Category: Written Features

Power Rangers Reflections Redux #10 – The Ninja Encounter

So we’re dipping back into reposts for the next couple entries before the eventual new entry comes along. This is being done to not only keep up with entries, but also I want to get all the “old stuff” out of the day before we eventually start going into new material. We’ve got a couple big episodes down the pipe line to touch on and I rather have the wiggle room to get those looking nice before posting.

In any event, here’s a repost on the 3-part Ninja Encounter episode that introduced the world to the first set of replacement Power Rangers. It’s a rather long ramble that will cover all three parts, but don’t expect it to dig into great detail, as I’ll be passing over certain bits in the episode, including a sizable chunk in the middle for reasons I shall explain.

The second season of MMPR was notable because it had a ton of multi-parters. The season premiere episode was a 3-parter, the Green Ranger’s last hurrah was a 2-parter, the Wedding was a 3-parter. Even episodes that were irrelevant and pointless in the grand scheme of things were 2-parters… like Storybook Rangers or the one where the Rangers were turned into kids.

Today’s multipart extravaganza is not an insignificant storyline, but rather a pretty heavy storyline. It’s the one that introduced the world to three would-be nobodies who were brought in because half the Ranger cast held up for more money and were unceremoniously released, not even getting the benefit of best wishes on their future endeavors… wait, was I saying a whole lot?

A bit of backstory here; at some point during production of the second season, the Ranger trio of Austin St. John, Thuy Trang, and Walter Jones had left MMPR due to monetary conflicts… or some kind of conflict. In any case, half the Power Rangers had gone AWOL and the result was a series of episodes that would place more focus on the other half of the cast who stuck around, while the other half would be portrayed as either recycled footage, body doubles, bad ADR dubbers, or just ignored altogether. I think it was around the time the Green Ranger left that we started getting bad dub jobs for the guys who left and by the time we got to the obligatory Halloween episode (Zedd’s Monster Mash or something), the other three was getting less focus and more focus was placed on Tommy, Kimberly, and Billy… because they were still around.

Which brings us to the Ninja Encounter, a three-parter that really should have been less than that.

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Power Rangers Reflection Redux #09 – Lost And Found In Translation

This episode is an interesting “concept” episode and probably the closest thing we’d be getting to something resembling a crossover between Power Rangers and its original Super Sentai source material. At the time of airing, there had been quite a bit of controversy surrounding it due to the way it presented the original material here. Some didn’t mind it, others were outraged, and the rest either didn’t know the difference between one or the other or they simply didn’t care.

To be perfectly honest, I don’t recall my reactions to this episode back in the day. It’s never been mentioned or eluded to in any of the commentaries or the old blog. I know I watched it and I’d imagine an opportunity to see any semblance of seemingly unaltered Abaranger without going through unofficial channels… but nonetheless, my initial impressions from fourteen-ish years ago are largely forgotten.

So, I’m going into this with something of a clean slate of sorts. And yes, it’ll be fairly brief for the moment.

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New Headset: The DS502

Recently ordered this headset off Amazon after Rich The ReviewTechUSA Guy did a couple videos with these and they sounded wonderful. This might not be my go-to headset for everyday purposes that I do on the computer front, but they might serve me well on the video or possible audio front.

Will do a couple quick tests before I head off, but I might record a full House show later tonight. We’ll see how this goes.

Power Rangers Reflections Redux #08 – Once A Ranger

I wanted to hold off the repost of Once A Ranger until we got our 25th anniversary episode… that I’d never get to see until it hits Netflix next year… and that last bit is why I’m getting it out of the way now. Eventually, the plan is to cover the other anniversary specials – both Forever Red and the Legendary Farce – but for now, I present you with this rehashed (and slightly re-edited) repost of one of the more horrible episodes of Power Rangers and it’s only fitting it’s from an otherwise horrible season of Power Rangers.

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About That Curse Of The Moon Thing…

Might as well get it out of the way… yes, I have played it. I’ve sampled what little I could and I wouldn’t mind making THAT into a House Show thing in lieu of the Mega Maker stuff. Hell, give me a couple more months and I might have enough material for a review thing to fill a day in October… more on that (much) later, I suppose.

However, we’ll see if any of that comes to fruition. By this time, as this post is getting “published” or whatever, the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection will be unlocked and chances are I’ll be spending quite a bit of time on that one unless the game hits me with SecuRom or whatever bullshit DRM that comes packaged with it. Shit DRM is the main reason why my play time with Sonic Mania (an excellent game, by the way) has been very limited.

On the bright side, we got the spring cleaning shit on Steam out of the way, so that’s something.

Anyway, gotta run.

Later.

Power Rangers Reflections Redux #07 – Shell Shocked

Yeah, like you thought I’d go through life never talking about this.

The fourth episode of Power Rangers In Space featured the one and only official crossover story between the Power Rangers in any form and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in any form. And to say it was a disappointment would be stating the obvious. It’s been a while since I’ve seen this episode, so let’s give it a look and we can move on to better things… maybe.

The reason this crossover was possible is because during this time, Saban was putting out a live-action Ninja Turtles series called The Next Mutation, which had the Turtles fighting off not perennial villain Shredder or any of the familiar menagerie, but a monster called Dragonlord and his band of putties or grunts or whatever. And on top of that, we have a fifth (female) Turtle named Venus, who knows magic and stuff. Said female Turtle is said to be a controversial addition and I’ll spare my thoughts on both the Turtle and the show for another time.

But the point is that when people like to visualize this particular crossover combination, they usually visualize the original Mighty Morphin team going up against the classic quintet Turtles incarnation (of which there are many, so take your pick.) What you’re getting here is not the “colossal” event that it might’ve been or could’ve been; it’s just a crossover between two shows that happened to be on the air at the time… and it’s just another episode of Power Rangers overall, as there was no attempt to do a similar crossover on the Next Mutation show.

Of course, that would’ve been problematic to pull off since Next Mutation had a somewhat smaller budget compared to PRIS and also, both shows were filmed in different locations. It also explains why the Turtles here have different sounding voices and personalities in comparison to their show of origin. But I’m jumping ahead here… also, two paragraphs share the same first word… let’s break that pattern now.

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Power Rangers Reflections Redux #06 – Trouble By The Slice

“Did I ever tell you about the time I was baked in a giant pizza?”
Theodore Jay Jarvis Johnson, First Black Leader Of The Power Rangers

Today’s episode is the “pizza episode” from Turbo.

Let’s do it. Huggies See OUYA!

Oh wait… wrong half of the season.

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Power Rangers Reflections Redux #05 – Second Chances

Good news, it’s another Reflections Redux.

Bad news, it’s a repost of an older entry that may have been reposted on this blog a couple times already.

Originally written back in February 2007 as the 429th entry on DTM Blog Classic before being republished back in May 2010 as the 94th post of this blog. Said post is probably replaced with something else by the time you read this, but regardless, I thought it was worth mentioning. Anyway, today’s a repost, but May will be seeing TWO NEW REFLECTIONS and neither one is in Mighty Morphin territory.

I actually went back and added a couple bits here and there, but nothing that would totally ruin the text. Also, it never occurred to me going through the recent edits that this was the episode that featured the child actor who grew up to become an adult murderer. Go figure.

Click the break for more.

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Power Rangers Reflections Redux #04 – Day Of The Dumpster (Pilot Episode)

Since this is a reboot of sorts… and the first in a long while… it makes sense that we use this spot to return to the origins of the series. And so, for today’s entry, I’ll be looking at the original pilot episode of Day Of The Dumpster… or at least, close to it.

For those who need a little primer on what I’m talking about, the original version (or pilot episode) of Day Of The Dumpster is a drastically different entity compared to what would eventually follow. There was a different setting, slightly different names and terminology, and more notably, a different girl playing the Yellow Ranger, who just so happens to be a stark departure from the one we would know and love.

This episode had not seen the light of day in any official capacity nor was it really known to all but the most hardcore of fans. The only way I knew about a pilot episode was when I came across the transcript for the show that was posted on noted fan Joe Rovang’s site a few years ago. It wouldn’t be until 1999 when it eventually aired (albeit in a slightly edited format) as part of the Power Rangers: Lost episode television special. However, Youtube did have the original, unedited version of the pilot online a few years ago, but has since been taken down. As such, the following text is based on the Lost Episode version which is featured on one of the Power Rangers DVD sets since that’s the only version I have on hand.

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Power Rangers Reflections Redux #03 – Best Man For The Job

(Quick Note: This was going to be a whole new write-up, but I wasn’t too happy with what was there, so decided to push that back another week. So as to not “stall” the return of a long dormant feature, I decided to do a quick repost of an old write-up with some minor tweaks and bobs. So sorry about this, folks, but next week, we have a new write-up that’s long overdue.)

When I originally posted this back in August 2015, I opined that it might’ve been possible that I posted this particular musing in the past either here or in a prior blog. Turns out that that posting was the first time it was posted at any point, so there you go. In any event, this episode was chosen completely at random and thus subject to a write-up at the time. The write-up remains as is for the most part.

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