First shown: 8/16/97
Opening: Crow and Tom’s “Dog and Bear” game gets out of hand
Intro: Bobo, then the Widowmaker, then the SOL are dragged into a wormhole
Host segment 1: M&TB are unstuck in time
Host segment 2: Mike is transformed into a small robot
Host segment 3: The wormhole deposits M&TB in a rather lovely sylvan glen
End: All seems normal again on the SOL (except for the presense of Krankor), but Pearl and Observer have arrived on Earth in Roman times!
Stinger: The Phantom says: “Hah! Hah! Hah! Hah! Hah! Hah! Hah!”
(153 votes, average: 4.71 out of 5)
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• Bridget’s take on this episode is here.
• Of course, with this episode, into the wormhole we go. And while the “Roman times” story arc is, in my view, a mixed bag at best (more on that starting next time), this episode, which takes place in the wormhole itself, is one of the best of season 8. The movie is iconically stupid and feels very season-three-ish, the riffing is spot-on and the host segments are clever and fun. Don’t agree? Your criticisms are useless against me!
• Is that “dog and bear” dialog from something?
• “I like it very much!” became an immediate catchphrase and soon appeared on an MST3k bumper sticker.
• Some fans got a bit fed up with all the Japan bashing in this episode, and while I don’t agree that it was as bad as they made out, I WILL acknowledge that this show has FOUR “cram school” jokes.
• Obscure reference: At one point, M&TB sing “Hardrock and Coco and Joe,” which was a cartoon that was shown in the Midwest at Christmas Time. Enjoy it here.
• Also: When there is a high-pitched, evil laugh, Crow intones “Rrrrraceway Park!” That a reference to radio commercials for this drag racing venue. I assume that riff came from Bill, who at this point replaced Frank as the source of East Coast references.
• Kudos to the Brains on getting the complicated time lag sketch right! That must have been tough to write! After the sketch, Mike and Tom are already in the theater and Crow, still lagging, joins them.
• Robot Mike does a theater segment. I like a nice detail on the Mike puppet in theater—he has a headset!
• Very typical of this show, when Mike returns as himself, he simply announces that he “got better.” Nuff said!
• Callback from the old days: a Gamera reference!
• Note that the door sequence leading to the “sylvan glen” segment ends with a real bone slamming over a wooden door. The segment is a little startling: It reminds you how studio-bound the show was. I don’t remember where I saw this, it may have been one of the Scifi.com IRC chats, but at some point one of the Brains said that the sylvan glen was only a short walk from the studio. I believe that. The area around the studio was definitely a mix of office park and what I presume was as-yet-undeveloped former farm land.
• That’s Bill as Krankor, or course.
• Fave riff: “Oh, fer cryin’ out loud…EACH OF YOU…”
One of my favorite episodes.
I’m currently planning to do a Krankor costume for a convention next year. That is if I can convince my friend to dress up as Prince of Space.
Oh the humanity! Oh the Japanity! Good episode,this movie is kind of like the Plan 9 of Japan.
I thought you would skip a week, due to it being Thanksgiving. But then, what’s Thanksgiving without MST3K?
That said, uhh— I don’t have this episode.
D’oh!!
“Ator in Flight” nails it, this is Japan’s version of “Plan 9 from Outer Space”. It really does have an Ed Wood quality to it which makes it so delightfully bad and such tremendous fodder for the Brains.
I disagree with Sampo that this is the best episode of Season 8 (The Giant Spider Invasion gets my vote) but this one definitely ranks a close second and is among the best in the show’s history.
As Sampo noted the host segments as they travel through the wormhole are priceless, especially the one where Mike from an alternative universe appears as a puppet and is promptly mocked and bullied by Tom and Crow.
So many memorable riffs in this one too.
“Crank-whore?”
“Krankor nothing to worry about”
“Truman Capote sent to fight Krankor”.
“Go away, unfunny weird man!”
“What’s wrong with boot-blacking? We like it very much!”
“More squid eyes?”
“We have to swing in for some violent porn comics”.
“Ah, the Stanley Cup has invaded Earth, hmmm”.
“I am the lemon zester of destruction!”
“I saw some smoke, it’s time for lunch, look at the street”.
“I’m not afraid, you wearing a tie, go on home”.
“Ah ruff-a-roo, Ah bow-a-wow”.
And of course Tom clucking like a chicken every time Krankor and his henchmen appear on screen. Every “buck-aaa” never fails to make me laugh.
This episode is yet another example why Season 8 was among the best in series history.
Oh, forgot the ranking. Five out of five!
Easily one of the funniest movies and funniest eps of the entire series, let alone this era. The movie is wonderfully goofy, the segnent with the Mike puppet is hilarious and the glen is a nice change of pace. (Is it still there, or has it been replaced by more offices?)
Oh, goodness gracious. An immortal low point in the career of “Mystery Science Theater”. Quite possibly I’ve seen this episode more times than any other because everything and everyone in the movie is so thoroughly, utterly, hopelessly stupid. The “Plan 9″ aliens are geniuses compared to the Krankorians.
Not one character in this movie has a scrap of dignity or intelligence or likability to display. The giant infant scientists really do look like they’d wet themselves and run in circles if the Prince weren’t there to shepherd them from room to room. And, for all that, when it looks like he and they are trapped, the ungrateful babies all gather round and stare daggers at him like the Prince had forgotten to get them birthday presents. (“What? What’re you lookin’ at?”) The Phantom alternates between, “He’s finished, a haa haa haa!” and “Well, maybe he survived,” at least as many times as the Prince tells everyone that their guns will have no effect on him. (“Shoot him!” “Brilliant new plan, sir!”)
And then there’s the children. Oh, Lord, the children. Of course the obligatory children that seem to go everywhere in these Japanese movies annoy me, although most of them are tolerable annoyances. But you have exceptions, like the certifiably psychotic Kenny from Gamera, but even he’s more sympathetic than Mickey in Prince of Space. Why does Wally care about saving the snivelling little parasite? Mickey insults Wally multiple times while exhibiting his own boundless courage by screaming every ten seconds for the Prince to save his worthless ass. Given the gift of Jimmy Olson’s watch, Mickey prepares to abuse it at the opportunity by summoning the Prince “even though we’re not in any trouble really.” (Of course, trouble does appear, but he didn’t know it would.) Thankfully the last segment of the movie is almost Mickey-free.
And that poor fighter pilot. It would suck beyond measure if, just before I died, the last human words I ever heard were endless repetitions of, “What? What’s the matter? What’s that? What’d you say?” Why is every single human in this movie unable to grasp simple statements without needing them repeated? Is it just to pad the running time?
It isn’t just the overall plot that makes no sense, even individual scenes and single sentences aren’t consistent with each other! “We’re eating.” “You eat later. What’s with you? EAT I TELL YOU!!” Or there’s Mickey’s bizarre non sequiturs. “Are you afraid of those space men?” “Sure I am!” “What for, you’re not going to be any help if you get frightened easy as that?” So…Wally shouldn’t be afraid because he’s too afraid? Huh?
Of course it’s possible that the original movie (or movies rather) or its characters weren’t quite this moronic. It might have been a hostile editing and dubbing job that’s to blame for all this, although I suspect that the ugly goes right down to the bone.
Ah, one more thing. The host segment where everyone’s a few seconds ahead of or behind everyone else is one of the cleverest time-travel bits I’ve ever seen. Mike &c. must have rehearsed it meticulously to ensure everyone hit their cues as smoothly as they did.
I understand Beaver Falls, Japan, is lovely this time of year.
Also, who wants to watch the world championship?
5 stars! This episode is great. All of the host segments are well done. Crow’s narrative of his game of “Dog and Bear” with Servo is great. The time lag sketch is well timed. I really respect them for pulling that off. Robo-Mike was very funny. One thing I noticed about that sketch is that Mike’s voice seems to be separate from the puppet’s mouth movements. Perhaps Mike dubbed in his lines in post-production? Bill was good as Krankor, but I never thought of Krankor’s costume as being yellow. I like the Roman times sketches.
As for the movie, it is truly awful. The movie is so damned repetitive and stupid. So this is what passed for entertainment for Japanese children in the 1950s? What is with Dr. Makken’s assumption as to why Krankor wanted the rocket fuel he invented? All they did was see a simple TV broadcast from Krankor and he comes to that conclusion?
I wish, just for once, that the Prince of Space would have been injured by Krankor’s weapons. “You’re weapons are useless against me!” It’s my opinion that something was lost in the translation and there must be some other reason why the Prince is invulnerable.
I like Krankor. He seems like a good boss. He certainly treats his henchmen well.
Fave riffs:
“Somebody left a perfectly good refrigerator over there.”
“What a handsome woman.”
Now, lets look at something we’d rather not look at, areas. This movie has largest (and ironically smallest
) amount of disturbing areas, batches, or whatever you want to call them, in a MSTed movie. The costume designer for this movie failed to consider what thin fabric might reveal when clothing Krankor and his men.
What is with Dr. Makken’s assumption as to why Krankor wanted the rocket fuel he invented?
Especially since the reporter’s asking him, “But don’t they already have space travel?” actually seemed to floor him for a second, as though it hadn’t occurred to him before? “Uh…seems like you’re right.”
Is it Makken, Mackin, Mockin, Macon, Mackey…I’m pretty sure I heard all of those. Hostile dubbing, I tell you.
Has anyone seen my chicken puppet?
You know how some movies inspire you to make your own movie? This one does so more than any other SOL experiment. Specifically, bits of the never-to-be sequel, “Prince of Space Saves Christmas” start running through my head whenever I watch this. Why, what with just having watched Santa receive the key to Detroit mere hours ago (tragically, for even less than the cost of the Silverdome), I can see more clearly than ever the Phantom of Krankor donning similar garb and declaring…
“So by impersonating this deity to which the Earth children refer as ‘SANTA CLAUS’, I can gain their trust and use it as the first step in my conquest of this puny insignificant world!”
(Cut to Krankor seated in mall with henchmen dressed like elves and child on lap)
“Why, ‘Merry Christmas’ my good child and (leans head down directly into child’s face) HHAAAAHNHHHH! HAAAAAHHHHH! HAAAAAHHHH! HAAAAHHHH! HAAAAHH! HAAHH! HAAAAAANHhhhhh…”
(Suddenly, a familiar figure crashes down through the mall skylight)
“(GASP) Prince of Space!”
And…that’s about as far as I ever get. Yet this vision has only gotten stronger since learning that this “movie” was cobbled together from different installments, as I wonder just what was cut for time. Was this originally a serial? More like a TV series? How long was each episode? I’m almost interested enough to want to buy this epic saga in its original form.
Almost.
Since this was among Rhino’s first SciFi era releases (THE first in a set with CC eps?), I assumed “Invasion of the Neptune Men” couldn’t be far behind. Yet still we wait, possibly out of fear of angering mighty and unpredictable Toei, who produced IOTNM, but not this, right? It appears at a glance to be an even shoddier rip off of POS, but it’s probably more accurate to say they’re both in the same genre. I imagine Japan produced lots of stuff like this in the ’50s and ’60s as their take on our space-opera serials evolved into Sentai-ish fare in the ’70s (Ultraman, Dynamen), but please correct me if you know different.
And speaking of old serials, a college roommate I watched this with had a theory that the appearance of Krankor’s chickenmen was a characature of how Asians stereotypically see westerners. If so, should Americans who grew up on Flash Gordon view Krankor as logical payback for our idea of Ming the Merciless? I’m not that well-versed in old serials/adventure comic strips, but his theory does make more sense the more I think about it…
This episode has the single best opening segment of any episode of MST3K.
One of my favorite riffs from this episode is when they show the establishing shot of the apartment building, and Crow goes into this extremely Japanese rendition of The Bob Newhart Show’s theme.
One of the all-time greats. The Mike robot, the sylvan glen(weird and cool at the same time), and of course, my favorite Bill/Crow sketch, “Dog and Bear”. I find it interesting that everyone refers to the villain as Krankor, when Krankor is the planet and the bad guy’s name is Phantom. Oh well. Krankor sounds goofier, anyway. 5 stars.
Oh, and get me a copy of “Baby Sun Hat Monthly”, will you?
I can’t believe I forgot why this is such an appropriate ep to discuss today: May the Krankorian Space-Turkey-Craft bless us all with its barrage of deadly giblets this Thanksgiving!
Think the producers honestly didn’t realize that’s what the tapering rear thrusters made the “Black-Dragon-Ship” look like, or was it conscious continuity with the aliens intentionally resembling chickens?
Count “dog and bear” as one of my favorite sketches as well. I love the line, “Then Servo took it too far.”
The movie is chocked full of stupidity and provides great riffing material.
Exactly what were caustic vapors supposed to do in space?
And why not just shoot the stupid scientists instead of the whole space capsule thing?
And did you notice how easy it was to travel back and forth to Krankor? They make the trip like what, three times? I think they have plenty of rocket fuel.
Huh? What? Huh? Ooooh! Huh? What? All those silly exclamations can only mean Prince of Space is upon us!
This may be my favorite Sci-Fi era episode. Best Brains and the Japanese were both at their comedic best.
Unintentional or not, the movie itself is extremely funny on its own. Evil chicken men from outer space. A giant Ross Perot monster. Plus an ancient ancestor of the Power Rangers who shines shoes for a living as the hero who wears a costume his mom made him for Halloween (as do the villains). The riffs really write themselves here. Or maybe I just find Japanese kids’ films entertaining.
The Phantom Dictator of Krankor is the best villain ever seen on MST3K. The costume. The iconic evil laugh. Trading impotent threats back and forth between the Prince. Desiring to kill “differen”. He’s a hoot.
The riffs hit their mark every time for me in this episode. Pretty much all the jokes inside the theater were hilarious.
The only knock on this episode were really just some of the off-topic season 8 storyline host segments, but I did enjoy Mike’s ventriloquist dummy robot and Krankor’s guest appearance. In fact both times Krankor shows up it makes for some of the best host segment material from the Sci-Fi era.
I haven’t watched this in quite a while but I do remember the helpless scientists, Krankor and hid idiotic laugh (I think decribed once by the brains as a old Buick trying to start on a cold morning) and the friggin annoying kids. I would have not been sad if one of the kids got hit in any of the battles.
As for the Japan bashing, it was a little harsh here, but we still a couple episodes away from the heavy, venom-drenched attacks and tirades that await the tiny island nation.
Show-spanning foreign country attacks appear to become the norm from here on in. The last person, place, or thing to get so much abuse to my memory was Joe Don Baker in Mitchell. But the Brains haven’t even started on the bashing they’ll soon be getting into. And of course Joe Don hasn’t seen the last of it either.
Was the Japan bashing really that much worse than in the 3rd season episodes? While they saved their real venom for Sandy Frank, they threw in a lot of specifically Japanese remarks as well, e.g. cram school jokes, “We are filled withshame,” making fun of the foreign names (“Itchy”, “Cornjob”, &c.) and I’m sure there’s more.
>>>What is with Dr. Makken’s assumption as to why Krankor wanted the rocket fuel he invented? All they did was see a simple TV broadcast from Krankor and he comes to that conclusion?
IIRC he prefaced his announcement with something like “Based on classified information I cannot share at this time.” So, you know, at least they TRIED to cover it.
Anyway, the people who dubbed this movie — actually, also the people who MADE this movie — could never have imagined that 40+ years later it would be readily available for anyone to pick apart at whim. Well, maybe a couple of them could have, but I guess no one listened to them.
At first I thought it was a major gap that we were given no idea how Wally had become Prince of Space (or vice versa; I mean, seriously, is he a human dressed as an alien or an alien working as a bootblack?). Then I found out that “Prince of Space” is actually a compilation of TWO movies about a character who had a pre-existing continuity in Japan thanks to his TV series, “Planet Prince.” So it’s still a major gap, but it’s more explicable. It’s possible that neither the two movies nor the TV series provided an origin either, of course.
In the scene where Krankor sends his men back to Earth to see if Prince of Space survived, he tells them not to come back unless they find him. So he’s just PRESUMING he failed? Admittedly, that’s not much of a leap in context, but Evil Overlords should have more self-confidence.
Another stand out Season 8 episode, and I like it very much!!!
“Allow me to reference my earlier commentary on how your weapons are ineffective!”
HAAR-HAR-HAAR-HAR-HAAR!!
Sampo:
Read Call of the Wild by Jack London and you’ll get the inspiration for Dog and Bear.
This and Invasion of the Neptune Men, in my opinion, define and propel Season 8 to the best in the run. The host segments are classics, better written than 99% of most TV shows, and make me laugh time and time again.
Randy
PS Has anyone seen my chicken puppet?
“Are you ever going to stop farting? Is that even a remote possibility?”
This is the first Japanese film they did since the Season Three overdose of Gamera/Sandy Frank productions. Then just a few weeks later they did 819 Invasion of the Neptune Men, which is like a lo-res Xerox copy of this film. Honestly, I used to confuse the two, swearing that Neptune Men was also on a Rhino DVD.
PoS is funny as hell, a Season 8 classic, despite me not knowing what “cram school” was. Some random notes:
• When Phantom of Krankor has the five scientists held captive on his ship, he only introduces 3 of them to Prof. Makken. Despite the full-frame cropping, one can see there is another man there. We later see the Michael Palin-looking guy with mutton chops (“I’m from the 19th century, what does he want with me?”). Was this omission created by the Brains or is it in the original dub?
• My latest theory is that our Prince/Wally is from Krankor himself, a “Fugitive Alien” if you will. This is how he is able to develop a technology that renders their weapons useless against him.
• For the Adult Swim literate: The Phantom and his henchman remind me a lot of The Monarch and his crew from “The Venture Brothers”, surely one of the best shows on television today. Also, one episode (SGC2C – 84 – Kentucky Nightmare, viewable on YouTube) of the old “Space Ghost Coast to Coast” ends with SG, Zorak and Moltarr stranded in a real-life forest, kinda like this MST episode.
• “Do you want to go faster? Raise your hand if you want to go faster!” said when the vaguely carousel-ish thing on the Krankor ship’s bridge is shown. I’ve heard this riff explained before, but I can’t recall if it’s to anything particular or just a generic carnival ride reference. One online source says it’s a quote from “Something Wicked This Way Comes” by Ray Bradbury. Anyone know for sure?
Happy Turkey Day!
As I recall, the reason everyone’s weapons are useless against Prince of Space is totally due to the dubbing. In the original, the Prince actually has the power to dodge the rays. The dub crew noticed that, well, he didn’t really make much effort to dodge anything and just decided to have him say that all the weapons were powerless against him.
Anyway, this is also one of my favorites, which is why the callback in The Dark Knight Rifftrax is so awesome (you could say I like it very much). Probably my favorite part is the first appearance of Krankor’s guardian; Bill genuinely sounds completely amazed.
“Wha? Look at that! Look at that!”
“It’s a trip into Mike’s subconsicous.”
“It’s pretty accurate, I gotta admit.”
You know, I always felt that one thing that might have been interesting, in keeping with the whole bizarro theme of the time warping, would have been if when Mike became a robot, Servo and Crow became human, played by Kevin and Bill.
Not to say it wasn’t an excellent episode anyway, and totally without any need of my ridiculous meddling. It is always a pleasure (and a pain, in regard to the film itself) to watch.
#26 Finnias Jones:
When Phantom of Krankor has the five scientists held captive on his ship, he only introduces 3 of them to Prof. Makken. Despite the full-frame cropping, one can see there is another man there.
Listen very carefully and you’ll hear whiny Mr. I-forgot-to-water-your-plant say “and his assistant.” It goes by very fast, but it’s there.
You can also hear bits of the original soundtrack through the poor dubbing; during some of the chase scenes, and especially at the end, when even M&tB make a remark about it.
I have to wonder what it was the Japanese Don Knotts was saying in the original film that caused the two reporters to lean in and pay closer attention (“You’re fascinating!”). As it is, it’s just “So… they’re coming, then!” Was that the best they could do?
And boy, the Japanese drove some big boxy American cars in those days, didn’t they?
28
TrumpyCanDoMagicThings says:
November 26th, 2009 at 5:17 pm
“You know, I always felt that one thing that might have been interesting, in keeping with the whole bizarro theme of the time warping, would have been if when Mike became a robot, Servo and Crow became human, played by Kevin and Bill.”
I hadn’t thought of that before that is a very interesting idea. Maybe Mike could have also been a completely different robot as well, not merely a repaint of Charlie McCarthy.
Sampo, if I may finih your fav riff…
“… WILL ENTER A SPACE CAPSEL!”
I’m fond of “My coop! My beautiful, beautiful coop!”
Also, like when the monter shows up and fights PoS, and Mike says, “This is STARTING to become a weird movie.”
I wonder what the origin of the Dog and Bear sketch is. Did it arise from Crow “turning into” a bear for Jack Frost and them not wanting to waste a good puppet mod?
Ah, Prince of Space. This is a good one. Movie’s fun, lots to work with. Host segments are great, especially puppet Mike. Just an all around enjoyable experience.
A five star episode if there ever was one. My favorite riffs:
“Krankor: Nothing To Worry About…Truman Capote Sent To Fight Krankor”
“A Rare Godzilla-free Day”
“Pagoda of the Damned”
“The easily bamboozled Prince of Space!”
I have “more squid eyes?” burned into my brain.
This is one that I looked forward to after first seeing Invasion of the Neptune Men during the Sci-fi era reruns in 2003, but sadly I was out of town during the final airing of Prince of Space and didn’t get the chance to record it. Thank goodness for Vol. 7.
Movie:
* Of course the dubbers Americanized the names of the characters. Heaven forbid American children should learn that people are different from them. This includes Krankor calling one of his henchmen “Mars.”
* No one else has brought it up yet but the fact that Krankor and his men all forgot to wear underpants is far more disturbing than all of the buffalo shots in Outlaw of Gor.
* Mike comments that Krankor’s plan is like a poorly planned bank heist. I think the whole movie was made up as they went along. What makes the least sense is why does Krankor travel back and forth between his home planet and earth no less than half a dozen times after staying at each one no more than five minutes? Also, wasn’t there a rocket formula that figured into the first half of the movie?
* Favorite riffs:
“An alien race too proud to ask for directions.” – Mike
“This! This is the matter!” – Crow
“Oh, for crying… EACH! OF! YOU! WILL! ENTER! A! SPACE! CAPSULE!”
Host Segments:
* I’m not really a big fan of the dog and bear sketch. It just never clicked with me and I usually skip it to get to the movie.
* I will agree that the time lag sketch is one of their all-time best ones.
* While people differ on the Roman times arc, it’s my personal favorite of the season and this is the perfect start for it.
* Favorite line: “Would you just lasso the stupid ship, PLEASE?!”
I love the part (one of many) where Krankor believes the Prince of Space has been defeated, and in triumph, randomly issues the order to “give everyone four hours off”. Something about that just cracks me up; maybe it’s the unaddressed concern of who will be piloting the ship while they all have this little break? And why four hours? Seems like an odd choice of number…
There can never be enough Japan bashing. Never.
I popped in my old homemade videotape of Prince of Space the night before Thanksgiving as a way to unwind after a trying day of food prep for the masses. And lo… it didn’t play! I tried everything & all I got was “They’re here” static & snow. But then you came through with this great episode guide! Thanks guys. Now push the button, Frank.
The most interesting thing about the Dog and Bear skit is that it might just hold the record for recycling one-time-only bot-mods from sketches as far apart as possible. While CrowBear was from a mere 3 eps previous, TomDog, if I’m not mistaken, made its sole prior appearance in the “Basil Rath-Bones, from Purina” commercial during the first break in The Magic Suh-Worrrd (I only saw the MST-hour version) half a decade earlier! Did their first Japanese movie in an even longer time make the Brains exceptionally nostalgic? Or did Bill always particularly like dog-costume Servo back when he was just a fan, and demand to have his Crow interact with it just once?
So the Mike puppet was just a repainted Charlie McCarthy with wires jammed in its head? I always thought they made a conscious effort to make it look like a Thunderbird or one of their Supermarionation cousins, out of yet more nostalgia for K-01 and K-02.
And speaking of nostalgia, Toonami’s debut in 1997 had me swimming in it with reruns of Voltron and Thundercats. So I was quick to notice a striking (if not exact) resemblance between Krankor’s 3-barreled gun (used by Phantom in his first showdown with Prince in the abandoned building) and the gun from the back of the Thundertank, almost like he just tore it off. Could these Chickenmen be related to the Mutant Vulturemen of planet Plun-darr? Would Panthro have shown up to mop the floor with them for vandalizing his baby even if PoS hadn’t shown up? These questions may well have been addressed if the Brains had made more new additions to their talent from younger generations over the years. Not complaining, just observing a way the riffing could’ve gone different. It’s likely any experiment could be redone with totally different riffs, ala Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, but I hope CT continues to break new ground and go where the ‘Bots couldn’t instead.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the Rifftrax of Star Wars Episode III has a callback to Prince of Space. When Darth Vader is killing the trade federation members, one of them goes “Ooooohhhhh!” and (I think) Kevin shouts, “Macken!”
Smoothie of Great Power says:
November 26th, 2009 at 10:18 pm
“* No one else has brought it up yet but the fact that Krankor and his men all forgot to wear underpants is far more disturbing than all of the buffalo shots in Outlaw of Gor.”
I wrote about “areas”. It looks like we are the only ones to do so. Even Sampo has forgotten the numerous, disturbing “areas” in Prince of Space. Perhaps rightly so, but it is worth mentioning.
You know, the theme song for “Prince of Space Saves Christmas” keeps rolling through my head as well, to the refrain of “King of Pain”:
I have stared evil chic-,
-ken men right in–the–face,
Though their guns can’t hurt me,
-I still duck in–dis–grace,
And someday by Space Chief,
-I may well be–re–placed,
But ’till then my destiny,
-is to be Prince–of–Spa…AAACE!
Prince of Spa-ace!
I’ll–al–ways–be,
Prince of Spa-ace!
I’ll–al–ways–be…
Love this episode.
Is it true that the guy who plays Prince of Space is in fact Sonny Chiba, who later became a classic Japanese action hero? Hard to believe after watching him prance around in his leotard and cape.
I think you’ve got the wrong “Raceway Park” in your summary. The link points to the one in Englishtown,NJ,while you meant the track in Shakopee (goracewaypark.com).
BigMcLargeHuge: No, but Chiba does play Ironsharp/Space Chief from NEPTUNE MEN.
Just a great episode. Somewhere on the Top 100 list, perhaps. Great stuff.
#13: …well, I guess that’s better than my idea of a fusion crossover movie called “Mitchell vs. Diabolik”.
ANYWAY, back to Prince of Space.
This movie always leaves me with a warm feeling inside that some Sci-Fi era episodes don’t. Goofy characters, even goofier costumes, and bad dubbing.
In other words, “I LIKE IT VERY MUCH.”
And pointless self-plugging now: A few years ago, the website WrestleCrap (http://www.wrestlecrap.com) mentioned they were looking for a laughtrack. I suggested they use Krankor’s laugh as heard in the Stinger for this episode, and lo and behold, they did. …along with a few others, but Krankor was the first one.
So the spirit of Krankor is alive and well!
Travis #47: So did THAT Raceway Park also have commercials on the radio that had a little chipmunk voice saying “Hahahahaha RRRRaceway Park!”? If so, perhaps it’s NOT an East Coast reference? There is a Raceway Park in NJ that ran those commercials when I was growing up. I perhaps foolishly assumed it was unique…
Hot on the heels of Riding With Death, yet another of my own personal Mike Top Ten episodes.
It’s hokey and cheap and silly but, unlike Neptune Men, remains tremendous fun thoughout thanks to the inspired presence of Krankor.
I can’t express in mere words how much I love, after all their panicky stupidity, the line “On their own, the giant infant scientists survived another minute, and then crashed.”
Adore this episode.
“I’m in space already DAMN” It bothered me that one non-sequiter really wasn’t, it sounded to me like one kid was telling the other, ‘if you’re afraid then go home’. As opposed to staying near an alien spaceship and not being so afraid. Anyway, I’m sure there’s a “Dr. Marken” in there, a dubbing error. Just like “killing diffren”, unless they thought “killing children” wouldn’t get past censors. The special effects deserve a special mention-I’LL THROW MY DOLL UP AT YOU. Ya’ scum.
“Your weapons are useless–but scare the crap out of me!”
This one’s a regular in the rotation, a rich slice of black-and-white low-budget made-for-TV badly-dubbed pain. With great sketches, to boot (and it’s worth mentioning that I always crack up at Kevin’s stilted, cheesy reading of the ultimate in deliberately lazy exposition lines, “Welcome…to Roman times!”) Five stars.
I leave you with this thought:
“That is one crafty parking meter.”
Love this movie. There are so many one liners that my son and I will say to each other from this movie:
Thats a toy I wouldn’t mind having, I like it VERY MUCH.
When Phantoms face is on all the tv’s
HAR, HAR, HAR…how are ya??
“Goodmorning gentlemen, welcome to my grandmothers living room.”
Mickey: Is that a Man?
Wally (crow): yeah..evidently..
All the other professors being “Mr. Rooney” look alikes. Lucille..
Does anyone else have the double feature dvd of the regular versions of Prince of Space and Invasion of the Neptune?
Unriffed POS is pretty good.
Yet watchin IOTN unriffed is like watching Manos unriffed, you kinda of want to rip your head off by the end.
Travis #47: So did THAT Raceway Park also have commercials on the radio that had a little chipmunk voice saying “Hahahahaha RRRRaceway Park!”? If so, perhaps it’s NOT an East Coast reference? There is a Raceway Park in NJ that ran those commercials when I was growing up. I perhaps foolishly assumed it was unique…
Those annoying ads STILL run in NJ during the Summer.
Such a fun episode…. of our lives.
“I’ll throw my doll at you!”
“I’m ashamed of my talk show.”
One of my all time favorite riffs is in this episode: The Prince spouts off his infamous line for the umpteenth time and the bad guys fire off a round of lazers at him, prompting him to duck and roll. Mike: “Your weapons have no effect on me but they DO scare the hell out of me!”
Bolem #13 “And speaking of old serials, a college roommate I watched this with had a theory that the appearance of Krankor’s chickenmen was a characature of how Asians stereotypically see westerners. If so, should Americans who grew up on Flash Gordon view Krankor as logical payback for our idea of Ming the Merciless? I’m not that well-versed in old serials/adventure comic strips, but his theory does make more sense the more I think about it…”
I’ve always believed that Krankor and his chickenmen were supposed to be caricatures of Americans, too. This film came out 7 years after the formal American occupation of Japan ended, and I think it reflects the frustrations and prejudices the Japanese felt during that time. And while I don’t think PoS was specifically lashing back at any single western production, I believe your friend is accurate in comparing Krankor to other racial stereotyped caracters like Ming the Merciless, Fu Manchu, or any number of evil German scientists (Batwoman’s Professor Neon, for example).
Unriffed POS is pretty good.
Yet watchin IOTN unriffed is like watching Manos unriffed, you kinda of want to rip your head off by the end.
Agreed. It’s one reason I don’t think Prince of Space and Invasion of the Neptune Men are really that much the same, despite the obvious superficial similarities. Ironically Invasion is a far more serious film: the scientists are competent, the aliens actually seem a little menacing at times, and while the costumed “Space Chief” looks as goofy as the Prince of Space he’s doesn’t act as goofy. As a result the movie is more boring than last week’s Wall Street Journal.
Easily a six out of five stars. A top episode all the way around.
My favorite riff is the one where the camera is fading from Dr. Mackin (or whatever his name is) and he gets this weird scowl on and Mike says “I’m goin’ to mess you up…ugh!” It just cracks me up.
Love this episode, The English dub sure sounds like a Speed Racer cartoon. Anyone know if they did it?
Love this episode. Just so much material for the Brains to use. And the sylvan glen host segment was a brave step outside the norm. I loved the unexpected squirrel/mouse/pulltoy that ran right in front of Mike as he was walking down the path.
At the risk of, yet again, overanalyzing a non-sensical plot, this film seems totally unsure of what role the various characters play.
Point #1 – When first introduced, Johnny calls Suzy “Mom” but later, as she is seen escorting the professor out to his car, she is briefing him on the notes she transcribed from a recent conference, stating “I think you’ll find everything is in order, professor.” Since the professor is clearly established as Johnny’s dad, and he calls Suzy “Mom,” does she call her husband “professor” and serve as his secretary? At first I thought it was just a choice for the English dub, to help explain her very traditional, servile attitude to her husband. But in another scene, Suzy is seen in the rocket lab wearing a lab coat saying “Prince of Space, he’s going AFTER THEM!” So now Suzy’s one of the scientists. To further add to the confusion, the professor states that “Suzy’s brother also deserves some of the credit, and he’s coming home soon” indicated that the walrus-faced “Bryce, when will I see you again!” scientist is her brother. Are Suzy, the professor and her brother all secret rocket-fuel researchers?! If so, why didn’t Krankor also kidnap Suzie, aside from the obvious chauvinistic explanation.
Point #2 – To further muddy up the character’s roles, the Professor states to Wally “Come, come my boy, you were a tremendous help to me in the laboratory, and your friend Dr. Cummings of America was also a great help.” WHAT?! Is Wally a boot-black or a high-ranking government scientist with international connections?! Didn’t they think it a bit suspicious than an un-educated shoeshine boy was able to assist them in making their secret rocket fuel? That would have put Wally pretty high on my “Secret Identity of Prince of Space” suspect list.
Hard to tell how much of this is problem with the dub or the original version of the film.
If I had to pick a favorite character in this film, I would pick the poor doomed fighter pilot. He’s the only one who affects an aura of dignity and confidence. Apparently he was too cool for the film, so they obliterate his character 30 seconds later with a pathetic, undignified death.
Even though the initials for this movie are PoS, I have to say that I LIKE IT VERY MUCH!
In addition to the gems already mentioned, my sister and I are often heard repeating another riff from this episode. Specially, after the rocket is destroyed and the authorities show up, Tom mimics the siren with “Ooooooh that’s a shame….”
It just cracks us up. Any time we hear a siren, one of us will usually say that or “Sooodium!”
Chalk me up as another fan who considers the time lag sketch a fav. I usually love it any time the Brains try something a little more difficult.
Somewhat off-topic, but when it comes to Japan-bashing, I was a little shocked at the abundance of Asian race jokes in some of the KTMA episodes. They really said some tasteless stuff in those days. “Are all million eyes of Su Maru slanted?” Stuff like that, though that example wasn’t the worst of them in my recollection.
Just my two cents before everyone gets all hopped-up over POS and Neptune Men.
This is the episode that told me everything will be all right after Trace left. My favorite at 5.0. Stupid, repetative, hammy and trippy. The host segments were snappy well written and cohesive. I have so many questions, somebody HELP me?
Krankorians (Krankorites, Krankorings,Krankhens, Kranks?)design space ships that span galaxies yet they have no idea on how to design landing gear? The best they come up with is to have their huge ship DRILL underground. They send up a loopy terrascope(?) AKA parking meter. They also have a tank that DRILLS underground? No wonders these Henmen waste a lot of fuel and needs Makins formula. Whats up with this?
How does a single bootblack make ends meet in 1960 Tokyo? He waltzes into the local orphanage and picks up two kids and puts them to work bootblacking. For meals he dumps them at the neighbors at meal times, leaves the kids alone at night when he has dinner with a ‘friend’ nor does he call them. He is a bachelor who skips around in a body stocking and a mask, disappears for hours and days at a time and wears baby hats on a jaunty angle on his head and they give this guy two orphans?
The planet Krankor was a trip, a very bad one! The Giant was about the lamest threat I have ever seen. The landscape reminded me of an Eskimo Pie ad.
How in high heaven did this film (by 1960 standards which allowed NO male genitalia displays) get by the sensors???!!! Unbelievable that this was released to the public and not one of the Henmen actors just put on some underwear. Were they ordered NOT to wear undergarments (yuck). I can’t believe that this was culturally acceptable practice? Somebody, lie to me on this?
That depressed, dull, unsmiling, loud, kid!? I can understand why the orphanage dumped him on Prince/Wally. That kid is easily a walking Buzz-kill. His determined, stone cold proclamation of elation expressed as
‘I LIKE IT VERY MUCH!’ sums up this episode quite nicely.
My POV:
This is the episode I would use to dismiss the claim that the Mike episodes were better at riffing and the Joel episodes were better in the host segments. I really liked the host segments in PoS: the riffing, not so much. But of course, this is my opinion after several viewings. When I originally watched it, it was one of my favorites. Perhaps it will be again. Funny how that seems to work.
Prince of Space has always been one of my faves. The movie is so silly, the dubbing wretched, the riffing great, and the host segments memorably funny. In fact, the out-of-sequence host segment is my all-time favorite. I had to watch that half a dozen times to really appreciate how cleverly they interacted while out of phase, which just made it all the funnier.
As a fan who started watching during Sci-Fi’s re-runs this was a favorite from around the begining for me.
The time-lag sketch kinda sorta reminds me of the deja vu scene in the “Future Echos” episode of Red Dwarf.
He’s PRINCE of watching his SPACE cushion!
A really fun episode.
You can say the Roman Times skits were a mixed bag, but at least it gave us some Mary Jo/Bridget time.
Personally, I loved the Observers, and think they should have stayed there longer.
One of the top 5 All time great episodes.
This is my favorite episode, hands down. It’s nothing short of masterful to me. It just kills me from start to stop.
There’s so many to choose from, but I think “I’m ashamed of my talk show” and “After that dog!” always manage to make me laugh the hardest.
This one is my ultimate pick-me-up when I truly need it.
One of the best (top 5) episodes pretty much ever .I agree about Giant Spider Invasion giving it a run for its money in Season 8.
One reason: I actually remember seing this back in like 1960 when I was a kid and thinking it was cool!
The lines/riffs a prime
“A Rare Godzilla Free Day” . is my Widows start WAV.and Krankors Laugh is my log off .WAV
The whole “Monet in paris ,the japanese dog “ruff-aroo” and “After that dog!” crack me up every time.
The gang was “on” in their segments:all.
from Bobo having to “you know..go” to chicken puppet and the arrival in “Roman Times”
added to the general psychotic Krankor and minions and well it doesnt get much beter than this!
Seriously, guys, I want my chicken puppet.
Although I’m a dedicated Joel fan,
this is my fave of ALL the episodes !
It skips rather well.
The first time I saw the scene where Prince dogfights the giant was one of the few instances I literally fell over laughing. I live close enough to Detroit that the waddling lower half of the monster being met with “Cecil Fielder!” struck a chord, but “Now I’ll swing around and take a crack at that nasty plaque”, was the one that floored me, and must therefore be my pick for fave riff.
“What, is he escorting them to the county line?” is my runner up. That preceding initial attack from the parking meter that vaporizes everything but hats was actually a decent attempt at a ‘War of the Worlds’ homage, IMHO.
Their saying his saucer looks like an upside-down covered wheelbarrow sort of leaves me with two more questions:
1.) 3 shows later, do the ‘bots ever point out how the lower/front half of Space Chief’s flying death-car looks like a tiny rowboat pointed backwards when seen from below? Their respective kitbashed vehicles make for another amusing parallel between our wispy heroes.
2.) Since the “handles” in front clearly look like they’re supposed to be gunbarrels, how come our Artist only seems to fire weaponized negative scratches from the wheel/node on top?
I LIKE IT VERY MUCH.
I have always loved Prince of Space, but I especially grew to cherish it when Sci-Fi was coming to the end of their MST repeats (they showed repeats for what, five years after the show was canceled?) and they seemed to only have the rights to a few episodes. One of them was Prince of Space (another was Invasion of the Neptune Men if I remember correctly) and so they seemed to show it every few weeks or so. It seemed like it was at least once a month. And I’d always watch it, even if it was just on in the background as I was doing something else. It’s still one of the MST episodes I find myself watching most often today.
I’ve had RHINO Vol. 7 for some time, but this is the first time I pulled out Prince of Space on DVD. As many will remember, PoS ran a lot during both the original run and the 5 years of reruns. I will always buy the DVD sets, but there are a few episodes that I’ve seen so many times that I need to give them space.
I did enjoy this episode VERY MUCH!
All my favorite riffs revolve around the giant.
“He obeys my slightest command!”
“…Like ‘wander around aimlessly’ and ‘gain weight.’”
Damn, now I gotta watch it again.
The Mike puppet was too too cute. Will look for the scampering chipmunk/ground squirrel next time.
I have always enjoyed when the guys interact with the action on the screen; Joel ‘running’ on a road scene in Warrior…, ducking under swinging gates etc. M&TB trying to avoid the Henmen’s areas were just priceless as were their comments about it. Phantom giving his henchmen Henmen 4 hours off was just so weird?!
I also noticed that the Japenese make-up and costumers have a ‘gift’ of just grabbing anything in the store room and make it culturally alien. The Phantoms mustashe appears to be glued on upside down for example. He also wears a short cape and lace tutus to denote his power and authority!? Of course we have the no underwear rule in effect as well (bbbrrrrrrr). In Fugitive Alien we have star wolves wearing curly blond wigs under their helmets and a commander who wears tons of makeup (TammyFaye magnitude, God rest her soul) with a nazi helmet. Star Wars should have put Vader in heavy make up like this guy as he was evidently the inspiration for him.
Possibly my favorite episode ever. But my favorite episode ever changes from time to time, so I’ll say (conservatively) PoS is one of my top five of all time.
“Wally’s got some stones to mess wid me.”
Ah, Captain Manikoti…
“I understand you’re stuffed with cheese.”
“There is dog hair all over the car why do you think that is HMM?”
This is probably my favorite episode – the jokes are above average throughout.
My favorite riffs:
“So no accumulated memory whatsoever.”
(I fell off the couch when I heard that for the first time. It has almost the same effect now.)
“Each of you will enter a space capsule.”
“What?”
“Oh for crying out loud, EACH OF YOU WILL ENTER A SPACE CAPSULE.”
(Hysterical! Probably my favorite MST3K line of all time)
I neglected to say how I love this movie. It’s the first episode I ever saw, having just read a good write-up about the show in TV Guide, and within 5 minutes I was fumbling for a videotape to start recording. I have watched this episode countless times and, like a few others on this board, I have given it a “rest” for a while, because I simply know the lines too well.
Still, it’s certainly one of my “desert island” episodes, if ever I should need them.
Definitely in my top five of all episodes. Hell, it’s probably in my top three, with upcoming episodes Space Mutiny and Time Chasers right next to it.
I always thought the needling of Japanese culture was in good fun, just like the Canadian riffs during Final Sacrifice, the southern slams during Squirm, the British jokes during the first chunk of season 9, or the numerous Midwestern putdowns during… well, nearly every episode.
The wormhole was also inspired, and I only wish they reused it for sketches during their return trips through it.
The riffs that have stuck with me are Crow humming the Bob Newhart Show theme during a similar establishing shot, and the famous “Our virtual pets have turned on us!” line. Or was that from Neptune Men?
Just to be different I’m going to say how much I dislike this ep…
Actually, no I’m not.
This one is a classic and in my top twenty.
I watched it for the first time in a while earlier in the week. But something odd did happen this time. I noticed a slow spot a little bit after the middle of the ep, once they get to Krankor’s planet, I think. There is a short stretch where I started to think the riffing (so so brilliant in the first half) is about to fall flat…
But Mike and the bots pulled themselves out of it. And they seemed to do it (I don’t want to get too analytical here) by going for a more “physical” kind of riffing than in the first half of the ep…that is, just riffing on the physical actions of the goofy aliens, and turning the whole thing into a “Duck Soup” type farce. You can really sense the Brains struggling to keep up the momentum in the second half, they really really seem to want to flee the theatre when they joke about doing so, but they pull it off and it’s one of the great ones. But my point is this ep seems to have two sides to it, at least to me. Didn’t notice on the first bunch of viewings.
I love seeing Mike and the bots out in the real world. It’s disconserting and surreal in the way those shifts in old British television shows are–when they go from video shot studio interiors to outside film…
“Woody Allen asked me out!”
A+
Once showed this to a friend, who perfectly timed a question about the function of the antennas on all the headpieces; as soon as he finished his sentence, on a close up of Krankor, Mike quipped, “Hold on, I’m pickin’ up a Dodgers game…”, a case of perfect synchronicity.
Still, there seemed to be some signifigance to PoS shooting the tips of the chickenmen’s antennae to make them fall over from collective headaches, like it destroyed their equilibrium or something. Part of the premise lost in the dub/condensing, or a last minute editing decision to play down the violence of the hero actually shooting them?
Moving on:
Like most of my friends, I’m a big amime fan, so it used to bug me a bit that the Brains routinely dismissed all anime and manga as “violent porn cartoons/comics”. But then I realized that being a fan of “anime” in general likely has much to do with growing up in the ’80s, when Voltron and especially Robotech gave kids a glimpse of a world across the pond where cartoons had much more intelligent and mature stories than our beloved toy-commercials, if only we could peel back the veil of edited content, dubbed cop-outs (fortunately they were only robots, I can see their parachutes, good thing it’s Sunday, that was Sven still alive with brown hair and NOT his brother, and the SDF2 was destroyed before the camera could pan over and verify its existence), and unrelated cartoons getting smished together to be long enough for syndication. However, after that decade or so of video companies importing and translating the cream of the crop, so much has been imported in recent years that said cream is often drowned out by the deluge of pocket monster/gaming tie-ins and other such generic crap that even Adult Swim is running out of decent new stuff to air. It’s only natural that the Brains would just reference the handful of stand-out older Japanimation shows that aired in their youth/adolesence, and the horrors they’ve heard of hentai, since that’s all that would stand out in your mind if you “weren’t there”, so I’m not complaining.
I only typed all that to preface how shocked I was, albeit pleasantly, at a joke made while the masked Krankorians in that car are spying on “Shoe Shine Boy” (was this released before Underdog debuted? I digress…) Just what is Tom saying as that guy reads his newspaper: “they shelled Nagomu again last night”? Because the first several times I watched this, it sure sounded like, “They shelled an ohmu again last night”.
If the latter, I believe that must be a reference to ‘Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind’, arguably Hayao Miyazaki’s best movie, partly because it managed to have a strong environmental message without beating the viewer over the head with it. Ohmu (can’t remember if I’m spelling that right) looked like enormous horseshoe crabs with compound eyes on their front half, and people harvested their hard shells to make impregnable armor. The riff may have been inspired by the way the henchmen’s masks bulged in and out, reminiscent of gas masks worn by some characters in contaminated areas of Nausicaa’s post-apocalyptic world.
I really hope I heard “ohmu” right, as that must mean there was a Miyazaki fan amongst the SciFi era Brains! Of course I probably didn’t, or ohmu may have some more widely known meaning I’m unaware of, but what the hell-of-needles, it still makes me feel good.
This episode has one of my catch phrases for people asking how I am; “I’m having a rare Godzilla free morning.” Paraphrased and all that. For some reason I thought Sonny Chiba was the lead character and then my meds wore off. Great episode and a very clever lagged skit.
“Jimmy Osmond!” i agree with other posters that there isn’t too much Japan bashing in this. there isn’t nearly as much as IotNM and they could have really gone nuts with that one. and the Japanese do kinda deserve it on a daily basis. a great job riffing on this one. the roman times theme is a little tiresome considering how long it lasts. but i really do enjoys this one.
I’m dazzled that my WardE contribution was linked (Dog & Bear dialog). That was one of the first things I ever did on my first PC, and it’s still out there. I’ve wondered for 10 years now about the literary allusion…Call of the Wild is the first time anyone has ventured a guess, and it’s as good as any.
Possibly my favorite all-time episode; definitely in the top 3. I use the phrase “easily bamboozled” all the time.
A good friend of mine holds up Prince of Space,the movie itself, as a perfect example (not a horrible one, a perfect one) of one of the most persistent flaws in a lot of Japanese pop-action-fiction, particularly those aimed at kids and teens. And it’s all embodied in the Prince of Space himself.
Why is he so unstoppable? He’s just right out of the gate inherently better than these alien invaders he’s never encountered at every turn, despite their ability to beat the snot out of everyone else on Earth. He’s the ubermensch, and that’s all we apparently need to know. There’s never a moment of doubt in anything he does. He just plows through everything with his betterness, only at best a glancing nod at cleverness being how he wins… mostly it’s just because he’s Better.
This general theme pops a lot in action anime, it seems, symbolized by the BURNING HEART-O I MUST SUCCEED OVER 9000 HEART OF THE CAAAAAARDS. Granted, more of these “heros” get the snot beat out of them a lot, but still, as a general rule, victory comes from Super Sayining through things, or marginally obvious jabs at “smart” fighting. (Or, nonsensical “wait, what?”, but we’ll leave that alone.)
There’s no drama to be had here… but tons of comedy. this episode is easily in my top 5 all-time MSTs.
#93:
I believe they where talking about Japanese pitcher Hideo Nomo, who had 1 good year with the Los Angeles Dodgers and then for the rest of his carrer he did nothing spectacular, and was not particulary good
Is this the one with the “Hitler Building”?
Just stunning….
^Hitler_Building
Negative. That’s “Invasion of the Neptune Men”. But seriously, you have earned the right to get these two confused.
Bolem, I think the line is “Well Nagmo got a shelled again.”
Although I have to admit “They shelled an ohmu again last night” would be great on a pin or shirt.
In case anyone is wondering what an ohmu looks like.
http://www.onlineghibli.com/nausicaa/newimages/Ohm.jpg
@93
That’s definitely a reference to Hideo Nomo, a Japanese pitcher who made a big splash in the early 90s with the Dodgers. As #98 said, he had about 2, 2 1/2 good years and nothing else besides his wonky throwing motion. He pretty much paved the way for guys like Ichiro and World Series MVP Hideki Matsui to come to MLB. Also notable for being one of only five players to throw no-hitters in both leagues.
Thanks for clearing that up #s 98, 101, and 102.
Ever have a song that you liked until you almost ruined it for yourself by actually paying attention to the lyrics and grasping the actual meaning, so from then on you just keep trying your hardest to hear what you originally heard, but it usually doesn’t work? I figured that’d be the case for me here.
Well, I don’t care what they thought they were singing, Big ol’ Jed had a Lighter! He did!
That reminds me: they actually make grill lighters that extend like Prince of Space’s now, right? If I could find one, I might seriously attempt a PoS costume someday.
For that matter, did such grill lighters exist back when this was made? If so, were they still such a novelty that one could be passed off as a laser pistol, sort of like how the old Mothra movies passed off silly string as a special effect? Actually, that’d be more like those Buck Rogers brand disintegrator guns issued to the Teenagers From Outer Space.
“Ohhh, Speed, oh!”
Prince of Space!?
It’s Santa Claus, and Cheap Trick! OOOOOHHHH!
Hopefully I won’t keep coming up with oddities tangentially connected to this episode, but one final thing:
The part where Krankor deploys his Mousetrap device and Prince tricks him by hanging on as it’s raised up: Was he supposed to be fried, but staying in the top part somehow prevented that? This scene is the only one where their weapons actually can’t seem to harm him, as after roasting him fails, the crossfire from all those tri-barreled guns just passes over him as he stands there unflinching. Any idea what was lost in translation?
But the Mousetrap part, as far as I can tell, must be a standard gag in Japanese boy’s action shows. In the first episode of the 1999 Japan-only Transformers cartoon “Beast Wars Neo”, a mischievous squad of Cybertoron/Maximal/Autobot-ish screw-ups play a prank on their newly assigned commander, an Optimus Prime-ish fellow who turns into a wooly mammoth and is therefore named “Big Convoy”, which honestly does make perfect sense for reasons too complicated to explain here. Not only is the prank the same basket deal (without the frying), but BC counters with the exact same hanging-on-spreadeagle-so-he-can-get-the-drop-on-them move. As far as I know, no chickenmen ever show up, but BWN does feature the only Transformer who becomes a penguin.
A little late to this party…
Great episode, five stars out of five. “I LIKE IT VERY MUCH!” Love the “Dog and Bear” sketch as well as the sylvan glen. I also thought the “Welcome to Roman Times” was very Original Star Trek, down to the little musical flourish.
Hey Bolem, I heard Ohmu too the first couple times I saw this one, but my wife is a Dodger’s fan so she set me straight.
As others have mentioned the Japan bashing is a little much, but not nearly as nasty as the “Invasion of the Neptune Men”. That movie just hurts and I think it made the the Brains get a little too nasty.
But “Prince of Space” is certainly one of my favorite Sci-fi channel episodes.
I’m also late. . .But It’s never too Late for some Trivia!
It didn’t register until Boot-Black got chased through the cemetery, but this was a TV series on UHF in the 60′s along side “Astroboy” and “Prince Planet”. (If you’re over Forty-eight and saw them let me know?) Then on Invasion of the Neptune Men, Space-Chief chases the soldiers with too much make-up into the lab and…BOOM!
This was in the same series!!
The TV show was called “STAR MAN”
It was the habit of American distributors to group several short run Japanese shows together to make a complete series of 80 episodes or more.
“The again on the other hand…”
The Bolem #93-> My take on the whole “Violent Porn Comics” thing: I had an AKIRA T-shirt and every other time I wore it some guy would come up to me and say:”You like Japanese Cartoons. I saw this movie called “The Overfiend!”
One saturday a month I would go to the local Anime club and we would watch Fan-Subbed tapes of “Cowboy Bebop” and “Outlaw Star” years before The Cartoon Network aired them. Most of the people in my group had a similar story concerning movies like “Overfiend”. And we would cringe at the thought that Anime was represented in the States by this Low-cell count Atrocity.
(for those who never saw Overfiend…take about 5 or 6 movies like “Hostel” or “Devil’s Rejects” put them into a blender and toss in some wacked sex scenes and hit mix for a minute.)
I seem to have strayed…stop me before I digress again!
and in cinclusion…
Censors…what censors? Speed Racer rang up quite a Death-toll every episode.
*and in conclusion.
I’m getting better at this typing thing.
I really like this episode but the whole “That’s two separate ideas” riff thing was ridiculous.
“I’m not scared. If you are, go on home.”
That’s what the kid said. What about that doesn’t make sense? I mean, I saw that the first time and they are supposed to be watching these films OVER AND OVER.
Anyway, this one ranks up there with the Season 3 Sandy Frank episodes, something I wouldn’t say applies to the next Japanese film they do.