SDCC 2011 Stories and Podcast Updates

Nothing can stop me now. From the Command Center,

Episode 5. Welcome to Episode 5 of From the Command

Center, the Audio Edition. I'm Scotty Cash, and

joining me from the Geekcast Radio Network is

TFG1 Mike. What's going on, bud? What's going

on, dude? Not much. How you been? I've been alright.

Got a buddy of mine. He has lost interest in

Masters Classics, but he still has the 2011 subscription.

So I just buy whatever figures I want from him.

And I got in Catra and Panthor this past week.

Nice! Yeah, very, very cool. Skeletor finally

has somewhere to sit. Yeah, a lot of people...

Is your Catra all damaged? No, as far as I can

tell, she's not. I don't really care for the

soft hands. Right, yeah. It's a little weird

on an action figure for me. But unlike the rest

of the pop culture network, I love Transformers,

and he also sent me the e -hobby Takara Tomy

Transformers United Decepticon 3 -pack of Clear,

Cyclonus, Galvatron, and Scourge, and wow, these

things are awesome. Yep. Well, I'll tell you

what. You saying I hate Transformers, I sure

did buy Rodimus Prime with the Matrix about a

week ago. No, wait a second. I didn't say Scotty

Cash hates Transformers. I said the rest of pop

culture. Oh, I got you. Actually, they just don't

collect Transformers. It's not that they hate

them. That's fine. A lot of us don't collect

Legos. Yeah, screw Legos and screw Damien. No,

I would like Legos, too, if they weren't so easy

to lose. Yeah, that's true. You should see his

basement. What he says is not a joke. When you

walk in his basement, it looks like a back room

to a Lego storage unit, you know what I mean,

or whatever. It's just like, you're like, really?

This is like, you know, he could have a yard

sale and make, you know, I don't know, $10 ,000

off his freaking Legos easily. I mean, he just

has so many, and he has the expensive ones, too.

It's not like he just has, like, you know, the

$19 ones. You know, he goes out and spends, you

know, the $200, $300. You know, it's just ridiculous.

Yeah. The other thing is we're coming up to a

lot of really, really, hopefully great cartoons

that are coming out over the summer, unless Cartoon

Network decides to screw with them. Because I

just, through the world's finest, world'sfinestonline

.com, they posted a news story today about Batman,

Brave and the Bold, and Young Justice getting

pushed back again for new episodes. And I absolutely

hate Cartoon Network for doing crap like this.

This is why shows don't succeed, is because of

that. And they move their, they're good about

moving their time slot. They do that too. Yeah.

They're like, oh, it's on Saturday. No, it's

Friday. Yep. But, you know, there are good ways

to make a remake and there are bad ways to make

a remake or a reimagining of a cartoon. The Thundercats

stuff, the Thundercats cartoon looks awesome.

When I saw the Voltron thing, I'm like, oh, my

God, what the hell have they done? First of all,

the lead guy, the voice, whoever the I don't

know who the voice actor is for the lead guy.

He's hamming it up. I hate that. Is there a new

trailer? Is it the same one that they is there?

There's only one, right? Yeah, it's the one I

linked to you in Skype, I believe. Yeah, it's

this one here, basically. Okay. He basically

hams it up and says, oh, you know, he goes through

the whole thing of intercells and all that stuff,

goes through the old saying of how to form Voltron,

and it just sounds horrible to me. The combined

animation between the 2D and the 3D looks horrible.

Stupid, yes. The lions don't even look like lions.

They look like half lion, half wolf. I mean,

it just doesn't look right. Yeah, I didn't even

realize it until our intern Rick pointed it out,

but absolutely. He was like, yeah, well, what

did you think about the 3D? And I was like, what

are you talking about? I watched it once on my

phone. It was like cutting in and out. So I rewatched

it again, you know, and I was just like, oh,

yuck. Yeah. If you're going to do 2D, do 2D.

If you're going to do 3D, do the 3D. Don't combine

them. That's just, that's lame. Yeah, I know.

And yes, we realized that this is a Power Rangers

podcast and I'm coming back around to that. Let's

go ahead and get started on that. Yeah. Well,

you've been on vacation. So that I'm assuming

was. Fun as hell, and I'm sure you didn't want

to come back from vacation. I was actually ready

to come back, but it was definitely enjoyable.

The children were left in my hometown, so it

was like I had no worries. All I had to do was

worry about eating or waking up or being at the

rehearsal and the wedding on time, and that's

it. All the other time was just... whatever I

wanted to do. Well, you know, I, I ate Chick

-fil -A three or four times. I had IHOP, you

know, a couple of times I, I was, uh, drunk,

uh, you know, throughout the weekend. And then,

you know, it was just kind of sitting on the

beach with my wife and my buddies. And it was

just a good time. And, you know, there was no

worries. So that's awesome. Yeah. But no, there

was no good, there was no toy stores anywhere

though. Cause I was like going to the shops and

I was like, there are toy stores. And they're

like, like, what's it, what's a toy store. And

I was like, what are you talking about? And then

the guy at the surf shop told me that there was

Toys R Us right up the road. So I start driving

up this road. And I'm driving for like 15 minutes.

And I'm like, where is this freaking Toys R Us?

So I Google Maps it. And it's still like 45 minutes

away. And I'm like, really? Right up the road,

you douchebag? So I was just like, no, I'm not

driving an hour and a half to Toys R Us. Yeah.

Getting into some samurai talk, what did you

think of the latest few episodes? Have you been

able to catch up? Oh, no doubt, yeah. It sucks

because when I left, I forgot all about it, so

I unplugged my DVR and my TV. So when I got back,

I was like, I can't wait to watch this and watch

that. I also unplugged it during the Smallville

finale, so I still have yet to even see that.

So I've got to go look that up. But I did end

up catching it. Yeah, I don't know, man. I'm

coming around to Antonio. I love him. I still

don't like his showboatism, but I get that's

part of his character. But he's not so much as

a douchebag as I thought he was in his introductory

episode. Yeah, he just wants everybody to like

him, and that's why I think he's trying. That's

his character. I think he's doing a way better.

You know, and it's probably the director's, again,

once I come back to that, but he's doing a way

better job of portraying his character than Kevin.

You know, just Kevin is so lame and boring to

me. It's just like, I don't even want you on

the screen. Well, see, the thing with Kevin,

though, is like with that episode recently, the

one where Kevin's like, oh, Antonio sucks because

he's not true samurai, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And then Antonio tries to follow him around,

blah, blah, blah, and all that. Kevin, he's a

highly traditional type. And that's fine. It's

a good way to get that kind of characterization

from someone as far as the team aspect of it.

But yeah, I could care less for Kevin. Yeah,

I thought that was an awesome episode, though,

when he was like, follow him. And he's like,

did you hear that, Antonio? And he's like, yeah.

Wait, what? How'd you know I was following you?

I mean, I like them. I really, really like them.

I like that they're going with it. I like the

Clawzord. I really did like the Clawzord. That

was awesome. But did you get to watch this week's

episode? I don't think I did. I'll have to catch

up on it. And by the time this episode of FTCC

airs, we will have plenty more to talk. Because

we're doing this podcast monthly, We're going

to have a crap ton of stuff to talk about over

the next few weeks or so with all the new episodes.

I just – I always – half the time I forget. Yeah.

And really – and it's because of the day change.

It's because of the from Sunday to Saturday thing

that screwed me up. And I know now, okay, Saturday

is the day and that's fine. I had a whole ritual

on Sunday when this show premiered. I was like,

okay, cool. I can wake up at 11 .30, do whatever

I have to do, you know, get ready, brush teeth,

whatever, and 12 o 'clock I can watch Samurai,

and then I have three hours until I have to do

a podcast record at 3 .30. So I'm like, all right,

cool. I can, you know, I've got a Sunday ritual

now. And then they went ahead and changed it

to Saturday. I'm like, oh, fuck. Yes, they're

good at that stuff like that. Ah, bleep. What?

Sorry. Yeah, bleep. They're good at stuff like

that. Yeah, so... So, yeah, the reason why we

split up Mighty Morphin' Alien Rangers and Season

3 was because Scotty was going on vacation, and

he didn't have enough time between getting ready

for vacation and recording Episode 4 to watch

all of Season 3. Because me, personally, I don't...

I know that this was a separate Sentai. I don't

see this as separate from MMPR. This is a 10

-episode block. Yep. Because if you look at,

oh, what's the episode that ended before the

Alien Rangers came? What's the name of that stupid

episode? Rangers Reverse? Rangers in Reverse.

Right. That is not a season ender. It just isn't.

It's just, oh, my God, we have this new storyline.

That's almost like a whole start of the new storyline.

Yeah. But because of your scheduling and all

that, we're splitting it up. Plus a lot, a lot,

a lot of people look at Mighty Morphin' Alien

Rangers as Season 4 or maybe Season 3 .5. You

know what I mean? And we could have tacked on

a half an hour. Yeah. But it's all right. Basically,

like I was saying, this is basically just a continuation

of last episode, Season 3. The miniseries began

on February 5th, 1996, and follows the group

of preteens who were previously teenagers chosen

by the wise Sage Zordon to become Power Rangers

in order to stop the forces of evil from taking

over the planet. Alongside a set of extraterrestrials

who are Power Rangers on another planet. It is

the first of the Power Rangers episodes to utilize

full footage from Ninja Sentai Kaku Ranger to

represent the new Alien Rangers. Regular cast

members include Julia Jordan, Matthew Sakamoto,

Cicely... Michael J. Olasky II. Michael R. Gatto.

Justin Timsit. Raja. Half these names I'm going

to just... And why is there 50 of them when there

was five Rangers? One, two, three, four, five,

six. Are these like the kids as well? Yeah, that

could be it. Yeah, I think David Bacon was one

of the kids. Yeah. Hopefully it wasn't Baby Mullet

Rocky, because I wouldn't want to be that person.

Yeah, these other ones are the kids. They have

to be, because when they start listing them,

at the end of it it says, and David Yost. Yeah,

because there's ten here. So yeah, five Alien

Rangers and five preteens. What did you think

when you first, like going from Rangers in Reverse

to this, what did you think? I mean, what are

your general memories of this part of the season?

I was super excited just because, and I don't

want to sound, I don't know how this is going

to sound, but I was kind of finally excited to

see a chick be like their leader. You know what

I mean? And I really, really did like them. I

had their toys. I'm sure I've said this before,

but I ended up selling those five figures, and

they are extremely rare, so I need to get those

back because I want them back now. But I did

have their toys, and that also added, but their

outfits are magnificent. I love their costumes.

Yeah. I don't know. I think we're going to have

a dividing line here. It's kind of like one of

those, you know, the line is drawn here things

because I'm on the opposite end of the spectrum.

Are you talking now or are you talking then?

No, I'm talking now. Well, I'm talking like just

in general. Like back then. Like I said before,

I don't even remember the Alien Rangers stuff.

I didn't remember it until I started watching

it about a month and a half ago now. But now

it's like going back and watching it, I don't

know. Like, I like the characterization of, even

though some of the kids that they got to play

the Rangers were kind of, meh, I like the characterization

of how they went from Rangers in Reverse to this,

so they're actually telling a story of quests

for each of the Rangers to get the Zeo Crystal

and all that stuff. Except for Aisha, because

that wasn't a quest at all, that was stupid.

Well, the only reason why you say it was stupid

is because she left the show. Well, plus, like,

Tommy's like, he meant like, you know, old tree

heart, you know, Tonto, in the mountains, and

he had to follow his Indian spirit and clear

his mind, and Cat, like, met two different versions

of herself, and she had to choose, you know,

she had to give up her going after the crystal

to help this elderly lady, which ended up, you

know, making her a pure -hearted woman, or a

girl to get this crystal, and then it's like,

Aisha randomly ran into this This chick behind

this rock met her grandmother within a minute

and a half. And then she stays there to take

care of the animals. That's not a quest. I don't

know what kind of quest you go on. That's not

a quest. But yes, I am sad that she was off the

show. But I definitely like her quest the least.

Because everybody had to do something for the

crystal. And she was like... oh, my mom said

something about you, and she was like, yep, you're

home, and everybody's okay with that. And then

she goes, oh, and here's this crystal. You know,

how convenient. I will agree that it is a very

convenient plot device, but it was a very interesting

way to introduce Tanya. To introduce somebody

new to take over for a... We've had Ranger takeovers

since season one, you know, and the power or

season two, whatever the hell it was. I don't

know. Season two. Yeah, something like that.

The power transfer was interesting because we

got a whole story behind Adam, Rocky and Aisha

coming in. And then you have the whole Kimberly

cat thing. That was interesting, even though

it was a reused plot from Tommy. And with this,

again, I find it interesting as a way of – and

I have to keep going back to this. Thank God

television doesn't do what the soaps do because

the soap operas will have the exact same character

and they'll go, oh, the character of so -and

-so is now being played by – and they'll just

replace actors. Yeah, that's true. I hate that.

I hate that in television. But I'm glad – Aisha's

Quest might have been stupid. But at least it

had something to do with her, and it wasn't just,

oh, you're supposed to be here because you're

the chosen one. It was, you're supposed to be

here because you're the chosen one, and this

is your family. You know, that I can kind of

overlook it. I don't know, but I think it was

a nice way to get Tanya introduced. I think the

writers were on lunch, and somebody was messing

with somebody else, and they hurried and put

that script in there, and they accidentally went

with it because it was ridiculous. Like, they're

like, oh, you're some random lady sitting on

a rock. And my mom talked about you. You're clearly

my grandma. That's exactly how I met my grandma.

I don't know. You know, when I was like 13, that's

how I met my grandma. She was sitting on a rock

by a fireplace and she was like, I'm your grandma.

Oh, my God. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Now, the. The

alien rangers themselves. Yes, I will agree with

you. It was nice to have a female leader, and

we will not get that again until Time Force.

Well, I'm trying to think. I guess in Lightspeed

Rescue, Dana was kind of a, she wasn't really

a leader leader, but since she was the boss's

daughter, I guess you can get her. She's like

Alpha, right? Huh? She was like Alpha. She wasn't

really like their leader. What, Dana? Yeah. From

what I understood. No, Dana was the fifth Ranger.

Oh, was she? Yeah, Dana was the fifth Lightspeed

Ranger. She was the pink Lightspeed Ranger. She

was Captain Mitchell's daughter. Who was the

robot chick with the short hair? What season

was she in? The robot chick with short hair?

Yeah, what am I talking about here? Hold on,

let me think. Oh, you know what I'm thinking

of? I'm thinking of Jason X. Remember that robot

chick? You mean Jason X the movie? Yeah, Jason

X the movie. I don't know why, in God's name,

I confused Jason X the movie with Power Rangers.

Well, because I haven't seen any of those. Right,

no, yeah, no, I know. And that's the beauty of

this podcast is you're going to be able to go

back and educate yourself. Yeah, no joke. No,

you know what? There is a chick. Maybe it's not.

What the heck was it? What's the Silver Ranger?

What's he in? Silver Ranger was in Lightspeed

Rescue. That's Ryan. That's Dana's brother. The

chick you might be thinking of is... It's his

sister. Who's his sister? Dana, but she's not

a robot. Well, but she has dark hair. No. At

the very end. Dana's a blonde. After he turns

her back into whoever, she has dark hair, right?

No. You sure? Oh, I know what you're thinking

about. You're thinking about freaking Andros

and Astronema. Yeah. Yeah. That chick looks like

the chick from Jason X. Okay. Yeah. No. No, no,

no. She's like a five, right? She's like a five.

Yeah. That was Power Rangers in space. I'm talking

about Lightspeed Rescue. Okay. See, I know the

difference in a minute. We'll get to that. I

don't even remember what the hell my point was

here. Oh, the female leadership. Oh, yeah. We

won't get another one until we see at the end

of... uh, SPD, the a squad, uh, for SPD is, um,

there's a female red Ranger, female leader. Um,

I don't care for the alien Rangers. You're crazy.

I don't care. The costumes are great. The, the

actual power Rangers costumes are great. I don't

care for their character designs. Yeah. They

do have a couple of flaws. Like the way they

move around, like robots, like you're, you're

not a robot. You're, you're like an Aquaman.

Aquaman doesn't move around like a robot. Because

the way they're juking their head and always

looking confused. You're supposed to be an alien.

You're not a retard. You know what I mean? Yeah.

I don't know if it was a vocoder or some sort

of synthesizer on their voices. I hated that.

Okay. Yeah, there is definitely a line because

I liked it. It sounded so god -awful. It sounded

like they were gargling water. Right, and that

was the point of that. I'm not going to say it

would be ruined if they didn't talk like that,

but it was okay because it was different, you

know what I mean? And you could only really tell

it on her. Everybody else wasn't as bad as she

was, but on her, it was definitely the worst

on her. And chalk up the... mmpr mmar theme to

another thing one of the one of the themes i

do not like i do not like them saying muddy morphin

alien rangers and then go go power i i just i

didn't like that change like i get it it's it's

supposed to be a different plot line in in in

the story of of muddy morphin but i just god

theme song oh it sucked well yeah once again

i liked it It sucked. I did like it, just because

it's the same exact thing, except for now it's

the Alien Ranger show, so they switched it. It

sucked. Oh, God. It just, oh. Okay. So, did we

ever see, I don't know if it's me just wanting

to block this whole. thing out about the alien

rangers as far as the like i said i like the

plot line with getting the zeo crystal back together

and i like seeing the actual the real rangers

do stuff but did we actually see the beetleborg

zords or whatever the hell it was supposed to

be yeah yeah they fought they fought a couple

different times but most of the time what happened

was they would call the beetleborgs and you know

they would they would fight for a while because

they were also they never rode in the beetleborgs

they were always fighting on the ground like,

I don't know, kind of like the new Xbox 360 Kinect.

You know, where it's like you're just fighting

the sky. And that, you know, it's pretty much

like, you know, that's how they would fight with

their Zords. And most of the time they would

just go, this ain't working out too well, we

need Shogun Zord power. And they would just call

it the Shogun Zord. See, that's why I don't really

remember they're at the actual Alien Ranger Zords.

Do you have a favorite? Because I don't. I still

have the White Zord. Now, those Zords, they also

sold those, and they were probably about six

inches or seven inches, and those are really

rare, too. But, yeah, I mean, I wish, and this

is going to be a little bit different. I'm glad

the White Ranger was the leader and a chick,

but I wish her Zord wasn't a chick Zord. Because

I just feel like that's a chick Zord because

she's a chick, and it looks so awesome, and I

love it. But that's like. Damn it, it's a chick

sword. Chick swords are not awesome. So, I'm

not a sexist by any means, you know what I mean?

I just told you that I finally liked that there

was a chick leader. I just can't picture badasses

being people with skirts on. Well, I mean, unless

you're talking about Chun -Li, but that's a completely

different podcast. Yes, it is. I mean, like...

I will agree with you to a certain extent. The

only thing that I will bring up is that even

though Trini back in Season 1 wasn't really a

badass, she had a kick -ass Zord. That Sabretooth

Tiger, that was awesome. That's true. That is

very true. Sometimes I don't think about stuff

like that. I definitely agree that I loved the

Sabretooth Tiger. Any other general thoughts

or thoughts on the characters before we kick

it off to Spada? Not really. We could talk about

some stuff when we get back. Not so much. Did

I mention that I didn't like the little Kid Rockies

mullet? I don't know if I've said anything about

that yet. Yeah, the kids were, like, I think

the only two kids I actually liked and thought

was okay representations of the actual regular

actors, I thought the one for Aisha was good,

and I thought the one for Tommy was good. The

rest of them, meh. Yep. So, we're going to send

it over to Spada for the Mighty Morphin' Alien

Rangers Cocker Ranger Sentai info. This is where

he gets more in -depth this time around with

the actual story, whereas last time he just talked

about the Zords and the weapons. So, take it

away, Spada! Hey, gang. Spada the Bald Matrix

here, and this time we are taking a look at the

rest of Ninja Sentai Cocker Ranger. Last time

we spoke about the Zords, Ninja Men, and a little

bit about the villains. And that was about it,

since nothing else from the Sentai series was

brought over into Power Rangers. Season 3. The

Alien Rangers saga, however, is a little bit

different. This is where all the interesting

stuff happens. So let's take a look. We're going

to start off with taking a look at the premise

of Cocker Ranger. 400 years ago, the ninja and

the yukai had a war. At the end of the war, five

great ninjas captured the yukai general, name

that I'm not sure I can actually pronounce. So

here goes. Nurai Hion. It's also important to

the first episode. So, using their ninja powers,

the commander and all his dark energies were

contained by the Seal Door. In modern times,

two of the descendants of those five ninjas were

tricked into opening the Seal Door by the last

Yukai. Those two are then joined by three other

descendants to form the Kakaranger. So what we're

getting here is another ancient evil, ancient

evil gets released, and there we go is the rest

of the series. So let's take a look at the yukai.

The yukai are similar to the Japanese demons

of yore, of lore, I'm sorry, the yokai. The difference

in the spelling is yukai is Y -O -U -K -A -I,

and yokai is Y -O -K -A -I. Each yukai is based

on one of these demons. Cocker Ranger is also

the series that gave us Rita Vivaldo, as I mentioned

earlier. He is based on an ancient giant skeleton

that is 15 people tall. And if you walked by

it, it would reach down and bite your head off.

No, it didn't have a guitar or an army helmet

or a backpack. I'm not sure where that comes

from. But it's interesting to see that they're

taking... The designers, specifically Bandai,

took the original Japanese ideas and incorporated

them. It's actually pretty cool, I think. There

is an overall theme of family obligation and

Bushido running throughout the series, though.

It's displayed by not only the heroes, but also

the villains, and not subtly at all. The concepts

of loyalty and honor are practically hard -coded

into most of the characters. For example, the

White Ranger's father is evil simply because

because he owes a debt to one of the yokai yukai

generals he's working to defeat them from the

inside but he can't because he still serves the

yukai because of this debt obligation His honor

code won't let him walk away or simply get rid

of the guy. These are concepts that just don't

work here in the U .S., and I'm really glad that

this wasn't brought over. I understand what the

Japanese series is going for, but here in the

U .S. and in a lot of the Western world, it just

won't fly. It doesn't make any sense to any of

us. The ninja theme continues into the Cocker

Rangers costumes, vehicles, and weapons. The

costumes are brightly colored spandex versions

of the iconic ninja outfit. Look at the alien

rangers. That's the Cocker Ranger outfits. You're

not going to get anything different. I actually

like them, and as a kid when I watched the series,

it never made any sense to me why aquatic -based

aliens would wind up with those outfits. Now,

what does make sense is... their vehicles which

are called the shark cycles there's the yellow

shark slider a sawtooth shark the blue shark

launcher a hammerhead shark and the red shark

bleeder a great white shark the yellow and blue

bites have side cars where the ninja black and

ninja white can ride and then the three shark

cycles can combine in a weird fashion to form

to do a finishing move called the Shark Diver.

Now, each Kakaranger also carries four standard

pieces of equipment. The Doron Changer, which

is the Morpher of the series and contains the

Ninja Coins, which did make it into the Mighty

Morphin Power Rangers. The Kakarimaru, a short

sword passed down to each ranger, and that's

their primary weapon. The next is a handheld

blaster that transforms into a dagger. And finally,

there's the Shinobi Knuckle, and we'll get into

that in a minute. The series also follows the

tradition of each Ranger having their own personal

weapon. Ninja Red has a giant throwing disc called

the Red Slicer. Ninja Black has a crossbow called

the Black Bow. Ninja Blue has a water gun called

the Blue Shot. Ninja Yellow has a claw that doubles

as a hookshot called the Yellow Claw. And finally,

Ninja White has a short, forked spear. called

the White Break. I've tried to find a better

name of what it could be called, but I haven't

been able to find anything of what it resembles

in real life. Now, also, each weapon contains

a little shuriken, or a throwing star, in the

shape of the individual ranger's symbol. It's

a really neat touch. The last weapon is a large

metal rugby ball that is passed around to each

ranger to gain power and then is kicked at the

enemy to destroy it. Okay, then. Now, going back

to the Shinobi Knuckle that I mentioned earlier,

all of these weapons, all of the individual weapons,

can be attached to the Shinobi Knuckle, which

is a gauntlet worn over the character's left

hand. It can be attached to gain power and new

abilities. It's actually a pretty neat idea,

and it's a great way to sell more toys. Something

else that did make it over into Mighty Morphin

Power Rangers from Cocker Ranger was the idea

that the team leader was a woman. In Cockeranger,

Ninja White is the leader for most of the series.

This concept is seen again, specifically in Time

Ranger, but it's interesting to point out, since

Super Sentai is basically a show made for boys,

and you very, very rarely see a strong female

character in a leader position. That, as far

as I know, was the first time that ever happened

in Sentai. Now, at the end of the series, the

evil yokai were once again sealed, and a happy

ending was had by all. But sadly, the viewership

of Super Sentai was declining at a staggering

rate. Bandai wasn't concerned with this series

so much, but when the next series aired, they

would have to take notice. Viewers complained

that the series as a whole was pushing a doctrine

that was old and out of date. Along with the

Bushido Code, each series was starting to repeat

itself. old, sealed evil, young heroes, a mentor

rising, rinse and repeat. This was really starting

to push viewers away. And that will be discussed

a little bit more next time on the Command Center

when Chokiri Sentai O -Ranger is examined. So,

once again, this has been Spade of the Bolt Matrix

for the Command Center. Now back to the rest

of the show. You know, Mike, we're going to have

to take him out to dinner or something. You know,

I really appreciate what he does because he saves

us a ton of time. Yes, he saves us a ton of time.

One problem with taking him out to dinner, you

live in Illinois, I live in Kentucky, he lives

in Maryland. Oh, that's just a minor detail.

It's like you're the Triforce of Power, I'm the

Triforce of Wisdom, and he's the Triforce of

Courage. We're in three different areas. Yep,

and we'll meet right in the middle at a real

nice restaurant, something maybe like McDonald's

or Taco Bell. Oh, my God. Wouldn't you love that?

Thanks for all the work you've done for us. Here's

a McDouble and a french fry. I appreciate it.

But, no, I enjoyed, I always enjoy listening

to him, you know. I mean, I'm still probably

going to go back eventually and watch the Sentai

stuff, you know, the subbed versions, obviously,

but it's nice to know what we're talking about,

you know, in Sentai form, you know what I mean?

Yeah, yeah. It's nice. Yeah. He does a good job.

It just amazes me how different stuff, like,

I cannot wait until we get to some of the later

stuff, because it just amazes me how different,

like, when he first did Mighty Morphin Season

1, talking about the differences between Rita

and... Yeah, no doubt. That just shocked me to

all hell, and it's like, wow, I just cannot believe

how much that can get translated from Sentai

into what we have. Yep, and the Green Ranger

died. I'm like, really? Like the candle ran out

and he died. I'm like, you can't kill Asian Tommy.

That ain't cool. You can't kill Asian Tommy.

Oh, my God. But, yeah, he does good work. And

I can't wait for, you know, Zeo. And if you guys

listen to what Spada just talked about, he said

something along the lines about this is a season

where it started kind of to fall off because.

They've done the same thing over and over and

over again. And I kind of felt that way when

I was a kid. Like, you know, come on. Even with

the episodes pretty much being the same exact

thing. But anyway, where are we at here? Favorite

episodes, just talking about the season in general.

Or not the season, the ten episodes that ended

season three in general. I honestly... Like,

I watched all the episodes for... I mainly watched

them for the quests. Right. I think it's... I

don't know if it's the biggest plot point or

biggest plot hole in Power Rangers history or,

like, the worst, like, power slash weakness.

I'm sorry. Dehydration as a weakness? Well, that's

how Aquaman is, isn't he? Um, yeah, it is. But...

It's one of those things where I don't know if

this works for Power Rangers. I just don't know.

And maybe it's me just not liking the Alien Ranger

characters. I just, I don't like, nothing about

this, these 10 episodes actually like, oh, we

have to call in reinforcements. Let's call these

people from a planet of water. Where our planet

is 97 % water or whatever it is or whatever Earth

is. I'm not into, I don't. do science class anymore,

damn it. But, you know, let's call these reinforcements,

but let's just have them be our soldiers, and

they can fight for us, because we're kids, and

because we're kids, we're not able enough to

power Zords, which I think was complete bullshit.

Well, they didn't have any of their powers. They

took their powers. Right. I know they took the

powers, and that's fine. And you have to have

a power coin to be inside the Zords. Yeah, okay,

all right, but still. Minor details. Yeah, yeah.

Little plot devices that really, yeah. My main

problem with the Alien Rangers themselves is

the entire story focused on getting... our rangers

back getting the timeline you know it's like

oh where's the delorean when you really need

it but my main problem the alien rangers is no

characterization other than oh my god without

water we'll die yeah we're all beached whales

yeah that's true and they were hanging out hanging

out in the in the empty pool and and and little

kid tommy kept doing that same phase where it's

like we need to get him some more water and he

kind of do that like squinchy eye looking over

the camera, sad face kind of thing. Yeah, but

my favorite episodes are going to be the Hydro

Hog episodes. And I have something that sticks

out in my mind. I didn't obviously remember it

when I was little or anything, but going back

and watching the episodes, when the Hydro Hog

shows up and they're fighting and he makes the

Hydro Hog big and they call out their battle

borgs and The Hydra Hog's pretty much kicking

the Battle Borg's butts. And they're like, you

know, we need Shogun Zord power now. So they

get the Shogun Zord. They pull out the boom.

They pull out the big Shogun Sword like the flame.

And they go to hit him. And the Hydra Hog just

whoops his butt, whoops his ass. And they're

just like, well, that didn't work out too well.

And they're even playing the music like, you

know, like, oh, here we go. Here's the final

slash. And the Hydra Hog's going to be dead.

Well, it didn't work that way. And that's when

Billy said, well, how about I just use the Falcon

Zord? And then they finally did defeat the Hydra

Hog. But I thought it was awesome how they built

up to that, you know, like, oh, here we go. Here's

the final hit. And then the Hydra Hog was like,

nah, not yet. You know what I mean? Yeah. Kind

of like a hot tag. I don't want to keep going

back to wrestling, but it's exactly like the

hot tag. You know, you're ready to see the main

guy come in and finish the job. And then the

bad guy, you know, gets the attention of the

ref or drags him back to the other side of the

corner. Yeah, okay. Yeah, that's something I

need to talk with Dirt about. Oh, God, I can't

even go there because I'll go into a whole other

tangent about Mr. Money in the Bank. Yeah, we

don't need to do that. Yeah, no. Yeah, you know,

this 10 -episode arc. I like the overall story.

Like I said, I like the quests. The quests were

cool. But honestly, because it is... Thank God.

I don't think they did this every episode, but

thank God they didn't put To Be Continued at

every end of the single episodes, like Along

Came a Spider and Sowing the Seeds of Evil and

all that. I don't think there is a To... From

the ones I watched, there wasn't a To Be Continued

at the end of each one of them. It's only in

the two -parter that it has it. But Hog Day Afternoon

is my favorite. The rest of them are – I won't

say they're filler because they're not. It is

a 10 -episode arc, and it is a full -on story

to develop characters and all that. But I like

the end. Yeah, and I don't think – and I think

there's probably – Back then, there was a lot

of people that would agree with you that it was

too new, too fast. And I would think that if

I think back and talk to my friends, a lot of

people didn't like the Alien Rangers. Yeah. And

I know they had to go off Sentai stuff, and that's

fine. But, I mean, they could have found... I

just wish the whole Aquitar thing... Finding

some other planet to base them off of, I don't

know. I just didn't like that. I just didn't

like the whole Aquatar thing. But before we move

on to the music, we have to talk about Hog Day

Afternoon. Oh, my God, there is so much awesome

in this two -parter. Yeah, well, I talked about

a little bit of it. You know, Aisha's quest aside,

the awesome parts for me... was Goldar and Rito.

As far as villains, they stole the show in this

two -parter. Yeah. They were Bulk and Skull.

Not yet. Well, they were pretty goofy with that

bomb. They were like, what's this do? Oops, I

activated this bomb. And then Goldar was like,

you stay here. I'm going to go get help. Okay.

And I agree. They are kind of like Bulk and Skull,

but... It's not so bad yet. Just yet. It doesn't

get bad until we get to Zeo. Yeah, and then it

gets ridiculous. Yeah, but my question is, like,

okay, they're under the command center, there's

all these catacombs, and they're like, oh, how

do we get to the command center? They just walk

down a random hallway. Oh! There's a sign, Command

Center This Way. Why the heck is there a Command

Center This Way sign in the catacombs? And it

looks like it's a gold -plated or some sort of

fake gold -plated sign or something like that.

It looks like a plaque. And I'm like, are you

serious? They're really going to have a sign

that says Command Center This Way? You know,

the other thing I think about is this, with Goldar

and Rito in the catacombs, This alludes to Zeo

because they said in Zeo, and we'll get to that

once we get to Zeo next month, but they said

that, you know, oh, this is our new underground

thing. And when Goldar and Rito were down there,

you see what I believe to be Alpha 4, the old

Alpha, because there's like an Alpha head in

the box. Is there really? I didn't pay that close

attention to it. Yeah, if you look. When they

first get into the room, there's an alpha robot

broken up in a box. All the boxes say Command

Center on them. Makes no sense. There's an alpha

head in the box. But yeah, there's an alpha head

in the box. There is what looks to be Command

Center towers. Like, you know, the inside of

the power chamber and how it has the... The blue

pole things, there's those. There's a whole bunch

of just, like, if you, it's kind of like, you

know, blink and you miss it, but if you just

really pay attention to it, it's really cool.

But I kind of like the whole bungling of Goldar

and Rito. I like the, you know, honestly, I like

the ending, because you just don't know what's

going to happen. Yeah. Command center, go boom.

Yeah. This was the first time it exploded, wasn't

it? Yes. Yeah. Yes, yes, yes, yes. I think something

else happened to it. What else happened to it?

I guess maybe I'm thinking of the movie when

Ivanooz went in there and destroyed it. Yeah,

yeah. There was a few times that Tommy went in

there and destroyed it once. Yeah. No, but I'm

talking about this is the first time it actually

blew up. Explodes, yeah. And just it blew up

and it was gone. Like when Tommy destroyed it,

it was it was still standing. It wasn't the insides.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. What else did you

like about Hog Day afternoon? Well, you know,

I just talked about that scene from Hog Day,

which was awesome. But I don't know. I guess

that's pretty, pretty much it. I didn't like

how they accepted Tanya so fast. You know what

I mean? It was kind of just like, hey, here's

Tanya. Oh, hey, what's up? Cool. You know what

I mean? Well, I mean, it's one of those things

where it had to be a fast transition. That's

a little ridiculous, though. You know, like when

the other people left? Kimberly was crying and

she was sad to see him go. And when Kimberly

left, everybody was crying and people – Tommy

didn't want to see her go. And then it's like,

who's Aisha? Oh, yeah, whatever. See, that's

the other thing. I have to talk about this. I

don't – I know we talked about it last time a

little bit because that was when we – talked

about the other part of season three with Kimberly

leaving. I still like this whole, like, it's

so weird what the writers did with this series

because you have Tommy in the beginning, you

have Kimberly in the beginning, Tommy goes evil,

all that good stuff. They're, oh, we're together

now, but you don't ever actually see. like a

relationship episode with them oh what are you

doing this friday let's all go hang it's more

so let's all go hang out but they were kimberly

and tommy did date i'm assuming and then they

bring cat in and cat wants to steal him and all

that the same old tommy plot line cat goes good

kimberly leaves and now supposedly tommy and

cat are supposed to have some sort of relationship

but then oh wait let's not explore that let's

turn back time And make them all children. After

the Christmas episode. Yeah, exactly. They threw

that Christmas episode in there too. Yep. I just

like, I love Tommy's character development on

his own, but his relationships were severely

lacking as far as character development. Maybe

his mom and dad didn't hug enough when he was

little, so he's just not, he's not fluid in his,

you know. It's self -consciousness. That's funny.

That's funny. All right, so moving on to the

music. I don't mean to sound like a broken record,

but I will. It's the same music, other than the

fact that they changed one word in the theme

song. Very clever. F -ing stupid is what it was.

Seriously, when I first saw that, when I first

watched Alien Rangers of Aquitar, and I'm like,

oh, okay, cool. We just get a new title sequence

as far as the images. I'm like, all right, that's

cool. I can deal with that. And it's like, I

need more of that Alien Rangers. Like, what the

hell did they do to my Power Rangers theme song,

damn it? Yeah, the only reason I'll agree with

you is because they were still, Technically Power

Rangers. I know. They didn't really have to change

it. They just did it, you know. They did it to

fit the theme of the 10 episodes, and I get that.

I just, it's not like my most hated Power Rangers

theme song, but it's up there. I would say if

I had like a top five of worst Rangers theme

songs ever, it would probably be like an honorable

mention. I mean, it's not that bad. Right. But

still, it just so took me out of the season.

It just so did. I mean, yes, the story was great

as far as, like I said before, the story was

great as far as these 10 episodes. But the whole

point of television back then, and I said this

in a recent episode of the telecast that Kevin

Hopkins, Saul Thompson, and I recorded, the whole

point of television back then was it's not like

today where you have prologue and then the intro

and then the actual episode. Back then, When

you, like, say you're, this is the only example

I can think of, say you're seeing the final production

credit, like a production company thing, like

20th Century Fox or whatever, like a show has

ended, like The Simpsons. The Simpsons has ended,

okay, the next show comes up. The first thing

you used to see was the introduction to the show,

theme song, all that stuff, and it gets you pumped

up to watch the show. With this theme song, I

was not pumped up to watch these 10 episodes.

I just wasn't. Plus, they always did Last Time

on the Power Rangers. Yeah, they spent a little

too long on the Last Time things. Yeah. And again,

as I said before, just kind of going into the

legacy and stuff, again, there are best of Power

Rangers DVDs out there. I hope, somehow, Saban

has rights to DVD releases and starts releasing

actual seasons on DVD, not just like, oh, here's

a 10 -episode best of, here's a 33 -episode best

of. This whole best of crap has to stop. You

want to talk about the, were there actual Alien

Ranger toys? I mean, I know you said there were

Zords, but were there actual, like... Action

figures for the actual Alien Rangers? Sometimes

I wonder if you listen to me when I speak. Yes,

I did talk about that. I actually had them. They

were really rare because, again, no one really

liked the Alien Rangers too much back then. I

had all five of them. Someone offered me a crazy

price, and I was like, yes, I have to do that.

That's also when I thought I was getting out

of toy collecting. And then I started doing the

show, and I was like, man, I've got to get that

stuff back. So I pretty much have everything

back except for those, and I'm actually in talks

with a guy that has them. He's actually the same

guy that I got my SH Figure Arts figure from.

And yes, I did hear you earlier, but what I meant

was as far as actual action figures was, were

they like, did they have versions of them in

the suits and out of the suits, or was it just...

No, they just said they had one of each, and

they were in their ninja suits, and they came

with a gold sword and a gold gun, and that was

it. And they were on crappy packages. They were

like the blister card. They were very cheap figures,

but they are extremely rare. If you look up one

right now, an easy package, one, you're not getting

one under $100. Wow. Yeah, so to get the whole

set on card, you'd have to spend $500, no doubt.

Wow. Yep. That's very, very interesting. All

right, so I think we're going to go to some ads

from both Pop Culture Network and the Geek Cast

Radio Network, and we will be back with the outro.

Cool. And now, here are your ads from the Geek

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And here are some ads from our collaborators,

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Radical Retro Turtle Toy Talk is my weekly video

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Just head over to PopCultureNetwork .com and

click on store. We are back, and yes, those were

some very nice promotional materials from both

DCRN and PCN. PCN needs to get on some new promotional

stuff, but that's okay. The same stuff we've

had forever? Well, the Rob Bass ad, the Sweene

Halleck ad, Dan talking about it figures, I think.

I don't know. I don't remember. And buying stuff

at our store. Yeah, yeah. Helps a lot. Yes. So,

from the Command Center, the video series is

going into Season 2. What have you got planned

for us for Season 2? Well, to be honest with

you, I don't know until, like, the week or two

before. But this week is going to be Zeo action

figures. I figure, I know Zeo obviously isn't

Season 2 in the Mighty Morphin, but the Zeo theme

song is, well, I don't know. extremely awesome.

I love that. I even have that theme song in my

iPod. I listen to it like a normal song. You

know what I mean? I love that song. I couldn't

wait to do a season two with that theme song.

The first episode is going to be Zeo. If I get

those Alien Rangers, they'll definitely be in

season two. I'm going to have to get some other...

SPD stuff and stuff like that because there's

been just too many requests for that stuff. I'm

still waiting on you to do the Ninja Mega Falcon

Zord, dammit. You still have not done Falcon

Zord. You're right. That is a correct statement.

Maybe we'll have a... I don't even care if you

do it in conjunction with the Ninja Mega Zord.

I just want you to do Falcon Zord. Maybe that's

right around the corner. So thank you for joining

us here on From the Command Center. There are

several ways to get in contact with us. Leave

feedback for the show. Visit the network websites,

geekcastradio .com and popculturenetwork .com.

Join the forums over at Pop Culture Network and

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one review. Thank you to the person that left

that review. I don't remember your username off

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Go to Facebook .com slash GeekCastRadioNetwork

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Center, which is entering its second season.

Sweet. Yep. Call the voicemail lines. Tell us

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-953 -4025. We hope you enjoyed this episode

of From the Command Center and wish you'll join

us next time when we'll be continuing Power Rangers

talk with Power Rangers Zeo. I can't wait. For

now, I am TFG1 Mike with Scotty Cash. Thank you

for listening. Until next time. I bet this could

be the end of the Power Rangers.