Headscratchers / Power Rangers S.P.D.

• Why does the team seem more focused on destroying the Monster of the Week rather than actually making any arrests if they're supposed to be a police force?
  • "Destroying" the monster is how they arrest them, by making them too weak to avoid getting captured in the containment cards. The judgment scanners handle the entire trial process, so they don't need to do anything more.
• Just what happened to have Fowler Birdy so pissed off at Doggie Cruger? And why, if Birdy - the SPD Supreme Commander - was so mad at Doggie, was Doggie able to make it to the position of SPD Commander Earth Branch?
  • Birdy's an Obstructive Bureaucrat. What more do you need?
    • But apparently not so dumb as to let his personal feelings in the matter interfere with his assignment.
  • My pet theory is that Birdie was a perfectly competent low-level bureaucrat who sort of stumbled into Supreme Commandership more or less by accident when Sirius was sacked, killing off the (presumably mostly-Sirian) upper brass. He's resentful toward Doggie because he's got something to prove. I rather imagine everyone in SPD thinks Kruger would have made a better Supreme Commander. (Indeed, he may even resent Doggie for not taking over as supreme commander, forcing him in over his head. I can easily imagine Kruger turning the job down, given the healthy dose of survivor's guilt he was carrying) Remember, when Doggie came to Earth, it was 2001 or so, so Earth would have been kinda the boondocks, a good place to stick someone who has too much pull to just get rid of.
• Similarly, why did the Troobian Empire annihilate all of Sirius, but capture Isinya alive? What use did Omni have for her that not even Gruumm was allowed to know? And why wasn't Gruumm allowed to taunt Doggie with the fact that his wife was alive?
  • Sadistic bastards don't need no reason.
  • Given Gruumm's pathological hatred for Anubis, he likely kept her alive as a trophy.
• Why did A-Squad turn on the rest of the SPD? They said they wanted to be on the "winning team", but except for the Sirius disaster, there's not really any evidence that the Troobian Empire was having the SPD on the ropes.
  • Brainwashed by Onmi was my assumption.
    • Word of God says no, they were not brainwashed. Omni or Gruumm might have explained their plans to them and they thought it sounded good, or they might know something we don't. But Bridge thought there was something 'off' with their aura as early as the first episode.
  • My theory is that they were overwhelmed and defeated in a major battle, and Grumm pretty much offered them their lives for their servitude. Maybe at some point they just realized that Being Evil Feels Good.
• In SPD, who honestly thought it was a good idea to have a building full of people turn into a Zord? What happens to everyone trapped in it's limbs?
  • When the voice-over orders you to the safety zones, you'd better get there fast! I bet they've got drills for it or something. But the existence of safety zones means yeah, they thought of that.
  • The Sirians who began SPD and ran it until Sirius fell, most likely. Note that, save for two, they are all dead now. And one of those two is only alive due to enemy mercy/sadism.
    • They handwaved something about safety zones where they would run when it needed to transform. But still, let's put a building full of trainees in the line of fire and hope to god nobody scores a very lucky shot and wipe out the G Squad.
• Why in the world is an alien lifeform in charge of (and apparently unchecked on this front) protecting the Earth as a police-military commander? As of Once A Ranger, Doggie Cruger is the most powerful being in whatever scope SPD happens to have. The SPD Rangers have unlimited jurisdiction; the ones we saw were the "defenders of Earth" so what would normal Earth cops do if they went A-Squad? What would ANYONE do? Who does Cruger answer to, and what sort of system makes this anything less than a "benevolent" dictatorship? Let's say Cruger and Dr. Manx are compromised. Suddenly the entire jurisdiction of SPD is under the control of the Shadow Ranger (most powerful Ranger in existence) and his judgment scanner (used as the last form of determining guilt or innocence of a criminal; can be tampered with). What makes this different from any other alien warlord taking over the planet?
  • This line of thinking has came up before
    • Hey, that rocks pretty hard, and this guy brings up points I didn't even think of. Jack and Z came from a pretty bad part of town, and they probably grew up with people second-guessing them and believing all sorts of things about them. But they were still racist against Sophie. Also, we saw like three holding cells for the bad guys; one for Jack, one for Wootox, and one for Hanni—er, for Mirloc (funnily enough, the "making transportation of the perp a non-issue" thing would have worked pretty well for Wootox, eh Sky?) but never for other baddies, not even the A-Squad. Do they just get carded for life? Is this the predecessor to Time Force's indefinite freezing sentences?
    • With Doggie, I figure because it's an intergalactic organization, anyone can be stationed anywhere. It bugged me that Kruger was the only alien SPD Ranger.
    • Except for that one blue alien on A-Squad.
    • Maybe most aliens would rather stay at their own home planets.
• Speaking of Sophie, of all ways to make your Anvilicious racism episode, why did they make her so damned suspicious-looking? She did everything a person could possibly do to look like she was up to something, and when we find out what's going on, it turns out her keeping her secret nearly got everybody killed. She should thank Primus that she only was dismissed from SPD instead of thrown in jail. Then the next episode, we pretend the previous episode was about racism, and make sure we drop an anvil in every scene ever, each time being more and more glaring because you know the moral of the story should have been "if you want to get in good with your superiors, not endangering the entire freaking city helps just a little." My God, Kalish!
• At the end of S.P.D, how come Bridge puts up such a fuss about being promoted to A squad, but is totally okay with changing power sets from green to blue? The promotion to A squad is just a change in letter, it makes no difference. Changing powers means having to get used to new zords. Did he just really hate the colour green or something?
  • I think it was to do with the fact their predecessors were traitors, thus tainting the rank.
  • He made the statement while a green ranger before he knew Sky or himself were moving up in the chain of command. Furthermore even if Jack had stayed Bridge would have still been a green ranger. Making the above sentence the real reason.
• The SPD morphers are Sirian technology, though most of the operatives are human for obvious reasons. So, why is it that the default helmet design is shaped like a human head with a flat face, and the only Sirian example we see has doglike ears on that default humanshaped helmet, rather than a default doglike helmet modified for human use on the human operatives? Why would a doglike species design suits that require shapeshifting or squeezing for their own species to fit into?
  • I thought Kat created Cruger's morpher. Still doesn't explain why the helmet doesn't have a snout, but it was at least invented by someone with a more or less human shaped head.
    • Two words: Morphing Grid.
• So Kat tells Sky that he can't use the battlizer because it's only compatible with Red Ranger technology. WHY? Kat designed and created all the morphers (save for the Omega morpher) and the battlizer! The only reason that it wouldn't be compatible is if she deliberately designed it that way. Why would she do that? What is so special about the Red SPD powers that makes them so different from the others? The fact that it comes with two blasters instead of a sword? And I notice she didn't have this "compatability" issue when she modified the Delta Squad Megazord to combine with the Omega Max Cycle. Compare this to Samurai where Shogun Mode could be used by any ranger (save for Gold who developed his powers seperately, now that's a believable compatability issue!). So apparently samurai who lived centuries ago were making better battlizers that Kat in the year 2025! Apparently Kat is a sucky inventor...
  • Law of Chromatic Superiority. Battlizers are, generally speaking, a Red Ranger only privilege. Now, in Universe, there is no real explanation for it.
  • Budget? SPD is an official agency, so they must be tax funded in some way. Since the Red Ranger is officially the superior officer, it's likely the budget only allowed for one Battlizer and it was keyed to the senior officer on the team.
  • Senior officer, eh? I believe that would be Sky.
    • Superior, not senior. The Red suit has a number 1 as part of it, the Blue a number 2. As the Red, Jack is field leader of the squad. As such, within the squad his authority supersedes Sky's. Only Kruger has the authority to override him. Thus the term "Superior Officer", Jack says "toad" Sky starts hopping.
  • It's likely because only the Red Ranger is given authorization to use it because they're the team leader and thus can be trusted to use it as 'necessary force'. Like how only people of a certain military rank have authorization to make certain actions.
• So at the end of SPD Jack leaves and Sky is promoted to Red and Bridge to Blue. But why isn't Z promoted to Green and Syd to Yellow? It's unlikely to be a sexism thing because if it were then there would be no way they would've had the A-Squad Red Ranger be a woman.
  • My guess is that the way SPD's command structure works is that every team requires a Red Ranger as leader and a Blue Ranger as the second in command. All other colours are optional, so making Z Green and Syd Yellow wouldn't really count as a promotion.
    • That doesn't fit with the situation at the start of the season, where there is no Red until Jack joins.
    • It actually does. Sky was originally going to be the red ranger for b-squad until he failed Kruger's test of character in the first episode.
    • Besides, Syd commented pink is her favorite color the first time they morphed. Perhaps Z's favorite color is yellow then? granted, it would be a coincidence but it's a minor one.
• Just curious, but why is Sophie's full name often written with a forward slash? Does it mean her programme is a 2-in-1 hybrid (i.e. a processor AND an encryptor)?
• After the Sam appears as the Omega Ranger, why doesn't the present-day Sam appear again?
  • Never Shall The Selves Meet, perhaps?
  • To be fair, his present self didn't appear in any episodes before then, either. Presumably he was meant to be a Chehkov'sGunman, and nothing more.
• About Jack's birthday. He himself doesn't know it, but there are a number of reasons S.P.D should've been able to tell him:
  • They're an intergalactic police force with all the resources thereof.
  • Jack's parents were themselves S.P.D. (It's stated in one episode that all 5 of the S.P.D rangers had parents who were S.P.D. agents once).
  • Jack can't be older than his 20s, so the documents around his birth shouldn't be hard to find.
  • Cruger once saved Z when the latter was 12, so he easily could have found Jack.
• Why didn't the rangers arrest T-Top for what he did? He may have been a bounty hunter trying to catch a criminal, but he still committed several crimes, such as property damage, jaywalking, and, most importantly, assaulting a police officer. Realistically speaking, he should've have been arrested, even if found not guilty.
  • Jack does mention that he was forbidden from coming back to Earth after leaving with Hydrax's containment card. It's possible he was put through Judgement Mode, but SPD cut him some slack.
• Do all the imprisoned alien criminals get a life sentence? Ok, obviously Broodwing and Gruum are going to be lifers, but what about your average Monster of the Week? Do they get released eventually?
• At the end of the series, Bridge and Sky are both promoted when Jack retires, and inherit their predecessor's ranger colors as a result. If this is the case, and if the Yellow and Pink Rangers are handled the same way, what happens when a male reaches the Pink Power Ranger rank?
  • Real Men Wear Pink
• If Sky becomes Red and Bridge becomes Blue, who's Green? Also, who's Blue when Bridge is promoted to Red? Is it the person who was Green?
• Why do the Rangers morph individually in "Perspective"?