Recap: Power Rangers Dino Charge, Episode 4 – "Some modern things still give me nervous."

Recap: Power Rangers Dino Charge, Episode 4 – Return of the Caveman

A prehistoric Koda is adding to the petroglyphs on the wall when he finds the blue Energem.

Suddenly, he hears growling and hurries to his little brother Taku who is about to be gobbled up by a saber-toothed cat. Koda tackles the cat and they both fall over the cliff. But his Energem glows before he hits the bottom.

Koda wakes up.

He walks out into the lab where the others are looking at the new Dino Cycles Kendall has developed. Chase tells him to come over and “take a squiz.”

The others have no idea what’s talking about. “Sometimes I wonder if I’m speaking English.”

Anyway, Koda apologizes for being so startled by noises since his instincts tell him danger. Shelby says they understand. Just then, Shelby’s phone rings on the table and Koda smashes it to bits. He apologizes.

“Some modern things still give me nervous.”

Chase offers to help him with some pointers on riding.

Meanwhile up on the ship, Fury introduces Sledge to Slammer who can capture things in cages. Poisandra zings Fury about not even being able to find a single Energem in 65 million years.

“Pink freak!”

Sledge sends Slammer down in a pod. Poisandra tells her Sledgums that she can’t take another day in this rust bucket without more companionship. But Sledge has a surprise for her. He calls in Wrench who has built Poisandra a new friend out of old monster parts.

Meet Curio!

Poisandra is very excited.

Down at the park, Chase is helping Koda learn how to ride a bike. But he’s having a lot of trouble. Actually, Koda’s been having trouble with a lot of things. Like TVs and combs and glass.

Chase says it’s okay. Koda has nothing to worry about. Except to look good for the ladies who are walking by right at this moment. But the moment is broken when Koda is startled by the sprinklers.

Koda questions why the blue Energem would even choose him. But suddenly, Slammer appears with his cages. Koda manages to duck out of the way, but it’s too late for Chase.

Slammer tries capturing Koda too, but he kicks the cage out of the way and grabs a shovel. He tries to fight Slammer, but he gets eventually gets knocked down the stairs. Koda gets back up on his feet, but a kid comes riding by on his bike. Koda shields him, but they both get caged.

They are transported into some kind of cave where Chase already is. He says he tried morphing, but can’t.

The cage landed on the bike, so Koda and the boy can crawl out. The little boy, Peter, thinks his leg is broken. Koda lights a fire and fashions a brace onto Peter’s leg. Chase unsuccessfully tries using the Dino Com to call the others.

Koda picks Peter up and follows the wind blowing the fire of the torch to find a way out.

Kendall meets the others at the museum cafe and tells them Koda and Chase are late. She suggests Riley and Tyler take the Dino Cycles out to look for them.

Koda tells Peter that he promises to protect him and they continue through the caves as Slammer is hot on their heels.

Peter hands Koda his cell phone and says the GPS might still work. He shows him how it works.

Tyler and Kendall both see a magnetic field near the mountains on their scanners and they believe that is where Koda and Chase are.

Koda and Peter make it to the opening and hurry out just as the others meet them outside. Koda hands Peter over to Kendall so she can get him to the hospital.

Slammer appears and hurls his cage at them, but Koda grabs it and tosses it aside, taking Slammer down with it.

The Rangers morph and they fight off the newly arrive Vivix before taking on Slammer with their Dino Cycles.

Sledge orders a Vivix to fire the Magna Beam and Slammer embiggens before the Rangers can go in to save Chase.

They initiate the TriStega Megazord formation, but Tyler says it’s also time for Riley to try out his zord.

Riley summons his Raptor zord and combines with the Megazord for the StegaRaptor formation. The disconnected Tricera, meanwhile, drills into the mountain to free Chase.

The Rangers finish Slammer off with a Raptor Zord Final Flame Strike.

Later, the Rangers drive Koda to see Peter who is telling his friends all about his new friend. Koda brings him his bicycle and Peter hugs him.

Peter offers to help Koda learn how to ride a bike. Koda says it’s a bit scary for him, but Peter says not to worry, “once you learn it’s easy-peasy.”

“I’ll protect you, I promise.”

Koda remembers his little brother and he agrees to let Peter teach him.

Episode Thoughts

Wow. Another great episode. Is this even possible?

It was definitely a great Koda-focus ep. All of the characters have been great so far, but I think Yoshi’s been doing an amazing job as Koda. Plus, you know he’s having fun and it shows. Very charming and likeable.

I do hope we get to see more of Koda basically watching the world go by for millions of years. That would be very interesting.

As is everyone else. Even Sledge and Co. Speaking of, woohoo! There’s Luckyuro… I mean, Curio. Isn’t it amazing, seriously, how things have developed this season so far. Things don’t randomly pop out from thin air. (Well, except Keeper I guess, literally lol) But instead, characters have been introduced well, the weapons and powers have been introduced well. And even though we’re slowly getting the backstory on the Rangers, they still immediately had a positive first impression and impact.

That really is a huge change from the last four years. You can feel there’s actual effort being put into the show from everyone involved. I don’t know if that’s just an excited exaggeration on my part, but one thing’s for sure, I am enjoying Dino Charge very much. And if they continue like this, then it’s going to be a good season.

Meh at all that talking during the fight against Slammer and the Vivix. That was probably the most chatty they’ve been in four episodes while fighting. But, like I said, it’s minor when everything else is perfectly fine.

How different was Dino Charge fromZyuden Sentai Kyoryuger?
Corresponding episode – Brave 3: It’s Going to Get Wild! The Slashing Brave

It was absolutely different. Again, they took the Sentai footage and actually adapted it for Power Rangers. They used the footage, which was pretty minimal, such as the megazord footage (of course) and that morphed battle in the end, and crafted a brand new story around it.

Again, maybe out of necessity. (Thank you Toei!) But lots of original NZ footage is always good. And it’s NZ footage that actually matters to the story. Not some random scenes. They actually wrote something brand new and filmed scenes accordingly. SHOCKING right?

Just amazing all around. Dino Charge is off to a WILD start.


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10 thoughts on “Recap: Power Rangers Dino Charge, Episode 4 – "Some modern things still give me nervous."

  1. Man, this has been ’till now the best episode of this season. Amazing story, but also kudos to the composer Noam Kaniel, the music that plays in every Koda & Peter moment is just heart warming, and the slow piano version of it when Peter watch Koda as Kendall carries him made me burst into tears T_T. I haven’t seen this amount of emototial content since Kendrix’s death in Lost Galaxy, or Andrews’ death (Summer’s butler) in RPM.

  2. This episode was cute and awesome at the same time.
    Like what I was expected, this was Koda’s focus episode and it was better than I was expected; it made me appreciate and love Koda more.

    I like how episode started with Koda’s past, which took place at 100,000 years ago. While the effect was iffy (especially with water), it was nice to see a how Koda found his Energem and how it allowed him to live til present.
    It was also nice to see Koda fell from cliff, by saving his younger brother.
    It’s been a while since I’ve seen that kind of moment from PR.
    Reminds me of how Nossan was caring about his niece, Rika, except it was handled much better (which I will discuss more on later).

    I really love Koda’s reaction to bike and phone. lol
    It was priceless.
    Koda sounded very natural and doesn’t feel forced.
    Way better humor than Nossan’s annoying pun (take that Sanjo!).

    Chase does look good in that bike. lol
    Far more convincing than if Ian does it.
    I also loved the Kangaroo joke; especially since show was filmed in New Zealand.

    I’m so happy and glad that Luckyuro (or Curio) was introduced!
    Even though he appeared very briefly, it was nice to see original footage of him. Too bad they didn’t used him to grow MOTW with magical watercan.
    Oh well.
    Only ORIGINAL Deboss Army that has yet to appear is Chaos , which I’m also hoping to appear in some form. Endolf might appear much later, after Gold introduction, so there’s no rush for that.

    It was very cute and funny to see Koda, the Blue Ranger, learning how to ride a bike (with training wheel). lol
    Did Chase got that bike (used or new) just for Koda’s or is that his old bike when he was child? Personally, I think Koda should have practiced with bigger bike IMO, but I digress.
    Koda’s reaction to other modern day technology (TV, comb, glasses, and sprinkler) was also natural and not forced, which handled very well.

    It was nice to see Koda helping a boy (Peter), with his broken leg; even though it doesn’t seem to be broken at the end. It was very cute that Koda saw him like his younger brother.
    I give a lot of credit for cave set BTW. It was very well made.
    It was nice to see original footage of Red and Green riding a bike.
    We haven’t seen something like that in a while.
    It looks very good with jeep.

    So apparently, cellphone has better navigation than Dino Com.
    It’s interesting that cellphone still works, while Dino Com, one of the highly technologically advanced Ranger technologies doesn’t.
    I guess MOTW underestimated the advancement of 21st century technology of cellphone. lol
    Regardless, Kendall should update/upgrade Dino Com next time with navigation/GPS installed.

    Koda carrying the kid was just EPIC!!!
    He looks so badass.
    Now that’s what I call a Ranger.
    There’s no way Nossan would have looked that awesome. lol

    Here’s my gripe regarding bike action.
    While the original bike scene was interesting, I REALLY didn’t care about the action, which used sentai footage. There’s too many slo-mo and explosion and whatnot, that it looked pathetic (thanks a lot Sakamoto! :shame:).
    It reminds me of Kalish explosion in Disney Era, except it was more ridiculous and silly IMO.
    Probably one of the worst bike action scene I’ve ever seen in PR IMO.
    It’s really jarring when you compared with PR footage.
    I really can’t blame too much for it, since it was derived from sentai footage, but I wished original footage was used for action. Oh well.
    BTW, I noticed “Gabutyra” name on Charger (very brief).
    Granted, it wasn’t as bad as Megaforce with card (*cough* GoseiRed).

    Not much to say about zord battle, other than the fact, Green get to ride on it. I can’t wait to see all 5 rangers in that cockpit.
    Nice usage of Tricera (after separating from Zord), to rescue Chase.
    Very effective (although, similar situation did happened with Kyoryuger; except it saved civilian).

    So Peter’s leg wasn’t broken after all (I think), since he’s standing perfectly; he either should have crutches or on wheelchair (OK, maybe it wasn’t that serious).
    It was nice that Koda gives Peter a new bike, but where did he get the money from? I guess he used up his earning from work at museum or something.
    At end, Peter teaches Koda how to ride a bike, which was again very cute and effective way to end the episode.
    Never thought I get to see kid teaches adult how to ride a bike in PR episode or any tokusatsu series in general.

    I noticed Keeper was absent in this episode. Weird.
    Probably busy doing research on additional rangers (Gold, Purple, etc) or other Chargers or something.

    Overall, this was another great episode.
    Probably one of the best Blue Ranger focused episodes I’ve seen in a while.
    The humor worked very effectively, where it was very convincing; it doesn’t felt forced (unlike Kyoryuger), and feels very natural.
    Yoshi did a great job with with performance as Koda, and he may be one of the best Blue Ranger in the franchise.
    My major gripe with this episode was lousy bike action (thanks to Japanese footage), but other than that it was solid.

    Looking forward to see next episode, where it focus Chase (Black).
    Despite my feeling toward his character (which I posted last week; check the comment), I still have high expectation, because of consecutive streaks of excellent episodes!

    Take care.

    1. Yeah, it’s really been great to see so much original NZ footage. They’ve really put in a lot more money, or at least, have been able to manage the budget better and used it wisely. =D

      I haven’t mentioned it in my reviews of the episodes, but I do also like the humor. It’s much more natural and funny than the last four years.

  3. This is the second episode where their communication devices fail them when they are needed the most (except for the kid’s GPS-powered Nokia 3310 lol). I kinda do like the realism behind it because it does make sense to be in a dire situation and the only communicator you have either gets jammed or basically get “wasak”.

    All the more reason for these batch of idiots to get themselves some actual decent phones as back-up.

    If I see another episode of Chase’s name being called out but he never get to hear it, I think I’m gonna throw my remote on the TV.

  4. Another great episode! This season is on a roll! Although, is Chip going to be writing EVERY episode? I mean, I’ve got nothing against him writing at all, but is he just going to write every single episode? No other writers (GOOD writers) to write as well? Then again, he and Jackie Marchand did take turns writing episodes for Time Force (as well as any other seasons I may have missed).

    I LOVE the dynamic between Shelby and Chase. The way they play off of one another is just so much fun to watch. First the no-aging lines between them last week and then this week?

    *Koda attacks Dino Cycle*
    Shelby: It’s okay, we totally get it.
    *Shelby’s phone rings, Koda smashes it. Shelby freaks out*
    Koda: ….S-sorry.
    Chase: No apologies, mate. She totally gets it.

    I love it! Man, it’s gonna suck when this season goes on hiatus. Don’t you agree?

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