We have talked about both Astronema and Tenaya 7 on this blog. Both of them started as evil and later beacame allies. Today I will adding the original female character who started on the wrong side. This entry is about Katherine Hillard. Katherine is played by Catherine Sutherland. Katherine is a slightly controversial character because some fans blame her for the fact that Tommy and Kimberly broke up. I personally do not blame her for this event. At C2E2 a couple years ago, I attended a panel hosted by Amy Jo Johnson aka Kimberly Hart herself. She explained in her own words that the writers were really to blame for the break-up. I would love to talk more about that panel another time. I am personally a very strong Katherine fan. I especially enjoyed her exciting introduction arc in the third season. The original 2-part event introduced us not only Katherine but also her first alternate form "PC." This was short for Park Cat, the full name of a cat that Kimberly and Aisha brought home from the angel grove animal shelter. PC had a habit of running off a lot. By following the episodes you can truly deduce that she was going to see Rita Replusa. However The Rangers did not know she was a spy and on occasion got caught up in searching for her. Katherine initially caused a lot of chaos in this event with not just these 2 forms, but also a third form of a powerful and destructive cat-lady monster. She lured Tommy into a trap and he was cornered in a battle arena by Goldar and Rito. This event was also mentioned on here in the article; "Tommy Oliver and the 7 Generals." Billy saves Tommy, and later all six Rangers work together to defeat the Cat-lady monster. Kimberly was really excited when tryouts for the "Pan-global games"- (A fictional PR equivalent of the olympics) were announced as coming to Angel Grove. Distracted by preparing for this event Kimberly failed to notice Katherine's sneakiness. Katherine grew a fondness for Tommy since he was so kind to her, having no idea that she was an agent of Rita. Katherine deliberately targeted Kimberly as much as possible and even stole her power coin during a beach trip. Kimberly's power coin and the Falcon Zord which the villains also stole were used to first summon the Shogun zords. These would ultimately prove very valuable to the Rangers but only after Billy reprogrammed them and removed their original evil programming. Katherine later grew to actually respect Kimberly after she fought to save her from a flock of Tengas. She also hated seeing the stress Kimberly was under from Rita's attacks. Seeing Kimberly hurt herself while practicing made Katherine show true courage by rushing to her aide, and break Rita's spell. In the words of Finster, "This truly selfless act was a sign of goodness and counter-acted Rita's evil magic". Katherine helped to retrieve the power-coin that she had previously stolen and also fought her own fear of diving off the High Board in order to inspire Kimberly to continue her try-outs. Kimberly joined the Pan-Global games and then gave her coin to Katherine making her the second Pink mighty Morphin Power Ranger. This gave Katherine 2 more forms; Pink Ninja, and Pink MM Ranger. She also had one more form in the third season. Her kid form from the Alien Ranger episodes was played by Julia Jordan.
During the episode "Sowing the Seas of Evil" young Katherine encountered 2 different but similar looking women. This was part of her challenge to find the Zeo crystal shard. Agatha turns out to be a distraction. When Katherine abandons her initial quest in order to help an an elderly woman, she shows true selflessness and earns the crystal. Both women were played by Catherine Sutherland thus making 2 more alternative forms. In addition Katherine went on to become the Pink Zeo Ranger and was the first Pink Turbo Ranger. All together this gives her 9 alternative forms much like cats are said to have 9 lives. In addition Katherine was on the show for three seasons, which sums up the title for this article. Despite having an initial talent for diving Katherine developed an interest in dancing and ballet and chose to follow this path instead. This became Katherine's new passion during the Turbo series. In the Zeo Christmas special a future scene is shown where Tommy and Katherine are married and much older. Katherine also was included in the Ninja Steel Anniversary event "Dimensions in Danger." In addition to being close with Tommy she also had a great friendship with billy up until he left in Zeo. Billy and Katherine remains one of my favorite Fannon couples. I also noticed some chemistry she had with Rocky as well. Katherine has used five different zords including White Shogun zord which she piloted alongside Tommy, the Crane Ninja Zord, Zeo Zord 1 which had missiles and a laser cannon helmet for the megazord, Super Zeo Zord 1 which has powerful punching attacks and Wind Chaser from Turbo which also had hidden lasers. She was also a big part of the Turbo movie. Katherine left the Turbo Rangers in Passing the Torch alongside Tommy, Adam, and Tanya. She was replaced by Cassie Chan who ultimately became my favorite Pink Ranger. Cassie is played by Patricia Ja Lee. Coming soon I will be starting a theme on the blog; "Summer of Romance." I wanted to do my Katherine article first because she will be a big part of some of the articles to come. Katherine also fought alongside Auric The Conqueror voiced by Derek Stephen Prince who had her back a couple times in Zeo. Katherine will return here in a Tommy and Katherine article during the theme. lastly I would like to add a special dedication to my mom on here, since cats are her favorite animals. Katherine Hillard remains one of my favorite cat-powered heroes. Yes, mom Cats can be tough! Mom's picture is included near the end of the gallery. Pink Cat Ranger Power! The summer of romance will be starting soon.
Wow. I commented too many pictures with this post. Like I did not even see the one of the beautiful blonde with the stuffed animal. Is that a cat or a bunny rabbit?
It is always nice to learn about powerful evil people turning from the dark side to become good. Especially when evil women become kind. Hooray for these women! But what a lot of photos this time. Perhaps just a few favorites so there's time to concentrate on them.
Yes, I know cats can be tough! But they're also intelligent, sensitive, and mysterious - great role models!!