Time For Ransik Lives

Can I just say that I find "Nick of Time" the better name for an all-purpose company than "Tomorrow Research?" I know you're not supposed to make fun of Engrish-y names and all, but you know they knew better than that, c'mon. What the hell "research" is being done, anyway? Shouldn't it be "Today Research," as in our four time-displaced heroes are learning the ropes of everyday 2000 life? Bah!

The big point of this episode is Wes being captured and he (and the audience) learns of Ransik's history. Ransik is basically Jiban's Dr. Giba, except you can invest yourself more in Ransik since he's not an awkward, over-enunciating honky being dubbed by a Japanese seiyuu. Ransik's a freak accident in genetics -- born of broken genetic material mutating with the grime of the city. He's one mutated son of a bitch, and he's an ugly reminder to the falsely made "utopia" of 3000 that happiness is an illusion. Being shunned by society and forced to rough it on the streets, Ransik turns to crime, becoming THE crime lord, rounding up other mutants and outcasts to terrorize society.

The funny thing is, Wes actually feels sorry for Ransik. And Jen nearly rips his head off hearing this, because she knows and has witnessed what Ransik's capable of. She claims Ransik was offered help by scientists in the future, but turned it down, telling Wes to never forget that Ransik's a monster. I know we're supposed to believe the info coming from one of our heroes instead of the villains, but even Wes keeps his doubt. And this is a different take for Power Rangers. Most of the time, PR villains are treated like moronic nuisances. They're monsters, and while PR doesn't have the balls to kill villains, the bad guys are good enough to at least beat up and laugh at. Ransik's not exactly the most shaded, most evil villain seen in a superhero story, but he's different for PR. We know he's capable of more danger than Rita, Zedd, Vile or Mondo ever were. But there's the question mark over whether his side holds truth or if Jen's right, if society made the monster or if he was wicked from "birth." Having our main hero sympathize with a villain rather than just mock him or treat him like a joke was also different for PR, and shows the size of Wes' heart.

I'd like to take this time to talk about Ransik some more, though. I like his backstory, his overall design, that he reminds me of Giba from Jiban -- another cop-centered toku. Actor Vernon Wells can be good in the role -- he starts the show as mostly pissed, just a growling and grumpy bastard. I think Ransik's a stronger representation of a futuristic criminal leader than what Timeranger offered us. They give him a story that he's on borrowed time, which I'll go into more. Wells is, like, eight feet tall, so he makes Ransik feel like an imposing opponent. Also? Ransik has this little quirk where he can pull bone-handled swords from his body! I don't know how that got past tight-assed censors. I also don't know how his design flew past them -- he's basically like a burned-up and cyborg Cenobite from Hellraiser. Then he's got those burns, which are never really explained, but I guess come from a rough life on the streets. (You can also assume all of his cybernetics are results of injuries; you can imagine some cool, gritty cyberpunk past for him.)

Anyway, as the show goes on, Wells settles into a kind of hammy mode where he yells everything like a WWF wrestler, and there's a few too many moments where they put Ransik in lighter situations. (They actually go on to redeem the character in the Wild Force crossover! That's wrong.) Ransik loses some cool, but I still think what was there initially, what you can imagine the character truly being, is better than the norm for Power Rangers. And it's nice to have a main villain who's a face when the Sentai didn't.