As a further tribute to the late great dragon of the powerhouse Power Rangers franchise, I have stitched together a 1 hour, 10 minute supercut of the two-parters Green No More and White Light to tell the definitive story of how Tommy switches from Green to White.
This is draft one, I might create an extended version later.
Growing up in the wilderness years without any new episodes of Doctor Who meant many of us young fans at the time had to grow up on alternatives since all we had home grown at the time was Red Dwarf and a bundle of one-off or niche sci-fi dramas on CITV and CBBC. The void was filled largely by american imports, one of which was a stateside adaptation of a Japanese format called Super Sentai. This adaptation began life, of course, as Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers, and the rest is history.
It wasn’t long in the show’s run that one additional cast member joined the programme to challenge and ultimately befriend the core five characters, this was Tommy Olive, played by real life marital arts expert and champion Jason David Frank.
JDF was the real deal, with tireless energy and discipline, he raised awareness of his form of martial artistry and brought it to the small screen. Also, unlike many of the other Rangers, his character of Tommy had the most compelling writing of the series, as he gained and lost powers in conflict with Rita Repulsa and Lord Zedd, ultimately his arc culminated in him ascending to the leadership role for the group, and from there he became the White, Red Zeo, Red Turbo Rangers from 1995 to 1997, before departing the programme.
He would return many times, in 2002 he guest-starred in “Forever Red”, the 10th anniversary edition of the series, where he led a team of ten Red Rangers against the remains of the Machine Empire
The appearance proved such a success, that JDF was invited back two years later as a regular on the 2004 season Power Rangers Dino Thunder, where he became the Black Dino Thunder Ranger, mentoring a then-new team of younger Rangers
JDF would appear a few more times after this, notably for anniversary crossovers and even cameod in the recent 2017 movie, and around this time he began making the convention circuit and dabbling a little in MMA fighting, he steadily built a goodwill reputation amongst convention goers, always spending time with the fans and engaging with them, he always had positive vibes. Sometimes his self-belief proved a turn off for more jaded, cynical fans however, but that’s to be expected when you have a lot of pride and confidence.
Jason died over the weekend at just 49 years of age, almost a week since the passing of legendary Batman voice actor Kevin Conroy. In effect, a large part of what defined the kids TV of the 1990s, have been taken from us. The cause of death was reportedly suicide, demonstrating you can command all the positive attention in the world, but it’s not worth much if you can’t command it within yourself.
Please, if any of you feel trapped, cornered, isolated, reach out to someone you know, let them know you need their help, don’t refuse that help either. You are significant, you are special, YOU have the great power within you to make anything possible. You can change a life, including your very own
May the power protect you Jason.
To honour his memory, I have reuploaded one of the episodes of Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers Turbo, a project I worked on during the pandemic. This episode features Tommy taking on the Red Turbo Ranger. Several of the other MMPRT episodes are also in the midst of being archived, so feel free to check them out also if you enjoyed this.
Towards the end of the one and only season of Centurions there are several multi-part adventures that serve as functional series finales. There is the epic five-parter Man Or Machine which reveals the origins of the Centurions, Doc Terror and Hacker and involves a battle to liberate Skyvault from Terror and stop an alien machine from destroying humanity.
Other candidates include’ To Dare Dominion which appears to kill off Terror and Hacker completely and wipes out their base of operations after they unleash a near universe-consuming Lovecraftian nightmare, and The Better Half, where Terror and Hacker’s robot halves combine to create an even more powerful and malevolent threat, forcing them to ally with the Centurions and destroy those parts of themselves. The story also resolves the Belligerent Sexual Tension between Centurion Ace and Crystal Kane, as the two finally kiss.
So I figured, why don’t we just combine all those potential ‘outs’ and see what we get out of it?
Changes
-Doc Terror and Hacker working on the continuum-crashing vortex moved to the start of the edit, so the audience is informed of what’s to come after the crisis with Gog is averted
-Entire Uniborg plot of “The Better Half” removed, we only use the Ace/Crystal parts
-Inserted footage from the early series episode “Operation: Starfall” after Ace is beamed back aboard Skyvault in rough shape, this sets up the Ace/Crystal romance later -Crystal is no longer shown to be embarrassed by Ace kissing her in front of his friends, doesn’t get her own back afterwards when Lucky kisses him (Lucy does eventually kiss him, but Crystal isn’t around to laugh at it) -Max’s response to Jake regarding the fate of Doc Terror removed. He is definitively dead to serve the purpose of this edit, which is to give us closure.
Use of the scene from “Man or Machine” where Rex and John are accepted into the Centurions now moved to the very end. Ace attempting to ask someone else out on a date removed, as he’s with Crystal now. Most commercial break fades have been retained for two reasons
1. Sheer lazyness on my part
2. Wanting to give it the feel of a first-run TV Movie on cable with plenty of ads in between (add them if you wish)
But, Really, mostly lazyness.
(credit for poster: DanLav05)
Back around 2002, there was a proposed plan for a multi-Power Ranger season called ‘Hexagon’, which would have seen Tommy Oliver head up an organization made up of various Rangers over the last decade or so of the programme, battling the remnants of their greatest enemies as well as some new threats. The series would focus on a group of young teenage Rangers recruited by Tommy’s organization who would be gradually caught up in Tommy’s ongoing ‘disagreements’ with the Phantom Ranger and former teammate/rival Jason.
Eventually, there was to have been a mass Ranger civil war, ending with Tommy disbanding his organization.
It is my intention to create, to the best of my ability, my own version of the Hexagon season, though it will not be beholden to the original notes.
I figured out a brand new approach to Transformers: The Movie, ignoring the death of Optimus Prime and even excluding Unicron entirely.
First, begin the movie with Hot Rod and Kup on Quintessa, this serves as a nice alternative introduction to the characters in a nifty little ‘cold open’ action scene, after they take a ship off the planet, we cut to just after the titles and see how Optimus and company are preparing to retake Cybertron
-The fall of Auotbot City Earth proceeds apace. Optimus is wounded protecting Hot Rod but his death is cut
-Shockwave, not Unicron, rebuilds Megatron and the other fallen Decepticons and turns them into Galvatron, Scourge, Sweeps and The Armada
-From there, play all three parts of The Rebirth
This would not be an edit of the anniversary reboot movie ‘I Choose You’, rather instead it’d be an attempt at editing the TV version of the episode that launched the anime in the first place.
Not much would be altered, instead of the opening battle being between Gengar and Onyx, it’d be between Mewtwo and Onyx, and we’d see Ash watching Mew appear in the sky shortly after Pikachu saves him from the Spearows. Then we’d end the episode on Mewtwo breaking free of Givoani’s control and setting himself up for later in the series (though this does alter continuity slightly)
When a villain cold to the touch and a woman who’s kiss is lethal to the touch cross paths with Batman and Robin, emotions flare and tension heats up. Will the dynamic duo go into meltdown?
Intention:
I believe it was Akiva Goldsman that said it best in the documentary/retrospective for the movie, “there are different lenses with which to see the world”, and likened Batman and Robin to one of the more traditional silver age stories where good overcame evil and there was a modest and wholesome message as well as a true feel of family.
This is not a hard edit by any means, I’ve left the third act completely intact, but I’ve scaled back the more farcical aspects of the Batman and Robin arguing, the trust issues are more prominent than the bickering over Ivy, and both fights dovetail into one another with organic ease. No, there’s no bat-credit card, no there’s no Robin being thrown into a vat of goo either. No “Mr. Frosty” singalong, there is an attempt to scaling back Freeze’s ice puns etc.
Cuts and Additions:
– Cut Museum fight, film opens with Batman and Robin in flight, escaping the rocket and pursuing Freeze
– Removed Ivy and Bane’s origin. We first meet her at the Observatory
– Freeze is no longer interupted when he’s watching his home movies
– Bat-Credit card and the dynamic duo’s bickering over Ivy removed
– Some of Freeze’s jokes when locked up removed
– Bruce and Dick’s conversations about Ivy while investigating Freeze’s hideout removed
– Bruce and Dick’s fight over Ivy and Dick falling into the vat of goop removed.
– More of Bruce and Dick’s arguing after seeing Alfred has been minimised
– Third act remains intact
– Post-Credit Scene added.
The New Batman Adventures “Chase Me” short is a lovely little piece with some priceless Bat/Cat moments, but it down end on a bit of a downer.
This edit, utilising footage from The Long Halloween, doesn’t change much in the way of that, but it does give the thing a bit more of a bittersweet, ye more hopeful ending for our favourite rooftop romance
I was recently reminded of an old Iron Man 4 I made for the disgraced SDN Edition’s defunct website last year, upon reviewing it I felt it was much too long and I wished to approach it with fresh eyes, I believe if you focus chiefly on Tony and his supporting characters you get a tidy 100 minute or so movie that still tells the story of Civil War just as clearly along with much more
Movies used:
-Civil War
-Spider-Man Homecoming (scenes on the boat can work here as a climatic moment for Peter and Tony)
-Infinity War (for the ending)
And when it’s released on DVD:
-Spider-Man: No Way Home (for a post-credit scene)
A prototype version is current available. This is not final by any means. It has a placeholder sequence for post-credits using Homecoming and Amazing Spider-Man 2 footage
-Paramount Logo
-Old Marvel Studios Logo
-1991, Bucky kills Tony’s parents
-Tony chewed out by bitter Sukovian mom
-The first we see of Steve, Sam, Bucky and T’Challa is when they being brought in after being arrested, this allows us to get to the Steve and Tony argument quicker.
-‘A Film By Peter Parker’ added, Peter is the co-lead of this film so we largely follow his journey to Germany
-Most of Civil War plays out as normal after this
-Boat scene from Homecoming, Stark takes the suit from Peter
-Cut to the A.I constructs of the Starks and Tony addressing the student crowd (parts of this are used for the beginning also, but this is meant to be yet another group of students he’s granting money to)
-Tony and Pepper jogging in the park, we learn they’re now engaged, Doctor Strange interrupts them
-End credits
-Post-Credit scene (when No Way Home becomes available): We find Peter is now a drop out, but is still committed to being Spider-Man despite Tony’s doubts, he suits up in his freshly-sewn together classic costume and swings out into the night.
Post-Credit Scene (Placeholder Version): Peter tries in vain to text Happy, trying for a second chance, and we track him heading to school. We eventually see him skip school and swings off into the city in his new custom-made costume
But since this is Christmas, and after some feeback and back-and-forths with fellow faneditor Fanedi796, I put together an alternative cut
Timeline is as follows for this cut:
-Paramount Logo
-Old Marvel Studios Logo
-1991, Bucky kills Tony’s parents
-Tony chewed out by bitter Sukovian mom
-The first we see of Steve, Sam, Bucky and T’Challa is when they being brought in after being arrested, this allows us to get to the Steve and Tony argument quicker.
-‘A Film By Peter Parker’ added, Peter is the co-lead of this film so we largely follow his journey to Germany
-Most of Civil War plays out as normal after this
-After Cap beats up Tony, we cut to Peter raving about the trip to Germany and the car ride back with Stark and Happy.
-‘Two Months Later’, Peter on train
-Cut to the A.I constructs of the Starks and Tony addressing the student crowd (parts of this are used for the beginning also, but this is meant to be yet another group of students he’s granting money to)
Peter turns down being an Avenger, Pepper accepts Tony’s proposal
-Tony and Pepper jogging in the park, we learn they’re now engaged, Doctor Strange interrupts them
-Post credits: Peter at school, change into his ‘own’ suit and responds to a police chase in progress (Footage from Amazing Spider-Man 2)
zaredit 
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