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Doomsday

Revision as of 21:31, 28 June 2020 by Kamen Rider Series 1 (Message Wall | contribs) (→‎Notes)
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Icon-mightymorphinThis article is about a two-part episode in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

Doomsday is a two-part episode of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers that aired in 1993, on November 29 and November 30, consecutively. It is the episode noted for introducing the concept of Zords piloted by antagonists to American audiences, a trait that would continue in various subsequent seasons of Power Rangers.

Synopsis

While the city of Angel Grove celebrates the Power Rangers, Rita Repulsa makes her boldest move yet when she transports the entire population to another dimension.  Enlisting the malevolent Lokar and the evil war Zord Cyclopsis, Rita overpowers the Rangers and nearly destroys their Zords.  In the end, the Rangers discover Cyclopsis's weakness and foil Rita's plans once again.  Zordon offers the Rangers the ability to give up the power and return to their normal lives, but they unanimously choose to stay on.

Plot

Part One

The Mayor of Angel Grove declares the first ever "Power Ranger Day", and the city marks the occasion with a large gathering in the park with everyone hoping the Rangers themselves turn up to the event. Upon hearing about it, the teens agree that the Power Rangers should make an appearance. Rita Repulsa, meanwhile, hatched her biggest scheme yet: she will bring her Lunar Palace to Earth, greatly increasing her power, and call on the long-dormant war Zord Cyclopsis to defeat the Power Rangers once and for all. 

In Angel Grove Park, a large crowd turns out for a special appearance by the Power Rangers. The Rangers arrive unmorphed to show their faces to people and check out the crowds, surprised at how many people have turned out to celebrate. Kimberly is a bit worried when she doesn't spot Tommy, but assures herself and the others he'll turn up. Bulk and Skull show up as the "Incredible Bulkster" and "Super Skull" in an attempt to steal the spotlight. As Rita lands her palace in the heart of downtown Angel Grove, everyone in the city (apart from the Rangers) is transported to Rita's dark dimension. 

After being briefed by Zordon on the extremely dangerous situation, the Rangers morph and teleport to downtown Angel Grove and summon Megazord to fight Cyclopsis. The Megazord proves unable to match up, so they summon Dragonzord to boost their power. Despite attacking in every battle mode available to them, the Rangers are unable to finish off Cyclopsis. Zordon finally calls on Titanus and the Rangers form Ultrazord, which succeeds in destroying much of Cyclopsis, but its head remains intact. Rita, furious over Cyclopsis' defeat, creates a sinkhole directly under Titanus sucking it in. The Rangers attempt to rescue the Carrierzord with the MegaDragonzord, but Rita blasts it back and Titanus is sucked inside completely.

Rita then decides to summon Lokar back to Earth, and upon arriving he instantly restores Cyclopsis. In the Command Center, the Rangers realize their options are bleak with Lokar back and their Zords still recharging from the hard battle. Regardless, they know they need to move soon if there's any hope of rescuing the citizens of Angel Grove from Rita's dark dimension.

Part Two

Rita's assault continues while the Power Rangers are forced to bide time as the Zords recharge. Jason decides to take the Zords back into battle, even at half power, over Zordon's and Billy's objections. The group returns to the city with Megazord to face Cyclopsis again, but in its weakened state, it is overwhelmed even more quickly than in the previous battle, losing an arm in the process. Jason summons Dragonzord as backup, but it too is low on power, and Cyclopsis defeats it in one hit by severing its tail. With both Megazord and Dragonzord down, Rita takes direct aim at them with her staff, overloading their systems. The Rangers are forced to evacuate as the Zords disappear piece by piece. Despite fearing the worst, the disappearance of their Zords was actually a security override designed to return them to their hiding places in the event they were ever close to being destroyed.

The Rangers are involuntarily demorphed and land in a still deserted Angel Grove Park, where they are unable to use their communicators to contact the Command Center. They went to Billy's lab, where he works feverishly to retune the communicators. Before he can finish, Goldar arrives with a group of putties, intent on destroying the Rangers while they're at their weakest. At the same time, Alpha takes the opportunity to hack into Rita's databanks while her palace is still on Earth. While doing so, he uncovers Cyclopsis's weakness.

Billy completes his work and the group teleports to the Command Center just before Goldar could attack. Zordon then reveals Alpha's critical findings to the Rangers: Cyclopsis must adjust its systems to compensate each time the Zords change configurations. Zordon believes if the Rangers change modes frequently enough, Cyclopsis will become overwhelmed and vulnerable.

With the Zords fully re-energized, the Rangers morph and teleport to the city, call for their Dinozords, and attack individually. They then form the Megazord and Dragonzord in Battle Mode in rapid succession. Cyclopsis is still dominating, but the Dragonzord manages to sever its bladed hands. After taking another energy blast from Lokar, the Rangers summon Titanus and once again form the Ultrazord. Zordon's hypothesis is proven correct, and Cyclopsis was unable to adjust to the frequent changes and locks up. Goldar is forced to bail out of the cockpit just before Ultrazord obliterates Cyclopsis. Lokar escapes before the Rangers can turn their attention to him. In the Lunar Palace, Rita is furious that she was defeated again. This time Baboo, Squatt and Finster tell Rita that this loss is entirely Goldar's fault. Goldar quickly suggests they leave Angel Grove before Ultrazord blasts them. With that, Rita and her Lunar Palace return to the moon.

Back in the park, the people of Angel Grove are returned from their other-dimensional prison with no knowledge of having been transported there in the first place. The Rangers arrive to much fanfare. While a group of children argue over which Ranger is the best, Tommy Oliver clues them in to a secret: "They're all totally awesome."

In the wake of their toughest battle yet, Zordon thanks the Rangers for their dedication and offers them the chance to give up the power and return to their everyday lives or choose to remain Power Rangers as their decision. All five choose to remain Power Rangers if the Earth is in danger again and Zordon becomes pleased with the Rangers' decision.

Cast

Production History

Doomsday was originally intended to be the final installment of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. The Toei footage from these episodes was taken from the final 4 episodes of Zyuranger.

After MMPR became an instant hit, Fox ordered twenty additional episodes, and Doomsday's plot was presumably altered to allow the series to continue on.

Having exhausted footage from actual Zyuranger episodes, Saban entered into an agreement with Toei to produce all-new battle scenes that would be used throughout the remainder of the first season and well into the second.

Errors

  • When Rita first summons Cyclopsis, her wand is shown firing a blast that flies to Earth from outer space. However her palace had already landed in Angel Grove.
  • In part II, the Megazord appears to punch the Rangers out of the cockpit when vanishing thanks to Rita.
    • In Zyuranger, the Megazord was sentient and wanted to prevent the Zyurangers from being captured along with it.
  • At the beginning of Part II, Alpha said the Zords would need 12 hours to completely recharge from the first fight with Cyclopsis. After the Zords' emergency evacuation during the second battle, they are said to be fully recharged and repaired just a short time later despite being even more heavily damaged.
  • The Triceratops growled like the Tyrannosaurus before its tail retracted for the Megazord Tank Mode assembly.
  • While Zordon is explaining how to counter Lokar and Cyclopsis, you can see the upper parts of three people looking up at it, even though the entire population of Angel Grove was trapped in a vortex.
    • The humans shown in the footage are the Zyurangers unmorphed possibility shown due to an cropping error when the stock was blue screened into the Viewing Globe.
  • After Cyclopsis is destroyed, Goldar tells Rita to take the palace back to the moon before they’re blasted by Ultrazord. However, the Rangers had already disembarked the Ultrazord at this point, raising the question of why they didn’t take the chance to attack the palace while it was on Earth (and Lokar too, who disappeared without mention after Cyclopsis was destroyed).
  • At the end, Zordon gives the Rangers the chance to give up their powers and return to their normal lives. However, Rita had only retreated back to the moon and had no known intention of stopping her attacks on Earth, so with the battle not over, Zordon’s offer seems odd as it would leave the Earth undefended. This is probably a hold over from when this was intended to be the final episode.

Notes

  • This marked the first time Titanus attacked a monster outside of the Ultrazord mode. It would do this again against giant Hate Master in "Stop the Hate Master".
  • This episode was originally written as the series finale, with the original ending showing the Rangers storming Rita's palace and sealing her, Goldar, Scorpina, Baboo, Squatt and Finster inside a jar, as in the finale of Zyuranger.[1]
  • This was the final time Jason used both the Dragon Dagger and the Dragonzord before returning the Green Ranger powers to Tommy in "Return of an Old Friend".
  • This was also the final appearance of Lokar, who is never seen or mentioned again after Cyclopsis is destroyed by Ultrazord. Lokar's Zyuranger counterpart, Dai Satan, was destroyed in the Zyuranger finale.
  • Jason David Frank makes an uncredited cameo appearance as Tommy in Part II.
    • This episode was the last episode where Tommy has his original hairstyle (except in his Green Ranger morphing sequences).
    • This episode marks Tommy's only appearance between losing the the Green Ranger powers in "The Green Candle" and regaining them in "Return of an Old Friend".
  • Second and final appearance of Trini's cousin Sylvia, who previously appeared in No Clowning Around. She appears in a cameo just seconds before Tommy.
  • Final appearance of Dragonzord Battle Mode (outside of an editing error in Return of an Old Friend).
  • Final appearance of the Rad Bug.
  • The "Incredible Bulkster" and "Super Skull" are references to the Marvel Comics characters the Incredible Hulk and Super-Skrull.
  • Doomsday is the first episode which was made under the belief it would be the final episode of Power Rangers, the next three are "Countdown to Destruction", "The End of the Power Rangers", and "Danger and Destiny".
  • The Zords fighting and losing uses Japanese footage while interpreting it differently: in Zyuranger Ep. 49: The Gods Lost!!, when defeated, Daizyujin and Dragon Caesar's disappearance means they were captured. In Doomsday part 2, Megazord and Dragonzord disappear, but Billy reveals they were teleported to safely regenerate in a secret base. The opposite occurs in Master Vile and the Metallic Armor, in which the Zords were captured while they retreated in Kakuranger.

See Also

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