Phantom Ranger

The Phantom Ranger is a mysterious Ranger, whose powers derived from Eltar, that helped the Rangers battle Divatox during Power Rangers Turbo.

Turbo
Phantom Ranger first arrived on Earth in his space ship, landing in the woods of Angel Grove. He prevented Elgar and his group from stealing from a bank and a gold mine. As he spent most of his time invisible, no one, with the exception of Cassie Chan, could spot the Phantom properly. After rescuing the Turbo Rangers from trouble, the Pink Ranger asked who he was and Phantom Ranger replied, "a friend", before disappearing. From that point on, the Phantom Ranger appeared to be fond of Cassie, though perhaps not the in the same way she was fond of him. He was able to prevent his ship from being destroyed by Divatox's torpedoes and saved Justin's friend, Nico, in the process. When the danger had passed, the Phantom Ranger departed in his space ship, giving the Rangers the impression he had left for good.

Although Phantom Ranger had taken off in his space ship, he did not necessarily leave Angel Grove. He continued to help when he was needed, such as fighting Translucitor. He even gave the Rangers their new Rescuezords, after losing the Turbozords to Divatox and General Havoc.

Divatox and her brother General Havoc used their knowledge of the Ranger to set a trap for him, hoping to obtain the Phantom's power ruby. After kidnapping Cassie and turning her to stone, the Phantom tried to use his Ruby to revive her, but was tricked by Havoc, who posed as Cassie and stole the Ruby from him. Up on the Space Base, Divatox would've destroyed both him and Cassie had she not rebelled, allowing them both the chance to escape. However, without his ruby, his life force was draining away and Phantom Ranger feared that he would soon perish.

Sometime after his escape, Phantom Ranger retreated to the tunnels where his ship was located and collapsed just mere inches away from it, exhausted of all strength. Cassie and T.J. ventured down into the tunnel system and found him and brought him to the Power Chamber. The power of the chamber kept him stable, but Dimitria had told them without his ruby the Phantom would die. The Rangers, after some difficulty, got the Phantom's ruby back. Cassie placed it on Phantom Ranger and after several moments he came to, rejuvenated. He thanked the Rangers and prepared to leave, but Cassie wanted to know where he was going. Phantom Ranger told her that he would go where he was needed and remain until his presence was unnecessary. In that sense, the Phantom Ranger believed the Earth was in good hands with the Rangers and departed.

In Space
After the news that Zordon had been captured, Phantom Ranger began searching for Zordon. He was on the planet Hercuron and watched as Divatox and Astronema took the Eltarian sage away to a large ship. Phantom sent a message of Zordon's location to the Space Rangers, and was later intercepted by Divatox, Piranhatrons, Astronema and Quantrons. After Divatox took off with Zordon, Astronema sent Ecliptor to finish off Phantom Ranger. Luckily, the Space Rangers saved him and Ecliptor retreated. Phantom Ranger gave Andros a disc and told him it was for the Delta Megaship, a powerful weapon currently without protection. Phantom Ranger told the Rangers that he would go after Zordon and assured Cassie that he would be alright, despite the serious injury he sustained in the fight from earlier.



Later on in the season, Phantom Ranger fought alongside the Blue Senturion to try and stop the Machine Empire from taking over his planet during Dark Specter's universal conquest. Eventually Phantom Ranger and Blue Senturion were captured, however, Zordon's energy wave rid the entire planet of its villains, saving them both from an untimely death.

The Phantom Ranger's Identity
Originally, the Phantom Ranger's identity was to be revealed at the end of Countdown to Destruction. The scene was filmed, but removed when the finale was confined to two parts instead of three by the request of Fox. With his identity still left in question, rumors among the fanbase, stating the Phantom Ranger and Zordon were father and son, from the Phantom being Justin's father, began to circulate as possible ideas. Shuki Levy's original pitch for the character was that he was to represent an embodiment of the spirits of fallen Power Rangers of the past as a "Ghost Robot" (a concept affirmed by Jackie Marchand and Tony Oliver). The concept was not unlike the Sentai character, AkaRed, a representation of past Red Rangers of the Super Sentai franchise.

Judd Lynn's original intention for the character was that he was to be the first success in a failed experiment (that somehow included Ecliptor as the first error) which would've given birth to the "Phantom Ranger Powers". As the first "man made" Ranger his powers would've been limited (as a way of explaining his limited appearances), but a plot concerning the capture of the Turbo Rangers would've revealed his identity as Billy Cranston.

Abilities
The phantom had the ability to become invisible, however, the space he occupied was often seen contorted or mishappen, an effect akin to that of the Predator character from the Predator franchise. He was powered by his Power Ruby on his chest, which gave him his powers and sustained both his life force and the systems in his suit. The Phantom is also able to exist outside of "temporal control".

Zords

 * Artillatron

Arsenal

 * Power Ruby
 * Phantom Laser

Trivia

 * The Phantom Ranger's homeworld was originally meant to be a purple planet named "Phantus" in a draft script for Turbo.
 * In Turbo's Super Sentai counterpart, Gekisou Sentai Carranger, Phantom Ranger's Sentai counterpart, VRV Master was actually a very minor character and not a Ranger at all. This marks the only time in which a non-Ranger Sentai character has been designated as a Ranger in the series.
 * The suit looks quite similar to the titular character of the 1986 movie, "The Wraith".
 * Technically, due to his color, the Phantom Ranger is a Black Ranger.
 * A toy-exclusive action figure called the Phantom Ranger was made in the Dino Thunder toy line, but neither do share any relations.

Also see

 * VRV Master - the Phantom Ranger's counterpart from Gekisou Sentai Carranger.