AllMovie

Making its ABC Family Channel cable debut on February 5, 2005, Power Rangers SPD was the eleventh incarnation of the popular Japanese-American children's show franchise Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. As in previous seasons, the new series focused on a group of youthful martial-arts experts, dedicated to protecting the world against paranormal and extraterrestrial villainy--and as before, the Power Rangers wore form-fitting costumes, each costume given a separate color representing the skill and rank of the individual Ranger (and of course the faces were covered during the battle scenes, so that the Japanese-filmed action scenes could be matched with the American-filmed closeups!) The story took place 15 years in the future, when humans were endeavoring to peacefully coexist with space aliens. Threatening this balance was malevolent alien Emperor Gruumm (Rene Naufahu) and his minions, foremost among these the deadly Krybot cyborg soldiers. Under the leadership of Commander Anubis "Doggie" Cruger (John Tui), head of the SPD (Space Patrol Delta), a quintet of rookie B-Squad power rangers was assembled within the walls of New Ranger Academy, the better to guard the home front while the elite A-Squad Rangers zoomed into space to do battle against Gruumm. The five novices were Jack Landers (Brandon Jay McLaren), the Red SPD Ranger; Schuyler "Sky" Tate (Chris Violette), the Blue SPD Ranger; Bridge Carson (Matt Austin), the Green SPD Ranger; Elizabeth "Z" Delgado (Monica May), the Yellow SPD Ranger; and Sydney "Syd" Drew (Alycia Purrott), the Pink SPD Ranger. Once they proved their mettle, the newcomers were provided with Delta Morphers to transform themselves into top-drawer fighting machines. Beginning in the fall of 2005, Power Rangers SPD was picked up by the ABC network for Saturday-morning "over the air" TV play.