Season 9, Episode 9: The Time Shadow

"The Time Shadow"
Episode 9
Air Date: March 31st, 2001

After some excellent character centered episodes, we get an awesome arc episode that continues the season's overall plot? Jesus, Time Force, keep it up!!! :)  The episode begins with Mr. Collins at Bio-Lab where he is introducing to a group of reporters alongside his group of scientists the Raimei Tank, an enormous battle machine he will be using to protect the city and eventually the rest of the world.  Of course, Mr. Collins is doing this for his own personal gain as he wants to profit off of the invention but meanwhile, Ransik's latest mutant, Izout and a group of Cyclobots begin attacking Bio-Lab and make their way to the laboratory where they hold everyone hostage, including Mr. Collins.  Turns out, Izout is looking for some useless material called Cesarean Powder that he tells a Cyclobot to quickly collect.  As Izout makes his way out with the powder, the Time Force Rangers soon arrive to save everyone by splitting into two teams.  While Jen, Katie and Trip go after Izout, Wes and Lucas save the people in the lab from the Cyclobots.  We get a brief moment of Wes clearly missing his father and wanting to talk to him but Lucas snaps him out of it when everyone is safe.  Love that moment, very subtle but stunning development! :)

Anyway, it turns out Frax's own machinations were behind the attack as he needs to powder for some reason.  As Izout makes his getaway, he is meat by Jen, Katie and Trip but blasts them out of his way.  When Lucas and Wes join the fight, the rangers manage to almost defeat him but he just makes himself grow.  Circuit, of course, summons the Time Force Megazord and the rangers quickly get to work with Mode Blue of the zord.  But it turns out during the fight, Izout set up a trap that knocks the rangers out of their megazord and demorph.  Luckily, the Time Jet finishes off the Izout as he reverts back to an action figure and the Time Flyers fly back to the future through a time portal.  Clearly the megazord was badly damaged and we learn back in the future that the Time Flyers need extensive repair and will be down for a while.  Meanwhile, someone is watching Logan and his crew as he reveals a new megazord, the Time Shadow, which is quickly puts through test run before ending it.  Hmmmm....I wonder if this mysterious man could be.....

Meanwhile, back in the past, present....whatever...the rangers and Circuit realize that Frax has stolen Cesarean Powder to create Trizerium Crystals...which won't be discovered for another 100 year apparently.  It's one of the first indication we get this season of Ransik and the future rangers presence in the past is beginning to change the course of history, which is honestly fascinating but it's a shame the writers never truly explore the damage their mission is literally changing the space time continuum.  Anyway, after Frax witnesses Ransik destroying another Cyclobot, it fuels him to continue working on his own plan.  He is building a new robot alongside the Cyclobots and makes the Trizerium Crystal to power it up.  Meanwhile, Mr. Collins is also wondering what their attackers could have wanted with useless powder but soon everyone finds out with Frax unleashes Tronicon onto the city.  Why he has mutant DNA to reveal makes no sense...since you know, he's robot but the massive attack forces the rangers into action. They realize they need the megazord but when Circuit tries to contact Captain Logan, he tells them the megazord is too badly damaged to fight.  As the rangers realize the megazord isn't coming, Mr. Collins orders the Raimei Tank to be unleashed as well.  Circuit goes to the rangers to tell them what happened with the megazord and Wes comes to the conclusion they need to fight without it. God, I LOVE Wes! :)  As the Raimei Tank arrives, both the rangers and Circuit are shocked by it's existence as the lead scientist back at Bio-Lab order him to fire at it.  The rangers come to conclusion that the Raimei needs help as they use their V-weapons to fire alongside it.

But the Trizerium Crystal is too powerful as Tronicon destroys the Raimei Tank and blasts the rangers.  In the future, mysterious guy immediately sends the Time Shadow while the rangers save the men operating the tank.  As the rangers try to fight Tronicon with their weapons continuously, it's no use as he corners them and is about to destroy them when an eclipse begins to block the sun and the Time Shadow comes out of it.  Freakin' AWESOME!!! As the Time Shadow blasts Tronicon, it soon reveals its megazord form as Circuit receives data about it.  The Time Shadow is just an awesome piece of machinery and its nice to have a megazord with some style and personality again.  As the Time Shadow battles Tronicon, the rangers battle Frax and the Cyclobots.  After the Time Shadow finally destroys Tronicon, Frax retreats but swears vengeance on the rangers as the Time Shadow returns to the future.  Later that day, the rangers try to figure out who sent their newest megazord but Captain Logan says it wasn't Time Force but he'll find out....  Back in the future, mysterious guy continues to be all mysterious before the Time Shadow arrives and the episode ends... hmmm....I wonder if he's....anyway, another superb episode and one that introduces a new badass megazord too!  Frax is beginning to slowly but surely show his true colors as he own villain and the plot is developing nicely, especially with the possible ramifications of the rangers and Ransik being in the past. Keep it up writers like I said!!! :)

Final Morph: A