Power Rangers S.P.D. / YMMV

Alternative Character Interpretation: For the S.P.D. as a whole, a police force that uses devices called "Judgement Scanners" to read a target's physiological condition and return an "infallible" result of guilty or innocent. While the S.P.D. is a force for good by the shows account, police forces blindly using technology to pass judgment on citizens is a cornerstone of dystopian sci fi stories such as Minority Report and Psycho-Pass, making the team seem uncritical in their application of force (or it would if Power Rangers villains didn't operate on Black-and-White Morality)
Angst? What Angst?: Omega Ranger sure is chipper for a guy from a Bad Future that becomes stuck in another time and can't demorph without turning into a ball of light. And remember, Omega is an older version of Sam, the kid that considered B-Squad his first real friends. In his original timeline, B-Squad died, except for Z. - a fact that doesn't particularly concern Omega at all when interacting with them. And note that he behaved this way before he Set Right What Once Went Wrong. After all, Omega is still an older version of Sam, and even if he can't still know if he succeded in his mission, he's still living both the dream of his lifetime, fighting with the legendary B-Squad and helping them on equal grounds, both going on in his mission.
Alternate Self Shipping: In many Power Rangers S.P.D. fics, the fact that Z can create duplicates comes to the fore for romantic or sexual purposes.
Awesome Music:
- The theme song is the first Ron Wasserman piece Power Rangers has used in years. SPD EMERGENCY! It goes with being very diegetic and theme fitting, the guitar riff sounds just like a cop siren and the chorus is sang in a military style.
- During the climactic fight in "Once A Ranger", each retro Ranger^note has their respective series' theme song played during their segment of the fight (most had two shown). This is the theme that plays the longest, through Bridge and Mack's second sequence against Flurious all the way to the end of Adam's fight with Thrax.
Badass Decay: The elite Krybots (Bluehead and Orangehead) suffered throughout the series, in their first appearance they were as strong as a monster of the week, but eventually they began to be treated no different than normal Krybots, and although it can initially be argued that it is because the rangers became stronger, even their non-powered allies were able to defeat the elite Krybots with relative ease.
Base-Breaking Character: Out of the seven main SPD Rangers, two are considered this:
- Jack: Either one of the best Rookie Red Rangers or a Delinquent who doesn't deserve to be a Red Ranger.
- Sky: Either one of the best Blue Rangers with good Character Development (A point which WatchMojo.com agrees with) or a sexist Jerkass who said that Syd doesn't deserve to lead the team due to her gender and not getting the position he wanted until the finale, that is.
Broken Base: Some fans think it's one of the best series, others despise it. Still others think that it's good, but not without flaws.
Complete Monster: Emperor Gruumm is the vile head of the Troobian Empire who regularly conquers and destroys planets. Years ago, Gruumm attacked the home planet of Anubis "Doggie" Kruger, wiping out his entire race and kidnapping his wife. In the present, Gruumm seeks to use Earth's resources to create a body for his master, Omni, so he can conquer Earth. Gruumm regularly enacted plans to destroy Newtech City and endanger the populace, including turning people into dolls; turning them into slime to be used for energy; and attempting to cause a massive earthquake. A brutal emperor, Gruumm regularly threatened his minions; had Piggy tortured and forced to work for him under threat of death; and had his second-in-command Mora brainwashed by Omni. Gruumm also convinced the A-Squad of S.P.D. to join him, having them destroy an S.P.D. base. When Omni's body was complete, Gruumm enacted a full-scale invasion on Earth, and when confronted by Kruger, attempted to kill his wife in front of him. A violent, petty sadist, Gruumm is the absolute worst alien S.P.D. has ever faced.
Creepy Awesome: Emperor Gruumm is sadistic, psychopathic and has a nightmarish design, which has led to him being very well-received by the fanbase.
Ensemble Dark Horse:
- Doggie Cruger. Whether it's because of the Furry Fandom, his Woobie backstory, or because he's the first mentor to go out into battle as a Ranger (not counting Tommy, since he's had a history of fighting beforehand).
- Kat. The Cat Girl scientist has gotten plenty of love not just for her attractive appearance, but also for becoming the Kat Ranger, with some fans wishing she got to keep the suit longer. She was even popular enough to become a playable character in Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid, getting in before Doggie.
- The A-Squad only have about ten minutes of screentime spread across a handful of episodes, but they're one of the most memorable aspects of the show for being the first rangers to turn evil of their own volition, and having the first female red among them.
Fan Nickname:
- The four unnamed A-Squad Rangers = Rachel (Pink), Cliff (Green), Ivan (Yellow) and Beevor (Blue) (the last being the most visibly alien one), To which Bruce Kalish approved at a convention so they are somewhat canon.
- Tinkersam, due to being portrayed as a ball of light throughout the season. Alternatively, calling him Navi, due to both of them being light blue.
- The Sentai version, Dekaranger, was known for its vehicles with names like Machine Husky and Machine Bull (as in bulldog), but these never made it into SPD except by accident (and the opening credits in CGI form). Enter the Jeep Wrangler, already a staple of the filmed-in-New Zealand seasons, now repainted in SPD colors, which led the fans to dub it Machine Dingo. Never mind that the dingo is native to Australia and not New Zealand...
- The Battle Thong. Due to this season's battlizer including (at least in its first mode) a, well...
Fan-Preferred Couple: Jack/Z, as opposed to Jack/Ally.
Franchise Original Sin: This was the first Power Rangers show where "Kalishsplosions" were commonly used throughout fight scenes. In this show they're not too obnoxious thanks to the editing and fight choreography both generally being pretty tight, but in Mystic Force and especially Operation Overdrive, they happen at an even greater frequency than in this show and take up much more screentime when they do appear.
Hilarious in Hindsight:
- In the first episode, Sky says that Bridge is not Red Ranger material. In the 15th Anniversary Special, it's revealed that Bridge became the red ranger post-series. In that same episode, Kruger asks Sky if he'd follow Syd into battle if she was a Red Ranger, only for him to scoff that she's a girl. Towards the end of the series, the A-Squad Red Ranger is revealed to be female... And a few years later, Super Sentai had its first female red.
- The episode "Boom" is about the titular character wanting to be a ranger. In Power Rangers Ninja Steel, his actor plays Mick, who gets to be a ranger in the season 1 finale.
Ho Yay:
- Bridge, who falls asleep during an important meeting, is prodded by the Police Chief and responds with a half-asleep "Five more minutes, Sky." (referring to the Blue Ranger). Just one of several Ho Yay moments involving these two.
- Jack/Sky is another popular pairing, which makes sense considering the closeness of their counterparts Ban and Hoji.
I Knew It!: Charlie turning out to be a girl was meant to be a surprise. However, one member on the Rangerboard forum, who was an expert in digital voice manipulation, guessed — and posted — that he thought A-Squad Red was a girl. After the reveal, he ended up printing a t-shirt of Charlie that said, "I was right!" and got several SPD cast and crew members to sign it.
Les Yay:
- Z/Syd. The high-five? Adorable.
- Also Morgana bodily pinning Z against a tree◊.
LGBT Fanbase: Doggie Cruger became an instant Bara icon, which he still is to this day.
Magnificent Bastard: "Reflection" two-parter: Mirloc is a brilliant alien criminal known for having had a hand in every dirty deal and knowing every shady character, who was imprisoned for his various crimes. When Schuler "Sky" Tate approaches him for information on another criminal, Mirloc calmly chides him for being rude before agreeing to give the information in exchange for Sky telling him a sad story. When Sky tells him the story of when his father died, Mirloc taunts him about it, causing Sky to cry and allowing Mirloc to use his ability to travel through reflections to escape through his tears. Mirloc is then enlisted by Emperor Gruumm to defeat the S.P.D. Rangers and makes clever use of his powers to trap almost all of the Rangers in mirrors. In his fight with Sam, Mirloc uses his powers to dodge his attacks and blindside him, coming within seconds of winning.
Memetic Mutation:
- Buttery! *finger wiggle*
- From the episode "Wormhole": "No one gets inside!"^Explanation
Moe:
- Bridge, the Cloud Cuckoo Lander with a Thinking Tic and signature hand gesture, whose zaniness doesn't make him any less effective.
- Syd for some fans, due to some fun The Heart dialogue and personal accessories, as well as getting some of the more powerful Heartwarming Moments of the show.
Moral Event Horizon: See the page for examples.
One-Scene Wonder: Kat Manx is already arguably an Ensemble Dark Horse by herself but we really lament that there's just one episode with her as the Kat Ranger.
Portmanteau Couple Name: Jacyd for Jack/Syd.
Retroactive Recognition: Brandon Jay McLaren is seen in major roles like Ransom and Turner & Hooch (2021).
The Scrappy: Sam. Specifically Future-Sam a.k.a The Omega Ranger, mainly because we don't know a damn thing about him. That he does appear in the finale, for all of three seconds, without his costume, was seen as an insult by the fanbase. He rivals Justin, Dax, and Troy for the title of the most hated Power Ranger in the franchise. While most Rangers who earn the Scrappy title do so by having an obnoxious personality, Sam is hated because he lacks any personality, due to the writers bypassing him as often as possible, with one writer even saying that the use of stock footage was the only reason the Omega Ranger wasn't Adapted Out entirely.
The Ship's Motor: Sky being Bridge's roommate because his hardnosed-ness means his thoughts are more ordered and less apt to bleed over and give Bridge a psychic headache.
Special Effects Failure: Occasionally, Rene Nafhau's eyes can be seen behind the Grumm mask in close-ups.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Both Sam and Morgana, we know next to nothing about these characters and they're mostly there to give their opposing sides an extra warrior. For Sam, it's due to Executive Meddling since Disney, a multi-million dollar entertainment corporation, was too cheap to hire an adult actor to play him. Despite the fact the show had already established a plot line for him earlier in the season and had the potential to explore it. For Morgana, it's largely due to the story just forgetting about her. She started off interesting at first, using a book to make monsters and having to earn her childhood back mid-season when Grumm reverts her back into an adult. But beyond that, we never know why she hated being an adult, where she came from and why she works for Gruumm in the first place as the show focuses on other plotlines. Come the final battle, she's just defeated rather unceremoniously and that's the end of that. Pity.
- Some fans miss Mora and Gruumm's hilarious interactions from the first half of the series during the time Mora is Morgana, and wish that Mora had kept her child body and persona for the entire season.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
- More like character traits from Dekaranger. In the original series, the rangers had several specializations like Hoji (Sky) being a sniper and their guns suggested those characteristics. Those were never used in SPD (though it's likely Disney wouldn't have wanted a Ranger being a sniper anyway).
- The A-Squad as villains. The idea of the rangers having to fight the team that they were originally supposed to just be back-up for was a good concept, but the A-Squad gets so little development that apart from their backstory, they aren't all that different from the usual bunch of evil rangers.
- During the Body Swap episode with Sky and an alien criminal, Sky desperately tries to figure out a way to let the others know what happened and it never ONCE occurs to him to go to Bridge...the PSYCHIC! The climax ends with...the robotic dog figuring it out.
Tough Act to Follow: SPD can be seen as this for the other three Kalish Era Seasons, as many fans consider it to be the best of the bunch.
Values Dissonance: A carry over from the original Dekaranger series. In Japan, authority is held in higher regard and less likely to be questioned than in most western countries due to the preference of collectivism over individualism and societally enforced trust in the system. Hence, the SPD Rangers having the authority to pass judgement on criminals without benefit of trial is treated more as straight up good vs evil rather than an abuse of power. However, unlike in Dekaranger, the SPD Rangers merely capture criminals for incarceration instead of outright terminating them.

YMMV / Power Rangers S.P.D.

Edit Locked