I watched 12 Super Sentai Season Premieres. Here's what I found.

As a near-lifelong fan of Power Rangers, I've known for years that the show is built around footage from the Japanese tokusatsu show Super Sentai. But until recently, I'd never seen any of that footage in its original context. I watched the season premieres of twelve consecutive incarnations of Super Sentai, and found a wild and colorful world in its own right, fascinating in similarity and contrast to its western counterpart.

Choujin Sentai Jetman

Title: "Seek the Warrior"
Season Theme: Aviation

This episode is amazing. After a peppy, catchy theme song, a full-blown, operatic alien invasion commences. There's a nice balance of darkness and genuinely amusing humor. But the best part of the show so far is the Commander/mentor character, a magnetic woman in uniform who punches and slaps her Red Ranger when he's having a strop! Granted, his emotional instability is understandable; his girlfriend was just blown into the vacuum of space!

Episode Rating: 8/10.

Kyouryu Sentai Zyuranger

Title: "The Birth"
Season Theme: Sword and Sorcery
Adapted as: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers

"Humanity is garbage! You believe in love or whatever." So speaks Witch Bandora, American alias Rita Repulsa. It is so weird to have Bandora's lips match her lines... Yes, this is the season adapted as by far the most famous incarnation of Power Rangers. But the shows have key differences on a story level. For one thing, the Zyurangers are waken up from a millennia-long slumber to fight Bandora, making them a whole team of Kodas. (Koda being the Dino Charge Blue Ranger who comes from more primeval times.)

Episode Rating: 6/10
Similarity to Mighty Morphin: 3/10

Gosei Sentai Dairanger

Title: "Transform"
Season Theme: Not sure, to be honest
Adapted as: The White Ranger in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers

Things take a decided turn for the generic here. Dull drama, settings, and characters handicap this effort, although I like the design of the suits. And one of the changers would later become the Magna Defender morpher in Power Rangers Lost Galaxy. One of the only highlights is a spirited bike chase.

Episode Rating: 4/10

Ninja Sentai Kakuranger

Title: "We are Ninja"
Season Theme: Ninja
Adapted as: Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers

Oof. This attempt at a more humorous tone falls flat on its face, hard. There's bizarre attempts at levity throughout, and a demented, perverted narrator character on hand for inane cutaways. During action scenes, prepare for 1960s Batman-style "POW"s filling the screen. The end credits feature the foot soldiers apparently forming a flash mob? Embarrassing all around. The only successful joke in the episode comes when the Rangers take their time posturing and transforming, and one of the villains says, "Such a show off!"

Episode Rating: 3/10
Similarity to Alien Rangers: 1/10

Chouriki Sentai Ohranger

Title: "Invasion!! 1999"
Season Theme: Aviation/Air Force
Adapted as: Power Rangers Zeo

Finally. Finally something on the general quality level of Jetman. Finally more than one female Ranger. Finally. The foot soldiers are actually powerful and intimidating. There's a really effective one-on-one fight between the Red Ranger and the monster. Aside from quality, this has a clear similarity to Jetman in its Air Force theming. Even though the season was adapted to Zeo, the episode looks to be a clear influence on Power Rangers In Space's premiere, "From Out of Nowhere". In both episodes, the Red Rangers saves the other four Rangers from being shelled in a quarry.

Episode Rating: 7/10
Similarity to Zeo: 6/10

Gekisou Sentai Carranger

Title: "Fighting for Traffic Safety"
Season Theme: Cars
Adapted as: Power Rangers Turbo

I'd heard dire things about this season, as almost a self-parody of Super Sentai. While certainly comedic, I don't see this as farcical on the level of something like Kakuranger. The mentor character, Dappu, is irritating though, always saying his own name as a catchphrase with "Car Car Magic!" But there's some fun stuff here, including a trip to Super Sentai's version of Chalmun's Cantina from Star Wars. The foot soldiers are the stuff of nightmares.

Episode Rating: 6/10
Similarity to Turbo: 3/10

Denji Sentai Megaranger

Title: "Don't Let them! The Twisted Invaders"
Season Theme: Virtual Reality/Video Games
Adapted as: Power Rangers In Space

This premiere is an all right if disorienting introduction to Megaranger. The video game theme takes fights back and forth across multiple substrates of reality, making it unclear what's "real" and what's "digital". I swear there's a Doctor Who TARDIS sound effect when an alien ship crashes into the Nasada control room.

Episode Rating: 6/10
Similarity to In Space: 3/10

Seijuu Sentai Gingaman

Title: "The Legendary Blades"
Season Theme: Nature
Adapted as: Power Rangers Lost Galaxy

Now we're talking. For one thing, the death of this Red Ranger's brother goes to a dramatic place that the other premieres haven't. Yes, the Red Ranger's girlfriend died in Jetman, but that was just a bump on the roller coaster. Here, the death is mourned and lingered on... even though I suspect the brother will be back. (Unusually as well, the Rangers have unmorphed powers before becoming Rangers.) "The Legendary Blades" just goes through the beats of a premiere better. A timely heroic transformation leads to a truly impressive display of awesomely animalistic powers.

There are also key plot and character similarities to its Power Rangers counterpart for the first time. This Red Ranger, like Leo, is also the backup option not chosen like his brother was. And the brother dies in much the same way, falling in a crack in the earth. But there's one even more key difference between the two shows: Lost Galaxy is a space show, and Gingaman is not!

Episode Rating: 8/10
Similarity to Lost Galaxy: 7/10

Kyuukyuu Sentai GoGoFive

Title: "Rescue Soldiers! Rise Up"
Season Theme: Emergency Response
Adapted as: Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue

Definitely the closest to its Power Rangers adaptation yet, this premiere has an almost plausible documentary feel in the beginning... until a lava kaiju shows up. Uniquely, these Rangers are all siblings, children of the mentor/genius scientist. Japan's national fascination with trains also comes into play, and the Rangers' fantastical train even speeds past a bullet train. These idealistic Rangers make an action-movie one-liner out of "Human life is the Earth's future!"

This premiere is more efficient in introducing things than others. For one thing it gets to the Megazord for the first time, partially facilitated by making all the Rangers siblings, and by holding off on introducing the ongoing villains in favor of a random monster. But the show is called Kyuukyuu Sentai GoGoFive? That translates to "Nine Nine Warriors Five Five Five"!

Episode Rating: 5/10
Similarity to Lightspeed Rescue: 8/10

Mirai Sentai Timeranger

Title: "The Time Fugitives"
Season Theme: Time Travel
Adapted as: Power Rangers Time Force

Timeranger is a group of time-traveling underdogs, a b-team of sorts with a de facto leader in the form of a take-charge Pink Ranger. They're up against a grotesque frog gangster who can fly through fart propulsion, and who in Power Rangers became a shmo underling called Bluto. And they have the power of having just seen The Matrix, as they use bullet time to dodge laser attacks.

There are some one-to-one aesthetic similarities with Time Force. Both Green Rangers have green hair. The original Red Ranger has slicked-back hair, although this episode threw me for a loop by making that character a disguise for the pink-haired Nadira analogue.

Episode Rating: 7/10
Similarity to Time Force: 8/10

Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger

Title: "The Lion Roars!!"
Season Theme: Nature
Adapted as: Power Rangers Wild Force

The gao in Gaoranger stands for "growl", as this is another nature-themed season. With their exploits again commented on by a narrator, and with CGI zords and phone changers for the first time, this team actually starts the episode already formed and functional. But, they're missing a Red Ranger, so that character can still be the audience identification figure as he's introduced to the world of Gaoranger. Believe it or not, the Red Ranger is punched out, mafia style, by the other Rangers and brought to their base!

There are a few callbacks to previous seasons. The have wings on their suits as in Jetman, 1960s Batman "POW" effects as in Kakuranger, and animalistic attacks as in Gingaman, albeit, not as cool. The episode features the most elaborate Ranger introductions yet, and the end credits show the Rangers... naked in contemplation while a power ballad plays?

Episode Rating: 5/10
Similarity to Wild Force: 8/10

Ninpuu Sentai Hurricaneger

Title: "Wind and Ninja"
Season Theme: Ninja
Adapted as: Power Rangers Ninja Storm

As in Kakuranger, the season has a ninja theme, but to mercifully better results. After the best, catchiest theme outside of Jetman, a pretty good if standard premiere plays out. The monster of the week makes an impression. He uses his "Space Ninja Art: Flying Face" technique to throw his disembodied head at the Rangers and shoot lasers at them! (It's similar to the Cybermen heads shooting lasers in Doctor Who's recent "Ascension of the Cybermen".) The monster can also take the Rangers to an Illusion Dimension where his head gets bigger, a la the head in Zardoz.

The end credits feature hang-gliding footage featuring the Rangers. There's something about the juxtaposition of Rangers in realistic aerial photography that's really pleasing.

Episode Rating: 6/10
Similarity to Ninja Storm: 7/10

So that's my first foray into Super Sentai. I was spoiled by starting with the excellent Jetman. I wondered if it all could be as deliriously entertaining. While there are lows like Kakuranger, there is great promise in seasons like Ohranger and Gingaman. It's also interesting to find that starting with Gingaman/Lost Galaxy, Power Rangers starts to take way more specific elements from the Super Sentai storylines and humanoid character designs. So I'm officially expanding the tent of my Power Rangers fandom to include Super Sentai, even though the Americanized variety will always be my first love.

Star Trek Randomized Rewatch: We'll Always Have Paris

TNG "We'll Always Have Paris"

"We'll Always Have Paris" blazes a trail for The Next Generation in a couple ways. It's the first "timey-wimey" episode, featuring time distortions (later examples: "Time Squared", "Cause and Effect", etc.). And not counting Beverly Crusher, it's the first Picard's old flame/Picard love interest episode (later examples: "The Measure of a Man", "Lessons", etc.). So cue rote time trickery and Picard wistfully recreating a Paris cafe on the holodeck.

Jenice Manheim, Picard's former lover of 22 years ago, is played by Michelle Phillips, best known from the 1960s rock group The Mamas and the Papas. With all these time distortions, it's a real "Monday Monday" situation, huh? "California Dreamin'"? More like Paris Dreamin'.

... Maybe that doesn't work too well.

The episode runs those two strands in parallel, pioneering their use in the show but in a decidedly workmanlike fashion. One fun aspect of the holodeck program is seeing future production design in the 24th Century French cafe. The Space Fashion Choices for those women scream out the trademark of costume designer William Ware Theiss, lending his talents familiar from the original series to the first season of TNG. It is details like this that make TNG Season 1 an aesthetically liminal transition point between the gaudy TOS and the more austere TNG.

Being a showcase for Picard, he is also seen fencing with an anonymous crew member. Seeing Picard in "dab hand with a cutlass" mode recalls his time as swordmaster Gurney Halleck in David Lynch's Dune - or for that matter, Lord Leondegrance in John Boorman's Excalibur.

Details like that liven up a somewhat routine episode. There is one moment at the episode's close I want to pick out, before a painfully awkward comedy ending. Picard says the Enterprise is due for "much needed" shore leave. Could it be a subtle reference to the loss of Tasha Yar, killed in action in the episode directly prior...?

A decent but unremarkable romance/science puzzle. 5/10.

P.S.: As a Star Wars fan, the Enterprise's trip to Vandor 4 recalls Han Solo and crew's Conveyex heist on Vandor 1 in Solo: A Star Wars Story.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Know Your Onions Review

AOS "Know Your Onions"

Still in 1931, the Agents are afforded opportunities for more period dress (this time for Simmons and Yo-Yo), and Coulson the chance to cut a Dillinger-esque figure with a tommy gun. This is all before another time window shifts everyone forward in time - by the looks of it, the next episode takes place in the 1950s. By only sticking in the same year for two episodes, the structure of the season comes into clearer focus, and lends things a *gasp* episodic quality?

Two of the major engines of this episode are the ongoing moral dilemma of saving Hydra to preserve the future, and on the comic relief side, letting Patton Oswalt loose with the kind of vintage lingo that gives the episode its title. When Oswalt's Ernest Koenig says that S.H.I.E.L.D.'s world of super soldier serum and advanced robotics is like "something out of the funny papers", the writers run the danger of being too cute.

Energized from the twist at the end of the premiere, the team must protect Wilfred "Freddy" Malick, even though he and his son will grow up to be Neo-Nazi tyrants. At the eleventh hour, Daisy breaks ranks and manipulates an impressionable Deke to "take the shot" and kill young Freddy. Deke channels Draco Malfoy and shrinks from the task, and afterward this mutinous episode is forgotten, so it feels extremely shoe-horned in... but I sympathize with writer Craig Titley. There needed to be some direct reckoning with the cognitive dissonance of the team's distasteful duty to protect Hydra's origin story. So it's good drama artificially wedged in the episode, but artificially wedged in nonetheless. It would have been wise to pull back on the schematic plotting and make this moment of high drama the emotional centerpiece of the episode.

The action centerpiece of the episode, on the other hand, is Enoch's fight with a semi-recovered Melinda May. This unlikely pairing is enhanced by a quirk of May's recovery giving her the same clipped voice patterns of a Chronicom.

The major canon connection is the mention of the super soldier serum's development by Abraham Erskine, and administration to Hydra's Johann Schmidt. These respectively, of course, are Stanley Tucci and Hugo Weaving's characters from Captain America: The First Avenger.

"Know Your Onions" features a typical episode's balance of humor and action, so when it goes very dramatic, that feels out of place without further development. 6/10.

Star Trek Randomized Rewatch: The Perfect Mate

TNG "The Perfect Mate"

A centuries-long war between two planets, coming to an end through an alliance sealed by marriage. An ambassador ferrying the bride on the Enterprise, and said ambassador falls victim to a violent mishap and ends up in sickbay. A romantic connection between the bride and the captain of the Enterprise. If this all sounds familiar, it's because "The Perfect Mate" shares many basic similarities with another episode we've recently covered in this random rewatch: the original series' "Elaan of Troyius"!

The skeleton of each episode is similar, but thankfully that's where they end. In terms of subtlety, and quality of character work and writing, "The Perfect Mate" is a drastic improvement. Famke Janssen guest stars as Kamala, a "metamorph" whose sole purpose is to tailer herself to the pleasure of their future betrothed. (In a subversive detail, it's mentioned that most metamorphs are male.) Naturally this doesn't sit terribly well with the Enterprise crew (particularly Beverly Crusher), but if Kamala truly derives pleasure from subsuming herself to someone else, the issue isn't as clear cut as one might think.

The episode teases out this dynamic well, articulating multiple sides, and taking unexpected turns in the plot. Alrik, the man Kamala will marry, is established to be rather dismissive of Kamala. In a haunting moment, Picard wonders to Beverly how Kamala will change to accommodate Alrik. The implication is clear: there's a danger that to please a man who doesn't respect her, she will void herself of the sharp intelligence that defines her now, and hollow herself out. There's a small victory in that Kamala makes clear that she will accommodate Alrik, but she won't change for him.

Kamala finds herself imprinting romantically on Patrick Stewart's Picard. This is quite something when you consider that in the X-Men movies, Janssen's Jean Grey is a professor who works for Stewart, who was recruited by Stewart when she was a little girl. Remarkably, Kamala even refers to herself as a mutant, just as Jean Grey and her fellow X-Men are mutants.

There's a notably dirty joke in the episode. After Kamala comes on to a flustered Riker, he calls in and says, "I'll be in Holodeck 4." What he'll be doing in Holodeck 4 is left to the imagination, but this is a true Jayne from Firefly, "I'll be in my bunk" moment.

"The Perfect Mate" is a tender and well-told tale of space romance, and one-ups "Elaan of Troyius" in every way except camp value. 7/10.

Canon connections:
- One of the Ferengi is played by Max Grodenchik, who will in future play the Ferengi Rom in Deep Space Nine.
- Geordi asks the Ferengi if they want to see the dolphins on board. I believe this was a cute detail in the Next Generation Technical Manual, which identified an area for dolphins on the Enterprise-D.
- Kamala's ceremonial line, "I am for you, Alrik of Valt", calls back to Losira's siren words in the original series episode "That Which Survives". She too said ostentatiously "I am for you".

Star Trek Randomized Rewatch: Repression

VOY "Repression"

The raison d'être of the unusual psychological thriller episode "Repression" is to exploit the Starfleet/Maquis conflict at the heart of Voyager's premise. The catch is that this is done the only way the show can: when that conflict is totally due to an outside influence.

In this case, mind control, courtesy of a deranged Bajoran vedek named Teero Anaydis (Keith Szarabajka). In a very brief and disorienting teaser, Teero is introduced, flanked by what looks like Star Trek concept art, chanting in Bajoran, and hatching a plan to brainwash Chakotay's former Maquis crew, including Tuvok (undercover at the time) and B'Elanna.

The whole issue of the collegiate partnership between Starfleet and Maquis crews on Voyager speaks to the writerly problem of Star Trek. The crews must be in harmonious lockstep because of Trekkian idealism, so the only time their tribalism can be a factor is in an extraordinary circumstance like this mind control. Star Trek is being circumvented to take advantage of a major aspect of the show's basic premise. It's a fascinating and convoluted dynamic.

The episode finds levity in a holodeck replica of a Chicago movie theater. At first hosting a relatively small audience, there's a spectacular amount of leg room, but for a packed house, the seating arrangement becomes more packed. In a nice touch, the carpets suggest the basic yellow and black holodeck grid.

The mind control plot is resolved extremely quickly at the end, Tuvok's psychological unrest overcome. "Repression" has issues as a piece of drama, but stands out for its attempt at askew psychodrama. 6/10.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: The New Deal Review

AOS "The New Deal"

"Nineteen-thirties baseball reference." - Daisy Johnson

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is back for its final season (or as the promotion puts it, The Final Mission), and it begins with a breath of new life for the series... ironically found from traveling into the past. ABC Marvel, accustomed to mounting a period production by way of Agent Carter, is starting Season 7 in the 1930s. (And the team passes the Bela Lugosi Dracula poster to prove it.) Aside from the superficial entertainment value of seeing Phil Coulson, Daisy Johnson, Alphonso Mackenzie, and Deke Shaw in vintage costumes, the show is on fine form as far as action, humor, and revelations go.

It makes perfect sense to have Coulson (albeit a Life Model Decoy replica of Coulson, but still) walk amongst his agency's origin story, given his historical neediness. Look no further than his geeking out at meeting future President Franklin Roosevelt (whose eventual New Deal gives the episode its double-meaning title). The action in the episode has some nice touches, like Daisy's inflicting a sonic uppercut on a Chronicom Hunter, and Mack using what basically amount to wrestling finishing moves on smaller human beings.

The episode runs through the standard season premiere playbook. There's a reveal for a new command center (read: new fancy set). Characters are established as easing back into an old status quo, or adapting to a new one. Coulson adjusts to his new synthetic third chance at life; Jemma Simmons guards her future knowledge and shows a bit of a sadistic streak; and Melinda May and Elena "Yo-Yo" Rodriguez are recovering from the events of the Season 6 finale.

There's a sense that some of these dynamics find the show repeating itself. As alluded to before, this is the second time Coulson has been brought back to life, after Project T.A.H.I.T.I. And Leo Fitz is missing yet again.

In any case, the episode ends with a fantastic twist: the team's new charge, who they must protect from Chronicom assassination, is none other than Gideon Malick's father as a young man, a future Head of Hydra! Suddenly this phase of the story clicks into focus, and I look forward to this being milked for drama next week.

A solid new status quo is established in the 1930s, topped by a devilishly clever twist. 7/10.

Star Trek Randomized Rewatch: Wolf in the Fold

ST "Wolf in the Fold"

"Wolf in the Fold" doesn't do much by halves. It's an insane episode, and with every passing improbable turn of the plot (like the twist of a stage knife), it becomes even more of a helium-laugh fest.

On the face of it, the premise would be anything but amusing; Scotty is accused of murder, his bloody hands on the murder weapon. There is a thread throughout the episode of, shall we say... exaggeration. Kirk, McCoy, and Scotty are taking their shore leave on a planet home to a "completely hedonistic society", to allow Scotty to get over a recent development in his psychological makeup: a "total resentment of women", because a female engineer was involved in an accident that gave Scotty a head wound.

So from the start, two things are clear. We are in the realm of cartoon psychodrama. And the original Star Trek finds itself once again on shaky misogynistic grounds. Writer Robert Bloch (of the novel Psycho) deploys his big twist late in the game: the murders were in fact carried out by Jack the Ripper, who all these centuries has lived on as a non-corporeal entity! And if that's not enough of a WTF'er, the crew foils Jack's plot while extremely high!

That's right, McCoy injects the crew with a tranquilizer that has a blissing out effect. Add to all this that the primary human antagonist of the episode and vessel of Jack the Ripper, Hengist, is played by John Fiedler, also known as the voice of Piglet.

"Wolf in the Fold"'s gender dynamics haven't aged well, but the episode is a bonkers laugh riot. I don't know how to rate something like this but on balance we'll go with 6/10.

For a less campy take on Jack the Ripper in the 23rd Century, check out the Babylon 5 episode "Comes the Inquisitor".