Power Rangers in Space
Power Rangers in Space is an American television series and the sixth season of the "Power Rangers" franchise, based on the 21st Super Sentai series "Denji Sentai Megaranger". As with all "Power Rangers" programs, "in Space" is based on one of the entries of the "Super Sentai" series. However, due to miscommunication between the United States and Japan as to the contents of the Sentai series, much of the space footage is original to the American adaptation. "In Space" was a turning point for the Power Rangers franchise, as the season brought closure to six seasons  of plot, and it ended the practice of having regular cast members act in consecutive seasons - which had been in existence since 1993. The theme of this series, and its successor, the "Power Rangers Lost Galaxy", bears little similarity to their Sentai counterparts. Plot. Picking up where "Power Rangers Turbo" left off, Dark Specter has captured Zordon and is beginning to drain his powers. An assortment of old and new villains praise his victory, but an unexpected figure uncovers his plan: the Red Space Ranger, Andros. Dark Specter orders the Princess of Evil, Astronema, to eliminate Andros so he ca n't jeopardize his plans. Meanwhile, four of the former Turbo Rangers (T.J. Johnson, Carlos Vallerte, Ashley Hammond and Cassie Chan) and Alpha 6 are traveling in a NASADA space shuttle with the intent to save Zordon. They are pulled aboard the Astro Megaship and later encounter Andros. Though initially suspicious and dismissive of the four former Turbo Rangers, Andros realizes he'll need their help to save Zordon and gives them each an Astro Morpher. Additionally, modifications allow the NASADA space shuttle and the Astro Megaship to combine into the powerful Astro Megazord. The new Space Rangers team then returns  to Earth for repairs and supplies, but are followed by Astronema. The Space Rangers alternate between searching for Zordon and protecting Earth. From the Dark Fortress, Astronema seeks to eliminate them via Ecliptor (who raised her), Quantrons and a variety of monsters. Elgar has also been added to her team, but he remains a comedic bungler. Over time, allies (such as Phantom Ranger, Justin Stewart and Adam Park) offer the Rangers invaluable aid, with Zhane (the Silver Space Ranger) emerging from cryo-sleep and joining the team. New Zords are also introduced. Meanwhile, Bulk and Skull become assistants to wacky  scientist Professor Phenomenus and join him in searching for aliens. While dedicated to finding Zordon, Andros has another quest: finding his sister, Karone, who was kidnapped when they were children. Over time, Andros discovers his sister was kidnapped by Darkonda, the arch rival of Ecliptor who has multiple lives. Much to Andros' surprise, it turns out that Karone is Astronema, who was raised by Ecliptor to be evil. Andros is able to convince Astronema of the truth and she defects with Ecliptor's help. Unfortunately just as quickly, she and Ecliptor are both recaptured and reprogrammed to follow Dark Specter . The reprogramming of Ecliptor worked excellent at first in returning him to being completely hostile to the Space Rangers, but the reprogramming also seemed to fade a tiny bit towards the end of the season. On the other hand, Astronema had become more evil than ever, as she not only wants to destroy the Space Rangers, but also Dark Specter. To that end, she unleashes the Psycho Rangers. The five robotic and borderline insane villains possess great power, which secretly comes from Dark Specter. Every time they fight, Dark Specter is drained of power and grows weaker. Individually, each Psycho  Ranger is too powerful for their Space Ranger equivalents. But the Psycho Rangers are not as good with teamwork, and the six Space Rangers are able to overcome them with a great deal of effort and teamwork. Soon after, the Rangers suffer setbacks that see two Megazords destroyed, which are the Delta Megazord and The Mega Voyager. Everything culminates in the two-part finale, "Countdown to Destruction", where Zordon is nearly completely drained and Dark Specter orders the villains under his command to attack the entire universe. Across the universe, the Alien, Gold Zeo and Phantom Rangers, the Blue Senturion , and KO-35's rebels are defeated and captured. The Space Rangers struggle to defend Earth, but are overwhelmed and forced to retreat. Even Zhane and his Zord, the Mega Winger, are no match, with the Mega Winger ending up destroyed. The treacherous Darkonda kills Dark Specter, who returns the favor before his own death, leaving Astronema in command as the Queen of Evil. While Andros boards the Dark Fortress to appeal to his sister, the remaining five Space Rangers engage in one last fight for Earth and are joined by the citizens of Angel Grove, with Bulk and Skull leading  the charge. On the Dark Fortress, Andros finds Zordon, who requests his energy tube be shattered. Doing so will release good energy that will destroy the forces of evil and save the universe, but also kill him. Following battles with Astronema and Ecliptor, Andros has no choice but to comply. The many monsters are subsequently turned to dust by the energy wave (including Ecliptor), while Lord Zedd, Rita Repulsa, Divatox and Astronema are changed into normal, non-evil humans. With the universe now safe, T.J., Cassie, Carlos, Ashley and Alpha 6 intend to settle down on Earth. Though initially intending  to remain on KO-35 with their people, Andros, Zhane and Karone decide to join their friends on Earth. Production. The original pre-bible for "in Space", drafted before the start of "Power Rangers Turbo"'s second half, was placed online in June 2011. The first half includes synopses of "Megaranger" episodes, with a mix of Japanese names and intended US names, and a breakdown of how much sentai footage was "usable"; there is a list of weaponry and Zords introduced, how often they appear, and the monsters and how they are destroyed. It then goes on to set out the  plans for the "in Space" adaptation. Both Astronema and Andros were originally absent, with the Phantom Ranger finding out about Dark Specter's plan instead, and Justin was going to remain in the team. Instead of losing their powers and base at the end of "Turbo", the Rangers would be given their Space powers by Dimitria (the "Turbo" mentor) so they could head into space and save Zordon. Their spacecraft would have had a limited power supply and could only be recharged by the Power Chamber on Earth, forcing them to keep returning; otherwise, they would hop from planet to  planet, encountering new and returning villains, and picking up clues for Zordon's whereabouts. Divatox was still going to be the main recurring villain, with Ecliptor as her new second-in-command. Bulk and Skull formed a volunteer Citizen Force Group to try and protect Angel Grove while the Rangers were away. The Silver Ranger was the subject of debate, as Saban were unsure if they wanted to use him. "In Space" would have seen "Carranger" villain Exhaus used as Dark Specter - he would instead be the monster Goldgoyle for the end of "Turbo". The Rangers were going to have  a base in Earth orbit called the new Power Dome: it was to be realized by "a giant pyramid made of silky material... the walls of silk will change constantly with special effects lights creating the different moods". The "Space Station" (Astro Megaship) interior was going to recycle the Power Chamber set; footage would be shot for the villain's "Evil Platform" set ahead of time and used as recurring stock footage. This would be the last season to feature the character Skull (Jason Narvy). as Narvy himself chose to leave the Power Rangers universe to continue his college education . "In Space" was originally written as the final season for the series, as the ratings began to decline following "Turbo". However, "In Space" ended up being an unexpected success and with fan interest returning, Saban and Fox decided to continue production of the series. Characters. Villains. Psycho Rangers. The Psycho Rangers are five evil Rangers created by Astronema as part of her plans to destroy Dark Specter and originally drew their energy from him, who felt the drain more strongly if the Psychos fought hard. Though stronger than the Power Rangers, the Psycho Rangers were impatient, could not work together , and were unwilling to follow Astronema's plans, leading to them being destroyed by the Space Rangers before Dark Specter was. When grown, their true monster forms were revealed. As spirits, they sought a way to return to physical form. This led them to Secret City where they used a digitizing device in reverse to become real again. During the conflict, the Psycho Rangers take damage enough to assume their monster forms without growing. However, the Rangers digitized them into data cards. The data cards later ended up in Deviot's possession, who revived them in "Power Rangers Lost Galaxy , but they were again destroyed by both the Galaxy and Space Rangers. The alternate continuity depicted in Boom Studios' comic series explains the origin of Psycho Rangers started from Supersonic Rangers (an adaption of Chikyu Sentai Fiveman" debuted in "Power Rangers Super Megaforce"), centering the original Psycho Ranger, Psycho Green. Astronema's Psycho Rangers are revealed to be based on one of her past victims across the planets, thus unknowingly uses Psycho Green as the main pattern. In this adaption, alternatively takes place after "Lost Galaxy", Astronema/Karone's Psycho Ranger was revived a third time by Psycho Green, giving  Karone a chance to redeem herself while end up having a conflict with Space Rangers over redeeming her Psycho Rangers. After spending time with a redeemed Karone, her Psycho Rangers finally redeemed and start new lives. In "Power Rangers Beast Morphers", Psycho Red's data card was found in Ryjack's collection of weapons. Robo-Blaze was the one who suggested that they use the Re-Animizer to revive Psycho-Red only for Robo-Roxy to mention that he was obsessed with destroying the Red Ranger and might turn against them. When Robo-Blaze states that they should revive all  the Psycho-Rangers, Snide states that they can only reanimate one of them. Monsters. The monsters used in this season work for Astronema. The monsters are adapted from the monsters that are featured in "Denji Sentai Megaranger". Some of the monsters have twisted parts while others appear to be robotic. To make a monster grow, Astronema would give orders to fire the Sattelaser at the monster making it grow. United Alliance of Evil. Villains from previous series also appeared as members of the United Alliance of Evil where they were gathered by Dark Specter. When it came to the two -part episode "Countdown to Destruction," they lead their attacks on different planets with an army of monsters from this season alongside those from previous "Power Rangers" series and other Tokusatsu-adapted programs where some of them appeared in both armies. The release of Zordon's Energy Wave purified some of them into humans while reducing the monsters to sand. Besides Astronema's group, information about these recurring villains can be found in the following articles: Episodes. <onlyinclude></onlyinclude> Home media. A VHS release for "Power Rangers in Space" contained the "Psycho Rangers" arc. In 2012, Shout Factory announced that  it had reached an exclusive distribution deal with Saban for shows such as "Power Rangers" and "Big Bad Beetleborgs". "Power Rangers in Space" was released on DVD in August 2012, as part of a Time-Life exclusive boxed set containing seasons 1–7. The show later became available independently of the boxed set in two volumes, the first volume consisting of first 22 episodes was released on August 5, 2014 and the second volume containing the remaining 21 episodes was released on October 7, 2014. Comics. During the events of "Shattered Grid", the Space Rangers are attacked by Drakkon and his  forces. Andros somehow managed to escape, while TJ was captured. According to Andros, Ashley, Cassie, and Carlos were all killed in the attack. Andros arrives in the world of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers universe barely escaping Drakkon's forces after seeing where he is holding all the captured Rangers he has accumulated across the universe. He is in close talk and strategy with the other Rangers as Karone watches from the shadows, unsure of how to approach her brother. After some encouragement from Jennifer Scotts, she approaches Andros, who is overjoyed to find out that his sister was saved  by him and the other Space Rangers. Andros joined a team of Rangers in "Beyond the Grid," the follow up to "Shattered Grid," alongside the Ranger Slayer, The Magna Defender, Cameron, Tanya and the Dark Ranger. Reception. Most critics gave the show a positive reception.