This article is about an episode in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. |
Rangers Back in Time is a two-part episode and encompasses the thirty-ninth & fortieth episodes of the second season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, and the ninety-ninth and one hundredth episodes of the franchise overall.
Synopsis[]
Part 1[]
Inspired by the Ranger teens' class assignment of bringing in photographs from their childhood, Lord Zedd comes up with a plan to exploit this trip down memory lane. Using the Rock of Time, he reverses the Earth's rotation, causing everyone on the planet to revert in age by about 10 years! No longer teens, and no longer possessing memory of being Rangers, the Powerless Kids are seemingly defenseless against Zedd's Putties. But are they still a great team beyond their years?
Part 2[]
Trapped in Photomare's picture, the Powerless Kids' only hope is Young Bulk and Skull! Can Alpha 5 find a way to restore the kids, and convince them that they're an alien-fighting superhero team? Even if they get back to their normal age, the Rangers will have to deal with the Zord-copying Photomare, and a horde of revived monsters guarding the Rock of Time!
Plot[]
Part 1[]
At Angel Grove High, Ms. Appleby has given her class an assignment to bring up a childhood photo and show it to the class. Aisha shows them a picture of her in her first dance recital alongside her sick grandmother, and Kimberly shows a photo of her first gymnastics competition. However, Lord Zedd sees this and gets the idea to turn back time and render the Rangers into children so they would be powerless against him. When Goldar asks how they would accomplish that, Lord Zedd reveals he has the Rock of Time, and using it, they’ll reverse the Earth and time so the Rangers will regress into children, and then they’ll stop them once and for all.
Back at Angel Grove High, Tommy shows a picture of him with a karate trophy, Billy shows a picture of him taking apart his mom’s vacuum cleaner, Rocky shows a picture with him and his dog Buster, and Adam shows a picture of him and his dad working on a car. Bulk and Skull show off a picture of when they first met, but on the Moon, Zedd activates the Rock of Time and reverses the Earth’s orbit. As the Earth spins backwards, the clock spins backwards which Billy and everybody takes notice, but it's too late as Zedd speeds up the process and Zordon and Alpha 5 try to monitor the situation and figure out a solution. However, Zedd's plan works as everybody in the classroom is changed into children (although Ms. Appleby has aged down to a young adult), and nobody seems to know what has happened, treating it as a normal school day; though Angel Grove High has now become Angel Grove Elementary. Bulk and Skull try to prank Kimberly with a slime balloon, but it backfires as they get slimed themselves, and get detention after Aisha rats on them.
Back at the Command Center, Zordon and Alpha 5 look in horror as the Rangers are now kids with no memories of being Power Rangers, and Zordon deduces that Lord Zedd used the Rock of Time to send the Earth back in time. The only way to fix this is to create a remote molecular descrambler to turn the Rangers back to normal as it’s the only way to destroy the Rock of Time, and teleporting them in won’t work as it would be too frightening for their age.
At the park, the Rangers play around when Bulk and Skull arrive and spook a married couple, causing them to drop their Polaroid camera. Bulk and Skull take Billy’s kite away, but get tangled up and trip when Kimberly offers Skull a kiss. Meanwhile, Zedd decides that this is the perfect moment to send down the Z-Putties, interrupting the kid’s dodgeball game as they corner the helpless Rangers. Billy and Aisha try to run away, but are unsuccessful, while Rocky frees Adam with his dodgeball, and Tommy uses the ball to strike a Z-Putty right in the middle, disintegrating it. Now realizing their weak point, the Rangers, Bulk and Skull use dodgeballs to defeat the Z-Putties, relieving Alpha as he works on the descrambler. Furious that the young Rangers won, Lord Zedd decides to use the Polaroid camera as the base for his newest monster Photomare. Photomare corners the Rangers and uses his ability to trap them in a photograph, which Bulk and Skull witness. As Alpha struggles to work on the descrambler, Zedd relishes in his victory.
Part 2[]
Back at the Command Center, Alpha 5 works on the descrambler as fast as he could as it can free the Rangers from the photograph. The photo files in the wind toward Bulk and Skull, and they run away from Photomare as Lord Zedd orders Goldar to get the photo himself. Goldar confronts Bulk and Skull as Photomare joins him, and they demand the photo from them. Meanwhile, Alpha completes the descrambler and Zordon tells him to teleport to the park and use it on the photo so it would free the Rangers. Alpha does so, using it to freeze both Goldar and Photomare, but Bulk and Skull run back to Angel Grove High (or rather, Elementary) in fear. They try to tell Principal Caplan what happened, but they get detention as he thinks they were lying. Alpha finds Bulk and Skull in detention and puts the two to sleep before using the descrambler to free the Rangers. While the Rangers are confused about Alpha as he explains to them what is going on, Goldar and Photomare break free from freezing, and Zordon tells Alpha that the latter is capturing innocents in photos. With the young Rangers believing Alpha, he uses the descrambler to turn them back into teenagers, and they morph into action.
As the now morphed Rangers arrive at the park, Photomare captures civilians in photos, while Lord Zedd decides to grow the latter. Rocky summons the Red Dragon Thunderzord and goes into Warrior mode to fight against Photomare, but the latter creates an evil copy of his Zord to fight against. Meanwhile, Goldar summons an army of Z-Putties to fight against Tommy while the rest of the Rangers summon their Thunderzords to help Rocky, forming the Thunder Megazord. With the Thunder Megazord, they fight against Photomare and the Red Dragon Thunderzord copy as Tommy takes on Goldar. The Rangers destroy the copy Zord and Photomare, while Tommy forces Goldar into retreat yet again when the others join him.
However, Zordon and Alpha notice that the Rock of Time is destabilizing the Earth’s foundation, and they tell the Rangers that they’ll have to teleport to the coordinates Alpha sent them, along with a warning that it's guarded by some of Zedd’s most powerful monsters from the past. As the Rangers arrive at the rock, Goldar and the Z-Putties confront them as Lord Zedd summons the Invenusable Flytrap, Dramole, and the Oysterizer to help them. As the Rangers deal with both the Z-Putties and Goldar, they use their Power Weapons to take down the monsters one by one, and Goldar retreats. Afterwards, they summon the Power Cannon to destroy the Rock of Time, returning the Earth to the present. On the moon, Lord Zedd is furious that another one of his plans is ruined.
Back at Angel Grove High, the Rangers see that Bulk and Skull are back to normal, along with everybody else that was imprisoned in Photomare’s pictures. Kimberly admitted that being a kid wasn’t too bad as it meant things were less complicated, while Principal Caplan checks on Bulk and Skull for their essays, but as they can’t remember why they were in detention, he tells them to write on the blackboard "Silence is golden and I will abide by the rules" a hundred times. Aisha remarks that they must've been in detention "since the second grade", much to everyone's laughter.
Cast[]
- Jason David Frank as Tommy Oliver (Mighty Morphin White Ranger)
- Michael R. Gotto as Young Tommy
- Steve Cardenas as Rocky DeSantos (Mighty Morphin Red Ranger)
- Michael O'Laskey II as Young Rocky
- Karan Ashley as Aisha Campbell (Mighty Morphin Yellow Ranger)
- Sicily Sewell as Young Aisha
- Johnny Yong Bosch as Adam Park (Mighty Morphin Black Ranger)
- Matthew Sakimoto as Young Adam
- David Yost as Billy Cranston (Mighty Morphin Blue Ranger)
- Justin Timsit as Young Billy
- Amy Jo Johnson as Kimberly Ann Hart (Mighty Morphin Pink Ranger)
- Maxxe Sternbaum as Young Kimberly
- Paul Schrier as Farkas "Bulk" Bulkmeier
- Cody Slaton as Young Bulk
- Jason Narvy as Eugene "Skull" Skullovitch
- Ross J. Samya as Young Skull
- Royce Herron as Ms. Appleby (Part 1 only)
- Harold Cannon as Mr. Caplan (Part 2 only)
- David Fielding as Zordon (face)
- Robert L. Manahan as Zordon (voice)
- Sandi Sellner as Alpha 5 (suit)
- Richard Steven Horvitz as Alpha 5 (voice; credited as Richard Wood)
- Ed Neil as Lord Zedd
- Robert Axelrod as Lord Zedd (voice)
- Danny Wayne Stallcup as Goldar
- Kerrigan Mahan as Goldar (voice)
- Michael J. Sorich as Squatt (voice)
- Dave Mallow as Baboo (voice; credited as Colin Phillips)
- Kirk Thornton as Photomare (voice)
- Keiichi Wada as Copied Citizen 1 (Japanese footage)
- Tatsuya Nomi as Copied Citizen 2 (Japanese footage)
- Ei Hamura as Copied Citizen 3 (Japanese footage)
- Natsuki Takahashi as Copied Citizen 4 (Japanese footage)
Song[]
Errors[]
- Photomare had a female appearance and was referred to as such, however had a male voice.
- Although created from a camera, Photomare visually resembled a photocopier.
- Rocky was left to summon the Red Dragon Thunderzord himself while the other Rangers were supposedly fighting Goldar, however Tommy was then shown battling Goldar alone before the others summoned their Zords.
- When Tommy fights Goldar with Saba in Part II, there is a sound effect of the weapons colliding without the weapons hitting at that moment.
- The Rangers remain in the same classroom with other elementary school students, though an establishing shot in Part II establishes the building is still called Angel Grove High School.
- When the Red Dragon Thunderzord approaches giant Photomare, the legs of the Thunder Megazord can be seen before the other four Rangers join up to form it.
- When the camera pans up on Rocky in the Red Dragon Thunderzord cockpit, Kimberly's arm can be seen briefly on the right-hand side of the shot.
- Adam recognizes Oysterizer, and calls him by name despite having never encountered him before.
- In Part I, when Bulk and Skull are put to sleep by Alpha 5 in detention, Skull is sitting at the first desk and Bulk at the second desk but at the end of the episode when everything is back to normal their positions have reversed.
- Tommy tells the Rangers "Thunder Megazord power now" although they were already forming the Megazord.
- While loading the Power Cannon, neither Billy nor Adam load their respective colored charge.
- When Photomare's chest slot spewed forth the people she trapped in photos, the footage is four of the unmorphed core Dairangers, minus Kazu, from the source Dairanger episode.
- Billy as a child in this episode was different then how he appeared as a child in "Something Fishy".
Notes[]
- Part II was originally going to be the 99th episode, with "Lights, Camera, Action" being the 100th, but scheduling issues after "The Power Transfer" meant that episode became the 93rd.
- The actors who play the young versions of Billy, Aisha, Adam, Rocky, Tommy, Bulk, and Skull would later reprise their roles during the Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers episodes.
- Part II marks the final use of the Power Sword, Power Lance, Power Daggers, and Power Bow in the TV series. They will appear again in Power Rangers Zeo, alongside the Mighty Morphin' Ranger costumes in the Power Chamber's display case. Adam uses the Power Axe again in Storybook Rangers, Part II and many years later in Power Rangers Operation Overdrive: "Once a Ranger (2)". All 5 weapons would later be used in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always.
- The second part of this episode marks the 100th episode of Power Rangers.
- The main adult cast members appear only briefly in both episodes as filming was underway for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie at the time.
- Part II is the only time cockpit footage of Rocky in his Red Dragon Thunderzord is seen.
- The events of this episode are shown 26 years later in the Power Rangers Dino Fury episode “Old Foes”, after Lord Zedd returns.
- This features the only appearance of Kimberly as a child.
See Also[]
- Ep. 25: Droves of Evil Sentai - Super Sentai counterpart in Dairanger. See comparison page. (Photomare footage & Zord Battle)
External Links[]
- Watch Rangers Back in Time, Part I on the official YouTube page
- Watch Rangers Back in Time, Part II on the official YouTube page
References[]
Footnotes[]