Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Season 1, Episode 8: Switching Places

I’m not exactly sure why some of the episodes of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers are out of order on Netflix.  It doesn’t really make sense to me to do that.  Why would there be a different order on Netflix than the actual episode order?  Who knows?  Netflix probably does.

You might be able to tell by that what happened with this episode of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.  It was originally the eighth episode of the series, but on Netflix Canada, it is the sixteenth.  It doesn’t really have an effect upon the continuity of the show, but it seems odd.  Which episode is it?

Season 1, Episode 8: Switching Places

In a classic movie and television trope, two of the characters switch bodies.  In this case, it is Billy and Kimberly.  Billy builds a machine to read minds and accidentally switches bodies with Kimberly.  Then, to add even more insanity to the mix, Bulk and Skull decide to try the machine and they end up switching bodies as well.  This leads to four actors mimicking the other actors’ mannerisms for sake of comedy.  David Yost is doing a valley girl impression, and Amy Jo Johnson is pretending to be a nerd.  Bulk is acting like Skull, and Skull like Bulk.  It’s not entirely successful, but it’s amusing enough.

Meanwhile, Rita Repulsa is using this to her advantage.  Not only did she send Squat down to sabotage the machine and cause it all, but she wants to capitalize on the situation.  She sends a genie down to attack Earth.  I forget how, but the genie’s lamp ends up at the headquarters and Zordon must destroy it with the help of Alpha 5 before the genie overpowers the Power Rangers.

In one of the strangest monster attacks I’ve seen so far, the genie is using a drill to try and break the Megazord.  It keeps pointing the drill right at the window through which the Power Rangers see the battlefield.  It is winning the battle.  Then when the lamp is destroyed, the Power Rangers make it out of there safely.

I still don’t entirely know what went on there, but I know that Billy and Kimberly aren’t good at doing what they each tend to do.  Billy explodes a meal and can’t put on makeup, while Kimberly explodes a computer.  It’s a good thing that Billy fixes the machine in the end and gets all of the characters back to their original selves.

I really don’t know why this episode got moved.  Everything that happens in it gets wrapped up at the end.  It doesn’t reference older episodes, and I can’t see it being referenced in future episodes.  Maybe that lack of attachment to the continuity is why it was moved.  But it doesn’t make sense to me.  Why move it just to move it?

Anyway, that’s all I’ve got for this episode of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.  There isn’t much to chew on.  It’s a body switch episode.  It doesn’t add anything to the show.

The next bunch of episodes will, however.  I have reached episode seventeen of the series.  This episode is a very important episode.  It introduces the Green Ranger, who will become a big part of the series.  I think this is where the show takes a big step forward.  I am looking forward to it.  In fact, I’m going to go watch the first of the five part introductory arc right now.  I’ll see you next time when I write about that episode.