Hey there, Mr. CD here, to do a little retrospective. 20 years of Power Rangers, wow, who would have thought this show would last this long? It has survived 4 cancellation attempts and has just kept on going. Whether for better or for worse is up to you. Like everyone else, I got into the show through Mighty Morphin. While I don’t remember watching the premiere (I was 4 at the time), the earliest I do remember watching the show was Enter... The Lizzinator, specifically the scene where Kelly taught Squatt and Baboo how to cheerlead. I kinda teetered in and out during Space, not out of lack of interest, but at the time my grandmother wanted me to only watch TV during weekends so I could focus on my school work which sucks if you remember Fox use to air Power Ranger episodes on weekdays (That rule got dropped pretty quick after we moved). I did leave during Lost Galaxy, because I found the season to be a turn-off (And let me tell you, years later and watching it, I still find the season a turn-off. :p But I do appreciate what it was trying to do), but came back when the promos for Lightspeed Rescue piqued my interest and I have been watching the show ever since. I didn’t find out there was a Power Rangers fandom until the middle of the off-season between Dino Thunder and SPD. I discovered there were some news sites and picture sites, but not a fandom. I came across two message boards during my searching: RangerTalk and RangerBoard. I was almost tempted to join RangerTalk, but chose RangerBoard during mid-SPD. The reason why was because while I enjoyed reading their Episode Discussion threads, it was the Dismissed one that prompted me to join. I was just floored when I saw the members try to come up with some kind of timeline for how SPD got started, dating back to Countdown to Destruction, and I wanted to take part in that. I really enjoyed my time on RangerBoard, the site was so addicting. Every night, I wish morning would hurry up so I can read whatever was posted during the night. I stuck with RB until the middle of Operation Overdrive, where I started to drift off to other message boards. Sometimes I feel like I picked the wrong time joining the start of the Kalish era, a time where fandom’s interest in PR waned and made everyone bitter. I ended up becoming a member of The Big Three (The Big Three, at the time, being RangerBoard, RangerTalk, and Power Rangers Empire), and while I enjoyed my time on all three, I found it hard to find a place to stay. RangerBoard was still a fun place to read, but gotten a little mean-spirited. Power Rangers Empire was the most inconsistent PR site ever; it would die and comeback, die and comeback, die and comeback so many times it was ridiculous. RangerTalk was better, but I wasn’t pleased with how lax the mod team was there, but I still stuck with it the longest. I even joined some of the “lower-tier” PR forums. You know, the ones made on Invisiweb? Eventually, I heard that Samuell Benta, who had been posting on RB at the time before a nasty incident happen, revealed that he, the owner of PRE Mesogog, and this dude called Mesh Petal had started a Power Rangers forum called Rangercast, which got later changed to Star Points Rangercast due to the fact the name was already being used by the podcast Rangercast. I lurked the site for a while before registering in November of 2007. It seems like an okay place, but way too strict. Seriously, any time members got into a debate, the mods would immediately close the thread out of fear it would get out of hand. You also couldn’t bash fictional characters; seriously I once got a warning from one of the mods for trashing Casey in my review of an episode of Jungle Fury. But, I still stuck with the place. Especially after what happen at RangerTalk. I really do think what killed RangerTalk is the same thing that hurt Power Rangers Empire: Inconsistency. Because one day, the owner of the board suddenly decided to restart the board, to wipe the slate clean, without telling ANYBODY first. Not even his own mod team knew about it. You can believe this tick a lot of people off, but eventually we were able to rebuild… until the owner decided to restart the board again. After the third or fourth reboot, I was done with the site and stuck with Rangercast (Though I do know the site is in better hands once it got a new board owner and was changed to RangerVision), which became my new home. Well, eventually in 2009, when it was time again for Rangercast to choice new mods, my buddy Ron (DarkBlaze) recommended me for the position of Mod. I started out Green, than got promoted to Purple, and now I’m co-running the joint. The board went through some changes, going from Rangercast to Star Point Rangercast to Star Point Rangercrew to now just RangerCrew, but I stuck with the place through thick and thin, gaining and losing friends and co-workers along the way, but I wouldn’t give up my time on RangerCrew for the world. I really enjoy Power Rangers, can I say that? I feel like Power Rangers offers so much, it's really flexible with its theme and can be anything. And even when it shares a theme, SPD is nothing like Time Force. Jungle Fury is nothing like Wild Force. Dino Thunder and Ninja Storm share similarities with Mighty Morphin Power Rangers but are still their own beasts. Space and Lost Galaxy are completely different despite both taking place in space. I love the mythology of the series and the continuity, even when I find it annoying how every years, when we speculate how the current Sentai can be adapted into Power Rangers, the first thing anybody ever does is try to link it/sequel it to a past season, even when it doesn’t make any sense or is too convoluted. I may not go to conventions or I don’t buy much merch outside of DVDs, the occasional VHS I come across, and maybe the odd toy, but I’m still a big supporter of the show and I don’t plan on going anywhere any time soon.
