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SPOILER SPACEThis thread is for comments on and reactions to the screening of episode 1101 that is available to Kickstarter backers today.
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Perhaps Cambot will get in the action eventually.
Watching it for a second time and I’m so happy.
I think the moment it becomes transcendent and erases any and all doubts is the first host segment/musical number. Every transitional MST3K episode has its moment where I know everything’s going to be OK. And that song was what did it for me in this one.
I had my apprehensions about this revival; not so much “I’m worried it won’t be funny” as “I’m worried these modern writers will springboard off the movies to zing the same familiar targets ‘everyone’ dislikes and grate on my own inconvenient tastes even as lots of other people grin”… but one episode in, I feel a bit more confident: the references in the “riffing” had a nice range to them, and the movie was definitely entertaining in its own certain way. Beyond that, there is going to be a “getting to know this new arrangement” sort of feeling. I do sort of have an impression the show feels “more musical,” right up to the host segment song being reprised to stretch out the modern and much-extended credits.
Haven’t read the other reviews yet. Just finished watching it, and I was impressed. It was a good opening effort. “Reptilicus” was a good choice, and the riffs were really funny.
I think they still have some fine tuning to do, though. At times, the riffs seemed to be coming a bit too fast. But I’m sure they’ll get the right pace figured out.
I was surprised that they resisted making any “Doctor Who” references whenever “regeneration” was mentioned. And I miss the guitar strum at the end of the theme. But, like I wrote, it’s was a good opening effort.
Is it “ohmygodNewFavoriteEpisodeEver!!”? Nah.. wouldn’t go that far. But it was a damn solid episode, darn tootin’. There were a few rough edges here and there. I do hope that the performers all get to settle into their roles, although with it being shot all at once and not necessarily having the feedback loop of looking at the final in-the-can version of your current episode to see what worked and what could be smoothed out I don’t know how much opportunity there will be for that. But I’m quite pleased with what we got and if the rest of the season averages at this quality I’ll consider my money very well spent and would do it again for another season if need be.
It’s our show! It retains the same flavor of the classic episodes with slightly different clothes.
The riffs are lightning fast and I mean FAST. I attribute that to their tight production schedule; I presume they find their pacing as the season progresses.
Jonah is a worthy successor to Joel and Mike.
It took me a little bit to get warmed up in the theater but about twenty minutes in a killer riff gave me a good out loud laugh.
Felicia Day is terrific; Patton Oswalt it goes without saying is awesome as always.
It does a great job of setting up premise while simultaneously getting right to the meat and potatoes of what the show is, and it walks the line between the hot glued, hand-crafted style of the classic series while marrying that with updated production value.
I can’t wait to see the rest of the season!
I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Way to go Joel!!!!!
I just got through watching this and I really enjoyed it! It will take a while to get their voices down b/c when they are riffing I’m not sure who is saying what – ha! I love that Servo (who has always been my fave) can fly around in the theater and his arms move a little too. Having Gypsy being able to move around more freely is fun too. That movie was a great choice – it was so bad that it was laughable all on its own. I was definitely laughing out loud throughout the movie. I’ve been a fan since 1993 and I have to say it was awesome and surreal to see my name in the credits of an episode of MST.
I had the pleasure of watching the first episode today with my best friend. All I can say that MST3K is back and its off to a really good start! The riffing was great, good host segments and the new cast did a great job. Special props to Hampton Yount as the new voice of Crow, he nailed the voice and personality right off the bat. Can’t wait to binge some episodes on Good Friday with him when the season drops on Netflix!
OK watched it a second time with the chat going and liked it even more,kind of the way you might play an album once,put it up for a while then play it again and say “wow this is really great”. If they are all like this I’ll be repeatedly watching,catching jokes each time I missed previously. A pitch perfect restart(not reboot) of my favorite show. Oh and the shot of that guy being eaten was probably the most amazing special effect I’ve ever seen.
The “fast and furious” riffing style others have commented on reminded me of ICWXP, so I wasn’t put off by it. This first episode wasn’t great by any means, but far from the “Ghostbusters”/”Fantastic Four” (insert your favorite horrible rehash here) trainwreck I was afraid of. It helps that I love movies like “Reptilicus” anyway, riffed or not.
Overall, I LOVED it. Familiar enough to be comfortable, new enough to be a lotta fun. The riffing did go fast ‘n’ furious but I found I actually liked that and think it will add to the replay value. Had a hard time telling a couple of the riffers’ voices apart, but hopefully my “ear” will develop over time. Loved the monster song and the beautiful orchestration of the closing theme song. The letter-reading segment, while old school, seemed a bit forced.
Too soon to put our favorite riff? Mine was the one something like “Only God can play God. Well, sometimes Morgan Freeman.”
I enjoyed it! Despite an all new cast, they did a good job diving into the first episode. I agree with others that we didn’t see much of the Mads and I wish we had some more back and forth conversations between them and Jonah. For an introductory episode it felt very light in terms of character interaction. In fact, the host segments in general felt very brief. Maybe a reaction to audience’s having shorter attention spans, or an attempt to make up for the time spent in the extended intro?
The riffing was good, I did feel it was a bit faster than I’m used to but the increased speed didn’t bother me. I did have trouble telling their voices apart at times.
I think my biggest gripes are:
• The SoL bridge set. For all the effort put into other areas of the show visually (like the intricate door sequence, the ship designs, the Gizmonic Institute exterior shot), the bridge was very boring to me. It was lit nice, but given the bump to HD I felt it was a mistake to go very simple with the design. Kit bashing would have been perfect in this setting!
• Lack of explanation as to how Crow and Tom got back into space. From what I heard from the Q&A, this might not get addressed, which is a shame. I know the whole “just a show, just relax” mantra, but past episodes have put effort into explaining how characters got to where they are. It almost felt like since Joel was not involved in the later episodes that he didn’t care to or see the need to put the effort into explaining how the bots got back on the ship. Though he did bring back Pearl, and speaking of Pearl…
• I hope a future episode explains Pearl’s presence. I found it odd that the big return episode featured one returning cast member in character, and they relegated her to the background. I figure the way they filmed Mary Jo’s scenes, they did the intro and all the outros and then spent time on a few episodes where she features, so I’m probably complaining about nothing. But until we see that episode where she features, it did seem really odd to have her not mentioned or speaking.
Aside from those gripes, which are really minor and will likely be addressed later or I’ll get used to them, like the bridge set which is mainly an aesthetic thing, I liked it!
I have to say, I really really love the moon setting and the whole dark side of the moon thing. It’s such a cool place to have the new season take place, and the Boneheads are an interesting bunch. I know MST3K doesn’t spend a lot of time explaining lore, but I want to know more about these guys. I also liked the commercial breaks.
I caught the live youtube interview and Joel said something about Shout releasing dvds of unreleased Cinematic Titanic movies. Do we have more news on that??
Correction: It looks like I mistook Rebecca Hanson for Pearl in the intro. Disregard my Pearl gripe!
Frank and Trace say the same thing in the FAQ on their website.
I missed the chat, did they confirmed it’s never addressed? It would be nice but, to your point, the mantra does allow for that kind of thing to be tolerated.
On the one hand, “why are Tom and Crow back in space?” is the kind of silly nitpicking that the theme song warns us against.
On the other hand…the ending of Season 10, with Mike and the Bots living together and riffing a bad movie for fun, was just the perfect way to leave them, and if it didn’t last I’d really like to know why.
Until Joel says otherwise, I’m going to believe that the bots are there because they are the only possible outcome of the “special parts” from the theme song and their memories are due to some kind of cloud storage handwaving. The original Tom and Crow are still living with Mike.
Heck, that’s what I’ll believe even if Joel says otherwise.
Works for me!
All in all, a great start to the new season. There are things to get used to, like Servo’s flying and Gypsy’s new voice(someone’s going to buy a dot matrix printer, I think ;), but I really liked it. I do think that some of the questions that were left unanswered will be answered in the season. Of course, there is also the school of thought that Joel didn’t care for the direction the show went after he left, so he is ignoring that. I don’t believe that, and I think to connect the previous seasons to this one, it needs to be explained. Can’t wait till the whole season drops.
I vote 3-D printing. They can make almost anything in those things now, so why not the bots? It would explain a lot.
Okay, just finished. Short version- cautiously optimistic.
Longer version- The important bit, the in theater riffing, was not bad. Glancing through some of the comments, I had no issue with the pace. And while not a top tier riffing experience, it wasn’t bad either. It’s, I dunno, Operation Diamondhead-ish in quality.
Issues? Yeah, a number. I’ll start with something small. I’ve seen Reptilicus and if I remember it right, there’s a blatant “Hey! Look at the wonders of Denmark and Copenhagen!” travelogue sequence early in the film that was just wonderfully insane and reminded me of similar segments in some of the old shorts. And while it may not be an issue to others, the absence of that part did bother me. But that’s an issue for basically me and me alone. (Although I do wonder if these actually needed to be edited at all. It’s Netflix after all. Do they need to worry about length for an original production? Maybe the scripts were done before the ink was dry with Netflix?)
For other issues? The host segments. The opening “Welcome to Moon 13” segment was cringey to me. It, and one of the other segments, just did not connect with me at all. The segments did get better as the show went on though. The song was good. (Catching the credits, Paul and Storm did it, so that makes sense.) Joel’s host segments were always a bit hit or miss with me, but these seemed a bit shakier than the old days. Hopefully they were just early effort jitters.
And the commercial break segments… yeah. While I can see why Joel put them in before the Netflix deal, after Netflix came aboard, they probably should have been edited out as right now they disrupt the flow of the riffing. Riff, riff, riff. 30 seconds of “Hey! Here’s a recap!” Riff. Riff. Riff.
During the show, we get hints of Joel and “Hey! The bots are more mobile now! Look! Stuff! Tom can fly! Gypsy! Crow has a barrel!” Just because you can do something doesn’t necessarily mean you should. The only time that I recall the “Joel interacts with the movie” bits working in the original show was during City Limits. Although I did chuckle at Jonah during the potential fight scene.
For the riffs themselves, there were a few “you know, I’m getting old and some of these predate me” riffs (Copenhagen 6-5000, for example) and a couple of callbacks to old riffs, which I think should be used sparingly. Personal preference would be a few less 40-60s era riffs and a few more “if we hang back, we can still get XP when it dies” era stuff. And I’m very thankful of a lack of political riffs.
Other stuff. Yeah, the voices seem a bit too similar in timbre.
Also, after sitting through the credits looking for my name, I realized that they’d split them up into each episode. So, I’m guessing I’m in there around episode 8 or so.
Overall, like I said, cautiously optimistic. Hopefully this is a case where the first episode was a shake down episode and things begin to zing as the series continues.
In the eventual 50th anniversary episode, it’s revealed that there was a guy between Mike and Jonah who was trapped on the SOL and built new versions of the bots, but he made a riff so incredibly horrible that they evicted him from the ship shortly before Jonah’s arrival…
Or, you know… Kinga has a 3D printer.
I think that’s how they made most of the puppet parts this go around. Didn’t Joel mention that in a kickstarter update?
Hampton and Baron claim during the Q&A that Crow and Servo went back to collect their belongings after the Satellite crashed, and liked the place so much they decided to just move back in.
We’re already on a different Servo by the end of the episode than the one we’ve got at the beginning, so it’s not as if continuity-of-bots is essential.
I think there’s something to be said for editing movies for time; even if it’s not necessary, it can really help with pacing. A long movie can just be a slog even if the riffing is good. You’re right that they might be missing out on some good material, and that’s a shame; on the other hand, there are advantages to being able to make cuts.
I would edit down to just the part I’m addressing, but I’m on a phone and that’s a pain.
The Netflix deal was announced before filming began. So Joel put those commercial break bits in knowing there would be no commercials.
Where was that? INFORMATION IMMEDIATELY
The opening and theme song kind of threw me- not in a bad way, it’s just different. My hope is that we get a traditional theme song opener (instead of cuts or a cold open) at the start of other episodes, but maybe they’ll mix it up a bit. (Some of the opener felt like montage footage, so it was slightly jarring at first.)
As for the stinger, good choice, but I have to think there was a debate between that scene and the cartoony SFX of the person being eaten. I had to review that bit a few times before my brain accepted what I saw– very very WTF as the kids say.
One thing that I wasn’t expecting– Jonah and the Bots sure acted like they’d known each other for a while– I know the setup is that it’s been a month, but the way they did those chorus-type riffs all together… I don’t know. Maybe it’s just me.
Other random observations– Moon 13 (that’s what it’s called, right?) sure is a lot more populated than Deep 13 and even Deep Ape and the other locations. Again, different can be fun.
It’s kind of nice to see the “not-too-distant future” part played up with the space-mining and Moonbase stuff. Yeah, the Sci-Fi era took us to various places in time and space, but I feel like (and I think maybe Joel has confirmed?) that they went back to the roots of the show for a new beginning.
Anyway, yeah, really good, and since most shows take a little while to really fire on all cylinders, they’re waaaay ahead of the curve there. My favorite part might just be the “No one calls him that. His name is Max.” bit. After all the promotion of TV’s Son of TV’s Frank (pre-release), for Kinga to just shoot him down like that, that just killed me.
So agree. It’s stuck in my head now.
I like it very much!
Since no one (as far as I can tell) has commented on it, I’ll add that I really, really, really, really, really, enjoy the new “Mighty Science Theater” orchestral version of the closing credits (I know, it’s not a real orchestra). But MAN OH MAN, is it good. I wish I had an mp3 to listen to right now. I also like the new version of the opening theme, and I’m guessing they won’t do all that starting and stopping in the remaining episodes. It was also so nice to hear interesting new versions of the old Mike/sometimes Kevin/sometimes Bill songs (I hope they’re being paid for their use) and it was just great to have Jonah-and-the-Bots singing in this first episode of the new season. MST3K has always had a major musical component to it, and I’m so relieved and delighted that music will continue to be a part of the show.
I felt so good after watching this. As much as I like Rifftrax and enjoyed CT, there is just no substitute for the original. Silhouettes and puppets and bad movies – that’s where it’s at, baby. And a stinger! It totally surprised me and yet I thought, “Well of course there has to be a stinger!” And Tom and Crow’s arms work and it’s wonderful.
I cannot wait to get two episodes under my belt.
I really enjoyed it; I’m having trouble telling voices apart in the theater, but that’ll come with a few viewings. I may use subtitles (hey, there’s subtitles now!) to help out.
Having never seen the film before put me in a good position, I think; while I knew the basic concept, coming into the film fresh made the laughs better, I think, because it was all new. But they mixed in a few callback lines as well, which was nice. The scenes in Moon 13 were fine; I’m figuring the chemistry will develop over time between Kinga and Max (how many henchmen are named Max, by the way? My wife and I thought of at least three.).
Riff I laughed hardest at: “I won a parking ticket!”
So, does being in the credits get me on IMDB? ;)
Yeah! What WAS that thing? Glad I’m not the only one flummoxed by that… maybe on a re-watch I’ll be able to keep better track, but that really did seem random. Granted, it’s kind of a dizzying amount of new stuff to take in.
I agree that the floating around could get kind of distracting, but I assume they wanted to front-load the new series with all the technical stuff they can do to give us an idea of what’s on the table- that is, after all, what a pilot is meant to do. Besides, in the old CC episodes Joel was rather fond of playing around with the silhouettes, as they did frequently on Cinematic Titanic. So it’s not entirely without precedent.
Anyway, great and propitious start to Season 11! (Still feels weird to be saying that.)
I’m pleased to inform you that everything you know is wrong.
And re: the “How’d the ‘bots get back up there?” question, at some point the Servo we saw at the end of “Diabolik” will show up and confront his doppelganger. He’ll look at the new SOL and say, “You’ve redecorated; don’t like it!” The bickering will get so intense that the original KTMA Servo will show up on the Hexfield and order them to simmer down.
Weee!!! I absolutely loved the premiere episode. The host segments were cute, LOVED the new doorway sequence, and the riffing was top-notch. There was quite a few laugh-out-loud riffs for me. I’ve been wanting MST to riff REPTILICUS forever, and it didn’t disappoint!
SOOO pumped for the rest of the season!!!
Love the Thunderbird style characters in the Giz. Maybe a callback to the first ever?
But let me ask all of you, who else teard up when they realized it was REALLY BACK.
I will say it again, but it was their first bit with the song. I lost it, all tears. MST3K is here again.
OMG the clock and sleeping guy bit was fantastic etc.. but the song made me really feel the old Godzilla Geanololgy Bob.
I hope that means “Samson and the Seven Miracles of the World”, “The Astral Factor”, and “The Doll Squad”, and not just Shout re-releasing the other titles that have already been on DVD.
It’s not the speed of the riffs that was the problem, it was the delivery. It felt more scripted than natural. It’s not supposed to be obvious that they’ve already seen the movie, even though we know they have many times. Perhaps they got better as they progressed through the season…
Otherwise, great episode! Especially the non-theater bits.
Ditto. Leave it to Paul & Storm to save the show. I am, overall, VERY pleased. I have been saying all along: “trust Joel.” I feel very vindicated. There were some rough edges and first-episode jitters, but I expect these to be ironed out. Good job to the (enormous, based on the credits) crew.
Sampo, wasn’t the “tribute to the tributary” your moment in Revenge of the Creature? I seem to recall that.
“I hope that means “Samson and the Seven Miracles of the World”, “The Astral Factor”, and “The Doll Squad”, and not just Shout re-releasing the other titles that have already been on DVD.”
Doubtful. Josh Weinstein has confirmed that they never recorded those three episodes. So unless they get the band back together for another recording session, they’re lost to time.
Except… someone did record the audio for Astral Factor and merged it with a print of the film. It creates a bootleg “lost” episode. I’m happy to “circulate the tape” if anyone sends me the email they use for Dropbox. Just email me at my user name @hotmail.com
Actually it was: o/` “Egrets…I’ve had a few…” o/`
What pleases me the most about this episode is that I think it might be better than The Brain That Wouldn’t Die and Revenge of the Creature. It’s quite overwhelming to imagine what we’re in for if this season takes on a similar quality trajectory that followed the other premise-rebooting episodes.
I notice that the desire to explain the bots’ return is being met with “It’s just a show” from some, but I think it’s a valid question. We spent a lot of time with the previous cast culminating in an earned happy ending for Mike in Diabolik. Without some kind of clarification on this front, something is taken away from that ending, and it would be trivial to address anyway.
My preference is that the bots we see now are new models (with whatever memory chip contrivance is needed to justify callbacks), for the following reasons:
1) It allows Kevin’s Servo and Corbett’s Crow to still be living with Mike, which seems appropriate.
2) The idea of multiple versions of the bots has been put forth many times over the years. Multiple Servos is of course a running gag, but there’s also Crow casually saying in Quest of the Delta Knights that “Some other guy’s Crow got hit by a semi on I-95.”
3) It leaves open the possibility of the Vaughn and Yount bots meeting up with the Murphy and Corbett bots, which could be fun cameo idea down the line, especially since Kevin and Bill are already demonstrably willing to be guest contributors.
Ha, excellent choice.
Agree across the board. Love it.
Thought it was solid. These guys are funny. Especially liked all the added screen business, ie the flying Servo and the Gypsy drop-in. I’m still eager to see them find their own voice, make the show their own, you know.
So how would you rate this episode against other “first” episodes? Compare it to “The Crawling Eye” (first Comedy Central episode), “Rocketship X-M” (first TV’s Frank, first Murphy-voiced Servo), “The Brain That Wouldn’t Die” (first Mike), and “Revenge of the Creature” (first Sci-Fi episode, first Corbett-voiced Crow). I’d personally put it in the middle, above “Revenge of the Creature” and “The Crawling Eye” but below “The Brain That Wouldn’t Die” and “Rocketship X-M”.
I really love the episode and am looking forward to Friday.