Lightspeed! Rescue! Uncanny Fox reporting for duty, here to carry on my review series on the Power Rangers Team-Up episodes with a look at the Lightspeed Rescue/Lost Galaxy crossover episode, “Trakeena’s Revenge” aka Power Rangers in 3D or Power Rangers Triple Force.

But first, backstory. After going big with In Space and Lost Galaxy, Saban opted to play it cool with Lightspeed Rescue, producing a relatively straightforward adaptation that kept the theme of the source Sentai, i.e. rescue workers such as firefighters and paramedics. In universe, a cult of demons are accidentally awakened, and seek to destroy the city of Mariner Bay, which happens to be built on their ancient burial grounds (a source of great power to them). To combat this, a government organization named Lightspeed recruits a group of public servants to defend the city, operating from an underwater facility called the Aquabase (demons can’t travel in water, so it’s the ideal HQ) to defeat the dark forces.

The season featured many firsts for the series. It was the first one to have a storyline completely separate from the Zordon Era, with no previous series characters returning (crossover notwithstanding). It was the first to have the Rangers as public servants, and thus their identities be well known. They even had their own uniforms. And most interestingly of all, it was the first to have a Ranger with no origin in the Sentai footage: Kyukyu Sentai GoGoFive didn’t have a Sixth Ranger, so Saban upheld the tradition with a US-exclusive Titanium Ranger. The catch was that he had to go away to investigate how to stop the demons partway through the season; they still had to use that Titanium-less footage, after all.

As for the subject of today’s review, “Trakeena’s Revenge” was originally released on home-video (on this here thing we old folks called a “VHS tape”) as part of a promotion with McDonald’s, who sold it at their restaurants alongside their Happy Meals. Of course, if they did this today, it would only be available for one solitary night and people would have to fight to the death Hunger Games-style to get it, but I digress. As a kid, I managed to score the tape via a friend of my brother’s; it was pretty cool, and it was shot in a special kind of 3D that you could watch with or without the provided glasses (which were a kind of light and dark, meaning the color wasn’t messed up if you used them).

The special would later air on TV as a 2-parter, but because it was released out of sync with the events in the show, there were plenty of not-yet-debuted-proper elements, such as the Omega Megazord and Max Solarzord, and the baby demon Impus having become fully grown and taken command of the villains as Olympius. So yeah, this spoiled some of the later part of the season when it first came out, and since it was filmed out-of-order, there’s some slight discrepancies with some of said elements. But we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it; right now the signal is calling, our planet is falling, and I’ve got a Team-Up to go over.

The episode begins with the Previously On segment (showing Olympius betraying Loki – no, not that one – and Vypra and blaming the Rangers for it, leading the two to bring back the previous leader, Diabolico, who in turn vows to retake his power from Olympius. All of this leads to big continuity snarl in this episode), then a cold open of the planet Mirinoi on a dark and rainy night. We see the Quasar Sabers embedded in their stone, right where the Galaxy Rangers left them at the end of their season, as Leo walks up and reclaims his.

He morphs, just as a group of cloaked figures (again with the cloaks) walks along the soaked streets of what I’m assuming is a Terra Venture settlement. I mean, I know that it’s actually Sentai footage of Earth, but Mirinoi is a forest planet with limited development. Any city would have had to have been built after the Terra Venture crew arrived. They sure got a fully-functioning metropolises up and running in record time, though.

Leo runs up to confront the tall, evil Jawas, cutting them down one by one in a dramatic battle. As this is going on, a winged demon steps into view to watch, amused that the Red Ranger has come to fight his minions. Eventually, Leo and the last of the grunts (called Ghouls) share a mutual strike, and Leo is forced to the ground. He can only watch helplessly as the Ghouls teleport off world, the demon joining them. Their Sam-like balls of light fly through a vortex tunnel of some kind, coming out right in front of (you guessed it) Earth.

The intro hits, an awesome rock tune with an epic, army-like feel that really fits the rescue theme of the season. Another neat thing is how the credits list the Rangers’ whole names, a first for the show that sells the idea that these are public servants with their identities widely known. Interestingly enough, Ryan (the Titanium Ranger and Discount Hayden Christensen) is featured in said credits, but he doesn’t appear in this episode due to it drawing heavily on Sentai footage (this is one of the few Power Rangers Team-Ups to actually use it’s corresponding Japanese crossover, namely Kyukyu Sentai GoGoFive vs. Gingaman) and him being off on his “find out how to kill the demons” tour. And a side note: the Lightspeed Megazord’s ladder-punching blew my mind as a kid. I hadn’t seen a Megazord do something like that before, and I thought it was cool.

The episode proper begins in the park, as a mother and her daughter are playing Hide-And-Seek. The girl, named Heather, manages to trick her mom (Discount Rita Wilson) by leaving her shoes behind some bushes before jumping her from behind, before the two hurry off to visit the girl’s father. And I hope you like child actors, because this little girl is the focus of the episode. Maybe even moreso than the actual crossover.

As they do so, they hear sirens in the distance, and spot the Rangers’ rescue hummer speeding down the street to an emergency, a sight that excites the young Heather. The heroes race to a fire in progress, and waste no time running in to get all of the civilians out of the burning building. This is one cool thing that Lightspeed Rescue does that no other season really touches on, showing the Rangers saving the day in non-monster situations. It helps gives the vibe that they’re really superheroes in the vain of Spider-Man or Captain America. They’re not just running out when demons attack, they’re always looking out to protect the citizens of Mariner Bay.

Once everybody’s out, Green Ranger Joel (a professional stunt pilot and the self-proclaimed “Sky Cowboy.” Seriously, he’s always wearing a cowboy hat. But he didn’t go the extra mile and work it into his Ranger suit, unlike the other Cowboy Ranger) flies overhead in his Jet Zord and drops some water bombs to put out the fire… as well as promotional pictures of himself, which he’s more than happy to sign for adorning fans once he’s on the ground. Hey, this is the first season that the Rangers don’t have to hide their identities, and he’s going to enjoy it. I say he’s earned it.

Over at place Heather’s dad works, she and her mom go up to his office on the 13th floor (red flag, right there), only for the former to lose track of her ball (that’s what you get for bouncing it around indoors) and the latter to be ambushed by the Ghouls after the camera lingers on Heather watching with a weird smile on her face for what seems to eternity. Scared, the girl makes a run for it out of the office to get help.

The monsters grab Heather’s mom and drag her into another room, where people are being shrunk and held prisoner in little canisters (ironically enough, this would be the good guys’ shtick in the next season). And chief amongst them is Heather’s dad, who cries out to his wife for help.

The winged demon from before, named Triskull, walks into the room and zaps Heather’s mom, shrinking her and placing her into a canister right beside Hubby. He then orders his Ghouls to turn on a machine that begins draining the lifeforce of her and the other prisoners (I’m sure there’s a joke in here somewhere about how this isn’t all that different from these people’s regular day, working in an office building and all) in the form of little green lights that flow through tubes into a glowing beaker, as a familiar-looking woman in a chair strokes it and chuckles sinisterly. She tells Triskull that it’s “only a matter of time…”

One of the Ghouls tells Triskull about how Heather saw the kidnapping, and he explains to his boss that there’s a witness that needs to be taken care of. He then shapeshifts into what has got to be one of the least convincing human disguises in the history of monsters disguising themselves as people. He’s pale, he’s got a combover and there’s a dead look in his eyes. There’s got to be a better look to go with than “dude who stabs people to death in his hotel because the voice of his dead mother tells him to.”

Human Triskull heads outside, where Heather is trying to convince the lady at the front desk about the Ghouls. And the lady tells her, dead-serious, while living in a city that gets attacked by giant Kaiju on a weekly basis, where the Power Rangers don’t even bother to hide their identities because their actions are considered a public service, TWO YEARS after a MASSIVE alien invasion the swept throughout the whole planet, that “there’s no such thing as monsters!” Let me repeat: this woman doesn’t believe in monsters, while living in a city that’s constantly attacked by monsters!What, is she one of those nuts that thinks every bad thing that’s ever happened is a government conspiracy or something? Linkara called this woman the “dumbest person in Power Rangers, ever,” and frankly she’s earned that title and then some.

Anywho, Triskull walks up to Heather and tells her, in the most “I have candy and a Nintendo Switch in my van” tone of voice one can muster, that he believes her and wants to help. She leads him back up to the 13th floor, where sure enough the Ghouls are waiting to attack. Triskull grabs Heather and tries to take her into the draining room, but she breaks free after throwing her ball at him and running away. Ah yes, the deadliest weapon in all of Power Rangers: a rubber ball.

After the commercial break, Triskull heads back to his lab, where he tells Olympius that he’s almost drained enough lifeforce energy to restore his mother, Queen Bansheera (the real Big Bad of the season), to her full strength, as the previous attempt to bring the evil matriarch to the world of the humans was botched and left her in a deformed state. And in return, Olympius will give him a chest full of gold, as well as a warning that the Queen won’t wait much longer.

Once he leaves, Triskull’s real boss walks out from the shadows: none other than Trakeena, having survived being blasted by the Red Ranger’s Battlizer and sporting a mouth mask to hide the fact that her original actress quit when she realized that a freaking kid was going to get more screen time than the actual Rangers, much less her. Yes, apparently Triskull is actually draining the lifeforce to restore her full power in order to destroy Earth. She monologues that once she’s done that, both the people of Earth and Bansheera’s demons will bow before her. Cue the M. Bison meme.

Triskull points out how he’s part of that arrangement as well, and Trakeena reminds him that there’s still a little girl running around who can blow the whistle on all of this. Triskull assures her that he’ll deal with that…

Meanwhile, Heather is sitting by a fountain crying when none other than Carter Grayson – Red Lightspeed Ranger, Firefighter and the Real American Hero that Bud Light commercials used to sing about – overhears and offers to help. Heather sees his morpher and explains that her mother was taken by a monster, one that was, in her words, “big and ugly.” Not really narrowing it down there.

Just then, Creepy Human Triskull walks up, telling Heather that she forgot her ball. When she freaks out and hides behind Carter, he tells the Ranger that “little kids have the wildest imaginations” and sneaks away as creepily as he came. Once he’s gone, Carter tells Heather that he believes her, and that he’s going to check out the guy who looks like his bathtub’s full of battery acid and a dead body.

He tries to trail Mr. Creepy, but Heather follows him despite his instructions to sit tight, forcing him to pull her aside and give the “this is dangerous and I’m the trained professional here” lecture. But when Heather insists on helping get her mother back, Carter agrees to let her tag along on the grounds that she follows his directions to the letter. She thinks this makes her a “Junior Ranger” (not until you get the sticker) and gives the salute, nearly blowing their cover.

After the break, we cut to the other Rangers taking a ride in their Hummer, as Chad (the Blue Ranger and a lifeguard) asks if they’d be up for a dive. Which Joel shoots down because the water surrounding their base is “cold and salty.” Of course Kelsey, the Yellow Ranger and a professional mountain climber, is game.

But their discussion is cut off by Leo walking into the road ahead of them, injured from his battle with the Ghouls. The Rangers stop the car and run out to help him, with Kelsey recognizing him as the Red Galaxy Ranger (thus making that front desk lady even more of an idiot, as even the exploits of Rangers that are off in another freaking galaxy are apparently known to the public). Leo explains that he came all the way from Mirinoi to warn them that Trakeena is back on Earth, and that the Ghouls tried to stop him.

When Chad asks who they are, a squad of them teleport down to attack the Rangers. The Lightspeed crew morphs and takes them on in original footage. Kelsey and Dana (Lightspeed Pink, paramedic and sister of Ryan) flip one over, but the creature picks himself up, which Kelsey deems “impossible.” Yeah, he stood up, how can anyone do that?

In any case, Chad and Joel don’t far too well either, and the Ghouls prove too tough for our heroes, until Leo steps in and takes them down with a quick slash of his Quasar Saber. Apparently in the Sentai movie, fire was their weakness, and it seems this has carried over despite nobody stating it outright. Leo tells the others that there’ll be more where those came from, and Dana decides to get him to their base.

Meanwhile, Carter and Heather follow Creepy Man into an alley, where Heather almost blows her cover by tripping on a can. Triskull ignores the sound, however, and the two heroes continue following him…

…Only to be jumped by a gang of even more Ghouls, forcing Carter to take them on while Heather hides behind a trash can. But the Ghostface knockoffs prove too powerful even for the sheer manliness of one Carter Grayson, and to make matters worse they soon find Heather and attack her as well.

Luckily, Kai and Maya jump to the scene to make the save, fully morphed and ready to kick some Ghoul. Not so luckily, everyone is too busy fighting to notice Heather fainting. After a brief skirmish, the Ghouls are forced to retreat, and the Rangers decide to take the unconscious Heather back to base as Kai remembers to bring her ball. That’s the most important thing, after all.

Over at the Aquabase, Leo explains how Trakeena used her father’s cocoon to mutate into what he describes as a “green form” as we’re treated to flashbacks of the final episode of Lost Galaxy. Trakeena became a sort of freaky Preadator/lizard woman thing and Leo was forced to battle her, finally taking down the monster via a Battlizer blast at point-blank. But she survived that, and is now stealing people’s lifeforce in order to gain enough power to become green again. Which is kind of ironic given how she was adamantly against mutating throughout the season, only going through with it once all her other plans to destroy Terra Venture failed.

After Leo’s done with his history lesson, Carter goes over to check on Heather, who’s being looked at by Dana. The girl wakes up and asks Carter if he’s going to save her mom, and given that he’s the closest thing we had to a live-action Captain America until Chris Evans came along, that answer is yes. Carter asks her where she first saw the Ghouls, and Heather offers to show him.

Chad then runs in to tell Carter that trouble’s come up, and they need to get to the outskirts of town pronto. Carter tells Heather to wait in her room while the Rangers go take care of this, but of course she doesn’t listen. She runs out and insists she’s coming with, and after some guilt-slinging and a few nods by his teammates, Carter relents.

However, she has to wait in the Humvee while the Rangers run to action in the same quarry that’s outside every city in Power Rangers, where they finally find themselves face-to-face with Triskull. Carter demands to know where the prisoners are (even though Heather already offered to show them), but the demon’s not listening, merely siccing his Ghouls (who rise from the ground like it’s Thriller Night) on the Rangers.

The Rangers morph, with the Galaxy Rangers using the morph scene from Gingaman for some reason (where they turn the dial and flash into Ranger form) and the Lightspeed team using their morph of flicking open the plate on their morpher, shooting out a giant symbol of their visor shape and passing through it to form their suits (a really impressive effect for time), and spring into action via Sentai footage.

They knock the Ghouls down, but the creatures just get right back up with a backwards-playing fall scene, leaving our heroes outmatched until Leo, Kai and Maya use the power of their Quasar Sabers to take them down for the count (Water plus Lighting equals Fire, apparently), leaving only the Ghouls cloaks behind like they just faded into the Force.

There’s still one big problem, though: Triskull, who Carter tries to take one-on-one with his wrist-mounted Battle Booster. But the demon proves too strong, and he takes the Rangers down with his green lightning blasts, causing a massive explosion. And Part 1 ends with a cheesetacular Big No by Heather, who’s forced to watch helplessly as her heroes are blown into submission. Seriously, the “To Be Continued” just freeze frames on her face in mid-“Noooooo.” The only way you could kill the drama further is if you played the Seinfield theme during this.

Part 2 picks up with a cold open of Heather running out of the hummer to check on Carter. He and the others are fine (you think mere Sith Lightning is enough to kill Carter Grayson?), but Triskull is gone. Nonetheless, he tells Heather that they’re going to go rescue her mom and the other prisoners at the Office Building. Dana points out that there are still innocent people in there who could get hurt if the Rangers go in guns blazing, but Carter has a plan to get around that, and it needs Heather to work. Of course, it does…

Back in Trakeena’s lair, Triskull informs her that the cylinders holding all of the drained life force are nearly full, meaning it will soon be time for her to mutate. Trakeena’s pleased with the news, even as she taunts the miniaturized prisoners, who are struggling to stay awake. Yeah, I feel ya, we’ve all tried to watch Star Trek: The Motion Picture…

But unbeknownst to Trakeena or Triskull, there is a Spy-Bat perched in the corner of the lab, relaying what it sees back to Olympius in his Castle Greyskull-esqe lair. After the intro, the dragon demon tells his partially-formed mother about how Trakeena was plotting to keep the humans’ lifeforce for herself after all. Vypra and Loki, who are suddenly on Olympius’s side again (see what I said about the plot hole) wonder what he’s going to do about this betrayal, to which he responds that he’s going to destroy her. Not every betrayal leads to the victim being all buddy-buddy with the guilty party the following episode like nothing’s happened, it seems.

Bansheera warns that if Trakeena’s allowed to mutate to green, she’ll be too powerful for even Olympius to defeat, but he’s got a plan to sabotage the process before it gets that far: a vial of cobra poison that he claims is “stronger than 10 taipans,” which he pours on a dagger…

Back on Mirinoi (where apparently it’s still both night and rainy), the last two Quasar Sabers are claimed. Take a guess who’s doing that…

Outside Office Inc, Carter explains his plan to Heather: when no one is looking, she’s to go to the nearest fire alarm and pull it. At first Heather objects, saying that her dad told her not to do that unless it’s an emergency, but Carter assures her that this is a special case. See, that’s a good reason to pull the fire alarm. Not doing it as a prank to get out of class in the middle of January. Looking at you, random kids from 11th grade.

So she goes in, sneaks toward the alarm and sets it off. And sure enough, everyone goes scrambling to the nearest exit, even the dumb lady at the front desk (I’m surprised she doesn’t think fire is “Fake News” or something). Even Trakeena is startled by this, and sends Triskull off to find out what’s up.

As this is going on, the Rangers run in dressed as firefighters to get everyone to safety, with Carter telling Heather to wait by the bushes and a cop that nobody is to go on the 13th floor. Once everyone is clear, Carter and Leo morph and head up to the roof…

…Where Triskull is waiting for Round 2. The Red Rangers get blasted by his lightning, but they soon get back up, determined to show him what Red’s all about. They lasso Triskull back with ropes, but this doesn’t pan out, and they’re soon back on the ground and forced to listen to Triskull bragging about how “worthless” they are.

Carter’s had enough of his big mouth, however, and charges up his Battle Booster to full power. He then brushes off the demon’s lighting blasts and takes him down with one punch, man. Because he’s Carter Motherfreaking Grayson. As Triskull falls down in defeat (and oddly enough, he doesn’t explode), he tells the Rangers that they’re still too late to stop Trakeena, but Leo and Carter don’t have time for that, choosing to hurry to the hostages.

They reach Heather’s dad’s office on the 13th floor and kick down the door. Inside, they find Trakeena’s lab and her prisoners, whose lifeforce is almost completely drained. But before they can worry about that, more Ghouls attack them from behind, leaving the Reds outmatched and surrounded…

… Until Kendrix (yes, Kendrix. Remember how I said she was brought back at the end of her season after her treatments were successful?) and Damon arrive to even the odds. Together, the four Rangers make short work of the Ghouls, but they are soon stopped by Trakeena herself, who starts blasting at them with her staff.

Outside, the rest of the Rangers are packing up when they pick up a distress call by Carter… or rather, the sound of Trakeena about to blow their teammates out the window. Which she does, but luckily the Lightspeed crew get to them in time to break their fall with a large bouncy landing pad. That looks like it could be fun to just jump on…

The others rush to their side to see if they’re okay, which they are. Unfortunately, Olympius and his cronies arrive to see that they don’t stay that way for long. The two Ranger teams morph to an instrumental track of their respective theme songs and give a roll call, complete with flashing shots of each Ranger from different angles. Yet oddly enough, no explosion this time. That was kind of a US-footage-excusive thing for a while, although Sentai would pick up on the shenanigans eventually.

Olympius orders his batlike grunts (called the Batlings, and they look pretty lame, to be honest) to attack, and a big fight ensues. The Rangers pair off by color, just like last week, with the Yellows taking on Loki, the Pinks fighting Vypra, the Blues swinging on vines and knocking Batlings into trees, Joel slashing grunts while wall-running, Damon trying to take Olympius one-on-one, and Carter using his V-Lancer on more grunts.

Meanwhile, Trakeena readies herself for her transformation, strapping into the chair in the middle of the room and starting the machines that beam lifeforce energy at her, which starts the process. We see flashes of her mutated green form phasing in and out as she changes and sinister music plays in the background.

Back outside, the Rangers regroup and blast the baddies with their combined weapons, taking the demons out with a rainbow-like blast of energy. Cue the Care Bears meme. Staggered, Olympius realizes that it’s time to carry out his plan, muttering that if Trakeena wants to mutate, he’ll make things more interesting. He tosses his poisoned knife into the hole in the side of the building…

…Which stabs the tube the lifeforce is flowing through, tainting it and changing its color from green to purple. Now poisoned, Trakeena cries out in pain and horror as she completes her transformation… but not into what she wanted.

Instead, she teleports out of the building and grows to giant size, now changed into… Holy Mother of Crap, what is that thing? What the heck kind of poison did Olympuis use there? Trakeena’s now this massive tentacled Xenomorph thing straight out of HP Lovecraft’s playbook that really pushes the boundaries of this being a kid’s show. This is the kind of stuff that could adults nightmares, much less the little ones. It’s got to be the scariest thing I’ve seen since the giant blue CGI Will Smith, but on the other hand, it’s pretty cool.It’s the right kind of scary, you see. The sky darkens as she begins a furious rampage on the city, breathing fire and generally wreaking havoc.

Back on street level, Leo tells Olympius that he’ll never get away with this, but the dragon demon reiterates that he already has before teleporting off and leaving the Rangers to clean up the mess. It’s actually a pretty smart strategy: take out the competition, destroy the Rangers and ruin the city all in one fell swoop.

Undeterred, Carter calls for the space-themed Omega Megazord, and at the Aquabase, the Supertrain Zords are being hooked up to the shuttle-like Max Solarzord (Ryan’s Zord, though they modified it to work without him) and rocketed off into the space. Once in orbit, the release the Omega Zords, which in turn combine into the Omega Megazord in an impressive CGI sequence. The music gives it a majestic feel, with a little horn solo in the middle that’s oddly soothing. The Zords link together to form Crawler Mode, before shifting into Robot Mode and descending back down to Earth, the Max Solarzord changing into Warrior Mode and flipping back down along with it.

The two mechs do battle with Monster-Trakeena, but the nightmare creature proves too powerful, shrugging off Max Solarzord’s flying kick and Omega Megazord’s lance attack. On the ground, the Galaxy Rangers watch helplessly as Team Lightspeed is getting pummeled, with Leo bemoaning that the Galatabeasts are still on Mirinoi and can’t help out. You’ll notice that his voice sounds markedly different in this fight. That’s because Danny Slavin, the actor who played Leo, had walked out earlier due to a pay dispute with Saban (seems to be a recurring theme with this show), leading the producers to have voice actor Christopher Glenn to provide the ADR work that Slavin couldn’t finish.

But speak of the devil, the Galatabeasts soon arrive on the scene to help even the odds in what is the second, and to date, last time a Megazord from the previous season appears in a Team-Up. The Galaxy Rangers summon the Lights of Orion and form the Light-empowered Galaxy Megazord, which manages to slice off one of Trakeena’s tentacles. To which the monster lets out a hellacious scream of pain.

The two Megazords unleash their finishing attacks (a sword slash for the Galaxy Megazord and a missile launch for the Omega), which result in Trakeena Beast exploding and sending out massive shockwaves that knocks down the Omega Megazord, separates the Galaxy Megazord back into individual Galactabeasts, and sends the Galaxy Rangers back down to the street.

If you look closely during this, you can see the Magna Defender’s Torozord standing with the other Megazords; in the movie, Magna’s counterpart returned to aid the Rangers, but since both MD’s powers and Zord were destroyed at the end of Lost Galaxy, they had to be omitted here. The show wasn’t quite ready to have Rangers randomly get their powers back for the purposes of a crossover… yet.

Unfortunately, Trakeena is still kicking, and the Galaxy Rangers are laying injured and helpless on the ground below. The Omega Megazord picks up the vulnerable Rangers, who ask how they can possibly take down Trakeen after the monster survived their best attacks.

But hope’s not lost yet, as the Lights of Orion activate and cover the Omega Megazord in their light. The Galaxy crew teleport inside as the Megazord transforms into an enhanced state not unlike the one the Galaxy Megazord took on. The aesthetics of the Light-empowered armor works really well with the Omega Megazord.

Now recharged and powered up, the Megazord turns to face Trakeena, as Carter declares that they’ll need to combine all of their power and weapons to defeat her. Leo activates the Lights of Orion, and the Omega Megazord unleashes a devastating double-slash with its sword and lance, striking at the Trakeena Monster and destroying it once and for all. This frees the prisoners in the lab, growing them back to full-size and restoring their lifeforce. Back inside the Megazord, the Rangers celebrate their victory, and Carter tells Leo that they couldn’t have won without him and the rest of the Galaxy Crew.

With the danger now past, the Rangers return Heather to her parents, who are relieved that their little girl is safe and sound. Heather tells about how she helped the Rangers, and Carter gives her a special badge that signals her as an official Junior Ranger. Which is still more than those poor kids who had to lip-synch Christmas Carols with Alpha got.

Meanwhile, Joel tries to flirt with Maya and Kendrix via offering them an autographed picture, but the ladies turn him down. The other Rangers discuss how tough their enemies were/are, with Leo saying that it was “kind of fun getting back in the action.” Dana asks if the Galaxy Rangers can stay for a while and help out with the demons, but Kendrix tells her that they’re still needed on Mirioni. Damon, on the other hand, is more than happy to stay and flirt with the ladies, guess the teams have more in common than they thought. The episode ends with the Galaxy Rangers flying off in their Jet Jammers, with the Lightspeed team riding along in their hummer to see them off.

The Next Time segment features the team losing their memories, forcing Dana to fight the demon responsible alone while the scientists at Lightspeed tries to restore her teammates via a computer program triggering their thoughts. Those guys think of everything…

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

Pros:

Trakeena’s delightfully messed-up monster form.

The Lights of Orion-empowered Omega Megazord looks pretty cool.

Cons:

Heather taking up more screen time than some of the actual Rangers.

That ridiculously stupid front desk lady.

The continuity snarls regarding Olympius and his cronies.

This was… about average as far as Team-Ups go. I get that “The Power Of Pink” was a tough act to follow, and to “Trakeena’s Revenge’s” credit it does a lot of things right (the action is top notch, Carter Grayson is awesome as always, and the evil plans from the respective villain factions are pretty clever), but the corny plotline about a little girl helping the Rangers and the continuity issues that stemmed from the special being filmed out of order drag it down a bit. I won’t say that it’s bad, because it’s not, but there has been better Team-Ups before it and since.

Next week, it’s time, time, time for Power Rangers Time Force as the Lightspeed crew returns to give the heroes of the future a helping hand in the one-part crossover “Time For Lightspeed.” ‘Till then, I’ve been The Uncanny Fox. Live long, stay gold, and remember: Carter Grayson isn’t the answer. He’s the question. The answer is always “Yes.”