Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers: Episode 4: The Alien Trap

In the previous episode of Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers, Billy was transformed back into his teenage self. The other Power Rangers weren’t so lucky, and still had to figure out a way to get themselves back. The moon monsters were doing a good job of making things tough. They were equals in force, for once, giving the Power Rangers a challenge that seemed almost insurmountable. They even destroyed the Power Coins. This mini-series was about the Power Rangers getting through those obstacles, though, so things should start looking up soon.

The Alien Rangers of Aquitar are still around for a few more episodes. They’ll have to keep protecting Earth while the Power Rangers figure out how to turn things back to normal. But the Power Rangers will need to be quick. The Alien Rangers can’t survive too much longer on Earth. That was already shown when the Alien Rangers needed to recharge their water energy in the town square fountain. How will these things affect the show going forward? We’ll find out in…

Episode 4: The Alien Trap

Before the Power Rangers could focus on getting themselves back to their teenage years, they had to help the Alien Rangers figure out how to survive on Earth. Billy rigged up a device that could transform the Earth’s water into the type of water found on Aquitar. He would turn a local lake into water that the Alien Rangers would be able to use to regenerate their health.

Lord Zedd had other plans. He was going to contaminate the water in a way that Billy hadn’t factored into his device. The contaminated water would harm the Alien Rangers instead of healing them. That would leave no line of defense for Earth, allowing Lord Zedd and the moon monsters to wreak havoc. It was a good plan that actually worked.

Goldar and Rito Revolto were sent down to distract the Power Rangers. They showed up on the beach and put the Alien Rangers in a forcefield. This kept the Alien Rangers on the water while the lake was contaminated by The Barbaric Brothers, two Bill and Ted sounding monsters that wanted nothing more than to bro out while doing bad things. The contamination damaged Billy’s device, making it impossible to keep the Alien Rangers alive on Earth. They had to go home to Aquitar. The Power Rangers were in a predicament.

Before the Alien Rangers left, however, they fought off the Barbaric Brothers. It was the only real fight of the episode. Lord Zedd made his monsters grow and the Alien Rangers got into their Battle Borgs. The thing with the Battle Borgs is that they can’t form a Megazord. They remained separate, making a five on two situation through the fight. The Barbaric Brothers took them down, one by one. Only the red one was left at the end. The Barbaric Brothers teamed up to destroy the Red Battle Borg, but the Red Alien Ranger rallied the team to come back. They didn’t really fight much more, though. They called on the Shogun Megazord which hacked a victory with its flame sword.

There was a lot to take away from The Alien Trap. Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers wasn’t even halfway through its run and the Alien Rangers left Earth. The pace at which one story led into another, while everything moved the overall arc forward has been astonishing. This is the kind of storytelling that Mighty Morphin Power Rangers needed all along. The show finally got it at the end of the third season, with the mini-series that capped things off.

The opening credits were brought up in the previous post because of how they changed to Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers but still credited the Power Rangers’ line-up instead of the Alien Rangers’ line-up. Each of the Power Rangers’ teen actor and child actor was credited while the Alien Rangers didn’t get any credit at all. As a follow-up to that discussion, it should be noted that Bulk and Skull also got a credit, though only their teen actors were credited. Much like the Power Rangers, Bulk and Skull were de-aged to their child versions. Those child versions were in each of the first four episodes of Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers. Based on the title of the next episode, they will still be there. These two child actors, who were main characters throughout the Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers run, were not credited in the opening credits. It seemed a little strange to not credit them, in the same way that it felt strange to not credit the Alien Rangers.

As for this episode specifically, it seemed a little strange that Billy made the device at all. In the previous episode, the Alien Rangers regenerated just fine in the town square fountain. Aside from being interrupted by a monster attack. If they could regenerate fine there, then Billy shouldn’t have had to make the device that would allow them to regenerate. Maybe something was lost in translation. It seemed like the device was solely meant to fail and push the Alien Rangers to leave Earth, thus putting the Power Rangers and the safety of humanity at the biggest threat level they had been at. It heightened the stakes, that was for sure, but it didn’t quite make sense with the story that had so far been told. This was the Power Rangers franchise, though. Not a whole lot made sense in Power Rangers.

Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers did some fantastic work through its first handful of episodes. It found a way to keep the stakes rising. It turned the series into something more serialized, making the stories matter in a way they hadn’t before. If it keeps that up through the remainder of the ten-episode miniseries, it could be something great. So far, it had been pretty great. We’ll see how that holds up in Attack of the 60’ Bulk. See you soon for that post.