Power Rangers Review: "The Mutiny: Part I"

In such a short time, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers became the ultimate kids' program on Fox, airing original episodes six days a week and gaining an immense following. I was eight years old when this whole thing started, and I was hooked even before I turned nine. The episodes were a hit, the toys were selling like hotcakes. It was official: the Power Rangers were a phenomenon.

The popularity reached an epic moment by the summer of 1994: a promo from Fox for an event airing on primetime. I was hella excited. I remember coming home from a day of playing at my local park and turning on my TV so I could watch this event; I was in such awe over this! I knew that with the special time slot, something big was going to happen on this show.

Boy, did it!

The episode began with a charity race taking place, and of course, the participants include the sextet of Rangers, as well as Bulk and Skull, who had to be reminded that winning was not the objective. Meanwhile, Rita Repulsa was looking down at the goings-on down in Angel Grove, and she and her minions were all ready to go on the attack. All of a sudden, lightning flashed, and mysterious laughter breaks out. Rita's wondering what's going on. Goldar gives the following answer:

"This can mean only one thing: Lord Zedd, the true emperor, has finally returned!"

Oh, God (that was Rita's exact response).

The rally begins, and all of the racers speed off, all the while, the palace is still shaking.

And then, he appears:

"I am Lord Zedd, Emperor of all I see. You have failed to complete the mission assigned to you. I will now resume command. Prepare the palace for my return!"

Lord Zedd makes his way, and already Rita breaks out her "I have such a headache" line; Goldar tells her to deal with it as he meets his emperor. As the rally continues, Jason notices the lightning sounds and gets the Rangers together. After they reconvene, the group voices their worries and agrees that they should keep their eyes on their communicators just in case. Meanwhile, Rita's palace is replaced with a massive fortress, where Goldar enters looking to greet Zedd. A throne appears, and we see Lord Zedd, in all his diabolical glory, seated...with a snake slithering on him. Even Goldar is freaked out by the sight of the snake, which Zedd later turns into his staff, which has a "Z" on top.

"I am Lord Zedd. Identify yourself."

"Excellency," Goldar says, "surely you remember me: Goldar, your humble servant."

"Ah yes, Goldar--the groveling one."

Goldar swears his allegiance to Zedd in such a sycophantic fashion that it would even turn Eddie Haskell's stomach. "Your spineless and sniveling attitude leads me to believe that you will serve me well," Zedd says. "For that, I shall restore to you what was once taken away." And with one wave of Zedd's staff, Goldar's wings are back. Now, as a kid, I didn't remember Goldar ever having wings before. I didn't watch the pilot episode that attentively, but years later, I saw them--he clearly lost them the first time he faced the Rangers. Zedd turns his attention to looking for the very Power Rangers who had stymied Rita so many times before, and at that moment, Rita appears and also kisses up to Zedd, while calling Goldar a traitor.

"Oh, Lord Zedd!" Rita begged. "Give me another chance! I won't fail again!"

"QUIET!" shouted Zedd. "Those Power Rangers are nothing but mere infants! You were defeated by children! You dare call yourself an Empress of Evil?! You are not fit to destroy a cockroach!"

Goldar voices his agreement, which angers Rita, but she's nowhere near as angry as Zedd, who glows a bright red in response. Meanwhile, the alarm goes off at the Command Center, and Zordon tells Alpha to contact the Power Rangers. The sound goes off, and Jason leads the group to a private area, where they answer and teleport to the Command Center.

"Power Rangers," said Zordon, "the thing I feared most has happened: Lord Zedd has returned."

Billy asked who Lord Zedd was, and Zordon stated that Zedd was the lord and master of Rita and her minions. He added that Zedd had been ruling in darker places all over the galaxy, and eons ago, he left Rita in charge of carrying out his orders. Since she's failed to so, Zedd's back to finish the job. When asked if they would be able to defeat Zedd, Zordon voices his doubt that their Zords could survive Zedd's powerful magic.

Back at the fortress, Zedd mocks Zordon's belief that the Rangers would ever defeat him, and at that moment, Goldar suggests sending the Putties after the Rangers. Zedd laughs at this: "Your Putties are as useless to me as you are!"

Zedd presented his own group of Putties, and juiced them up with his staff, and afterwards, Rita continues her groveling, and is again mocked by Goldar. Zedd informed Rita that she would not get any more chances, and afterwards, Zedd orders his Putties to bring out her "traveling vehicle," aka the dumpster. Oh man. Zedd stripped Rita of her powers "that she squandered," which result in Rita being shrunk down to miniature size. Goldar places the squawking sorceress inside the dumpster, with Rita vowing that Zedd would pay for this action. Zedd sends the dumpster off into space, and as Rita floats off, she vows that they haven't seen the last of her (she'd be dead right, and that's another story for another time).

All the while, Bulk and Skull run into some trouble with their bikes, and then discover the group's bikes and plan to take them, until the new Z-Putties appear. The Rangers see the attack on the duo, and Kimberly quickly notices that "they aren't the run-of-the-mill putties." Zordon mentions that they were Zedd's more powerful Putty Patrol.

"I bet this attack was meant for us," said Zack "Captain Obvious" Taylor.

The Rangers morph into action, and Bulk and Skull are absolutely elated to see the superhero group, and later watch the fight against the Z-Putties. I want to say here that I do love the loud sounds that came with the Z-Putty fight, which sees the Rangers flustered with the difficulty they are having against the Z-Putties. Green, Black, and Blue are huddled together after having their own problems, but as Green continues the fight, something's up. His unstable powers are getting low, and the Z-Putties easily toss him aside. Jason enters and saves Tommy, while also punching the "Z" on one of the Putties' chest, causing it to disintegrate. Now the Rangers had the secret to defeating the Z-Putties: aim directly for the "Z." The fight continues, and they take down those Z-Putties one by one.

Red Ranger asks Bulk and Skull if they're OK--the duo nods. The Rangers teleport to the Command Center, while Bulk and Skull look up in awe. Skull says that no one will ever believe that they actually met the Power Rangers, but Bulk says that they'll prove it. Bulk stated that the Rangers were real people. They heard the voices; they can hear them, they can touch them. That was followed by this proclamation from Farkas Bulkmeier:

"We're going to find out who they really are!"

And thus began Bulk and Skull's Season Two storyline.

Meanwhile, at the Command Center, Jason mentioned how tough it was fighting those Z-Putties. Tommy stated that his powers were failing him, and that Jason saved him. The Rangers wondered what was in store for them next.

"I have a feeling it ain't Pudgy Pig," said Zack "Hilarious One-Liner" Taylor.

Zack's gut feeling was confirmed by Zedd, who stated that there would be no more of Rita's "inferior" monsters, as he would create his own, and with that, he created Pirantishead out of a pirahna from the lake. The monster's appearance sets off the alarm, and Zordon sends five of the Rangers off to fight the monster, while Tommy had to stay behind and get charged up. Upon seeing Pirantishead, the Rangers call out their Zords, but Pirantishead is ready. With the use of his fish flute, Pirantishead freezes Mastodon, Triceratops, Saber-Toothed Tiger, and Pterodactyl, leaving the Rangers up the creek without a paddle as the episode ends.

Part I of "The Mutiny" aired on Thursday evening, July 21, 1994 on Fox, and kicked off MMPR's second season. Where do I start with the historic moments? First off, the episode marked the official debut of Lord Zedd as the new Big Bad, and he was the Power Rangers' first original villain; Rita Repulsa was borrowed from the show's Japanese counterpart, Zyuranger. Zedd would serve as a regular top baddie for the rest of the MMPR era, and would appear a bit in Zeo, Turbo, and In Space, before making a recent return to the franchise. Regarding casting, Zedd's embodiment was portrayed by Ed Neil, but the iconic voice was provided by the late, great Robert Axelrod. Axelrod had already been working on MMPR during Season One, as he was voicing Finster (Rita's monster maker), Lokar, and a few of Rita's monsters--most notably a two-headed parrot from late in Season One.

So yeah, we are closing in on the 30th anniversary of the debut of Lord Zedd, who provided a lot of hilarious one-liners in this episode and beyond. In addition, for the first time in the franchise history, we see the Rangers helmetless. This would be a regular thing from this point on, and I thought it was so cool seeing the Rangers helmetless--especially Kimberly, because I had a bit of a crush on her and seeing her wearing the Pink Ranger uniform sans helmet increased that, and Tommy, because he looked bad-ass with the shield. Another thing debuted in this episode: "Back to action!" That was the line that was shouted when the Rangers returned to battle, and it was usually shouted by Jason.

I knew then that the Dinozords would be taken out somehow, because something told me back then that we would see new Zords come into play. We would see them in the following part, but as for Part I, this was quite the epic episode that was absolutely worthy of the primetime slot!

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