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It’s time once again to visit the universe of the Power Rangers. Lewis Lovhag takes us on a tour of Mariner Bay because it’s time to battle demons with Operation Lightspeed. Power Rangers: Lightspeed Rescue was the first series to completely divorce itself from the previous series (not counting the team-up episode) and replaced space menaces with a more local branch of evil. Not usually one of the top fan favorites, or at the very least not one of mine, was it a bad show. Today and tomorrow we’ll find out.
Interesting that Lewis refers to the theme as “nothing special”, because that was kind of my opinion of the series as a whole. Not that it was bad, and I don’t think relocating to Earth after two epic space-battle based series was the problem. They tried something different with this series, actually having the Power Rangers of the series involved with the actual rescue attempts (at least in early episodes) which I kind of like. The costumes were cool, and the Zords made sense since this was the first time a Earth-based group attempted to create their own Power Rangers instead of aliens doing all the recruiting.
I also have to admit a religious bias, but not for the reason you think. As a Christian I believe that demons do exist, but not as physical beings. They’re spiritual beings that can’t be taken down with a typical weapon. I realize that the series was going by the Japanese concepts, as the enemy in Battle Team GoGo V were meant to be demons. But I’ve always thought that, and this is the writer in me talking not the Christian, that Japan’s fictional gods and demons tend to be rather weak compared to fictional Western versions that are based more on the Bible or Western Mythology (I’ve noticed a tendency towards Greek myth, but occasionally Norse myth sneaks in). That said, the concept of the demons was fairly decent, as well as Mariner Bay’s history.
I think it’s the tone that didn’t work for me. Space and Lost Galaxy were both rather serious shows, but so was Zeo most of the time. Lightspeed Rescue on the other hand is somewhat darker, which made for decent storytelling moments, most notably Ryan’s story, but kind of put me off as well.
Meanwhile the monsters go out for a snack.
I’m with Lewis in going with the “reverse engineering” the Astro Megaship as the source of Lightspeed’s technology for the same reasons, but also the fact that we have the Ranger team-up story, and the Lightspeed Rangers would team with the Time Force Rangers next series. Unless the Lost Galaxy Rangers traversed dimensions or that episode wasn’t considered official canon, they would have to take place in the same dimension. (Although it does make the timeline questionable, as Lost Galaxy is thought to be in the future while all further series take place in present day, down to the date. My own theory would be that the earlier series, especially considering how long it took the Mighty Morphin-Turbo 1 teams to graduate high school, happened over a shorter period of time than we think).
Lewis and I would have to disagree on the morphing sequence, as I found it to be one of the better sequences. As he said, these were designed more for function by a military using new technology and for more than simply battling. (Going back to GoGo V, however, the gear was designed by a professor in order to have his kids battle the Saima demons. I also wonder what he would think of their morph/henshin sequence.) This shows in the morphing, where the technology (which may have been some kind liquified substance, which has been done in a few comics) would include a different method of morphing.
(My theory is that for people watching a “morph event” from the outside, if you will, it happens in an instant, which would be backed up by the occasional “quick morph” and the usual demorphing, while within the field of the actual morphee, linking to the Morphing Grid gives you a whole other experience that we as the TV viewer get to see. In fact, Adam’s morph in Operation Overdrive may well be what the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers experienced when they morphed.)
Even the Megazord sequence shows that this is new technology to the group.
There is another episode in this portion of the series that I want to personally note. In the third episode (and I wish TV.com had given each series their own space instead of lumping all of Power Rangers as one show), “Trial By Fire”, the subplot involved Carter not understanding why he messed up a training exercise. It turns out that one of his shots hit a tank of what in real life would have been explosive material. Had it been real and he hadn’t been using a paintball gun instead of his usual blaster he would have blown everyone up. This subplot, in addition to the support staff and the events of the “Cyborg Rangers” episode show how much they put into making Operation: Lightspeed Rescue seem more believable.
Next time, Bansheera’s son revealed, betrayal of their own kind, and another base bites the dust. Tune in tomorrow.
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