POWER RANGERS OPERATION OVERDRIVE

 

POWER RANGERS OPERATION OVERDRIVE
(Toon Disney, February 26-November 12, 2007)
 
BVS Entertainment, Renaissance Atlantic Entertainment, Toei Company Ltd., Ranger Productions Ltd.

 

MAIN CAST:
James Beaufort (as James Maclurcan) – Red Overdrive Ranger/Mackenzie “Mack” Hartford
Samuell Benta – Black Overdrive Ranger/William “Will” Aston
Gareth Yuen – Blue Overdrive Ranger/Dax Lo
Caitlin Murphy – Yellow Overdrive Ranger/Veronica “Ronny” Robinson
Rhoda Montemayor – Pink Overdrive Ranger/Rose Ortiz
Dwayne Cameron – Mercury Ranger/Tyzonn
Rod Lousich – Andrew Hartford
David Weatherley – Spencer
Kelson Henderson – Norg, Mig
Gerald Urquhart – Flurious
Mark Ferguson – Moltor
Ria Vandervis – Miratrix
Adam Gardiner – Kamdor, Bombardo

 

 

Power Rangers Operation Overdrive is the 14^th incarnation of the Power Rangers franchise, the 5^th of the Disney-era, and the 15^th season overall. It utilized footage from Toei Company, Ltd.’s 30^th Super Sentai series, GoGo Sentai Boukenger. While Boukenger was the first entry to be filmed and aired in widescreen, Disney would crop all of that footage to fit the 4:3 television aspect ratio.

The Overdrive Rangers.

Two brothers, Flurious (Gerald Urquhart) and Moltor (Mark Ferguson), tried to steal the legendary crown, the Corona Aurora, but failed and were imprisoned. Its guardian, The Sentinel Knight (Nic Sampson), scattered the crown and its jewels around the Earth in the hopes to keep it safe. Unfortunately, explorer Andrew Hartford (Rod Lousich) discovered the crown and inadvertently freed Flurious and Moltor. Hartford decided to recruit four elite teenagers to become Power Rangers to keep the crown safe: Will Aston (Samuell Benta), Dax Lo (Gareth Yuen), Ronny Robinson (Caitlin Murphy) and Rose Ortiz (Rhoda Montemayor), as well as his own son, Mack (James Maclurcan), reluctantly. They would soon meet and be joined by an alien named Tyzonn, who would become the Mercury Ranger, and they would definitely need the help. Not only did they have to worry about Flurious and Moltor, but Miratix (Ria Vandervis), who wanted the crown to free her master, Kamdor (Adam Gardiner), and the Fearcats that Tyzonn was trying to keep from unleashing their full army from a mirror world.

The Retro Rangers, coming to lend a hand.

Power Rangers Operation Overdrive debuted on Toon Disney’s Jetix block on February 26, 2007, with reruns airing a week later on ABC as part of the ABC Kids programming block. The theme was composed by Transcenders featuring J7 D’Star. Story editor Jackie Marchand had said that the series was pitched as “Indiana Jones…a new exotic location every episode” to Disney who responded favorably, only to turn around and give them a small budget with a mandate to use more stock footage; making working on the show a challenge. Working titles for the series included Drive Force and Relic Hunters. As the 15^th anniversary of the franchise was approaching, producers decided to reward the fans with a two-part anniversary special, “Once A Ranger”, reuniting Rangers from each of the Disney-era shows and a popular Ranger from the 1990s. As a result, when Thrax (Glen Levy), the son of evil witch Rita Repulsa and Lord Zedd, cut the Overdrive Rangers off from the Morphin Grid and therefore their powers, a team of “Retro Rangers” (a term officially used by the Power Rangers Action Card Game) was assembled by The Sentinel Knight; including Adam Park as Mighty Morphin Black (Johnny Yong Bosch), Tori Hanson as the Blue Wind Ranger (Sally Martin), Kira Ford as the Yellow Dino Ranger (Emma Lahana), Bridge Carson as the S.P.D. Red Ranger (Matt Austin), and Xander Bly as the Green Mystic Ranger (Ricardo Brancatisano). This marked the final unmorphed appearances of all but Adam, who would return in the 30^th anniversary special Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once and Always.