28 Years On, This Power Rangers Show Still Is a Perfect Finale for the Franchise

Videos by ComicBook.com

Power Rangers in Space first made its debut with Fox Kids 28 years ago this week, on February 6, 1998. This was the fifth iteration of the Power Rangers series, and was setting up to be the grand finale for the franchise overall as the series was not as much of a hit as it had been in previous efforts. Closing off six seasons worth of stories, character arcs, and the Zordon saga overall, Power Rangers in Space still is the perfect finale for the first era even after all this time.

Power Rangers in Space Was the Beginning of the End 28 Years Ago Today

Courtesy of Hasbro

Power Rangers in Space had a rather unique start compared to the other previous Power Rangers shows. While we’d see the teams gain new powers across the earlier seasons, and we’d see the team members change around, this was a different case altogether. Power Rangers in Turbo ended with the villains running amok and completely destroying all of the Turbo powers. With the villains nearly destroying Earth, the Power Rangers had no chance to survive but to escape on a nearby rocket to places unknown.

Power Rangers in Space continues T.J., Carlos, Cassie and Ashley’s stories from Turbo while Justin stays behind on Earth. Out in space, the four of them run into a mysterious new Red Ranger named Andros, and gain new abilities to allow them to face off against a whole new era of threats with the likes of the deadly queen Astronema and more. As this series served to cap off the entire Zordon era, it spent quite a lot of time making sure to build on all of those prior character arcs towards a final war for the fate of the Earth.

Power Rangers in Space then got to its actual finale that had much bigger stakes than anything seen in the series before that point. While towns and various cities had been in danger before, the two-part finale “Countdown to Destruction” was the first real time that the Earth had been put in danger. The Rangers themselves needed help to face off against an entire army, and people from Earth banded together to help them. It was a full circle moment for those fans who had been watching it all from the very beginning.

What Is Power Rangers in Space’s Legacy 28 Years Later?

Courtesy of Hasbro

We know well enough by now that this was far from the end of Power Rangers overall. Heading into this season, it was teased that this was being poised as a much grander adventure bidding goodbye to the series because the ratings were no longer as hot as they used to be. But what ended up happening instead, Power Rangers in Space was such a massive success that it sparked even more future seasons to come that distanced themselves from this initial Zordon era continuity (and experimented with their characters and settings even more).

Power Rangers in Space would have been a perfect grand finale for the series back then because it was all still tied within a single continuity and timeline. For those fans who had been sticking around with it since Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, this was truly a goodbye with a lot of effort put into making it feel as grandiose as possible. It was incredibly different from the original Super Sentai series it was based on, Denji Sentai Megaranger, which had nothing to do with outer space and was instead high school students fighting in the digital world.

It was as epic of a start to any Power Rangers series that fans could ask for, and still has one of the biggest finales all these years later. If this would have truly been the end of the franchise, fans would still be looking at it fondly with the feeling that it ended in its prime. Even if it didn’t turn out to be the finale, it’s still hard to beat in terms of feeling like a complete package compared to some of the shows that would come to follow in the franchise’s later years.

What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!