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Power Rangers RPM

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PR2020 logo This article is about a/an series entry (the 17th) in the Power Rangers franchise.

Power Rangers RPM is the seventeenth season of Power Rangers, serving as an adaptation of the 32nd Super Sentai series Engine Sentai Go-Onger. The series takes place in an alternate world enslaved by the Venjix Virus worldwide. As part of humanity is forced to live in the domed city of Corinth, Doctor K assembles the Ranger Operators to defend their last home while fighting against Venjix in the hopes of one day liberating their world. Plot elements of the series are carried over into its sequel Power Rangers Beast Morphers.

RPM aired exclusively on ABC Kids following the rebranding of Jetix into Disney XD, and is the final series produced by Disney following the franchise's re-acquisition by Saban Brands. The series took a one-year hiatus before Power Rangers Samurai began airing on Nickelodeon.

Production

Power Rangers RPM was the first Power Rangers season since 2005 to have a fresh lead producer as Bruce Kalish departed in 2008 to work on Aaron Stone. Taking his place was Eddie Guzelian, former American Dragon: Jake Long executive producer and Kim Possible story editor. RPM was his first live action series. With Guzelian came two writers he had been associated with on various Disney Channel projects, Matthew Negrete and Madellaine Paxson. The three of them, along with RPM story editor John Tellegen and producer Jackie Marchand made up the writing team for the 32-episode season. An important thing to realize about RPM is that it was supposed to be the final season ever produced (in the same vein as In Space or Wild Force) for a number of reasons, not the least of which was the fact that New Zealand (where the series had been filmed since Ninja Storm) was putting up the price on filming permits.

A few months into production, Marchand left the show, seemingly fired given her message to the fans of "welcome from the peace conference", alluding to the situation in which Austin St. John, Thuy Trang, and Walter Jones were written off the show. Not long after, Guzelian was fired mid-season by Disney executives due to reportedly going over budget twice and replaced by returning writer and producer Judd Lynn in July. Lynn was and still is the longest-running staff member in the show's history excluding show-runners Haim Saban and Shuki Levy, having become head writer during Power Rangers Turbo during the production hell that series went through and becoming executive producer by the time of In Space. Reports have Paxson and Negrete leaving the show in solidarity with Guzelian. Lynn's return to the series that he has been involved with since day one was not an easy one, and there have been reports of difficulty with the transition between executive producers. Lynn left the series with Time Force, but a sudden rise in the quality of Jungle Fury writing caused rumors that he may have contributed a script under a pseudonym during the writer's strike. This was later proven to be true, as he confirmed that he worked under the name "Ally Mondera". However, one of Lynn's writing quirks has always been to discard past writers' ideas in favor of his own whenever he was brought on partway through. It's the reason that the Dimitria sister and Millennium Message subplots were dropped immediately after their introduction and why Flynn's issues with his father in this season never get resolved.

Audition Process

Milo Cawthorne auditioned for the Green Ranger, but was originally left off the short list until Eddie Guzelian requested he be brought back. Daniel Ewing had auditioned for Power Rangers Jungle Fury before RPM had casting calls. He had auditioned for the Red Ranger part in a red tank top. Mike Ginn originally auditioned for the Green Ranger, but got call backs for Red and Blue though he was ultimately chosen for Gold. Ari Boyland had auditioned for many Power Rangers seasons before RPM and had a holding contract for Dino Thunder and one other. He had auditioned for Red and Black because Blue was not being auditioned because "He had no personality in the Sentai". They asked him to come in with any accent he wanted for Blue; he did his New Zealand, Irish, and American accents, as well as miming, before settling on Scottish. Adelaide Kane had moved to New Zealand on her own, and this was one of her first major productions. For the episode Ranger Blue, the aid worker who is with Flynn was a boom operator that not only worked on RPM, but also worked on The Tribe when Ari was ten and on the show.

Filming

Koichi Sakamoto trained the cast in stunt fighting as lead up to filming. Shooting times varied on set with some days taking upwards of 12 hours of work. Scenes of the desert wastelands were shot in an actual desert, the majority of which involved Mike Ginn and Daniel Ewing. The most difficult scene shot according to the majority of the cast was the Go-Onger scene in which the team piled into a van in the hot sun; when they asked to take off their jackets, they were told no, as it would ruin the shot.

Behind the Scenes

During Guy Fawkes Day while filming, Eka Darville threw some fireworks onto Adelaide Kane's balcony and accidentally burned her clothes that were being left out to dry.

Synopsis

"A computer virus has built armies of robotic soldiers and taken control of our world. But there is still one place where we can be safe. The domed city of Corinth. And the only hope we have left is..."
―Doctor K in the opening.[src]

In the not-so-distant future, the mysterious and sinister Venjix Computer Network is attempting to conquer and lay ruin to the entire planet. It had succeeded and nearly conquered the entire Earth. Fortunately, mankind has retreated from the threat into environmentally-shielded domed cities to protect against the pollution and machines unleashed by Venjix. In the shining city of Corinth, an elite force of Rangers must learn to drive and operate an arsenal of radically advanced biotech vehicles in order to battle the attacking machine army bent on world domination.

The events of the show were intended to take place in an alternate universe which was confirmed two years later in the Power Rangers Super Samurai team-up movie with RPM, "Clash of the Red Rangers", when Scott traveled to the main universe. As such, the Morphin Grid took on a new name - the Bio Field. The only signs of previous characters are an Operation Overdrive helmet at Alphabet Soup and Jungle Karma Pizza appearing in "Ranger Green" although the presence of the former never gets explained.

Characters

Rangers

Go-Onger (Team)

Ranger Operators

Main article: Ranger Operators
Designation Name Actor
Ranger Operator Series Red Scott Truman Eka Darville
Ranger Operator Series Blue Flynn McAllistair Ari Boyland
Ranger Operator Series Yellow Summer Landsdown Rose McIver
Ranger Operator Series Green Ziggy Grover Milo Cawthorne
Ranger Operator Series Black Dillon Daniel Ewing
Ranger Operator Series Gold Gem Mike Ginn
Ranger Operator Series Silver Gemma Li Ming Hu

Allies

Corinth Military

Main article: The Garage

Samurai Rangers

Main article: Samurai Rangers (Samurai Clash of the Red Rangers)
Designation Name Actor
Red Samurai Ranger Jayden Shiba Alex Heartman
Blue Samurai Ranger Kevin Najee De-Tiege
Pink Samurai Ranger Mia Watanabe Erika Fong
Green Samurai Ranger Mike Hector David, Jr.
Yellow Samurai Ranger Emily Brittany Anne Pirtle
Gold Samurai Ranger Antonio Garcia Steven Skyler

Civilians

Main article: Corinth

Villains

Arsenal

Main article: Arsenal (RPM)

Morphers

Multi-Use Devices

Sidearms

Individual Weapons and Team Blasters

Vehicles

Zords

Main article: Zords (RPM)
Legend:◆ 1-pilot zord, ❖ aux zord, ◄► 2-pilot zord, ◇ unpiloted zord; see Style Guide for rules on icon colors

Zord Attack Vehicles System

Additional Formations

High Octane Megazord
ValveMax Megazord
Mach Megazord

Episodes

Main article: Episodes (RPM)
  1. The Road to Corinth
  2. Fade to Black
  3. Rain
  4. Go for the Green
  5. Handshake
  6. Ranger Green
  7. Ranger Red
  8. Ranger Yellow Part I
  9. Ranger Yellow Part II
  10. Ranger Blue
  11. Doctor K
  12. Blitz
  13. Brother's Keeper
  14. Embodied
  15. Ghosts
  16. In or Out
  17. Prisoners
  18. Belly of the Beast
  19. Three's a Crowd
  20. Heroes Among Us
  21. Not So Simple
  22. The Dome Dolls
  23. And… Action!
  24. Ancient History
  25. Key to the Past
  26. Beyond a Doubt
  27. Control-Alt-Delete
  28. Run Ziggy Run
  29. If Venjix Won
  30. End Game
  31. Danger and Destiny Part I
  32. Danger and Destiny Part II

Timeline

  • The year is left vague - far enough in the future for the domed city to exist but close enough to the real world for 2009's cars, fashions, and buildings to remain. It was assumed by some fans that the series took place between Power Rangers S.P.D. and the year 3000. However, "Clash of the Red Rangers" would cross over RPM and Power Rangers Samurai, with no time travel mentioned - it was established that Power Rangers RPM took place relative to the time it was airing, albeit in an alternate universe.

Notes

  • This is the final season until Cosmic Fury to only run for a single season, as all future seasons following Saban's re-acquisition of the franchise starting with Samurai/Super Samurai would run for two 20 episode seasons.
    • This is the only season of the two to be standalone, as Cosmic Fury picks up from where Dino Fury leaves off.
  • This is the first series to have the end credits run during the last scene of the show, although ABC also did this during their repeat showings of Mystic Force and Operation Overdrive.
  • It was not revealed on-screen what the acronym RPM stood for, although material on the Bandai website stated it stood for "Racing Performance Machines". (It is a real-life acronym for Revolutions Per Minute, which is used to measure engine speeds.)
  • This is the only season to appear only on ABC rather than Jetix or Fox Kids due to the show being dropped when Jetix was replaced by Disney XD. It did air on Jetix/Disney XD in other countries such as the United Kingdom.
  • This is the first season to directly mention their Sentai counterpart (Go-Onger) through the vehicle Project GO-ONGER.
  • RPM is one of the few series not to source elements of its plot from the Sentai series it is based on. While Go-Onger settles on an animal/vehicle theme, RPM's theme was set in a post-apocalyptic future.
  • This is the first season in which there is an episode with a behind-the-scenes episode as opposed to a special such as the one Operation Overdrive had.
  • RPM was originally going to be the last season of Power Rangers; however, this was changed when Haim Saban decided to buy the show back from Disney and continue with Samurai, adapting the next Sentai after Go-Onger, Shinkenger.
    • This was also the final season to air on ABC Kids.
  • RPM is the first season to take place in a universe separate from preceding seasons.
  • This is the only season to end on a cliffhanger and not have the next season resolve it. This plot point would not be resolved until Power Rangers Beast Morphers.
  • This season is the last one to be completely produced by Disney as Saban reacquired the rights to Power Rangers in 2010, one full year after RPM aired.
  • This season is also the last to be filmed and broadcast in 480p standard definition and full-screen format and the last to be presented in 2.0 stereo.
  • Originally, the series was supposed to end with a much darker ending called Ranger Black. In this ending, Dillon was supposedly revealed to be a cyborg sleeper agent created by Venjix to infiltrate and gain the trust of the Rangers and would later be Venjix's final body. All of his human memories along with his human existence and Tenaya being his sister was all fabricated by Venjix in order to lure the Rangers into trusting him. The series would have ended with the Rangers forced to destroy Dillon to defeat Venjix once and for all.

See Also

External Links

References

Footnotes


PR2020 logo
Mighty Morphin (s01) • Mighty Morphin (s02) • Mighty Morphin (s03) • Alien Rangers (mini-series) • Zeo • Turbo
• In Space • Lost Galaxy • Lightspeed Rescue • Time Force • Wild Force • Ninja Storm • Dino Thunder • S.P.D. •
Mystic Force • Operation Overdrive • Jungle Fury • RPM • Samurai • Super Samurai • Megaforce • Super Megaforce • Dino Charge • Dino Super Charge • Ninja Steel • Super Ninja Steel • Beast Morphers • Dino Fury • Cosmic Fury

Power Rangers: The Movie (alternate continuity) • Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie • 2017 movie (alternate continuity)

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