REVIEW: Dino Supercharge Special "Trick or Trial"
We now return you to your regularly scheduled...clip show. Don’t expect a whole lot from this one, because Power Rangers clip shows are notoriously light on pretty much everything. The last time I remember a clip show being plot-relevant was in Operation Overdrive’s “Way Back When.” Additionally, because each Halloween episode is a clip show that is of dubious continuity and unknown placement when it’s being written, it almost can’t matter on the whole, lest something be given away as a spoiler on one end or the other regarding plot developments. So basically, it’s an episode where you turn off your brain and let yourself be entertained, which is not altogether a bad thing, but, well…
So this episode is about the Rangers being called into Intergalactic Halloween Court to answer for their multiple murders of monsters. Once they are found guilty of 10 counts of murder, they’ll get the death penalty. The judges are jack-o-lanterns, the Wicked Witch of the West appears to be a clerk of some sort, and the prosecutor is the MoTW, Scumlaw. As far as setups go for clip shows, this is actually a pretty good one. Using the clips as exhibits for the trial allows for them to be produced somewhat organically. Like I said, it’s not a bad concept, it’s just forced to be entirely self-contained, and the clips are predictably from quite a bit earlier in the series.
One thing I’ve learned since law school is that there is zero value in pointing out errors in the depiction of the criminal justice system. When you tell people what was done wrong, you see a sea of glazed-over eyes and blank faces staring back at you. However, it’s funny because there was actually a lot of stuff done right here that you wouldn’t expect to see in a kids’ show. First of all, Scumlaw’s advertisement (while running for 65 million years somehow...don’t ask) was relatively sound as far as advertisements for monsters by monsters go. Secondly, the court proceedings themselves (while largely laughable both procedurally and substantively) did involve direct and cross-examination of the witnesses. Thirdly, Scumlaw would indeed have opened himself up to a legal malpractice charge on the basis of his conduct. It’s interesting that Riley seems to be the one most vocally indignant with Scumlaw’s trickery, since he’s been established as the Ranger Most Likely to Color Outside the Morality Lines.
Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the court is the revelation that the trial was at least intended to be a fair one. Usually when a show involves a corrupt court, every aspect of it is corrupt, but the judge-o-lanterns overturn the sentence when it’s revealed that the jury and the original bailiffs were paid off or set up by Scumlaw. On the other hand, way to fail, Judge-o-Lanterns. Seriously? Of course there’s been tomfoolery afoot. The prosecutor’s name is Scumlaw. This is as bad as the bar exam practice questions where the hapless victim buys a faulty car from a guy named Devious Dealer. What exactly are you expecting other than criminal or negligent activity at that point? As an aside, it’s hilarious to see the robe pulled off of Poisandra of all people, since she’s obviously huge in comparison with the jurors.
Once the court is adjourned and the Rangers vindicated by the appearance of Prince Phillip and James Navarro, Scumlaw is sentenced to death for legal malpractice in place of the Rangers. Yikes. That court doesn’t play around. Why bother simply revoking someone’s license when you can execute them? At the same time, it makes a sort of sense to a degree; it’s not just malpractice, but really seems more like attempted murder when you think about it. Scumlaw books it out of there because this is still a kids’ show, so the Rangers offer to carry out the sentence, which still seems a bit dark in a bizarre way. After that it’s kind of standard chatty fighting along with Vivizord fighting at the same time, which I guess is a bit of a difference. Since they don’t form a Megazord, it’s a shame we didn’t get cooler footage of individual zord fighting maneuvers, which is understandable but unfortunate. In balance, we’re spared a second zord battle with Scumlaw; he goes down pretty quickly under a cooperative Dino Morpher Blast, but in fairness to him, it’s a blast fired by nine rangers strong.
Funnily enough given the episode's theme, most of the problems Trick or Trial had weren’t really its fault. The fault lies more with the network for mandating episodes to be produced in a certain way without more concrete scheduling. As it stands, it’s basically impossible to make a clip show holiday episode make sense within the narrative. I think there’s actually a place where it can fit without hurting anything story-wise, but to be honest it works well enough on its own as a fun “here’s the Rangers on another adventure” episode. The costumes are nice, the jokes do land, and it’s not a bad experience. But make no mistake, I would much rather spend 22 minutes watching something of substance than something that's really just fluff. I’d place the final verdict at “whelmed” and leave it at that.
