Power Rangers Turbo Series Review

Unlike some Power Ranger seasons that initially had some good ideas but failed due to poor execution (like most of the Kalish seasons, Samurai), Turbo was a season in which the writers and the producers had no idea what to do. There were several cast and production crew members leaving, either at the beginning or in the middle of the season, and the writers didn’t know what to do with the Carranger footage. The result was a mess, full of unlikable new characters, bad writing, and terrible villains.

Among the first flaws of Turbo are the writing flaws with the movie, particularly the continuity errors with the end of Zeo. Several things are left unexplained, such as why were the Turbo powers needed and what happened to the Zeo powers? While Zordon in the movie explains that the Zeo zords may not be enough to defeat Malagore (whom the new villain, Divatox, was trying to marry), this never explained why the power rangers needed the Turbo powers. The other major writing flaw with the movie is what in the hell happened to Lord Zedd and Rita? The movie shows them seemingly giving up trying to defeat the power rangers, which is inconsistent with the end of Zeo when they claimed “we’re back” after they destroyed the Machine Empire. The departure of Lord Zedd and Rita also led to one of Turbo’s other major flaws, their replacement.



Lord Zedd, Rita, and the gang are replaced by space pirates Divatox, Elgar, and Rygog, whom are all god awful villains. To start off, Divatox is EXTREMELY annoying, which happens to be a common problem with many of the replacements that come in during this season. All she does is whine, cry, and bitch about her plans failing in such a pissy attitude. While Rita did her fair share of whining in Power Rangers, at least Barbara Goodsen’s voice acting made it funny. However, both of Divatox's actresses were bad actresses and she just makes you want to break into the TV screen and slap her across the face. Elgar, on the other hand, is a bumbling idiot, incapable of fighting an 11 year old Justin, unmorphed. Meanwhile Rygog did virtually nothing, and seemed to be there only to fill up Sentai footage. The only real descent villain in this series was General Havoc, who was used during the Phantom Ranger arc.



However, the villains weren’t the only replacement scrappies brung in during Turbo. Along with the villains, the movie and the first three episodes introduced a trio of annoying, unlikable characters: Justin, Dimitria, and Alpha 6. Justin replaced Rocky, while Dimitria and Alpha 6 replaced Zordon and Alpha 5 respectively. To be fair, Rocky wasn’t the most likable character either. He had been pretty bland through the first season and a half, but in Zeo he received a fair amount of good character development that made him tolerable for that season. The problem with Justin isn’t so much that he’s a kid, but that he acted like being a power ranger was like playing a game. Sure, it’s understandable if he gets excited, but it’s rather annoying watching him act like a bratty five year old. Even more annoying than Justin was Alpha 6, who seemed like a pathetic attempt to imitate hip-hop culture. Dimitria on the other hand, I’ll say isn’t quite as bad as she’s made out to be. A lot of fans dislike her for replacing Zordon and for speaking only in questions. Her dialogue of speaking only in questions does get annoying, but I think her methods of letting the rangers figure out problems on their own was better than Zordon just simply giving the answer away.

The other major problem is that the writers didn’t know what to do with the Carranger footage or the old cast. As been discussed many times before, the writers were split on what to do with the Carranger footage. The writers were split between adapting Carranger’s slapstick humor, or turning it into a dark, much more serious season. The result was something in between, which led to horrible handling of the footage.

As for the characters, all of them had now graduated from high school, and at least two of the actors (Jason David Frank who played Tommy and Catherine Sutherland who played Kat) had expressed a desire to leave the show after the first 18 episodes. This virtually led to 17 episodes of filler (concluding with an incredibly lame two-parter Honey I Shrunk the Rangers) that gave virtually no character development to the main characters. Instead, we get Tommy driving around a race track and Bulk & Skull turned into Chimpanzees. This was especially disappointing, coming off of Zeo, which had gave these characters much more development than they received through the previous three seasons, and really allowed the new cast members to shine.



This brings the season to the cast change in episodes 18 and 19. In the first 17 episodes, Ashley and Carlos had already been introduced in the series, who were meant to replace Kat and Tommy respectively. When Judd Lynn replaced Doug Sloan as the main writer of the series, he decided to replace the other older cast members as well, Adam and Tanya. Lynn wanted to start fresh with a new cast. Many fans have criticized this move, rather for replacing fan favorites such as Tommy and Adam, or for it coming in midseason instead of at the end of the season. However, I think this move was actually a good idea. It did suck to see Tommy and Adam leave the show, but there was no way they were going to keep Tommy and Kat on the show. This cast change allowed the writers to start from scratch with a new cast, and led to some pretty good character development episodes during the second half of the season. Some of the execution of this cast change was flawed, particularly Carlos’ introduction as a selfish soccer player, but throughout the second half of Turbo all four of the new characters- T.J., Cassie, Ashley, and Carlos- became likable characters. I also felt that all the new cast members were descent actors. This cast change I thought was handled much better than the cast change during MMPR S2.



Following the cast change, Turbo becomes a much better show and becomes watchable. The annoying traits of Justin and Dimitria are toned down, making both characters bearable. Turbo still retains its share of annoying characters (Alpha 6 and the villains), but the writing and the handling of the Carranger footage improves dramatically. I particularly liked the Phantom Ranger arc, which did a good job of establishing a mystery about his character and gave Cassie some good development due to the ship tease. It is disappointing that the Phantom Ranger's identity is never revealed during In Space, but it's understandable since they ran into budget problems. Other than Cassie, Justin gets the most development with his relationship with his dad. The others, T.J., Ashley, and Carlos, are all likable characters but get more satisfying development during in Space. Meanwhile, Bulk and Skull are turned back into human, thankfully, and their running gag for this season is getting fired from every job they work on due to their stupidity. However, it was somewhat funny, much better than them being turned into chimpanzees.

The rest of the season follows the standard MMPR/Zeo format. It's episodic, mostly filler episodes that centered around one of the character's problems in their high school life, with one example being Ashley having trouble with an auto mechanics class. Most of these episodes were just ok, but there were some good episodes such as a two-parter involving the Blue Sentorium being turned evil, and Parts and Parcels (a Bulk and Skull focus episode). The next major story arc in Turbo is Chase into Space, which ends with the Power Chamber being destroyed and the rangers sans Justin leaving into outer space to either find Zordon or stop Divatox before coming back to Earth. This was a pretty chilling episode, and had a heartwarming departure between the rangers and Justin. It also proved to be a good lead-up to in Space.

The main problem with this season was that nothing was really well planned, which lead to a sloppy first half of the season. The suit change was nothing but a gimmick to try to give the producers new Sentai footage to work with, but they had no idea how to use the Sentai footage. It didn't help that the movie gave a very sloppy transition from Zeo to Turbo. The second half of the season was much better, thanks in large part to the new cast, the Phantom Ranger arc, and the ending. As a whole, I give Turbo 6/10. If I'd split up the series into two parts, I give the first 20 episodes and the movie 4.5/10 and the last 25 episodes 7/10.

Favorite Episodes/Story Arcs
Episode 23 "The Phantom Phenomenon"- Introduction of the Phantom Ranger
Episode 26 "The Darkest Day"- Introduction of General Havoc
Episodes 28-29- The conclusion of the Phantom Ranger arc
Episodes 31-32- The Blue Sentorum turned evil, also gave development to Justin.
Episode 38 "Cassie's Best Friend"- An episode featuring Cassie and her dog-turned human.
Episode 43 "Parts and Parcel"- T.J. tries to help prove Bulk and Skull's innocense after they had been accused of theivery.
Episodes 44-45 "Chase into Space"- The conclusion of Turbo.

November Poll Results, New Polls

When asked what viewers thought about the Gokaiger vs Space Sherrif Gavan movie, 54 voters (67%) think it's awesome, 17 voters (21%) think it's good, and 9 voters (11%), think it's ok. No one voted for "bad."

When asked rather or not Gokaiger should have more than 50 epiosodes, 70 voters (83%) answered yes, and 14 voters (16%), answered no. Gobuster is due to start on February 26th, which means Gokaiger will have either 51 or 52 episodes.

Among next month's polls...
How did you like the Gokaiger, Goseiger, 199 Hero Movie?
Best anniversary team-up movie in Sentai?
Based on the rumors, what route do you think is best for the next Power Rangers adaptation?

Gokaiger Episodes 39, 40, and 41.

Warning: Spoilers Ahead

Episode 39






In episode 39 the Gokaigers go to Moroboshi High School in search of the Megaranger grand power. There, they meet former Moroboshi High student Kenta Date/Mega Red, who is now teaching at his alma mater. He recognizes that the Gokaigers don't really care about school, so in order for him to give up his grand power he tells them that they have to go to school for the day. The Gokaigers split up and wonder around the school, doing their own activities. This includes Marvelous playing basketball with some students (and ripping-off a Michael Jordan dunk :P), Don and Luka chatting with a pair of students who are studying, and Joe and Ahim watching a girl trying to impress a guy she likes. Meanwhile, Basco appears and threatens to blow up the school of Kenta doesn't give him the Megaranger grand power. Marvelous convinces him not to give it up to Basco, and tells Kenta that he recognizes why Kenta wanted the Gokaigers to go to school; to see that it can be great because everyone has dreams. Gai protects Kenta from Basco while the other Gokaigers locate the bombs planted around the school and disable them. They then proceed to fight Basco and Sally to a draw, and defeat Basco's giant-sized henchmen. At the end of the episode, Kenta gives the Gokaigers the Megaranger ultimate power, telling them to consider it their diplomas.

Overall, I think this was an enjoyable episode. It sticked with Gokaiger's formula, where they have to earn the grand powers. Most of the Gokaigers didn't care for school (except for Gai and Ahim, Don seemed neutral), which was consistent with their characters. Basco was menacing in his appearance as usual, and crossed another moral event horizon when he threatened to blow up the school. The episode did well as a tribute to Megaranger as well, and continued its story by having Kenta return to his old high school to teach. Overall it's a good episode, so I give it a rating of 8/10.

Episode 40






In this episode, Domon/Time Yellow sends a message to the Gokaigers to travel back in time to October 2nd, 2010. Their mission is to protect Hagakure Temple. Once there, they spot the Nanashi from Shinkenger and confuse them for wanting to destroy the temple. The Nanashi run off. Gai stays with a boy at the temple, while the others chase the Nanashi. They then discover the Goseigers and Shinkengers, and run into Shitari, which brings up the Gokaiger's place in Goseiger vs Shinkenger. However, the real culprit who's after Hagakure Temple is Short Zan-KT0, who had been ordered by Metal Alice. Gai protects the boy and the temple from Short Zan-KT0, until the other Gokaigers arrive. They then transform into Timerangers, and avoid Short Zan-KT0's bullets Matrix-style, similar to episode 1 of Timeranger. After defeating him once, Short Zan-KTO grows large. Gai defeats Short Zan-KT0 with GoZyuJin alone. Later, the Gokaigers take a picture with the boy and his mom (who happens to be Honami) to prove that they protected the temple. After the Gokaigers return to their own time, they recognize that the temple is safe but they forgot about the grand power promised to them by Domon. However, a scene shows Ninjaman's jar inside the temple. When Domon looks at the picture, he is at first upset that the Gokaigers interacted with the people of the past. However, he breaks down into tears when he recognizes Honami and the kid, which happens to be his.

Like the Abaranger episode, this episode wasn't much of a Timeranger tribute. However, continuing the Domon-Honami story was enough of a tribute for me. So far, the Domon-Honami relationship is my favorite in Sentai. I thought they really made a cute couple in Timeranger and I really liked their interaction. It was really surprising to see Honami get a role in this episode, and it was a nice wink to Timeranger that her son was named Mirai (which means future). The ending is really a tear-jerker and makes the episode memorable. I give it a 9/10 rating. For me the ending alone was worth 8 of the 9 points :D

Episode 41











Episode 41 was Ahim's backstory episode. It's also the debut of Actdos Gils, who's first order is arresting Damaras for failing to protect his son. On earth, Ahim, Joe, and Gai are shopping when they notice a full scale Zangyack attack. They're met by Zatsurig, one of Actdos Gils' personal body guards who also happened to destroy Ahim's home planet. Ahim immediately charges him in rage, and neither Joe nor Gai are able to hold her back. However, Zatsurig is too powerful for all three. Later, there's a flashback of Zatsurig destroying Ahim's home planet and killing Ahim's parents right in front of her while she's fleeing. She tries to sneak out of Gokai Galleon alone when she's stopped by the others. Then, we get a flashback of Ahim asking Marvelous, Joe, Luka, and Don if she can join their crew. They don't take her seriously, but Ahim says she wants to show the other Famille planet refugees that she's willing to stand up against the Zangyack. Back to the present, the other Gokaigers convince Ahim to let them go with her to defeat Zatsurig. Their first attack is easily repelled by Zatsurig, but they notice that Zatsurig uses the eye on his chest as his source of power. They try to buy time for Ahim to get an openning to destroy the eye on Zatsurig's chest. During this fight, more flashbacks are shown of Ahim struggling to train how to be a pirate and doing daily chores on Gokai Galleon, but she's also shown being the heart of the team that keeps them glued together. Eventually, the Gokaigers try a second plan, in which they fire the Final Wave at Zatsurig which they know he'll fire back at them, but Gai uses his Gold Mode sheild to protect himself from it. This gives Ahim her opportunity. She knocks out the eye first with a stab from her Gokai Sabre, and then fires the Final Wave point blank in Zatsurig's eye. She then pairs up with each of her Gokaiger teammates separately (with Gai as the Go-On Wings, Don as the Goraijiers, Luka as the Gosei girls, Joe as Deka Swan and DekaMaster, and Marvelous as co-Shinken Reds) and in reverse order from which each teammate joined the crew. She then gets to be the one who fires the Gokai Galleon Buster to defeat Zatsurig.

This was one episode that I had waited all season long, and fortunately it was well worth the wait. It was by far, Ahim's best focus episode and more than makes up for the lack of focus episodes she's received thus far, and makes her development more than satisfying. It had the dark moments with her planet being destroyed and her parents being killed infront of her. There were plenty of heartwarming moments, especially the flashback to when she first met the Gokaigers. I really loved her reason for wanting to be a Gokaiger, for the pride of the people from her home planet. It was also great to see the contrast of her being a nobody in terms of fighting ability to working hard and now being comparable to the other Gokaigers in terms of her ability. The fight was also really satisfying as well. Ahim's actress, Yui Koike did a really good job in this episode as well, and I think Gokaiger has one of the best set of actors of the 21st Century sentais. Besides Ahim, it was also good to see Actdos Giles, who made a chilling debut in his first episode. Overall, I give it 9.5/10 for an excellent backstory for Ahim.