A Look Back at Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season 1

On August 28, 1993, a new children’s television show premiered that would change the television landscape forever.  Mighty Morphin Power Rangers aired its first episode, Day of the Dumpster.  It would start a franchise that has survived two decades and is still going strong.

Day of the Dumpster was about getting the Power Rangers together.  Evil witch Rita Repulsa was freed from a space dumpster and decided to attack Earth.  She started with the city of Angel Grove.  Zordon and his robot assistant Alpha-5 found five teenagers with attitude to protect the planet.  Jason Lee Scott, Trini Kwan, Zack Taylor, Kimberly Ann Hart, and Billy Cranston made up the initial lineup of the Power Rangers.  Jason was the leader as they fought a new monster of Rita’s design each episode.

The show chronicled both the team as they fought evil, and their high school lives.  Two other students, Bulk and Skull, made regular appearances as the comedic foil in the high school storylines.  Another staple of the Power Rangers’ lives was Ernie, the man who ran the Angel Grove Youth Centre and Juice Bar.  The high school students hung out at the Youth Centre in their free time.

Seventeen episodes into the season, a character named Tommy Oliver was introduced.  He became romantically entwined with Kimberly.  In his initial five episode story, he was revealed to be a bad guy, a Green Ranger controlled by Rita Repulsa.  After his defeat, he became an ally of the Power Rangers.  He would periodically enter and exit the series as the season progressed.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was episodic throughout its first season.  Aside from some double episodes and the Green with Evil introduction of Tommy, most episodes were self-contained with no effect upon the series.  It wasn’t a show designed to be serialized.  The main reason is that they were writing American stories around Japanese fight footage without knowing the original story.  The footage was from Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger, which had its own storylines.  The new stories wouldn’t call for any continuation.  The writers were using the footage they were given, whatever way they could.

Around episode 40, the American producers ran out of Japanese footage.  They asked for more footage to be filmed.  The Japanese studio agreed to this request and made more fight footage with absolutely no story.  This made episodes more interesting near the end of the season.

The first season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers ended with a whimper on an episode about Zack having a successful date with the girl he likes.  It didn’t further the story and was an anti-climactic conclusion to the season.  None of the potential conclusions were realized.  Instead, everything was left open ended.

Now that I have a simple recap out of the way, I’m going to get more personal with this post.  I’m going to get into my feelings about what the first season was like.  I’ll highlight some of my favourite things and some of my least favourites.

Favourite Power Ranger

The obvious choice is Tommy Oliver.  He had the best character arc in the series.  It began with his introduction in Green with Evil.  He started as a bad guy, took the Power Rangers to their lowest point, and was redeemed by the end of the five episodes.  It was the best story that they told in the first season.  He was also front and center for the Green Candle double episode.  These two episodes took away his power and removed him from the team.  When he came back, it was a pleasant surprise.  Add in that he had a real romantic interest and you have the most well rounded character so far.

Taking Tommy out of the equation, Jason would be my favourite.  He was both assured of his leadership, and struggled with it.  He sometimes felt like he wasn’t good enough to lead the Power Rangers.  He regretted what happened to Tommy in the Green Candle episodes.  Yet he managed to keep the team together when they were worried.  He was a born leader and a good person at heart.  It shined through and made him one of the more likeable characters in the show.

Least Favourite Power Ranger

Trini was easily my least favourite Power Ranger.  She didn’t have much personality.  After sixty episodes of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, I still barely know anything about her.  She was mostly used as a translator for whatever smart stuff Billy said.  Outside of that, there was nothing memorable about her.  The episodes that focused on her were just as forgettable.  She could have used more writing.

Best Fight

It’s difficult to choose between three fights as the best.  None of the three rely on Zords or giant monsters.  They are simple hand to hand combat fights.

The first was in the Green with Evil episodes.  When Jason was trapped in the interdimensional prison, his struggle against Goldar was captivating.  The stakes felt real.  Goldar was trying to kill Jason, and Jason was weak enough at that point that it seemed like he could be done for.  The choreography wasn’t great, but the stakes made this fight as good as it was.

Another fight happened in the interdimensional prison later on in the series that also made it into my favourite fights.  In the two-part Return of an Old Friend storyline, Billy was under mind control while the other four Power Rangers fought Goldar.  The fight was backed by the song Fight, which became regular music throughout the rest of the season.  The choreography was great, which made it work so well.

The other fight I wanted to mention was a fight from the episode Lions and Blizzards.  The fight was one of many playground fights that occurred throughout the season.  The playground fights were always good.  They utilized the different playground elements.  This specific one used the tire swings, the high platforms, the picnic tables, and many other interesting things found on a playground.  It made for a fun fight.

Worst Monster

The Pumpkin Rapper was so terrible that nothing can top it.  The episode gave one of the most horrific images by having the Power Rangers with their heads stuck inside pumpkins.  One of the pumpkins became a rapping monster.  He spit rhymes while he fought.  It was nothing but annoying.  Add to that how easily he was defeated and you have an underwhelming, annoying monster that was unforgettable.

Best Monster

The best monster was Goldar, Rita’s primary henchman.  He was strong, threatening, and never died.  He was a formidable opponent caused more harm to the Power Rangers than any other monster.  Green with Evil was based around Tommy and Goldar going after the Power Rangers.  When the Power Rangers lost their power coins, it was Goldar who took them.  When they went to the island of illusion, Goldar’s face was in the sky to torment them.  He wasn’t silly like many of the other monsters.  He was never the comedic foil.  Goldar was one of the primary enemies of the Power Rangers and he was the best of them.

Best Bulk and Skull Storyline

Bulk and Skull were the comedic foil, always coming in to add laughs to the show.  They weren’t Power Rangers, but they went to school with them.  Every once in a while, they ended up in the Power Rangers’ story, usually as damsel in distress types.  My favourite of their storylines was in one of the worst episodes of the season.  Crystal of Nightmares had the Power Rangers losing their self-confidence.  It was not a great story.  The standout stuff in the episode was Bulk and Skull sneaking around, trying to steal test answers from the Power Rangers.  It was the right kind of goofy.

And let’s end off with…

Best Episode

This is going to seem like cheating, but I’m going to throw all of the Green with Evil episodes in here.  It was a five episode story arc that upped the stakes within the series.  It was the closest that the Power Rangers came to losing the war against Rita.  Tommy disabled Alpha and got rid of Zordon.  Jason was sent to the Dark Dimension.  Scorpina was introduced.  And the Zords were disabled.  Their hopes were at an all-time low, which made their victory that much sweeter.  Nothing in the first season came close to how powerful these episodes were.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers had a lot to offer in its first season.  The fights were usually good, most of the characters were likeable, and the show taught children to be better people.  The only setback was how episodic it was.  It was made for kids, and serialization doesn’t really matter to them.  But as an older viewer rewatching the show for nostalgia’s sake, it would be nice to have more meat on the bones of the show.  Give me something to invest in.  Hopefully season 2 will bring that investment.

There are many more seasons of Power Rangers to go, as well as two theatrical movies, a third to soon come out, and numerous specials.  Over twenty seasons have been produced, providing over twenty years of entertainment.  I’m looking forward to jumping into more Power Rangers in the future.  Why not start next week (or sooner!) when I look at the first episode of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers season 2?  Will you be back for that?  I hope you’ll join me.  See you soon.