Recap: Power Rangers Dino Charge, Episode 3 – "Let's do this… together!"

Recap: Power Rangers Dino Charge, Episode 3 – A Fool’s Hour

Fury and Sledge meet again for the first time in 55 million years. Sledge is upset Fury hasn’t been able to get even one Energem in that time.

Sledge heads down to the cellblocks and stops the imprisoned Scrapper from escaping. He proposes that if Scrapper can bring him an Energem, Sledge will personally chauffer him to any galaxy he wants.

The Rangers are down in the command center. Riley is practicing with some tennis balls. Chase sings while working on his skateboard. Shelby arrives and is happy to come to the museum without needing to work at the cafe. But Tyler’s working at the cafe now. Why? Kendall explains that some days they’re saving the world, other days they’re flipping burgers. Today, they’re flipping burgers. It helps them blend in.

A shirtless Koda comes out from one of the caves. This is his home. Kendall explains Koda bonded with the Energems 100,000 years ago, which means he is a caveman. Also, once you bond with an Energem, you stop aging.

Koda shows them his spears to hunt sabretooths as well as the petroglyphs on the wall where he’s been writing his story.

Tyler recognizes a drawing of Fury and he shows the others his father’s drawing. But the alarm sounds when several objects enter Earth’s atmosphere.

The Rangers hurry over and finally meet Sledge, Poisandra and Wrench.

“What are you? A walking lollipop?”

Koda also smells Fury who is up on the hill. Sledge demands they hand over his Energems. But Keeper pops in and says the Energems belong to no one, especially not Sledge.

Sledge explains how he waited to hitch a ride on a comet he caught in his electronets after Keeper blasted him into space. Keeper warns Sledge that if he tries to take the Energems, it will be him that is destroyed, not the Rangers.

They need to morph, but Tyler is distracted by Fury. The others snap him out of it and they morph.

The Rangers go up against Sledge, Wrench, Scrapper and a bunch of Vivix. But they are overpowered and are forced to demorph.

Lucky for the Rangers, Sledge says he’s getting old and he must zoom back up to his ship. But he’ll be back in one hour.

The Rangers decide they need to figure out a plan, but Tyler wants to follow Fury, not only because of his dad, but because he saw Fury and Sledge signaling each other.

Chase says they’re a team now. But Tyler says they can still be a team even without working together.

Tyler goes after Fury. Chase tells Shelby to let him go and they’ll just have to figure this out on their own.

Tyler catches up to Fury and hides behind a rock as Sledge and Wrench appear. Turns out their plan is to have Scrapper follow the Rangers to their base where they would then be able to steal the Energems after killing everyone.

Tyler tries calling the others, but his communicator doesn’t work. He has to hurry back to the museum.

Scrapper sees the Rangers jump into the slide and he hops into his pod to report back to Sledge. But Tyler stops him. He morphs and fights against the Vivixes.

At the lab, Kendall says with Keeper’s help, she has upgraded the Dino Chagers with a Dino Steel armor mode.

Wrench arrives to help Scrapper and Tyler is forced to demorph. The others arrive just in time. Tyler tells them about Sledge’s plan. This time, they all agree to do this together.

The Rangers morph and engage, “Dino Steel Armor On.”

They also get new weapons. Chase has a Power Chopper, Riley has a Raptor Claw, Shelby has a Tricera Drill and Koda has a Sabre Shield.

Scrapper summons two Vivizords. Chase shoots at them with his Power Chopper, but he needs help. Shelby summons her Tricera zord which takes care of the Vivizords.

Koda tells Tyler that their powers are stronger together and hands him one of his chargers. With it, Tyler finishes off Scrapper.

But Sledge embiggens Scrapper with his magnabeam. Tyler summons Rexy. Kendall tells Koda to summon his zord too as she’s found a way to combine their zords.

Tyler initiates the Tri-Stego formation and they form the Dino Charge Megazord.

With Battle Mode engaged, they deliver a Final Strike and finish off Scrapper for good.

The Rangers are back at the cafe where all of them work now.

Chase wants to apologize to Tyler for thinking he abandoned the team. Tyler is also sorry for being so quick to go off on his own and says they really do work better together.

Shelby is annoyed they must work at this job while saving the world. But Tyler says it’s okay. He’s having fun. He shows them his new trick. He flips a burger high into the air, spins… but nothing comes back down. It’s actually already in Koda’s mouth.

Episode Thoughts

Much better episode than last week’s. It was great to see Sledge show himself and actually the entire group show themselves to the Rangers already instead of just hanging out at their evil lair most of the season until the end.

I’m definitely sad though that we won’t be getting Luckyuro.

I am enjoying there actually being continuing stories and how everything has contributed to those stories. Like, for example, revealing Koda being a caveman led to Tyler learning Fury is the one his father has written about as well as learning the Rangers do not age when bonded with the Energems. (Which likely means they will be unbonded after 40 episodes. But not aging a year is very Shadow Line-y lol)

It was also great to see the Dino Steel armor actually introduced instead of it just randomly popping up. Same with the zords. (See below.) But I wish we found out what Keeper is about. Is he just a ball of gas or something?

The cast is as great and charming as they were in the first two episodes as well. And the villains are also very fun. I hope they get some good material as well beyond the usual and basic moustache twirling.

The full morphing sequence is fine and even has a little DinoThunder “Ha!” pose in there. But I always chuckle at the cockpits with free movements as controls. This episode, they had each of the Rangers doing random moves for one attack. Looked kinda funny and it does look more awkward than the alternative playing around with buttons and levers. But it’s alright.

I do feel kinda weird watching the megazord combining without fun music though. lol

How different was Dino Charge fromZyuden Sentai Kyoryuger?
Corresponding episode – Brave 2: Gaburincho! Snapping Combination

Isn’t it refreshing? The majority of this episode was original NZ footage. But even better, they actually used the Kyoryuger footage to fit their story instead of the other way around. They chopped up the original Kyoryuger episode, rearranged scenes and created a brand new narrative unrelated whatsoever to the original. They also included explaining things with even just a line or two that was not in Kyoryuger or even in Samurai or Megaforce really.

And they even went out of their way to create a whole new megazord cockpit. (Thank you Toei for creating a plain cockpit with the Japanese names of the zords and megazords hanging on the wall which forced Saban to actually have to create a new cockpit.)

This is all very good and I am happy to have so many positive things to say about a Power Rangers episode after four years. (Well, five including the reversioned debacle.) Woohoo!


Celebrate Power Rangers‘ 20th Anniversary on DVD!
The first 18 seasons, from Mighty Morphin to RPM on four complete DVD sets!
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7 thoughts on “Recap: Power Rangers Dino Charge, Episode 3 – "Let's do this… together!"

  1. Another great review for another great episode. But one thing you probably didn’t know that at the 2015 New York Toy Fair confirmed that Luckyro WILL be in dino charge, (look it up) but most fans believe that he(or she) will be Sledge and Poisandra’s love child! What do you think about that?

  2. This was an awesome episode! I didn’t expect Sledge and co. fighting the Rangers so soon, and it was great! Now I can’t wait to see the fight between Tyler and Fury (The one you see in the opening). By the way, I suppose you already catch the Kyoryuger referece in the final scene (Koda at the kitchen humming the opening)

    1. I actually didn’t catch Yoshi humming the theme until it was pointed out. It didn’t really sound like it to me unless you really try to listen and try and match it hehe.

      I definitely enjoyed seeing Sledge and Co. appearing to the Rangers so early too.

  3. Great review and I agree, great episode! Unlike Samurai and Megaforce, when I watch Dino Charge episodes, it doesn’t feel like they’re dragging and I just keep looking at the clock like “When will this be over?”. Instead, I find myself wanting more and being like “Aw man, I have have to wait another week for the next episode” (which will be worse when the show goes on its 5-6 month hiatus like the last seasons have). Chip Lynn, you da man!

    Also, I thought some of the stuff here would be bothersome to you as well as other viewers. Stuff that similar to what was seen in Samurai and Megaforce. But I noticed it hasn’t really. What am I talking about?

    Puns/talking in battle (though not as much as before)
    “T-Rex/Stego/Para/etc. Charger, engage!”
    “Final Strike!”
    “Monster, extinct!” (Similar to “Samurai Rangers, victory is ours” or “[Super] Mega Rangers, that’s a [Super] Mega win!”)

    Stuff like this is what I’m referring to. But, to my surprise, every review or comment I’ve seen so far with these episodes (including your reviews) has shown no indication that anyone’s been bothered with it. I could be wrong, though. My guess is that the higher-ups at Saban are forcing it in there and Chip has to work with it. To me, it is a little distracting, but everything else is really good (I love Shelby’s line about the no aging aspect of the Energems) and has definitely caught my attention.

    1. They definitely cut back on the puns and that’s definitely a big Chip Lynn influence I think. I do think they don’t feel as forced here, but maybe it’s because the rest of the writing is much better, the bad puns aren’t as noticeable?

      I’m not really bothered by the toy announcements (maybe I’ve gotten used to Sentai doing it lol) or “Final Strike.” And “Monster, extinct” is definitely not as annoying as Samurai and Megaforce’s, but then again, it’s only the first episode with a megazord lol

  4. Tyler, the RED RANGER, is working! ZOMG!!
    It’s been a while we’ve seen Red Ranger working.
    You see that Daigo/King, you lazy jerk/bum? lol
    He’s working for the community flipping burger!
    It may not be the high paying job, but at least he’s doing something helpful.

    So apparently, Energem allows immortality, which explains why Koda lived for 100,000 years… which is kind of weird.
    It begs a questions of how and where did he lived during those time.
    I’m pretty sure, that would be answered in upcoming episode (judging from description), which would be his focus

    Why isn’t Sledge married to Poisandra after 65 million years?
    He should have had millions of kids by now! lol
    He should also have bigger ship or fleet by now.
    Granted, we don’t know their life span though; maybe their age is equivalent to human’s late 20’s/early 30’s or something. Maybe their 65 million year is like few months (2~6) to them.

    Rangers confronting Sledge was just AWESOME!
    It’s been a while we’ve seen Rangers confronts with American original villain. Keeper was just awesome, telling Sledge to go screw himself (not the actual line though)! I love you Keeper!
    PLEASE BANDAI! Make American Exclusive S.H. Figuarts for Keeper and Sledge!!

    The original fight scene was also great; even though it was short, it was very satisfying.
    Red vs. Sledge was awesome.
    Still better than every action sequence of Kyoruger by mile!

    Nice retreat Sledge. I like your jet pack.
    How nice of them to give rangers 1 hour. Very generous.
    Never though I get hear that from Sledge; maybe Poisandra. lol

    First appearance of Dino Com! I got that at Kmart this week.

    At episode 3, MOTW already found their base. That was fast. lol
    Nice mini spaceship. I lol’d when Tyler hit it with his car, where it didn’t make a scratch.
    CGI may look cheap, but I thought it was funny.

    I like the morph sequence for all 5 rangers.
    I find it interesting that in morphing sequence, they suddenly wear black spandex(?), and suddenly turn white. Weird, but creative.
    It reminds me of Timeranger henshin, where they also wear weird spandex outfit before transforming.
    Still better than Kyoryuger, where they don’t need to do silly dance (THANK GOD!).

    I was disappointed that there was no Luckyuro to grow the monster; instead, they shoot “grow” laser from ship, which was bit disappointing and generic, since we just had that in last season (IMO, that was handled much better in last season).
    It was bit of wasted opportunity IMO. Oh well.

    Regarding zord battle, it’s nice that we have original cockpit!
    I really like the design, where it’s FAR better than Kyoryuger, where it was very plain and generic for having boring black background.
    While the design is some what similar to original, it’s more colorful and aesthetic.
    Best of all, no “wacky” music during combination (THANK YOU, CHIP!).

    Ending was just priceless.
    I already love Koda. He’s awesome!

    Before I want to wrap it up, I want to discuss few things about Chase (Mr. Hunch).
    I like his character. He’s a cool and charismatic character.
    The interaction with Tyler was very nice. Nice hunch.
    He’s far better than his sentai character (Ian; or Gai Yuki 2.0(sort of)).
    I almost wished James Davies was Ian in Kyoryuger though (if he spoke Japanese that is); I was very disappointed that character who has European name (Ian Yorkland) wasn’t portrayed by Caucasian, and I personally think James would have done better IMO. Syuusuke Saito did a really lackluster job with that role.

    As much as I like Chase, he’s bit of step back compared to previous Black, Jake (Megaforce Black). Azim did such a great job as Jake (Black) in Megaforce, where he was very well written and memorable character among the team.
    IMO, he’s probably one my favorite Black Ranger (Top 5) of franchise. Chase felt little short in comparison. He’s probably the weakest among the team IMO.
    Don’t get me wrong; I still like the character and James does a great job, but I personally think Azim would have done better IMO.
    Maybe little. A BIT. lol

    To sum it up:
    James would have been better Ian in Kyoryuger (by FAR!).
    Azim would have been better Chase in Dino Charge (A BIT).

    While there are few questions that have yet to answer, at least they put few efforts to answer or give us the hint, which was nice.
    It wasn’t a Black centric episode that I was kind of expecting or hoping, it was still a great episode to establish the characters and story.

    I’m REALLY looking forward to next episode, where it focus on Koda, the first Caveman Ranger!

    Take care.

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