Mack Hartford

Mackenzie "Mack" Hartford is the main protagonist of Power Rangers: Operation Overdrive. He is the Red Overdrive Ranger and the son of Andrew Hartford. He initially started his existence as an android, until being turned into a human by the Corona Aurora.

Biography
A man named Andrew Hartford wanted a son and, due to his work, was never able to meet the right woman. He then built an android and named him Mack. Mack was programmed with memories of his father's own childhood, so he could live as a normal teenager. Andrew and his butler, Spencer, then photoshopped old photographs to include pictures of Mack when he was a "child." Mack continued his existence not knowing of his true origins. Outgoing and enthusiastic, he was sheltered by his father and had the desire to prove himself. Mack is heavily into adventure novels and other escapist fantasies. He was the only Ranger not deliberately recruited, being involved in Operation Overdrive by accident and against his father's initial wishes.

Kick into Overdrive
Two years after his activation his father had found the Corona Aurora, and it had released Moltor and Flurious from their imprisonment. The Sentinel Knight then appeared to Andrew Hartford to convince him it was now his responsibility to protect the crown and its jewels from evil. Andrew then went to work building the Overdrive Rangers' powers, zords, and weapons.

Andrew then recruited Will Aston, Dax Lo, Ronny Robinson, and Rose Ortiz to be Power Rangers, as it was his intention to become the Red Ranger. After convincing that group to become Rangers, he altered their DNA to have genetic powers. As Mr. Hartford was about to get his enhancement, Mack walked in, interrupting the procedure. This caused an impromptu meeting between Mack and Andrew. Moltor's Lava Lizards then came to the Hartford estate, causing the Rangers to have to take off. Andrew gave the Rangers their morphers, and had them go ahead. Andrew was about to morph, but was captured by some Lava Lizards, causing his morpher to break free. Mack picked up the morpher and morphed into the Red Overdrive Ranger. He led the other Rangers to a victory over the Chillers and Lava Lizards. He showed bravery and quick tactical thinking in his first battle and was quickly accepted and trusted as leader by the other Rangers.

After returning to base, Moltor captured Mr. Hartford and the Corona Aurora. Mack led the other Rangers to Moltor's lair and saved him, but couldn't get the crown. After defeating one of Moltor's giant monsters, Andrew gave his blessing to Mack to become the Red Ranger. He was given a suit and what was assumed to be a genetic power - super strength.

Brownbeard Pearl
Mack is also very understanding of the meaning of a team. When Will was having difficulties adjusting to working with a team, due to only doing solo work for his whole life, he helped him. With Mack's leadership, the team found the three scrolls, which when combined, turned into Neptune's Sword, which led them to St. Lucia. At St. Lucia, they found the Eye of the Sea. After realizing that the Eye wasn't a jewel of the Corona Aurora, the team traded it to Brownbeard for a pearl. The Pearl turned out to be the first jewel of the crown.

Toru Diamond
After reading upon the Hou-Ou bird, Mr. Hartford concluded that it would lead them to the next jewel. Will tricked Miratrix in order to get to the parchment, but unfortunately freed Kamdor from his jewel prison. After the Rangers retreived the parchment, Moltor sent a creature named Tyzonn to retreive it. Mack, realizing that Tyzonn wasn't evil, convinced him to join the Rangers to save the world. Tyzonn used citrus acid in lemonade to get the location of the jewel hidden in the parchment. Mack and Tyzonn took the Sonic Streaker to the volcanoe to get the Toru Diamond. The two jewels were later used to turn Tyzonn back to his true form.

Blue Sapphire
When an expedition camp is attacked by new villains known as the Fearcats in Brazil, the Rangers worked with Tyzonn to stop them. Flurious tests his gyros on the Fearcats, Mig and Benglo, turning them into powerful cyborgs. It's a race against time for the Rangers to save Tyzonn and stop the Fearcats from destroying San Angeles. The Rangers traveled to Norway and raced Moltor to the mystical hammer Mjolnir. Moltor retrieves it first, the Rangers then attempt to take Mjolnir back. Tracing the connection between the Cannon of Ki Amuk and Mjolnir, the Rangers travel to Mexico and are ambushed. In the process, Loki appears, masquerading as Thor, and steals Mjolnir. To get it back, Ronny disguises herself as the goddess Freyja. After the Rangers use the Cannon of Ki Amuk and Mjolnir to get the Piedra Aztec del Compás it gets stolen by Moltor. Moltor sends Blothgaar to fight the Rangers. Mack is blasted by the Compass and is overcome by a serious case of a bad luck, which should have been impossible since he was a robot. The Rangers then used the compass to find the the Blue Sapphire, which was stolen by Kamdor and Miratrix.

Star of Isis
"One Fine Day" revealed Mack's memories of a happy childhood ten years ago don't match with reality, with Andrew mentioning Mack first appeared only two years ago; additionally, he was unable to pass through the Fearcats' forcefield in the same episode, despite maintaining continuous physical contact with Tyzonn and Rose who had already successfully passed through. In the final scene of Ronny on Empty II, Andrew was initially startled to see Mack's choice of Halloween costume, that of a robot. (Andrew's, fittingly, was that of a Frankinstineish mad scientist).

Mack was finally revealed to be an android when he was affected by the same computer virus created by Kamdor's monster that infected the BattleFleet Zords and the base's computers and he awoke to find his head not attached to his body. He was shaken by the revelation to the extent of not thinking he was needed in battle, and Spencer had to snap him out of it by reminding him that, despite his origins and the identity crisis, he was loved. The other Rangers showed support when they found out - as Tyzonn stated, they'd accepted him and he was an alien - but Mack seemed unwilling to forgive his father for keeping it a secret, refusing to talk with him.

Pink Emerald
In "Red Ranger Unplugged" he had a brief identity crisis, unsure if his hobbies were really his or just programmed into him, though he soon got past this. He is still resentful of his father for lying to him, and by Home and Away Part 2 he had started referring to him simply as "Mr Hartford" and saying he can't be angry because "androids don't have emotions".

In "Way Back When", the other Rangers plug Mack in the main computer to see his memories, so they could find more info about the Jewels of the Corona Aurora.

Finale
In the final episode "Crown and Punishment", Mack realized his father cared for him when Flurious threatened to destroy Mack for the jewels, causing Andrew to trade the jewels for Mack. After this, Mack began calling him "Dad" again. Mack uses up all his power in the final battle with Flurious to destroy the villain, but unfortunately, depleting his own power and causing severe internal damage. The other Overdrive Rangers rushed him back to Andrew, who sadly informed the Rangers that the damage to Mack's systems was too severe to be repaired, and while another android could be built - that android, while it would look like Mack, would not be the Mack they knew.

Rebirth
Moments later, the Sentinel Knight arrived to offer his congratulations, and was perplexed by the Rangers' reactions; using the power of the Corona Aurora (placed upon Mack's head) to not only revive Mack, but to turn him into an actual human being. With Operation Overdrive succeeding in its mission to find the Jewels of the Corona Aurora, and the other Rangers leaving to return to their pre-Ranger lives, Mack is living his fondest wish, and is currently travelling on adventures with his father overseas.

Trivia

 * Mack's entire story is reminiscent of Pinocchio for he was an artificial person who eventually becomes human in the end.
 * Mack beat out Justin Stewart as the youngest ranger making him the youngest Red Ranger and team leader of the Overdrive Rangers.
 * Although Clash of the Red Rangers confirmed that RPM takes place in an alternate universe, that does not mean those previous rangers did not exist in said universe (in one form or another).
 * He's the second Red Ranger to not be born human. The first was Aurico, who is an Aquitian.
 * If you count Andros then he's the third.
 * Suprisingly, he's not the first artifical Red Ranger, as Robot TJ, Psycho Red, and the Red Cyborg Ranger were both artifical. He is, however, the first artifically created Red Ranger to not be a copy of the existing one.
 * Also Mack is also the first ranger to be both a robot and a human.