Power Rangers Review: "The Power Transfer"

The second season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers definitely featured a lot of huge moments, almost too many to count. The season started with Lord Zedd becoming the new Big Bad, and later on, Tommy Oliver's Green Ranger days were officially numbered. We wouldn't be sans Tommy for long, as he returned as the White Ranger and the new leader of the Power Rangers.

Which brings me to the proverbial elephant in the room. The second season was mostly marred behind the scenes by three of the actors not being thrilled with their pay (among a few other things). Austin St. John (Jason Lee Scott), Walter Jones (Zack Taylor), and Thuy Trang (Trini Kwan) were--according to the actors themselves--grossly underpaid; it was said that the actors were getting paid $60K/year and not seeing a cent from merchandising, which was where the real money was. The MMPR toys, alone, were selling like hotcakes, and I speak as someone who received the Thunder, Ninja, and Zeo Megazord toys as presents from my parents. To this day, it still bothers me that I don't have the Shogunzords.

St. John, Trang, and Jones decided that they were out of there, and it was during the Green No More arc that we saw the beginning of the three of them being phased out. It increased beginning with "Missing Green," which began the use of dubbed voices who were doing the world's worst job of trying to sound like Jason, Zack, and Trini. I'm serious, to this day, the replacement voice for Jason still, as Peter Griffin would say, "grinds my gears"; it's the main reason why I don't watch a lot of the episodes that precede the introduction of the three characters picured above: Adam Park, Aisha Campbell, and Rocky DeSantos.

Adam, Aisha, and Rocky debuted in the three-part episode, "The Ninja Encounter," and it was in the tail end of the conclusion that the trio ended up finding out that their newfound friends, Tommy, Kimberly, and Billy, were Power Rangers. So they became the first civilians to find out who the Rangers were, and right afterwards, they were teleported to the Command Center and they were sworn to secrecy by Zordon. Not only did the trio keep their secret, we would see them actually assist the Rangers as best they could, and yes, that even included fighting against the Putties.

I have a theory about that, but I'll save it for the end of this review. Let's get to the subject at hand, the two-part episode, "The Power Transfer":

Part I

Part I began with Angel Grove awaiting the announcement of which of their teens would be headed to Switzerland for the World Peace Conference. Finally, the announcement was made: Jason, Trini, and Zack are heading to Switzerland, and they were congratulated by Tommy, Kimberly, and Billy. Zedd is delighted by this, as the Power Rangers team will be cut in half, while Zordon congratulates the trio, but knows that replacements will be needed. Zordon gives the sextet their last mission together: they are to head to the Deserted Planet and retrieve the Sword of Light, which would transfer the Red, Black, and Yellow Ranger powers to three new candidates.

After receiving a map to the sword, the Rangers morph and headed to the planet, but news travels fast. Goldar makes the militant march to Zedd with the update.

"I am sure that this will be of interest to you, O Evil One," says Goldar. "My sources have confirmed that the Power Rangers have left Earth. They are headed to the farthest galaxy at light speed."

This alarms Zedd, who wonders why the Rangers would be headed there, but quickly deduces that they're after the Sword of Light so the transfer can be made. He sends Squatt and Baboo to take the sleep machine so he can put the world to sleep and prevent Zordon from replacing the departing Rangers. Before this, he asked Goldar if Serpentera was fully energized.

"What's Serpentera?" you ask:

There it is, fellow fans, Serpentera--Lord Zedd's personal traveling Zord. Yeah, that's how legendary Zedd is; he has his own Zord. It's massive as hell; makes the Power Rangers' Zords look like ants, and it's hella powerful. As for Earth, Squatt and Baboo activated the sleep machine, and it does as advertised, a lot of people knocked out. As for Adam, Aisha, and Rocky, they are adjusting to their new school, as they transferred to Angel Grove High from Stone Canyon High. As Bulk is about to help Aisha with her locker, the sleep machine cloud enters the school, and the trio duck and cover before they are teleported to the Command Center. Zordon informs them about the sleep machine, and they are sent to fight against the Putties and take out the machine.

Oh, before I forget. Serpentera wasn't the only Zord to debut in this episode:

Who here remembers Tor the Shuttlezord? I do. I wish I didn't. Zordon informed the Rangers that Tor would help in case of a big time emergency, but I'm going to be blunt; Tor was the most useless Zord I've ever seen. I hate insulting a Zord like this, but it's true. Tor was supposed to be the Carrierzord of the Thunderzords, but he was just, well, there. He's the Mike McCarthy of Zords. We saw this first hand. Jason fights Serpentera in the Red Dragon Thunderzord, but Tor was summoned when things got too hot. Tor shifted to a "Warrior Mode" that allowed Red Dragon to be inserted inside the Zord, but Tor was easily held at bay by Serpentera.

I'm dead serious, I can't be the only one who wasn't crazy about Tor, and I have a theory that entered my mind recently. I think Tor's lack of popularity led to Titanus returning in Season Three. So the Rangers find the sword, but try their damnedest to get it out, meanwhile, Zedd has designs on destroying the planet, and he fires Serpentera's weapons at the Deserted Planet. As for our favorite civilians, they found themselves tied up, as the fog gets closer.

Part II

Part II kicked off--literally and figuratively--with Adam getting himself and his pals out of their jam. With the use of a soccer ball, Adam distracts one of the Putties and kicks the ball towards one of them, releasing the grip on the keys. The trio frees themselves, and they defeat the Putties before using their soccer skills to destroy the sleep machine. Meanwhile, the Rangers struggle with the sword before they figure out that the ring was the key all along. The ring is placed on the statue's hand, and they easily get the sword, but they desperately needed to be teleported out.

Alpha teleports them, but not all together. Black and Yellow are first, followed by Pink and Red. Blue enters and works on the controls to get White in, and he makes it in the nick of time with the sword. Zordon informed the Rangers that Zedd plans to invade the Earth with Serpentera, causing Trini to state that she, Jason, and Zack couldn't leave. Zordon informed the departing Rangers that their destinies lie elsewhere, and that retrieving the sword was their last mission. The time to transfer the powers was now, but to who?

Was there ever any doubt? Adam, Aisha, and Rocky were teleported and revealed as the replacement Rangers, much to the elation of Tommy, Kimberly, and Billy. The sword was held up, and the transfer was made. Adam replaced Zack as the Black Ranger, and would pilot the Lion Thunderzord. Aisha replaced Trini as the Yellow Ranger, and would pilot the Griffin Thunderzord. And finally, Rocky replaced Jason as the Red Ranger and would pilot the Red Dragon Thunderzord.

Jason, Trini, and Zack departed, while Rocky, Aisha, and Adam were welcomed to the team. However, the welcoming was interrupted by the appearance of Silverhorns, Zedd's new monster. So the new Rangers were put to work quickly, and they faced off against Silverhorns. Meanwhile, Zedd was fuming when he saw six Rangers together, and he admonished Goldar for telling him that the Rangers didn't get out in time when they did. So Zedd tosses that familiar bomb that allows Silverhorns to grow. The Zords come into play, as does Serpentera, and Zedd is set on firing Serpentera's weapons.

One problem: Serpentera is out of gas. However, these Zords aren't:

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, Thunder Ultrazord. The Rangers brought them all together against Silverhorns, and here's how the formation came about. The Thunderzord Assault Team (Lion, Firebird, Unicorn, Griffin) is summoned, and they take the tray form: Lion up front, Firebird in the back, Red Dragon's Warrior Mode standing at center with the Unicorn on his right and the Griffin on his left. As for the Tigerzord, he's placed inside Tor's shell, and the Thunderzord tray is perched on top. And the Thunder Ultrazord's method of attack: Red Dragon twirls his staff, Ultrazord flies, and lands on the monster for the big kaboom. Not bad, though I still prefer Titanus-involved Ultrazords.

As for Zedd:

"Do we have enough power yet, Thomas Edison?!" Zedd grumbles.

"Just enough to get home, Master," says Goldar.

"Rats! Here sits all this deadly machinery, and not enough power to destroy an ant!" Zedd grumbles, feeling the pain of a coach with a championship favorite but his star player is out for the season. They fly off back to the palace, meanwhile, the Rangers watch Jason, Trini, and Zack arrive in Switzerland. Zordon commends the new-look sextet on a job well done, but tells Adam, Aisha, and Rocky that for them, it's only the beginning.

"The Power Transfer" served as the 27th and 28th episodes of MMPR's second season, and aired on November 8 (Part I) and 9 (Part II), 1994. Of course, the two-parter served as the farewell to Jason, Trini, and Zack, but Austin St. John would return as Jason during the Zeo season. Walter Jones reprised his role as Zack in 2023's Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once and Always. As for Thuy Trang, this was her final appearance in anything Power Rangers related, as she passed away on September 3, 2001 in an auto accident.

Regarding Rocky, Adam, and Aisha, Part II marked their official debuts as Rangers following several appearances as civilians who learn about the Rangers and help them. Regarding the cast, Karan Ashley played Aisha Campbell, and she had the shortest tenure out of the three, only lasting until the end of Season 3. Steve Cardenas played Rocky DeSantos, who was part of the rest of the MMPR era and was part of Zeo, and Johnny Yong Bosch played Adam Park, who finished off MMPR and did Zeo and Turbo, the longest tenure of the three and the only one other than JDF to serve as a Ranger in both big-screen films. All three appeared in the aforementioned Once and Always telefilm in 2023.

Now, I mentioned my theory about Rocky, Adam, and Aisha. I truly think that they were tested by Zordon. Everything that happened beginning with "The Ninja Encounter" and leading to this point had to have been some sort of test. The three of them just happened to encounter the White, Pink, and Blue Rangers and find out who they are out of the blue? That's not happenstance. I think Zordon made this happen, he wanted to put them to the test, and as he expected, they passed with flying colors.

"The Power Transfer" was an amazing two-parter that changed the game for the Power Rangers. The group consisting of Tommy, Adam, Kimberly, Billy, Aisha, and Rocky would have some very wild and crazy battles, and we would see a lot of insane moments from this point on, and a lot of them will be stories for another time.

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