Power Rangers Time Force



""Time for Time Force!" "Quantum Power!""

Season 9 of Power Rangers, adapted from Mirai Sentai Timeranger. In the year 3000, crime is almost a memory, as Time Force has captured almost every criminal. The only one left is the mutant Ransik. Time Force Red Ranger Alex and his squad finally manage to capture him, and Alex takes the opportunity to propose to his girlfriend and subordinate, Jen. Before they can fully realize their dreams of wedded bliss, however, Ransik's spoiled daughter, Nadira, breaks him out and Alex is apparently killed in the crossfire. Ransik and Nadira go on to take the cryogenically frozen mutants from prison and hightail it back to the year 2001, before there was a Time Force to stop them.

Taking responsibility for the fact that they got away on her watch, a brokenhearted Jen collects the morphers and her squad, and journeys a thousand years into the past to avenge her fiance. Unfortunately, Alex's DNA is needed to unlock the morphers, but there just so happens to be a doppelganger of him living in Silver Hills, Washington at the turn of the millennium. What are the odds?

Wes Collins, once convinced they're not crazy, joins the Time Force Rangers, helping them in their fight and to adjust to being so far from home. Eventually, it turns out that the future in Millennium City isn't as rosy as one would expect, and either destiny will be screwed, or Wes will.

Easily one of the darkest seasons of Power Rangers, very popular and takes a lot from its Super Sentai counterpart. Of particular note is being the first Power Rangers series to actually say that Alex died,. Also of note, is that the leader of the team is the Pink Ranger, Action Girl Jen (although because of the source footage Red is still in the forefront, with him and the Sixth Ranger getting nearly every Limit Break and Super Mode through the season).

And while the acting in Power Rangers has never been any more than serviceable, the performances from the two leads Jason Faunt and Erin Cahill (as well as several others) were actually quite strong. And the darker nature of the season helps to highlight that talent with lost loved ones, prejudice, revenge, new love and redemption. This was also the only Power Rangers series to be nominated for an Emmy, although it was for sound editing, a nomination is still a nomination.

Succeeded by Power Rangers Wild Force. Also, Time Force was the last season to be aired in full by Fox Kids, which would be turning into the all-animation FOX Box, the following year.

Has a character sheet.

Recurring Power Rangers tropes include

 * Action Girl: Jen and Katie
 * Big Bad: Ransik
 * Broken Faceplate: How Wes's father finds out that his son is a Ranger.
 * It's somewhat strange that he could tell it was Wes, considering the damage to Wes' helmet was only enough to show his eyes, not to mention Mr Collins was well over twenty feet away!
 * Eric, the future Quantum Ranger, was closer and shouted "Wes!?!". That's when Mr Collins realized.
 * Chest Insignia: Time Force emblems (badges?) on the belts, personal geometric shapes on the helmet visor and chest.
 * City of Adventure: Silver Hills
 * The Dragon: Co-Dragons Frax and Nadira
 * Five-Man Band: What is a Power Rangers season without one? For the record, this is the season that flipped it on its head.
 * The Hero: Wes.
 * The Lancer: Jen. (Wes' foil and the actual team leader.)
 * The Big Guy: Lucas.
 * The Smart Guy: Trip.
 * The Heart: Katie. (Also a second Big Guy because of her Super Strength.)
 * Aloof Ally: Eric. (Technically fills the Sixth Ranger slot, but never actually joins the team.)
 * Home Base: the Clock Tower.
 * Humongous Mecha
 * Animal Mecha: the Quantasaurus Rex
 * Combining Mecha
 * Transforming Mecha: the Shadow Winger and Q-Rex
 * Mooks: Cyclobots
 * Recycled in Space!: Power Rangers
 * Rookie Red Ranger: Wes.
 * She's a Man In Japan: For the third time in a row, and fourth overall. Katie as the Distaff Counterpart of Domon, Time Yellow.
 * Weapon of Choice:
 * Family-Friendly Firearms: Chrono Blaster
 * Dual-Wielding: Chrono Sabers
 * BFG: The V-weapons, which combine into the even bigger Vortex Blaster.
 * Swiss Army Weapon: Eric's Quantum Defender
 * Word Power:
 * By the Power of Greyskull: "Quantum Power!"
 * Invocation: "Time for Time Force!"

This subseries contains examples of

 * Acting for Two: Jason Faunt as Wes and Alex.
 * Double Vision
 * Actor Allusion: Ransik (played by Vernon Wells) gets one in "Movie Madness" - in the episode's Chase Scene, he goes head-to-head with the Rangers on a desert road, driving a vehicle similar to the one Wez (also Wells) drove in Mad Max 2, and wearing a similar costume.
 * Always Someone Better
 * And I Must Scream: The frozen mutants, because their minds are still active while frozen
 * And Starring: "And Edward Laurence Albert as Mr. Collins"
 * Badass Driver: Lucas.
 * Bait and Switch Credits: No, the Rangers don't actually time travel to all the eras shown in the title sequence; those clips come from the Trapped In Movie Land episode.
 * This is a result of Pragmatic Adaptation - originally the writers planned to do at least some time travel arcs, using Sentai footage in remote woods like they'd used to represent alien worlds in season six... then they realized that all the Megazord fights were in modern Tokyo. Every. Single. One.
 * Also, they thought there was going to be industrial action, and then 9/11 happened...
 * Big Fancy House: The Collins Manor
 * Bolivian Army Cliffhanger:
 * Bratty Teenage Daughter: Nadira (also the Dark Magical Girl).
 * Bullet Time: A couple times in the premiere.
 * Carrying a Cake: Done with Trip and a pizza in "Beware the Knight". Can't blame the poor guy for being so hungry.
 * Character Development: This series is all about the Character Development, let's take a look, shall we?
 * Wes started out as a Brilliant but Lazy, Nice Guy, White Prince, of a Rookie Red Ranger who was a kind of spoiled, by the end of the series he's grown into The Hero and an excellent leader
 * Jen was a Heartbroken Badass who could be overly serious and something of The Stoic, eventually she's Letting Her Hair Down and has her Second Love with Wes.
 * Eric started off as a Jerkass with with some Green-Eyed Monster issues, but after a while, reveals himself as a Jerk with a Heart of Gold who
 * And the Big Bad and his Dragon of a daughter both have Heel Face Turns and are full-fledged good guys in the team-up next season.
 * Even Frax gets a little development and recognizes the futility of their actions.
 * Chekhov's Boomerang: The Electrobooster.
 * Clock Tower: the Rangers' base
 * Cloudcuckoolander: Trip, although he's not nearly as severe as some later rangers
 * Cold Open: Fifth season of PR to do this, but the first to do this extensively, as a way of getting the unadaptable Sentai footage out of the way.
 * Cool Shades / Goggles Do Something Unusual: The Rangers' mutant scanners
 * Crap Saccharine World
 * Cycle of Revenge: Becomes a theme near the end, with Frax urging Nadira to break the cycle.
 * Darker and Edgier
 * Dating Catwoman: Lucas and Nadira. Subverted in that Lucas does everything he can to get out of it, but they're apparently seeing each other again after her Heel Face Turn.
 * Debate and Switch: Certain questions about the Fantastic Racism lose a lot of steam when the mutants are, for the most part, Exclusively Evil.
 * Subverted in the episode where a very peaceful mutant was placed in cryogenic stasis for petty theft.
 * Designer Babies: Every human from the future is one, with Katie having the most prominent improvements. The Mutants are failures of the genetic engineering process, or, alternatively, the result of natural births in an environmentally-wrecked future, while the genetic-screening/modification program was formed to prevent this.
 * Does Not Know His Own Strength: Katie is normally quite careful, but on occasion her bubbly personality makes for some painful hugs.
 * Driving Test Smashers: Lucas in "A Blue Streak"
 * Emmy Bait: Jen's "I am taking you in!" speech to Ransik in the finale. In his review of the series, Linkara even flashes "OSCAR CLIP" up on the screen during the speech.
 * As well as Ransik's My God, What Have I Done? moment and "I'm ready to pay for what I've done." It's probably the best performance Vernon Wells as ever turned in.
 * Many fans point to The Reveal in the second episode where Wes takes his helmet off (showing his face for the first time) and a teary-eyed Jen is stunned silent as the prime demonstration of the superior acting in this season.
 * Everything's Better with Dinosaurs: The Quantasaurus Rex Zord, in an otherwise futuristic season.
 * Executive Meddling: Eric was originally slated to die, just like his counterpart in Timeranger. The writers were skeptical that Fox Kids would allow this, so they filmed two versions of the scene: one where he died, and one where he lived. Fox Kids (as expected) vetoed the death. (Just as well, because he was awesome in his Reunion Show appearances!)
 * See the entry on Too Soon below.
 * Also, the originally planned ending had Jen staying in 2001 with Wes to keep the recurring theme going. But due to Executive Meddling this was thrown out the window, resulting in executive producer Judd Lynn quitting the show.
 * The team-up in the next season did have Jen return to the present, though it's never stated one way or the other whether she stayed this time.
 * Fan Service: Eric in a loincloth, DAMN.
 * For the men, Jen's miniskirt, and a training scene in "Jen's Revenge" where she works out her frustration wearing jogging pants and an athletic top.
 * Trip also looked pretty damn sexy working out in "Uniquely Trip".
 * Fate Worse Than Death: The frozen mutants are still conscious and some have life sentences.
 * Femme Fatalons: Nadira
 * Five Rounds Rapid: The Silver Guardians.
 * Flashed Badge Hijack: In the premiere.
 * Government Agency of Fiction / Heroes-R-Us: The Time Force Police
 * Graceful Loser: Ransik, though he was actually winning before giving up.
 * Which may have something to do with why he was so graceful.
 * He Didn't Make It: Alex about Wes in the second part of the finale.
 * Head Bob: Justified in this clip. Here, it's made clear that it's the chin of the person inside the suit that pushes down on the helmet as he/she speaks, giving off the illusion of a Head Bob.
 * Heartbroken Badass: Jen
 * Hero Secret Service: The Silver Guardians under Eric (and later Wes).
 * Hey, It's That Guy!: Ransik doesn't need the girl! He doesn't need NO GUN! And he wants no more taaalk!
 * Some might recognize Lucas from One Tree Hill.
 * Hey, It's That Voice!: Eric Myers, the Quantum Ranger, is portrayed by actor/stuntman Daniel Southworth, who would later voice Vergil. QUANTUM POWER!
 * And Datamon as Frax. And Keenan Crier as Circuit.
 * Italian Frax is friggin' Sideshow Mel!
 * Fearhog is voiced by David Stenstrom, who voiced King Mondo and portrayed Hal.
 * Human Popsicle: The imprisoned mutants.
 * Humans Are Bastards: According to Ransik, although he's really in no position to judge.
 * Identical Grandson: This is what Alex seems to be to Wes at first. Word of God says Alex is a descendant, but not necessarily a direct one. Word of God (the writer) added that she hates time travel logic.
 * Immune to Bullets: Silver Guardians vs. Monster of the Week
 * Ineffectual Loner: Eric and Alex
 * In Memoriam: "Circuit Unsure" was dedicated to original Yellow Ranger Thuy Trang after her death.
 * Ironic Echo: The two morphing calls. Usually they mean two different types of Ranger against a small force
 * Irritation Is the Sincerest Form of Flattery: Trip, who attempts to look cooler by imitating the other Rangers in "Uniquely Trip".
 * Justified Criminal: Played with, in that Fantastic Racism drove the mutants to crime, but with the exception of Notacon they tend to go above and beyond what's necessary.
 * Judge, Jury, and Executioner: Justified in that the mutants were tried and convicted already in the year 3000.
 * Although mutants are apparently judged in a Kangaroo Court, with at least one of the prisoners guilty of no greater crime than (essentially) being a mutant.
 * The CryoPrison has no human inmates whatsoever, so despite the fact that there have to be humans in the year 3000 that commit equal crimes to those of mutants they apparently receive different (and presumably less harsh) sentencing.
 * It could be there were no non-mutant prisoners because mutants are considered more dangerous (with good reason) and held in facilities with tighter security, or because Ransik just didn't take any non-mutant prisoners during his breakout.
 * Lonely Rich Kid: Wes
 * Maternally Challenged: Nadira in the finale
 * Meaningful Name: Someone depicted as the resident Klutz in his own focus ep is named Trip...
 * Meanwhile in the Future
 * Monumental Theft: Ransik didn't just stage a prison breakout, he stole the whole prison!
 * Morality Pet: As bad as he can be Ransik genuinely loves Nadira, also Eric keeps pet birds and makes friends with a little girl at the trailer park he lives in, even Frax has his robots.
 * Multiform Balance: Time Force Megazord has a close combat oriented Mode Red and an agile ranged Mode Blue.
 * My God, What Have I Done?:
 * Nice Guy: Wes.
 * Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Trip is a time-traveling alien being with psychic powers. And he's a cop.
 * No Celebrities Were Harmed: The team goes to see a filming of a "Frankie Chang" movie in "Movie Madness".
 * Specifically the movie in question seems to be a Shout-Out to Rumble In The Bronx.
 * No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Ransik takes on the entire team during the finale and beats the tar out of them all. It makes you wonder why he bothered using monsters of the week, especially considering they were using things they didn't even have at the start of the season and he still won.
 * There are two possible stipulations: The Rangers were already exhausted from the previous fight, and Ransik's
 * No Hugging, No Kissing: You would think we'd get a kiss between in the finale, but nope, standard embrace.
 * Although the trade-off is that to this day, they're still the only two Rangers to say to each other.
 * Official Couple: Alex/Jen in the premiere,.
 * Please Dump Me: Lucas, because Nadira's dad is the Big-freakin-Bad!
 * Pregnant Hostage: In the finale
 * Psychic Powers: Trip, who is somewhat clairvoyant and telepathic.
 * Quickly Demoted Leader: Averted; Jen holds on to leadership despite not being the Red Ranger.
 * Redshirt Army: The Silver Guardians. Except no one actually dies.
 * Robot Buddy: Circuit.
 * Rollerblade Good: On Eric's Mega Battle armor.
 * Rubber Forehead Alien: Trip, who has a crystal in his forehead and green hair
 * San Dimas Time
 * Sarcastic Clapping: Eric, in his debut as the Quantum Ranger.
 * Scooby Stack: Trip, Katie, and Lucas attempt this once while eavesdropping on Wes and Jen near the end of "Jen's Revenge". It didn't work so well.
 * Screw the Rules, I Have Money
 * Second Love
 * The Starscream: Frax.
 * Shipper on Deck: Three of them, actually.
 * Shout-Out: Trip's planet, Xybria, is a reference to Saban's cartoon Xyber 9: New Dawn.
 * Wes and Eric escape swinging out on a rope as the building explodes behind them, an obvious Homage to Die Hard.
 * When Jen was caught in a Wuxia movie, she had a qipao and Odango Hair. Sounds like stock Chinese stuff, but then she gets into a one-on-one fight. Who else do we know that's famous for fighting with that appearance?
 * Super Strength: Katie.
 * Talking to Himself: Alex and Wes.
 * Terminator Twosome: More like Terminator Two-teams, but it's the same idea.
 * "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Wes is on the receiving end of two of these:
 * The first is from Jen in "Something To Fight For", when she rejects his overtures to join the team by chastising him for his White Prince upbringing and saying that he wouldn't know what to do if he had to fight for something other than himself.
 * The second is from Eric in "The End of Time, Part 2", when he mocks Wes for thinking they could ever be friends and finally lets out his bitterness towards Wes for all the advantages he had growing up "with everything handed to him on a silver platter" while Eric had to work extra hard to get to where he was. Wes counters this one with a Dare to Be Badass speech of his own.
 * Time Police
 * Timey-Wimey Ball: The series never really establishes the exact nature of how time is shifting, including There are a lot of statements that the timeline was changing with technology showing up that shouldn't have existed in 2001 but nothing appears to be different in 3000.
 * Too Soon: As a series that regularly involves lots of property damage, you can imagine the editing involved after 9/11.
 * Trapped In Movie Land
 * Trash the Set:
 * Triang Relations
 * Tyrannosaurus Rex: Eric's Quantasaurus Rex zord ("Q-Rex" for short). And he and Wes run into the real thing when they go to prehistory to get it.
 * Universal Driver's License: Lucas has no problems driving 21st century cars, but got in trouble because his 31st century license isn't valid yet.
 * The Unmasking: Wes to his dad in "Worlds Apart".
 * Unobtainium: Trixerium crystals.
 * Vicious Cycle: Humans treatment of Mutants, Humans & Mutants treatment of Robots, & Frax's treatment of Humans & Mutants. Stated explicitedly by Frax.
 * Was Once a Man: The tragic case of.
 * We Can Rebuild Him: Revealed to be the origin of, though it was more like I Can Rebuild Myself.
 * "Well Done, Son" Guy: Wes.
 * What Could Have Been: The writers of Time Force originally planned out a series where the Rangers travelled through time and fought across different time periods. Then they discovered that Mirai Sentai Timeranger didn't actually feature the characters actively travelling through time: they travel once to the year 2000AD and stay there. The writers would later indulge their desires for historical crimefighting in the two-part Trapped In Movie Land episode "Movie Madness", scenes from which would later be spliced into the opening sequence to imply that... yes, the Rangers actively travelled through time and fought across different time periods!
 * A movie was planned to be produced for Time Force in 2001, but the threat of a Screen Actors Guild strike cancelled those plans.
 * According to Daniel Southworth at Power Morphicon 2007, due to the popularity, and the relationship between the production crew and cast they almost came back for a second season - whether he meant a second season of Time Force, or the characters coming back in Power Rangers Wild Force is unknown.
 * What Measure Is a Non-Human?: The mutant population in general, most memorably touched upon in episode 19, "Trip Takes A Stand".
 * What Year Is This?: The mutants in the premiere.
 * The White Prince: Wes starts as one.
 * You Can't Fight Fate: Wes was originally groomed to become a part of Bio-Lab - something he long since fought against, much to Mr. Collins' chagrin. In the storyline where Mr. Collins is dying, Alex explicitly says it is Wes' destiny to replace him at Bio-Lab. When Mr. Collins is saved (by Alex's intervention), much is made of the idea that Wes' destiny has effectively been changed. However, there is nothing to say that Wes won't one day takeover as head of Bio-Lab - just that the circumstances would be different. The fact that Wes becomes co-leader of Bio-Lab's Silver Guardians suggests his destiny hasn't changed at all. Arguably, Alex's actions (which made it possible for father and son to formally reconcile) inadvertently made it possible.
 * Possible, though as head of the Silver Guardians, it's quite possible that he would give up his position as head of Biolab, opting instead to stay as team leader under a new head. On the other hand, given that he'd want to protect the guardians from improper use, perhaps circumstances would force him to take over anyways. It's very much left up in the air, but the Character Development is that all of this happening under his own rules and not just because his father said so.