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Rangers Back in Time

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Icon-mightymorphinThis article is about an episode in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

Rangers Back in Time is the 39th and 40th episodes of Season 2 of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

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 its 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. 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 tanged 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 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 its guarded by some of Zedd’s most powerful monsters from the past. As the Rangers arrive to the rock, Goldar and the Z-Putties confront them as Lord Zedd summons the Impervious Flytrap, Dramole, and 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. After, they summon the Power Cannon to destroy the Rock of Time, and return the Earth back in the present time. 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 were 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” a hundred times.

Cast

Quotes

Tommy: "I was expecting someone tougher."
Goldar: "I'm the greatest warrior of all!"
Zedd (on the moon): "I can't believe that bubble head said that! I need some real defenders down there!"
Bulk (oblivious of why he and Skull are Currently in the detention room): "What are we doing in here?"
Mr. Caplan: "This seems to be were you live. We're gonna have to start charging you rent."

Song

Errors

  • The title for this episode implies that the Rangers time travel but they're just age regressed.
  • The Rangers remain in the same classroom with other elementary-school-aged students, though an establishing shot in Part 2 establishes the building is still called Angel Grove High School. The school's crest on one of the walls also says this as well.
  • Although the Morphin Grid is later established to be capable of retaining a Ranger's memories if time reversion happens, as shown in "Rangers in Reverse", the Rangers' memories are suppressed on this occasion.
    • The Ninja Coins in Season 3 were connected to the Rangers like when Kimberly's coin was taken and it nearly destroyed her.
  • 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. This is because it was originally fought by Dairen'Oh in Dairanger (see Notes for why this error exists).
  • When the camera pans up on Rocky in the Red Dragon cockpit, Kimberly's arm can be seen briefly in the right hand side of the shot. This is because this was a recycled shot of thee Thunder Megazord cockpit although it was chosen because only Rocky can be fully seen in frame.
  • Adam recognizes Oysterizer, and calls him by name despite having never encountered him before.
  • Despite the fact that Photomare was created from a camera, it visually resembled a photocopier.
  • Photomare has a female appearance, is referred to as 'sister' by Alpha and also referred to as female by Adam, but has a male voice.
  • Zordon warns the Rangers that "the Rock of Time is guarded by Lord Zedd's most powerful monsters from the past," despite Oysterizer and Dramole originally being Finster/Rita's creations. Additionally, the Invenusable Fly Trap, while powerful, was definitely not the strongest monster Lord Zedd had created.
  • The metal piece on Lord Zedd's right hand pinky finger between knuckle and fingertip disappears and reappears repeatedly between shots in Part 1. Also when Bulk and Skull are put to sleep by Alpha 5 in detention it shows Skull sitting at the first desk and Bulk at the second desk but at the end of the episode when everything is back to normal it shows Bulk sitting at the first desk and Skull at the second desk.
  • Tommy tells the Rangers "Thunder Megazord power now" although they were already forming the Megazord. This sequence appears to have been taken out of its original context, probably because it was intercut with the stock Zord summoning and not before the others summoned thier Zords.

Notes

  • The original Dairanger episode involved Photomare (called Copy Empress in Japan) who was sent to kill the Dairangers using her powers to copy them into duplicates (reffered to as the Copy Dairanger). The only way to destroy them was to destroy the copy machine on her chest which made the copies vanish at which point she pulled out the growth bomb all Gorma Monsters carried with them and cue Zord battle,
  • This episode actually correct an error from Dairanger using recycled footage. In Dairanger,  Copy Mythical Chi Warrior Ryuuseioh was created from Dairen'oh (the Thunder Megazord) instead of the original Ryuuseioh which makes no sense. Here, recycled shots of the Red Dragon Thunderzord replace the Thunder Megazord shots so the error is replaced. This is also why the two Zords never appear together or fight one another.
  • The actors who play the young versions of Billy, Aisha, Adam, Rocky, Tommy, Bulk, and Skull would later reprise their roles again during the Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers episodes. The only child-ranger actor that does not return is Maxxe Sternbaum as Young Kimberly, because by that time Kimberly will have passed on her powers to Kat.
  • The Photomare monster does not appear in original footage. This means that, much like Skelerena, everything is cut to Sentai monster blasting, to American or Sentai shot of Rangers cringing or falling.
  • This is the first time the Rangers are regressed to the age of children, albeit with their Ranger memories suppressed. This would happen again late in Season 3 at the end of "Rangers in Reverse" and the Alien Rangers saga, though prior to "RiR", Michael R. Gotto plays Young Tommy in the VHS special Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Karate Club: The White Ranger Kata.
  • Even though Aisha says that Bulk and Skull have been in detention since the second grade, the actors that play the kid Rangers look more like they are in the fourth grade.
  • Part 2 marks the final use of the Power Sword, Power Lance, Power Daggers, and Power Bow in battle, and the only true occasion they are used in original combat footage, albeit with the apparent violence still minimized compared with Zyuranger. 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 2" and many years later in Operation Overdrive's "Once a Ranger, Part 2".
  • The second part of this episode marks the overall 100th episode of MMPR and, by extension, the entire Power Rangers franchise (This doesn't count the unaired pilot version of "Day of the Dumpster").
  • When the Rangers become children, all six remain schoolmates. In the original course of events, four of them--Tommy, Adam, Rocky and Aisha--moved to Angel Grove from other locales and did not meet Billy and Kimberly until their high school years. This discrepancy is not explained, although it is likely the Rangers memories were altered to account for the discontinuity.
  • This was the last episode produced before "The Power Transfer".
  • 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.
  • 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 (see link below). This is the only appearance of any of the core Dairangers in Power Rangers until Super Megaforce.
    • The difference here is that it's an error and not intentional.
  • Part 2 is the first time a Zord-calling sequence is interrupted by another scene (the scene cuts to Tommy fighting the Putties between Kimberly and Billy calling their Zords).
  • The Zord battle with Photomare and the copy Red Dragon Thunderzord is the only time the Thunder Megazord takes down two enemies with one swing of the Thunder Saber.

See Also

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