Premise: RPM takes place in a standalone universe.

• Writers Eddie Guzelian and John Tellengen said so.
• Writers say a lot of things. In-show material matters more, and it wasn't conclusive.
• It matters to me what they think.
• If the show wasn't conclusive, let the writers be the tie-breaker.
• RPM is the seventeenth season of Power Rangers. It's all the same series. We should default to inclusion unless firm evidence indicates otherwise.
• I don't like my favorite characters from past seasons dying in a global holocaust.
• Sorry.
• Maybe they died of old age, if RPM is set late enough.
• RPM doesn't fit anywhere properly.
• Yes it does.
• Oh.
• No it doesn't.
• If the show was meant to have any connections to other seasons, it would have included continuity nods.
• Like a Red Overdrive helmet in Alphabet Soup's facility?
• It wasn't identical to Red Overdrive. There were some modifications to the helmet.
• Common suit recycling. See Sky's dad in SPD.
• Time Force was obviously connected to SPD!
• Or it was just a spare Red Ranger suit that looked like something SPD might have made.
• Or Dr. Manx ripped off the design of a prominent Ranger who was active in 2001.
• You can't deny the Morphing Grid connection...
• You mean the bio-field? The "universal bio-electric field," the "unseen energy grid" which connects "the life force of all living things?"
• Yeah, that's clearly the Morphing Grid they were talking about.
• The term "Morphing Grid" was never used in RPM.
• The Morphing Grid was never described as a bio-electric field connecting the life force of all living things.
• But that's clearly what it was.
• The show never said it.
• Even if it was the Morphing Grid, it could have been an alternate-universe Morphing Grid.
• The Jungle Karma Pizza sign in "Ranger Green!"
• Jungle Karma Pizza could exist in multiple universes.
• Maybe it was just a sight gag or a casual prop reuse.
• It was a brand-new sign made just for this appearance! We never saw that sign in Jungle Fury!
• We did, actually. See "Welcome to the Jungle, part 1," among other episodes.
• Well, it was... slightly different...
• Even if RPM and Jungle Fury were linked, we don't actually know that Jungle Fury was linked with other seasons. It had no crossover, after all...
• R.J. mentioned the Morphing Grid.
• Maybe an alternate-universe Morphing Grid.
• But everyone knew of previous Power Rangers. Look how excited Theo was.
• Maybe they were alternate-universe Rangers.
• It's much simpler to assume they were the same Rangers we saw in previous seasons.
• The term "Zord" means there was a Zordon.
• Maybe there was an alternate version of Zordon in the RPM universe.
• We don't know the origin of the term "Zord" even in the main Power Rangers universe. For all we know, Zordon and the Zords were named after something or someone which also existed in the RPM universe.
• If RPM shares a universe with all the other seasons, where were those Rangers? Why didn't any of them help fight Venjix?
• Maybe they died fighting.
• Maybe some survived elsewhere.
• Where? Corinth was the last place humanity was sheltered. Dr. K's recording described Corinth as "the only place we can be safe" after Venjix's armies had "laid waste to everything in their path," and Flynn used the term "post-apocalyptic" in "Embodied."
• We know Venjix employed human slaves (see "Prisoners").
• After Corinth's shield was raised, Hicks asked Col. Truman, "What if there are people still out there?" (his reply: "Then heaven help them, because we can't.")
• Ziggy, having been wandering outside Corinth, warned Dillon to wait until night to enter the city, noting, "No one has ever run the barricade into the city during daylight." So clearly there are survivors who make it in at night.
• One of the newspaper clippings at the end of "Ranger Blue" spoke of Flynn making "impressions around the world." Oh look, a world community of some sort after the dome went up.
• That was clearly just an art department Easter egg.
• Says you.
• If Rangers were outside the dome, why didn't we see any?
• Duh, they were outside the dome. RPM takes place in Corinth.
• But why wouldn't they be helping defend Corinth?
• Maybe they were slaves.
• They probably could've escaped. See any times the RPM Rangers were captured.
• Maybe it's not so easy to get from California to New England post-Venjix.
• Unless you're a Ranger who can teleport or ninja-bounce.
• Who knows what threats faced other regions of the country/world? Rangers sometimes have special off-screen missions that go unspecified (see the Space Rangers' hasty exit in Lost Galaxy).
• Few (or none) were still active anyway.
• Jason and Adam had working Power Coins in "Forever Red" and "Once a Ranger," respectively.
• We don't know the nature of Jason's repowering, and one or both might have been temporary repowerings.
• Maybe they died fighting.
• Tommy was still around.
• Maybe he went down early.
• That violates his being married to Kat in his old age in "A Season to Remember."
• So does Dino Thunder.
• Not necessarily. They still had time to get back together after Dino Thunder.
• Maybe he got better.
• "A Season to Remember" was just a holiday flash-forward. It's non-binding.
• Your call. It was an officially aired episode, though.
• Tommy didn't have any powers left.
• Black Dino Ranger.
• Powers depleted in "Thunder Struck."
• He morphed into Zeo Ranger V in "Forever Red."
• And yet he seemed pretty powerless in Dino Thunder before he became the Black Ranger.
• Again, we don't know how he was repowered or whether it was permanent. Stop bringing up Red Rangers.
• But specifically, we never saw the Zeo Rangers losing their powers. Kat fell in a river, and then Zordon gave them Turbo Ranger powers. No known power loss. The Gold Ranger was even still out and about in "Countdown to Destruction."
• The Zeo powers became the Turbo powers.
• No they didn't.
• Gold Ranger seemed pretty independent of the other Zeo Rangers.
• Their energy signatures were identical, and the Zeo Crystal once reenergized the Golden Power Staff.
• Speaking of Gold Ranger, where was he?
• Dead?
• Busy?
• Tommy had a freaking Hexagon at his disposal!
• The Hexagon, Tommy's supposed network of Rangers and other allies, was an idea that didn't quite make it into the show, though he did gather Red Rangers for "Forever Red." What sort of Hexagon was he running in Dino Thunder, exactly?
• You know darned well he had connections. He gathered all those Red Rangers, and he had a Lightspeed emblem in his lab in "Bully for Ethan."
• Okay, he apparently had connections. That doesn't mean he necessarily had spare powers to use.
• As to which Rangers he could've called for help, let's discuss them separately.
• The Alien Rangers were still out there. Aurico was seen as late as "Forever Red."
• Maybe something happened to them before RPM.
• Maybe they tried to help and lost. The Earth seemed pretty heavily polluted, after all, and we all know their problems with impure water...
• Maybe nobody called them for help. How many people knew they existed, anyway?
• Most notably, Tommy.
• See above. Maybe he died.
• Billy never checked in on Earth?
• We never heard from him. Who knows what he did.
• Maybe he was busy or dead.
• Justin and T.J. still had their Turbo powers, and they had Lightning Cruiser and Storm Blaster.
• Regarding T.J.'s powers, we've already discussed "Forever Red."
• Yes, Lightning Cruiser and Storm Blaster were last seen intact; yes, Justin seemed to keep his powers; and yes, maybe Lightning Cruiser gave T.J. a Turbo Morpher; but who knows what happened after we saw them last?
• Maybe they fought Venjix and lost.
• The Phantom Ranger's still out there, as of "Countdown to Destruction."
• Yeah, but who knows what happened to him since then?
• And do you really want to find out what happens when Venjix infects the Phantom Ranger?
• Yes. Yes I do.
• That was a rhetorical question.
• We don't actually know how well Venjix could take over alien technology.
• The Space Rangers weren't shown losing their powers, and they were last seen heading to Earth in "To the Tenth Power." And Andros was still active in "Forever Red."
• The usual: maybe something happened to them later, or maybe they lost.
• We don't know why the other four weren't aboard the Megaship Mark II with Andros. Maybe everyone else retired.
• And Zhane?
• Busy, retired, or dead. That's B/R/D for short.
• Karone?
• We don't know what happened after she arrived on Mirinoi. But I'm gonna say B/R/D.
• The Galaxy Rangers could apparently whip out the Quasar Sabers whenever they needed to.
• B/R/D.
• The Lightspeed Rangers apparently kept their Morphers.
• B/R/D.
• Wes and Eric kept their Morphers and could've called for help from Time Force.
• B/R/D.
• Maybe they didn't have time to call for help.
• Maybe Time Force refused on the grounds that the Venjix holocaust was supposed to happen.
• And what about the Silver Guardians?
• I'm gonna guess whatever fate befell Silver Hills also took the Silver Guardians.
• Shayla and Animus could've brought back the Wild Force Rangers.
• Or maybe they both died of aneurisms from Venjix's colossal damage to the planet.
• Ninja Storm Rangers.
• Lost their powers.
• Tori had hers in "Once a Ranger."
• Maybe just temporarily.
• And maybe B/R/D.
• And all of the ninja academies?
• How much good would they do against Venjix?
• Dino Rangers. Let me guess... Kira was temporary, or B/R/D.
• Yep.
• The SPD Rangers were in fine shape at the end of SPD.
• We'll discuss whether RPM takes place after SPD later.
• Or there's always B/R/D.
• Mystic Rangers.
• Their magic was said to be "used up" before the populace brought them back by "believ[ing] in magic"; maybe it was just a temporary repowering.
• But they said, "there is no end to our magic," and Mystic Mother said of the darkness, should it return, "your magic must stop it."
• I've got nothing.
• ...except B/R/D.
• Overdrive Rangers.
• B/R/D.
• Sentinel Knight's retro Rangers!
• B/R/D.
• Jungle Fury Rangers.
• B/R/D.
• And all of Pai Zhua?
• Yeah, let's see how well kung fu works against Venjix.
• Okay, with all this B/R/D business, what are the odds that every single one of those Rangers was unable or unwilling to help?
• Maybe some were able and willing. And then they died.
• The RPM Rangers held their own against Venjix all right. Seems that five or so veteran Rangers could've done the same.
• Maybe they did, somewhere else.
• Maybe the handful of veterans who were active never had the opportunity to meet up and died individually.
• Maybe the RPM powers were uniquely tailored to be able to handle Venjix.
• Maybe Venjix nuked the veterans' respective cities before they could form an effective team.
• He didn't nuke Corinth before the shields went up. He sent Grinders and fighter ships. Just as in flashbacks of Venjix's forces "[laying] waste to everything in their path." We have no evidence of nukes.
• There was radiation in the wastelands. See "The Road to Corinth."
• Dillon's scanner just ran a "tox screen." That's pretty vague; any number of things could have made the environment toxic.
• Ziggy specifically said, "The radiation makes the compass go screwy. Messes with the radio frequencies too."
• Also note "child gamma sickness" in Ziggy's orphanage flashback in "Ranger Green."
• Well, yeah, but that was before the Venjix holocaust.
• The Earth may not have been entirely ruined by that point, but Ziggy was trying to impress Fresno Bob as Venjix's forces were attacking humanity; Fresno Bob's building shook, and a news report showed Grinders on the attack.
• What is "gamma sickness" anyway? That could just be any quasi-futuristic fictional disease.
• No, actually, "gamma sickness" is a term sometimes used to describe radiation poisoning from gamma rays (which penetrate deeper into the body than other forms of ionizing radiation).
• Assuming that's what the term described in RPM, there are other sources of gamma radiation than nuclear weapons.
• Besides, the city didn't exactly look like it had been hit by a nuke by the time the children were sick. Something other than a nuke had to be responsible.
• We don't even know whether the Earth had nuclear weapons in the Power Rangers universe!
• Actually, we do. In "Dark Specter's Revenge," Professor Phenomenus described the asteroid's potential impact as comparable to "several hydrogen bombs."
• Beyond the specifics of individual teams, maybe RPM took place so far in the future that they were just all dead or long retired by then.
• We'll discuss that later.
• It's just a quirk of Power Rangers that we often don't have an answer for, "Where are all the past Rangers?" when a big crisis hits.
• But this is like the biggest crisis yet.
• Still fits the trend, even if this is more extreme.
• And by the way, Gruumm ruled the world from 2025 to at least 2040 (in one timeline). In either doomsday scenario, just because we didn't hear of other Rangers helping doesn't mean it didn't happen, and it doesn't mean the doomsday is automatically out of continuity.
• Aside from where they were, we know they existed because Ziggy already knew of previous Power Rangers in "The Road to Corinth." He thought Dillon was weird for not knowing of them.
• Actually, Ziggy was just surprised Dillon didn't know what a Power Ranger was. This makes just as much sense if the RPM Rangers were famous around the Corinth area despite having been the only Power Rangers ever.
• And when Ziggy took pictures after Dillon's first morph and then realized he might be ruining a "special Ranger moment" and "stepping on tradition?"
• We don't know the context of the tradition Ziggy was speculating about: maybe he was referring to previous teams, or maybe he figured Scott, Summer, and Flynn had some sort of tradition.
• Why would they have a tradition? We have no indication that they joined at separate times.
• Nor do we know they didn't. Ziggy mentioned Ranger tradition, but we don't know enough about the context to make a definitive call here.
• In a flashback in "Ranger Blue," Flynn's dad insisted that there was no such thing as superheroes outside of comic books.
• Maybe that flashback took place before the Power Rangers debuted.
• Yeah, so if Flynn was as young as, say, eight years old in the flashback (1993, you suppose), and RPM takes place as early as, say, 2012, then you figure he's 27 in RPM?
• A number of people in the Power Rangers universe have doubted the existence of the Rangers... most notably, the Ninja Storm teens (minus Dustin). The Ninja Turtles were also surprised the Rangers were real in "Save Our Ship."
• Earthen Rangers aside, Earth still had plenty of alien allies. Where were they?
• Name some.
• The Aquitians.
• See above, regarding the Alien Rangers.
• Blue Senturion and the Intergalactic Police.
• Maybe intergalactic law didn't apply here.
• Let's see how effective robotic law enforcement is against Venjix.
• Again, we don't know Venjix could handle alien technology.
• Lerigot.
• ... Seriously?
• No. Never mind.
• The Karovans (maybe including Karone and Zhane).
• We don't know what offensive capabilities they had, but they didn't seem to put much of a dent in Dark Specter's forces. What are they going to do against a firmly entrenched Venjix?
• They could've at least tried to do something.
• Who says they didn't?
• The Mirinoites (including the people of Terra Venture).
• What capacity did they have for planet-wide warfare?
• Well, they had a lot of soldiers with Starship Trooper gear...
• Even assuming there would have been enough soldiers to mount any serious offense against Venjix, how are they going to get to Earth?
• Space Patrol Delta!
• Again, we'll discuss RPM's placement relative to SPD later, but SPD may have had reasons to stay away.
• The Sentinel Knight.
• We don't know where he went after Operation Overdrive, but there's a fair chance he didn't stick around Earth.
• Just because we didn't see aliens helping doesn't mean they didn't try. Maybe they failed.
• Really? Some primitive Earth computer virus is going to wipe out all those advanced alien forces?
• We really don't know what alien forces (if any) went against Venjix, but sure, why couldn't Venjix have infected their technology? Maybe they were the first to fall, for all we know.
• Maybe they were on the way, explaining why Col. Truman expected that Corinth could "outlast" Venjix (see "Embodied").
• How many years does it take for help to arrive, exactly? SPD sent reinforcements pretty quickly in "Endings."
• True, but that wasn't a very big force. We don't know how long it takes to amass a legion capable of overpowering Venjix's firmly entrenched armadas. That takes planet-conquering force.
• Where were other villains? Villains show up on Earth more or less annually. Why did nobody challenge Venjix for the conquest of Earth?
• Maybe they did and lost.
• Why did nobody use time travel to avert the Venjix holocaust? Time travel is always what averts the apocalypse in the Power Rangers universe.
• Venjix's origin wasn't widely known. How can you prevent it if you don't know what caused it?
• Dr. K knew.
• I guess Dr. K never crossed paths with anybody who could time-travel.
• Somewhere down the road, surely somebody would've invented time travel after Dr. K's secret was out.
• Maybe they didn't have the luxury of researching time travel in Corinth. Things are a bit dire, after all.
• Omega's people in 2040 managed to invent time travel while the Earth was ruled by Gruumm.
• Maybe Gruumm's rule wasn't as crushingly oppressive as Venjix's.
• Venjix lost in the finale. They have the luxury now.
• Venjix comes back. He's in the bio-field. Everyone will die.
• Maybe. Maybe not.
• Maybe by the time someone invents time travel (Time Force, anyone?), the people in charge are unwilling to undo their own existence by changing ancient history.
• Time travel was invented by 2040 in SPD's alternate future. It obviously doesn't take the better part of a millennium to invent.
• We don't know what hardships hit the Earth post-Venjix.
• Venjix isn't gone, yo.
• Maybe Venjix had to happen for some reason. Like Hitler.
• That's pretty scarily utilitarian to suggest that that many people "had" to die just to teach everyone else a lesson.
• Maybe it does get averted down the road. Maybe we just saw the apocalypse before it was undone.
• So RPM will be out of continuity at that point.
• Not in the same sense as "never was in continuity." If it was in continuity before being undone, we can still try to figure out when it originally took place.
• In "Ancient History," Dr. K wished she could "access the space-time continuum" to undo Venjix, but she said it wasn't possible.
• Aha, more proof this wasn't the PR universe! People in the PR universe can time-travel at the drop of a hat.
• Earthen scientists didn't ever demonstrate this ability in other seasons. Other entities did, but not people like Dr. K... not anywhere near present day, anyway.
• The people of 2040 sent Omega and Nova back in time. That's virtually contemporary. Why was it impossible in Dr. K's time but not a few decades later?
• We don't know who made time travel possible in 2040. Maybe it was aliens.
• Dr. K's accidental discovery of Ranger technology while working for Alphabet Soup isn't compatible with the Power Rangers universe.
• And why not?
• By 2000, the military had Ranger technology within the Lightspeed program. Miss Fairweather and Clark designed Ranger-tech like it was no big deal.
• Maybe Lightspeed didn't share its technology with other agencies.
• Clark didn't seem like he was all that firmly entrenched in Lightspeed, but he designed Ranger-tech too.
• Kat Manx had a team designing Ranger powers on Earth in 2001. Then when Sky was a kid maybe around 2009-20011 or so, his dad was a Ranger for SPD.
• SPD could've kept to itself too.
• Andrew Hartford made Ranger-tech! He was a private citizen, for goodness sake!
• And who says he shared?
• RPM is just a TV show.
• Yeah, we know.
• No, in "And... Action!". The characters in RPM are played by actors with the same names. And they have Morphers.
• That was just a lousy behind-the-scenes special. The producers had the actors stay in character to make it easier on the kiddies.
• Whether or not it was a great idea, it aired.
• Other behind-the-scenes specials aired, and we don't try to fit them into continuity.
• How many of those were in-character? How many received official episode numbers?
• I'd rather just ignore it.
• Your call, dude.
• What the heck kind of crazy universe has actors using real Morphers to film a TV show?
• The Power Rangers universe...?
• Admittedly, we don't really know a lot about that universe. Stunt crews have reportedly trained Power Rangers for years, but Ziggy can really teleport, and Tenaya is allegedly a robot. Grinders and an Attack Bot (real robots too?) participate in choreographed battles. Shooting locations include the Rangers' garage, Col. Truman's control tower, and Venjix's sanctum. The Rangers are trained in stunt work which makes them feel like superheroes to perform. The sky is clear, and Corinth's dome is a CG effect. Beyond that, who knows.
• Was there a real Venjix in that universe?
• Unresolved, unless you assume RPM was filmed in the PR universe; in that case, there was a Venjix, and he was destroyed in "Forever Red!"

Premise: RPM takes place before 2025 (SPD).

• Eddie Guzelian was vague about the setting but always intended a near-future setting.
• Writer intent is irrelevant.
• Eddie left mid-season. Whatever he said his intention was no longer applies.
• Why not? Judd Lynn took over, but he didn't do anything to radically derail Eddie's intent.
• 2026 could still be considered the "near future."
• The Venjix holocaust nicely explains the hatred of cyborgs in SPD.
• That doesn't mean it's right. It just means it's elegant if it otherwise happens to be right.
• It also explains Newtech City: the city was brand-new, built during the reconstruction post-Venjix.
• See reply above.
• Dr. K used what looked like contemporary technology at Alphabet Soup.
• How contemporary was the technology behind Corinth's dome?
• Well, it wasn't out of line with what we already saw in Lost Galaxy (1999)...
• Lost Galaxy isn't in-contuity.
• I'm sorry, what?
• It doesn't fit with anything. It was supposed to be in the future.
• Originally, perhaps, but later crossovers established otherwise.
• The crossovers are out of continuity too.
• Uh...
• Yeah, "Trakeena's Revenge" fit poorly within PRLR, and "Forever Red" was full of continuity holes.
• Well, if you're going to just pick and choose which parts of the show you acknowledge as canon, I think this whole discussion is fruitless. You could just ignore the episodes of RPM that contain revelations you don't like, and that's hardly sporting.
• The technology seen in Alphabet Soup was just clumsy prop selection.
• And the same with all those contemporary computers thrown away in the flashback to the Venjix outbreak?
• Sure!
• Those weren't contemporary; they were big clunky monitors from the 90s at best.
• So? I'm sure older computers would've been ruined by Venjix all the same...
• The fact that there were no modern-looking computers in the pile suggests it was just the best the prop department could muster for a "junking the computers" scene.
• Or we just saw a room reserved for older computers.
• Colonel Truman's precious "Go-Onger" van looked like it was from the 70s or so. That's much more appropriate if RPM is set early, such that the 70s are in Truman's heyday.
• Elegance, above.
• We don't know that it was built that long ago. Maybe the parts were scrounged up later, and if that's the case, there's no reason they couldn't have been scrounged up in the decades after SPD.
• Venjix is in the Morphing Grid at the end of RPM!
• The bio-field isn't necessarily the Morphing Grid.
• Yes it is.
• Maybe he can't do anything from there.
• Maybe Dr. K runs an anti-virus on the Morphers.
• Maybe he gets out and is defeated all over again before SPD.
• The Earth was post-apocalyptic in RPM, but it looked just fine in SPD.
• I guess it got better.
• You're telling me the Earth recovers to the state seen in SPD in just a few years after RPM?
• Sure. It was already recovering pretty quickly just by the end of RPM.
• Maybe Dr. K uses the bio-field to facilitate the Earth's recovery.
• You mean the bio-field inhabited by Venjix?
• See above.
• Maybe Newtech City was way ahead of everyone else on the rebuilding. You know, on account of all the "new tech" from SPD.
• We saw Kyoto in SPD. It looked just fine.
• Maybe Kyoto was another city that received a quick rebuild.
• We don't know the full extent of the destruction Venjix inflicted. Maybe Japan didn't get hit as hard.
• Scotland also looked fine; Flynn's dad was there in "Ranger Blue."
• That wasn't stated. It could've been Corinth just as easily. And probably was, given that he collected articles about the Blue Ranger's heroism.
• The McAllistairs were always in Corinth. When Flynn was fired from the police and from the fire department, his personnel file listed his address as "Corinth City" each time.
• No way, everyone in those flashbacks was Scottish! It was clearly a Scottish police department and a Scottish fire department.
• "Corinth City."
• Piggy was in Briarwood in 2006. How did he survive the Venjix war to still be around in SPD?
• Piggy seemed to scrounge pretty well. Maybe he survived in the wastelands.
• Maybe he hid in Corinth, or anywhere else humans hid during the Venjix years.
• Maybe Briarwood was magically sheltered.
• Maybe inhabitants of Briarwood hid in, I dunno, that parallel dimension accessed by crossing through the woods? That dimension inhabited by magical creatures who were on friendly terms with the residents of Briarwood in the end of Mystic Force?
• I doubt Venjix would've left the woods untouched.
• Did he really have the luxury or desire to tear up every forest on Earth?
• With all those magical inhabitants (including Nick, "the Light"), you don't suppose they could've temporarily sealed off access to their dimension once people took shelter inside?
• Nick went off riding with Udonna and Leanbow.
• Nonetheless!
• Aliens were starting to come to Earth around 2001-2006 and were mostly integrated into Earthen society by 2025. Wouldn't the Venjix war have put a pretty big damper on that process?
• Maybe more aliens came post-Venjix. Earth would need some help being repopulated, after all.
• Where is Kat Manx's Ranger development team in RPM? They were active in 2001.
• Underground until this whole Venjix thing blows over?
• Off-world?
• As a young child, maybe around 2009-2011, Sky's dad fought alien criminals for SPD. How does that fit with RPM?
• Could've happened before RPM.
• We don't know Sky's dad was fighting alien criminals. We just know he protected people. Maybe he was protecting them from Venjix's forces.
• No, we learned in "Reflection" that Mirloc killed him.
• Okay, maybe he was mostly fighting Venjix's forces, but it was Mirloc who actually took him down.
• Syd had a spoiled, wealthy upbringing. How does that fit with RPM taking place in her childhood?
• I dunno, how do Summer's parents fit with RPM? Wherever Summer's parents were before they came to visit in "Ranger Yellow," Syd and her parents could've been also.
• "Ranger Yellow" never said anything about Summer's parents living outside of Corinth, if that's what you mean.
• Yes, it did. Before he knew Summer had promised to get married, Scott guessed they wanted Summer to "go back home" with them.
• Who says "back home" didn't just mean their estate across town instead of the Rangers' garage?
• Oh come on, that wording implies her home isn't close by.
• Maybe, maybe not.
• In one flashback, Summer's butler told her that he had to get her to Corinth, where her parents were waiting for her, before the shields went up. What are the odds they moved elsewhere after the shields went up?
• Well fine, so they lived in Corinth. I guess Syd and her family spent some time in Corinth too.
• That still doesn't rule out the possibility of other families surviving elsewhere on the planet until Venjix was defeated.
• See above: world community.
• What about Jack and Z living on the streets?
• That's easy. They were orphans because of Venjix.
• But at age 12, maybe around 2020 or so, Z was in a classroom with aliens and humans who rejected her because she was a mutant. That's when she ran away.
• Okay, maybe that happened after RPM.
• So not only did the aliens come back and integrate into Earthen society before 2025, but it was before 2020 too?
• Sure.
• It's not impossible that Z and her classmates were in Corinth or a similar city during RPM.
• We didn't see a single alien in all of RPM!
• Doesn't mean they weren't there. Absence of evidence isn't evidence of absence, as they say.
• And Sam? He had to be born around, like 2014-2015. Where would RPM fit, then?
• Oh, anywhere around that time is fine. Sam could easily be born circa RPM.
• In "History," the SPD team told the Dino teens about their great lives ahead of them. How is that compatible with the Venjix holocaust?
• Technically, only their accomplishments were mentioned. It wasn't stated they were necessarily alive in 2025.
• Okay, right, and Syd's music and Conner's soccer camps are still worth talking about post-Venjix?
• Maybe.
• And Ethan's software is still used at SPD despite Venjix in the interim?
• Maybe. Maybe his software even helped resist Venjix somehow.
• And all these career goals were met between 2005 and the Venjix holocaust, with room after RPM for pre-SPD rebuilding?
• Maybe.
• And the SPD team just sent them back to live a few more years before they were killed by Venjix?
• Maybe.
• Maybe they survived.
• Why wouldn't SPD have helped fight Venjix?
• Maybe they tried and failed. We've discussed this already on the subject of aliens helping.
• Maybe SPD doesn't make it a habit to help non-member planets.
• But Kat Manx's team was on Earth as early as 2001!
• That's not the same as having a big SPD headquarters, as they did in 2025. Just because Kat was there doesn't mean Earth was an SPD member in 2001.

Premise: RPM takes place after 2025 (SPD).

• A press release stated that RPM was set in 2131.
• Press releases aren't canon.
• They are if I say they are. Personal canon!
• Press releases are sometimes wrong.
• But they're sometimes right too!
• "Run Ziggy Run" establishes that RPM is set in the 21st century.
• No, a truck driver just says Colonel Truman isn't "living in the 21st century yet." That doesn't necessarily mean they're in the 21st century, like if I sarcastically say someone I know isn't living in the 19th century yet.
• The truck driver was trying to pass off a paper form as genuine. The guards said everything was electronic now. Does that sound like a conversation people would have in the 22nd century?
• I dunno - I haven't been to the 22nd century. Have you?
• Flynn's dad collected newspaper clippings! In the 22nd century?
• See above.
• The Venjix holocaust of RPM nicely sets up the wastelands seen in Time Force.
• Again, elegance doesn't mean it's necessarily right.
• Time Force never said anything about wastelands.
• No, but Wild Force did: rewatch "Reinforcements from the Future, part 2." Ransik speaks of eking out an existence "in the shadows of the utopia made possible by Time Force" (and do check out the visuals as he says this). The word "wastelands" isn't used, but tell me those aren't wastelands.
• Any number of cataclysms could've taken place in the near-millennium before Time Force's year 3000. RPM isn't required for that.
• Look how quickly the Earth was recovering after Venjix was destroyed. And you mean to tell me the wastelands of Time Force are due to Venjix that many centuries later?
• Venjix survived in the finale. He comes back and ruins the planet even worse.
• Maybe, but this is pretty heavily speculative.
• RPM also sets up the fact that robots aren't given free will in Time Force.
• See above about elegance.
• It could also set up mistrust of cyborgs in SPD, so this is hardly a convincing argument for post-SPD placement.
• It makes sense that Alphabet Soup would be borne from a corrupt organization like SPD.
• Above, elegance.
• We don't have explicit evidence that SPD was corrupt.
• C'mon...
• Alphabet Soup was founded because the government felt threatened by all of SPD's Ranger-tech.
• Sounds like a fine fanfic, but there's no evidence for this in-show.
• By itself, nothing about RPM suggests a setting more than a few years into the future. Everything looks and feels modern-day.
• There's that futuristic Corinth dome, as discussed previously.
• The military has laser guns.
• That's standard PR fare: no bullets allowed.
• Flynn came up with a few gadgets that seemed pretty futuristic.
• Dr. K said something about holograms being "last-century."
• Not quite. When she was broadcasting herself via hologram in "Ancient History," she said (in reference to having live telepresence), "Yes, I'm a hologram, but I'm not a recording. That is so last century."
• So what does that mean?
• I don't really know.
• Maybe something happened to reset Earth's technology level a few decades before the Venjix war broke out.
• Uh, does technology really work that way? How does a cataclysm erase only new technology and its associated knowledge and manufacturing ability while leaving that of a few decades prior unaffected?
• Maybe whatever future-tech became popular had specific manufacturing requirements that were hard to replicate post-cataclysm.
• And the actual future-tech itself all went poof somehow?
• Sure.
• It's just a quirk of Power Rangers that not all technology in the future looks super-futuristic. Time Force (set in the year 3000) still had vehicles recognizable as wheeled automobiles.
• If aliens were blended into Earth society in SPD, where were they by RPM?
• Maybe they went back to their homeworlds.
• Many of them were poor and had been there for years. Just how easily do you suppose they could all be rounded up and shipped back home?
• Maybe we just didn't see them.
• We didn't get a look at Newtech City circa RPM. Maybe that's where most of the aliens were all along.
• Except that Piggy was in Briarwood circa 2006. See "Ranger Down."
• Briarwood became Newtech City.
• No one ever said that in-show.
• Piggy did! While living in Briarwood, he said, "In another twenty years, this place will be crawling with aliens!"
• He just got in from another star system, as he said just prior. "This place" could've referred to Earth just as easily as Briarwood.
• Maybe he meant Briarwood would be crawling with aliens, to say nothing of Newtech City.
• If RPM is after SPD, how is it that Dr. K could create an effective counter-virus to defeat Venjix, but SPD couldn't?
• I dunno, how is it that it took Dr. K so long to create and deliver one? Presumably the circumstances that allowed her to infect Venjix (having Tenaya hack into his systems) didn't arise for SPD.
• SPD looked pretty futuristic - light-ball, holo-games, and so forth. Where's all that stuff in RPM?
• Just because one part of the world in SPD had that technology (and inside an SPD headquarters, no less) doesn't mean it was available everywhere in the world.
• We could also ask where Terra Venture's technology went after Lost Galaxy.
• Where's Space Patrol Delta by the time Venjix comes along?
• Maybe Venjix beat them. Their technology seems pretty computer-heavy, after all.
• They have forces all throughout the galaxy. Even if he could've beaten SPD Earth, there's reinforcements aplenty.
• Maybe SPD gave up on Earth after their branch fell. Not worth infecting more technology, after all.
• This might've been plausible under Birdy's command, but as of "Once a Ranger," Doggie's in charge of all of SPD. Would he give up the Earth so readily?
• Maybe he had no choice. Sucks to be him.
• Sam and Nova came to 2025 from 2040, and there was no indication they lived in a post- or mid-Venjix world.
• That doesn't rule it out entirely.
• So they're time-traveling to save the world, and they come back to stop Emperor Gruumm but not Venjix?
• Maybe Venjix had to happen for some reason.
• Already discussed that.
• Easy enough - RPM takes place after 2040.
• You mean after 2135? "Messenger" ended with a transmission from that year indicating the future was fine.
• Fine, after 2135.
• No, silly, 2131 is before 2135. For that matter, any date between 2040 and 2135 would do.
• Doggie only concluded the transmission meant the world was fine. We don't know he was right. Maybe the world was really under Venjix's rule at that point - his first one, or his later return.
• Venjix likes elevator music?
• Maybe!

Conclusion: up to you.