Weekly Ranger Review: Dino Charge Episode 08, “Double Ranger, Double Danger”

It’s Ranger vs. Ranger in Power Rangers Dino Charge’s eighth episode, “Double Ranger, Double Danger”.

Synopsis

Fury has a plan to steal the E-Tracer, but Sledge decides to let Poisandra the mission instead, based on her success in the last episode. She selects Duplicon, a monster capable of changing Vivixs into other beings.

Riley and Shelby set up the E-Tracer to search for the Gold Energem, while Tyler writes in his journal talking about his team, noting how cute Shelby is, and how much he wants to beat Fury. Koda’s nose (and Kendall’s radar) alert them to alien lifeforms. They quickly power down the E-Tracer and let Tyler prep the jeep. The Rangers, morphed, arrive at the jeep and Tyler drives away. The jeep breaks down. After a call with Shelby, Tyler learns that the Rangers were Vivixs. Tyler is defeated and they escape with the E-Tracer. The team, back at the base, rush back out to find the E-Tracer.

Tyler, summoning the Dino Cycle, drives off to hunt it down too. At the city center, Duplicon makes more clone Rangers. Fury, upset as usual that Poisandra succeeded, storms off. He decides to hunt the Red Ranger as the other Rangers do battle with the clone Rangers. Chase, having slipped flowers in the real Rangers belts, takes out the clone Rangers. Meanwhile, Wrench and Poisandra try to activate the E-Tracer.

Tyler gets attacked by Fury. As the battle rages on, Tyler manages to pin Fury. The other Rangers, still fighting Duplicon, realize they need to use the Dino Spike to win. Just as Fury is going to tell him about his father, the other Rangers call him, urging him to help them. Fury uses this to his advantage to put the pressure on Tyler, but is stopped as a mysterious golden energy tries to escape from his body. Tyler ends up escaping to aid the Rangers.

Tyler arrives at the last possible moment, using the Dino Spike to defeat Duplicon. The now giant Duplicon turns a Vivizord into a giant Fury. In the Dino Charge Megazord, the Rangers use the Dino Gas Charger to momentarily disable the two monsters while they summon the Ankylo Zord. With the Dino Charge Megazord Tri-Ankylo Formation, they defeat the two with ease.

While Poisandra and Wrench activate the E-Tracer, it locks on to the signal of the Ptera Zord. Unfortunately Fury arrives and steals the device. The Rangers arrive on the scene as Chase shoots the E-Tracer, effectively destroying it. However, Fury reminds them the Ptera Charger was still in the device, and with memory of the coordinates, that is all he needs to activate the Ptera Zord. Kendall says the single Charger doesn’t have enough power to activate the Ptera Zord into Battle Mode, giving the Rangers determination to continue.

Review

This episode marks the first episode in a three part story featuring the hunt for the Gold Energem and the Ptera Zord. Unfortunately, with the hiatus striking, we won’t get to see the conclusion of the story for several months. Thankfully, the way the story is set up, this episode didn’t feel like an awful cliffhanger like I was anticipating.

That being said, this episode did so much, in so little time. The Gold Energem and the Ptera Zord have been brought up a few times before, but after successfully finding the Ankylo Zord with the E-Tracer, the next step was evidently the Ptera Zord. Of course, the villains want in on this action too, and ultimately end up with the ability to get their hands on the Zord quite easy. Future events will obviously spiral to the revelation of the Zord and the Energem. More importantly, we see more development in the story surrounding Tyler and his father.

The story with Fury is one of the more fascinating aspects of the show. Those that have seen Kyoryuger can easily see where it is all going. While I am remaining hopeful that they deviate a bit from their Japanese counterparts, I’m still intrigued about what it is Fury did to Tyler’s dad. Whether that’s Tyler’s Dad inside Fury trying to get out, or someone else, the element of mystery is still there, and it is elements like those that keep me watching a show.

I am also a huge fan of the feud between Poisandra and Fury. The past four years have been a sea of one-track villains (sans perhaps Vrak) so it is incredibly refreshing to see a cast of villains that actually have quality stories and goals. Sledge has an obvious bias towards his fiancee, so you almost want to root for Fury in this situation. Just the fact that we are in a situation where we can root for one villain or another is pretty amazing. It will be interesting to see where the rivalry takes the characters.

I don’t normally look at fight choreography in these reviews, but I just have to make comment on how great the unmorphed fight between Tyler and Fury was. There was a lot of obligatory wire-work, but the choreography and acting from Brennan was top notch for Power Rangers. Though the exploding car was a tad over the top. In a franchise known for over the top effects, it is just something that came a bit natural in a scene as powerful as this.

This was probably one of the strongest episodes of Dino Charge yet. The advancements of plot and character far outweigh any possible criticism. In one 22 minute episode we’ve watched Tyler and Shelby’s potential romance blossom, the mystery behind Tyler’s father grow deeper, and the feud between Poisandra and Fury grow stronger. Tack on the fact that we begin the story arc of the Gold Energem, and you have yourself a recipe for one fantastic episode of Power Ranger. The hiatus is going to be rough this year.

VS. Kyoryuger

This episode was an adaption of “Brave 07” from Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger. Like most of Dino Charge thus far, the two episodes share some similarities, but are all in all two completely different experiences.

In “Brave 07” Debo Yakigonte (Duplicon) creates duplicates of the Kyoryugers in hopes of breaking the team apart and ruining their teamwork. Thanks to Daigo’s (Red’s) overabundance of trust, the Debo Monster’s plan is foiled. Meanwhile, the entire plot was a distraction so Chaos (the leader of the Debos Legion) could break the seal and control Pteragordon (Ptera Zord).

Meanwhile in “Double Ranger, Double Danger” the clone Ranger plot takes a huge back seat in favor of progressing the stories of Poisandra and Fury, as well as Tyler and his father. The clone Rangers are mainly used to trick Tyler and set the other plot elements in motion. We also saw no actual Ptera Zord in this episode, just a huge number of mentions.

As usual, the episodes used the same monster, and some of the same footage, but wound up with two completely different stories. The Dino Charge rendition of the footage hardly used the clone plot in the way these episodes normally function. They weren’t used to trick the Rangers into hating each other or hurting each other. They weren’t used to get the public to turn on the Rangers. They were simply used to fool Tyler into letting them steal the E-Tracer. That was it. The tone set in both episodes are like night and day.

That’s not to say the Kyoryuger episode was dull by any means. That episode also introduced the Ptera Zord, but solved it relatively fast and suddenly, where as the Dino Charge approach is taking a lot of time with a bit more build up. Both shows are following roughly the same route thus far, but I have to give Dino Charge huge props for developing so many characters, feuds, and story elements in such a short eight episode span. Bravo.

Next Week

The hiatus is now upon us! When Dino Charge returns in the fall with “When Logic Fails” the Rangers are caught in a mysterious maze by one of Fury’s monsters. It’s up to Riley and his logic to get the Rangers out.

That’s a temporary wrap on the Dino Charge Ranger Reviews! But this isn’t the end of the segment. In the weeks of the hiatus, how would you like Ranger Review to continue? Should I take a look at random episodes from the series’ library? Should I take a look at an entire season in a 4-part retrospective? Let me know your opinions in the comments below!