"Home Run Koda," the seventh episode of "Power Rangers Dino Super Charge," is one of the best episodes of the two seasons with this cast. It's got a simple but compelling story and gives Koda (Yoshua Sudarso) and Riley (Michael Taber), the Blue and Green Rangers, a chance to develop their characters and reveal previously unseen layers. It opens with the Rangers on a field with other young people practicing various sports when a new alien monster, dressed up in sports motifs, including basketball hoop and carrying a bat and explosive balls, and his "putties" attack the group, forcing the Rangers to defend themselves out of costume. Koda, the former caveman in the group, picks up the alien's bat in the heat of battle and manages to hit back the alien's explosive balls, sending the monsters fleeing. The local minor league baseball coach happens to witness this and recruits Koda for the team, with Riley tagging along to train and manage Koda. As Koda's baseball success soars, thanks to the powerful alien bat, the two spend less and less time with the rest of the Rangers, who are quite annoyed at Riley's new affection for baseball at the expense of his and Koda's obligation to the Power Rangers team. In time, it's revealed that the bat Koda uses is the alien bat and that it's primed to explode during the next big game. The other Rangers race against time to stop this from happening. You can guess the takeaway message that Koda and Riley derive from this adventure.
This episode is a good illustration of the strong chemistry of this particular Power Rangers cast and how their characters function as a team and constantly have to cope with outside challenges and distractions. The attention to characterization is one of the key strengths of the two "Dino Charge" seasons. It helps that the actors play their roles with consistent sincerity and conviction. There isn't a weak link in this cast.
The equivalent episode from "Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger," the Japanese 2013 sentai season that supplies the action and zord footage to this season, is #32, "Victory! It's a Sports Match." There's no equivalent narrative arc in the Japanese episode to match the Koda/Riley baseball career fling in "Home Run Koda." The Japanese footage used in the Power Rangers episode consists of one fight scene, a training scene where the Sports Monster puts his "putty" henchmen through their paces, and the zord battle. The Power Rangers production team crafted whole new scenes with the sports monster. As much as I like the Japanese originals, I'm always impressed when the Power Rangers writers come up with original scenes that are just as effective as their sentai counterparts and dramatic story lines that are even more engaging.
This episode is a good illustration of the strong chemistry of this particular Power Rangers cast and how their characters function as a team and constantly have to cope with outside challenges and distractions. The attention to characterization is one of the key strengths of the two "Dino Charge" seasons. It helps that the actors play their roles with consistent sincerity and conviction. There isn't a weak link in this cast.
The equivalent episode from "Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger," the Japanese 2013 sentai season that supplies the action and zord footage to this season, is #32, "Victory! It's a Sports Match." There's no equivalent narrative arc in the Japanese episode to match the Koda/Riley baseball career fling in "Home Run Koda." The Japanese footage used in the Power Rangers episode consists of one fight scene, a training scene where the Sports Monster puts his "putty" henchmen through their paces, and the zord battle. The Power Rangers production team crafted whole new scenes with the sports monster. As much as I like the Japanese originals, I'm always impressed when the Power Rangers writers come up with original scenes that are just as effective as their sentai counterparts and dramatic story lines that are even more engaging.
