Series / Power Rangers Turbo

aka: Turbo A Power Rangers Movie

Spoilers for all Power Rangers entries preceding this one, particularly Power Rangers Zeo and Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie, are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!

Mighty engines roar! Turbo charged for more! Drive four on the floor!

"Shift into Turbo!"

— Morphing call, Power Rangers Turbo

Power Rangers Turbo is the fifth season of Power Rangers, which began with a feature film, Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie.

In the movie an alien wizard named Lerigot is being hunted by Space Pirates lead by Divatox because his magic holds the key to unleashing the fiery demon Maligore. Seeking help from the Rangers, he is nonetheless taken by Divatox and so the Rangers pursue, upgrading their Zeo powers into Turbo powers in order to do so - to make things more epic, ordinary kid Justin Stewart becomes a new Blue Ranger as Rocky De Santos, currently Zeo Ranger 3: Blue, goes through a terrible issue in the movie's first few scenes that leaves him unable to join his teammates when they need to save the day and so Justin, via listening in on the gang's affairs and thus learning for himself who they are, ends up standing in for Rocky. In a pitched battle, they rescue Lerigot and defeat Maligore, with Divatox swearing revenge. The show picks up the story as Divatox arrives on Earth and begins to wreak havoc with her own Monster of the Week.

As the season progresses there are many changes to the team: Zordon and Alpha return to their home planet of Eltar in the show's premier and Dimitria, an alien with a mysterious connection to Divatox, and Alpha Six, her Jive Turkey robot assistant, stand in. Not long after, Tommy Oliver, Kat Hillard, Adam Park and Tanya Sloan, having recently graduated high school, each choose a successor to serve in their place on a new Turbo team as they move on from teenager lives into their futures: T.J. Johnson, Cassie Chan, Carlos Vallerte and Ashley Hammond join Justin to fight Divatox's continuing threat.

The season concludes on, possibly, the biggest Downer Ending of a Season Finale in Power Rangers history: The team's Turbo and Rescue Megazords are destroyed, their weapons are lost, the Command Center/Power Chamber is blown up (again, but for good this time), and the Turbo powers vanish. The Rangers themselves are spared by a last minute summons for Divatox by the legendarily powerful Dark Specter, suggesting he is the Greater-Scope Villain behind all other enemies. Utterly defeated, the Rangers leave Justin behind and set off into outer space after Divatox.

This season is somewhat infamous among fans, mainly because its source material, Gekisou Sentai Carranger, was either a parody or backhanded satire (depending on the fan or Toei staff member you ask) of Super Sentai series. Despite this, the writers tried to give the season a serious tone in its first half, leading to jarring mood shifts when the stock footage was used. An episode will delve into the drama of Zordon and Alpha leaving to Eltar while Tommy reads his Zord's instruction manual in battle. Another polarizing point, the twelve-year-old Blue Ranger, cannot be blamed on Japanese footage; Saban's sister series Big Bad Beetleborgs utilized kid actors for their main characters, and the idea was to take that concept and move it to the mothership. Though it must be said there was a precedent for Kid Rangers in Super Sentai; both Kiba Ranger (White MMPR/Dairanger White) and King Ranger (Zeo Gold/Ohranger King) were children; and 20 years after Turbo, Toei would have another Kid Ranger with Koguma Skyblue in Uchuu Sentai Kyuranger.

Followed by Power Rangers in Space, a sequel that picks up where this series left off.

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Recurring Power Rangers tropes include:

• All Your Colors Combined: The Turbo R.A.M. (Robotic Arsenal Mobilizer), both in its "car" mode and Cannon Mode.
• Big Bad: Divatox.
• Chest Insignia: A triangular team logo patch with a "C" on the shoulder, and scattered about their equipment.
• City of Adventure: Angel Grove.
• Comic-Book Adaptation: Had a short-lived run in the Saban Powerhouse magazine, published by Acclaim/Valiant, which included a crossover with Beetleborgs Metallix.
• Compressed Adaptation: A downplayed example. Turbo was given 45 episodes to Carranger's 48.
• The Dragon: Elgar and Rygog are Co-Dragons.
• Frankenslation: Gekisou Sentai Carranger + original footage.
• Home Base: The Power Chamber.

• Combining Mecha: Downplayed compared to most series, as the Rangers get two combinations, the Turbo and Rescue Megazords, and that's it. They could mix-and-match parts between the two if needed, however, and one such mix (Red and Blue Turbo Zord torso, Pink, Green, and Yellow Rescue Zord limbs) was called the Rescue Turbo Megazord.
• Transforming Mecha: The Rescue Zords, Robo Racer, and Artillatron

• Make My Monster Grow: Ignoring its source material, Divatox simply fires torpedoes at the Monster of the Week.
  • And in one instance, a monster manages to make itself grow.
• Mini Dress Of Power: Part of the Turbo Ranger girls' suits.
• Mooks: Pirhanatrons
  • Elite Mooks: Chromites (used only by General Havoc)
• Pink Means Feminine: A Rangers mainstay, it was played straight with Tanya and Kat, but was subverted with the second team. Yellow Ranger Ashley was the girly fashion designer, while Cassie was a more tomboyish musician.
  • Though Ashley did have an episode where she works on cars and proves to be pretty knowledgeable.
• Psycho Rangers: Crash and the Creeps, and an evil band who tried to take over minds with their song "Confusion." They were based off Carranger's Zokurangers, although the Creeps only made one appearance while the Zokurangers were reoccurring enemies.
• Recycled IN SPACE!: Power Rangers with COOL CARS!
• She's a Man in Japan: Inverted with the male Pink Creep, whose Sentai counterpart Zoku Pink was female.
• Thememobile: The Cool Cars Lightning Cruiser and Storm Blaster. The Rangers also got personal Turbo Carts (custom go-carts); they weren't used much outside the Turbo Zord cockpits, however.
• Transformation Sequence: The rangers would summon their morpher with a call of “Shift Into Turbo!”. The morpher forms on their wrist and, after some hand gestures, would insert the power key into the morpher and turn it. They would then cross their arms and lower them as they call out the designated car power they were assigned to. The suit would then form over them. In Justin's case, after the suit formed, he would likewise age up to an older body as well.
• Villains Act, Heroes React: As is the norm for Power Rangers, we generally get a MOTW appearing with an Evil Plan Once an Episode, with our heroes then arriving on the scene to stop them.
• Weapon-Based Characterization:
  • Sword and Gun: Turbo Blades (although they were never named, and their "Rev the handle for more power" function wasn't carried over) and Auto Blasters.
  • Swiss-Army Weapon: Turbo Navigator (GPS tracker/blaster (known as Defender Mode); Defender-mode Navigators can combine with an Auto Blaster to form a larger rifle, the rather-clunkily named Auto Blast Defender) and Blue Senturion's Senturion Synergizer (baton/blaster with seldom-seen badge form).
  • Heroes Prefer Swords: Tommy's/T.J.'s Turbo Lightning Sword.
  • Hand Cannons: Justin's Turbo Hand Blasters.
  • BFG: Adam's/Carlos' Turbo Thunder Cannon, the Turbo RAM Cannon Mode and the Turbine Laser.
  • Wolverine Claws/Power Fist (somewhere between the two◊): Tanya's/Ashley's Turbo Star Chargers.
  • The Straight and Arrow Path: Kat's/Cassie's Turbo Wind Fire.
• Word Power:
  • By The Power Of Gray Skull: "Shift into Turbo!"
  • Invocation: (first team only):
  "Mountain Blaster Turbo Power!"
  "Dune Star Turbo Power!"
  "Wind Chaser Turbo Power!"
  "Desert Thunder Turbo Power!"
  "Red Lightning Turbo Power!"

Power Rangers Turbo provides examples of:

• Aborted Arc: Dimitria and Divatox possibly being sisters. The next season "finishes" this arc somewhat; when Divatox is purified by Zordon she is dressed a lot like Dimitria. This is probably the best resolution we are going to get.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: The Turbo Navigator was present beginning in the movie (though referred to as simply a "short-range locator"); it didn't debut until episode 21 of Carranger. (That said, it wasn't until the second half of the season, when said Carranger episode was adapted, that its' ability to turn into a laser gun and combine with the Auto Blaster was introduced.)
• Adaptation Expansion: Unlike Carranger, Turbo's origin was told in a theatrical film preceding the series.
• All There in the Manual: Averted - A good portion of the opening episode to the season is devoted to recapping The Movie, in case the viewer hasn't seen it.
• All Asians Know Martial Arts: In "Passing the Torch Part I", when TJ questions where Cassie picked her up martial arts skills, her justification is "My ancestors invented it".
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: The final episode.
• Ascended Extra: The Sentai version of the Phantom Ranger, the VRV Master, wasn't used nearly as much and mostly appeared to give the Rangers their new vehicles. The Phantom Ranger had an entire plotline dedicated around him, including an appearance in the following season.
• Ascended Fanboy:
  • Justin, played by promoted fanboy Blake Foster.
  • To a lesser extent, T.J., who said in "Passing the Torch, Part 2" that "When I was a kid, I wanted to be a Power Ranger. Think about it. I mean, the things they've accomplished for mankind. What kid wouldn't wanna grow up to be a Power Ranger?" Although this kind of makes you wonder for how long have the Rangers been publicly operating in-universe...
• Ask a Stupid Question...: In the Turbo movie, Divatox calls Rita Repulsa on how to destroy the Power Rangers. Rita, who spent four seasons trying and failing to destroy the Rangers simply laughs and says that if she knew the answer to that she wouldn't be stuck listening to Zedd's snoring. The only advise she gives Divatox is to run.
• Badass Bookworm: T.J. was one of the more thoughtful and intelligent Red Rangers, which carried over to Power Rangers in Space when he became the Blue Ranger.
• Astral Finale: The season ends when the older Rangers and Alpha leave Justin behind with his father and take off in a rocket ship to pursue Divatox.
• Bad Boss: Divatox. Notably, in "The Accident" when she sends three Piranhatrons disguised as his upset team-mates to demoralize Carlos, the one impersonating the team-mate with a broken leg has really had its leg broken.
• The Bad Guy Wins: Yes this is the only PR series where the villain manages to legitimately defeat the Power Rangers. It's a fleeting victory, but one nonetheless (Mighty Morphin ended similarly with the Power Coins destroyed and the Command Center blown up, but it left what we saw kind of vague, which obviously led to Power Rangers Zeo. There is no question what happened in this series).
• Because Destiny Says So: IMPLIED to be the reason for the unceremonious replacement of the first team with the new team. It was suggested that the Millennium Message revealed that TJ, Cassie, Ashley, and Carlos were the Rangers prophesied to stop the United Alliance of Evil, which is why they were chosen seemingly at random.
• Begin with a Finisher: In the finale, they use their finishing move to open the fight with the Monster of the Week. It doesn't work and they wind up losing all their Zords in the ensuing battle.
• Birthday Episode: "Bicycle Built for the Blues" takes place on Justin's birthday and has the older Rangers plan a surprise party for him.
• Bowdlerize: The suit villains (Elgar, Rygog, and Porto) were all slightly redesigned for American footage, with their facial features being softened to appear less frightening to children.
• Breather Episode: "Parts and Parcels," an episode that serves as A Day in the Limelight for Bulk and Skull and gives the two a happy ending, comes right before the incredibly dark 2-part finale.
• But Now I Must Go: The Phantom Ranger.
• The Cameo: Rita Repulsa, Lord Zedd, King Mondo, and Queen Machina appear during the snippet of the Millennium Message that Blue Senturion shows Divatox.
• Casting Gag: In the Japanese dub, T.J. is voiced by Yuji Kishi, who previously portrayed Kyosuke Jinnai in Gekisou Sentai Carranger.
• Cerebus Syndrome: What started off as a tonally inconsistent season based on a screwball Sentai gradually gets darker. Divatox's plots revolved around her bombing public places, the issues in Justin's home life are gradually revealed and the season ends on the incredibly dark and bleak note of the Zords, power weapons, Power Chamber and ultimately ranger powers being cruelly destroyed.
• Chekhov's Gun: The Millennium Message, which is forgotten immediately, but has serious consequences the next season. However, in an unproduced script called "Rangers in Concert," the Blue Senturion actually shows Tommy, Adam, Tanya, and Kat the full message, which tells them who their replacements are, leading into the next trope...
• Chekhov's Gunman: T.J., Carlos, Ashley, and Cassie, not to mention T.J. and Cassie were introduced to us by BUS.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Because Rocky didn't get enough short-shrift throughout Zeo, here he only appears in the movie, and the first episode of the series, before vanishing without a trace.
• Cliffhanger: Rangers defeated, going into space to rescue Zordon only because they can't just stand idle, the villains have something big in the works...
• Contrived Coincidence: In "Trouble by the Slice," the way that Carlos kept turning around and missing the amnesiac Divatox working as a waitress in the pizza parlor.
• Cousin Oliver: Justin. Thankfully downplayed with the cast turnover when he's treated more like a peer among the new team, and less like a foster son.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: The fight with Goldgoyle really doesn't go well. First the Rescue Megazord is barely able to land even a single hit without getting ludicrously damaged, then the Turbo Megazord does manage to hit him, and it doesn't even hurt him, at which point Goldgoyle fills the thing full of holes.
• Dance Battler: Once Catherine Sutherland started doing her own fight scenes, Kat's fighting shows a lot of ballet influence.
• Darker and Edgier: TRIED to be this at first, but due to the fact that it was using footage from a parody of Sentai, it wasn't as successful as the producers might have liked. It was rather jarring to see Tommy having to read the manual to his car at the same time as the drama of Zordon and Alpha 5 departing.
• Lighter and Softer: That being said, even though the show tried to be serious, the greater focus on the comic relief villains, as well as the inclusion of a kid ranger, made the series this in comparison to Zeo. The second half in general is this to the first half, and as a whole, Turbo is this to the next two series.
• Demoted to Extra: In an early episode titled "Shadow Rangers," the monster of the day is a humanoid, Putty-like robot-thing called Chromite. When General Havoc arrives much later in the season, it turns out that Chromites are in fact simple foot soldiers, just like Cogs, Putties, or Piranhatrons.
• Denser and Wackier: Given that it was based on a parody Sentai, this was a given. As goofy as Mighty Morphin got, it never reached the level of the rangers getting baked into a giant pizza or Bulk and Skull being turned into chimps.
• Diabolus ex Nihilo: Goldgoyle. Despite being "the most powerful monster in the universe" and the one responsible for destroying the Rangers' Zords and weapons (thereby leaving them wide open for Divatox's later attack), he appears in only a single episode, was never mentioned before said episode, and is never mentioned again after his death. Made even more glaring by the fact that in Carranger, he was the final Big Bad.
• Downer Ending: The Zords are destroyed, the replacement mentor had gone home to help her people, the Power Chamber is raided and destroyed, and the Rangers have lost their powers as the original mentor has been captured by the being that every Big Bad on the series to this point answers to.
• Ear Worm: It's used as a form of attack in "The Song of Confusion".
• Eye Catch: Turbo started using the Carranger eyecatches mid-season.
• Eye Pop: During its second battle, the enemy mecha Metallasaurus lets out one when it's Shot in the Ass by a Giant Medical Syringe courtesy of the Wind Rescue Rescuezord.
• Feed It a Bomb: The Rangers resort to this to stop Goldgoyle — The bomb being their personal weapons, launched down his throat.
• Female Gaze: T.J. wore a lot of very tight t-shirts.
• Figure It Out Yourself: Dimitria spent the first half of the series doing this (her species could only talk in questions, supposedly, though fellow "Inquirian" Visceron didn't have this problem), only to drop this practice when the four veteran Rangers - probably more experienced at this sort of thing than she was - were retired and replaced, at which point she got a lot more direct. Get it? Because it sounds like inquiry/inquire? Question?
• Finale Production Upgrade: Despite the failure of the show to be serious, it did create a finale that stuck in viewers' minds, and a two-parter at that. One would think that given the previous seasons' tendency to wrap up the storyline in a neatly-bundled conclusion, this finale does the exact opposite. Instead, the megazords are destroyed, and we get a full-on invasion of the Power Chamber, with all the villains of the season, plus an army of Pirahnatrons, a Trash the Set of the inside, Divatox blowing it up, the Rangers losing their powers, Zordon being captured, and the rangers being forced to commandeer a space shuttle (with some convincing by Justin to the base commander), with only the clothes on their backs and hopes and prayers. Now, with the Rangers' defense gone, it's a one-shot desperate escape into space...
• Flying Car: Lightning Cruiser and Storm Blaster. Though for some reason only Lightning Cruiser is ever shown flying on earth, though one presumes Storm Blaster can since it travels from space to earth with Lightning Cruiser, and flew Justin through outer space with the Space Rangers in Power Rangers in Space to save Lightning Cruiser.
• Forgot About His Powers:
  • The episode "Rally Ranger" has the Rangers attempting to fight a giant Porto without the use of their Zords, for no apparent reason. The real reason, of course, is because at this point in Carranger, their Humongous Mecha hadn't been introduced yet.
  • "Passing the Torch Part I" has the Rangers being overwhelmed by monster attacks, and them seemingly forgetting that they're Power Rangers for most of the episode, fighting them all unmorphed, despite being clearly outmatched.
• Forgot the Call: Divatox in "Trouble by the Slice."
• From Bad to Worse: T.J. sacrifices the damaged Rescue Megazord to try to destroy Goldgoyle... it fails. Goldgoyle destroys the Turbo Megazord and the Rangers sacrifice their weapons in a desperate attempt to destroy him. Then in rapid succession, they learn Eltar has fallen, Dimitria and Blue Senturion leave, Divatox destroys the Power Chamber and everyone learns Dark Specter has captured Zordon. Arguably, the worst day for a Ranger team ever.
• Fun with Acronyms: The first team cannon is the Turbo R.A.M. (Robotic Arsenal Mobilizer).
• Gasshole: Big Burpa from "Bicycle Built for the Blues" lives up to her name by constantly belching.
• Genki Girl: Ashley.
• Giant Medical Syringe: During the Rescuezords' first battle, the Wind Rescue Rescuezord (which is in the form of an ambulance) fires a giant syringe at the Metallasaurus's... rear, whose eyes bug out as a result.
• Giant Robot Hands Save Lives: In "Built For Speed," the Turbo Megazord is used to save two cars that drag raced off a cliff by catching them.
• Grand Theft Prototype: The Turbo Megazord was defeated and taken from the Rangers in one episode, requiring the Rescue Zords as replacements.
• Green Thumb: Wild Weeder.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: Blue Senturion, who was turned evil in three different episodes: "The Millennium Message," "Stitch Witchery," and "Beware the Third Wish."
• Hilarious Outtakes: The end credits feature outtakes of the actors flubbing their lines or saying funny things that aren't seen in the final cut.
• Humanity Ensues: In the episode "Cassie's Best Friend", Cassie's dog Jetson becomes human.
• Identity Amnesia: Divatox in "Trouble by the Slice."
• Idiot Ball: Hmm... Let's use the Turbine Laser against Metallasaurus, when we have our own Megazord. Predictably, it doesn't do a thing.
  • That being said, it's possible they were trying to aim at Havoc, who piloted Metallasaurus from an open cockpit on the very top. Unfortunately their aim was off and the blast wound up bouncing off Metallasaurus' snout instead.
• Incredible Shrinking Man: "Honey I Shrunk The Rangers."
• Insistent Terminology: Divatox never calls them bombs, they're "detonators."
• Invisible Main Character: When Bulk and Skull stopped being monkeys in "Honey, I Shrunk the Rangers" as a result of over-radiation from the torpedoes used to blow up a monster, they became these until "Stitch Witchery."
• Ineffectual Loner: Carlos, at first. Though in his introductory episode, his problem isn't that he's ineffectual, just that he's not a team-player.
• Irony:
  • When the Rescue Megazord forms, a song plays that states the Rangers are "invincible" and they don't lose. Come the end of the season and they lose, and badly.
  • The show's Sentai counterpart Gekisou Sentai Carranger managed to get higher ratings for Super Sentai than its predecessor Chouriki Sentai Ohranger after it had been declining in ratings due to its shift in tone from a serious to a silly show (a problem that also spilled into Carranger's first half), as Carranger kept a consistently silly tone for its duration. Unfortunately, due to the unsuccessful attempt to convert the lighthearted material into a serious tone, Power Rangers Turbo nearly killed Power Rangers if not for the success of its successor as well as its prior retool akin to Ohranger's own.
• Kid-Appeal Character: Justin.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Divatox. Bonus points for it actually coming from a laser (well, a teleport ray turned up to eleven).
• Let's Get Dangerous!: Divatox only becomes a competent villain in the finale. Every actual victory or close victory against the Rangers was done only from someone more competent than she is, such as her mother (advice on separating the Rangers from their leader), General Havoc (Metallosaurus and kidnapping the Phantom Ranger) or Goldgoyle (effectively a hired mercenary). Her raid on the Power Chamber at the end was appropriately nasty, but it comes across as a victory she really didn't earn. There was also a more subtle one earlier on, in the immediate aftermath of the Millennium Message. Her first plot after that episode involves attacking a soccer match featuring Carlos and Ashley, with the implication that she's targeting them because she saw them in the message and wanted them eliminated before the power transfer. It comes off as a very forward-thinking plan for a villain with the... competence of Divatox.
• Look Behind You: In "The Whole Lie", Adam gets the drop on a Piranhatron by saying "Hey look, it's Elvis!"
• MacGuffin: The Millennium Message, Justin's lucky coin.
• Mad Bomber: Divatox was this in the first half of the season, constantly using detonators in her plans. After the Ranger change, she ditched them.
• Misplaced Wildlife: There's a giant squid in Angel Grove's lake that attacks Elgar for an entire episode until he manages to kill it off-screen.
• Mood Whiplash: Right after a goofy episode about Bulk and Skull's jobs being threatened when Porto sends Piranhatrons to steal the things they're supposed to deliver, comes "Chase Into Space," a serious series finale about Eltar coming under attack, Dimitria and Blue Senturion leaving to assist Zordon, the Turbo Powers, Turbo Zords, Rescue Zords, and Power Chamber being destoyed, and Justin saying goodbye to the team.
• The Movie: The series' debut: Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie.
• Mugging the Monster: Two bullies repeatedly bully and threaten Justin. Justin is completely capable of beating the crap out of them even without his powers, which is shown when he has enough, he just doesn't want to.
• Mythology Gag: During a monster tour, Bulk tries to interest the crowd by suggesting they may see Eye Guy, Pudgy Pig, or the Peckster, some of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers first season's more memorable monsters. Additionally, their stop is at a lake that was used very often in MMPR, which they even mention. Mechanizer from Zeo also gets a callback.
• Nice Guy: T.J. Quite possibly one of the nicest and most easy-going Red Ranger in the entire series. Selwyn Ward is this in real life too.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Divatox has the Rangers on the ropes and instead of finishing them off before rushing to meet Dark Specter, she assumes that since they're powerless, they won't be a threat. Cue the next season.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Count Nocturne's voice is the usual Bela Lugosi vampire voice.
• No Ontological Inertia: Even though Alpha 6 is able to develop an antidote for it, Carlos's vampirism isn't cured until Count Nocturne is destroyed.
• Not-So-Forgotten Birthday: The "friends pretend to forget birthday while planning surprise party" plot is used in "Bicycle Built for the Blues", where the older Rangers plan a surprise party for Justin.
• Odd Friendship: T.J. and Bulk and Skull in "Parts and Parcel."
• Official Couple: Tommy/Kat.
• Parental Abandonment: Justin. His mom dies and his dad leaves him in an orphanage. Even after his dad comes to live with him again, he's still a workaholic.
• Parental Substitute: Tommy and Kat for Justin during the first half of the season; Carlos and Cassie during the second half.
• Passing the Torch: The episodes were even titled "Passing The Torch."
• Police Are Useless: In "Phantom Phenomenon," when Divatox is robbing a bank, we clearly see a cop hiding behind a car with some citizens.
• Punny Name: The Blue Ranger's initial Zord is called 'Mountain Blaster' and was intended for Rocky.
• Put on a Bus:
  • From Turbo: The Phantom Ranger leaves shortly after his spotlight episode later in the season. In the final episode, Dimitria, Blue Senturion, Justin. Two of these four have serious hatedoms, ol' Blue's not exactly popular, and Phanty still presents more questions than answers, so some of this is an Author's Saving Throw.
  • From earlier seasons: Rita, Zedd and their forces in The Movie, Rocky, Zordon and Alpha 5 in the opening episodes, the rest of the former Zeo Rangers halfway through the season, Detective Stone at the end of the season... Pretty much everyone who was a member of the Power Rangers Zeo cast, with the exception of Bulk and Skull, when you think about it.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Detective Stone took over running the Juice Bar, because Richard Genelle (Ernie) had to leave the series due to health reasons.
• Recruit Teenagers with Attitude: The in-universe explanation for why the old Rangers left. The basic premise of the Power Rangers since the beginning was that it was comprised of, well, teenagers with attitude. However, Tommy, Katherine, Tanya, and Adam had recently graduated high school and were on the verge of no longer being teenagers. Thus, they had to add youth to the group, removing everyone other than the only high schooler on the cast (Justin) with younger teenagers with attitude (T.J., Cassie, Ashley, and Carlos).
• Retool: Because ratings had fallen during Season 3 of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and Power Rangers Zeo due to a combination of being moved to a timeslot that was historically known for far-lower viewership than the one Power Rangers left (despite the series actually setting ratings records FOR the timeslot after the move) and the erratic rate of episode releases during Season 3 and Zeo making it difficult for fans to actually catch episodes as they aired, Turbo was chosen to be something of a soft reboot from the very beginning - Abandoning virtually all of the supporting characters and unresolved plot points from Zeo and not bothering to offer any clean transition, replacing mentors Zordon and Alpha 5 with Dimitria and Alpha 6, redesigning the Power Chamber with no explanation, and most controversially, introducing preteen Justin as the new Blue Ranger in an attempt to appeal directly to a young audience. This didn't work to revive the show, and in fact created the actual problem they were trying to mediate by mis-attributing the cause; Leading to Power Rangers' near-cancellation. So then... midway through the season, there was a major shake-up in the writing staff (most of the prior staff left citing poor relations with the new producer/Showrunner). Along with this came the abrupt replacement of every Ranger except Justin with new characters and the abandonment of several plot points and character traits from the first half of the season (the mystery of Dimitria's long-lost sister, Dimitria's habit of speaking only in questions, Divatox's use of time bombs in her plans, the Millenium Message, etc.). This was finally enough to help ratings recover, but only enough to get one more season greenlit. Then Power Rangers In Space happened.
• Senseless Sacrifice: T.J. sacrificing the Rescue Megazord doesn't accomplish anything.
• Sentient Vehicle: Lightning Cruiser and Storm Blaster
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Blue Senturion. There's debate as to how well he succeeded and/or how spectacularly he failed. The spectrum runs from "Thanks to him, Dark Specter, the Machine Empire, Master Vile, and General Havoc were all defeated, and Rita, Zedd, Divatox, and Astronema were purified" all the way to "He is responsible for the death of Zordon and (before it was established an Alternate Universe) the rise of Venjix."
• Shot in the Ass: During the second battle with the Metallasaurus, the Wind Rescue Rescuezord shoots a giant syringe at the ass of the enemy mecha. Cue it letting out an Eye Pop.
• Sliding Scaleof Silliness Versus Seriousness: Perhaps one of the most inconsistent of Power Ranger seasons, especially in the first half. Plots where the Big Bad planted detonators to blow up and kill people were common, there was a doomsday message prophesying all past villains joining forces, somewhat more mature plots like eating disorder and dangerous drag racing juxtaposed with goofy monsters and pretty silly villains thanks to a parody source footage. The second half, while not a parody embraces the inherent silliness- until the finale where things get dead serious; the finale barely uses footage from its source Sentai other than a Zord battle.
• Something Only They Would Say: Implied. All it took for Justin, who, to everyone else, just looked like a disheveled intruder crying wolf that the Power Rangers needed their super-advanced shuttle pronto, to convince the base commander of NASADA was, among other things we don't hear, the name of the planet Eltar. That alone convinces the commander. Of course, combined with many other things brought up in In Space's 2-part opener, this opens the floodgates for speculation on how connected NASADA is to Zordon if the commander seems to be aware of the planet's importance...
• Sorting Algorithm of Evil:
  • Goldgoyle, the last monster the Rangers face, outclasses any other monster, destroying BOTH Megazords with zero effort.
  • Divatox herself is a subversion; while Zedd was more evil than Rita, Master Vile more evil than Zedd, and the Machine Empire more evil than Master Vile, Divatox is at best Rita levels of evil. But she also came the closest to wiping out the Rangers once and for all by the end of that season.
• Space Police: The Blue Senturion is apparently one of many (though obviously we never see them).
• Submarine Pirates: Divatox is an intergalactic space pirate whose headquarters is a fish-shaped submarine known as the Subcraft.
• Surveillance as the Plot Demands: Divatox has a periscope that can pop up in anything made of liquid. Sports coolers, bowls of punch, someone's drink... How this happens is anyone's guess.
• Time Bomb: All of Divatox's plans involved these, at least for the first part of the season. After the mid-season Retool she suddenly just stopped using them.
• Time Skip: Between the old team leaving and the new team taking their place. "Passing The Torch" ends with Tommy et all leaving, then the next episode begins with TJ, Ashley, Cass, and Carlos not only gelled as a team, but with them knowing the Blue Senturion, and knowing how to operate the Megazords no problem.
• Tomato in the Mirror: Justin suspects the other Rangers of being replaced by robots in "The Robot Ranger." Turns out he's a Robot Me, too.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Tanya and Kat (again), then later Cassie and Ashley.
• Totally Radical:
  • Alpha 6, who replaced Alpha 5's "Ay-yi-yi" catchphrase with "Yo, yo, yo."
  • The title itself also counts, given that "turbo" became a slang term during the early-mid 90's.
• Trash the Set: The Power Chamber, and done in an appropriately shocking way.
• The Unsolved Mystery: Nothing about the Phantom Ranger is ever resolved, outside the fact that he needs his Power Ruby to survive. We don't even know his actual name or title; "Phantom Ranger" is a term that T.J. coined to describe the mysterious invisible warrior that appeared. Apparently, when the actor needed to make the plan for him happen backed out, The Powers That Be said "screw it" and had him say "Well, Earth's in good hands with you guys, bye!" and run off.
• Villain Ball: Double Subverted at the end of the season. Divatox manages to decisively defeat the Rangers, destroying their powers, but before she can finish them off she is ordered to withdraw.
• Villain Song: Crash and the Creeps' song "Song of Confusion" is this. Bonus points is due to their human disguises, they can practically say to the Rangers' faces that they're fooling and deceiving them without them being the wiser.
• "The Villain Sucks" Song: The Piranhatrons' theme 'You're Gone Piranhatrons', talks about how they're goofy and useless; which is quickly proven true whenever it's played. But when it's not...
• Weaksauce Weakness: Subverted, because it was a monster that was easily defeated. The villain Chromite is killed simply by putting him in a shadow to make him melt away.
• What Happened to the Mouse?:
  • The biggest, though not the only such situation, is the Zeo Crystal. The source of power for the Rangers in the previous season gets swiftly brushed aside and replaced by the Turbo powers in the movie. It's given no dramatic send off like when the Power Coins were destroyed. No one lampshades it, nor brings up how the Zeo Crystal continues to grow in power, which would make the need for new more powerful morphers to be pointless. This is strange considering how Kat morphs into Zeo Ranger I in the beginning of the movie, yet Adam doesn't possess his Zeo Crystal during his cameo in Power Rangers in Space. (Out-of-universe, it's obviously so his teamup with Carlos would be of the two Black Rangers; if it had been during Turbo he'd probably have become the green Zeo Ranger IV. In-universe, he used an unstable damaged Power Coin that could have killed him in favor of the Zeo powers.) On top of that, Tommy is powerless in Power Rangers: Dino Thunder until the Black Dino Gem is discovered (even though he used his Zeo powers just fine in "Forever Red!") But we don't have to go all the way to Adam's return, let alone PRDT, for a time when it's non-use was Fridge Logic: After the Turbo powers were lost, you'd think they'd have said "didn't those other guys used to be powered by this super-powerful crystal of supposedly planetwrecking strength?" before setting out powerless on a journey to space.
  • Smaller mice: Lt. Stone, Bulk, and Skull were back on the police force as of The Movie. Nothing was mentioned of their police jobs after the premiere; taking Ernie's spot was quite a career change for Stone, and one he had no reason to make. Bulk and Skull were probably left off the roster after vanishing for months as far as the world was concerned during their time as monkeys, but still, one line about trying to get their jobs back and failing would have been nice.
  • Oddly, neither Lt. Stone nor the Rangers seem to give a rat's ass about Bulk and Skull having completely dropped off the map without so much as a single word.
• Would Hurt a Child: In one episode, Justin runs afoul of two older students who have no qualms whatsoever about attacking and chasing after a pre-teen, just for not giving them the answers to a test.
• Wrench Wench: Ashley, who took auto-shop in "The Turn of the Wretched Wrench" only as a Take That! to her slightly sexist father, only to find herself loving it. This plot was done because her Carranger counterpart was a mechanic, and the morphed footage in that episode made that obvious.
• Zerg Rush: Essentially Divatox's strategy when she attacks the Power Chamber at the end of the series. She sends Piranhatrons to attack it. All of them.

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Did we ever tell you about that time they got baked into a pizza?