Billy Cranston

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Billy Cranston
First Appearance:	Day of the Dumpster (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers)
Last Appearance:	Rangers of Two Worlds, Part 2 (Power Rangers: Zeo)
Number of episode appearances:	202
Status:	Retired
Affiliation:	Alien Rangers of Aquitar
Homeworld:	Earth
Weapon(s)/Gear:	Power Morpher Triceratops Power Coin Wolf Ninja Coin Wrist Communicator Blade Blaster Power Lance Power Blaster Power Cannon Stega Stinger (movie only) Metallic Armor
Zord(s):	Triceratops Dinozord Unicorn Thunderzord Wolf Ninjazord Blue Shogunzord
Vehicles:	Blue Shark Cycle
Powers:	Blue Power Ranger Blue Ninja Ranger
Portrayed by:	David Yost (teenager) Justin Timsit (child)

Billy Cranston is a fictional character in the Power Rangers universe. He is the Blue Power Ranger in the series Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. He was portrayed by David Yost. He is the longest running original power ranger, but the third longest running overall behind Tommy Oliver and Adam Park. In the episode "High Five", Billy not only created the communicators, but also the interface that allowed the devices a remote access to the Command Center's teleportation unit. He is initially very insecure about himself, making him an easy target for people like Bulk and Skull, who torment him often in the beginning. The other Rangers, especially Trini, defended him loyally, but Billy later evolved to become a stronger individual. Billy is arguably the series' most developed character, evolving from the stereotypical insecure "geek" of the team, into a more self-confident and more-than-capable fighter and leader. The only other character who rivals his development is probably Tommy Oliver, though that can be attributed to his involvement in multiple power teams, including his "comeback" tenure as the Black Ranger in Power Rangers Dino Thunder.

Character history

In Mighty Morphin Power Rangers

Billy as the original Blue Ranger

Billy began the series as the stereotypical "nerd." His closest friend throughout the series was Trini Kwan, to whom he could communicate most comfortably and effectively. Billy was one of the top members of Angel Grove High's science club and often helped its younger members with their experiments. One such example was with Willy, a young boy he helped to create a virtual reality simulator for a Science Fair. It revealed that, due to an experience in his youth when he was bitten by a fish during an experiment involving whirlpools, Billy developed icthyophobia: fear of fish. This fear would affect him well into his teens and Rita would use a spell to exacerbate this fear. When he is the last Ranger left able to contend with the Goo Fish monster, Billy overcomes the spell and then, after helping to free his friends and defeat the monster, completely overcomes the fear itself on a fishing trip with Ernie, the owner of the Youth Center. Each of Billy's teammates have a unique skill to offer the team and, in Billy's case, it was his vast intelligence. He sought out to improve himself physically, and the audience would see him transition over time from the suspenders-wearing "brain" to a confident, hyper-intelligent athlete with appreciable fighting skills, thanks in great part to Trini's Uncle Howard, and teammates Jason and later Tommy who would graduate Billy to the red belt level in karate. Billy's intelligence would help the Rangers save the world on many occasions. When the Command Center was damaged, Zordon lost and Alpha incapacitated, it was his invention, the RADBUG that allowed the rangers to travel to the Command Center. He performed a wide array of tasks, ranging from creating the method for which the Ranger's would use initially to infiltrate Rita's Dark Dimension, to disarming the lock-out mechanism for Alpha's activated self-destruct, and many other achievements. Though Billy did manage to attract girls earlier in his "nerd-like" persona, it was after he began his journey toward self-improvement that he would garner more attention from romantic interests, even more so than the other members of the team. Billy would be accepted into the Young Scientists of America program. In the Second Season, he would befriend Zack's cousin Curtis when he becomes the newest student at Angel Grove High. Curtis' musical interests, particularly in playing the trumpet, sparks Billy's intrigue into the rhythmic patterns of jazz music. Later in the second season, a time traveling Kimberly would recruit Billy's ancestor William in the 1880's to become the first Blue Ranger when she assembles and takes command of the Wild West Ranger team in a battle against Goldar and several other time traveling foes.

Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers

The Rangers are de-aged by a time reversal spell performed by Rita Repulsa's father, Master Vile. Billy devises a plan to restore the rangers age using a machine that runs off of the power coins. Billy restores himself, but Goldar steals the machine and Lord Zedd and Rita Repulsa destroy all six Ninja Power Coins. With his Wolf Ninja Power Coin destroyed and his Triceratops Dino Power Coin damaged beyond use, Billy's role changed. He no longer fought as a Power Ranger, but rather acted solely in an advisory and supporting role. In fact, Billy was the only Ranger in this period to be portrayed by his own actor - the others had been replaced temporarily by child actors after Master Vile had used the Orb of Doom to revert time by approximately ten years. Billy countered this reverse-aging by restoring himself with a special device that utilized the Power Coins. The device was destroyed by Goldar and Rito Revolto, along with the Power Coins, before it could be used on the others. Billy acted in this period as a liaison between the Aquitian Rangers and Earth. It was the cure for Billy's reverse-aging that eventually served as the plot device by which he was removed from the show. When Power Rangers: Zeo began, Billy officially retired from active Ranger service, allowing Tanya to take his place while he continued his support role by creating and maintaining most of the weaponry, gadgets and Zords the Zeo Rangers would use.

In Power Rangers: Zeo

Billy's farewell transmission

The writers left the choice open as to whether or not Billy would become a Zeo Ranger, with him musing at the start of Zeo that he could always assume the Zeo power in an emergency. Before the Gold Ranger's identity was revealed as Trey of Triforia, the writers left several red herrings to mislead the viewers into believing that the Gold Ranger was Billy. When Trey of Triforia returned to Triforia on sabbatical to try to unify his three selves, Billy was selected to assume Gold Ranger's powers. However, the "negative proton energy" that his body had absorbed in the Command Center's explosion prevented him from taking the powers. Former teammate Jason Lee Scott received the powers instead. He did not receive any Ranger powers again, and was written out of the series near the end of Power Rangers: Zeo either because David Yost had asked for more money or because he had a falling out with the production crew. Billy was last seen in one of the final Zeo episodes suffering from accelerated aging because the regenerator he used to restore his proper age had a side effect. To counter this, he traveled to Aquitar for a cure from their Eternal Falls (analogous to the Fountain of Youth), and opted to remain there with Cestria, a female Aquitian with whom he had fallen in love. Because of the absence of Yost (he had left the show a few episodes prior to his character's departure, hence his lack of appearance in them), stock footage of Billy was used for his departure and his character was voiced by someone else.

Background Info

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• According to the MMPR Interactive CD-ROM, Billy's birthday is April 1, making him an Aries.
• Billy is the longest serving power ranger to wear the same color.
• Billy graduated from Angel Grove High earlier than the rest of the Power Team. This was because Billy, being the natural over-academic-achiever somehow took more classes than necessary in order to graduate.
• Official Power Rangers merchandise reveals Billy's full name to be William Cranston. This was never officially stated in the show. Interestingly enough, in the episode "Grumble Bee," Billy signs his test paper with only his first name.
• Billy's last name of Cranston supposedly came from actor Bryan Cranston, who was involved in voice acting for Power Rangers during the show's first season.
• Power Rangers Wild Force Episode Reinforcements From The Future, Part 1 contains many injokes from Power Rangers as well as info from the fandom. Among them was mention of Cranston Plaza (where the Red And Quantum Time Force Rangers run into the Mut-Orgs).
• He was the first Power Ranger to wear glasses. Others include Pink Lost Galaxy Ranger Kendrix Morgan, Black Wild Force Ranger Danny Delgado and Green Samurai Ranger Cameron Watanabe.

Quotes

• "You ooze... You lose."
• "Triceratops!"
• "Triceratops, Unicorn Thunder Zord Power"
• "Ninja Wolf Zord"
• "Blue Ranger Power!"
• "Talk about a splitting headache!"
• "Affirmative!"
• "Morphenominal!"
• "All systems: go!"
• "Negative."
• "According to my calculations..."
• "Billy here, systems nominal."
• "It's time for a molecular transmutation!"; this is Billy's way of saying "It's Morphin' Time!"
• "This communicator is nonfunctional!"
• "There's a virus in his databanks!"
• "I am the master of sciences!"