I actually remember Lightspeed Rescue as my least favorite Power Rangers series.
It wasn't just the one I was too old for either, as I have very fond memories of Time Force, even though huge sections of that series don't always make sense.
Nice ending bit there. Don't screw with him, indeed.
I remember getting at least one or two episodes (I THINK it was the Galaxy team-up) on video with 3D GLASSES!!! I didn't really think much of it, since at the time, I was not into Power Rangers.
That, of course, gradually changed when Time Force was on the air. Hot DAMN, I can't wait for your next one already. Especially since you took so fast with Lost Galaxy. Hopefully you can breeze through WF and NS, since, as far as I know, there's not much to really say about WF outside of Forever Red.
About what I remember it bring. But I have to disagree about the the theme song I think it is easily one of the best. Overall Lightspeed is not as good as RPM or Time Force but not as bad as Turbo or Mystic Force
Nice look at this one Linkara. This seems to be the point where the writers actually began to take stock of their locations and such and use them to they're fullest potential. Also, I think the captain shows no emotion because he's supposed to be stoic.
Awesome recap. You pretty much had all of my complaints with the series and the team up episode. Seriously, what was up with the screenwriters when they wrote up the lines of that secretary?
I really can't wait for the next installment, since Time Force is one of the best not to mention the capable actors they hired.
If you need any ideas for the stingers for the Time Force video, might I suggest that weird cross-cut in an early episode where the guys are enjoying a pizza when suddenly Vernon Wells is seen yelling in the rain. Or, the instant classic line in the Knight episode, "We need to send out a search out party for that pizza."
Carter was a badass and sometime call him the worst Red Ranger but I think this video shows what made him amazing. This season was okay, I do wish that the rangers had more personalitiy but I did enjoy it as a kid oh and I still have that video from Mcdonalds.
Excellent review, but I'm surprised there was no comment about where the Rangers were recruited from.
Green Ranger - Flying through the air Yellow - Clinging to the earth (OK, mountain) Blue - Under water Red - Surrounded by fire Pink - Paramedic, most trained to save lives
Yeah, when I saw the clips, my first thought was: "By your Power Rangers combined!"
Jeez, even when she's getting eaten by the big bad, Vypra runs for her life half-heartedly.
And yeah, Carter so definitely deserves some kind of AT4W "He Is A MAYUN!" award.
I know you said you don't release the videos for these until after you've watched the following series, but I'm curious as to your writing process: do you write the script for Series A before, during, or after watching Series B? And how does recording fit into that scheme?
Looking back on your review, I never realized how crazy badass Carter was when I first watched Lightspeed Rescue in my youth. Then again, in the finale, he's willing to go into a pit of demons just to stop them from taking over Mariner Bay, so it's completely justified.
As for the season in general, I really liked it, despite it being a good back-to-basics type of season, because, unlike previous seasons, the Rangers didn't conceal their identities to the public. Granted, they're part of a government operation and their identities would be made public anyway, but still the idea of Power Rangers with identities revealed at the beginning of the season was wonderful.
As for the team-up episode with the Lost Galaxy Rangers... it made the least amount of sense as far as team-ups in the Power Rangers Renaissance goes. How did Trakeena end up on Earth? How do the Lightspeed Rangers and the demons know about the Lost Galaxy Rangers and Trakeena? How did the Galactabeasts travel to Earth? It just raises too many questions. In fact, the Time Force team-up with Lightspeed made somewhat more sense than this one because the knowledge of the previous team of Rangers makes sense: two-thirds of the Time Force team are from the future, thus they would have history banks on past Ranger teams. How *spoilers* Vypra *end spoilers* is the returning villain in that team-up is beyond me.
Speaking of villains, I agree with you completely, the villains were mostly stock in this season. When it comes time for Time Force, we'll actually get not only some villains with personality, but come off as actually sympathetic considering their circumstances.
Awesome. I was wondering when the scene where Carter blew away Demon Knight would be shown. I'll admit that I loved this season as a kid and it was the first PR show I watched all of the episodes on and that's probably why I was able to overlook the villains' lackluster performances and the lack of a character arc for them (I liked the monster designs though).
As for the crossover, yeah, it was a big waste of the Lost Galaxy crew and especially Trakeena. I do have a guess as to how the group knew about the Lost Galaxy Rangers: The Space Rangers might have come back to Earth and told the press about the latest status of Terra Venture (A certain character also makes it back to Earth in another season so some sort of transport might have been available between the two locations).
Sounds like you liked Time Force which I will say I thought was probably the best non-zordon season for the epic as hell conclusion and some villains that got interesting as the series progressed. They kind of waste the crossover as well, though (Wild Force kinda makes up for it by having Forever Red and a crossover that actually ties up a couple loose ends from Time Force while actually tieing the two seasons together) I wonder how many references to Vernon Wells' other roles will be made in the next video. Anyway, had a blast and it was awesome as usual.
They played the crap out of light speed rescue on TV in Canada I guess because of that I grew a real sweet spot for it almost as big as the one for original MMPR.
It's great this is finally out! I'm actually liking it taking longer to come out as it gives me enough time to catch up. Can't wait for wild force though! (I grew up with it as a kid)
Nice stuff, though I really wish you'd examined that damn tornado episode. I can't express enough how much I hated it, especially since I swear Kesley's actress broke the fourth wall.
Oh yeah, and Carter and Dana seemed to form some kind of bond, possibly a romantic one, but she was so damn bland its hard to tell.
Still, I will agree Carter is a bad-ass with his guns. I think most of the hate for him stems from him relying on weapons all the time where as, as we saw in stuff like Forever Red, quite a few Red Rangers were more than capable of just using Snap Dragon and McFisticuff to take down the toughest of enemies. I will definitely praise these videos for showing why the hell he's actually awesome, and worthy of possibly nailing the bland but hot blonde of the team.
Another good review. I'd forgotten how many badass style moment they'd given carter. Then again, I only watched lightspeed occasionally with my little cousins...
The first purely American sixth ranger thing is interesting because it seems to go to saban and company having decided a "6th warrior" was key to the shows formula.
Thank you Linkara for giving this series the Justice it deserves and for proving that My favorite red ranger is more manlyer then Chuck Norris. Now I can't wait to hear what you have to say about Time force. Hope you make Commando jokes ( The actor of the main villian is Bennett from Commando)
AWESOME!! this is the last season that I have watched as a kid .... (which is stupid because I saw clips of the next season and it looks really good) and the next season is also some kind of big finally because after that season Saban lost the rights.
Nice review. Just watching the review without seeing the episode, the villains really seemed to drag things down. Which is a shame, because the heroes just keep getting better and better, characterization wise. And the Red Ranger WAS badass.
Also, I was wondering about the gap between Lost Galaxy and Lightspeed Rescue. I know that you said that these would be taking longer and longer. And no, this is not "how long will the next one take." I was just wondering if you delayed this until Linkara returned from the evil alternate dimension overlord's clutches to help keep up the illusion that you were gone. If so, brilliant work at keeping up with the story. If not, that worked out swimmingly.
Another fantastic look back at power rangers. I'm sure i am not the only one who waits eagerly for each and every review and im curious to see if power rangers is going to make a comeback now that the rights of the power rangers has returned back to the original owners. Keep up the great work linkara.
I have to admit, as someone who started watching Power Rangers during In Space I was turned off a bit by Light Speed because it seemed like a giant step backward returning to earth after battling beyond our atmosphere. While I did try to give it a chance I was never really pulled in like the previous two seasons, and after getting about halfway through the season left, only to return to Power Rangers once Time Force began. Even so, the Supertrain Megazord might be my favorite zord out of all those I saw during my childhood, and there were bits and pieces I liked of the show. Can't wait for your next review Linkara, keep up the good work.
Great episode can't wait till the next one. I'm wondering where you get you information on the series. You seem to know many fan theories and behind the scenes information and I was wondering where you were getting your references.
Il still say what i said before to you on twitter. I don't get how you enjoyed the first episode. Its....painful but yea, it got so much better as the season went on. Thank you again Linkara. ^_^ Another awesome history.
This is, along with Wild Force, one of my least favourite Ranger series. You touched on one of the main reasons but you didn't spell it out. More than forty episodes and I'd say around twenty-five of those were filler. To make it worse those fillers were not used to flesh out the Rangers or their supports in any way. There were very few developments anywhere in this series making it bland, uninspired and rather empty. As you said it was up to the Titanium Ranger to go out and find a way to fight the demons. Up until he turned up it was all a defensive battle and you can never truly win a war if your reacting instead of acting. Continuity wise Lightspeed buggered things up too. According to the "accepted explanation" their powers were reversed engineered from left over Zordon Era technology. Right, I'll buy that but hang on... This is a military force that has these resources right, that means that the Rangers are now run by the US government. How long until the Zords are deployed in war against other nations? Won't the UN and various other nationalities demand their own Ranger programs? How long until there is a Zord based arms race to see which nation can build the biggest or the most Zords? You thought the nuclear bomb caused problems? How much more destructive is a giant robot armed with a giant gating cannon and MULTIPLE missiles? Although what got me with this series most of all was the acting. I thought the Yellow Ranger was a bad actress in Lost Galaxy but my god, didn't any of them take any lessons? Did they even try? I know I'm asking a lot of questions but damn it that's how I felt when I first watched this and I still haven't gotten an answer. I like to think, when dealing with continuity of Power Rangers as a whole, Lightspeed didn't happen. It solves so many problems. Still your review hit most of the main points and did a good job of summing it up.
In regards to the Power Rangers series being in the same universe, I'll agree with you on that...except for RPM, for two reasons.
The first is the headache of where it fits in. SPD takes place in the year 2025, so the real question is whether it occurs before SPD or after SPD. I don't see how it can occur before SPD for a number of reasons (just one: in the first DinoThunder/SPD team-up episode, some information is given as to what the DinoThunder Rangers did with their lives, and that simply does not work with RPM's events), and it's hard to believe it would be after SPD because technology-wise RPM seems to be not as advanced as SPD and there's no aliens or apparent communication with other planets like there was in SPD.
The other problem is that it taking place in the same universe as the others kind of seems to render all previous seasons moot. Who cares if they fended off enemies for years to keep the Earth safe? Once RPM comes around, all that is thrown out the window (heck, the season opens with the villain having all but won--don't worry, that's not spoiling anything, they show that in the first few minutes). So I'm sticking with the "alternate continuity" theory for RPM.
Also, you're right, that was in fact the dumbest person in Power Rangers ever. At least when the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles said the Power Rangers weren't real, you could maybe assume they were just out of touch with the world because they lived in a sewer.
Looking forward to your Time Force review. I thought some parts of it were really good (Eric is my favorite Sixth Ranger due to just how well-done his character development does) but I did have some problems with it. One thing that really bugged me was how sudden Ransik and Nadira's character development at the end of the series is, especially in contrast to how well-done Eric's was. I also had some problems with Ransik as a villain. Personality and strength wise he was awesome, but other than unfreezing mutants and sending them one at a time at the Rangers (rather than unfreezing them all at once and attacking en masse--yeah, I know the "one monster at a time" is a Power Rangers staple, but he doesn't have to even make monsters, he can just unfreeze all the mutants) he really didn't do much other than sit around.
WELL WORTH THE WAIT! I have to say, as I've made my way through watching all the seasons on YouTube, I've avoided LSR because of fan criticism. This makes me feel ten times better about it and I am definitely going to check it out. Excellent analysis Lewis! Can't wait for Time Force!
Seriously Lewis, I love these things. They may be some of my favourite videos from anyone associated with TGWTG ever. You take the material seriously, you give succinct and straight forward reviews of anything filler, and you wrap everything up in such a way that I want to start watching Power Rangers afterwards.
Thanks a lot for all the time and effort you put into these and I eagerly await the day you review Wild Force and the episode "Forever Red."
Ahh a new HOPR great way to start out my vacation. I remember seeing the pilot when it first aired years ago. Though truth be told I found the whole concept unimpressive...plus the demons escaping gave me Ghostbuster flashbacks.
They tried to drown a mermaid. im sorry but i still can't get over that. ahhh it makes my brain hurt. other than that this is a very enjoyable series and Linkara the villans only get worse in time force. i look foward to seeing that review.
You know watching these videos reminds me of how much I like the actors to be in synch when they morph. Everybody doing the same movements, at the same time just screams "@#$% just got real". Which is one of the reasons I'm not a fan of the "sixth" ranger. It's bad enough that their outfits are different but they just throw off the symmetry of the morphing sequence. It's funny I stopped watching after Lightspeed and didn't pick up PR again until NS. So I missed TF (still haven't seen, but heard it was good) and WF (upset that I missed out the first time it was on). Still enjoying your videos.
Great as always Louis. And it was great that you like Time Force, it's my favorite post-Zordon series.
I also don't understand the gun complaints. In the first season of MPPR the blade blasters were used frequently, especially in the stock footage. Only after parents complained, Season 2 all but eliminated them (as anything other than something to fill the holsters.)
I'd agree Carter is a little bland, but I'd also agree with proposition he's just badass. The problem lies in his interpretation. Carter is simply his role. Granted he is the epitome of his role, but there's nothing more to the man. I can guess what the other Rangers do when bored, but Carter? I haven't got a clue.
While there's evidence that sort of thing actually happens like Dana did (take Susan Boyle for example), I'm very glad you hit Captain Mitchell with "You're the CO! ACT LIKE IT!" I screamed at him.
You know, you make an interesting point about Ryan, but I think it wasn't taken far enough. All Power Rangers have simply been defense until this point in history. As such, when you get right down to it, they've only won because their opponents were kind enough to come within striking distance. The end of Turbo, as reviled as it is, was the inevitable result of the fact that the Rangers didn't beat Rita, they didn't beat Zed, they didn't beat Mondo, and they didn't beat Divatox. The Rangers would have lost during In Space if Astronema hadn't brought along Zordon to gloat at him, nor would they have succeeded in Lost Galaxy if Trakeena had simply go off for more monsters and used what was left of Terra Venture as a new base.
Wars are not won by defensive action. You must go to the enemy and you must break his ability or his will to fight, preferably both. None of the previous Ranger teams did this, but the Lightspeed Rangers did. They are thus the only Ranger team it can legitimately claimed won their own battle. Even the Space Rangers and the Galaxy Rangers only won because the other side screwed up. Granted this a legitimate way to win (and arguably the classic historical method), but for all the triumphant themes of past seasons, this is the only true triumph of the Rangers in the series so far.
" know the "one monster at a time" is a Power Rangers staple, but he doesn't have to even make monsters, he can just unfreeze all the mutants) he really didn't do much other than sit around."
I thought about that, too. My theory is that he's concerned that if he unfreezes them all at once, they won't obey him (i.e. they can organize and decide they don't need Ransik anymore).
Funny how the demons never seemed to fly even though they had wings.
The Train Zords actually stemmed from all the mass transit in Japan with subways and railroads. There's even a group of Autobot trains who merge into a giant robot. Plus, the flying train bit comes from an old classic anime, Galaxy Express 999.
"This is a military force that has these resources right, that means that the Rangers are now run by the US government. How long until the Zords are deployed in war against other nations? Won't the UN and various other nationalities demand their own Ranger programs? How long until there is a Zord based arms race to see which nation can build the biggest or the most Zords? You thought the nuclear bomb caused problems? How much more destructive is a giant robot armed with a giant gating cannon and MULTIPLE missiles?"
Like many things in Power Rangers, we can simply accept that nations don't go to war in Power Rangers. Yes, there's the schlocky "world peace" stuff that happened in the first few seasons, but remember - military never took on the monsters and the police didn't enter the picture until season 3. Power Rangers plays it fast and loose with realism in those regards.
Great review, I'm really liking these. Also, fuck yes, Carter has officially become my favourite Red Ranger after this review. The guy sure lives up to the RED HOTBLOOD tradition superheros tend to have (at least in Japan, but that's where the sentai footage seems to mostly taken from).
Also, Lewis (forgive me getting personal here), have you ever heard the cover of Season 1's theme song done by a Japanese Rock group called ENSON? While yes, it is in Engrish I gotta say it is the most glorious Engrish theme song I've ever heard. I don't know if you're aware of it or not but maybe you can use it in one of the remaining reviews (hey, maybe for the remake of season one?): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3LBW5KQEyA (Full Version) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cc2YcdO6SoA (TV Size, synchronized by a fan).
Really on the fence about this one; I love watching your History of PR series, but Lightspeed filled me with such anger and hatred that not only was I unable to finish it, but I skipped the next two seasons after it. I just don't know.
I think the best way to describe Lightspeed this is meh.
Lightspeed is not a terrible show but its not all that great, although your recap makes me think its better then I remember it being(although that could be because your just showing the highlights).
I think that the main problem with is that very little actually happens in it, the majoity of it being filler and the Rangers themselves, aside from a few nice characters moments throughout the seires, aren't all that developed.
Anyway next up is, in my opinion, one of the best Ranger seires of not just the Saban era but Power Rangers in general.
In regards of the effectiveness of the villains I have to agree they didn't really accomplish much until the very end. Although one moment which is omitted in the review and which sticks in my mind is in one episode where Olympius steals the rangers beam weapon and actually KILLS them (except for Carter) with it. Of course this was undone when Carter went back in time somehow, but still that was a pretty shocking moment.
With the day I've been having, this made it a little more tolerable & I loved the Mermaid girlfriend the blue ranger had. Also for reference, in your next vid for "Power Rangers: Time Force" the "Quantum Ranger" is a DICK and has very little if no development as to being on Par with legends like Tommy or Jason or Zack or even Kat, in fact my twin nieces call him "The Stinky-head Ranger"!
LSR is as great as I remembered it! Diabolico was really the part that made LSR so great, he actually turned against his mistress and assisted the Rangers! It was like he was the 7th ranger or something...
Being in the small island of Singapore, I don't remember Time Force. I assume that as by the time MMPR was broadcasted here, there was many seasons of Power Ranger already produced, my area might have skipped some. I don't think saw Time Force or Wild Force, so before your next HoPR, I think I'll watch as it is supposedly awesome.
I totally agree with your thoughts on Vypra. When they chose women for the main female antagonist in most of the latter series (Trakeena, Vypra, ect.) the casting department seemed to focus more on hotness than whether or not they could act.
I think this was about the time I stopped watching the show. Every now and then I would catch a few scenes in between channel surfing, but I never stuck with it. Plus, I'm sure there were other, better shows on at the time that held my interests.
Yes I suppose it's weird that Zordon would suddenly switch to cars after using animals for so long, but even if they had used a previous Sentai, none of them really fit the bill for the kind of Zords you were used to either. The closest thing was Liveman, and aside from the lion robot, the animal-themed mecha had superficial resemblances to the animals they were based on at best. If they'd adapted a previous Sentai in lieu of Carranger for the series following Zeo, the Zords still would've been attack vehicles and not animals.
It's sad but I am already counting down seasons till you get to RPM (which is my favorite for no good reason). Annnd I'm picking up on eeeevery bit of the show that came from other seasons. Seriously XD <3 But I still love it and I hope you do too just the same.
First off, I want to say, amazing show as usual. I really love the way you present these seasons and Lightspeed Rescue was where I stopped watching the show, so seeing them keep up the tradition of the Power Rangers is a real pleasure.
What I wanted to comment on was your analysis of the commander. Your gripe seemed to be that it would have been much faster for him to explain his orders. As you also noted, however, he was a military commander. In the military you DO NOT question your commander. In battle, if you question your commander, you're losing very valuable time. I think that's the lesson he was trying to teach. Yes, lives were at stake, but he needed to make it clear to the rangers that when he gave an order it was highly important that they followed it right away, like in the military. However, this is pure conjecture as, like I said, I didn't see the series and I don't know as much about the character as you do, but that's the impression I got from your description of his actions. Honestly, if he had explained his orders like you suggested, it could have resulted in the exact same trust that I am suggesting his actions may have been intended to cause, so honestly my point could be moot.
"I thought about that, too. My theory is that he's concerned that if he unfreezes them all at once, they won't obey him (i.e. they can organize and decide they don't need Ransik anymore)."
Yeah, I think that's part of a trope that involves villains that you never create too many "smart" henchmen or they will decide that you're not paying them enough (if they get paid at all) to do the bad guy's dirty work and decide to turn on him. I've noticed that a lot of underlings in these kinds of shows tend to be stupid or at the least not too bright. I remember an episode of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles where Shredder gets fed up with Bebop and Rocksteady's incompetence, fires them, and creates a super-smart Foot Soldier in their place. But the Foot Soldier decides he's too good for Shredder and Krang and boots them out of the Technodrome. Then there was that other episode where Shredder fires them again and hires about ten super villains to take on the turtles, but he has to bribe them with a spaceship of gold to get them to do it, and they get pretty P.O.ed when the ship gets blown up. Needless to say, it's Bebop and Rocksteady who come to rescue Shredder from being blown into a thousand bits.
Anyway, back to LR. I liked the show, more so in the later two-thirds. I tend to agree the villains were sub-par, but mostly in the first third. I thought they got interesting when Impus grew up to be Olympius and the Diabolico/Olympius rivalry began. I think it also reflects the growing maturity of the PR universe to deal with the possibility of actual death, as in the near-death of Ryan in the car accident. Even the Cobra tattoo is pretty scary. And this may just be me, but I think also we're at the point where the Rangers don't just wear the same colors all the time in civilian form, but constantly wear the same outfits, perhaps so they can have them in the morphing sequences. I can't remember if this started here or in Lost Galaxy.
It'll be awesome to hear your take on Time Force. Actually, I need to catch up on that one myself. I missed out on a huge chunk of it when it first came on.
I find it interesting that, up until Lost Galaxy, every power Ranger's villain was an alien of some kind, but from Lightspeed Rescue on (with the exception of SPD), all of the villains were native to Earth.
Actually, now that I think about it, Time Force got super censored. Granted, 9/11 happened very close to the end of the season, hence the censorship, but still, it kinda sucks that we can't see the original versions anymore.
Now I propose that we start making Carter Grayson facts, since he clearly is deserving of it.
So what we've learned this time: 1. Carter is a badass who blows stuff up. (can't say that about most Reds) 2. Little girls ruin everything, particularly with team-ups 3. Vypra really needs to learn acting lessons from Trakeena and Astronomena
Great review, now for the big one that got me (sort of) back to PR.
On the subject of the next season, I have to agree that Time Force was possibly one of the best, though issues with how dark it should be probably hampered it from being truly excellent. Heck, I heard they originally wanted to air it in prime time, but figured the kid's show stigma would hurt it too much.
To stay on the subject of Lightspeed though, I demand my own Super Train!
Also for reference, in your next vid for "Power Rangers: Time Force" the "Quantum Ranger" is a DICK and has very little if no development as to being on Par with legends like Tommy or Jason or Zack or even Kat, in fact my twin nieces call him "The Stinky-head Ranger"!
Wait, what? Yeah, he's a jerk for a lot of the series (though he does mellow out as time goes on), but "little if no development"? Eric's character development was one of the best in the entire series. Unlike other Sixth Rangers he doesn't just pop up and then join the team a few episodes later, he only gradually became less of a lone wolf. I think he was the best Sixth Ranger of the series because his character and character development were so well-done; certainly more complex than "Oh, I was brainwashed, but I'm free not and am totally on your side!"
Yesss! More HOPR! That Red Ranger is a total badass. I agree with you on the uniforms though, that chest logo is really awkward looking somehow. Personally I'm a fan of mouthless sentai helmets though, I think they look really sleek and modern (amusingly, as they've actually been around longer in Sentai than ones with mouths), and these helmets look pretty cool!
Really looking forward to Time Force. I've heard it's a great series.
One of the things lost in translation is that all the Demons were Family... Not just Impus, Though I guess having a mother that would cannalbilize her daughter and order her own sons' demise would be a little to much for the kiddy's, and might have come off as a twisted version of the Family we saw in Scorpius and Trakeena.
Also Thank You... The Lightspeed rangers get horribly beat up because well they use guns, real rangers beat things to death with thier fists!
Though Chad is remember as Dolphin boy... He was clearly one of the better hand to hand fighters.
Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue seems rather lame to me: -Personality wise, the rangers might as well be clones of the Lost Galaxy rangers. There was nothing unique about them with the exception of their basic stereotype. -The stories all seem like rehash story from Mighty Morphing, Turbo, and Lost Galaxy. -Vypra is the worst actress out of anyone in the main cast of any Power Rangers series. Most guess actors are better than her. -I prefer all the previous theme songs. Specially Lost Galaxy's epic theme. Lightspeed Rescue's is bland.
Overall, Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue does nothing to stand out.
"Actually, now that I think about it, Time Force got super censored. Granted, 9/11 happened very close to the end of the season, hence the censorship, but still, it kinda sucks that we can't see the original versions anymore."
Actually, only ONE scene was altered for reairing - when Ransik gave his speech to the city, and even then when it was reaired again, it was altered back to its original form, save for changing a destroying building for an explosion at a quarry. If anything WAS changed for the last several episodes, we wouldn't know.
Great episode, Linkara. I have to say, LR never really appealed to me. Part of the reason was because when it came out I was too old for Power Rangers at the time, but now looking back, the fact that they made the Rangers more like soldiers rather than superheroes doesn't sit too well with me. I always liked the idea of "teenagrs with attitude", these people who were granted superpowers and weapons to save the Earth, it was a boyhood fantasy. The fact that it's now a government organization is just to bland for me. Also, being a martial arts fan, the fact that they weren't martial artists also never bode well with me.
Though I will admit, you've made me see Carter in a whole new light, I never thought much of him up until now.
Another excellent video, these have all been great to watch, especially for someone like me who hasn't watching Power Rangers since MMPR. The season did look like it had some interesting bits, but I think the lack of any real interesting villains would keep me from being too interested in watching it. Excellent work Lewis, and I look forward to seeing the next one, I've heard many good things about Time Force and I can't wait to see what this series is all about.
It might be the fact that I'm too used to MMPR (I was the anon who said he only watched that series regularly and only a few episodes here and there of the later shows) but I find the idea of human built Zords bugs me a bit for some reason. Also, I've been looking around a PR wiki I managed to find lately (looking ahead to see what you'd talk about next) and I liked how Vypra looked, then you talked about and showed how badly she acted and I found myself somewhat disappointed.
Once again, this was a great episode. I've been looking forward to your review of this series in particular, so the longer wait has been KILLING me (however, it was worth the wait).
I agree with pretty much everything you presented here (especially "Carter is badass" and "the Zords are made of pure metal awesome"), although I differ slightly on a few things.
Firstly, I really like these suits. I know you said they've grown on you, but I always liked them, right from the beginning. They're different, yeah, but in a good way, if you ask me. Ditto for the morphing sequence and the morphers themselves.
Second, I feel like the demons DID get better as villains when the Queen showed up in the flesh (even if she was basically a statue), although I'll be the first to admit that Vypra couldn't act her way out of a paper bag.
Oh yeah, and one other thing. I know EXACTLY why Vypra has a car. It's because she's a... wait for it... SPEED DEMON! Ha!.
...I feel slightly soiled after making that corny joke.
I may be the only person that feels this way, but I was a little disappointed when Linkara made the gunblade comment. I cannot fault the logic behind it, but I was hoping that with his earlier statements about how "guns + swords = cool" that he was laying the groundwork for some Spoony crossover.
Whatever your feelings regarding combining melee weapons with guns you cannot deny the fact that a video of Spoony and Linkara arguing about weapons is bound to be awesome.
Oh time force aka the reason i stopped watching power rangers. I'm not sure why everyone loves this season so much. sure it has alot of good things going for it like the darker plot, the well developed rangers and the awsome theme song. However nothing is explained, the plot holes are huge,Ransik is a balnd and boring villian with his backstory playing a role in exactly 2 episodes. His only role was to send monsters out. even nadera had more creative ideas then that and also at times the plot felt like a sit come and it really was jarring compared to the darker stuff. could you imagine if in the middle of The Dark Knight a subplot about bruce dating two girls on the same night happens. and lastly Nadera's change in the final came out of nowhere and made no sence i would say it goes against her character if she had one. This season had so much potential and it makes me mad that it all was squandered.
So the Red Ranger was a bad, bad man. The Titanium Ranger was also pretty cool in the early part of the season. I rememember this series kinda well. Not too bad, I think.
To be honest, I liked PRLR but I didn't love it. It just seemed like too much of a step backwards, and I don't mean that because 'it wasn't in space.' I just think that the writing and the characters didn't get enough attention, and as you said in the PRiS review relied more on deus ex machinas. But some of the other elements are kind of fun, such as the awesomeness of the theme song and the Titanium Ranger arc. I also felt that there was way too much filler. At least in the earlier seasons it had a cheesy early 90's feel. But after in Space I thought they could've been a litle more plot driven. Time Force is clearly the better season and one of my favourites. Can't wait till the next review :D
I don't know about anyone else, but I always liked to think that the warlock who locked up the demons was actually Zordon: the warlock was never named in-series, the Sand Sorcerer went down way too easily for him to have sealed them up the first time, and Zordon had to be doing something while he was farting around on the moon...
A long time coming but well worth it. Excellent review. Most excellent indeed.
In regards to "Trakeena's Renvenge", there is one thing I was kinda hoping you would've pointed out in addition to the other oddities from that 2-part episode.
During the fight scene between the Megazords and Trakeena, for about a split-second, the Defender Torozord appears on screen, taking damage from an attack by Trakeena with the Omega Megazord and the Max Solarzord. This is due to the its Sentai counterpart having appeared in the footage, but since it was destroyed in PRLG, the Sentai footage featuring it was edited out for Power Rangers... except for this single split-second occurance.
It may have been brief, but the Defender Torozord showing up when it shouldn't have is still noticeable and anyone watching the episode could and would have been able to catch that.
It's like they wanted us to pretend we never saw their editing mistake and just ignore it. But it's been noticed and pointed out, so too late.
Before you started this I began my own run through of power rangers, and my metaphorical hat off for you for being able to sit through whole seasons to do something like this. I like the show, but looking back as an adult I need a break from it every 3 or 4 episodes.
I'm currently trying to get through turbo, but it's so painful to watch that I've been stuck on it for 2 months now. As the 3 people who watch my videos will attest, Shadow Rangers ruined what fun I was having with it until then. (And no, that wasn't mean as a shameless plug.)
But this makes me want to break through it and move on even more than in space did. I mean, trying to run a monster down in a car! That is pure unleaded awesome. I'd love to see Tommy Oliver pull that!
The train zords seem to be more in line with the environmental message put forward by the show, and that megazord does look pretty kick ass.
This may be off topic and is sort of a kid logic thing, but why do they still call them zords? Weren't they called zords after Zordon? Zordon has nothing to do with these things.
Looking forward to RPM, since RPM got me going back to watch it again in the first place.
I think the reason more emphasis was placed on Chad's martial arts skills than his sea creature taming was because 1. that's way more interesting and 2. Mike Chaturantabut (that is a hard-ass name to spell), the actor, is a popular martial artist in real life, much like Jason David Frank. Check out his profile. http://www.usadojo.com/biographies/mike-chaturantabut.htm
Regarding the teamup roll call....I've always been underwhelmed by the American roll calls. In Japan, they're over-the-top enough that you can let them slide, as they're dancing and posing while saying something about their abilities or role in the team before stating their designation. In America, it's usually covered up by normal dialog or just a bunch of "Huaaaaaah"s before they say their color. Also, the ranger designations. It's too late to change things now, but in Japan, each ranger ever has a unique character name that is a combination of their team name and their color. For example, the black Goseiger this year is GoseiBlack. Since America has gotten themselves stuck in the rut of calling them all "[color] Ranger", they have to come up with something new during the teamups that they never used before and will never use again, e.g. Blue Galaxy Ranger and Lightspeed Red, instead of Blue Ranger and Red Ranger like they're called otherwise.
So your review of this series kinda underwhelmed me. Then again, when I look back at it, the series itself was rather underwhelming, so that's not really your fault. I liked it at the time, but when I think, all I can really remember are particular bits and pieces, not a cohesive whole like I can with some of the better shows like Space and Time Force. One thing in particular that always bugged me, even as a kid, was "WHERE THE HELL DID THE LIFE FORCE MEGAZORD COME FROM, WHY DID IT LOOK LIKE A BLACK VERSION OF THE LIGHTSPEED SOLARZORD, AND WHY COULDN'T IT TRANSFORM?" From my understanding this wasn't explained much (if any) better in GoGo V, but is there any reason they couldn't have provided any kind of foreshadowing to its introduction and/or a better explanation of it than just "HERE USE THIS THING THAT HAPPENS TO LOOK EXACTLY LIKE SOMETHING YOU ALREADY HAVE." I can only guess that Japan was trying to plug the black special edition of the toys or something, but it honestly doesn't seem to exist in PR for any reason other than to be stolen and used as a plot device to destroy the aquabase.
So your review of this series kinda underwhelmed me. Then again, when I look back at it, the series itself was rather underwhelming, so that's not really your fault. I liked it at the time, but when I think, all I can really remember are particular bits and pieces, not a cohesive whole like I can with some of the better shows like Space and Time Force. One thing in particular that always bugged me, even as a kid, was "WHERE THE HELL DID THE LIFE FORCE MEGAZORD COME FROM, WHY DID IT LOOK LIKE A BLACK VERSION OF THE LIGHTSPEED SOLARZORD, AND WHY COULDN'T IT TRANSFORM?" From my understanding this wasn't explained much (if any) better in GoGo V, but is there any reason they couldn't have provided any kind of foreshadowing to its introduction and/or a better explanation of it than just "HERE USE THIS THING THAT HAPPENS TO LOOK EXACTLY LIKE SOMETHING YOU ALREADY HAVE." I can only guess that Japan was trying to plug the black special edition of the toys or something, but it honestly doesn't seem to exist in PR for any reason other than to be stolen and used as a plot device to destroy the aquabase.
On the topic of foreshadowing and mecha, as much as I love the Supertrain Megazord, in retrospect I realize there was no lead-up to its introduction until the episode in which it happened, at which point Ms. Fairweather was shown playing with line drawings of the Rail Rescues and repositioning the mecha cockpit. No actual work was shown to be done on the Rail Rescues themselves, nor was anything I would consider to be legitimate programming or design done, even by fictional standards. Even if they had the physical ability all along and she was just installing the necessary programming to allow the combination....how does tinkering with line drawings accomplish that? I was only so much smarter than your average nine year-old, and I had these thoughts even then, so they really weren't trying with the writing. They had a good nine episodes where they could have put just a few minutes worth of footage showing Ms. Fairweather designing and implementing the technology for the Supertrain Megazord, and it would have made it so much better.
On the topic of foreshadowing and mecha, as much as I love the Supertrain Megazord, in retrospect I realize there was no lead-up to its introduction until the episode in which it happened, at which point Ms. Fairweather was shown playing with line drawings of the Rail Rescues and repositioning the mecha cockpit. No actual work was shown to be done on the Rail Rescues themselves, nor was anything I would consider to be legitimate programming or design done, even by fictional standards. Even if they had the physical ability all along and she was just installing the necessary programming to allow the combination....how does tinkering with line drawings accomplish that? I was only so much smarter than your average nine year-old, and I had these thoughts even then, so they really weren't trying with the writing. They had a good nine episodes where they could have put just a few minutes worth of footage showing Ms. Fairweather designing and implementing the technology for the Supertrain Megazord, and it would have made it so much better. But the Supertrain Megazord was nothing if not badass, and I'm itching to get my hands on the original Grand Liner toy from GoGo V (yes, I know the American toy is technically identical, but I love the Japanese box art and knowing that it's the actual Japanese one makes a difference in my mind). I'm surprised you spent so little time on it, but I suppose you had to cut stuff for time. I always loved the launch sequence, where the trains are stored in that hangar underwater and then line up and race through the streets of not-Tokyo. Then the Max Solarzord gets its own hangar right next door, and they can even combine to form a giant-er rocket train that fucking LAUNCHES INTO OUTER SPACE. I don't care how absurd that is, it's fucking awesome. And the Omega Megazord (agreed, awesome name there as well) was way cooler than the Lightspeed Megazord. I'm surprised you didn't at least mention its crawler mode briefly, but it didn't appear all that often.
One last thing about this series that's REALLY weird is the broadcast dates. They ran the first 16 episodes weekly from February to May, then took a sudden break for what felt like forever as a kid (it was really only three months) before resuming a weekly broadcast in August and running through October. Starting November 3 (a Friday), they broadcast a new episode every single day except Sunday for the next two weeks until they got to the finale. The final 13 episodes in only two weeks. I just don't get it. I know they had established by this point that they wanted to always start in February and end in November, but why take a three month break from broadcasting in the middle of the year and cram the entire final third of the series into two weeks? The only thing I've been able to think of is that the writers weren't sure where they wanted to take the series after they supposedly killed off Diabolico, and that production halted until they could do so and then film and distribute the rest of the series. But that seems like a long shot to me, and if that had been the case, I don't think it would have been possible to broadcast the entire last third of the series in back-to-back airings, because production wouldn't be complete on the final episodes, and they wouldn't want another obnoxious gap in the schedule. Has your research uncovered anything about this, Linkara?
@Joseph Ridken: I'm pretty sure they were originally called Zords because Zordon created them, but the name stuck. They obviously didn't expect PR to live beyond MMPR S1, much less turn into a multi-season, multi-series franchise, so they couldn't have predicted that they'd kill off Zordon but still have giant mecha to deal with. So now they're just called zords out of tradition.
I can't wait until this series is done, because that means I'll have another opportunity to roll out my crackpot hypothesis on why RPM is a prequel to Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.
Though for someone who admits he didn't Watch the Sentais, To Proclaim they didn't have to use Carranger they could have used one of the earlier sentai... comes of as immeansely Smug. Just go look up Rovang's Sentai Sanctorum, and you'll pretty much see, The Whole Zordon uses Animal thing was a convient fluke
Excellent Review, Yeah Lightspeed Rescue isn't high drama, but it's not the massive pile of crap the fanbase would have you believe.
Yeah the villians needed some work, I think if they had left in the whole big screwed up Family bit from the sentai they could have developed better, though Vypra's acting...
The whole "Carter sucks" thing comes from the percevied notion that if a red ranger isn't like Tommy, he sucks *Jason gets away with it because of the whole, Jason beat Green Ranger Tommy*
Carter is very reminscent of Jason actaully In which his simply good but Awesome for it., *Which disappointed me in you didn't keep Jason's "Even the smallest chance of victory" bit from the Green Ranger saga, along with Doomsday or Island of Illusions*
It is eye rolling that they keep trying to say seperate universe, but it's also eye rolling that everytime new ranger powers comeup, The Fans have to make them relate back to Zordon.
Time force should be a good ep...save for it's poor teamup and since you've started Wild Force, Hang on till Curse of the Wolf.
Link- What can I say? But, that I'm excited to see yet another duo of Power Ranger vids up on your page. I can't wait to get home from the gym tonight and watch these as I sipping hot chocolate. You know, I never watched the PR. Their show came long after I and left childhood, but I LOVE your reviews. Maybe it's your love of the show that just gets to me. I don't know. But, thanks for making such good stuff. It does a lot to bring a smile to one loney, old man's face. - MisterKeitel
I like how Lightspeed Aquabase is reminiscent, or perhaps just a redress, of Terra Venture. It Helps bridge together the two series.
And Black's idea of the Demons being sealed by Zordon instead of Generic Warlock number 46, is awesome--but his idea may require heavy continuity tinkering.
Wasn't he indisposed at the time? I don't remember if they gave a year
You like Guns that turn into swords. So I have to wonder what you'll think about PRWF's Lunar Cue. A gun/sword/pool cue should b lame, but i LOVE it.
How's this for continuity; the team instantly know what Power Rangers are when the captain says they're going to be Power Rangers, and Psycho Red calls them Power Rangers with no other way to know the term once they morph.
Looks ok, but GoGoV was apparently superior to it's US counterpart. Too bad considering that Space and Lost Galaxy were actually getting close in quality to Sentai standards
They strongly downplayed the family aspect in this season, which largely hurt the development. In GoGoV the all the rangers were siblings and all the major villains were siblings. The ranger's mentor was their estranged, and trough most of the series they distrusted him until they found out he actually cared. The villains on the other hand loved and idolised their mother, until it turned-out that she does not care the least bit for them. It was ongoing theme throughout the series, and the fact that Lightspeed downplayed it so much seriously hurt the result.
I'm pleasantly surprised that they actually used the Venus costume from GoGoV and even got an actual Asian actress to play Vypra, instead of replacing her with a completely original character like they did in Turbo and Space This actually reminds me of the case with Rita/Bandora I guess they did it because they wanted to be able to use as much Sentai footage possible, and so they wanted her to look as much as her Japanese counterpart as possible
This however brings up the question why they didn't simply use Sieg-Jeanne as the sixth ranger? Were they afraid that the audience wouldn't accept a woman as the sixth ranger?
America's first original ranger looks like a pretty good compensation tho. On the other hand however it just shows how greedy Americans are. They obviously have what it takes to make a show of their own without having to rip it from Japanese shows, yet they don't do it because they think it's more efficient to make someone else do the job for them. Oh America!
Anyway, looking forward to Timeforce. Timeranger is widely considered to be one of the greatest Sentai series of all time (and a personal favourite of mine), so I'm curios to see what the Yankees did with it.
ps. If anyone is interested I made a Top 11 Sentai themes list You can find it on http://screwattack.com/blogs/Hromovlads-blog/Top-11-best-Super-Sentai-themes http://sekele.deviantart.com/journal/32836121/
I never saw much of this season, but what I did see of it I liked. I thought the villains looked really cool and I enjoyed the fact that the Rangers did other heroic activities besides fight of the monsters. Even though I only saw a few episodes, this season did stand out in my mind.
Once again a great analysis. I look forward to seeing what you have to say about Time Force, which I saw more of.
Oh sorry, first timer here. Got sucked in from TV Tropes, which took me into Kickassia, and then happened to stumble upon the other HOPR videos. I have been on a rampage through AT4W for the last week or so.
Anyway, excellent work reviewing the season. This is one of the seasons I missed, having drifted away during lost Galaxy, so these videos are a real treat.
I have a new theory: any anomalies in the Power Rangers continuity is caused by Carter Grayson throwing a flying punch into Hypertime.
@ Anonymous - I don't think Carter was the worst Red ranger ever. I think Shane, Leo, Nick, T.J, Jack and Cole were worse. I put him in the same league as Wes, Tommy, Jason, and Andros. Just the fact he's a fireman alone wins my respect!
That was a pretty okay review, but you should have went further with that "Dumbest person in power rangers" bit."
"There's no such things as monsters little girl"
Such a statement coming from a person in a series built on a foundation of giant monster attacks deserves nothing short of Richard Straus's "Also Sprach Zarathustra":
I can't wait till you get to RPM, because RPM was what brought me back to Power Rangers. (Actually, it was that Iron Man 2 movie with the Whip Lash fight at the races, it was just too reminiscent of that scene in the movie where Rocky dodged a spear between his legs. Not to mention, the fight fun fight choreography in the series.
Thanks once again, Mr Lovhaug (dang, hope I spelled that right).
This series of yours is AWESOME. Seriously. It is inspiring. I never watched this show - at the time, I was too busy being a snotty teenager, too 'kewl' for PR. But now I am busy planning a hardcore PR-based RPG for my buddies, and all thanks to you. Your passion and commitment ring true here, and I eat up these episodes as hungrily as anything I've ever encountered on TGWTG or elsewhere.
You are SO great. (Also Iron Liz - tell her I said that).
Everytime you said Mitchell, I was expecting "MITCHELL!" from MST3K. Then again, Mitchell was said about 10 times so the joke would've gotten old.
Plus, Maybe when that woman said that they were no monsters probably meant that she thought all the monsters were gone after the previous Rangers defeated the Evil Forces or she had been living under a rock for five years
I'm going to say it. I stopped liking Power Rangers almost immediately after i turned 13. This was in the middle of season one, mind you. the Green Ranger had really just become a character at that point. Re-runs and stock footage drove me into the fine annals of zombie movies and Chuck Norris. I must say, that I have followed each new episode of HOPR with anticipation, and find myself imbued with knowledge that I would not have had otherwise on a continuing cult phenomenon. I used to really knock the series to my friends in the community, almost holding them lower on the geek hierarchy scale through some misunderstood sense of superiority. I have to admit, I was wrong. Not only have I seen the depth of the story that I was too impatient to wait for in my youth, but I have also laughed at the awesome silliness of it and still revel in the days that could not be, since I was watching Superfoot get his ankles broken by Bruce Lee and I lost sight of the giant robot fighting monsters thing. I kind of wish I had seen these, and I appreciate the way you aren't mocking them, so much as pointing out things that could have been better, from a fan's veiwpoint, even if some of them aren't your favorites (we're looking at you Turbo) you still treat them with respect. Like I said, I was never really a fan, but after watching "the Linkara notes" thus far, I can see what I missed out on.
I'm sure someone's pointed this out to you or spoony before, but swords with gun hilts are common in the sport of fencing and many people, myself included, find this hilt to be more comfortable and natural. The stupid part of the gunblade is that while pistol style hilts are useful for foil and epee no one in final fantasy uses these styles, and if they did it would be a terrible idea because fencing is sport, and not intended for actual combat.
I was really looking forward to this review, as PRLR is my second favorite PR show, with in Space being #1.
I can see why some might not like it, but I personally liked how it was back to basics and, well, different. Really, when I was watching this show when it aired I loved how the Lightspeed Rangers were not random/destined teenagers who just happened to know how to fight. I liked how these rangers had actual skills and were chosen to be rangers because of them; I also just assume that them knowing how to fight was a pre-requisite to them being eligible. Also, having everyone know who they are makes sense, as they are the last-resort rescue squad. Overall, it was a fresh, new take on why these specific people were rangers.
The villians were simple, yeah, but Diabolico was really great. He was pretty much the RP equivalent of the Devil (Lewis, I was hoping you'd notice the whole "Deal with the Devil" aspect and I'm glad you did), and though he adored his queen he still preferred to do things his own way and ended up having a sort of mutual respect with Carter at the end of the show.
The zords were, yes, awesome. Some of my personal favorites, in fact. And Lewis, I can't believe that I never realized how utterly badass Carter was until you did this video, though I did already enjoy him highly... Thank you.
Overall, I just really enjoyed LR for what it was: A back-to-basics show that aimed for entertainment and excitement while putting in some nice touches here and there for characters and story.
As for Time Force... This is where I stopped watching PR normally (I did watch Ninja Storm normally, but dropped PR again early on in Dino Thunder). I did watch about half of TF, though... In fact, I know exactly where I stopped watching: The stupid part where the rangers were tossed into different movie genre worlds. The show itself was good, but it never really grabbed me like LR or Space did, and the movie-worlds thing just made me go "That's it... I'm done with Power Rangers." I will say, though, that I did see the later parts years later and that it did get better and had a cool end (not to mention an excellent cross-over with Wild Force, though the only episodes of WF I did want to watch were the TF cross-over and Forever Red). But it's not good for a show to have an "OK" first half, as that will hurt the chances of people sticking through for the long-run, even if the second half is much better.
Kimarous said... When the Zords were being introduced, did anyone else think of Thunderbirds?
I know I did.
I wonder if going back and watching this show would change my opinion, but until Wild Force this was my least favorite of the series. A lot of reasons have already been mentioned either by Lewis or commentors, but it also bugged me on a religious level.
NO, I DON'T THINK LIGHTSPEED RESCUE WAS GOING TO DRAG ANYONE TO HELL so please hear me out.
Had these been plain old monsters it wouldn't have bothered me, but demons as depicted in the Bible and demons as depicted everywhere else, as physical beings rather than spritual beings like angels, is something I was getting tired of by that point.
Also, the mystical overtones in this series was different than with Rita Repulsa or even later in Mystic Force and I can't tell you why it bugged me or even if it would still bug me as I haven't watched the series in years, but it did.
As for Joel and Carter, I never really thought of Carter as badass until this review. You make some good points. But I loved watching Joel in action (reminded me of Ace McCloud from Centurions) and I was rooting for him with Ms. Fairweather. I'm glad that had a happy ending. :)
I have to disagree with you on the theme. It may just be my favorite theme of all. Of course, that may be the nostalgia filter, as this was actually the first Power Rangers series I even saw.
I didn't watch all of it. But I watched some of the first episodes, the one before the finale, and I borrowed a tape with the second part of the Titanium Ranger saga. Which I actually did like (The villains plan, exploding feathers that detonate when it goes dark is so silly and brilliant at the same time).
I just wasn't into the franchise much. The only other thing I saw was the first part of Lost Galaxy, with again was okay (And I always thought that the Magna Defender was awesome). But then I went on holiday, then when I got back Scorpius was dead, Mike was the Magna Defender, and I was all confused.
On a tangent, I am currently in Silicon Valley on holiday. I wanted to get a present for my friend, so I got "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow" and the first Blackest Night volume (My friend loved Marvel Zombies, and he had interest in the event). However, do you know where I can find any of the Blue Beetle volumes or the Technus Imperative?
I understand why they'd recruit a firefighter or a pilot, but a Sea World trainer? How on earth would a guy that trains whales to jump be any use fighting against monsters? The same goes for the mountain climber. At least the captain's (incredibly attractive) daughter (presumably) has military training.
The most accepted Fandom reason for Chad's involvement was to share his martial arts background with the other rangers , Note they do get better in melee combat.
The most accepted Fandom reason for Chad's involvement was to share his martial arts background with the other rangers , Note they do get better in melee combat.
It's fine if you don't like Power Rangers, but don't be hating on Linkara because he does. Nobody's forcing you to watch these videos, nobody's forcing him to make them, they're not taking away from the regular updates, so mind yer own business.
This morning I found that CITV where showing an episode of Power Rangers RPM, so I decided to sit down and watch it (as I've said in some previous comments I never watched it as a kid and what I did see I didn't like), and I thought it was actually pretty good (conveniently it was the first episode). And you know what, I probably wouldn't have considered watching it if it hadn't been for your Power Rangers videos (well that and according to TV Tropes RPM is actually really good).
@The Little Andrew That Could: Actually, while fencing is only a sport -now-, in the days of old (particularly in France and Spain) it was an accepted form of combat for one-on-one duels, sometimes between enemy commanders on a battlefield but usually between individuals who believed that one had been slighted by the other and the duel was to restore honor. These duels were quite often to the death and perfectly legal, but once dueling became outlawed the combat style was reduced to that of a sport. The modern fencing foil is a non-lethal version of the traditional rapier, the only real change having been made was to make the tip blunt so as not to injure.
Oh, my Lord. I just found a version of the original Go Go Power Rangers-you know, the one written by Rasselman-sung by a prolific and well-known Japanese musician known as Masaaki Endoh. This is dedication outside the source material...from the place where the source material came from!
Link is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ix8Vy3mEHk
Linkara, I've kept up with your History of Power Rangers series and I thank you. You have shown me a light that both you and my little brother could see, while I was completely blind to. Every so often I would sit down with him to watch an episode of the new power rangers (whatever series they may be). For the most part I frowned upon it all, remember my first megazord and the glory that was the originals. I declared to my brother that if he really wanted to see the power rangers watch the first season. Your reviews have since softened my own, and for that I thank you. I had to remind myself that these were for kids, not for me anymore, and that I had to watch it with the mindset of one. This still doesn't excuse some horrible acting but it certainly helped me enjoy them more with my little brother. It's one of the few things we ever have in common.
I enjoyed the fact that this ranger series atleast tried to ground itself in reality. That being about as loose of a footing as one would have standing on ice.
The military aspect certainly did give excuse to the abundant upgrades of weapons every other episode, but the whole morphing process just boggled my mind. I can accept the badge suit up sequence, but how in the world did the army get ahold of the technology to acess the morphing grid?
The new zords were a bit of a let down. Yes I can accept emergency service vehicles, but theres a limit. The train was perfect until they zorded it up. It was purely utilitarian. The way a military vehicle would be. I concur there was no set up to the sudden upgrade, and even taking her sketchs into example would mean that the train was itself an alien technology that she was tinkering with and sudden had an "Ah ha!" moment.
The parallels between this and the first echo nearly every episode. We have two groups of teenagers with attitude. A mysterious leader with a broken past. A 6th ranger who was bad then good. Zord upgrades after the destruction of the old ones. It seemed like they decided that LSR should be taken from the MMPR handbook.
The only thing that really bothered me was the idea of the Life Force Megazord. Who in their right mind would create a weapon that will kill the user? Thats like telling the rangers, "It's ok, your expendable anyways." That zrod just irks me to this day.
It would Be Stupid... But Apparently Human Life Force Energy > Nuclear Energy because, Linkara Did not show the Lifeforce MegaZord's Finishing move... Which you could see From Space!
Yes it's a Risk but it's only a risk if the fight is prolonged and Seeing the results... You need a REALLY powerful monster to prolong a fight with the Life Force Megazord, that Took out Two Massively BUFFED SuperDemons easily. or just cheap shot it with torpedoes >.>
Johnny Yong Bosch is my anime hero Vash the Stampede is m favorite anime character ever, and he also play and played a lot of my other favorites including Ichigo from Bleach, Lelouch from Code Geass: R2, and Renten from Eureka 7.
cant wait 4 the next one my friends and i watch these reviews and recaps ,i want to say thanks for taking the time to make theses . one fan to another go go power rangers .Time force was the best and there was mention of there being two movies and another season of time force i would have liked that .the best ones after lost galaxy were time force ,ninja storm ,dino thunder ,jungle fury,spd,rpm .
I didn't see this listed before, so if it is already I apologize.
Why are you so suprised about the existence of the wormhole to Earth from Mirinoi? (However you spell the planet where the Quasar sabers rest). We saw that wormhole in the very first episodes of Lost Galaxy. The training mission on the moon. And since we see the monsters traveling to Earth from Space, it can be assumed that the portal is the same one. The rangers would have been able to fly the Jet Jammers through, and the Galacta Beasts would have been able to come through as well. Thoughts?
That was the only thing that was confusing to me, otherwise, I agree with you 100 percent on the rest of the Lightspeed Rescue review.
I figured out why the morphing are off putting. It looks like a symbiote. As a comic reviewer you seen symbiotic suits in a negative horrific, so seeing something similar looking concept in a positive light, is hard to get used to.
I actually remember Lightspeed Rescue as my least favorite Power Rangers series.
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't just the one I was too old for either, as I have very fond memories of Time Force, even though huge sections of that series don't always make sense.
Anyway, I will await your scholarly analysis.
Well, you liked it better than I did. But next time, it's my favorite season! Looking forward to it!
ReplyDeleteNice ending bit there. Don't screw with him, indeed.
ReplyDeleteI remember getting at least one or two episodes (I THINK it was the Galaxy team-up) on video with 3D GLASSES!!! I didn't really think much of it, since at the time, I was not into Power Rangers.
That, of course, gradually changed when Time Force was on the air. Hot DAMN, I can't wait for your next one already. Especially since you took so fast with Lost Galaxy. Hopefully you can breeze through WF and NS, since, as far as I know, there's not much to really say about WF outside of Forever Red.
<3333 Another awesome episode. I wonder if a new series will be out by the time you finish every single season? :D
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to time force. A fan favorite.
About what I remember it bring. But I have to disagree about the the theme song I think it is easily one of the best. Overall Lightspeed is not as good as RPM or Time Force but not as bad as Turbo or Mystic Force
ReplyDeletewonderful recap. but just let me say this. the light speed rescue theme song is art compared to mystic force's.
ReplyDeleteUMBRELAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
ReplyDeleteNice look at this one Linkara. This seems to be the point where the writers actually began to take stock of their locations and such and use them to they're fullest potential. Also, I think the captain shows no emotion because he's supposed to be stoic.
Awesome recap. You pretty much had all of my complaints with the series and the team up episode. Seriously, what was up with the screenwriters when they wrote up the lines of that secretary?
ReplyDeleteI really can't wait for the next installment, since Time Force is one of the best not to mention the capable actors they hired.
If you need any ideas for the stingers for the Time Force video, might I suggest that weird cross-cut in an early episode where the guys are enjoying a pizza when suddenly Vernon Wells is seen yelling in the rain. Or, the instant classic line in the Knight episode, "We need to send out a search out party for that pizza."
Carter was a badass and sometime call him the worst Red Ranger but I think this video shows what made him amazing. This season was okay, I do wish that the rangers had more personalitiy but I did enjoy it as a kid oh and I still have that video from Mcdonalds.
ReplyDeleteExcellent review, but I'm surprised there was no comment about where the Rangers were recruited from.
ReplyDeleteGreen Ranger - Flying through the air
Yellow - Clinging to the earth (OK, mountain)
Blue - Under water
Red - Surrounded by fire
Pink - Paramedic, most trained to save lives
Yeah, when I saw the clips, my first thought was: "By your Power Rangers combined!"
Jeez, even when she's getting eaten by the big bad, Vypra runs for her life half-heartedly.
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, Carter so definitely deserves some kind of AT4W "He Is A MAYUN!" award.
I know you said you don't release the videos for these until after you've watched the following series, but I'm curious as to your writing process: do you write the script for Series A before, during, or after watching Series B? And how does recording fit into that scheme?
YES! YES!
ReplyDeleteLinkara, you just seem to be able to make my day better no matter what.
Power Rangers for breakfast, I love it!
Looking back on your review, I never realized how crazy badass Carter was when I first watched Lightspeed Rescue in my youth. Then again, in the finale, he's willing to go into a pit of demons just to stop them from taking over Mariner Bay, so it's completely justified.
ReplyDeleteAs for the season in general, I really liked it, despite it being a good back-to-basics type of season, because, unlike previous seasons, the Rangers didn't conceal their identities to the public. Granted, they're part of a government operation and their identities would be made public anyway, but still the idea of Power Rangers with identities revealed at the beginning of the season was wonderful.
As for the team-up episode with the Lost Galaxy Rangers... it made the least amount of sense as far as team-ups in the Power Rangers Renaissance goes. How did Trakeena end up on Earth? How do the Lightspeed Rangers and the demons know about the Lost Galaxy Rangers and Trakeena? How did the Galactabeasts travel to Earth? It just raises too many questions. In fact, the Time Force team-up with Lightspeed made somewhat more sense than this one because the knowledge of the previous team of Rangers makes sense: two-thirds of the Time Force team are from the future, thus they would have history banks on past Ranger teams. How *spoilers* Vypra *end spoilers* is the returning villain in that team-up is beyond me.
Speaking of villains, I agree with you completely, the villains were mostly stock in this season. When it comes time for Time Force, we'll actually get not only some villains with personality, but come off as actually sympathetic considering their circumstances.
Awesome. I was wondering when the scene where Carter blew away Demon Knight would be shown. I'll admit that I loved this season as a kid and it was the first PR show I watched all of the episodes on and that's probably why I was able to overlook the villains' lackluster performances and the lack of a character arc for them (I liked the monster designs though).
ReplyDeleteAs for the crossover, yeah, it was a big waste of the Lost Galaxy crew and especially Trakeena. I do have a guess as to how the group knew about the Lost Galaxy Rangers: The Space Rangers might have come back to Earth and told the press about the latest status of Terra Venture (A certain character also makes it back to Earth in another season so some sort of transport might have been available between the two locations).
Sounds like you liked Time Force which I will say I thought was probably the best non-zordon season for the epic as hell conclusion and some villains that got interesting as the series progressed. They kind of waste the crossover as well, though (Wild Force kinda makes up for it by having Forever Red and a crossover that actually ties up a couple loose ends from Time Force while actually tieing the two seasons together) I wonder how many references to Vernon Wells' other roles will be made in the next video. Anyway, had a blast and it was awesome as usual.
They played the crap out of light speed rescue on TV in Canada I guess because of that I grew a real sweet spot for it almost as big as the one for original MMPR.
ReplyDeleteIt's great this is finally out! I'm actually liking it taking longer to come out as it gives me enough time to catch up. Can't wait for wild force though! (I grew up with it as a kid)
ReplyDeleteNice stuff, though I really wish you'd examined that damn tornado episode. I can't express enough how much I hated it, especially since I swear Kesley's actress broke the fourth wall.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, and Carter and Dana seemed to form some kind of bond, possibly a romantic one, but she was so damn bland its hard to tell.
Still, I will agree Carter is a bad-ass with his guns. I think most of the hate for him stems from him relying on weapons all the time where as, as we saw in stuff like Forever Red, quite a few Red Rangers were more than capable of just using Snap Dragon and McFisticuff to take down the toughest of enemies. I will definitely praise these videos for showing why the hell he's actually awesome, and worthy of possibly nailing the bland but hot blonde of the team.
Another good review. I'd forgotten how many badass style moment they'd given carter. Then again, I only watched lightspeed occasionally with my little cousins...
ReplyDeleteThe first purely American sixth ranger thing is interesting because it seems to go to saban and company having decided a "6th warrior" was key to the shows formula.
Thank you Linkara for giving this series the Justice it deserves and for proving that My favorite red ranger is more manlyer then Chuck Norris. Now I can't wait to hear what you have to say about Time force. Hope you make Commando jokes ( The actor of the main villian is Bennett from Commando)
ReplyDeleteAWESOME!! this is the last season that I have watched as a kid .... (which is stupid because I saw clips of the next season and it looks really good) and the next season is also some kind of big finally because after that season Saban lost the rights.
ReplyDeleteNice review. Just watching the review without seeing the episode, the villains really seemed to drag things down. Which is a shame, because the heroes just keep getting better and better, characterization wise. And the Red Ranger WAS badass.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I was wondering about the gap between Lost Galaxy and Lightspeed Rescue. I know that you said that these would be taking longer and longer. And no, this is not "how long will the next one take." I was just wondering if you delayed this until Linkara returned from the evil alternate dimension overlord's clutches to help keep up the illusion that you were gone. If so, brilliant work at keeping up with the story. If not, that worked out swimmingly.
Another fantastic look back at power rangers. I'm sure i am not the only one who waits eagerly for each and every review and im curious to see if power rangers is going to make a comeback now that the rights of the power rangers has returned back to the original owners. Keep up the great work linkara.
ReplyDeleteI have to admit, as someone who started watching Power Rangers during In Space I was turned off a bit by Light Speed because it seemed like a giant step backward returning to earth after battling beyond our atmosphere. While I did try to give it a chance I was never really pulled in like the previous two seasons, and after getting about halfway through the season left, only to return to Power Rangers once Time Force began. Even so, the Supertrain Megazord might be my favorite zord out of all those I saw during my childhood, and there were bits and pieces I liked of the show. Can't wait for your next review Linkara, keep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteGreat episode can't wait till the next one. I'm wondering where you get you information on the series. You seem to know many fan theories and behind the scenes information and I was wondering where you were getting your references.
ReplyDeleteThis is actually one of my favroutie season, with the next few having the Power Rangers go down hill IMO. Though I have a soft-spot for Wild Force.
ReplyDeleteAnd I have complete opposite feelings on the songs for these season. Lost Galaxy and Lightspeed Rescue's themes are so catchy, I love em XD
Il still say what i said before to you on twitter. I don't get how you enjoyed the first episode. Its....painful but yea, it got so much better as the season went on. Thank you again Linkara. ^_^ Another awesome history.
ReplyDeleteWow. When that demonic girl was absorbed, she sounded like shes dubbing a hentai episode...
ReplyDeleteThis is, along with Wild Force, one of my least favourite Ranger series. You touched on one of the main reasons but you didn't spell it out. More than forty episodes and I'd say around twenty-five of those were filler. To make it worse those fillers were not used to flesh out the Rangers or their supports in any way. There were very few developments anywhere in this series making it bland, uninspired and rather empty.
ReplyDeleteAs you said it was up to the Titanium Ranger to go out and find a way to fight the demons. Up until he turned up it was all a defensive battle and you can never truly win a war if your reacting instead of acting.
Continuity wise Lightspeed buggered things up too. According to the "accepted explanation" their powers were reversed engineered from left over Zordon Era technology. Right, I'll buy that but hang on... This is a military force that has these resources right, that means that the Rangers are now run by the US government. How long until the Zords are deployed in war against other nations? Won't the UN and various other nationalities demand their own Ranger programs? How long until there is a Zord based arms race to see which nation can build the biggest or the most Zords?
You thought the nuclear bomb caused problems? How much more destructive is a giant robot armed with a giant gating cannon and MULTIPLE missiles?
Although what got me with this series most of all was the acting. I thought the Yellow Ranger was a bad actress in Lost Galaxy but my god, didn't any of them take any lessons? Did they even try? I know I'm asking a lot of questions but damn it that's how I felt when I first watched this and I still haven't gotten an answer.
I like to think, when dealing with continuity of Power Rangers as a whole, Lightspeed didn't happen. It solves so many problems.
Still your review hit most of the main points and did a good job of summing it up.
When the Zords were being introduced, did anyone else think of Thunderbirds?
ReplyDeleteAwesome to see the new review! Worth the wait!
ReplyDeleteIn regards to the Power Rangers series being in the same universe, I'll agree with you on that...except for RPM, for two reasons.
The first is the headache of where it fits in. SPD takes place in the year 2025, so the real question is whether it occurs before SPD or after SPD. I don't see how it can occur before SPD for a number of reasons (just one: in the first DinoThunder/SPD team-up episode, some information is given as to what the DinoThunder Rangers did with their lives, and that simply does not work with RPM's events), and it's hard to believe it would be after SPD because technology-wise RPM seems to be not as advanced as SPD and there's no aliens or apparent communication with other planets like there was in SPD.
The other problem is that it taking place in the same universe as the others kind of seems to render all previous seasons moot. Who cares if they fended off enemies for years to keep the Earth safe? Once RPM comes around, all that is thrown out the window (heck, the season opens with the villain having all but won--don't worry, that's not spoiling anything, they show that in the first few minutes). So I'm sticking with the "alternate continuity" theory for RPM.
Also, you're right, that was in fact the dumbest person in Power Rangers ever. At least when the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles said the Power Rangers weren't real, you could maybe assume they were just out of touch with the world because they lived in a sewer.
Looking forward to your Time Force review. I thought some parts of it were really good (Eric is my favorite Sixth Ranger due to just how well-done his character development does) but I did have some problems with it. One thing that really bugged me was how sudden Ransik and Nadira's character development at the end of the series is, especially in contrast to how well-done Eric's was. I also had some problems with Ransik as a villain. Personality and strength wise he was awesome, but other than unfreezing mutants and sending them one at a time at the Rangers (rather than unfreezing them all at once and attacking en masse--yeah, I know the "one monster at a time" is a Power Rangers staple, but he doesn't have to even make monsters, he can just unfreeze all the mutants) he really didn't do much other than sit around.
WELL WORTH THE WAIT! I have to say, as I've made my way through watching all the seasons on YouTube, I've avoided LSR because of fan criticism. This makes me feel ten times better about it and I am definitely going to check it out. Excellent analysis Lewis! Can't wait for Time Force!
ReplyDeleteSeriously Lewis, I love these things. They may be some of my favourite videos from anyone associated with TGWTG ever. You take the material seriously, you give succinct and straight forward reviews of anything filler, and you wrap everything up in such a way that I want to start watching Power Rangers afterwards.
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot for all the time and effort you put into these and I eagerly await the day you review Wild Force and the episode "Forever Red."
Ahh a new HOPR great way to start out my vacation. I remember seeing the pilot when it first aired years ago. Though truth be told I found the whole concept unimpressive...plus the demons escaping gave me Ghostbuster flashbacks.
ReplyDeletegreat stuff once again man. really looking forward to the next two "forces" of teams you cover in the hopr retrospective.[/seewhatididthere]
ReplyDeleteoh, and as for how they know about lg rangers? maybe they're subscribed to the marinoi[sp?] observer newspaper!
the merinoi observer: telling you the galaxy's best since 1999!
That was awesome. Thank you!!
ReplyDeleteBut those Government mooks were stupid!
They stood like, three feet from the edge of the cliff. They had no way of knowing if they'd surprise her enough to make Kelsey fall!!
They tried to drown a mermaid. im sorry but i still can't get over that. ahhh it makes my brain hurt. other than that this is a very enjoyable series and Linkara the villans only get worse in time force. i look foward to seeing that review.
ReplyDeleteYou know watching these videos reminds me of how much I like the actors to be in synch when they morph. Everybody doing the same movements, at the same time just screams "@#$% just got real". Which is one of the reasons I'm not a fan of the "sixth" ranger. It's bad enough that their outfits are different but they just throw off the symmetry of the morphing sequence.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny I stopped watching after Lightspeed and didn't pick up PR again until NS. So I missed TF (still haven't seen, but heard it was good) and WF (upset that I missed out the first time it was on).
Still enjoying your videos.
Great as always Louis. And it was great that you like Time Force, it's my favorite post-Zordon series.
ReplyDeleteI also don't understand the gun complaints. In the first season of MPPR the blade blasters were used frequently, especially in the stock footage. Only after parents complained, Season 2 all but eliminated them (as anything other than something to fill the holsters.)
Dumbest Person in Power Rangers Ever = Funniest Rant by Linkara Ever
ReplyDeleteI'd agree Carter is a little bland, but I'd also agree with proposition he's just badass. The problem lies in his interpretation. Carter is simply his role. Granted he is the epitome of his role, but there's nothing more to the man. I can guess what the other Rangers do when bored, but Carter? I haven't got a clue.
ReplyDeleteWhile there's evidence that sort of thing actually happens like Dana did (take Susan Boyle for example), I'm very glad you hit Captain Mitchell with "You're the CO! ACT LIKE IT!" I screamed at him.
You know, you make an interesting point about Ryan, but I think it wasn't taken far enough. All Power Rangers have simply been defense until this point in history. As such, when you get right down to it, they've only won because their opponents were kind enough to come within striking distance. The end of Turbo, as reviled as it is, was the inevitable result of the fact that the Rangers didn't beat Rita, they didn't beat Zed, they didn't beat Mondo, and they didn't beat Divatox. The Rangers would have lost during In Space if Astronema hadn't brought along Zordon to gloat at him, nor would they have succeeded in Lost Galaxy if Trakeena had simply go off for more monsters and used what was left of Terra Venture as a new base.
Wars are not won by defensive action. You must go to the enemy and you must break his ability or his will to fight, preferably both. None of the previous Ranger teams did this, but the Lightspeed Rangers did. They are thus the only Ranger team it can legitimately claimed won their own battle. Even the Space Rangers and the Galaxy Rangers only won because the other side screwed up. Granted this a legitimate way to win (and arguably the classic historical method), but for all the triumphant themes of past seasons, this is the only true triumph of the Rangers in the series so far.
" know the "one monster at a time" is a Power Rangers staple, but he doesn't have to even make monsters, he can just unfreeze all the mutants) he really didn't do much other than sit around."
ReplyDeleteI thought about that, too. My theory is that he's concerned that if he unfreezes them all at once, they won't obey him (i.e. they can organize and decide they don't need Ransik anymore).
Funny how the demons never seemed to fly even though they had wings.
ReplyDeleteThe Train Zords actually stemmed from all the mass transit in Japan with subways and railroads. There's even a group of Autobot trains who merge into a giant robot. Plus, the flying train bit comes from an old classic anime, Galaxy Express 999.
"This is a military force that has these resources right, that means that the Rangers are now run by the US government. How long until the Zords are deployed in war against other nations? Won't the UN and various other nationalities demand their own Ranger programs? How long until there is a Zord based arms race to see which nation can build the biggest or the most Zords?
ReplyDeleteYou thought the nuclear bomb caused problems? How much more destructive is a giant robot armed with a giant gating cannon and MULTIPLE missiles?"
Like many things in Power Rangers, we can simply accept that nations don't go to war in Power Rangers. Yes, there's the schlocky "world peace" stuff that happened in the first few seasons, but remember - military never took on the monsters and the police didn't enter the picture until season 3. Power Rangers plays it fast and loose with realism in those regards.
Great review, I'm really liking these.
ReplyDeleteAlso, fuck yes, Carter has officially become my favourite Red Ranger after this review. The guy sure lives up to the RED HOTBLOOD tradition superheros tend to have (at least in Japan, but that's where the sentai footage seems to mostly taken from).
Also, Lewis (forgive me getting personal here), have you ever heard the cover of Season 1's theme song done by a Japanese Rock group called ENSON?
While yes, it is in Engrish I gotta say it is the most glorious Engrish theme song I've ever heard.
I don't know if you're aware of it or not but maybe you can use it in one of the remaining reviews (hey, maybe for the remake of season one?):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3LBW5KQEyA (Full Version)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cc2YcdO6SoA (TV Size, synchronized by a fan).
Really on the fence about this one; I love watching your History of PR series, but Lightspeed filled me with such anger and hatred that not only was I unable to finish it, but I skipped the next two seasons after it. I just don't know.
ReplyDeleteI think the best way to describe Lightspeed this is meh.
ReplyDeleteLightspeed is not a terrible show but its not all that great, although your recap makes me think its better then I remember it being(although that could be because your just showing the highlights).
I think that the main problem with is that very little actually happens in it, the majoity of it being filler and the Rangers themselves, aside from a few nice characters moments throughout the seires, aren't all that developed.
Anyway next up is, in my opinion, one of the best Ranger seires of not just the Saban era but Power Rangers in general.
In regards of the effectiveness of the villains I have to agree they didn't really accomplish much until the very end.
ReplyDeleteAlthough one moment which is omitted in the review and which sticks in my mind is in one episode where Olympius steals the rangers beam weapon and actually KILLS them (except for Carter) with it. Of course this was undone when Carter went back in time somehow, but still that was a pretty shocking moment.
Oh come on, no Joe Don Baker "Mitchell" Jokes?
ReplyDeleteWith the day I've been having, this made it a little more tolerable & I loved the Mermaid girlfriend the blue ranger had. Also for reference, in your next vid for "Power Rangers: Time Force" the "Quantum Ranger" is a DICK and has very little if no development as to being on Par with legends like Tommy or Jason or Zack or even Kat, in fact my twin nieces call him "The Stinky-head Ranger"!
ReplyDeleteLSR is as great as I remembered it! Diabolico was really the part that made LSR so great, he actually turned against his mistress and assisted the Rangers! It was like he was the 7th ranger or something...
ReplyDeleteBeing in the small island of Singapore, I don't remember Time Force. I assume that as by the time MMPR was broadcasted here, there was many seasons of Power Ranger already produced, my area might have skipped some. I don't think saw Time Force or Wild Force, so before your next HoPR, I think I'll watch as it is supposedly awesome.
I totally agree with your thoughts on Vypra. When they chose women for the main female antagonist in most of the latter series (Trakeena, Vypra, ect.) the casting department seemed to focus more on hotness than whether or not they could act.
ReplyDeleteWhat was with those cheesy disguises in the first scene?
ReplyDeleteI think this was about the time I stopped watching the show. Every now and then I would catch a few scenes in between channel surfing, but I never stuck with it. Plus, I'm sure there were other, better shows on at the time that held my interests.
ReplyDelete"Seriously, why does a demon drive around in a car?"
ReplyDeleteDuh, she's a demon on wheels!
Nice job as always, I never really watched Power Rangers but I thoroughly enjoy these reviews.
"Dumbest Person in Power Rangers Ever" was brilliant.
ReplyDeleteI know I'll have to wait for the next HOPR, but on your Twitter, you seemed pretty lukewarm about Time Force did it get better as went along?
Overall very funny, continue with the good work.
Yes I suppose it's weird that Zordon would suddenly switch to cars after using animals for so long, but even if they had used a previous Sentai, none of them really fit the bill for the kind of Zords you were used to either. The closest thing was Liveman, and aside from the lion robot, the animal-themed mecha had superficial resemblances to the animals they were based on at best. If they'd adapted a previous Sentai in lieu of Carranger for the series following Zeo, the Zords still would've been attack vehicles and not animals.
ReplyDeleteI approve of Carter Grayson. Seriously.
ReplyDeleteIt's sad but I am already counting down seasons till you get to RPM (which is my favorite for no good reason). Annnd I'm picking up on eeeevery bit of the show that came from other seasons. Seriously XD <3 But I still love it and I hope you do too just the same.
8 seasons down, 9 to go :D <3
First off, I want to say, amazing show as usual. I really love the way you present these seasons and Lightspeed Rescue was where I stopped watching the show, so seeing them keep up the tradition of the Power Rangers is a real pleasure.
ReplyDeleteWhat I wanted to comment on was your analysis of the commander. Your gripe seemed to be that it would have been much faster for him to explain his orders. As you also noted, however, he was a military commander. In the military you DO NOT question your commander. In battle, if you question your commander, you're losing very valuable time. I think that's the lesson he was trying to teach. Yes, lives were at stake, but he needed to make it clear to the rangers that when he gave an order it was highly important that they followed it right away, like in the military. However, this is pure conjecture as, like I said, I didn't see the series and I don't know as much about the character as you do, but that's the impression I got from your description of his actions. Honestly, if he had explained his orders like you suggested, it could have resulted in the exact same trust that I am suggesting his actions may have been intended to cause, so honestly my point could be moot.
"I thought about that, too. My theory is that he's concerned that if he unfreezes them all at once, they won't obey him (i.e. they can organize and decide they don't need Ransik anymore)."
ReplyDeleteYeah, I think that's part of a trope that involves villains that you never create too many "smart" henchmen or they will decide that you're not paying them enough (if they get paid at all) to do the bad guy's dirty work and decide to turn on him. I've noticed that a lot of underlings in these kinds of shows tend to be stupid or at the least not too bright. I remember an episode of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles where Shredder gets fed up with Bebop and Rocksteady's incompetence, fires them, and creates a super-smart Foot Soldier in their place. But the Foot Soldier decides he's too good for Shredder and Krang and boots them out of the Technodrome. Then there was that other episode where Shredder fires them again and hires about ten super villains to take on the turtles, but he has to bribe them with a spaceship of gold to get them to do it, and they get pretty P.O.ed when the ship gets blown up. Needless to say, it's Bebop and Rocksteady who come to rescue Shredder from being blown into a thousand bits.
Anyway, back to LR. I liked the show, more so in the later two-thirds. I tend to agree the villains were sub-par, but mostly in the first third. I thought they got interesting when Impus grew up to be Olympius and the Diabolico/Olympius rivalry began. I think it also reflects the growing maturity of the PR universe to deal with the possibility of actual death, as in the near-death of Ryan in the car accident. Even the Cobra tattoo is pretty scary. And this may just be me, but I think also we're at the point where the Rangers don't just wear the same colors all the time in civilian form, but constantly wear the same outfits, perhaps so they can have them in the morphing sequences. I can't remember if this started here or in Lost Galaxy.
It'll be awesome to hear your take on Time Force. Actually, I need to catch up on that one myself. I missed out on a huge chunk of it when it first came on.
- Jason
I find it interesting that, up until Lost Galaxy, every power Ranger's villain was an alien of some kind, but from Lightspeed Rescue on (with the exception of SPD), all of the villains were native to Earth.
ReplyDeleteActually, now that I think about it, Time Force got super censored. Granted, 9/11 happened very close to the end of the season, hence the censorship, but still, it kinda sucks that we can't see the original versions anymore.
ReplyDeleteNow I propose that we start making Carter Grayson facts, since he clearly is deserving of it.
Was this the season that had to dial back its tone due to the 9/11 attacks? I know there was one...
ReplyDeleteSo what we've learned this time:
ReplyDelete1. Carter is a badass who blows stuff up. (can't say that about most Reds)
2. Little girls ruin everything, particularly with team-ups
3. Vypra really needs to learn acting lessons from Trakeena and Astronomena
Great review, now for the big one that got me (sort of) back to PR.
On the subject of the next season, I have to agree that Time Force was possibly one of the best, though issues with how dark it should be probably hampered it from being truly excellent. Heck, I heard they originally wanted to air it in prime time, but figured the kid's show stigma would hurt it too much.
ReplyDeleteTo stay on the subject of Lightspeed though, I demand my own Super Train!
Also for reference, in your next vid for "Power Rangers: Time Force" the "Quantum Ranger" is a DICK and has very little if no development as to being on Par with legends like Tommy or Jason or Zack or even Kat, in fact my twin nieces call him "The Stinky-head Ranger"!
ReplyDeleteWait, what? Yeah, he's a jerk for a lot of the series (though he does mellow out as time goes on), but "little if no development"? Eric's character development was one of the best in the entire series. Unlike other Sixth Rangers he doesn't just pop up and then join the team a few episodes later, he only gradually became less of a lone wolf. I think he was the best Sixth Ranger of the series because his character and character development were so well-done; certainly more complex than "Oh, I was brainwashed, but I'm free not and am totally on your side!"
Yesss! More HOPR! That Red Ranger is a total badass. I agree with you on the uniforms though, that chest logo is really awkward looking somehow. Personally I'm a fan of mouthless sentai helmets though, I think they look really sleek and modern (amusingly, as they've actually been around longer in Sentai than ones with mouths), and these helmets look pretty cool!
ReplyDeleteReally looking forward to Time Force. I've heard it's a great series.
One of the things lost in translation is that all the Demons were Family... Not just Impus, Though I guess having a mother that would cannalbilize her daughter and order her own sons' demise would be a little to much for the kiddy's, and might have come off as a twisted version of the Family we saw in Scorpius and Trakeena.
ReplyDeleteAlso Thank You... The Lightspeed rangers get horribly beat up because well they use guns, real rangers beat things to death with thier fists!
Though Chad is remember as Dolphin boy... He was clearly one of the better hand to hand fighters.
Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue seems rather lame to me:
ReplyDelete-Personality wise, the rangers might as well be clones of the Lost Galaxy rangers. There was nothing unique about them with the exception of their basic stereotype.
-The stories all seem like rehash story from Mighty Morphing, Turbo, and Lost Galaxy.
-Vypra is the worst actress out of anyone in the main cast of any Power Rangers series. Most guess actors are better than her.
-I prefer all the previous theme songs. Specially Lost Galaxy's epic theme. Lightspeed Rescue's is bland.
Overall, Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue does nothing to stand out.
"Actually, now that I think about it, Time Force got super censored. Granted, 9/11 happened very close to the end of the season, hence the censorship, but still, it kinda sucks that we can't see the original versions anymore."
ReplyDeleteActually, only ONE scene was altered for reairing - when Ransik gave his speech to the city, and even then when it was reaired again, it was altered back to its original form, save for changing a destroying building for an explosion at a quarry. If anything WAS changed for the last several episodes, we wouldn't know.
Holy crap, Carter is indeed the most hot-blooded badass Ranger I've seen yet. Thanks for highlighting his awesomeness.
ReplyDeleteActually, I remember this was the first Power Rangers series I tuned into after the original seasons ended. Don't remember liking it too much though.
Great episode, Linkara. I have to say, LR never really appealed to me. Part of the reason was because when it came out I was too old for Power Rangers at the time, but now looking back, the fact that they made the Rangers more like soldiers rather than superheroes doesn't sit too well with me. I always liked the idea of "teenagrs with attitude", these people who were granted superpowers and weapons to save the Earth, it was a boyhood fantasy. The fact that it's now a government organization is just to bland for me. Also, being a martial arts fan, the fact that they weren't martial artists also never bode well with me.
ReplyDeleteThough I will admit, you've made me see Carter in a whole new light, I never thought much of him up until now.
Another excellent video, these have all been great to watch, especially for someone like me who hasn't watching Power Rangers since MMPR. The season did look like it had some interesting bits, but I think the lack of any real interesting villains would keep me from being too interested in watching it. Excellent work Lewis, and I look forward to seeing the next one, I've heard many good things about Time Force and I can't wait to see what this series is all about.
ReplyDeleteIt might be the fact that I'm too used to MMPR (I was the anon who said he only watched that series regularly and only a few episodes here and there of the later shows) but I find the idea of human built Zords bugs me a bit for some reason. Also, I've been looking around a PR wiki I managed to find lately (looking ahead to see what you'd talk about next) and I liked how Vypra looked, then you talked about and showed how badly she acted and I found myself somewhat disappointed.
ReplyDeleteAll I'll say is that skirt seems kinda short for a parametic, let alone having a slit that big in it. On a kid's show no less.
ReplyDeleteActually, I think the writers commented that they had to change some things they planned, but didn't really state what
ReplyDeleteOnce again, this was a great episode. I've been looking forward to your review of this series in particular, so the longer wait has been KILLING me (however, it was worth the wait).
ReplyDeleteI agree with pretty much everything you presented here (especially "Carter is badass" and "the Zords are made of pure metal awesome"), although I differ slightly on a few things.
Firstly, I really like these suits. I know you said they've grown on you, but I always liked them, right from the beginning. They're different, yeah, but in a good way, if you ask me. Ditto for the morphing sequence and the morphers themselves.
Second, I feel like the demons DID get better as villains when the Queen showed up in the flesh (even if she was basically a statue), although I'll be the first to admit that Vypra couldn't act her way out of a paper bag.
Oh yeah, and one other thing. I know EXACTLY why Vypra has a car. It's because she's a... wait for it... SPEED DEMON! Ha!.
...I feel slightly soiled after making that corny joke.
Cool review. ^^
ReplyDeleteWas I the only one who thought that when the Big Bad was introducing her powered up son, that she as going to say,
"Sub-creatures! Gozer the Gozerian, Gozer the Destructor, Volguus Zildrohar- the Traveller has come! Choose and perish!"?
I may be the only person that feels this way, but I was a little disappointed when Linkara made the gunblade comment. I cannot fault the logic behind it, but I was hoping that with his earlier statements about how "guns + swords = cool" that he was laying the groundwork for some Spoony crossover.
ReplyDeleteWhatever your feelings regarding combining melee weapons with guns you cannot deny the fact that a video of Spoony and Linkara arguing about weapons is bound to be awesome.
Oh time force aka the reason i stopped watching power rangers. I'm not sure why everyone loves this season so much. sure it has alot of good things going for it like the darker plot, the well developed rangers and the awsome theme song. However nothing is explained, the plot holes are huge,Ransik is a balnd and boring villian with his backstory playing a role in exactly 2 episodes. His only role was to send monsters out. even nadera had more creative ideas then that and also at times the plot felt like a sit come and it really was jarring compared to the darker stuff. could you imagine if in the middle of The Dark Knight a subplot about bruce dating two girls on the same night happens. and lastly Nadera's change in the final came out of nowhere and made no sence i would say it goes against her character if she had one. This season had so much potential and it makes me mad that it all was squandered.
ReplyDeleteSo the Red Ranger was a bad, bad man. The Titanium Ranger was also pretty cool in the early part of the season. I rememember this series kinda well. Not too bad, I think.
ReplyDeleteGreat Video!
To be honest, I liked PRLR but I didn't love it. It just seemed like too much of a step backwards, and I don't mean that because 'it wasn't in space.' I just think that the writing and the characters didn't get enough attention, and as you said in the PRiS review relied more on deus ex machinas. But some of the other elements are kind of fun, such as the awesomeness of the theme song and the Titanium Ranger arc. I also felt that there was way too much filler. At least in the earlier seasons it had a cheesy early 90's feel. But after in Space I thought they could've been a litle more plot driven. Time Force is clearly the better season and one of my favourites. Can't wait till the next review :D
ReplyDeleteI don't know about anyone else, but I always liked to think that the warlock who locked up the demons was actually Zordon: the warlock was never named in-series, the Sand Sorcerer went down way too easily for him to have sealed them up the first time, and Zordon had to be doing something while he was farting around on the moon...
ReplyDeleteCarter Grayson is so manly he pours muscle milk on his breakfast cereal.
ReplyDeleteFun and underrated show in my opinion. The sentai it's based on GoGo 5 is also pretty awesome.
Great Review! It was very hard for me and my boyfriend to not shout out 'Mitchell!' every time you mentioned the guy (old MST3K joke).
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Natasha
A long time coming but well worth it. Excellent review. Most excellent indeed.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to "Trakeena's Renvenge", there is one thing I was kinda hoping you would've pointed out in addition to the other oddities from that 2-part episode.
During the fight scene between the Megazords and Trakeena, for about a split-second, the Defender Torozord appears on screen, taking damage from an attack by Trakeena with the Omega Megazord and the Max Solarzord. This is due to the its Sentai counterpart having appeared in the footage, but since it was destroyed in PRLG, the Sentai footage featuring it was edited out for Power Rangers... except for this single split-second occurance.
It may have been brief, but the Defender Torozord showing up when it shouldn't have is still noticeable and anyone watching the episode could and would have been able to catch that.
It's like they wanted us to pretend we never saw their editing mistake and just ignore it. But it's been noticed and pointed out, so too late.
...OK, where was this version of Carter during Forever Red?
ReplyDeletePretty good review, though I have to question something, Lew.
You complain about there being too much white on the torsos for the Lightspeed rangers (even if not as much as the Galaxy rangers)...
...yet proportionately, isn't the amount of white on the Lightspeed uniforms about the same as the amount on the old Mighty Morphin' outfits?
Interesting commentary for Lightspeed Rescue.
ReplyDeleteCan't wait for your commentary on the awesomeness that is Time Force.
Before you started this I began my own run through of power rangers, and my metaphorical hat off for you for being able to sit through whole seasons to do something like this. I like the show, but looking back as an adult I need a break from it every 3 or 4 episodes.
ReplyDeleteI'm currently trying to get through turbo, but it's so painful to watch that I've been stuck on it for 2 months now. As the 3 people who watch my videos will attest, Shadow Rangers ruined what fun I was having with it until then. (And no, that wasn't mean as a shameless plug.)
But this makes me want to break through it and move on even more than in space did. I mean, trying to run a monster down in a car! That is pure unleaded awesome. I'd love to see Tommy Oliver pull that!
The train zords seem to be more in line with the environmental message put forward by the show, and that megazord does look pretty kick ass.
This may be off topic and is sort of a kid logic thing, but why do they still call them zords? Weren't they called zords after Zordon? Zordon has nothing to do with these things.
Looking forward to RPM, since RPM got me going back to watch it again in the first place.
I think the reason more emphasis was placed on Chad's martial arts skills than his sea creature taming was because 1. that's way more interesting and 2. Mike Chaturantabut (that is a hard-ass name to spell), the actor, is a popular martial artist in real life, much like Jason David Frank. Check out his profile.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.usadojo.com/biographies/mike-chaturantabut.htm
Regarding the teamup roll call....I've always been underwhelmed by the American roll calls. In Japan, they're over-the-top enough that you can let them slide, as they're dancing and posing while saying something about their abilities or role in the team before stating their designation. In America, it's usually covered up by normal dialog or just a bunch of "Huaaaaaah"s before they say their color. Also, the ranger designations. It's too late to change things now, but in Japan, each ranger ever has a unique character name that is a combination of their team name and their color. For example, the black Goseiger this year is GoseiBlack. Since America has gotten themselves stuck in the rut of calling them all "[color] Ranger", they have to come up with something new during the teamups that they never used before and will never use again, e.g. Blue Galaxy Ranger and Lightspeed Red, instead of Blue Ranger and Red Ranger like they're called otherwise.
So your review of this series kinda underwhelmed me. Then again, when I look back at it, the series itself was rather underwhelming, so that's not really your fault. I liked it at the time, but when I think, all I can really remember are particular bits and pieces, not a cohesive whole like I can with some of the better shows like Space and Time Force. One thing in particular that always bugged me, even as a kid, was "WHERE THE HELL DID THE LIFE FORCE MEGAZORD COME FROM, WHY DID IT LOOK LIKE A BLACK VERSION OF THE LIGHTSPEED SOLARZORD, AND WHY COULDN'T IT TRANSFORM?" From my understanding this wasn't explained much (if any) better in GoGo V, but is there any reason they couldn't have provided any kind of foreshadowing to its introduction and/or a better explanation of it than just "HERE USE THIS THING THAT HAPPENS TO LOOK EXACTLY LIKE SOMETHING YOU ALREADY HAVE." I can only guess that Japan was trying to plug the black special edition of the toys or something, but it honestly doesn't seem to exist in PR for any reason other than to be stolen and used as a plot device to destroy the aquabase.
I wonder if the tatto moving to the neck slowing killing you is a common sentai theme because it was used in Dairanger.
ReplyDelete2/3
ReplyDeleteSo your review of this series kinda underwhelmed me. Then again, when I look back at it, the series itself was rather underwhelming, so that's not really your fault. I liked it at the time, but when I think, all I can really remember are particular bits and pieces, not a cohesive whole like I can with some of the better shows like Space and Time Force. One thing in particular that always bugged me, even as a kid, was "WHERE THE HELL DID THE LIFE FORCE MEGAZORD COME FROM, WHY DID IT LOOK LIKE A BLACK VERSION OF THE LIGHTSPEED SOLARZORD, AND WHY COULDN'T IT TRANSFORM?" From my understanding this wasn't explained much (if any) better in GoGo V, but is there any reason they couldn't have provided any kind of foreshadowing to its introduction and/or a better explanation of it than just "HERE USE THIS THING THAT HAPPENS TO LOOK EXACTLY LIKE SOMETHING YOU ALREADY HAVE." I can only guess that Japan was trying to plug the black special edition of the toys or something, but it honestly doesn't seem to exist in PR for any reason other than to be stolen and used as a plot device to destroy the aquabase.
On the topic of foreshadowing and mecha, as much as I love the Supertrain Megazord, in retrospect I realize there was no lead-up to its introduction until the episode in which it happened, at which point Ms. Fairweather was shown playing with line drawings of the Rail Rescues and repositioning the mecha cockpit. No actual work was shown to be done on the Rail Rescues themselves, nor was anything I would consider to be legitimate programming or design done, even by fictional standards. Even if they had the physical ability all along and she was just installing the necessary programming to allow the combination....how does tinkering with line drawings accomplish that? I was only so much smarter than your average nine year-old, and I had these thoughts even then, so they really weren't trying with the writing. They had a good nine episodes where they could have put just a few minutes worth of footage showing Ms. Fairweather designing and implementing the technology for the Supertrain Megazord, and it would have made it so much better.
3/4
ReplyDeleteOn the topic of foreshadowing and mecha, as much as I love the Supertrain Megazord, in retrospect I realize there was no lead-up to its introduction until the episode in which it happened, at which point Ms. Fairweather was shown playing with line drawings of the Rail Rescues and repositioning the mecha cockpit. No actual work was shown to be done on the Rail Rescues themselves, nor was anything I would consider to be legitimate programming or design done, even by fictional standards. Even if they had the physical ability all along and she was just installing the necessary programming to allow the combination....how does tinkering with line drawings accomplish that? I was only so much smarter than your average nine year-old, and I had these thoughts even then, so they really weren't trying with the writing. They had a good nine episodes where they could have put just a few minutes worth of footage showing Ms. Fairweather designing and implementing the technology for the Supertrain Megazord, and it would have made it so much better.
But the Supertrain Megazord was nothing if not badass, and I'm itching to get my hands on the original Grand Liner toy from GoGo V (yes, I know the American toy is technically identical, but I love the Japanese box art and knowing that it's the actual Japanese one makes a difference in my mind). I'm surprised you spent so little time on it, but I suppose you had to cut stuff for time. I always loved the launch sequence, where the trains are stored in that hangar underwater and then line up and race through the streets of not-Tokyo. Then the Max Solarzord gets its own hangar right next door, and they can even combine to form a giant-er rocket train that fucking LAUNCHES INTO OUTER SPACE. I don't care how absurd that is, it's fucking awesome. And the Omega Megazord (agreed, awesome name there as well) was way cooler than the Lightspeed Megazord. I'm surprised you didn't at least mention its crawler mode briefly, but it didn't appear all that often.
4/4
ReplyDeleteOne last thing about this series that's REALLY weird is the broadcast dates. They ran the first 16 episodes weekly from February to May, then took a sudden break for what felt like forever as a kid (it was really only three months) before resuming a weekly broadcast in August and running through October. Starting November 3 (a Friday), they broadcast a new episode every single day except Sunday for the next two weeks until they got to the finale. The final 13 episodes in only two weeks. I just don't get it. I know they had established by this point that they wanted to always start in February and end in November, but why take a three month break from broadcasting in the middle of the year and cram the entire final third of the series into two weeks? The only thing I've been able to think of is that the writers weren't sure where they wanted to take the series after they supposedly killed off Diabolico, and that production halted until they could do so and then film and distribute the rest of the series. But that seems like a long shot to me, and if that had been the case, I don't think it would have been possible to broadcast the entire last third of the series in back-to-back airings, because production wouldn't be complete on the final episodes, and they wouldn't want another obnoxious gap in the schedule. Has your research uncovered anything about this, Linkara?
@Joseph Ridken: I'm pretty sure they were originally called Zords because Zordon created them, but the name stuck. They obviously didn't expect PR to live beyond MMPR S1, much less turn into a multi-season, multi-series franchise, so they couldn't have predicted that they'd kill off Zordon but still have giant mecha to deal with. So now they're just called zords out of tradition.
ReplyDeleteI can't wait until this series is done, because that means I'll have another opportunity to roll out my crackpot hypothesis on why RPM is a prequel to Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.
ReplyDeleteGood Review Linkara..
ReplyDeleteThough for someone who admits he didn't Watch the Sentais, To Proclaim they didn't have to use Carranger they could have used one of the earlier sentai... comes of as immeansely Smug. Just go look up Rovang's Sentai Sanctorum, and you'll pretty much see, The Whole Zordon uses Animal thing was a convient fluke
Excellent Review, Yeah Lightspeed Rescue isn't high drama, but it's not the massive pile of crap the fanbase would have you believe.
ReplyDeleteYeah the villians needed some work, I think if they had left in the whole big screwed up Family bit from the sentai they could have developed better, though Vypra's acting...
The whole "Carter sucks" thing comes from the percevied notion that if a red ranger isn't like Tommy, he sucks *Jason gets away with it because of the whole, Jason beat Green Ranger Tommy*
Carter is very reminscent of Jason actaully In which his simply good but Awesome for it., *Which disappointed me in you didn't keep Jason's "Even the smallest chance of victory" bit from the Green Ranger saga, along with Doomsday or Island of Illusions*
It is eye rolling that they keep trying to say seperate universe, but it's also eye rolling that everytime new ranger powers comeup, The Fans have to make them relate back to Zordon.
Time force should be a good ep...save for it's poor teamup and since you've started Wild Force, Hang on till Curse of the Wolf.
Link- What can I say? But, that I'm excited to see yet another duo of Power Ranger vids up on your page. I can't wait to get home from the gym tonight and watch these as I sipping hot chocolate. You know, I never watched the PR. Their show came long after I and left childhood, but I LOVE your reviews. Maybe it's your love of the show that just gets to me. I don't know. But, thanks for making such good stuff. It does a lot to bring a smile to one loney, old man's face. - MisterKeitel
ReplyDeleteI like how Lightspeed Aquabase is reminiscent, or perhaps just a redress, of Terra Venture. It Helps bridge together the two series.
ReplyDeleteAnd Black's idea of the Demons being sealed by Zordon instead of Generic Warlock number 46, is awesome--but his idea may require heavy continuity tinkering.
Wasn't he indisposed at the time? I don't remember if they gave a year
You like Guns that turn into swords. So I have to wonder what you'll think about PRWF's Lunar Cue. A gun/sword/pool cue should b lame, but i LOVE it.
How's this for continuity; the team instantly know what Power Rangers are when the captain says they're going to be Power Rangers, and Psycho Red calls them Power Rangers with no other way to know the term once they morph.
ReplyDeleteI didn't really watch Lightspeed Rescue much-I didn't like it. The characters seemed too generic for me. Still, good review. Keep it coming.
ReplyDeleteLooks ok, but GoGoV was apparently superior to it's US counterpart.
ReplyDeleteToo bad considering that Space and Lost Galaxy were actually getting close in quality to Sentai standards
They strongly downplayed the family aspect in this season, which largely hurt the development.
In GoGoV the all the rangers were siblings and all the major villains were siblings.
The ranger's mentor was their estranged, and trough most of the series they distrusted him until they found out he actually cared.
The villains on the other hand loved and idolised their mother, until it turned-out that she does not care the least bit for them.
It was ongoing theme throughout the series, and the fact that Lightspeed downplayed it so much seriously hurt the result.
I'm pleasantly surprised that they actually used the Venus costume from GoGoV and even got an actual Asian actress to play Vypra, instead of replacing her with a completely original character like they did in Turbo and Space
This actually reminds me of the case with Rita/Bandora
I guess they did it because they wanted to be able to use as much Sentai footage possible, and so they wanted her to look as much as her Japanese counterpart as possible
This however brings up the question why they didn't simply use Sieg-Jeanne as the sixth ranger?
Were they afraid that the audience wouldn't accept a woman as the sixth ranger?
America's first original ranger looks like a pretty good compensation tho.
On the other hand however it just shows how greedy Americans are.
They obviously have what it takes to make a show of their own without having to rip it from Japanese shows, yet they don't do it because they think it's more efficient to make someone else do the job for them.
Oh America!
Anyway, looking forward to Timeforce.
Timeranger is widely considered to be one of the greatest Sentai series of all time (and a personal favourite of mine), so I'm curios to see what the Yankees did with it.
ps.
If anyone is interested
I made a Top 11 Sentai themes list
You can find it on
http://screwattack.com/blogs/Hromovlads-blog/Top-11-best-Super-Sentai-themes
http://sekele.deviantart.com/journal/32836121/
@hentailv
ReplyDeleteExactly my thoughts!
The whole "ramming a car into the monster" bit was taken directly from GoGoV
ReplyDeleteThe only difference is that Matoi actually ran it over!
(but I guess America couldn't have that on a kid's show)
I never saw much of this season, but what I did see of it I liked. I thought the villains looked really cool and I enjoyed the fact that the Rangers did other heroic activities besides fight of the monsters. Even though I only saw a few episodes, this season did stand out in my mind.
ReplyDeleteOnce again a great analysis. I look forward to seeing what you have to say about Time Force, which I saw more of.
Yes! New HOPR! Awesome!
ReplyDeleteOh sorry, first timer here. Got sucked in from TV Tropes, which took me into Kickassia, and then happened to stumble upon the other HOPR videos. I have been on a rampage through AT4W for the last week or so.
Anyway, excellent work reviewing the season. This is one of the seasons I missed, having drifted away during lost Galaxy, so these videos are a real treat.
I have a new theory: any anomalies in the Power Rangers continuity is caused by Carter Grayson throwing a flying punch into Hypertime.
Because HE CAN.
Carter Grayson is the Sega Dreamcast of Power Rangers! So undervalued and underated, but a great one! I'm glad you state that stuff so well here!
ReplyDeletegreat vids dude! I'm still laughing at that Dumbest Person rant! lol!
Nice bit of self-referental humor also with the I AM A MAN reference to Carter.
This wasn't that bad, but agreed there are better seasons.
No Ghostbusters clip at the end of the first video? That was another missed joke!
ReplyDelete@ Anonymous - I don't think Carter was the worst Red ranger ever. I think Shane, Leo, Nick, T.J, Jack and Cole were worse. I put him in the same league as Wes, Tommy, Jason, and Andros. Just the fact he's a fireman alone wins my respect!
ReplyDeleteThat was a pretty okay review, but you should have went further with that "Dumbest person in power rangers" bit."
ReplyDelete"There's no such things as monsters little girl"
Such a statement coming from a person in a series built on a foundation of giant monster attacks deserves nothing short of Richard Straus's "Also Sprach Zarathustra":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLuW-GBaJ8k&feature=related
I can't wait till you get to RPM, because RPM was what brought me back to Power Rangers. (Actually, it was that Iron Man 2 movie with the Whip Lash fight at the races, it was just too reminiscent of that scene in the movie where Rocky dodged a spear between his legs. Not to mention, the fight fun fight choreography in the series.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18nwjPWiYog&feature=related
The spear dodge I had in mind is at 10:10
)
Thanks once again, Mr Lovhaug (dang, hope I spelled that right).
ReplyDeleteThis series of yours is AWESOME. Seriously. It is inspiring. I never watched this show - at the time, I was too busy being a snotty teenager, too 'kewl' for PR.
But now I am busy planning a hardcore PR-based RPG for my buddies, and all thanks to you.
Your passion and commitment ring true here, and I eat up these episodes as hungrily as anything I've ever encountered on TGWTG or elsewhere.
You are SO great. (Also Iron Liz - tell her I said that).
I just realized this: The morph the galaxy rangers do is the GINGAMAN HENSHIN.....cool
ReplyDeleteYou don't fuck with the red ranger.
ReplyDeletePeriod.
Everytime you said Mitchell, I was expecting "MITCHELL!" from MST3K. Then again, Mitchell was said about 10 times so the joke would've gotten old.
ReplyDeletePlus, Maybe when that woman said that they were no monsters probably meant that she thought all the monsters were gone after the previous Rangers defeated the Evil Forces or she had been living under a rock for five years
I'm going to say it. I stopped liking Power Rangers almost immediately after i turned 13. This was in the middle of season one, mind you. the Green Ranger had really just become a character at that point. Re-runs and stock footage drove me into the fine annals of zombie movies and Chuck Norris. I must say, that I have followed each new episode of HOPR with anticipation, and find myself imbued with knowledge that I would not have had otherwise on a continuing cult phenomenon. I used to really knock the series to my friends in the community, almost holding them lower on the geek hierarchy scale through some misunderstood sense of superiority. I have to admit, I was wrong. Not only have I seen the depth of the story that I was too impatient to wait for in my youth, but I have also laughed at the awesome silliness of it and still revel in the days that could not be, since I was watching Superfoot get his ankles broken by Bruce Lee and I lost sight of the giant robot fighting monsters thing. I kind of wish I had seen these, and I appreciate the way you aren't mocking them, so much as pointing out things that could have been better, from a fan's veiwpoint, even if some of them aren't your favorites (we're looking at you Turbo) you still treat them with respect. Like I said, I was never really a fan, but after watching "the Linkara notes" thus far, I can see what I missed out on.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure someone's pointed this out to you or spoony before, but swords with gun hilts are common in the sport of fencing and many people, myself included, find this hilt to be more comfortable and natural. The stupid part of the gunblade is that while pistol style hilts are useful for foil and epee no one in final fantasy uses these styles, and if they did it would be a terrible idea because fencing is sport, and not intended for actual combat.
ReplyDeleteI was really looking forward to this review, as PRLR is my second favorite PR show, with in Space being #1.
ReplyDeleteI can see why some might not like it, but I personally liked how it was back to basics and, well, different. Really, when I was watching this show when it aired I loved how the Lightspeed Rangers were not random/destined teenagers who just happened to know how to fight. I liked how these rangers had actual skills and were chosen to be rangers because of them; I also just assume that them knowing how to fight was a pre-requisite to them being eligible. Also, having everyone know who they are makes sense, as they are the last-resort rescue squad. Overall, it was a fresh, new take on why these specific people were rangers.
The villians were simple, yeah, but Diabolico was really great. He was pretty much the RP equivalent of the Devil (Lewis, I was hoping you'd notice the whole "Deal with the Devil" aspect and I'm glad you did), and though he adored his queen he still preferred to do things his own way and ended up having a sort of mutual respect with Carter at the end of the show.
The zords were, yes, awesome. Some of my personal favorites, in fact. And Lewis, I can't believe that I never realized how utterly badass Carter was until you did this video, though I did already enjoy him highly... Thank you.
Overall, I just really enjoyed LR for what it was: A back-to-basics show that aimed for entertainment and excitement while putting in some nice touches here and there for characters and story.
As for Time Force... This is where I stopped watching PR normally (I did watch Ninja Storm normally, but dropped PR again early on in Dino Thunder). I did watch about half of TF, though... In fact, I know exactly where I stopped watching: The stupid part where the rangers were tossed into different movie genre worlds. The show itself was good, but it never really grabbed me like LR or Space did, and the movie-worlds thing just made me go "That's it... I'm done with Power Rangers." I will say, though, that I did see the later parts years later and that it did get better and had a cool end (not to mention an excellent cross-over with Wild Force, though the only episodes of WF I did want to watch were the TF cross-over and Forever Red). But it's not good for a show to have an "OK" first half, as that will hurt the chances of people sticking through for the long-run, even if the second half is much better.
But great video as always, Lewis!
Kimarous said...
ReplyDeleteWhen the Zords were being introduced, did anyone else think of Thunderbirds?
I know I did.
I wonder if going back and watching this show would change my opinion, but until Wild Force this was my least favorite of the series. A lot of reasons have already been mentioned either by Lewis or commentors, but it also bugged me on a religious level.
NO, I DON'T THINK LIGHTSPEED RESCUE WAS GOING TO DRAG ANYONE TO HELL so please hear me out.
Had these been plain old monsters it wouldn't have bothered me, but demons as depicted in the Bible and demons as depicted everywhere else, as physical beings rather than spritual beings like angels, is something I was getting tired of by that point.
Also, the mystical overtones in this series was different than with Rita Repulsa or even later in Mystic Force and I can't tell you why it bugged me or even if it would still bug me as I haven't watched the series in years, but it did.
As for Joel and Carter, I never really thought of Carter as badass until this review. You make some good points. But I loved watching Joel in action (reminded me of Ace McCloud from Centurions) and I was rooting for him with Ms. Fairweather. I'm glad that had a happy ending. :)
I see the flying train and all I can think of is "Galaxy Express 999 will take you on a journey a never ending journey..."
ReplyDeleteI never thought Power Rangers would make me reminiscent of Leiji Matsumoto.
i always thought you were an amazing reviewer linkara but mentioning zero punctuation made you even more awesome
ReplyDeleteI have to disagree with you on the theme. It may just be my favorite theme of all. Of course, that may be the nostalgia filter, as this was actually the first Power Rangers series I even saw.
ReplyDeleteI didn't watch all of it. But I watched some of the first episodes, the one before the finale, and I borrowed a tape with the second part of the Titanium Ranger saga. Which I actually did like (The villains plan, exploding feathers that detonate when it goes dark is so silly and brilliant at the same time).
I just wasn't into the franchise much. The only other thing I saw was the first part of Lost Galaxy, with again was okay (And I always thought that the Magna Defender was awesome). But then I went on holiday, then when I got back Scorpius was dead, Mike was the Magna Defender, and I was all confused.
On a tangent, I am currently in Silicon Valley on holiday. I wanted to get a present for my friend, so I got "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow" and the first Blackest Night volume (My friend loved Marvel Zombies, and he had interest in the event). However, do you know where I can find any of the Blue Beetle volumes or the Technus Imperative?
I don't know why you reference Yatzes so much
ReplyDeleteThat guy is an arrogant douche-bad
I understand why they'd recruit a firefighter or a pilot, but a Sea World trainer? How on earth would a guy that trains whales to jump be any use fighting against monsters? The same goes for the mountain climber. At least the captain's (incredibly attractive) daughter (presumably) has military training.
ReplyDeleteWhere did you find out about the falling out between the Galaxy cast and the production team? I'd like to know please.
ReplyDeleteHey, if you want a superior version of the team-up, look no further
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAvd0NbFOBc
the only problem is that there are no subs
The most accepted Fandom reason for Chad's involvement was to share his martial arts background with the other rangers , Note they do get better in melee combat.
ReplyDeleteThe most accepted Fandom reason for Chad's involvement was to share his martial arts background with the other rangers , Note they do get better in melee combat.
ReplyDeleteEnough with this ranger shit already..
ReplyDelete"Enough with this ranger shit already.."
ReplyDeleteWhy?
Ranger Hater, Can We Burn Him or her? Can we Please Lewis?
ReplyDeleteIt's fine if you don't like Power Rangers, but don't be hating on Linkara because he does. Nobody's forcing you to watch these videos, nobody's forcing him to make them, they're not taking away from the regular updates, so mind yer own business.
ReplyDeleteThis morning I found that CITV where showing an episode of Power Rangers RPM, so I decided to sit down and watch it (as I've said in some previous comments I never watched it as a kid and what I did see I didn't like), and I thought it was actually pretty good (conveniently it was the first episode). And you know what, I probably wouldn't have considered watching it if it hadn't been for your Power Rangers videos (well that and according to TV Tropes RPM is actually really good).
ReplyDelete@The Little Andrew That Could: Actually, while fencing is only a sport -now-, in the days of old (particularly in France and Spain) it was an accepted form of combat for one-on-one duels, sometimes between enemy commanders on a battlefield but usually between individuals who believed that one had been slighted by the other and the duel was to restore honor. These duels were quite often to the death and perfectly legal, but once dueling became outlawed the combat style was reduced to that of a sport. The modern fencing foil is a non-lethal version of the traditional rapier, the only real change having been made was to make the tip blunt so as not to injure.
ReplyDeleteJust curious, Lewis, but have you ever heard of the Disgaea series? If not, you might want to check it out, especially because of this:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWW9D_kFezE&feature=related
AHHH!!!!
ReplyDeletehttp://media.comicvine.com/uploads/3/38780/956358-pr_zeo_1_sep_1996_super.jpg
AHHH!!!
Oh, my Lord. I just found a version of the original Go Go Power Rangers-you know, the one written by Rasselman-sung by a prolific and well-known Japanese musician known as Masaaki Endoh. This is dedication outside the source material...from the place where the source material came from!
ReplyDeleteLink is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ix8Vy3mEHk
It's damn awesome.
Linkara, I've kept up with your History of Power Rangers series and I thank you. You have shown me a light that both you and my little brother could see, while I was completely blind to. Every so often I would sit down with him to watch an episode of the new power rangers (whatever series they may be). For the most part I frowned upon it all, remember my first megazord and the glory that was the originals. I declared to my brother that if he really wanted to see the power rangers watch the first season. Your reviews have since softened my own, and for that I thank you. I had to remind myself that these were for kids, not for me anymore, and that I had to watch it with the mindset of one. This still doesn't excuse some horrible acting but it certainly helped me enjoy them more with my little brother. It's one of the few things we ever have in common.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the fact that this ranger series atleast tried to ground itself in reality. That being about as loose of a footing as one would have standing on ice.
ReplyDeleteThe military aspect certainly did give excuse to the abundant upgrades of weapons every other episode, but the whole morphing process just boggled my mind. I can accept the badge suit up sequence, but how in the world did the army get ahold of the technology to acess the morphing grid?
The new zords were a bit of a let down. Yes I can accept emergency service vehicles, but theres a limit. The train was perfect until they zorded it up. It was purely utilitarian. The way a military vehicle would be. I concur there was no set up to the sudden upgrade, and even taking her sketchs into example would mean that the train was itself an alien technology that she was tinkering with and sudden had an "Ah ha!" moment.
The parallels between this and the first echo nearly every episode. We have two groups of teenagers with attitude. A mysterious leader with a broken past. A 6th ranger who was bad then good. Zord upgrades after the destruction of the old ones. It seemed like they decided that LSR should be taken from the MMPR handbook.
The only thing that really bothered me was the idea of the Life Force Megazord. Who in their right mind would create a weapon that will kill the user? Thats like telling the rangers, "It's ok, your expendable anyways." That zrod just irks me to this day.
It would Be Stupid... But Apparently Human Life Force Energy > Nuclear Energy because, Linkara Did not show the Lifeforce MegaZord's Finishing move... Which you could see From Space!
ReplyDeleteYes it's a Risk but it's only a risk if the fight is prolonged and Seeing the results... You need a REALLY powerful monster to prolong a fight with the Life Force Megazord, that Took out Two Massively BUFFED SuperDemons easily. or just cheap shot it with torpedoes >.>
Johnny Yong Bosch is my anime hero Vash the Stampede is m favorite anime character ever, and he also play and played a lot of my other favorites including Ichigo from Bleach, Lelouch from Code Geass: R2,
ReplyDeleteand Renten from Eureka 7.
I think your comments on the entire PR series is awesome. I can't wait for the next and hope for the best.
ReplyDeletecant wait 4 the next one my friends and i watch these reviews and recaps ,i want to say thanks for taking the time to make theses . one fan to another go go power rangers .Time force was the best and there was mention of there being two movies and another season of time force i would have liked that .the best ones after lost galaxy were time force ,ninja storm ,dino thunder ,jungle fury,spd,rpm .
ReplyDeleteFunny I actually grew up with Lightspeed Rescue and never noticed Vipra had such a terrible actress.
ReplyDeleteI didn't see this listed before, so if it is already I apologize.
ReplyDeleteWhy are you so suprised about the existence of the wormhole to Earth from Mirinoi? (However you spell the planet where the Quasar sabers rest). We saw that wormhole in the very first episodes of Lost Galaxy. The training mission on the moon. And since we see the monsters traveling to Earth from Space, it can be assumed that the portal is the same one. The rangers would have been able to fly the Jet Jammers through, and the Galacta Beasts would have been able to come through as well. Thoughts?
That was the only thing that was confusing to me, otherwise, I agree with you 100 percent on the rest of the Lightspeed Rescue review.
I figured out why the morphing are off putting. It looks like a symbiote. As a comic reviewer you seen symbiotic suits in a negative horrific, so seeing something similar looking concept in a positive light, is hard to get used to.
ReplyDelete