Part Five Power Rangers Q&A The Zords & Power Ranger Technology Question : The Zords- What are they? Who built them? How old are they? Answer : Ho! Man! One at a time! (Zack) They date back to the last fights between Rita and Zordon here on Earth, about 7000BC we think. They were designed by a team under Zordon and built by contractors. There is some evidence that human civilizations had something to do with their construction as well- and that throws our history books into a few conflicts. We've only just opened that can of worms. (Jason) The Zords are perpetual machines just like the command center here- they renew themselves using a complex series of teleporter and replication technologies- they are almost totally self repairing. This last feature theoretically should allow us to completely redesign the Zords without touching them physically. Perhaps the only part of them that doesn't repair itself is the mess Jason and Tommy leave behind. They must really clean up their act you know. We can't have Superheroes leaving juice containers and cake crumbs on the bridge of Megazord.. (Billy) Not! What rubbish! You know we can't eat or drink while we're in Morphed Mode! You're spinning stories again. We cannot enter the bridge of any zord without being morphed anyway. (Tommy) They seem perfectly adapted to trashing Rita's monsters- they were obviously designed for it. As for the similarity with Dinosaurs, as Billy said a while ago, it's necessary to understand this "thought dimension" thing to appreciate the similarities between our Zords and the ancient Dinosaurs. (Kimberly) There's bits of Zordon's stuff all over Earth. Apparently there are still a number of Zord machines we have not found or activated yet. (Trini) The Zords are stored in various places around the U.S. as everyone would know- except for the Saber Tooth Tiger which is stored in Africa. Once aroused, they move very fast. They typically take about 2 minutes to arrive from the time they are summoned. (Jason) They use a different style of teleportation to move themselves- called type one. Unlike the teleporter we use ourselves here, The one used by the Zords doesn't allow the transport of living tissue without killing it. We cannot be inside the Zords when they teleport from their storage places, even when we are molecularly transformed. (Billy) Sorry guys- he means when we're in morphed mode.. (Trini) The Saber Tooth Tiger is the only Zord we've had mechanical trouble with, ever. It seems to have a habit of bending itself, chassis and all. It was necessary to completely reconstruct it to fix the problem and Alpha has done it once but it isn't as hard as it sounds- nearly all the work is carried out from here by remote control. (Billy) Question: How are they controlled? Answer: It's much easier than anyone thinks. As Power Rangers it is our job to form strategy, not operate machines. They are like computer games to operate. There are dozens of prearranged sequences which each of our zords can undertake. These we suddenly knew when we became Power Rangers. Zordon calls it "Mutual Understanding" or something- it's one of the functions of our morphed mode. (Trini) Really all we are doing is issuing instructions to the zords to undertake prearranged sequences in an order which we select. In the case of Dragonzord this is usually done by full remote using the dragon dagger, but it still has a bridge if required. (Billy) The moves they have when assembled are so cool. They move just like a hip hop dancer, with stacks of speed- no jerky robot movements or nothing like that. I reckon I could have the Megazord doing the hip-hop kido if we tried. (Zack) The computer software systems which are in use to control the Zords are really the heart of their abilities- and it is unbelievably complex. None of us, not even Alpha or Zordon could hope to understand the zords to that level, so we all hope nothing ever goes wrong with the software command layers. It hasn't yet. It's very much a secret of the contractors who built them for Zordon.. and as far as we can tell they are still in existence but a very long way away in space and time- there's no way even using all the technology available to us, that we would ever be able to find them again. Earth really is out in the middle of nowhere it would seem- as far as space is concerned anyway. In all our travels we've never seen anyone else out there, only Rita 's establishment on the moon. Kimberly thinks she can jump that high. (Billy) Not! (Kimberly) Question: How are the Zords powered? Answer: That's a good one- its a long story! Go Billy- I'm going to get some drinks. (Jason) (Jason teleported away at this point and returned with some drinks about 5 minutes later). There are three basic power sources for the zords, solar power, the morphing grid, and physical reserves. Each type can supply about one third of the total Megazord's power capability. Solar power is obvious- the zords have extremely efficient surface coverings which convert light and heat to power. If you ever touch one you will find the surface extremely cold- that is why. Unfortunately when the sun goes down, or we operate the zords underwater, this power source is lost. The Morphing Grid can supply power direct to the Zords just like it powers us when we're morphed. It is continuous and reliable. The Physical reserves consist of static fusion reactor units in each zord, along with a stash of matter fuel which they regenerate when in storage by using their teleporters to grab material from their surroundings. That is why they are usually buried so deep in the ground or underwater- they literally consume the ground beneath them and fall into it. One project Zordon has been working on for a while is to teleport some earth back to their resting places, to prevent the massive craters that result. There's plenty of seawater for Dragonzord. The power is distributed within the zords using high voltage D.C. electricity- even the control panels operate at fifteen hundred volts D.C.- and the wiring is really thin, like optical fibers. It breaks all the time and just grows back. (Billy) 1 Ho! But when it does it's like HUGE sparks everywhere man. (Zack) The weapons on the zords are all massively over-rated. This is the reason why we form the Megazord- it gives us the ability to channel the full available power from all five zords into one weapon at a time. Each zord has an energy surplus of seventy percent over it's requirements. That means when we assemble Megazord the math works out at something like twelve hundred percent over capacity availability on a bright sunny day. More than enough to convince most of Rita's illusion animated monsters to eat dust. It's great- Goldar and Scorpina now know what Megazord can do. If we form it, they run away without even trying. (Billy) Question: What about the Power Sword and other weapons? Answer: The Power Sword is actually stored in Kimberly's Pterodactyl Zord, and when we call out "Power Sword" it is teleported about 1km into the sky and hurled back towards us through space- during which time it is able to collect a very large store of internal energy from the morphing grid. This energy is used to constantly replicate the blade within the sword- so no matter what we plunge it into, the blade will not falter until this energy runs out- which has only happened once. It's an almost passive device containing no mechanisms- that it works at all I still can't really understand. But it's our principle weapon which usually penetrates the force field of just about any of Finster's horrible creations. It can also be used to power Megazord itself when it becomes absolutely necessary. The other weapons are all fixed in the various zords, and as I said before, these can be fired with much more force when the zords are assembled together. (Billy) Question: What about the Carrier Zord, Titanus? Answer: Basically a huge traveling powerhouse. With the various zords assembled as the "Megadragonzord" we have the maximum amount of energy type weapons on our towering metal fortress. Joining it to Titanus provides a massive short term energy surplus- fifty thousand percent more than the separated zords themselves. This allows us to fire all the weapons at maximum power all at once. We use this where strategy favors it over use of the power sword- especially if the monster has a very hard external force field, or if there are several monsters fighting us. (Billy) Not quite right there.. Many of Finster's monsters have tricks attached which allow them to blow apart and reassemble- usually another beast inside the main monster. In these cases we can blow it up dozens of times and watch it reassemble- depleting our own reserves just as Rita wishes us to. These cases call for less brute force and more intelligence- we usually pack the zords up and come back here to think it over first. Sometimes that's very very hard to do- while we leave the fight scene, the monster does heaps of damage to Angel Grove- fortunately most of it is reversed when we finally destroy the monster. (Jason) Just on that subject- Virtually all direct damage done by any of Rita's monsters is temporary if the monster can be destroyed. The illusion only lasts as long as the monster itself- but it's real enough until the monster is destroyed. Unfortunately "third party" damage is not reversed. For example, if one of Rita's beasts knocks the top off a building, and that piece hits another building on it's way down- the original damaged building is restored once we destroy the monster, but the other building which was damaged by the falling piece is not- this damage is permanent. (Billy) Ho! The damage done by the Putties isn't an illusion mate! I've hobbled home dozens of times bruised after un-morphed putty fights. Then there's the endless questions from Mum and Dad, they think I'm starting to get beat up at school or something. I tell them about the putties, I think they've stopped believing me. "Why do they always attack you" they ask. And I can't tell them why, of course. (Zack) Question: How DO you maintain them? Answer: As we have stated before, our technology here is based on the ability to manipulate matter within machines by using the teleporter. It's like the ultimate Computer Aided Manufacture. Of all the materials which go together to make the Zords, virtually all can be replicated by the teleporter. The one percent which cannot, is usually located on the bridge of each zord anyway, and so it's rarely a problem. The Zords have their own teleporter for the task, but we can use the one here for more complex investigation or redesign work. Alpha is the expert on that. (Billy) What Billy is trying to say is that without the Teleporter here, the Power Rangers would not exist.. (Trini) The only problem is that this process involves the conversion of energy back to matter- and if you know Einstein's law then you know how much energy this requires. So to carry out the works often takes a long time while the energy reserves of the morphing grid catch up. This is why we often have to let the Zords lay over for twelve hours or more after a major fight to let them repair themselves. When we take you to see T-Rex which we'll do later, you will immediately notice that there are virtually no service access points anywhere on the machinery. No screws, hatches or panels. It is impossible to service the internal workings of the Zords any other way than by using the teleporter. Since there is no need to allow for access to any of the components of the Zords, then it is possible to pack fantastic amounts of extremely high powered machinery inside them. None of the materials are anything like those we use here on Earth, they are all hybrid alloys and combinations of elements, most of which do not even appear on my table of elements from school. It's a whole new approach to technology, completely different to anything I've ever seen here on earth. The Command Center, the Morphers and our Weapons are all the same. The Zords have literally thousands of primary field generators- so the weight and center of gravity is forever being artificially shifted around the outer frame, under the control of the command software. (Billy) Power Rangers Technology Question: What about this "Power Rangers Technology" then? Answer: A few days after we first became Power Rangers, I started asking Alpha 5 all these questions, and he showed me a book which was under the panel there. I was amazed that it was written in English - I still can't work out why this is so. The book is like an encyclopedia, but it explains about the thought dimension- and most of the technology here. The thought dimension is simply another dimension in this universe just like time or space - you can measure it and move in it, in fact that is exactly what is happening to all of us at night when we dream. It's not magic, it's quantifiable and totally reliable. There are alot of scientific formulae which Earth scientists have got wrong, because they do not include measurements in the thought dimension. When you include them it becomes easy just like most other math. I've been using the book as a basis for my scientific experiments at home, to learn. It gets really crazy sometimes between me and other scientists. They simply won't believe what they see! Not long ago our school had a science fair. I helped four friends with projects as well as submitting my own, and in ALL of them I used what could be called power rangers technology. No-one even turned an eye! Here was the technology right in front of their eyes and they couldn't care. I was that close from teleporting away from right in front of the judges to try and convince them they were wrong! I don't think they would have blinked if I did, their minds were so closed. I got marked down in my project because they thought a few formulae were wrong. They weren't wrong- they were complete! And the thing worked right in front of their eyes but they still didn't care. I am pretty satisfied that "Power Rangers Technology" as it is referred to will never be considered by Earth's scientific community- it's just too bizarre and different for stuffy university corridors. (Billy) Question: What developments have you made using this advanced technology? Answer: Well the first one was the Communicators, which are really quite simple adoptions of ordinary electronic circuits to transmit signals outside the time domain. They work with the teleporter unit installed here in the command center, and we use it to teleport either here, or to coordinates that Alpha can calculate. The Communicators are so low tech that even Rita does not know how they function. Unfortunately they do not work in her dark dimension which has put us power rangers in compromised situations in the past. The teleporter locks onto our power morphers for coordinates. The Rad Bug is another simple development. It's nothing special, just a normal car with a primary field generator inside, which can surround the car. The program for it runs on an old '286 in the front boot. The primary field generator is an electrical device which can interact with gravity fields in the same way as magnets and electricity are related, except that there's another dimension to be measured known as "movement of atomic structure". The Zords use the same system, but much, much more sophisticated controls. Alpha 5 helped me with it as well. (Billy) Then there was his stupid mind reader! (Kimberly) It wasn't stupid at all. (Billy) What do you mean? It swapped our brains for a whole day. OOh! Living inside Billy's body. It made morphing feel like a Sunday picnic in the park. (Kimberly) Well living in yours' was a bit daunting too- an experience I will never ever erase from my memory. The experiment was my first attempt at studying the morphing process itself- how our coin and crystal signatures are somehow transferred to our morphed bodies. It was supposed to allow either of us to think about the other and read information from each other's signatures. Instead it swapped them. The really strange thing is that it worked on Bulk and Skull as well- and they're not Power Rangers. (Billy) Question: Have you abandoned the mind swap experiment now? Answer: No, not exactly- but I have stopped using that apparatus. It's too hazardous to experiment on aspects like that outside the command center. It's too easy for Rita to interfere with my equipment at home- that's what I'm sure happened with Kimberly and Me. I detected traces of Squatt's footprints outside on the driveway that night- so if I have any risky experiments I do them here now, or not at all. (Billy) Question: How can you teleport? How does that work? Answer: That panel there (Billy points to a panel in the center) is the Teleporter Unit, which is part of this Command center. It uses a scheme known as "Type 2 Teleportation" which transfers any matter out of time and space, represented only in the thought and atomic dimensions. because it is outside time, we don't die when we teleport. The unit then swaps the air in the destination with our body from the place we teleported from and well- there we are! There is also a fancy hologram projection unit in there which creates that fancy lightning effect and noise when we teleport- otherwise we would just vanish into thin air. Zordon says it's more theatrical to have it in there, and that it can help to confuse the putties sometimes. (Billy) Besides, it looks really, really cool and- so '90s. It suits my image perfectly. (Kimberly) The circuits are electronic, and as far as I can tell, fairly simple. I have been able to teleport things across my garage at home using a teleporter I built purely from parts from Angel Grove Radio Surplus- there's an experiment in the book about it. All I have to do now is to work out how the coordinate system works. The one here in the center is tied into our power morphers, but I want to work out a system which is independent of that- one which can be used totally outside our Power Rangers setup. Maybe I can sell the rights.. then again, maybe not. (Billy) You'll have to spend a few years convincing Zordon of that one. (Kimberly) COPYRIGHT 1994 PAUL MATTHEWS SYDNEY AUSTRALIA UNLICENSED DRAFT NOT FOR PUBLICATION, CIRCULATION OR SALE TERMS AND LIKENESSES COPYRIGHT TO SABAN ENTERTAINMENT INC. USA.