The total destruction of the Command Center in Season 2 would have been a catastrophic blow to the Rangers. Without Alpha 5 and Zordon’s guidance, the teens would have been completely cut off from their power grid, their Zords, and their ability to communicate globally. It would have essentially ended the show fifty episodes early.

The Rangers would have been forced into a guerrilla warfare scenario. Hiding out in Ernie’s Juice Bar or Billy’s garage, they would have had to rely solely on their martial arts skills to defend Angel Grove. We would have seen a much darker, grittier version of the show, with the teens exhausted, scared, and desperately trying to survive Zedd’s reign.

Zedd would have won a decisive, unambiguous victory. There would have been no deus ex machina to save the day. The citizens of Angel Grove would have been subjugated, and Earth would have fallen under tyrannical rule. The show would have had to completely reinvent itself as a resistance story, which was far beyond the scope of what Saban was trying to do at the time.

The recovery from this would have taken an entire season. Instead of getting new Zords in a two-parter, the Rangers might have spent ten episodes searching the globe for Zordon’s backup files or fragments of the Command Center. It would have shifted the focus from superhero action to a sci-fi survival thriller.

As much as I love dark, gritty reboots now, I’m glad they didn’t do this when I was a kid. Seeing Zordon and Alpha vaporized, and my heroes living in fear, would have given me nightmares. Zedd needed to be a terrifying threat, but a ten-year-old needs to believe the good guys can fix the base by the end of the episode.