Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers: Episode 10: Hogday Afternoon, Part II

Previously in Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers, Aisha was in Africa searching for her Zeo Subcrystal. The rest of the kids were back at the Command Centre waiting on her return. They watched, helpless, as Hydro Hog showed up on Earth and removed any source of water that the Alien Rangers of Aquitar could possibly use to rehydrate. This was the distraction that the Moon Monsters needed so they could finally plant their bomb beneath the Command Centre.

The next episode was the one that would tie up the loose ends. It was the second part of the two-part miniseries finale, closing out both Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers and the Mighty Morphin era as a whole. Things were set for Power Rangers Zeo. All that and more happened in…

Episode 10: Hogday Afternoon, Part II

This was the end of the line for Aisha. When she got to the village in Africa, she learned that she was meant to stay in that village. She had to help the animals. Luckily, Tanya took Aisha’s place as the Yellow Ranger and returned to Angel Grove with the Zeo Subcrystal. She quickly joined the team, but her first battle had to wait. Something else happened that delayed it.

Billy, meanwhile, was working on a ray gun with Alpha. This gun caused the cloud buildup across the world to rain. With the rain, the Alien Rangers of Aquitar rehydrated and went into battle against Hydro Hog, while the children awaited Aisha’s arrival. Well, Tanya’s arrival, really, but they didn’t know that until Aisha said she wasn’t coming back.

The little bit of rain gave the Alien Rangers the energy for one final battle against Hydro Hog. They couldn’t use the Battle Borgs because Hydro Hog knew all about them. They decided to use the Shogun Megazord instead. They brought it out, got the flaming sabre ready and… It didn’t work. A first in the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers series, Hydro Hog caught the flaming sabre and taunted the Alien Rangers that it wasn’t going to work. Billy knew what to do. He summoned the White Falconzord to join the Shogun Megazord and they shot Hydro Hog to death with rockets. That was the end of the main villain from Aquitar.

This left everyone ready for the return of Aisha. However, Aisha told them that she was going to stay in Africa and Tanya would be going to Angel Grove to join them. She transferred her powers and the deed was done. All five Zeo Subcrystals were brought together. Billy used them to turn time back to where it should be. Everything was better. The teenagers went to the lake to thank the Alien Rangers of Aquitar for helping them. When they got back to the Command Centre, however, they found that Goldar and Rito had stolen the Zeo Crystal.

Then disaster struck. The bomb in the basement went off. Zordon instructed Alpha to teleport the teenagers with attitude out of the Command Centre. Billy dove on a sparking electrical panel for some reason. The teens were teleported into the desert where they watched as the Command Centre exploded. The episode ended on the downer note of the Zeo Crystal being in the hands of the Moon Monsters and the Command Centre being destroyed.

Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers went out with a bang. It ended the Mighty Morphin era of Power Rangers on as downer a note as could possibly be had. The Power Rangers lost their mentor. They lost their robot. They lost the Zeo Crystal. Their world was in turmoil and Earth was defenseless against the unlimited power of the Zeo Crystal in the hands of the Moon Monsters. It was the worst situation they could have been in.

There was one thing that the final episode of Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers did very well. Hydro Hog was built into a formidable foe. In the original Sentai series, Ninja Sentai Kakuranger, Hydro Hog had been a one-off bad guy who didn’t mean too much to the overall story. The editing powers of the American series changed all that. Sure, he was still a one-off bad guy, getting a three-episode arc. But he was only in two of those episodes and they were all in a row. Somehow, he was made to feel bigger. He was made to feel tougher. The American show built him into the main villain of the Alien Rangers of Aquitar, rather than some meaningless monster created by Lord Zedd. It was good work on the part of the Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers crew.

Something that wasn’t as well done was the transition to Tanya. Karan Ashley, the actress who played Aisha in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, wanted to leave the show because of the hectic production schedule. They were filming so many episodes over such a short time that she felt overwhelmed. The people behind Power Rangers promised a ten-episode arc to write her character out of the show, much like the extended transition between Kimberly and Kat. This would change in Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers, though, as Karan Ashley was out of the show for nine episodes before appearing for two seconds in the finale after her character had transferred her powers two scenes earlier. It was an unceremonious goodbye for the actress who had been on the show since midway through the second season. It was even worse for Tanya. Out of all the new Power Rangers, she got the least introduction. Tommy got five episodes of being a bad guy before being brought to the team. Adam, Rocky, and Aisha got a handful of episodes before they were given their powers. Kat was in a handful of episodes before becoming the Pink Ranger. Tanya joined the team in her second episode. There wasn’t much time to get to know her before she joined the Power Rangers.

One final thing that should be noted was Billy’s penchant for trying to commit suicide. The character recently started putting himself in harm’s way for no reason. A few episodes earlier, he dove under the falling hydration machine at the lake. It was as though he wanted to be crushed by it. In Hogday Afternoon, Part II, he dove on the sparking electrical panel in the Command Centre. It wasn’t as though he was trying to fix the electrical panel. He didn’t have tools. He wasn’t working on it. He just dove on it, like he was trying to be electrocuted. Billy tried to die in multiple ways in multiple episodes with no real reasoning behind it.

Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers ended with Hogday Afternoon, Part II. It brought the Mighty Morphin era of Power Rangers to a close. Power Rangers Zeo was coming quickly. But before getting into posts about Power Rangers Zeo episodes, there were a few supplemental Power Rangers things released throughout season 3 or between Mighty Morphin and Zeo. Those would also be interesting to get into. The Good, The Bad, and The Stupid was a potential Bulk and Skull spin-off and was the next thing to cover before Power Rangers Zeo. See you when the post for that goes up.