A new season begins, and we're looking at dinosaurs for the third time in the franchise. We begin on the ship of an alien bounty hunter named Sledge. He looks vaguely like a cross between a Judoon and a Predator, a neat look for a seemingly original villain (no Japanese suit counterpart). He and his bright pink fiancee Poisandra are in pursuit of another ship. This ship belongs to the Keeper, and is shot down onto a prehistoric Earth.
Cue theme song. There's a tribal rhythm to get it going, and some actual lyrics beyond the Go Go Power Rangers chorus, something we haven't really had since Jungle Fury. Also, our heroes aren't shouting their names as soon as they pop up in the credits, which has been an unnecessary staple of the Nickelodeon era. It's nice to see that come to a halt, and for the composer to come up with something original again. My favorite part of the intro is towards the end where the Rangers are seemingly doing their roll call poses while the background behind them changes, cut to sync with the music. Each shot is likely taken from different points in the source material, and the Rangers' movements are seamless.
Back to the show, the Keeper has survived his crash to Earth, and is greeted by a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Convincing the T-Rex he's of no threat, he asks it to gather the planet's bravest together to protect his Energems. Sledge is after these powerful stones, and has sent his lackey Fury to retrieve them from the crash. Fury finds the Keeper playing dead, is about to finish the job, when he spots the Energem casing and takes it back to his master. Sledge's bounty includes several monsters, who I'm sure will pop up later in the series, as well as a large collection of asteroids, a hobby Poisandra does not approve of. Upon arrival, it's revealed that the Keeper has emptied it and replaced
the contents of the casing with a bomb. Sledge's ship promptly blows
up, and as he swears revenge on the Keeper from his escape pod, his asteroids are sent
straight towards Earth.
Before they land, the Keeper is able to infuse the powers of
his Energems into the dinosaurs the T-Rex gathered before him. Fury has managed to survive Sledge's ship, ends up back on Earth and confronts the Keeper. Surprisingly enough, Keeper actually puts up a fight but is nonetheless defeated. Fury is about to finish the job, when the asteroids land on Earth and cause the extinction of the dinosaurs.
Approximately 65 million years later, we're at a museum where a tour guide is lecturing about the dinosaurs. Among the museum patrons is Tyler Navarro. He's looking over the dinosaurs and the volcanic caves that a fossil was discovered in, Samson Caves. He asks a janitor, Chase Randall, for directions, who gladly provides them.
Chase heads for the museum's dino-themed restaurant, where Shelby Watkins is working. She delivers an order to the wrong table and then runs after Chase. There seems to be a mutual attraction between them, and she really wants to go on an archeological dig with the museum crew. She's turned down by the bespectacled Kendall Morgan, who seems to be in charge, due to museum policy. Also going on the expedition is Koda, who keeps his uniforms sleeveless. He doesn't say much and acts a bit like a monkey. (Fun fact: Koda's actor, Yoshi Sudarso, is a long-time fan of the show, and in past seasons has worked as a stunt double for fight scenes and live events, and now living the dream getting to play a real character on the series.) Shelby stows away on the expedition anyway.
Tyler arrives to the cave Chase mentioned and goes spelunking inside. A creatue in a cloak suddenlys tarts chasing him, but he conceals himself by dousing his headlight. He then discovers a dinosaur fossil and the red Energem, which he promptly takes.
Back at the expedition, the cloaked figure steals a box from the truck Shelby was stowing away in. When nobody can hear her shouts about the theft, she runs after him herself. She grabs the box back from him when he's not looking and is shot down by the creature. Fortunately for her, Tyler swings in on a rope and grabs the box. The monster throws off his cloak, revealing an icy design, and fires on them. Tyler reflects the blasts with a shovel, but since it's just a regular shovel, it doesn't last long, and another blast knocks them over. The crate falls open revealing the pink Energem, as well as causing Tyler to drop his own red one. As they reach for them the monster fires another blast at the two, causing them to freeze.
However, they managed to touch the Energems, allowing them to unfreeze. They see a vision of their dinosaurs, and two blasters be revealed. Tyler and Shelby put the Energems into the blasters, which turn yellow. They spin the revolver and fire their blasters, but instead of just shooting the monster, the blast comes back to them and morphs them into the Red and Pink Rangers respectively. We then get our first Ranger fight scene, and they do a pretty good job before the T-Rex Zord shows up, picks the monster up with his teeth and flings him away.
As Tyler drives Shelby back to the city, he explains his backstory: his father was a paleontologist who disappeared on an expedition. Going by his journal, it seems Fury might have something to do with his disappearance, who just happens to be following the car, hot on the trail of their Energems...
Strong start to a Power Rangers series, although that's not always an indication of what the series has in store for us. (Both halves of Megaforce had strong beginnings, but didn't have as much of a payoff as we had hoped.) Even so, this episode has a few things Megaforce and Samurai didn't really have. For starters, there's more original footage to go around. There's no scenes of the Rangers until the final few minutes, and even then, only two of them morph. It's really strange that Riley Griffin did not appear in this episode, despite being one of the core five Rangers. Despite that, it's nice to see the series actually take time to set up the premise (a good one at that) without relying to heavily on exposition, and we have a nice diverse cast so far who I look forward to watching on a weekly basis, presumably inevitable the summer hiatus doesn't last too long.
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