Ah, the nostalgia of summer in 1993. I remember spending those sunny days at my best friend’s house, indulging in our favorite pastime of playing video games and just hanging out. We were soon-to-be 5th graders back then when having a walkman, mixed cassette tapes, and pizza was the epitome of cool.

Those were truly simpler times, when every kid on the playground wanted to be the Red Ranger, though some may have fancied themselves as the Black or Blue Ranger, and then there were those few who stood out by wanting to be the Pink Ranger.

As it turned out, my friend who always wanted to be the Pink Ranger ended up coming out as a gay man, which didn’t surprise me at all. I’ve always believed in the importance of being true to oneself, no matter what. But despite any labels or preconceived notions, I was still a huge fan of the Power Rangers.

Like many kids of the 90s, I eagerly watched every day after school, waiting with bated breath for Tommy the Green Ranger to show up and wreak havoc.

Until he became Good that is; Rest in Peace JDF.

30 years later.

It’s hard to believe that it’s been 30 years since I was a 10-year-old going on 11, engrossed in watching Power Rangers. I must confess that I stopped watching the show soon after Lost Galaxy. However, in the mid-2000s, I found myself getting back into the action by watching Super Sentai, and even delving into older shows that were never aired as Power Rangers.

Perhaps it was a sign of growing up, but I simply wasn’t loving many of the new Power Rangers offerings, given that I had already watched the Sentai version the year before.

Despite this, there were some standout seasons, including Mystic Force and Dino Thunder, and even though I liked Ninja Storm, I never finished it. These days, I tend to watch only special episodes featuring older rangers and actors I enjoy, particularly Adam, Tommy, and Jason.

That being said, Time Force was the only season that managed to draw me back into watching on a weekly basis. While I missed out on most of the storylines between Lightspeed and maybe Ninja Storm, I feel that the franchise has been relying heavily on nostalgic bait to revive aging and dying franchises in recent years.

The Continuity Issue

Before we delve into the trailer for the Power Rangers 30 years Special; Once and Always, which promises to be a mix of fun, nostalgia, and sadness, let’s address the elephant in the room.

Sadly, Jason David Frank will not be making an appearance in this special. To be fair, he has already made several comebacks, with his last appearance being in Ninja Steel, where he used the Master Morpher to access all his past powers.

Over the years, Power Rangers has conveniently forgotten about many old storylines involving lost or destroyed powers. For instance, the original power coins were destroyed in season 3, and the Rangers needed the Zero Crystal to restore their powers.

It’s worth noting that the episode from In Space, where Adam used his cracked morpher to turn into the Black Ranger, doesn’t count, as it was stated to be broken and his powers faded in and out during the fight. It was also meant to have serious consequences for him.

In Operation Overdrive, which wasn’t a fan favorite, Adam came back with his Power Coin. This was explained by a robot with access to the morphing grid, who restored Adam’s powers, as well as those of other Rangers. Apparently, they got to keep them afterward.

Jason also made an appearance in Beast Morphers, with his Power Coin, alongside other original and Dino Thunder Rangers (excluding Tommy, of course), to team up with the Dino Charge Rangers and fight Goldar Maximus. Interestingly, this marked the first time that a storyline from a Sentai movie was incorporated into the show.

It happened in the Kyoryuger vs. Go-Busters movie, which I’ll give a pass to, as it could have been Jason from another dimension or universe. It seems like everyone these days is using the multiverse concept to get around plot issues.

The Trailer Reaction

Overall, I liked the trailer. Power Rangers Once & Always in is a great title. I think it’s an awesome its own thing, and not just tossed in randomly into a season only to have no build-up and forgotten shortly after.

I’ll link it below for you to watch yourself. But from what I can tell, it looks like they are going to do a good job of getting around the fact that Thuy Trang passed away way back in 2001. We also lost JDF last fall.

Because it’s really hard to have the full OG lineup, without having the OG actors. While the green ranger is there, it looks like along with Jason and Kim, they will be “captured” earn on the episode.

This will be the reason why Rocky and Kat show up. Because they replaced the original actors in the show. From my understanding, you can Google this. Amy Jo Johnson didn’t return, because they didn’t give her a bigger part, plus the money.

Plus I think she’s been done with Power Rangers for a long time now. I believe Austin st. John couldn’t return due to some legal issues. They film the show outside the US.

Also, JDK retired from Power Rangers way back in early 2022, officially focusing on his own project, the White Dragon film, before I think they even officially accounted for this Special.

There are also past live streams, and other clips of friends who discuss his distaste for how Hasbro and others have been handling the series and the lack of letting JDF do what he wants for Power Rangers.

At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter. For Thuy, it looks like they are going to go the whole Wakanda Forever way and make her real-life death part of the canon of the show. It is a nice touch, that she goes out as a hero. We won’t see any deep faking or anything, just a suit actor who will be “her”

it also looks like she protects Bill from Rita’s attack that is met to kill him. That’s a sweet way to wrap up her character as well as a nod to the 2017 film, which had Rita kill Bill in the movie.

Speaking of Rita

I guess Lord Zed has come back as well in the current show, Dino Fury, his most evil version or something. Again, in the plot here, Back In Space, both Zed and Rita’s evil was removed from them when Zordon made his sacrifice.

Given she’s a robot, which is the best way to have her in a ‘suit’ and have her voiced still? Oddly enough in the canon of Power Rangers, the good version of Rita became Mytic Mother. This was a nod to the actress who played Witch Bandora in Zyuranger and also played the Mytic Mother in Mahō Sentai Magiranger.

My guess is the robot is the evil that was never destroyed that is somehow back, maybe it’ll tie into what they have been doing with Zed. It also looks like they are going to make her more dangerous and not sort of an idiot they made the character in later seasons after season 1. S

ort of how they made Zed now more of a threat. After Season 2 they made Zed also too goofy.

I think it’s nice to see David Yost back. As I stated in the opening, my friend came out as gay years later. Mr. Yost was the same and there are a number of stories of how he was bullied and abused on set due to this. I always wondered why they never did anything with him after he left in season 4.

The whole traveling to Aquitar to use the Eternal Falls, due to his aging (again Plot). I never knew the reason this happened.

Once & Always

Always thought it was money and a reduced role like the past three. So seeing his back makes me happy, a lot has changed I think since those days. Also seeing Walter Jones back is awesome. Yes, I will always like the character of Adam, but damn Zach was freaking cool.

This should be a fun ride. I don’t really expect every plot hole this two-episode special is going to cause. From my understanding, they now have the Morphin Masters in the show. They are basically one giant MacGuffin, they can do anything for the plot. Just like in the boom comics.

So my guess is they will be the reason why everyone gets their powers back. It could also reveal that we’re in a different timeline, maybe the original team never lost their powers so the event of Seasons 3-4 never happened.

They could easily explain that away, but I think a lot of fans will hate that. The best way I can see this being explained, for a kid’s show is that the Morphin Masters restored their powers for reasons. Maybe because of Zed or maybe they foresaw this happening and who better to deal with Rita and Zed than MMR?

The Future

David Yost is going to be in Cosmic Fury, at least in the first few episodes. Nowadays Power Rangers is only like 10 episodes long. I’m happy about this, with his return in Once & Always after like 20 years, I believe, seeing him get the role he should have is awesome. Maybe he’ll show up more often now.

The show is also moving to Netflix now, so I don’t know if they will do two parts or drop the show all at once. I miss the days when the show was like 50 episodes each season.

I suppose the attention spans of children these days are just so bad that anything longer than 10 episodes 22 minutes each is too much. Heck, some of the biggest shows on streaming are under 13 episodes. The MCU ones are less than 8.

But I digress, Power Rangers Once & Alaways is going to be a sweet awesome story give me full of nostalgia and heartbreak. I look forward to watching it on April 19th.