YMMV / Power Rangers Wild Force S1E34 Forever Red

• Fan Fic Fuel: Needless to say, this episode's premise inspired plenty of fanfiction involving team-ups of the other ranger colors. Became Ascended Fanon when one of the Boom! comics stories using various Black Rangers was titled "Forever Black" in 2017 and five years later, Mighty Morphin issue 22 had a story using various Pink Rangers.
• First Instalment Wins: The first reunion special, and unanimously considered to be the best.
• Franchise Original Sin: This episode was the very start where Tommy started to get the most Character Shilling as the greatest Ranger of all time. But back in the day, the shilling didn't get too over-the-top because only one person, Cole, was expressing the belief that Tommy was the best, all of the Red Rangers contributed to saving the day, and most importantly, the rest of the Red Rangers, including Tommy's contemporary Jason, laughed and disagreed with Cole's assertion, poking fun at the idea that Tommy was the best. In subsequent shows that followed this, Tommy being declared the greatest Ranger is done un-ironically, usually with no dissent, with Tommy generally getting all the credit and gratitude when he appears while other Rangers who have arguably done equally legendary things as Tommy generally don't get as much recognition or receive praise for equally contributing to saving the day.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Jason and Tommy's interaction is one of estranged friends patching things up. It was the opposite case for their actors, who had a dislike on set of the original series, but the feud would continue to get rather heated in the 2010s; mainly with Jason David Frank somewhat constantly taking unwarranted potshots at Austin St John (Notably, besides their animosity during the original series, the two had little to no interaction with one another, and infamously JDF was known for making inflammatory statements online with little to no context or in the heat of the moment, once even posting angrily on his own fanpage when someone hit his car, complete with a picture), who would often have to deflect interview questions about him, until speaking more bluntly about their dislike in the 2020s (Up untill that point Austin was never afraid to admit the two of them never really got along but also never really attacked him either), until that one fateful day when Jason David Frank passed away via suicide. After his passing, Austin St. John admitted that at one point beforehand they finally became rather amicable, not friends but capable of being in the same room and for all intents and purposes had finally buried the hatchet, giving his respects to the late Jason David Frank.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight:
  • Pairing Tommy with Wes for the battle with the generals at the end seems like an odd choice, given that the two had never interacted previously. Then comes the Ninja Steel crossover, where Wes greets Tommy like an old friend with a Man Hug.
  • Leo drawing the Quasar Saber on Mirinoi, proving that he was always its rightful bearer.
  • Leo pulling Big Damn Heroes at the last minute, which Danny Slavin did as a favour, ended up paralelling real-life; he initially regarded his time as an Old Shame, but warmed towards it in the 2010s; coming back for Power Rangers Megaforce and going to a convention.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: One of the last lines of the episode has Eric say that "(his) Q-Rex will eat (Tommy's) Dragonzord for lunch". Almost two decades later, Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger features a mecha which is basically the Dragonzord and Q-Rex fused into one, almost as if the Q-Rex really did eat the Dragonzord.
• Narm: After the triumphantly epic sequence of each Ranger morphing, it gets to Aurico already morphed and he just says "Red Alien Ranger" rather lamely - which wasn't even his original morphing call to begin with.
• Special Effects Failure:
  • Note that during the big morphing sequence, TJ obviously misses the Turbo Morpher and the key goes behind his wrist instead. This likely stems from the fact that back during Turbo, none of the actors ever really inserted the key into the Morpher, but rather pretended to insert and turn it, while gleaming effects would be applied in post-production to cover it up. Presumably, Selwyn Ward thought that would apply here (and/or did it out of habit), only for there to be no gleam, likely because of the tight budget.
  • The climax itself is pretty low rent with its hideously Off-Model CGI Serpentera and even worse CG for Cole and the Wild Force Rider. No doubt due to Disney's meddling during the episode's production.
• Tough Act to Follow: Very much like "Countdown to Destruction" being one for season finales, this special is one towards anniversary specials, though with "Reinforcements From the Future", it's also one towards team-ups. Even over 20 years later, there has yet to be an anniversary series or another special that can boast such a great story and good amount of fanservice fights and character moments. Needless to say, unless the current writers really put their heads together and go all out, it's very likely this and "Reinforcements" will never be surpassed in quality and acclaim.

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