SPOILERS ALERT!!!

Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

Whilst it’s the 60th anniversary of ‘Doctor Who’ this year, it’s also the 30th anniversary of ‘Power Rangers’, a superhero TV show that I loved watching as a kid. I’ve recently seen the 30th anniversary special on Netflix to commemorate the occasion – ‘Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always’.

So far, I’ve reviewed Season 1 of ‘Mighty Morphin’ and a small amount of Season 2 episodes. I hope to do more ‘Power Rangers’ reviews soon, especially as I plan to start off the ‘Power Months’ where I share reviews of ‘Power Rangers’ episodes each day in the months of January and July every year. 🙂

If all goes to plan, the first ‘Power Month’ will be in July this year. For now, let’s talk about ‘Once & Always’. I was looking forward to seeing this special 30th anniversary episode when it was announced in February 2023. It’s amazing ‘Power Rangers’ has lasted so long since it began in 1993.

‘Power Rangers’ is a series featuring multi-coloured superheroes fighting against rubber-suited monsters. 😀 In ‘Mighty Morphin’, five teenagers were chosen to become the Power Rangers and fight off against the evil Rita Repulsa with the use of weapons, like Zords that become a Megazord. 🙂

‘Once & Always’ starts off in the year 2022 before we move on to the year 2023. The 55-minute special opens with Billy, the Blue Mighty Morphin Ranger, fighting off a robot version of Rita Repulsa (voiced by Barbara Goodson) and her Putties before he’s joined by the other Rangers. Sadly, the fight ends in a pretty devastating tragedy. 😦

As Robo-Rita is about to kill Billy with her magic wand, Trini, the Yellow Ranger, saves him by diving into the path of the blast and she sadly gets killed. As Robo-Rita retreats into her Dark Dimension, Billy and Zack break the news to Trini’s young daughter, Minh, who is shocked and upset by the news.

This special episode pays tribute to Thuy Trang, the actress who played Trini in ‘Mighty Morphin’. She sadly died in 2001. I like how ‘Once & Always’ centres around Trini in terms of the story. Soon, Trini’s daughter Minh becomes the new Yellow Ranger, and she does it to honour her mother’s memory.

It was nice to see David Yost return as Billy as well as Walter Emanuel Jones as Zack, the first Black Ranger. Charlie Kersh plays Minh, the third Yellow Ranger. I was also very happy to see Catherine Sutherland as Kat, who was the second Pink Ranger, the Pink Zeo Ranger and the first Pink Turbo Ranger. 🙂

Steve Cardenas also returns to play Rocky, who was the second Red Ranger and the Zeo Blue Ranger. Kat and Rocky return to help Billy and Zack, and they become the Pink and Red Mighty Morphin Power Rangers again, after Jason/Red, Kimberley/Pink and Tommy/Green were kidnapped by Rita. 😐

I’m saddened Austin St. John (Jason), Amy Jo Johnson (Kimberley) and the late Jason David Frank (Tommy) didn’t appear in this special. For various reasons, they weren’t able to return. Austin St. John was on probation whilst Jason David Frank was doing a film called ‘Legend of the White Dragon’.

Amy Jo Johnson’s reasons for not appearing are unclear, but she has said about writing an original comic series for the show’s 30th anniversary. It was nice to see a clip of an episode featuring the original ‘Mighty Morphin’ cast as well as the tribute to Thuy Trang and Jason David Frank at the end.

Johnny Yong Bosch also returns as Adam, who was the second Black Ranger, the Green Zeo Ranger and the first Green Turbo Ranger. There’s also Karan Ashley who returns as Aisha, and she was the second Yellow Ranger after Trini. Intriguingly, Adam and Aisha appear to be wearing S.P.A. uniforms.

S.P.A. stands for Space Patrol Alpha and is meant to foreshadow Space Patrol Delta, which appears in the ‘Power Rangers S.P.D.’ series. I’ve not seen that series yet, but it’s interesting how ‘Once & Always’ seems to be setting up the future events that take place in the particular spin-off TV show. 🙂

It was nice to see Alpha, the Power Rangers’ friendly robot (voiced by Richard Steven Horvitz). Apparently, Robo-Rita was born from her evil particles in the Z-Wave from the ‘Countdown to Destruction’ two-part story in the ‘In Space’ series. Rita’s particles sadly ended up in Alpha 8 when he and Billy were inside the Command Center.

Alpha 8 sadly transformed into Robo-Rita, leading up to the events of Trini’s death in the special. Billy was trying to get Zordon back from the Z-Wave in the Command Center once Rita returned. Thankfully, the Rangers have Alpha 9 to help them when they’re fighting Robo-Rita and her minions.

I hoped that more Rangers beyond the ‘Mighty Morphin’ era would appear in the special. Sadly, they only appeared in captured toy-like forms by Robo-Rita. Whilst I appreciate the nods to other ‘Power Rangers’ seasons, the captured toy-like Rangers beyond ‘Mighty Morphin’ are very fleeting indeed. 😦

The captured Rangers include Tanya the Yellow Zeo Ranger, Ashley the second Yellow Turbo Ranger and Yellow Space Ranger, and Carlos the second Green Turbo Ranger and Black Space Ranger. There’s Leo the Red Galaxy Ranger, Kai the Blue Galaxy Ranger and Damon the Green Galaxy Ranger.

There’s also Connor the Red Dino Ranger and Trent the White Dino Ranger. There are more and I’ve only mentioned the ones I’ve seen in shows like ‘Zeo’, ‘Turbo’, ‘In Space’, ‘Lost Galaxy’ and ‘Dino Thunder’. I wish the actors that played those characters made cameo appearances in ‘Once & Always’.

Despite these issues, I’ve enjoyed ‘Once & Always’. I found the special to be very touching and it honoured the legacy of ‘Mighty Morphin’ and beyond quite well. The growth of Minh becoming the new Yellow Ranger to honour Trini was nice and the action sequences featured are fun and exciting.

I was pleased to see the Dinozords forming the Dino Megazord in the special’s climax, and I believe it’s original CGI footage compared to the original models featured in the ‘Zyuranger’ series by ‘Super Sentai’ that ‘Power Rangers’ is based on. The characters of Billy and Zack are also well-handled here.

All in all, ‘Once & Always’ is a ‘Power Rangers’ 30th anniversary special that was worth my time. There are things I would have liked to have seen more, including more returning cast members from ‘Mighty Morphin’ and beyond, but I’m happy I’ve seen the special and commemorated the occasion.

I’m looking forward to making a start on my ‘Power Month’ review seasons on ‘Bradley’s Basement’ very soon. Hopefully the first one will be in July this year. Stay tuned!

Thanks for reading!

Bye for now!

Tim 🙂