Season 11, Episode 5: Thunder Strangers, Part 1

"Thunder Strangers, Part 1"
Episode 5
Air Date: March 8th, 2003

Gotta LOVE those evil ranger introduction episodes don't you?! Ever since the conception of the series, the writers always have a mind an arc of episodes that brings a new ranger onto the team but not before being their arch nemesis first.  For Ninja Storm, we get another round of firsts for the franchise as we get two evil rangers instead of the standard one! In one sense, this is awesome! The writers have actually done a good job of slowly but surely introducing this team's greatest enemies by showing the men underneath the helmets.  Blake and Hunter are just your average teens, each has their distinct personality and have already made connections to the core trio enough where Dustin trusts them, Shane doesn't like them and Tori...well, her and Blake will be getting pretty close sooner or later if you know what I mean! ;) I mean it's not like these guys have been developed so well that they are these amazing characters but you get a good sense of enough of who they are that it makes their animosity against the Wind Rangers VERY interesting.  Part 1 doesn't reveal the motive behind these rival rangers but the set of so far works because it's just cool seeing the brothers mess the rangers are destroying a monsters and just straight attacking the trio of rangers relentlessly.

It's just fun seeing competent villains for once this season (Yes, more on that later! -_-) Being able to out think and out think the rangers in a fight.  Of course, Lothor takes all the credit and when Zurgane tries to take matters into his own hands in defeating the rangers, Lothor just stops him by teleporting him back to the ship.....sure because being proactive and actually defeating the rangers shouldn't be the priority! -_-  But anyway, it's just cool to see that two rangers are able to handle three rangers on their own.  Then again, back in Season 1, Tommy could handle all 5 original rangers on his own but this just gives the show a broader and more exciting dynamic between the trio and duo of rangers with a different power set then they do.  Also, it's nice to know that we learned of the Thunder Ninja Academy since in the premiere, I believe they mentioned there were other ninja academies, so nice foreshadowing there.

The episode's conclusion is really nice tho as we see both sets of rangers battle each other in their respective zords.  Blake and Hunter, of course, have beetle based zords which is cool but it just made me think of Big Bad Beetleborgs (More Beetleborg references, sheesh! O_o) Anyway, the formation of the Thunder Megazord (Not to be confused with Season 2's primary megazord) was pretty awesome and the way they utterly defeat the Storm Megazord is actually kinda brutal to watch, especially since the Thunder Rangers are able to steal Cam's upgrades/spheres that he sends to the Wind Rangers.  Ultimately, this was a solid Part 1 to the official introduction of the Thunder Rangers and their epic battle to defeat the Wind Rangers. :)

Final Morph: B+