Setting the stage for the final run, this episode bizarrely also tries to act as a brief clip show. Ugh... Well, at least it's kept brief. (However, we see yet again the scene of Wes' dad being attacked by Ransik. They've shown that so many times, it's practically to Time Force what the Asuka-being-gunned-down clip is to Zubat.)
There's a brief moment of joy for our heroes as they realize they've captured all of the mutants Ransik had access to in the prison ship, and that they should soon be able to head home. Maybe it's too early to celebrate, because they still have Ransik to deal with, and Frax fraxing with history! The renegade Frax has thrown a major wrench into things, by building robot destroyers and utilizing the crystal energy he forced into early existence episodes way back, so the Time Force ain't close to being finished.
What I like about this episode is the growth of Eric and Mr. Collins. When the chief Bio Lab guy finally cracks the power of the crystal, Eric recognizes it as trouble, and shows up at Nick of Time to warn Wes. Wes meets with his father to lay out the truth about the others and their equipment being from the future, and that it's dangerous to the timeline to mess with this crystal energy before its time. Not too long ago, Mr. Collins would have told Wes to piss off and that he wants to exploit the power for his own bank account. But this is the changed, happy Mr. Collins. He backs off, and rounds up all of the research and material to have Eric give it to Wes. Nice moments with character payoffs that Timeranger was too concerned with peacocking to bother with.
There are other nice character moments like that, like with a forlorn Jen sitting on the clock tower, joined by Wes, where they nearly finally come clean with one another, just more stalling, but...hey, at least they weren't interrupted in a sitcom-y way once again. I like that this episode is called "Calm Before the Storm" and a big chunk of it is devoted to quiet, nice little character moments; too bad they didn't have the confidence to write more, but instead rely on turning it into a partial clip show.
These last couple of episodes have some clumsy editing around a Timeranger plot but I think explain the situation well enough. For the last few episodes of Timeranger, Ryuuya's not sending their mecha back because he wants the past destroyed to ensure the future. Time Force, duh, has dropped the stupid Ryuuya stuff, but they're getting out of these suspiciously zord-free episodes by having one episode be that Circuit is too damaged to call the future, and in this episode, the five are in a rough battle with Frax and leave the zord stuff to Eric.
And I actually like Eddie Frierson's voice performance as Frax here, Frax is just going more and more crazy with power, he's meaner, more unhinged. That, of course, lines up with Gien in Timeranger, but...man, I just never liked Koji Tobe's voice acting. And Frax is just a little more sympathetic, more interesting; Gien basically acted nuts as soon as he became a robot. Frax was bitter after betrayal and just filled with resentment and was tired of being looked down on when he had a lot to offer and reached the point where he felt superior and needed to let it be known.
The episode ends with Alex seeing images of the timeholes opening over 2001's cities. He then warns the Rangers with the info he prevented Circuit from telling them last time...that history says they'll stop this disaster and save the future, but they won't survive unless they return to 3000. An interesting cliffhanger, and a nice cleaning up of what Timeranger does, but I guess I'll go more into that in the next few episodes.
Now that these posts are coming to a end i can hear the purists letting out a sigh of relief because they don't have to hear the truth
ReplyDeleteThese articles have been great and very interesting~
ReplyDeleteKinda fell behind on the comments so I'll just share them all here:
Frax's Fury: I was wondering how you'd feel about Emboss' design. I know you weren't very fond of the designs in this show. Cool to hear you liked this one. It was always a stand out to me.
Fight Against Fate: While Timeranger or Time Force never spells it out, you kinda have to realize and accept that the way time travel works in this story is that the era of time for 3000 flows concurrently with 2000. Thus, is probably why Alex/Ryuuya has to wait and can't just travel to any day they desire. I also dunno if it's maybe cause time travel in this only works via only able to travel for every millennium maybe? Who knows. Yeah, I know it's really weird. But the story honestly is a lot less dumb sounding if you can suspend your disbelief with this (and frankly, I don't think it's the worst time travel story ever, which is saying a lot). Even Gokaiger follows the logic of 31st century running concurrently with the 21st. I guess this technically could've worked better if instead of time travel, they used different dimensions? And the "30th century" was that alternate dimension (it'd still fit in with Kobayashi's whole heroes separated from home premise). It's an interesting thought. But it's neat to see Sentai attempting this whole time motif.
Destiny Defeated: I've always been convinced that Ryuuya's story was never planned out. Cause Ryuuya can be seen as a fairly different character throughout the whole show, compared to how he is in the last few episodes. Throughout the show, Ryuuya doesn't really come off as a schemer, but more as just a strict hardass commander who's serious about preserving history. And I feel I can buy that all the way up to the destiny arc. Even right down to the bits where he's saving Gien. There's absolutely no hint that Ryuuya is doing this to selfishly save his skin. While I do think the villainous scheming Ryuuya we see in the last 3 eps is a really cool idea, it comes in way too late I feel. I don't think it's bad, but it just feels kinda disconnected from the rest of the show I feel. Like, suddenly Ryuuya is revealed to have supposed to have been TimeFire? With how late and out of nowhere TimeFire was suddenly added into the show, it just further convinces me that Ryuuya's final story was a last minute thing, and they just really needed to do something with Ryuuya. But yeah, the villainous Ryuuya I feel is very different compared to how he is in ep 44. I mean, we see him celebrating Xmas alone with wine, as if that's just his way of saying "a job well done." No hint of what's to come at all.
I think it was cool that Alex saved Mr. Collins. It really adds an interesting change and layer to the whole thing in terms of "defeating destiny." While I am fine with the Timeranger version, Mr. Asami just merely wills himself back to health and alters history that way. Which I don't mind, but it's a little goofy lol.
I know you don't like Nagai, and after my recent rewatch of Timeranger, I can definitely see why. But I do think he handled the bit where Tatsuya feels crushed when he's told he needs to go back to his father's company. I felt he handled that well at the very least.
" Even right down to the bits where he's saving Gien. There's absolutely no hint that Ryuuya is doing this to selfishly save his skin. While I do think the villainous scheming Ryuuya we see in the last 3 eps is a really cool idea, it comes in way too late I feel. I don't think it's bad, but it just feels kinda disconnected from the rest of the show I feel."
DeleteI don't know how to feel Fantasy Leader but honestly, I felt the episodes where he saved Gien and just bossed everyone around really made him a bad guy already.
On the other hand, I just feel like the final episodes were written on crack. =P
Undercover Rangers: Man, I wished I loved this episode (both Time Force and Timeranger version). Like, Timeranger exploring something about one of those millennial cults is a pretty creepy and intriguing idea. It's such a waste!
ReplyDeleteBeware the Knight: I died laughing from this post hahaha. xD
Time for Lightspeed: This was pretty dull episode.
Man, I wished I liked Lightspeed Rescue. It seems like it had a similar approach which Time Force did (I think PR seems like it could work better with hard sci-fi material). But the storytelling is so meh, and the stakes are completely neutered. The cast is... okay. I don't think the show is as intriguing as Time Force. Plus, a lot of the Lightspeed cast really doesn't match up with the GoGoFive footage imo.
Nadira's Dream Date: Hooboy, I knew you were going to tear this ep to shreds, lol. It's a really weird ep. xD
Circuit Unsure: I think it's again, like you said about Timeranger trying too hard to be like Jetman. Timeranger wants to focus on the lives of normal people who got thrusted into a Sentai situation (like Bioman, Jetman, Abaranger), And not really focus on the military background. I do feel while I would've liked to have seen more of Sky Force, Jetman does at least show that most of them were wrecked in the first episode from Vyram. Thus, the Jetman being mostly an elite small team with limited military resources. Timeranger, we're supposed to believe the organization is at full power, yet we see so little of it outside of Ryuuya. So... whoops?
Got a question Shougo. What do you think of Timeranger ep 13? The one where Tatsuya shows off his martial arts skills and all those suit actors make cameo appearances?
Also, I'm wondering, what do you think of the staff for Time Force and what they creatively brought to the show? I don't think I've heard you really speak of Judd Lynn or Jackie Marchand much as far as what they brought to Time Force. Same with Koichi Sakamoto. And I know you really can't stand Sakamoto's style (I feel you've had way more issues with him than Kobayashi). So I'm a little surprised you haven't really mentioned the director much in this show.
Yeah, I think you're onto something with Ryuuya not being planned. (It IS really weird that he's, like, toasting them in that Xmas episode just a few episodes before he's revealed to be pretty much a villain.) Like I've said, to me he's handled sloppily, but people think he's "complex." It could have worked, but needed better planning.
DeleteThe millennial cult was a good idea, but wasted in a forgettable comedic episode. It actually probably should have been the plot of Timeranger VS GoGoFive.
As for episode 13 of Timeranger...it's the kind of episode that I would ordinarily like in a cop-themed toku, and with an actor who knew martial arts like Nagai, but it feels a little out of place in Timeranger. And, of course, it doesn't help that it's focused on Tatsuya. (And I don't think Dekaranger did the secret fight club episode well, either.)
I feel like I've basically credited Lynn and Marchand whenever I praise an idea that's original to Time Force, or a tweak they made to Timeranger.
As for Sakamoto, I had a whole thing about him in an earlier post that I cut out at the last minute. At the stage of Time Force, he didn't seem as excessive as he is now. And even though I feel like he's someone who doesn't take toku seriously, I get the impression that he, as a Japanese guy who knows about these shows, understood that Timeranger was trying to be different, and so Time Force needed to follow suit.
If there's any shortcomings to his direction, I think it's due to the language barrier. I'm not sure how much English he speaks, but it can't be easy to direct and get the performances you want from people whose first language is different. (And vice-versa for actors.)
His episodes aren't all that different from ones directed by the English-speakers. It's kind of like...Power Rangers never cared enough about being well-directed for Sakamoto to screw it up. Power Rangers never had serious directors with style, like a Takao Nagaishi or Yoshiaki Kobayashi or Ryuta Tasaki. (Well, Tasaki did eventually direct some PR, but it certainly doesn't come close to his best toku stuff.)
"Time for Lightspeed: This was pretty dull episode.
DeleteMan, I wished I liked Lightspeed Rescue. It seems like it had a similar approach which Time Force did (I think PR seems like it could work better with hard sci-fi material). But the storytelling is so meh, and the stakes are completely neutered. The cast is... okay. I don't think the show is as intriguing as Time Force. Plus, a lot of the Lightspeed cast really doesn't match up with the GoGoFive footage imo."
Speaking as one who is a Power Rangers fan and like Lightspeed Rescue (albeit not as much as In Space, Lost Galaxy, Time Force and Wild Force), yeah the episode is still underwhelming.
It at least makes the attempt to give the LR cast as much spotlight as possible (The Lightspeed Rescue and Lost Galaxy in contrast spent more time focusing on a child of the day over the returning Galaxy Rangers), with the main problem being having to rush things due to the lack of a 2nd part.
But yeah the better PR team ups tend to be a better story, some good interactions between the different casts and even letting the returning team taking some prominence screentime wise.