Season 10, Episode 1: Lionheart

"Lionheart"
Episode 1
Air Date: February 9th, 2002

So...yeah...that happened..... "Lionheart" is quite the perplexing premiere as things are happening but feeling very out of context.  "The Master has returned!!!"  Who? What Master???  This new team must defeat the Orgs.....ok...what the hell are orgs???  Princess Shayla??? Animarium???  All these things are introduced in an episode without real focus or motive; moving from one scene to the next without feeling strong or connected at all.  As you can see, I'm not fond of this premiere and considering it's only a ONE episode premiere makes it worse because once again, we have to rush through the introduction of the rangers, villains, their powers, etc. just to get to the point of the show.  But unlike "Operation Lightspeed" at least they made their point VERY clear amongst a very shoved in one episode intro.  The rangers were being recruited to stop the demons from taking over Mariner Bay and unleashing the Queen.  "Lionheart" rushes through everything that should make a season premiere awesome and intriguing: New, interesting characters, their powers, the main villain, etc. But all of this is brushed aside at best. Sigh...at least the theme song is great and MUCH improved over Time Force's decent but forgettable theme song. I guess I have to start talking about the episode itself huh??? -_-

So we meet Cole Evans, a jungle boy talking to a chip who apparently has been living all his life there with a bunch of other jungle people.  Where are there? How did Cole get there?  Not explained! -_- All we know is Cole is being sent away to the outside world to finally find his family as the tribe leader (No James Earl Jones jokes!) gives him a picture of them as well as a red crystal that was left with him at birth.  The next day, they send him off......so why are they sending him off now???  Where are they sending him too??? Where the hell is this jungle and how is Cole suppose to survive in the outside world??? O_O Anyway, as some irritating announcer takes about "seeking the unknown", we flash forward to night time during the city of Turtle Cove where a monster or Org arrives on top of a building and is immediately attacked by a female White Ranger.  He makes his way over to another building where he is literally tossed around by a Black Ranger and suddenly taken underwater by a Blue Ranger.  Its a cool fight sequence showing the individual rangers' move sets and abilities as a Yellow Ranger comes out of no where, grabs the Org and flies with him into a building.  All 4 rangers regroup to finish him off but are suddenly attacked by yet another Org.  Apparently, after the two Orgs disappear, the ranges have never seen two of them at the same time as they demorph.  One of them who clearly acts like it's her first day of theater class says they need a fifth ranger while the Yellow one says they are fine the way they are.

We then see jungle boy again arriving at that very city and beginning to look for his parents....sigh....This why sending him to the outside world makes NO sense! -_- How is Cole suppose to track down his parents in a world advanced and not familiar with??? Oh well, that night, after climbing a light post, runs into a dog that gets kidnapped from some a very shady looking duo of animal catchers.  Cole follows them and frees all the animals there...before doing his whole Tarzan routine to escape as well.  Princess What's her Name is watching and tells the rangers she's found the answer to their problems while the duo transform into Duke Orgs named Jindrax and Toxica after seeing an Org fly by.  Yes...cause the Master has returned.......oyyyyy -_-

The next morning, the rangers confront Cole and are eerily excitable about the whole thing until my homegirl in Yellow punches him in the stomach and says he's been drafted.  So...Taylor is awesome and my favorite already! HA!!! Soon Cole awakes at the Animarium and runs into the Wild Zords there.  He is drawn to the Lion Wild Zord of course because of his crystal and can apparently understand animals like Maya could.....so is it like a jungle thing to understand nature, animals, etc.??? O_o Also, I find it hard to believe Cole could see ALL of Animarium climbing that cliff to realize it was floating in the sky.  Anyway, Cole finally runs into the Princess Lady...who will be the rangers' mentor this season.  She tells him he will be the leader of the Wild Force Rangers and introduces the other rangers to him: Alyssa the White Ranger, Danny the Black Ranger, Max the Blue Ranger and my girl, stone fist Yellow Ranger, Taylor.  But why is Cole automatically the leader??? O_o  Shouldn't Taylor be the leader until he...you know...knows his way around the outside world as well as being a ranger....but whatever...red means leader on this show! -_-  We also see that the other 4 rangers have crystals to and they were chosen by their Wild Zords just as the two Orgs attack again.

I will say what I LOVE about this first morph over any other first morphs is Taylor directs Cole on how to morph instead of the new ranger just knowing how to do it. That always bothered be in "From Out of No Where" when Andros just says "Ok Let's Rocket!" and the new recruits just know how to morph with these new morphers or in "Force From the Future" when Wes knows how to morph alongside Jen and the others.  It just makes sense that he would need to be taught on how to morph to fight with and is honestly the best part of this mediocre premiere.  The individual ranger intros/poses are fine; if not carried away but it's Power Rangers.  The Wild Force suits are awesome tho and remind me of the original MMPR suits.  Anyway, after getting owned by both Orgs, Cole hears the Lion Zord tell him to work as one to defeat two so the rangers decide to combine their weapons. Poor Alyssa...a baton??? HA!!! Anyway, they create the Jungle Sword and use the Savage Slash to destroy the Plug Org. As the Turbine Org escapes, Jindrax and Toxica confront him to give him a secret advantage on the rangers that turns out to be making him grow!  So now our new heroes are useless as even their great mentor doesn't know what to do...Jesus, even Zordon would have told them to call the zords by now! But worry not, their Crystal Sabers soon glow like their crystals themselves as Princess Shayla says it is time to summon the Wild Zords.  The rangers put their crystals in their sabers and do so as all 5 Wild Zords arrive to help.  It's a brilliant sequence visually, only because of the Sentai but the actual fight is rather brief and bad.  The rangers cheering on their zords is kind of annoying but the combined might of their sabers and zords finally destroys it.  Then the episode just abruptly ends with that annoying narrator tells us about this 5 brave new heroes going on their WILD ADVENTURE!!! I just....sigh....."Lionheart" feels very forced at times and incomplete at others.  Just a bunch of ideas and scenes thrown together without the wonderful world building, defined characteristics and promising villains introdtuctions we are use to.  Rather disappointing, only better than "Sh!t Into Turbo", Part 1-3. But let's see if my 3rd run through of this season will change that....

Final Morph: C-