DC Comics's Star Trek Overview Part 8: Star Trek: The Next Generation (1989-1996)

 Hey everyone! It's Wednesday once again, which means I'm back to talk about DC Comics's Star Trek comic book line that ran from 1984 until 1996. Today we'll be heading back to 1989 to take a look at the second Star Trek: The Next Generation that DC published in tandem with their second series based on TOS. So without further ado let's get into it.

Star Trek: The Next Generation #1 came out at the same time as Star Trek #1 did. However, unlike the TOS series, this TNG series did not have an overarching story running through 24 issues of it. Instead it focused on individual story arcs and standalone issues that could be read on their own without having read previous issues. This series also took place during the TV series, starting in the time period of the show's second season which ran from 1988 to 1989. Which is odd because the date on the front cover says October 1989, which means it was published in July or August, depending on how far apart DC had the cover date from the actual publication date. Which means that it was published between the second and third seasons of the show, but it may very well have been written while the second season was still airing. As we know from the original TNG mini-series that DC published in 1988, the lead time for these writers was months away from when the issue had to be printed and published. 

The first issue starts with Picard returning to a planet that he had visited while he was the captain of the USS Stargazer. I picked this issue up a while ago since it came out when I was only two years old. I also reviewed it a few months ago, so if you wanna know what I thought of it, you can check out the review. Pablo Marcos returned as the artist from the previous series and did the art for the first six issues of this series, and then returned for several other issues throughout the series' run. Michael Jan Friedman, who had already written a few Star Trek novels in the '80s, was the primary writer for this series, with other writers only doing three of the issues.

While the TOS series mostly stayed within the time period between Star Trek V and Star Trek VI, except for the issues that took place during the TV show, the TNG jumps from season 2 to season 3 with issue 5. Which makes sense because having the comic be a direct tie-in to the TV show, while the show is airing, rather than be a tie-in to a series of movies means moving into a new season when the TV show does. 

The first story arc that had more than two or three parts to it, and the only one to have been collected in it's own trade paperback edition, was The Star Lost, which I've also reviewed on this blog. It ran from issue #20 to #24. 

As I stated in the introduction to this series, and in many other blog posts over the years, Star Trek: The Next Generation #31 is the first issue of the series I ever got when I was a kid. It, along with Star Trek #31, was my introduction to the comic book medium. The crew of the Enterprise-D, along with Captain Okona of the independent ship, Erstwhile, are looking for Commander Riker, who is stranded on a space station caught between two dimensions.

The first multi-issue storyline I read was issues #33 to #35. In it the Enterprise-D is taking a delegation from a warrior race who hate Klingons to a conference, leaving Worf without much to do on the mission. However, Picard makes the mistake of telling Worf that he wishes he had a hundred more like him onboard and Q happens to hear it, transforming everyone except for Worf who is already a Klingon, and Data, who is an Android, into Klingons. Which makes things with the delegation pretty tense and even causes Riker to take Picard out and assume command in a very un-Rikerlike manner. Which then in turn forces Worf to take actions he normally wouldn't take. I still have this arc in my collection and it's pretty great.

The first major arc I read though was an unnamed one that was told from issue #39 to #44 where the ship is investigating an artificial moon and are attacked by an aggressive alien race which forces Picard to leave the away team on the moon and order a saucer separation, which causes the saucer section, commanded by Riker on the other side of the galaxy and confronted by one of the alien ships. While characters from the show, besides the senior staff, had appeared in the comic before, this was the first time so many of them appeared at once. Keiko and Molly, Chief O'Brien, Worf's son Alexander, Mot the Barber, Lieutenant Solis from the season 1 episode "The Arsenal of Freedom", Lieutenant Burke from "The Best of Both Worlds", Lieutenant D'Sora from the season 4 episode, "In Theory", Ms. Kyle (the school teacher introduced in season 5), and Robin Lefler all showed up. As did Ensign Ro. It's one of my favourite arcs from this series and it's great. I kept it in my collection all these years.

The next major arc that was published, and the next one that I read was "The Worst of Both Worlds" follow-up to the two part TNG episode, "The Best of Both Worlds". In this story, the Enterprise-D and her crew find themselves transported to another universe where the crew failed to rescue Captain Picard from the Borg and as Locutus, he oversaw the assimilation of Earth, as well as the Federation as a whole. Riker is the captain of a battered stardrive section, Commander Shelby is his first officer, Data and many of the others such as Guinan, Keiko, Molly and others were killed when the saucer section was badly damaged in battle and had to be abandoned. And Picard has to face what he would've been responsible for had he not been rescued by the crew in "The Best of Both Worlds Part II". It's a fantastic arc.

 The final arc that I read was called "War and Madness" and deals with the Borg, the Tholians, and Riker's dad, Kyle. This arc, and the rest of the series, takes place between the series finale, "All Good Things..." and Star Trek Generations (1994).

I didn't get to read the full arc because the last issue of the series that my dad got for me was #74. So I've never read the full story, which is too bad because I was interested in seeing the return of Hugh the Borg and his fellow disconnected Borg from the season 6 finale/season 7 premiere "Descent". And as you can see from the cover of this issue, Gowron makes his first appearance in the comic for the first time. At least I think it's his first appearance as he didn't appear in any issue I had growing up, and except for issue #46, I had every issue from #31 to #74. So that was interesting.

A couple of years later a friend of mine at school gave issue #80, which was not only the final issue of the series, but also the final issue of a two part story arc where Q turns the entire crew into Androids, because Picard remarked that he wished he had more of them like Data at the funeral of a fallen crew member. You think Picard would've learned from when Q turned the crew into Klingons all the way back in issue #33. But, no, he didn't. Only this time they end up dealing with space pirates.

A few years later, sometime in the 2000s, I got issue #79 as a birthday or Christmas present from my sister. I was finally able to read the first part of the final two part crew turned into Androids by Q story. It was cool, but I do wish I could've gotten it brand new. Obviously this wasn't the final issue that I got, though it was the last one I got until I got issue #1 a while back. 

The first trade paperback collection this series had was The Star Lost which collected the story arc of the same name from issues #20 to #24. I got this trade last year and, like I said, I reviewed it on the blog earlier this year. It's a great story, but sadly this was the only arc from the series to get it's own trade paperback collection.

The final trade paperback collection for the series was The Best of Star Trek: The Next Generation published by DC in 1994. It collects issues 5, 6, and 19 and the first two annuals, so not as many issues as the earlier The Best of Star Trek collection that I talked about in my TOS segment of this overview series. I remember seeing it advertised in an issue of the TOS series, though I don't remember which one.

That's it for my look at the main TNG series. Next will be the annuals, the specials, and some miscellaneous Star Trek comics that DC published in addition to the two main series at the time. So there are still three parts of this overview to go. Until then join me tomorrow for my review of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law which has it's season/series finale dropping tomorrow on Disney+. I'm not sure when that review is coming out because I gotta go get some bloodwork done in the morning so we'll see how long that takes. Until then have a wonderful evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp (1990) Movie Review

 Hey everyone! How's it going? I'm doing pretty well. Today I'm here to review DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp which came out in theatres on August 3rd, 1990. So let's get right into it.

DuckTales the Movie was the first animated movie released by Walt Disney Pictures that wasn't produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios, then known as Walt Disney Feature Animation. It was instead produced by Disney MovieToons, which later became Disneytoon Studios, the studio responsible for A Goofy Movie (1995) and all of the direct-to-video sequels that Disney was putting out in the '90s and 2000s. It came out the same year as the very first theatrically released animated sequel that Walt Disney Feature Animation did, The Rescuers Down Under. And like The Rescuers Down Under, DuckTales the Movie didn't do very well at the box office. The movie came out only three months before the show it's based on, DuckTales (1987-1990) finished it's original run in syndication though you don't need to have seen the show to watch this movie as only the setting (Duckburg) and the main Duck members (Scrooge McDuck, Huey, Dewey, and Louie, Mrs. Beakley, Webby, Launchpad McQuack, and Duckworth the Butler) appear in the movie, with none of the show's villains showing up at all.

The story is that Scrooge, the kids, and Launchpad are hunting for the lost treasure of Collie Baba (the Duckverse's version of Ali Baba), which is taken by the evil sorcerer Merlock (voiced by Christopher Lloyd) who is looking for Collie Baba's magic lamp, containing a Genie inside. However, Scrooge had given the lamp to Webby and the kids had released the Genie and hijinks ensues, because it's DuckTales and hijinks has to ensue. It's like a rule or something, I dunno 😏. Anyway I won't spoil anything in the movie, but that's the basic story right there.

Aside from Christopher Lloyd, June Foray (the voice of Scrooge's secretary), Rip Taylor (the voice of the Genie), and Richard Libertini (the voice of Merlock's stooge, Dijon), the cast is the same cast from the TV show, and they're all fantastic. I had never seen this movie before I watched it last night on VHS for this review, so I had no idea that Christopher Lloyd is in it. But as soon as I heard his voice coming out of Merlock's mouth, I knew right away who had voiced him without even looking it up on IMDB, Wikipedia, or the Disney Wiki. I wasn't surprised because Christopher Lloyd had done a few movies for Disney in the late '80s and throughout the '90s like Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), Angels in the Outfield (1994), and My Favorite Martian (1999). 

While DuckTales was a show that I watched all the time when I was a kid, I'd never seen DuckTales the Movie until last night, as I mentioned a little bit earlier in this review when talking about the cast of the movie. I don't know why either. It might've been because it never aired on TV when I was growing up, the VHS release wasn't available at our local video store, and it didn't come out on DVD until 2006 and even then it didn't get a general retail release until 2015 as the 2006 DVD was a Disney Movie Club Exclusive. I enjoyed it. Even though I haven't watched DuckTales in about 30 years or so, this movie felt like a 75 minute episode of the show in terms of them not doing anything too wild as other movies based on TV shows that were coming out around that same time, like the Care Bears movies, and Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer (1986), had done. Yet, it still felt like a movie as well. Being that it was made by the same studio, A Goofy Movie feels the exact same way.

I got the VHS a month ago. Brad picked it up for me at Ottawa Comiccon since I wasn't able to go and that's how I watched it, even though I could've watched it on Disney+. The VHS came out on March 15th 1991, the same year that The Jungle Book (1967), Fantasia (1940) and The Rescuers Down Under were released and Dumbo (1941), Alice in Wonderland (1951), The Sword in the Stone (1964), and Robin Hood (1973) were all re-released on home video in the Walt Disney Classics collection. In fact the VHS for DuckTales the Movie has the same home video previews as the 1991 VHS edition of Robin Hood has, that shows the previews for The Jungle Book and The Rescuers Down Under that also appear on each other's VHS releases later that same year. So that was cool. 

Overall I enjoyed this movie. It's funny, it's exciting, and it was alot of fun to finally watch. Especially on VHS. As I said, it's on Disney+ so if you haven't seen it before you can do so on there. I definitely recommend it. 

That's it for me for today folks. I'll be back tomorrow with the next installment of my DC Comics's Star Trek retrospective, where I'll be looking at the ongoing monthly Star Trek: The Next Generation series that was published from 1989 until 1996. So until then have a great rest of the day and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

Arrow S01E01 "Pilot" (2012) Ten Years Later Review

 Hey everyone! How's it going? I'm doing pretty well. Today marks the 10th Anniversary of the debut of the first comic book based TV show to be successful enough to launch a live action comic book TV universe, and the first to relaunch comic book based live action content on TV. In honour of that debut I watched the pilot episode of Arrow this morning and now I'm here to review it. There will be spoilers so if you haven't seen this episode after ten years, well, that's on you and I have no control over what you do or don't do. Let's get into it.

2012 was a hell of a year. The Amazing Spider-Man, The Dark Knight Rises, and The Avengers were released in theatres to varying degrees of success, I was 25 years old, almost 26, and two years out of college, and DC Comics had just rebooted the entire DC Universe with the New 52 in September 2011 angering the entitled comic book fanboys that get angry no matter what a comic book publisher does. Amidst all of that though The CW greenlit a TV show based on the Green Arrow comic book series published by DC Comics and commissioned Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, and Andrew Kreisberg to develop and produce the series. Little did they know that their idea for a Green Arrow TV series would explode into this massive block of TV shows based on comic books published not only by DC Comics, but also by Marvel, Image, and others as well. 

Back in 2012 I wasn't following comic book TV show news because it wasn't as easy as it is today. Mostly because, aside from animated series like Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Green Lantern: The Animated Series, and Young Justice, there weren't a whole lot of comic book based shows on TV back in the early 2010s. Except for Smallville and that had ended in 2011. So I had no idea that Arrow was coming out. I found out about it because two days before the premiere my mom happened to see it in the TV listings for Wednesday of that week. Being that I wasn't being bombarded by the hype for the show, I decided to check it out as I didn't know a thing about Green Arrow as I'd never read a Green Arrow comic before and I missed the character, played by Justin Hartley, on Smallville as the show moved networks here in Canada at the beginning of season 6. So I was intrigued to see why Warner Bros. and DC Comics decided to produce a series based on Green Arrow.

And just like I was ten years ago, watching the pilot this morning sucked me right back into the world it was building. Stephen Amell was the perfect choice to play Oliver Queen. In fact the whole cast was wonderful though the only two I had known of prior to watching this episode was Willa Holland, who played Oliver's sister, Thea, and had replaced Shailene Woodley as Marissa Cooper's younger sister, Kaitlin in seasons 3 and 4 of The O.C., and Susanna Thompson, who played Oliver and Thea's mom, Moira, and had played the Borg Queen in several episodes of Star Trek: Voyager in seasons 5, 6, and 7.

Apart from Stephen Amell as Oliver Queen/The Hood and David Ramsey as John Diggle, who doesn't actually have that big of a role in this episode, my favourite character was Colin Donnell as Tommy Merlyn. I've watched this episode a few times since I got the first season on DVD but this is the first time I realized how suspicious Tommy is about Oliver and his connection to the guy in the green hood who supposedly saved them after Moira's little stint at finding out what Oliver knew about her liaison with Malcolm Merlyn, and what they're planning with the Undertaking. Which we as the audience don't find out about for another four or five episodes. 

Like, okay, Tommy knows that Oliver isn't quite telling the truth about what happened in that warehouse, but I also don't think, at this point anyway, that he suspects that Oliver is secretly running around as a Robin Hood-esque vigilante. He might, but he's definitely not as fooled by Oliver's put on playboy persona. Which, by the way, is almost offputting given that he drops it after episode 5 "Damaged" where he uses it as a cover to get Detective Lance off his trail as the Hood. 

Also, Laurel didn't have as much to do in the episode as I thought she did. Mind you she doesn't have much to do in the first half of this season. Laurel became one of my favourite characters in the first three and a half seasons of the show, before she was killed off in the fourth season and then replaced with Earth Two doppelganger. Katie Cassidy was great in the role. There are deleted scenes for this episode on the DVD, but I don't know if any of them expanded on Laurel's legal case against Adam Hunt, the man Oliver ends up going after as the Hood.

The flashbacks were minimal and better balanced in this first episode. Oliver didn't even make it onto Lian Yu by the end of the episode. He was still in the life raft by the time the credits rolled. What made me do a double take is that this episode is the only one in the entire series where Sara Lance isn't played by Caity Lotz. Instead she's played by Jacqueline MacInnes Wood. Which is weird, because in flashbacks in an episode of season 2, the footage of Ollie and Sara together on the Queen's Gambit, with Sara being blown out of the ship when the hull in their room gets breached, was reshot with Caity Lotz. None of the showrunners for the series have ever said why Jacqueline MacInnes Wood didn't return as Sara when it was revealed in season 2 that she was still alive. Even on the Arrowverse Wiki, there's no mention of the change over in casting. 

The tone of the episode is perfect. Mostly because it reminds me of Mike Grell's run on Green Arrow in the '80s and early '90s. Yet it was inspired by The Dark Knight Trilogy (2005-2012). Which bugs me because the majority of the first season was the show wanting to be a Batman show, but couldn't because Gotham (2014-2019) was in development at Fox, and when Arrow was in development, The Dark Knight Rises had yet to come out. Not to mention Batman villains like Firefly, Deadshot, the Royal Flush Gang, and Ra's al Ghul kept showing up on the series as if Berlanti, Guggenheim, and Kreisberg just wanted to make a Batman show. 

The funny thing is is that Justin Hartley's Green Arrow was supposed to get a spin-off due to his popularity on Smallville, but WB and The CW chose to go with Berlanti, Guggenheim, and Kreisberg's Green Arrow: Year One (2007) based TV series, which became Arrow, instead. Which is fine because the spin-off might not have become as popular as Arrow because it might not have grabbed people who had never watched Smallville, as they did so much with the character on that show during the second half of the series. 

Even though the series had it's waves of flopping between being good and being bad, I still love Arrow. To this day it's still the only show that I watched as it aired from start to finish. Never once did I walk away from the show, even though there were certain seasons which made me consider it for five seconds. I never missed an episode. I even resorted to watching them online the next day when I was in the hospital and didn't have a TV in my room. 

No matter how you feel about it, Arrow was the show that proved to network executives that comic book based TV shows were what people wanted. Despite it's popularity in the 2000s, Smallville was never able to do that. It tried when The WB produced Birds of Prey in 2002, but that show only lasted for thirteen episodes before being canceled, and no other live action DC, or Marvel, show was attempted beyond a few pilots that never made it to air such as Aquaman, starring Justin Hartley as the titular character, in 2006, though the pilot did end up airing on CTV and YTV here in Canada according to Wikipedia, and Wonder Woman, with Adrianne Palicki starring as Wonder Woman, in 2011. Because of Arrow we have shows like Superman & Lois, the Marvel Netflix shows, which, in turn, gave us the Marvel Disney+ shows, and Titans, Doom Patrol, Stargirl, and Peacemaker.

It's hard to believe that it's been ten years since Arrow debuted. The comic book and superhero TV series landscape was much different back in 2012 and I don't think any of us knew what we were going to be getting in the years since then. But I'm glad that Arrow was successful enough to start an entire TV show universe. One that seems to be ending next year with season 9 of The Flash (2014-2023).

Alright my friends, that's going to be it for me for today. I'll be back tomorrow for my review of DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp (1990). So until then have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

Blog Update (October 10th, 2022)

Hey everyone! How's it going? Happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian readers! I just wanted to give you this quick update so you know what's going on this week on the blog, because a certain review was supposed to come out yesterday and it didn't. So let's get into it.

Okay, so as you know my review of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers season 3 was supposed to come out yesterday and it didn't. I'm only halfway through the season but I am gonna get back to it later this week. Honestly, I kinda needed a break from it because binging 129 episodes in less than three weeks can be tiring. And yes, I know, I could watch a smaller number of episodes per night, but that means it would just take me longer to watch, especially because I have around 995 episodes and three movies to watch in total for this review series. Also, I've decided to combine the review for the Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers mini-series with the season 3 review because technically they're one season with the ten Alien Rangers episodes being a single arc at the end of the third season. So that's how I'm gonna treat it. Especially because there aren't any Alien Rangers comic books or novelizations or video games or trading cards or a deck of playing cards to talk about.

So my plan is to finish a season of Power Rangers, write the review, and then step away and review other movies or TV show pilot episodes before going onto the next season. Will this make the review schedule longer? Absolutely, but it'll also prevent me from burning out on Power Rangers so early on. I'm probably still gonna get burned out on the series, particularly when the more frustrating seasons like Samurai, Super Samurai, Megaforce, and Super Megaforce come up. It'll also prevent this blog from becoming nothing but Star Trek and Power Rangers related content.

This week I have a few reviews that I want to do. First up will be one that I'm posting later today. I'm reviewing the pilot episode of Arrow because somehow it's been ten years since that sucker aired on The CW in the U.S. and on CTV here in Canada. I don't know how that's even possible but here we are, so I'm gonna pay tribute to that and review the episode to see if it still holds up ten years later.

The next review I'm going to do is going to be DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp (1990). Brad picked it up on VHS for me at Ottawa Comiccon last month and since I've never seen it I wanna give it a watch and see how I like it as I used to watch DuckTales on TV all the time when I was a kid but haven't seen it in thirty years. 

Of course on Wednesday I'll have my look at the ongoing Star Trek: The Next Generation monthly comic book series from DC Comics up for part 8 of my retrospective series on the DC Comics Star Trek series. And on Thursday I'll be reviewing She-Hulk: Attorney at Law as the season (series?) finale drops on Thursday and I'm gonna spend the week catching up on the two episodes I haven't watched yet. 

I haven't decided on what I'll be doing for Friday yet, but you'll find out on Friday. So that's what's coming up on the blog. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to watch the pilot episode of Arrow and then after lunch I'll come back and write about it, so until then I'll talk to you later.

DC Comics's Star Trek Overview Part 7: Star Trek Specials (1994-1995)

 Hey everyone! How's it going? I'm doing pretty well. It's Wednesday, which means it's time to return to the '90s for another installment of my DC Comics Star Trek overview series. Today we're talking about three issues labeled as "Specials" because they couldn't be annuals I guess. And because the stories are standalone and aren't revisited/retold in other media, they're the only things I'm talking about in this post. So let's get into it!

Star Trek Special #1 was published sometime in 1994, though there's no date recorded on Memory Alpha. There are only two stories in this issue. The first features the return of R.J. Blaise, the protocol officer that Starfleet Command assigned to the Enterprise-A in Star Trek #4 and who was last seen in Star Trek #13. The second story takes place on Vulcan, between Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) where the crew of the late Starship Enterprise await Starfleet's response to their actions in Star Trek III. Spock is recovering from the refusion of his Katra following his death and resurrection, and meets T'Pring for the first time since "Amok Time". He and Kirk also have a conversation about what happened in the years since the events of Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), including Spock's death in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982). I had this issue when I was a kid, and I enjoyed it. 

Star Trek Special #2 also came out in 1994. But unlike the previous issue, I've never owned this issue and have never read it. According to Memory Alpha, there are also two stories in this issue. The first has the Enterprise-A going to rescue the USS Defiant, the Constitution class starship from the season 3 TOS episode, "The Tholian Web". Though this story was superceded by the Star Trek: Enterprise season 4 episode, "In a Mirror Darkly" where it was revealed that the Defiant was pulled into the Mirror Universe and thrown back to the 22nd Century, where it was captured by the Tholians of the Mirror Universe. The second story is about Lieutenant Saavik from Star Trek II, Star Trek III, and Star Trek IV meeting with Valeris from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991), who is an Ensign, prior to the events of Star Trek VI. That's all I know about the issue.

Star Trek Special #3 was published in 1995 and I also didn't own it. One story has Kirk take his nephews camping shortly after the death of George Samuel Kirk (Jim's brother) in the TOS season 1 finale, "Operation--Annihilate!". The second story takes place in the current, between Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) and Star Trek VI time period the comics were set in, and the Enterprise-A has returned to Earth for the inauguration ceremony for the new Federation President. None of this is mentioned in the brief synopsis on Memory Alpha, I had to go looking on Memory Beta, the secondary Star Trek Wiki that focuses on secondary material such as novels and comics. So the new Federation President is the one that Kurtwood Smith played in Star Trek VI rather than the one we saw in Star Trek IV and who appeared in the early issues of this run of the DC Comics Star Trek series.

And that's it for the Star Trek Specials. I wish I had more to say about the second and third issues, but being that I've never read them and have never owned them, it's more difficult to talk about them in more detail. So hopefully you all enjoyed this look at these three issues. Next time I'll be tackling the main Star Trek: The Next Generation series that ran from 1989 to 1996. I'll be back on Sunday for my review of season 3 of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers so until then have a great afternoon and a great weekend and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

Power Rangers Reviews: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (1995)

 Hey everyone! How's it going? I'm doing pretty well. I'm back once again for another Power Rangers Review. Today we're heading to the movie theatre to discuss Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie, which was released on June 30th, 1995 between the second and third seasons of the TV show. I've already done a review for this movie on The Review Basement but that review was done as a standalone movie set in the Power Rangers Universe, rather than as a piece of Power Rangers history. Which is what this review will focus on more since it's production did have an impact on the TV show even though it ended up getting made as a separate entity from the TV show. I'll also be looking at the movies that came out around the film too. So let's get into it! It's Morphin' Time!

After the success of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers on TV, Fox and Saban decided to bring the franchise to the big screen. This was sometime in 1994 as Austin St. John, Walter Jones, and Thuy Trang were still playing Jason, Zack, and Trini on the show and, according to the Power Rangers Wiki, were supposed to be in the movie instead of Rocky, Adam, and Aisha. But by the time the movie's script was being written, probably in late 1994, the actors had been let go, so Steve Cardenas, Johnny Yong Bosch, and Karan Ashley as Rocky, Adam, and Aisha were written into the movie instead. Also, there aren't any details on this, but I suspect that only Lord Zedd would be in the movie as he and Rita weren't married until the three part episode, "The Wedding", which was filmed at the same time as this movie.

You can tell this is a Hollywood made movie because the budget is bigger than that of the TV series, alot of it takes place at night, as many superhero movies of the time did, and the only two lead female characters are written poorly. As I said in my review of the movie on The Review Basement, Kimberly and Aisha are girls who are also superheroes, and despite Haim Saban's treatment of people in general, they're written as intelligent, strong, independent, women who very rarely need the guys to help them. Like in the two part season 2 episode, "Wild West Rangers", Kimberly finds herself in the year 1880, when Angel Grove was an old western town. Once she gets used to that fact, Kimberly morphs to fight off Goldar and a monster that Rita and Zedd sent back to destroy Angel Grove in the past so that the Rangers wouldn't be born. THEN she teleports to the Command Center and informs the Zordon and Alpha of the time of her plan to give Rocko, Abraham, William, and Miss Alicia, the ancestors of Rocky, Adam, Billy, and Aisha, the remaining four Power Coins, knowing that she'd need help to stop Goldar, the monster, and the Putties. But she came up with that idea all on her own.

This movie version of Kimberly is constantly screaming, crying, and needing to be rescued by Tommy and Aisha isn't much better. Look, I get this movie was made and came out in 1995, where women were treated poorly in movies, hence why characters like Jasmine in Aladdin (1992) were, and are, so loved by audiences, but when you're making a movie adaptation of a popular children's TV series, don't eliminate one of the things that made the show so appealing, which was strong girls as main characters. And that includes Rita once she's married to Lord Zedd, particularly in the latter half of season 2.

Being that this movie was coming out between seasons, it introduced a few things into the Rangers mythos that would appear in the third season. The Ninja powers, the Ninjetti costumes, the Ninjazords and Falconzord, and the Tengu Warriors were all introduced in this movie. The Ninjetti costumes would be redone as Ninja Ranger Mode in season 3, the Ninjazords and Falconzord would look less shiny and less Hollywood budget looking, and the Tengus would be renamed to be Tenga Warriors, which replaced the Putties as Rita and Zedd's foot soldiers.

I like Ivan Ooze, but he doesn't actually do anything once he takes over Rita and Zedd's palace, which he doesn't actually use since he's on Earth, either at the construction site where his Ectomorphicon Titans were buried, or the abandoned factory where Scorpitron and Hornitor were built and his Ivan's Ooze was manufactured. All of his action takes place at the beginning of the movie where he enters the Command Center (without a Power Coin I might add), blows it up, and then goes to the moon and imprisons Rita and Zedd in a snow globe. I don't know who that would have more impact on either, Rita or Zedd. I mean Rita has been shrunk down to size and imprisoned before, mostly in that space dumpster, but Zedd hasn't. Though from what I've seen online about Power Rangers Dino Fury season 2, he does. 

By the way, this movie actually kind of proves that Goldar is only loyal to himself. I mean, sure, as soon as Lord Zedd showed up at the beginning of season 2, he turned against Rita, but that could just be that he was secretly loyal to Zedd all along and was merely waiting for his master's return. Which is later supported by the Boom! Studios comic book series. But in this movie, Goldar turns against Rita and Zedd as soon as Ivan trapped them in the snow globe, giving Goldar, and Mordant, who is a movie exclusive character, the choice of becoming his minions, or joining Rita and Zedd in the globe. Naturally they chose to join Ivan. But in the mid-credits scene, which is the first time I remember ever seeing one, Goldar and Mordant return to the Moon Palace and Goldar self-declares himself to be "King Goldar, the ruler of the universe!" right before Rita and Zedd showed back up, freed from Ivan's spell.

Bulk & Skull are kind of pointless in this movie. The writers, whose only writing credit for Rangers, is this movie, wrote them in, most likely because Paul Schrier (Bulk) and Jason Narvy (Skull) were part of the cast, but they have no role in the movie. I guess you could argue that they help Fred Kelman, the kid of the movie, to get all the parents back, but Bulk is the only one who actually does anything and it's so generic that any of the other kids who are with Fred could've done what Bulk did. Personality wise, they're also back to where they were at the end of the first season, since the writers of the movie most likely didn't know of Bulk & Skull's plan to discover the identity of the Power Rangers, nor of the friendship they'd begun to develop with the Rangers in their civilian identities during the course of the second season. 

One of the reasons I think that Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie didn't make a whole lot of money at the box office is the competition it had. Both Batman Forever and Pocahontas were in theatres when the movie came out, and while Pocahontas didn't make anywhere near the amount of money that The Lion King had the previous summer, it still made more than Batman Forever did and way more than MMPR: The Movie did.

The movie also came out the same day as Apollo 13 and Judge Dredd. While Judge Dredd only made $113.5 million at the box office, against a budget of $85-$90 million, Apollo 13 made $355.2 million against a budget of $52 million. Which is pretty decent for a movie that had a much lower budget than Judge Dredd. How does this stack up against this movie? Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie only had a budget of $15 million and made $66.4 million at the box office. Which is pretty good given the budget the movie had. But considering how popular the TV show was at the time, the movie should've done way better than it did. Especially because Judge Dredd, which was based on a, at the time, relatively unknown British comic book series, made more money. Which brings me to the next reason that I think this movie didn't do very well compared to other movies that were out at the time.

Despite it's popularity, particularly at the time, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, and the Power Rangers franchise as a whole, is a pretty niche franchise. Moreso today, but even back then MMPR was popular with children for the most part. Obviously, like today, there were adults who enjoyed the show, particularly if they were geeks, but the show was aimed at children of a certain age group. Even then not every child was into the show. But as a movie that was being released theatrically, MMPR: The Movie failed to appeal to the general audience, plus, there aren't enough Power Rangers fans, even today, to make a movie financially successful, even if the audience loves it. Which what also happened with the 2017 Power Rangers movie. It failed to grab the attention of the general audience. Now all of this is mere speculation on my part as there could be many factors that played into why Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie didn't perform well at the box office.

Like the TV show, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie had it's own toyline consisting of Rangers and Zords. I remember seeing the toys on the shelf at Toys 'r' Us at Christmastime, along with some season 2 and season 3 Ranger toys. The larger Ranger figures were revamped versions of the original five Rangers and the White Ranger figures from 1993 and 1994 respectively. This line had smaller figures that were modified Auto-Morphin figures from the season 2 toyline, but there weren't any villain figures. Ivan Ooze, Mordant, and a Tengu Warrior were released as part of the season 3 line later in 1995. I had the smaller scale Red Ranger figure that came with a red Tyrannosaurus Power Coin (that fit in the Deluxe Power Morpher). 

Marvel Comics published a comic book adaptation of the movie in 1995 as well. I've never read it though as it's not included with the Marvel Comics run of the comic in the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Archive Volume 1 trade paperback collection. I've also never come across it as a single issue at conventions, comic book sales, or in back issue bins at comic book stores.

 As with the TV show, the movie had a video game released for the Sega Genesis, the Super Nintendo, the Nintendo Game Boy, and the Sega Game Gear. Like with the games based on the TV show, I didn't have any of the movie games when I was a kid, nor did I play them anywhere. So I have no idea what they're like or how different they are from the TV show based video games.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie was released on VHS and Laserdisc on November 21st 1995. I got the VHS edition for my birthday, or for Christmas that year, along with Batman Forever, and, being the Power Rangers fan that I was, I loved it.

After being released with Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie (1997) on a double-sided DVD in 2001, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie got it's own, individual DVD release in 2003. It got re-released in 2011, and AGAIN in 2017 in tandem with the theatrical release of Power Rangers (2017). I have the 2003 DVD release in my collection, and it's pretty barebones. It has the movie's theatrical trailer and a short featurette on the making of the movie.

Fans were surprised in 2018 when the 25th anniversary Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Complete Series DVD steelbook set was released and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie was included in the set...on Blu-ray. Not on DVD but on Blu-ray. Even though the rest of the set is on DVD. 

Then on June 4th, 2019, the movie was released on Blu-ray as an individual release by Shout! Factory, which had released the steelbook series DVD set the year before. The movie is also streaming on Disney+ since distribution rights are still with 20th Century Fox, even though Hasbro owns the franchise.

Even after 27 years I still really enjoy this movie. It has a slightly darker tone than the TV show, but it still has that cheesy quality that I love about Power Rangers. I also wish the movie version of the MMPR suits would show up again. I know it would be impractical to wear on the set, because they were impractical to wear on the set of the movie, but since the franchise has opened itself up to multiple dimensions, I could see them showing up in the comic book series at some point. 

That's it for today my friends. I'll be back tomorrow for the next installment of my DC Comics's Star Trek Overview series where I'll be looking at the three Star Trek Specials issues and then on Sunday, I'll be back for my review of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers season 3. So until then have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

Power Rangers Reviews: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season 2 (1994-1995)

 Hey everyone! How's it going? I'm doing pretty well. Today we're heading back to the Power Rangers Universe to review season 2 of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Comic books enter the scene this season as do two shows that were made in response to the success of MMPR, so we'll be talking about those as well as the season itself. So without further ado let's get into Mighty Morphin Power Rangers season 2. It's Morphin' Time!

Following the success of the 60 episode first season, Fox Kids greenlit a second season and Saban negotiated with Toei to use more Sentai footage since they'd run out of footage from Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger AND the Zyu2 footage Saban had commissioned from Toei after the show's initial 40 episode order had aired. Though they still had Zyu2 footage to use up in the first thirteen episodes of the season, which saw the departure of Rita, the introduction of Lord Zedd, the change over from the Dinozords to the Thunderzords, and the end of Tommy's Green Ranger storyline. 

Story wise, there's alot more to talk about with this season as, for the first 28 episodes of the season, they took a more serialized approach to the story. More like they were forced to between the Green Ranger Zyu2 footage running dry, and the unfortunate departure of half of the Ranger cast due to pay disputes with Austin St. John (Jason), Walter Jones (Zack), and the late Thuy Trang (Trini).

The season starts off like any season 1 episode did, including using the season 1 opening credits sequence, with Rita about to implement a plan to destroy the Rangers and conquer the world, while the Rangers are involved in a charity event. But then Lord Zedd shows up, restores Goldar' wings, ousts Rita and attacks the Rangers with Putties and a monster that ends up incapacitating the Zords so that the Rangers have to get new ones. 

From there Lord Zedd's attacks become personal as he tries to divide the Rangers, and then goes on to target Tommy, whose powers are starting to fail. Zedd sees Tommy as one of Rita's greatest failures, and so he wants to eliminate any reminders of Rita and her failures. Unlike Rita, who failed to destroy the Rangers right from the very beginning of season 1 though, Zedd succeeds against the Rangers immediately, with the Putties nearly taking them out until Jason accidentally discovers their weakness, and then Pirantishead taking out all six Zords by freezing the Mastodon, Triceratops, Sabertooth Tiger, and Pterodactyl Dinozords, and taking control of the Tyrannosaurus Dinozord and the Dragonzord, turning them against the Rangers.

During this early part of the season there are two storylines running together. The main one is Tommy losing his powers, which ties into the rest of the Rangers too, particularly Jason and Kimberly. Since "Return of an Old Friend Part II" we've known that Tommy had a limited power supply, particularly since Zordon and the other Rangers would remind him, and the audience, that his powers were limited. But it wasn't until the season 2 premiere, "The Mutiny Part I" that things became dire, and we saw Tommy's powers weakening during the initial Putty attack, where the Rangers saved Bulk & Skull, who happened to be in the area when the new Putties appeared. Which leads into what the second storyline is during this whole season.

Because they were saved by the Rangers, Bulk & Skull decide to discover their secret identities, which would make them famous. And that's their storyline through this entire season. Which gives them a purpose that I feel they lacked in season 1. They're also handled alot better this season too. While we would cut to them quite a bit during each episode, their story didn't interfere with the more serious moments with them hardly appearing in episodes like "Green No More" and "The Power Transfer", episodes that had so much going on that there wasn't much time to do anything with Bulk & Skull.

As I was watching the season, I found myself remembering more and more episodes, particularly in the back half of the season, once Tommy was the White Ranger, and Rocky (Steve Cardenas), Adam (Johnny Yong Bosch), and Aisha (Karan Ashley) had replaced Jason, Zack, and Trini. There's an episode in the first 13 that I don't remember from when I watched it as a kid and that was episode 10, "Welcome to Venus Island". But, every other episode, particularly from the post "The Power Transfer" batch of episodes, I remember pretty well. 

When season 2 originally aired, YTV had already removed Mighty Morphin Power Rangers from it's broadcast schedule, so the only places it was airing was on Global TV, during it's Kids TV block, which had just started in 1992 or 1993, just before Power Rangers began airing, and Fox Kids, which we didn't have because we didn't have cable yet. So I was watching it on Global only. Though Wikipedia lists MMPR as only having aired on Global from 1993 to 1994 on the List of Global Television Programming page, I'm pretty sure that it aired on Global after that because episodes 39 to 52 didn't start airing until early 1995 and there was a big hiatus between "The Return of the Green Ranger Part III" and "Best Man for the Job" because of the movie still being in production at the time. So, I do believe that Global TV continued broadcasting Mighty Morphin Power Rangers until the end of season 2, which ended in May 1995 because I remember watching episodes like "The Return of the Green Ranger", "Storybook Rangers", and "Blue Ranger Gone Bad" on Global, at home and by mid 1995 I wasn't in the hospital as much as I was in 1993 and 1994. The show was definitely gone from the channel by the time the first season of Sailor Moon began airing on August 28th, 1995 because I don't remember watching the shows together, and season 3 of MMPR began on September 2nd, 1995, after Sailor Moon had debuted and we moved in early 1996, just before Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers and Power Rangers Zeo began. I'll get into that more when I review season 3, Alien Rangers, and Zeo.

   As with season 1, season 2 took footage from Super Sentai. This time it took footage from season 17, Gosei Sentai Dairanger. Unlike season 1 though, season 2 had to be extremely creative with how they used the Sentai footage. Because Zyu2 footage was still being used for the first 13 episodes of the season, and Lord Zedd was an original villain, alot more original footage had to be shot because the Zyuranger Ranger suits were still being used and Zedd's new Z-Putties didn't match the Golem suits used for Rita's Putties in season 1. So for morphed Putty fights they used American footage since the Zyu2 footage had the original Putties in it. By the end of the season though they were using even more American footage because the White Ranger, the Zords and the monsters came from Dairanger while the other five Rangers, Rita and her henchmen came from Zyuranger, and Lord Zedd and his Putties were Power Rangers exclusives. This is also the first season where we get original American footage of the Zords with the Thunder Megazord fighting the Octophantom in episode 8, "The Power Stealer", and the Thunder Megazord and Tigerzord fighting each other in episode 47, "Best Man for the Job".

I love that the season has a much better sense of continuity than season 1 did. Mainly because of how much serialization the season had. But aside from that, the Rangers, and the villains, remember things that happened previously. For example in the season finale, "Blue Ranger Gone Bad" Rita and Zedd capture Billy and replace him with an evil duplicate, made from a clay statue made by Violet, a girl that has a crush on Billy. Of course, Rita and Zedd have made evil duplicates of the Rangers before, with Tommy's Green Ranger clone, Tom, having been created only eight episodes earlier. So when "Billy" asks the other five Rangers for their communicators because Zordon had asked him to modify them, Tommy decides to keep his, and then later, as Billy's behaviour becomes more suspicious, Tommy contacts Zordon and asks him if he had asked Billy to modify the communicators, and when Zordon informs him that the communicators are fine, Tommy and Kimberly swing into action with an oblivious Rocky, Adam, and Aisha.

As much as I love Jason, Zack, and Trini and think it sucks that Austin St. John, Walter Jones, and Thuy Trang were treated so horribly given how much money Saban was making from the success of the show, I do really like Rocky, Adam, and Aisha. They added a new dynamic to the team that wasn't there before. For example, in "Where There's Smoke, There's Fire", Aisha is placed in charge of the Fire Safety Club at Angel Grove High School and begins taking it too seriously. And then when Rocky, Adam, and Tommy come under attack by one of Zedd's monsters, Aisha, still in fire safety mode, begins giving orders to Kimberly and Billy, who are more experienced as Power Rangers than Aisha is, given that Rocky, Adam, and Aisha had only been Rangers for a week or two at the most at that point. And Billy's just like, "Uh no Aisha, it's tactically more sound for us to stay here until we come up with a plan to help the others", and then they go with Aisha's plan, which doesn't work, and this is the first time that Zordon openly reprimands a Ranger for acting foolishly as Aisha had actively ignored advice from the more Ranger experienced Billy. 

While Zack, Trini, and Billy didn't have much to do in the early part of this season, it made sense to focus on Jason, Kimberly, and Tommy, because Jason is Tommy's best friend, AND was the leader of the Power Rangers at the time, and Kimberly was Tommy's girlfriend so his absence once he lost the Green Ranger powers would have more of an affect on those two than it might on the other three Rangers. Especially because Jason had failed to get the Green Candle, and destroy it before the flame went out in season 1's "The Green Candle Part II". So it would make sense that in "Missing Green", the episode immediately following "Green No More Part II", Jason would feel guilty that Tommy lost his powers yet again.

As for Tommy, he was a major focus for a good chunk of this season. First with the Green Ranger arc at the beginning of the season, and then him becoming the White Ranger and the leader of the team only a few episodes later. Not to mention three of his Rangers ended up leaving, with new people coming in to replace them, not too long after Tommy became the White Ranger. I've heard some people say online that Tommy became less interesting once the Green Ranger stuff was finished, but I have to disagree on that because there was still stuff going on in the background of the season that DID come to the forefront later on. For instance in "Lights, Camera, Action" the Rangers appear on a TV talk show to spread their positive message. At one point the host of the show, Harvey Garvey, asks the White Ranger "What happened to the Green Ranger?" and Tommy replies, "Well Harvey, I prefer to put the past behind me and look to the future", implying that he doesn't want to talk about the Green Ranger. Which is interesting because he never seemed to indicate that he was ashamed to be the Green Ranger once Rita's spell had been broken in "Green With Evil Part V" and he'd joined the Rangers. He was finally forced to confront his past as the Evil Green Ranger in episodes 44 to 46 "Return of the Green Ranger" when Rita and Zedd's ally, the Wizard of Deception, used a lock of Tommy's hair to create an evil clone of Tommy, giving him the newly repowered Green Power Coin, something that Zordon and Alpha had been unable to do, despite their best efforts earlier in the season.

Interestingly enough, the producers didn't remove Jason David Frank from the opening credits after he lost the Green Ranger powers like they had in season 1. They even kept the original season 2 opening credits sequence, which had the Green Ranger all over it right up until episode 19, "Two for One" after Tommy had been revealed to be the new White Ranger. The writers had introduced Richie, and Zack's cousin, Curtis, as red herrings for the White Ranger, but neither of them did anything of much significance in the episodes they appeared in so it was pretty clear they weren't gonna be Rangers. While Rocky, Adam, and Aisha became allies of the Rangers, covering for them when they needed to go to the Command Center or morph, and actively helping the Rangers fight Putties and Zedd's monsters before becoming Rangers themselves. 

I remember when "White Light" aired. I was in grade 2, had started at Greely Elementary School, and had heard there was going to be a new Ranger. Though I'd been told by a schoolmate that it would be the Orange Ranger, rather than the White Ranger. Still though, I was so happy when the White Ranger arrived in the Command Center and removed his helmet, revealing Tommy. I didn't faint like Kimberly did in the episode, but I cheered because I was happy to have Tommy back and in a more permanent role than his return as the Green Ranger in "Return of an Old Friend" had been late in season 1. 

 Of course, Bandai America released new toys for the second season, giving us way more than the first two waves of the toyline had in 1993 and early 1994. In addition to Lord Zedd and his monsters, we got the Thunder Megazord, the Tigerzord, with White Ranger figure, and smaller scale figures of the Rangers, which were flipheads. As shown in the image above, these were the Auto Morphin Power Rangers, where you flipped their heads and they would "morph" into their Ranger helmets you pressed on their morphers. All six original Rangers were released, and later on Bandai would release Rocky, Adam, Aisha, and Tommy as the White Ranger in 1995 though Kat didn't replace Kimberly as the Pink Ranger until fairly late in season 3, so there was no Mighty Morphin Auto-Morphin Kat/Pink Ranger figure. The Auto-Morphin line would continue right through until Wild Force and would be brought back for Power Rangers Samurai and again for the 2017 movie. 

I didn't have any season 2 toys when I was a kid, though I do have the six Thunderzords, including the Tigerzord with the White Ranger figure, now. I also had the Auto-Morphin Tommy/Green Ranger figure for a bit, but I got rid of it in order to get the season 2 Zords and some of the season 1 Legacy Collection toys. 

In 1994 Hamilton Comics began publishing a six issue comic book series based on Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. The first two issues had Jason, Zack, and Trini and Tommy was still the Green Ranger, but they have the Thunderzords and Lord Zedd is the main villain. The first issue was probably supposed to come out during the first season because Lord Zedd behaved more like Rita in the first issue, but it didn't come out until season 2 had begun airing. This series did things that the TV series wouldn't, or couldn't do. For example, in one issue, Kimberly is grounded by her stepdad, who isn't on the show by the way, and the Rangers have to find a way to get him to stay the execution of said grounding so that Kimberly can morph and help the other Rangers fight Zedd's latest monster. 

Then in June of 1995, Hamilton Comics began publishing a second series, which ran for only four issues this time. It was more of the same as the first six issues, so there isn't much to report.

Then in July of 1995, Hamilton published a third series titled Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Saga. Initially it was supposed to be a six issue series that looked back on the history of the Rangers, covering the major events of the series up to the point the comic came out and showing what impact the Rangers had on the citizens of Angel Grove, going more indepth than the TV show ever did. But the license shifted from Hamilton to Marvel and Saga was reduced to three issues that only covered up to when Tommy became the White Ranger, removing the impact on the people living in Angel Grove. 

More novelizations of episodes from the show were published during season 2. I don't know if they continued into season 3, but "The Mutiny", "White Light" and I THINK "The Power Transfer" and "The Ninja Encounter" were adapted into book form.

Another issue of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Magazine was published around the time Tommy had been revealed to be the White Ranger. This is one of the issues that I had when I was a kid and I still have it in my collection today.

Another deck of playing cards was released in early 1995 as it includes the White Ranger, the Thunderzords, and Lord Zedd. That's all I can say about this deck as that's what it says on the box and I never owned this deck.

Another video game was released for the Super Nintendo in 1995. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Fighting Edition is a fighting game, where you battle Zedd's monsters in the Thunder Megazord, Mega Tigerzord, Ninja Megazord, and Shogun Megazord. The movie has an influence on the game as well as Ivan Ooze, the main villain of the movie, is the final boss at the end of the game.

While season 1 only had ten VHS releases, all ten being re-released in 1994, season 2 had more than that. Twelve episodes, and Alpha's Magical Christmas were released on VHS between 1994 and 1995. As I mentioned in my Power Rangers VHS overview, I saw the first three season 2 tapes at the video store when I was a kid, but we never rented them and I only owned Alpha's Magical Christmas.

Season 2 was released on DVD in Germany in 2007 or 2008 when the season 1 set came out. According to the Power Rangers Wiki the three part season 3 premiere is included with the 52 episodes of season 2, as they're basically season 2 episodes anyway, which is interesting.

Then in 2012 Shout! Factory released the entire season in a two volume set, with 26 episodes on three discs per set. I got both volumes at Toys 'R' Us not long after they came out.

Both volumes were also released in the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Complete Series DVD set, which came out at the same time as the individual season volumes. The complete series also includes Alpha's Magical Christmas, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Live!, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Official Fan Club Video, Lord Zedd's Monster Heads, The Good, the Bad, and the Stupid: The Misadventures of Bulk & Skull, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Karate Club: Level 1, and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Karate Club: The White Ranger Kata, all of which had been direct-to-video releases on VHS in the '90s. So it's a pretty robust set in regards to the bonus features.

As many popular shows, movies, and comic books do, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers inspired other Tokusatsu shows to be dubbed and brought over to North America. Two of which came out in 1994, around the time that season 2 began. The first was Saban's own VR Troopers, based on Toei's Metal Hero series. This show was originally going to be a vehicle for Jason David Frank following the end of his run as the Green Ranger in season 2, with him being replaced on MMPR by Brad Hawkins. But when Saban and Fox Kids began getting flooded with calls from parents, requesting, yet again, that they bring Tommy back, Brad Hawkins was moved over to what became VR Troopers, and Jason David Frank was returned to MMPR to play Tommy, who was now the White Ranger. Unlike MMPR though, VR Troopers would end because they ran out of Metal Hero footage to use in the show after only two seasons. This would be a problem with another Saban produced series, which I'll discuss briefly in my reviews of Zeo and Turbo.

The second series to be inspired by MMPR was Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad, co-produced by DIC Entertainment and Tsuburaya Productions, the company behind Ultraman. It starred Mathew Lawrence (Jack Hunter on Boy Meets World and Girl Meets World) as Sam Collins/Servo and Tim Curry as the voice of the villain, Kilokahn, a computer virus planning to conquer the world. It also only aired for two seasons due to the Japanese footage running out. It aired in syndication and on ABC in the U.S. but aired on YTV here in Canada and I watched it more than I did VR Troopers. The series also had a toyline produced by Playmates Toys

Overall season 2 of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers is much better than season 1. While the Power Rangers formula is still present in the season, it veers away from that formula slightly by having more serialized storylines sprinkled in among the more episodic, one and done episodes. It also has a much more solid continuity than season 1 did as well as better balance between the more serious Ranger stuff and the more comedic Bulk & Skull stuff. Which I appreciate because, like I said in my season 1 review, I do love Bulk & Skull, it's just they showed up at really weird times in the first season and it wasn't always appropriate.

I also love that characters like Billy and Kimberly grew this season. They didn't have the most storylines this season, but Kimberly had a fair amount, though Billy had one or two only. Trust me, I'll be talking about that in a future review.

Alright my friends, that will be it for me for today. I'll be back either tomorrow or Tuesday with my review of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie and then I'll be moving on to season 3. So until then have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.