Why Tommy Isn’t the Greatest Power Ranger of All-Time
One of the most iconic episodes of Power Rangers comes from its 10th season, Power Rangers Wild Force. Titled “Forever Red”, the episode brings together ten red rangers to face off against the Machine Empire on the moon. One of the final scenes portrays the character of Cole saying that Tommy is the greatest ranger of all time, a sentiment shared with many ranger fans. The rest of the rangers there start talking about why they should be the greatest red ranger of all time. But what if they are right?
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Today, we talk about why Tommy isn’t the greatest Power Ranger of all time. I know that the entire fandom isn’t going to like my opinion, but that’s okay, that’s why we have a comment section.
Before I begin taking down the shrine of Tommy that everyone has created in their minds, let’s talk about him. Played by the legendary Jason David Frank since 1993, the character of Dr. Thomas “Tommy” Oliver, has appeared in 234 episodes of the series, donning five different powers: both the Mighty Morphing green ranger and white ranger, the red Zeo ranger, the red Turbo ranger, and the black Dino ranger. He is regarded as being the best ranger for an ex-number of reasons that I don’t feel like getting into it as I’m trying to be a little negative here.
So let’s start with a pretty obvious reality: The stakes were never as high as other great rangers. As much we love to be nostalgic about the 1990’s TV show, the reality of the situation is that the stakes were never really high for the teenagers from Angel Grove. While Rita Repulsa posed a threat to the safety of Earth, she never really came close to it, other than when she had Tommy. Even with the addition of Lord Zedd, the Machine Empire, and Divatox, none of them were really as strong as the villains that other rangers would face. None of them could compare to Power Rangers in Space’s Astronema and Trakeena from Lost Galaxy. And who am I not to mention Ransik from Power Rangers Time Force. What’s a little planet when all of space and time is at stake?
Next up is the fact that Tommy and his teams rarely ever beat the major villain of the season. Think about it logically. He never defeated Rita and Lord Zedd, as they had destroyed the Mighty Morphin Powers with the help of Master Vile and the Orb of Doom, reversing them into children and launching us into the Zeo Quest. Then, the Zeo team never defeated the entire Machine Empire (as seen in Forever Red), they left due to the United Alliance of Evil. And even then, the entire Zeo team was powered by the Zeo crystals, a powerful object which produces enormous amounts of energy, becoming stronger with the passage of time. He finally retired before Divatox gave a legendary butt-kicking to the subsequent Turbo Rangers. The only time that he really defeated a villain was Mesogog in Dino Thunder, and that was at the price of the powers. So you’re going to tell me that the greatest ranger can only beat the big bad one time out of four tries?
And then, let’s not forget the fact that he created one of the greatest villains of all time: Mesogog. After Tommy’s retirement, he traded in his burgeoning career in racing to get a doctorate in paleontology for reasons unknown at MIT. He partners with Dr. Anton Mercer on a dinosaur-related project that would lead to the creation of the Tyrannodrones, Raptor Riders and the Biozords. But a horrible lab accident turned Mercer into Mesogog, who seized the project's creations, including the Tyrannodrones. From the way that Mesogog speaks, he implies that Tommy was in fact involved in the creation of the accident, but that is neither confirmed nor denied. So, either way, he helped create a literal sociopathic super monster who wants to revert the earth back to its prehistoric age. Thanks Tommy.
So for those three key reasons, Tommy is not the greatest Power Ranger of all time but definitely in the running. But even then, when it comes to me, I’m more of a “team guy”. The best of the best teams can be discussed some other time.