The Power Trip: A Journey Through the Power Rangers Franchise

Nathan and Michael, having survived Operation Overdrive, come to the penultimate Disney era season: Power Rangers Jungle Fury. On the surface, it just looks like another animal-themed series, but they quickly learned it’s steeped in martial arts movie tropes. Think of it as the lovechild of Wild Force and Ninja Storm. The Rangers’ mentor/ purple Wolf Ranger, RJ, steals every scene he’s in with his...

Believe it or not, Nathan issues the smallest of apologies to Power Rangers Turbo! And Michael snaps because there’s no nostalgia or a corset to save this series. Yes, the lowest of valleys for the Disney era, Power Rangers: Operation Overdrive. It has a solid premiere and a few good episodes. It showed what this season could’ve been but wasn’t, which makes it even more frustrating. Almost nothing...

Podcastros temporarium maximus! Welcome to Power Rangers Hogwarts, er, Mystic Force. This PR season was made at the height of “Pottermania,” and given it was filmed in New Zealand, it must’ve been trying to catch some of that Lord of the Rings, well, magic. It’s unique in both the Power Ranger and Super Sentai franchises with its focus on high fantasy. It’s just too bad it’s mildly obsessed with i...

The Disney Era leg of our journey through the Power Rangers franchise continues with Power Rangers SPD, and Michael and Nathan are joined by their friend J.R. Villers of The Drift Space podcast. J.R. is a mega-fan of this series, while Nathan and Michael are watching it for the first time—and are surprised by how good it is. The show has many elements that, in lesser hands, would’ve been stupid, b...

Dr. Tommy Oliver barely escapes from a mysterious island crawling with dinosaur mutants before it explodes. Some years later, he lives a quiet life as a high school science teacher. But when the evil saurian overlord Mesogog sets his sights on bringing back the age of dinosaurs, Tommy jump-kicks into action by collecting the Dino Gems. These artifacts choose three unlikely teens from very differen...

Nathan and Michael reach the first true Disney season, Power Rangers Naruto, er, Power Rangers: Ninja Storm. These Rangers—no joke—have a guinea pig as their mentor, and this show is Disney’s guinea pig for the franchise. Its equal parts experimentation and trend-following. It introduces fourth wall-breaking self-parody while embracing the popularity of extreme sports at the time. The show also ge...

Michael and Nathan come to what some call the end of the Saban Era (which they don’t) or the start of the Disney Era (which they do) of Power Rangers: Power Rangers Wild Force. This transitional season is an odd hodgepodge of both Saban and Disney sensibilities. To say it’s uneven would be an understatement. On one hand, it’s compelling and dark when the villain Zen-Aku is on screen, but it’s also...

Nathan and Michael have reached the end of an era—the Saban Era, that is! Join them as they rank the first entries in the Power Rangers franchise from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers to Time Force (including the two movies) in a pair of epic top ten lists. Both hosts surprised each other all the way up to their respective number ones. Did their rankings match yours? Did Michael succumb to nostalgia a...

Make time for…Time Force! You’re gonna need some quantum power to listen to this. Longest. Episode. EVER!!! But it shouldn’t surprise anyone that Michael and Nathan would dive deep into the final Saban Era season that was so dark and grown-up, it really aired in primetime before The X-Files. This season has everything: time travel, robots, and mutants. It’s at once embedded in its time while also...

Nathan and Michael get to the neglected middle child of the post-Zordon Saban Era: Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue. It’s underrated and underappreciated because it’s sandwiched between two popular and excellent seasons. While it has its faults—it tries and fails to recapture the magic of “Green with Evil,” it crams in too many plotlines, and the villainous Vypra is prettier than she is talented—it...

For this special bonus episode, Michael and Nate discuss Nate's "power trip" to Indianapolis for Indiana Comic-Con over the weekend. Nate talks about his experience meeting four Power Rangers, including the original Green Ranger, and Michael's personal G.O.A.T., Jason David Frank! It was a fun, laid-back discussion about a really great weekend. ----------------------------------------------- EMAIL...

Power Rangers: Lost Galaxy marks a crossroads for the franchise—and for Michael! This was the season where Saban Entertainment fully embraced the Super Sentai model with new characters and a new team every year. Even so, this is sometimes grandfathered into the Zordon Era because it does carry over a few things from the previous season, like Alpha-5 and the Astro Mega Ship. But this is also where...

The rumors of a three-hour PowerPoint (ba-dum-tsh) presentation were untrue—it’s 2.5 hours. Like Nathan said in the previous episode, Power Rangers Turbo broke the franchise’s leg so Power Rangers In Space could put it in a splint, run, and then break the splint while sprinting. In fact, the franchise flies higher than ever before—and it inspires the “professor” side of Nathan to come out and educ...

If Nathan was a Power Ranger monster-of-the-week, his name would be “Rant Master.” Michael gets earfuls of it this week when they discuss the infamous double whammy of Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie and Power Rangers Turbo. Michael tries to counter Nathan…by raving about Divatox’s corset. They hit all the usual topics with this low point of the franchise—Justin (aka “Power Kenny”), the laughable vil...

Here’s a special “Lightning Round” for you today, Listeners with Attitude! Michael and Nathan are joined by Karl Dutton, the founder of Scyther Audio Drama Podcasts, which includes Power Rangers: The Audio Drama. Yes, after referencing it in nearly every episode of The Power Trip so far, its creator graces your hosts with his presence. They discuss everything from the Audio Drama’s beginnings (whi...

Michael and Nathan get to the first season that was radically different in more ways than one: Power Rangers Zeo. Saban took one step closer to embracing the Super Sentai formula by changing costumes, Zords, and villains! It was a paradigm shift that felt like an earthquake, but in the end, the franchise was STRONGER THAN BEFORE. With Tanya joining the team and Machine Empire usurping the Moon Cre...

Michael and Nathan make their first guest appearance on a fellow Ranger podcast on Zeo to Hero, a gabfest show about all things Power Rangers, Gundam, and more. They ramble about a bunch of things—and sometimes talk about serious stuff like the Lightning Collection and prejudice. This was originally posted on the Zeo to Hero feed. The original episode description: “The Bulk and Skull of Podcasting...

We’ve reached the end of the most iconic era of Power Rangers—and it goes out with a bang and a whimper! This season has some of the highest points of Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers: Lord Zedd invading the Command Center, Lord Zedd fighting Tommy, and a backdoor pilot for Masked Rider (see our crossover episode with Henshin Men for more on that). Amy Jo Johnson left the series, so fans (like Michae...

It's henshin time! In a special bonus episode, The Power Trip joins forces with Henshin Men! Yes, in a crossover of many firsts, Michael and Nathan are joined by their co-host in kamen (ba-dum-tsh!), Travis, from their fellow Kaiju Ramen Network podcast, Henshin Men. What could possibly bring them together? None other than the three-part backdoor pilot on Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers that introdu...

The Power Rangers “go, go” to the movies! Michael and Nathan discuss the Teenagers with Attitude’s first big screen outing, which was a HUGE pop culture event. Some might even say the franchise went downhill from here, but that’s debatable. This movie takes place in its own little universe, so it has no ties to the show aside from the characters and actors. The CGI is bowling shoe ugly now, but th...

We have reached peak Power Rangers—at least according to Michael, because he likes low-hanging fruit named Lord Zedd. :P Joking aside, Nathan does agree that the first third of this season of Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers has tremendous high points, but then the combined powers of moms and the almighty dollar wrecked it. Zedd is one of the most terrifying villains in the franchise (did Toei ever w...

After a few false starts (as discussed in episode 0), lightning strikes! Five “teenagers with attitude” (and one more later) are recruited by an interdimensional wizard to battle a space witch bent on world domination. (Of course!) This season lays the groundwork for everything that follows: the tropes, the Zords, the campiness, and more. No matter how many actors have been Rangers and villains, w...

A journey of 29 seasons begins with a single episode. Michael Hamilton (Kaiju Weekly, The Kaiju Groupie Podcast) and Nathan Marchand (The Monster Island Film Vault, Henshin Men) begin their “power trip” (see what we did there?) through the Power Rangers franchise by introducing themselves, the show’s format, and the goals of the podcast. You’ll hear Michael wax nostalgic about growing up with the...

Celebrate the 29th anniversary of Power Rangers with Michael Hamilton (Kaiju Weekly, The Kaiju Groupie Podcast) and Nathan Marchand (The Monster Island Film Vault, Henshin Men) as they embark on a quest through every season of this morphenomenal franchise. Coming January 4, 2022, to a podcatcher near you! IT’S MORPHIN’ TIME! ----------------------------------------------- EMAIL FEEDBACK TO THE SHO...