The best 'Power Rangers' episode to premiere on National Power Rangers Day

"Fighting Spirit" first aired on Aug. 28, 2004.

Since it was first officially recognized by National Day Calendar in 2018, part of the franchise’s 25th anniverary celebration, National Power Rangers Day has largely been a point of pride among fans rather than something called out by official stakeholders.¹ A marketing ploy has, like many a thing tied to the brand, transformed into a monument to the ineffectiveness of such ploys to inspire confidence in the brand beyond those who will ride with it no matter what.²

The date of recognition, Aug. 28, references the premiere date of the show’s first episode, “Day of the Dumpster,” which first aired as part of a “sneak peek” event that spanned two Saturdays before the first season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers fell into its regular weekday rotation. It’s one of only three episodes in Power Rangers history to premiere on that date. The latest, “Dimensions in Danger,” is one of the very few episodes of Power Rangers to premiere in primetime: the Super Ninja Steel anniversary special first aired on Nickelodeon on a Tuesday — an unusual day for a premiere by that point — in 2018.³

As important as “Day of the Dumpster” was and as fun as “Dimensions in Danger” is, they’re outclassed by the only other episode to premiere on an Aug. 28: “Fighting Spirit.” The 27th episode of Dino Thunder premiered on that date in 2004, and while it didn’t cap the season — 11 episodes followed — it tidies an in-season conflict and remains the ideal bookend to a character arc that started in 1993.

We open in Dr. Tommy Oliver’s lab, the Dino Thunder team’s base of operations, and where Tommy — rendered invisible following the events of the previous episode, “Disappearing Act,” is doing something longtime fans have watched him do since he was a teenager: lifting weights. Connor, the season’s Red Ranger, ponders why one would work on their biceps if no one can see them, setting Tommy up to explain that Haley, the team’s super-genius comrade, has figured out a solution. One problem: it requires an incredible power source and she doesn’t think one is attainable.

“Maybe we should try this,” says Tommy, offering up the source behind his newest morpher: the black dino gem. She scoffs but Tommy’s trademark stubbornness wins out, so a couple minutes later he’s on a roll-away bed rigged up to wires. The experiment brings Tommy back to visibility but at a great cost: the machinery overloads and sends a surge of energy through his body, breaking his dino gem and thrusting the team’s mentor into an apparent coma. After a brief intermission to introduce the episode’s Monster of the Day, a second version of a previous MOTD, Terrorsaurus, we rejoin the protagonists at Reefside Hospital. A doctor confirms Tommy’s comatose condition.

Connor and his teammates, Ethan⁴ (Blue Ranger) and Kira (Yellow Ranger), don’t get much time to process this news. Power Rangers so often don’t. They must leave Tommy’s bedside to fight Terrorsaurus, and unknowingly leaving Tommy to his own internal battle: over most of the episode’s next 10 minutes, he duels his three most prominent past Ranger selves — Zeo Red, Mighty Morphin White and Mighty Morphin Green.

This was heavy material for Power Rangers in 2004 and it’s only gotten heavier since. The death of actor Jason David Frank by suicide in 2022 made its themes more salient; but prior to storytelling restraints made it tricky for the show to even consider seriously broaching the subject of self-reflection, let alone steer kids through a cross-examination of what it means to have spent most of your life fighting the same battles over and over. It was beloved immediately.

“If there was ever any doubt that we thought about you guys and cared about making you happy, I hope this did something to get rid of that once and for all,” wrote Doug Sloan, Dino Thunder’s co-executive producer, in 2004 on RangerBoard.

There are ample reasons why “Fighting Spirit” stands the test of time — the legendary Koichi Sakamoto’s stunt sequencing and writer Jackie Marchand’s firm grasp of the character are the most sung, but Simon Riera’s cinematography deserves a hearty mention — but it’ll forever remain one of the best episodes in Power Rangers’ history because it’s as much about the audience’s relationship to the show as it is those they’re watching.

Surprises are far and few in Power Rangers. But we don’t come for surprises. We come to every episode eager to watch the same battles be fought, over and over, knowing how they’ll end. We show up to cheer on our would-be friends, and occasionally cry with them when a moment calls for tears. We’re Connor, fighting back tears as he tells “Dr. O” that we’re glad to have him back in the flesh. Because it wasn’t Connor and Co. to whom Tommy Oliver delivers his penultimate line of the episode. It’s us.

1. Which, honestly, is probably how it should have remained.

2. Because, y’know, it’s not enough for something to simply bring you joy. It must also be popular with everyone on Earth, damn it!

3. Shoutout to John Green, whose catalog of Power Rangers history is unrivaled.

4. Nobody asked, but he’s my personal all-time favorite Blue Ranger and the character across all of Power Rangers I most related to growing up. I was 13 when Dino Thunder first aired and was the *perfect* age to meet Ethan.