A research mission on the moon goes from one small step for man to one giant leap for Tokusatsu when a huge cauldron is discovered on the surface, sealed shut with a magical ruby in the middle. When the lid is removed, out comes an evil witch from outer space named RITA REPULSA who vows to conquer earth with her army of monsters and a plethora of black magic spells. At the time of this development, five teenagers with attitude are chosen by an alien wizard named Zordon for their skills, courage, and awesome dance-karate techniques.
These five teens are given “Morphers” which enable them to tap into a source of power called the “Morphin Grid”. With it, they battle monsters, big and small, and defend the world from the Empress of Evil, not just with their grid-enhanced martial arts, but with giant robots! Now THIS is how you open a superhero show! But what even are these superheroes? Where do these amazing creature costumes come from? Why do the evil witch’s words not match up to her lips? Who are the POWER RANGERS?
If you’re anything like me, these guys hardly need an introduction. As a matter of fact, even if you aren’t me you may still be very familiar with them. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers has been a staple of kids TV for longer than I’ve been alive, and its origins actually stretch even further beyond that! To make a long story very, VERY short, Power Rangers is essentially not a totally original American IP. It’s a show that is adapted from a Japanese series of kid-friendly television called Super Sentai.
On a business trip overseas, a big media producer named Haim Saban was inspired by the French localization of Bioman to try and have the show air on American television. He would have scenes of Bioman reshot using American actors with more of an abridged take on the characters involved rather than make a direct translation. He tried selling the idea of a superhero show using footage from Japanese television to save money on production, but nobody was buying it for a few years.
It wasn’t until he met an executive from FOX KIDS (who was bothered by STAN LEE with a similar idea) when Saban’s bait finally caught a nibble. Sometimes getting your show made really is all about knowing someone who knows someone. With Bioman not having much of an impact with Execs, Saban purchased footage from a few newer shows, including Chojin Sentai Jetman, and Kyuryu Sentai Zyuranger.
He used the footage from the latter to edit together a pilot for “GALAXY RANGERS” and showed it to a loving audience of kids. From there it was off to the races. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers would go on to air for three seasons until a brief break would take place before its evolution into other similarly named superteen superstories; Power Rangers Zeo, Power Rangers Turbo, Power Rangers in Space, Lost Galaxy, Lightspeed Rescue, Time Force, etc, etc; this show lasted a VERY long time!
I imagine most people who aren’t fans of the show at least know about it mostly thanks to the “Mighty Morphin” run, and don’t realize exactly how expansive the series became. I could go on about the development for days, but I already kinda broke my promise of keeping this story short. If you’re like me and you’re VERY familiar with the show, you might’ve noticed I skipped over something in the brief list of shows I gave, or you assumed I glossed over it on purpose.
If you’re mostly unfamiliar with the franchise (hi mom!), you’d be forgiven for not knowing what I’m talking about. Between the end of Mighty Morphin’ and the beginning of Zeo, there was another brief miniseries that connected the two, a series that sits on a very unique type of classification that I think bears some talking about. To begin our story, we actually don’t start on the first episode of the show, but the very last few episodes of the series prior; Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Season 3, Episodes 29-33.
Those with even a passing notion of Power Rangers have PROBABLY heard of the basic roundup of characters. For the purposes of keeping things short, I’m gonna assume you already know about Rita Repulsa, the Empress of Evil, her husband, the mighty Lord Zedd, and their grab-bag gang of snotty sideshow villains.
Season 3, Episode 29 of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers has a TON of lore dump.
For one, Rita has a dad.
His name is Master Vile, an evil wizard from outer space so powerful that just by showing up to earth he causes a worldwide blackout that even shuts down friends and mentors of the power rangers, Alpha and Zordon, for a few minutes. It’s like he’s made of pure anti-grid. He’s such an upgrade from our usual villains that he scoffs at Lord Zedd and Rita, expressing disappointment that his daughter would marry such a “skull-less moron”. To be honest, I can’t blame him for scoffing.
Did I mention this guy actually successfully conquered a whole galaxy!? Yeah, in his neck of the woods, he beat the heroes! It’s no wonder he’s not impressed with Lord Zedd (who admits to not having a skull, apparently). Villains like Master Vile really are a dying breed. For the very first story arc that introduces him, he actually beats the Rangers midway through and then he forces the people of Angel Grove, California to celebrate his victory with dance parties and hot fudge sundaes (with an extra evil layer of jalapeños on top).
Also, in a passing joke it is mentioned that Rita pays for an electric bill.
TO WHO?!?! Damn if I know, it doesn’t seem to matter whether you’re a janitor or the Empress of Evil, General Electric WILL GET TO YOU. (Imagine the maintenance cost!)
To summarize the next few episodes, Master Vile uses his dark magic and trickery to eventually succeed in turning the Power Rangers into children, rendering their ability to morph nullified. All hope seems lost for Angel Grove, the world, and even the whole galaxy when suddenly Zordon pulls yet another trick up his sleeve to save the day.
In a shocking development of THE LORE, Zordon reveals to us something that rattled the minds of all involved, that these heroes of ours are NOT the only Power Rangers in existence. Across the galaxy on a planet called Aquitar, the aptly named Aquitians have a team of their own who draw power from the Morphin Grid. To the people of Aquitar, they are the Ocean Rangers, but to our earth brains, they are the Mighty Morphin’ ALIEN Rangers.
While we don’t get much in the way of any true development for the Alien Rangers, we do get a really clear look at them as characters. The Aquitians are humanoid but partially aquatic. The surface of earth is nearly inhospitable to a species like them, and yet they agree to help our heroes save Earth without much convincing. Right off the bat we get these complete strangers who are willing to drop everything to save a planet they’ve probably never even heard of until now. It’s the kind of heartwarming optimistic heroism I haven’t seen much of in superhero media (until fairly recently with James Gunn’s Superman and Marvel’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps).
As soon as our new heroes land on earth, the very first thing they do is rescue the Powerless Child Rangers from the clutches of the evil Goldar and Rito, Rita’s closest henchmen. The interesting part here is that the Alien Rangers didn’t even have to morph to use any of their powers, which should be kind of a big deal. The impression I get from this is that not only are there other rangers across the galaxy, but that these guys are highly experienced at what they do. Right after saving our heroes, the very next thing our Alien Rangers do is save their mentor, Zordon. Yet another big deal, if you ask me.
Zordon is a character that maybe even non-fans of the franchise would recognize. Even in a silhouette of the memory of Power Rangers, there is a big giant floating head in a glass wall that seems to act as a guiding source of wisdom for our young heroes. Physically, he can’t do much. His body is suspended in some kind of extra dimensional containment, but his mind has free access to communicate with the outside world.
With this, he helps our heroes obtain assets and wisdom they would otherwise be left without. If he was suddenly taken out of the picture, our heroes would be left with a very deep hole, not only in their hearts but in their methods of saving the world. Thanks to some clever thinking on Rito’s behalf, Master Vile obtained the location of Zordon’s secret fortress. A full frontal assault is sent forth to destroy it, but the Alien Rangers are at the front gates. For the first time in the show, we witness a fully new team of rangers transform and do battle with evil. It’s kind of a big moment for the show that isn’t talked about much.
While producing the show as a whole, Saban’s work ethic for its development had been shifting a little. His studio purchased footage from several Super Sentai shows, not just the ones that would be airing side by side with Power Rangers, but shows that have come and gone in the airwaves. Saban Entertainment would have so much footage from so many Japanese series that they would go on to use said footage for more than one show, including VR Troopers and Big Bad Beetle Borgs.
Having so many options for costumes and action scenes at your beck and call can lead to many of these options getting cut out all together. Some fans that I talk to to this day lament the omission of Gosei Sentai Dairanger, whose costumes and action scenes would’ve made a spectacular show for Power Rangers (luckily we did still get the original White Ranger from that show, at least).
Mighty Morphin ALIEN Rangers was produced using costumes and footage from a show called Ninja Sentai Kakuranger, complete with new costumes and new front flip shots for a totally new set of Rangers. The morphed costumes were inspired by the traditional depiction of ninjas and the Alien Rangers themselves were originally designed by Saban Entertainment. The show was a very brief one, only lasting 10 episodes for its original title run.
It doesn’t stand on its own legs without the original show.. Really, the show actually functions as the final season of Mighty Morphin as well as the first season of the next show, Power Rangers Zeo. Whether or not either of these is true, I could not find a way to watch the show from sources like Tubi or Netflix, which both feature a ton of Power Rangers content, including the recent “Re-Ignited” edition of Mighty Morphin.
I felt it necessary to give attention to Alien Rangers for its unique existence in the franchise, and especially since new fans might not even see it. Is it not its own show? It kinda isn’t, but it is also very different from the show prior. Well, the formula is the same old “monster of the week” plot, but the characters, the costumes, even the powers to some degree stand out on their own. The stories involved with Alien Rangers added a ton of development to the overall world of Power Rangers, setting the stage for big events that would take our heroes across the galaxy.
What a bizarre thing it must’ve been to experience as a kid. I wonder how many OG fans even remember these rangers, I didn’t even know about them until much later when revisiting the franchise for myself. As it turns out, I’m not the only one fascinated enough to write about them. During the Power Rangers Prime comic book run, the story involves an Aquitian named Markon Zhao as the Blue Ranger! Obsessed fans like me truly appreciate this, as it shows that the writers of these stories are as deep into this franchise as we are!
From the time I could count to three to the time I began paying taxes, Power Rangers has ALWAYS been there. It’s one of those shows that outlasted its audience, and revisiting it now and then inspires me to revisit what helped make it possible. I love tons of Japanese media, but it was really surprising that by being a fan of Power Rangers my whole life, I was inadvertently a fan of even more Japanese media than I knew.
It seems like every time I take a look back at this franchise there’s always something there that I didn’t see before. I’m not the only one either, with Fortnite recently releasing a battlepass that crosses over with Power Rangers and with Disney producing a new show in the works, the franchise is about to have probably its biggest returning audience yet, and I for one look forward to discovering tons of new adventures along with them. Whether you’re a new fan of the series or an old one like me, I hope you enjoy the adventure too.
