--Spencer
It’s been well over a year since the final episode of Power Rangers. Even though whispers of a reboot keep coming around, the franchise will never be the same. But maybe the beauty of Power Rangers is that it kept evolving and rebooting. Despite literally dozens of soft reboots, one of the things (besides vibrantly colored heroes) that made the franchise iconic was their Zords.
The concept of the Zords changed from season to season, but generally each Power Ranger had a Zord they piloted and the team’s Zords would combine into their Megazord. Exceptions to this include the Astro Megazord and the Delta Base Megazord. Regardless of how each Megazord was formed or transformed, it’s amazing that the civilian casualties didn’t reach hundreds during the seemingly daily monster battles.
The Zords turned into plot points and deus ex machina at times, depending on the season, with their miraculous arrivals or hunting for them. Some seasons it barely seemed like the Zords played a part in the plot, like with the Space Rangers. Other times it felt like a new Zord was discovered every other episode, like with the Wild Force Rangers. I think my favorites were the seasons somewhere in the middle, where they supplemented the Rangers character arcs, instead of becoming characters themselves.
With 2025 being the year of Power Rangers SPD, I plan to write more Ranger content this year (like I tried to do with LOST’s twentieth anniversary last year) so if there’s something you want explored from the Power Rangers franchise, you can reach me at the Command Center.
Go go Power Rangers!
My wife and I recently had an opportunity to watch a few of the new episodes of the Chosen in the theater. The part that stuck out to me the most was the Dayenu. I am admittedly unfamiliar with this practice and prayer at Passover, but loved the portrayal of two versions of the dayenu in one the episodes of season 5. Dayenu is roughly translated from Hebrew to English as “it is sufficient” or “it would have been enough.” The song traces the history of God’s working among His people from captivity in Egypt through the building of the temple. After each accounting, “it would have been enough” is uttered. Here is an example of what this looks like in lyrical form:
“If He had brought us out from Egypt, and had not carried out judgments against them Dayenu, it would have sufficed us!
If He had carried out judgments against them, and not against their idols Dayenu, it would have sufficed us!
If He had destroyed their idols, and had not smitten their first-born Dayenu, it would have sufficed us!
If He had smitten their first-born, and had not given us their wealth Dayenu, it would have sufficed us!” (https://www.chabad.org/multimedia/media_cdo/aid/255530/jewish/Dayenu.htm)
From what I have seen and heard of this song, it is a song of thanksgiving for what the Lord has done for His people.
It reminded me of a talk from President Eyring in 2007 about seeing and recording the hand of the Lord in his life. Here is what he shared about the experience of recording and remembering the hand of God in his life each day:
“I wrote down a few lines every day for years. I never missed a day no matter how tired I was or how early I would have to start the next day. Before I would write, I would ponder this question: “Have I seen the hand of God reaching out to touch us or our children or our family today?” As I kept at it, something began to happen. As I would cast my mind over the day, I would see evidence of what God had done for one of us that I had not recognized in the busy moments of the day. As that happened, and it happened often, I realized that trying to remember had allowed God to show me what He had done.” (“O Remember, Remember” October 2007)
Since hearing this talk, I too have tried to keep a record of how I have seen the hand of God in my life each day. I testify of the truth of this line from “Count your many blessings,”
“Count your many blessings; name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.”
I can think of no better time than at Easter when we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ to remember and acknowledge what the Lord has done for us. I loved being able to study in the scriptures about Holy week and the last week of the Savior’s mortal life. If I were to write lyrics to my own Dayenu song, I suppose these are some of the things I would write:
“If all He did was give us good teachings, it would have been enough.
If He had given us good teachings and not also healed, it would have been enough.
If He had healed, but not also atoned for our sins, it would have been enough.
If He had atoned for our sins and not died for us, it would have been enough.
If He had died for our sins and not been resurrected, it would have been enough.
If He had been resurrected and not promised us the gift of resurrection ourselves it would have been enough.”
The beauty of remembering these things is that He has done all this and more. What a miracle it is, and indeed, it is more than enough.
--Spencer
I'm still working my way through the Fourth Doctor era, trying to catch up to TJ. I recently watched "The Deadly Assassin" which is pretty unique among Doctor Who stories, especially of the classic era. We get a return to Gallifrey, the Master's dying form, a murder mystery, and the establishment of plenty of Doctor Who lore.
After the passing of Roger Delgado, the Master and his plots basically faded into the past, like the Great Intelligence and the Toymaker. "Frontier in Space" could have easily been the Master's last story. Instead, they decided to bring him back during the Fourth Doctor era. They could have simply made him regenerate, but instead gave him a plot to avoid his final death. This meant adding the rule of the twelve regenerations (which we'll address in a second) but it brought back this beloved villain. The first of many times that the Master should have been deader than dead and still came back. But we'll come back to this decaying version of the Master soon enough.
I couldn't find a source for the story, but I read on the Doctor Who wiki that Tom Baker wanted an episode all to himself. A big feat for any actor, to only play off himself. This is as close as we got in the classic era, but we've this companion-less style repeated in modern Doctor Who, with some companion-lite stories (like "Midnight") and one-off companions (like "Voyage of the Damned" and "Joy to the World"). It's one of the few times we truly see the Doctor alone (unless you count Spandrell or Engin as his companions). Peter Capaldi finally got to realize Tom Baker's Doctor-only adventure in "Heaven Sent" but even that story had the monster of the Confession.
Alright, guys! Time to speed things up with my Doctor Who viewing. I need to catch up with TJ so that we have more Whovian content to record on the podcast.
I write this as I’ve just watched the movie “IF” for the first time while flying on an airplane for my wife and my first trip away from our daughter. Yep, I cried. No helping it. Just could not hold it in. I loved that John Krasinski directed it and loved that the actress who played Mrs. Dursley in Harry Potter was the Grandma in “IF”. Such a lovely story about imaginary friends (IFs) and the role they have in helping their children even when the children are grown up.
The story revolves around Elizabeth, who goes by Bea as she experiences the loss of her mother as well as the pending surgery for her father. Lots of an emotions for a 12 year old girl to go through. A big take away for me is that kids need their parents and kids need their imagination even if it is not an imaginary friend.
A couple weeks ago Digimon celebrated their 25th anniversary with DigiCon 2025. Plenty of other blogs and websites reported on the announcements and updates as they were given, but I felt like I'd be a poor Digimon fan if I didn't at least share some thoughts (and I am the self-proclaimed Digimon King). So this is less a summary of the announcements and more my personal feelings about each announcement.
After the release of The Beginning there was no clear direction as to where the franchise was going next. Sure, Digimon keeps making games, but what about the anime? I wouldn't even care as much about the next installment in Digimon Adventure if they hadn't explicitly left a gap in the continuity between Last Evolution Kizuna and the Digimon Adventure 02 epilogue. So when the short/music video "Beyond" was released, I hoped for some answer to how Agumon and Gabumon returned. No such luck. Instead, we got a montage of adventures taking place between Digimon Adventure Tri and Kizuna. I definitely enjoyed the video, seeing some adventures as the Digi-Destined grew up. We got shots of Meiko, alternate armor digivolutions, and plenty of other Easter eggs alluding to storylines old and new. Even Lui appeared, so it begs a rewatch. Maybe someday I'll get my wish and we'll get more.
Though no dub information is likely to come any time soon, a new anime was announced. Another branch in the Digimon multiverse. This new anime is about "emotion-devouring Digital Lifeforms". Because it's phrased that way, I expect a darker tone in this series compared to the ones I watched as a kid. I still need to watch Digimon Ghost Game, but I imagine the tone of this anime will be similar. Granted, a lot of that is based off the revealed poster. And that's like judging a book off its cover. Either way, it's set to broadcast in Japan this fall. I'm banking on it appearing on Crunchyroll.
I never had a game system to match with popular/successful Digimon games. Historically I said that Pokemon has a better track record with games and Digimon is better with anime. But now Pokemon has mixed up its anime and I haven't played a new video game since I bought Ultra Sun. I heard that Cyber Sleuth was a successful video games series in Digimon's corner, but I haven't saved the money to buy Switch (bought a house instead) and the time to play it. Since I'm inexperienced in this department, I sit here with curiosity to see how it plays out. A name like "Time Stranger" makes me wish it were about jumping around the Digimon multiverse, but I know better than to wish for that.
This is the announcement I'm most excited about. After playing Pokemon TCG Pocket and Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Links, I'm excited to get my hand into the Digimon card game. I have a handful of physical cards from when I saw The Beginning in theaters, but I lack people to play the game with. Without close friends to play against, I decided to avoid spending money on booster packs (I had horrible luck with booster packs when I collected Yu-Gi-Oh cards anyway). With an app similar to Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh, maybe I'll get invested enough to buy physical cards. Plus it sounds like it'll have more of a story than Pokemon TCG Pocket. That could be fun. I miss having a Digimon mobile game--I never understood the mechanics of Digimon ReArise, but it had my buddy Dorumon.
DigiCon had plenty of other announcements, including anniversary toys and Digivices. Since I can't imagine myself taking a Digivice toy to work, I probably won't buy one--I remember how my old D3 would start beeping. That being said, I'm grateful that the franchise is growing even if I'm unlikely to buy the toys... though I am liable to base a cosplay around a Digivice toy... you shouldn't put it past me. I would love to get all the toys... But for now, I'm going to just keep rewatching Digimon anime on repeat.
