Power Rangers: Season 1, Episode 11: For Whom the Bell Trolls

There are certain plot contrivances that you see in television and movies all the time.  Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was not immune to these contrivances and sometimes suffered from them.  A show that has a first season consisting of sixty episodes can’t have all of them feeling completely original.  Sometimes the overall story can be very derivative and reminiscent of other stories that have been told before.

This far into the series, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers has yet to repeat one of its own stories.  The episodes may all be similar in that there is a giant monster and they have to fight it with their zords.  I can agree with that assessment.  But the monsters have all been different and there have been different reasons for Rita to send the monsters upon Earth.

However, the episode that I’m about to write about has a plot twist at the end that has frequently been used as a sort of “get out of jail free” card.  I’ll explain below.

Season 1, Episode 11: For Whom the Bell Trolls

So we once again skip an episode because Netflix has some of them out of order.  That’s fine for now, since the show is still completely episodic.  It’ll be a problem if it happens later, as there is sometimes more of a story arc that needs to be in a certain order.  I’m not worried yet.

The episode began with hobby day at Angel Grove High.  Or hobby week.  It might have been week.  Anyway, they all show off their hobbies.  Trini’s hobby is that she collects dolls.  This gives Rita Repulsa an idea.  Rita turns one of the dolls, a troll, into a monster.  She sends the monster after the Power Rangers.

The troll goes around Angel Grove, which looks strangely like a Japanese city filled with Japanese people, and collects its “goodies.”  The troll likes “goodies.”  It takes normal sized things and magically shrinks them all to fit into bottles that it keeps in a collection.  When Trini and Billy drive around to find the missing doll, the troll collects them.

Jason, Zack, and Kimberly must come to the rescue.  They free Billy and Trini.  Together, the Power Rangers make their megazord to fight off Rita’s usuals, and save Angel Grove from being collected as “goodies.”

Then Trini wakes up and realizes that the whole monster thing was a dream.  She’s been thinking too much about Rita Repulsa.  She goes to school to watch Bulk and Skull give the teacher fleas.  The end.

So, as I was saying, this episode of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers relies upon one of the most famous plot devices.  The whole thing was a dream.  This has been done in Dallas and Family Guy, just to name two other shows that have done it.  It’s a quick way to get rid of story that you don’t want to keep.  I guess the three writers of this episode didn’t know how to resolve it and opted to just erase everything that happened.  Too bad.  I liked the monster.

That’s that for this episode of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.  It was an entertaining episode that didn’t really have much meaning to the overall series.  Maybe the next episode will, but I doubt it.  I don’t think the show gets too much into deeper story until the Green Ranger shows up.  That’s still a few episodes away.  I’ll see you later, once I watch another episode.