VR Troopers Episode 16 No One's Friend

Well hello there everybody welcome to another Magic Happy VR Troopers Review, and today we are looking at No One’s Friend written by Mark Litton, and directed by Worth Keeter

So we start off with today’s “My dad taught me” moment where Ryan talks about how his dad told him it was important to keep your friends close.

Then we see Ryan at the Underground Voice Daily when some stereotypical masked thug tries to get him from behind but he flips over the thug, and pins him down to the delight of Kaitlin, Woody, and various other reporters.

Then Ryan pulls up the thug who’s really JB, and it turns out the whole thing was just an act to promote free self defense classes at Tao dojo, and Woody wants every reporter to show up, and wants Kaitlin to do a story on it.

Just then Mrs. Rooney shows up with another stereotypical nerdy looking guy, and goes up to Woody, and it turns out that the nerdy looking guy is Mrs. Rooney’s spoiled nephew Percival Rooney who despite his protest will henceforth simply be called Percy.

Mrs. Rooney wants Woody to hire Percy but Woody initially doesn’t want to until Mrs. Rooney brings up how much they paid for campaign ads so Woody begrudgingly hires him but passes Percy off to Kaitlin.

Meanwhile at Ziktor industries Ziktor is talking to a random young Asian man who’s obviously one of his Skugs in human form, and tells him to infiltrate the self defense class, and spar with JB, and Kaitlin, and we see the Skug holding some green energy between his hands.

Then the Skug leaves, and Ziktor transforms into Grimlord, and goes to the virtual dungeon where he, and Ivar, and Icebot explain the evil plan of the day which is that when the Skug touches JB, and Kaitlin it will infect them with a spell from today’s monster a white robot with shoulder mounted guns named Polarbot, and put them under Polarbot’s control turning them against Ryan.

Later at the self defense class Ryan, JB, and Tao are helping out the people who came while Kaitlin takes pictures, Percy takes notes, and Grimlord’s stares menacingly (though it looks more like he’s stoned).

Then we get a comedy bit where Percy tries to get out of participating in the class by claiming he has a topaz belt but Tao quickly calls out his bluff

While it’s the Skugs turn to spar with JB, and when JB bows the Skug kicks him into Kaitlin infecting both of them with Polarbot’s spell, and when Ryan tries to catch the Skug but fails then we see the spell is working because Tao tries to offer some tea, and they tell him it’s new age hippy bullshit.

Then Grimlord asks Polarbot to have JB, and Kaitlin fight Ryan while we can see S, and K the two female villains from Metalder who weren’t adapted (unless you count spiritually as Ziktor’s secretaries) because they couldn’t be passed off as robots in the background if you look hard enough.

Then JB starts insulting Ryan claiming that if he was in charge they would have found his dad already, and proceeds to fight Ryan while Kaitlin cheers on, and Tao tries to get them to stop, and everyone else just watches, and Ryan pins JB, and JB, and Kaitlin just leave.

Later at the Underground Voice Daily Ryan is confused by what’s happened to JB, and Kaitlin so he, and Jeb go to see Kaitlin who’s eating cake with Percy listing off how he’s allergic to everything then we get a comedy bit with Jeb causing Percy to get cake on his face.

Then Kaitlin yells at Ryan for bringing over Jeb, and Ryan apologizes, and aske Kaitlin what’s wrong, and she says the same thing as JB which is that they’re tired of taking orders from Ryan, and Ryan wants to talk to JB to get this sorted out, and Kaitlin decides to take Ryan to JB who’s out in the middle of nowhere, and it turns out to be a trap to get Ryan ambushed by Skugs.

First one tries to kick Ryan but he kicks it then two more try to kick him but he blocks, and punches one while kicking the other, then a Skug comes after him but he throws it away, and kicks it while he wonders why JB, and Kaitlin aren’t helping.

Then he kicks one Skug, flips over another, and then kicks, and punches the third then pins one down punches, and kicks away another, and then punches one before flipping it over on the first one destroying them so Grimlord decides to take the fight to the Battle Grid.

Then we get another Battle Grid segment with just Ryan that’s more or less the same as the one from Virtual Spy except just before the Searching for Tyler Steele footage there’s some recycled footage from The Dognapping before we get some new footage of the Skugs surrounding Ryan before we get a cool part where one of the Skugs jumps in the air, and Ryan punches it mid air.

Anyway afterwards Ryan returns to reality, and asks JB, and Kaitlin what’s wrong, and they just transform but he doesn’t want to fight his friends so he escapes in Kaitlin’s car so Grimlord orders them to go into the Skybase while Polarbot fires at Ryan in Kaitlin’s car.

Then Grimlord orders Air Striker, and Fighterbot to assist Polarbot, so Ryan tries to escape in Kaitlin’s car’s flight mode but Grimlord’s mutants, and the evil Troopers fire at him but he tricks JB, and Kaitlin into destroying Air Striker, and Fighterbot, and escapes to the lab.

At the lab Ryan messes with some machines at the lab, and when JB, and Kaitlin try to get in the lab JB moves a joystick, and it activates a force field that cuts off their VR Trooper powers, then the Professor explains to Ryan how their linked to Polarbot, and that Polarbot is in the real world but also has three other mutants helping so Ryan transforms.

Ryan first fights off three mutants The Blade, an unnamed silver skeleton themed robot who will later be known as Chrome Dome, and a blue horned robot who later be called Minotaurbot.

After fighting off The Blade, Chrome Dome, and Minotaurbot Ryan goes after Polarbot, and they both teleport to a rock quarry where Polarbot just fires lasers at Ryan but Ryan dodges them, and jumps into the air, and does a flying kick at Polarbot.

At the lab JB, and Kaitlin play into Jeb’s ego, and trick him into letting them out of the force field then transform again, and get back in the Skybase to help Polarbot destroy Ryan.

But Ryan kicks the cliff Polarbot is standing on causing him to fall off allowing Ryan to kick him, and then perform a corkscrew attack that destroys Polarbot turning JB, and Kaitlin good again so Grimlord orders Ivar to destroy Ryan but JB destroys Ivar’s tank instead, and Grimlord once again shames his mutants for failure.

Later at the Underground Voice Daily the Troopers are glad everything is back to normal, and then Woody shows up to explain he’s making Percy do another self defense class, and we get one last comedy bit where Percy tries to show off his karate skills but messes up.

Anyway “I miss you dad” the end.

Final Thoughts

Honestly I think this more than even some of the other episodes my all time favorite so far.

I like the idea of Grimlord turning JB, and Kaitlin against Ryan I just think the idea was bigger than what they could I actually do since Ryan came from a different Metal Hero show then JB, and Kaitlin, and it wasn’t like there was a Chojinki Metalder vs Jikku Senshi Spielban back in 1987.

Then again since this episode had a Battle Grid segment I wished they had found a way to make it where Ryan had to fight JB, and Kaitlin in the Battle Grid since even if the suits were meant more for toys than footage it still would have been a good way to at least see Ryan fight JB, and Kaitlin in some transformed hand to hand combat.

I did like the one we did get from a purely visual production stand point even if all it really did was add a clip that wasn’t in the last one.

I also like how this episode introduces Geek Nation columnist, and the first VR Troopers cast member to appear at Morphicon Aaron Pruner as one of my favorite characters on the show Percy who will more or less become the main comic relief character alongside Woody, and Jeb though Poindexter, and Percy’s aunt, and uncle will still make occasional appearances.

I’m guessing he was created to more or less combine elements of the Mayor, and his wife (spoiled rich person who’s the target of Jeb’s antics) with Poindexter (stereotypical nerd).

It also has a brief appearance by actor Crispin Alapag as the Skug who puts the spell on JB, and Kaitlin.

I also liked how they didn’t waste anything from the Metalder episode in fact they actually used multiple little fights from various episodes for this which I thought was cool.

I also liked the brief appearance of S, and K from Metalder in the background during the parts where Polarbot, and Grimlord where in the virtual dungeon.

Tune in next time everyone for more Magic Happy VR Troopers Reviews.