Power Rangers Time Force is considered a strong season by the fans and is held in high regards. But how does Linkara feel about it?
Tropes:
- Alternate Character Interpretation: In the re-release, he suggests that Jen's claim of how people tried to help Ransik but he turned them away could have been influenced by prejudice and indoctrination that exist in the future and how "helping them (mutants)" could have meant "forced labour camps away from normal humans". He does also note that there is no evidence of this and Jen could have been telling the truth that Ransik rejected true efforts to help him, but that it was something that could have been worth exploring.
- Anti-Climax Boss: Notes this about the end of the team-up, the rangers just fire a bunch of weapons and kill Vypra and her monster.
- Anti-Villain: He discusses fandom's perception of Ransik as this. It's pointed out that Ransik himself was not that sympathetic; he has a sympathetic backstory, but his general actions in the main story were awful. Most of Ransik's claims of mutant oppression didn't hold up in all the various flashbacks, after being attacked by his own kind and rescued by a human (and repaying said kindness with hatred). Still, he is shown to care for Nadira, and that is what fueled his eventual redemption.
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Author's Saving Throw: In the re-release episode, Linkara considers Time for Lightspeed a do over of Trakeena's Revenge. While both episodes had a similar structure (return of a previous villain, the previous Red Ranger being with the current team for most of the crossover, and the two factions on both sides teaming up), Time for Lightspeed edges out because it had a little more focus on the villains and the previous team. Plus, no little girl to take up too much of the plot. - Character Derailment: Despite being a well-written season overall, Linkara notes several characters change with no explanation. Eric starts as being cold and rude, but mellows out towards the other Rangers halfway through the season for some unknown reason, Alex was a heroic Red Ranger when the season started, but then turned into a "douche-nozzle" when he came back from the future, and Katie spends one episode paralyzed in fear that her actions in the past will alter the future and cause her to lose her family, but in a subsequent episode is sent back to the 1900s where she happily changes small things without worry. Granted, this was because some of the episodes aired out of order, but still.
- Character Development: Admits that this is one of the series strong points. Not all the characters get a lot of development, but there is development and it is handled well, being done gradually and realistically, best displayed with Jen and Eric. He points out his issue with Lucas however is that he doesn't develop, rather he remains a Flat Character.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Notes that this does help make Ransik more than a generic villain in that we see a bunch of moments where he does care about Nadira, noting the overall goofy filler when she has a crush on Lucas in which Ransik lets her see him rather than trying to kill him.
- Flat Character: His dislike of Lucas mainly stems from him being the least developed character amidst the Rangers, and that most of his personality traits are superficial, focused more on looking cool and his driving. Add on his rather flat acting and Lucas doesn't leave a good impression.
- Hype Backlash:
- While he thought Time Force itself was a very good series, he didn't find Ransik as sympathetic as everyone said.
- The two-parter with the Rangers stuck in movie scenarios also didn't impress him much, including the reference to Vernon Wells' past role in Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior. He largely glossed it over, feeling it was just filler.
- Time Force itself fell into this for Linkara - while he admitted it was a great season, the amount of hype he'd heard from fans made him concede that he still preferred In Space.
- In Memoriam: In the re-release version, Linkara mentions Ciruit Unsure both for its foreshadowing events leading to the finale, and that it was a dedication to Thuy Trang (Trini) who was killed in a car accident when the season was airing.
- It Makes Sense in Context: At Power Morphicon 2010, actor Vernon Wells (who played Time Force Big Bad Ransik) called Lewis a jackass. Turns out it was totally innocuous and meant in jest—Lewis was doing his best to remain low-key and inconspicuous during a panel when his own cameraman pointed him out to everyone. After Wells asked about this, Lewis said he was not making a big deal out of who he (Lewis) was because he did not want to look like a jackass, to which Wells cheerfully replied "Okay, jackass, what's your question?" This was referenced in the revision episode.
- Out of Order: The series made a conscious effort towards strong Character Development, where switching around character-based filler episodes disrupted Katie's development. One episode had her scared to do anything out of fear of changing the timeline while a later episode had her gleefully changing the past when transported to the early 1900's.
- Show, Don't Tell: One of his biggest gripes with this season is that the Rangers are told that what they're doing in the year 2001 is severely altering the future, but they never actually show what those alterations are.
- Show Within a Show: At one point, Linkara notices that Nadira was watching Masked Rider on tv, which leads to a humourous thought in the re-edited version. Either Dex defeated Count Dregon off-screen and sold the rights of his story for a tv series, or the events of Masked Rider were not canon to Power Rangers and only the events of "A Friend in Need" were, leading Zordon to sell the rights to a tv network.
- Sliding Scale of Free Will vs. Fate: Linkara identifies this as the Central Theme of Time Force, the Rangers fighting their fate as dictated by the future vs. the free will to make their own life choices. Although ... Linkara does point out this theme is a little flawed due to the season never revealed what the consequences from changing the future were exactly.
- Tragic Monster: While he doesn't consider Ransik sympathetic, he agrees that Frax is this.
- Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Provides the page quote when he discusses Ransik, while he does have a sympathetic backstory, his actions and behavior undermine that sympathetic backstory, particularly him killing Dr. Fericks when Fericks was a humble scientist who saved Ransik's life out of the goodness of his heart. He does agree that Frax is a sympathetic villain, however.
- What Could Have Been: Several according to Linkara:
- Originally, Alex was to be the Quantum Ranger and he and Wes would be played by twins. However, that did not happen and Linkara felt it was for the best.
- The writers flip-flopped over killing Eric off like his Sentai counterpart and filmed two different versions of the final scene in case Fox Kids allowed Eric to die.
- Because the cast got along so well, there were talks about shooting another season of Time Force or a movie. However, due to the impending SAG Strike, and the expensive costs Time Force had when filming certain scenes, the idea was scrapped.
