Dark Ranters Special Christmas Review: Red Rangers

Dark Ranters Special Christmas Review: Clash of the Red Rangers

GearsX: Ho Ho Ho! Welcome to a special Christmas edition of Dark Ranters Review. It is I, Santa GearsX . . .

ImpulsiveSpidercide: And I, ImpulsiveSpidercide, Tamer of the Reindeer!

GearsX: We'll be reviewing Clash of the Red Rangers. Clash of the Red Rangers is a crossover of Power Rangers RPM and Power Rangers Samurai.

ImpulsiveSpidercide: Aired as a one-hour special event, and set sometime in the second half of Samurai. For the record, Clash of the Red Rangers established that RPM took place in an alternate timeline, thus ensuring that we don't have to fear all our favorite Rangers from the past being dead thanks to Venjix. Oh, and you wanna know how they explained Ranger Series Operator Red (RPM's Red Ranger) being in-suit the whole time? He couldn't breathe the air of "our" Earth because back in his universe, he lived under a weather-controlled dome thanks to Venjix launching nukes all over the place. As excuses go . . . it's not bad. And the VA sounded just like the actor in the actual series. Might have actually been him under an alias, actors' union laws and all that.

GearsX:  Is this episode worth watching? Let's find out. The episode begins with Scott tracking down the evil Professor Cog in the RPM universe.

ImpulsiveSpidercide:  And Professor Cog escapes through an inter-dimensional gateway, forcing Scott to take a dimension-crossing train (shades of Kamen Rider Den-O, perhaps?) to catch up with him.

GearsX: It is there Cog sees the Samurai Rangers doing battle against Sharkjaw. After Sharkjaw retreats after nearly drying up, Cog decides to seek out Xandred, the villain of the series.

ImpulsiveSpidercide: Yes, drying up. The thing is that the villains in Samurai come from the Sanzu River, the river that guided the souls of the dead into the afterlife in Japanese lore. These villains, called Nighloks, can cross into our world for limited periods of time, limited because the water from the Sanzu River dries up inside them quickly. And going back to the story, Cog and Xandred quickly form an alliance, as villains tend to do in these things. While Scott seeks out the Samurai Rangers for their assistance.

GearsX: Scott tells them about the situation and that he's from another dimension much like Professor Cog.

ImpulsiveSpidercide: The same dimension, in fact.

GearsX: After receiving an alert about Cog, the Rangers spring into action but Cog gets the drop on them.  

ImpulsiveSpidercide: Yeah. And pretty much all of them but Jayden, the Red Samurai Ranger, are disabled.  And he and Scott have to regroup to assess their options and figure out how to stop Cog and save the other Samurai Rangers.

GearsX: Not before they were hypnotized into fight each other and the other Rangers were sent to the RPM dimension. The two Rangers get into a brief battle for Professor Cog's amusement but it was all just a trick.

ImpulsiveSpidercide: Sadly, we do not get to see the Samurai Rangers' meeting with the RPM Rangers. All we get is them coming back and Emily, the Yellow Samurai Ranger, saying that Scott has nice friends. Seriously missed opportunity there.

GearsX: The Rangers do battle against Cog, Sergeant Treads. Scott was given a new power called Shark Mode for a short time. They were able to destroy Cog and Tread.

ImpulsiveSpidercide: Yeah, specifically Shark Attack Mode, which is a special power-up for the Red Samurai Ranger. And speaking of him, he used the standard Super Samurai Mode that the other Samurai Rangers shared. (Yes, they literally share the Super Samurai Mode, since only one of them can use it at a time.)

GearsX: The Samurai Rangers turn their attention to General Gut and his army of Moogers. The Samurai Rangers summon their horses while the RPM Red and Gold Samurai Rangers follow them in a car. After trimming down the Moogers, Xandred turns General Gut into a giant and the Samurai Rangers except for the Gold Ranger summon their Zords. You take it from here.

ImpulsiveSpidercide: Yes, seriously. They're called Moogers. But yeah, the Samurai Rangers defeat General Gut in their Megazord.

GearsX: After foiling Xandred's plans once again, it's time to say good-bye. Scott heads back to his home dimension but not before leaving parting words for Mike and Emily. So that was Clash of the Red Rangers. How was it? It was okay. The writing was good. The acting was good for what it is but way better than what we've seen in Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters from Beverly Hills, that's for sure.

ImpulsiveSpidercide: Yeah. Scott thinks Mike and Emily would make a good couple, and guess what? They get together at the end of the series, at least as implied by Mike going with Emily to meet her sister, who was originally supposed to be the Yellow Samurai Ranger but fell ill, forcing Emily to take her place.

GearsX: What did you think of the fight choreography in this one?

ImpulsiveSpidercide: I thought the fighting was pretty good.

GearsX: At least they weren't jumping and posing in front of the camera. Did you say you had a problem with the episode?

ImpulsiveSpidercide: Namely that the Samurai Rangers meeting the RPM Rangers wasn't shown onscreen.

GearsX: Maybe they couldn't get the cast of RPM back or they just didn't wanna do it. Who knows? But it was a bit of a missed opportunity. We did this review for the Red Ribbon Reviewers because we wanted to contribute to the awareness of HIV/AIDS. Spread some Christmas cheer to those who have this disease and those who have loved ones infected with the virus.

ImpulsiveSpidercide:  And for some quick facts, you're not going to get HIV/AIDS if you just touch someone who's infected. You won't even get infected if you kiss them, because the virus doesn't travel through saliva. It's blood and sexual secretions only. So as long as you wear condoms or dental dams and don't swap needles, you're good.

GearsX: The only protection is prevention and one day, there will be a cure. That about does it for this Christmas edition of Dark Ranters Takedown. This is GearsX sayin' Happy Holidays . . .

ImpulsiveSpidercide: And ImpulsiveSpidercide saying Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa, and even Happy Winter Solstice, depending on your holiday of choice this month. If I forgot one, feel free to tell me; I'd hate for anyone to feel excluded!