After how poorly Turbo went for Linkara, he has high hopes that Power Rangers in Space is not only a strong season, but also serves as a strong finale to the Zordon Era.
Tropes
- Arbitrary Skepticism: The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles do not believe in the Power Rangers, claiming that they are "Pretend" and "Imaginary." Barring the fact that Angel Grove has monster-preparedness drills and evacuation plans, and that the rangers had been on TV before, or that monster attacks frequently made the news, the point is again made: These are Teenaged Mutated reptiles who train in the art of ninjitsu. Even if that wasn't enough, the people they're talking to are Astronema and Elgar, who are space aliens. And the Turtles know this.
- Author's Saving Throw: In the revised review, Linkara feels that the more serious nature of the season, along with having the Rangers act alone with no mentor, was way better handled than what Turbo tried.
- The Chessmaster: Notes that Astronema is easily the most competent villain up to this point in the franchise, avoided the same petty plans that other villains did and kept her eye either on defeating the rangers or causing destruction.
- Chewing the Scenery: While he praises Astronema for being a genuinely intimidating villain, he laments the fact that especially in the earlier episodes the producers really had her chewing the scenery. He even shows clips of some of her more hammy line deliveries in the rerelease of his In Space review subtitled with "Oscar Bait".
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: In the revised video, Linkara notes that Lieutenant Stone, Principal Caplan, and Ms. Appleby are no longer around as the showrunners had no more ideas for them. Personally, Linkara doesn't mind this as it adds to the Rangers growing more as young adults, especially with the recurring plot of trying to look for Zordon.
- Foreshadowing: Linkara mentions that the broken Mastadon Power Morpher Adam still had opened a lot of potential that destroyed powers can be rebuilt and brought back, given that the latter was still able to morph with the wrecked morpher. This would lead to future crossovers where some of the Rangers regained their powers despite losing them.
- Free-Range Children: Notes the Early-Installment Weirdness of the writers of the show trying to create plotlines revolving around the Rangers still being in High School, since the Rangers were also shown being very busy in their duties as Rangers and trying to locate Zordon. He even questions outright where their parents think they are since they are obviously not going home. That being said, he was glad when the show just dropped the High School thing altogether partway through the season.
- Grand Finale: As Linkara mentioned, production went into In Space believing that it would be the final season for Power Rangers and went and did everything to make it a thrilling conclusion. A more dynamic storyline, closure on some loose ends Turbo had, bringing back Adam and the Black Mighty Morphin Ranger Powers since Zeo, and an ending to Bulk and Skull's character development. While it ended up not being the true ending to Power Rangers as a whole, Linkara feels that it's a perfect end to the Zordon Era, and one that was a perfect closure to a childhood television show.
- Human Aliens: Linkara finds it weird that Andros is an alien from KO-35 that just so happens to be human (for the record, Andros says outright he's human, not an alien species like Trey from Triforia or the Aquitians who look mostly human but clearly have different biology).
- I Am Spartacus: Rarely does Linkara show full scenes seriously, but he features Bulk and Skull's shining moment in its entirety.
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In Memoriam: In the revised review, Linkara replaced the Under Pressure montage with a somber montage of all the times Zordon imparted his wisdom, and shots of all the Ranger teams during the Zordon Era. - Pragmatic Adaptation: At the beginning of the review, Linkara notes that the production crew looked at Denji Sentai Megaranger and believed that the Sentai was going to be spaced themed... except they later learned that Megaranger was an electronic themed Sentai that just so happened to have space-themed zords. Since the show was going to be cancelled after this season anyway, the crew decided to go with the space idea. And based on how successful the season was, it worked out spectacularly!
- Plot Parallel: He describes how the episode "Wasp With a Heart" is essentially Astronema's story arc told in one episode.
- Psycho Rangers: Is very pleased to see the Trope Namers that finally gave us a team of evil Power Rangers that weren't just random villains.
- Prop Recycling: In the revised review, Linkara notes that the new Surf Shack is actually a modified set of the old Juice Bar area. Although that begs the question why they did not keep the Juice Bar.
- Linkara also notes that Dark Specter's monster suit is a reused Malagor from "Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie". He even calls Dark Specter Malagor a few times in the review.
- Put on a Bus: Notes that after Lightning Cruiser and Storm Blaster are saved by the Rangers they just disappear and are never heard from again, even though they likely would have been very useful to keep around.
- Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
- While Linkara wasn't nearly as hateful towards Justin as regular fans, he admitted that "True Blue to the Rescue", Justin's last appearance in the franchise, was an excellent episode showcasing all the good points of the character while also resolving hanging elements from Turbo.
- He is also happy with the new voice chip and personality given to Alpha 6, considering the change an improvement over the annoying faux jive-talk of the previous season.
- Take That, Scrappy!: Multiple times to Elgar. He replays the scene where the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles kick him out of the way multiple times while laughing and crowing "That's for Zordon's energy tube, you cone-headed freak!"
- The Un-Twist: Notes that Astronema being Karone is pretty obvious by the time it's revealed.
- What Could Have Been: Talks about how this season (and the next one, for that matter) planned on finally resolving the mystery regarding the Phantom Ranger, but that the story arc had to be scrapped. In the revised review, he mentions that Judd Lynn wrote a scene where the Phantom Ranger's identity was to be revealed, but it was scrapped when the finale became a two-parter instead of the intended three-parter. Even more interesting, Linkara says that Shuki Levy suggested that the Phantom Ranger was the spirit of the past Rangers that fell in battle, a concept he finds both stupid and awesome.
- Win Back the Crowd: After noting Turbo almost killed a struggling franchise, In Space was planned to be the Grand Finale to the series. But it was just so grand it brought the fans back in droves, and the series continued.
