Power Rangers Lost Galaxy

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Power Rangers Lost Galaxy

Power Rangers Lost Galaxy (often abbreviated as PRLG and often simply called Lost Galaxy) is the fifth television series and seventh installment of the Power Rangers franchise that aired in 1999. It featured familiar elements from previous incarnations. It is based on the Japanese Super Sentai television series Seijuu Sentai Gingaman. Like its predecessor, the original theme of its Sentai source (i.e. the forest) was not used.

This is the first Power Rangers series to not be a continuation of the previous series, with its own new cast and story. With the annual suit change that began with Power Rangers Zeo and the annual cast and story change starting with this series, this is the first series to follow the practice set by the Super Sentai series. However, Paul Schrier and Jack Banning reprised their roles as Bulk and Professor Phenomenus, respectively. Alpha 6 and the Astro Megaship were used again and Melody Perkins reprised her role as Karone three quarters of the way through the series and became the Pink Ranger. Originally Cassie Chan was going to absorb the Pink Lost Galaxy Ranger powers, but actress Patricia Ja Lee decided to quit after a dispute with the show's producers. This is also the first season to have sentient Zords and feature the death of a Power Ranger in battle (though Kendrix would be revived in the finale).

Thus, the Lost Galaxy season serves as something of a transitional series and also a unique one in Power Rangers history. It is neither completely self-contained nor a direct continuation, but a bit of both. The seasons would not begin to have completely independent stories until the following series, Lightspeed Rescue. The season's main villain, Trakeena, played by Amy Miller, has also been praised for the character's dark development, more unique for Power Rangers.

Lost Galaxy went through a great amount of re-writing, most notably more information surrounding the title, which really didn't have much to do with the Rangers. According to some of the show's writers, Mirinoi was going to be located in the Lost Galaxy, Zordon was going to be responsible for creating the Rangers' powers, and the Magna Defender powers were going to be linked closer with the Quasar Sabers. The romance of the Red and Pink Rangers, Leo and Kendrix, was going to develop more and be more important to the story, but due to Valerie Vernon's leukemia and departure from the show, the story arcs were scrapped. Despite high production values, the show's ratings faced an abrupt decline near the end of the season, which led fans to believe that the studio wrapped up the series earlier than planned in order to cover their costs.

According to trademark documents, the original title for the series was slated to be Power Rangers Space Jungle.

Power Rangers Lost Galaxy is also the first out of all the seasons of the show to kill off most of its villains. It is also the series to use a villain costume from a past series of Super Sentai, and of that, it was Furio's costume, whose costume is from Denji Sentai Megaranger.

Synopsis

In the fictional universe of Lost Galaxy, four young adults from Angel Grove (Leo, Mike, Kai, and Kendrix) are leaving on the space colony Terra Venture seeking a new world like Earth. The time is not long after the events of Power Rangers in Space. They later meet a mechanic named Damon, and on the Moon, a jungle girl named Maya who leads them to five mystical swords known as the Quasar Sabers on her home planet of Mirinoi. After pulling the sabers out of a stone, one of the youths, Mike Corbett, falls into a crevasse, but not before passing his saber onto his younger brother Leo Corbett.

With the Quasar Sabers, the teens transform into the Galaxy Power Rangers and use them to battle space villains from two different parts of the galaxy. These villains include Scorpius, Trakeena, Deviot and Captain Mutiny. Along the way, they discover several zords known as Galactabeasts and make an ally in the form of the mysterious Magna Defender, a galactic warrior. Though he later dies, he manages to reveal that his host body is Mike Corbett and passes the Magna Defender powers to him.

When Deviot revives the evil Psycho Rangers, the Rangers of Power Rangers in Space show up to aid the Galaxy Rangers in destroying them. During this saga, Kendrix Morgan, the Pink Ranger, sacrifices herself to protect the Pink Space Ranger and Terra Venture from Psycho Pink. Karone, sister of the Red Space Ranger Andros and former evil princess Astronema, is given the powers of the Pink Galaxy Ranger from Kendrix, who appears as a spirit and joins the Rangers in the battle to protect Terra Venture.