SUMMARY:
[Recap of "Flashes Of Darkonda," "The Rangers' Mega Voyage," & "True Blue To The Rescue"]
Ashley blows out the candles on her birthday cake (roughly 18 of them), amid a birthday party thrown by her Ranger friends in Angel Grove park. Ash makes a wish, and while she can't tell us, Cassie hints that she figures it involves Andros, who is sitting by himself nearby. Ash thanks everyone for the gifts they gave her, including a fire extinguisher from Carlos. She then goes over to give Andros a piece of cake (Carlos' complains it was his corner), and he explains that KO-35 doesn't celebrate birthdays. She didn't expect him to give her anything, but he has something for her anyway. She opens the small box Andros hands her, and in it contains a small, golden arrow shaped necklace, with a rare KO-35 gem in the middle. Ash loves it, and as they hug, she winks to Cassie, haven finally gotten groped by Andros (or close to it)! Elsewhere on the Dark Fortress, Dark Specter informs Astronema that the Rangers are getting too close to finding Zordon and if she doesn't stop them soon she'll be in deep lava. Astronema has a plan to get onboard the Megaship, using the aptly named Body Switcher monster. Body Switcher shows off its impressive talents of transforming itself into many unnamed monsters (most recycled from Beetleborgs), as well as a few dance moves! Astronema wants herself turned into a Ranger, and the end results is into birthday girl herself, Ashley Hammond (We'll call this form "Astrley" from now on)! Astrley takes some Quantrons & Ecliptor and heads to Earth for some fun!
[opening credits]
Ashley & Cassie walk through the park, talking about Ash's crush on Andros. While in the middle of topical discussion about Andros not having much time to date in space, Ashley is grabbed by some Quantrons! Cassie realizes Ash is no longer walking with her, and when she goes back to find Ashley, she instead is greeted by Astrley! The evil Ashley lookalike begins leading Cassie off away from the scene of the alien abduction, when Ashley makes her getaway from Quantron clutches. Ash is stopped by Ecliptor before she can scream for help, although Cassie thinks she heard something and go back to investigate. Astrley has to make do with distracting her, by snapping her fingers and calling forth a gang of Q-Trons. Cassie's attention turns back to the facade fight, just in time to miss Ashley's last attempt to escape from Ecliptor before he teleports her away. Cassie gets into a heated battle with the metallic warriors, while Astrley unenthusiastically hits a few Q-Trons, trying to play up a battle, watching Cassie spin off some kicks and punches. In the middle of the whole act, a Quantron gives Astrley a strong blow to the chest, which ticks the princess of evil off royally, so she sends that Quantron flying across the park with a power punch! Finally, Astrley calls off the army of robots, leaving Cassie dumbfounded as to what they wanted. Time to head up to space in the Megaship, much to the Ashley disguised Astronema's delight (it seems she swiped the real Ash's Astro Morpher as well). Once aboard and in Megaship uniform, Astrley goes looking for the engine room. DECA overhears Astrley thinking out loud and tells her it's on Megadeck 6, but poor DECA gets fried soon after by Astrley's finger bolt. She doesn't get far before Cassie spots her and needs help fixing a few things in the work bay. Astrley's time is of the essence and she spares none of it when she pulls out her Wrath Staff behind the unaware Cassie's back, ready to attack!
[commercials]
Carlos is working out on a gravity weight machine, when Astrley drops in to see if he needs any help. He wants a few more weights added into the computer system, but being evil and all she adds more than he can handle, pinning him down. She then whips out her Wrath Staff, obviously going to cause some pain on our Black Ranger. Meanwhile in another dimension, Ashley is tied up on a tree, listening to Body Switcher's nonstop babbling about it's powers. More Beetleborgs suits get recycled in his own display of mighty morphing. Hearing Elgar approach, Ash finally decides to use some reverse psychology into tricking Body Switcher into changing her into Astronema. Body Switcher does so, to prove that he can, when idiotic Elgar shows up, thinking she's the real Astronema. Ashtronema (as we'll call her in this form, keeping up?) goes with the flow and demands Elgar untie her. While Elgar & Body Switcher are arguing, Ashtronema sneaks off. Back on the Astro Megaship, Astrley angrily bumps into Alpha 6, whom is trying to give her a birthday present. Alpha is oblivious to her genuine badness and gives her the gift before bouncing off down the hallway. Astrley opens it to find a ceramic statue, which winds up and plays music. This puzzles her, as no one has ever truly been nice to her before. The moment doesn't last long before she dumps the statue in the refuse shoot. On the bridge, Andros & TJ are alerted to a surveillance problem on the ship (that being Astrley's sabotaging). Andros tries contacting the others to go check it out, but no one answers. Teej goes off to look for them, and finds one of DECA's cameras fried. Down on Megadeck 4, Astrley is hauling a stunned Carlos into a room to hide. TJ finds her after finishing the job, and although she tries getting him out of there, Teej finds Carlos in the room just recovering from Astrley's blast, when of course Astrley pulls out the old Wrath Staff and prepares to attack TJ from behind without warning. Once she finishes tying up the four Rangers, Astrley heads up to the bridge of the Megaship to take care of Andros. He still can't figure out where the others are, but when he goes off to look for them, Astrley causes stock footage of Sting King to pop on the monitor. Despite DECA sensing no monster attacking Earth, Andros & Astrley prepare to go down to check it out. Astrley doesn't fare well in the jump tubes, and lands flat on her stomach while telemorphing down to Earth. Andros can find nothing out of the ordinary going on as far as monsters go, but little does he know, Astrley has an Astro Blaster pointed at his head behind him! She's about to fire, when Ashtronema makes the scene, claming that the Yellow Ranger is not who she appears to be!
[commercials]
Ashtronema continues trying to reason with Andros about the mix-up situation, but Astrley jumps into fighting with her, trying to throw off any revelations. Back on the Megaship, Alpha 6 wanders into the right area and finds the Rangers tied upside down in a storage bay! On Earth, Red Ranger fiercely fights with Ashtronema, who doesn't want a battle! In-between punches and kicks, she tries getting Andros to believe that she's the real Yellow deal. Ash plays her trump card, by asking Yellow Ranger what he got her for her birthday. Astrley has no clue, but much to Andros' surprise, Ashtronema knows the details! Astrley jumps the gun and fires her Astro Blaster at Andros, who then fires back, hitting and reverting Astrley back into Astronema. He makes a mad dash for the fallen Astro Morpher, but while scrambling for it, Astronema gets into a battle with her good lookalike! Which one is which? Not even Ecliptor & Body Switcher know, as they teleport nearby. Clippy's not very happy at the mix-up Switchy caused. Pink, Blue & Black Rangers show up finally, but get a case of double vision watching the two black leather villains attacking each other! Who's who? Andros yells out to Ashley, shows her the Morpher and yells "Let's Rocket." One quickly does all the correct arm movements, and the question is answered. Ashtronema runs over to her Ranger friends as Astronema plays spoil sport by storming off. As a good-bye gift she calls Body Switcher in to attack before she teleports away. Body Switcher starts to fight, and Ashtronema uses her Yellow Morpher, just in time to help the others out. On the Dark Fortress, Astronema is grabbed by Elgar who still thinks it's Ashley in disguise. Ecliptor sets him straight and Astronema fires Satellasers down to make Body Switcher get a body boost! The Rangers call for Mega V transformation mode, and Mega Voyager powers up and comes together. Body Switcher, armed with a sickle, starts up the usual monster of the day battle. Mega Voyager uses what looks to be the Astro Megazord's power saber, in conjunction with a little energy boost of course. All the sword and sickle slicing makes way for Mega V3 missile mode, giving Body Switcher an out of body experience! Once again in the Dark Fortress, Astronema suffers another defeat, and brushes it off as a useless monster. Elgar makes a crack to a Q-Tron that he liked Ashtronema better, when Astronema gives Elgar a small purple lightning blast in his butt.
[commercials]
On the Megaship, The Rangers are in the work bay at their lockers, still morphed but without helmets, except Ash who is worried she might be stuck with Astronema's body still. With all of her friends watching, she removes her helmet to find her old birthday girl self. Everybody (including herself) are glad to have her back. During the happy reunion, Andros sneaks off. Ashley wants to thank him for the necklace, but is baffled by his disappearance. Andros sneaks down to Megadeck 6, and in a secret compartment in the Engine Room, he presses a few buttons on a keypad, revealing a hidden chamber. Inside it, lies a darkened room with a mysterious frozen tube at the center. Above it lies a life signs monitor, Andros stands there quietly, as the machine beeps in steady rhythm
[scenes from "Survival Of The Silver" (sometimes omitted); end credits]
_BLOOPERS:_
[First :10 seconds never shown]; Ash drops Carlos' corner of the cake on the ground; Cassie runs around like a maniac while battling Quantrons; Carlos sticks his tongue out for all the world to see.
