Power Rangers Reflections #25 – Once And Always (MMPR 30th Anniversary Reunion)

A week has passed since the premiere of the Netflix-exclusive Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once And Always reunion special and more than enough time has passed that I’m able to reflect on my feelings regarding this special. To make a long story short, I thought it was fine as a standalone extended episode and for the most part, I was entertained. Part of that were due to somewhat tempered expectations; I wasn’t expecting something along the lines of Forever Red, which was nothing but fan service that was light on plot (though as far as anniversary episodes go, it’s still one of the better ones.) All I wanted was a nice little program with a good story behind it and some good action… and that’s pretty much what I got.
We’ll dive deeper into this after the break, so naturally, there will be spoilers.

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Power Rangers Reflections #24 – Ninja Quest (MMPR Season 3 – Four Parter)

So,, here we are… after what seemed like a long, agonizing wait, it is the return of the Reflections… for a couple months, at least.

In any event, what better way to relaunch this new batch of Reflections than to look at a four-part epic meant to serve as the stand-in for what you just saw in movie theaters. Long story short; MMPR: The Movie was a thing, introduced new Ninja suits and Ninja Zords, but also didn’t fit into the overall style of the TV show… and hence we got Ninja Quest, which featured the same overall premise but moved things forward and used stuff from the Sentai that Saban could rip off… simple enough.

We’ll be blowing through this one fairly quickly since the arc is four episodes long and, really, outside of some introductions and some occasional hazards, a whole lot of nothing happens in these episodes.

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Power Rangers Reflections #23 – Grid Connection (Bite-Sized Edition)

Yes, I’m going to talk about that episode of Beast Morphers that features a crossover between the Dino Charge, Dino Thunder, and original Mighty Morphin brand of Power Rangers that hasn’t aired yet.

How is this possible?

Well, someone uploaded the big crossover episode of Beast Morphers onto Facebook and I was able to watch it because it aired in the UK while we have to wait until Nick feels like airing them and I’d have to wait another year before they show up on Netflix. By the way, because this hasn’t aired around these parts as of yet, there’s a good chance people haven’t seen the episode and it goes without saying that there be some spoilers, even if I’m not really going to touch on the plot of the episode all that much for reasons that will evident after the break.

SPOILERS AFTER THE BREAK…

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Power Rangers Reflections #22 – The Mutiny (3-Part Episode)

Wasn’t planning on this… but figured it’d be both a worthy tribute of sorts and a way to kick off the series.

So this past weekend, voice actor Robert Axelrod passed away. And in a tribute of sorts, I want to muse on the three-part episode that introduced his most famous portrayal: Lord Zedd.

Axelrod wasn’t a stranger to Power Rangers: he had voiced the character of Finster during the show’s first season. But most people know him best as the voice of Zedd, the villain introduced in the second season premiere as a replacement for Rita Repulsa in order to change things up.

Even though this is a three-parter, we’ll be blowing through these episodes pretty quickly with some bullet points and other bits of observation. This aired in prime time, you know. And it was a pretty big deal at the time to have Prime Time Power Rangers… I have no idea what that meant, but it was indeed a big deal and you knew shit was going down.

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Power Rangers Reflections #21 – A Friend In Need

It’s A Friend In Need… indeed! It’s the Season 3 premiere of Mighty Morphin! It’s a 3-parter! It’s the first time we’re introduced to The Masked Rider before his eventual short-lived television show! It’s the first crossover between Power Rangers and Masked Rider, long before Super Sentai and Kamen Rider would do such a thing decades later! It’s… not worthy of a full write-up.

So we’re doing the points system here… but a bit differently, because this multi-part episode has three different plotlines going on and the points system is the way to go since we can focus on each of these plotpoints separately.

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Power Rangers Reflections #20 – A Mystery To Me

And so here we are; a new set of Power Rangers Reflections and with it, a new approach.

So this is the new format; a basic plot summary and a couple points of observation. I’m fairly sure that somewhere down the line, we’ll do the old-school format for certain episodes, but for the moment, this is what we’re doing going forward. That way, I’ll be able to manage entries more quickly and perhaps even more frequently.

So today’s subject matter is the Power Rangers Zeo episode known as “A Mystery To Me,” where everyone participates in a “Who Done It” costume party. This also happens to be the two-hundredth overall episode of Power Rangers ever… and this is how they’re celebrating that monumental occasion… with a costume party.

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Power Rangers Reflections Redux #19 – Time For Lightspeed

The annual tradition of the current season’s Ranger team teaming up with the previous season’s Ranger team was something of a regular staple in Super Sentai shows starring with xxx/xxx. Once Power Rangers opted for an approach more akin to Super Sentai – individual seasons would breed new teams and powers based on an appropriate Sentai – it was only a matter of time

Time For Lightspeed, the Time Force/Lightspeed Rescue crossover, isn’t quite the memorable episode as what came before, nor is it as good as it could’ve been. The big issue with this crossover is that it only lasts a single episode, which already cripples whatever storytelling you have and forces you to cram in as much as possible. Even the tenth anniversary episode Forever Red, as good and gratifying as it was, was hampered by a single episode run.

But let’s not dwaddle…

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Power Rangers Reflections #18 – The Power Rangers Holiday Special VHS Tape

Something a little special for today.

Even though Power Rangers Reflections is technically on hiatus until February, where I hope to maintain a few months of weekly uploads if nothing else, I thought that it’d be interesting to talk about a curious VHS tape that I had found while going through boxes of old stuff: the Power Rangers Holiday Special VHS release from 2000-ish.

This isn’t an original special created for tape, however. Rather, it’s a compilation of the three previously released Power Rangers holiday shows of the time, Zeo’s “A Season To Remember”, MMPR’s “I’m Dreaming Of A White Ranger”, and the VHS-exclusive “Alpha’s Magical Christmas.” I’ll touch on these shows briefly, but really, I just wanted to talk about the tape itself and what it meant to me because… it’s Power Rangers Reflections, not Power Rangers Reviews. I reflect on things and while there might be some critical points, it’s supposed to be me offering thoughts and reflections. And this certainly fits that bill.

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Power Rangers Reflections Redux #17 – Blue Ranger Gone Bad

So this is a bit of a historic point in this series, as we’ve not only (somehow) surpassed the old number of entries that I’ve done in relation to this format, but this entry is also the last of the reposts, which means the next two or three entries will be all-new written posts. That also means potentially slow updates, but I want at least THREE MORE before the year’s up.

Jumping to the tail end of the second season, today’s episode is Blue Ranger Gone Bad. Just guess who’s the central character in this episode. If you’ve guessed Billy, give yourself a cookie. Now guess what the episode is about. If you’ve guessed Billy overcoming his shyness to ask a girl out, give yourself another cookie. Now guess what Zedd’s plan revolves around… actually, don’t bother with that one. You’re probably out of cookies anyway.

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Power Rangers Reflections Redux #16 – A Bad Reflection On You

Originally posted on August 2nd, 2007. The final of three Retrospective commentaries released that day, following the re-posted Blue Ranger Gone Bad commentary and the Once A Ranger commentary. I might repost that one eventually, but not anytime soon.

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