And finally the last episode. This is a day of endings, with a personal fitting considering what happened on this day a few weeks ago. At least this time it’s only stories ending, and two of the three being stories WORTH ending. It’s time for the various treasure hunters to go after the last jewels of the Corona Aurora, a terrible secret revealed terribly, and let’s just get this over with already.
http://blip.tv/at4w/hopr-power-rangers-operation-overdrive-part-4-7016204
- I’m really of two minds with Mac’s reveal as an android. We’ve had a history of androids in Power Rangers at least as far back as Power Rangers Turbo, when Justin made android versions of the Rangers to help on…I think it was the events on Eltar but I’m not sure. Mac takes things a lot harder than the Justin android (maybe because Hartford didn’t have a “switch over android memories” dial on Mac) and that’s fine and all. And the foreshadowing is indeed well-done. The first problem is the reveal. He wasn’t damaged in battle, it was just a random virus by the only good villains in the show to force the reveal into the story. I really didn’t care for it.
- Also, it makes Hartford an even bigger moron that we’ve seen. He’s still young enough to find a wife and have children unless he’s sterile or something. It’s not Doctor Light from Mega Man or Issac Sumdac from Transformers Animated. Both of them had spent so long thinking of nothing except their work that they didn’t have time to raise a family. So Rock, Roll, and Blues, or Sari in the case of Animated were made by roboticists who couldn’t have children. Andrew can still have kids, but he takes the easy way and makes a college-age son. At least Rock and Sari were designed to be kids. Sari could even be made to age to a point. So Hartford took the easy way out in every way possible when it comes to Mac.
- The reveal of Tyzon’s fiance, however, was really forced and unnecessary. Whatever praise I might give for Mac’s reveal doesn’t exist here.
And that’s Power Rangers: Operation Overdrive. I’ve said my peace about Andrew Hartford, so let’s look at the rest of the cast.
- Mac: I liked Mac just fine without the robot reveal. Whether it was well-done or not is irrelevant to judging the character, except it took away something I liked about him by adding a part of his backstory that wasn’t needed. He just wanted to prove himself to his father. I don’t think he needed anything else. Additionally, they went and made him fully human after making a huge case out of the fact that being an android didn’t matter, but what was inside that counted. This is the Pinocchio story done with too many flaws for me to get into.
- Will: He learned teamwork, even deciding to start his own “good guy thief” team. That’s more character development than a lot of the others got. In the beginning he was cocky and sure of himself and himself alone, but learned sometimes you need others, something I had to spend a week in the hospital to learn and I didn’t get a cool giant robot out of the deal, or even a smartphone much less a phone that can track treasures. He’s not someone I’d want to hang out with but I don’t dislike him at the end the way I did in the beginning.
- Dax: I wonder if Thrax had access to some of Rita’s aspirin but Dax could induce some headaches. He’s the chipper go-getter but that’s been done so much better on other teams. Here’s he’s just annoying. Couldn’t there have been a stuntman or parkour expert that actually had some connection to archeology, or mythology beyond bad movies? The only thing cool about him was his abilities, but that should be a Ranger requisite by now.
- Rose: Did she have any character development? She was already happy about being smart so I don’t buy that. She got along rather easily with the other Rangers. She wasn’t a wallflower (which is why the invisibility powers didn’t match up like the other three non-robot Rangers). Sure, they decided she didn’t know how to relax, but being possessed by a ghost pirate wouldn’t make me relax, it would make me more paranoid.
- Ronnie: Also a character without any real development. She liked to go fast and that was it. Also no experts in fields good for treasure hunting that could also drive vehicles fast? Some people have hobbies, you know.
- Tyzon: Again, the fiance out of nowhere wasn’t necessary. He had to learn to deal with being part of a team again, part of something like he was as a rescue specialist, a sort of outer space Lightspeed Rescue. He had to learn how to deal with people again. Adding in a fiance that somehow survives doesn’t change the fact that all the people who went in the cave with her were still killed, does it? Otherwise, I liked him.
- Spencer: The unsung and under-appreciated member of Operation Overdrive. Like Jeffery, the butler from Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air, he didn’t get a lot of thanks for the things he did, including offering advice to the others. However, Jeffery wasn’t a master of disguise, surrounded by aliens and monsters, never had to jump off a building to prove Carlton’s worth as a Ranger (the proof of Andrew’s failures as a mentor just pile up…you had to have your butler nearly kill himself to prove that after all they had already shown?) or hide the fact that Carlton was an android…although that would explain his dance I guess. Anyway, Spencer is my favorite character because he’s the only one I liked consistently throughout the show. He reminded me of a fusion of Alfred Pennyworths from various versions of Batman.
- Moltor and Flurious: Evil brothers who first tried to steal the Corona Aurora and one of three catalysts of events to come. I like their different natures and anything else I said would just be me repeating what Linkara said.
- The Fearcats: While mostly there because of the Sentai footage they represent a different idea from the others. Screw power, they want to blow #$#$ up, man! The Corona will just make that easier for them. I’m not sure the show needed a more traditional villain but they had potential that, like a lot of this series, was never fully realized.
- Kamdor and Miratrix: Easily my favorite of the factions. Until Kamdor betraying Miratrix out of absolutely nowhere (was Simon Furman behind this reveal?), they made a good platonic couple of evil. They easily had the most interactions with the Rangers on a personal level, getting closer to them than most other villains, who usually leave that to the monster of the week. They played off each other well and I wanted to see more of them and less of the Miser Brothers as the show went on.
- Norg: Don’t care. Moving on.
Mystic Force had a theme I didn’t care about. Wild Force was going well until it hit a wall that slowed down what could have been. Operation Overdrive had great ideas but the execution was terrible. It had the potential to be one of the best Power Ranger shows, not just Disney era shows. Like Time Force the concept promised more than the show could deliver but unlike Time Force (which had sadly little time travel involved), Operation Overdrive fails to make up for it with decent character development and people you like and want to hang out with…when they aren’t fighting monsters anyway, which to me makes for a good superhero character specifically and a good “hero” character overall. This show fails wherever it can and I really wouldn’t recommend it to anybody.
Linkara has already done Power Rangers Jungle Fury so I’ll point to his review. I’ll add my two cents in on that show when he gets to Power Rangers RPM, currently scheduled (thanks to his Patreon…wish I had more donors) for March 19th of 2015. See you all then. Tomorrow, it’s back to all my stuff…and Friday Night Fights.
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