Episode 901- The
Projected Man
Movie
Summary: Our second Sci-Fi
season stampedes to a start with a rip-roaring tale of
politics in the grantmaking world!
Overcoming a crippling lack of screen presence, a scientist
named Paul has very nearly perfected technology that will
allow the world to transport mice from one side of
laboratory to another. His boss Mr. Blanchard wants him to
fail; something having to do with blackmail by a guy with
the largest eyebrows in Europe. Accordingly, Blanchard
sabotages a demonstration in front of a Teutonic dignitary
named Lembach who controls mouse-transporting unding
decisions; in a hasty rage, Paul tries to project himself
into his boss's dining room and messes up. He becomes sort
of a half-something, maybe it's a rat now that I think of
it, but I wouldn't worry about it too much if I were you.
Whatever he is, he has big teeth and even more pockmarks
than before.
So, he starts killing people even though he still seems like
sort of a rational guy. His old girlfriend (also a pale
scientist; everyone in this movie is a pale scientist or a
pale grantmaking bureaucrat) tries to talk him out of it, as
does his lab assistant, but they're too busy falling in what
passes in England for love to make much of an impact on his
spiral into the pits of semi-rat hell. He's dead by the end,
and you know what? I was basically fine with that.
Prologue: The crew careens through another wormhole, and
after some trepidation as to where they're gonna end up this
time, they find themselves back on present-day Earth. "We
can see Ethan Hawke movies again!"
Segment One:
Pearl, Bobo, and Brain Guy are
moving into an old castle, a castle which Pearl finds
strangely familiar. There's an organ; she plays it expertly,
with the SOL folks clapping in baseball park unison. Then,
of course, she sends them a movie.
Segment Two: The 'bots "project" various treasured items of
Mike's into some sadly unspecified location, never to
return. (It's hard to avoid the conclusion that they're just
being mean.)
Segment Three: On the SOL, Mike on the phone tries to get
Lembach to stay (it has to do with the movie). In the
castle, Pearl discovers a book, an ancient history of her
family: "I have a feeling I'm on to something here, Nelson.
Some power, some force beyond my control. And it doesn't
look good for you!"
Segment Four: Crow gets the touch of death and kills Mike --
or does he!?
Segment Five: On the SOL, Mike turns down Servo's grant
request and okays Crows poorly-conceived one. This upsets
Servo, as you can imagine. In the castle, Pearl exults in
her newfound castle; Bobo and Brain Guy march and chant.
Stinger: The former girlfriend: "Lembach is staying in
London for another few days!"
Reflections:
Paul, played by Bryant Haliday, is of course familiar to MST
viewers as the guy who played "The Great Vorelli" in last
year's Devil
Doll. I guess Haliday was
considered to be someone who could carry a film. I don't
know much about movies, but in mid-1960s England they must
have been about three million years behind the music.
I believe this is the first movie we've ever done in which
the monster's name was Paul. And believe it or not, it won't
be the last. -- Paul Chaplin.
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