Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (Season 2)

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season 2 was the second season to carry the "Mighty Morphin" name. Its Sentai source was Gosei Sentai Dairanger and Kyouryu Sentai Zyuranger.

Plot
Angered at the repeated failures of his servant Rita Repulsa, the evil emperor Lord Zedd arrives and overthrows her. He then begins to attack the Power Rangers with Pirantishead, a stronger monster than the Rangers are used to fighting. Pirantishead freezes four of the Dinozords and takes control of the Tyrannosaurus Dinozord and the Dragonzord. Because of this, the Rangers are required to upgrade their Dinozords into more powerful Thunderzords, which can combine to become the Thunder Megazord. After doing so, they defeat Pirantishead and give Lord Zedd his first defeat.

As he continues to fight the Rangers, Lord Zedd decides to destroy the Green Ranger Tommy Oliver with a special Green Gem designed to take away his powers permanently. Though the Gem is eventually destroyed, it is too late to restore Tommy's powers. However, Zordon gives Tommy new strength in its place -- the power of the White Ranger.

The Rangers later make some new friends in Rocky DeSantos, Aisha Campbell and Adam Park, who also discover the Rangers' identities. When Jason, Zack, and Trini are selected to go to the Peace Conference in Switzerland, the Rangers are required to find three replacements for them. They travel to a deserted planet to retrieve the fabled Sword of Light required for the Power Transfer, but Lord Zedd introduces Serpentera, his gigantic personal Zord. While powerful, Serpentera's massive energy consumption proves to be its undoing. The Sword is retrieved and taken back to Earth, where the retiring Rangers name Rocky, Aisha, and Adam as their successors.

Eventually, Lord Zedd proves no more successful than Rita was, but he does not give up as he undergoes a Centennial Recharge. Rita Repulsa chooses this time to return to the moon and slip a love potion into Zedd's Rejuvenation Chamber. When he wakes up, Zedd is madly in love with Rita and marries her. With both Zedd and Rita together, the Power Rangers are faced with even more terror.

Production
Saban was originally going to produce only 40 episodes in the series, ending with the two-parter Doomsday. Another character was to make an appearance, named Bubba. As the episode was originally written, he piloted Cyclopsis, and was based on the character of Kai from Zyuranger. After Cyclopsis' defeat at the hands of the Rangers, Rita would be sealed away in an urn (mimicking the ending of Zyuranger), and the teenagers would give up their powers.

However, due to the unforeseen popularity of the series, Saban, the company that produced Power Rangers, was faced with the possibility of exhausting all of its Zyuranger footage with no more to fall back upon in order to continue producing the show. Saban contacted Toei, the Japanese company which produces the Sentai series, along with Rainbow Productions which designed and produced the monster suits, requesting another half-season's worth of Zyuranger footage to be made specifically for Power Rangers. The two Japanese companies agreed, creating around 25 brand-new monsters and filming both human- and zord-sized battle footage for each. They also incorporated elements from MMPR into the footage, including a relationship between the Green and Pink Rangers, and the Blue Ranger's portrayal as the brains of the group. This footage is collectively known in the Power Rangers fan community as "Zyu2".

Around this time, Saban was also negotiating a deal with Toei to acquire footage from Gosei Sentai Dairanger, the Sentai series which followed Zyuranger. Saban used more than half of the Zyu2 footage in the remainder of Season One of Power Rangers, but when it decided to replace the Dinozords with the mecha from Dairanger in Season Two (termed Thunderzords in Power Rangers), the Zord footage of the remaining Zyu2 monsters became obsolete. To compensate for this, Saban attempted to splice the Zyu2 and Dairanger footage to ensure that the Zyu2 monsters were fighting the Thunder Megazord instead of the Dino Megazord. The new scenes would show only the monster attacking, followed by a shot of just the Thunderzords taking the damage. It did not always work, and occasionally the monsters could actually be seen making physical contact with the old Megazord. The Rangers' Blade Blasters and individual weapons were left unused for much of the season. Even the newly acquired Saba was rarely used as an actual sword. Saban also decided to continue to use the Zyuranger costumes instead of replacing them with the Dairanger costumes, despite the second season being adapted from Dairanger.

Rangers

 * Main article:Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (team)Team 2.jpg.



Allies

 * Zordon
 * Alpha 5
 * Bookala

Villains

 * Evil Space Aliens
 * Lord Zedd
 * Rita Repulsa
 * Goldar
 * Scorpina
 * Finster
 * Squatt
 * Baboo
 * Dark Rangers
 * Billy Cranston (clone)
 * Z Putty Patrollers
 * List of Mighty Morphin Season 2 Monsters

Civilian

 * Bulk
 * Skull
 * Ernie
 * Mr. Caplan
 * Ms. Appleby
 * Richie
 * Curtis
 * Harvey Garvey

Evil Zords

 * Serpentera

Specials

 * Alpha's Magical Christmas
 * Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Live
 * Lord Zedd's Monster Heads

VHS

 * Alpha's Magical Christmas
 * The White Ranger Series: Goldar's Vice-Versa
 * The White Ranger Series: Rocky Just Wants to Have Fun
 * The White Ranger Series: Where There's Smoke, There's Fire
 * Lord Zedd's Monster Heads
 * Morphin Series: Lord Zedd Waves
 * Morphin Series: When is a Ranger Not a Ranger?
 * Morphin Series: Lights, Camera, Action
 * All Time Favorites: White Light

DVD

 * The Best of the Power Rangers: The Ultimate Rangers
 * White Light, Part 1 & 2
 * Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: ClassiXX Season 2
 * Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Season 2, Volume 1
 * Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Season 2, Volume 2
 * Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Complete Series
 * Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Complete Second Season (Walmart exclusive)