Should Dr. Oliver had just been a mentor?
 

I am not a Tommy hater like a few here! But I was wondering if Oliver should have just been mentor only. Since it was really the core team's show. Plus it would have opened up a spot for a new Ranger.

Re: Should Dr. Oliver had just been a mentor?
 

on the one hand I'm fine with him being a Mentor Ranger in Dino Thunder since he basically started a new tradition but on the other hand I thought it would've been more interesting to have 5 separate Rangers and then Tommy could team up with the team every once in awhile rotating between his 3 powers of Green, White and Zeo.

Re: Should Dr. Oliver had just been a mentor?
 

DinoThunder is/was a great season, it is in fact one of my favorites. But there's one thing that bothered me.

- In MMPR S1, Tommy looses his Green Ranger Powers for the first time. Zordon re-charges him and he resumes his Ranger duties.
- In MMPR S2, we see Tommy go trough what appears to be his final two episodes (Green No More Parts I and II) were he lost the Green Ranger Powers for the second time.
- In MMPR S3, he looses the White Ranger powers TWICE - once in the Thunderzords vs. Rito fight and once during the Alien Ranger arc. Both power losses affected the whole team in both cases.
- Zeo didn't have an official season finale and Turbo didn't do a great job explaining why did the Zeo powers had to be replaced. Especially when it was stated that the Zeo Crystal was the thing that got them even greater powers than the MMPR Dino or MMPR Ninja ones, resulting in one more power loss for Tommy, until Wild force's Forever Red episode where he uses the Zeo Ranger V's powers without any issues or consequences afterwards...
- Which brings me to the character's involvement and position in PRDT. I was happy to see Tommy back in action and actually hoped that his Ranger time would last for at least a season without causing him any problems (or to the team itself) and that he would get to keep the Black DT Ranger's powers following the season's finale. But then - JDF ends up leaving to be his family for the holidays and the writers end up keeping Tommy in suit for quite a few episodes. I didn't like it because they could've used those episodes to explain how did Tommy become a school science teacher and a paleontologist. Instead, we just ended up with a Ranger who was unable to demoprh. Then, in Thunder Struck Part II, the whole DT tram ends up sacrificing the Zords and the powers so Mesogog could be defeated. Therefore, yet ONE MORE power loss for Tommy.

I felt that the character's plot of loosing (or having trouble with morphing powers) got overused in PRDT and if it wasn't for some other great plots that the season has come up with, DinoThunder would have sucked big time. That's why I feel that Tommy should have just been the mentor to the team and become a human version of Zordon, using his own experiences to mentor and lead his team while creating a stronger and a closer bond between him, Conner, Kira, Ethan and Trent. Not that his fights weren't cool, but when I was watching PRDT when it originally came out, I was like: "Can't he just be a Ranger who DOES NOT have any trouble with his powers for at least one season!?!?!".

So long story short, Tommy should have just stayed a mentor to the DT team while someone else should have become the Black Ranger. It could be done just just two episodes - one to introduce a new character and another one to make that character a Ranger. Or better yet - just make Hayley a Ranger. Wouldn't be the first time a female Ranger didn't have a skirt.

Re: Should Dr. Oliver had just been a mentor?
 

Them going from Zeo or Turbo does not mean it's a power that they were losing it was just simply a power being retired for the time being.
I don't think Disney wanted male-suited Rangers to be gender swapped.

Re: Should Dr. Oliver had just been a mentor?
 

Why do you say that?

Re: Should Dr. Oliver had just been a mentor?
 

Disney really should have kept the tradition of female yellows

Re: Should Dr. Oliver had just been a mentor?
 

Alright this is getting ridicules...I get topic drift is allowed. But the topic is drifting before we even really get into the real topic. Are the mods gonna do something?

Re: Should Dr. Oliver had just been a mentor?
 

Then say something aboutt the real topic to drift us back.

Re: Should Dr. Oliver had just been a mentor?
 

Now we are having topic drift about the topic drift lol.

Re: Should Dr. Oliver had just been a mentor?
 

why do I say that about Disney not allowing gender swapping? because it was something that was tried in Ninja Storm but they didn't like the idea. They had no control over the gender swapping for Wild Force since most things were already agreed on.

we make the rules not you if you don't like the topic drifting then say something about the topic instead of just complaining that it drifted off topic since you complaining about it is just contributing to it being off topic.

Re: Should Dr. Oliver had just been a mentor?
 

Well NS Blue had a skirt so it was hard to make Yellow another female.

Re: Should Dr. Oliver had just been a mentor?
 

I was think it would have been a wasted opertunity to not have Oliver be a Ranger. Its not like Black Ranger was that much of a main character that he hogged all the footage.

Re: Should Dr. Oliver had just been a mentor?
 

I don't see what the harm would have been in having Dino Black be female? If DinoThunder was done today, I think the Ranger could have been. Since the trend now is to focus on strong female protagonists.

Re: Should Dr. Oliver had just been a mentor?
 

that too but they could've made 1 of the Thunders a female.

Re: Should Dr. Oliver had just been a mentor?
 

Disney was too cheap for that.

Re: Should Dr. Oliver had just been a mentor?
 

Just have Blue and Yellow be female in Ninja Storm! The Genders would be ballenced with the Thunders if that was an issue.

Re: Should Dr. Oliver had just been a mentor?
 

I like Dustin and wouldn't want to give him up

Re: Should Dr. Oliver had just been a mentor?
 

Who says you can't have a female Dustin?

Re: Should Dr. Oliver had just been a mentor?
 

being cheap has nothing to do with it. Saban had been gender swapping for years for the same amount of money until the show went union for a few seasons.

that wouldn't fly since they wouldn't ever have the female ratio trump the male ratio.

Re: Should Dr. Oliver had just been a mentor?
 

Not really. After several episodes the Thunders would make thinks go back to the norm.

Re: Should Dr. Oliver had just been a mentor?
 

Tommy had to be a Ranger to or I would have had the crew fired. Or worse, DT wiped from continuity.

Re: Should Dr. Oliver had just been a mentor?
 

Wind Rangers would be a 3-member team no matter what happens later on if you have both Blue and Yellow as girls then that'd be trumping the male ratio it doesn't matter if it was 1 ep, 3 eps, 7 eps or 10 eps it would still be frowned upon.

Re: Should Dr. Oliver had just been a mentor?
 

Its a shame MMPR failed to live upmto MMPR.

Re: Should Dr. Oliver had just been a mentor?
 

I think either way could have worked. I do think their are fans who would have been disappointed if Tommy never morphed.

Re: Should Dr. Oliver had just been a mentor?
 

What was wrong with him being both?