Season One: Episode Thirty-Nine: Doomsday, pt. 1

 

                       Doomsday, part one.

                                                                     The climax.

Sentai Notes:

• This two parter is based on four episodes that mark the grand finale of Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger. It starts with another earthquake and the return of Kai. Bandora's son is revealed to not be the cherub you'd expect a distraught mother to sell her soul over. He was in fact a bad boy who messed with the dinosaurs and attacked their eggs. One day, he attacked a T-Rex next and got what was coming to him. Now resurrected, he is now cold to his own mother, yet willing to assist in her evil ways. He is given his own mecha by Dai Satan (who came back for this final battle), kidnaps a few children to form his own Sentai team, and proves the Bane of the Zyurangers existence. Even when they manage to defeat him, the bad guys hit back and hit even harder. The shot of the head flying off was the place where the kidnapped children were. 

• The Sentai show also provided a more terrifying reason on Titanus sinking into the ground. King Brachion was holding the dinosaur eggs (those eggs again) until they hatched. The whole battle was basically a trap to catch him and destroy him, along with the eggs. So when King Bachion went under, the viewer is left thinking the last of the dinosaurs are dead before they are born. 

Strategy Notes:

• Rita snatching away the citizens of Angel Grove adds a hostage situation and makes it harder for the Power Rangers to hide from her. 

• The battle against Cyclopsis witnesses the Power Rangers trying everything in the book only to see it thrown back at them. The Megazord can barely stand him, Dragonzord is also unlucky, and becoming Dragonzord Battle Mode offers almost not relief. Once, the fin on the head is tossed like it happened in "Life's a Masquerade," and once again the fin is caught and thrown right back at them. Goldar was obviously paying attention to his battles against the zords or Cyclopsis has some kind of built in chip that records the strengths and weaknesses because it proves the bane of the zords' existence. It only takes Zordon's calling of Titanus to turn the odds in the Power Rangers' favor. Yet, the frequent changing of zords here will become something to remember in the next part.

• If Rita wasn't in such a blind rage, she might have realized her zapping Titanus into the ground is a technic. She had stripped the Power Rangers of their greatest weapon against her and with Lokar summoned to restore Cyclopsis, she has the advantage. 

Biblical and Mythological Homage:

• The Sentai version of Cyclopsis is called Dora Talos. In Greek Mythology, Talos was a robot created by the God Hephaestus to protect Europa when the latter entered Crete. He later became the protector of Crete for King Minos, allowing him to be a power in the ancient world. In contrast to the protector in Greek Myths, the Sentai world obviously translated him into a machine of destruction who could very well defeat Daizyuzin and Dragon Caesar effortlessly, yet is paused by King Brachion and the Ultimate Daizyuzin. 

• The way Rita has all the citizens of Angel Grove taken away in the park and sent to her dark dimension looks practically like the popular conception of the Rapture. The Rapture has no Biblical basis, is not talked about or preached by most of the Christian churches (not by the Roman Catholic, the Greek Orthodox, or by most Protestant denominations), but was first brought up in America by Evangelicals in the 1830s, and is now frequently spoken by a great many American Christians as part of the events of Revelations. When first introduced, the preachers of the Rapture gave an image of the dead rising out of their graves and go up into Heaven with the living (not everyone, just the Elect and those who repented), within half a decade of the Second Coming, despite the Bible saying both the Resurrection of the Dead and the Second Coming are to happen at the same time. Instead of the living and the dead rising into the sky, most people today have the image of people vanishing into thin air, something popularized in the book series Left Behind. They cite the Gospel of St. Matthew, First Thessalonians, and Revelations of St. John as evidence, saying how there would be two people doing something in the End Times, one would be taken up and the other left behind. The word Rapture comes from the Latin, raptus, meaning "carrying off; i.e. kidnapping," yet the New Testament, was originally written in Greek, using the word harpagesometha (pronounced "Har-pa-gay-so-meetha"), which means "shall be caught up." Rita's actions certainly follows the popular take and the Latin definition, even as preachers may favor the Greek.  

• Rita also subverts this in two factors. Evangelicals preach of the Rapture where the all loving and all good God is taking His children out of this world before the Tribulation, while those who remain will witness never before seen horrors, until the Second Coming of Christ. Here, Rita is evil and she is taking all the innocent civilians, leaving behind only our heroes to oppose her, while placing them all in a dark dimension, with a fate worse than death. 

• Bandora and Kai in the Sentai show are a grotesque parody of the Madonna and Child statue that any Catholic would know. They contrast the warm, loving, and Godly image of the Virgin Mary and the Child Christ with their coldness, hate filled, and profane image. Kai doesn't even show any love to his mother and Bandora briefly forgets her role when he returns (and we find out she'll lose her powers if she cries). Another way it's a grotesque parody is made clear if you understand the credo, where we profess Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, became a man, and died on the cross as ordered by Pontius Pilate, then rose again on the third day. Kai was already dead, but is brought back to life by Dai Satan who stands in place of God in this image (if you can call it stand since he's a head after all). This any Christian can see is grotesque since the Devil cannot create life and he cannot bring people back from the dead, either (no matter what some folktales or fantasy works might imply). 

• Rita's palace in this episode gives us two Biblical images. First, we see her palace placed atop a skyscraper, clearly an allusion to the Tower of Babel. In Genesis, Nimrod and his people decide to build it as a stairway to Heaven and on the off chance of another Great Flood. They managed to get the base set up and the lower ends, from the way it was interpreted. However, they never finished the Tower. God came down and beheld the Tower and decreed the people were to be scattered and their tongues confused. Traditionally, this is seen as the story of how people came to speak all the languages of the world. Another way of putting is the confusion of tongues means the meaning of the Tower became different between the architects and the builders. But the main issue is the fact the people didn't catch a hint that God was not going to destroy the Earth with another flood and He commanded them to spread out and repopulate it. Rita's setting up of her own Tower of Babel over Angel Grove, as is her Sentai counterpart doing the same in Tokyo, represents a wish fulfillment of the human race becoming one again (and many ancient myths record their own area as that one world), as Rita is making herself the modern Nimrod to rule over that one world. 

• It also brings up the image of the Second Coming where people look up to see Jesus coming down from the sky in all His glory. In a sinister way, the Sentai version has Bandora and her palace coming down with herself and her minions singing a reprise of her song (as opposed to "Hosanna in the Highest" but I guess the makers of Sentai knew where to draw the line). The main difference here is I know God doesn't sing about Himself, and even a re-reading of the Bible would confirm it: He only allows others to do the singing. Bandora not only has a song sung about her, but she is also the soloist of her own song, leaving the others as the chorus. Makes you see how inflated her ego is.  

• Cyclopsis is a somewhat homage to the Cyclops (see "The Green Candle"). Just now, I'm thinking they chose that name to avoid calling it Apocalypse, which would confuse people with the character from X-Men. The single green eye in the center of his head can be comparable to the single eye in the head of a Cyclops. On the other hand, Goldar being given this war zord makes one think of Revelations, when the Dragon gives authority to the Beast of the Sea (though Cyclopsis came out of the ground). 

Misc. Notes.

• The Mayor of Angel Grove declares "Power Ranger Day." Must have been a unanimous vote for it to be made so fast (and this happens after the episode we skipped, "Bad Reflection On You"). 

• Bulk and Skull pretend to be superheroes with names like "Incredible Bulkster" and "Super Skull." The names resemble the Incredible Hulk and Superman, two famous comic book superheroes from two different companies. 

• Speaking of comic books, Superman also took on a character named Doomsday in the chapter titled "Doomsday". In this one, Superman, the Man of Steel, gets into an epic slug fest with the monster Doomsday, defeats him, but dies from his injuries. The story arc that continues shows a world without Superman and the nation is in mourning, even Lex Luthor, his chief nemesis. This series was printed in the months leading up to Power Rangers, which may explain the episode title and Cyclopsis does resemble Doomsday as well. 

• Zack once again is rejected by Angela. This time, she remarks if he was a Power Ranger she'd go out with him. Ironic, he is a Power Ranger, yet he can't tell her that. 

• Alpha wonders how the Moon could move, which Zordon says it cannot, but Rita's palace can. This does seem a contradiction to science because the Moon does move, around the Earth. Sometimes I think this was mostly for the kids watching, though it's possible they knew better. Another way of thinking is Alpha is wondering how the Moon could move to Earth and Zordon is saying it's Rita's palace that is heading to Earth. Again, not impossible because something happening to the orbit can cause the Moon to wind up closer to Earth and eventually crash into it. We can thank God for the fact astronomers have found no evidence of that and even if it were it'll take millions of years to happen. We'll all be dust by then. 

• It took more than three days for the Apollo ships to travel from the Earth to the Moon and another two to return home. While we have ships that travel faster, the only way Rita's palace could go in that same amount of distance in a many of moments is if she traveled at near light speed, but that ignores the basic physics that demand her palace take time to slow down before landing. Then again, if physics applied to Power Rangers, there wouldn't have been any need for zord battles because the square-cube law dictates every single monster Rita made would not support itself well when grown by her wand, and those who lift up the Megazord wouldn't even accomplish that for the same reason. That and those falls during the fights should have broken every bone in their bodies, while also doing damage to the zords (never mind all the sparks). 

• Jason summons Dragonzord for the third time (first two were in "Birds of a Feather"), but never again does he don the Dragon Shield, since the whole fight is done by giant robots. 

• When piloting a zord, you'd think Goldar would experience the shoe on the other foot deal. Instead, he takes delight in mopping the floor with the Power Rangers. "This is almost too easy," he gloats once. It's the Power Rangers who are experiencing the shoe on the other foot situation.

• Somehow the pit that swallows Titanus didn't leave a scar on the city. 

• The towering rod that was to be used originally in "Island of Illusion" appears here and it summons Lokar. 

Thoughts. 

    When an episode has "Doomsday" in the title it tells you something apocalyptic is about to happen. In this case, Rita Repulsa decides to come down to Earth and have her most powerful weapon take on the Power Rangers, right as they are being celebrated for their heroism. It also marks the end of the first forty episodes, which used the footage from Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger. 

     Now the stakes are higher than they ever were before because Rita has introduced a zord of her own, Cyclopsis, piloted by Goldar (whereas her Sentai counterpart had her evil son pilot it). The one thing wrong with Cyclopsis is the name, since it sounds too much like Cyclops. Other than that, it's amazing to see the bad guys have zords of their own. The fact it proves tough to the combined efforts of the Megazord and Dragonzord is another thing to add tension because, for a time, you might not be sure if the Power Rangers could win. If anything, we face the possibility that they might lose. 

    In addition, we see Bulk and Skull trying to steal the spotlight from the Power Rangers by dressing up as superheroes. It is good comic relief, but when the battle begins they are taken out. Basically, the Shoo the Clowns Out trope is used in this instance, allowing for the episode to get incredibly dark. That is something one wouldn't expect to happen when Bulk and Skull become absent. In addition, we see the brief return of Ms. Appleby and Mr. Kaplan, along with Ernie, who are among the adults coming to greet the Power Rangers. We also see Angela who once again shoots down Zack. Kimberly also mentions Tommy, who doesn't appear here. We can thank Kimberly for reminding us there was once a Green Ranger and being sensitive to understand how he feels being left out due to the loss of his powers. 

    Since it's all a zord battle, the footage shows no instance of Red Ranger donning the Dragon Shield, but he does summon Dragonzord during the battle. Gotta hand it to Jason to command two zords at once in this instance. 

    Then things get real when Rita zaps at the Ultrazord, causing it to sink into the sand. To make matters worse, Lokar comes in and rebuilds the destroyed Cyclopsis. The Power Rangers now are about to face their toughest fight yet, and the familiar "To Be Continued" comes as they think of their fellow citizens all locked away in Rita's Dark Dimension.