Series / Power Rangers Dino Charge

aka: Power Rangers Dino Super Charge

It's about to get wild!

"It's Morphin' Time! Energize! Unleash the power!"

—Morphing call, Power Rangers Dino Charge

The 22nd and 23rd seasons of the long-running Power Rangers franchise, adapting footage from Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger. This is the third season with a dinosaur motif, following Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers and Power Rangers: Dino Thunder.

65 million years ago, the alien Keeper arrived on Earth while being pursued by ruthless bounty hunter Sledge and his evil forces, who hoped to steal the ten powerful Energems from him. Keeper was able to give the each Energems to a dinosaur or other Mesozoic creature for safe keeping, but they were soon lost when asteroids hit the Earth and wiped out 65% of life worldwide, including the dinosaurs. Now in the present day, five young adults are discovering the lost Energems —and at the same time, Sledge and his forces have returned to continue their hunt. Fortunately, local museum curator Kendall Morgan has partnered with Keeper in order to harness the Energems' power for the earth protection, turning those chosen by the Energems into the Power Rangers Dino Charge.

This is the second subseries, after Power Rangers RPM, to be established by later crossovers as having taken place in a parallel dimension to the main Power Rangers universe (and not the same dimension as RPM), with characters from all three dimensions teaming up.

Distantly related to Power Rangers Dino Force Brave, another foreign spin-off of Kyoryuger. Succeeded by Power Rangers Ninja Steel.

---

Common Power Rangers tropes

• Animal-Themed Superbeing: Dinosaur (and other Mesozoic creature)-themed, in this case.
• Artistic License – Paleontology: In general all of the models used on the extinct organisms appear to be carbon copies of Jurassic Park's and thus have all the same highly outdated inaccuracies. Animals that aren't dinosaurs are referred to as dinosaurs. Finally dinosaurs and other extinct organisms that didn't live together are shown coexisting.
  • Of the dinosaurs shown onlyTyrannosaurus rex, Triceratops, Pachycephalosaurus, and Ankylosaurus did all coexist at 65 million B. C. E. in western North America,
    • Stegosaurus lived at least 80 million years earlier in the Jurassic. Pteranodon went extinct around 83 million years ago. Parasaurolophus went extinct around 70 million years ago. Plesiosaurus lived at least 100 million years before the end of the Mesozoic.
    • Velociraptor, is from central Asia ^note and the dinosaur shown to receive the Green Energem is more the size of Velociraptor's much larger relative Utahraptor, which lived in western North America, but about 60 million years before the end of the Mesozoic. Jainosaurus (formerly known as Titanosaurus) lived in India ^note and by the late Cretaceous, the continents were approaching their present-day forms.
  • As a result of the models being carbon copies of Jurassic Park's many dinosaurs lack lips, dinosaurs lack feathers, pterosaurs have no pycnofibers, are shrink-wrapped, possess feet that are too elephantine, have broken pronated arms, monitor lizard-type scaly skin, capable of roaring, to name a few inaccuracies.
    • Stegosaurus has the wrong proportions and a droopy-tail.
  • Assuming that at the time, Keeper was in what is currently Hell Creek, Montana, the Green, Silver, Blue, Black, Gold, and Purple Energems should have been received by creatures such as Alamosaurus, Thescelosaurus, Edmontosaurus, Champsosaurus (a choristoderan reptile), and Didelphodon (a marten-like marsupial mammal), instead of by Velociraptor, Jainosaurus, Stegosaurus, Parasaurolophus, Pteranodon, and Plesiosaurus respectively.
• Artistic License – History:
  • Koda is a caveman from 100,000 years ago. At that time, homo sapiens had not yet left Africa, and yet Koda's cave is in California, at least 80,000 years before any humans arrived there.
  • Ivan is from the 13th century, and yet claims to have been friends with Shakespeare, a man who lived in the 16th and 17th centuries.
• Big Bad: Sledge is the lead villain, with Snide as a temporary Dragon Ascendant and Lord Arcanon as a Greater-Scope Villain and Big Bad Wannabe.
• Chest Insignia: Unique this year in that the insignia is formed by a shoulderpad and "sash" pattern across the chest that together resemble a dinosaur head. There are also team logos on the belt and personal ones at the top of the "sash" near the arm.
• City of Adventure: Amber Beach, though the Rangers travel to Auckland following a sighting of one of Sledge's ships at the beginning of "World Famous! in New Zealand" and return home on the Plesiozord at the end of the following episode, "Deep Down Under".
• Color-Coded Characters: As usual, the Rangers all dress almost exclusively in their signature color. For a bit of Foreshadowing, future Rangers can be seen with items of their upcoming Ranger color as well.
• Comm Links: For the first time since Turbo, the Rangers' morphers do not have communication devices built into them, with Dino Coms being separate pieces of equipment entirely^note  while the Space Rangers continued to use the old wrist communicators from the MMPR days, the Astro Morphers were also capable of communication; they act as the Rangers' belt buckles and can also store up to three Dino Chargers.
• Compressed Adaptation: A downplayed example. Dino Charge was given 2 seasons of 20 regular episodes, a Christmas Special and Halloween Special each to Kyoryuger's 48.
• Evolving Credits: Has the usual additions of new zords, power-ups and rangers, but also when Dino Super Charge started, they actually changed the typeface of the credits, after having used the same one since Samurai.
• Family-Friendly Firearms: Averted a lot, though expect beams in original footage, and extended shooting scenes cut down a bit.
• Fleeting Demographic Rule: It's been 11 years since the last dinosaur series; we're overdue.
  • It's also likely the reason they got away with having a main villain in Dino Supercharge (Snide) that looked a lot like one of the main villains from Dino Thunder (Zeltrax). Of course, on the Kyoryuger side of things, the connection was the point of Snide's counterpart, being the personification of the Abarangers' villains' regret at not beating them. His name is even Neo-Geildon (an early user of the Cursed Armor/Zeltrax's counterpart was Geildon).
• Humongous Mecha
  • Animal Mecha: Of the prehistoric variety.
  • Combining Mecha: The T-Rex and Spinozords combine with two of the six "expansion pack" zords to form the Dino Charge and Spino Charge Megazord respectively; and the Dino Charge Megazord can also then attach to the Pterazord for Ptera Formation. When the T-Rex combines with all four of the other main Rangers' zords and the Titanozord, it makes the Dino Charge Ultrazord. The Plesiozord also has an alternate formation by combining with the T-Rex; it always uses the Pachyzord as well and is therefore called Pachy-Rex Formation, but can theoretically use any of the expansion zords or even none at all.
  • Leader Forms the Head: Exaggerated; the T-Rex zord makes up all of the main Megazord but the arms.
  • Mecha Expansion Pack: The Stegozord, Tricerazord, Parazord, Raptor Zord, Ankylozord, and Pachyzord. What's unique this time is that unlike other mecha with expansion packs, the Dino Charge Megazord doesn't have a plain vanilla combination and must use two of the provided weapon sets.
  • Transforming Mecha: the Pterazord, Plesiozord, and Titanozord.
• Limited Wardrobe: Reverted back to earlier limits of Ranger color scheme instead of the exact same outfit like in most previous series. Also justified in certain cases since the Rangers sometimes wear standard brown work coveralls when on museum business.
• Make My Monster Grow: This year Sledge fires a "Magna Beam" from his ship in space as opposed to the Sentai which had the monster be sprinkled with a watering can.
  • For Dino Super Charge, Heckyl fires the Magna Beam from Sledge's destroyed ship and it bounces off an orbiting satellite to grow the monster.
• Mini Dress Of Power: Part of the girl Rangers' suits.
• Artistic License – Paleontology:
  • The show is inconsistent on whether the T. rex has feathers or not; material recycled from Kyoryuger has them, while original footage does not. The Velociraptor also lacks feathers in both recycled and original footage.
    • The Para Zord and Pachy Zord are based off of Parasauropholus and Pachycephalosaurs respectively, but in the show they dinosaur names are shortened to Parasaur and Pachysaur. The Pteranodon and Brachiosaur are also called semi-valid but dubious names of Pterodactyl and Titanosaurus; though both of those may be intentional nods to Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers.
  • The show has Jurassic dinosaurs like Stegosaurus and Brachiosaurus living in late Cretaceous period. Though they did call Brachiosaurus Titanosaurus, which did in fact live in the late Cretaceous.
• One-Steve Limit: Enforced. The Red Ranger was originally going to be "Lucas", and some early merchandise even uses that name; but it was later changed to "Tyler" because the franchise already had a Lucas back in Time Force. Similarly, the casting sheet listed the Green Ranger as "Ryan" when there was one in Lightspeed Rescue; while early merchandising says "Quinn" and his final name is "Riley". Averted for the Sixth Ranger Ivan, who shares his name with Non-Serial Movie villain Ivan Ooze. You've also got Kendall Morgan, who shares a lot in common with similarly named (but unrelated) Kendrix Morgan.
• Recycled In Space: Power Rangers with DINOSAURS... A THIRD TIME!
• The Smurfette Principle: The core team only has one female in the group - the first time that this has happened in a major five-man team.^note The Alien Rangers were temporary stand-ins, and other one-girl teams from the Disney era were Power Trios. Previously, when Sentai had only one girl in five, Saban would use She's a Man in Japan to gender-flip a male Yellow Ranger. Kendall is later promoted to the Purple Ranger, but with the series' other guest Rangers the ratio is still one-to-five.
• Super Mode: The Dino Drive armored vests are partial examples, since they're only used as Megazord powerups. The second season adds an upgraded version, Dino Super Drive. Unlike the previous version, one Dino Charger activates the mode for the entire team. The Ranger who activated it also gets a new weapon, the Dino Super Drive Saber. Later, Tyler gets the T-Rex Super Charge mode.
• Thememobile: The Dino Cycles.
• Transformation Trinket: Surprisingly, Dino Charge kept the team gun as the morpher as it was in Kyoryuger; despite speculation that they'd make a new morpher and leave the gun as only a weapon due to violence concerns. However, starting from episode 3, insta-morphs without the gun are done as well. The Gold and Silver Rangers get their own unique morphers, called the Gold Ptera Morpher and Titano Morpher respectively.
  • The Titano Morpher being a repaint of the gun. (Also, two Rangers who didn't have the gun in Kyoryuger - members of the Predecessor Hero team whose heyday was before guns existed - have it in PRDC.)
• Weapon-Based Characterization:
  • Sword and Gun: The Dino Sabers and Dino Charge Morphers.
    • Bifurcated Weapon: Which can be combined into the Dino Blade Blaster.
    • Bayonet Ya: The Dino Blade Blaster's Power Blade, done by extending the Saber blade. Kendall favors this configuration, though Chase also used it once when making a long-range shot.
  • Power Fist: Tyler's T-Rex Smasher.
  • Automatic Crossbows: Chase's Para Chopper.
  • Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Koda's Stego Shield.
  • Wolverine Claws: Riley's Raptor Claw.
  • This Is a Drill: Shelby's Tricera Drill.
  • Cool Sword: Ivan's Ptera Saber.
  • Epic Flail: Prince Philip's "Royal Power Punch" attack summons one similar to his Zord's tail mace just for the duration.
  • Mix-and-Match Weapon: Ivan's Gold Ptera Morpher can both fire projectile bolts and strike with a blade. Also the Super Dino Drive Saber, a sword with a revolver barrel built into the hilt.
  • Bond One-Liner: "Monster, extinct!"
    • Ivan uses "Monster, vanquished!"
  • Invocation: Morphing involves multiple phrases: "It's Morphin' Time! Dino Charger, Ready! Energize! Unleash the power!" It's often cut back to just "Energize!", but since the first morph shown is completely by accident the phrases clearly aren't required.
  • In the Name of the Moon/Transformation Name Announcement:
  "Power Rangers, charge!"
  "Tyrannosaurus Rex! Power Ranger, Red!"
  "Parasaur! Power Ranger, Black!"
  "Stegosaurus! Power Ranger, Blue!"
  "Velociraptor! Power Ranger, Green!"
  "Triceratops! Power Ranger, Pink!"
  "Pteradactyl! Power Ranger, Gold!"
  "Dinosaur might, ready to fight! Power Rangers Dino Charge!"
  "It's about to get wild!"

This show provides examples of

• Absurdly Youthful Father: Tyler's dad James hasn't aged in 10 years thanks to the Aqua Energem.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: The Pink Ranger's Triceratops zord was initially indigo in the toyline, despite being pink in the show. But due to fan outrage it was changed back to Pink. (Though it's entirely possible that the initial indigo color was nothing more than a factory error and it was always meant to still be pink).
• Adaptational Badass: From a meta perspective. This is the 3rd Pterazord in the franchise. However, previous pterazords were mostly add ons to the megazord, with their best use being a weapon to use. The pterazord in Dinocharge however is its own megazord, and is strong enough to take on the Dinocharge Megazord in normal mode with lightning blasts.
• The Ageless: As it turns out, a perk of being bonded to an Energem. Just look at Koda - looking pretty spry for someone going on 100,000. Of course, being a Human Popsicle for most of that time probably helped.
• Air Vent Escape: Riley and the others in "When Logic Fails". Possibly justified, since Puzzler's Reality Warping may have had the side-effect of making the air-vents larger. Or because Puzzler was so busy warping rooms, covering doors with walls and altering maps that he forgot about the vents.
• All Cavemen Were Neanderthals: Averted. Koda is a 100,000 year old caveman yet is anatomically indistinguishable from modern humans. Considering he is 100% Homo sapiens, this and him not having stereotypical traits like grunting speech or a huge brow ridge is quite accurate.
• An Asskicking Christmas: Race to Rescue Christmas and Here Comes Heximas, each taking place the day before Christmas and having the Rangers battle some enemy, including Zord fights. Here Comes Heximas actually adapts its Sentai counterpart's own episode with this trope - Heximas uses the suit and giant footage from Debo Yanasanta.
• The Artifact: Though there have clearly been steps to avoid this through Pragmatic Adaptation, some aspects of the original sentai appear here without explanation.
  • Ivan having a different morpher from the other rangers is never explained, even though everyone other ranger who appears gets a Dino Blaster and he has a crossbow-like device. In the sentai it was because his morpher was created before guns were invented, but in Power Rangers his morpher clearly doesn't materialize until present day.
  • Phillip's and James' suits have a muted sash instead of bright yellow like other rangers. This is never explained in the show, though in Kyoryuger it was because Kyoryu Grey and Aqua were spirits.
  • The show goes through great ways to cut around the Sentai's carnival theme (The Red Ranger's T-Rex Super Charge mode is literally called "Carnival Mode" in the Sentai). This leaves a few strange artifacts, such as the T-Rex Super Charge mode sequences featuring confetti and colored fireworks while the regular morphing sequences do not, and the fact that in some of the footage, the red ranger is clearly dancing (Carnival mode has the red ranger dance alongside the zords in the Sentai).
  • Sledge's crew and prisoners having gaping faces on their outfits. In the original sentai, it's a sign of their desire to collect human emotion to free their master - anger for Fury, sorrow for Wrench, joy for Poisandra. In Dino Charge, there's no such goal, so the faces are just there for decoration.
• Artifact of Doom: The Dark Energem, which can corrupt good people and create evil split personalities just by touching them, which is how Heckyl became evil and gained his alter-ego Snide, and Zenowing gained his own alter-ego Doomwing. It also powers up beings who are already pure evil, such as Lord Arcanon. Turns out destroying it is even worse.
• Artistic License – Paleontology: Besides the general naming issues and lack of feathers on dinos that should have them^note in the case of T-Rex the issue of feathering is still heavily debated, the first episode has multiple flubs:
  • There is no scientific reason for the various species of dinosaur in the prologue to exist in the same scene together, much less get along peacefully. Conveniently, the most problematic of these, the water-dwelling Plesiosaur, is kept off-camera. Also in the prologue, aerial shots show the continents as they look in the modern day rather than how they looked in prehistory.
  • Later on, a dinosaur skeleton is shown in the museum that Chase states was uncovered nearby. Its head crest identifies it as a Cryolophosaurus, which was native to Antarctica.
  • Shelby tries to impress Kendall with her in-depth knowledge of dinosaurs by explaining that only two of Triceratops' horns were bone with the other being made of keratin. In reality, all ceratopsian horns consist of a large bone core covered in a keratin sheet with there being no evidence of any dinosaur possessing purely soft tissue horns.
  • Later still, the Plesiosaur is repeatedly referred to as a dinosaur, with two of the people doing so consisting of a professional paleontologist and Shelby, who is a self-professed dinosaur nerd.
  • The Pterodactyl is not truly a dinosaur, either.
  • That said, averted in the case of paleoanthropology. Koda being portrayed as identical to a modern human despite being 100,000 years old is actually quite accurate; as anatomically modern humans have been around for about twice that long.
• Baby Carriage: A flashback in "Breaking Black" shows Chase earning his Energem saving a baby from a runaway carriage about to be hit by a bus. It contains a kitten rather than a human infant, but still.
• Back for the Finale: Kaylee, Mr. Watkins, Matt, and Zach all appear in "End of Extinction" to help the Rangers' plan to destroy the Dark Energem.
  • Santa Claus makes a return in the actual finale/epilogue, Here Comes Heximas.
• The Bad Guy Wins:
  • "Double Ranger, Double Danger" ends in a mess for the Rangers. They lost the Energem scanner, forcing them to destroy it in order to keep it out for the bad guys's hands, but Fury recovers the Dino Charger they still had in the machine, meaning he can use the Pterazord now.
  • "Wishing for a Hero" doesn't turn out much better. The monster was destroyed, but they lost the purple energem in the process, and still aren't any closer to finding a new ranger for it.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: The rangers all made wishes on wish cards which were cursed by the monster in "Wishing for a Hero". Unfortunately, a Wish monster had cursed them so that they came true at first, but then turned bad afterwards. The worst, of course, was Kendall wishing for a purple ranger. She almost got one... With a bad guy.
• Birthday Episode: It's Riley's birthday in the episode "No Matter How You Slice It".
• Bodyguard Babes: Parodied with Miss Sandra in "Riches to Rags". The oversized Femme Fatalons are just part of it.
• Body Horror: Curio, who is made from spare monster parts.
• Bounty Hunter: Sledge, the Big Bad of the season. Also a very Bad Boss to work with, as Fury can attest.
• Boxed Crook: A variation (as they are in the employ of the Big Bad). The Monsters of the Week are held captive in Sledge's prison ship, and sent out to fight the Rangers as a sort of probation.
• Breaking Old Trends: Dino Charge is the first Power Rangers series to not have a Yellow Ranger.
• Call-Back:
  • In "When Logic Fails", Riley comments on how all the villains are on different paths but they're leading to the same destination. This is the same lesson that Keeper taught about him and Chase in "The Tooth Hurts".
  • The ending scene in "One More Energem" is one to the first scene of "Past, Present, and Fusion" with Tyler playfully calling Shelby a 'Di-know-it-all' and Riley's moped not working prompting the other two to offer a ride. Tyler also happens to be wearing the same shirt in both instances. Shelby even lampshades this:
    Is this déjà vu or what?
• Cast from Hit Points: Fury uses the being inside of him (Ivan) to charge the Ptera Charger. This drains Ivan, which in turn seems to harm Fury as well.
• Christmas Episode: "Race To Rescue Christmas" in Season 1, and "Here Comes Heximas" in Season 2. The latter episode is actually set following the official finale.
• Clingy MacGuffin: Yet again, we have a powerful item that "chooses" to bond with people who just happen to find them. For bonus points, this is just like the last dinosaur Power Rangers series in that regard. Keeper later demonstrates that he can break the bond if the host wishes it.
• Clip Show: Four of them - the Halloween episodes The Ghostest With the Mostest (in Dino Charge) and Trick or Trial (in Dino Supercharge), and the Christmas episodes Race to Rescue Christmas (in Dino Charge) and Here Comes Heximas (in Dino Supercharge), are this. Unusually, they also use footage from actual monster battles that weren't previously used in the series.
  • The Ghostest with the Mostest has one of the rangers kidnapped and replaced by a monster in disguise. In order to determine who the fake is, Kendall asks the rangers questions about previous events in the series. Clips from those points are shown as the rangers answer them.
  • Race to Rescue Christmas has Poissandra, Curio and Wrench watch the ranger's nice or naughty assessment on Santa's computer, which involves footage from other episodes detailing their achievements.
  • Trick or Trial has the spirits of dead monsters recounting out the Rangers fought and destroyed them, with clips from those episodes.
  • Here Comes Heximas has four of the Rangers get turned evil by the titular monster's plot. The spell is broken through reminding them (with accompanying clips from past shows) of who and what they really are.
• Compressed Vice: Riley suffers from this in "Home Run Koda", living vicariously through his teammate's success at baseball because he was never any good as a child. While Riley has mentioned his less-athletic past before, this is the first time he's been so drastically focused on proving himself.
• Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Sledge has a shipful of the galaxy's most wanted criminals. Will he either (a) turn them in, become insanely rich, and be hailed as a hero for capturing them, or (b) lose them all by sending them against the Rangers one by one? You get no points for guessing which he's going to do.
  • To be fair, the Energems are implied to be way more valuable than the criminals. Plus, he actually does consider it at times.
  • Furthermore, in "The Ghostest With the Mostest", Wrench is shown to have adapted a machine that can re-animate destroyed monsters, so in theory, Sledge can now get both the Energems and all the bounties - just re-animate all the monsters once the Energems are secured!
• Demoted to Extra: The most dangerous criminal on Sledge's ship is Deboss, the Big Bad of Kyoryuger.
• Dénouement Episode: "Here Comes Heximas", the second Christmas Episode, chronologically takes place after the main story.
• Description Cut: Sledge talks about how miserable he was in different parts of the world while conducting his master plan. This is of course contradicted by pictures shown on screen showing Sledge doing all sorts of fun looking things.
• A Dog Named "Dog": There's a monster among Sledge's crew called Bones... because he's a monster made of bones. There's also a ninja among the criminals whose name is... Ninja. And working with him is a big-game hunter named... Hunter.
• Domesticated Dinosaurs: The dinosaurs in the prologue, especially the T. rex, seem to be this way; acknowledging and following the Keeper's requests. Though their may actually be some justification for this. For example, when the Keeper speaks to the Rex the first time, he appears to form some kind of psychic connection with the animal.
• The Dreaded: Heckyl, made obvious by the reactions of Fury, Wrench, and Sledge's prisoners when Sledge declared he was releasing him.
  • Sledge is also dreaded enough for no one to challenge him, including prisoners let go to battle the Rangers. Meanwhile, the only one Sledge dreads is Arcanon.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Because Sledge's ship has ALL its prisoners in open faced cells, this means that monsters that will be sent out later in the season can be seen as early as the first episode before they get their chance to fight the rangers. The next-to-last MOTW Badussa is seen in the first episode!
• Empathic Weapon: As in Kyoryuger, the Rangers' powers seem tied to an emotion, but unlike in Kyoryuger were it was bravery, the Energems seem to react to selflessness and altruism.
• Evil-Detecting Dog: In episode 2, Riley's dog Rubik goes crazy and chases after something in the woods. It turns out to be Fury.
• "Facing the Bullets" One-Liner: Tyler uses his catch phrase as one in "One More Energem" as he prepares to jump out of Sledge's crashing ship even though he doubts he'd be able to survive at all. "It's about to get wild!"
• The Fellowship Has Ended: The first season ends with everybody except for Ms. Morgan, Ivan, and Koda (who stay in Amber Beach to seek the two remaining Energems) going their separate ways. With Sledge defeated there are no pressing threats to the Energems, and they can all return to their own lives... At least until Snide appears on the scene. The Grand Finale ends with it as well, naturally. However, the post-script Christmas Episode has them reassemble for one more battle, and ends with all ten members of the team together and enjoying a Christmas party, letting us know they'll always be in each other's lives.
• Fish out of Temporal Water: Averted. Ivan has little trouble with the current world. Koda has a bit more but has had time to adjust.
• Fishing for Sole: In the episode "Gone Fishin'", this happens to Chase.
• Foil: Chase and Riley. The latter is The Stoic, type A, and extremely disciplined. The former is The Casanova, relaxed, and tends to unconventional methods of training.
• Foreshadowing: Sledge taking Spellbinder's amulet for future uses. It was used to fuse Spellbinder and Gold Digger together into a new monster, Spelldigger, although this happens in Supercharge, meaning Sledge isn't around anymore.
  • One that is probably unintentional, but when Kendall and Shelby form the Anklo's first dino charge the number on the charge is 7 instead of the expected 6 — this foreshadows that the Aqua Gem is not the ONLY missing Dino Gem that's already bonded to someone.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble
  • Tyler (Eclectic)
  • Chase (Sanguine)
  • Koda (Phlegmatic)
  • Riley (Melancholic)
  • Shelby (Choleric)
• "Freaky Friday" Flip: The episode "Freaky Fight Day".
• Freeze-Frame Bonus:
  • Sledge's cell blocks. If you're familiar with Kyoryuger's monsters, chances are you might recognize some of them, including D.
  • One bounty poster in the first episode has the picture of the monster Monkeywi from Power Rangers Jungle Fury.
  • In Wishing for a Hero, Beevil and Necrolai can be seen among the prisoners.
• Gotta Catch 'Em All: This series has the rangers searching for the ten Energems before Sledge does, as well as people worthy enough to bond with them and become rangers themselves. This is downplayed, since by the second episode they already have a five-ranger team and, therefore, five Energems.
• Gratuitous Special Effects: While its source material prided itself on using mostly practical effects for the Zords, Dino Charge has some original footage with no such regard.
  • The dinos in the first 10 minutes of Episode 1.... do not look good on a real background.
  • Rexy in the end when he rampages through the woods and attacks Iceage.
  • The sabre-toothed tiger in Koda's Dream Sequence in "Return of the Caveman".
• Halloween Episode: "The Ghostest With The Mostest" in Season 1, and "Trick Or Trial" in Season 2.
• Handsome Heroic Caveman: Koda. His hairness is confined solely to his long, messy head hair; otherwise he's muscular, hairless, tall, and handsome, reflecting his brave and selfless character.
• Headbutting Pachy: Justified due to being a Mecha the Pachy Zord naturally headbutts enemies.
• His Name Really Is "Barkeep": The keeper of the Energems, named Keeper.
• Human Popsicle: This is how Koda made it to modern times, as we see during his flashback that he was falling into an ice filled ocean when his Energem activated.
• Hurl It into the Sun: How three of the core villains are ultimately beaten - after the team goes back in time sixty-five million years, to the day Sledge first came to Earth, the auxiliary Rangers and Heckyll infiltrated Sledge's ship, locked Poisandra in a cell, then used an electro-net to capture a giant Sledge himself and set the ship on an autopilot course right into the sun, taking the trio and all their captive monsters with it. Of the monsters who'd accompanied Sledge, Fury is spared this fate, having been destroyed by Keeper's crystal bomb while on Earth. Heximas, a prisoner was somehow out of his cell and managed to escape in an escape pod, which Wrench originally intended to use, however Heximas pushed Wrench aside and Heximas escaped, happily leaving Wrench and the rest of the ship’s inhabitants to die.
• I Call It "Vera": Tyler takes to calling the T-Rex Zord "Rexie" after getting friendly with it.
• If It Swims, It Flies: The Plesiozord, though justified as it's also part-spaceship.
• Ignored Aesop:
  • "The Royal Rangers" involves the crew tricking Fury into stealing a fake Energem by disguising themselves as foreign royalty and entourage. It works, but Shelby didn't want to play a "spoiled princess." After the whole thing, Keeper ends the Episode by stating that "princesses don't have to be spoiled." It seemed like an attempt to address negative stereotypes; except said stereotypical portrayals were what tricked Fury in the first place. Plus, only Shelby's case is addressed in detail.
  • "Knight After Knights" bungles its message of "courage isn't fearlessness" by the simple fact that the Rangers' bravery immediately returns to them once they realize Keeper is right instead of actually putting said message into practice by nervously approaching the battlefield for Shelby's sake first. This also defeats the entire logic behind the MOTW ^note The monster's gimmick involved him actually stealing people's backbones, thus removing their courage. But, Keeper says he only stole a symbol.....even though the entire Episode up to this point has done nothing but prove this wrong. and renders it harmless in the process.
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: In "No Matter How You Slice It", the monster Shearfear is able to snip apart the bonds of friendship between the rangers...except for Koda's. To him the rangers are more than just friends, they're his family.
• In Spite of a Nail: The somewhat controversial season 2 finale The Rangers go back in time to the pre-historic era and destroy Sledge (along with everyone on his ship). Returning to the present they find their world exactly the same as they left it, with only real difference being dinosaurs not being extinct because Sledge's asteroids never wiped them out.
• Jar Potty: Implied at the end of The Teaser to "Let Sleeping Zords Lie", where Shelby drinks the other Rangers' drinks and then grabs one of the empty cups, suggesting that she intends to relieve herself in it.
• Jekyll & Hyde: Heckyl and Snide, naturally. However, instead of switching from good to evil, they share the role of Big Bad. Heckyl is a careful mastermind while Snide is more impatient and wants to smash. Neither will hesitate to end you the second you become inconvenient. It was ultimately Double-Subverted.
  • Also, played more straight with Doomwing and Zenowing when we first met them.
• Kangaroo Court: In the 2nd Halloween special, the villain Scumlaw tries to convict the rangers of murdering monsters, where he apparently has the Jury bought and paid for.
• Kick the Dog: Fury would have killed Riley's dog Rubik for no other reason but that Rubik annoyed him had Riley not jumped in.
• Klingons Love Shakespeare: Despite being on earth for business, the crew of Sledge's ships seem to have love for certain aspects of human culture. For example, Curio is a big fan of Halloween, Poissandra enjoys their tv, Heckyl likes some of their food ingredients, and both Poissandra and Sledge seem to have an affection for some of earth's vacation spots such as Hawaii.
• A Lizard Named "Liz": Tyler nicknames his T-Rex Zord "Rexy".
• Local Reference: In an interesting inversion, the American Dino Charge has actually lot more references to its country of production than in years past including Chase himself (averting Fake American outright), his little sister (averting The Kids Are Kiwi), Moana, and the two-episode arc that takes place almost entirely in New Zealand.
• Love Triangle: In "Sync or Swim", Tyler and Ivan begin competing for Shelby's affections. She'd shown some friendship and attraction to both of them before, so naturally the two were rivals for the episode, before working together against Sledge had them put aside their harsh feelings for each other. Though Shelby still hasn't decided who she likes more...
• Loves My Alter Ego: "A Date with Danger" revolves around a girl with whom Chase has just broken up falling in love with the Black Ranger.
• Made of Explodium: All of the Monster of the Week Game Face's sports equipment is explosive, which serves as a plot point when he plans on detonating the baseball bat that Koda accidentally stole from him.
• Mechanical Lifeforms: The Zords are this. They possess some degree of sapience, and if they aren't regularly exposed to their Energem they can get sick and die. However, it's established in "Deep Down Under" that, as zords, they're entirely different from real dinosaurs. It's implied that they were the original beasts that bonded to the Energems, and were transformed.
• Money Spider: The Monster of the Week Spelldigger is this, generating gold coins that cause people to turn greedy. The rangers actually plan on using this to pay off a large debt that Ivan accidentally gained, guessing that the monster's destruction would also break the spell on the coins. It works, but only for a moment before the coins disappear as well.
• Mythology Gag: Has its own page.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • The Keeper tricked Fury into bringing his crystal bomb onto Sledge's ship instead of the Energems; not a bad plan. But then that caused the ship to drop the asteroids Sledge was collecting...
  • In the finale, the Rangers blast the Dark Energem with help from the people of Earth hoping to destroy it. They do but end up causing a black hole which destroys the Earth, necessitating a trip back into the past to keep Sledge from accidentally bombarding the prehistoric era with the asteroids and stop him there to keep the events of the future from happening.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: The Beauticruel monster's voice is based on Ethel Merman.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Heckyl's attempt to keep the Dark Energem out of Lord Arcanon's hands led to him being corrupted by it, creating Snide, and giving him amnesia which kickstarted his villainy.
• No Ontological Inertia: The Rangers are counting on this to make a monster's evil coins lose their corrupting influence. Unfortunately, they Didn't Think This Through fully; the coins disappear altogether.
• No Power, No Color: The Dino Morph Blasters don't take on their usual colorful and technological appearance until the to-be-Rangers insert their respective Energems into them. Before that, they look just like rocky fossils.
• Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Chase is supposed to be a New Zealander who is now living in the United States (but the show was really being filmed in New Zealand).
• Notzilla: The Greenzilla monsters.
• Phlebotinum Killed the Dinosaurs: Nobody involved particularly wanted to kill the dinosaurs, but Sledge was hauling a load of asteroids when the Keeper bombed his ship...
• Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: "Breaking Black"
• Pragmatic Adaptation: While there are some similarities in the characters, Dino Charge has a completely different story than Kyoryuger, much like the last dinosaur themed show. Even the Monster of the Week often has the same power and gimmick but the story that comes of its use can be completely different.
• Pure of Heart: The Energems are attracted to people who display this, but they won't necessarily work properly for the user if they stop being pure. Chase finds this out in "True Black" when he relentlessly mocks Shelby for liking a boy band (a New Zealander one, at that), and later finds that his power-ups don't work because of it.
• Putting the Band Back Together: Done in "When Evil Stirs" in a unique way: Rather than calling everyone back together to fight Snide, they are thrust back together when he starts hunting them down.
• Rearrange the Song: "Go Go Power Rangers" returns yet again, though the Dino Charge version inserts more lines into the chorus and has entirely new verses.
• Reckless Gun Usage:
  • Right after he gets his morpher, Tyler starts fiddling with it and nearly shoots Shelby by accident. She's upset, but her anger is cut short since they're under attack by an ice monster and they decide to turn their guns on him.
    • Worse, even right after Tyler nearly accidentally puts a hole in Shelby's face, they still do a lot of dramatic posing and such with their guns (fingers on triggers, too!) that would make anyone who's ever even been in the same room as a real gun hold their breath. Maybe they should have made the Dino Coms the morphers after all...
  • In "Return of the Caveman", Sledge launches Slammer's space pod by shooting the launch button with his Arm Cannon.
  • In "The Ghostest With the Mostest", Shelby accidentally shoots Chase with a Dino Cupid blast while trying to figure out how to get the Cupid Charger out of her Morpher. Probably would have been better to fiddle with it in a private corner of the base (and with Kendall's help), even though ultimately it had no lasting harm besides giving Chase a case of temporary Acquired Situational Narcissism.
  • In "Wishing for a Hero", Wrench makes Sledge a new Hand Cannon; Sledge waves it around for a bit as Wrench warns him to be careful and tries to divert Sledge's aim away from him and the Mooks.
• Record Scratch: In "End Of Extinction", the rangers go back in time. Sledge, who had never seen them before tries to impress them with the Magna Beam. But the rangers point out they already know that exists. This causes a short record scratch, when Sledge is stunned by the fact they already heard of it.
• Reset Button: The Rangers have to time travel to the past after they accidentally get the Earth sucked into a black hole.
• Roar Before Beating: The Dino Charge Megazord and the Spino Charge Megazord, although silent, appear to roar every time before they're about to use a finishing blow on a monster.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Prince Phillip the Third of Zandar, the Graphite Ranger.
• Second Episode Introduction: While not aired together or titled as such, the premiere very much follows a two-part structure with the first episode only having the setup and A Taste of Power and the second episode having the real debuts. Riley didn't even appear in the first episode at all. Even after that, the personal weapons and Megazord were delayed to get their own feature introductions in episode 3. And Curio didn't show up until episode 4, with his absence until then, and his sentai role of monster-grower being taken by the Magna Beam, leading some to think that he had been Adapted Out completely.
• Ship Tease: A subtle one during episode 7. Tyler was really worried when he found out Shelby fell into a hole with a brainwashed Zord inside.
  • And then brought into full swing thrice in episode 8:
    • Tyler admitting in his narration that Shelby is cute.
    • Shelby happily hugging Tyler after he showed up to complete the Dino Spike and destroy the monster.
    • Shelby recovering Tyler's bracelet and even putting it back on him.
• Shirtless Scene: Koda's a Walking Shirtless Scene as mentioned below. Tyler gets plenty as well, Chase gets one in "Catching Some Rays", and Riley gets one in "Wings of Danger".
• Shovel Strike: The main characters have a thing for always finding a spare shovel somewhere to use as a weapon, to the point where it is now a Running Gag. Which makes sense, because they are frequently going on archaeological digs - ostensibly for fossils, but in actuality to find the Energems. So it's natural they'd be lying around handy a lot.
• Shout-Out:
  • Hard to know if it's intentional, but when a courage-stealing monster demonstrates his power on Fury, Fury becomes a cowardly lion.
    • Speaking of which, though this holds over from Kyoryuger, Fury, Wrench, and Curio are a lion, a tin man, and a scarecrow.
  • While fighting a monster in space thanks to the Plesio Charge Megazord's flight capabilities, Shelby's Pre-Mortem One-Liner is "Let's make space his final frontier!"
  • When Tyler and Ivan return Sledge's bomb to the ship and throw it at them, Sledge yells, ''Fire everything!"
  • Switch Heckyl's cravat for a bowtie and he pretty much becomes a dead ringer for the Eleventh Doctor.
  • After Sledge returns from being presumed dead, Poisandra rebuffs his attempts to win her back, stating "If you like it then you should've put a ring on it!
  • The final episode has a brief mention of a planet named Kamen 5, plus a final nod to Jurassic Park with not just live dinosaurs, but a triceratops with indigestion, like the first movie.
• Shown Their Work:
  • Chase's Kiwi slang (Such as calling Riley "You beauty!" in "When Logic Fails", which is slang for "Good job!") is quite accurate. To be fair, James Davies is a native New Zealander, which sort of makes it Real Life Writes the Plot, not dissimilar to Richard Brancatisano (Xander) in Power Rangers Mystic Force.
  • The Chekhov's Gun in "Riches and Rags", a gold bar deposited by Ivan circa 800 years ago that since then accumulated so much interest that it was enough to pay off the millionaire, has some basis in reality. Interests existed in the medieval age, and the price of gold has spiked since the US did away with the gold standard in the seventies.
• Sleeves Are for Wimps: Koda usually wears a tank top and a denim vest. And he sometimes brags about his "caveman strength".
• Somebody Set Up Us the Bomb:
  • In the first episode, Keeper tricks Fury into bringing the former's crystal bomb into Sledge's ship instead of the Energems. When Sledge discovers this, the bomb explodes, causing Sledge to release his asteroids and the extinction of the dinosaurs.
  • In the final episode, Tyler swaps the Energems again for the crystal bomb, this time killing Fury.
• Stage Mom: Amusingly, Riley slowly mutates into one in "Home Run Koda".
• The Starscream: Heckyl/Snide is shown to be more ambitious than the other Monsters Of The Week that the Rangers have fought. With Sledge out of the way, he's now the new Big Bad for Dino Supercharge.
• Storming the Castle: Done in epic Power Ranger fashion. At first, the Rangers were planning to smuggle a small robot on board Sledge's ship to recover the Purple Energem. After Sledge captured Keeper and stole the Red Energem from Tyler however, he, Shelby, and Kendell boarded Sledge's ship to recover the Energems and save Keeper. In addition to Kendall becoming the Purple Ranger, after helping the others get off safely, Tyler stayed behind to recover his Energem before Sledge could use its power to destroy the other rangers and the Dino Charge Megazord, culminating in a Final Battle between him and Sledge that caused Sledge's ship to fall out of orbit, with Tyler leaping out and safely caught by the Ptera Zord while Sledge and his crew perished in the crash of their ship. (Of course, we find out that they spoke too soon, on the bit with the villains perishing...)
• Surprise Party: One happens for Riley's brithday at the end of the episode "No Matter How You Slice It".
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Played for laughs in "The Tooth Hurts". Chase is hit with a blast that causes him extreme tooth decay, but he's still able to morph. During the roll call, Chase fails to finish his line because his mouth is in serious pain and has to let the other continue. Even during the big catchphrase and explosions, Chase's pain still prevents him from actually taking on his Ass-Kicking Pose with the others.
• Taken for Granite: Seven rangers get turned into stone in the episode "The Rangers Rock".
• Toilet Humor:
  • The Oviraptor Dino Charger releases toxic gas, and the Rangers can't help but compare it to farting^note Which was exactly what the Ovirappoo Zyudenchi did in Kyoryuger. The fact that the gas is discharged through the Megazord's left shoulder (corresponding with the T-Rex's tail) rather than its right (the head) does it no favors.
  • No source material required for the case of the Rangers staking out a corner of the museum to catch a vandal, by hiding inside a crate. With only one pair of eyeholes for ventilation. Then Koda lets rip a Jurassic one.
• Uncanny Valley:
  • Used rather well in "Breaking Black." The Mind-Control Eyes Spellbinder's victims get look very unnatural, but this works to the plot's advantage by highlighting how creepy his power is.
  • Heckyl is trying to act like a normal human, but he's always just slightly off. It is both creepy and fitting, since he's a Human Alien. Also, considering that he was there long before humans evolved and spent who knows how long in solitary confinement, it's understandable that he doesn't have the human part exactly nailed down.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Keeper's bombing of Sledge's ship leads to the extinction of the dinosaurs and causes the events of the series to happen in the first place.
• Voices Are Mental: The second "Freaky Friday" Flip does this... and a regular civilian can somehow hear the difference.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: Koda is almost always shirtless when he's in the Dinolair - which is most of the time.
• Weak, but Skilled: the monster Nightmare is a joke in battle. Not even managing to throw a single good punch at the rangers. However, its power to control people's dreams and make them sleep through his pillows made him quite dangerous as a force, and almost gave Heckyl a victory.
• We Are as Mayflies: Keeper and all the villains have been around at least 65 million years.
• Weirdness Censor: During Heckyl's time pretending to be an ordinary person, none of the Rangers find anything unusual about his name, appearance or mannerisms.
• Wham Episode:
  • "One More Energem": Sledge comes close to victory: he kidnaps Keeper, steals Tyler's Energem, and unleashes the other solitary monster Greenzilla, nearly destroying the rangers. However, Kendall manages to sneak onto Sledge's ship, and in the rush, becomes the new purple ranger. With Shelby and Tyler's help, she and Keeper escape, and then Tyler steals back the red energem. Together, they destroy the monster with a new formation, and after accidentally destroying the control panel, Sledge's ship crashes. With Sledge supposedly gone, the rangers return to their normal lives, with Ivan, Kendall and Koda staying behind to find the last two energems. However, as the credits roll, the camera pans over the smoldering wreckage of Sledge's ship and into a familiar corridor and a "Danger" sign flickers. The door opens, and Snide (Heckyl's monster form) appears and says "It's my turn, now" rather ominously.
  • Nightmare in Amber Beach: Shelby exposes Heckyl's deception to the Rangers.
  • Roar of the Red Ranger: While testing out a battlizer mode for Tyler, a monster ninja sneaks a virus into the charger, turning Tyler feral. The team finds him, but he's too strong. Suddenly, the Aqua ranger finally makes his debut an reveals himself: It's Tyler's long lost dad.
  • Gone Fishing: While half the rangers are on a fishing trip, the other half receive a message from deep space: The Silver Ranger is there in space, and to find him, they have to revive the titanozord. The message is destroyed by Singe before they can find its location, but it turns out Singe already knew where the zord was....at the lake where the other rangers are. After a fierce battle, the rangers revive the zord, and Heckyl, not being as single minded as Snide, asks Singe how he knew where the zord was. Only saying that his boss is far more evil than he can imagine, Singe retreats back into space, Heckyl giving Fury new orders: destroy Singe on sight.
  • Recipe for Disaster: A new evil force arrives on earth: Lord Arcanon. Not only is he the Greater-Scope Villain of the series, but after the monster attack, he takes over as new leader of the evil forces, imprisoning Heckyl.
  • Worgworld reveals that Sledge isn't dead. He steals the Dark Energem from Arcanon, destroying him and Singe, and with Snide siding with him, he takes control of the evil forces once again.
• Wham Line:
  • From Roar of the Red Ranger: "It's me. I'm your dad."
  • From Worgworld: "Speaking of History, guess who's back."
• What the Hell Is That Accent?: James Davies constantly fluctuates between Kiwi and Aussie, made worse when the many genuine New Zealand characters show up and actually do it right.
• What Measure Is a Mook?: Apparently not much, since Sledge nonchalantly kills one just so it's out of Poisandra's way.
• What's Up, King Dude?: Koda's relationship with Phillip in a nutshell, after the latter comes around.
• Whole Costume Reference: Tyler's prince outfit is very identical to Prince William's, a red tunic with golden buttons down the middle and a blue sash over the left shoulder.
• Worf Had the Flu: In "Wings of Danger", Wrench is forced to resurrect 11 different monsters. Each of these monsters had varying degrees of success fighting the rangers head-on, and facing several of them at once might seem too much. However, because he had to bring them back so fast, Wrench had to skim in some places (such as not restoring their voices), so that might make them weaker.
• Writers Cannot Do Math: Ivan is said to be a knight from around 800 years ago (the 1200s). He also claimed to be a friend of William Shakespeare, who lived in the late 1500s. Perhaps more of a history failure than a math class one, but it's still a difference of 300 years.
• You Fight Like a Cow: These are some of the quippiest Rangers since the Ninja Storm Rangers.
• You Have Failed Me: Sledge uses this on Fury after what happened with Ivan escaping and losing control of the Ptera Zord. His method? Having a monster steal his courage away, making him functionally useless. After said monster was destroyed and his spell on Fury was broken, Sledge had him mop the floors.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Poisandra says, "You have got to be joking!" when she sees Sir Ivan leading a ridiculous group of civilians into battle in "Knight After Knights".

---