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akinoameSo...I've got to say I wasn't impressed by these episodes. The shining star of them is episode six, "The Lights of Orion." In the rest, however, there are glaring plot holes.
"Rookie in Red" took two plotlines and failed to mesh them together well. The first was Leo's sense of inadequacy in honoring Mike as the Red Ranger. The second was Kai's continuing struggle to accept Leo, as he trained him in the ways of the GSA. The whole Spock/Kirk relationship with Kai and Leo just grated on me, simply because of the exaggerations on Leo's part. Mike had said Leo was reckless and impulsive. He never said Leo was a complete idiot. Much as Kai is a stick in the mud, I have to say that I agreed with most of his criticisms of Leo. I mean, when the guy not only fails to lock the weapons dome, but utterly fails to close the fucking door, the guy is a complete moron. I was ready to yell at Kai for being upset that Leo became a kidnapped idiot when the weapons collector put him in his belleh (...I'm sorry. I had to), but at the very least, Kai justified it by saying "Oh, I was bitching at him for losing our weapons, and that's why he didn't let go of the Saber." I was willing to let it slide. However, there was almost no focus on the Transdaggers, and Leo's entire plan of "rescue the Sabers, meet up with my friends, swap the Sabers for fakes, get the Transdaggers" made no sense at all. First off, he had no way of knowing that the others would find him. Second--do they just keep around a bunch of fake Quasar Sabers just in case? I mean, when you get down to it, it's actually an awesome idea--"Ha! You stole the FAKE Sabers!" But the fact that it's done for no explicable reason and then never happens again makes NO sense whatsoever. And third, Leo didn't know about the Transdaggers until Furio and the dealer were arguing! Hell, I don't think he even found out at all! I refuse to believe that Leo planned that all from the start. That would require Xanatos-level plotting, and even though he scored high on his written test and can hit a bullseye perfectly, this episode proves Leo just does not have that kind of brain power. Neither does Commander Stanton (whom I've been mistakenly calling Logan the whole time), who fails to see that Kai + Yelling about crumbs affecting machine + Holding sandwich =/= Kai's sandwich. Or that Leo was an absolute idiot. Thank you, Kai, for responding to Leo's apology about being hard to train with "Try 'impossible.'"
"Homesick" was the start of well-placed music. I was impressed with the score used for Matthew's phone call to his mom. I was not impressed with the episode, unfortunately. It jumped around all over the place, with the Rangers being in the Control Tower one second and down in the dome another. And for god's sake, the Stingwingers can FLY! Why do they need an elevator? And for that matter, how did Furio get OUT of the elevator? Did he TELEPORT, like he can do all the other times? So why did he even NEED the elevator? Again, logic killed me on that. Also, I got the sense that Leo is the luckiest person in the whole galaxy. I liked that they waited a couple of episodes before revealing the Galactabeasts could become the Galactazords, particularly since it required the Transdaggers, but...there was absolutely no reason Leo should have known this would work. Sentai footage really makes plot holes sometimes. And the end with the Rangers taking Matthew home on the Megaship...duh? Because they have the Megaship, and it allows them to visit other planets, fight in space, or take stowaways home, I fail to feel any drama about Terra Venture. Why worry about fuel and food supplies? The Rangers can just fly off and replentish their supplies. That should be part of their job as the protectors of Terra Venture. So why is it a big deal that they can't turn the colony around and send Matthew home when everyone should already know that Kai hijacked the Megaship and Damon in episode two, and his role of Chief Mechanic on the Megaship should give Damon the leverage to ask Alpha, DECA, and the Power Rangers to send a little boy home to his mother? It really does drive me nuts.
"The Lights of Orion" is definitely the gem in the pack. The plot holes are few, and the drama is there. Leo's drive to rescue Mike and his horror when "Mike" suddenly turns on him was excellent, and they actually did a good job hiding the fact that it wasn't the real Mike. You knew it was a trap, but you had no idea that Mike was in on it. They didn't hint at it, and they pulled off the sucker punch that Mike would betray Leo and the others very well. It impressed me greatly. Then it's revealed that it's not Mike at all, which was also well handled. And hey, Kendrix's concern about her former teammate! And Kai's horror at seeing him evil! And...Maya, you barely knew him. But at least Damon's not reacting too much, given that he never had the chance to actually meet him. And I love Damon again--the start of his role as Designated Decoy: "Hey, guys! Gee, sure is dangerous to be out here all alone. Hope no one attacks me!" He's hilarious and definitely my favorite on the team so far. And they handled the end scene very well, with the start of Kai's job as Resident Chef, making cookies, and Damon stealing the dough behind his back. Then while Kai is explaining to Maya the importance of baking cookies completely (while Damon argues it's better as dough--my man), Kendrix goes to talk to a bummed-out Leo about Mike, saying he'd be proud. It was well done, especially when Leo heads back over and asks if there's any leftover dough, and Maya lectures him on how cookies have to be baked completely, sounding so matter-of-fact that Damon and Kai burst into laughter, along with Leo and Kendrix. It was a well done laugh ending! Probably the only one I've ever seen!
Overall, these episodes were pretty poor, with the notable exception of "The Lights of Orion." And I got the distinct feeling that the Rangers needed to start putting duct tape on their gloves, given they kept dropping things so much (Quasar Sabers, empty boxes that are supposed to contain the Lights of Orion...).
"Rookie in Red" took two plotlines and failed to mesh them together well. The first was Leo's sense of inadequacy in honoring Mike as the Red Ranger. The second was Kai's continuing struggle to accept Leo, as he trained him in the ways of the GSA. The whole Spock/Kirk relationship with Kai and Leo just grated on me, simply because of the exaggerations on Leo's part. Mike had said Leo was reckless and impulsive. He never said Leo was a complete idiot. Much as Kai is a stick in the mud, I have to say that I agreed with most of his criticisms of Leo. I mean, when the guy not only fails to lock the weapons dome, but utterly fails to close the fucking door, the guy is a complete moron. I was ready to yell at Kai for being upset that Leo became a kidnapped idiot when the weapons collector put him in his belleh (...I'm sorry. I had to), but at the very least, Kai justified it by saying "Oh, I was bitching at him for losing our weapons, and that's why he didn't let go of the Saber." I was willing to let it slide. However, there was almost no focus on the Transdaggers, and Leo's entire plan of "rescue the Sabers, meet up with my friends, swap the Sabers for fakes, get the Transdaggers" made no sense at all. First off, he had no way of knowing that the others would find him. Second--do they just keep around a bunch of fake Quasar Sabers just in case? I mean, when you get down to it, it's actually an awesome idea--"Ha! You stole the FAKE Sabers!" But the fact that it's done for no explicable reason and then never happens again makes NO sense whatsoever. And third, Leo didn't know about the Transdaggers until Furio and the dealer were arguing! Hell, I don't think he even found out at all! I refuse to believe that Leo planned that all from the start. That would require Xanatos-level plotting, and even though he scored high on his written test and can hit a bullseye perfectly, this episode proves Leo just does not have that kind of brain power. Neither does Commander Stanton (whom I've been mistakenly calling Logan the whole time), who fails to see that Kai + Yelling about crumbs affecting machine + Holding sandwich =/= Kai's sandwich. Or that Leo was an absolute idiot. Thank you, Kai, for responding to Leo's apology about being hard to train with "Try 'impossible.'"
"Homesick" was the start of well-placed music. I was impressed with the score used for Matthew's phone call to his mom. I was not impressed with the episode, unfortunately. It jumped around all over the place, with the Rangers being in the Control Tower one second and down in the dome another. And for god's sake, the Stingwingers can FLY! Why do they need an elevator? And for that matter, how did Furio get OUT of the elevator? Did he TELEPORT, like he can do all the other times? So why did he even NEED the elevator? Again, logic killed me on that. Also, I got the sense that Leo is the luckiest person in the whole galaxy. I liked that they waited a couple of episodes before revealing the Galactabeasts could become the Galactazords, particularly since it required the Transdaggers, but...there was absolutely no reason Leo should have known this would work. Sentai footage really makes plot holes sometimes. And the end with the Rangers taking Matthew home on the Megaship...duh? Because they have the Megaship, and it allows them to visit other planets, fight in space, or take stowaways home, I fail to feel any drama about Terra Venture. Why worry about fuel and food supplies? The Rangers can just fly off and replentish their supplies. That should be part of their job as the protectors of Terra Venture. So why is it a big deal that they can't turn the colony around and send Matthew home when everyone should already know that Kai hijacked the Megaship and Damon in episode two, and his role of Chief Mechanic on the Megaship should give Damon the leverage to ask Alpha, DECA, and the Power Rangers to send a little boy home to his mother? It really does drive me nuts.
"The Lights of Orion" is definitely the gem in the pack. The plot holes are few, and the drama is there. Leo's drive to rescue Mike and his horror when "Mike" suddenly turns on him was excellent, and they actually did a good job hiding the fact that it wasn't the real Mike. You knew it was a trap, but you had no idea that Mike was in on it. They didn't hint at it, and they pulled off the sucker punch that Mike would betray Leo and the others very well. It impressed me greatly. Then it's revealed that it's not Mike at all, which was also well handled. And hey, Kendrix's concern about her former teammate! And Kai's horror at seeing him evil! And...Maya, you barely knew him. But at least Damon's not reacting too much, given that he never had the chance to actually meet him. And I love Damon again--the start of his role as Designated Decoy: "Hey, guys! Gee, sure is dangerous to be out here all alone. Hope no one attacks me!" He's hilarious and definitely my favorite on the team so far. And they handled the end scene very well, with the start of Kai's job as Resident Chef, making cookies, and Damon stealing the dough behind his back. Then while Kai is explaining to Maya the importance of baking cookies completely (while Damon argues it's better as dough--my man), Kendrix goes to talk to a bummed-out Leo about Mike, saying he'd be proud. It was well done, especially when Leo heads back over and asks if there's any leftover dough, and Maya lectures him on how cookies have to be baked completely, sounding so matter-of-fact that Damon and Kai burst into laughter, along with Leo and Kendrix. It was a well done laugh ending! Probably the only one I've ever seen!
Overall, these episodes were pretty poor, with the notable exception of "The Lights of Orion." And I got the distinct feeling that the Rangers needed to start putting duct tape on their gloves, given they kept dropping things so much (Quasar Sabers, empty boxes that are supposed to contain the Lights of Orion...).