Power Rangers Beast Morphers: The Silva Switch Review

PRBM "The Silva Switch"

"The Silva Switch" is a body-swap episode, but the hoary old trope is animated by a character reason: to explore the poignancy of Steel's wish to understand the (fully) human experience. The fairly light episode also uniquely features a full-blown musical number (!), indicating a healthy experimental strain late in Beast Morphers' run.

To illustrate the switch, Nate and Steel's voices are switched as well, presumably as a kid-friendly tool to avoid confusion. I idly wonder how it would've gone to have Abraham Rodriguez imitate a Steel voice and Jamie Linehan a Nate. After all, Rodriguez does his usual mugging when venturing outside the Nate characterization.

Steel is a goofy character, albeit one with the classic wistful Pinocchio desire for a rounded human experience, and that goofiness flows into the decision to include a song. The song sequence kicks off at the gym location. A tracking shot makes clear that the show's entire human cast with the exception of Commander Shaw is there (including Roxy and Blaze). Soon it becomes clear why: it's all hands on deck for the production number. And given the Commander's attitude to artistic pursuits, it's clear why she's not there; she wouldn't approve! In Power Rangers' 27 seasons, it's flirted in the direction of a musical episode before, for instance in Zeo's "Another Song and Dance". While the song featured here is a little "elementary school recital", I welcome such a bold step toward the dream of a full musical episode.

Meanwhile, Robot Roxy and Blaze's arch bickering is on particularly fine form this week. Jealous of Roxy's upgrade, Robot Blaze gets one of his own, resulting in villainous accessorizing. A hipster scarf, a cape, and a rapier complete the upgraded Blaze's look. He's even arrogant enough to kill his own Robotron when it gets in his way!

"The Silva Switch" is largely a run of the mill exercise through a standard TV cliche. But the musical number, complete with magical costume changes, does a lot to make the episode stand out. 6/10.