Movie: (1977) A troubled teen finds an alien’s weapon and takes revenge on those who taunted him.
First shown: 5/18/96
Opening: With Mike tied up, Crow and Tom present the “Thunderdome” joke
Intro: Dr. F.’s funding has been cut, so he cuts the SOL loose! But Tom gets the thrusters working
Host segment 1: The SOL picks up Monad, an annoying robot
Host segment 2: The SOL hits a field of star babies — and one of them needs changing
Host segment 3: With the SOL heading toward a black hole, Mike undergoes a terrifying but useful transformation
End: The SOL reaches the edge of the universe and its inhabitants become beings of pure energy. Meanwhile, Dr. F. becomes unstuck in time, has a revelation and is reborn
Stinger: “Faaar out!”
(259 votes, average: 4.62 out of 5)
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• And so we come to the end of another era of MST3K and the departure of MST3K’s powerhouse, Trace Beaulieu. It really is hard to imagine that the show could have become the classic it is without him, and while it did manage to find its footing again after his departure, his absence was keenly felt for a long time. Thanks for everything, Trace.
• As for the episode itself, it’s mostly a winner. As usual when they have a story to tell in the host segments, they do it with brisk efficiency. The sci-fi parodies are everywhere (perhaps preparing viewers — and themselves — for what was to come) and a couple of the segments are classics. The riffing is steady and strong — and they had a LOT to work with. All in all, it would have made a fine farewell episode if the show had not been picked up.
• This episode appears in Shout! Factory’s “20th Anniversary Edition.”
• References.
• Mike writes about the episode and then Paul, Mary Jo and Kevin wrap up the season here.
• Joel Hodgson’s “TV Wheel” was shown immediately following this episode’s debut, so it was kind of a big day for MSTies.
• It had been 10 weeks since the last new episode and, as far as anybody knew when this first aired, there would never be another episode again. As it turned out, we would have to wait eight and a half months.
• In his writeup, Mike explains that the hilarious opening sketch was something that arose from a running gag in the writing room. I actually had an opportunity to use the thunderdome joke recently. Its message is still timely.
• The umbilicus, completely forgotten since about mid-season six, suddenly makes a reappearance and is suddenly a critical connection that determines whether the SOL’s orbit begins to decay or not. (And in the “how does he eat and breathe?” department, what was preventing their orbit from decaying in seasons K through 5?) Mike notices this in his writeup as well.
• I love how Mike does the Star Trek “shirt tug” before he says “Engage!”
• It’s fun to make fun of Kim Milford, who plays Billy, but that becomes more difficult after you find out that Milford died of heart failure following open heart surgery. He was only 37. (Incidentally he did NOT die of HIV, as was rumored.)
• You might recognize some of the background score. It’s the same Richard Band noodling that was also used in the movie in episode 110-ROBOT HOLOCAUST.
• Callbacks: “Roxie!” (Eegah) also “Eegah!” “It was after the Acropolis.” (Robot Holocaust) “Hi, I’m Max Keller.” (Master Ninja I) “It’s the Coleman Francis mountain!” Also a mention of Cherokee Jack. “Robert Ginty” (Warrior of the Lost World). And “Leave the Bronx!”
• I love the riff: “Let’s pop amyls and watch ‘Days.'” I’d assumed he was referring to the soap opera “Days of Our Lives” but a commenter suggested he might be saying “Dazed” as in the movie “Dazed and Confused,” which might also make sense. I previously asked if that line was from something and nobody so far has recognized it.
• Of course that’s Jim as the voice of Monad the perfection-seeking robot. It’s a funny idea but the bit feels a little rushed to me.
• After going several seasons without so much as making mention of it, this episode features not one but two uses of the “hatch” at upstage left. In the past it has been used by Joel/Mike to get to the theater. Now it seems to be a portal into space. Mike also notices this in his writeup.
• The “changing the starbaby” bit is a cute idea (I especially like Mike as the quintessential NASA flight controller guy), but it doesn’t really have a payoff (“put it on a shelf”?).
• The whole “ready for some football” thing became a catchphrase, and long-lived one. it pops up every fall on MSTie social media to this day.
• Obscure riff: “This sucks, I was supposed to headline,” as the characters pull up in a car together. This is reference, as I think I have mentioned before, to the experience many of the writers had as traveling comics working a circuit of comedy clubs in the upper midwest. They tended to travel to the club in one car, with the headliner getting the best seat, etc.
• Over several seasons, they’d established Mike’s bizarre ability to “become” other people at times of stress. He became Carol Channing and Kenny G, for example. This strange notion finally pays off in segment 3 when Mike — in one of the most notorious segments of the series — becomes “Star Trek Voyager”‘s Captain Janeway and saves the day.
• The whole Leonard Maltin thing really does point up the fundamental flaw of his rating system. I was once a devotee of his books: buying a new one every September was an annual rite of the fall. And before the arrival of the IMDB (which pretty much made Maltin’s guide superfluous) it was pretty handy. But I always felt his rating system was completely out of whack. The problem, to begin with, was he used a four-star rating system when a five-star system would have served him better. But the bigger flaw in the system was that, for reasons that I felt were never adequately explained, his lowest rating (other than “bomb”) was 1-and-half stars. No film received a one-star or half-star rating, which created a kind of odd star-rating inflation among bad movies. Had he made use of the half-star and one-star ratings, I believe this sort of problem would not have happened (or at least would not have been so acute) and he might not have let himself in for the well-deserved mockery he gets here.
• By the way: in Ward E we have a list of MSTed movies that have been given 2-and-a-half stars by Leonard Maltin.
• The final bit, of course, is amazing; as Mike notes, that’s Trace’s dad (who has since passed away) as “old Forrester.” The final moment of that segment gives me chills every time.
• Cast and crew roundup: Editor Jodie Copelan also worked on “Ring of Terror” and “Night of the Blood Beast.” Special effects guy Harry Woolman also worked on “The Incredible Melting Man.” “Hangar 18” and “Agent for H.A.R.M.” Score composer Richard Band also worked on “Robot Holocaust” (as noted above) and “Being From Another Planet.”
In front of the camera: Cheryl Smith was also in “The Incredible Melting Man.” Keenan Wynn will be seen again in “Parts: The Clonus Horror.”
• CreditsWatch: Host segments directed by Trace Beaulieu. This of course was Trace’s last episode with the show. In addition to his acting and writing credits, this is the last episode he got “art direction” and “set design” credits. Joel Hodgson’s and Jef Maynard’s “set design” credits end with this episode as well. The “additional original music written and arranged by” credit goes away completely. This was Helen Espinoza’s last episode as prop master. It is Beth “Beez” McKeever’s last show as prop assistant (she would get a promotion beginning with season eight). We also bid farewell to: production manager/post-production coordinator Wendell Jon Anderson, production assistant Michael D. Parker, Info Club poobah Julie Walker (assistant poobah Barb Tebben would get a promotion in season eight) and interns Danika King, Ben Mooers and Kelly Schrandt.
• Fave riff: “So they’re just off County Road C goin’ at it, huh?” Honorable mention: “Look! Everyone was sending a sheet of paper to everyone else.”
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That actually makes sense.
#200: Nice analysis. And plausible. This reminds me of watching City of the Living Dead by Fulci and trying to piece together a possible narrative to fit the on screen events.
Eddie/Froggy is Chuck’s flunky, his “TV’s Frank” if you will. He reaps the benefits of being Chuck’s hanger-on and is thoroughly intimidated by him. Billy is NOT intimidated by Chuck. Chuck No Like That.
You can go ahead and say it, parents who discourage their teens from having sex with teens are robbing their kids of the best sex of their lives. Of course, they are also preventing teen pregnancy and the spread of STIs.
Okay boys, settle down.
For every Big Bully in cliche’d high school stories, there has to be the Sycophantic Dweeb that waits on him and repeats everything he says to sound cool, like the gay whats-his-name that hung around with Gaston, or the little terrier that hung around the big bulldog in the Sylvester cartoons. (“We’re pals, ain’t we, Spike?”)
Or the Rich Bullying Jerk in John Hughes teen dramas who would always be accompanied by the Jerk’s Loyal Best Buddy” (“Just forget her, man, she’s townie!”)
Well, one can do that while ENCOURAGING sexual activity too, but it wasn’t intended as much more than a flippant comment, anyway. Sorry if it went too far.
Of course, there’s also the fact that when parents go overboard on discouraging/forbidding their teens from have sex, they’re kind of making the teens MORE likely to have sex because the more you forbid something (this might be a factor in how kids who get abstinence-only ed [which I presume says little if anything about preventing pregnancy and STIs] are SUPPOSEDLY more likely to be sexually active than kids who get basic sex ed but I know negative-bupkis about that), the more people want it and that’s not just a teen phenomenon either. The bigger the deal, the more you want in on the game.
Obviously I can be perceived as having way too intrigued by this topic, but Having had no sex at all in high school (a SF nerd virgin? surely not…), I have a growing retrospective interest in the concept (and the midlife crisis certainly isn’t helping). And I’ll stop on this topic now.
They forgot to mention that Alien was also, according to Maltin, equal to Laserblast. Since Alien is my favorite movie, I find this particularly egregious. Also, IIRC, Taxi Driver also is apparently worse than Laserblast.
Crow: I want to decide who lives and who dies!
Paternalistic Joel: Oh, I don’t know…
Now, see, if Billy had just managed to LIVE, we could’ve have had a perfectly good crappy super-hero TV pilot (I mean, if he could outgrow the “killing people” thing). Billy on the run from both the aliens and Suit Guy’s forces at EvilGov. What is/was Operation Sand Dollar* and what does Grandpa Crazy-as-Bat-Guano know about it and how much of it is true and how much it is dementia? Is Billy’s mother indeed a turtle alien hybrid? And what are the odds that Billy’s girlfriend JUST HAPPENS to be the granddaughter of Sand Dollar Man, and what alien spawn might Billy have impregnated her with? See, it could’ve gone somewhere. But it didn’t.
===
*btw one might presume that Operation Sand Dollar has nothing whatsoever to do with sand, dollars, or sand dollar, because the entire purpose of an operation codename is so that outsiders will have NO IDEA WHAT YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT. Popular culture often forgets that.
Operation Paperclip.
Huh? What?
Operation Peppermint.
What the HECK are you talking about?
Operation Dominic (and Eugene and Curly).
Are you on DRUGS or something?!
Fat Man and Little Boy: Lost in Manhattan…
And then there was Porn. And the Internet’s heart grew 3K sizes that day…
Porn helped the fledgling VCR stay above water in its early years too. For all I know, porn was instrumental in the culmination of motion pictures itself.
Meanwhile, at work, I learned that film review websites which review, AMONG OTHER GENRES OF FILM, porn films qualify as porn themselves. Now they’re blocked and there’s all this film commentary (and, yes, okay, photos) that I no longer can access. So it goes.
Inasmuch as it emphasized neither stars nor a war, I’m politely dubious as to this claim.
When Driving Where
The Scenery Bores
Think of That Great Scene from
Star Wars
Burma Shave
TUBULAR
VERY BAD MOTHERS! VERY BAD MOTHERS!
Lt. Frank Columbo (yes, his first name WAS given in the TV series; it was once seen on his driver’s license) has stated unequivocally that Kate Mulgrew was NOT Mrs. Columbo. She was an impostor named Kate Callahan whose dubious activities span the entire United States and beyond. Her known haunts include Washington Heights in Manhattan, Boston, San Francisco, and Washington, DC. She has been associated with J.B. Fletcher on at least three occasions and SURVIVED ALL THREE ENCOUNTERS, necessitating that she be considered armed and dangerous.
The “does nothing” part wasn’t a tipoff in itself?
“I’m from the government and I’m here to…watch.”
Your restraint is much repreciated.
That was quite possibly the most true-to-life sequence.
Well, it’s easier to be freed from assimilation than from DEAD.
#210: Am I crazy or does this make sense?
“Yes and yes.”
I would guess the writers (maybe mostly Trace?) had Voyager on their minds, the series being relatively new at the time this episode was originally shown.
I cannot defend Voyager on empirical grounds. Nevertheless, any given Voyager episode takes me back to fond memories of my wife and I watching these episodes when they were brand new.
You don’t have to be crazy to be a starship captain but it helps.
***
Really, though, Janeway was in a situation that IIRC was entirely unprecedented in Starfleet history, and it’s not like being a Starship Captain isn’t stressful enough as it is.
In Original Star Trek, there was an inadvertent running gag about how it seemed as if almost everyone who attended Starfleet Academy with Captain Kirk and then appeared on the show turned out to have gone insane in the interim. (There MUST be a list somewhere but I’m not sure how to find it.) Even Garth of Izar, not a classmate of Kirk’s but one of Kirk’s heroes during his academy days, snapped in the end. Maybe something of that sort happened with Janeway’s class, too.
I think one of Voyager’s disadvantages was that it lacked any “stable background.” In the first three serieses (Original, Next Generation, DS9), everything happened in contrast to ongoing events in the Federation, the Klingon Empire, and so on. It was an entire fictional universe (so to speak); this was Kirk’s, Picard’s, and Sisko’s WORLD, the history that had shaped them, that had made them who and what they were.
Voyager both literally AND figuratively existed in a vacuum; they were alone in a way that it’s impossible for anyone today to fully comprehend. After all, no matter where we of today go, we’re still on EARTH, we’re still surrounded by HUMAN BEINGS. We exist in a larger context. If anything, it’s a wonder that Janeway and the Voyager crew stayed as sane as they were.
Back in Original Star Trek, Starfleet officers were (according to some episode or another) expected to sacrifice their lives rather than violate the Prime Directive. Obviously, over time, quite a few things about interpretation of the Directive changed. But that’s not really our story…
? “Kathy, Kathy, my soprano lassie!
I’ll adore you till the end of time!” ?
Personally (although no one asked), I tend to prefer final episodes that allow us to imagine the characters just going on as business as usual. Buffy, for instance, I would WAY rather have been left with things in Sunnydale being left as was; I know the ending was needed to lead into the comic books but, geez, did they have to destroy the whole town? Meh.
Yet no comments on how the aliens’ hinders looked themselves like footballs. Unless there were.
Isn’t everything better with giant spiders?
Do you realize what you just said…?
Yet alcoholism sure is a hoot…
Fortunately, Battlestar Galactica hadn’t been cancelled yet…
Nevertheless, there are many films that would never have received any recognition at all if Maltin hadn’t included them. Meaning that he provides a service much like that of MST3K.
In the early to mid-seventies, it was accepted to depict government agents as competent.
Whatever the deal was with the green guy at the start of the film, Govt Guy knows all about it. Apparently it was in the vicinity of the town and apparently something about Billy raised his suspicions immediately. Not entirely totally unlike how Columbo somehow always knew who the killer was and started hammering away at him or her almost immediately. I guess.
I have the vague impression that this is a Lenny/George reference from “Of Mice and Men,” when George tells Lenny about the imaginary place where they will eventually live OSLT.
Hey, a call forward to 2006’s “Evil Bong” by Charles Band without any have the slightest idea that’s what it is. ;-)
Well, give him this much: If all he sets out to do is make crap, he’s one of the most resounding successes in film history.
“Yeah, I made over fifty crappy movies. What kind’a movies did YOU make?”
The sort of ironic part is that he’s actually gone to the trouble of making crap with CONTINUITY. At least forty-four of his films exist in a shared fictional universe; not many filmmakers at any level of talent take that kind of trouble. And continuity catches the interest of continuity GEEKS such as myself. Oh, I don’t doubt that most of his films are nearly unwatchable, and I don’t plan to test that theory any time soon, but I can appreciate the effort in an abstract sort of way. :-)
Really, it’s sort of odd that he cares enough to create a continuum yet doesn’t care enough to try to put any QUALITY into it. Tsk. If he wanted to, he could film an epic where his motley collection of puppets, time travelers, aliens, mutations, vampires, cookies, and assorted inanimate objects join forces to…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bongy_Westphall_Universe
I think Band only has so many films in continuity because he made, like, 10,000 Puppet Master movies.
Boy, the 13-year-old me sure liked Puppet Master III. The nearly 40-year-old me, however, most certainly did NOT.
Actually, if you’ll consult the link that it cost me so little effort to include, you’ll see he’s made far fewer Puppet Master films than that. I mean, sure I get that you’re exaggerating for effect, but c’mon, the hard data’s RIGHT THERE. ;-)
I see that he’s produced WAY more films than he’s directed, and some of those films connect to each other as well, but I’ve forgotten my point if indeed I had one.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0023929/
“sitting at the junkie table to pop Amyls and watch “Days”” is said as if it’s a consistent, perhaps even DAILY, pastime at wherever one goes to sit at junkie tables. Thus a daily TV show would be more likely viewing than a movie (esp in 1977, when cable and VCRs were still in their infancies; without one or the other, it was hardly feasible to watch the same movie every day). That’s just me, though. :-)
You know, flesh actually comes in more colors than just that one color, you know. No matter the race, ethnicity, lineage, whatever you call it, however anyone looks, we’re all made of flesh, it’s all FLESH, baby.
Proto-Political Incorrectness. TWEET. Five yards. ;-)
I have to this say this is/was was a bittersweet episode for me. I enjoyed it then as I do now, but it saddens me knowing Trace left MST3K after this experiment.
I admit to being more of a fan of the Joel years in particular and of all the Comedy Central experiments especially, than what followed. With the move to the Sci-Fi channel, things just weren’t the same, especially with the absence of Trace and his Dr. Clayton Forrester/Crow. The host segments seemed just a bit too “slick” by comparison. And the loss of Trace was an even bigger blow to the show than Joel’s exit. For one thing, he did TWO characters. For another, his Crow remains my absolute favorite MST3K character to this day. BTW, I have met Trace in person and a nicer, more gracious person does not exist. He is awesome!
Before I tick off the “Mike” MSTies, let me say that I am grateful that Mr. Nelson took over the hosting of the series as well as Bill Corbett stepping in as Crow. I doubt better replacements could have been found and they are both wonderful performers. And a shout out to Mary Jo also, who took longer for me to warm up to her Pearl character, but none the less, won me over. Thanks to them and the other writers, we got and have three more seasons of MST3K to enjoy to this day.
I have not yet seen the new season, but I will. And regardless of whether I enjoy it on the same level as the old incarnations, I’m sure I’ll be grateful to have even more MST3K to brighten my day. I hope the naysayers will give the reboot a chance. We are very lucky to have our show back, all sparkling and new.
You mean at the host segment where they run into a field of starbabies? Cannot reproduce (…ha ha). My DVD seems fine.