Season 22, Episode 1: Powers From The Past

"Powers From The Past"

Episode 1

Air Date: January 30th, 2015 (Nick.com)/February 5th, 2015 (TV)

Dear Lord!!! It feels so good to be here during my journey of reviewing the franchise.  Samurai/Super Samurai and to an even MUCH greater extent, Megaforce/Super Megaforce felt like a new low for the show that absolutely didn't need to be.  All the potential in excitement of Power Rangers returning as well as its 20th anniversary celebration were literally squandered by Nick as well as Jonathan Tzachor's horrendous control of the writing for the show! Dear GOD!!! But thankfully, Tzachor was appropriately fired for how bad he managed to show, especially do to the tremendous budget wasting that was so obvious during Super Megaforce that even Saban, who usually NEVER steps in, decided to "let him go". How sad is THAT!?  But luckily, Judd Lynn, who has become a fan favorite show runner and writer for the show thanks to his unforgettable word during the second half of Turbo-Time Force as well as the second half of RPM, was brought on a new show runner moving forward and immediately ole Chipp Lynn reminds us why he is the best person to handle the series thus far. "Powers From the Past" starts out with this sense of urgency with a story that draws you in right away as a group of this season's villains pursue a being named Keeper who apparently has the Energems, 10 powerful artifacts with immense power that in the wrong hands will be kind of a big problem for the entire universe.

I gotta say, the villains already feel more fleshed, with  distinct personalities and positions that will make their inclusion this season have some sort of point to the story.  You have Wrench, the technical support of the ship, Fury, a mean tempered general and Poisandra (LOVE that name by the way!), the colorful multi-heart shaped finacee of our Big Bad and our big bad himself, Sledge, make an immediate first impression! I LOVE how Sledge is the first original PR made main villain in a long while.  I honestly don't think there's been an original main villain for the show since Emperor Grumm in S.P.D. at this point! WOW! Apparently Sledge is an infamous bounty hunter who needs to get his hands on the energems but I'm more invest in the character dynamics of Sledge and his crew.  The way he and Poisandra show their affection for each other despite Poisandra annoyed by the fact they aren't getting married yet, the way he orders around Wrench and threatens Fury, not to mention, treat his foot soldiers, the Vivix, as expendable when they get his dear Poisandra's way.  OMG!!! Loving it!  Unfortunately for Keeper tho, his ship is shot down by Sledge as he orders Fury to go after him to obtain the energems.

Ummm can I just say how AWESOME the new theme song is for this show!??? It manages to incorporate the iconic "Go Go Power Rangers" jingle while also mixing in the Neo Saban catchphrases of "Rangers Forever! Dino Charge All together!" but being its own thing at the same time.  I really enjoy the volcano explosion as the song begins and builds up as well.  From there, we meet Keeper, the being in possession of the energems....who looks like ET if he was a Jedi.  He runs into a T-Rex and quickly tells it to round up the rest of his kind as he "needs their help".  After finding the energems in the ruins of his ship, Fury approaches as Keeper so cleverly plays dead so Fury can obtain the energems.....but it turns out to be a bomb that literally blows up in all the villains' face and sends Sledge's ship hurtling through space. That Keeper is already smarter and more crafty than ANY character from Samurai and Megaforce...combined!  As the rest of the dinosaurs arrive and surround Keeper after the fact, he bounds the energems to the dinosaurs for safe keeping (No pun intended! :P)  Unfortunately, Fury survived the explosion and accidentally made his way back to Earth.  After a brief yet cool fight between them, Sledge's asteroids, which were attached to his ship, begin falling; causing the genocide and extinction of the dinosaurs.  Fury and Keeper are seemingly destroyed by the extinction level event.....until we flash-forward to the present where a museum curator is giving a tour at the Amber Beach Dinosaur Museum by ending her showcase of how the dinosaurs were wiped out 65 million years ago.  Wait!??? Amber Beach!??? You mean this city/town has an actual name! O_O  Ha! Paying attention to detail is so last decade Chip, what were you thinking here!?? :P

We are then soon introduced to our future rangers: Tyler, who is looking for the whereabouts of his father who was lost during an expedition 10 years ago, Chase, a worker at the museum from New Zealand who is clearly a ladies' man even if he continues to strike out with American girls he flirts with, Ms.  Morgan, who works at the museum in discovering new fossils and artifacts for the museum and lastly, Shelby, a waitress at the museum's restaurant who clearly has very eager aspirations of being a paleontologist....even if it hilariously gets in her way of doing her actual job.  Once again, the set-up for the characters in terms of personalities as well as Shelby's personal arc of proving herself a legit expert on dinosaurs is wonderfully laid out.  Chase as well as other museum worker, Koda, are hilarious dimwitted and oblivious while Ms. Morgan is headstrong and strict about Shelby's meddling with museum affairs outside of her waitress position.  I really like Shelby.  She has this exuberant underdog personality that makes you want her to succeed in proving herself and obtaining her goal....even if she does sneak away with Ms. Morgan and the guys to a dig site. O_o

Meanwhile, our boy Tyler has arrived at a cave that Chase told him about and begins descending to a deep, volcanic crevice to find clues of his father's disappearance.  Unfortunately, if the heat from the lava isn't killing him, a scary looking creature in a cloak seems to want to as it chases after him and Tyler quickly hides from it.  He even blocks his helmet light so he isn't discovered.  Stop being smart you guys! it's weird for this show! O_O  He soon discovers a T-Rex fossil....as well as one of the energems, the red one of course.  Back on the surface, while Chase and Koda work on the dig site, Shelby plans on how to reveal herself while cloaked creature guy takes one of the artifacts from the site in crate with him.  Gotta say, I love the interaction here between Shelby and Tyler as they meet up; trying to get the crate away from the creature who reveals himself to be some kind of Ice monster.  We get some funny, if not wacky bits with Tyler fending off the monster with a shovel and say what you will about their initial acting but Brennan Mejia and Camille Hyde are putting a lot more effort into their performances than the 4 seasons that have followed, so I'm sold! :)  Unfortunately, the monster is mightier than the shovel as he freezes both Shelby and Tyler but luckily, the pink energem was also in the crate as both of them save the two and give them their new morphers.  I love the sequence of their first morph as they just fire their guns and turn into the new Red and Pink Rangers.  Very funny yet natural.  Hard to believe that this entire episode is new footage with not one shot from the Sentai that they are adapting.  The first sequence between the rangers and the monster is smooth as well as the CGI of the Red Ranger's T Rex coming out of nowhere to send Ice Guy flying away.  LOL  The episode even ends with more character depth with Tyler and Shelby getting to know each other as Tyler tells her more about his missing father.  The dialogue is solid and the acting no bad at all.  WOW! But looks like Fury is back and is after the two who now have two of the energems.  What can I say!??? What a complete 180 of the seasons prior to this one and it's really only the first half of the two episode premiere it feels like. All I can say is Welcome back Chip and THANK YOU! *Tears of joy*

Final Morph: A-