Season 17, Episode 26: Beyond A Doubt

 

"Beyond A Doubt"

Episode 26

Air Date: September 26th, 2009

Ewwwwww!!! It's not that I hate the episode but again, we are following the beats here almost to a T that it's kind of insulting to long time fans despite newer, more adult fans finding this all fascinating and full of tension.  I gotta admit, Tenaya's sudden conversion to helping the rangers is a bit too rushed for me.  Continuing where the last episode literally left off, she is all gung ho about destroying Venjix and wants to help them infiltrate his lair to find out the date of General Shifter's Hyperbot since it currently knows all of their defenses, so the zords would be useless against it.  Of course, all the rangers are resentful and don't trust her for good reason....once again, like the rest of the Space Rangers when Andros brought Karone on the Astro Megaship.  The dialogue almost seems verbatim at times...and the fact that Judd Lynn solely wrote this episode himself.....yeah, it's not wonder fans of the franchise were ultimately disappointed in this sudden turn of events in the season's narrative. :(  I mean there are SOME new bits within the reused storyline like Dillon actually going with Tenaya to Venjix's lair to make sure she doesn't go alone and get captured as well as a genuine heartwarming and heartbreaking moment when Dillon asks Tenaya is she saw their real names but her lamenting that she didn't before heading in.  That was definitely the most spectacular moment with this by the numbers episode for this show. Then Tenaya seemingly double-crosses her brother, only to get the data and make him realize she was on his side all along when Kilobyte becomes too suspicious.  Once again, like when Astronema seemingly betrayed the rangers and attacks Darkonda. But like I said, luckily, they both escape for now and manage to make it back into the city safe and sound...for the moment.

Meanwhile, the rangers are dealing with both General Shifter and his Hyperbot, which he uses to gain control of the PaleoMax Megazord as both it and the Hyperbot attack the Mach Megazord.  Soon Dillon arrives and the rangers use the ValveMax Megazord as well to team up against the Hyperbot and Paleo Megazord but they are both way too powerful.  Also, during his one on one battle with General Shifter, Scott is given some kind of mechanical key that drills into him and begins causing him pain but doesn't know it yet.  Luckily, Tenaya is able to give Dr. K the hard drive to access the Hyberbot and bring the PaleoMax Megazord back to the side of the rangers....as well as discovering with their new stolen data they are able to create a new zord configuration with all 12 zords.  The rangers do sooooo and it's the one other truly awesome moment of the episode when they form the RPM Ultrazord.  I mean as incredibly clunky as it looks, it pretty badass as it's one of the rare megazords in the show's history that can stand MUCH taller than a monster/robot. Also, the finisher is pretty stellar as well combining the power of all 4 megazords before going for a fireball finisher.  So all things considered, that and the rare moment of Dillon and Tenaya lamenting who they really are strong moments.  But unfortunately, the worse offender is the final scene....

Everything is all happy and dandy for once as the rangers are about to join up with Tenaya in their sights but Kilobyte just captures her and fires at the rangers before disappearing with Tenaya and leaving Dillon clearly upset.....sounding familiar, blah, blah, blah!!! Sigh...."Beyond A Doubt" has its moments but the overall storyline is proving to be tiresome and having little originality for the show to keep long term fans invested at this point.  Tho I'm sure new viewers find it captivating if not formulaic. :(

Final Morph: D+