Power Rangers: Season 1, Episode 5: A Different Drum

All children’s shows take some time out of their schedule to highlight world and/or health issues.  They will tackle the subjects of war, disease and disabilities.  Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was no different.  The show may have been about teenagers fighting monsters by using super powers and machines, but it still took the time to give some inspirational stories to the audience.

The fifth episode was one of those episodes.  The writers decided that they would take some time to shine a light on deafness.  I’ll explain below.

Season 1, Episode 5: A Different Drum

In this episode of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, the two stories come together in a way that most of the episodes up until now have not.  Usually, there is the Angel Grove side of things and the Power Rangers side of things.  They tend to be two separate stories that share a similar moral.  In this case, both of those sides are the same story and depend upon each other.

At the beginning of the episode, Kimberly is teaching a dance class while Zack is having a dance-off with the school bully, Bulk.  One of the students in the class is a deaf girl named Melissa.  When Rita Repulsa sends a gnome with a magical accordion to Earth, it kidnaps Melissa’s friends with the power of music.  Melissa cannot be taken over by this power, though, because she is deaf and can’t hear the music.

Melissa goes to Jason for help, and Jason rounds up the Power Rangers.  They fight, they use all of their powers including their power weapons, their zords, and their power crystals.  Eventually they defeat the gnome and he goes up in an explosion of fireworks.  The friends are freed, and it’s all thanks to Melissa.

Also learning to dance is Billy, who can’t at the beginning, but can bust out some decent moves at the end.  How is that for a good learning experience?

Basically, what the episode was doing was showing children that being deaf is not bad.  It can be a good thing.  Maybe the episode was directed towards deaf children to make them feel better.  Perhaps it was to tell children that they shouldn’t make fun of deaf people.  Either way, it was a good lesson to teach to children, and I hope that many learned from it when they initially watched it.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers is slowly strengthening, and can only better find its footing as a show.   This episode was the best work so far, when it comes to teaching children.  It didn’t feel as forced into the story as the previous episodes and will hopefully lead to greater things for the series.  Only time will tell.  Next up is episode six.  Let’s see if my theory holds, or if it will crumble like a cookie.