on the powers from Jason, Zack, Trini, and Kimberly. With the Turbo Ranger, Carlos and Ashley were shown for only a few episodes beforehand, and TJ and Cassie actually debuted IN "Passing the Torch". It's all too much change at once! To be fair, the new Rangers were fine, but the shadow of the previous Rangers was always there and I didn't really accept the four until they became the Space Rangers in the next season. But there was enough to keep me watching, such as the Phantom Ranger storyline and the introduction of the Rescue Zords.

Then you have the villains, and boy are they an unimpressive bunch. Elgar was an idiot, Rygog did nothing (since his costume was so bulky), and Porto created/recruited monsters. And of course, probably the most annoying villain in the show's history: Divatox. Sure it makes her memorable, but not in a good way. She was just so whiny and hardly did anything herself. I mean, at least Rita and Zedd cast spells a lot; Zedd even fought Tommy once. There was one episode where she even had Elgar and some Pirhanatrons rob a bank. (You're an evil alien! Why are you doing the most cliche bad guy thing by robbing a bank?! What value does human currency even have to you?!) And in probably the most infamous episode, "Trouble by the Slice", she loses her memory and ends up working in a pizza parlor. That story lasts half the episode, but the second half of it is actually so bad, it's good. A monster tries to bake the Rangers into a giant pizza, and we get this gem of a line.

You are no doubt laughing your ass off at that line or trying to wrap your mind around the context of it.

By the way, the robot here is Blue Senturion. I haven't mentioned him because I really never cared for him.

Back to Divatox though, as bad a villain as she was, she is actually responsible for the most devastating defeat of a Ranger team in any season. Their zords were destroyed, headquarters brought down, and they were even cut off from their powers. There's quite a feeling of hopelessness. Still, the fact that it was Divatox that achieved this feat makes me chalk it up to pure dumb luck.

However, this is what I think is the biggest problem with this season. Coming off of Zeo, they went to using the Zeo Crystal, the most powerful object in the universe...TO FREAKING CARS...with little to no explanation!

So what would I have done? Continue Zeo for a second season, retaining those suits while using the zords and monsters from Carranger. And in conjunction, Rita and Zedd return as the main villains after blowing up the Royal House of Gadgetry (who presumably go off to get repaired afterwards) in the finale of Zeo. The monsters of Carranger would certainly fit their style, and with Rita's new powerful wand she got in the Zeo two-parter "Rangers of Two Worlds", they would be much more powerful than previous ones. I mean, it's not like they weren't already filming new footage of the villain's headquarters or the Ranger fights with Pirhanatrons (which they could have still used and say Rita and Zedd remodeled them after leftover Cogs). Hell, they could have scrapped the Turbo movie and used that budget to film more new footage.

Story wise, here's how it would go. Rita and Zedd set up shop again and send a new monster to Earth. Though the Zeo Rangers put up a fight, both Zeo and Super Zeo Megazords are destroyed. Rocky is also injured in the battle and is replaced by Justin. Not out of the fight though, Zordon reveals to them the new more powerful Turbo Zords, developed by Billy before he went to Aquitar. After that, the story can remain the same. Zordon and Alpha 5 are replaced by Dimetria and Alpha 6, the Blue Senturion comes from the future, TJ, Carlos, Ashley, and Cassie become Rangers, the Phantom Ranger comes to give them the Rescue Zords, and Rita and Zedd destroy everything the Rangers have before being called away by the Dark Specter, which would lead to the next season. And as a more aesthetic choice, the Power Chamber would keep the Mighty Morphin's suits on display, as they were for no reason replaced in Turbo for five tubes with the Rangers' colors. I mean, during the destruction of the Power Chamber, just imagine them going out of their way to destroy the suits, which would be hurtful to both the Rangers and the viewers.

Of course, Turbo didn't kill Power Rangers, as it continues to this day. But for a time when it seemed like the series truly was over, it came back with our next season.

14. POWER RANGERS SAMURAI (2011-2012)

Adapted from Samurai Sentai Shinkenger

Neo-Saban Era

At first I felt I was being generous by placing Samurai this high, but it does sit well here. This was the first season Saban produced in about 10 years after acquiring the rights back from Disney. You would be right to they'd be a little rusty, and it shows. Again though, I should be specifically be talking about the then-current showrunner Jonathan Tzachor. This is why I cut Samurai a little slack (Megaforce doesn't get that luxury since Tzachor had at least three years to get his s*** together and the quality actually got worse).

The show takes on more a light-hearted tone similar to when Mighty Morphin' first started, even using a remix of "Go Go Power Rangers" as shown above. This leads to some pretty silly moments throughout the season, though it rarely got unbearable. But if anything really drags this season down, it's the acting. It's pretty wooden, and not just live action, but in the voice acting as well. It just didn't feel as natural as previous seasons.

Don't get me wrong though. Samurai isn't a horrible season. It's not that great either. There was potential for a good show and I could see there was one trying to get out. If there's one word to describe this season, it would be mediocre. 

While I said this season is more light-hearted, there does come some dark elements, especially on the villain side. This season features a demon race known as Nighlocks. As I'll remark in more season analyses, demons are actually my favorite variety of Power Rangers villains. The main villain is Master Xandred, but there's not much to him. No, the three worth talking about are Daiyu, Dekker, and Serrator as they're all entangled in a tragic backstory.

Daiyu and Dekker were once a human couple and a housefire nearly claimed their lives, fatally injuring Dekker. Serrator came to Daiyu and offered to save him, but for a price. Dekker's life is saved and both become Nighlocks, but Dekker has no memory of his human life.

For most of the season, Dekker is obsessed with fighting the Red Ranger, wanting to face the best opponent he can, which makes for pretty good fights. Aside from her backstory and bit of a rivalry with Mia the Pink Ranger, Daiyu doesn't do much during the season other than helping Master Xandred able to attack the human world leading to the finale. Serrator however was a pretty freaky dude. Like some villain generals of the past, he has his own agenda against the main villain, even coming close to destroying the human world with his own plans, which makes him more interesting than Xandred.

When it comes to the Rangers, I feel there's three worth talking about.

We'll start with Mike the Green Ranger and Emily the Yellow Ranger. Compared to the others, they're the ones with the most development as they're not as well-trained in their Samurai skills at the beginning. Mike is more laid back and it takes awhile for him to take training or missions seriously, but he usually comes through. Emily is the youngest of the team and is actually only there because her older sister, who was supposed to be the Yellow Ranger, had become seriously ill so Emily had to step in. Emily was bullied in childhood as well and coupled with having to fill her sister's shoes as a Ranger, she has a lot of self-doubt. In the episode "Stick and Stones", this self-doubt actually makes her immune to attacks from a monster that can physically harm people with insults. Despite this however, she still does her best in both her training and fighting monsters.

I group these two together since they have a budding relationship throughout the season, getting together in the finale. There was some subtle build-up, but the wooden acting may make it hard for some to spot. I noticed at least.

Then there's Jayden, the Red Ranger. For the most part, he actually is a bad ass. What makes him interesting is that he initially works alone and has a hard time accepting working with a team, but eventually thrives as a leader. It's worth mentioning that this is one of two seasons where we have a "Chosen One" prophecy revolving around the Red Ranger. In this case, Jayden is the one who must become strong enough to seal the Nighlocks away once and for all. This puts a lot of importance on Jayden, especially to the other Rangers...which gets to unbearable levels as the season reaches its conclusion. I won't spoil the circumstances, but it's all "Everybody looooves Jayden" and "Jayden's sooooo awesome". You know how some fans or Rangers swoon over how great Tommy is? The love Jayden gets on the show is worse than that and in my opinion, hurts another character who gets the most decent acting on the show.

Despite the "Chosen One" thing, it actually does take a team effort to defeat the main villain, which happens in the other season this applies to as well. 

One more character worth mentioning is Mentor Ji, trainer of the Rangers who actually raised Jayden after his father's death. The only thing I really want to talk about is his name. Mentor Ji. Not Master or Sensei. Mentor. And that's what he's referred to most of the time as well. Not sure what they were thinking of with that name.

Something to note this season is that since there were plans to refilm Megazord cockpit scenes, they decided to give the Rangers a Mega Mode, armored versions of their suits, mostly included to help toys that looked similar.

I was not a fan. Though to be fair, the Gold Ranger's Mega Mode is pretty awesome, replacing the regular gold and blue with black and a more metallic gold with some armoring. It reminded me of the Gold Zeo Ranger and made me wish it was his regular suit.

In addition, the Rangers also acquire a Shogun Mode while controlling the Bullzord, giving them more of a traditional armored samurai appearance. While each Ranger has one, it's Jayden that usually uses it, which I think fits with his "Chosen One" destiny, especially since he does use it outside the Megazord as a sort of Battlizer against Xandred in the finale.

I keep mentioning the finale, named "Samurai Forever" so I'll talk about it more in depth. It's pretty action heavy, which is fine considering all the build-up it had in previous episodes. The battles are pretty impressive, between the final Megazord and the Shogun Mode battles, as well one where the Rangers fight unmorphed against an army of Moogers.

Samurai isn't the best season, but I find it more worth watching than the previous three seasons I talked about.

That's all for now. Come back next week as the countdown continues with #13-10.