This article is about an episode in Power Rangers Zeo . |
King for a Day is the two-part episode and the forty-second & forty-third episodes of Power Rangers Zeo. It concludes the three-part story arc that began in the previous episode.
Synopsis[]
After Tommy's disappearance, Prince Gasket brainwashes Tommy into believing that he is the ruler of the Machine Empire. When Bulk and Skull claim to have seen Tommy, the Power Rangers must find a way to rescue their leader.
Plot[]
Part 1[]
The Zeo Rangers are alarmed when Bulk and Skull recount their run-in with Zeo Ranger 5, especially since they have yet to find him. They try to find Tommy, especially Jason who recounts his own failure one time in letting him down once.
Tommy is being held hostage as Altor, another monster of Prince Gasket's, enters the brain scrambler. The transfer is a success and Altor prepares for battle in the Machine Arena.
Inside the palace, Queen Machina highly praises Gasket's new attempt to defeat the Rangers. Prince Sprocket is harboring jealousy and tries to remind her that he thought she was her favorite son. Machina reminds him that he's just the baby of their family and Gasket came to them in their hour of need.
At the arena, Altor takes out the Cogs easily as Tommy wakes up. Prince Gasket gets to work in brainwashing Tommy by lying and showing him false images of the Zeo Rangers destroying buildings, effectively making him believe that he is the King of the Machine Empire and that the Power Rangers are evil.
Using the hologram of Tommy, Jason is sucked into the vortex but Zordon is able to warn Katherine in time to return to the Power Chamber.
Bulk and Skull head back to the lake where they're unknowingly sucked in. When Princess Archerina learns of it and warns Gasket, he quickly tells her to close off the portal and imprison the intruders. He then broadcasts live for the fight against Jason and Altor.
His broadcast reaches an alarmed Goldar and Rito Revolto who call for Lord Zedd and Rita Repulsa. During Altor's fight, Tommy slowly starts to regain some memories and is confused by which Gasket presses harder to make him believe the memories of him being friends with the Rangers are a lie. After defeating Altor, Jason must face Tommy who is more than willing to destroy him.
Inside the Power Chamber, Billy and the Rangers watches helplessly as the fight continues.
Part 2[]
Bulk and Skull are imprisoned and meet an unlikely ally in Tritor. He reveals what happened to his home planet Horath which causes both men to realize what's in store for Earth. Tritor has a plan in assisting them to escape, but he needs Bulk and Skull's help in keeping the Cogs distracted. Tritor reveals his awareness in both the Brain Drain device and Gasket's force field. Seeing no other options, Bulk and Skull agree to help him. Tritor is called up to be the next Challenger in the arena.
Two Rangers have disappeared and nobody at the Power Chamber knows how to find them. They can only watch in horror as Tommy tries to destroy his best friend. Gasket and Archerina watch, amused by the turn of events.
Not too far from them on the Moon, Rita and Lord Zedd had been informed by Goldar and Rito about what they saw. While amused by the prospects of the fight, Rita mentions they'll be able to win out with the Rangers destroying each other. Lord Zedd tells her to think again. Rita tries to repeat her words, but soon she comes to the same horrifying conclusion that he was suspecting. When Rito asks what's wrong, Zedd is frustrated and reprimands the group. He mention the consequences of what will happen to them if the Machine Empire is successful in destroying the Rangers, they will take over Earth and keep the group in exile. Much to his disgust, Lord Zedd realizes that they must help the Rangers for once, causing Rita to faint. They quickly come up with a plan to teleport the Rangers to the arena which could help distract Gasket. Finster suggests his Teleporter device will help get the Rangers to the arena. He warns them it will only have enough power to get them there. Zedd doesn't care and tells him to activate it at once.
The other Rangers are unknowingly teleported to the arena much to Gasket's joy. However, after a brief fight, Katherine demorphs and helps Tommy remember who he really is. With the other Rangers demorphing, Tommy regains control over himself. The Rangers attempt to teleport back to Earth, but Gasket's forcefield prevents them from leaving. Gasket reveals they made a terrible mistake by demorphing in front of him and brings some monsters into the arena. The Rangers attempt to morph, but find out that they can't as the forcefield is also keeping them from doing so.
Suddenly, the forcefield disintegrates, courtesy of Tritor, who destroys both its generator and the brain drain device, while Bulk and Skull successfully manage to fight off the Cogs, in their own unique way.
With the forcefield gone, the Rangers teleport home, but only after Jason reminds Gasket that if he messes with one Power Ranger, he better be willing to take on the whole team.
Tritor thanks Bulk and Skull for their help and promises to make them legends on the now freed Horath. He then teleports them back to Earth as he heads home.
Later, Bulk and Skull are telling people about their encounters. Nobody believes their tale except for Tommy, Katherine, and Jason (who overhear them boasting about it) and reassure them that wherever the Power Rangers are, they're grateful to them for helping them and would thank them. However, thinking they're just being further mocked, Bulk and Skull storm off.
Cast[]
- Jason David Frank as Tommy Oliver (Zeo Ranger V Red)
- Johnny Yong Bosch as Adam Park (Zeo Ranger IV Green) (unmorphed only in Part 1)
- Steve Cardenas as Rocky DeSantos (Zeo Ranger III Blue) (unmorphed only in Part 1)
- Nakia Burrise as Tanya Sloan (Zeo Ranger II Yellow) (unmorphed only in Part 1)
- Catherine Sutherland as Katherine "Kat" Hillard (Zeo Ranger I Pink)
- Austin St. John as Jason Lee Scott (Gold Zeo Ranger)
- David Yost as Billy Cranston
- Paul Schrier as Farkas "Bulk" Bulkmeier
- Jason Narvy as Eugene "Skull" Skullovitch
- Gregg Bullock as Detective Jerome Stone (credits only)
- Richard Genelle as Ernie (credit only in Part 1) & (Part 2 only)
- Lesley Tesh as Emily (Part 2 only)
- David Fielding as Zordon (face)
- Bob Manahan as Zordon (voice)
- Donene Kistler as Alpha 5
- Richard Steven Horvitz as Alpha 5 (voice)
- Douglas Sloan as Prince Gasket (voice)
- Melora Harte as Archerina (voice)
- Carla Perez as Rita Repulsa
- Barbara Goodson as Rita Repulsa (voice)
- Ed Neil as Lord Zedd
- Robert Axelrod as Lord Zedd, Finster (voices)
- Danny Stallcup as Goldar
- Kerrigan Mahan as Goldar (voice)
- Bob Papenbrook as Rito Revolto (voice)
- Koichi Sakamoto as Tritor
- Paul St. Peter as Tritor (voice)
- Kirk Thornton as Altor (voice)
Errors[]
- Bulk calls the morphed Tommy as Zeo Ranger 5. However, he should not know that the Zeo Rangers have designated numbers to them.
- The Rangers could have just removed their helmets rather than demorphing when showing Tommy that they were his true friends. However, their situation is defended as they were not aware of the effects the forcefield would have on their powers and teleportation ability.
- At the end of Part II, Skull says that the Rangers were trapped in another dimension instead of on another planet and that he and Bulk helped Tritor destroy the force shield instead of force field.
- In Part I, when Jason appears in the arena, Prince Gasket refers to all creatures present in the arena as Machine Empire soldiers, but in fact only a few of them are robots belonging to the Machine Empire, the rest were largely or look more like monsters from Rita Repulsa and Lord Zedd.
Notes[]
- Among the monsters in Prince Gasket's arena are Video Vulture, Mean Screen, Brick Bully's second form, Silo, See Monster, Cruel Chrome, Sinister Simian, Main Drain, Vampirus, Dischordia, Blue Globbor's third form, Centiback, Defoliator, Somnibot's first form, Admiral Abominator, Octophantom, Soccadillo, Punch-A-Bunch, Tough Tusks, Fortissimodo, Googleheimer the Toy Robot, Lanterra, Hate Master, Wrecking Ball, Miss Chief, Oysterizer, Marvo the Meanie, Mace Face, Bratboy, Stenchy, Artistmole, and Kakuranger monsters Kasabake, Rokurokubi, Shirouneri, Keukegen, Noppera-bo, and Bimbogami.
- The battle between Tommy and Jason makes reference to their battle in the Dark Dimension in Mighty Morphin's "Green with Evil, Part III" though Jason had not yet known at that time that Tommy was the Green Ranger.
- Jason's comment that he had let Tommy down once before is a reference to Mighty Morphin's "The Green Candle".
- This is the fourth time in the series that depicts Jason and Tommy fighting each other, the first three being in "Green with Evil Parts I, III, and V". It would actually be the fifth time if one counted their brief squabble while under Slipper Shark's spell in "On Fins and Needles".
- This is the last episode with actor David Yost on set. He had walked off the set unexpectedly and chose not to return. In August 2010, Yost revealed he walked off due to constant harassment over his sexuality by the crew, directors, writers, and even producers. Billy does not appear, nor is he even mentioned in the next three episodes. The character returns in the two-part episode "Rangers of Two Worlds", where he is played by a different actor and the character exits the series. Yost is still credited as Billy for the remaining episodes of Zeo.
- The original draft title for these episodes was "The Arena".[1]
- This episode is the only one to mention the planet of Horath and show one of its beings.
- This is one of the several moments in the series in which villains help the Power Rangers take down other villains of whom they share a mutual disliking for.
- The Rangers remain unaware that Rita and Zedd had helped them with the transportation beam into Gasket's arena. The matter was dismissed and thankfully did not raise future concerns.
- This episode picked up where "Where in the World is Zeo Ranger 5?" had left off.
- Parts of Tritor's suit is an altered version of Saliguana.
- Kat and Jason are the only Rangers to appear morphed in Part I.
- In Tommy's illusion while in the Brain Scrambler, despite it being the White Ranger that moved, everything was bathed in a green light, which fits due to Tommy being the Green Ranger last time he was evil, and later being turned into the White Ranger.
- According to the credits, a part of Part II was filmed June 29, 1996.
See Also[]
- Ep. 1: We Are Ninja - Super Sentai counterpart in Kakuranger. See comparison page. (Cruella Desquid's costume)
- Ep. 26: The Tsuruhime Family's Super Secret - Super Sentai counterpart in Kakuranger. See comparison page. (Filet of Parasol's costume)
- Ep. 27: King's Gallant Entrance - Super Sentai counterpart in Ohranger. See comparison page. (Altor costume)
- Ep. 28: Behold! The Miracle Fortress - Super Sentai counterpart in Ohranger. See comparison page. (Altor costume)
External Links[]
- Watch King for a Day, Part I on the official YouTube page
- Watch King for a Day, Part II on the official YouTube page
References[]
Footnotes[]