Overdrive! Accelerate! Uncanny Fox here, continuing my look at the Power Rangers Team-Up episodes with a review of Operation Overdrive’s crossover special “Once A Ranger,” which commemorated 15 seasons of the show. Oh, and in case you were wondering what was going on with my April Fool’s article (shameless plug), I took care of that Diaboromon. It was touch and go there for a while (you should see my room right now) but I’ve got him in a place where he won’t do much harm. *Holds up a Spinosaurus Dino Charger, then causally tosses it into a drawer*

Where was I? Oh yeah, the review. Operation Overdrive… *Sighs* What a train wreck that turned out to be. And the premise was really cool, too: A wealthy archeologist uncovers the mystical Corona Aurora, an ancient crown that can grant whoever poses it the power to bring peace to the world… or conquer it, whichever floats your boat. But this awakens a pair of feuding brothers from their imprisonment, and they set out to take the crown for themselves. The catch is, the crown is useless without its Jewels, which were scattered across the globe by an ancient warrior named the Sentinel Knight (who is now a spirit for some reason), leading Andrew Hartford (the guy who found the crown) to put together a team of Power Rangers to travel the world and uncover the Jewels before any of the various evildoers they come up against get their hands on them. Oh, and the Red Ranger finds out he’s a robot near the end, leading to all kinds of existential drama that you don’t normally see in kid’s shows.

This all sounds good, right? So, what went wrong? Pretty much everything. Disney had all but lost interest in the show at this point, with some sources citing the martial arts violence as a put off (I’d believe that… if the company in question didn’t just finished buying the studio that made the Alien movies), and others stating that they never really wanted the series in the first place, having acquired it in a package deal with the channel that is now known as Freeform (I think this is the more likely explanation; after all, they were originally going to cancel it after Wild Force ended, and they were all too happy to sell it back once Saban came knocking). Whatever the reason, Disney gave the show’s production crew a limited budget to carry out their idea, with one exec telling Jackie Marchand point-blank to simply dub the Sentai completely – which completely misses the point of Power Rangers. Plus, they never released any of the earlier seasons on DVD, and the ones they did put out were incomplete. Really crappy treatment all around, but on the other hand Disney’s given us the MCU since then, so I’m in a forgiving mood these days.

Besides, an apathetic host company was only one of the many problems plaguing the season. The writing was weak and inconsistent overall, the characters were either boring or severely unlikable (Blue Ranger Dax in particular is very likely to stick his own face in a wood chipper, and I honestly wouldn’t try to stop him), the music… we’ll get to that in a bit, the “Kalishsplosions” reached their absolute nadir, and the fight scenes and Sentai elements frankly weren’t very exciting in my opinion. And one of the actors stole from kids with cancer. While playing a superhero. Noice. This was a disaster in every area imaginable, with the aforementioned twist with the Red Ranger being pretty much the only thing the show did right.

And this carries over to the anniversary special: A great premise, uneven execution. I’ll get into more detail as we go over it, so let’s just get this over with.

We begin with the intro song, which is a bad rap that lets you know right off the bat that this is going to suck. Yeah, Disney was experimenting with different music styles at this point, as Mystic Force had a techno/hip-hop thing going on with its theme. That was actually okay (though I think the Ron Wasserman demos were better), this is not. I have nothing against rap, but this isn’t even remotely listenable. The words don’t line up with the beat, the voice is rough to listen to, and the lyrics contain nonsense like “five heroes walkin’ through the sun for five days,” (uh, I’m pretty sure this season took longer than a week) and “a planet to look after, there’s a whole lotta space.” (uh, no crap?) This whole thing is just a train wreck from beginning to end. And this is coming from a guy who likes Nickelback.

The episode proper beings at the museum, where evil ninjas Kamdor and Miratrix have sent a pirate monster to bring back the most precious jewel on display. Said Space Buccaneer does so, but the gem he brings them isn’t one of the Corona Jewels, rather a red Chaos Emerald that Kamdor causally tosses over his shoulder. Miratrix offers to take it instead, seeing as it’s still a priceless gem that they can sell to Dr. Eggman on Cragslist.

But as the baddies try to make off with their steal, the Rangers arrive to stop them. A battle ensues, as Mack (the aforementioned robot), Tyson (an alien with an interesting backstory, who never gets properly utilized. That becomes a recurring theme in these anniversary seasons) and the girls fight the monster, Will (a fictional thief played by real-life thief Samuel Benta) and Kamdor go head-to-head (they have a bit of a rivalry going on), and Dax tries not to screw up catching Miratrix this time. He already let her go once already. Just stood by and did nothing while she stole one of the Jewels. I’m dead serious. Tyson eventually ends the pirate with his Drive Detector’s finishing wave attack, forcing the other two villains to retreat.

Over in the artic, Norg is doing his usual shtick of being stupid, this time getting his head stuck in the snow and pulling it out as a giant ice cube (complete with cringy “brain freeze” pun). He’s played by Kelson Henderson, who’s been a serious mainstay since the Disney Era, having also played the Fearcat Mig here, gadget-maker and wannabe Ranger Boom from SPD, mischievous troll/goblin hybrid Phineas in Mystic Force, commentator fly Flint in Jungle Fury, team mentor Mick in Ninja Steel, and is currently the voice of Red Beast Bot Cruise in Beast Morphers. It’s just sad that the one time I get to mention him in one of these reviews, it’s for his worst character. Seriously, Norg just sucks. He’s got this awful Big the Cat voice and exists solely for mindless slapstick. Say what you will about Jar-Jar, at least he managed to be funny on occasion.

Norg then remembers what he was doing, and delivers a device with a familiar-looking pattern on the front to Flurious, one of the main villains who resembles a cross between Mark Twain and the 60’s version of Mr. Freeze. The icy overlord opens it, causing it to play a message sent out to the “enemies of Earth,” which invites Flurious to a meeting to help gain the Corona Jewels in a familiar-sounding voice. As a kid (okay, 16), when I first saw what that message box looked like and heard its message, a certain thought was running through my mind: it couldn’t be, could it? No way…

Back at the museum, the Rangers bask in the accolades of their latest victory (and apparently someone was able to grab the ruby off of Miratrix) as Kamdor seethes from a distance. Suddenly, another box teleports into his hand (guess Grid Battleforce was testing its transport systems on bad guys first), playing the same message Flurious received. Kamdor rejects this invitation, but the box teleports him and Miratrix to the meeting place anyway. Wait, why didn’t it do that for Flurious?

They arrive in a green-lit dungeon, where all the other villains have gathered after receiving the same invite. After some bickering and finger-pointing, the person responsible for this little get-together steps forward, and oh my god, it’s him! I was right! Lord Zedd has retur… wait, never mind, it’s just some dude who looks like a cross between him, Skeletor and Grimlord from VR Troopers. It all comes together about as well peanut butter and week-old garbage. This is Thrax, Zedd and Rita’s son, which doesn’t make any sense because the earliest Rita could have had a baby was during the pair’s absence in Turbo, which would make this clearly adult alien about 10. Then again, Malagore was a baby, so maybe I’m just ignorant of monster life cycles…

Miratrix points out that Thrax was banished “forever,” leading the hybrid man to describe how he once battled the Sentinel Knight. We then cut to a flashback showing the golden warrior using his power to seal Thrax in a space dumpster, just like the one his mother was imprisoned in. The dumpster was then sent to the moon (of course) where it sat until the Sentinel Knight died (?), causing his power to weaken enough for Thrax to break free.

This isn’t possible for many reasons: Sentinel Knight became a spirit “a few hundred years ago,” and as we’ve established, Thrax is 10. There’s no way he and Sentinel could have battled in the time the Knight was still alive, unless Thrax was the result of a one-night-stand Zedd and Rita had hundreds of years ago… which also doesn’t add up because when Zedd first fell in love with Rita, he mentioned wanting to have kids with her, meaning they didn’t before, and she freaks out about it and doesn’t want to, and GAAAAAAHHHHHHH! None of this makes any sense!

“But enough about me,” Thrax says. Yes, let’s just ignore how your very existence is a gaping plot hole threatening to suck all decent writing into it. He makes the other villains in attendance a proposition: Join forces with him, and together they can defeat the Power Rangers and take the Corona Aurora’s power for themselves. At first, nobody’s on board, given how they’ve spent the whole season so far trying to kill each other, but Thrax assures them that this alliance is temporary; once the Rangers are defeated, they can all go right back to killing each other for all he cares. Once he’s gotten their full cooperation, he starts to lay out his plans to defeat the Rangers…

Over at the Hartford Estate, the Rangers share a drink over the last battle and discuss what their lives were like before Operation Overdrive. I know how it was like for most of the fanbase: thinking that the first half of Turbo was as bad as this show could get. They all agree that becoming Rangers was the best thing to ever happen to them, with Dax point out that it’s… like something out of a movie. Dax, you’re not wrong, just stupid.

The alarm goes off, and the viewscreen shows Thrax announcing himself, and I can’t help but notice how low-key the show seems to treat his parentage. There’s literally only about three references to Rita and Zedd throughout this whole two-parter. Anywho, the Rangers soon get air-dropped in front of him and his “Evil Alliance,” (seriously, that’s the best name you could come up with? I could do a better job!) demanding to know what he wants.

Thrax answers that he wants to be “part of the end of the Power Rangers,” and orders his minions to attack. A battle ensues, and this is where the explosions and slow-motion really get out of hand. Literally every spot in this fight ends in a Ranger or two flailing in the air with a massive boom going off in the background. These things lose their impact if they just keep getting spammed over and over, and it distracts from the story the fight is trying to tell. Imagine Undertaker and Mankind’s classic Hell in a Cell match, but Taker kept throwing Foley off the roof every two minutes. That’s what this fight is like.

The Rangers find themselves overwhelmed by the combined might of their enemies, and Thrax orders his forces to lend him their energy, which they do. But instead of a Spirit Bomb, they unleash a dark energy wave that washes over the entire planet, coursing through a series of metal tunnels that we later find out is supposed to be the Morphing Grid. Wait, that’s the Morphing Grid? I thought that it was made of green energy that people can extract to use as a fuel source?

This demorphs the Rangers and fries their morphers, much to their dismay. Thrax gloats that their link to the Grid has been severed, and that they are no longer Power Rangers. Gee, I think I need to reflect on this development for a bit… *Taps button on keyboard* Cortana, play some appropriate music…

But before he can do anything else, the spirit of the Sentinel Knight (who happens to be voiced by Nic Sampson, who played Chip, the Yellow Mystic Ranger. Guess he got to be a knight after all) appears to stand in his way. The other villains move to attack him (how, he’s a ghost), but Thrax points out that they can hurt him, but he knows what can. The Knight teleports the Rangers away, and the baddies set out to start the next phase of their plan: finding the Jewels.

The Sentinel Knight brings the Rangers to a random part of the city, and laments that the remaining Jewels are unprotected. He leaves to “do something about it,” while the Rangers wonder where that leaves them…

Back at the Hartford Mansion, Mr. Hartford hasn’t had any luck repairing the tear in the Morphing Grid or restoring the Rangers’ powers. Not sure how that works, given that these powers are man-made rather than given via a Power Coin or Energem, but whatever. Dax states the bloody obvious and declares that it’s over, they aren’t Power Rangers anymore. Give the man a Nobel.

Spencer (the family butler and the best character in the season. Low bar, though) walks in and informs everyone that the Gathering of Darkness has wasted no time in looking for the remaining Jewels, with reports of monster attacks coming in from all over the world. And the Rangers already have two of them, meaning that it’s only a matter of time before the baddies come knocking on their door.

Andrew declares that they’ll need to take the fight to the villains before then, reassuring the Rangers that their Civilian Powers still work, and that will have to do, and Mack agrees.

Kamdor and Fearcat Mig (the one whose costume would later be reused for a monster in Ninja Steel) search for Jewels in Stonehenge, where the Rangers arrive to intercept them on their motorcycles and jeep. Rose (probably the most likable Ranger on the team, though that’s not saying much) takes a potshot from the passenger’s seat with a blaster, resulting in a massive explosion (holy crap, the Ranger sidearms this season are hand-cannons. Who needs a Megazord, just shoot the giant monster with one of those), causing Mig to retaliate with some blasts of his own that send the jeep swerving.

After some more missed shots (how much does your aim have to suck to not be able to hit a jeep heading straight towards you), Mig reaches Mack and literally yanks him out of the driver’s seat. Tyson steps out and takes the Fearcat one-on-one, using his Mercury-powers to even the playing field with the blaster-toting baddie, but to no avail. Rose tries to sneak up on him with her invisibility, but Mig senses her and kicks her back.

Mack then uses his super-strength to lift up the jeep and throw it at Mig, but the Fearcat just shoots it, knocking the Red Ranger back in the process. Elsewhere, Ronnie (who also gets a pass by virtue of me not caring about her in the slightest) and Will try to ram Kamdor on motorbikes, but they… miss? Seriously, they just jump around him as an explosion goes off in the background (big surprise there). Dax then tries ramming him with his four-wheeler, but it pans out as well as everything else they’ve tried. He and Kamdor then attempt a Dragonball Z aerial battle, but Kamdor wins that too.

Ronnie then… trips on a rock and falls off her bike after trying to ram Kamdor again, and Will jumps off his in an attempt to tackle the baddie from above, only for that to fail. After a brief tussle with the Black Ranger, the two villains stand triumphant over the fallen Rangers, ready to finish off the heroes once and for all…

Until some CGI vines burst from the ground to grab Mig, vines that were summoned by none other than the Green Mystic Ranger, Xander. Kamdor then gets blasted by the Red SPD Ranger… but not Jack, or Sky (who took on the Red suit after Jack left the team at the end of the season) but Bridge. Mig breaks free of the vines, only to be divebombed by Kira. And then Kamdor gets Ninja-pounced by Tori. The two baddies regroup… just in time to get blasted by none other than Adam, in his Mighty Morphin Black Ranger form. Strangely enough, while the other Rangers get introduced with their season’s theme song, Adam has an entirely new piece of music devoted to him. Word is that Disney didn’t have the rights to “Go, Go, Power Rangers,” which doesn’t really make sense given that they played the song for the “Legacy Of Power” episode of Dino Thunder. No matter, we know what Adam’s real theme music is…

Regardless, the so-called “Retro Rangers” (let’s be honest here, at the time of this episode’s airing, Adam was pretty much the only “retro” one there) then form up for a group shot. I’m surprised there was no explosion here.

The Retro team continues their fight with Kamdor and Mig, as the Overdrive crew watches in wonder and discuss who their new allies are. The bad guys retreat, grumbling that Thrax never told them that there’d be other Rangers out there, and the vets power down. They then turn to greet the Overdrive team, each one getting a profile shot in slow-motion. Mack thanks them for the assist, but Dax and the others are still confused by their sudden arrival. The Sentinel Knight appears before them and offers to answer their questions back at base.

They head back to the Hartford mansion, which the Retro Rangers gush is a step up from their previous lairs. Bridge explains that he is from the future, and that he was once the Green Ranger, then the Blue, until SPD Commander Birdie retired to Miami, moving Doggie Cruger up to his position, which in turn moved Sky up to his job (and in the Soul of the Dragon comic, he’s gained a new identity as the Deka Ranger), leaving Bridge to take up his mantle of the Red Ranger. And, of course, he rambles through it. Surprisingly, Dax gets it.

The Sentinel Knight appears and explains that he restored Adam, Kira and Tori’s powers (Bridge and Xander were already good to go) so they could fill in guarding the Corona Jewels… somehow. Any reason you couldn’t just re-power the Overdrive team? He says that the Retro crew is going to be their replacements, so I’m guessing even he realizes that the team this season sucks.

In any case, the Overdrive Rangers are stuck lounging around in the living room (which has a pool table in it, go figure), with Rose trying to look on the bright side of all this by saying that it’ll be nice to “get some free time around here and let the new guys take the heat.” Ronnie shows everyone that the Retro Rangers have made the papers.

And speaking of, the Retro team walks into the room, talking about how cool the Zords are, and Kira adds that Tommy would have loved to see them. To which Adam replies that he still can’t believe that the guy who kept forgetting his stuff every episode is now a doctor. She then reassures the Overdrive guys that they’ll get their powers back in no time, but the newbies aren’t so sure.

The alarm goes off, and the Retro team goes off to deal with whatever’s going down. And the Overdrive Rangers… stand there. I mean, I know you guys lost your powers and everything, but you could at least ask if there’s something you can do…

In a town somewhere, Flurious has his Chillers… rolling rocks up the street to build a wall to block the Rangers. And I’m guessing they’re going to pay for it… But Adam has a helicopter cycle, so the effort is wasted, especially after he just blows it up with his lasers. He jumps down to face the Chillers, who try (and fail) to take both him and the other Rangers on. This is actually a pretty good fight scene, with a refreshing lack of explosions or slow-mo jumping. Just the good old-fashioned martial arts that the series is known for. I especially like how cocky Bridge is here, he’s basically just toying with the grunts.

Eventually, all that’s left is Flurious, who grumbles that “this wasn’t supposed to happen” and leaves. That accomplished… basically nothing. I mean, gee, Hartford should have just picked these guys to be his Ranger team from the start, this season would have just been a mini-series. As long as one of the episodes is just 20 minutes of Adam kicking Norg in the face repeatedly as the combo meter from Devil May Cry 5 fills up, then I’m good. I’m sorry.

Back at the mansion, Adam tries fixing the Overdrive morphers, but with no luck. He’s no Billy, after all. He tells Andrew that he’s battled Rita and Zedd before, and it seems like Thrax inherited their worst parts. As in, her screechy voice and his… actually, I got nothing there. Zedd was perfect.

Andrew points out that he’s reinforced the Retro Rangers’ morphers so Thrax can’t take their powers as well, but he just doesn’t have the resources to fix his team’s morphers. Just build new ones, you moron! Adam ponders for a bit, then tells him that he knows someone who might be able to help…

Over at the Lair of Destruction, Flurious storms in and throws a fit at how the old Rangers foiled his plan of… moving rocks. He complains that Thrax promised to get rid of their Ranger problem, but instead “they’re popping up like geraniums!” Leading Norg to say that he loves geraniums. Not now, Norg. Not ever, Norg.

Thrax assures everyone that he has a monster that’ll take care of this other Ranger team, some kind of snarling dragon thing. And while the creature deals with the Rangers, Thrax will get his revenge on the Sentinel Knight. How, he’s dead? You can’t kill a ghost, you numbskull…

And now we get to the slap-in-the-face of this Team-Up. The Overdrive Rangers call Andrew into his office to tell him that they’re quitting. That’s right, one of the first things they do after losing their powers is to bail. Andrew tells them that their mission isn’t over yet, but the Rangers insist that since they don’t have their powers anymore, they can’t do anything else but go back to their normal lives.

Um, how do you know you can’t help, you didn’t even offer to help the new team! You still have those Civilian Powers, that’s got to be good for something! And even if you’re not doing combat, you can still support the Rangers in other ways, like researching where the Jewels are, or doing maintenance on the Zords, take some of the burden off the main team so they can focus on fighting the bad guys more. But no, since they don’t have their fancy costumes anymore, they just take their ball and go home. You know how else lost their powers at one point or another in their respective seasons? Literally every other team of Power Rangers! Linkara even did a montage about it when he reviewed this episode! You know what they didn’t do? Tuck their tails between their legs and leave. And this could have been a chance to show that it isn’t the power that makes you a hero, it’s the drive to do good and protect the world. But no, they just leave. And I’d like to remind everyone, this is an anniversary episode. You know, the episode that’s supposed to be celebrating what it means to be a Power Ranger?

Part 2 picks up with the villains in their lair, complaining that they’re no better off now than they were before joining up with Thrax, going as far as to say that his plan is failing. Miratrix asks where Thrax is, and Flurious says that his troops are keeping an eye on the Rangers, but maybe they should be watching Thrax… except this tease amounts to nothing. Seriously, after this one little scene of the villains not trusting him, they all go right back to following him without question.

Meanwhile, Adam takes the other Retro Rangers to a warehouse in Angel Grove (they don’t show the actual city, just the inside of the warehouse), as his new theme music plays for a bit before abruptly cutting off. Might as well have not even bothered there. They’re looking for a certain something left behind, and Bridge scans for it using his psychic abilities. Instead, he detects some Chillers who have followed them. Xander tries to use his patented “Plan Xander,” where he tries to charm the baddies into going home and rethinking their lives, but this naturally fails.

So, the Rangers have to resort to fighting them, and everybody gets a chance to be awesome while their theme song plays. And all I can think about during all this is how much better Operation Overdrive would have been if this was the main team. Seriously, these guys can hold their own in a fight, are a blast to watch in action and are infinitely more likable than the scrubs we were stuck with for a year. Which only goes to point out how bad this season actually was.

Nonetheless, the Retros finish off the Chillers in short order, with Adam quipping that they “may be old school, but it still gets the job done.” You’re definitely not dead weight here, Nero. After they meet back up, they find the box they were looking for, one with a crudely done, all-too-familiar yellow lightning bolt on the side. Adam notes that the thing inside it “has never let him down before.”

Back at the Mansion, Mack is busy sweeping the floor (so, to his credit, he’s at least trying to help out in some capacity) when the Sentinel Knight appears before him. The Knight tells him that as long as he keeps fighting for what’s right, he’ll always be a Ranger. You should tell that to the other numbskulls. They’re the ones who bailed as soon as they lost the spandex.

Mack wonders aloud what Thrax meant when he said he knew what could destroy the Knight, and the spirit replies that there is only one weapon that could do the job: the sword Excelsior (guess Stan Lee’s influence with Power Rangers went further along than just the 70’s), which Thrax is no doubt searching for. Mack offers to get it first, but the Knight says it’s too dangerous, and that the Jewels remain the top priority. Mack has other ideas…

We then see what the other Overdrive Rangers have been up to since leaving the team: Ronnie wins a stock car race in Monaco, Dax resumes his career as a stuntman in New Zealand (filming The Matrix 4?), Will gets a job stealing from Make-A-Wish… I mean, testing security systems for museums and such, Tyson… walks in a field, and Rose goes back to teaching environmental studies at college. And during all this, each of them starts to miss their old lives as Rangers.

The problem here? You get the sense that it’s not necessarily because they want to save the world or anything, but because they find their old lives boring. Maybe this would work better if in the beginning, they were talking about how hard it is being a Ranger, and that sometimes they wish they could go back to their lives before, but here they were gushing about how awesome being a Ranger is.

Speaking of Rose, Mack catches up with her after one of her classes and shares a hug with her, before asking about the sword. She says that there’s a book in the school’s library all about it, and Mack hurries off.

We then skip all the boring research stuff and cut straight to Mack walking through a creepy forest (is it the one from Mystic Force?) in search of Excelsior. Okay, maybe we should have a little more breathing room between those two scenes. Here, he just jumps from talking to Rose to literally on a quest for the sword. It’s more than a little jarring.

Anywho, he makes it all of five seconds before falling in a pit. As someone who used to play the ET game on my dad’s Atari, I know the feeling all too well. He soon grabs a vine and bone to form a makeshift grappling hook and climbs back up.

Greeting him at the top is a statue of a woman holding the Excelsior. Okay, that’s a bit too convenient. And it’s just sticking out in the middle of the woods; no temple, no shrine, not even a shallow moat. The Wild Sword from Megaforce had better security than this. But as he reaches out to take the sword, he gets interrupted by Thrax, who… followed him, I guess. Not sure how…

After a commercial break, Thrax prepares to kill Mack (I say go ahead), but Dax soon arrives to make the save. And he’s not alone, as the other Rangers form up around Mack. Rose apparently called them up after his visit, knowing that he’d do something crazy like heading out without any backup to find the sword. Nice to know they finally pulled through… sort of…

Back at the Mansion, we finally find out what was in that box Adam was looking for: Alpha 6? Wait, what was Alpha doing in a box? Did the Galaxy Rangers just stuff him in there one day and leave? And how’d he even get back to Angel Grove anyway? He didn’t show up in “Trakeena’s Revenge,” and the Rangers didn’t use the Megaship to get from Miranoi to Earth, so it’s not like he drove them there. And for that matter, Adam talked about him like he was Alpha 5. He only really knew Alpha 6 during the first half of Turbo, and during “Always A Chance.” And what is going on with his voice? It’s some dude doing a lame Richard Steven Horvitz impression, with a crappy auto-tune placed on top. I understand not being able to get Wendy Lee back because of the whole union thing, but at least make an effort here!

Adam helps the bot get back to his feet and introduces him to Andrew, who helped put him back together again. Andrew explains that the Rangers are in trouble, and that he needs Alpha’s help restoring their powers. Which Alpha is all too happy to help with…

Back in the woods, Thrax rants that his parents were “weak” and “succumbed to goodness” (uh, I’m pretty sure anybody would “succumb” to a massive energy wave smacking them in the face. Plus, Rita’s actually doing pretty good for herself with that whole Mystic Mother thing – weird that Xander never brings that up) and vows to restore their legacy by destroying the Sentinel Knight with the Excelsior. But when he tries to take the sword, a blast of good energy knocks him back. Mack tells him that according to legend, Excelsior belonged to the Warrior Goddess (apparently, she’s got some self-help books on Amazon) and only her spirit can release it. After trying to blast the statue and failing, Thrax decides that if he can’t have the sword, then he’ll just destroy Earth… uh, weren’t you going to do that anyway?

Over at the Mansion, Adam tells Alpha that he’s the only one who knows the Morphing Grid enough to try and fix it… and wait, why is Alpha now Adam’s height? You couldn’t even get the character’s height right… Anywho, Alpha says he’s never been inside the Grid itself before, but he’ll try his best.

Andrew teleports him into the Grid, right before the alarm goes off. The Retro Rangers slide down the base’s Batman poles just in time to see Thrax’s monster growing (with Kira quipping that “they still make ‘em bigger”), and Andrew sends them out in the Zords to halt the creature’s rampage.

In the woods, the Rangers try to pull the Excelsior out of the statue’s hands, but with no success. Ronnie complains that if they were still Rangers, they could get the sword, and everybody decides to… wait for it… give up and go home. Again. As Mack turns to leave, however, Sentinel Knight’s words of always having power echo in his head, and he tells the others that he’s not going anywhere without the sword. Now, you think this would be the time that he chews them all out for being so quick to give up all the time, but no, they all just randomly decide to help out all of the sudden.

They all place their hands on the sword and pull, causing the statue of the Warrior Goddess to come to life and tell them that they’ve passed her test of unity and conviction (pfffff), and are thereby worthy of Excelsior. And Sweet Mother of Mark Hamill is this actress horrid. Words cannot describe how painfully wooden her speech is. She hands them the sword, causing it to change from a marble white to a shining gold in Mack’s hands. So… yay. Didn’t really have to do anything to get it, but sure.

Meanwhile, Alpha wanders inside the metal tunnel that’s supposed to be the Morphing Grid, asking himself what Zordon would do in this situation. Again, Zordon was friends with Alpha 5, not 6. 6 barely knew the guy. Oh, and could you pick up a couple tubes of Morph-X while you’re in there, my bike’s running low…

The Retro Rangers confront the monster in the DriveMax Ultrazord and Flash Point Megazord, complete with original shots of them in the cockpits. But the monster proves too strong, actually knocking the Flash Point back and shattering the DriveMax’s drill arm. It seems like the Retro team is down for the count…

…Until something stupid happens. Get this: Mack runs up to the monster in slow-motion, Excelsior in hand. Remember, he’s not in Ranger form. The monster tries to attack him, but he takes a massive leap into the air, unmorphed. And again, unmorphed, he slices through the monster, killing it in one hit. I can buy a lot of ridiculous things in this show, because if you can’t then you might as well not even watch it, but this… he one-hits a giant monster UNMORPHED! I mean, there have been instances of individual Rangers such as Carter, Tommy and Tyler taking on giant-sized enemies without the use of Zords, but here’s the thing: they were in Ranger form. Mack though, he just turns into Superman for no real reason. And the Retro Rangers have the gall to cheer during this madness.

*Sighs* Back at the mansion, Mack gives Excelsior to the Sentinel Knight so it can’t be used against him, and the spirit merges with it, taking on a robotic form that cures him of his whole “being dead” thing. Rose and the others apologize for leaving – because apparently, they learned their lesson on the trip home – and Andrew welcomes them back.

The Retro crew walks in and thanks the Overdrive Rangers for saving them with their Deus-Ex Machina back there, and Alpha beams back over with good news: he’s managed to fix the Morphing Grid, meaning the Overdrive team has their powers back. And they didn’t even have to do anything to earn them! Honestly, it would have been better if Excelsior restored their powers. At least that way, they would have actually been involved with the effort to bring them back.

Elsewhere, the League of Injustice gathers around their fallen monster… wait, I thought he blew up when Mack did his Deus-Ex Jump Slash thing. There were pieces of him falling down around him and everything! This show can’t even be consistent about things that happened two minutes ago! While Thrax laments how the Rangers massacred his boy, Flurious pulls out one of his tech gyros, saying that one thing he learns from fighting the Rangers is to “always have a Plan B.” He places the device inside the creature, reviving it and giving it a cybernetic new look.

The Rangers soon get wind of the baddies gathering in the quarry (of course), and Adam hands Mack his newly repaired morpher, asking if the Red Ranger is “ready for action.” He is, and the combined teams soon arrive to do battle with the surprised villains. Once they’re done walking up to the evil mob in slow-motion, they morph, one by one.

Adam goes first, showing off his new morphing sequence where purple lighting forms his suit as he stands in front of a post-apocalyptic wasteland, then his helmet flies into his face. The other Retro Rangers follow suit individually (Bridge gets a new sequence which is pretty much him just standing there as his suit forms), then the Overdrive team does their morph together, where their morphers project their suits in front of them, then form them on their bodies as they move through an assembly line. Once everyone’s morphed, they all pose and the background explodes. Of course.

Thrax is confused at how the Overdrive Rangers have their powers back, but Mack fires back with the classic phrase “Once a Ranger, Always a Ranger.” Thrax then orders his minions to attack, and a big blowout ensues. Adam battles Thrax one-on-one (something neither one of them acknowledges), Mack and Bridge take on Flurious to the tune of the SPD theme (which ends when Bridge tosses Mack his blasters for a jumping shot), Will, Dax and Xander fight the Fearcats (and Xander whips out his Mystic Fighter boxing gloves), Ronnie and Kira duel Kamdor and Miratrix, Rose and Tori deal with Moltor, and Tyson fights a bunch of Chillers. A decent fight scene, even with all the issues I mentioned before still full on display.

Adam summons the Defender Vest for an edge against Thrax, but it soon fails after an explosive double punch with the villain. Not exactly sure why the background exploded for that… But he’s soon able to turn the tide by grabbing his Power Axe for a jumping slash, crying out “Morphenomenal!” as Thrax falls. Adam never really said that during his time in Mighty Morphin, but okay…

The other Rangers soon gain the upper hand in their own fights, with Tyson even finishing off the monster with his Drive Detector. So much for that upgrade. I do like how the SPD theme keeps playing after they cut from Mack and Bridge to him. Like they know that theme is leagues better than the one for the current season.

Thrax has Adam on the ropes, until the Sentinel Knight descends and transforms into his Warrior Mode. Thrax whines about how he should have the sword to destroy the Knight, who replies that such a thing is no longer possible given that he’s joined with it. He then… launches a couple of kicks that destroy Thrax. What a kill stealer. And again, Deus-Ex.

The other villains regroup, and the Rangers decide to finish them off by combining their blasters into one final attack. But they survive (man you guys suck at this) and decide to break off their alliance and go back to hunting for the Jewels individually. Once they all teleport away, the Rangers celebrate their win(?) and Mack and Adam share a handshake.

Back at the mansion, the Retro Rangers say their goodbyes to the Overdrive crew, with Dax rambling on about how he was glad when they came, then mad when they stayed (not their fault), and now he’s sad that they’re leaving. Spencer hands Bridge a plate full of buttery toast (his favorite food), while Tori assures the Overdrive Rangers that she and the others are only a phone call away, handing Andrew a business card for her surfboard shop. Xander offers the Rangers a 10% discount at the Rockporium (the music store he and the other Mystic Rangers work at), and Kira wants to show them her CD. Adam gives Alpha a job helping at his dojo (with a demon-slaying business on the side, I’m assuming), which the robot says is better than the crate. I’m still not over that, by the way. The episode ends with the Rangers past and present joining in for one last high-five, as they call out “Go, go, Power Rangers!” You know, that song they didn’t use?

So, now that we’ve finished talking about the story, on to Pros and Cons:

Pros:

The Retro Rangers is a great idea, and they shine throughout the entire episode. Pretty much every member was great in their own season, and together they’re a treat to watch. It’s especially awesome seeing Adam again, especially given how Johnny Young Bosch came back long after moving on to bigger things.

Cons:

Thrax is a walking plot hole.

The Overdrive Rangers quitting over losing their powers, when there have been countless instances of other teams standing firm in far more dire situations.

Most of the problems with Operation Overdrive are on full display here, such as the never ending explo…*Blows up*.

*Coughs and wipes the smoke away* What was that? You know what, never mind. Let’s just wrap this up. This is probably the best episode of Operation Overdrive, aside from the whole “Mack finding out he’s a robot” thing, but that’s very faint praise. There’s so many problems here, between the continuity issues, the over-reliance on pyro, the Rangers quitting soon after losing their powers… only to gain them back later on without really earning them, the lack of mingling between the Overdrive crew and the Retro Rangers, and the fact that said Rangers look much better than the ones in the then-current season. Honestly, this might have worked better as a “Forever Red”-type setup, with one of the Overdrive Rangers teaming up with the Retro Rangers to take on Thrax or something. At least that way, we’d go a whole episode without seeing Dax. As it is, I’d say watch the scenes with the Retro team, and skip everything else, if you absolutely have to watch something from this episode.

This would be the last Team-Up of the Disney Era, as Jungle Fury and RPM came and went without one due to reduced budgets and an ever-decreasing interest from the parent company. Eventually Haim Saban bought the rights to the franchise back, moving the series to Nickelodeon (for better or worse) with Samurai. And it’s here where we get our next crossover… sort of, as the Samurai Rangers join forces with the RPM… Red Ranger – just him – in the hour-long special, “Clash of the Red Rangers.” ‘Till then, I’ve been The Uncanny Fox. Live long, stay gold, and I just thought of something: Mack was a robot, right? How did he go his whole live without eating or going to the bathroom and not noticing something being up? Unless Andrew built him with a digestive track… and once again I’m discussing eating robots in Power Rangers. At least this one has a mouth…