This article is about a/an series entry (the 9th) in the Power Rangers franchise. |
Power Rangers Time Force is an American superhero drama serving as an adaptation of the 24th Super Sentai series Mirai Sentai Timeranger, and is the ninth installment of Power Rangers. The series follows a group of Rangers from the far future who defend the timeline from the criminal Ransik.
Production
Power Rangers Time Force was designed by the writers to be more adult oriented and deal with serious themes such as racism and bigotry. For this reason, the Mutants were made societal outcasts hated just for their appearances and abused so badly that they were forced to become terrorists. However, reportedly due to pressure from executive producer Jonathan Tzachor who wanted more Timeranger footage added in, they had to copy many plot-points from the Japanese series.
Casting for and acting in Time Force was, according to the cast, very enjoyable and they still appreciate the roles to this day. Jason Faunt had been auditing for Power Rangers since 1998 when he auditioned for the role of Andros which ultimately went to Christopher Khayman Lee instead but was hired on his fourth audition to play both Red Ranger Wesley Collins and his descendent Alex Drake. Erin Cahill got the role of Jen Scotts after eight months of waiting before being called in for a final audition where she got the part. Michael Copon grew up watching Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and had only moved to Los Angeles a year earlier before signing up with a modeling agency. However, they thought that he'd make a good actor and his first acting role ended up being Lucas Kendall. Kevin Kleinberg became Trip immediately after graduating high school and wore a wig since his character had green hair and he didn't want to dye his real hair. Deborah Estelle Phillips had also grown up watching the show and was surprised to see it was still airing before auditioning and getting the role of Yellow Ranger Katie Walker. According to Philips, the reason that her character was usually depicted as not knowing her own strength was a decision on her part since her strength was only shown when convenient for the plot of certain episodes. Daniel Southworth (who would later go on to become a very successful voice actor) was already known to Saban since he had been playing various Red Rangers at live-shows for six years and had also been a stunt-actor for Lightspeed Rescue so was offered the role.
The villains for Time Force were very different from their Timeranger counterparts. One major change from the Sentai though were the antagonists. In Timeranger, Don Dolnero was the central antagonist with Lila/Nadira and Gien/Frax serving him but Gluto became the typical dumb comic relief villain. Additionally, the true main antagonist of Timeranger was Captain Ryuya Asami who released the Londerz Family/Mutants to try and change the past to prevent his death during the Great Annihilation. Since no footage of Ryuya being evil was usable, since he was an entirely human villain, Ransik was created. Veteran Australian actor Vernon Wells was asked to audition for Ransik and got the role despite not knowing what Power Rangers was and thinking that it was "something like Sponge-Bob with voice-overs".
According to Faunt, his roles were filmed back to back with him going from playing Wes in one scene to Alex in another and vice-versa. Whenever he was in a scene where Alex and Wes were present, a stand-in was used and shots that didn't feature the two characters in frame had him acting against a stick. The team's robot Circuit (voiced by proliffic voice actress Brianne Siddall in her final Power Rangers role) originated from Timeranger. However, they had to create an entirely new prop for Time Force because the prop was unusably damaged after being shipped. The Clock Tower being the Rangers' base was decided upon early in production with the interior props being found by production designer Julie Bolder and the famous clockface of the tower was a real working clock. Bolder was also the designer of the Cryo Prison; the place where all cryogenically frozen Mutants were stored which later became Ransik's base of operations in the past. One of the most famous elements of Time Force was the relationship between Jen and Wes; going from bitter poorly disguised anger and trying to make a good impression to tragic lovers. According to Jackie Marchand, the producers forced the writers to keep past romantic pairings subtle since they felt that children wouldn't like them but decided to remove this restriction for once.
Eric's counterpart Naoto Takizawa originally died during the equivalent to "The End of Time" which was originally supposed to happen to Eric as well. The scene was filmed but there are two variations for what happened next. The first is that the scene was shown to an unknown producer and he didn't like the scene so ordered it changed. The other is that they filmed two versions of the scene; the death scene and one where he lived since they were worried that Fox wouldn't like the death scene, In the latter case, it is stated that Fox preferred the variation where Eric lived and so Saban went with that scene. Whichever is true, the death scene was cut and the scene of Eric living was inserted instead.
Partway through the airing of Time Force, shortly after the airing of the episode "Destiny Defeated", came the events of September 11th 2001. As a result of the attack, Time Force went on a week long hiatus and underwent heavy re-edits to all prior episodes to remove footage of buildings imploding and most notably removed a shot of the Time Shadow atop two buildings that resembled the World Trade Center. As a result of 9/11, the third episode of the series ("Ransik Lives") was completely pulled from the schedule and never aired again. This was because the episode revolved around Ransik making terrorist threats and Fearog destroying buildings. As such, removing the problematic elements were not an option and they were forced to remove it.
This was the final series to fully air on Fox Kids since Wild Force was bought out by Disney shortly after the episode "The Master's Last Stand" which resulted in it being moved to Jetix which would later become Disney XD. According to Daniel Southworth at Power Morphicon 2007, due to popularity and the relationship between the production crew and cast, a second season was almost commissioned. However, due to the Disney buy-out, all plans had to be scrapped as they wanted to start fresh without needing to worry about continuity.
Synopsis
Fugitive mutants from the distant future escape to the present to unleash a wave of crime against a helpless world but the futuristic police force known as the Power Rangers Time Force travel across time to save the past, present, and future.
Characters
Rangers
Time Force Rangers
Designation | Name | Actor |
---|---|---|
Time Force Red Ranger | Alex Drake ▶◀ Wesley Collins | Jason Faunt |
Time Force Pink Ranger | Jen Scotts | Erin Cahill |
Time Force Blue Ranger | Lucas Kendall | Michael Copon |
Time Force Yellow Ranger | Katie Walker | Deborah Estelle Phillips |
Time Force Green Ranger | Trip | Kevin Kleinberg |
Quantum Ranger | Eric Myers | Daniel Southworth |
Evil Rangers
Evil Time Force Rangers
- (18)
Time Force Red Ranger | Evil Time Force Red Ranger |
Time Force Pink Ranger | Evil Time Force Pink Ranger |
Time Force Blue Ranger | Evil Time Force Blue Ranger |
Time Force Yellow Ranger | Evil Time Force Yellow Ranger |
Time Force Green Ranger | Evil Time Force Green Ranger |
Other Evil Rangers
Designation | Name | Actor |
---|---|---|
Time Force Blue Ranger | Miracon (34) | Philip Proctor |
RPG/Comic-Exclusive Rangers
Designation | Name | Actor |
---|---|---|
Time Force Silver Ranger | Joe Shih (HyperForce) | Yoshi Sudarso |
Time Force Black Ranger | Cyra Drake (Sins of the Future) | N/A |
Allies
Time Force
- Captain Logan (1, 3, 9, 18, 26)
- Circuit (1-16, 18-40)
Bio-Lab
- Mr. Collins (2-3, 6, 9, 12=13, 15-16, 20, 27-30, 37-40)
- Dr. Michael Zaskin (16, 20, 28, 30, 37, 39)
- Silver Guardians
Others
- Notacon (19)
- Dash (21)
- White Knight (32)
Legendary Rangers
Lightspeed Rangers
- (33)
Red Lightspeed Ranger | Carter Grayson | Sean Cw Johnson |
Blue Lightspeed Ranger | Chad Lee | Michael Chaturantabut |
Green Lightspeed Ranger | Joel Rawlings | Keith Robinson |
Yellow Lightspeed Ranger | Kelsey Winslow | Sasha Williams |
Pink Lightspeed Ranger | Dana Mitchell | Alison MacInnis |
Titanium Ranger | Ryan Mitchell | Rhett Fisher |
Wild Force Rangers
- (Wild Force 24-25)
Designation | Name | Actor |
---|---|---|
Red Wild Force Ranger | Cole Evans | Ricardo Medina Jr. |
Yellow Wild Force Ranger | Taylor Earhardt | Alyson Kiperman |
Blue Wild Force Ranger | Max Cooper | Phillip Jeanmarie |
Black Wild Force Ranger | Danny Delgado | Jack Guzman |
White Wild Force Ranger | Alyssa Enrilé | Jessica Rey |
Lunar Wolf Ranger | Merrick Baliton | Phillip Andrew |
HyperForce Rangers
- (HyperForce 1, 12, 15-17)
Designation | Name | Actor |
---|---|---|
HyperForce Red Ranger | Marvin Shih | Peter Sudarso |
HyperForce Blue Ranger | Eddie Banks | Andre Meadows |
HyperForce Yellow Ranger | Jack Thomas | Paul Schrier |
HyperForce Black Ranger | Vesper Vasquez | Cristina Vee |
HyperForce Pink Ranger | Chloe Ashford | Meghan Camarena |
HyperForce Green Ranger | Joe Shih | Yoshi Sudarso |
Civilians
- Philips (2-3, 6, 38-39)
- Alice Roberts (20 & 30)
- Mitch (23)
- Angela Fairweather (33)
Villains
- Mutants
- Leader
- Ransik (1-14, 18-22, 24-25, 27-28, 33-40)
- Generals
- Monsters/Robots
- Mutant Criminals
- Normal
- Flamecon (1, 6, 8, 18)
- Jetara (3, 8, 18)
- Fearog (4, 8, 18, 38)
- Mantamobile (5, 8, 18)
- Tentaclaw (6 & 8)
- Rabbitcon (7-8, 18)
- Medicon (7-8, 18, 38)
- Fatcatfish (8)
- Izout (9 & 18)
- Redeye (4, 11, 18, 34)
- Electropede (11, 18, 38)
- Brickneck (13)
- Commandocon (14-15)
- Klawlox (16 & 26)
- Cruel Senturicon (17)
- Turtlecon (18)
- Notacon (19)
- Conwing (20)
- Dash (21) / Giant Form (21)
- Contemptra (4 & 22)
- Ironspike (18, 23, 34)
- Artillicon (23)
- Cinecon (24-25)
- Steelix (26)
- Severax (18 & 28)
- Mr. Mechanau (31)
- Miracon (34) / Time Force Blue Ranger (34)
- Angelcon (18 & 34)
- Chameliacon (35)
- Serpicon (36)
- X-Vault
- Others
- Samurhive (4)
- Eyeacon (4)
- Chef Bug (18 & 28)
- Black Knight (32)
- Dragon (32)
- Normal
- Robots
- Tronicon (9 & 37)
- Dragontron (29-30)
- Doomtron (36, 38-40)
- Max Axe (37)
- Others
- Evil Power Rangers Time Force (18)
- Evil Time Force Red Ranger (18)
- Evil Time Force Pink Ranger (18)
- Evil Time Force Blue Ranger (18)
- Evil Time Force Yellow Ranger (18)
- Evil Time Force Green Ranger (18)
- Evil Power Rangers Time Force (18)
- Mutant Criminals
- Grunts
- Cyclobots (1-14, 16-28, 30-31, 33-40)
- Leader
Arsenal
Transformation Devices
- Chrono Morphers ◆◆◆◆◆
- Quantum Morpher ◆
Other Devices
- Time Force Badge ◆◆◆◆◆
- Visual Scanners ◆◆◆◆
- Transportal Device ◆ (introduced in Power Rangers Super Ninja Steel)
- Midnight Sword ◆ (introduced in Power Rangers: Sins of the Future)
Sidearms
- Chrono Blasters ◆◆◆◆◆
- Chrono Sabers ◆◆◆◆◆
- Electro Booster ◆◆
Individual Weapons and Team Blaster
- Vortex Blaster ◆◆◆◆◆
- V1 ◆
- V2 ◆
- V3 ◆
- V4 ◆
- V5 ◆
- Quantum Defender ◆
Power-Up
Vehicles
- Time Ship
- Time Jet
- Vector Cycles ◆◆◆◆◆
- TF Eagle ◆
- Strata Cycle ◆
Zords
Time Flyer and Shadow Force System
- Legend:◆ piloted zord, ★ battlezord; see Style Guide for rules on icon colors
- Shadow Force Megazord Mode Blue / Shadow Force Megazord Mode Red ★◆◆◆◆◆
- Time Force Megazord Mode Blue / Time Force Megazord Mode Red / Time Force Megazord Jet Mode ◆◆◆◆◆
- Time Flyers ◆◆◆◆◆
- Time Flyer 1 ◆
- Time Flyer 2 ◆
- Time Flyer 3 ◆
- Time Flyer 4 ◆
- Time Flyer 5 ◆
- Time Flyers ◆◆◆◆◆
- Shadow Winger / Time Shadow Megazord ★
- Time Force Megazord Mode Blue / Time Force Megazord Mode Red / Time Force Megazord Jet Mode ◆◆◆◆◆
- Quantasaurus Rex / Q-Rex Megazord Mode◆
- Transwarp Megazord ●
Alternate Formations
Episodes
- Force from the Future, Pt. 1
- Force from the Future, Pt. 2
- Something to Fight For
- Ransik Lives
- A Blue Streak
- A Parting of Ways
- Short-Circuited
- Jen's Revenge
- The Time Shadow
- Future Unknown
- Uniquely Trip
- Worlds Apart
- The Quantum Quest
- Clash for Control, Part 1
- Clash for Control, Part 2
- Bodyguard in Blue
- The Legend of the Clock Tower
- Trust and Triumph
- Trip Takes a Stand
- Quantum Secrets
- The Last Race
- Lovestruck Rangers
- Full Exposure
- Movie Madness, Pt. 1
- Movie Madness, Pt. 2
- Time Force Traitor
- Frax's Fury
- Dawn of Destiny
- Fight Against Fate
- Destiny Defeated
- Undercover Rangers
- Beware the Knight
- Time for Lightspeed
- Reflections Of Evil
- Nadira's Dream Date
- Circuit Unsure
- This episode was dedicated to Thuy Trang.
- A Calm Before the Storm
- The End of Time Part 1
- The End of Time Part 2
- The End of Time Part 3
VHS/DVD/Youtube Releases
VHS Release
- Power Rangers Time Force: Force from the Future
- Force from the Future, Part 1 & 2
- Something to Fight For
- Power Rangers Time Force: Quantum Ranger Clash for Control
- Worlds Apart
- The Quantum Quest
- Clash for Control, Part 1 & 2
- Power Rangers Time Force: Photo Finish
- Movie Madness, Part 1 & 2
- Full Exposure
- Power Rangers Time Force: Dawn of Destiny
- Frax's Fury
- Dawn of Destiny
- Fight Against Fate
- Destiny Defeated (Final episode to air before the September 11th attacks)
- Power Rangers Time Force: The End of Time
- A Calm Before the Storm
- The End of Time, Part 1-3
- Power Rangers: Red Alert
- Beware the Knight
DVD
- Power Rangers Time Force (Complete Season) [German RC2]
- Power Rangers Seasons 8-12 (Lightspeed Rescue to Dino Thunder)
- Power Rangers Time Force: The Complete Series (Shout! Factory)
Youtube
Notes
- This is the first and (currently) the only season to feature a Pink Ranger as the leader. However, Wes was the central protagonist.
- Time Force is the first series where the Rangers do not destroy the monsters but rather capture them in containers.
- This was the first series to include a standard issue sidearm not featured in its Sentai counterpart. In this case, it is the Chrono Blaster as the Timerangers did not have ranged sidearms.
- Time Force had a spiritual sequel in the form of the Twitch RPG Power Rangers Hyperforce. However, it is set in another continuity separate from the main franchise.
- This is the first series not to feature any of the main villains turning giant.
- This is the first series where the Rangers don't have individual weapons.
- This series features two Red Rangers instead of one.
See Also
- Mirai Sentai Timeranger - Super Sentai counterpart . See comparison page.
External links
- Power Rangers Time Force at Wikipedia.
References
Footnotes