REVIEW: Dino Charge 17 "World Famous (in New Zealand)"
The advent of the famed Purple Ranger is at hand! After all this time that we’ve been wondering, it has finally been revealed who the mystery person is behind the not-spandex! Just kidding, it’s just the temporary adverse possessor. Can you tell I’ve been studying for the bar exam? Still, it’s an episode with the reveal of a new Ranger, so let’s just get right in and look this one over. It’s a new-Ranger intro episode, but one that doesn’t really function like one, so it’s a bit different from what one may have expected.
In this episode, the Rangers have to travel to New Zealand to track down sightings of Sledge’s pods that had been reported in Auckland. I’m sure that the producers of the show were glad to let their hair down a bit and acknowledge the area, and I think New Zealand deserves some recognition for putting up with our crazy crew for so long. Thanks to their investigations, they come across one Albert Smith, locator of the Purple Energem and resident cryptozoologist with a barrel-full of tall tales. As far as characters go, he’s a fun one. My feeling is that he’d feel right at home with the Knights of Amber Beach; he’s at home in his own element (traipsing around the forest and catching purse-snatchers) but initially folds in the face of the real alien threat. As a side note, we get some nice needling back and forth from Kendall and Shelby at the beginning of the episode. I’ll always love their dynamic; it’s not the Tyler/Ivan bromance but something still friendly, even if sometimes humorously antagonistic.
Interestingly, the thing that I’m more intrigued about is the relationship between Albert and Tyler. Short as it is, it provides an insight into both of their characters. Albert is rather impressed by Tyler’s fearlessness, while Tyler obviously seems to be mentally adopting Albert as his substitute father throughout the episode. Speaking as someone who’s worked with kids who have lost their fathers, I can verify that this is not an uncommon occurrence, especially when some specific trait appears in both people. To the show’s credit, it never states this outright, instead allowing the actors--especially Brennan Mejia--to carry the idea with their interactions and expressions. Instead of hammering it home, they let the actors actually act. Amazing what a bit of relative subtlety can do.
At first Albert isn’t actually sure of the power he holds; he knows that after he found a purple stone while rescuing a little girl lost in the mountains, he was able to transform into a hero, but he’s not familiar with Power Rangers. I had a problem with this initially, but this guy is a hermit and a bit of a kook, so I can let it slide more easily than “There’s no such thing as monsters” or “What are you, some kind of superhero?” It’s clear though that while Albert is thrilled to have power, he’s incredibly apprehensive about actual combat with monsters. This actually touches on something I really enjoy in Power Rangers, which is the inspirational aspect. I always like when the Rangers demonstrate why they’re special and fit to be Rangers by inspiring those around them toward greatness. The scene where Tyler reminds Albert what he’s capable of is a good one and reinforces why he was chosen in the first place, even if only temporarily. Even if he didn’t really wrestle a squid or find a dragon egg, he did save the little girl’s life. Also, it was a nice touch that Albert’s fear actually causes him to demorph; it fits with what we know about a person’s mental state and energies with respect to use of an Energem.
While it was a good episode, it wasn’t without its issues. In this episode Stingrage and Iceage return from the grave to help out Meteor, the monster of the week that gets sent to fight the Rangers and find the Purple Energem. Wrench exults about the fact that his reanimation machine works, despite us already seeing it. Presumably that’s more of an issue with the Halloween episode than this, since it also featured the Pachy Zord. Speaking of the zord, we also see both it and the Royal Dino Punch once more this episode. We do not see the Purple Ranger’s zord, sadly, but again, this episode seems less about introducing the new Ranger especially given that by episode’s end he’s no longer a Ranger. There are perhaps some minor issues regarding the use of the Ankylo Zord, but it’s been established that the Zords respond to the Dino Chargers regardless of where they’re thrown from. But perhaps my biggest issues come from the end of the episode. The Rangers split up to deal with the monsters; Tyler and Albert fend off Iceage and Stingrage, while Chase and the others take on a giant Meteor in the Megazord with the new Ankylo-Pachy formation. Side-note: I’m pretty impressed by what appears to be a somewhat unorthodox giant fight. There’s a lot of cool flail-swinging and hammer-dropping, and it’s more fast-paced than two big dudes lumbering at one another.
But when Tyler’s injured by Iceage, Albert takes him back to one of the traps he’s laid in the woods, luring Iceage and Stingrage with them to get the Energems. When they get caught in the trap, Albert helps Tyler, demorphs, and they have a heartfelt conversation. The other Rangers defeat Meteor once and for all. Aaaaaaand...we never revisit the two savage monsters hanging around in the forest. They’re never destroyed, they don’t show up again, and they’re hanging from normal ropes supported by normal trees. It seems irresponsible not to do something about those two, even though it would seem somewhat barbaric to cut them to ribbons while they’re suspended helplessly twenty feet in midair. But then Albert gives up his Energem because he feels he’s not cut out to be a Ranger long-term. While I can understand that he wants to stay in New Zealand and live a normal life, he could have just done like the Prince and left some Dino Chargers with them. And on top of this, Keeper acts as if this decision was bigger than any of the Rangers and uses his staff to disconnect Albert from the Energem. AND THEN THE RANGERS LEAVE ALBERT WITH THE TWO MONSTERS HANGING AROUND.
Apart from the issues at the end (a couple minor, one huge) this was an enjoyable episode. What made it better for me was thinking of it as not being a Ranger intro episode, since Albert wasn’t meant to last from a character standpoint. I felt that the strength of this episode, and largely of the season, came from the interactions of the characters, especially Tyler and Albert. I really liked the way they made certain to give them a strong plot and remind us of the quest that Tyler has been on for all this time. I’m pretty sure that we’ll end up seeing Tyler’s dad; this is pure spec, but I don’t think they would introduce this plot and then continue pointing it out only to drop it later. And as we move into the last few episodes of the season, it’ll be fun to see what they have in store for whoever ends up being the Purple Ranger.
