It’s holiday time in the Power Rangers universe and that of course means it’s time for another Christmas special! Normally since the days of Samurai that means “clip show” and usually that is correct but for the last few years, speaking for holiday specials in general, we’ve been treated to a “clip show” with a sprinkling of creative new footage added to the clips. This year was no exception. This year’s Christmas special focused on Sarah alone with Santa Claus flying through time collecting the Power Stars from the past in order to help fight Cleocatra a monster who showed up randomly after the events of the finale to avenge her cousin!
While this episode had its decent moments I will say that it was just fairly decent at that. It wasn’t as enjoyable as the Dino Charge or Dino Super Charge Christmas episodes but was also no where near as bad as the Samurai or (god forbid) the Super Samurai Christmas special. Let’s take a look back at some moments from this episode.
The Ranger’s Gifts & Forgetting Sarah: I have always loved the Christmas episodes (similar to how I love the Halloween episodes) because I always love to see what the Rangers get each other for presents. In this case Sarah prepared gifts for her friends. Calvin and Hayley received matching reindeer sweaters (adorable), Redbot got a box of springs and bolts (which he cutely dropped all over himself), Brody got a pair of headphones (for some reason, cause I guess he has no gifts to go with his personality?), Levi got a tambourine (cause reasons) and Preston got a wizard hat (which made him perform the Ninninger dance, which I’m sure was a Peter Sudarso request, love it!).
But after Sarah handed out gifts she noticed that none of her friends had gifts for her! I’m not sure about you but I felt pretty bad for her, I mean she got every one of her friends a gift (even the robot!) and nothing from them, not even a Secret Santa?
Then, cut to the very end of the episode (spoiler alert lol) the others finally do decide to get her a “gift” and its Santa in the garage ready to give her a ride in his sleigh! B*tch, she just did that the entire episode! Can’t you get her a Starbucks gift card or something? I mean she just went back in time like 5 times to save your butts, man Sarah really got shafted this year.
Sarah’s Holiday Spirit: I think that Sarah has proven herself to be one the most resourceful, powerful, compassionate and intelligent Rangers on the team. In the beginning of the episode she was forgotten on Christmas, was a little saddened by this but did not skip a beat when her friends were in need. As soon as Cleocatra had pulled out her time device Sarah was ready to dive out of the way! Later, she was ready to fly through time with Santa Claus to re-obtain the Ninja Power Stars so that her team could be reunited in order to defeat this random monster who showed up out of no where! She even kept a diary of all of the important moments in time that helped her collect the Stars!
Sarah’s hard work and determination showed from events throughout the entire season that culminated to this episode totally made her an MVP on this team!
Time Travel: I think that the beginning of this episode was a good idea; Sarah was forgotten at Christmas. They were headed in the right direction, but I am sure they lost their way somehow after Cleocatra showed up. Time Travel doesn’t work folks and apparently no one learned a lesson after the terrible debacle that was the Dino Super Charge finale.
During this episode there is so much time travel loop holes that don’t make any sense to the story that you literally have to turn off your brain for you to enjoy this episode. For one, Sarah speaks to herself in one scene where she takes the Pink Power Star. No No No. That’s one of the very first rules of time travel, never interact with yourself! It completely changes the timeline even if you return to your original time. Sarah with Levi before even knowing him, Sarah talking to Brody about Galvanax’s defeat mere moments before (like, why pick that moment?) and then stealing Preston’s Power Star without him knowing (wouldn’t he miss it and screw up the time line at some point?). Why pick these moments period?
Later, when Sarah returns the Power Stars and destroys the Time Controller it apparently sets everything right again. Everything that Sarah had changed goes back to normal, because that makes sense (No it doesn’t). Not only that but Preston decides to mention “I guess that’s why we don’t remember you taking our Power Stars...” *facepalm* If you just said that, that means you remember. Man, I feel like I could write out so much about what is wrong with time travel in this episode but, why? It’s a meaningless Christmas episode that doesn’t have anything to do with the plot, however it just bugs me that this episode was so poorly put together.
Re-Obtaining the Power Stars Scenes: As with the Halloween Special this year, the episode wasn’t just clips we also got addition clips that added to what we’ve already seen. When Sarah had to convince herself to hand over the Pink Power Star we went back in time to Episode 7 “Hack Attack”. She succeeded in convincing herself with her secret diary which helped her & Santa to remember certain dates to obtain the Ninja Power Stars she needed for her friends. To convince Levi she traveled in time to episode 8 “Gold Rush” where she pleaded with him to give her the Gold Power Star, he obliged even though he had no idea who she was. To convince Calvin and Hayley she traveled back in time to Episode 10 “The Ranger Ribbon” where they were both still hanging out in the Ribbon Tree. To convince Preston she traveled back to episode 16 “Monkey Business” during the food fight as Preston cower from the food. She steals his Power Star without him knowing, which I am sure at some point in his timeline he would miss, but whatever timelines don’t matter in this….
To convince Brody she traveled back to our most recent episode “Galvanax Rises” where she had to convince Brody that she needed his Power Star and yet was still unable to reveal to him how the battle with Galvanax was won in the future. Wow, this story-line was really running thin at this point and barely believable even for Power Rangers and even for a Christmas special.
Cleocatra: I will have to say that I am a little indifferent to her just like her cousin. The sound of the voice is a little bit of an improvement but, I miss the “meow meow”. I guess I just can’t be pleased with this monster, or I wish there was more of a holiday theme to her. Last year’s monster totally spoiled me haha!
I will have to say though that it was pretty laughable when Brody grabbed the Time Controller and somehow Gigantified himself and she had to follow suit. That was an interesting gigantic battle!
All in all the episode had many flaws and as I said above does not hold water against the Dino Charge Holiday specials and even saying that it doesn’t hold its own against its own Halloween special. Heck, it doesn’t even hold its own against most of its own seasons episodes, but it’s a Christmas Clip show so what do you want I suppose.
But, I would rather think of Ninja Steel leaving on the high note (IMO, anyways) that was the Finale instead of this Christmas Special!
Onto the premiere of Super Ninja Steel which is set to come in January!
Thank You for reading my Reviews of Power Rangers Ninja Steel, see you in 2018!