Power
Rangers Lightspeed Rescue is the seventh incarnation of the Power
Rangers franchise, and the eighth season overall.
It utilized footage from Toei
Company, Ltd.’s 23rd Super Sentai
series, Kyuukyuu Sentai GoGoFive. This was the first
true post-Zordon
series in the franchise, as it featured none of the previously-starring
characters, locations, props or an Alpha robot.
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| The Lightspeed Rescue Rangers. |
Failing to learn a valuable lesson
from Poltergeist, the fictional city
of Mariner
Bay,
California was built on top of an ancient demon
burial ground. The Demons had ruled over the land thousands of years ago until
a powerful sorcerer encased them in the tomb where they remained until a group
of nomads released them while looking for treasure. With them threatening the
city, a government organization called Lightspeed Rescue stepped in to protect
it. Headed up by Captain William Mitchell (Ron Rogge), he recruited five
individuals to receive the Rescue
Morphers created by Angela Fairweather (Monica Louwerens) that
would project a Morphing Shield over the user’s body and give them incredible
abilities. Chosen for their skillsets, the Power Rangers were Carter Grayson
(Sean Cw Johnson), a firefighter; Chad Lee (Michael Chaturnatbut), a lifeguard
and marine animal trainer at the local aquarium and amusement park; Joel
Rawlings (Keith Robinson, who got the role after the original choice dropped
out), a stunt pilot; Kelsey Winslow (Sasha Williams), an extreme sports athlete;
and Mitchell’s own daughter Dana (Alison MacInnis), a nurse with aspirations of
becoming a doctor.
 |
| Diabolico, Vypra and Loki. |
The demons operated out of the Skull Cavern
as they sought to destroy the city and restore their kingdom to its former
glory. They were led by Queen Bansheera (Diane Salinger), who initially
appeared in spirit form to control her minions before being restored to the
physical world. Her ultimate goal was to open the boundary between worlds and
free the remaining demons. Before her return, Diabolico (Neil Kaplan) led the
charge after Bansheera granted him the Star Power;
a red star-like gem that was a source of immense power. But, because of his
repeated failures, Bansheera wanted the Star Power to go to her son, Impus
(Brianne Sidall). Diabolico tried to kill the young prince to prevent that, but
he was ultimately killed instead (for the first time--he got better) and the
Star Power turned Impus into Prince Olympius (Michael Forest). One of
Diabolico’s friends was the fiercely loyal, though dim-witted, Loki (David
Lodge) who served as the muscle of the Demons. Vypra (Jennifer L. Yen, Wen Yann
Shih & Kaya Hirasawa) was the only humanoid demon and was initially a
motherly figure to young Impus, but came to resent him when he became Olympius.
Jinxer (Kim Strauss) worked for all three of the Demon leaders and was highly
skilled in summoning monsters and magic. Serving as the cannon fodder were the Batlings;
bat-like warriors with energy-firing bladed weapons.
 |
| Angela Fairweather and her crew in the Aquabase. |
The Rangers were supported by a full
team of scientists and engineers headed by Fairweather and operated out of the Lightspeed
Aquabase; an underwater military compound. This marked the
first time in the franchise that the Rangers’ gear was completely man-made
without a hint of mysticism involved. Amongst the Rangers’ equipment was the Rescue
Blaster, which could serve as a blaster or baton, or be
combined with the Rescue
Bird.
The Rescue Bird was the combined form of the Rangers’ personal weapons, which
could fly to the Rangers on command or be reconfigured into the
monster-destroying Uniblaster. Broken down, the Rescue Bird became the Red
Ranger’s anchor weapon the Rescue Claw; the Blue Ranger’s mist-spraying Rescue
Laser; the Green Ranger’s jaws-of-life styled Rescue Cutter; the Yellow
Ranger’s Rescue Drill; and the Pink Ranger’s Rescue Injector. They also had the V-Lancers
(retaining the “V” from the Sentai counterpart), which could be used as a
blaster or a lance and featured a detachable boomerang-like device. Unlike
previous Rangers, the opaque visors on their helmets could be raised to reveal
their faces.
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| The Omega Megazord. |
The Rangers’ transportation included
the Rescue
Rover, the Lightspeed
Cycles, a Mobile
Armor Vehicle, and a Trans
Armor Cycle that could transform from a bike into
armor. Each Rescue Zord was outfitted to the Rangers’ prior professions: the
Red’s Pyro
Rescue 1 looked like a fire truck; Blue’s Aqua
Rescue 2 was a water tanker with water jets; Green’s Aero
Rescue 3 was a small jet; Yellow’s Haz
Rescue 4 was a hazmat truck; and Pink’s Med
Rescue 5 was an ambulance. The five Zords could be combined to
form the Lightspeed
Megazord, or three of them for Hydro
Mode,
which was basically the Megazord’s legs designed as a fire control mechanism.
Their secondary Zords were the Rail Rescues;
five train cars that stored the other Zords and could combine to form the Supertrain
Megazord. For space-based threats, the Rangers also had access
to a third series of Zords: the Omegazords.
Each resembled a space shuttle and could combine to form the Omega
Megazord. An emergency Megazord, the Lifeforce
Megazord, was also used. But, because it took its power
directly from the Rangers’ lifeforces, it made it dangerous to pilot. Toei and
PLEX had come up with entirely original Zord designs, but Saban declined their
use due to expense.
 |
| The Titanium Ranger, a Saban creation. |
In a first for the franchise, Saban
Entertainment and PLEX created an
entirely new Ranger without a Sentai counterpart. The Titanium
Morpher was said to have been too unstable for use by a human
and wasn’t used in the initial recruitment, but it was stolen by Diabolico and
used to create his own Titanium Ranger to fight the others. That Ranger ended
up being Ryan Mitchell (Rhett Fisher, who actually auditioned for the role of
Carter), the long-lost son of William and brother of Dana. Years prior, a car
accident left William only able to save one of his children. Diabolico appeared
and offered to save the other but in return for keeping him. To save Ryan’s
life, William agreed and Diabolico spent the next few years poisoning Ryan’s
mind against his father and turning him evil. When Ryan was awakened to the
truth, Diabolico gave him a Cobra tattoo that would grow each time he morphed
and would fatally bite him when it reached his neck. This was done to keep the
Titanium Ranger’s appearances to a minimum as they didn’t have the budget to
try and integrate him while using the Sentai footage. The Titanium Ranger
possessed a laser weapon, as well as his own Zord, the Max
Solarzord; which could change into a train, a shuttlecraft, its
own Megazord, or even combine with the other Zords to make the Lightspeed
Solarzord.
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| Queen Bansheera's second form. |
Power Rangers Lightspeed
Rescue debuted on FOX
as part of the Fox
Kids
programming block on February 2, 2000. This became the first season where the
rule of a Ranger’s identity being kept secret was ignored and everyone knew who
the Rangers were from the outset. It was also the first time the Rangers were
complete strangers before forming the team, and had outside occupations.
Bansheera would become the darkest villain in the Power Rangers franchise, exhibiting no sense of humor and killing
her own people to increase her own power. The series was written primarily by
story editor Judd
Lynn
with Jackie
Marchand, John
Fletcher and Denise Skinner.
The music was composed by Lior
Rosner, Jeremy
Sweet, Inon
Zur,
Shuki Levy
and Haim Saban.
 |
| The Lightspeed crew meets the Lost Galaxy crew. |
For the second annual team-up, the Lightspeed Rangers were paired up with
the Lost Galaxy Rangers when Trakeena
came to Earth looking to destroy it in revenge against the Rangers. This was
fitting as Lightspeed was initially
considered as a continuation of Lost
Galaxy. It was the first team-up episode to receive a home video release,
and was in fact released before the episode aired as part of a promotional
arrangement between Saban and McDonald’s.
That meant that several elements, including Olympius, the later Megazords,
Vypra and Loki being loyal to Olympius, and power-enhancing Battle
Boosters were seen before their official debuts on the show. While
the video was shown in a movie format, it was broken up into two episodes for
its airing and some scenes were removed.
 |
| Trakeena's new look. |
Everyone
was set to reprise their roles from Lost
Galaxy, including Valerie
Vernon as original Pink Ranger Kendrix
rather than Melody
Perkins as Karone.
However, Saban attempted to cut the salaries of original Trakeena actress Amy Miller
and Red Ranger Danny
Slavin. Dissatisfied with the fact she’d be making less and
have less screen time than 10-year-old guest-star Chelsea Russo,
Miller abandoned the project entirely. She was replaced by Jennifer Burns,
who wore a face mask to conceal the change. An on-screen explanation was given that
Trakeena was covering scars on her face. Slavin filmed most of his scenes but
left before production finished. A body double was used for scenes Slavin had
not yet filmed, and Christopher
Glenn provided the dialogue for Slavn’s remaining lines.
 |
| The Lightspeed Rescue crew ready for action. |
Fans
of Power Rangers initially disliked Lightspeed Rescue due to all of the differences from the
previous years, but over time have
begun to look more favorably towards it. When shown in reruns following the September 11th
terrorist attacks in New York City, scenes of a skyscraper
on fire in the episode “Curse of the Cobra” were removed. During production of
the show, actor Robert
L. Manahan died of a heart aneurysm on June 30, 2000. Manahan
was the voice of original Ranger mentor Zordon from the second season of Mighty Morphin through the final
episodes of In Space. “The Fifth
Crystal”, which aired almost six months later, was dedicated to his memory.
 |
| Back of the PlayStation game box. |
As
with other entries in the Power Rangers franchise, Bandai produced a line
of toys and other merchandise based on the show. Several
video games were released in 2000 by THQ
for consoles and Bandai America for home computers. The PlayStation
version by Climax
Studios was a beat ‘em up that loosely followed the plots of
several episodes and featured voice clips from the show’s actors. The N64 version
by Mass Media, Inc.
was a top-down shooter that switched between character levels, Zord battles and
flying/driving missions. The Game
Boy Color version by Natsume was
a platformer that contained five regular levels requiring the rescue of civilians,
defeating Batlings, and defeating a boss with the Megazord. If certain criteria
were met, a sixth stage featuring two Megazord battles with Diabolico would
allow the Supertrain Megazord to be accessible for the earlier levels. The computer
version by Red Sky Interactive was an activity center. In
2007’s Power Rangers: Super Legends released by Disney Interactive Studios,
Carter was a featured character while the Titanium Ranger was included in
2017’s Power
Rangers Legacy Wars by
nWay Games.
In the 2018 “Shattered
Gird”
event in the comics
by BOOM! Studios,
Carter and Chad were both seen and Carter was recruited by the other Rangers to
help in the offensive against Lord Drakkon.
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| The DVD cover. |
Fox Home
Entertainment released several VHS collections between
2000 and 2002. Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue featured the
episodes “Operation Lightspeed”, “Lightspeed Teamwork”, and “Trial by Fire”; Titanium Ranger Curse of the Cobra featured the
episodes “Ryan’s Destiny”, “Curse of the Cobra”, “Strength of the Sun” and “The
Cobra Strike”; The Queen’s Wrath featured “Wrath of
the Queen”, “Rise of the Super Demons” and “The Fate of Lightspeed”; and Neptune’s Daughter featured the
episodes “Ocean Blue”, “The Fifth Crystal” and “Neptune’s Daughter”. “Trakeena’s
Revenge” was released on Power Rangers in 3D through select
McDonald’s locations, and later in 2003 on DVD as part of The Best of the Power Rangers: The
Ultimate Rangers compilation
by Walt
Disney Home Video. In 2012, Shout! Factory
released Power Rangers Legacy, which contained
seasons 1-20 in a collectible Red Ranger helmet package. They later released
the complete series in 2013 as part of the collection Power Rangers Seasons 8-12, and independently
in 2015.
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