Season 1, Episode 5: Different Drum

"Different Drum"
Episode 5
Air Date: September 10, 1993

I'm honestly trying to understand the message of this episode because it gets lost in possibly the worst plot so far!! So Kimberly is teaching a dance class (yes because, high school freshmen have time for that!) until Billy makes a fool of himself and more stupid hijinks ensues. After what could have been a fatal accident, Kimberly has to nerve to say what Billy just did isn't the way to "get girls". Wow! What a friend! Not even asking him if he's ok or anything, but using the opportunity to make him feels worse! Luckily Trini asks if he's ok....blah, blah, blah, Billy can't dance, blah, blah, blah. We meet a one off episode character named Melissa, who's deaf and is having a tough time when she bumps into a b!tch in the dance class. Kimberly comforts her and uses sign language to tell her how special she is despite her disability and how even people who hear aren't perfect! Nice advice....until she points out how lame Billy's dancing is!!?? Seriously, Kim is a b!tch in this episode.

Anyway, we get into the plot of the episode, Rita hates music but wants to use it to capture some hostages to lure the rangers into a trap. Seriously, it's her dumbest plan yet, leading to an equally dumb looking monster of the week in Gnarly Gnome. Back at the Youth Center, yay Bulk and Skull makes idiots of themselves as Zack out dances them. Seriously, these early stereotypes of the rangers is laughable. The black guy dances well, the white guy is the leader, the smart guy is VERY Nerdy, etc. Anyway, Melissa and that girl she bumped into become friends out of no where just cause she said she's sorry even though he apology was as genuine as a 2016 presidential election.  Finster creates the Gnome and Rit sends it to capture Melissa and her friends. But the music doesn't get to her cause she's...wait for it....blind.  So why didn't Rita get rid of Melissa when she finds this out, I mean she's watching everything right with her magical telescope?! O_o The monster also seems oblivious to the fact that Melissa is just casually following them; unaffected by the music.

Terrible stock footage later, Melissa heads back to the Youth Center to tell Jason and Ernie about the kidnapped girls. Finally she stops trying to use sign language and writes down that her friends are in trouble. Melissa leads the gang to the cave where they're being held and Kimberly just casually tells her to hid behind some bushes as the ranger morph mere seconds in complete, plain sight of Melissa. Guys, she's deaf, NOT blind! *Headdesk* A fight between the rangers and the Gnome commences and for some reason when they combine their weapons, they give them bizarre names like "Cosmic Cannon", "Battle Bow", "Mighty Mace", etc. Huh??? It's like the writers were still trying to figure out how the show worked and forgot what they called the weapons before! Anyway, monster is destroyed by blaster and Rita sends down her magic wand. The monster grows and a megazord battle commences. Decent fight, but last episode's zord battle was MUCH better! I'll just skim through bad jokes and Billy suddenly being able to dance at the end of the episode.

This episode is just weak, a superfluous character coming out of no where and saving the day because the plot demanded it is just lame. Melissa doesn't stick out as a character and the moral of the story is lost in translation. Are you saying that people with disabilities can be heroes too?? Well, if so, I find that hard to see when the writing is all over the place and the plot was really dumb. So how exactly were the rangers suppose to be lured into this trap if Melissa wasn't affected by the monster's music. Also there is some seriously strange, seizure inducing editing during the zord fight with the monster turning into a building or rock; disorienting the rangers and the megazord. But anyway, I just didn't like this episode and it's rather forgettable, ending very abruptly anyway.

Final Morph: C-