Foul Play in the Sky Review

Squat sneaks a sleeping potion into Kimberly’s uncle pilot’s drink, and send out a monster to take out a Power Rangers team with one member short. Bulk and Skull are slightly less annoying than usual, possibly due to them being unconscious most of the time.

Sometimes it’s the little things that make an episode enjoyable. Kimberly’s “Oh no lets Ignore Them Shit I Have To Talk To Them” face was wonderful as Bulk and Skull try to get her attention. Her reaction as her uncle foolishly allowed them onto the plane was very real and the sort of reaction that a person of Kimberly’s age would make when faced with the prospect of flying with two people that sleazy. Their use of the stock shots of Angel Grove as their view from the plane was a great idea from a money saving perspective, which is a big thing in PR. It’s a pity they couldn’t have snuck a shot of the Command Centre in there, but oh well.

This episode is a little more interesting than a standard episode. MMPR, especially in the first season, suffers from being frustratingly formulaic. This one, however, has an interesting challenge for Kimberly in trying to overcome fear and calmly taking control of the plane. While it was clearly a way to fit in with the Zyuranger footage, it was very well executed. The music and acting worked together well, and Amy by this point was starting to become a somewhat convincing actor (the others were still working on their acting, but oh well).

The big element of this episode, of course, was added in later on. It was originally written to have Kimberly be unconscious for most of the episode (Zack, right, is crouching next to her), but it was rewritten to give her a part that was more active. This was a fantastic idea, as this episode is commonly brought up by fans as being a defining episode for Kimberly. It certainly is one of my favourite episodes featuring her, partly because of the good job Amy Jo Johnson does with the script she was given. It gave her character an opportunity to break out of the usual mould given to her by the writers and really do something interesting. Great work!

This is one of a handful of episodes that don’t have a zord battle, which is interesting. Sometimes a zord battle detracts from the overall narrative, and having one in this episode would have done that. One example is in Gokaiger, where after Ahim avenges the death of her parents, there is a tacked on mecha fight. If the battle ended with the shot of Ahim holding the Galleon Buster and remembering her parents the sentiment would have been preserved a bit more. This episode is nowhere near as emotionally charged of course, but this episode is all about Kimberly learning about what she is capable of and learning about how to conquer fear in the face of adversity. Besides, it features Kimberly taking out a monster with her bow, and that is awesome.

MMPR as a whole lacks really good characterisation. Sure the characters themselves are interesting, but a lot of the time the sort of trials they go through seem really trivial and have no real lasting impact on the characters as a whole. This is of course symptomatic of the approach they took in the early years of having clusters of one shot episodes, with the only real ongoing plot being the green ranger arc (and that was pushed in due to the fan reaction to the story, plus Zyuranger footage constraints).

Overall I’d give this episode a 4.5 out of 5.