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fandomhigh_ooc2009-01-18 08:36 am
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Spotlight on Fandoms: Power Rangers Time Force
Hey, everybody! Shanie here again, and this time I have foiled the RNG, mwahahahaha!
Ahem.
Today on Spotlight on Fandoms, I'll be rambling at you about Power Rangers Time Force, which I will maintain until the end of my days was the absolute best season of PR, hands down, that ever was or will be. I'm a little biased. Ahem.
The Show: In the Thirty-First Century Life Is Actually Kind of Creepy.
So the basic premise of PRTF is pretty standard for the PR franchise: team of color-coded photogenic archetypes gets recruited to wield special powers of spandex and funky weaponry and giant robots and defend the Earth from prosthetic-laden villains of such singleminded purpose that their plans for world domination consist of attacking the same city over and over. Time Force, though, is a little bit unique in that it has an actual season-long story arc instead of just a vague pretense of one.
. . . that would be because Time Force is one of only two PR series in 16 years to adhere very closely to the storyline of the Japanese Super Sentai series, in this case Mirai Sentai Timeranger, on which it was based. (To spare you some tl;dr on the whole Super Sentai-Power Rangers thing, I'll just refer you back to my previous spotlights on Power Rangers Dino Thunder and GoGo Sentai Boukenger. In a nutshell, Super Sentai are a little more sophisticated than their American counterparts.) The other PR series to stick pretty closely to its material of origin is Power Rangers SPD, based on Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger, but both series were more episodic in nature, and lighter in tone.
PRTF, as it's known to the fandom, was the 9th season of PR, airing in and set in the year 2001. For the most part. The series opens in Millennium City in the year 3000, a time where genetic engineering is the norm and most people's DNA is customized before birth, where the technology is far advanced but somehow normal wheeled cars are still commonplace (thank you limited budget), and those who were created in an experiment gone wrong are so severely ostracized that most of them turn to crime. The Time Force Police are on the verge of capturing Ransik, the last and most wanted of the mutant criminals, thanks to the work of one Alex Drake, who's been entrusted with the Chronomorpher technology that allows him to turn into the Red Time Force Ranger.
Ransik, an actually rather gruesome sort, is apprehended and tried, convicted to life imprisonment, which pretty much means he'll be cryogenically frozen, shrunken down to action figure size, and kept in a high security facility. At the trial, Alex proposes to Jennifer Scotts, and after Ransik's conviction a team of Time Force officers led by Jen is charged with the task of transporting him to prison.
Yeah, you know that was doomed, right? Ransik's daughter Nadira waylays the police transport en route, and Ransik escapes. Alex goes to stop him, but Chronomorpher or not Ransik kills him (conveniently timed so that Jen and the others are there to witness it and he dies in Jen's arms, thereby assuring emo), steals a time ship, and escapes into the past with Nadira and a whole freezer full of tinified mutant criminals, not to mention the equipment to restore them. Um, oops? Just before Alex dies, he tells Jen to take his Chronomorpher and the four others that exist, and to promise him that she'll bring Ransik to justice.
Jen, determined to make up for her screwup with the prison transport assignment on top of wanting to hold up her promise to Alex, takes her teammates Katie, Lucas, and Trip, steals another time ship, and before Captain Logan and the Time Force brass can stop them it's off through the time vortex and back to the year 2001. (They're apparently okay with the time ship theft later. Er.)
There's just one little problem: the other four Chronomorphers are locked, and they can't use them unless the one that belonged to Alex is activated too. And he's kind of dead. Also, it's genetically locked onto him. Well. This could definitely be a problem. As could the fact that their ship kinda crash landed and then exploded. And also that Ransik now has an entire army of mutants at his disposal.
Enter Wes Collins, spoiled son of the head of the powerful Bio-Lab firm based in our new setting of Silver Hills, Washington (the state is never explicitly stated onscreen, though it's in the showrunner's bible), who just happens to be out on his motorcycle and blowing off one of his father's board meetings while Jen and her friends are getting their asses kicked by Ransik. Oh yeah, and he also just happens to be a dead ringer for Alex, except with better, lighter-colored hair. He's cocky and a little bit arrogant, and jumps into the fight because he thinks it's fun.
There is still the problem of the Chronomorphers being locked, and after some persuasion Jen goes back to find Wes and asks him to put it on, because someone who looks that exactly like Alex has to be a close genetic match and can unlock the morphers. So she has him unlock it, and they get through another fight -- and she takes it away again, saying that was all they needed him for and he can go.
Yeah, Jen's kind of a cold bitch at the beginning.
She eventually relents, though, and gives him the morpher back, and in exchange he lets them stay in a clock tower that's one of his father's properties. He moves in with them as well, since he's chafing under his father's very firm intentions that he'll be groomed to take over the company someday. That sets up the season-long, and surprisingly (for PR) understated motif of the series: destiny. Is the future set in stone? Can you change it? Is it necessarily wrong if you do?
And that's where it all begins.
The Characters: Archetypes With A Little Something To Them?
With the exception of Wes, Eric, and Lucas, all last names are effectively fanon as they were never mentioned on the show and obtained from promotional material or official show sources.
Jen Scotts/Pink Ranger (Erin Cahill) - The team's leader. That's one reason PRTF is my favorite season: the freakin' Pink Ranger is the leader. That never happens. Jen's the one who yells at everybody else for goofing off. She's a fairly competent officer, and a good fighter, and pretty badass; she gets some awesome fight sequences over the course of the series. She's driven, that's for damn sure, and will hold a grudge like nobody's business: that leads her to sneak out and stupidly challenge a cyborg named Steelix, her former partner who was convicted of selling Time Force secrets to criminals, one-on-one. Out of all the Rangers, she's the least compassionate, and the least likely to forgive.And she totally doesn't sleep with Barney Stinson.
Wesley Collins/Red Ranger (Jason Faunt) - Jen might be the leader, but Wes is the team's heart. He's the idealistic optimist, the guy who wants to be out there making a difference instead of making money once he gets a taste of what it's like and gets over himself. He's as spontaneous as Jen is strict, and the rest of the team tends to follow his lead much to Jen's frequent irritation. He hates the fact that his father has his future all planned out for him, and hates what that future looks like.
Katie Walker/Yellow Ranger (Deborah Estelle Phillips) - Katie's an absolute sweetheart, the friendliest and most open of the team. She's always happy to give out hugs . . . but always ends up being asked to stop, because we are after all talking about a girl who can lift a couch with three grown guys on it overhead with one hand. Yes, she has super strength, and it's implied that this is a product of the bioengineering that's so commonplace in the year 3000.
Trip Regis/Green Ranger (Kevin Kleinberg) - Trip is the team's resident alien: he's a Xybrian, and has some unpredictable psychic abilities that let him see visions of things going on elsewhere. He's also the team mechanical whiz, but a very insecure guy who's prone to dithering or forgetfulness. He has his moments, though, and on several occasions goes against everyone else to do what he thinks is the right thing.
Lucas Kendall/Blue Ranger (Michael Copon) - Lucas is kinda hot, and he knows it. He races cars as a hobby and is quite the self-assured ladies' man. Like Jen, he's skeptical and doesn't forgive as easily as the others, though not quite to the extent that she can take it. He claims to hate kids, but in "Bodyguard in Blue" risks himself to protect a little girl and thereby proves himself kind of a secret softie.Also he grows up to date Brooke Davis.
Eric Myers/Quantum Ranger (Daniel Southworth) - Oh, Eric. Eric as a character is one of the things I love the most about Time Force. Eric was an old classmate of Wes's in prep school, but -- well, in his words from "End of Time Part 2:" "I had nothing. I was dirt poor - and I have struggled for as long as I can remember to pull my life out of the gutter. No one helped me, not even for one minute." Eric has resented Wes's lifestyle and attitude for years, and when Mr. Collins forms a private security force to protect Silver Hills's businesses from Ransik's attacks Eric joins up and works his way up through the Silver Guardians' ranks with singleminded determination. Eric is never really part of the team: everything he does is to compete with Wes, from getting his hands on the Quantum Morpher to trying to beat the other Rangers to defeating one of Ransik's mutants, just to get himself further into Mr. Collins's good graces and take Wes's place, in a way, as the favored son.
Alex Drake/Red Ranger (Jason Faunt) - Alex is kind of a romantic when we first meet him, before he dies: after all, one of the first things we see him do is propose to Jen. And then he dies. And then something about the team's actions in the year 2001 alters the timeline and brings him back to life, but he's different: harder, critical, demanding, and cold. Something about the man Jen fell in love with is still in there, though, and even though no one else ever sees him when it happens, his compassion hasn't died.
Circuit (Brianne Siddall, voice) - A blue robotic owl, created by Trip, who acts as their liaison with Time Force Headquarters in 3000 and accesses the computer databases to give them the information they need. He usually hides in Trip's backpack when they're out in public.
Mr. Collins (Edward Laurence Albert) - Wes's father, the head of Bio-Lab. He's not an evil man, but he's definitely not likable: when Ransik's mutants start preying on the businesses of Silver Hills, he forms the Silver Guardians because he sees an opportunity for profit. He occasionally helps the Rangers out in a grudging way, but in hopes of getting a hold of their technology and exploiting it for his own company's benefit and more profit. He sees them as an asset, but hopes to hire them so he can get the credit.
Ransik (Vernon Wells) - Chief baddie of the season, vicious and prone to violent fits of rage. He's also got some kind of uncurable illness (thanks to a bite from a mutant named Venomark) that requires him to drink a serum regularly; it's a little like Cable's technoorganic virus, actually, and his organic matter starts to separate from the metal (apparently) if he doesn't keep taking the serum. As PR villains go he's up there as one of the creepiest, due in no small part to his ability to pull bone-handled swords out of his own body. As vicious as he is, though, Ransik is fiercely devoted to and adores . . .
Nadira (Kate Sheldon) - Pink-haired, flighty, superficial, and addicted to shopping, but just as vicious as her father can be and with the ability to sprout nasty metal claws out of her fingertips. She's just as devoted to her father as he is to her, and firmly believes what he's told her all her life: that humans hate mutants, and for that they deserve to be hated and destroyed. Most of the business robberies that happen in Silver Hills are because she needed money to buy shiny things. She's the comedic one of the villains, but still capable of being a nasty piece of work all on her own.
Frax (Eddie Frierson, voice) - A cyborg, Ransik's right hand, and the creator of the serum that keeps Ransik on his feet. He has his own agenda though, and as it turns out hates mutants just as much as he hates humans. He wasn't always a cyborg, though, of course . . .
Gluto (Neil Kaplan, voice) - Half-whale, half-frog, and Ransik's other regular minion. He's mostly there to deliver the bad dialogue and wear a lot of bling, and moon hopelessly after Nadira, who thinks he's gross.
No, really, why should I watch it?
Because it really is surprisingly good and sophisticated for a Power Rangers series. There are a lot of standard tropes and conventions to a PR series, and Time Force is the only one that actually puts some of them into context. On the flippant side, I was telling![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bridge_carson the other night that with the genetic engineering element of the year 3000, TF may even be the only series to have a built-in explanation for why all the Rangers are so photogenic. And I was telling hotceltogoth, who shares my mad love of this series, that Eric and Mr. Collins are two of the reasons I love it so much: actual ambiguous characters who evoke both sympathy and dislike from the audience, and not just because they're annoying comic relief characters that get picked on by the heroes all the time.
I love the overarching theme of destiny and the future in the series, and the constant question of "do we risk changing what we know the future is supposed to be by doing the right thing in the present?" I love the constant strain in Wes's relationship with his father, and the way the destiny theme plays out in their storyline. I love Eric as a character: he's actually quite compelling, and his motivations are intriguing. And really, all of this plays out without the degree of spell-it-out-for-you exposition that you'd expect in a show geared toward a young audience. Don't get me wrong, it's not all subtly illustrated in the narrative or anything, but there isn't really a moment of "stop everything so I can give a speech expounding the moral of the tale" either.
There's even a degree of realism in TF that you don't see in any other PR series; it's the only season that ever regularly showed the Rangers bleeding and beat-up after getting their asses kicked.
It's also fun watching some of the characters evolve over the course of the show, too. There's the aforementioned relationship between Wes and his father, and watching Wes mature from a spoiled rich brat into a genuinely decent guy. There's the particularlyslashy loaded relationship between Wes and Eric. There's Trip, developing a modicum of self-confidence between the beginning and the end. There's Ransik's story arc, and the way his relationship with Nadira contrasts with Wes and Mr. Collins's. Frax's backstory is interesting, too.
And then there's Wes and Jen, who I ship so freaking hardcore, you have no idea. I love how their friendship develops; Jen's a cold bitch to Wes when they first meet (and wow, Erin Cahill was kind of a scenery chewer back then) and thanks in no small part to Wes's persistence warms up to him over time and learns to trust him. She can kick his ass and he knows it, and he's okay with that. It's such a far cry from Kat constantly wailing for Tommy to save her in late-seasons MMPR, and I love that. And I can't not love him falling asleep at her bedside while she's recovering from a particularly rough fight.
I particularly love the two-part cracky fun of "Movie Madness," where all of the Rangers get pulled into alternate movie dimensions and are forced to play out various action-hero genres to survive the Baddie of the Week, with Wes as the white-hat cowboy, Jen as a kung fu star, and Eric as Tarzan among others. Also, it has Wes and Jen in drag. No, seriously.
Look, I'm not going to pretend that it's some brilliant piece of television or something, because in the end it is still Power Rangers, and it is still geared toward kids, and there's still some chief bits of WTFery like how the mutants grow to giant citystompy size because their "mutant DNA's been exposed," which makes the scientist in me cry. But if any one PR series is worth watching, I think it's this one, that's less focused on having tons of action sequences packed with explosives and gratuitous motorcycle stunts, and has an actual interest in telling the story. This was the last season of PR to be produced by Saban before the franchise was handed over to Disney, and it shows, especially in comparison with the (IMO) massive disappointment of the subsequent Wild Force season. (Though Wild Force does get some credit in terms of good female characters -- because I can't watch anything that doesn't have them -- for having Taylor Earhardt, the Yellow Ranger, as an Air Force lieutenant.)
Meta Fun
Yeah, there's not much, but.
Daniel Southworth showed up in one episode of season 7 Charmed so I kind of pretend like he was never on the show. He's done voiceovers for Devil May Cry 3 and 4, motion capture work for DMC and Resident Evil 5, and was a stunt coordinator on The Scorpion King.
Michael Copon has been on Scrubs, Greek, and The Scorpion King 2, and played Felix Taggaro on season 2 of One Tree Hill.
Edward Laurence Albert was in a lot of stuff, including Beauty and the Beast, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and The Sentinel.
Jason Faunt has not been in much. This makes me sad because he needs to take his shirt off more. This paragraph has no reason to be here but I include it anyway because I felt it needed to be said.
Erin Cahill has been in a few things lately, including Supernatural, Without a Trace, Greek, and How I Met Your Mother (as Ted's sister Heather). I am highly amused.
Multimedia Goodies!
Bless you, YouTube, for you have tons of clips from this show! Here's a few of my favorites, and some key scenes from the pilot.
Red Ranger's Demise - From "Force From the Future, Part 1," in which Alex bites it and Jen thinks she's Anakin Skywalker, but just for a second.
"You look like you've just seen a ghost." Enter Wes for the first time.
The first morphed battle sequence, from "Force From the Future, Part 2." With RANDOM MATRIX ACTION! And nobody kicks more ass in this sequence than the Pink Ranger does.
Jen does Not Approve of Wes. Lucas doesn't either.
Jen beats up on a tree, flashbacks, and emos, then pwns Wes.
Wes gives Jen pointers on shooting . . . a toy gun. OH MY GOD THE SHIPPINESS *FLAIL*.
Did I mention the shippiness? Katie, Trip, and Lucas totally notice too. Which cracks me up.
. . . no, really, did I mention the shippiness?
Enter Eric. He doesn't waste time with pleasantries, either.
Wes comes out to his father. Um. Not like that. This is the first appearance of the helmet that will later belong to Sky Tate's father on SPD.
Jen fails at cookie-baking. Like, really fails. And hello there, Wes in a tank top. And apron.
Even when the world's ending Eric can't not snark at Wes. Wow, that's kinda slashy, too.
In 3000, the team prepares to have their memories wiped of 2001; in 2001 Wes is about to get his ass kicked alone.
Which is his fault, because he thought it'd be a good idea to send them home.
Not that they're having any of that. Poor Alex.
And okay, technically this one is from Wild Force, but still. Still my favorite Pink Ranger ever.
And then they had to torture me with more shippiness in "Reinforcements From the Future." GOD, GUYS.
Wes/Jen fanvid to "Time After Time." SHUT UP OKAY I KNOW IT'S CLICHE BUT MY SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIP.
Where Can I Find It?
Well, unfortunately, PRTF is not on DVD, despite years of campaigning and begging by the fans; no series prior to Operation Overdrive (which I do rather love because of champion race car driver Veronica "Ronny" Robinson) is or is likely to be available on DVD in its entirety, and none of the pre-Disney years will have more than a handful of episodes available on DVD. If you scour Amazon you might be able to find a few eps on VHS maybe, but not all 40.
YouTube has a good number of the eps available at the current time, albeit broken down into parts.
If you're really interested in seeing all of it, well . . . we can talk. >.>
Ahem.
Today on Spotlight on Fandoms, I'll be rambling at you about Power Rangers Time Force, which I will maintain until the end of my days was the absolute best season of PR, hands down, that ever was or will be. I'm a little biased. Ahem.
The Show: In the Thirty-First Century Life Is Actually Kind of Creepy.
So the basic premise of PRTF is pretty standard for the PR franchise: team of color-coded photogenic archetypes gets recruited to wield special powers of spandex and funky weaponry and giant robots and defend the Earth from prosthetic-laden villains of such singleminded purpose that their plans for world domination consist of attacking the same city over and over. Time Force, though, is a little bit unique in that it has an actual season-long story arc instead of just a vague pretense of one.
. . . that would be because Time Force is one of only two PR series in 16 years to adhere very closely to the storyline of the Japanese Super Sentai series, in this case Mirai Sentai Timeranger, on which it was based. (To spare you some tl;dr on the whole Super Sentai-Power Rangers thing, I'll just refer you back to my previous spotlights on Power Rangers Dino Thunder and GoGo Sentai Boukenger. In a nutshell, Super Sentai are a little more sophisticated than their American counterparts.) The other PR series to stick pretty closely to its material of origin is Power Rangers SPD, based on Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger, but both series were more episodic in nature, and lighter in tone.
PRTF, as it's known to the fandom, was the 9th season of PR, airing in and set in the year 2001. For the most part. The series opens in Millennium City in the year 3000, a time where genetic engineering is the norm and most people's DNA is customized before birth, where the technology is far advanced but somehow normal wheeled cars are still commonplace (thank you limited budget), and those who were created in an experiment gone wrong are so severely ostracized that most of them turn to crime. The Time Force Police are on the verge of capturing Ransik, the last and most wanted of the mutant criminals, thanks to the work of one Alex Drake, who's been entrusted with the Chronomorpher technology that allows him to turn into the Red Time Force Ranger.
Ransik, an actually rather gruesome sort, is apprehended and tried, convicted to life imprisonment, which pretty much means he'll be cryogenically frozen, shrunken down to action figure size, and kept in a high security facility. At the trial, Alex proposes to Jennifer Scotts, and after Ransik's conviction a team of Time Force officers led by Jen is charged with the task of transporting him to prison.
Yeah, you know that was doomed, right? Ransik's daughter Nadira waylays the police transport en route, and Ransik escapes. Alex goes to stop him, but Chronomorpher or not Ransik kills him (conveniently timed so that Jen and the others are there to witness it and he dies in Jen's arms, thereby assuring emo), steals a time ship, and escapes into the past with Nadira and a whole freezer full of tinified mutant criminals, not to mention the equipment to restore them. Um, oops? Just before Alex dies, he tells Jen to take his Chronomorpher and the four others that exist, and to promise him that she'll bring Ransik to justice.
Jen, determined to make up for her screwup with the prison transport assignment on top of wanting to hold up her promise to Alex, takes her teammates Katie, Lucas, and Trip, steals another time ship, and before Captain Logan and the Time Force brass can stop them it's off through the time vortex and back to the year 2001. (They're apparently okay with the time ship theft later. Er.)
There's just one little problem: the other four Chronomorphers are locked, and they can't use them unless the one that belonged to Alex is activated too. And he's kind of dead. Also, it's genetically locked onto him. Well. This could definitely be a problem. As could the fact that their ship kinda crash landed and then exploded. And also that Ransik now has an entire army of mutants at his disposal.
Enter Wes Collins, spoiled son of the head of the powerful Bio-Lab firm based in our new setting of Silver Hills, Washington (the state is never explicitly stated onscreen, though it's in the showrunner's bible), who just happens to be out on his motorcycle and blowing off one of his father's board meetings while Jen and her friends are getting their asses kicked by Ransik. Oh yeah, and he also just happens to be a dead ringer for Alex, except with better, lighter-colored hair. He's cocky and a little bit arrogant, and jumps into the fight because he thinks it's fun.
There is still the problem of the Chronomorphers being locked, and after some persuasion Jen goes back to find Wes and asks him to put it on, because someone who looks that exactly like Alex has to be a close genetic match and can unlock the morphers. So she has him unlock it, and they get through another fight -- and she takes it away again, saying that was all they needed him for and he can go.
Yeah, Jen's kind of a cold bitch at the beginning.
She eventually relents, though, and gives him the morpher back, and in exchange he lets them stay in a clock tower that's one of his father's properties. He moves in with them as well, since he's chafing under his father's very firm intentions that he'll be groomed to take over the company someday. That sets up the season-long, and surprisingly (for PR) understated motif of the series: destiny. Is the future set in stone? Can you change it? Is it necessarily wrong if you do?
And that's where it all begins.
The Characters: Archetypes With A Little Something To Them?
With the exception of Wes, Eric, and Lucas, all last names are effectively fanon as they were never mentioned on the show and obtained from promotional material or official show sources.
Jen Scotts/Pink Ranger (Erin Cahill) - The team's leader. That's one reason PRTF is my favorite season: the freakin' Pink Ranger is the leader. That never happens. Jen's the one who yells at everybody else for goofing off. She's a fairly competent officer, and a good fighter, and pretty badass; she gets some awesome fight sequences over the course of the series. She's driven, that's for damn sure, and will hold a grudge like nobody's business: that leads her to sneak out and stupidly challenge a cyborg named Steelix, her former partner who was convicted of selling Time Force secrets to criminals, one-on-one. Out of all the Rangers, she's the least compassionate, and the least likely to forgive.
Wesley Collins/Red Ranger (Jason Faunt) - Jen might be the leader, but Wes is the team's heart. He's the idealistic optimist, the guy who wants to be out there making a difference instead of making money once he gets a taste of what it's like and gets over himself. He's as spontaneous as Jen is strict, and the rest of the team tends to follow his lead much to Jen's frequent irritation. He hates the fact that his father has his future all planned out for him, and hates what that future looks like.
Katie Walker/Yellow Ranger (Deborah Estelle Phillips) - Katie's an absolute sweetheart, the friendliest and most open of the team. She's always happy to give out hugs . . . but always ends up being asked to stop, because we are after all talking about a girl who can lift a couch with three grown guys on it overhead with one hand. Yes, she has super strength, and it's implied that this is a product of the bioengineering that's so commonplace in the year 3000.
Trip Regis/Green Ranger (Kevin Kleinberg) - Trip is the team's resident alien: he's a Xybrian, and has some unpredictable psychic abilities that let him see visions of things going on elsewhere. He's also the team mechanical whiz, but a very insecure guy who's prone to dithering or forgetfulness. He has his moments, though, and on several occasions goes against everyone else to do what he thinks is the right thing.
Lucas Kendall/Blue Ranger (Michael Copon) - Lucas is kinda hot, and he knows it. He races cars as a hobby and is quite the self-assured ladies' man. Like Jen, he's skeptical and doesn't forgive as easily as the others, though not quite to the extent that she can take it. He claims to hate kids, but in "Bodyguard in Blue" risks himself to protect a little girl and thereby proves himself kind of a secret softie.
Eric Myers/Quantum Ranger (Daniel Southworth) - Oh, Eric. Eric as a character is one of the things I love the most about Time Force. Eric was an old classmate of Wes's in prep school, but -- well, in his words from "End of Time Part 2:" "I had nothing. I was dirt poor - and I have struggled for as long as I can remember to pull my life out of the gutter. No one helped me, not even for one minute." Eric has resented Wes's lifestyle and attitude for years, and when Mr. Collins forms a private security force to protect Silver Hills's businesses from Ransik's attacks Eric joins up and works his way up through the Silver Guardians' ranks with singleminded determination. Eric is never really part of the team: everything he does is to compete with Wes, from getting his hands on the Quantum Morpher to trying to beat the other Rangers to defeating one of Ransik's mutants, just to get himself further into Mr. Collins's good graces and take Wes's place, in a way, as the favored son.
Alex Drake/Red Ranger (Jason Faunt) - Alex is kind of a romantic when we first meet him, before he dies: after all, one of the first things we see him do is propose to Jen. And then he dies. And then something about the team's actions in the year 2001 alters the timeline and brings him back to life, but he's different: harder, critical, demanding, and cold. Something about the man Jen fell in love with is still in there, though, and even though no one else ever sees him when it happens, his compassion hasn't died.
Circuit (Brianne Siddall, voice) - A blue robotic owl, created by Trip, who acts as their liaison with Time Force Headquarters in 3000 and accesses the computer databases to give them the information they need. He usually hides in Trip's backpack when they're out in public.
Mr. Collins (Edward Laurence Albert) - Wes's father, the head of Bio-Lab. He's not an evil man, but he's definitely not likable: when Ransik's mutants start preying on the businesses of Silver Hills, he forms the Silver Guardians because he sees an opportunity for profit. He occasionally helps the Rangers out in a grudging way, but in hopes of getting a hold of their technology and exploiting it for his own company's benefit and more profit. He sees them as an asset, but hopes to hire them so he can get the credit.
Ransik (Vernon Wells) - Chief baddie of the season, vicious and prone to violent fits of rage. He's also got some kind of uncurable illness (thanks to a bite from a mutant named Venomark) that requires him to drink a serum regularly; it's a little like Cable's technoorganic virus, actually, and his organic matter starts to separate from the metal (apparently) if he doesn't keep taking the serum. As PR villains go he's up there as one of the creepiest, due in no small part to his ability to pull bone-handled swords out of his own body. As vicious as he is, though, Ransik is fiercely devoted to and adores . . .
Nadira (Kate Sheldon) - Pink-haired, flighty, superficial, and addicted to shopping, but just as vicious as her father can be and with the ability to sprout nasty metal claws out of her fingertips. She's just as devoted to her father as he is to her, and firmly believes what he's told her all her life: that humans hate mutants, and for that they deserve to be hated and destroyed. Most of the business robberies that happen in Silver Hills are because she needed money to buy shiny things. She's the comedic one of the villains, but still capable of being a nasty piece of work all on her own.
Frax (Eddie Frierson, voice) - A cyborg, Ransik's right hand, and the creator of the serum that keeps Ransik on his feet. He has his own agenda though, and as it turns out hates mutants just as much as he hates humans. He wasn't always a cyborg, though, of course . . .
Gluto (Neil Kaplan, voice) - Half-whale, half-frog, and Ransik's other regular minion. He's mostly there to deliver the bad dialogue and wear a lot of bling, and moon hopelessly after Nadira, who thinks he's gross.
No, really, why should I watch it?
Because it really is surprisingly good and sophisticated for a Power Rangers series. There are a lot of standard tropes and conventions to a PR series, and Time Force is the only one that actually puts some of them into context. On the flippant side, I was telling
bridge_carson the other night that with the genetic engineering element of the year 3000, TF may even be the only series to have a built-in explanation for why all the Rangers are so photogenic. And I was telling hotceltogoth, who shares my mad love of this series, that Eric and Mr. Collins are two of the reasons I love it so much: actual ambiguous characters who evoke both sympathy and dislike from the audience, and not just because they're annoying comic relief characters that get picked on by the heroes all the time.I love the overarching theme of destiny and the future in the series, and the constant question of "do we risk changing what we know the future is supposed to be by doing the right thing in the present?" I love the constant strain in Wes's relationship with his father, and the way the destiny theme plays out in their storyline. I love Eric as a character: he's actually quite compelling, and his motivations are intriguing. And really, all of this plays out without the degree of spell-it-out-for-you exposition that you'd expect in a show geared toward a young audience. Don't get me wrong, it's not all subtly illustrated in the narrative or anything, but there isn't really a moment of "stop everything so I can give a speech expounding the moral of the tale" either.
There's even a degree of realism in TF that you don't see in any other PR series; it's the only season that ever regularly showed the Rangers bleeding and beat-up after getting their asses kicked.
It's also fun watching some of the characters evolve over the course of the show, too. There's the aforementioned relationship between Wes and his father, and watching Wes mature from a spoiled rich brat into a genuinely decent guy. There's the particularly
And then there's Wes and Jen, who I ship so freaking hardcore, you have no idea. I love how their friendship develops; Jen's a cold bitch to Wes when they first meet (and wow, Erin Cahill was kind of a scenery chewer back then) and thanks in no small part to Wes's persistence warms up to him over time and learns to trust him. She can kick his ass and he knows it, and he's okay with that. It's such a far cry from Kat constantly wailing for Tommy to save her in late-seasons MMPR, and I love that. And I can't not love him falling asleep at her bedside while she's recovering from a particularly rough fight.
I particularly love the two-part cracky fun of "Movie Madness," where all of the Rangers get pulled into alternate movie dimensions and are forced to play out various action-hero genres to survive the Baddie of the Week, with Wes as the white-hat cowboy, Jen as a kung fu star, and Eric as Tarzan among others. Also, it has Wes and Jen in drag. No, seriously.
Look, I'm not going to pretend that it's some brilliant piece of television or something, because in the end it is still Power Rangers, and it is still geared toward kids, and there's still some chief bits of WTFery like how the mutants grow to giant citystompy size because their "mutant DNA's been exposed," which makes the scientist in me cry. But if any one PR series is worth watching, I think it's this one, that's less focused on having tons of action sequences packed with explosives and gratuitous motorcycle stunts, and has an actual interest in telling the story. This was the last season of PR to be produced by Saban before the franchise was handed over to Disney, and it shows, especially in comparison with the (IMO) massive disappointment of the subsequent Wild Force season. (Though Wild Force does get some credit in terms of good female characters -- because I can't watch anything that doesn't have them -- for having Taylor Earhardt, the Yellow Ranger, as an Air Force lieutenant.)
Meta Fun
Yeah, there's not much, but.
Daniel Southworth showed up in one episode of season 7 Charmed so I kind of pretend like he was never on the show. He's done voiceovers for Devil May Cry 3 and 4, motion capture work for DMC and Resident Evil 5, and was a stunt coordinator on The Scorpion King.
Michael Copon has been on Scrubs, Greek, and The Scorpion King 2, and played Felix Taggaro on season 2 of One Tree Hill.
Edward Laurence Albert was in a lot of stuff, including Beauty and the Beast, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and The Sentinel.
Jason Faunt has not been in much. This makes me sad because he needs to take his shirt off more. This paragraph has no reason to be here but I include it anyway because I felt it needed to be said.
Erin Cahill has been in a few things lately, including Supernatural, Without a Trace, Greek, and How I Met Your Mother (as Ted's sister Heather). I am highly amused.
Multimedia Goodies!
Bless you, YouTube, for you have tons of clips from this show! Here's a few of my favorites, and some key scenes from the pilot.
Red Ranger's Demise - From "Force From the Future, Part 1," in which Alex bites it and Jen thinks she's Anakin Skywalker, but just for a second.
"You look like you've just seen a ghost." Enter Wes for the first time.
The first morphed battle sequence, from "Force From the Future, Part 2." With RANDOM MATRIX ACTION! And nobody kicks more ass in this sequence than the Pink Ranger does.
Jen does Not Approve of Wes. Lucas doesn't either.
Jen beats up on a tree, flashbacks, and emos, then pwns Wes.
Wes gives Jen pointers on shooting . . . a toy gun. OH MY GOD THE SHIPPINESS *FLAIL*.
Did I mention the shippiness? Katie, Trip, and Lucas totally notice too. Which cracks me up.
. . . no, really, did I mention the shippiness?
Enter Eric. He doesn't waste time with pleasantries, either.
Wes comes out to his father. Um. Not like that. This is the first appearance of the helmet that will later belong to Sky Tate's father on SPD.
Jen fails at cookie-baking. Like, really fails. And hello there, Wes in a tank top. And apron.
Even when the world's ending Eric can't not snark at Wes. Wow, that's kinda slashy, too.
In 3000, the team prepares to have their memories wiped of 2001; in 2001 Wes is about to get his ass kicked alone.
Which is his fault, because he thought it'd be a good idea to send them home.
Not that they're having any of that. Poor Alex.
Movie Madness TOTALLY gets its own section!
Samurai Lucas and movie musical Katie!
Jen's kung fu movie!
Wes, Trip, and Nadira in a Western!
Eric as Tarzan!
And okay, technically this one is from Wild Force, but still. Still my favorite Pink Ranger ever.
And then they had to torture me with more shippiness in "Reinforcements From the Future." GOD, GUYS.
Wes/Jen fanvid to "Time After Time." SHUT UP OKAY I KNOW IT'S CLICHE BUT MY SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIP.
Where Can I Find It?
Well, unfortunately, PRTF is not on DVD, despite years of campaigning and begging by the fans; no series prior to Operation Overdrive (which I do rather love because of champion race car driver Veronica "Ronny" Robinson) is or is likely to be available on DVD in its entirety, and none of the pre-Disney years will have more than a handful of episodes available on DVD. If you scour Amazon you might be able to find a few eps on VHS maybe, but not all 40.
YouTube has a good number of the eps available at the current time, albeit broken down into parts.
If you're really interested in seeing all of it, well . . . we can talk. >.>
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I still think I like Jungle Fury more, but that's more because of Casey and RJ than anything else... Still, TF is easily my second favorite of the series, not least because, omg, they're actually adults. Moreso than any of the other PR series, I would say, even when the Rangers are, theoretically, over eighteen.
Jen and Wes, however, are easily tied for PR OTP with Casey/RJ, for me. So. Much. Love.
(Wes/Eric is a close, very close, second. Which should come as no surprise to, uh, anyone who knows me.)
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And yes, I love the adults thing. Which was there in Lightspeed Rescue too, but . . . well, I didn't care much for LR. Because Carter was boring, Dana was irrelevant, and Kelsey couldn't act.
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