Power Rangers Lost Galaxy Overview

Power Rangers Lost Galaxy: Season 7
Episode Count: 45
Air Date: February 6th, 1999-December 18th, 1999

It was gonna be hard to top a season like In Space!!! The culmination of the Zordon Era led to the frachise's unprecedented and arguably best season as we saw a new team of rangers not only defending Earth this time but protecting the safety of the universe from an onslaught of intergalactic villains bent on conquering it! Because of the unforeseen and massive success of that season, Haim Saban decided to continue with show as In Space literally saved the franchise from an early end!  But unlike Megaranger, where the writers could easily get away with adapting it into a space opera, the following Sentai, Gingaman, was rather difficult to translate into one.  The fact that is was first season to take place completely off Earth and on a space colony made some story arcs make no sense!!!  Yet at the same time, the space odyssey storyline sometimes allowed the show to feel fresher, newer and more ambitious than any season that came before it.  The stunning 2-part premiere, "Quasar Quest" was an sensational opening as we open up to a whole new story for the show with new characters, powers, villains, etc. right from the get go!  The majesty and mythology of the Quasar Sabers, the introduction of Terra Venture as well as these season's abundance of new, original characters were so well written and set up!  You really got a good sense of not only who these new characters were but of how this new team of rangers would function given their specific personalities.

I LOVE how most of the premiere is us looking through the eyes of Leo, the soon to be Red Ranger.  Unlike previous leaders of the Power Rangers, Leo clearly has some flaws right from the get go.  He's irresponsible, reckless and clearly a troublemaker as he sneaks onto Terra Venture to make the voyage to the new world like his brother.  I like how we see Leo also has very good intentions and a courageous spirit as he helps get that old woman's passport back from those thugs as well as saving Kendrix from an explosion onto the moon.  Overall, Leo's personal arc this season is about maturity and learning to be more responsible in the face of danger by not being so impulsive.  Sure it's the reason why he ended up with the others and got his Quasar Saber but it's because the death of brother, Mike, that Leo starts to really think about his actions and take responsibility when he messes up like in "Rookie In Red" when he forgets to lock up in the weapons dome and goes after Horn to stop him himself.  There's also that phenomenal episode, "Destined For Greatness", where Leo battles with himself to give Mike back the Quasar Saber that he pulled out from the stone.  Ultimately, it's Mike who helps Leo realize that his destiny was to be the Red Ranger all along; giving Leo the inner strength even more to except responsibility and become a much better leader for it.  It's the reason why he nearly sacrificed himself to save the other rangers as well as the colony.  Like Leo said when Kai asked him if he regrets sneaking on board that "he'd do it again in a heartbeat!" as Leo was meant to grow and evolve beyond measure.  Definitely one of my favorite red rangers for sure and just an all around fun, interesting character!  Which brings me to the other Corbett brother, Mike, who also right from the get go shows some strong characterization by being very hard on Leo when he finds out he stowed away on Terra Venture.  You can tell the siblings have an uneasy relationship, especially considering Mike didn't bring Leo with him on Terra Venture. Seriously, that's kind of messed up considering Commander Stanton makes it clear that Terra Venture is never coming back to Earth!  Then again, you realize Mike's reservations over Leo being there as his immature nature is always causing more trouble so I'm not surprised he left Leo behind on Earth.  Mike's death was a saddening moment but I like how in the moment he passed the Quasar Saber off to Leo, he gave him some parting words of strength and inspiration to his brother.  It's what propelled Leo's personal arc throughout the season and helped him grow as a character immensely.  I also love, of course, after Mike returns how he quickly becomes the rangers' newest ally and that even before he take up the mantle of the new Magna Defender.  He inspires Leo to continue to keep going as the Red Ranger when he feels Mike should take his place since he pulled the Saber from the stone but it speaks volumes that Mike knows it was Leo's destiny all along.  You can tell Mike has really accepted Leo more after his returns as he not only valued his life more but realize how much Leo had grown.  It's the reason why he chose Leo to go on GSA missions like in "The Rescue Mission" and "Green Courage".  Of course, his finest hour in "Escape the Lost Galaxy" where he once again sacrifices himself....once gain... to save the rangers, Terra Venture and the captured slaves to be free from the Lost Galaxy.  Overall, Mike was just such a great character and definitely one of the most noble non-ranger characters to aid the team. :)

I guess I'll talk about the rest of the team! :)  I'll start with Kai, as he was another pretty original character.  A character who based every decision he made based on what the rules and regulations said. Kai was always determined to do what's right as long as it was following the rules.  The only time he would bend them is when he would think about the inspiring words that Commander Stanton spoke.  It's what made him take over the Astro Megaship to use it to save his friends on Mirinoi.  But even after becoming a Blue Ranger, Kai still had a lot about to learn about not being so serious and structured by what was written. In "Rookie In Red", he tries Leo like crap because he wants him to be more serious like him and follow the rules but Kai learns to accept Leo for who he is.  But his greatest moment came in "Blue To The Test" when the colony is in danger of flying right into a giant red star when Commander Stanton is under a spell.  Kai, once again, remembers the words of his mentor and trusts his instincts instead of following regulation.  It what led him to saving the colony and ultimately gaining enough of Commander Stanton's trust that he let him lead the colony for a day.  We see this type of character development continue in "Enter the Lost Galaxy" where he defies regulation to help the Guardian get the book back. In the end, Kai grew to loosen up a bit more and not take his job so seriously, which in the end made him a better person because of it.  It was when he started following the rules less and trusting his own intuition that he finally got what he always wanted. Nice! Next is Damon, our resident jerk of the team....yet I wonder if that was more of a facade than an actual character trait.  In the second part of the premiere, when we're introduced to Damon, he comes off as a selfish, inconsiderate mechanic who would rather do his job than help anyone for a change.  Yet he does eventually help Kai fly the Astro Megaship toward Mirinoi but he clearly has his serious reservations about it, especially when they might not make it through the portal.  We see that continue happen throughout the season with Damon not really wanting to help but his duties as ranger being far too important to ignore.  I mean he did come to help Kai on Mirinoi instead of staying behind meaning, he doesn't only care but actually is a very brace person underneath his brash personality.  "Green Courage" focused on that as we saw Damon feel extremely guilty over the High Councilor getting kidnapped when he was trying to save him.  It leads him to go off on a solo mission to save her with Leo's help on the Scorpion Stinger; showing Damn really has a good heart at the end of the day.  Even in "Turn Up The Volume", he shows that even when faced with a man who stole his plans for the chief mechanic position that he is very capable of doing the right thing by helping Baxtor after he builds his machine.  In the end, Damon grew to actually not come off so selfish and let out that brave side of himself more. I mean there are even random moments where he puts himself in harm's way to save his teammates, which was very shocking but noble of him.

On to the girls, I'll start with Maya, my least favorite of this new team of rangers.  Sigh, Maya was just such a disappointing ranger/character overall at the end of the day.  What started out as this mysterious alien female who was very knowledgeable about the rangers' power source turned into a rather self absorbed character who has these random skills like understanding animals and sensing energy sources, dead people, etc.  I mean at the end of the premiere, Maya's speech about the new rangers' calling was so well done and really set up her character well, but the writers literally went no where with her character and any forms of character development came off weak.  Her minor beef with Kendrix in "Orion Rising" was pretty inconsequential to the story with "Memories of Mirinoi" being an even greater missed opportunity as a character.  Her old best friend returns from Mirinoi mysteriously and she doesn't question it! She quickly accepts it and when Kendrix makes some very plausible claims about Shondra not really being who she is, Maya once again comes off like a naive little princess who rather believe Shondra's story than her fellow ranger who accepted her into her home??? WOW!!! F&*# Maya!!! -_-  The only episode that managed to decently portray her character was "Loyax's Last Battle", a phenomenal episode focusing on her relationship between her and the aging warrior.  But other than that, Maya was pretty useless until the plot demanded it.  Then you Kendrix, who was the absolute opposite! A very compassionate and determined character who was kind of like the unofficial mother of the group.  I especially loved her protectiveness of Leo even after finding out he was a stowaway; almost like she saw the good in him all along despite his flaws.  I mean she was the first one to come to his defense when Kai couldn't see pass his irresponsibility.  In "Double Duty", we see Kendrix is also very motivating and inspiring when even after clearly being hurt after a monster attack, she was willing to finish her scene and keep the promise she made to the crew of the movie.  It's what made Carolyn into a better person at the end of the day through Kendrix setting such a great example and that is just strong characterization.  Also as a scientist in Terra Venture's science department, she was always helping the rangers with items, devices, etc. that needed her particular expertise. It was her devotion to Galaxy Book that lead to the team finding out the Lost Galactabeasts were Deviot's evil zords and her going after the Savage Sword when Psycho Pink goes after it.  Speaking of that episode, "The Power of Pink" is a devastating episode which features probably the most sacrificial moment of the franchise as Kendrix saves the lives of her fellow rangers and the colony at the price of her own life.  The first ranger to die in battle, Kendrix really shows just how much she cared about saving lives.  I mean I can't imagine Maya ever doing that! :P

I want to also take some time to talk about the recurring, supporting characters like Commander Stanton, who like I said, was the unofficial mentor this season when the rangers didn't have one again.  He was in charge of leading the colony through the journey but we also see he has a special relationship with Mike and especially Kai that helps them with their personal arcs this season.  Everytime he had the spotlight, it was really nice having a great leader to provoke some hope and inspiration for the season.  From his opening speech as Terra Venture takes off on its voyage to his emotional moments of resilience as the colony faced its last moments in the 3-part finale, Commander Stanton was definitely also a standout this season.  It was also nice to have some very familiar elements used for the first season with a whole new status quo for the show like Alpha, D.E.C.A., the Astro Megaship, even Bulk and Phenomenous (even if the latter too were severely underused and not really needed!)  It helped to made this season bridge the gap between the Zordon Era and next season pushing itself even farther away from what was previously established the first 6 seasons!  I guess I'll talk about the numerous story arcs this season, starting with the frustrating Lights of Orion arc.  The first episode wasn't bad, but sooner than later it becomes clearly contrived and ridiculous as Scorpius' monster began looking for the lights from everything such a camera, sunflower statues, random caves, etc.  Most of the time, the Lights would be fakes too or the location would be false.  Not to mention, what is the mythology of these powerful lights? Are they sentient?  How did they come to be? More importantly, why in the HELL would they be on Terra Venture??!!  --_-  A newly built colony being home to this incredible, ancient power source that's over 3,000 years ago is just so laughable and it's no wonder the writers had such trouble writing this story arc behind the scenes with the show's setting now being on Terra Venture, NOT Earth.  I mean I know it would have been very expensive having the rangers constantly traveling to different planets to find the lights but they were able to do that last season; so considering this season's massive budget, there was actually no excuses for this crap! -_-  The only thing that saved the arc from being a complete failure was the individual character focused episodes on Kai ("Blue Crush") and Kendrix ("Double Duty"). Not to mention, the Magna Defender!

This was the character that made the arc worthwhile because of his tragic backstory with Scorpius and his anti-hero persona he took on.  It was always awesome to see him having to go through the rangers just to got after the Lights so he could destroy Scorpius for what he did to his son, Zika.  Ultimately, the Magna Defender's storyline is what saved the arc and really made the first half of the season dark and very enjoyable.  His eventual sacrifice to save Terra Venture after coming to terms with the monster he became was a very honorable and heartbreaking moment.  "Redemption Day" really shined because of that. Another arc that had it's great moments but was ultimately a mixed bag was final one having to do with the Lost Galaxy itself.  At first, we get three straight episode that set up this dangerous new setting for the show wonderfully; making the rangers and audience fear what may come now that there are trapped in a place where Terra Venture could very well not survive.  But then we get a clip show and two filler episodes with Hexuba that rather forgettable honestly.  It recovers slightly with "Raise the Titanisaur" and ends excellently with Mike focused "Escape the Lost Galaxy". But other than that, it wasn't as great as the writers set it up to be unfortunately and that's mostly because of the villains there.  But before I talk about them, I want to talk about one arc that was stunning from start to finish and that was the In Space team-up episodes/Karone's reintroduction to the show.  The return of the Psycho Rangers was the perfect way to bring these two teams together and "To The Tenth Power" is all of the better for it.  "The Power of Pink" is the emotional conclusion of that team with Space Rangers really seeing first hand how their unofficial successors were really capable carry on with their mission without needing their help any further!  "Protect the Quasar Saber" was a excellent follow-up which showed the Galaxy Rangers at their darkest but finding the strength to fight again thanks to Karone's own personal mission of redemption.  It not only made her worthy enough to be the Pink Ranger in Kendrix's place but finally make amends for her history as Astronema in "Facing the Past".  Karone herself turned out to be a very valuable new member of the team and her arc was perfectly summed up in those episodes.  I like how she was so childlike in personality; making up for her lost childhood at the hands of Darkonda.

Lastly, I want to talk about the villains as we get some that were forgettable, some that were fantastic and some that were rather disappointing rebounds of the villains we had been following.  Scorpius was rather pathetic! Gruesome looking, not very mobile leaving his monsters to do most of the work for him.  He finally faces the rangers himself in "Heir to the Throne" when he finds out Trakeena might be being held captive by the rangers but it defeated quit easily honestly.  Furio...sigh....Mr. Lemon head was also a waste as he seemed pretty powerful, able to in case an entire planet in stone but he never really did anything to score anymore victories against the rangers and just kills himself to destroy Leo for some reason.  At least we got Treacheron after that.  A decent general finally with his own agenda and history with the Magna Defender.  I liked his potential rivalry with Trakeena and his final fight with Leo but he's destroyed before we could really get more from him.  But then came the trinity of terrific villains in Trakeena, Villamax and Deviot.  I loved these three because their 3 separate takes on being evil.  Deviot was an devious (get it?) little troll, manipulating everyone just so he can gain more power like the cocoon that was meant for Trakeena.  I love double crossing villains like this as he clearly had enough power but always seemed addicted to deceiving anyone who got in his way.  Villamax, on the other hand, was a noble warrior who while fighting for evil always had these high standards.  He would always do what Trakeena asked him to do and never disobeyed her.  He also had this great sense in honor as in "An Evil Game", he really lets the rangers go after capturing Leo based on the promise he made.  It was such a shame to see him destroyed in the end by the student he once trained and helped become an evil monarch but it only showed how much depth Villamax had in him. Lasly, Trakeena....what an amazing villain arc for her!  In the beginning of the season, she's weak, unassuming and rather useless, but she made up for it by being sneaky and backstabbing to win her father's favor over his generals.  She even cared more about her beauty than actually defeating the rangers; which led her to finally escape the Scorpion Stinger to go on her own personal journey of becoming a true foe for the rangers to fear and she did.  By the end of her training with Villamax, with Kegler as his sidechick, Trakeena was not only able to fight on her own but able to defeat a ranger in battle as we see in "An Evil Game".  I just wish we got to see more confrontations between her and the rangers as she could have easily beat all 5 in battle if she wanted to and that's before she fused with Deviot in the finale.  Yeah, Trakeena went batshit crazy and the finale was all the better for it!! While it was never clear who was more in control, her or Deviot, we really saw he lose her mind toward her ultimate goal of being the baddest villain in the universe.  She even kills Villamax and enters the cocoon, something she feared doing early in the season, because she was so desperate to defeat the rangers. WOW!!! O_O  It's a shame though that before we got there, that we had to endure the mediocre villains of the Lost Galaxy.  Captain Mutiny was just a bulky pirate parody, Barabax was all brawn and no brain, Hexuba was a joke and Deviot was around but not used as well as when he was working for Trakeena.  It's a shame because the arc, like I said, started off so well, especially the shocking reveal of the slave camp but it fizzled out very quickly until the last two arc episodes brought the stakes back up.

Lastly, I want to talk about the megazords this season since this was the first to have sentient zords.  The Galactabeasts in design were hideous but their Galactazord forms were MUCH improved.  The Galaxy Megazord was cool but the power up mode made the megazord just look beautiful! O_O  The Stratoforce and Centaurus Megazords were also fun and exciting additions, even most of the time the rangers called on the wrong one! -_- It was really sad to see the destroyed, especially considering they were alive and all.  The Defender Torozord was also neat, especially considering it was the first time a ranger merged with a megazord.  My 3rd time watching this season straight through, I noticed it wasn't one of my favorites like I previous thought.  Don't get me wrong, Lost Galaxy gets more WAAAAYYY more right than wrong with a nice new cast, wonderful themes, awesome team-up episodes, solid villains for the most part, etc. It just the unfortunate way the certain arcs turned out (The Lights of Orion, The Lost Galaxy) was disappointing, but otherwise, this was another season to be proud of by the writers as it's more adventurous, intense and emotional at times than any other season before it and that quite the accomplishment! ;)

Pros:

• An excellent new chapter for the franchise set up in the premiere episodes!
• A great new cast of characters from the rangers to the supporting characters!
• The Magna Defender and his whole arc/storyline with Scorpius.
• Once again, the flawless  four episode run from "To The Tenth Power" to "Facing the Past".
• The superb villainous trio of Trakeena, Villamax and Deviot.
• A powerful, devastating and often times epic 3-part finale, "Journey's End".

Cons:

• The inconsistent and often times confusing writing of the Lights of Orion arc.
• Disappointing villains in Furio, Scorpius and the Lost Galaxy antagonists.
• Some infuriating episodes like "Red Romance"! -_-
• Maya's very disappointing character development and arc.
• The uneveness of the Lost Galaxy arc.

Best Episodes:

1. "To The Tenth Power"-The first official annual team-up of the franchise was filled with awesome action, great character moments and final showdown that is one of the best sequences to ever be directed on this show.  I loved seeing the Psycho Rangers again in all their glory! :)

2. "The Power of Pink"-The first death of a Power Ranger really made for a truly devastating moment from the show.  Everything leading up to that was intense and full of some much emotional resonance as well.  One of the finest episodes of the show without a doubt!

3. "Journey's End, Part 1-3"-Part 1 sets up a needed moment of hope for the colony, Part 2 has some of the most graphic violence for a kids show while Part 3 concludes things in epic, stunning fashion!  A overwhelmingly strong finale!

4. "The Rescue Mission"-Even if it borrows a lot of elements from the Alien franchise, this was such a drastic change for the show with sci-fi horror storytelling and a suspenseful plot from start to finish. Also, no Sentai footage whatsoever! Wow! :)

5. "Redemption Day"-I feel like this is when the season really fulfilled how good it could have been with the Magna Defender ending his journey on the show with one of its most heartbreaking moments of sacrifice. Beautiful and so touching!!!

Worst Episodes: 

1. "Red Romance"-The psycho brother episode!!! I'll pass!!! Hope Colby was left in the lost galaxy to suffer!!! -_-

2. "Stolen Beauty"-Eehhhhh, the episode where Trakeena is obsessed with the beauty of Terra Venture's women and wants to steal their beauty! Once again, I'll pass!!!

3. "Until Sunset"-A boring clip show that reminds of the much better parts of the season! Great! :)

4. "Dream Battle"-Just an episode to use as much Sentai fight footage as possible and doesn't really make sense in plot at all! O_o

5. "Memories of Mirinoi"-Maya at her most nonsensical and infuriating!!! Enough said!! -_-

"A season following the previous in the same vein of being an intergalactic adventure but this time in the form of a space odyssey, "Lost Galaxy" takes a while to get its story going after it's wonderful world building premiere.  But once it does, it often packs an emotional punch as this tremendous team of Galaxy Rangers fight their way through some dynamic villains as the show deals with themes of sacrifice and redemption as a hopeful space colony, Terra Venture, travels throughout the stars to find hope in the uncharted dangers of the universe.  The only thing holding it back from matching the brilliance of its predecessor, In Space, are the weak story arcs with very few moments of powerful payoffs."

Final Season Verdict: B+