Season One: Episodes Thirty-Six and Thirty-Seven.

 

                      Birds of a Feather.

                                         Black teaches student, Red breaks a heart. 

Sentai Notes:

• Storywise, the footage happens from the episode that follows Burai's death. The plot is Geki now has two guardian beasts instead of one, but can't seem to see eye to eye with Dragon Caesar. Worse, Bandora casts a spell on him, preventing him from being of use when the monster, Dora Antaeus attacks. Geki goes through the episode realizing his brother lives in both him and Dragon Caesar. When he gets it, he becomes gentler with Dragon Caesar and dons the shield and plays the dagger flute.  

Strategy Notes:

• Due to the footage consisting of the Zyurangers facing a giant monster the whole way through, leaving no ground battle, it's all zord fights. Dragonzord puts Hatchasaurus in an arm lock, allowing the other zords to attack. Unfortunately, they missed out on Zordon's briefing where in order to defeat it they must destroy Cardiotron, a computer heart inside the monster. Doing it that way requires Jason having to go inside the monster and attack the heart. Unfortunately, Cardiotron has is arteries and veins as weapons to have him tied up. Now he has to call upon the Dragonzord to help.

• Since the Power Rangers require Dragonzord to defeat the monster, Rita makes the move to take away the vital asset by casting a spell that binds Dragonzord. For a time, this works, until Red Ranger puts on his Dragon Shield and puts more effort in his playing of the Dragon Dagger. Then, when Dragonzord hits Hatchasaurus with his tail, both Red Ranger and Cardiotron are sent out of the monster, allowing for the former to destroy the latter.

Biblical and Mythological Homage:

• The Sentai version of Hatchasaurus is called Dora Antaeus. In Greek Mythology, Antaeus was the giant son of Gaia and Poseidon, which allowed him to be a fierce sum warrior. His secret was as long as his feet were in contact with the ground, he could never be killed, or defeated. He comes head to head with Heracles (Hercules) in the latter's eleventh labor, during which the Son of Zeus realized pinning him wouldn't do. So he tossed Antaeus up and then crushed him in a bear hug before he touched the ground. 

• Ancient faiths, along with Judaism and Christianity, consider the heart to be seat of thought, emotions, and reasoning. Even the Bible does this where it talks of evil in one's heart, a ruler's heart being hardened, and so on. Even the Greek philosopher Aristotle believed the heart was the place where a man's reason stems from, whereas the Roman Galen considered the brain for that. In Greco-Roman myths, the arrows of Eros (Cupid) are heart shaped, making it an early connection to love (yet, the heart symbol isn't even an anatomically correct depiction of the human heart). The mindset continued in Western Civilization until the 19th Century, after studies of anatomy and the science of psychology have led to the conclusion that Galen was right: it's the brain that controls the body and creates all the thoughts and emotions, whereas the heart is a mere pump. We still like to think of the heart as more than that and Cardiotron's role inside Hatchasaurus brings in the Aristotelian philosophy of the heart's role. 

Misc. Notes:

• Title comes from the expression "Birds of a feather flock together."

• First time the Red Ranger is seen in the Dragon Shield and using the Dragon Flute. 

• Zack is teaching karate here? Wasn't that Jason's field of expertise while Zack concentrated on hip-hop? 

• Bulk has a cousin named Biff. Rather or not he is an homage to Back to the Future is not stated anywhere, but he does kind of resemble Biff Tanner, if the character was growing up in the nineties. 

• Playing Biff is Farrand Thompson, later to appear in V.R. Troopers. Somehow, the kid playing Cameron isn't mentioned in the cast. 

• The episode contains a great many goofs. Most obviously is how the editing of the Sentai footage causes it to switch from night to day during the first battle. When Red Ranger summons Dragonzord, he is clearly doing so in the cockpit of the Megazord, when he is supposed to be in the Tyrannosaurus zord at this point. The Rangers even change costumes when called to the Command Center after destroying Hatchasaurus the first time. 

• In some shots, Zack's left hand comes into view. You'll notice when watching that Zack is missing his middle finger. That's because his actor, Walter Jones, is missing a finger. Something that happened to him when was four resulted in the loss of the said finger and during production of the series the directors would film him with both hands below the screen or have the right hand featured prominently while the left often held in a fist. This to disguise the fact. Unfortunately, it popped up a few times, including here. So we can assume Zack lost his finger at some point in childhood, also, and being a Power Ranger briefly gives him a new one when morphed. 

• Hatchasaurus isn't a real name, though it's implied to be "Hatch-lizard". It's bird-like appearances are parallel to the recently advanced theory that no all dinosaurs went extinct: a group of theropods instead evolved into birds. A great many dinosaurs have bird-like anatomies as their reassembled skeletons show, but most birdlike are found among these, especially among the dromaeosauridae (raptors). Yet, anyone who is into prehistoric life will tell you you don't have to be a dinosaur to have "saurus" on your name. Many of extinct reptiles from millions of years ago have it in their named; Alabama's state whale has it in the name, despite being a mammal. It comes from the Greek sauros meaning lizard.  

Thoughts:

    With the Green Ranger out, Power Rangers continued on without him. That part is obvious since Jason David Frank is no longer mentioned in the opening credits, yet the Dragonzord and Ultrazord will still appear. When going through "The Green Candle" one has to realize we have just witnessed a tough act to follow. Now the question is can the writers pull it off after?

      The answer is no. "Birds of a Feather" is rather a weaker episode to follow such a emotional journey of the Green Ranger that it feels like it should have been moved. It can't take place before "The Green Candle" due to the Red Ranger having the Dragon Shield and Dragonzord at his command. So it has to be after "The Green Candle." But where the Sentai show continued on the story by showing Geki and Dragon Caesar learning to work together as Burai's spirit lives in them, this one doesn't have a thread. Dragonzord is, after all, a machine and machines have no feelings. Also, Jason and Tommy weren't brothers. Not even BFFs. So, the arc is absent and Julianne Klemm, the writer, along with Saban, had to create another story.

     Unfortunately, we don't get such a story. We can't tell if it's a Zack-centric episode or a Jason-centric, considering how Zack's storyline occupies plot A, while Jason's is delegated plot B (ironic, since that is reversed in their roles as Power Rangers). Instead, we get another "Believe in yourself" message wrapped in a failed-to-execute-properly wish fulfillment of Biff Tannen from Back to the Future facing off with the Karate Kid. At least Daniel had Mr. Miyagi around who saw him through the final match, whereas Zack has to disappear when Power Ranger duty calls. And how it is a monster attack doesn't cause the match to be delayed is beyond me (where I'm from, games are halted when severe weather warnings are issued; we'd put the Iron Bowl on hold if Rita Repulsa launched a monster attack close by, though many of the redneck women nearby would also like to personally shoot her). They didn't even name the kid Daniel, probably due to it being on the nose, but gave him the name most wouldn't have heard of. So, to have Daniel take on Biff in a karate match with "You're The Best Around" playing in the background is not happening. Instead, we must settle for seeing Biff kick Bulk in the knee when he lost (which is about as satisfying as seeing Johnny Lawrence turn on John Kreese after his loss, yet Biff and Cameron don't appear to come out with mutual respect here). 

    There are a few redeeming things of "Birds of a Feather." Hatchasaurus is one. The monster is novel as a creature with a machine controlling it, which makes a clear analogy of what the heart is. It's a pump that moves the blood through the veins and arteries of the body, allowing energy to be distributed. It's a constantly working organ that can't stop, lest the entire body dies, and we are to allow it to work normally with moderate exercises (too much work puts stress on the heart, which is why exercising has cooling off moments), while emotions in the brain also come in to increase or decrease that beat. But Cardiotron is no ordinary heart: it's a computer (a role normally given to the brain) and it has a mind of its own, which is why it becomes another antagonist. 

    The spell Rita casts upon Dragonzord is also a new move, one that would have worked better if it was a Jason-centric episode and had him deal with the loss of Tommy. But the best of the good things of the episode is seeing Red Ranger in the Dragon Shield, using both his Power Sword and his Dragon Dagger, which both glow light laser swords as he cuts through Cardiotron. You can say he broke the monster's heart. 🤣🤣🤣

     Joking aside, to quote Joe Esposito, "Birds of a Feather" is not the best around. 

                      Clean-Up Club.

                   The Mighty Morphin Planeteers, but no Captain Planet.

Sentai Notes:

• Believe it or not, but Super Sentai did go into environmentalism as well. Concerns of the environment is shared in Japan, which as less room for waste than the United States. The main issue they face is air pollution in their cities, but even Japan has to deal with garbage in the ditches and the streams (and a decade ago, it was added to with radiation leakage caused by the earthquake and tsunami). 

• Unlike in Power Rangers, Sentai deals with a fanatic of environmentalism, a child, who goes around going after anyone who does the slightest offense, and the Zyurangers must convince him that there are good people who concern themselves with keeping the Earth clean, just as there are some wicked people who don't see themselves as Stewarts of the Earth as God appointed us to be.

Strategy Notes:

• The Power Rangers find Polluticorn  to be a handful in the first encounter that they have to make a tactical retreat. Billy examines the monster on the computer and deduces its power comes from its horn. So, Jason makes it his mission to cut off the horn while the others distract Goldar and Scorpina. The effort proves tough as Polluticorn was shown to handle the entire team and therefore one Power Ranger can't stand a chance. That is until Red Ranger summons the power of Dragonzord to activate his Shield and his Dagger Flute. 

Biblical and Mythological Homage:

• Polluticorn is called Dora Unicorn in the Sentai show. His appearances practically resemble Pegasus in Greek Mythology. Pegasus was born from the severed body of Medusa, after Perseus beheaded her, and is often seen with the rest of the characters of Perseus' story. Pegasus later flew Bellerophon around, but denied him a ride to Mount Olympus. Only in the Disney movie was Pegasus associated with Heracles, and even there (and in Clash of the Titans), Pegasus is not depicted with a horn. The Unicorn is the one with a horn, seen frequently as a horse with a horn. For people who say there are unicorns in the Bible, that's from the King James Version, taking up the Vulgate Latin word "unicornis", in turn from the Greek "monokeros", while the original Hebrew word is re'em. It's similar spelling of the English word ram implies it to be a different sort of beast, and it turns out these "unicorns" in the Bible are actually aurochs, which are cattle-like animals with large horns[1]. 

Misc. Notes:

• Ms. Appleby's class is doing video reports, though only Trini's is shown. For some anyone not a Zoomer, there used to be these video storage items called video cassettes, first introduced in the sixties, becoming mainstream in the seventies and eighties, replacing the similar Beta-max tapes. They had the width and length of an average novel, are black, have a tape inside, and require a VCR to play. They were great to watch movies at home with, unless the tape got chew up. They could even be rented from a video store (whose employees had the request "Be Kind, Rewind"). Even though laser disks were out in 1993, VHS was still the way to go. The DVDs were coming in mid-decade and they would outsell both, eventually ending that era with the 20th Century. 

• Another blast from the past: Skull has a camcorder and filming Bulk for his own video project. Before we had our smartphones to film ourselves with and post videos on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, or Snapchat, starring in one's movie required a friend to hold the camera while you made a fool out of yourself. Now, some of y'all are saying, "We still need those to film ourselves making fools of ourselves and later post online" but life was different when your remote control was for the TV and the VCR only. Not all of us had the access or the technology to edit our videos the way Hollywood does it back then, either.

• Trini starts a clean-up club which comes with uniforms. All wear green shirts, but the Power Rangers have on bottoms that match their Ranger uniforms: Billy wears blue jeans, Kimberly has on pink hip-huggers, Trini has yellow pants with a belt, Jason has on red sweat pants (with a flag of Canada on his buttocks), and Zack is wearing black shorts. I guess if Tommy was in this episode, he'd worn khakis to signify he is no longer Green Ranger. I mean, Jake from State Farm wears them. 

• Jason and Zack use karate to crush some cans. Morphenomenal, you might say.

• This episode features Billy fighting off the Putties on his own. At long last, the Blue Ranger defeats the Putties unmorphed, as opposed to simply outsmarting them. 

• When Zordon tells Billy to make an analysis with Alpha on the battle, Billy replies with, "Yes sir." It's been established Zordon is their commander, but usually none of the Power Rangers ever used such a reply with him. If anyone would have done that, it'd be Alpha. Still an interesting detail to notice.

• Alpha trips during the scene and paper prints out. At least, the Command Center will have a contribution to the recycling project. 

• This is the second time Red Ranger summons Dragonzord power to activate the Dragon Shield. It's also the last time. This due to Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger nearing its end and the implication that the Red Ranger is now twice as powerful with the Green Ranger coin allows the decision to not use it often to make sense. There's an unspoken rule that the Power Rangers must be equal in strength and power and to have one outshine the others could have some effects on the team, and the Ranger himself. Still, he doesn't summon Dragonzord in this episode, and the last one had him using him for the first time.

• Hats off to Ernie for unknowingly bringing the Power Rangers back to Earth when they are watching a news report all about them. 

• There's a cute moment when Kimberly notes all the bottles they picked up and claims they will one day become dozens of credit cards. Thirty years later, we are beginning to see people use a pay app on their phones instead of credit cards, or opt to cash. But we are also having products out in stores made of recycled materials.

• Zack thinks all those newspapers they collected saved a redwood. 

• Bulk and Skull's video project shown in the end contains bloopers. You can even see the studio stage lights where the Juice Bar ceiling ought to be in some shots.

Thoughts.

    We're back with another environment message episode on Power Rangers. Even though we've had Tommy in the series and Jason has his coin, it's ironic that such a green themed episode doesn't feature the former Green Ranger. He could have served the plot of the episode where he fights the Putties alongside the others and monitors the pollution in the park while the Power Rangers face the monster. That would have had him do something instead of disappearing after losing his powers. 

    Griping aside, it's nice to see Trini do something on her own instead of being side-lined by the others, serving only to translate Billyspeak into plain English. Speaking of Billy, it's refreshing to see him fight and defeat the Putties instead of simply outsmarting them. After episodes of Billy constantly being the guy who can't win against measly Putties, only doing well when morphed, we see him defeat a few in civilian mode. Go Blue! 💙 

   Bulk and Skull are really funny in this episode, especially with Bulk's self-promoting video being filmed as he causes a mess. And it all gets recorded so when the video is played he'll be redder than Lord Zedd enraged. 

    I find it remarkable that "Clean-Up Club" holds much better than "Birds of a Feather." I know some disagree, saying the environment message has been beaten into us already, but the content of the episode is greatly improved. The dialogue works, the montage is great to watch, and the episode clearly understands which Power Ranger is the star. And it's great that there's a positive message in this episode, showing that anything's possible instead of something like the Power Rangers looking around and realizing they can't do it. 

   One thing the episode also shows to kids is they can do their share as well and not just fighting monsters. Saving the planet also means keeping it clean and that comes with the little things, like limiting electricity use or making the switch from one item to another. Now one can do a fair share in keeping the planet clean and healthy and get to enjoy it with future generations, or be like most people who apparently think they have more important things to do than worry about garbage on the roadside or in the water. To quote Captain Planet, "The Power is yours!"

    

   And yes, I'm putting bullets on the notes. As soon as I get done with season one, I intend to go back and put them in the previous entries.