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Power Rangers: Lightspeed Rescue (often abbreviated as PRLR and often simply called Lightspeed Rescue) was the eighth incarnation of the Power Rangers TV series, based on the Super Sentai series Kyuukyuu Sentai GoGo-V (Super Rescue Squadron Go Go 5).

It was the first incarnation of Power Rangers to have the Rangers' identities be known to the public from the onset, as opposed to previous incarnations where a Ranger's identity was to be kept secret, revealed only in extreme circumstances. The series is unique: it was the first where the Rangers powers, Zords and weapons were man-made and had no mystical or extraterrestrial origin whatsoever.

Lightspeed Rescue also had, for the first time, a Power Ranger with no Super Sentai counterpart in the Titanium Lightspeed Ranger, as there was no regular 6th Ranger in GoGo V. Also this is the last known Power Ranger series until Power Rangers: Mystic Force where the main villain of this series was also the main villain in its Super Sentai counterpart.

Synopsis

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Lightspeed Rescue takes place in the fictitious city of Mariner Bay, California, which was built on an ancient demon burial ground. When the demons threaten to rise again, a government organization called Lightspeed, headed by one Captain William Mitchell recruits four civilians and his own daughter to defend the city. Each of the four civilians chosen had a special area of expertise: Carter Grayson, the Red Lightspeed Ranger, was a fire fighter in the local fire department; Chad Lee, the Blue Lightspeed Ranger, worked as a lifeguard and marine animal trainer at a local marine amusement park; Joel Rawlings, the Green Lightspeed Ranger, was a stunt pilot; Kelsey Winslow, the Yellow Lightspeed Ranger, was an extreme sports athlete; and Dana Mitchell, the Pink Lightspeed Ranger, was a nurse and practiced medical arts. The five Power Rangers were aided by a team of scientists and engineers led by Miss Angela Fairweather, and operated out of the Lightspeed Aquabase, an underwater military compound that also detersthe hydrophobic demons from directly attacking the base.

The five Rangers would be joined by Captain Mitchell's (long thought to be dead) son, Ryan Mitchell, who would become the Titanium Ranger. Together, the six Rangers would prevail against the demon forces time after time, culminating in a final showdown where, in the Power Rangers tradition, much of the weapons and other equipment that was used by the Power Rangers over the series was destroyed.

In addition, Lightspeed Rescue featured a cameo reappearance of characters from Power Rangers: Lost Galaxy, when the villainess Trakeena comes to Earth to destroy it and the Lightspeed Rangers team up with the Galaxy Rangers.

Relation to other series

Lightspeed Rescue introduced many Power Rangers firsts. All of the members are over the age of 18 and had previous professions beore becoming Power Rangers. It also featured two siblings serving as Power Rangers. For the first time, all villains and meances originated from Earth, and the Power Rangers suits and zords were of man-made origin. The Titanium Ranger is also the first original Power Ranger, as GoGo-V did not have a sixth ranger. His design is based off of the Turboranger suit designs.

This series also broke ties from all other seasons, starting completely from scrach, and had no references to any of the previous series. Although previous series began to move away from the original Angel Grove setting, they still featured characters like Bulk, Scully, and the Alpha bot. For the first time, the Power Rangers' identities were known to the public, was the first to portray the Rangers wearing the same set of civilian clothes in their unmorphed forms in each episode.

Lightspeed Rescue contains many references from GoGo-V, the Sentai it was based off of. It is the second and last known series to use Super Sentai team-up footage for the Power Rangers team-up; the footage Kyuukyuu Sentai GoGo-V VS Gingaman was used as the base for Trakeena's Revenge Part 1 and 2. Power Rangers often change the terms; in this series, the term "V-Lancer" was kept intact from its GoGo-V name. Finally, in the second episode, when the Lightspeed Megazord is about to be formed, the view briefly changes to a computer screen where the audience can see a computer checking each of the Rescue Zords. The names written are Red Ladder, Blue Thrower, Green Hover, Yellow Armor and Pink Aider. These are the original Japanese names for the Zords' GoGo-V equivalents, the Kyuu Kyuu (9-9) Machines.

Characters

Rangers

Allies

• Captain William Mitchell - the commander of Lightspeed (and father to Dana and Ryan)
• Miss Angela Fairweather - the weapons designer of Lightspeed. (later marries Joel Rawlings, unknown if she changed her last name)
• Galaxy Power Rangers: Teamed up with the Lightspeed Rangers to save the earth from the newly returned Trakeena and her demon servent, Triskull.
• Time Force Power Rangers: A year later, the Lightspeed Rangers assited the Time Force Rangers in facing a newly returned Vypra and her demon soldiers.

Villains

• Queen Bansheera: Evil matriarch of the Demons and mother of Impus/Olympius. Gave orders in a spiritual form at the beginning of the series and returned in a mangled bodily form after an attempt by Spellbinder to bring her into human world. Gained a ghastly final form by absorbing Vypra's life energy. Had no regard for her minions (even her own son) and used them for her own gain. Attempted to open gateway to the Shadow World to unleash all of its fallen monsters but ended up becoming a resident herself after Carter kicked her into the gate and fell through because of Diabolico's doing. (voiced by Diane Salinger)

• Impus / Prince Olympus: The son of Queen Bansheera. At the beginning of the series, he was an infant called Impus. But he gained Diabolico's star power and used it to mature into his current form. This sparked a rivarly between them after Diabolico returned. Later in order to escape the Shadow World, was forced to absorb fallen monsters to gain another mutated form, was reverted back to adult form when defeated by Rangers. Gained a super-powerful draconic final form near the finale and was successful, along with Diabolico in destroying nearly all of Rangers' zords, was destroyed for good by Lifeforce Megazord. Was armed with double-bladed spear in adult form. (voiced by Michael Forest)

• Diabolico: Original antagonist of the 1st half of Lightspeed; he is a demon equipped with the Star Power. First appeared to save Ryan from death and took him into custody. Was destroyed twice in the series, first time was when he fought the Rangers in the Lightspeed Solarzord, and again when facing Olympius. Was revived in advanced form along with Olympius and was destroyed by Lifeforce Megazord. Fiercely loyal, he tries assists his friends Vypra and Loki and turns on Bansheera when he is forced to destroy Loki against his will. Assists the Rangers in spiritual form in sealing Bansheera up in the Shadow World in the finale. Armed with skull-headed staff in normal form and a sword in super-demon form. (voiced by Neil Kaplan)

• Vypra: Female demon who attacks with her dune buggy vehicle, the Vyprari. Died near the end of the series when she was absorbed by Bansheera, later returned to life in Power Rangers: Time Force to revive the super demon, Quargenon to fight against both Lightspeed Rescue and Time Force Power Rangers. Armed with a sword. (portrayed by Jennifer L. Yen)

• Loki: Warrior demon who is a friend of Diabolico's. Was forcibly destroyed by Diabolico when Bansheera took control of his body. Was armed with a two-pronged staff. (voiced by David Lodge)

• Jinxer: Monster-maker demon, creates monsters using magical cards and incantations. His fate was unknown as he was last seen piloting the Omega Megazord in placing the six stones for Bansheera's ceremony. The Omega Megazord was destroyed, but it is unknown if Jinxer survived or not. (voiced by Kim Strauss)

• Triskull: Exclusive to the Lost Galaxy/Lightspeed Rescue team-up, he attempted to drain life energy from humans for Trakeena and tricked Bansheera's demons into assisting him. Was defeated, but it is unknown if he was destroyed since he did not explode. (voiced by Michael Sorich)

• Trakeena: Former villainess from Power Rangers: Lost Galaxy, returned to Earth to exact revenge by draining life energy from humans to gain her 'green' form. Was poisoned by Olympius and was turned into a giant monster form and was finally beaten for good by the Omega Megazord wielding the Lights of Orion.

• List of Demons in Power Rangers: Lightspeed Rescue

• Enemy Foot Soldiers:
  • Batlings
  • Ghouls

Arsenal

• Rescue Morphers: Earthern technology at its finest, developed by the Lightspeed organization and given to five hand-picked individuals who would become the Lightspeed Rangers. After crying out "Lightspeed Rescue!", the Rangers open their morphers and utilize a four-digit keypad to morph.
• Titanium Morpher: A specially designed morpher brandishing a solar-panel pattern that proved too much for Carter to handle once he tested it. It is currently in the possession of Ryan Mitchell, who initially used his Ranger powers to aid Diabolico before seeing the error of his ways and joining the other Rangers. Ryan calls out "Titanium Power!" and opens the panel on his morpher to morph.
• Battle Booster: These gadgets materialize from the Rescue Morphers and are activated by a numeric keypad which serves to power up weapons and Zords, and summon the Mega Battle Armor.
• Rescue Blaster: Each of these standard Ranger sidearms features a Baton Mode and a Blaster Mode. In addition, the handle can be detached and combined with either a V-Lancer or a Rescuebird component.
• Thermo Blaster: Intense heat blasters color-coded for each Ranger. Their firepower can be boosted once a Battle Booster is attached.
• Rescuebird: This weapon, which can be rebuilt to become the Unilaser, is launched from the Rail Rescue Bay whenever the Rangers call for it. When in Unilaser Mode, it fires the team's combined power at opponents. The Rescuebird can be split into a Drill, a Cutter, a Laser, an Injector and a Claw, each used for either combat or rescue purposes as the situation dictates. When separate, each component must be attached to each of the Rescue Blasters.
• V-Lancer: The V-Lancers are staff-like weapons that materialize from a red V when summoned. Each V-Lancer acts as a blaster in addition to its default staff mode, by attaching a Rescue Blaster handle, and can launch the Spectra Blast to destroy enemies.
• Titanium Laser: Titanium Ranger's personal weapon is an interchangeable blaster and battle axe.
• Mega Battle Armor: Designed by Miss Fairweather and her brother Clark, and activated by entering "861" into the Battle Booster, the Mega Battle Armor equips the Green Ranger with a buzzsaw and the Blue Ranger with an ice cannon.
• Rescue Rover: This jeep serves as standard Ranger transport to carry them to the scene of an emergency.
• Lightspeed Cycles: Motorcycles used for high speed transportation. The Red Lightspeed Cycle has a detachable Rescue Speeder, which can be launched for high powered attacks.
• Trans Armor Cycle: A motorcycle that can transform into body armor for the Red Ranger.
• Mobile Armor Vehicle: A one-man aircraft controlled by the Red Ranger. On its first day out, the MAV malfunctioned, causing Carter's day to repeat in a time loop. The MAV was ultimately sacrificed to destroy the rogue Omega Megazord.

Zords

The first Zords in Lightspeed Rescue were all based off of rescue vehicles. The Rail Rescues carried these Zords out of the holding bay, and could also form their own Megazord. The Max Solarzord was a space shuttle-zord that was piloted by the Titanium Ranger. The Omegazords were space vehicles that were also created by Lightspeed Rescue. The Lifeforce Megazord was similar to the Max Solarzord, but required the energy of the Lightspeed Rangers as power.

• Lightspeed Solarzord
  • Max Solarzord (Titanium/Ryan)
  • Lightspeed Megazord
    • Pyro Rescue 1 (Carter/Red)
    • Aqua Rescue 2 (Chad/Blue) (refactored from hydro)
    • Aero Rescue 3 (Joel/Green)
    • Haz Rescue 4 (Kelsey/Yellow) (refactored from hydro)
    • Med Rescue 5 (Dana/Pink) (refactored from hydro)

• Supertrain Megazord
  • Rail Rescue 1 (Carter/Red)
  • Rail Rescue 2 (Chad/Blue)
  • Rail Rescue 3 (Joel/Green)
  • Rail Rescue 4 (Kelsey/Yellow)
  • Rail Rescue 5 (Dana/Pink)

• Omega Megazord
  • Omegazord 1 (Carter/Red)
  • Omegazord 2 (Chad/Blue)
  • Omegazord 3 (Joel/Green)
  • Omegazord 4 (Kelsey/Yellow)
  • Omegazord 5 (Dana/Pink)

• Lifeforce Megazord

Template:Ent The Aqua Rescue 2, Haz Rescue 4, and Med Rescue 5 could combine to form a Hydromode for the Lightspeed Megazord, for when fires are needed to be put out.

Episodes

Trivia

• This is the second season to have the title of the series used in the morphing call. The first was Power Rangers: Turbo (in which the morphing call is "shift into turbo"). This trend continues through Power Rangers: Mystic Force (although in Power Rangers: Wild Force, the morphing call is "wild access", omitting the word "Force" found in the title).
• This season holds the record of Battlizer Armors, with three: the Mega Battle Armors (Green and Blue) and the Trans-Armor Cycle. It was also the only season to feature exclusive special powerups for the Blue Ranger and Green Rangers.
• The temple from the "Up to the Challenge" episode is the same temple from the "VR Troopers" series.

• Power Rangers series