Dr. Tommy Connor is trapped in a huge hunk of Amber, and the evil White Ranger is still at large.  That's the position the three Dino Rangers find themselves in at the beginning of the fourth volume of Power Rangers Dino Ranger.  There is a lot of action, Tommy gets freed, and the White Ranger hatches some evil plots, not to mention Mesogog's monsters that are always attacking.  In addition to all this, the last show on the DVD is the best episode from this series.

In the first episode, Leader of the Whack, a strange meteorite, or "space rock" as they refer to it in the show, lands in a forest.  The three Dino Rangers and the evil White Ranger come across it, and the radiation that it emits causes their 'recessive personalities' to emerge.  The upshot of this is that all four Rangers have different personalities.  Ethan becomes a jock, Kira becomes a fashion diva, and Conner becomes smart, so he starts wearing glasses of course. Cassidy, who was also exposed to the radiation becomes a nerd and her face immediately breaks out.

Even when in Power Ranger mode, their new personalities are dominant, causing them to have problems working as a team.  They inexplicably decide that the only way to get back to normal is to destroy the rock.  This plan works, and they use a fragment of the meteorite to release Dr. Oliver from his amber prison.

Burning at Both Ends takes up seconds after the previous episode ended.  Dr. Oliver is free, but his dino gem and morpher have been 'remolecularized' by the amber, which leaves him unable to change back to normal.

Meanwhile, the White Ranger is back, and attacking the town.  The rangers fight him, only to have him capture two to their zords.  The next day Conner sees Trent (the White Ranger) being attacked by Mesogog's henchmen who shoot him with a weapon.  They then leave, and Trent claims to have returned to normal.  He offers to give the rangers their zords back, but when they show up, it turns out to be a trap.  Trent has made a deal with Mesogog, but when he double crosses the evil leader, it's clear that the only side that Trent is on, is his own.

In the next episode, The Missing Bone, Kira gets hypnotized by a dinosaur skull.  It commands her to steal a bone that Dr. Oliver has kept locked away for years.  When she gives the bone to the skull, it turns into a Tyrannodrone, the dinosaur that Drs. Oliver and Mercer created years ago.  We also find out something interesting about Mesogog.

Bully for Ethan has Ethan being picked on by a bully.  If that's not enough to worry about, monsters  attack.  Trent has teamed up with Mesogog's right hand man, Zeltrax, with the aim of killing Dr. Oliver.   It seems that Zeltrax and Tommy have a shared past.

The final episode on the DVD is Lost and Found in Translation, my favorite episode on the disc.  The cyber-café installs a new satellite dish that gets 900 channels!  While flipping stations, the three dino rangers fund an episode of Dino Rangeers from Japan, that's dubbed in English.  Conner isn't impressed.  After all, as Conner asks, "What would they know about Power Rangers in Japan?"  The whole show consists of  the rangers watching their Japanese counterparts.  The Japanese show's plot involves a bear/ATM machine who throws mushrooms the make people greedy.  It was interesting seeing the original version of Dino Rangers and how different the show was.

Since this volume picks up in the middle of a story line, it wouldn't be the best DVD to start with, but it did contain a good selection of shows.   The last episode was well worth the price of the whole DVD.  Fans of Dino Rangers show be sure to pick this volume up.

This DVD contains an ample five episodes.  The beginning and closing credits are shown once, at the beginning and ending of the disc, they are not shown between the episodes. The title of each show is left on, so it's very easy to tell where one episode ends and the next begins.

Audio:

The show is presented in surround sound. It sounds fairly average for a TV show. The levels of the rear speakers are pretty low, and are not used much. The explosions are not loud or booming, but the dialog is clear. There are English subtitles available.

Video:

Presented in full frame, as it was originally broadcast, the show looks all right. The entire disc had a slight grain to it, but it is not a major defect. The colors are not bright and vivid, nor are they muted. There is a fair amount of aliasing in the image of this disc, but it doesn't distract from the show.  An average presentation.

Extras:

The highlight of the extras section of this disc is the 7 minute preview of next season's Ranger show, SPD (Space Patrol Delta) Rangers.  It includes clips of the rangers in action, as well as their new zords.  The basic plot of the show is discussed too.  The rangers out of costume weren't shown.

There is also a four minute featurette, Return of the Ranger.  Jason David Frank (Dr. Oliver) talks, in character, about his history as a Power Ranger.  This sounds like it was made at the beginning of the series as an introduction.

There is also a masked person performing a kata in the Ninja Moves extra. It's the Combo Kata.  The Sensei from Ninja Storm talks over it, (I have no idea why they didn't get Jason Frank to provide the narration) and you can select watching it in real time, or one move at a time. It didn't do much for me, and I can't really see anyone trying to ape the moves, which are pretty basic.

Final Thoughts:

This volume had some fun episodes, but Lost and Found in Translation was definitely the highlight.  The idea of the Rangers watching the Japanese version of the show was great, and it made for a funny and interesting program.  Dino Rangers is a good Ranger series, and this DVD has some good shows on it.  Recommended.