What Are Your Favorite/Least Favorite First Episodes?

[DigificWriter]

Favories
Zeo: With Seasons 1 and 2 lacking proper season finales and S3 lacking a proper season premiere, A Zeo Beginning was the first PR season premiere to continue directly from the previous season's finale, and it picked up the baton from Hogday Afternoon P2 and ran with it flawlessly. AZB did an incredible job of wrapping up loose ends from HA P2 while simultaneously launching us into a new 'status quo' that simultaneously felt both familiar and fresh.

PRiS:
Just like A Zeo Beginning did with Hogday Afternoon P2, From Out of Nowhere took the baton from Chase into Space P2 and ran with it seamlessly, giving us just enough of the familiar to make the unfamiliar work without feeling forced. Andros and Astronema's introductions were handled flawlessly, and Divatox was passed over in favor of Astronema as the new 'big bad' for the season without hurting her (Divatox's) credibility or minimizing the impact of her actions in CiS.

Time Force: As the second 'standalone' season, Time Force was faced with the task of establishing itself as something that felt like it could take place in the same universe as the other seasons we'd previously seen, yet stand completely on its own, and Force from the Future accomplishes both of these goals perfectly. It also manages to offer the first real 'shock' since Hogday Afternoon P2 with Alex's death (the impact of which isn't dimmed in the least, IMO, by his later resurrection due to shifts in the timeline). The episode is perfectly paced, with both parts feeling both necessary and unique, and all of the major characters for the season are introduced in a coherent fashion without any confusion as to why they're being introduced and what their role in the season is going to be.

RPM: Prior to RPM, most PR Season Premieres in the 'standalone' era - regardless of their length - pretty much followed the same formula in that they introduced us to the characters both good and bad and the storyline of the season, and showed us how and why the Rangers were given their powers. RPM basically threw most of that formula out the window, but did so without feeling like it'd discarded the traditional formula simply for the sake of being 'different' or 'new'. It also broke new ground in that, while it introduced us to our core cast of Rangers, it didn't bring all of them together as a group of teammates, yet still managed to telegraph that they were destined to actually BE a team.

Least Favorites
S.P.D.: Although Linkara gave it props in his latest History of Power Rangers review, I will forver maintain that Beginnigs is just about the worst actual season premiere episode we have gotten in the entire history of the PR franchise. It's incredibly poorly paced and structured, and doesn't offer much in the way of even rudimentary or cursary explanation as to why we're seeing what we're seeing or why the characters are behaving the way that they are. It also omits the introduction of a certain key character entirely for absolutely no reason.

Turbo: Unlike the others who listed Shift into Turbo as one of their least favorite premieres, I feel that it wasn't the fact that the premiere wasn't all that necessary that brings it down, but its overall structure and narrative 'flow'. It tries to be standalone enough that it can serve to introduce new elements that weren't part of the movie, but while also not discarding what the movie had done, and it doesn't succeed quite as nimbly as it could've. It also rehashes stuff from the movie that really didn't need to be rehashed, such as the formation of the Turbo Megazord, while trying to pass said rehashes off as fresh and new.

[Zeo Ranger IX]

Great topic.

This is just off the top of my head: the favorite would be Time Force. Each character got a nice little intro and characterization, it went to a different place when Alex was "killed," and overall previewed how spectacular that cast would turn out to be acting-wise. Great soundtrack too. Aside from the silly DNA explanation, this is the premiere that I would show to non-PR fans to try and get them into it.

Then to follow that up is my worst: Wild Force. It did have a nice opening battle and from her first appearance Taylor became one of my favorite Rangers. Too bad everyone else just couldn't get it together performance-wise. And, from a production, pacing and editing standpoint it was a nightmare. An understated splitscreen morph in the first episode then a flashy "we're doing the for the first time" fullscreen morph in the second episode when they really weren't? I didn't get the decision-making there.

Most premieres had more positives than negatives in my mind.

[Jimmy Jones]

Favorite:
MMPR: Great setting of unforgettable characters.
Zeo: Out with the old and in with the new suits felt so good.
Mystic Force: Likeable team and the magic element was nice.

Least Favorite:
Dino Thunder: The kids are not all right, too annoying for my taste.

[DigificWriter]

Here's some more of my favorite PR season premieres:

Ninja Storm: I will forever maintain that, of the seasons that have attempted to recall or pay homage to the nostalgic feel of the original MMPR, Ninja Storm comes the closest, and actually offers a glimpse of what MMPR might've been like if Saban and Co. had known the things that they ended up learning and applying to the seasons which followed MMPR's first and second seasons when they were producing said two seasons. This sense of similarity between MMPR and NS is prevelant throughout the entire season, but is especially prevalent in Prelude to a Storm, which basically replicates the structure of Day of the Dumpster with one crucial difference; instead of introducing us to our villains first (which is what happens in Day of the Dumpster), PtaS introduces us to our heroes first, and then our villains, but the episode still manages to feel very much like MM!DotD.

Mystic Force: Mystic Force is, in my opinion, greatly misjudged by the PR fandom at large. The season is, IMO, very well-paced and structured, and, although the season's storyline does very much revolve around and become dependent on Nick, we are given enough information about and development for the other Rangers, the villains, and the team's allies that it ends up more or less balancing out, with Broken Spell being a very good start to the season, giving us a taste of the personalities of each of the main characters while weaving them into a story that is much better paced than Beginnings and which serves as a great introduction to the season's storylines. The episode also manages to take what could seem like a strange combination - Power Rangers and a Harry Potter-esque magical setting with entirely magic-based powers - and make it work believably and seamlessly.

[The 2nd Evil]

The Road To Corinth was the only premiere episode to make me go "that's it?" after it ended.

[DigificWriter]

^
What does that mean?

[Jacen Solo]

My favorite is Time Force's premiere. It pretty much had everything: there was romance with Jen and Alex and their happiness with their new engagement, it was like a crime drama with Ransik's trial and conviction, Ransik's jailbreak at the hands of Nadira felt like one of those cop shows, and there was a real element of tragedy with Alex's death. And to quote Linkara's SPD review, "By the way, that was just PART ONE." The second part brought us the Collins family drama (which was a really nice plotline throughout the series), and then of course the Jen and Wes relationship was established. It must have been such a traumatic moment for Jen when she ran into Wes right after watching her fiancee die, and poor Wes had no idea why he was being abused by her. And the first morphed battle was a lot of fun, especially with that techno music playing in the background.

[RangerFan52]

^
What does that mean?

I agree sort of and for me, not seeing the rangers really be in action and having it end with Dillon asking what a Power Ranger was gave it sudden ending for me.

[The 2nd Evil]

^
What does that mean?

I was thoroughly unimpressed by it.

[DigificWriter]

I was thoroughly unimpressed by it.

Okay. To each their own.