Billy Cranston

Billy Cranston is a fictional character in the Power Rangers universe. He is the Blue Ranger in the series Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, and was portrayed by actor David Yost. Billy is the only original Power Ranger to remain for the entire MMPR series, and is the second longest-serving Ranger overall behind Tommy Oliver. Until his departure, he was considered the brains of the Power Rangers team, creating many gadgets with which to solve problems that not even Zordon foresaw, and he even invented the first team's wrist-worn communication devices.

Billy was one of the five "teenagers with attitude" selected by Zordon to become the original Power Rangers, along with Jason Scott, Zack Taylor, Trini Kwan and Kimberly Hart. Billy became the Blue Power Ranger and was given both the Triceratops Power Coin and the Triceratops Dinozord.

Billy began the series as the stereotypical "nerd." The other Rangers, especially Trini, defended him loyally, but Billy later evolved to become a stronger individual. He was one of the top members of Angel Grove High's science club and often helped its younger members with their experiments. One such example was with Willy, a young boy he helped to create a virtual reality simulator for a Science Fair. In the episode "High Five," Billy created not only the wrist communicators the Power Rangers used, but also the interface that allowed the devices a remote access to the Command Center's teleportation unit.

It was revealed that, due to an experience in his youth when he was bitten by a fish during an experiment involving whirlpools, Billy developed icthyophobia: fear of fish. This fear would affect him well into his teens, and Rita would use a spell to exacerbate this fear. When he is the last Ranger left able to contend with the Goo Fish monster, Billy overcomes the spell and then, after helping to free his friends and defeat the monster, completely overcomes the fear itself on a fishing trip with Ernie, the owner of the Youth Center.

Each of Billy's teammates have a unique skill to offer the team and, in Billy's case, it was his vast intelligence. He sought out to improve himself physically, and the audience would see him transition over time from the suspenders-wearing "brain" to a confident, hyper-intelligent athlete with appreciable fighting skills, thanks in great part to Trini's Uncle Howard. Jason and later Tommy helped graduate Billy to the red belt level in karate.

Billy's intelligence would help the Rangers save the world on many occasions. When the Command Center was damaged, Zordon lost and Alpha 5 incapacitated, it was his invention, a car called the RADBUG, that allowed the Rangers to travel to the Command Center. He performed a wide array of tasks, ranging from creating the method for which the Rangers would use initially to infiltrate Rita's Dark Dimension, to disarming the lock-out mechanism for Alpha's activated self-destruct, and many other achievements. Though Billy did manage to attract girls earlier in his "nerd-like" persona, it was after he began his journey toward self-improvement that he would garner more attention from romantic interests, even more so than the other members of the team.

Billy is accepted into the Young Scientists of America program. In Season 2, he befriends Zack's cousin Curtis when he becomes the newest student at Angel Grove High. Curtis' musical interests, particularly in playing the trumpet, sparks Billy's interest into the rhythmic patterns of jazz music.

Later in Season 2, a time-traveling Kimberly would recruit Billy's ancestor, also named William Cranston, in the 1880s to become the first Blue Ranger when she assembled and took command of the Wild West Ranger team in a battle against Goldar and several other time traveling foes. Also in Season 2, Billy commands the Unicorn Thunderzord.

In season 3, Billy gained new powers from Ninjor, who gave him the Wolf Power Coin, and became the Blue Ninja Ranger.

The Rangers are de-aged by a time reversal spell performed by Rita Repulsa's father, Master Vile. Billy devised a plan to restore the Rangers' ages using a machine that ran off the power coins. Billy restored himself, but Rita and Goldar stole the machine, and Lord Zedd and Rita Repulsa destroyed all six Ninja Power Coins. With his Wolf Ninja Coin destroyed and his Triceratops Power Coin damaged beyond use, Billy's role changed. He no longer fought as a Power Ranger, but rather acted solely in an advisory and supporting role. Indeed, Billy was the only Ranger in this period still to be acted out by his regular actor – the others had been replaced temporarily by child actors after Master Vile had used the Orb of Doom to revert time by approximately ten years. Billy acted in this period as a liaison between the Aquitian Rangers and Earth. It was the cure for Billy's reverse-aging that eventually served as the plot device by which he was removed from the show. When Power Rangers Zeo began, Billy officially retired from active Ranger service as the six-man team now only had the five segments of the Zeo Crystal as a power source for each member of the team, allowing Tanya Sloan to take his place while he continued his supporting role by creating and maintaining most of the weaponry, gadgets and Zords the Zeo Rangers would use.

The writers left the choice open as to whether or not Billy would become a Zeo Ranger, with him musing at the start of Zeo that he could always assume the Zeo power in an emergency. He graduated earlier than the rest of the team in "Graduation Blues," and then left Earth for a brief period to address problems on the planet Aquitar. In "Mr. Billy's Wild Ride," he returns to Earth, although he is attacked by the Machine Empire along the way.

Before the Gold Ranger's identity was revealed as Trey of Triforia, the writers left several red herrings to mislead the viewers into believing that the Gold Ranger was Billy since he was never around when the Gold Ranger was around. When Trey of Triforia returned to Triforia on sabbatical to try to unify his three selves, Billy was selected to assume the Gold Ranger's powers. However, the negative proton energy that his body had absorbed in the Command Center's explosion prevented him from taking the powers. Instead Jason Lee Scott, the former Red Ranger, received the powers. By the time of Jason's return it's shown that Billy has worked his way up to a black belt in karate.

Billy at the end of Zeo was suffering from accelerated aging, a side effect from the regenerator he used to restore his proper age. To counter this, he traveled to Aquitar for a cure from their Eternal Falls (analogous to the Fountain of Youth), which would restore his real age; after that he opted to remain there with Cestria, a female Aquitian with whom he had fallen in love.

After resolving the Robo-Rita conflict, Billy sets out into space and meets Mick Kanic before they head to Zordnia to find the legendary Cosmic Fury Zords, only to be attack by Bajillia Naire of Squid Ink Inc., who had broken Lord Zedd out of his crystal prison before the Morphin Masters resurrect and send Zayto to bring his Dino Fury Power Rangers to assist them.
Once they arrive to assist in the battle, Lord Zedd sends out Doodrip to brainwash them, only to succeed with fellow Blue Ranger, Ollie Akana. As they continue, Scrozzle absorbs the Morphin Masters into a machine with Master Red giving Javi Garcia his staff, which leads them to Billy and Mick's objective. When the possessed Ollie attacked, Javi inserted the staff into the altar, releasing the Cosmic Zords, at the cost of his right arm before Billy had Mick take Javi away from the battlefield.

## Zords

Triceratops Dinozord -- Unicorn Thunderzord -- Wolf Ninjazord -- Blue Shogunzord -- Wolf Cosmic Zord

## See Also

Season 1 -- Season 2 -- Season 3 -- Power Rangers Zeo -- Once and Always -- Cosmic Fury -- Mighty Morphin Power Rangers