POWER RANGERS LOST GALAXY is Less Than Stellar

Well, I did it. I watched Power Rangers Lost Galaxy. That was weird. I don’t remember loving Lost Galaxy as a kid and I still don’t love it as an adult. It’s a bit of a mess in all honesty. Lost Galaxy came after In Space which saved the Power Rangers franchise. Therefore, I guess Saban felt they had to keep the space theme going even if the Sentai used (Seijuu Sentai Gingaman) was more of a nature-themed Sentai. Overall, it works, but I’m not sure it was necessary to go with the space deal. The story of Lost Galaxy is that a group of humans are going to leave Earth in search of a new planet to live on, but I don’t think a reason is ever given. So, yay?

All of the characters are new although Bulk and Professor Phenomenus do make some extremely minor appearances and Skull makes a single appearance showing he got left behind. Honestly, I don’t think that Bulk would’ve ever forgotten Skull, so that’s already a mark in the wrong direction. Unfortunately with a huge change in casting and characters, we’re left with a lot of uninteresting characters. Each one is defined by a single trait usually and they’re never given much nuance. Maya is the out of place character, Damon is a reluctant guy who loves to work in engineering, Kai is the obedient soldier, Kendrix is the smart one, and Leo is I guess the hot rebel? He sneaks aboard Terra Venture because he can’t get a pass the proper way and then runs into Kendrix and Kai who for some reason don’t report him. I can only assume it’s because she thought Leo was hot. Oh, and eventually Kendrix is replaced by Karone whose personality is repentant soul since she used to be Astronema.

Apparently, enough time has passed where not much has changed on Earth, but the Astro Megaship is apparently a museum now that can’t fly but can fly? Go figure I guess. Everything seems wonky with the timing that they deliberately leave vague.

One of the bigger sins of the season is the pacing. At the very beginning, the pacing is very rushed. Each episode has something new for the Rangers to use and it’s just run full stop. However, once the writers felt like the Rangers had enough tools they slowed the show down to a crawl leading to a lot of boring formulaic episodes used 100% as filler in a row. Also, they tend to have and know about things never mentioned before. In the early episodes, they need the Transdaggers but there’s never a mention by anyone except the monster talking to the villain. The Rangers seemingly had no idea these things existed but then made a plan in order to obtain them? Not to mention the Astro Cycles that come out of no where and the Quasar Launchers that are never explained but suddenly appear. There was plenty of time to explain where these came from. There was a freaking clip show episode for crying out loud!

The Magna Defender is something to talk about. His introduction is awesome. Unfortunately, the more we see him, the more annoying he gets as he’s a one dimensional revenge machine. Eventually, Mike, Leo’s brother, takes over as the Magna Defender, but he eventually loses those powers and is able to breathe in space.

Speaking of Mike, I want to talk about the theme for the season. I think the theme is destiny for this season. Everyone goes on about destiny and fulfilling their own destiny. This is all fine and dandy, but I do not buy the line that Mike gives Leo about it being his destiny to pull the Quasar Saber and give it to Leo. I call bullcrap on that one. The Quasar Sabers were legendary weapons that were supposed to only be able to be pulled out of the stone by the chosen heroes. By that logic, there were five chosen heroes, one per blade, yet Mike pulls the red saber but Leo is able to access its powers? Speaking of the swords, did you notice that even though Maya’s the only one who knows anything about the legend, but all of them treat pulling the Quasar Sabers like some epic feat with no knowledge of the culture or history? I found it a little odd.

The team up with the In Space gang was cool with the resurrection of the Psycho Rangers and the death of Kendrix (who is later revived because Quasar Saber magic I guess). Kendrix’s death is actually a very powerful moment and handled well in my opinion. Saban killed a Power Ranger!? However, there were a lot of unanswered questions. Terra Venture had traveled over 10 lightyears away from Earth and had the Astro Megaship. How are the In Space Rangers traveling? They just randomly show up like it’s no big deal, like Earth is just next door. What is the deal here?

The final 3-parter episode is pretty good, but it’s drawn out a bit much in my opinion and feels like they were just trying to copy “Countdown to Destruction” from In Space.

Now, I do want to talk about something that I quite liked about Lost Galaxy. Despite all the criticism I’ve shown for the season, it did do something really cool: Trakeena. Trakeena is a villain but she probably has the most character development of the season. What’s more is that the development doesn’t lead her to be a good guy. It drives her even deeper into the darkness. Trakeena starts out being a girl who just wants to be a fighter and rule the galaxy alongside her father, she then goes and becomes a decent warrior and takes over for her father after he is killed by the Rangers, and continues growing in her deviousness driven by her newfound hatred of the Rangers for killing her father. Her journey is actually interesting to watch.

Of course, one of my biggest questions with Lost Galaxy has always been how are there bad guys? At the end of In Space, Andros destroys Zordon’s energy tube which in theory cleansed the entire universe of evil. Not sure how there were any villains then for this season or future ones, but I guess we don’t care?

I personally find Lost Galaxy to be inconsistent and very messy, but what do you think of the season?

Current Power Rangers Ranking:

1. Power Rangers In Space

2. Power Rangers Zeo

3. Power Rangers Beast Morphers Season 1

4. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season 3

5. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season 2

6. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season 1

7. Power Rangers S.P.D.

8. Power Rangers Turbo

9. Power Rangers Lost Galaxy