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Series Re-watch: My 'PR Lost Galaxy' Review

posted 11 years ago by Lenz-El
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Power Rangers Lost Galaxy (Season 7)

You know a part of me was hesitant about continuing to watch the seasons after In Space considering how climatic "Countdown to Destruction" was. The writers wrapped up the first 6 seasons so brilliantly that anything after that felt like it wouldn't be as good. "Quasar Quest", Part 1 was okay, but it's "Quasar Quest, Part 2" where I remembered why I loved Lost Galaxy. There are moments throughout that episode that got me very nostalgic and are purely awesome. I love the idea of the Quasar Sabers, while not the most original concept with the whole "sword in the stone" angle, it really works for PR and the moment the rangers morphed was epic. As for the rangers themselves, I once again, really liked this team and their individual personalities. Leo is naturally impulsive and a troublemaker, Kai is a "by the books" kinda guy, Kendrix is smart and nerdy yet confident and selfless, Damon is stubborn and a bit of a jerk but a skilled mechanic and Maya...is a jungle girl from a distant planet, but overall heroic and pretty knowledgeable. Then, there's Mike, Leo's overprotective older brother, who dies at the beginning of the season, giving Leo a sad yet noble reason for taking up the mantle of the Red Ranger. I love the episode following Mike's revival, "Destined For Greatness" when Leo, full of guilt, tries to give Mike back the Quasar Saber. It worked as a great callback to the premiere as well as showing how much Leo had grown. The rest of the team get their moments in some of the best individual character episodes. "Green Courage" sees Damon taking a huge risk by helping the enemy to save a life, "Blue to the Test" finally sees Kai embracing his instincts and not just following orders all the time, "Loyax's Last Battle" is an awesome episode centered around Maya being forced to fight an aging monster out to prove himself in one last fight. Then there's Kendrix, who in "The Power of Pink" sacrifices herself to save a fellow ranger. The first ranger to fall in battle, it's an excellent last stand showing how heroic and selfless she was as well as how dark the series was continuing to get.

Like the last season, this series continued a run of darker, more complex villains. While Scorpius and Furio are pretty forgettable, the real star villain is Trakeena and her impressive journey from meek alien princess to an imposing badass with lethal fighting skills. Then there's Villimax, who is kinda the Ecliptor of this season but has much more noble qualities besides mentoring Trakeena. Not only was his relationship with Trakeena great to watch but also his sense of honor despite being evil. Treachron had the same qualities, especially having followers who shared his sense of loyalty. Then there's Deviot, who is probably the sleaziest villain of them all. Like Darkonda, he's pretty much a traitor among this season's group of villains but almost worse! While Darkonda was more menacing and calculating, Deviot is just manipulating and a coward in the face of defeat. He's constantly trying to prove his loyalties while planning his various bosses' downfall, which is hilarious to watch. Also we get our first anti-hero type character of the series in the Magna Defender. Both character and his backstory is pretty riveting for a kid's show, especially considering his son was killed in front of him by Scorpius. Geeze, this season had a lot of death! His motives while cruel, are kinda justified and you can't help but be slipt between his mission for revenge and the rangers constantly trying to stop his rampage. The fact he doesn't care whether he kills people to serve his agenda is a refreshing new perspective and made for a great saga, ending in "Redemption Day", a sad but fitting end to the character where he sacrifices himself to save the day and finds peace with his son. I also enjoyed Mike's succession of the character and the Toro Zord was pretty awesome, especially since it's the first time we saw a ranger merging with a zord.

Speaking of zords, the Galactabeasts are cool, being the first living, breathing zords. I also enjoyed "The Lost Galactabeasts", Parts 1 and 2 which introduced the Stratoforce and Centaurus Megazords. Then there's "To The Tenth Power", one of the best (and first annual) ranger team ups with the Space Rangers and Galaxy Rangers fighting the Psycho Rangers. Just a perfect episode with great writing and stellar fight scenes with an equally awesome follow up in "The Power of Pink". Following Kendrix's death, I also thought bringing back Karone and making her the pink ranger was a MUCH better idea than having Cassie back as the writers originally planned. "Protecting the Quasar Saber" and especially "Facing the Past" are great episodes that allow this version of the character to develop a lot more than In Space by exploring her past as Astronema and her finally finding redemption. The season as a whole is a surprisingly strong follow-up to In Space. Probably the best back to back seasons of the franchise with In Space being the Star Wars of the franchise with the space war plot and Lost Galaxy being like Star Trek by having a space odyssey theme with Terra Venture, a space colony looking for a new world to inhabit. I'm also glad while being a whole new chapter of the franchise with new characters, powers, etc. The writers keep a lot of elements from the Zordon era like Alpha, the Astro Megaship and DECA. Like the season before it, the season has a series of mostly successful arcs (The Lights of Orion, the Magna Defender's revenge, etc.) Also there's that hilariously clever episode "The Chameliac Warrior", where the rangers switch fighting styles to defeat a monster who can mimic their individual moves. It sees the team at their finest and like the In Space team, coming up with new strategies to beat their enemies. The weakest part of the season was the last stretch of episodes dealing with the actual Lost Galaxy. While having some stand out moments, Captain Mutiny and the Swabies just weren't as great as Trakeena and the villains earlier in the season. It feels kinda tact on with the writers remembering the title of the season and coming up with this story arc last minute. It definitely starts and ends very well though ("Enter the Lost Galaxy", "Beware The Mutiny", "Grunchor On the Loose" and "Escape From The Lost Galaxy") Overall, while not as good as In Space, this was a great season continuing the dark feel of the previous year with more mature villains, great character development, mostly strong plots, epic fight scenes and another awesome finale in "Journey's End", Parts 1-3.

Best Episodes

1. To The Tenth Power

2. The Power of Pink

3. The Rescue Mission

4. Protecting The Quasar Saber

5. Redemption Day

Final Morph: B+

[–] SilentDues 11 years ago

As someone who's only seen this whole season once myself, I gotta say very well said on all counts and may I add, I've enjoyed all of your reviews on this franchise so far. I really hope you continue with certain seasons, at the very least some well praised ones I also find to be favorites, such as Time Force, Dino Thunder, and RPM. If you don't wanna follow all of the remaining seasons (And I'd understand why given how many there are and how few are generally praised on par to the Zordon Era), here's my suggestion:

Lightspeed Rescue's two-part "Trakeena's Revenge": It's not the best team-up story, having its own issues like Leo's character having a different actor do his ADR (akin to Jason/Zack/Trini in Season 2) while a different-masked actress plays Trakeena, but it does utilize its Sentai source material very well. If you're not all that interested in the Lightspeed Rangers, there isn't much exposition needed going into this, you essentially get to meet a new team of Power Rangers that choose to be public with their identities and have taken up the mantle on Earth where the second Turbo/Space Rangers left off. Pretty much the only ties to past seasons consist in this two-part epilogue to Lost Galaxy.

Time Force: Possibly an even darker season than In Space and Lost Galaxy, this season really ups the ante for Power Rangers mythology, the first couple eps exploring the theme of time travel while the season's first half goes the route of outsiders having to get used to unfamiliar surroundings. This is also really the first season where the Red Ranger isn't the leader, that honor goes to latest Pink Ranger Jen, taking up this mantle very well while not afraid to share the spotlight with the Red Ranger as they gradually fall for each other. Like In Space, this is also a season that blurs the lines of good and evil, a couple strong character eps being thrown in that really make us see more in certain 'mutants'/monsters before the last few eps go to new ground.

Wild Force's two-part "Reinforcements from the Future" & "Forever Red": Liek the two-part story from Lightspeed suggested above, the two-part story recommended here is one of the most popular team-up stories and in my view, a truly incredible epilogue to Time Force. The foes the two teams must deal with aren't very remarkable, but that's not so much the point here, as this story is all about the characters some of us grew to love in Time Force. By slight extension, the 10th anniversary "Forever Red" serves as an epilogue to all prior Red Rangers (...well, except for Rocky...), as well as to the prominent Zeo season from years past while the rookie Red Ranger of Wild Force must prove himself in the eyes of his predecessors (especially the original!).

Dino Thunder: I'd suggest skipping the Ninja Storm season, which you get enough exposition about in a couple of the early eps of this season anyway, and go straight for this gem. Returning to the franchise after departing roughly halfway into Turbo and since his one-shot return in "Forever Red", legendary character Tommy Oliver, now a more mature 24 year old who's been around the world and earned himself a doctrine in paleontology (who'd have thought, right?). In a big homage to the first season, this year explores the familiar theme of a few teens with attitude, though the attitudes in these are much more modern and less perfection-incarnate than Zordon's five mostly were. This season mixes in the light-hearted with bits of darkness and a very serious big bad, doing serialized stories and stand-alone adventures very well, some very stand-out eps hidden within (500th ep "Legacy of Power", "Fighting Spirit").

SPD's "Wormhole" & "History": These two separate stories from the following SPD season represent this specific team's... teaming with the Dino Thunder Rangers, both in the future and the present. Set somewhere between "Drawn into Danger" and "House of Cards", "Wormhole" is actually the second time the SPD Rangers meet the Dino Thunder Rangers from the future team's perspective as they travel back to 2004, while "History" is more an epilogue to the core trio being sent to the future where they (again for them) meet the SPD Rangers. These are far from the best team-ups, niether even features Jason Frank (sound clips and a voice-double are used for a suit-only performance in "Wormhole"), but it's a little something if you enjoyed Dino Thunder.

Operation Overdrive's two-part "Once a Ranger": Fastforward two years later and yes, this indeed skips Mystic Force as well, we find yet another new team of Power Rangers in great peril. This particular team-up brings back one Ranger from the prior four Disney seasons, as well as original Mighty Morphin Power Ranger, Adam. With Ninja Storm's Blue Ranger, Dino Thunder's Yellow Ranger, SPD's Red Ranger (well, one of them...), and Mystic Force's Green Ranger, the second Black Ranger comes back when help is most needed and these Retro Rangers even bring an Alpha with them! A fun little stand-alone that also ties into the Rita/Zedd mythology, leaving fans to ponder back to why we may've never seen them during the Turbo season), go figure!

RPM: A personal favorite of mine, RPM may have the best casting and story direction of nearly any of the other seasons, despite borrowing very heavily from other dystopian franchises like Terminator and The Matrix. Like Time Force and many Disney seasons, this one is also very stand-alone and the "Clash of the Rd Rangers" team-up from Samurai ensures this aspect all the more, but it is VERY worth watching from my point of view. Sadly a very short season, though I'd suggest checking out Samurai's "Clash of the Red Rangers" feature to stretch it out a tad between "Control-Alt-Delete"" & "Run Ziggy Run", it had more than one moment to bring tears to my eyes and that's more than I can say for any other Power Rangers season. It's not afraid to be dark, poke in-joke fun at its own archetypes, as well as do so much with non-Sentai original stuff.

Superman & The [Red-Blue] Blur = The Man of Steel

[–] Lenz-El 11 years ago

Thanks for the heads up SilentDues! I plan on reviewing every season until Megaforce, since well, I have the time and am obsessed with Netflix at the moment. I'm currently watching Ninja Storm and I know what you mean, it's hella dull with very few spots of decency. It's kinda sad cause I like the characters (with the exception of their mentor, the silly CGI guinea pig! ) and their relationships with each other! I just wish the writing was better as some of the lines of dialogue spoken during the rangers' fights is...god awful. Also, if I hear the words "Dude", "man' or "bro" one more time.... All I know is when I write my review, I think I'll dedicate a paragraph to the black hole of boredom that is Lothor.

I actually can't wait to watch Dino Thunder and RPM, the immense fan praise for those seasons makes me very anxious to see what my opinion of them with be!

[–] Lenz-El 11 years ago

Lightspeed Rescue
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0212686/board/thread/227190386

[–] vandyvch 10 years ago

I'm only on episode 16 with the conclusion of the original Magna Defender storyline, but I'm loving it so far! Probably the first PR season I remember the main villains getting good character development, the "villains of the week" aren't as time/space-hogging as they were in earlier series.

[–] nonillion2001 9 years ago

I consider The Power of Pink one of the worst episodes. I couldn't stand seeing Kendrix go away like that. It really tore me apart.

[–] zaphod08 8 years ago

You do realize that the Producers were forced to get rid of Kendrix, due to Valerie's illness, right?

In the kingdom of the blind, you're the village idiot.