Movie: (1964) A group of scientists create a portal that takes them to a barren, mutant-inhabited Earth.
Opening: J&tB are playing a game of “Never Did I Ever”
Invention exchange: Crow has Dr. Crow’s Old Edible Silica Packets; The Mads have the Afterlife Alert
Segment 1: Gypsy leads a time portal safety drill
Segment 2: Jonah introduces some new robots. Crow and Tom hogpile them
Segment 3: Dr. Varno and Larry visit on Rocket Number 9
Closing: The bots are delighted to have time travel dopplegangers; Kinga is seeking anniversary dollars
Stinger: Danny is diggin’ it.
(44 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
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• To me, it’s with this episode that everything seems to fall into place after a couple of episodes that were cute and clever and diverting but not really ha-ha funny. I laughed a lot during this one.
• Note that Max is wearing an amulet on a chain around his neck that looks like the one the little kid wore in the previous episode.
• This movie was made in an interesting era when the writers knew what lasers were, but the actors still didn’t know how to pronounce them.
• Tom pushing the rocket up is probably the best use so far of his flying abilities
• Callbacks: mention of an interociter (“This Island Earth”), “It stinks!” (Pod People).
• With Joel in segment 3 is show writer Elliott Kalan. A very funny guy but, this was not his best performance. More wry than funny, though Joel’s takes to the camera almost save it.
• An interesting tidbit: director Ib Melchior (who co-wrote the movie in episode 1101- REPTILICUS) came up with a comic book series, “Space Family Robinson,” which Melchior believed was the inspiration for “Lost in Space.” Considering that Joel took his character’s surname of Joel Robinson, it’s reasonable to think Ib might have had an influence (consciously or unconsciously) on MST3K’s first test subject’s name.
• This movie was produced by Samuel Z Arkoff, whose other riffed films include “I Was a Teenage Werewolf,” “The Amazing Colossal Man,” “Viking Women,” “War of The Colossal Beast,” “ She-Creature,” “Teenage Caveman,” “Terror from the Year 5000,” “It Conquered the World” and “Viking Women.”
• Cast and crew roundup: Merry Anders was in “Women of the Prehistoric Planet.” John Hoyt was in “Lost Continent.” Forrest Ackerman also appeared in a “Future War.” Steve Franken was in “Avalanche.” Makeup artist Marc Snegoff was also the makeup artist in “Agent of H.A.R.M” and “Catalina Caper” (which he also acted in). Script supervisor Hannah Sheel was also the script supervisor on “The Bat People.” Reynold Brown did the poster art for “The Brain That Wouldn’t Die,” “Teenage Cave Man,” “Viking Women,” “I Was A Teenage Werewolf, “Revenge of the Creature” and “This Island Earth.”
• Fave riff: “And which part of the human centipede do YOU want to be?” Honorable mention: “Bechdel test score: zero” and “I have a slinky and a Dilbert calendar.”
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It’s interesting that in the year 2071 or thereabouts when they reproduce the time portal machinery they use vacuum tubes and reel-to-reel data tapes. Technology we would have a hard time reproducing today.
I’m headed up to the land of MST3K today, The Twin Cities, so I’ll post this now:
An interesting tidbit: director Ib Melchior came up with a comic book series, Space Family Robinson, which Melchior believed was the inspiration for Lost in Space. That series was where Joel Hodgson took his character’s surname of Joel Robinson, so Ib might have had an influence on our first test subject’s name.
Melchior co-wrote experiment 1101, Reptilicus.
Produced by Samuel Z Arkoff, whose other riffed films include I Was a Teenage Werewolf, The Amazing Colossal Man, Viking Women, War of The Colossal Beast, She-Creature, Teenage Caveman, Terror from the Year 5000, It Conquered the World, The Saga of the Viking Women. Am I missing any?
Cinematography by, Vilmos Zsigmond, who also worked on The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies
Actress Merry Andersen was also in Women of the Prehistoric Planet
Actor John Hoyt was in Lost Continent
Forrest Ackerman also appeared in a Future War
Steve Franken was in Avalanche
Makeup artist Marc Snegoff was also the makeup artist in Agents of H.A.R.M. And Catalina Caper (which he also acted in)
Script supervisor Hannah Sheel was also the script supervisor on The Bat People, AKA It Lives By Night
Reynold Brown, who did the poster art, also did posters for The Brain That Wouldn’t Die, Teenage Cave Man, The Saga of the Viking Women, I Was A Teenage Werewolf, Revenge of the Creature and This Island Earth
Release date: October 29, 1964
Writer David L Hewit, born Aug. 12, 1939
Composer Richard LaSalle, born Jan. 18, 1918, died April 5, 2015
Cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond, born June 16, 1930, died Jan. 1, 2016
Actor Preston Foster (Dr. Erik von Steiner), born Aug. 24, 1900, died July 14, 1970
Actor Philip Carey (Steve Connors), born July 15, 1925, died Feb. 6, 2009
Actress Merry Anders (Carol White), born May 22, 1934, died Oct. 28, 2012
Actor John Hoyt (Varno), born Oct. 5, 1905, died Sept. 15, 1911
Actor Dennis Patrick (Councilman Willard), born March 14, 1918, died Oct. 13, 2002
Actress Joan Woodbury (Gadra), born Dec. 17, 1915, died Feb. 22, 1989
Actress Delores Wells (Reena), born Oct. 17, 1937, died Feb. 9, 2016
Actor Steve Franken (Danny McKee), born May 27, 1932, died Aug. 24, 2012
Forrest Ackerman (cameo), born Nov. 24, 1916, died Dec 4, 2008
Actor Berry Kroeger (Preston), born Oct. 16, 1912, died Jan. 4, 1991
Actress Molly Glessing (android), born June 28, 1891, died April 30, 1971
Actor J. Edward McKinley (Raymond), born Oct. 11, 1917, died July 30, 2004
Art director Ray Storey, born June 28, 1928, died Nov. 2, 2003
Makeup artist Marc Snegoff, born Aug. 7, 1919, died Nov. 4, 1969
Assistant director Clark L. Paylow, born Dec. 16, 1918, died Sept. 25, 1985
Special effects artist Gary R. Heacock, born Jan. 10, 1934, died May 5, 2013
Animator Oskar Fischingerl born Jan. 22, 1900, died Jan. 31, 1967
Philip Carey makes two actors from the soap opera One Life to Live to be in a MSTed movie. The other is Thom Christoper from Deathstalker and the Warriors From Hell. Carey played family patriarch Asa Buchanan and Christopher was the villainous Carlo Hesser.
The edible silica packets were really a nice nod to the early seasons, and felt like the first ‘true’ invention exchange. We also got Max’s line from the trailer! Feels like the writers, cast, and crew are really hitting their stride and becoming comfortable with the show at this point. Word is that the episodes were filmed in production order? So that makes sense.
Good running gag commentaries on the plot, and pretty cool to see Joel’s promised interactivity with the movie from the bots (though 1104, ‘Avalanche,’ takes that up a notch). Someone pointed out that the film actually went on for a few more minutes after the ‘happy’ ending, and this seems to have been cut for time – they never cut for time in the original series! John Saxon’s death in ‘Mitchell’ was never depicted in the definitive, Joe Don cut!
It’s nice to see Steve Franken in the next two movies — always liked him from Dobie Gillis.
This is a good effort — the movie is exactly the kind of goofy they do best at, and the new guys handle it pretty well. The “happy” ending is not any different than the original movie (which only loops around on itself — it’s not unhappy, it’s just accurate, because their old selves would do the same things and end up where their new selves are… happy).
7 out of 10 (so they are getting better, although I think they finally hit their stride in the next episode).
The 200th episode of MST3K! And another good one for season 11. This is an odd movie—halfway-decent idea, incomprehensible science jargon, not-terrible special effects. The opening is cute, with Crow complaining that they’re winning as Jonah gets sucked up in the tube. And we get to see Joel on screen! His wordless performance, with all those goofy, conspiratorial smiles, reminds me of the musical host sketch in I Accuse My Parents.
The timing of the riffs still seems a little too early in many places. I liked the moment when someone made a crashing-glass sound as Danny put his hand through the time portal, and then all three riffers laughed at it. The season would benefit from more moments like these, where Jonah and the bots seem to interact and have fun together rather than just take turns reading jokes.
I’m halfway through the season, but still haven’t gotten used to the new Tom. His jokes are great, but their delivery, not so much. In the host segments, his timing seems a little slow. In the theater, his voice just doesn’t sound consistent—often I can’t tell if his tone of voice is his natural one or changed to be part of the joke, and if it is, it’s more distracting than funny.
Favorite riffs:
“You’re supposed to fart the power?”
“Hipster scientists and their analog time machines…”
“Nice job introducing confirmation bias there, Willard.”
“What, are they gonna shoot the fire out?”
“Shut up! I just had your idea!”
Anyone notice the “AfterLife Alert” is based on a riff from the week before? Jonah does, eventually. The New Mads should do that again, only admit right off the bat their invention was based on it.
The riffing on the entire “android assembly plant” scen is executed masterfully. The torrent of jokes about body horror, Game of Thrones, racism, process shots, the relevance of MST3K, and so much else is positively dizzying.
At points throughout the episode, each of the three incorrectly state that the scientists have travelled 100k years into the future. Maybe an artifact of the disjointed writing process?
Great episode with a movie I loved as a kid. The cast is getting more into an easier flow so it’s improving. Loved call backs kids letters and invention exchange. Great riffing!
I have to admit I was a bit worried how Patton’s performance would be due to his circumstances. He is doing a GREAT job. He’s more experience that the rest of the cast but he a very generous actor by not overwhelming others when interacting with them. He truly is the clone of Frank! Thanks and prayers to him and his.
Larry looked kinda familiar when he and Dr. Varno visited the SOL. But the ‘Bots didn’t say anything about it, so I’m sure it’s just my eyes playing tricks on me.
Majorjoe23: Thanks for all the info! That’s yeoman’s work you’re doing. And welcome to the Cities! Enjoy your time here.
@Majorjoe23
“Actor John Hoyt (Varno), born Oct. 5, 1905, died Sept. 15, 1911”
Sounds like he accomplished a lot in 6 years…
Contrary to what Jonah states, The Time Travelers passes the Bechdel Test. Carol and Gadra talk about the photon drive.
What makes it doubly embarrassing is that the above mentioned scene occurs before the riff in question.
Perhaps other examples can be pointed out, but this film seems to have been something of a bellwether for when science fiction films went in a more pessimistic direction in the late Sixties and the Seventies (Soylent Green, Logan’s Run, the Planet of the Apes series, etc.).
The prologue has a definite Mike-era feel to it.
The time portal safety drill is a favorite, as I’ve had to sit through my share of workplace lectures on a variety of topics which featured tortured acronyms.
@ #1: IIRC vacuum tubes aren’t affected by EMP (such as that produced by a nuclear explosion) the way more modern electronic components are. FWTW.
I don’t want to spoil anything, so I’ll just say “keep watching.”
Sampo, slight nitpick: Steve Franken is in two of the first four movies.
The episodes are definitely getting better, and this is a great movie to work with – 1950s, nonsensical science talk, outrageous costumes, 50s women, etc. Lots of fun. I agree with a previous poster, the next episode is where the new crew really hits their stride.
Will you be making a pilgrimage to Eden Prairie, or to what once was KTMA?
I thought this one turned out pretty well. The movie was a good choice for riffing, with the “science”, the blatant fan service (the lllllllllladies spa scene), the low budget, the instantaneous romance, and the earnest presentation. I was surprised to learn that they cut the ending, and for a movie only running about 80 minues, it has a lot of padding.
The riffs were funny, especially the Anthony Daniels riffs during the robot workshop scenes. I would’ve expected a “Star Trek” riff in relation to John Hoyt (who played Dr. Boyce, the proto-McCoy in “The Cage”) or maybe one, “…and me, Steve Franken.” Oh, well.
The host segments were good, and I also liked Joel’s expression during his cameo. I’m glad someone else noticed how similar it was to “I Accuse My Parents”.
All in all, this was another good one. Oh, and does anyone else think that “The Time Travelers” would make a good double feature with “World Without End”? They seem somewhat similar.
I like this one. Decent movie, good riffing, host segments fine. Can there already be an underrated season 11 episode? I’ll put this in my “rewatch” classification.
The movie is an interesting one. If it had been, say, a half hour “Twilight Zone” episode, it might have been really good. Instead it’s stretched out to feature length and the padding is obvious. Some genuinely impressive F/X tricks, however, and Danny is a great character to mine for riffs.
Favorite riff: “I’ll just put this back in case Arya Stark needs it to kill somebody.”
And yes, I love that there are now “Game of Thrones” jokes on the show.
In the host segment where the ‘Bots destroy Jonah’s new robots, they raise Crow too high from the desk, and he has “Gypsy tubing” under his torso to mask the control rod. I personally think it would have been cooler if Crow had been wearing the beige slacks that Joel gave him back in Season 4.
Jonah complementing the special effect of them removing the android’s head was kinda nice. Pointing out when a b-movie does something cool and inspiring was something sorely missed during the Sci-Fi Channel era.
I was absolutely *thrilled* to hear them reference Rocky Horror (after a character in the movie mentions a “time warp”). It intrigues me, not only as a Rocky Horror fan, but the fact that movie riffing is pretty key at Rocky Horror screenings.
The brunette that hits on Danny? I’ve added her to my list of hot babes from MST’ed movies.
“Those were the days…right Larry?”
This episode contains my favorite riff of the new season. At the end of the movie, as the scientists begin to explore their new sylvan surroundings, Ton Servo breaks into a short song- “All you have to bring is your love of everything, beautiful Time Travelers Lodge.” Joel and Jonah mention in an interview that head writer Elliot Kalan fought tooth and nail to keep this “obscure” reference in the new season, and everyone deferred to Elliot to “make him happy”. To those of us of a certain age who grew up watching NYC television stations, though, the riff is anything but obscure: it’s an old commercial for Mt. Airy Lodge, a Poconos resort, that aired in various forms incessantly for years on daytime TV. This made me as happy as the references to Minnesota and Wisconsin things must have made the fans from there happy during the original show. (Mt. Airy Lodge closed in 2001 but was revived as a casino in 2007.)
That and the “teleportation test” later seemed to be based upon “stage illusions” so they were able to film them in a single take without cuts or optical overlays. Somehow, I get the impression the original ad campaigns may have focused upon these scenes, enticing audiences to go see the movie.
Sitting Duck: I think some people have gotten the idea that if two women discuss men AT ALL, then it fails. Mary Jo and Bridget make the same mistake in the “Angel’s Revenge” riff. When in fact that movie passes the Bechdel Test with, well, a vengeance. And again, the Bechdel “Test” is more of a comment on how bad most movies are on these issues, not a metric of success.
Thanks for commenting on my comment, Sitting Duck. It’s nice to hear from a fellow fan with nerdistic tendencies who appreciates the technical details, right or wrong, of these old scifi movies. As it turns out vacuum tubes are less susceptible to electromagnetic pulses, but not immune unless shielded by some form of grounded faraday cage. If you are worried about your cell phone frying in a nuclear attack just leave it in a microwave oven (that isn’t turned on, duh). It will survive even if you don’t. And that’s all I have to say about that (Forrest Forrest Gump).
BTW – my favorite semi-disgusting riff in this episode: “he-vage” refering to Dr. Varno’s bizarre outfit.
I watched the entire season in two days when it launched, and when I saw this one for the first time at around 7 AM on April 14, I REALLY liked it a lot. With the benefit of hindsight, I think I liked it because it felt “closer” to how I considered classic MST3K – the riffs had slowed down and they were goofing on some classic sci-fi cheese (this movie gives me a real This Island Earth vibe). I don’t like it quite as much as I used to, but it’s still a good solid episode and a building block to when they really slip into a groove. They really do a number on poor Danny, too.
Favorite riff: Servo pretending to scream in pain when one of the androids gets a replacement eye pushed in, then going “ah, that’s better” when it snaps into place. Actually, that whole android lab bit is my favorite part of the episode.
Don’t know when they’ve done too many other Rocky Horror riffs beyond just song excuses–
The only other one that springs to mind was the S9 riff (Quest for the Delta Knights?) when a blonde beefcake walked though a scene, and M&tB riff a Tim Curry “ROC-kayyy…”
I must be of a certain age….The Psychic Lawn Dart just now struck its target.
With a new generation of writers, we’ve been a little short on the more obscure pre-80’s refs, beyond just the symbolic “It’s the 70’s” riffs of Avalanche, and while it’s not a problem, we could use a few more.
And since nobody’s mentioned it yet, or probably was waiting for Sampo or everyone else to, if you watch the unriffed Time Travelers on Amazon Prime, there’s an even stranger ending that was edited for the episode:
(Which, for those who’d rather look it up themselves, may necessitate
– SPOILERS-
“Did this movie just lap itself?” Yes:
After the scientists return and walk through the void into their Brave New Golf Course, the scene returns to the earlier experiment from the beginning of the story, in their time: Since our heroes were unable to prevent their earlier selves from making the same dumb mistakes, they’re doomed to make them again, and start the whole thing over again, lather, rinse, repeat–
A point the movie tries to make with dramatic irony, as the computer explodes, and we hear the music turn to a dramatic slowly accelerating drumbeat as the filmmakers spend three minutes fast-forwarding through the ENTIRE MOVIE all over again: Danny jumps through like an idiot, the girl fights mutants with a fire extinguisher, the rocks, the cave, factory, shower, Simon-game, fight, campus, back in the lab…By the time we’re on the second lap, the fast-forwarding has sped up to the point that it only takes twenty seconds to get to the THIRD lap–By which point it’s now going like a Max Headroom blipvert, and we eventually see the ending monitor-static shot.
Have to admit, when they first announced the movie, I was sort of picturing how Jn&tB would react to Melchior’s odd “artistic” touch:
“Oh yeah, remember when they–oh, right, and–hey!“
I loved this riff too, but not because I knew the reference – actually, quite the contrary, I had no idea what it was referencing and had to Google the opening line to find out what it was. I love it because, to me, it’s not MST3K unless there’s a riff that just went miles over my head, but I know someone else is flipping their lid over.
Oh, yes. There were commercials for Mt. Airy and the Pocono Gardens Lodge, and they were pretty much the same commercial. It’s like the commercials for the Hotel Seville and the Collingwood Hotel that would air over WNBC during the original “Saturday Night Live”. Oh, dear, that was long ago.
I had a brief conversation with Elliot Kalan on Twitter; he remarked he’s kicking himself for not putting in a Milford Plaza reference. There’s always next season!
Watch it for yourself!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-YLczxeyGU
Last three minutes of Time Travelers cut from MST. It would have made for some great riffs.
As Torque the Dorque notes in #10, I also enjoyed this one when I was a kid. I agree with Kenneth Morgan at #17, this movie has a very similar feel and theme to “World Without End”.
I liked the “After-Life Alert”, and Joel’s no-dialogue cameo.
My favorite riffs and references:
“Oh, they’re watching Heavy Metal Parking Lot!”
“I’m just thinking out loud, Doc, but you should totally go for that.”
Gypsy: “Can anyone tell me what to do if you encounter a time portal?
Tom: “Sure, use it to skip to the end of this lecture.”
“Just checking to make sure all the androids are Caucasian.”
Finally, another movie featuring a character named Steve- like Paul, very popular I guess!
Crap, He died in 1991.
And maybe one for Marriott’s Essex House.
Nice writeup. Here are a few others:
– Dennis Patrick is also in Code Name: Diamond Head
– Steve Franken is also in Stranded in Space
– Assistant director Clark L. Paylow directed Ring of Terror
– Camera operator László Kovács also worked on The Incredibly Strange Creatures…
Thank you–I had despaired of finding an isolated clip for reference, but my faith in the power of YouTube is restored. :)
Speaking of missed riffs, was anyone else thinking:
(Danny in the force-field cave): “Doc, if anyone knows an electric shock, it’s me!”
“‘Had plenty of ’em, back at Chattahoochee!'”
I like to think if they’d left those last three minutes in there they’d fast-forward through the riffs to match.
While I didn’t find this one as laugh-out-loud funny as the previous two, I thought this one had lots of good character moments, which I think is just as important. When Crow was doing his C3PO impression and Jonah told him to stop and he kept doing it anyway, it reminded immediately me of in “The Beatniks” when Crow says in a goofy voice “Oh, is the great MARTHA WENTWORTH going to be in this film?” and Servo says “Oh, is the great CROW going to do that joke every single time?” The C3PO bit was very good old Crow type moment like that. I also remember this one also being the one where Servo finally felt like *Servo* to me, but I can’t quite remember any specific instances of why… I’ll watch it again and report back.
Favorite riff, paraphrasing: “How is electro-Hawaiian the only music that survived doomsday?”
I definitely got the feeling that scenes like those were the entire reason the movie was made. Some dude had cool stage illusions, and they built the plot around them. Made me think of George Melies, though at least he had the decency to make his movies five minutes long.
One more thing I love that I forgot to mention: there’s one part of the “new robots” segment where Jonah briefly stumbles over one of his lines, but he and the skit just keep going regardless. That sort of rawness is something I love about the show, and I’m glad it’s still there in this shiny new season.
I kinda wish they had left in the original ending. It’s the best thing about this movie.
Did anyone else see this on Elvira’s Movie Macabre? Great episode. Servo lifting the rocket is classic Joel screen interaction.
I watched this raw about ten years back so I was going crazy trying to figure out what movie I was thinking of that had the loop ending.
Filmed in broadcast order, you mean? Dunno how you’d film in other than production order, unless maybe on Doctor Who… ;)
This is called “The Canada Song” on Clowns in the Sky II. Is it titled otherwise in the actual episode credits?
I wish, but I am up here for something nearly as nerdy: checking out the Guillermo del Toro exhibit at the Minneapolis Institute of Art.
o/` At the Milford Plaza! o/`
I would plotz.
Hate to ask, but are they still cutting the episodes to fit the 90 minute time slot? Caught Starcrash (out of order, because I always wanted MST to do THAT one), and I remembered one goofy scene that appears to have been cut in the MST version.
Was hoping that, with Netflix, they wouldn’t need to do that. Oh well…
It’s not due to exective order–Joel just thinks that 90 minutes are as long as anyone could tolerate a Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode being. (It’s also why the lack of shorts–he wants to cut as little of the movies as possible, and the more stuff happening in a given episode the more heavily edited the movie has to be.)
Reliable source get.
It’s funny, I watched The Loves of Hercules tonight, and it was probably my least favorite of the season so far because there was some obvious cutting and it felt like it rendered a movie that was probably not very tightly plotted to begin with into something nigh incomprehensible.