A/N 1: It's the next installment of the T5RYCB Ranger Series. This time, we go to the Dino Thunder series and look at the actions of one Trent Fernandez-Mercer.
A/N 2: You know the drill...Power Rangers belongs to Saban and formerly Disney as well, and T5RYCB and your new host Jonathan "The Coach" Coachman (formerly of WWE fame) belong to ESPN.
Chapter 1 - Case Against Trent, Best of Rest
(Show comes on the air and music starts playing)
"Well I hope there is (a good explanation for his actions), because if not, I'll have to ask Trent to surrender his morpher, and give up being a Power Ranger," Dr. Thomas Oliver says
"Coming up on the Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame..." your new host, Jonathan Coachman, says
"I honestly never trusted the guy while we were Rangers," Conner McKnight says. "How can he trap Dr. O in amber, hurt us so badly AND not tell us Mesogog was his father?"
"He was one of my co-workers at Cyberspace, but some of Trent's actions, I felt, were not worthy of him being a Ranger for as long as he was," Hayley said.
"I'm biased because I'm Tommy's husband, but if I was in the same room as Trent after he encased Tommy in amber, I'd have had the temptation to strangle him," Kimberly Hart-Oliver says.
(Montage of Ranger moments starts playing, as does the show's theme, then the logo appears followed by Coachman)
"Hello again everybody, I'm The Coach, and welcome to the Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame Ranger Series, a series that takes a fresh look at Power Ranger topics and controversies which have been largely popular since the show started in 1993. Our mission is not to vilify the subject of these controversies, simply to take a look at the positive side of what they did. You will hear evidence and testimony from all characters. All you need is an open mind. In this show, we take a look at one of the most polarizing evil Rangers in history, that being the White Dino Thunder Ranger, Trent-Fernandez Mercer, who made many decisions, good and evil, that are still questioned today. We're going to count down the top 5 reasons you can't blame Mercer for his actions, but first, let's revisit Mercer's history as the White Dino Thunder Ranger and why some still have a chip on their shoulder about the White Dino Gem holder."
(Tape of Trent rolls, fully morphed and fighting the other Rangers)
"Tommy as the evil Green Ranger did some nasty things," Kimberly Hart-Oliver says. "But Trent was just as tough, and in my opinion took things too far. I hadn't rejoined Tommy yet, wouldn't till after he beat Mesogog but I saw some of the things he did live. It was brutal."
"Though they'd had their ups and downs through the early part of their run as Dino Thunder Rangers, including leader Conner McKnight leaving and then returning to the team, through the first number of battles the team held its own and beat back every challenge that came their way," Coach says. "In that time they bonded with their gems, added Dr. Oliver as a fourth member of the team, pried control of the Dimetro Zord Egg from Mesogog, and beat Zeltrax's son Goldenrod."
"Everything was going pretty well, or so it seemed," Dr. Oliver said. "But knowing my history as a Ranger, I've learned it's never that easy."
"His suspicions would be correct, because not long after the Rangers beat Goldenrod, Trent Fernandez-Mercer, a worker at Hayley's Cyberspace, happened to be transported into Mesogog's fortress through an invisiportal and bonded with the White Dino Gem. There was just one problem though," Coach said
"Unfortunately, it seemed that Mesogog and Elsa reconstructed the Gem, much like Rita Repulsa twisted Tommy's Green powers to start," Kira McKnight said. "With that in mind, the Gem had a mind of its own and corrupted Trent whenever it wanted."
"As the evil White Ranger, Mercer wrecked havoc on all parties involved: Rangers, Reefside, even Mesogog's forces," Coach said. "In particular he took on all four Rangers at once, obtained the Drago Zord, stole the Stego Zord, and maybe most devastating of all his early actions, trapped Dr. Oliver in amber which, eventually, nearly cost him his life."
"You know, normally it would stop there with an evil Ranger," the woman formerly known as Divatox said. "I've seen them all. When dear old Tommy joined the originals, that was where his actions ended. With Trent it actually got worse because of what happened AFTER he was freed from the spell."
"Those actions included Zeltrax making an evil clone of Mercer, and maybe most importantly, the White Ranger even after being turned, never told Dr. Oliver or the other Rangers of Mesogog's real identity, his father Anton, until much later down the line," Coach says. "With Trent's help, the Rangers beat Mesogog eventually, but the mistrust towards Mercer continued through the very last fight."
"Tommy gave Trent the chance to explain himself, and he did. He had his reasons for not telling that team who Mesogog was, but I still personally believe that to be a big mistake," Andros of KO-35 said. "If I was in charge of that team, I'd have booted him out the door immediately and I told Tommy as much."
"I had a thing for Trent at one point, but the thing is he had so much baggage," Kira said. "I'm glad he was on my team, but if he hadn't had so much baggage, history might look different."
"Even as a villain...some of Trent's actions gave a lot of us old-schoolers cause to pause. None of us ever trapped Dr. Oliver in amber like Trent did and he wasn't even working for that dino-faced freak that was fighting them," King Mondo said. "And as a father, I would hope that Sprocket would never be that stupid to keep anything from us like that White Ranger was."
(Tape finishes playing as the evidence against Trent ends)
"The evidence against Trent is piled very high, and in some circles he is seen in even more of a controversial light than the first evil Ranger, the famed Dr. Oliver," Coach said. "We're going to count down the top 5 reasons you can't blame Trent for his actions, but first here are some reasons that didn't make the cut. We call them the Best of the Rest."
(A tape rolls of Trent talking to Kira by the lake)
"Good Intentions," Coach said. "Not long after Trent encased Tommy in the very amber that would eventually lead to his near destruction, it was Trent that made a sacrifice that he believed would benefit the team."
"He not only told me he was the White Ranger," Kira said, "but he also told me that he had to leave the city, that he felt it was too dangerous to stay. It was obvious that in the goodness of his heart, he cared."
"As much as some of Trent's actions make us want to strangle him, some of his actions directly reflect some of the things Tommy did in and around his first stint as the Green Ranger," Jason Scott said. "That was one of them, Trent leaving the city. He cared so much that he didn't want any of his teammates hurt."
(Tape then rolls of an invisiportal in Mercer's home)
"Another Best of the Rest, Coincidences. It just so happened that Trent was in his father's office when Anton opened an invisiportal to Mesogog's home base. When Trent followed, that's where the trouble began," Coach said.
"If Trent is anywhere else but my office on that day...maybe history looks a little kinder on him," Anton Mercer says. "Sometimes you just so happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time."
"Sometimes, fate just happens like that, like 12-year-old Justin stumbling upon the Rangers' identity when Rocky got hurt," Jen Scotts-Collins says. "Fate wasn't kind to Trent, and wasn't kind to me for a long time, but it's been unkind, or kind whatever you prefer, to other Rangers before."
"Coming up next, we'll begin our countdown, and we'll look at the evil Ranger legacy and what it has to do with Trent's legacy," Coach said.
"If I was going to kick Trent off the team, then I probably would have had to kick myself off because I did a lot of the same things Trent did when I was his age. And I was just the beginng of the evil line of Rangers," Dr. Oliver said.
(Music plays as segment ends)
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