Movie: (1976) A Victorian-era scientist and his assistant take a test run in their Iron Mole drilling machine and end up in a strange underground world.
Opening: J&tB are having a pre-nuptial heart-to-heart, but then Jonah introduces Growler
Invention exchange: With nobody coming to her wedding, Kinga turns to the Observer Hive Mind Manager. The bots have permanent temporary tattoos; The Mads have the Rip Taylor urn cannon
Segment 1: Jonah gives the bots a steampunk makeover
Segment 2: Crow’s a Mahar
Segment 3: Doug McClure visits and offers Max some romantic advice
Closing: As the wedding draws near, Pearl, Bobo and Brain Guy appear to give their blessing, but in the midst of the vows, Max has other plans.
Stinger: “He died as he lived…”
(62 votes, average: 3.74 out of 5)
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• Lots going on in this one. First of all, there’s the movie. This is the second movie this season that was adapted from an Edgar Rice Burroughs story and stars Doug McClure (“Land that Time Forgot” was the other), and this one is even more OUT THERE. And more riffable, I think. The riffing is very solid; I laughed a lot. But the big headlines are in the host segments, with a new bot that did NOT immediately get stomped to bits, another big-name guest star, the return of several legacy-era characters (and performers), a giant crowd and the big question: what happened to Jonah?
• The bots mention Joel and Mike and suggest a combination of the two would be T.J. Miller. Hmmm…
• One thing about the movie: Nobody mentioned a KingaChrome spill but there were two or three very jarring jumps in the action.
• Joel McHale pops up and, just as he did on “The Soup,” he totally commits to the bit. In a season full of guest stars, he held his own.
• I’d love to know who wrote the “smelting” song to go with the opening theme music. It’s very funny.
• So, the first time I was watching this, when the Hive Mind Manager started talking, I’m going: “That voice is SO familiar!” Then all at once it hit me: PAUL! He does a great job and it was great to see him.
• Incidentally, Russ Walko did the very Rowlfy voice of Growler. I could get used to him…
• So, when the monster lunges down at Jonah, the view cuts to a wide shot and it’s unclear if Jonah was eaten, or escaped or something in the middle. I assume season 12 will find him making a miraculous recovery…
• As a kid who grew up in the Philadelphia area, I enjoyed the reference to the giant heart you can climb through at the Franklin Institute. It’s still there!
• Classic riffs: “Gamera is friend to all the children,” “And the crowd goes wild! Yay!” “Climb up to mouth level!” “He died as he lived…” “Football practice!” and a mention of a character’s “area.”
• Callbacks: Pearl sings a few bars of “When Loving Lovers Love.”
• More in-theater beat box fun as J&tB go all “Ballroom Blitz.”
• Nice visual riff: a “Fantasia” riff with Tom in Mickey ears.
• The Observer wedding guests were: Patricia Adams, Mike Aronow, Kyle Bacon, Jordan Brown, Andrew R. Brunner, Nick Carlson, John Cookson, Jason D’itri, Larry Dunn, Zachary A. Forsyth, Tony Goggin, Dave Goldblatt, Spencer Goldrich, Jonathan Gorbach, Laura Gorbach, Ike Haldan, Jason Kirk Harder, Larry Hastings, Jeff Hill, Adam King, Darcy Madi, Guillermo Martinez, Juan Martinez, Colin McRavey, Andrew M. Minoff, Amber Oliver, Paul Denver Reynolds IV, Kathryn Rice, Joe Sherman and Ben Tobin. This beats the number of people in the pancake breakfast host segment in episode 913- QUEST OF THE DELTA KNIGHTS.
• Cast and crew roundup: Since so many of these are for “Land that Time Forgot,” I will call it LTTF. Doug McClure was also in LTTF and SST- Death Flight. Caroline Munro was also in “Starcrash.” Keith Baron, Godfrey James and Bobby Parr were in LTTF.
Behind the camera: Director Kevin Connor also directed LTTF. Producers John Dark and Milton Subotsky also produced LTTF. Max Rosenberg also produced LTTF and “The Incredible Melting Man.” Editors John Ireland and Barry Peters also edited LTTF. Art director Bert Davey also art directed LTTF. Cy Grant did voice work on “Revenge of the Mysterons.” Cinematographer Alan Hume was also cinematographer on LTTF. Production designer Maurice Carter was also production designer on LTTF.
• Fave riff: “I dreamt I as a protocol droid.” Honorable mention: “Back to the Amazon.com warehouse!” and “This Petco adoption day is now what I thought it was gonna be.”
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Getting back to the episode, it was fun to see the bots taking a somewhat more active role. Jonah comes across well as the quiet guy who is subtly planning an escape without attracting a lot of attention.
With Jonah dead we can all rest easy. It’s nice that Gypsy was upgraded!
Sadly I must turn in my Nerd Card: it took me over an hour to remember Peter Cushing was the original Grand Moff Tarkin. (And as a final disgrace I misspell Cushing, Moff, and Tarkin…)
What the Hell was the point of rewatching it if I fell asleep before the second half? (Not entirely the movie’s fault.)
Did I hear right that they made the entire season in about five weeks?
after today (and for a while)
NSFW (its the Doors)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSUIQgEVDM4
MSTies never turn in their Nerd Cards.
I think Doug McClure said it best. If you have to write advice down it isn’t worth remembering. On to the experiment.
There’s a bunch of stuff in the cold open. For one thing they break the fourth wall and acknowledge it is a cold open. They acknowledge Joel and Mike. There are left handed compliments a plenty. Plus we have a new bot that is impossible not to like. Crow may beg to differ but I like him. Jonah sure is a better bot builder than Mike was.
We have a second straight North Korea reference as Kinga shows the type of bride-gary that she is. I don’t mind that she is more petulant than evil. Even family members aren’t going to be the exact same type of evil across three generations. What works for me is that she’s found a comfort level in her character and commits to it.
The invention exchange: Permanent temporary tattoos. Wouldn’t that mean they are just plain tattoos? Oh, it’s just a show and I should really just relax? Okay. But I’ll say this. We better see that “Kinga + Jonah 4ever” tattoo next season.
Patton delivers a couple good ones in the Rip Taylor invention. First he steals “fun is the first word in funeral” from the classic Amazon Women on the Moon sketch and polishes it off with putting the R.I.P. in Rip Taylor. (Wait isn’t he still with us?) Incidentally Rip Taylor is a part of that same Amazon Women on the Moon sketch. Must be a fan of that somewhere on the writing staff. Not sure why Kinga objects to having human remains blasted around the wedding. It seems to me should would have been into that.
Kinga’s request for the wedding to be shot on actual film is an odd request given MST is released digitally. But it is good of her to be sure that one observer has his kosher meal.
Why do you suppose they felt the need to explain what a bumper is in this the final episode of the season?
I think the wedding was fine in a fun sort of way. Reptilicus Maximus sure looked more menacing than anything in this episode’s movie. This was easily the best of the three appearances of Pearl, Brain Guy and Bobo of the year. Max did one more stellar job of channeling Frank. Overall it did have more the feeling of a series finale than a season finale but I suppose they had to cover their bases. We still have the red spacesuit cliffhanger. Did anybody else find it odd that as it walked on the SOL exterior it still looked like it was walking that aisle? Oh and is it a coincidence that the mystery person on that alternate SOL bridge in Carnival Magic and the person walking the SOL hull here are both wearing red but Jonah wears yellow? Probably since we saw Jonah working on the red spacesuit. But I’m just saying just the same.
I think Joel McHale does a very passable Doug McClure.
Doug McClure: Steampunk decades before steampunk was cool. Or a thing.
There are host segments that take a very long walk for a thin joke. Then there are segments like Crow as a Mahar which hits it punchline and moves back to the theater.
This is the movie that proves Peter Cushing could have just as easily been cast as C-3PO.
Overall though this movie is just too 70’s to be for me. The riffing would have to be Manos perfect for me to really get into this episode. And that’s okay. No one genre is for everyone.
Joel really does throw a lot of love at the Sci-Fi years in this season. We have three appearances of Pearl, Brain Guy and Bobo, the Pearl clone Cynthia, and the Observers. On the other side of the coin I can’t think of anything/one reappearing from Comedy Central. It goes to show he likes all eras of the show.
That said here’s hoping he coaxes a Trace and Frank appearance out of them at some point in the future.
So to sum up season 11: I enjoyed it and while different it is definitely the MST I remember. I didn’t expect it to be a classic going into it. In fact I was afraid it was going to be rough but during the 1101 discussion I talked about how that did not happen for me. So that aside, it is still in a sense a first season. And how many first seasons of anything are classics? (For my money, Cheers is one of the few shows that hit the ground running from the start but that is the exception not the rule.) New shows need to find themselves and establish chemistry both amongst a cast and a writing crew. Let’s face it we have a new cast this year and the core of the writing staff, including the head writer, is all new as well. Yes we have Joel’s guiding hand and some writing by some old favorites but even those people need to build a rapport will all the new newbies.
Plus this show has to overcome challenges that MST of old never had to and that is the binge shooting style of a Netflix season. We’ve been told this season was shot in one large marathon session as opposed to the six day cycle per episode of the MST of old. I have to believe this makes it must harder to build chemistry and rapport as well. It sounds to me more like a fatigue ridden slog whether you like the people you are working with or not. That has to get in the way of building chemistry. And you just don’t have the opportunity to incorporate feedback along the way like in the old days either.
I’d strongly suspect the writing was similarly compressed. And even the writing is different. It is my understanding that there is no writing room like in the old days either. I really have to believe that a group writing room offers the advantages of any brainstorming session and that is missing when everyone is writing individually and having it later compiled. Now I realize that Rifftrax has been doing this for years and Cinematic Titanic worked the same way. The difference is those groups began in writing rooms and already knew each other. While these new writers probably know what a writing room is since they are comedy writers it’s not the same as that particular group being in a writing room together.
So even though this is season 11 that is why I’m giving it a season 1 type benefit of the doubt. And from that standpoint I’m more than pleased. There is a very good foundation here and I fully expect them to build on it and grow. I seriously doubt they’ll ever reach what IMHO was the peak of seasons three and four but I think they can get quite close. The remaining challenge as I see it for them to overcome is the long layoff between seasons 11 and 12. Yes they have the feedback now and I do expect them to improve as a result. But I’m a little worried that the layoff means they have to spend time getting to know one another all over again. Then the shorter season with compressed Netflix shooting schedule means they might just relearn what they figured out in season 11 only to go into another lengthy layoff. So I truly hope they find a way to overcome this as well and show that growth I’m banking on. Only time will tell.
Favorite Riffs:
Dr. Perry is hysterically fainting from the heat. Crow as Fred Sandford “I’m coming Elizabeth.” Jonah “If he dies he’s already buried.”
Ra is grabbed by the cave octopus to the sound of a certain effect. Tom “This is the day THX was invented.”
David says in a Shatner sort of way about the Mahar “They’ve gotta be destroyed.” Crow “Now that’s going in the trailer.”
Jonah “Hey guys. You wanna hear the most annoying sound in the world?” The Mahars do their screech ala Dumb and Dumber.
I can get hung up on details sometimes. Obsessively so. Therefore the Brain Guys holding their brains and not having pans legit makes me twitchy. I can deal with Bill just outright not having one, but seeing the others just holding their brains…
But at lease we get Growler, who I immediately recognized as a Rowlf homage before Jonah said it. Because I love Rowlf with every fiber of my being.
For some reason, my recollection of the permanent temporary tattoos prior to rewatching had Jonah saying, “Wet ’em, set ’em… and regret ’em.”
Upon further reflection, I may have mixed it up with ERB’s Barsoom novels, in which it’s explicitly stated that the inhabitants of Barsoom are nude. Certainly it helped remove the awkwardness of Carter arriving there in his birthday suit. But like At the Earth’s Core, film adaptations and cover illustrations ignore this fact, aside from the ones drawn by Michael Whelan (notice the shadow cast on Carter’s batchalogical region).
On a related note, some of you may have wished there had been an Oh Calcutta wardrobe for the opportunity to see Caroline Munro nude, in spite of the psychological trauma of seeing Doug McClure and Peter Cushing in the same state. Well, I have bad news for you. Caroline Munro was quite adamant about not doing nude scenes (it’s why she passed on being in Doctor Jekyll and Sister Hyde), so she wouldn’t have participated under such conditions.
But your user name indicates you are the dog. :P
If you don’t wear a white lab coat, then you’re not considered a real scientist.
Steffi’s appearance was in Touch of Satan.
Or not. Better luck next time (dickweed).
Not quite. They use the, “wet ’em, set ’em” method of temporary tattoos rather than needles.
I’m seeing an EricJ mental breakdown coming in the near future (or it may have already happened, considering how long it’s taken me to type this).
Favorite riffs
The Doctor Who no one is tempted to cosplay.
They’ve got a towel. They’re ready to go anywhere.
I heard they faked the first mole drilling.
If he dies, at least he’s already buried.
Does this spell dirt-saster for our Dynamic Duo? Find out next week. Same mole time, same mole channel!
Does this film have socially redeeming value?
You’re under arrest for crimes against that shirt, mister.
Jim Henson’s Muppet Atrocity.
Once again, the delicate ballet of nature plays out like a South African street fight.
“A Rhamphorhynchus of the Middle Jurassic period.”
The man’s an idiot. My friends call me Carl.
I guess even the Earth’s core has a DMV.
Please let that be a portal to a plot-forwarding device.
I didn’t come all the way to the Earth’s core to get killed over a lousy turkey leg, jerk.
What’s this I’m rubbing on myself?
It’s basil. I’m going to eat you.
So this was before IMDB, where you could just lie about having special effects experience.
Looks like we got a lucky break. The puppeteers must be at lunch.
It’s the Church of Castle Greyskull and Latter-Day Saints!
Latecomers gets chained to the phallus. That’s the rule.
He died as he lived. Falling down a ravine while on fire.
Nothing. I’m just a plant. That sound is just me photosynthesizing.
The caramel must flow.
Watch her, Doc. I’ve got to go fight some rubber birds.
It’s just a nuclear warhead digging up under the White House. Nothing to worry about.
I apologize to all those who cannot tolerate off-topic stuff, but I’m going to go wildly off-topic right now.
FOR FANS OF DEVIL FISH (AKA MONSTER SHARK, AKA SHARK, ROSSO NELL’OCEANO) – Code Red now has this movie for sale on Blu Ray. I got my wish! I think this now means that all of Michael Sopkiw’s Italian movies have been released domestically on either DVD or Blu Ray.
They obviously spent a lotta money on this so settle in you guys, this could take a while!
And so we reach the end of not just another season but the end of the current rotation of the Episode Guide, and what have we learned?
I’ve learned that the intervening years have not dimmed our passion for this beloved show, yet even the best need time to regain greatness after so long in the wilderness. Looking back on this season, I’m glad it came to be. As I said about ‘Carnival Magic’ through this show I’ve learned of the existence of movies I’d never heard of (or come to see one or two in a whole new light) and for that I’m very grateful. I’m looking forward to having that discovery continue and seeing how the show will build on the foundation this season provides. I hope they continue to experiment.
Random episode notes:
– I love how Brian, Kevin and Mary Jo so easily fell right back into their Sci-Fi era personas. It was almost like the show never went away for them.
– An even bigger surprise was seeing Paul return. Celebrity cameos were one thing but where had he been hiding himself all these years?
Random thoughts on the season
– When I first heard Patton Oswalt was being cast as TV’s Son of TV’s Frank I was ambivalent because as the only actor I recognized from other shows and movies I was afraid he’d cramp the independent vibe that made the original show so special. Lo and behold, I think he was this season’s secret weapon, getting lots of laughs while also not trying to outdo the original.
– I don’t mind Gypsy’s revamped design or her new voice, and I can understand the impulse to give her performer more exposure. However, Synthia seems like a very underdeveloped concept and we still see very little of her. I’d love to see some mad science that makes her more than a defective android in the coming season.
Fave Riffs
[Model train shunts Mole Machine]
I wonder if the conductor is Ringo Starr or George Carlin? (I just want to say that with this riff I really felt for the first time I was a ‘right person’ who got the reference. I was so happy when I first heard it!)
We’re hopped up on absinthe and snuff!
“We’re in!” …extreme danger!
Upper Mantle, Lower Mantle, Mickey Mantle…
I think it’s Tim Burton’s backyard!
They’ve enslaved all of prog rock!
Is he disoriented or just bored?
Hungry Hungry Hippo, the Movie!
So…no poor picked-on cliche’-howling assistant Mads with white cowlicks trying to call themselves “TV’s Son of TV’s Frank”, then?
No, Joel’s already admitted he laughs himself silly watching “Final Sacrifice” and “Space Mutiny”, for pretty much the exact same reason most SciFi fans do: He refuses to watch the old CC episodes with himself in them.
Unlike most Rowsdower and Big McLargehuge fans, though, he at least remembers that he made CC episodes.
Never…EVER…underestimate the anal-retentiveness of fan cosplay.
(The episode’s one essential token representative “Movies we know Peter Cushing from” ref, even though Kevin pretty much worked out most of his “Missing fake-Doctor” issues in the RT’ed Dalek movies, so the ground’s pretty well been covered to death at this point.)
Well, I actually have to agree with you there. I enjoy “Final Sacrifice” and “Space Mutiny” precisely because I refuse to watch the old episodes with me in them.
I enjoyed watching you edit your comment in near real time just now. I could almost hear the gears squeaking as they processed “nope, this comment’s not ****ty enough yet”. Seriously, your head is so far up your own ass that your teeth are blocking your view. Like the world’s worst ouroboros.
I’m a wild rebel: I only ever watch television programs in which I appear.
It would have been nice if they had addressed this. But the way I saw it was the Observers have evolved once again, now beyond the need for even a jar. We can now hold our brains, without even worrying about damaging them!
No actors or movies deserve unbridled hate. You’re enjoying their work, even by just laughing at it. But that’s not hate. It’s good natured ribbing. Hate is a pretty harsh word.
I’ve always thought so. That’s why I watch them over and over. They’re very comforting!
I love Mike! Kitten With A Whip, Village Of The Giants, Riding With Death and so many others. He’s great! Loved him as Torgo and Jack Perkins, too!
^Truth!
Overall, a great a fun comeback season. Oddly enough, today the pledge drive started up, so now in the next month I gotta scrounge up enough dough to pre-order the season 12 blu-ray!
It’s been a fun decade for me posting in the Weekend Discussion Episode Guide. I look forward to reviewing season 12 with you all!
That’s my head cannon on it, too. But it’s head cannon. And in the grand scheme of things it’s something that I know is just MY brain being weird about, refusing to “breathe and just relax” about.
Oh, Jonah totally got eaten. Not a big deal though- solid ‘other science facts’ territory. Might show up a bit gunky at the beginning of the season but it’s all good.
The movie? It was good, certainly worthy of a season closer.
They didn’t even spray paint the rubber brains blue! I mean, come on!
I liked Growler, too. I liked Waverly. In fact, I really don’t think I would have minded new bots replacing Tom and Crow in the reboot. It would have been interesting to see what they could have done with replacement, building their personalities from scratch instead of sort-of off feeling Tom and Crow we got. (Not a slam on the performers, but the writing for the bots wasn’t great.)
The creatures in this movie have some weird vocals. It’s the equivalent of being at a drive-thru and the intercom keeps cutting in and out.
Well, for another thing, if you don’t have a jar (or dish or whatever), then no one can playfully spill Mountain Dew in it.
Of course, clutching one’s brain in public may be only a step or two away from publicly clutching one’s…
Off-Topic
Some time ago, I raised the question of what fictional characters & concepts from other films might exist in the “MST3K Universe.” During the invention exchange on the First Spaceship on Venus episode, Dr. Forrester mentions receiving a gift from Norman Bates of “Psycho” fame. So there’s that, anyway.
The new season started off with a bang but unfortunately goes out with a whimper. I didn’t like this one very much, the movie, while better than LAND THAT TIME FORGOT, is still kinda bland and boring despite all the rubber monsters, and the riffing is just so-so. The Invention Exchange is good fun and the Host Segments all have their moments (Steampunk Crow, “Screeeech”, and “Hi I’m Doug McClure”), but the real story here is the ending with the wedding. Once again it was nice to see Pearl, Bobo, and Brain Guy, and the gaggle of Observers is a nice touch, but the way things play out is. . . weird and unsatisfying. It’s really unclear what happens to Jonah after the monster thing eats him. Is he dead? That seems unlikely. But then over the end credits we see a person (Jonah?) in the red spacecuit Jonah’s been working on all season on the outside of the Satellite of Love walking around so. . . what about that huh? I’m sure they’ll explain it next season, but still, as far as storytelling for Season 11 goes. . . it all could’ve been better. It all seems both forced AND rushed. Regardless, overall I really liked the relaunch, some of Season 11 is really great, this episode however, is not one of my favorites.
Also that TJ Miller joke in the Opening pretty much instantly feels dated and cringe-worthy now.
Also-also, those Brain Guys who were just holding their brains must just be interns or something, they’ll get their pans at a later date. So everyone can just chill on that one. :)
RIFFS:
Crow: “We’re hopped up on absinthe and snuff!”
Crow: “It’s getting harder to smoke!”
Servo: “Jim Henson’s Muppet Atrocity.”
Jonah: “A-one, a-two, a-threeee!”
Servo: “No unions at the Earth’s core.”
Servo: “Cameraman is slowly backing away to a better job on another soundstage.”
Crow: “Feed me Seymour!!”
Crow: “And the crowd goes wild.”
ALL: “yayyy.”
Crow: “Doug, there’s a man in there! Stop it!!”
Jonah: “I’ll harrrm you!!” ——-callback to Joel years
Jonah: “Jack Skellington, NO!”
Crow: “Here comes Becky with the good hair.”
Crow: “I’m straight tripping y’all. Whew!”
Crow: “Sound like the neighbors are putting in a new deck.”
——–
—-
—
More like, At the Earth’s BORE, amiright??
Yeah anyway,
the season was great,
this episode was not.
I give it 2 out of 5 Mahars.
“SCREEEEEEEEEECCHH!!
First, Caroline Munro.
Second, someone made the absolutely inexplicable decision to cut the best line in this movie, or any other movie ever made since the beginning of time. Two different people have put it up on TouTube. Search for, “You cannot mesmerize me,” at YouTube.
Did it remind anyone else of the Breen?
Hey now, I am wearing a “Doctor who and the Daleks” T-shirt as we speak.
Bizarrely, at the moment, all that’s occurring to me is stuff about riffs that they DIDN’T think of but which I did. (Hopefully I’ll do better later.)
For instance, how were there no “Gladys Kravitz” riffs on Dr. “Abner! Abner!” Perry? Admiral Perry? Fridge Perry? Perry White? Guard-turn-PARRY-dodge-spin? IMHO Dr. Perry himself sounded kind of like Dr. Neon from “Wild World of Batwoman.”
Furthermore, elderly scientist, weird vehicle, “Doc”…Back to the Future riffs, anyone? “We’ve got spirit” but no MrXL? No word play on Innes and Roy Thinnes?
The David/Rah scenes might have called for some “Defiant Ones” riffs except I’m not sure what those would be. On another note, did the pair remind anyone else of the odd unrelated credits sequence from Cave Dwellers? Remember, Chad and Trevor, they found each other?
Did you know that carrying an umbrella everywhere was a major element in the original origin of the Penguin? I suspect that the NuBrains didn’t know that either. Oh well.
Nothing’s what it used to be. That’s how time WORKS.
Remember, the Observers’ brains are IN AND OF THEMSELVES the Observers. The humanoids are just host bodies. At least, that’s what we were told way back in Season Eight. That means that when the Observers hold their brains, they’re actually using the host bodies to entirely encompass them within the bodies’ hands.
When only shows that when you’re an Observer, you really can just give yourself a great big hug. All over. ;-)
“Edgar Rice Burroughs, so it’ll have dinosaurs, right?”
“No, you’re thinkin’ of Arthur Conan Doyle.”
“What? No, you’re thinkin’ of H. Rider Haggard, like in Extraordinary Gentlemen.”
“No, Extraordinary Gentlemen had Robert Louis Stevenson!”
“I thought that was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson.”
“Yeah, he’s right, you must mean Edward Bulwer-Lytton.”
“Wait, I remember now, he was a pulp writer, John Russell Fearn!”
“No, that was H. Bedford-Jones!”
“You’re thinkin’ of L. Frank Baum!”
“No, L. Ron Hubbard!”
“Lester Dent.”
“Huh?”
“Lester Dent.”
(the Cave Dwellers intro homage, ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much)
Steampunk before there was steampunk and lots of it too:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1932265155/ref=cm_cr_ryp_prd_ttl_sol_9
Trying to pass that as cosplay would likely elicit a reaction much like what would occur at a Civil Was reenactment if you attempted to pass a blue or grey sports coat as your uniform. The only difference is the treatment for your injuries wouldn’t occur at a historically accurate field hospital. :P
Good thing they offer a Kindle edition. Because if you think the prices on used Rhino editions of MST3K DVDs are a ripoff…
When someone likes your post, there’s no way to find out who it was, is there? Yeah, figures, I thought as much.
A Joe Besser riff was also used in at least one Sci-Fi Channel episode, “I Was a Teenage Werewolf” (near the end, when the very Besser-esque assistant was attacked by Tony-Wolf) so it’s more of an overall callback.
**
In keeping with the fact that (unless I missed it) the film didn’t even try to explain how the Pellucidarians knew English (or how Dr. Perry could read Pellucidarian), Jonah and the Bots didn’t acknowledge the issue at all. Some things are just above or beneath being riffed, I suppose. Kind of like the whole “there’s a great big sky underneath the earth’s surface” thing.
Technically, of course, all that’s “under the Earth” is what’s also on top of the Earth and surrounding it on all sides: space. Really, really big space. The core is the CENTER of the Earth. I guess they were concerned about that confusing someone. Shrug.
Considering the amount of released steam and associated sounds in the movie, they managed to keep the bodily functions riffs to a minimum; I appreciated that. In the SMELT! song, they refrained from using the phrase “dealt it,” too, that must have taken noticeable restraint. ;-) Servo and Crow even chided Jonah for what they perceived as a bodily function riff, so we’ve come a long way from Servo’s “indestructible whiz” days…
A missed callback riff: Okay, think about it, turn-of-the-century vibe…media coverage of a launch…unprecedented large vehicle…
“I’m gonna sink this b|tch…”
“Sure, it’s phallic, why wouldn’t it be?”
I’m not sure that they did any Tarkin riffs except for the one at the beginning (“When this battle station becomes fully operational…Set course for Alderaan”).
The only other such riffs that I might have recognized immediately would’ve been:
“Charming…to the last.”
A reference to Dantooine.
Someone saying something about slipping through fingers. :-)
ADDENDUM
BTW, I’m sure most people in here already know this, but the term “Middle-earth” (from, obviously, Tolkien) has nothing to do with the center of the earth (making the NuBrains’ choice to use it in that capacity kind of odd IMHO). AFAIK within Tolkien’s universe, the term is basically the equivalent of “Midgard.” I could of course be wrong.
Five additional posts and no likes? What’s this, honeymoon over? ;-)
Incidentally, as some may recall, the Cave Dwellers intro bit started with the credit of “David Cain Haughton. Wasn’t he an assassin?” Years later, the Batman titles in fact introduced an assassin named David Cain:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Cain_(comics)
Coincidence? Yes, almost certainly so. ;-) At a guess, the comic book character is probably named after the biblical King David and Cain the first murderer. Still, I suppose there’s always that chance…
going to be weird not having a Episode guide tomorrow (7/19/18)
It was just a joke because they were in the middle…. Ah, forget it. We’re entering Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons territory here lol
Rewatching The Green Slime pilot, I find that I enjoy it more with each subsequent viewing….. Oh, I’m sorry. Old habits die hard. Here I am commenting in this week’s episode guide entry, and it’s not even here.
After much thought and deliberation, not to mention watching and rewatching the episodes, this is how I would rank the Season 11 Experiments:
1101: Reptilicus
1104: Avalanche
1102: Cry Wilderness
1112: Carnival Magic
1109: Yongary Monster from the Deep
1106: Starcrash
1110: Wizards of the Lost Kingdom
1103: The Time Travelers
1105: The Beast of Hollow Mountain
1111: Wizards of the Lost Kingdom 2
1108: The Loves of Hercules
1114: At the Earth’s Core
1107: The Land that Time Forgot
1113: The Christmas that Almost Wasn’t
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Reptilicus and Avalanche are probably tied for my favorites of the Season, I’d say overall we got 7 really great episodes, a few pretty good ones, and couple that kinda stunk (looking at you #1113). Overall, I thought it was a pretty good Season, some of the changes and updates I really took to, some others not so much, but I really liked the energy, the style, and the FEEL of the show, so overall I would call THE RETURN a success and I am looking forward to what Season 12 has to bring and all future movie signs.
As much as I love Joel Hodgson, the “other” Joel, Mr. McHale… is just… TAKE ME NOW!!!