‘GREEN WITH EVIL’ (MMPR)

Please feel free to comment on my review.

This is an epic story in the ‘Power Rangers’ series and one of the most remembered. I’m glad that I’ve seen this epic story, as this is the first five-part adventure to feature in the ‘Mighty Morphin’ TV show. It introduces us to the new ‘Power Rangers’ character – Jason David Frank as Tommy Oliver. 🙂

Tommy would become an important character in the ‘Power Rangers’ series for years to come. In this introduction to him, he becomes the evil Green Ranger, and is chosen by Rita Repulsa to destroy the Power Rangers. It’s very exciting and I can see why ‘Power Rangers’ fans are very hyped about it.

In ‘Part I’, Tommy is introduced as a new kid in Angel Grove with martial arts skills that rival Jason’s. This happens during a karate match at a Martial Arts Expo at the Angel Grove Youth Center. Both Jason and Tommy fight well against each other in their match, but this all leads up to it being a draw.

Tommy also catches the eye of Kimberly, who warms to him when they meet at school. This happens when Kimberly is tormented by Bulk and Skull at the lockers and Tommy manages to scare them off. She is rather attracted to him, and this is where the romance between Kimberly and Tommy starts. 🙂

However, Tommy also catches the eye of Rita Repulsa, who has chosen him to be the new Green Ranger. After fighting several Putties in an alleyway, Tommy is captured by Rita, and she puts an evil spell on him. Tommy is turned into the evil Green Ranger, and he vows to serve the wicked Empress.

Pretty soon, Tommy infiltrates the Command Center and tears the place apart. He gives Alpha a virus and cuts off Zordon from our dimension. The Power Rangers are anxious, as they decide to journey to the Command Center via the RadBug. They are shocked to find the state of the Command Center.

After reviving Alpha, the Rangers are alerted to Goldar, who is in giant form, attacking Angel Grove. The Rangers summon their Dinozords to become the Dino Megazord. They soon end up fighting the Green Ranger in a battle. The first thing that the Green Ranger does is breaking into their Megazord.

It was tense when the Power Rangers fought against the Green Ranger, who is just like them, except evil. After their fight with Green, the Rangers return to the Command Center to assess more of the damage caused, figuring out how to save Zordon, who is still cut-off from them in their dimension. 😐

They also wonder who the Green Ranger is. For me, I know Tommy will be known as the best Power Ranger ever and considered a legend. To see him begin as a villain was disturbing. He would later demonstrate as being noble and a good leader. It was unnerving to see him start as an evil Ranger. 😐

In ‘Part II’, Billy and Trini try to repair the Command Center with Alpha helping them. Meanwhile, Tommy is cold and rude to Kimberly when she meets up with him. This is because Tommy knows the Rangers’ secret identities, and he’s so determined to destroy them whilst under Rita’s evil influence.

Tommy even scares the living daylights out of Bulk and Skull, who try to bully him in an alleyway. He manages to scare them by showing his evil green eyes. It was frightening to see Tommy behave like this, especially as he’s determined to serve Rita and not listen to reason from anyone around him. 😐

I did wonder whether showing Tommy’s inner struggle against Rita’s evil spell would be interesting to see, as he surely could not have succumbed fully to the evil Empress’ influence. Then again, Rita’s evil spell could have been very powerful and hard for Tommy to resist, which makes it even more frightening.

Tommy is soon given the Sword of Darkness by Rita. This acts as a catalyst for keeping him under her evil spell permanently. I didn’t realise that until the final episode, and I wondered how the Rangers would be able to break Tommy from this spell, making this five-part story pretty gripping to watch. 🙂

Jason also has trouble when he’s kidnapped and teleported to the Dark Dimension. This is after Jason chatted to the possessed Tommy and he’s teleported away by him unawares. Jason finds himself fighting against Goldar, who’s taken his Power Morpher. Goldar seems to have all the cards.

It also seems that Jason is unable to contact his teammates. This is bad when the other four Rangers need him, as they fight against the Green Ranger. This begins first on the ground and then when the Rangers assemble the Dinozords to form the Dino Megazord. Interesting they did this without Jason.

Jason’s subplot of being captured helps to stretch the story out as a five-parter. I’m sure many kids who saw this story on TV were wondering what was going to happen next. How was Jason going to escape, and how would our heroes defeat the Green Ranger? It must’ve been really exciting for kids.

In ‘Part III’, Jason continues fighting Goldar in the Dark Dimension. The fight does go on for quite a while, and I wondered whether Jason was going to escape, even when he managed to acquire his Power Morpher. Soon, Jason finds himself fighting the Green Ranger, as he has taken Goldar’s place.

It became tense when Jason tried to reason with the Green Ranger, but Tommy refused to hear him. Thankfully, Jason is saved by the other Rangers and Alpha when they home in on his communicator and they teleport him out of the Dark Dimension. This makes the Green Ranger pretty angry indeed.

And you wouldn’t like him when he’s angry. Sorry, I couldn’t resist. 😀 Actually, thinking about it, I wonder why Rita didn’t have Tommy be good and friendly to the Rangers when he’s not the Green Ranger in order to protect his secret identity. It would have made the five Rangers less suspicious. 😐

At this point in the story, I wondered how it could be stretched out with Zordon still lost and the Command Center still in a terrible state. Jason relates to the other Rangers on what happened. They also become suspicious about Tommy’s odd behaviour, yet still unaware that he’s the Green Ranger.

Meanwhile, Rita Repulsa summons Scorpina, a female warrior who was long buried in a cave, and can transform into a monstrous scorpion when in giant mode. I thought the Scorpina element of the story was unnecessary, as it should have just been the Green Rangers being the main enemy here. 😐

Rita soon sends in Goldar to attack Angel Grove as a giant. The Rangers see Goldar attacking the city whilst at the Command Center. It’s revealed that Rita intends to capture the Power Ranger’s Dinozords via the use of the solar eclipse. It’s a preview of what will happen in the following episode.

Meanwhile, the Green Ranger waits to fight, as he trains himself in the Dark Dimension with his Sword of Darkness. It’s interesting the Green Ranger is impatient to fight, and he calls out to Rita when she won’t let him go out to fight the Rangers. The evil spell placed on Tommy seems very strong.

In ‘Part IV’, Goldar continues to attack Angel Grove as a giant and he torments Bulk and Skull when they’re in a bus. Beforehand, Bulk and Skull were eating ice cream at the Angel Grove Youth Center. It was funny when Bulk refused to leave, as he was still eating his ice cream before the ceiling fell in.

The Power Rangers however manage to save Bulk and Skull with the use of their Dino Megazord. The Rangers soon fight Goldar, Scorpina and the Green Ranger, who all become giants. I have to say, I’m very disappointed with Scorpina’s giant form, since she looked human-like when fighting the Rangers.

In her giant form, she looks like a typical rampaging monster. Why is it when the human-like villains become giant-sized, they always have to look monster-like? It was quite scary however when Tommy the Green Ranger became a giant, as it’s the first time this has happened to a Power Ranger.

Mind you, I think a lost opportunity was made here to introduce the Green Ranger’s Dragonzord early in the story. The Green Ranger didn’t need to be a giant, since Rita could have just given him his Dragonzord there and then. In fact, how come the hero Power Rangers don’t get to be giants? 😐

During the fight, the Dino Megazord weakens when it loses its solar power from the sun during an eclipse. It becomes tense when the Rangers try to use the Dino Megazord’s Power Sword to acquire more power. Unfortunately, the Rangers are expelled and the Dinozords are buried in the ground. 😦

Early on, the Green Ranger managed to sneak back into the Command Center again to stop the recovery of Zordon by Alpha. But unlike last time, Alpha has come prepared with a back-up program to wake him up and trap the Green Ranger in a force field. Sadly, Green manages to escape again. 😐

Despite this, Alpha has been able to capture the real identity of the Green Ranger when he was in the force field. Now, this is impressive by ‘Power Rangers’ standards. The Rangers soon learn that the Green Ranger is in fact Tommy. The Rangers are shocked once they see this, especially Kimberly.

In ‘Part V’, Kimberley confronts Tommy at the Angel Grove Youth Center, saying that she knows he’s the Green Ranger. Tommy retorts saying that she and the other Rangers will be destroyed. It was so tense when Kimberly tried to reason with Tommy to help him, but he simply refused to listen to her.

In the story’s last episode, we have the introduction of the Green Ranger’s Zord – the Green Dragonzord. I would’ve preferred it if the Dragonzord was introduced early in the five-part story, as it’s rather late and we’re coming to the story’s end. But it’s good the Green Ranger has his own Zord.

The Green Ranger utilizes his Green Dragonzord via the use of his Dragon Dagger in flute mode. Yeah, the Green Ranger calls his Dragonzord by playing on his Dragon Dagger as a flute. I don’t know if this was inspired by the Pied Piper or whatever, but I do find this a little cringeworthy for my taste.

Anyway, Alpha manages to bring Zordon back and he’s established within this dimension at the Command Center. The Dino Megazord is recovered, and the Power Rangers use it to fight against Tommy as the Green Ranger in the Dragonzord. This ends with Jason fighting Tommy on the ground.

Jason manages to destroy the Sword of Darkness wielded by Tommy and he breaks Rita’s spell over him. Tommy quickly recovers and is back to his good old self. It’s amazing that the Rangers forgave Tommy so quickly, as he’s disorientated and regrets what he did when he was under Rita’s evil spell.

It does feel quick with the new team of six Power Rangers established, as Tommy is offered a place among the team, and he gladly accepts the offer. It also seems strange that the Dragonzord formed with the Dinozords to become the Dragon Megazord, especially as there’s no major fight at the end.

Scorpina doesn’t even have a fight with the six Rangers at the story’s end, as that would have been exciting to see with the five Rangers and Tommy as their new team member fighting her. But in the end, all is well, and Zordon welcomes Tommy to the team, as he claims him as the new sixth Ranger.

‘Green With Evil’ is a very good epic ‘Power Rangers’ story and it’s so easy to see why. I enjoyed watching this five-part story. I got excited about what each instalment was going to be like, and I wondered whether Tommy would be free from Rita’s evil. I’m pleased he became one of the team. 🙂

Mind you, I sometimes wish that ‘Green With Evil’ was a six-part story instead of a five-part story. This could allow for Tommy’s recovery and him gradually accepting the offer to become the new sixth member of the Power Rangers and perhaps allow a fight between the six Rangers and Scorpina.

It’s interesting that the sixth Ranger in the ‘Power Rangers’ series was prophesied by Zordon at the story’s end. I wonder where this prophecy came from and how Zordon happened to know of it. I was looking forward to seeing Tommy as the Green Ranger, working with the established five hero team.

‘Green With Evil’ (MMPR) rating – 9/10

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