Power Rangers is perhaps the longest kids action franchise in the world having started all the way in 1993 and further back in you take the show it's based off of Super Sentai into account and while right now there are no new episodes of either being made this doesn't mean that we can't look back on older episodes. Back in 2015 alot of Power Rangers fans had lost faith in the franchise as Megaforce and Supermega Force had taken away all of the good will that the previous season had somewhat maintained yet despite this Dino Charge proved to be the best season of the Neo-Saban era and so then join me as I review the episode that only features two of the rangers morphed with the episode in question being called simply just "Powers From The Past" enjoy.
The plot of this episode is millions of years after dinosaurs are entrusted with looking after these powerful artifacts called Energems two people find themselves in need of them when aliens start attacking the earth. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad. The episodes whilst it is the just the stereotypical opening episode in that it's just there to set up the characters and the main conflict of the season and that's it bit that's all it needed to be and to be fair it does add enough new things to make it kind of feel new again. Heck even the idea of Tyler looking for his dad is something that would get repeated the very next season in Ninja Steel with the thing that makes this episodes plot standout is the fact that we mostly just follow two of the five rangers a while we do get introduced to two of the others in this episode we mainly follow Tyler and Shelby which is something that hasn't been done before and won't be done after until Dino Fury and while the plot of the episode is one that could have been alot more better handled as alot of the stuff at the start of the episode whilst it is important for the plot of the season it doesn't really add anything to the plot of the episode and therefor would have been better served if it was being handled across several episodes instead of just being dumbed here at the start of the first episode with the plot of this episode also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this episode is Brennan Mejia as Tyler Navarro , James Davies as Chase Randall and Yoshi Sudarso as Koda. Also starring in this episode is Camille Hyde as Shelby Watkins , Claire Blackwelder as Kendall Morgan , Richard Simpson as the voice of Keeper , Adam Gardiner as the voice of Sledge , Paul Harrop as the voice of Fury , Estevez Gillespie as the voice of Wrench , Jackie Clarke as Poisandra , Rebecca McFadzien as The Tour Guide , Susanna Tang as A Customer and Gerald Urquhart as the voice of Iceage.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad. Whilst this episodes acting isn't good by any means as this is not only still Power Rangers and therefor you do have to accept that the acting won't be that good but it's also the first episode of a TV show and therefor the actors are still trying to find there characters and whilst yes there are some actors in this episode that are better then others the overall quality isn't going to be as high as it would be in later episodes of the show. With the best actor in this episode being Camille Hyde as Shelby Watkins as you do get the sense that she is trying her best to deliver a performance that is better then Power Rangers whereas the rest of the episodes actors whilst they are still good are giving us the exact performances that you think of when you think of Power Rangers with Camille even having a bit of playful energy to her performance that does make you want to spend more time with her with this also being something that helps to make her character all the more likable at the same time with her own natural charm and charisma really shining through in this episode. With the actin that's in tis very episode not really being helped by the fact that this episodes script is just so bad as it gives none of this episodes actors absolutely anything to work with interms of what it is that there actual characters personalities are even meant to be in the first place which is something that really does help to harm the overall quality of the acting that's in this very episode.
With this being the first episode we of curse get to spend alot of time with the seasons main villain Sledge. With Sledge actually being an American exclusive villain and yet you really can't tell as his suit looks so good and while Ninja Steel would pretty much nerf his character and make him a comedy one off villain here in this episode we do get to see that he is a threat with him killing one of his own workers just because they blocked his fiancé's view of space and then later on in the episode he threatens to kill one of his own generals those two things right there are things that make him a decent villain as it shows us that he is willing to go to extreme lengths just too get what he wants and that he doesn't really care who lives and dies and while Dino Super Charge gave him more of a comedic edge just seeing him be an outright villain was so much fun to see. Heck it's no wonder that he became oddly enough a fan favorite villain as not only does he have a simple goal of getting these Energems so that he can be more powerful but he also has a great look to him that makes him look really threatening and creepy at times and while it would have been nice if we did get more of him in this opening episode just to set up more of the fact that he's meant to be the main villain of the season what little we do get of him in this episode is alot of fun to watch with it showing us that the makers of episode can still give us some really fun original villains that despite having no ties to the Sentai still fit in really well within the world of Power Rangers as by all rights he could have been a really dull looking villain that was all bark and no bite and yet here with Sledge we do get a villain that could truly be a threat to the rangers of this new season.
Much like every single season of Power Rangers this episode and this season is based off of a Super Sentai season which in this case is Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger. However unlike alot of episodes of Power Rangers this episode doesn't actually have any footage from that Sentai with everything in the episode being American exclusive footage which for Saban is a very brave thing to do as it means that thy have to create everything themselves with again Sledge being a prime example of this as due to him being an American only villain every single scene that has him in it has to be created from scratch much like with the episodes action which is where they would normally swap in the Sentai footage here it is American only footage and you really can't tell the difference. While this episode is alot more comedy focused early on in the episode this is something that does make sense as this is meant to be the first episode of a show and therefor it doesn't really harm the episode that the characters are making jokes and heck it's something that was even done in some Super Sentai debut episodes as well with the jokes here not being as childish as you'd think from Power Rangers as they all feel very character driven like with caveman Koda being obsessed with burger for example even to the point that he unknowingly lifts up both a crate and Shelby at the same time with the only person who doesn't get alot of chances to really be all that funny being Tyler as alot of his scenes are more with Shelby when there being attacked by Fury or with him in his own or in one scene with Chase and that's really it which is a shame as he did have the potential to have this optimistic sense of humor that would have worked really well with his character.
Outside of the brief bit of plot that we get at the start and at the end of the episode there's not really all that much to this episode. With this episode being viewed by some as being a two part episode due to the fact that it doesn't fully finish establishing everything for the show moving forward this is not the case as the plot of this episode is mostly all wrapped up at the end of the episode with the only reason to view as this as being a two part episode being because as was just mentioned it doesn't fully finish setting everything up which if i'm being honest here is a lame reason to to call this a two part episode as there's no overarching storyline and heck alot of what happens in the next episode could have been added to this episode and nothing would need to change. Even looking back on other debut episodes the very first episode of the original show didn't fully set things up until a few episodes later and it's the same thing with alot of other episodes of the show whilst yes there are some multipart debut episodes like for example "Day Of The Dino" from Dino Thunder and even the debut episode of Ninja Steel could be seen as being a two parter due to the fact that plot elements from that first episode do carry over into the next episode and whilst it could be argued that the same thing is also true for this episode here it's a case of there not being enough plot elements carried over to fully justify it being called a two part episode and heck even how this episode ends with the reveal of Fury being alive and well isn't something that really makes you want to watch the next episode whereas if this was always meant to be a two part episode then it would make more sense for there to be one big overarching plot and have a hook at the end of this episode that right away makes you want to watch the following episode both of which are things that are missing from this episode.
Given the fac that by the end of this show we do pretty much establish that this version of Power Rangers is set in it's own universe the idea of having dinosaurs be the ones to protect the Energems for millions of years is something that does make alot of sense. With it also being something that doesn't mess with the established timeline as now we know that the Energems wouldn't have effected the original Mighty Morphin team when they first got given there powers at the start of the show but there is an issue when it comes to the fact that the Energems are shown to save the person that they bond to as here in this episode we do see them take on the DNA and effectively bond to several dinosaurs and yet the dinosaurs are still extinct when going off of the shows own logic they should have survived the asteroid that killed them. This is something that wouldn't be an issue if the episode didn't later show both Tyler and Shelby almost die before touching there Energems thus saving them yet due to the fact that the episode does show us that we now have to wonder why the dinosaurs weren't saved in the same way as this is something that does crate a small inconsistency with the powers and what it is that they can do with none of the other episodes in both this season and in Dino Super Charge really making things more clearer rather they just straight up forget about it until the final episode of Dino Super Charge when it is something that should have been made alot more clear abut why the Energems save the humans but not the animals as otherwise why bother showing us Keeper giving them to the dinosaurs if your not going to do anything with it until the shows final episode.
Now then this episode has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly twenty three minuets and thirty six seconds. Which is pretty much the bog standard running time for this version of the sow as all of the shows episodes have very similar running times to them but here's the thing tho this episode really could have done with being a double length episode of the show just due to how much it does have to set up both interms of the plot for both the episode and the show and the things that it has to set up for the rest of the show moving forward and yet all of the key plot stuff is just crammed into the opening several minuets of the episode which leaves alot less plot for the rest of the episode with this episode having the right amount of plot there to cover that amount of running time. The episode doesn't even use its running time all that wisely as the episode just flat doesn't have the time do any of it as the second the shows opening intro finishes the episode just feels like that it's on fast forward hitting you plot point after plot point whereas if the episode did take its time and was a double length then all of those plot points would be all the more better with the makers of this episode being more bothered about cramming as much plot into the first several minuets then they in giving the episodes plot some plot development. This is something that is also true for the episodes character development altho in this case you can make the point that the characters will get there development in later episodes of the show but the episode doesn't even bother to lay down the groundwork for any potential character development which makes any development that the characters might get come out of nowhere with the makers of this episode putting more thought into there original fight footage that then did into giving the episodes characters some character development but I really will admit that this episode really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is an action show that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us n this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally tought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty really good. As was mentioned earlier on in the review all of the fight footage for this episode is exclusive to the show with none of it being lifted from Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger ad much like with Sledge you really can't tell as it just looks so good that you would just automatically assume that it was lifted straight from the original Sentai and yet none of it was with the makers of this episode pulling some really good hand to hand combat with Keeper taking Fury at the start of the episode and both Shelby and Tyler taking Iceage in there morphed form at the end of the episode. With the best action un the while episode being the final fight of the episode as we see Tyler and Shelby morph for the first time and use there powers to beat up Iceage who had previously almost beaten them both with the fact that he is a bit of a handful for them in this episode is something that does make sense as they are new to being Ranger and therefor it does make sense that the only way that they could defeat him or come close to it is in there morphed form with the episode fitting alot of cool moments be it Shelby hitting Iceage with a flying kick or both her and Tyler jumping up as an explosion goes of in the background bottom line being here there is alot of cool stuff to be found in that this episodes action with the rest of the action in this episode being just as good as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall it does go without saying but this one episode is easily better then anything that was done in both Megaforce and in Super Megaforce with this episode being one that does remind you of why we love Power Rangers in the first place as while yes there are moments that are cheesy there are alot of moments just that are just flat out cool to watch and those moments make the episode worth watching in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and a sell as all if the bad things tat are in his very episode in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very episode really does earn itself a gran old score of exactly a 6.5 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from Amazon . Co . Uk and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from this very episode that I used in this very post being the really great Google Images really simply just due to the fact that really alot of if not really all of the images that are all really from this very episode with alot of them really being really better quality then what you'd really think of and all of the images are really of course up and really on Google Images really are also really all fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.
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