3. Power Rangers S.P.D.
Year: 2005 (Season 13)
Plot: It's 2025, and space aliens share the Earth with humans. Among them is Anubis Doggie Cruger, the commander of the Earth branch of intergalactic police force Space Patrol Delta. When his second-ranked B-Squad cadets capture two street thieves, Cruger recruits them into B-Squad instead of giving them jail time - and he'll need their help, because the evil Emperor Gruumm has set his sights on Earth and the B-Squad is upgraded to active Power Ranger status. When the A-Squad Rangers go missing in action, these not-quite-chosen-ones are the planet's last line of defense.
Why It's Worth Watching: Looking to do something different with the franchise, the staff at Disney - who owned the series at the time - went into sci-fi territory, producing a season with a unique setting and feel. This includes some pretty solid makeup effects for the various alien species inhabiting the planet (though of course, the standard rubber-suit monsters are still present en masse). The underdog B-Squad cadets are amusing characters that play well off of each other, and much of the action choreography - which makes heavy use of wirework, pyrotechnics, and slow motion - is quite impressive. The Blue Ranger, Sky, has an interesting background and motivation in that his father was a Red Ranger killed in action, and he has dedicated his life to living up to his memory. The other Rangers also each get one or two decent focus episodes to develop their characters, something the lesser seasons often drop the ball on.