Power Rangers Turbo brought us a changing of the guard in the Power Rangers universe. The last of the original team left and passed their powers on to 4 new rangers, they themselves hand selected. But first, they would have to fight their final battles as rangers.
Tommy, who was portrayed by Jason David Frank as the Red Turbo Ranger, was the last of the original ranger team. The others were replacements in the own right. Adam, Kat, Tonya and Rocky started out the Turbo season with Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie. In the movie, Rocky was entered in a martial arts tournament and against the judgment of his friends, lost his temper in the match which caused him to injure his leg.
In the hospital while he slept, young Justin Stewart came to visit. When the other rangers entered the room, Justin hid and discovered a secret that only few others knew. His idol and hero, was a real hero known as the blue power ranger. When an emergency arose, Rocky sent Justin with his Turbo morpher to take his place on the team. At the graduation ceremony, Rocky informed the team that it was time for him to leave the rangers for good, and that the Turbo morpher was in good hands.
Turbo was the first and only time that we saw a child become a Power Ranger. Midway through the season, as Divatox the space pirate attacked Angel Grove, The rangers had to select 4 worthy successors. Tommy chose T.J, a young baseball player who demonstrated great bravery in protecting others to replace him as the Red ranger and leader of the team. Carlos was chosen by Adam because he had assisted the Green Ranger in saving Angel Grove citizens when the city was under attack. Tonya selected Ashley to replace her as the yellow ranger for her compassion and integrity. Kat chose Cassie as her replacement for the Pink Ranger powers because she helped her and TJ save Tommy. Justin remained on the Turbo Ranger team because he had not put in enough time and could still be a great asset to the team.
After the seasoned veterans left, the new team experienced battle after battle against the evil Divatox. In the season finale of Turbo, Divatox de-powers the rangers and then receives a message that Zordon has been captured. The four de-powered older rangers take over a space shuttle and follow Divatox into space, leaving Justin on Earth because he was far too young to go with them. These events lead into the new series…
During the course of Turbo, we saw new zords that took on the appearance of cars. Red Lightning was the Red Turbo Zord, Mountain blaster was the blue, Desert Thunder was the green, Dune Star the yellow, and Wind Chaser the pink. There was a 6th Turbo Zord that was controlled by an ally of the rangers, The Blue Senturion which was the Robo Racer. We also got other new zords in the way of Rescue Zords. Prior to Turbo, during the Zeo season we saw the end of the standard team colors of Red, Blue, Black, Yellow and Pink when Black was replaced by Green up until the new Power Rangers Mega Force. Each season since MMPR has traded out ranger colors, sometimes black would become green or pink would become white. The 6th ranger would even become silver or titanium or purple, orange, shadow, etc.
It was Turbo that made Saban decide to change the Power Rangers each and every season or two so that fans wouldn't get too use to characters like they did with MMPR.
Next time faithful readers on…
I’ll be bringing you the 6th season which saw MANY changes in the Power Rangers universe that affected the rangers to this day. Tune in next time for…