Power Rangers The Version of In Space We Never Got

This, like T.J. being the Red Ranger instead of Andros, removes a core element of the series. Spoiler for a nearly 25-year-old show, but part way through the season Astronema was revealed to be Andros’ sister! With Divatox in place, In Space would have lost a major part of what made it so memorable to fans.

How would Divatox have fit into things? We know she would have been working for Dark Specter but her over the top personality might have clashed with the more powerful leader of evil. Maybe the character would have gotten a new lease on life, especially if her supporting cast of villains were jettisoned. Ecliptor being called Divatox’s new second-in-command seems to imply that Elgar, a general in Turbo and Divatox’s nephew, would have been jettisoned from the show. At the very least, he would have played a minor supporting role as he did in the final version of In Space. Without a wacky supporting cast, Divatox might have lost some of her comedy and played a bit more serious. As interesting as that would have been, Divatox’s humor is what made her so memorable so it’s for the best that Astronema was brought in.

The documents also lay out a new group of henchmen that would have joined the season, “purple putties.” These were undoubtedly a temp name for the “Kunekune” foot soldiers from Megaranger. At this point it looks like the production had planned on utilizing them more extensively than In Space eventually did, where they were mostly dropped in favor of the US original Quantrons.

The biggest big bad of the season though is Dark Specter. While the outline for the episodes makes him appear similar to his final version, he would have featured a very different appearance. The character as aired reused the Maligore villain suit from Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie with a quick lampshade by Divatox to explain away the similarity. The proto version of the season lays out that the suit they planned to use was that of the lead villain from Carranger, the previous Sentai season. Exhaus. 

The documents describe Dark Specter as, “the Monarch of Evil is an enormous floating head. It is bigger than the platform, bigger than the whole mountain. His breath alone causes a strong wind to blow over the surface of the platform.” This is a fairly accurate description of Exhaus, further supported by a mention from production that, “his image is available on the Turbo footage (cars).” Ultimately the Exhaus monster suit would get used as Goldgoyle, the final villain that wiped out the Turbo Rangers’ megazords. More than likely the Maligore suit was used in its place because it looked more menacing.

An Unseen Megazord

This isn’t just an unseen part of In Space, it was unseen in Megaranger as well! Alongside designs for the other Megazords of the season, including the Cosmotron Megazord, an early name for the Mega Voyager, is a design for a Megazord that never made it past the development stage. The Stratoforce Megazord. A Megazord made of only one component Zord, this may have been an early idea that was most likely scrapped in favor of the Mega Winger, the Silver Ranger’s Megazord. The name was later reused for one of the Zords in Lost Galaxy.

Source: Den of Geek

Share this post