Power Rangers All Killer, No Filler Watch Order Part 4 - End of An Era
Hello my friends!
Welcome back to my blog, where today we will be completing the Watch Order for the entire Power Rangers franchise. As I've said before this is a franchise very dear to me and is one that its current owners Hasbro seem to have all but abandoned, which is a shame as several of the series we will talk about will be the ones that Hasbro actually oversaw, and many of them did things that many older fans of Power Rangers had been asking for for a long time, becoming quite well-liked as a result.
I'm also going to take the time here to talk about a couple of other things in Power Rangers that are very much worth discussing, and actually play some role in the ongoing development of the franchise going forwards.
Also while my opinion on some of the previous seasons have varied, I generally think all of these are of decent, if not very good quality, and as a result I have positive opinions of all of these shows and would describe most of them as well worth a watch, especially as we get towards the end.
So let's get stuck in.
Power Rangers: Dino Charge
Dino Charge saw a change of producer behind the scenes after some of the negative fan reception to the previous few seasons, and skipped the next season of Super Sentai in order to return to the franchise favourite of dinosaurs, with a great new team of characters. There is a trend however to introduce a cliffhanger in episodes for a new plot point that gets expanded on in the following episode, and your mileage may vary on that.
E16 Rise of a Ranger
- The Christmas Special originally aired between this episode and the finale.
E10 Gone Fishin
- The Halloween Special is episode 15 but the story continues below.
E16 Wings of Danger
- This concludes the story for the series, and establishes clearly that this series takes place in its own universe for reasons that become apparent here.
- While not essential, this fun Christmas episode takes place in the slightly changed world that exists after the finale.
Boom Studios Power Rangers Comics
Comic publisher Boom Studios began a series of licensed Power Rangers comics in 2016, focusing for the most part on the Mighty Morphin team shortly after they were joined by Tommy. However the series quickly marked itself out with a more mature style of storytelling more akin to superhero comics as a whole, and began to intriduce many of its own elements, including Lord Drakkon, an alternative Tommy Oliver who remained evil, stole more power, and dominated his world, leading to a major crossover called Shattered Grid, a part of the 25th Anniversary celebrations in 2018, which was promoted with a short released online where Jason David Frank returned to play Drakkon in live action, with plans for a spin-off focused on Drakkon's world being scuppered by the Hasbro buyout.
I'm planning to talk more about the comics eventually, and I think they have added a huge amount to this world and their ongoing popularity and success speaks completely for itself, introducing many new elements yet keeping itself in the well-known world of the original team. However if you want to read it just be aware that it begins here, and while it doesn't impact the shows you will see attempts to align the two if you consume both going forward, creating a cohesive continuity. I will probably have to do a reading order for this that explains all the limited series and how they interact in the future.
There are also some very fun but non-canon crossovers included in these comics, such as the Power Rangers teaming up with the Justice League, battling Godzilla, and swapping powers with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Power Rangers Hyperforce
Hyperforce is an odd show to recommend, but I do think its worth checking out.
Beginning in late 2017, essentially Hyperforce is a tabletop RPG campaign, using a system and storyline created by Hyper RPG and shared via their Twitch channel originally, but is also available as an audio podcast in many places, with each episode being approximately 3 hours to complete that episode's story. It features a new team of Rangers, consisting mostly of Time Force cadets from 3016, teaming up to face a new United Alliance of Evil. Throughout the series they travel through time, encountering many other Ranger teams, with several returning guest actors, intersect with events from Ranger history, and even explore some mysteries of the franchise.
Guest characters being reprised by their original actors in the series include Aisha from Mighty Morphin, Andros from Space, Jen from Time Force, Tommy from Dino Thunder, Gem from RPM, Orion from Super Megaforce, and Lord Drakkon from Shattered Grid. The main cast also includes former Power Rangers actors Paul Schrier (Bulk) and Yoshi Sudarso (Koda).
Power Rangers: Ninja Steel
Continuing some stylistic ideas from Dino Charge while also adding many of its own new elements, this series I don't think is as good as the ones that bookend either side of it, yet it still has plenty of its own great moments, sees the return of long-standing Power Rangers character actor Kelson Henderson (Boom, Phineas, Norg and Flit among others) as supporting character Mick Kanic, and features the 25th Anniversary episode, which even aired in primetime. Episodes in Italics are decent character focus episodes that may add something to the Rangers or villains as well, but are not necessarily essential.
E18 The Adventures of Redbot
- Sledge and his crew return from Dino Charge.
- This episode sees the return of three mysterious figures
- The figures are revealed to be Wes from Time Force, Gemma from RPM, and Koda from Dino Charge, who ask the Rangers to help them find some missing Rangers, including Tommy Oliver, now equipped with a Master Morpher allowing him to morph into all his past forms (with an extended scene online featuring more of them). Other rangers reappearing include Rocky from Mighty Morphin, Kat from Turbo, TJ from Space, Trent from Dino Thunder, Antonio from Samurai, and Gia from Megaforce.
- End of the Galactic Ninja arc that began before the Anniversary.
- The finale.
- A post-finale episode that sees the return of Sledge's crew, as well as Koda and Wes.
Power Rangers: Beast Morphers
Beast Morphers ditches the "Super" subtitle for the second seasons, and is the first complete series from Hasbro since they purchased the show, going back to a Sentai series that had previously been skipped over for adaptation. It has one of the smaller teams of Rangers, but a large cast of supporting characters, yet everyone gets ample development and the actors are all doing a great job in their roles. This show also develops some of the strongest connections to the past that we have seen yet, and eventually turns out to be an unexpected sequel to a previous show. As before episodes in Italics are not essential, but do feature great character moments.
S1E1 Beasts Unleashed
S1E2 Evox's Revenge
S1E4 Digital Deception
S1E5 Taking Care of Business
S1E11 Tools of the Betrayed
S1E15 Sound and Fury
S1E16 Seeing Red
S1E17 Gorilla Art
S1E18 Ranger Reveal
S1E19 Rewriting History
S1E20 Target: Tower
S1E21 Evox: Upgraded
S1E22 Scrozzle’s Revenge
- An epilogue of sorts for the first season of the series, while also a Christmas special.
S2E3 Game On!
S2E4 Artist Anonymous
S2E5 Cruisin' for a Bruisin'
S2E6 The Blame Game
S2E9 Secret Struggle
S2E10 The Evox Snare
S2E11 Intruder Alert!
S2E12 The Greater Good
S2E13 Finders Keepers
S2E14 Making Bad
S2E15 Grid Connection
- A team up between the Beast Morphers team and the Dino Charge team, featuring Keeper, Sledge and his crew, a new Goldar, and original Red Ranger Jason. There's a lot of great callbacks to many key moments across the franchise here.
S2E18 The Silva Switch
S2E20 Crunch Time
S2E21 Source Code
- As we head to the finale we get a major revelation about Evox that links this series back to RPM, and also sees a return from Dr K.
Power Rangers: Dino Fury
Unlike Beast Morphers which built its connections to the franchise legacy more overtly with direct callbacks and returning cast, Dino Fury instead expands on the franchise's mythology, by exploring the Morphin Masters, a group mentioned in one of the earliest episodes of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and not a single time since. Beyond this the series does start to take some steps to set up the future of the franchise in S.P.D., as well as just being a lot of fun in its own right due to the talented cast and their great chemistry. The series was originally planned with a core storyline of twenty episodes, however a plot added in to extend the series added a large subplot for the series that led directly to its sequel, but even without that the majority of this series is very good anyway. As before episodes in Italics are not essential, but do feature great character moments.
S1E1 Destination Dinohenge
S1E2 Sporix Unleashed
S1E3 Lost Signal
S1E4 New Recruits
S1E5 Winning Attitude
S1E6 Superstition Strikes
S1E7 Stego Search
S1E8 Unexpected Guest
- Episode 8 features the return of Mick Kanic, who gifts the Rangers the Legendary Database, something Noah had created in Megaforce and Mick has been keeping updated, presumably since the Dimensions in Danger crossover.
S1E12 Super Hotshot
S1E14 Old Foes
- The return of Lord Zedd, starting an interesting subplot for the series.
S1E16 Ancient History
S1E18 Crossed Wires
S1E20 Waking Nightmares
S1E21 Void Trap
S1E22 Secret Santa
- An epilogue for the first season while also a Christmas Special.
S2E3 Missing Pieces
S2E5 Stitched Up
S2E6 Jam Session
S2E8 Serious Business
S2E9 The Hunt
S2E10 Losers Weepers
S2E11 The Copycat
S2E12 Ultimate Mystery
- General Shaw from Beast Morphers appears here.
S2E14 Rafkon Revealed
S2E15 Morphin Master
- These three episodes feature the return of Lord Zedd and Scrozzle. The final episode also reveals that the Green Morphin Master has helped several teams of Rangers during some key events in the past, with callbacks to Beast Morphers and Megaforce.
S2E20 The Invasion
S2E21 The Truth
S2E22 The Nemesis
Power Rangers: Cosmic Fury
A heavily serialised miniseries picking up on elements from Dino Fury to act as a third season for that show in many ways, while also still doing something very unique. It does mean its pretty much impossible to skip a single episode, but considering everything it does I wouldn't suggest doing that anyway. Not only do we get a full continuation of Dino Fury as the Rangers go up against Lord Zedd, but we also see the return of Billy from Mighty Morphin as a mentor, as well as the return of Mick Kanic, General Shaw, and Heckyl, and even some more setup for S.P.D. I did a separate review for it and I have to say I think its one of the best entries we have ever had in the franchise, and as this seems to be what the franchise is currently ending with I think it is a very satisfying 0conclusion, although there's one more entry to discuss after this.
E1 Lightning Strikes
E2 Beyond Repair
E3 Off Grid
E4 Team Work
E5 Rock Out
E6 Take Off
E7 Operation Seasoning
E8 Switching Sides
E9 Master Plan
E10 The End
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always
A story seeing Billy, Zack, Rocky and Kat reuniting as a new Mighty Morphin team to battle a restored Rita Repulsa, who has killed Trini. While released prior to Cosmic Fury, this acts as the 30th Anniversary Special, and feels much more like a conclusion of sorts to the current franchise of Power Rangers. Now there are some very brief visual suggestions that this does occur before Cosmic Fury, however I think there are far more reasons to place it afterwards. Firstly Billy's final moments in Cosmic Fury seem to put him on the path to his inciting actions here. Secondly there is a time jump of a year in this story, easily allowing it to take place some time after Cosmic Fury, which follows six months after the main events of Dino Fury. Thirdly Adam and Aisha appear here as members of the S.P.A., a precursor or other affiliated group to S.P.D., and mention fighting the Troobian Empire away from Earth, firmly establishing this as a prequel to S.P.D., something that fits much better with the groundwork for that already laid in Cosmic Fury. And finally if this is indeed the end of the franchise for now then to me the final scenes of Once & Always fit far better as a satisfying conclusion to everything we have seen so far, feeling like a natural ending for everything. And so for all of these reasons, this is the final thing in my Watch Order.
And so that's the end of my Power Rangers Watch Order.
This has been one of my biggest undertakings for this blog, and has been something that I have had a lot of fun completing. This franchise has been one of my favourites for a very long time, and revisiting it, and using episode descriptions and my memories to really narrow in on what I think are the very best episodes to watch for each series, has been quite a bit of fun, although I am certain a lot of fans would disagree with me.
But I do think I'm done talking about Power Rangers for a while now, especially as it does seem that the franchise has come to an end. Of course there are discussions about a reboot, albeit in animation rather than live-action, but I think that loses a lot of what Power Rangers was.
So thank you for joining me once again. I hope you all look after yourselves as best as you can as we look forward to the New Year. Take care of your physical and mental health, and I hope you will join me here again very soon.
Until next time my friends. Bye for now
Garhdo
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