Movie: (1961) When Danish scientists discover a piece of an ancient dinosaur, they dig it up and inadvertantly bring it back to life.
Opening: Jonah Heston, a space trucker/rebellious Renaissance man, returning to Gizmonic Institute with a load of meteors, receives a phony distress call from Moon Base 13 on the dark side of the moon. Jettisoning his load, he lands and is immediately captured and brought to the underground lair of Kinga Forrester, daughter of Clayton Forrester, granddaughter of Pearl Forrester. With her is her chief henchman, who calls himself TV’s Son of TV’s Frank, but whom everyone just calls Max. Kinga announces that she is restarting her family’s greatest experiment, Mystery Science Theater 3000
Intro: Jonah introduces Tom and Crow and demonstrates Gypsy’s new voice and flying rig. Also Tom can FLYYYY … but only in theater. Crow wants an improvement. Kinga introduces herself, Max does as well, and then explains the premise. Jonah shows off his invention: a bubble fan. Kinga introduces the movie
Segment 1: Jonah & the bots sing “Every Country Has a Monster”
Segment 2: Tom Servo clones himself
Segment 3: Jonah reads letters
Closing: Jonah creates a tiny Copenhagen for Gypsy to destroy; Kinga is not impressed
Stinger: Petersen gets nutzoid
(53 votes, average: 3.79 out of 5)
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• The new door sequence, as near as I can tell is:
6—Laundry room
5—Bathroom
4—Kitchen
3— Bedroom
2—Office?
1—Workshop (aka “the fab lab”)
• For the record, MSTies had to wait 6,424 days since the debut of episode 1003- MERLIN’S SHOP OF MYSTICAL WONDERS for the arrival of season 11.
• The new lyrics to the theme song (please correct if I have something wrong:
Har Mar Superstar: In the not-too-distant future, Next Sunday A.D.
There was a guy named Jonah, Not too different from you or me
He worked at Gizmonic Institute, Just another mug in a yellow jump suit
A distress call came in for him at half past noon
That’s when an evil woman trapped him on the dark side of the moon.
[Kinga] I’ll send him cheesy movies, the worst I can find
He’ll have to sit and watch them all and I’ll monitor his mind
Now keep in mind that Jonah can’t control when the movies begin or end
So he’ll have to keep his sanity with the help of his robot friends
Cambot, Gypsy, Tom Servo Crowwww
[Har Mar Superstar] If you’re wondering how he eats and breathes and other science facts
Just repeat to yourself: “It’s just a show, I should really just relax”
for Mystery Science Theater 3000.
Other thoughts and observations
“Turn down your lights (where applicable) returns. The previous episode to have was episode 402- THE GIANT GILA MONSTER, from June of 1992.
• That’s Erin Gray and Will Wheaton as the Gizmocrats. A lot of people saw that opening and wondered if it was going to be a regular thing. It wasn’t. Just a one-off. Thanks to Erin and Will for doing it.
• The little device that taps into Jonah’s ship plays a little mechanical version of the theme song, and Jonah says it “sounds familiar.”
• The little Gizmonic Institute flyover is very much in the style of the old miniature set pieces.
• The giant clown hammer, too, looks very familiar.
• When the doors slide open on Moon Base 13, it is the complete antithesis of the old Deep 13. Deep 13 was a lonely, quiet place with few inhabitants. Jonah walks in one what could be a rave: a full band in mid-song and plenty of henchman to send him on his way.
• It appears that the old Umbilicus has been re-attached to the SOL — interesting that something from post season 5 would appear. Somewhere Mike is smiling.
• Robot roll call is also quite different: No little sayings. Cambot is always shown on Jonah, Gypsy enters from the right, Tom enters from the left and Crow leaps up onto Jonah’s back.
• Joel plays “Ardy,” the “movie in the hole” guy. The whole liquid video thing he controls is a bit baffling to me.
• The riffing begins slowly but eventually picks up steam.
• This movie was cut quite a bit—in fact there were TWO songs, both of which were cut. This one and this one.
• The Carvel ice cream jokes seem overdone to me. There, I said it. I’d say it again if I had to.
• Callbacks: “I’m squishy” (Young Man’s Fancy), Killer Shrews were mentioned.
• At one point there’s a bit of a drum beat in theater when Jonah does a riff on “Monster Mash.” A bit of a departure…
• The only Trump reference I caught: “Yooge! Yooge!”
• I guess all the coverage of the relaunch led to the arrival of letters, even before the show had arrived on Netflix.
• Isn’t it nice to have Rebecca (the new voice of Gypsy) there for harmonizing purposes?
• Fave riff: “How about Reportacus Shutupacus?” Honorable mention: “It’s just a sign that says ‘Made you look’!” and “…not even attempting to get a job.”
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The only criticism I have is that it’s hard to tell who’s talking, there isn’t enough distinction between the voices Jonah and the ‘bots.
This was a good, safe episode to open with. From Kinga’s description, you know what you’re going to get.
I must admit, I was a bit scared at the start as the riffs were noticeably thin. In Season-10 Mike fashion, I was thinking, “Um, hello?” Almost as if they heard me, the riffing started. Ahhh, it’s nice to be home.
The Every Country Has a Monster song and its delivery were both AMAZING! The wordplay was surgical and my favorite part of the delivery was when Jonah knocked over some of the cutouts, looked at the camera, but they kept going as if, once again, they heard me saying, “Don’t stop! Don’t stop!”
Kinga and Max were kind of light and I’m not sure why, unless THEY-proper wanted to focus more on the theater aspect. That was just fine with me, but I hope there is more of Kinga and Max and their, dare I say “awkwardness”, is simply a parallel to the Season-K and Season-1 awkwardness of Clay and Larry.
I haven’t seen all the new episodes yet, but for the most part, I’m glad to say that I’m pleased with what they’ve done with the new season. I would have to agree with those who have said that the new voices tend to run together in the theater, and that they should ease off a bit on the pace of the riffing, but these and other quibbles are minor; for a show coming back after an eighteen-year “hiatus”, with lots of attendant changes, they got right a LOT more than they got wrong.
I really like Felicia Day and Patton Oswalt so far as the new Mads, and I really like that they gave “TV’s Son of TV’s Frank” the nickname “Max.” Newcomers to the show may not realize that the relationship between Dr. Forrester and TV’s Frank, and Dr. Forrester’s famous “Push the button, Frank!” line, was inspired in part by Dr. Fate and his sidekick Max in “The Great Race.” So, when Kinga says “Push the button, Max!”, it’s a callback to a callback.
One other fun miscellaneous detail that I noticed: look closely at Jonah’s spaceship control panel during the opening, and enclosed inside a small wooden frame, you’ll see a joystick with a long red handle. This is a Wico Command Control joystick, the variety known as “the Bat”, released in the 1980s for Atari consoles and computers (and compatibles). It’s still a favored joystick among classic gaming enthusiasts; I’ve got four of them in my collection.
I also noticed that, in the very first shot of the interior of Gizmonic Institute, starting at about 00:28, you’ll see the following on one of the control screens:
“Point of Origin: Gizmonic Institute
Cannae Drive Online
Engine Frequency: 1.68 KeV”
For those who don’t know, Joel is (was?) Creative Lead for Media at Cannae.
Yes, as I like to say, the new season is HD ready and ADHD friendly!
Not sure how many color, widescreen “Monster a Go-Go”s are out there.
The HD really helped to show off how really awful the movie was. NTSC would have hidden a bit of it.
Also what about the people that got lemminged off the bridge? Wiki is very brief about this movie.
Nah, with digital editing it’s pretty unlikely you’d reshoot the whole segment. If it’s a relatively minor error you might even just leave it in (they left in a few pretty big fluffs in the 90s, IIRC). Since it’s primarily audio that’s the important thing, it’s fairly simple to re-record a single line and just drop it into the audio track where needed.
The Rough Cut of the Sinbad episode had some retakes in the middle of the theater segments?, didn’t it?
But yeah editing in retakes like that isn’t that hard. I mean, it’s tricky for a hyuumon but if you’re a professional editor that’s basically what you get paid to do.
I was one of those who thought that in the early episodes of this season the riffing was too rushed and hectic, in particular in “Reptilicus.” I also didn’t like that they’d start a riff before my eyes/brain could properly process what was happening that they were joking about. BUT after a few more episodes my worries were put to rest. The riffing pace settled into something very similar to the classic MST3K. All is well.
One of the things I really appreciate about the new season is that, rather than simply imitating the old series, since Joel is directly involved we get a healthy dose of new inspiration. The liquid “Kingachrome” technology (later it’s explained that sometimes it spills, and parts of the movie are lost – genius!), the tube that forces Jonah to reenact the opening titles, the live band…you feel Joel’s imagination at work, making a slightly bigger (and weirder) MST3K world that he couldn’t do in the Comedy Channel era. By contrast, the Sci Fi Channel era has more conventional SF storylines and scenarios. Nothing wrong with that, but this feels more GIZMONICS.
For this episode guide entry, I’d recommend reprinting the lyrics to “Every Country Has a Monster.” They’re online (somewhere – I saw them on the Revival League FB group) and increases appreciation for the song, the lyrics are so fast and witty.
Not really. If you watch any of the original episodes on DVD or YouTube, etc., you will find that most of them are at least 1 hour, 32 minutes long. Many are 1 hour 37 minutes. Only a couple were less than 90 minutes. The new season, most episodes are about 1 hour and 28 minutes long. Only the last episode gets up to 1 hour 34 minutes.
On top of that, though, is the fact that the end credits is easily six minutes longer, if not more, and because of this, the average revival show host segments and film portions is about ten minutes less. Uphill both ways barefoot in the snow.
Found a couple more things to add for the episode guide:
The pilot show open is different from the rest of the season, in which a couple of decisions may not have been made yet when the opening was made.
During the robot roll call, Gypsy doesn’t descend from the ceiling. Instead she comes up from the theater seats as she was in the classic shows. This is also seen after the door sequence when she’s standing next to Servo and not hanging from the ceiling. Show opens after the pilot have her coming in from the ceiling.
Crow and Tom Servo are on opposite sides of the bridge. Tom is on Jonah’s right while Crow is on his left, and seemingly having some operational issues… They switch sides after the pilot, with Gypsy behind Crow.
This is the only time Jonah waves to the camera before looking away to the MST3K moon. Show opens after the pilot he comes in and then looks to his left to the MST3K moon.
The buttons and movie sign lights are lit in the pilot show open. They are off for all the other episodes.
—-
Yes, I love those “spot the differences” exercises. Why do you ask?
Probably because for that one, Jonah has only just arrived and hasn’t had a chance to do his modifications yet.
I suggest maybe a list of writers on each episode? The group of writers seems to change each episode.
Those should probably go over at Ward E, at least if there are any plans for its continued maitnence and updating now that the show’s back.
Although I did wonder why we’ve been getting those sudden toilet-flushes of “bubbly” in the middle of the host segments–
We learn later that it’s the liquid technology of Kingavision, but when bubbles suddenly “attack” in the middle of the Mads’ segments for no reason, it looks like the cover of an edit where a line was blown or one of the two cracked up, and they kept reshooting from the middle of the scene.
We used to get crazy wow-effects like that during cheap Saturday morning animation of the 80’s and 90’s, when they had to cover a few mis-animated frames, but it doesn’t seem like they can use that cover in the theater scenes.
I hadn’t even thought of that with the end credits. I had kind of forgotten exactly how long the original series was, but you’re right, it was typically 1:34. The 1:37 ones were during Seasons 2-3, iirc, although I’ve never understood how that happened; what show gets to have LESS commercials!?
That said, movie continuity-wise, I didn’t notice any issues with Reptilicus resulting from edits. Cry Wilderness appeared to have scenes cut, but the plot was still easy to follow. Time Travelers might have had some edits, with the budding romance with Larry seeming rushed, but having not seen any of the originals, I don’t know. I’ve only watched those three, and the movie was still easy to follow and all of them.
My ultimate assumption is Joel is aiming to eventually get these on TV, and is timing them accordingly.
An excellent first episode!
So many changes right off the bat: I thought Jonah, Felicia and Patton immediately settled into their roles and made for a smooth transition. The bots took more getting used to although Hampton sounds the least jarring. I love old Gypsy’s voice probably b/c I’m an enormous Muppets fan and it reminds me of Miss Piggy. But, Rebecca’s take on Gypsy won me over quickly especially with her in-theater riffs. “Now, you’re Mister Filing Cabinet!” Baron’s Servo is the toughest to adjust to just because Kevin Murphy IS Servo. Let’s be honest, I know Josh Weinstein originated the role – but, Kevin was the mainstay for 9 of the 10 seasons and provided continuity during every other cast change. All that said, Baron is doing a fine job in a nearly impossible role.
The riffing speed is too fast in this one but the timing was also off during previous transitional episodes, most notably Revenge of the Creature. It’s still a very entertaining episode and the pace of riffing adjusts considerably as the season progresses. I was watching Loves of Hercules last night and it sounded exactly like a classic MST3K episode in terms of speed/pace.
I love the new sets: the doors, Kinga’s lair. I love Servo flying in the theater. I love all the little touches like Jonah having to recreate the opening every week. I ADORE the new orchestral version of the Love Theme.
Every Country Has a Monster was an instant classic that brought a huge smile to my face and was my moment when I realized the show I loved was back.
Headline: Joel brought MST3K back with its heart and humor intact. 4.5 out of 5 stars from Droppo for Reptilicus!
I have only sen the first two episodes so far, and I too have a hard time telling Jonah and Tom Servo apart in the theater.
Other than that, I thought the movies were great ones to use and laughed throughout both.
One thing I wish they would have done is explain why the Tom, Crow, and Gypsy are in the Satellite of Love in the first place. We last saw Tom and Crow living with Mike in a small apartment, and I believe they mentioned Gypsy starting some huge company. I also believe the Satellite of Love itself ended up crashing to Earth after Pearl pulled the plug.
I know it’s just a show, I should really just relax, but they did a good job of explaining how they got back in episode 801, I just wish there would have been at least some little throwaway line on why the bots left their experiment-free lives to go through this again, if not a full segment on what happened to them.
They did what now
Has the segment where they explained why everyone stopped being pure energy and got pulled back to the SOL been edited out of every single copy of 801 I come across
I could kind of see that, but when Servo comes out next and flies into Jonah he’s flying around before it’s announced. Also Kinga hadn’t told them they’re reopening the experiment so they wouldn’t know about why they’re doing the theme song in the first place.
Joel, you have some ‘splaining to do!
The monster song is great, probably the highlight of this premiere episode. However, after having watched the 14th and final episode last night, I can say that the monster song is the only true standout song from the season, which is a bit of a downer. I didn’t find any of the songs in subsequent episodes to be as clever or amusing, and some went on too long.
But let me be frank about Frank – season 11 is great.
The only correction I can see offhand that hasn’t already been made is that
should be:
(in addition to the “I’ll”/”we’ll” correction that others have noted, Har Mar takes back over with “Now keep in mind…”, not “If you’re wondering…”)
Unless you lived in the Twin Cities area between the years 1988-1989, I’m pretty sure you always needed to pay for a monthly subscription service and then plug something into the back of your TV if you wanted to watch MST3K on it.
You’re just going to have to wait for MST3K: The Musical.
I suspect they are “broadcast” length. So if Joel put them on tv, they wouldn’t need to trim them any more. I’ll be curious to see how long the credits are next season, when they won’t have to thank all of the Kickstarter backers. I’d guess the theather segments will be longer.
I genuinely like the fake commercial bumpers–they’re a nice “pause point” if I don’t have the time to watch a full episode (and of course, Netflix remembers where I stopped), and the aesthetic of them is sort of the feel of a late night 70s talk show, where the house band would play the show in and out of commercials and Ed McMahon or his equivalent would do the announcing. I think that’s why Joel put them in, just as a charming little bit of texture, and they work great for it.
I think that with the other thread and all the comments in this thread, I’ve got very little left to say about Reptilicus, but I did want to point to the glory of the military men sitting around the table, each with their own dossiers, and Jonah et al turning it into a D&D game. Beautiful.
So I’m not the only one who thought that.
WHAT plot?
(Oops, should have combined these two comments. Didn’t realize I had the same thread open in two tabs.)
I like it. A solid beginning. I saw Reptilicus one afternoon with my Mom when I was seven or eight. The movie seemed better at that age. But Yonguri is going to make Reptilicus look like vintage Godzilla.
Not just a DnD game, but a reference to an old audio bit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hRsX8yWI3A has some unremarkable animation attached to it.
My one sentence description would be: A precocious child forms a psychic connection with Bigfoot and is alarmed when adults attempt to kill the prehistoric being. Through their abilities, the duo work together and convince the hunters to depart, leaving Bigfoot in peace. Also featuring Roddy McDowell.
Okay, it was two sentences…
And I’ve always wanted to add a random ‘Also featuring’ like TV Guide does, even if Roddy McDowell isn’t in the movie.
I will admit I was really taken in by the well-trained forest animals. I know many were stock footage, but they were really there in the scenes with the Native American woman, and I’ve never seen that kind of thing before. It was really cool.
“Oh, is the great Maurice Grandmaison appearing in this?”
(Just in case that got left out (haven’t watched yet but looked it up on IMDb).)
I really don’t have much to add that hasn’t been said already. The Monster song didn’t blow me away (I think I may be the only one), but the riffing certainly did! Within minutes, I knew we were home again.
As far as the many comments I’ve seen all over the web about too many riffs too fast, I don’t see it. In fact, there’s quite a few lulls in the first four episodes I’ve watched so far. You know, it takes me back to the days where I was watching the episodes for the first time. And on that first viewing, the viewer is bombarded, literally knocked over the head by the sheer barrage of riffs and clever comedy. After all these years of becoming comfortably familiar with the episodes, it’s fun to have that experience again. And I think that’s what the commentators who are saying too many riffs, too fast are experiencing. That sort of “what is happening?” feeling. I think it’s kind of nice.
I’m very happy my favorite (our favorite) show is back.
I’m saying 801 did a good job explaining how Mike and the bots got back to the ship. But 1101 did nothing to show how or why the bots decided to leave Mike’s apartment to go back to the ship, as well as why Gypsy left her company. Was it voluntary? Were they kidnapped? Jonah arrives, and the bots are just already there as if they had been there all along.
And is this a new Satellite of Love? Was the original repaired after crashing to Earth? A simple throwaway line like Kinga mentioning her skeleton crew spent years rebuilding the SOL from the wreckage and kidnapping the bots to reinstate the experiment would go a long way to give “some” reasoning on why it’s all back.
I’ll get into Cry Wilderness’s mess when it’s covered next week. As for Time Travelers, there’s definitely some edits made there (most noticeable: the actual ending to the film).
Better late than ever. I’ve so far watched up to Episode 11. I LOVED this! I wanted this one riffed back in the original run and was over the moon when I saw it in the trailer. There is a missing scene (I think someone else mentioned it) with the scientists’ daughters (it’s been a very long time since I’ve seen this one so I’m just going from memory) showing the general around Copenhagen and the three of them ending up at a nightclub with a woman singing in English (because everyone in Denmark speaks English!). The song itself does NOTHING for the movie. Also, wasn’t there a remake in the early 2000’s featuring aliens? Or am I getting that mixed up with Yongary?
Did anyone else pause after the theme and weep for a minute? Or was that just me? I couldn’t help myself; just finally seeing MY SHOW back after a near 20-year wait made me very emotional.
No thanks.
I think a few people have posted here and elsewhere about tearing up at hearing the theme, which is absolutely understandable. I had that “holy crap!” moment when I saw “TURN DOWN YOUR LIGHTS (WHERE APPLICABLE)” for the first time. It felt like the show had never left.
Forgot to mention this in my first post in this thread: Patton Oswalt looks like he is having *the time of his life* every time he’s on screen. It’s incredibly heartening.
Well, when Tom announced his ability to fly, he didn’t explicitly state that Jonah was responsible (though it could be argued that it was implied).
Ah, THEREBY hangs a tale I was also saving for the appropriate WDT, but folks can see the cut ending of Time Travelers complete and unriffed on Amazon Prime, along with where all fine PD movies are streamed. (It’s right after the scientists walk through the void into their Brave New Golf Course, and before the final static-y shot.)
Have to admit, I did sort of think it was the reason they’d picked this movie in the first place when it was announced, and was hoping to see what they’d do with it.
I understand this, and I’m saying that unless there’s some vast conspiracy to keep me from seeing a version of the episode that contains this explanation, you’re completely and entirely wrong. There is literally no explanation in that episode as to why Mike, Servo, Gypsy, Cambot, and Magic Voice stopped being pure whatever, or why they had to return to the Satellite of Love, or why the Satellite of Love is in orbit around Earth as opposed to at the edge of the universe.
I really liked the “In my UFO” surf song in “Starcrash”! “Won’t you be the Picard/To my Beverly Crusher!”
Mike, Tom, and Servo appear to be pulled back in against their will: “Hey, I’m not done yet!” “I don’t wanna go!”, although if someone’s responsible for this, that’s not explained (maybe it simply wore off?). Crow, as he explains, got bored after five minutes and decided to go back. It’s not a deep explanation, but it’s there.
From watching the segment, I get the idea it’s meant to be chance that they came across Earth again.
A lot of people in the 90’s still had what was called C-Band Satellite, especially popular in rural areas where cable and OTA signals didn’t reach. Even basic cable channels, like Comedy Central, would put out unencrypted video streams over satellite because they were ad-supported. Anyone with the proper dish (those big ones you don’t see much anymore) and a receiver (that didn’t have any sort of lockdowns or proprietary tech) could watch just about anything there was for free.
I look forward to it. That ending was another spot that seemed weird, with the future Earthlings just sort of appearing out of the blue, after the portal closed. However, based on another comment here, maybe that remains unexplained?
Herandar: I did not make a scientific study, but most of the run times seemed to be 1:30 and in my opinion, a difference of 2 to 4 minutes is not all that significant in the context of the comment I was responding to.
So this explination is that someone, somehow, forced Mike and the ‘bots to stop being pure consciousness. Maybe. And you inferred, somehow, that the Satellite ended up back around Earth by random chance.
Do you know what the word “explination” means?
I’ll grant you that Crow does get a proper explination. That’s one character. The same number of character’s presences that 1101 explains.
Or “Zack Norman is Sammy in ‘Chief Zabu’.”
No, but I know what Muphry’s Law is.
I can pick at it but it’s the best first episode of a new host and the best Kaiju episode they have ever done. Both huge accomplishments… It’s a crowd pleasing good episode.. Almost any of the issues I have with this are gone from episode 2 on. Episode 1 was just the warm up. Episode 2 proved the show needed to come back. It’s better than any post mst3k riffing project.