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SUMMARY

In the latter part of the 21st century, alien ambassadors Waldo and Zozo journey to Earth, seeking aid from the human race.  They tell them about the Queen of the Crown, leader of a vast military empire that has subjugated a large portion of the galaxy.  In return for their assistance, they give the human race hyper drive technology, enabling them to expand across the universe.  In addition to providing military support, the Bureau of Extra Terrestrial Affairs (BETA) creates the Galaxy Rangers to patrol the lawless space lanes.

Many years ago, the Earth government created a group of genetically engineered men and women called "Supertroopers".  These superior humans were each given bio-defenses that enabled them to adapt to any situation.  Samples of the genetic formula nicknamed "Supertrooper Juice" have become highly coveted items by the criminal community.  Tracking down these illegal samples keeps the Rangers quite busy.

Galaxy Ranger Shane Gooseman, last of the "Supertroopers", has proven himself time and time again by using his abilities to get his teammates out of trouble.  All that accounts for nothing when he is accused of stealing a powerful weapon from the Longshot research lab.  Now he and his team must go rogue to find the real culprit before Gooseman suffers the same fate of the other Supertroopers.

DVD VISION TEST

VIDEO: This is one sharp looking transfer, the best Galaxy Rangers has ever looked. There are no pixels, but there are some wrinkling and digital rainbows during the action segments.  It doesn't look like much clean up has been done, but I don't see any of the typical splices or garbage that normally clutter up a release this old.  It's certainly better than my VHS copies!

AUDIO: The English 2.0 and 5.1 are pretty evenly matched.  Both have fairly decent directionality, but nothing spectacular.  Naturally, the 5.1 is louder than the 2.0, but not by much.

EDITS: The eye catches from the broadcast versions have been removed, but other than that, no edits have been made.

EXTRAS: Just some text information about the characters, and a preview of other Galaxy Ranger releases.

WIDESCREEN REVIEW

STORY: The stories in Galaxy Rangers cover the gambit from action/adventure, to family drama, to comedy, and back again.  While some of the plots are a little silly, and the dialogue is ,at times, horribly dated,  it still is one of the best fusions of Japanese and American animation ever to grace our TV screens.

ACTING:  The acting is pretty good, although in the earlier episodes, the cast was a little stiff.  The booming voice of the late Jerry Orbach was perfect for stoic family man and hero Zachary Fox.  Doug Pries does a pretty good Clint Eastwood impression for Shane Gooseman, yet he managed to keep the youthful edge of the character.  Laura Dean is cute as space babe Niko, and veteran voice actress Corinne Orr does a great "queen bitch of the universe" voice for the Queen of the Crown.  

FAN SERVICE: Hey, this was 80's television, so none of that stuff here.  There are plenty of references to classic science fiction, as well as 1960's westerns.

CONCLUSION:

Back in the 1980's, an animated series called "The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers" hit the airwaves.  Going beyond a simple toy cartoon, "Galaxy Rangers" ran the gambit from serious drama, to comic book fair.  Now, it's out on DVD for everyone to enjoy.

This volume starts with episode 4 of the series "Chained".  This episode introduces one of the main bad guys of the series, Macross (no, not the SDF-1) leader of the "Black Hole Gang".  It is also the first episode of Anne, one of the many ladies that have a thing for our blond Supertrooper Shane Gooseman.  It's a pretty typical western take-off, as Shane tries to avoid The Black Hole Gang, and rescue Anne's town at the same time.

Next up is "Mindnet" which gives us some tantalizing glimpses into the past of our beloved Shane Gooseman and the Supertroopers.

Killbane, one of the few "surviving" Supertroopers steals Mindnet, a device with amazing psychic potential.  Killbane frames Gooseman for the crime, giving the Rangers only 24 hours to recover it before Gooseman is arrested.  Along with Killbane, we meet Senator Wyner, an arrogant and brutish politician who doesn't bother to hide his disgust for Gooseman and the Supertroopers.  One of BETA's greatest opponents, he relishes any chance he can to dismantle the Galaxy Rangers, and put Gooseman in the freezer.

The last two episodes "Smuggler's Gauntlet"  and "Birds of a Feather" sends the "Galaxy Rangers" on two separate missions to recover illegal samples of Supertrooper Juice before they fall into the hands of the queen. 

"Smuggler's Gauntlet", one the more entertaining episodes of the series, has the Rangers go all over the universe, from "Tortuna" to a Queen of the Crown's transport in their drive to stop "Overboss", who has the unique honor of being the only villain not to return in a future episode.  While thin on plot, it is full of action, quips, and some nice animation.

"Birds of a Feather" is more comedic in tone than "Smuggler's Gauntlet".  A memory bird, stolen from the Queen in the episode "Tortuna" has been uploaded with the formula for "Supertrooper Juice".  Now the race is on, with just about every criminal in the series, from Daisy Omega to The Queen herself out to capture the bird.

Wait a minute, who the hell is Daisy Omega?

This is a good time to yet again point out my dissatisfaction of the presentation of "Galaxy Rangers".   My biggest gripe is the decision by Koch Vision not to show the episodes in production order.  While the series was mostly episodic in nature, many of the later episodes build on the ones that came before it.  For example, in "Birds of a Feather" is chock full of references and characters that were introduced in other episodes.  The memory bird from "Tortuna", Daisy Omega from "Renegade Rangers", Moxie and Miller from "One Million Emotions", the list goes on.  Would it have killed them to go in order?  Personally, I just don't think they really cared.  They knew that suckers like me were going to pay for it, and low and behold, I did.  If we are lucky, they will release it in a boxset, in correct order.

On the technical side, the video quality is decent, but it could have been better.  Same with the audio.  The menus are slow, and annoying, and the pitiful extras are just down right insulting.  Also, for some reason, when you select "Play" from the main menu, it only plays the "Mindnet and "Birds of a Feather" episodes.  To watch "Chained" and "Smuggler's Gauntlet" you have to go to the episodes menu.  Is there anyone at Koch Vision that does quality control?

While the presentation of "Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers: Chained" could be better, I am still ecstatic that this great series has been released on DVD.  I just hope that Koch Vision improves on things the next time around. 

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