Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Season 1, Episode 53: Fowl Play



Over the first season, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers has grown quite a lot without having really grown at all.  It is still all about the monster fights from the Sentai shows being broadcast to American audiences in a way that doesn’t involve the Japanese stories.  That hasn’t changed.  And the show is still as goofy as ever in terms of the storylines.  What has changed is that the characters mental states aren’t being changed as much as in previous episodes.

Near the beginning of the show’s run, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers had stories that involved personality changes and body switching.  It involved the characters acting like completely different people.  That has all but disappeared at this point.  Now it is the characters having problems in their everyday lives, and Rita picking up on these problems.  She uses them to plan her attacks, rather than attacking their personalities and hoping something comes from it.

I don’t know what the story of this episode is going to be.  I could end up eating my words by the time I finish watching it.  For now, I’m just ready to see what happens in Angel Grove this time.  Whose misfortunes is Rita going to try and capitalize on?  We’ll see in…

Season 1, Episode 53: Fowl Play
Zack is juggling and doing magic.  A girl kisses him.  This is a Zack episode!  Everyone is teasing Zack because he likes Angela.  They all go to hang out, but Zack stays behind to help clean up the Youth Center.

While Zack is talking up Angela, Rita attacks Angel Grove.  The other rangers fight putties while some sort of vulture monster attacks the city.  Zack uses his magic as a way to go help fight, and tricks Bulk and Skull into making him disappear.  Zack goes after the vulture monster by himself.  It kicks his butt and runs away.  Zordon tells Zack to go back to the Youth Center to avoid suspicion.

Meawhile, Trini, Jason, Kimberly and Billy are still fighting putties.  Tommy hasn’t even been mentioned this episode, though he was in the opening credits.  The putties leave and the Power Rangers go to the Command Center.  Kimberly asks why Tommy can’t help and Zordon says that Tommy needs to conserve his power.  Zack is staying at the Youth Center.

The Power Rangers are losing the fight against… I think the monster is named Peckster.  Zack is safe at the Youth Center when he figures out a way to win.  He shows up to the fight with balloons and challenges Peckster to pop them.  The black balloon is some sort of ball that traps Peckster’s beak.  Since Peckster is now losing, Rita sends down her staff to grow her monster.  Cue Zord fight.  The Power Rangers actually use a couple moves they haven’t before.  They use the mastodon head as a shield, and a laser shoots out of the head of the Megazord.  And then they win.

Back at the Youth Center, Zack is getting ready for a big date with Angela.  He’s all dressed up, he has the plans, and he’s telling the gang all about them.  There’s one problem though.  He didn’t know that he and Angela were taking all the kids out to a cartoon film festival.  Wah-wah.



Zack episodes are always at least entertaining.  They might not be the strongest episodes that Mighty Morphin Power Rangers produced, but they brought fun.  This episode brought a little more than fun, though.  It added a new layer to the Megazord with the laser that shot out of its head.  I don’t remember a time when I saw that move before.  I might just be forgetting one.  It seemed new, at least. 

This episode also saw Zack have the best chance yet of landing the girl.  He got to hang out with her for most of the episode.  He showed how good he was with children.  And he got to be compared to Bulk and Skull.  Almost anyone would look good when compared to those two guys.  It was nice to see Zack’s love life take a step forward after the theater incident in Lions & Blizzards.  Most everything went well this time, aside from the date not being a date.  At least it looked good in Angela’s eyes this time.

The next episode of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers is the one I’ve been looking forward to since I started writing these posts again.  The Halloween episode is next.  I’ve heard only crazy things about it.  I don’t remember watching it as a child.  What will it be like?  I don’t know.  We’ll see next time.

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