 This article is about an episode in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.
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The Ninja Encounter is a three-part episode and the twenty-second to twenty-fourth episodes of the second season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.
It serves as the first three episodes in the seven-part Peace Conference arc and featured the debuts of Rocky DeSantos, Adam Park, and Aisha Campbell who would go on to become the new Mighty Morphin Red, Black, and Yellow Rangers respectively.
Synopsis[]
Three teens from Stone Canyon High School come to Angel Grove for a ninja tournament and find themselves targeted by Lord Zedd to become his new Dark Rangers. In the meantime, he creates the Terror Blossom to destroy the Power Rangers and plans to create hundreds of other versions of him. In the meantime, he resurrects the immensely powerful Hatchasaurus who is stronger than even the Thunderzords. Can the Power Rangers put a stop to Zedd's schemes or is this truly the end?!
Plot[]
Synopsis[]
Three teens from Stone Canyon High School come to Angel Grove for a ninja tournament and find themselves targeted by Lord Zedd to become his new evil soldiers. In the meantime, he creates the Terror Blossom to destroy the Power Rangers and plans to create hundreds of other versions of him. Terror Blossom resurrects the immensely powerful Hatchasaurus, who is stronger than even the Thunderzords. Can the Power Rangers put a stop to Zedd's schemes or is this truly the end?!
Plot[]
Tommy, Kimberly, and Billy meet Stone Canyon High Students Rocky DeSantos, Adam Park, and Aisha Campbell as well as their teacher Hank Anderson and his baby son Jacob, after saving the child from a runaway stroller. Later that day, the Rangers watch the newcomers win a ninja tournament against a trio of undefeated but nasty young men from Hasper City, who caused the stroller incident.
Zedd is furious when he learns that the Hasper City trio lost as he intended to recruit them to be his new evil soldiers. Goldar offers to abduct the Stone Canyon teens instead, but Zedd refuses, until Goldar offers to search the planet for three people with the same qualities as the Hasper City trio, at which point Zedd says no, as he has no choice but to recruit the Stone Canyon teens instead. As Mr. Anderson is congratulating the trio for their win, Goldar shows up to kidnap them all while a platoon of Putties succesfully keep Tommy, Kimberly and Billy from rescuing their new friends, despite being defeated by them.
While Bulk and Skull look after Jacob, the Rangers are forced to balance rescuing the four civilians while saving Angel Grove from two monsters. They defeat the monsters and save the hostages at the last second, but Billy is severely weakened from wrestling with Zedd's evil snake. Tommy throws the snake off of Billy while Kimberly kills it by blasting it. The two are forced to take Billy's helmet off for him to avoid suffocating. However, Rocky, Adam, and Aisha are watching from the entrance to the cave and learn the identities of the Power Rangers.
While Mr. Anderson is reunited with Jacob, Rocky, Adam, and Aisha are taken to the Command Center. Zordon decides to trust the three with the secret of the Rangers' identities due to their bravery and after having Alpha run background checks on them and finding them to be of good character. Rocky, Adam, and Aisha take a vow to never reveal what they have learned, and everyone celebrates a happy ending.
Cast[]
- Jason David Frank as Tommy Oliver (Mighty Morphin White Ranger) (unmorphed only in Part 1)
- Austin St. John as Jason Lee Scott (Mighty Morphin Red Ranger) (archive footage only)
- Paul F. Rosenthal as Jason Lee Scott (Red Ranger) (Morphed Dialogue)
- Walter Jones as Zack Taylor (Mighty Morphin Black Ranger) (archive footage only)
- Joel Rogers as Zack Taylor (Black Ranger) (Morphed Dialogue)
- David Yost as Billy Cranston (Mighty Morphin Blue Ranger) (unmorphed only in Part 1)
- Thuy Trang as Trini Kwan (Mighty Morphin Yellow Ranger) (archive footage only)
- Judy as Trini Kwan (Yellow Ranger) (Morphed Dialogue)
- Amy Jo Johnson as Kimberly Ann Hart (Mighty Morphin Pink Ranger) (unmorphed only in Part 1)
- Steve Cardenas as Rocky DeSantos
- Johnny Yong Bosch as Adam Park
- Karan Ashley as Aisha Campbell
- Paul Schrier as Farkas "Bulk" Bulkmeier
- Jason Narvy as Eugene "Skull" Skullovitch (Parts 1 & 3 only) & (credit only in Part 2)
- Timothy Guest as Mr. Hank Anderson
- Jacob Frank as Jacob Anderson
- David Fielding as Zordon (face)
- Robert L. Manahan as Zordon (voice)
- Romy J. Sharf as Alpha 5
- Richard Steven Horvitz as Alpha 5 (voice) (as Richard Wood)
- Ed Neil as Lord Zedd
- Robert Axelrod as Lord Zedd (voice)
- Danny Wayne Stallcup as Goldar
- Kerrigan Mahan as Goldar (voice) (as Ryan O'Flannigan)
- Steve Kramer as Hatchasaurus (voice)
- Dave Mallow as Terror Blossom (voice)
Errors[]
Part I[]
- In the first shot, Jason and Trini's stand-ins' faces can be seen from the side and front respectively.
- The opening shot of the picnic has Tommy sitting off to the far left of the group with Kimberly to his left and Billy to his right, but the follow-up has Kimberly sitting at the far left with Tommy in her place.
- When Bulk and Skull walk by, Jason is sitting next to Billy, but the shots that include Billy, Kimberly, and Tommy do not feature him at all.
- One shot with Trini shows the hill behind her is covered in leaves but the establishing shot depicted it with none.
- When one of the black ninjas says, "I wish we could start this thing," it is clearly dubbed as the actor is mouthing the line.
- The black ninjas are standing apart in the wide shot of Jacob rolling away but are then clumped together when the scene gives a close-up of them bullying Hank Anderson.
- While clearing the last of the Putties, Tommy kicks a Putty who goes down despite the kick not making physical contact with it.
- Tommy is shown wearing his former Ranger color green even though he is the White Ranger.
Part II[]
The frame error.
- When Zedd creates Terror Blossom, there are about fifty frames where a black-brown slide appears that says "Zedd makes flower guy appear."
- It's shown in 2:12 timestamp.
- The White Tigerzord completely disappears from the fight from when it landed in the city alongside the Thunder Megazord up until the volcano attack and then disappeared again until Tommy finished the monster off.
- When the Hatchasaurus hits both Megazords with his shoulder volcanos, one can see AC's shoulder on the right side of the screen (which would be the viewers' left).
- During the Megazord fight, there are a plethora of footage errors; these include appearances of the original Megazord, Hatchasaurus constantly switching between his three forms, and frequent instances of the surrounding changing from the city to the mountains and from day to night between shots.
- The Rangers were seemingly able to destroy the Hatchasaurus a second time without destroying Cardiatron. However, it's also possible that the energy trails from Thunder Megazord's finisher are strong enough to destroy Cardiatron from the outside.
- Near the end of the episode, Trini and Zack are frozen with their arms outstretched but the follow-up distant shot has them relaxed despite them being unable to move.
Part III[]
- The opening shot of the episode has Zack and Trini's arms outstretched again despite them being relaxed in the last episode.
- Billy tells Zordon that the stimulator failed despite already telling everybody that.
- When Zordon reassures Billy right after that, Billy and Alpha are to the direct right of Tommy, but he vanishes in the follow-up and then reappears in the following shot.
- Zordon says the Serpent of Darkness has almost completed its transformation, despite having already completed it in the previous part.
- When the Rangers react to the giant-sized Terror Blossom, they are suddenly in the mountains.
- Trini is behind Zack in that shot but is then directly to his right when they summon the Thunderzords in the follow-up.
- The White Heavenly Treasure Lai-Lai Jewel is clearly visible in the shot of Tommy jumping into the White Tigerzord.
- When Tommy lands on the White Tigerzord, Saba is held downwards but the follow-up of the Zord rearing onto its hind legs has Saba suddenly being held sideways.
- The shot immediately after the stock Zord summoning has the Red Dragon Thunderzord rearing its head on a stormy night but the follow-ups show broad daylight.
- Tommy exclaims "Dive and conquer! That's it!!" Meanwhile, that's exactly what they had been trying to do since Part II.
Reversed Falling.
- Zordon tells Alpha to contact Tommy but proceeds to do so himself with Alpha not even being anywhere near a console.
- Due to reversing stock footage, Tommy falls backwards.
Notes[]
- Part II of this episode aired the same day as VR Troopers episode 26, Secret Admirer.
- Part III of this episode aired the same day as VR Troopers episode 27, Grimlord's House of Fear.
- This is the first episode to use archive footage of Jason, Zack, and Trini from previous ones to hide the fact that their actors had already left the show before proper departure scenes could be filmed. Among the footage used is mainly "Two Heads are Better than One", and some from "The Song of Guitardo".
- To match the archive footage, Billy wears his older glasses while Tommy wears green clothes despite now being the White Ranger, although his shirt from "Two Heads are Better than One" has both colors. He also ties his long hair into a ponytail before teleporting to the Command Center.
- Part I is the first episode in the franchise which employs no Sentai footage as well as being the first in which none of the Rangers appear morphed.
- This is the first multi-part storyline to not have a monster appear in all of its parts.
- The initial fight scene against Terror Blossom which ends with Jason kicking him down and retreating as well as the subsequent scene where he freezes Jason, Zack, and Trini was originally supposed to be a single fight in the scripts.
- The song featured in the beginning of Part I is entitled "She's Got the Answers". It was written by Ron Wasserman and featured in Sweet Valley High, another Saban-produced show.
- Jacob Anderson is played by Jacob Frank, Jason David Frank's first child from his first marriage.
- Part II is the only time that a monster was able to survive a charged slash from the Thunder Saber.
- In earlier broadcasts of Part III, the song "Baby Sittin' Boogie" by Buzz Clifford was featured during the scene in which Bulk and Skull attempted to change Jacob's diaper. However, for later airings, as well as the DVD releases, and streaming services, it was replaced with Bulk and Skull's background music instead for copyright reasons.
- Skull was absent in Part II while Bulk briefly appears in Part II making it the first time in Power Rangers that Bulk appeared without Skull.
- Rocky, Adam and Aisha discovering the Power Rangers' secret identities and entering the Command Center for the first time, foreshadowing the events of "The Power Transfer".
See Also[]
- Ep. 27: Mei On A Silver Platter - Super Sentai counterpart in Zyuranger. See comparison page. (Flowers Footage)
- Ep. 43: Live Again! Zyusouken - Super Sentai counterpart in Zyuranger. See comparison page. (Hatchasaurus stock footage)
- Ep. 10: Ah, the Vengeful Goddess - Super Sentai counterpart in Dairanger. See comparison page. (Terror Blossom costume & footage)
External Links[]
- Watch The Ninja Encounter, Part I on the official YouTube page
- Watch The Ninja Encounter, Part II on the official YouTube page
- Watch The Ninja Encounter, Part III on the official YouTube page
- Watch The Ninja Encounter, Part I-III on the official YouTube page
References[]
Footnotes[]