Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Season 1, Episode 25: Life's a Masquerade

Many shows do specials to commemorate holidays.  Specials might be the wrong word.  Many shows have holiday themed episodes to celebrate the holidays as they come and go.  Mighty Morphin Power Rangers is no different.

One of the things that everyone points out as a horrific image in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers is the episode where the Power Rangers get Jack-o-lanterns stuck on their heads.  That was a Halloween themed episode, I believe, but it’s not the episode I’m going to be writing about today.  The episode I’m going to be writing about is a season one Halloween themed episode.  Are you ready?

Season 1, Episode 25: Life’s a Masquerade

There’s a costume party happening at the Youth Center in Angel Grove.  The entire gang is going to be there.  They dress up and go, but when they arrive, Tommy isn’t there.  He’s still busy perfecting his costume.  Do you know who does show up, though?  Alpha 5 shows up.  This is the first time he has interacted with characters that aren’t part of the Power Rangers team.  People think he’s the life of the party.

This party is the perfect chance for Rita to do something evil.  She sends down a Frankenstein monster to attack the party, while she digs up some special clay to make Super Putties.  The gang thinks that the monster is just Tommy in disguise, until the monster starts attacking people.  Then the Power Rangers must fight it off and save Angel Grove.

I’m not going to go through the fight because it ends the same way as most fights.  Fighting, then growth, then Zords, then Tommy, then victory for the Power Rangers.  That’s how all of the fights seem to go, and that’s how this one went.  The Frankenstein monster gets destroyed and the Power Rangers save the city.

When the gang returns to the party, the Frankenstein monster has been resurrected and is storming through the people.  As they get in their fighting stances, the monster takes off its mask.  It is only Tommy, who used the monster as inspiration to complete his costume.  He doesn’t win the costume contest, though.  Alpha 5 does.  Bulk and Skull want to know who Alpha 5 is, but Alpha 5 runs off and the episode ends.

The thing that the episode did that I found the most interesting was bringing Alpha 5 out of the command center and having him interact with characters like Bulk and Skull.  It’s something that hasn’t happened before in the series, and it opens the doors for more possible plot threads.  What if Bulk and Skull see Alpha 5 again?  Will they become suspicious enough to investigate?  How would Alpha 5 fare outside of the command center on a regular basis?  Would he be able to defend himself, or would he end up in dangerous situations?  How well would Alpha 5 interact with characters that aren’t Zordon or the Power Rangers?  These are all questions that could be intriguing to see explored.

The other notable part of this episode was the addition of Super Putties.  Super Putties haven’t been introduced yet, but the idea has been planted in this episode, and it could blossom in future episodes.  In fact, looking at Wikipedia, the next episode has them in it.  Something that was mentioned in this episode will grow in future episodes.  This little bit of information brings glee to me because it is what I’ve been hoping the series would do for so long.

Standalone episodes can still be entertaining and fun, but it’s nice to see the writers of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers planting seeds of things to come in the future because it means that they are beginning to turn the entire series into one large story, rather than a bunch of separate stories only connected through characters.  It is the slightest bit of serialization, but it makes for a more satisfying experience when watching.  There’s one vision rather than a bunch of smaller ones.  Sure, there are always the episodic arcs in serialized television, but the things in the individual episodes have meaning in future episodes.  That’s all I ask for in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, and that seems to be what they are slowly starting to give me.  It makes me happy.

That’s about all I’ve got for this episode of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.  I hope that the next post will get up a little sooner than this one.  It’s been over a week since I last posted one.  I’ll see you next time as I move onto another episode.