[Kamen Rider Decade]

Ignoring the garbage and posting some real stuff.

Yet again Crayfish:

Uh... Huh. Where did I say I wanted PR to be like DS9 exactly? DS9 is a slow burner, a show which didn't deliver on any of its promise until the third season. PR by its nature can no longer produce work paced so glacially. You have under forty episodes and must maximize your turnover ratio. If ANYTHING I want PR to be more like season two Turbo.

People deride Turbo, but without it there would be no Space. It builds the characters of the core four Space Rangers up from the ciphers they will be written as in the subsequent seasons, and invent character traits we never see again (Cassie's singing, Ashley's mechanical and design prowess, TJ's pro baseball dreams). Turbo does some surprisingly big arcs, manages to make Justin a real character whom the others treat like a peer and actually ask for advice in field situations, and still manages funny one-off MMPR style episodes. Were that more seasons could do what Turbo did.

Turbo through Lost Galaxy is a trilogy. Unintended at the time each were made, but true. Isn't that remarkable? The ONLY character to serve with all three teams is Alpha 6. He serves the former Zeos, the second Turbos/Space Rangers, and the Galaxy Rangers. Turbo segues into Space, Space segues into Lost Galaxy. Carranger into Megaranger into Gingaman with no real Carranger elements left by the time Gingaman is adapted. Because PR used to plot forward, PR could do that sort of thing easily.

You're right, PR ENDS after Lost Galaxy. To its detriment. Fans came back during DT to check in, to see if anything happened after they'd left, if anything "mattered." And... No, not really. Except FR. Even DT was this little pocket conflict with no lasting consequences; an epilogue to how big and awesome the universe once was. Almost half this series DOES NOT MATTER. It adds things to the universal tapestry, but it lends nothing to a continuing narrative. Isn't that terrible?

And I don't WANT MMPR. MMPR got terrible ratings during its third season, which all the fandom loved. You CAN'T do that again. I want TURBO. You can do changing casts and settings and maintain scope, scale, escalating conflict, grandeur, awe...

Maybe half those kids who leave PR every two years (the mythical two-year audience turnover ratio PR has always had) will stick around if you cliffhang the finale. Maybe half of that half will stick around for the fourth year... But half the kids who joined this season will stick around for next too. Lost Galaxy PROVED it. The highest rated event in Fox Kids history, and it only lost that good will because the season was so retched, and they pissed away the ad budget for Digimon.

You COULD tie SPD into DT without much/any continuing cast. THE HIDDEN EPISODE DID SO BEAUTIFULLY. The Hidden Ep is the best thing about SPD, and it's not in-continuity anymore. What the fuck? MAKE HAYLEY SWAN. There. She's the Orange Ranger too. And the show isn't in the future, or if it is it's like two years post-DT. Enough time for SPD to establish a Deltabase on Earth, manned by a hybrid crew of people Tommy selected and SPD agents. Ninja Storm already segued into Dino Thunder more than any season since LG, in the first four episodes we had a Lothor reference AND the twin brother of Eric McKnight.

Hell, make Cam Shadow Ranger. Who's Doggie Cruger and why is his profile on everything? He's a legendary SPD lawman and current supreme commander of the entire Space Patrol. He's Birdie Fowler for the purposes of this show, he shows up every five to ten episodes and gives impromptu inspections/training exercises. He dispatches the team to begin SWAT training off-world, leaving Cam and Omega to chafe and be captured. Didn't you just suddenly make SPD that much more interesting? An unbroken chain from NS to SPD, just like Turbo to LG.

I'm not trying to claim these ideas are ones I've long stewed over, and this is all part of some master plan to improve the series in accordance with my own whims. I'm NOBODY. Half these ideas are off the top of my head, and I'm trying to keep budgetary constraints/footage restrictions in mind. Is it wrong when I think many of these are not only better than the show we got, they're cheaper to produce?

Better. Cheaper. Smarter. You can make PR all of these things. The first three seasons of Digimon are some of the most nuanced, darkest cartoons I've seen in years -- to sell a line of tamogotchi toys nobody actually played with. The first two years have incredibly intricate continuity that somehow captured the attentions of kids and didn't confuse anyone in the process.

STOP UNDERESTIMATING KIDS. There are repeats on the air constantly, and kids are more media savy now than even five years ago. Stop making th eexcuse the show is "just for kids" and is somehow immune from criticisms or critiques. Beast Wars was for kids too. So was Robotech. BS&P is no excuse for nuanced writing, nobody is asking for bloodshed and mature content.

Yeah, kids like crap too. That's short-term thinking, like the DTV Disney sequels nobody will remember fondly in even ten years. The original films are classics that will stand the test of time because they didn't talk down to the target audience OR their parents, and transcended demographics. Duel Masters is not going to be remembered like Real Ghostbusters.

Quality work stands the test of time. Quality speaks for itself. What's the harm in trying harder? This series has been on the air continuously since 1993. PR has already proven everything it has to, why not aim higher? Why coast on Sentai's inertia?