10 Weirdest Episodes Of Power Rangers

The Power Rangers have starred in all manner of bizarre stories over their historic TV career, with certain episodes standing out as being especially strange. Originally created using footage from the Japanese Super Sentai tokusatsu series, the franchise was created with the addition of new footage with American actors meant to bridge the cultural gap. This mishmash of ideas often created some incredibly weird one-off episodes.

Many of Power Rangers' strangest episodes earn their title through their odd villain of the week, which are sometimes incredibly weird even by the standards of the series. Others attempt new formats or crossovers unique to the series, making for memorable, if perhaps poorly-informed, novelties when placed among the wider range of the franchise. Throughout many years and multiple Power Rangers series, the helmeted heroes have endured some truly odd circumstances.

10 Presto Change-O

Power Rangers Ninja Steel

If one Power Rangers series stands out as particularly strange compared to its peers, it has to be Power Rangers Ninja Steel. The entire show revolved around the idea that the Power Rangers were a test that alien monsters across the galaxy willingly pitted themselves against as part of a bizarre cosmic game show. As if alien invaders and the Power Rangers' abilities themselves weren't enough to swallow, the episode Presto Change-O indulged in some triple mumbo jumbo with the introduction of a whole new power system.

Here, the Blue Ranger Preston Tien suddenly gains magical abilities, styling himself as a classic stage magician with a snazzy top hat and tuxedo to go with them. The fact that these powers are entirely separate from his Blue Ranger Morphin Grid abilities is an odd choice, not to mention the fact that they feel totally incongruous with the ninja theme of the series. That's not even to mention how this concept might interact with the arcane abilities featured in Power Rangers Mystic Force.

9 Sticks And Stones

Power Rangers Samurai

The Power Rangers have fought all manner of strange rubber-suited creatures over the course of their career, but few are as memorable as the Nighlok Negatron from Power Rangers Samurai. Rather than battle the Power Rangers with weapons or energy blasts, Negatron had quite the unique manner of attacking - Leveling insults and harsh truths at the Rangers with quick verbal jabs that would convert their emotional pain into physical trauma. In his battle with the Rangers, Negatron zips around before quickly rattling off a mean comment about his opponent, sending them flying with invisible force.

This odd combat style resulted in some hilarious moments, such as the Red Ranger somehow being able to brace himself for impact with a steely look, only to be flung away with Negatron's second verse. The only thing funnier than Negatron's grating voice is the manner of his defeat, with Emily the Yellow Ranger revealing that she was bullied so much as a child that she's more or less numb to Negatron's attacks. Only the Power Rangers could make an episode in which low self-esteem saves the day.

8 Shell Shocked

Power Rangers in Space

Considering how unique the Power Rangers universe is, it seems odd for them to crossover with other heroes, particularly those not from a tokusatsu or Super Sentai-related property. Yet that's exactly what happened in Shell Shocked, an infamous early episode of Power Rangers in Space. Here, the Power Rangers join forces with none other than Leonardo, Donatello, Michaelangelo, and Raphael, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

More specifically, the crossover features the reptilian quartet from the only live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series to-date, Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation, which was airing around the same time as Power Rangers in Space. While the latter is considered to be one of the best Power Rangers series ever, Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation is widely considered to be one of the worst iterations of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles around, making the strange crossover even stranger. The episode resulted in the infamous .gif of the Red Ranger and Leonardo shaking hands while their compatriots cheer.

7 Stranger Within

Power Rangers Mystic Force

Presto Change-O wouldn't be the only time Power Rangers arbitrarily introduced a new suite of powers for a given Ranger to enjoy unrelated to the Morphin Grid, as seen in Power Rangers Mystic Force. Compared to other Power Rangers series, Power Rangers Mystic Force used its fantasy theming to justify all manner of strange creatures. In the two-part episode Stranger Within, Vida the Pink Ranger is turned into a vampire by the villainous Flytrap monster.

Seeing Vida attack her fellow teammates is quite the shock, and her vampire makeup manages to actually be quite startling. Vida's curse also apparently gives her the need to wear a gothic lolita dress rather than her usual style. But it's the manner of her transformation that takes the weirdness cake, with the Flytrap monster somehow managing to moonlight as a DJ before turning a whole rave full of attendees into his profane minions, including Vida.

6 Another Song And Dance

Power Rangers Zeo

By their nature, the Power Rangers crossbreed with genres of all sorts, with each series reflecting a new theme, such as feudal Japan, fantasy, or even police and crime. It was only a matter of time before the Rangers got their chance to shine with a musical, even if it was only a one-off episode rather than an entire themed series. While the latter may have been too much for the Power Rangers production staff to conceptualize, a singular musical-themed episode certainly wasn't out of the question, as shown in Power Rangers Zeo.

What makes Power Rangers Zeo's attempt at a musical episode particularly strange is the fact that the show doesn't fully commit to it. Only Tommy Oliver and Tanya Sloan end up being cursed to sing their words by the villainess Queen Machina, leaving the rest of the Rangers to simply stand around awkwardly while they sing completely a cappella, with no instrumental music to speak of. Somehow, Power Rangers Zeo managed to make the concept of a musical episode even stranger than it already is.

5 Island Of Illusion

Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers

The original season of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers certainly wasn't immune to the odd strange storyline, as demonstrated by the nonsensical plot of the episode Island of Illusion. This episode wouldn't be the first time the Power Rangers got away with skirting the majority of an episode's runtime with a clip show, re-using existing footage from previous episodes to save a quick buck. But it was the set-up of Island of Illusion's anthology mini-sode that was so particularly bizarre.

Here, Rita Repulsa traps the Rangers on the titular island, which manages to manifest their greatest fears. To confront them, the Rangers think back to previous moments from the show where they demonstrated courage, justifying the use of old clips. Inexplicably also thrown into the mix is the island's sole resident, Quagmire the leprechaun, whose presence is not explained at all. Quagmire gives each Ranger the exact same speech about confronting their fears every time they manage to do so, resulting in a disconnected fever-dream of an episode that feels like being stuck in a time loop.

4 Rocky Just Wants To Have Fun

Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers

The original Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers were able to wring a bad guy out of all sorts of mundane problems, always having some moral or lesson to impart upon young, impressionable viewers. These tendencies sometimes resulted in utterly absurd episodes like Rocky Just Wants to Have Fun from the second season of the original series. Here, Rocky is cursed by a spell from Lord Zedd, causing him to become obsessed with the new pachinko machine installed by Ernie.

Rocky's unpopular replacement of Jason as the Red Ranger isn't helped by this episode, which quickly depicts him as a lazy, carefree leader keen to shirk his responsibilities in favor of playing games. It isn't long before the pachinko machine is turned into the Pachinko Head monster, which manages to turn five of the Rangers into living pachinko balls. Even by Power Rangers standards, this villain and plotline are particularly silly.

3 Movie Madness

Power Rangers Time Force

Seeing the Power Rangers transform into their Super Sentai costumes and duke it out with various monsters is arguably the core appeal of the franchise. That makes it all the more bizarre that Power Rangers Time Force opted for an episode in which the Rangers don't transform at all, instead stranding them in their human forms in Movie Madness. Thanks to the cinephile monster Cinecon, the Power Rangers end up being split up and scattered across various alternate dimensions themed around various movie genres, such as Westerns and martial arts films.

The Rangers don't have access to the Morphin' Grid in these alternate realities, meaning they're forced to get by on their martial arts skills and wits alone with no transformations in sight. Weirdly, this ends up making for one of the best Power Rangers episodes ever, as the team are given a chance to prove what they can do out of their uniforms. Each split-up group gets a satisfying moment all their own as some of the Rangers end up enjoying acting out the movies Cinecon maroons them in.

2 Lost And Found In Translation

Power Rangers Dino Thunder

Despite the relative popularity of Japanese media in the West today, it's easy to forget that around the time of the earlier Power Rangers series, it was quite fashionable to make fun of anime, tokusatsu, and the like. Despite having their roots in a literal tokusatsu show, Super Sentai, the Power Rangers themselves sadly weren't immune to this trend, talking down to their predecessors in the infamous episode Lost and Found in Translation. Here, the American Rangers come across an episode of Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger, the Sentai series Power Ranger Dino Thunder was based off of.

The Rangers spend the entire episode belittling their Japanese counterparts, wondering aloud how anyone could prefer the original to their own adventures. The episode felt quite disrespectful to the Rangers' source material for no good reason, not to mention the fact that it remains one of the most awkwardly meta episodes of the franchise even today. The episode can only be compared to the likes of Teen Titans Go! meeting their 2003 counterparts only to ultimately poke fun at them.

1 Trouble By The Slice

Power Rangers Turbo

While episodes like Movie Madness prove that the Power Rangers are sometimes at their best delving into weird or unconventional ideas for episodes, entries like Trouble by the Slice in Power Rangers Turbo are there to dissuade the franchise from getting too creative. Power Rangers Turbo was a particularly odd series even by Power Rangers standards, featuring a batch of Rangers with car-themed power fighting a space pirate. One infamous episode stands out for an especially weird villain with some bizarre powers to match.

The pizza-themed villain Mad Mike does battle with the Rangers in Trouble by the Slice, managing to bake the team into a literal pizza pie during one of their battles. The visual of the half-baked Rangers helplessly pawing around while stuck inside the crust of a massive fake pizza is an odd one indeed, made almost fetishistically disturbing by the dim lighting and cheap production value. There's something ambiguously nauseating about this peculiar scene that makes it stand out among the roster of strange Power Rangers episodes.