Billy Cranston

Billy Cranston is a fictional character in the Power Rangers universe. He is the Blue Ranger in the series Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, portrayed by David Yost. Billy is the only original Power Ranger to remain for the entire MMPR series, and is the third longest-serving Ranger overall behind Tommy Oliver and Adam Park. Until his departure, he was considered the brains of the power rangers team, creating many gadgets with which to solve problems that not even Zordon foresaw, and even invented the first team's wrist-worn communication devices (it is believed, though not proven, that he created every other communicator up until his departure from the show).

The character was also played by Yost in the unaired pilot as "Billy" (the surname didn't come until the series). Billy also appears in the video game Power Rangers: Super Legends.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
Billy was one of the five "teenagers with attitude" selected by Zordon to become the original Power Rangers, along with Jason Lee Scott, Zack Taylor, Trini Kwan and Kimberly Hart. Billy became the Blue Mighty Morphin Power Ranger due to his dinosaurial appearance, and was given both the Triceratops Power Coin and the Triceratops Dinozord.

Billy began the series as the stereotypical "nerd." His closest friend throughout the series was Trini, to whom he could communicate most comfortably and effectively. He was initially very insecure about himself, making him an easy target for people like Bulk and Skull, who tormented him often in the beginning. The other Rangers, especially Trini, defended him loyally, but Billy later evolved to become a stronger individual. He was one of the top members of Angel Grove High's science club and often helped its younger members with their experiments. One such example was with Willy, a young boy he helped to create a virtual reality simulator for a Science Fair. In the episode "High Five", Billy not only created the communicators, but also the interface that allowed the devices a remote access to the Command Center's teleportation unit.

It was revealed that, due to an experience in his youth when he was bitten by a fish during an experiment involving whirlpools, Billy developed | icthyophobia: fear of fish. This fear would affect him well into his teens and Rita would use a spell to exacerbate this fear. When he was the last Ranger left able to contend with the Goo Fish monster, Billy overcame the spell and then, after helping to free his friends and defeat the monster, completely overcame the fear itself on a fishing trip with Ernie, the owner of the Youth Center.

Each of Billy's teammates had a unique skill to offer the team and, in Billy's case, it was his vast intelligence. He sought out to improve himself physically, and the audience would see him transition over time from the suspenders-wearing "brain" to a confident, hyper-intelligent athlete with appreciable fighting skills, thanks in great part to Trini's Uncle Howard. Jason, and later Tommy, helped graduate Billy to the red belt level in karate.

Billy's intelligence would help the Rangers save the world on many occasions. When the Command Center was damaged, Zordon lost and Alpha incapacitated, it was his invention, the RADBUG that allowed the Rangers to travel to the Command Center. He performed a wide array of tasks, ranging from creating the method for which the Ranger's would use initially to infiltrate Rita's Dark Dimension, to disarming the lock-out mechanism for Alpha's activated self-destruct, and many other achievements. Though Billy did manage to attract girls earlier in his "nerd-like" persona, it was after he began his journey toward self-improvement that he would garner more attention from romantic interests, even more so than the other members of the team.

Billy was accepted into the Young Scientists of America program. In Season 2, he befriended Zack's cousin Curtis when he became the newest student at Angel Grove High. Curtis' musical interests, particularly in playing the trumpet, sparked Billy's intrigue into the rhythmic patterns of jazz music.

When Lord Zedd invaded Earth after doing away with Rita, Zordon upgraded the Dinozords into the Thunderzords; Billy was given control of the Unicorn Thunderzord. When Zordon and Alpha disappeared, Billy was the one to find the secret door where they were making the White Ranger (which later turned out to be former teammate Tommy Oliver). Later in Season 2, a time traveling Kimberly would recruit Billy's ancestor William in the 1880's to become the first Blue Ranger when she assembles and takes command of the Wild West Ranger team in a battle against Goldar and several other time traveling foes.

In Season 3, after the Thunderzords were destroyed by Rito Revolto, Billy and the other Rangers sought out Ninjor, the creator of the Power Coins, to give them new powers. Billy became the Blue Ninja Ranger and controled the Wolf Ninjazord. It was Billy who was able to use his intelligence to let the Rangers control the Shogunzords and he would personally control the Blue Shogunzord. When Kimberly decided to leave, Billy stepped up to second-in-command. This started the tradition of the Blue Ranger being second command in some subsequent Ranger series.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie
Billy appeared in this movie. Due to the alternate timeline of this movie, it was unknown if Billy had control of the Triceratops Dinozord or the Unicorn Thunderzord, although he still had the Triceratops Power Coin. He also used a weapon that did not exist on the show: the Stega Stinger. Billy was depowered by Ivan Ooze and had to travel to Phaedos. There he gained the power of the Ninjetti and the Wolf Ninjazord. His alternate differences are that he doesn't wear glasses and his Blue Ranger helmet's lens are slightly different.

Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers
The Rangers are de-aged by a time reversal spell performed by Rita Repulsa's father, Master Vile. Billy devises a plan to restore the rangers' age using a machine that runs off of the power coins. Billy restores himself, but Goldar steals the machine and Lord Zedd and Rita Repulsa destroy all six Ninja Power Coins. With his Wolf Ninja Coin destroyed and his Triceratops Power Coin damaged beyond use, Billy's role changed. He no longer fought as a Power Ranger, but rather acted solely in an advisory and supporting role. In fact, Billy was the only Ranger in this period to be portrayed by his regular actor - the others had been replaced temporarily by child actors after Master Vile had used the Orb of Doom to revert time by approximately ten years. Billy acted in this period as a liaison between the Aquitian Rangers and Earth. It was the cure for Billy's reverse-aging that eventually served as the plot device by which he was removed from the show. When Power Rangers: Zeo began, Billy officially retired from active Ranger service, allowing Tanya to take his place while he continued his support role by creating and maintaining most of the weaponry, gadgets and Zords the Zeo Rangers would use.

Power Rangers: Zeo
The writers left the choice open as to whether or not Billy would become a Zeo Ranger, with him musing at the start of Zeo that he could always assume the Zeo power in an emergency. Before the Gold Ranger's identity was revealed as Trey of Triforia, the writers left several red herrings to mislead the viewers into believing that the Gold Ranger was Billy. When Trey of Triforia returned to Triforia on sabbatical to try to unify his three selves, Billy was selected to assume Gold Ranger's powers. However, the "negative proton energy" that his body had absorbed in the Command Center's explosion prevented him from taking the powers. Instead Jason, the former Red Ranger, received the powers.

Billy was last seen in one of the final Zeo episodes suffering from accelerated aging because the regenerator he used to restore his proper age had a side effect. To counter this, he traveled to Aquitar for a cure from their Eternal Falls (analogous to the Fountain of Youth), and opted to remain there with Cestria, a female Aquitian with whom he had fallen in love.

Because of the absence of Yost (he had left the show a few episodes prior to his character's departure, hence his lack of appearance in them), stock footage of Billy was used for his departure and his character was voiced by someone else. He was also the last of the original Power Ranger team to leave the show, although his former teammate Jason would later reappear in Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie (alongside another former teammate Kimberly Hart) and in the Wild Force episode Forever Red.

Zords

 * Triceratops Dinozord
 * Unicorn Thunderzord
 * Wolf Ninjazord
 * Blue Shogunzord

Arsenal

 * Wrist Communicator
 * Power Morpher
 * Triceratops Power Coin
 * Blade Blaster
 * Power Lance
 * Stega Stinger
 * Blue Battle Bike
 * Blue Shark Cycle

Zords

 * Wolf Ninjazord
 * Blue Shogunzord

Arsenal

 * Wolf Ninja Coin
 * Metallic Armor

Trivia

 * Billy was the first Wolf Ranger, followed by Cestro, Maya, Merrick, Leanbow, R.J. and Dillon.
 * Billy was also considered to be the scapegoat for the Gold Ranger.
 * Billy is the only Ranger to keep a single power for the first three seasons without giving it away or switching colors.
 * Billy was supposed to return in Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie but that was scrapped.
 * Billy was the first known Ranger to wear glasses followed by Kendrix Morgan, Danny Delgado and Cameron Watanabe.