"Why don't we show a little teamwork and get this place cleaned up?"
Something one must know about Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers is that it was made at a time when educational children's programming was becoming mandatory for networks to show. To meet that requirement, they often had to shoehorn in PSA-style messages to their otherwise action-heavy, Saturday morning children's shows or tack on an actual PSA at the end. So how was Power Rangers, a show so action-heavy that it caused widespread controversy, to handle this dilemma? Thank God they didn't go the "special announcement the end of the episode" route, but what we got was also pretty cringe-inducing. The Power Rangers became very involved with volunteer park clean-ups. That's great and everything for people who assume that kids copy everything they see on TV, but when I was a kid, I only wanted to copy stuff on TV that I thought was cool. Did anyone ever use their Power Ranger toys to reenact the numerous park clean-up episodes? I highly doubt it.
Teamwork is sort of a lousy episode for multiple reasons, but it's also an interesting one. With the show still finding its footing, several things happen that would rarely if ever occur again. Kimberly and Trini are sponsoring a petition to clean up a local waste dump, and while they're getting plenty of signatures, they can't seem to get any volunteers; not even Jason, Billy, or Zack. Meanwhile, Rita reveals that she's the one who set up the waste dump (um, what?) and plans to pollute the Earth. Kim and Trini get attacked by putties, but the others can't help them because Rita has sent down the Mighty Minotaur. Zordon declares that it's time to bestow upon the rangers their new Power Weapons, and so for the first time, they call upon the Power Axe, Power Bow, Power Daggers, Power Lance, and Power Sword. The weapons combine to form the Power Blaster and the rangers take the Minotaur down with ease.
I'm gonna harp on the biggest problem with the episode, which is that Rita's plan doesn't make any sense. The waste dump that Kim and Trini just happen to be petitioning against is one that Rita set up? When and why did she set up a waste dump? It's obvious that the writers just needed an environmental-themed episode and it didn't really matter how it was incorporated. They could have just as easily had Rita be inspired by the waste dump to pollute the Earth, but even then, the rest of the episode has nothing to do with stopping pollution or even mentioned. To make this an environment-friendly PSA was ill-advised from the start.
And what a shame too! This is a really big moment in Power Rangers history: the introduction of the very first set of weapons. Unfortunately, the rangers are simply handed them without much reason beyond that they were loosing the battle. It may have made more sense if Billy and Alpha were just finishing them or something and they were ready to be used, but hadn't been tested yet. I know that's very cliche, but it's better than the non-explanation the episode gives. In any case, I love the look of the weapons and the Power Blaster is all kinds of awesome. As with the suits and zords, this might be my favorite set of weapons the show ever produced (okay, maybe Time Force beats them by just a smidgen).
The fast-motion comedy is still employed to add campy fun, but I always wind up grimacing whenever it happens. I can handle corny when it comes to this show, but this is just too much. However, the fight footage is lovely as always, and the casts' interactions are pretty solid. When the other guys are telling Kim and Trini that they can't do the cleanup, there was some surprisingly good acting; the guys feel bad that they can't help, but it's also clear that they don't really wanna do it. And the girls don't get pissy over it; they have perfectly natural reactions.
Thus we come to some things about the episode that I don't consider bad or good, just interesting. First off, this is the first time there's any extensive use of the American suit footage, and that has weird results. There's a shot of morphed Jason where his helmet and his suit are completely different colors, then in the command center the suits seem to be shiny like the Zyuranger costumes. I love the look of them, but I don't believe they were used extensively in later episodes. Also, and this being the only time it happens, the rangers speak to each other while they're teleporting. That's... just... weird. This is also the first time we hear the famous morph call, "It's morphin' time!" delivered by Jason without much intensity. Rita's wand throw isn't the typical stock footage that will be used later on, but it works just fine. I'd also like to note that using strictly Japanese footage for the villain scenes lends them an otherworldly feel that I've always liked but could never articulate until now. This is also a rare time that the zords don't combine to form the megazord immediately, instead fighting separately (which I really, really liked). Kim even gets to decimate some putties with the Pterodactyl!
So despite there being plenty to like in this episode, I have to say it's not a very good one. The pollution message being shoehorned-in, the unceremonious way the rangers get their new weapons, and the lame fast-motion bring the episode down too many pegs to count. Let's not forget that this was shot after the producers found out that the teens couldn't be seen punching putties in the face, so some awkward fight-scene editing hurts the episode even further. There are too many "firsts" for the episode to be skip-able though (including the first introduction of Mr. Kaplan), so thank goodness for that Sentai footage and the actors' charm.
Mighty Morphin' scale: 5/10
Power Rangers scale: 4/10
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