Power Rangers SPD



""SPD Emergency!""

Power Rangers, Twenty Minutes Into the Future. S.P.D. is the thirteenth season of the franchise, based on Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger. The Earth of 2025 is a very different place, where humans and alien immigrants live in relative peace. There's always a few bad eggs, though, and that's where S.P.D. (short for Space Patrol Delta) comes in. Started on the planet Sirius, it's now a galaxy-wide police organization. The Earth branch is based in Newtech City, headed by Anubis "Doggie" Cruger.

The series focuses on S.P.D.'s B-Squad. As their name indicates, they're backup to the elite A-Squad. At first, B-Squad consists of the serious Sky, who wants nothing more than to be a Red Ranger just like his father, Cloudcuckoolander Bridge, and the rich former model and pop idol Syd. When A-Squad is forced to leave the planet on business, they're promoted to Ranger status, and given morphers. Sky is not pleased to learn that he's only a Blue Ranger. Their first mission is to track down a pair of metahuman Robin Hoods, Z and Jack. They were probably chosen for the task because they're metahumans, too. Much to the dismay of B-Squad, Cruger decides that the best punishment for Jack and Z is to become the Red and Yellow Rangers. It takes a while, and they often relapsed back to being bitter and angry at each other, but they eventually become a tight unit, and even tighter when they learn why they all have strange, genetic powers...

A seriously divisive series among the fandom, S.P.D. boasted an interesting cast of characters played by excellent actors, but also marked the debut of controversial producer Bruce Kalish and suffered from some interesting Executive Meddling. Most notable is the case of Sam the Omega Ranger. Disney wanted to save money and didn't want to hire a seventh starring actor, so it was written in that, as a side effect of time traveling, Sam was either stuck in Ranger form or as a little ball of CGI light. This meant he was played on set by a stuntman in a bulky helmet and had his dialogue recorded later in ADR, making interaction between him and the other characters incredibly awkward. Apparently, the crew was so frustrated by this that they tended to write around Sam as often as possible; they probably would have written him out entirely if not for stock footage constraints. Additionally, Jason David Frank was not happy when he was not invited back for the team-up episodes as a cost-cutting measure.

Unusually, rather than a two-parter with the previous season's cast, there were two separate episodes with the Dino Thunder Rangers, with each team getting a chance to enter the world of the other.

Succeeded by Power Rangers Mystic Force.

Has a character sheet.

Recurring Power Rangers tropes include:
"(B-Squad) "[Number]! SPD [color]!"
 * Action Girl: Z and Syd.
 * All Your Base Are Belong to Us: even earlier than expected!
 * Big Bad: Emperor Gruumm
 * Bigger Bad: Omni
 * Chest Insignia: S.P.D. nameplates on the belt and right side of the chest, and police badges on the right shoulder and forehead of the helmet; plus a personal number taking up the entire left side of the chest.
 * Brought to You By The Letter S
 * City of Adventure: Newtech City
 * The Dragon: Morgana
 * Evil Plan: Why Emperor Gruum needs to be stopped.
 * Family Friendly Firearms: As usual, but Dekaranger used actual bullets and some edits to hide this ended up kind of questionable. For one, in Omega Ranger's debut he catches lasers single-handedly, and then drops the "energy pellets" at his feet. You can also occasionally catch the Megazord ejecting used shells from its gun, even though it's now supposed to be a laser weapon.
 * Five Man Band:
 * The Hero: J
 * The Lancer: S
 * The Smart Guy: B
 * The Big Guy: Z
 * The Chick: S
 * Sixth Ranger: S
 * Aloof Ally: D
 * Eleventh Hour Ranger: K and N
 * Home Base: S.P.D. Command
 * Humongous Mecha
 * Combining Mecha
 * Impossibly Graceful Giant: The Delta Squad Megazord can move. Its most common Stock Footage is leaping and rolling while firing its gun.
 * Transforming Mecha: the Delta Base and Omegamax Cycle
 * Make My Monster Grow: the only season that regularly averts it - most the baddies have giant robots instead, some aren't even piolted by Monsters of the Week but Elite Mooks distracting for the MOTW.
 * The Mentor: Cruger
 * Mooks: Krybots
 * Elite Mooks/ Mook Lieutenant: Blueheads, later Orangeheads
 * Never Say Die: And that's not the only taboo word. In "Badge", Gruumm steals "hemotech synthetic plasma", and the show's dialogue hides the fact that that's Techno Babble for artificial blood.
 * Psycho Rangers: The A-Squad, as the first rangers to willingly serve the Big Bad.
 * Recycled in Space!: Power Rangers
 * Rookie Red Ranger: Jack
 * Stock Super Powers:
 * Intangible Man: Jack
 * Barrier Warrior: Sky
 * Psychic Powers: Bridge
 * Aura Vision: This is the one that generally receives the most usage over the course of the series.
 * Mes a Crowd: Z
 * Mega Manning/Power Fist: Syd can turn her hand into whatever material she touches
 * Teleporters and Transporters: Sam (not that he had much chance to use it, stuck as a ball of light).
 * Super Mode: SWAT Mode
 * Weapon of Choice
 * Bifurcated Weapon/Guns Akimbo: Jack's Delta Blasters
 * Swiss Army Weapon: The other B-Squad Ranger's Delta Max Strikers.
 * Katanas Are Just Better: Cruger's Shadow Saber
 * Power Fist: Sam's Omega Morpher gives his left hand and arm various boosts.
 * BFG: R.I.C. as the Canine Cannon and S.W.A.T. Mode's Delta Enforcers
 * Word Power
 * Battle Cry: A Power Rangers standard, but S.P.D. parodies it at the same time it uses it in the episode "Shadow pt. 1", when the Rangers scream "BATTLE CRY" as they maneuver their Megazord towards the enemy.
 * By the Power of Greyskull or Invocation: "S.P.D., Emergency!" (We're not sure which; "Recognition" shows morphing without the phrase, but "Zapped" implies it's necessary.)
 * In the Name of The Moon/Transformation Name Announcement:

"Force from the future! Omega Ranger!"

"Shadow Ranger! Defender of the galaxy!"

"SPD! Defenders of Earth!""

This subseries contains examples of:
"Boom: I'd be psyched if I were Red Ranger!
 * Adaptational Badass: Kat kicked Krybot butt in situations where Dekaranger's Swan didn't and gets to use the acrobatics that are expected from a feline character. Even in one episode where Swan fought as a Ranger, the PR version gives Kat an unmorphed battle before it. Also, that rock in "Abandoned" was considerably less apocalyptic in Dekaranger.
 * Adult Child: Morgana. She doesn't show it much in this form, but keep in mind she made a deal with Gruumm in order to stay an actual child.
 * Aerith and Bob: Bridge.
 * Aliens Speaking English: Averted once in "Recognition" to facilitate a Curse of Babel plot.
 * Ambiguous Disorder: Bridge. It's thought that his Psychic Powers might have messed with his head a little.
 * And the Adventure Continues
 * Anticlimactic Parent: Boom's parents in, well, "Boom"
 * Artistic License Astronomy: Apparently, Sirius is a planet now. Of course, they could have meant a planet in the Sirius system, as some planets are named "[Star name] [Distance from star]" so the third planet from Sirius would be Sirius 3, but... nothing of the sort is ever stated onscreen. It also happens with Alpha Centauri.
 * As You Know: Used in "A-Bridged" when Bridge tells Kat a fact (relevant to his investigation) about humans breathing oxygen and plants breathing carbon dioxide. Lampshaded when Kat's reaction is "Duh. Second-grade science." and justified because, well, it's Bridge.
 * Ascended Fanboy: Subverted; it's the season where morphers were handed out like candy (even Dr. Manx got a limited-use one!) and fanboy Boom still didn't get one.

Jack: You'd be psyched if you were Pink Ranger.

Boom: [beat] True."

"Cruger: Now they match!"
 * Played straight with Sam/Omega Ranger.
 * Author Appeal: Writer/Director Greg Aronowitz loves dogs, hence the emphasis on Doggie Cruger and R.I.C. He also had two bulldogs as a child, hence why Bridge mentions his childhood pet bulldog in "Shadow".
 * Bad Guy Bar: Piggy's.
 * Badass in A Nice Suit: Broodwing, believe it or not, wears a tie.
 * Base On Wheels: S.P.D. Command, though it only moves once (besides all its giant robot transformations).
 * Bat Out of Hell: Broodwing
 * Beleaguered Childhood Friend: Sky's friend Dru in "Idol".
 * Between My Legs: Shows up in a lot of battle scenes, for example, Syd in the episode "Walled".
 * BFG: The SWAT Flier Cannon. As in, a cannon made out of zords.
 * Bizarrchitecture: S.P.D. Command has some problems when it comes to Zord storage. Usually the zords are seen in an underground hangar and the building opens a hatch to send them out; this is acceptable. But a few times the entire thing opens up and the zords are shown taking up the whole interior! And just to add to the confusion, the SWAT Fliers also have bays taking up most of the base interior, including places where the regular zords were shown to go.
 * It's explained later that there's a secret underground Zord bay beneath the Delta Command Base, so presumably only one set of Zords is kept in the base itself at any given time.
 * Bullet Catch: Omega Ranger. Except they were laser pellets.
 * Bunny Ears Lawyer: Bridge
 * Butt Monkey: Broodwing, to Gruumm and Mora. One wonders why he feels the need to antagonize the guy selling them, well, everything.
 * The Cameo: Shades of the Onyx Tavern, many of Piggy's guests are monsters from past incarnations of Power Rangers, as are a few civilian aliens. There's also an Aquitian S.P.D. officer.
 * Canon Immigrant: Jack's Battlizer appears in Magiranger vs Dekaranger. This is the first (and thus far only) appearance of an American power-up appearing in Sentai.
 * Catgirl: Kat Manx.
 * Chilly Reception: Sky was not happy when Jack became the Red Ranger.
 * Clip Show: "Insomnia".
 * Cloudcuckoolander: Bridge, a space cadet who is a literal Space Cadet.
 * Clueless Aesop: There was an anti-racism episode using discrimination against a Robot Girl as a metaphor. What's the problem? The fact that in the previous episode, she had done pretty much everything one possibly can to look suspicious, and put S.P.D. (and by extension, pretty much everything else) in serious danger by not telling anyone that it was her the bad guys wanted. So then we spend an episode where every single conversation or scene must have at least one line of Anvilicious hammering-in of the whole "We're racist bastards who distrusted her because she was a robot!" thing despite nothing of the sort having happened.
 * Color Coded for Your Convenience: Subtly Lampshaded in the final scene. Jack has left the squad and Sky and Bridge have been promoted to Red and Blue Rangers, respectively. When the Rangers visit Jack and Ally, Sky and Bridge donate handfuls of blue and green clothes.
 * Compressed Vice: Many of the early focus episodes were less "focus on this character" and more "this character acts as we've never seen them behave before as everyone acts like it's normal, and then 'learns a lesson' about said out-of-nowhere flaw." It tapers off as the season goes on, thankfully. In general, an S.P.D. focus episode is much better for getting to know the character nearest the one being focused on, rather than the one whose sanity is taking the week off (for example, "Buttery" comes from a Syd episode, not a Bridge episode).
 * The team as a whole gets one featuring Sergeant Silverback.
 * Cool and Unusual Punishment: When interrogating one perp in "Zapped", the alien finally cracked after being exposed to Bridge's Talkative Looniness and Syd's hit single Me. And it was hilarious.
 * Danger Takes a Backseat: Played with in "Reflection". While hunting for the escaped criminal, Mirloc, Bridge and Z spot him in the rear view mirror of their jeep and turn around to face him in the back seat, except he's not there. Mirloc reminds them that his the power is to travel through reflective surfaces so he's only appearing to them through the mirror.
 * Demoted to Extra: Omega Ranger
 * Development Gag: "Abandoned" ends with a friendly alien saying "Maybe I'll go to New Zealand. No one will ever find me there!"
 * Piggy gets teleported there in another episode.
 * Disney Villain Death: In the finale as Gruumm rejects Cruger's attempt to Save the Villain. Subverted when he shows up in the aftermath to pick one last fight.
 * Doing It for The Art: Greg Aronowitz designed a lot of the alien makeup for background characters on his own time and dime.
 * Double Agent: Piggy is a triple agent who was supplying Emperor Gruumm, Broodwing and the Rangers with information.
 * Drill Sergeant Nasty: Sergeant Silverback
 * Drunk With Power: Jack in "Confronted", as he realizes he can boss the others around.
 * Dub Name Change: A rare aversion in that Doggie might just have the most similar name to a Ranger's Sentai counterpart ever (who knows why's that). The only differences between him and Dekarangers Doggie (scales aside) are that SPDs is Anubis "Doggie" Cruger, and Dekarangers is Doggie "Boss" K'ruger.
 * Enforced Method Acting: "History", the Dino Thunder cast was not allowed to see the Doggie Cruger suit until they actually started shooting scenes with him so that they really would be surprised by his appearance.
 * Evil Detecting Dog: In "Recognition", RIC's the one who catches on to Sky's and Wootox's body swap.
 * Expy: A few of the Rangers seem to be throwbacks to their counterparts in earlier seasons, with laid-back but battle-serious Red Rangers (Jack and T.J.) serious, by-the-books Blue Rangers (Sky and Kai), Valley Girl Pink Rangers (Syd and Kim), and quirky, psychic Green Rangers (Bridge and Trip.)
 * Sergeant Silverback IS R Lee Ermey, just as an anthropomorphized gorilla with a robot bulldog.
 * Face Heel Turn: The A-Squad.
 * Fake Shemp: As noted in the intro, Sam as the Omega Ranger.
 * Tommy in the second S.P.D. and Dino Thunder team-up "Wormhole", where he never demorphs and was voiced by Jeffrey Parazzo, who plays Trent. This got backlash from many fans, as Jeffrey's imitation was so off it was fairly obvious it wasn't really Jason.
 * Fashionable Asymmetry: Gruumm, after Cruger broke one horn in the Battle of Sirius. At least until the finale...

"Broodwing: You may be a millionaire, but you're still the same disgusting, filthy, wretched piece of worthless garbage to me!
 * Flung Clothing: Part of Cruger's Transformation Sequence.
 * Foreshadowing: at the end of an episode, the Rangers gave a bicycle as a gift to a kid they befriended.
 * Freaky Friday Flip: Sky and Wootox in "Recognition"
 * Fun With Acronyms: In the "Wired" two-parter, the monster's looking for a Series One Processor/Hyper-Intelligent Encryptor. The Rangers realize too late he means expelled cadet Sophie.
 * Generic Cop Badges
 * Genre Savvy: In the finale, after Broodwing has taken over the Delta Base and destroyed the Delta Squad Megazord, Bridge guesses that the SWAT Fliers were moved from the base to the secret underground zord bay. Because doesn't every base have a secret underground zord bay?
 * Girls Love Stuffed Animals: Syd has a stuffed elephant named "Peanuts" that shes had since she was five, and still does close to twenty years later. Used to characterize her pampered upbringing.
 * Give Me a Sign: In the finale, Piggy's guilty over betraying the Rangers and shouts this. His food cart is promptly struck by lightning, sent careening down a hill, and explodes.
 * Government Agency of Fiction / Heroes R Us: S.P.D.
 * Gundamjack: Wootox tries this on the Delta Base in "Recognition". He makes it as far as the Transformation Sequence, but that's about it. Broodwing has more success in the finale.
 * The Gunslinger: Jack and the Delta Squad Megazord
 * Hannibal Lecture: used on Sky in "Reflection"
 * He's Back: Cruger in "Shadow"
 * Hey Its That Voice: Besides the Dekaranger cast and Rie Tanaka, Shizuka Ito is in the Japanese dub as Mora/.
 * As for the Power Rangers Dino Thunder characters... Akira Ishida is Conner / Dino Thunder Red Ranger, Akio Suyama is Ethan / Dino Thunder Blue Ranger, Miyuki Sawashiro is Kira / Dino Thunder Yellow Ranger, and Kentaro Ito is the (always morphed) Dino Thunder Black Ranger.
 * Holding Out for A Hero: How the Rangers react in "Abandoned" to Cruger becoming a Sixth Ranger.
 * Helping Would Be Killstealing: How Cruger retaliates.
 * Hot Scientist: Dr. Kat Manx.
 * Hour of Power: Kat's emergency morpher only has an hour of charge.
 * I Always Wanted to Say That: Syd gets to say "You do the crime, you do the time!" in the premiere.
 * Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: as Bruce Kalish's first season, every title had only one word.
 * Informed Ability: The MOTWs and their rap sheets; it gets kind of ridiculous as the season wears on, as bad guys with increasingly over-the-top histories of destroying fifty more planets than the last guy show about as much badassitude as... well, your average monster-of-the-week. Especially when the earlier ones were more reasonable, making Willing Suspension of Disbelief easier. Benaag destroyed nine planets, including Doggie's, with massive armies as part of Gruumm's empire, it made him the believable, hateable war criminal villain of a dark arc. When every total loser bad guy has destroyed a thousand you just said "yeah, whatever."
 * This was presumably done for pragmatic reasons. A lot of crimes committed by the bad guys in Dekaranger probably wouldn't fly for a Disney program, so they had to resort to blowing up planets, and then just escalating how many were destroyed.
 * Also, Gruumm's empire doesn't seem very... existent. All of his soldiers appear to be the robot grunts that Broodwing will sell to anyone. Monsters of the week don't even work for him, they're criminals who were already doing their thing, hired by him to keep doing it, for him now. Often, it results in a ten-second scene on Gruumm's ship that could be skipped and you wouldn't notice. He very rarely thinks of a plan himself, and even his ongoing scheme turns out to be at the bidding of another. However, count on the characters to talk about him as if he's badder than ten Emperor Palpatines.
 * Informed Judaism: Bridge
 * Insult Backfire: When Piggy wins the lottery in "Shadow", he's able to pay back his debt to Broodwing (with an extra $1000 to get his fishbowl winterized).

Piggy (earnestly): Thank you! It's nice to know money hasn't changed me."

"Syd: This place is a roach-infested germ farm.
 * And later in the same episode:

Piggy: Thanks. I've done my best."

"Kat: Still no word on A-Squad, and...and the Rangers have asked to wear clown suits while on patrol. I've approved them.
 * Jerk With a Heart of Gold: Piggy.
 * Judge Jury and Executioner: Weakly handwaved by saying the judgment scanners are infallible. But at least they only capture criminals instead of passing death sentences like Dekaranger did.
 * Kicked Upstairs: Kat's promotion in "Katastrophe" has vibes of this, as she's informed she's going from hands-on research to managing teams to do it for her. They even seem to have copied the "You won't have to get your hands dirty."/"But I like getting my hands dirty." exchange from when Damon faced this in Lost Galaxy.
 * Lampshade Hanging: In "Missing", Piggy comments how distressing it is how he never sees Sam demorphed.
 * Laser Guided Amnesia: The Dino Rangers had their memory wiped after both teamups. In "Wormhole", Cruger hit the SPD Rangers with it as well - himself included.
 * Last Episode New Character: Nova Ranger
 * Last of His Kind: Cruger
 * Last Villain Stand:
 * Magic Feather: In "Samurai", Jack makes the classic mistake of thinking the power's in the sword (Cruger's Shadow Saber) and not the swordsman.
 * Meaningful Name: Sky the Blue Ranger with the flying zord, for one. Also, "Doggie"'s real name is Anubis. Plus all of the other alien SPD members: felines Kat Manx and Dr. Felix, simian Drill Sergeant Nasty Sgt. Silverback, and avian Fowler Birdie.
 * Sky's name borders on Fridge Brilliance (and almost strays into The Danza territory, even if it's not the literal definition of the trope):
 * And Boom, who gets blown up a lot.
 * Sirius is the name of Cruger's home planet. Sirius is sometimes known as the dog star.
 * Messy Pig: Piggy - he's not porcine, really, but he did get the name for a reason.
 * Mind Screwdriver: A lot of the things that were poorly handled by the series were explained in interviews.
 * Military Brat: Sky
 * Minor Injury Overreaction: Cruger hates Gruumm for razing his planet and taking his wife. Gruumm hates Cruger for... cutting off one of his horns.
 * Monowheel Mayhem: Sam's vehicle is just a seat on a big wheel.
 * Mysterious Protector: Omega Ranger, at first
 * Mythology Gag: The A-Squad wears modified Power Rangers in Space helmets, while Sky's dad is shown to have worn an unmodified Time Force suit (okay, they stuck an S.P.D. logo on it). For the Super Sentai fans, occasional pictures of pre-PR teams appear in place of the picture of Sky and his dad on his desk. Blue Senturion from Power Rangers Turbo shows up as a video game character (fighting a Monster of the Week from Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue, no less.)
 * Doggie apparently owns Andros' cloak and Spiral Saber now (and fans were not amused at what they thought to be the return of Andros proving to be Doggie cosplaying him for no discernible reason. Kalish says that the Spiral Saber wasn't the original prop, but an identical one.) Also, Z's necklace is the same style Z as Lord Zedd's staff.
 * On the note of Andros, one of the criminals escapes from a penal colony belonging to KO-35, Andros' home planet.
 * The Time Force suit caused even more of a stir than Andros' cloak and weapon, as when the flashback aired, people naturally assumed that meant Wes Collins was Sky's father, and that S.P.D. was an early iteration of Time Force. While that was never discussed, Jason Faunt himself disapproved of the use of the suit, as he felt the fans would make the obvious assumption, and be subsequently confused when they realized it wasn't him (which is precisely what happened).
 * Broodwing acquires the Dino Gems on Onyx - a planet featured on in Space and Lost Galaxy.
 * Names the Same: Katherine "Kat" Manx should not be confused with Katherine "Kat" Hillard.
 * New Neo City: Newtech City
 * No Celebrities Were Harmed: Sergeant Silverback is a wannabe R. Lee Ermey.
 * Don't forget the Paris Hilton clone in "A-Bridged", complete with pet dog.
 * Non Lethal KO: Unlike most Rangers, SPD can't just destroy every evil alien they fight. While Dekaranger just went ahead after getting legal clearance, Power Rangers changed it so villains were captured in a giant explosion.
 * Set Swords to Stun: Even Cruger's Shadow Saber merely captures the perps.
 * Not Listening to Me Are You: Cruger in "Insomnia":
 * Not Listening to Me Are You: Cruger in "Insomnia":

Cruger: Fine."

"Z: I'm getting too old for this!"
 * Obvious Trap: In "Shadow", when General Benag sends a message that he has Kat, she warns Cruger that it's a trap. Gruumm then comes on saying that heck yeah, it's a trap, but SPD's not going to abandon her, are they?
 * Trap Is the Only Option: Because, as noted, Kat's life was on the line. Also discussed when A-Squad challenges them in the finale; the Rangers comment that it's likely a trap, but it's also noted that ignoring the challenge and doing nothing may also be a trap.
 * The Ojou: Syd
 * One Letter Name: "Z" (short for "Elizabeth")
 * One Liner Echo: in the "Wormhole" teamup: "No one gets inside our circle!"
 * One Sided Arm Wrestling: Done by Sam
 * Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Although it's not as bad in this season since much of the talent was brought in from Canada, there are still a few instances -- Bridge is the most likely one to suddenly slip in and out of a Canadian accent. Mora and Morgana are Not Even Bothering With the Accent.
 * Out of Focus: As stated, Sam thanks to the awkwardness of Fake Shemping.
 * The Paragon Always Rebels: The entire A-Squad when they do their Face Heel Turn and become the season's Psycho Rangers.
 * Phantom Zone Picture: The criminals trapped in cards
 * Plot Relevant Age Up: Mora becoming Morgana. Turns out it's just reversing a previous Plot Relevant Age Down.
 * Plucky Comic Relief: Boom
 * Pre Mortem One Liner: Twice in the finale by Doggie.
 * First, after effortlessly cutting through Mora's monsters (taken from her picture book), she asks "What can you do to me? I'm just a kid!" His response prior to confining her: "Use your imagination."
 * Then, after having Gruumm at his mercy, he raises his sword to finish him... and then cuts off Gruumm's remaining horn, saying "Now they match!" prior to confining him.
 * Prop Recycling: A number of alien extras have been seen using parts of previous monster costumes. One of the most noticeable was in "Dogged", where a guy on Gruumm's ship had Deviot's head.
 * And we'll again mention that flashback with Cruger wielding a Spiral Saber and wearing a similar cloak.
 * Also, the monster on Sgt. Silverback's planet is actually Beetleborgs monster El Scorpio.
 * Hey look, a bunch of furry suits we've never seen come to help us along those we do know! Yeah, they'll be immediately recognized by Dekaranger viewers. Two of them were replaced by redesigns, the other two didn't make the cut.
 * The A-Squad's duty uniforms are the jumpsuits worn by the Dekarangers, which presents an odd contrast with the much fancier uniforms worn by the rest of SPD.
 * Put On a Bus: Gruumm, a villain who was not in its parent Super Sentai series, stepped aside to work on the project he'd spent most of the season acquiring materials for. This allowed cheaper-because-his-appearances-are-mostly-stock-footage villain Broodwing to be sole Big Bad for a significant number of episodes. Gruumm swept back in just in time for the Grand Finale.
 * Putting On My Thinking Cap: Bridge does headstands, like Sen-chan did.
 * Quickly Demoted Leader: Sky
 * The Resenter
 * The Rashomon: Done very poorly in the episode "Perspective", with the same three minutes of Stock Footage shown six times with the ADR changed, the changes limited almost entirely to the name of the character everyone else was praising.
 * The Rat: Piggy
 * Recruiting the Criminal: Cruger drafting Jack and Z.
 * Recursive Import: This show is now being dubbed in Japanese (And the 1st Disney-era PR to be dubbed in that language) -- the last case of this was Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue. The Dekaranger cast will mostly dub their Western counterparts, save for Kat Manx, who will be voiced by Rie Tanaka.
 * Red Oni Blue Oni: Jack and Sky. Even their ranger colors match.
 * Refusal of the Call: Jack
 * Retcon: The Disney Adventures comic writers changed A-Squad from Not Brainwashed to Brainwashed and Crazy.
 * Robot Dog: R.I.C., the Robotic Interactive Canine.
 * Rousing Speech: Boom in the finale
 * Running Gag: Whenever Piggy's restaurant has attracted a big lunchtime crowd, the Rangers always show up and drive off the clientele by asking Piggy questions about alien criminal activity.
 * Which might actually be counter-productive for the Rangers, because (paraphrasing Piggy), his customers aren't causing any trouble... at least, not while they're eating.
 * Salt and Pepper: Jack and Sky
 * : A-Squad leader Charlie. One guy on the Rangerboard forums guessed ahead of time, leading to an rather infamous case of I Knew It: during Charlie's first pieces of dialogue,  The forum poster--who had a history of working with sound and sound manipulation--recognized some telltale signs that   and voiced his theory. He was immediately shouted down, mainly because   Thirty episodes later, Charlie is revealed to be   and the forum poster pens a meaningful discourse entitled, "I WAS RIGHT, BITCHES." Complete with flashing gifs and mockery of the people who thought he was wrong. He even got the phrase and a screencap of The Reveal printed on a t-shirt and got the cast members of S.P.D. to sign it. Hey, he deserved it.
 * Scenery Censor: Non-naughty variant with Matt Austin (Bridge), who always wore gloves to cover a hand tattoo (justified in-universe; it's implied that Bridge focuses his psychic power through his hands and wears the gloves as a Power Limiter).
 * Secret Test of Character: Cruger does this in the first episode, asking Sky his opinion on Bridge and Syd - his answer is the very thing that lands him in the Blue suit.
 * Receives a Call Back in the finale, when Cruger asks Sky if he would follow Syd into battle, and Sky responds that he'd trust anyone Cruger chose.
 * Series Continuity Error: Mostly in terms of naming. First, there's the true final enemy's name. First Gruumm talks to "The Magnificence". Then the creature called The Magnificence is being called Omni as if he had been all along, and "The Magnificence" is something else (the body for Omni, which many of the crimes were about completing, as it turns out near the end). Then the whole shebang is being called Omni.
 * Also, "Troobian" refers to Gruumm's empire... but said "empire" seems to consist only of two or three guys of different races, and zillions of robots Broody sells to anyone who can pay. It is later used to mean "only" the robots, whether used by Gruumm-affiliated baddies or not. By the end, fans were still saying "and just what is a Troobian, anyway?"
 * And then there are a few instances of events or terms that happened in Deka but not S.P.D. being referred to as if they had. The online fandom got it, and may or may not have appreciated the moments as Shout Outs, but the kids were probably quite confused when Sky-as-the-criminal worried that he'd be "deleted on sight."
 * ... what can be said about you? After an entire season of having it drilled into our heads that Doggie is The Last of His Kind, learning that  with no warning at the end suddenly throws open the question of whether more Sirians survived as Troobian slaves. Even worse, we learn that   is a captive of Omni, not Gruumm, as would be expected, considering the rivalry Grumm and Doggie had that was equally drilled into our heads.
 * "Wormhole" doesn't precisely fit into the timeline. It's mostly OK, but involves Mora instead of Morgana, and after Mora returns in the final episodes she's almost immediately . It may be possible to cram it in between the final scenes of "Badge".
 * Shout Out:
 * The "Reflection" two-parter. An investigator (Sky) seeking data on a criminal from another criminal (Mirloc) who torments him psychologically. Silence of the Lambs much?
 * To Lethal Weapon in "Sam Pt. 2".


 * Sigil Spam: Your sigil is overused when you start sticking it on shovels and trash cans.
 * Space Police
 * Spoiled Brat: Mora
 * Spoiled Sweet: Syd
 * Strange Salute
 * Supercop
 * Supporting Protagonist: Jack may be the Red Ranger, but the story is really about Sky.
 * Survivor Guilt: Cruger
 * The Tag
 * Time Travel Tense Trouble: At the end of the second S.P.D./Dino Thunder team-up "Wormhole", when Bridge says this line: "I really wish I could stay. I was born last week, and I could meet myself and become my own best friend. [pause] Wait. What if I met myself and didn't like me?"
 * To the Batpole: The jump tubes have returned. If you want a literal pole, though, you'll have to wait 'til Power Rangers Operation Overdrive.
 * Toilet Humor: Anything and everything involving Piggy. "Dogged" also has RIC's faulty programming involve "peeing" coolant on Cruger.
 * Tomboy and Girly Girl: Z and Syd.
 * Tomboyish Name: All the girls: Z, Syd, and.
 * Trademark Favorite Food: Bridge and "buttery" (wiggles fingers) toast
 * Twenty Minutes Into the Future: Aired in 2005, set in 2025.
 * Tyrant Takes the Helm: In "Dismissed", when Supreme Commander Birdie visits Earth.
 * Underwear of Power: A much-mocked part of the Battlizer. Battle Thong!
 * Unnecessary Combat Roll: Bridge in a couple episodes. Often Lampshaded as the others wonder what in the world he's doing, especially when he goes into a roll when there's no enemies around them yet.
 * After which he immediately breaks into a Silly Walk.
 * Unwinnable Training Simulation
 * Verbal Tic: Played with; while Bridge has no problem talking about what kind of toast he likes, one episode shows that he is in fact physically unable to say it without wiggling his fingers.
 * It's infectious too.
 * Walking Wasteland: Gruumm's visit to Earth in "Shadow" involved this.
 * Well Done Son Guy: Sky
 * What Happened to The Mouse: In "Impact" an evil alien was pretending to be an astronomer called Professor Cerebros. Whatever happened to the real Cerebros is never addressed.
 * Who Names Their Kid Dude: Z asks this about Devastation in the "Messenger" two-parter.
 * Why Don't You Just Shoot Him/Transformation Is a Free Action: Averted in the finale. A-Squad Rangers morph first, but don't wait for B-Squad Rangers to do so, instead they just shoot at them during their morphing sequence. Unfortunately, it does nothing other than make them look cool.
 * A Team Firing, maybe?
 * Wild Card: Piggy
 * With Our Swords Scene: In "Reflection", Jack loans Sky the Red Ranger morpher for his fight with his father's killer
 * X Meets Y: Piggy was pitched as "what would happen if a monkey had sex with an artichoke."
 * You Look Familiar: Kelson Henderson, who appeared as a one-shot character in Dino Thunder, gets a regular role as not-quite-Ascended Fanboy Boom. You'll be seeing him in every series for a while.