YMMV / Power Rangers Turbo

• Accidental Innuendo: "We're here to toss your salad!"
• Alternate Character Interpretation: When her interactions with her mother are taken into consideration, along her general lack of success, Divatox comes across less as someone who willingly went into a life of evil piracy, and more someone who was forced into it, regardless of her actual skill.
• Ass Pull:
  • The "transition" (term used very loosely) between Power Rangers Zeo and this series.
  • Likewise, the changing of the guard from the old team to their replacements, which comes out of absolutely nowhere, none of the new Rangers are seen having any reaction to the offer. They just literally show up and the audience is told "these guys are the Rangers now". And then the next episode has them as fully established as a team, with no teething period whatsoever.
• Awesome Music: "SHIFT! IN! TO! TUR! BO!"
• Base-Breaking Character: Divatox has detractors due to being a comedic villain compared to King Mondo and Rita and Zedd before her, as well as her tendency early on to use bombs on a time limit despite that never working out. Her defeating the rangers is also a contentious point among fans, with them saying that one of the earlier foes, particularly Rita and Zedd, deserved it more. On the other hand, she also has a decent number of fans thanks to her hamminess and good looks. Her one-sided rivalry with Astronema next season was also considered hilarious by fans thanks to their differences and how Divatox is always upset over being overshadowed by her.
• Broken Base:
  • Some people still claim this is the worst season even though arguably, there have been worse seasons since (Operation Overdrive and (Super) Megaforce in particular are often seen as having taken the Worst Season Title). Some people agree that while the first half was pretty bad the second half was an improvement. Others believed the first half was bad but the second half was even worse for changing the entire cast save Justin (who was decidedly unpopular). However, most can agree that the first 19 or so episodes of Turbo weren't Power Rangers' best.
  • The ending is a bit of a mixed bag in itself. It's considered by many to be the best moment in the entirety of Turbo due to just how harsh and intense it got, what with the Power Chamber being invaded by an endless wave of Mooks then ultimately destroyed (for good, this time), and the Rangers, now powerless, have to set off into space to find Zordon whilst leaving one of their own back on Earth because he's just a kid. Others dislike how it's Divatox who succeeds in bringing the Rangers down to their Darkest Hour after the efforts of more competent and serious villains like Lord Zedd, the Machine Empire, and even her brother General Havoc, who successfully stole the Turbo Megazord.
• Continuity Lockout: If you hadn't seen Turbo: A Power Ranger Movie that was set between Zeo and this season, you probably have no idea why Rocky is being written out or just who Divatox is and why she wants revenge on the rangers.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Phantom Ranger has plenty of fans due to how mysterious he is as well as his possible connection to Zordon. So much so, that Phantom got to the final round of the Morphin' Madness fan contest.
  • The Blue Senturion, to a lesser extent, thanks to his cool design, a robotic traffic officer, and especially his funny lines, like in "Trouble By the Slice":
  "The evil pizzas were no match for a simple stop light."
• Growing the Beard: The additions of T.J., Cassie, Ashley, and Carlos on-screen, with Judd Lynn taking over writing duties more-or-less concurrently. The new characters and more consistent writing gave new life to an otherwise mediocre season. After these changes, the ratings saw noteworthy improvement, with the second half of Turbo getting a far more favorable reception than the first half.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • The episode with the Robot Rangers ends with them going to defend Eltar. As in the Eltar that gets attacked and conquered by Dark Specter. The inevitable conclusion isn't pretty.
    • Jossed 17 years after in Power Rangers Super Megaforce S2E20 Legendary Battle: Power Rangers Zeo, Turbo and Space were present - minus Zeo Red because Tommy used Mighty Morphin Green. How to explain this unless Robot Rangers returned?
  • Rocky's return appearance has Justin asking if he can give up the powers to give to Rocky, and the latter turns the opportunity down. It's a little sad in hindsight of how often Rocky would be ignored from the reunion episodes, as the only Red Ranger not to appear in "Forever Red"; likewise Steve Cardenas later revealed that even his return in Ninja Steel only came about because he kept appealing to the production office.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: On the flip side however, Rocky’s faith in Justin proves to be well founded, as the Season Finale has Justin break into the NASADA base, securing the other Power Rangers a space shuttle to chase after Divatox. This action leads to the remaining rangers meeting Andros and eventually dismantling the United Alliance of Evil. Furthermore, the In Space episode "True Blue, To the Rescue" has Justin regain access to the Blue Turbo Powers courtesy of Storm Blaster, allowing Justin to continue being a Ranger in his new hometown.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • As noted under Broken Base, a good amount of people consider this to be the worst season of Power Rangers, mainly due to the sentai footage coming from a parody sentai. The next series that adapted a parody sentai into something Darker and Edgier, on the other hand, is often considered one of the best, if not the best, Power Rangers series in the entire franchise.
  • Apparently, Toei didn't have a problem with the idea of a kid blue ranger, since they ended up using one 20 years later.
  • This season uses a car motif and was Johnny Yong Bosch's last appearance on the show as a series regular. Bosch would voice Bumblebee in Transformers: War for Cybertron in 2010 and Hasbro, the owner of the Transformers license, purchased the rights to Power Rangers in 2018. And the 2017 movie would have a gag where a yellow Camaro gets destroyed and Jason says "sorry, Bumblebee".
• Ho Yay: Carlos with T.J, Justin with Nico. Cassie and Ashley also got some Les Yay in.
• Inferred Holocaust: The brief shot of Eltar under attack in the finale appears to show it being nuked repeatedly. And then there's robot Rangers and Alpha 5, who were on Eltar at the time, and were never heard from again.
  • Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always confirms that Alpha 5 is alive. The Robot Rangers however, are more than likely lost.
    • Robot Rangers may have been present in Super Megaforce Legendary Battle. This would explain how Zeo, Turbo and In Space can be there at once.
• Magnificent Bastard: General Havoc is the far more competent brother of the space pirate Divatox. Bringing with him a space station and the Metallosaurus, Havoc ends his first fight with the Rangers victorious as he manages to steal their Turbo Megazord. Later capturing Cassie, Havoc threatens to turn her to stone unless the Phantom Ranger surrenders. Havoc disguises himself as a petrified Cassie, so he can steal the Power Ruby when the Phantom Ranger tries to use it to save her. While only appearing in a few episodes, Havoc stands out among the space pirates for his polite demeanor and sheer intelligence.
• Memetic Mutation: They were baked into a giant pizza. This is among the most remembered parts of the season.
  • To the point of being brought up in "Forever Red".
  • "The evil pizzas were no match for a simple stoplight." Pretty much anything the Blue Centurion said in that episode qualifies.
• Never Live It Down:
  • Getting baked into a giant pizza. Though in the team-up "Forever Red", T.J. did kind of take it in stride, bringing it up in a bit of Self-Deprecation humour, much to the chagrin of the other Red Rangers (except for Cole, who was quite curious to hear the tale) who are implied to have heard T.J. telling them the tale so many times already. By playing this for laughs, it's highly likely that the writers and producers did feel a little badly for having the infamous pizza episode; and so, through T.J., they wanted to make up for it and poke fun at themselves for it.
  • Fans are quick to criticize T.J. for losing the Megazords in "Chase into Space, Part 1," even though he only purposely sacrificed one (which had been severely damaged and on the brink of destruction anyways) and legitimately lost the other in the battle. (It's more glaring when you take into account that Tommy gets less criticism for losing far more Zords during his leadership tenure not to mention ordering a Red Ranger on his team to use a similar tactic seven years later.)
• Older Than They Think: People often criticize Justin for being a kid who turns into a Ranger, growing to adult size in the process. Super Sentai did it in both Gosei Sentai Dairanger and Chouriki Sentai Ohranger for their Sixth Rangers before.
• Presumed Flop: There is a common misconception that Turbo is the season that "almost killed Power Rangers" and that the following season, Power Rangers in Space, is what saved the series from cancellation. It doesn't help that the Turbo movie was a flop and the season itself is very contentious season, especially after a Retool in the second half that saw most of the previous cast removed. In truth, Power Rangers' ratings had been going down since the third season of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers and Turbo's ratings after the retool were the highest the series had been before the season 3 decline. In addition, In Space was being planned before the second half of Turbo.
• Replacement Scrappy:
  • Dimitria would end up replacing the beloved mentor Zordon, but aside from setting up her and Divatox as possible sisters, which was not answered but implied with Divatox getting a similar outfit upon turning good, she never really stuck out among fans. Not only that, but she was limited to interrogative statements for the first half of the series before talking normal for the rest.
  • Alpha 6, who replaces Alpha 5. While Alpha 5 was dorky-but-lovable, Alpha 6 was an attempt to make Alpha cool by using forced-hip slang ("Yo, Rangers!"). It's no coincidence that as Turbo ended, he was damaged, and his voice chip needed to be replaced with one of Alpha 5's.
  • Carlos would end up replacing fan-favorite Adam. Apart from being introduced as being rather selfish, he didn't really stand out to the other members. It would take until "Always a Chance" from In Space where he would be more liked thanks to his interactions with Adam.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
  • TJ had some shoes to fill in due to replacing fan-favorite Tommy and was introduced the same episode where he replaced him. Fortunately, TJ is seen by fans as a very good leader and worthy successor that many were upset that he was demoted to Blue Ranger in the next season.
  • Cassie, who replaced Kat, was introduced as being pretty bratty and selfish, leaving fans wondering why Kat and Zordon considered her a worthy replacement. As the series continued though, Cassie would become more likable and heroic, even trying to defend a monster that was Forced into Evil in In Space.
• The Scrappy:
  • Justin, while mostly a well rounded character, was not liked among fans of the franchise. This was due to the concept of him being a young kid in a team of much older rangers, with many saying that his moments feel more like showing shades of him being a Creator's Pet. Most fans agree he wouldn't be nearly as hated had he been written as a teenager. These days, Justin gets a lot less hate.
  • Elgar is widely seen by fans as one of the worst Power Rangers villains, mainly for his obnoxious personality and not being remotely threatening. Him being the one that specifically smashes Zordon's tube in the finale only made him more hated.
• Special Effects Failure: It's very easy to spot the differences between the Elgar head used in the American scenes and the original Carranger footage at times.
• Star Trek Movie Curse: This season starts the trend Power Rangers has where anniversary and milestone seasons have a bad reputation (Turbo- 5th season. Wild Force- 10th season and first Disney season. Overdrive- 15th season. Samurai- Saban's return to the franchise. Megaforce-20th season). Why this seems happen to anniversary or milestone seasons is beyond us, so of course jokes about anniversary/milestone curses are bound to pop up. These seasons are either considered divisive and/or "Man, how unfortunate, they had a lot of potential..." (Turbo and Wild Force come to mind), or they are just considered outright TERRIBLE (*ahem* Overdrive and Megaforce). Ironically, one of the few milestones to avert this curse - Power Rangers RPM, the last Disney season (and prior to Saban buying the rights back, the final season of Power Rangers as a whole) - was made under almost identical circumstances to Turbo (adapting the comedic Engine Sentai Goonger into a dark series).
• Stock Footage Failure: Several members of Divatox's crew were redesigned to be much less sinister looking, making spotting the Carranger footage pretty obvious. Especially◊ Elgar.◊
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: General Havoc. Unlike Divatox, he is a competent, intelligent villain, who takes his defeats as setbacks instead of throwing a fit like previous villains. And he is only around for a few episodes.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • The season as a whole really should have seen the team facing adulthood and growing threats as a metaphor for the challenges in life, thus Growing with the Audience.
  • A better idea for Rocky's exit would have been him being injured in an early battle with Divatox. This would give Rocky a much more dignified exit while establishing Divatox as a serious threat that necessitated another power change. Instead, Rocky is injured while practicing for a martial arts tournament, Divatox spends most of the Turbo movie and subsequent season as a Harmless Villain and the Zeo powers are casually discarded.
• Villain Decay: Divatox was competent enough in the movie. In the show? Not so much. Finally inverted at the end when she led an army to the Power Chamber and utterly destroyed it, and she probably would have killed the Rangers (that is, if she discovered they survived) if she hadn't been summoned away by Dark Specter.
• Vindicated by History: Sort of, because it still has a wide spread Hatedom among some people still wearing Nostalgia Goggles who just remember it as "the season that got rid of Tommy and Adam". Other than that, however, the reception was a lot warmer in the second half of the season than when it first aired, helped by the fact that the writing actually improved and that there has been arguably worse seasons.
  • Again, it didn't really help matters when the source material it was based on was actually a self-parody of the Sentai series, so when they tried to make it more "serious", of course they would run into a lot of problems (with the pizza-episode being the most infamous one). Eventually, they managed to work around the source material half-way through the season; but who knows how the series could have turned out if they had just taken the risk in the first place of poking fun at themselves (in a lighthearted sort of way), writing the slapstick and the comedic/satirical elements in a way so that it is tailored for an American youth audience, and not taking themselves too seriously...

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