Sorry guys, but I *liked* "Power Rangers SPD"...

[Peter]

I bought all five DVDs (containing the first 25 episodes of the series, plus "Wormhole") last week and they arrived today, and I'm currently 15 episodes in.

Now, I wanted to hate the show -- indeed, was entirely prepared to dislike it. Right from the opener which I downloaded and watched, I had issues with Jack, and the writing was sloppy. Plus, it was tech-based, and for some reason that seems to jinx most series.

But I plugged them in, and slowly but surely, I liked it. A lot more than I thought I would.

I mean, it's not PRNS or PRiS (and PRMF is currently blowing it away), but the only real complaint I have so far is that the team-up episode "Wormhole" (yeah, I jumped ahead to watch the team-up) was incredibly, painfully lame compared to, say, "Thunder Storm".

But...

The zord fights are friggin' awesome, compared to the last five years or so. I've always been in it for the zords.

The fight scenes are so much better than last year. I don't know what it was, but the battle scenes and choreography took a sharp drop in DT, then rose again for SPD.

For the most part, I like the characters. Jack -- I didn't like him at first (it was the dreadlocks) but I've actually grown to like him. Syd's really interesting as a character, and although she's a little bland, Z is pretty cool too (I liked her in "Sam").

Sky, you know he starts off as a complete bastard, but slowly -- very painfully slowly -- ends up growing into an actual likeable well-adjusted human being. I liked the rivalry between him and Jack, and that it took a few episodes to reside. One of my favourite moments was at the end of "Idol", actually -- Jack is suspicious of Sky's ex-best friend suddenly returning. I figured it was a jealousy-thing more than anything else, even though this aspect wasn't mentioned at all -- that was a nice piece of acting, frankly -- and at the end of the ep, Jack and Sky buddy up to *each other* and end up close.

And Bridge. He's just so adorable. I love his 'aura-reading ability'. Plus, thanks to "A-bridged", we finally have a strength feat for Rangers -- he picks up a car and *throws* it at a monster. That's pretty damn cool.

And the continuity references are just great -- this is the PRU 30 years on, you know? Doggie referred to KO-35 a couple of times, the A-squad have the Space Ranger helmets, Sky's dad was an ex-Ranger (probably the first Ranger to use the SPD/Silver Guardian patented Ranger-suit). Heck, even the Abyss of Evil was mentioned at least once.

(the only problem is that "Wormhole" really blew chunks, but nevermind)

And I don't see the problem with Doggy, I'm sorry. The scene where he took out the 100 grunts -- with the body-count in the corner of the screen -- was cool as heck. And they even included the scene where he deflects oncoming fire in the tunnel, protecting Sophie in "Wired".

And an added bonus of the kiddification of Disney -- instead of blocking bullets (as his Japanese counterpart was doing), he was blocking laser-fire with his sword (which I think is a far better feat). Not as cool visually, but bullets being outlawed in American kid's shows just can't be helped. And I like that we don't see much of him -- keeping him in reserve makes it so much cooler when he actually does show up. The "Why aren't you helping us?" "You don't need it." moment was sweet too. ("Shadow" was cool for a whole bunch of reasons, at that. Kat got to kick ass!)

And the Delta Command Megazord -- man, how friggin' cool is that? We've had bases as zords before (the Astro Megaship, for one), but it's a skyscraper that gets up and walks around, I mean, damn.

I don't like Grumm as a villain -- although killing your underlings for failure is pretty cool, I mean, Mesogog only tortured his underlings -- and Mora needs to be dumped into the airlock and set adrift.

I'm also not yet up to the Omega "Our sixth Ranger's unmorphed form is a lightbulb!" Ranger saga, so I'm assuming the quality starts going down, but I really liked the first half of the series.

[marshal99]

If you think "Wormhole" blew chunks , you should see the 2nd teamup between the two teams - "History" or rather the first one since "Wormhole" is after "history". That one's worse. :D

[Peter]

If you think "Wormhole" blew chunks , you should see the 2nd teamup between the two teams - "History". That one's worse. :D

Apparently "History" came first, chronologically.

Which is a shame, I at least wanted to view the two team-ups in the proper order.

But the whole mind-wipe thing at the end? It's best just not thinking about it.

[Cyke]

I bought all five DVDs (containing the first 25 episodes of the series, plus "Wormhole") last week and they arrived today, and I'm currently 15 episodes in.

Now, I wanted to hate the show -- indeed, was entirely prepared to dislike it. Right from the opener which I downloaded and watched, I had issues with Jack, and the writing was sloppy. Plus, it was tech-based, and for some reason that seems to jinx most series.

But I plugged them in, and slowly but surely, I liked it. A lot more than I thought I would.


I"ve always liked the stories in the episodes that built up to the action. But for me, SPD seemed to be lacking a great deal of tension. I can't speak for any others, but that's why I was bored.

I mean, it's not PRNS or PRiS (and PRMF is currently blowing it away), but the only real complaint I have so far is that the team-up episode "Wormhole" (yeah, I jumped ahead to watch the team-up) was incredibly, painfully lame compared to, say, "Thunder Storm".

Well... me not being a big fan of DT, "Thunder Storm" really was one of the most fun crossovers we had in a long time.

But...

The zord fights are friggin' awesome, compared to the last five years or so. I've always been in it for the zords.

I'm also not much for zord battles, BUT yes, I do agree with you. Hell, I used to get tingles whenever the Omegamax Megazord and the Delta Megazord combined. That thing was a thing of beautiful strength.

The fight scenes are so much better than last year. I don't know what it was, but the battle scenes and choreography took a sharp drop in DT, then rose again for SPD.

Agreed about DT's drop in choreography, which is one of the reasons why I lost interest in DT (as opposed to NS before it, which had arguably the best choreography ever). However, one thing I noticed (maybe you will, too), is that SPD's choreography begins to drop as the season progresses, which I think is the opposite of most other seasons' choreographies.

When you get to the SWAT upgrade, things really start to go downhill from there, imo.

For the most part, I like the characters. Jack -- I didn't like him at first (it was the dreadlocks) but I've actually grown to like him. Syd's really interesting as a character, and although she's a little bland, Z is pretty cool too (I liked her in "Sam").

Sky, you know he starts off as a complete bastard, but slowly -- very painfully slowly -- ends up growing into an actual likeable well-adjusted human being. I liked the rivalry between him and Jack, and that it took a few episodes to reside. One of my favourite moments was at the end of "Idol", actually -- Jack is suspicious of Sky's ex-best friend suddenly returning. I figured it was a jealousy-thing more than anything else, even though this aspect wasn't mentioned at all -- that was a nice piece of acting, frankly -- and at the end of the ep, Jack and Sky buddy up to *each other* and end up close.

And Bridge. He's just so adorable. I love his 'aura-reading ability'. Plus, thanks to "A-bridged", we finally have a strength feat for Rangers -- he picks up a car and *throws* it at a monster. That's pretty damn cool.

Never liked Syd, and I never connected with Z, but I do agree with you about the guys. It was nice to see a progression, and I do like Jack in the Red Ranger role. Also, it was great that the guy most-capable of becoming a Red Ranger was denied the honor, for his own sake. They punched out some great conflicts from that.


And I don't see the problem with Doggy, I'm sorry. The scene where he took out the 100 grunts -- with the body-count in the corner of the screen -- was cool as heck. And they even included the scene where he deflects oncoming fire in the tunnel, protecting Sophie in "Wired".

Doggy, I don't have *that* much of a problem with. I approach the differences of the Doggies with a viewpoint of the differences between American and Japanese approaches to discipline.

What I did have a problem with was that sometimes, Doggy would come across as a bastard as opposed to being a strict disciplinarian.

Also, the battle with the 100 grunts was pretty inconsistent to me. Maybe it's my CBR roots talking :) But it seemed odd to me that he could take out 75 of them in 30 seconds, but then spend about a minute on the last 25.

And an added bonus of the kiddification of Disney -- instead of blocking bullets (as his Japanese counterpart was doing), he was blocking laser-fire with his sword (which I think is a far better feat). Not as cool visually, but bullets being outlawed in American kid's shows just can't be helped. And I like that we don't see much of him -- keeping him in reserve makes it so much cooler when he actually does show up. The "Why aren't you helping us?" "You don't need it." moment was sweet too. ("Shadow" was cool for a whole bunch of reasons, at that. Kat got to kick ass!)

I understand the bullets-into-lasers change.

What I don't understand is the missiles-into-lasers change. Oh, how horribly lame Dragonzord and Falconzord would've been if they used lasers instead of missiles.

And the Delta Command Megazord -- man, how friggin' cool is that? We've had bases as zords before (the Astro Megaship, for one), but it's a skyscraper that gets up and walks around, I mean, damn.

Hell, seeing a Megazord that's about three times as big as the others is always a treat to see. I'm so pleased whenever they have to show the size difference just to clarify the scale these zords work on.

I'm also not yet up to the Omega "Our sixth Ranger's unmorphed form is a lightbulb!" Ranger saga, so I'm assuming the quality starts going down, but I really liked the first half of the series.

I read on Rangerboard that the writers really wanted Sam to be human, but that disney wouldn't allow it. What I don't understand, though, is that Sam has tons of powers but never actually uses them, his main form of combat being a thrust into a grunt's chest.

[Peter]

I"ve always liked the stories in the episodes that built up to the action. But for me, SPD seemed to be lacking a great deal of tension. I can't speak for any others, but that's why I was bored.

I agree a lot of the episodes seem to lack a bit of "oomph". And aside from Grumm sending down monster after monster (and occasionally talking to himself), there seems to be a distinct lack of over-reaching plot-arcs. Honestly I don't mind 'filler' episodes, as the RBers call them. I'm in it for the fun, not the drama.

Z-man said sometihng similar, actually, that he found the series quite dull. Which I can understand -- after NS and even DT, and even MF, SPD just seems to lack a spark to it, you know? -- but there's enough going on that it isn't worrying me.

"Boom" -- we get an Orange Ranger (woo-freakin'-hoo! :D), there's a shot of the RIC playing the same kung-fu movie that Blake, Hunter and Tori watched in "Pork Chopped", and during one scene at Piggy's cafe, if you look closely, in the background, one of the monsters drinking tea is one of the stone guardians that the MMPR team fought during the first movie.

That totally blew me away.

I'm also not much for zord battles, BUT yes, I do agree with you. Hell, I used to get tingles whenever the Omegamax Megazord and the Delta Megazord combined. That thing was a thing of beautiful strength.

I was just speechless at the intro of the Delta Command Megazord, I tell you. And yeah, the Megazord is so mobile, and the way the opponents actually *fight* instead of just posing and shooting each other -- a good zord battle and a rocking sound-track can remedy almost anything.

The mighty Ron Wasserman. Accept no substitutes.



Agreed about DT's drop in choreography, which is one of the reasons why I lost interest in DT (as opposed to NS before it, which had arguably the best choreography ever). However, one thing I noticed (maybe you will, too), is that SPD's choreography begins to drop as the season progresses, which I think is the opposite of most other seasons' choreographies. When you get to the SWAT upgrade, things really start to go downhill from there, imo.

Probably, but that's a real shame. I'm only up to "Dismissed".


Never liked Syd, and I never connected with Z, but I do agree with you about the guys. It was nice to see a progression, and I do like Jack in the Red Ranger role. Also, it was great that the guy most-capable of becoming a Red Ranger was denied the honor, for his own sake. They punched out some great conflicts from that.

One of the major complaints I picked up from Rangerboard is that, according to writer's fiat, every two or three episodes the Rangers would inexplicably hate each other for an episode, then go back to normal. I can see this, actually. But ignoring *that*, there's some real drama and some real meat to these conflicts.

"Stakeout" where Syd is denied a birthday party because Jack wants her and him on stake-out duty -- the conflict there was pulled off really maturely and was really well done. I was really impressed by both actors for that. I mean, these kids do work well together, and do make a good team. Most of the time.


What I did have a problem with was that sometimes, Doggy would come across as a bastard as opposed to being a strict disciplinarian.

That's true. A couple of times he just got too much. I still like his "You don't need my help" comment, though.


Also, the battle with the 100 grunts was pretty inconsistent to me. Maybe it's my CBR roots talking :) But it seemed odd to me that he could take out 75 of them in 30 seconds, but then spend about a minute on the last 25.

They just wanted to get in some wirework, is all. Besides, Doggy just probably wanted to show off.



What I don't understand is the missiles-into-lasers change. Oh, how horribly lame Dragonzord and Falconzord would've been if they used lasers instead of missiles.

Heh. I don't think you could get away with *that* kind of special effect back then, because ironically, you probably could get away with missiles back then.


Hell, seeing a Megazord that's about three times as big as the others is always a treat to see. I'm so pleased whenever they have to show the size difference just to clarify the scale these zords work on.

I loved the shot of DCM causing a minor earthquake every time it took a step. Impractical, maybe, but darn cool nonetheless.



I read on Rangerboard that the writers really wanted Sam to be human, but that disney wouldn't allow it. What I don't understand, though, is that Sam has tons of powers but never actually uses them, his main form of combat being a thrust into a grunt's chest.

I wonder why, because that's really weird. Disney were also responsible for the sudden death of the romances between Blake/Tori, and Kira/Trent IIRC.

But given Nick/Madison, maybe they've learnt their lesson this year.

[HynerianChef]

But for me, SPD seemed to be lacking a great deal of tension. I can't speak for any others, but that's why I was bored.

You just hit the core of what I believe was the main problem of SPD. It had a good premise and it had a pretty good cast of characters. I personally liked all the characters. However, it just never really lived up to its potential, never managed to get that tension, the 'oomph', that emotional involvement that was needed to grab the viewer and make him care enough about the characters. Hence why most of grew bored of it, or angry that it never achieved what it could be given all it had to work with.

This is especially true of those of us who watched Dekaranger, because Deka managed achieve that sense of tension, 'oomph' and emotional involvement that made you really care about the characters. SPD didn't do that and worse, it lacked the originality to bring something new to the table that would make it worth watching for anyone who'd seen the far superior Dekaranger. Take Peter's post, and a lot of what he's praising the most is the action and the zords; except for us, it's not 'new', we've seen it all already, so we can't just skate by on the coolness of the action scenes and the zords.

Fortunately, Mystic Force addressed this problem and hence is rocking a lot.

[Peter]

I still think SPD is underrated.

The writing is no less than what we got in DT (although the plots are a little sketchy). The fight scenes and action sequences are better. The music is the mighty RAW (!!!), the actors and actresses are all capable and talented, and the stories are generally pretty meaty.

The only real issue is that show is generally "by the numbers". It's a shame because the problem is so hard to define, but it's just missing something extra. I think it's still pretty enjoyable, though.

[Trystenn]

Out of curiosity, how many episodes are there of Power Ranger?

Like all of them ever?

[marshal99]

Out of curiosity, how many episodes are there of Power Ranger?

Like all of them ever?

Go to TV.com , type in power rangers and count them yourselves. :)

[Peter]

Out of curiosity, how many episodes are there of Power Ranger?

Like all of them ever?

The third episode of DT was the 500th episode.

So we're up to 578, currently.

[lonewolf23k]

Call me another fan of SPD.. I really enjoyed their characters more then their japanese counterparts.

[Trystenn]

The third episode of DT was the 500th episode.

So we're up to 578, currently.
...........................................
Jesus, thats alot!
I was hoping only like 100 or so.

[Stretch Dude]

...........................................
Jesus, thats alot!
I was hoping only like 100 or so.

*deep, hearty laugh*

Ah, young one. So foolish. MMPR alone was 65 episodes! And MF is, what, the 13th, 14th incarnation?

[Trystenn]

*deep, hearty laugh*

Ah, young one. So foolish. MMPR alone was 65 episodes! And MF is, what, the 13th, 14th incarnation?
.................................
Its going to take a long @$$ time to see all of those.

[Stretch Dude]

.................................
Its going to take a long @$$ time to see all of those.

Approximately 12 days and 1 hour, if you watch them non-stop. (With commericals.)

[Trystenn]

Approximately 12 days and 1 hour, if you watch them non-stop. (With commericals.)
So about 10 days without commercials?

[Stretch Dude]

So about 10 days without commercials?

Assuming 22 minutes per episode...8 days, 19 hours, and 56 minutes.

[Peter]

Assuming 22 minutes per episode...8 days, 19 hours, and 56 minutes.

8 days in heaven.

Except for all the Tommy-episodes. But you can't win 'em all.

:p

[marshal99]

8 days in heaven.

Except for all the Tommy-episodes. But you can't win 'em all.

:p

8 days in heaven ? With Justin and his turbo crap ? Argh , fast forward the entire season and it will be 7 days maybe. :D

[marshal99]

8 days in heaven.

Except for all the Tommy-episodes. But you can't win 'em all.

:p

8 days in heaven ? With Justin and his turbo crap ? Argh , fast forward the entire season and it will be 7 days maybe. :D