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Revision as of 23:34, 6 June 2019

PR2020 logo This article is about a/an series entry (the 17th) in the Power Rangers franchise.
Red alert WARNING: This series contains scenes of gun violence and blood. Viewer discretion is advised!

Power Rangers RPM[1] was the title for the 2009 season of Power Rangers. It is based on Engine Sentai Go-Onger. It was the last season of Power Rangers to be produced by Disney, as they had intended to cancel the series after Power Rangers Jungle Fury; however, they decided to go ahead on a final season (it is believed this was due to having a contract with Bandai). Despite this, Disney dropped the show from its new 'Disney XD' channel, leaving it to be aired on ABC Kids.

Eddie Guzelian took over as Executive Producer from Bruce Kalish at the beginning of the season. By his and John Tellegen's admission, Eddie fought a number of people to get his vision through: inspired by films like The Road Warrior. Tellegen said that he enjoyed the "freshness" of Guzelian's new take, which was wildly different to what the show had done before. [2]In contrast, RPM marked the departure of long-term writer Jackie Marchand, who has said she was not involved in the initial writing but "diplomatically" said she thought Guzelian's scripts were very strong.[3] Guzelian was then fired halfway through the show, rumored to have used up the RPM's entire budget already and been responsible for allowing an unacceptable slowdown of the writing and production process due to perfectionism. He was replaced with the previous producer, Judd Lynn, who brought the series to its conclusion. 

After the final episode aired, Disney announced that the following season would be a 'reversionised' Mighty Morphin Power Rangers; however, the long-term status of the franchise appeared to be in limbo until it was reacquired by Saban Brands who immediately announced the production of Power Rangers Samurai.

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[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 "Clash of the Red Rangers" when Scott travels to the main universe. As such, the Morphing Grid takes 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.

Production History

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.

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, and replaced by returning writer and producer Judd Lynn in July. 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.

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. Ultimately he was 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 to which he did his New Zealand, Irish, and American accents including doing mime. 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 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 accidentally burning her clothes that were being left out to dry.

Characters

Ranger Operators

File:All 7 Go-Onger.jpg

All Ranger Operators

Main article: Ranger Operators
Color Role 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

Supporting Cast

Villains

Arsenal

Main article: Arsenal (RPM)

Morphers

Multi-Use Devices

Sidearms

Individual Weapons and Team Blasters

Vehicles

Zord Attack Vehicles and Megazords

Main article: Zords (RPM)
Legend:◆ 1-pilot zord, ❖ aux zord, ◀▶ 2-pilot zord, ◇ unpiloted zord

Zord Attack Vehicles System

Additional Formations

High Octane Megazord
ValveMax Megazord
Mach Megazord

Episodes

RPM Episodes

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 SPD 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, however was set in an alternate universe.
  • Venjix is released "three years ago" when Corinth is sealing itself off, and the rest of the series happens "one year later". "Within a year" of release, Venjix had infected an estimated "37% of the world's computer systems"Tvicon TV STORY-The Road to Corinth
  • "The Road to Corinth" presents Venjix as steadily crippling the world before he unleashed his robots on a conquering spree; Doctor K, stock footage, and news reports refer to the loss of stock markets, communication, utilities and military systems, and a newspaper reports "President Declares State of Emergency; Europe, Africa, South America Decimated". The later flashback episodes will instead show the United States, the United Kingdom, and an unnamed nation that Flynn McAllistair is working in to be unaffected and ignorant of what's coming, until Venjix launches bombardment sprees everywhere at once. (This included the US Air Force - Scott has no idea what's happening but Marcus Truman immediately knows they're leaving flight computers off.)Tvicon TV STORY-Ranger Red The retreat to Corinth is so rapid that "world leaders are advising people to flee to the dome of Corinth City" when the first robots attack, before it's confirmed it is VenjixTvicon TV STORY-Ranger Green and when some news broadcasts are still reporting "unconfirmed reports... [of] a series of direct attacks".Tvicon TV STORY-Ranger Yellow

Notes

  • This is the final Power Rangers series 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 second Power Ranger season to borrow the same title logo from its Sentai counterpart. The first was Power Rangers Operation Overdrive.
  • RPM had no team-up episodes, but three Rangers appeared in future seasons and other media:
  • This is the first series to have the end credits run during the last scene of the show, although ABC did this during their repeat showings of Mystic Force and Operation Overdrive.
  • This season reuses the word "Venjix"; Power Rangers Wild Force also had a General Venjix as part of a splinter of the Machine Empire.
  • 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').
  • This is the only season to appear only on ABC rather than Jetix or Fox Kids. This is because the show was 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 where a member of the team is sent to jail while serving as a Power Ranger.
  • So far, this is the only season to directly mention their Sentai counterpart (in this case, Go-Onger). This is also the first season to use and state it as part of their arsenal.
  • 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 a Beast Racing theme, RPM's theme was set in a post-apocalyptic future.
  • A "Jungle Karma Pizza" joint, the same restaurant where the Jungle Fury Rangers worked in, was seen inside Corinth (though it was obviously not the same location). This was seen in "Ranger Green".
  • This is the first season in which there's an episode that tells about behind-the-scenes of Power Rangers, as opposed to a special such as the one Operation Overdrive had.
  • At Alphabet Soup, Tenaya 7 found a modified version of the Red Operation Overdrive Ranger's helmet worn by Mack Hartford in Ancient History. That is not the true helmet however, because of RPM being in a different timeline.
  • This is the first season to begin in any other month than February since Turbo and also the first season since Mighty Morphin to air new episodes in the month of December.
  • RPM was originally going to be the last season for the Power Rangers Series; however, this was changed when Haim Saban decided to buy the show back from Disney and decided to bring an 18th season called Power Rangers Samurai.
  • Danger and Destiny, Part II marks the 700th Episode of Power Rangers.
  • RPM was the last Power Rangers series to air in the 2000s.
  • This was the final series to air on ABC Kids.
  • RPM is one of two seasons not to be in the main timeline, the other being Dino Charge
  • This season aired concurrent with the Super Sentai series Samurai Sentai Shinkenger, which would be adapted two years later as Power Rangers Samurai.
  • Although RPM is not the first season to simultaneously include a Black Ranger and a Green Ranger on its team, RPM is the first season to include both a Black Ranger and a Green Ranger on the core team. This will be repeated in Power Rangers Dino Charge.
    • Also, this season is the first season to include both a Gold and Silver Ranger as Sixth Rangers, which will again be repeated in Dino Charge and Beast Morphers
  • This is the only season to end on a cliffhanger, and not have the next season resolve it.
  • This is the first series since Power Rangers Wild Force not to give all of the Rangers superpowers that they could access outside of their morphs.
  • This is the first series since Power Rangers Ninja Storm to have unsung dialog in the opening before the theme music begins.
  • This was the last season not to feature a Pink Ranger for 10 years until Beast Morphers.
  • This is the only season to have the Red, Blue, Yellow, Green and Black main team formation.
    • The five colors (Red/Blue/Yellow/Green/Black) are exactly the same as the Olympic Rings.
  • This is the first season in the Disney era where the rangers each have vehicles assigned to them for transport that are not part of their arsenal but are rather their own personally owned vehicles. Summer has a bike, Dillon has his black car named Fury, Scott has his racer, Flynn has his hummer, and Ziggy usually rides with another ranger but used a worn out moped at one point. Gem and Gemma usually travel with other rangers or on foot.
  • RPM was intended to be a darker, much more serious Power Rangers series compared to previous seasons. Ironically, its Japanese counterpart Engine Sentai Go-Onger was portrayed as a light-hearted and goofy Sentai series. However, they both have the element in common of lightly satirizing standard series elements.
  • The quote on the poster of RPM is the same quote frequently used by Krim Steinbelt in Kamen Rider Drive. Coincidentally enough, Drive shares the same motif as its Super Sentai counterpart , Engine Sentai Go-Onger.
  • 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 ended.
  • 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.
  • This is the fourth season where the rangers identities are not kept secret in the beginning. The others were Lightspeed Rescue, SPD and Operation Overdrive.
    • Samurai does not count since family members are the only ones who know the Rangers' identities because of their power being passed down from parent to child.
  • RPM is the first Power Rangers franchise in which a good character (Dr. K) is directly responsible for the villains' rise to power (Dino Thunder may count as the first, but it is debatable whether Dr. O's actions were directly responsible for Mesogog's rise).
  • RPM is the second Power Rangers incarnation whose plotline involved absolutely no supernatural elements, the first being Time Force.

See Also

External links

References

  1. ↑ http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=77521866
  2. ↑ Toku Rants interview with Jon Tellegen (dead link)
  3. ↑ Toku Rants interview with Jackie Marchand: 51:17 to 52:31
  4. ↑ http://www.kractors.co.nz/details.php?act_id=15 James Gaylyn as Col. Truman
  5. ↑ http://kractors.co.nz/detailsx.php?act_id=28
  6. ↑ http://johnsonlaird.com/assets/documents/1325/1325_actor_biography.pdf

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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