Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Season 1, Episode 32: A Star is Born

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers tries its hardest to utilize the American cast that it has obtained.  All of the episodes involve the characters doing something other than fighting the monsters that Rita Repulsa send to Earth in an attempt to destroy it.  There is a balance that the show tends to find that makes it a perfect distribution between the American footage, and the Japanese source footage.  There’s not too much or too little of either, in regards to the story being told.

Sometimes it is difficult to maintain this level of quality as one side of the footage overpowers the other.  That is the case with the episode I am covering in this post.  There is a lot of Japanese footage used in this episode of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.  It’s so much that it makes the episode feel repetitive and much less satisfying than a typical installment.  There’s not enough focus on the character that we have grown to love.  The episode hinges on the fights providing all of the entertainment rather than the character interactions.  Here, let me elaborate.

Season 1, Episode 32: A Star is Born

The gang has gone to the beach to have a fun day in the sun.  Bulk and Skull show up to announce that Bulk is going to audition for a karate commercial, and he’s going to get the role over Tommy.  Tommy is also auditioning.  Bulk wants to get his tan on before beating Tommy.  He ends up getting sunburned.

While Tommy is auditioning for the commercial, Scorpina and some putties come down to Earth to attack the Power Rangers.  The gang morphs on a beach that I could have sworn other people were on, but nobody notices and their identities remain secret.  They fight Scorpina and the putties until Scorpina pulls out a worm.  The worm sprays the Power Rangers with some sort of web that creates a cocoon.  I’m pretty sure it’s a caterpillar, but they keep saying it’s a worm.  The putties throw the cocoon into the ocean, and the Power Rangers struggle to get out.  They eventually do with their Power Blasters.

Meanwhile, Bulk goes into his audition and fails miserably.  His moves are horrendous.  He breaks a chair and possibly his foot.  Then Tommy auditions and does really well.  He’s going to be in the commercial.  When he leaves the audition, Tommy’s watch thing (I forget the name of it) is signaling him and Zordon sends him to help the other Power Rangers.

The other fifteen minutes of the episode (yep, those three paragraphs were about five minutes) involves two big Megazord fights.  The first is against Babe Ruthless.  Unlike the monster of the last episode, this one has a good name.  The Power Rangers defeat it and move onto their next fight.

In the final fight of the episode, the Power Rangers go up against the threesome of Goldar, Scorpina, and the worm.  They defeat the worm, and the other two flee.  We then find out that Rita did not send them to attack and she’s angry about the whole situation.  When isn’t Rita angry about a loss?

Finally, we get the reveal of the commercial.  Bulk has been saying how he got the commercial and Tommy sucks.  As we are shown, only half of that is true.  Bulk did get the commercial.  But so did Tommy.  Bulk is the before; the bad martial artist.  Tommy is the after; the great martial artist.  Everyone laughs and the episode ends.

Now, you might be reading that and thinking “You said they didn’t have much of an American storyline.  I see one there.  The auditions and the commercial.  It’s there!”  Well, yes.  That storyline is in the episode.  But that storyline takes up about five minutes of the twenty minute storyline.  The other fifteen minutes of the episode is devoted to Zord fights.  It is overloaded with the large monsters fighting the Zords.

I’m all for the fighting.  I find it quite entertaining.  But I’d also like to have story to it rather than fights begetting fights that beget more fights.  That’s bad storytelling for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.  In terms of episode to episode it makes sense.  Rita will always try to destroy Earth again.  The problem comes down to the individual episode.  It is a betrayal to the episode to have a series of fights that takes away from real storytelling.  It feels wrong.

That’s all I’ve got this time.  Mighty Morphin Power Rangers may have hit a low in this episode.  That means that there is nowhere to go but up.  This episode is the valley before a high point.  I can see that high point coming.  The Green Candle is only two episodes away.  My excitement means that the next episode’s writing will probably happen soon.  I would like for anyone reading this to come back and be excited for it with me.  Will you come back?