Power Rangers Mystic Force Episode 8, "Stranger Within, Part 1" Review

Power Rangers Mystic Force, Episode 8, "Stranger Within, Part 1" still has the flaws that I recall the first time I watched it. Vida being a vampire was campy and it wasn't like Magiranger where it had a sort of preschool feel to it. Vida's actress had no idea what to do when she acted like a vampire, has no desire to portray one, and I can't really blame her.
She has a tan also, which really doesn't help when casting her as a pale skin vampire.
Also, there was really no storyline reason to copy this plot other than the Koragg zord fight scene. Just really lame and lazy in a show about entertainment and creativity.
Her wanting to fit in could've been worked into the DJ Fly storyline a bit better.

Chip becoming a part of Count V was nonsensical, but is played by a character who say this. The Rangers not believing Chip's belief in there not being vampires is soo obvious, cuz 1) it's true and 2) Chip believes in the nonsensical.
If it wasn't done in the Bruce Kalish fashion of Strange Times of Blake Holsey High title themes, I'd go with "Not a hero, just a friend" or "friend for life" as the title of the episode.

The episode could've been writing even better with having Vida as the main character in the beginning of the episode and Chip as the main character later, albeit it's debatable that they did that right.
Vida being the strong one makes sense, and defending Chip for being picked on. I may have even had this moment watching this when I was in college. It'd even be cool if Chip called Vida, his superhero. And Vida gives him back the favor.

However, this is me watching the episode and figuring out the process. Writing and then directing without that knowledge is very different, and being on that type of television schedule I could've screwed that up. That, and the fact, that they probably do all Rockporium scenes together, Rootcore, outside scenes, etc. shows that they did make a rather cohesive show given the shortcuts they did.

Chip does US fighting footage scene in the DJ Fly scene. DJ Fly could also refer to flying bats, which is an interesting US adaptation of that.

They also could've adapted the Vida being bad reveal into something else if you know spoilers.

That was a really good use of a cliffhanger.