Forever Red

"Forever Red"
Power Rangers episode
Episode no.	Season Wild Force Episode 452
Directed by	Koichi Sakamoto
Written by	Amit Bhaumik
Original air date	October 5, 2002
Guest stars
Jason Faunt as Wes Collins Jason David Frank as Tommy Oliver Sean Cw Johnson as Carter Grayson Christopher Khayman Lee as Andros Jason Narvy as Skull Paul Schrier as Bulk Danny Slavin as Leo Corbett Daniel Southworth as Eric Myers Austin St. John as Jason Lee Scott Selwyn Ward as T.J. Johnson & Christopher Glenn as the voice of Aurico
Episode chronology
← Previous "The Soul of Humanity" Next → "The Master's Herald, Part I"
List of Power Rangers episodes

"Forever Red" is an episode of the television series Power Rangers: Wild Force, commemorating the tenth anniversary of the Power Rangers meta-series. The episode was later included in the 2003 DVD collection The Best Of The Power Rangers: The Ultimate Rangers as one of several voted by the fans to be the best in the series. "Forever Red" was the first episode to commemorate the anniversary of the Power Rangers franchise followed by Once a Ranger which took place in the 15th season, Power Rangers Operation Overdrive.

Premise

"Forever Red" reunited every previous Red Ranger (with the exception of Rocky DeSantos). The ten Red Rangers featured, in order of appearance in Power Rangers continuity were:

• Jason Lee Scott of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
• Aurico of Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers
• Tommy Oliver of Power Rangers Zeo
• T. J. Johnson of Power Rangers Turbo
• Andros of Power Rangers in Space
• Leo Corbett of Power Rangers Lost Galaxy
• Carter Grayson of Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue
• Wesley Collins of Power Rangers Time Force
• Eric Myers of Power Rangers Time Force
• Cole Evans of Power Rangers Wild Force

Plot

Six years after the destruction of the Machine Empire, surviving members of the empire remain, seeking to avenge King Mondo by destroying the Earth. Tezzla, Gerrok, Steelon, and Automon are the surviving machine generals led by General Venjix. They have recently learned that Earth's Moon is the resting place of Serpentera, a war machine created by Lord Zedd and one of the most powerful weapons ever used against the Power Rangers, with the capability of destroying a whole planet. The only drawback to Serpentera is that it requires a lot of power for any function. Ever since Zedd's "death" in Countdown to Destruction, the location of Serpentera remained a mystery for many years. Venjix finds it and begins using Cog soldiers to dig it up, refitting it with a Neo Plutonium reactor, the same power source that gave several monsters a new indestructable armor in Mondo's fight against the Zeo Rangers.

Andros, the Red Space Ranger, have been trailing Venjix for several years and upon spying on him while on the Earth's moon, he discovers Venjix's plan but was found out by the machines. He manages to escape, gathering enough evidence to know what lies ahead. On Earth, someone calls Bulk and Skull's poolside cafe, which makes Bulk nervous as it sounds important. While the Wild Force Rangers are gathered at the park, Carter Greyson of Lightspeed Rescue arrives to recruit Cole Evans, the current Red Ranger of the Wild Force team, for an important mission. The two proceed to NASADA's space port, where Cole finds Wesley Collins and Eric Meyers, leaders of the Silver Guardians and his allies against the Mutorgs, have also gathered. They are introduced to Theodore J. Jarvis Johnson, the Red Turbo Ranger, or T.J. for short. T.J. introduces them all to his colleague and fellow teammate, Andros. Everyone there is a Red Ranger of their own respective teams, which surprises Cole. Andros explains that they were all recruited by "a veteran ranger", their leader for this mission. At that moment, Zeo Ranger V Tommy Oliver, arrives at the space port, having been contacted earlier by Andros while at Bulk and Skull's cafe.

The Red Rangers gather in a hangar, where Tommy explains that he would be leading a team of Red Rangers to strike the Machine Empire on the moon. Andros reveals their mode of travel, the Astro Megahip Mark II. Just as they're about to depart, Jason pulls up to the group on a motorcycle, surprising Tommy. Jason explains that he didn't think the mission would feel right without the original Red Ranger. He then proceeded to rib Cole, "the new guy" of the group, who originally offers a handshake. Tommy, Jason, Andros, Wes, Eric, T.J., Carter, and Cole board the Megaship and proceed to the Moon. A new Alpha robot, Alpha 7, is on board as well. While en route, Andros informs the other Red Rangers that Aurico and Leo will be joining them shortly, coming from Aquitar and Mirinoi respectively, while Tommy further explains their mission to the other Rangers.

Venjix and his other generals prepare to board Serpentera, but they are then interrupted by the Red Rangers. Venjix sends Cogs to distract the eight Rangers while he and the others flee to Serpentera. The Rangers battle the Cogs unmorphed and easily defeat them. Eventually, Cole escapes the barrage of Cogs and chases after the generals. Venjix fires at him, but Cole is rescued by Leo and Aurico on Leo's Jet Jammer. All the Rangers gather to face off the machine generals and morph into their ranger forms to battle the Generals.

Cole and Jason fight Venjix, with Cole having trouble at first but coming back strong after Jason single-handedly overwhelms Venjix with a corkscrew kick to show off to Cole. Tommy and Wes fight Gerrok and Tommy destroys him with the Zeo V Power Kick. Eric and Aurico fight Tezzla and destroy her with the Quantum Defender. T.J. and Leo fight Automon and destroy him with combo attacks from their Quasar Saber, Transdagger, Turbo Blade, and Turbo Lightning Sword. Andros and Carter fight Steelon and destroy him by combining power from their sidearm weapons. Then Cole severely damages Venjix with his Crystal Saber. Venjix then jumps into Serpentera and takes off. The Rangers fear they have failed, but Cole calls upon his Wild Force Rider, a gift from the god, Animus, to battle Venjix. Cole uses the Wild Force Rider to fly into Serpentera and destroy it from the inside. Both Venjix and Serpentera are destroyed, and Cole ends up surviving the explosion despite the others' thinking he may have been destroyed too.

Afterwards, the nine human Rangers part ways, and Cole remarks how Tommy appeared to be the "greatest Ranger ever", with the other Rangers attempting to refute his claim with some of their own adventures.

Cut scenes

The episode was originally intended to be an extra-long special, and a number of scenes were trimmed or removed when it was made into a regular episode. These scenes are available online, as part of production footage. The bits that didn't make it include:

• Tommy Oliver was retired and was the owner of Bulk's restaurant; he isn't aware of the Machine Empire until Andros calls him. The trimmed scene gives the impression that Bulk and Skull (who are nervous of Tommy) are aware he's a Ranger and that Tommy has already been working with Andros; as the line about "I'm retired" never aired, Power Rangers Dino Thunder would follow the implication that Tommy was active and reveal that he was working in secret to prepare for Mesogog's return.

• The Wild Force Rangers break up two kids fighting, who claim they're playing Power Rangers, and tell them Power Rangers "don't fight people, so you shouldn't either". Carter Grayson informs the other Rangers that only Cole has been "selected" for the mission and the others can't come.

• Andros' original reason for why he's a great Red Ranger was "I killed Zordon" (Jason was shocked to hear Zordon was dead). This was redubbed to "I saved two worlds!".

Production

• The script went through many drafts and changes. The original storyline involved a group of alien priests attempting to ressurect Dark Spectre on a volcanic planet. Other things omited from early drafts were a reference to former Pink Ranger Kimberly being married to Skull, and a cameo from Katherine, who would have been revealed to be Tommy's wife.
• The suits from five random Beetleborgs: Shadowborg, The Green Hunter Beetleborg, Dragonborg (minus his antennae), Fireborg and Ladyborg from Saban's Big Bad Beetleborgs were used as the bodies for the remaining generals of the Machine Empire trying to reactivate Serpentera.
• The episode was originally conceived as a two-parter but much of the budget was spent on another teamup episode featuring the Power Rangers Time Force and Disney didn't see the merit in another teamup episode that can't promote current merchandise.
• There was a Megazord battle planned for the episode but it proved to be expensive as the production team didn't have access to the Megazord suits for new footage and all CGI would've had to be done in-house by Disney.
• The episode was saved when Bandai put money into the budget, with the condition that the episode promotes the Wild Force Rider.
• Danny Slavin who plays Leo, the Red Galaxy Ranger, initially refused his involvement, having had a sour experience with the management of Saban Entertainment during his return in the Lost Galaxy and Lightspeed Rescue teamup. He decided to return late in the production process and had to shoot his scenes on his own, which was later digitally inserted into any group shots where he was seen.
• The machine generals were voiced by Power Ranger alumni: Archie Kao voiced Venjix, Walter Jones voiced Gerrok and Catherine Sutherland voiced Tezzla.
• Steve Cardenas who played Rocky (the Red Ranger that replaced Jason) on Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and Zeo Ranger III Power Rangers Zeo, was originally contacted to appear in the episode but he moved and changed addresses without notifying the production team and they could not find him in time to film.

See also

• Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger vs. Super Sentai