Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Season 2, Episode 36: The Great Bookala Escape

When we last left off with Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, the gang competed in a scavenger hunt.  They were against different schools trying to find as many items as they could.  Lord Zedd didn’t think that was a big enough challenge and turned their miniature cannon into a monster.  They defeated the monster, saved the day, and won the scavenger hunt.  It all ended happily.

That is, until the next episode when Lord Zedd unleashed another monster on Angel Grove.  In this episode, the Power Rangers will meet a new ally and their universe will be expanded.  Bookala will make a stop in Angel Grove and the Power Rangers will have to get him to his home planet and out of the danger of Lord Zedd.  Will they be able to do it?  We’ll find out in…

Season 2, Episode 36: The Great Bookala Escape

Billy, Adam, and Aisha were hanging out in the park when a spacecraft flew past them and crash landed.  They decided to investigate.  Inside the small spaceship, they found a Bookala from the planet Bookala.  He looked like a kabuki-inspired doll.  Zordon informed them that they had to help Bookala escape the clutches of Lord Zedd, who was after the power source of Bookala’s spaceship.

Lord Zedd spent the entire episode in Serpentera, trying to get Bookala’s diamond power.  It was an unlimited power source that could keep Serpentera running forever.  He sent Goldar to take the diamond from the Power Rangers, and sent a couple of monsters to fight as well.  Of course, none of it worked out and Lord Zedd went back to his moon base defeated.

Helping Bookala was important to Billy.  He bonded with the alien in a way that none of the other Power Rangers did.  Billy single-handedly defeated the first of Lord Zedd’s monsters.  The bonding was partially due to Billy’s desire to learn more about the universe and possibly explore it (which would come up again during Power Rangers Zeo).  Billy was always one to want to learn more, and he could through Bookala.

The fights were nothing special in the episode.  There was a putty fight where the Power Rangers tricked Goldar into taking a fake power diamond.  It happened in a parking lot, so the fighting was fairly simple.  There was nothing to use as set props to add to the fighting.  The only difference was the addition of Goldar and his sword.  There was also a quick fight with a monster that tried to attack Bookala.  Billy took it out with one shot of his power blaster.  The final fight was quick, too.  Lord Zedd created an evil monster version of Bookala that the Power Rangers fought in their Zords.  They slashed it with their sword and it died.  Thus ended the battle for the episode.  Serpentera never even reached Earth.

Bulk and Skull provided the comedic effect for the episode, as they usually do.  They suspected that the Power Rangers were aliens (not true of this lineup, but there would be aliens in the future), and wanted to capture them travelling on film.  They created some sort of alien summoning symbol in the park and had their camera ready to take pictures.  In the end, they only ended up getting panicked pictures of themselves.  It felt similar to a storyline they already had in Missing Green.

The importance of this episode of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers is large when it comes to the future of the series.  Bookala arriving on Earth signalled that there were other life forms in the universe.  There were other worlds that might need to be saved.  Future series such as Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers, Power Rangers Zeo, Power Rangers in Space, and Power Rangers Lost Galaxy would expand upon this idea by having alien characters on the team or having the Power Rangers travel away from Earth.  Yes, the Power Rangers in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers have travelled off of Earth before, but they never met any beings on those other planets.  The only living things they met from other planets, prior to The Great Bookala Escape, were Zordon, Alpha, Rita, Lord Zedd, and the monsters of the bad guys.  Bookala was another being that ushered in a future of interstellar travel and extra-terrestrial allies.

The end of the episode also featured a mention of the former Power Rangers.  “Trini and the guys,” as Kimberly called them, sent a postcard from their peace conference giving a greeting to their old friends.  It was a nice way to tie the old characters back into the show, even if Trini would never be mentioned again after this point.  The show has been doing a good job of playing into its history.

One weird thing about The Great Bookala Escape was that Lord Zedd fell for the fake diamond trick.  He knew where the spaceship was being kept and sent a monster there to attack the Power Rangers.  How did he not know they were there to create a fake diamond and fake Bookala?  He knew where to attack to get the diamond, yet didn’t notice that the Power Rangers sent Bookala back into space from the same spot.  He only noticed later as Bookala was fleeing through space.  Something seemed off about that whole situation.  He apparently had blinders on that stopped him from winning the battle.

This wasn’t a great episode of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, but it was important to future episodes.  The interstellar aspects that rose up would become a major factor down the line.  Characters would come from other planets.  Situations would occur where the Power Rangers used space travel.  This episode cemented that aspect of the show.  The next episode will be back to normal, as it brings on the topic of friendship once again.  I’ll see you soon with another Mighty Morphin Power Rangers post.