Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers: Episode 7: Along Came a Spider

Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers was a roller coaster ride through the first six episodes. Things constantly happened that would impact the Power Rangers franchise moving forward. That wouldn’t let up. Four of the Power Rangers still needed to find their Zeo Crystal shards with four episodes remaining. Two of the Moon Monsters were still stuck in the tunnels beneath the Command Centre. The Alien Rangers of Aquitar were still doing their thing.

With four episodes left, there was a bunch of stuff to resolve. The Power Rangers still needed to get their powers back. They still needed to turn time forward to where it should have been. And then there were the surprises that would come along the way. This episode might have thrown one of those in there, depending on which Power Ranger got the focus on their Zeo Crystal shard journey. The only way to know for sure was by watching…

Episode 7: Along Came a Spider

It was time for Adam to find his Zeo Subcrystal. He was in a Chinese village or some such location looking for a wise man named Coyote. He looked here and there and everywhere, but he couldn’t find Coyote. The whole time, there was an old man who followed Adam around. He said he could help Adam with his quest, but Adam didn’t want to be distracted by the goofy old man. That goofy old man turned out to be Coyote. He led Adam to the Zeo Subcrystal and Adam went back to the Command Centre.

Billy was busy in present day (1996) Angel Grove, building a machine that would allow him to use the Zeo Subcrystals to return Earth to its proper time. He had the help of the Blue Alien Ranger and the Yellow Alien Ranger. Billy left them to watch after the machine while he went to a local scientist to look for a stronger component. The scientist lent him a part that NASA had donated to the Angel Grove University and Billy returned to the lab. When he arrived, the Alien Rangers were nowhere to be seen. But there was a spider monster and Billy got trapped in its web.

The two Alien Rangers were busy rehydrating. They hadn’t returned to Aquitar with the rest of the team and needed a local location to get their water. They settled on a car wash. Once they got their fill, the Alien Rangers went back to the lab. Billy was gone, as was the machine. They regrouped with the other Alien Rangers at the Command Centre and headed out for a fight.

It wasn’t the first fight of the episode, though the other one might not really be considered a fight. When the two Alien Rangers were at the car wash, some Tenga Warriors were sent to take them out. The Tenga Warriors couldn’t do much of anything. They got caught up in the mechanisms of the car wash, never even reaching the Alien Rangers. It was a plan foiled by the location. The big fight at the end was an actual fight. There were Alien Rangers being flung around by big explosions. The Battle Borgs came in and couldn’t take down the big monster. The Shogun Megazord was then called in to defeat the monster with a swift slash of the flame sabre.

Finishing off the episode were Rito Revolto and Goldar, who were still stuck in the tunnels beneath the Command Centre. They were looking for the base of the Command Centre so they could plant an implosion device. The two Moon Monsters drew up a map to figure out where they were. It turned into a game of tic-tac-toe. Then they saw some light. Thinking it was the Command Centre, Goldar ran for it, only to find out it was the entrance to the tunnels. They were back at the start.

Along Came a Spider may have been the weakest episode of Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers, but that didn’t mean that it was a bad episode. Adam found his Zeo Subcrystal. Billy was building a machine to help turn the Earth back to its normal time. The Alien Rangers got to kick some butt. It moved the story forward and had some fun sequences. The problem was that it was missing something.

That missing aspect was due to Adam’s storyline. There was no sense of adventure to it. He was in a different time and place, but he didn’t have any real obstacles to overcome. He simply needed to find Coyote and did so by talking to people. He didn’t fight off any Tenga Warriors or Putties. He didn’t scale a dangerous volcano. He had to find an old wise man by asking the villagers who he was. In terms of hiding places for the Zeo Subcrystals, there was no difficulty getting Adam’s. That lack of difficulty took away any of the dramatic tension, leaving the storyline uninteresting.

One thing the show did well was the opening credits. Well, partly. Some of it didn’t make much sense. The fact that the Alien Rangers of Aquitar didn’t get credited in the show’s opening was a travesty. But each of the regular Power Rangers and the kids that played their child versions were credited. The child who played Billy was credited early in the mini-series. Once Billy became his normal age again, that child was removed from the opening credits. It was a nice way to show that things were starting to get back to normal. Or as close to normal as they would ever be again since the entire show was about to change forever. That little note of removing one of the child actors from the credits once he was no longer a part of the show was a fun little update for people who may have missed an episode or two.

There was a lot to like about Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers. It may have faltered a bit with Along Came a Spider, but the mini-series was still doing better work than the average episode of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Things were always moving forward. Two of the Zeo Subcrystals had been found. A machine was being built to harness the power of the Zeo Crystal and bring Earth back to its rightful time. The story would only continue to move forward in Sowing the Seas of Evil. Come on back for that post soon.