Yes! This is the one that I've been most curious to see Linkara's thoughts on! Well, that and RPM, but that's waaaaaaaay off.

After having gorged myself on Power Rangers, VR Troopers, and Beetleborgs over the last few days, this is like the delicious cherry cream pie dessert after a really filling feast.

Edit after watching: What I noticed about the theme song was that until they said "Dino Ranger," it could have been mistaken for a regular rock song with power metal elements. Take that how you will.

And who else noticed that there wasn't a Red Turbo Ranger in Tommy's subconscious? Sure, TJ is better known as the Red Turbo Ranger, but Tommy held those powers too. Maybe Turbo was just so bad that it was the shadow fueling his obsession with being a Ranger (any Ranger but a Turbo Ranger!), and only by disassociating himself from Ranger Powers all together could he be free from the lashing evil influence of Turbo?

About the Turbo: That's a possibility, or there is the other possibility that they wanted a color progression. If you notice, the desert where he fights Red Zeo has a red tinge, the forest where he fights the White Mighty Morphin' is white, and the glen (?) where he fights the Green Mighty Morphin' is green. Therefore, having two red rangers would have messed up the color progression.

well the color progression in power rangers actually shows what rank each of them are assigned to red being the leader or in japan lead actor as colors are given based on the position of the actor within the show pink being the lead female if i remember correctly and so on in america we kinda dismiss this other than the fact that the red ranger is always the leader. but that is how it all works and it is possible to have to actors who are red which would pretty much mean that both are given about just as much air time but that pretty much explains why the rangers are color coded.

Wow. This is a surprise. I figured you wouldn't have time for a while after the Suburban Nights. You must be really good at budgeting your time, Linkara.

Great as always i literally just started following your twitter as you posted this. oh and third, i wont do that again i only did it cause i,m always like the 800th comment

finally! i'm so excited dino thunder was my favorite season

i find it funny that when tommy is fighting for his life they skip the turbo ranger

Oh my God it's finally here. Dino Thunder was probably the best Disney produce Power Rangers season. I sent you(Linkara) an e-mail early about Womanthology! I hope you help the cause.

Hey Linkara, when the newest Power Rangers series, Power Rangers: Samurai, concludes, you should take a look at it for this list. It has a theme that's very reminiscent of the original, plus Bulk & Skull return, and the actor who played Bulk returned, albeit without the original Skull.

I have been waiting for this and I have to say, I orgasmed at the new intro!!!

Great to see another one come out, great job Linkara! :D

Your ending thoughts on what Tommy was going though, kind of stuck with me after I saw this. I've always looked at your series and found new things with the shows that I've never seen, and things I would never thought of, but the Tommy thing alone is the best explanation I have ever heard for branching a power ranger show or character into. . . well art. Now I'm not saying the show isn't art but to look that deeply into the concept of a story line is incredible. It's sort of like those History Channel shows where they dive into a movie and connect it to all sort's of past literature and references where in they end you're left to say "That is defiantly what the writers and director was trying to make it look like" or "Well we can how they came to that conclusion, but fact is that the connection is totally coincidental". The way that your show is playing out is truly a masterpiece; to take a show for kids and break it down not only episode by episode but on a psychological level is truly astonishing. I for one good sir, appreciate you taking your time with this to give Power Rangers the true review that it deserves, because this series isn't just an old fad like some shows and movies are, this series is part of our (generations) life, and your show shows no matter if you're 5 or 50 their is still meaning to Power Rangers.
Sincerely UnderratedDavid

Yellow ranger in this one was friggin hot.

Yup, the Yellow Ranger in this series is one of the most sexcellent females in the history of the franchise. ^_^

SILENCE! Worship at the altar of Amy Jo Johnson! BOW BEFOR... Uh...


I mean...


That is to say...


LOOK! A PUPPY!

/run

Deja vu.

I loved your explanation on Tommy's Morphed State and Invisible States because they make good sense, seeing as how the first chance Tommy gets at a power rangeresque chance he takes it.

I did not hear it but maybe I missed it, did anyone notice that The T-Rx, The Triceratops and the Pterodactyl are the three dino zoids from the first season and now in this with tommy back? Was that the point or did they involve the dinos because of Tommy or what?

I liked this season it had great depth to it where some of the others really did not have as much or at least not such a broad base for it.

Great Review I had just started to Rewatch all the other videos and after Wild Force vid 1 I saw these and just had to see them.

The whole T-Rex, Triceratops and Pterodactyl thing was a thing from Abaranger, thus there wasn't any Sentai coincidence from it.

Now from PR standpoint, yes, one can chalk up that the Dino angle, the teenagers thing, and Tommy, makes it a throwback to MMPR, possibly the closest thing a PR season has got that MMPR magic back (And Samurai, despite being billed by Saban as the one to bring the MMPR magic back, is not).

Reportedly, the Dino concept of Abaranger did have Doug Sloan and a lot of the old crew who was there since MMPR nostalgic, and that did lead to bringing JDF back.

You're only half-right. Abaren-Oh/Thundersaurus Megazord is in fact based on the original plans for the Thunderzords. Originally, the Thunderzords weren't going to be Dairanger's mecha but rather revamped Dinozords. The plan was scrapped because the designs had yet to be finalized by the time summer was drawing to an end. The Tigerzord (yeah, it and the White Ranger that goes with it were originally designed for Power Rangers. You know that myth about the tiger and the dragon? Saban was touching on that) was pretty much done. It was finished quite early, enough to be made in modified form for Dairanger. The Sabertooth Tiger, Triceratops, and Mastodon were also basically done, since they would change least, simply having more smooth shapes as well as being decorated with green orbs. Plus the Mastodon's familiar Ms would be changed to lightning bolts. The other two however were causing problems. The Pterodactyl would look more dinosaur-like, and have gold details on it reminiscent of the Dragonzord Battle Mode's chest, but the final shape was yet to be determined. (there was also an alternate idea for it to become the Megazord's helmet, the sketch looking similar to the Shogun Megazord's helmet). The Tyrannosaurus would change the most, and it was what really dragged the process. It would become sleeker in its design, and assume the correct posture. But the head design wasn't settled upon, neither had they decided for sure whether or not it would have its own warror mode. The merchandising side of things was the last nail in the coffin for the plan. The intended US-exclusive Zords weren't going to be ready for some time, and they needed new product ASAP. So they brought in the Dairanger mecha.

But the designs for what could have been remained. The "A" design for the Megazord had the Tyrannosaurus' tail separating instead of being back-kibble to be wielded as a drill like the Power Staff for non-kill blows. For the finisher it'd unfold into a bow. Abaren-Oh is very similar to this design. Additionally, the other Pterosaur mecha is colored like a white tiger, with the sword that summons it even resembling a Pterosaur version of Saba. The white Ranger's shield is similar to the Dragon Shield in shape, again hinting at the scrapped plans.


The Ranger suits are also similar for the Tyranno, Ptera, and Tricera rangers. The mouths on the helmets aren't silvered, and the visors are like the Super Samurai Ranger's visor, but otherwise... The white on the suits is a harlequin pattern like the Zyuranger/Mighty Morphin suits. And the chest insignia being like what the action figures showed? Intentional. The emblem itself is highly reminiscent of the Dragonzord emblem.

Its good to see Tommy is still as badass as he was in the past.

I mean, who else is ballsy enough to jump kick a t-rex in self-defense? Let alone a robotic one! Even if it didn't work, almost no one could say they even attempted such a thing.

I always hated Dino Thunder, it tried too hard to appeal to the teen audience to the point it was super cheesy and even wrongfully stereotypical.

I'm still miffed about the episode where Kira tries to become a professional musician because it implies teens only care about music that has been auto-tuned to hell and has "cool" looking singers. My friends and I have a love for music that rivals Paw's and implying we are tasteless idiots is not a way to win over your demographic.

I was excited to see Tommy but then he started to become a disappointment, especially when we couldn't even see him anymore. :(

cewl glade to see one of these again!

I never watched this season. I baled around Turbo.

I'm really surprised you didn't use a skit from Robot Chicken where that dinosaur guy(sorry I just watched this review and I've already forgot his name) is working as a manager at Burger King in one of those Where Are They Now skits. You knoww the ones?

Another chapter well reviewed Linkara! :)
I like your interpretation of Tommy's issues this season. Very interesting way to look at it.

hey i love SPD

11:07
All I can think is "my drill is the drill that will pierce the heavens!" from Guren Lagan. Shit, it even has a face (pteradactyle) and got a sudden boost in power out of nowhere.

I have a question, and maybe you all can help. I will admit I stopped Watching Power Ranger after the original team split up, but I've always followed the stories and Linkara's videos have helped update me on a few seasons I really didn't care about.

Now, it seems to me, when ratings start to go down, it's time to make that team all sacrifice their Zords, and their morphers to defeat they main enemy, in the end everyone is defeated, bad guys turn good, and the Rangers go about their lives.

Then, the next series shows up, and it's essentially the same bad guys, they just use different types of Monsters, and different ways of creating them. The Ranger team usually is formed by much the same way the previous teams were, but they're all different and their designs are different too....but they are all pretty much the same. Just different costumes, but they all have weapons, battlizers, zords, bikes so on and so forth.

In some cases, of course the rangers look similar to the enemies they are fighting, dinosaurs, robots, cars...so on and so forth, but they are all pretty much the same.

Why, when a new team is formed, don't they just use previous rangers who are already trained fighters, and rangers to just take on the new roles? It's worked when they needed the extra person to bring forth a new ranger, and those rangers usually bring good ratings.

Why did they resort to simply changing everything? I understand it's necessary from real work perspective to keep the show interesting and keep ratings up. But, in their world, it doesn't make sense.

The Rangers before who made the ultimate sacrifice to give up their powers are still excelled and skill warriors...why bring in an entire new set of of younger kids to start training and learning all over again, when they could have just given the older rangers the new powers and let them continue to use their experience and skills to wipe out the new monsters?

Sorry, just something I've always wondered.

Like you said, it's a production thing. Super Sentai (the series Power Rangers uses footage from) has an entirely new set of Rangers every year, and unlike Power Rangers, Super Sentai doesn't have any sort of continuity between the series (the crossovers are usually non-canon, if I recall). They tried to keep the same actors around at the beginning of Power Rangers but changing the suits and Zords, but it became too much of a hassle to write characters out when the actors were ready to leave, and/or filming new footage to link two or more unrelated series together, so they just decided to follow Sentai and have a new cast each year. It's not really a 'ratings' thing, it's more of a tradition and contract thing - it keeps the series "fresh" (for a given definition of fresh), and lets them play around a bit more.

As for in-universe... From the series I've seen, most of the characters get dragged into a war against their will. They still are dedicated to fighting the evil force du jour, but when the threat is ended, they can just go back to their own lives - there's more Power Rangers out there who will protect the world if another force rises. It's not being selfish or anything, they just don't want to make their whole lives about fighting. That's sort of what Linkara was saying with Tommy - he's been fighting for so long that he feels he doesn't have an identity outside of the Power Rangers.

tl;dr: Production reasons and having a life outside of fighting evil.

I stopped watching Power Rangers when Zeo ended and I never really got back into it, for two reasons. When I saw that newer characters had replaced old ones I didn't particularly care for them and I was getting older and watching newer and different things.

However when the new TMNT series showed up I stumbled upon Forever Red. Then a year or so after I saw in Dino Thunder Tommy showed up and that got me to pay attention to the Dino Thunder series.

I didn't watch the series entirely but I did know most of what was going on and it was good. I suppose the reintroduction with Tommy did kind of work as intended. I saw someone from the earlier series return as a mainstay and I wanted to see what was going to happen. Though, it never quite captured me as a series.

Tommy wasn't my favourite Power Ranger but I still liked Tommy and I knew his legacy and I guess I wanted it to be more about Tommy, the old dog donning the powers one last time type of story.

I suppose it really shouldn't have been that and it should be more about the younger Rangers which it was but I didn't find the younger rangers charming or compelling so it I didn't fully get into it or stick with it.

I'm surprised Tommy didn't say: "Thank God, it's not pink." when he became the black ranger.

Wonder if he will go through all colours.

I always loved Dino Thunder. It was the last season I really watched all the way through before more recent times. Heck it's only in recent years I started to watch the Sentai footage (though I do prefer Kamen Rider but that's something else all together) recently and it's made some of the decisions make a bit more sense or more confusing in terms of story.

Trent, for example, is the expy of Mikoto Nakadai, the Abarekiller. Despite working with the team it was never about morals and just about it all being his game, thus why they had to have two white rangers, the sentai still had him fighting the team from time to time. I kind of would like to actually see a more consistently ambiguous ranger in the series (not that that'll happen unless Gokaiger goes the route I think it will).

Overall, I've loved your going over the history of Power Rangers Linkara, it's really been an enjoyable look back at a great show.

I've been waiting for this Review Linkara. Dino Thunder was the last season of Power Rangers I ever really watched since I'd stopped about half way through Lost Galaxy, and only kept very minor tabs on what was going on in the seasons after.

I have to say I'm a bit disappointed. There are a lot of questions you left unasked for his season Linkara. Mostly with Tommy and how the dino power came to be. First off the the rediculousness of Tommy being able to create all the dino tech in only a few years despite not being good with machines. Not to mention being able to do it all in his basement with no help from anyone aside from Hally. I get that she's a mechanical genius but come on. She's making Billy look an amateur with some of this stuff. Besides where the hell did they even get the money to build all that stuff?
To top it off we're expected to believe that at the same time Tommy was building giant mechs in his batcave he was busy going back to school and getting a teaching degree, since the last we saw him he was running a juice bar. It's impossible for two people to have done all that in such a short time without some kind of government team helping him.

As far as Tommy's role in the story goes I think it would have been better if Trent was the Black Ranger and Tommy the white Ranger.
Trent would still be part of the team, have to deal with his father being evil, and feel alienated from the others since he's keeping his father being evil a secret from the others as it would have been him who found the black dino egg.
It would have also allowed more time to explore Tommy's character prior to getting his powers as you suggested should have been done. This way Tommy would then have had to deal with the deep torment of once again being controlled by the powers of evil. A demon he long believed he'd conquered.

It also would have been easy to work into the since at first Tommy wouldn't know he was the white ranger and later when he did it could be explained that since he's the oldest he didn't want to worry the new younger rangers and only told Hally. They also could have then dealed with Tommy leaving by having that be when the white powers took complete control of him and Tommy stayed morphed during that entire time, fully embracing being evil. This would then eliminate all the on sencecal attempts to cure Tommy.

Also I head that there was a scraped side story in which Kat would have made a brief cameo as Mrs. Oliver. Any truth to that?

curious you didnt mention the fact that this is the first team with only 5 rangers and only 1 female

second. ninja storm only had one.

I think your interpretation of Tommy's character arc in this season was spot on, Linkara. It's exactly how I felt about him while watching this season, and it's awesome that we can agree on it.

I'm just surprised that Tommy, of all the previous Rangers, would be the one brought in to be the mentor for this season and creator of the powers used by this group. I know, in real life David Yost (Billy) had left the franchise over harassment issues, but at the time, many of us fans were unaware of this. Even Archie Kao (Kai, PRLG) would have been a more believable choice, given his establishment as a techno type. Would have been nice for Tommy to offhandedly mention corresponding with Billy on Aquitar when working on the development of the morphers.

Love the new title sequence! Nice of you to include the new Samurai stuff (I've only seen the pilot episode of it, and was unimpressed).

I feel like they could have expanded on that mythos, saying that they worked with some other groups (Light Speed, In Space folks) to build the new tech.

As everyone else is saying, love what you had say about Tommy as I found that to be a great summary for his character. And his just me or did this zord get a lot of arm parts? Really seemed that way from this video? Just found that odd but in a cool way.

I actually tried to watch this show but I only could watch 5 episodes before seeking out Abaranger and watching it from start to finish. Over all Abaranger was just better of two.

They finally have cute girls in one of the series'! Sorry, it's a base male thought - but seriously ... who actually liked Kimberly? All the girls in the series' were ... funny looking in some way (not that i have a problem with different looking - freaky hippy fat chicks are who i choose to admire in life) but, it's just an odd coincidence.
In this one we have a pretty hippy AND a nice redhead. And Elsa's not too bad, either.
Ok, chauvanistic part over.

Actually looks like a season worth watching.
It's still crazy to see how many different Power Rangers title cards there were, and thus how many differently cast seasons/series'. So much so, that they all fit into the beats of the original theme (as you, or someone, masterfully edited it)
I was an adolescent when the original Mighty Morphin' aired, so i was a little "above" it and didn't really want to watch it, as it's a "kids" show - but it was the only thing on before school at the time, hehe. So i got to enjoy it a little. And my parents, being big electric guitar fans (my dad can play), they loved the opening theme.
Seeing all the other series' in these reviews, none of them actually really made me want to watch them except for this series.
Thanks again for sharing!

There is nothing funny-looking about any of them. You have defective eyeballs.

Very nice retrospective again and the afterthoughts on the whole Tommy-arc at the end was also very nice and thoughtfull, even if it's doubtable, that all the philosophical elemts very implied by the production-team.

And nice to see, that you thought the same thing about Mesogog as me. After Lothor and his annoying henchmen (and women), who is the reason why soly "Ninja Storm" as a series is not yet in my collection, this new bad guy was everything I'd hoped for. Menacing experience (PHANTASTIC jaw-prostetic!) with a no-nonsense personality and even more bad ass minions. Very, very good to see after the goofball from last season.

The only thing I'd have to criticise here is the beginning, cause the "frame-in-frame" optic during the titlemusic for this review, I found just visually unapealing and hope, that for the next "history"-lesson it might get fixed.

And for the future, aka SPD, I'm thrilled to see who you like this season, cause overall I enjoyed it very much. Sure, the finish was not perfect and I really hope this "cosmic-entity-in-kid- form-which-gets-raised- by-the-bad-guy-who-makes- the-monsters-or-what-the- hell-is-that-thing- supposed-to-be"-thingy gets mentioned, cause that was just a damn weird moment. But the rest of the season I pretty much liked with it more sci-fi-approach and, yeah, I looooooove "Doggie", the chief of the SPD-rangers. Looks very cool, even if the animatronics are kinda stiff.

But I'm getting sidetracked here. At the end: Thanks for this great History-Entry again and my the power be with you!

Yet another great review through I disagree with you about the suits. This is because the white triangles and overall dino theme remains too much of MMPR for me to hate.

For me, this was the last season I saw much from. I had mostly skipped Ninja Storm, but when I saw Tommy in this one, it took about 2 episodes to hook me back in.
When I replied to your Ninja Storm review, I told you that it felt like nothing really had happened, or very little. The opposite is true here. It feels like they took Wild Force, took a season of Mighty Morphin' and just blended them together, to good effect.
Not since Billy have I liked a blue ranger better. While Billy wasn't badass as a person, he knew when to let his gadgets do the talking (and his maybe or maybe not invention of a set of Zords helps). Here, blue is simply badass, and not a rule/honor-bound stick as in most seasons.
Personally, I think you pretty much hit the nail on the head with the Tommy saga. At least, I like to think so, as of all old characters he needed closure the most and this would give that. Funny thing is that he has represented every traditional male color in the PR spectrum but blue. Funny in that blue power rangers are often marked by inner strength instead of physical. Also, in this season his hairstyle marked him as a black ranger far more than a red ranger. Personality wise, he has always been making a shift from green to black. He has not been truly red ever, save for a few out of character moments.
The episode comparing PR to the Sentai, while interesting, was banging on the 4th wall a bit much for my taste. And you were right: the dub was horrid.
Finally, in my experience, this was the season in which Special effect overdose REALLY set in. Upon binging it, I think they brought out the giant dino WAY too soon (was it ever stated where that thing came from?).

For every future season I'll probably be binging it right there with you.

Also, a suggestion. When you finish this series in three years or so, you should pick an all star team from every color (so, that's one per color. Can't have both Zack and Tommy as black for example). Of course, Tommy will pretty much be your wild card.

Cheers!

I did enjoy Dino thunder, and I did watch it a while back to catch up before hand, it was one my favorite seasons, but to be honest it suffers from the syndrome that I like to call too short for its own good, for example I thought the ninja storm & the Dino thunder would have a slightly bigger input, into the series overall. One Lothor was defeated and put in a jar, now even it was a filler episode, I would've liked to see that container being used for something, creating a monster or leading to the process of Mesogog final form. Even if he wasn't a great villain it would make sense in the standpoint, that this guy was for purposes in HELL, and had the access of him having collected the powers of some of the other great villains, making that very useful. As for SPD I like it but I'm re-watching it so who knows what my opinion will be changed or not.