By 1996, “Mystery Science Theater 3000” was known as a cult comedy series that had gained enough mainstream traction to earn a feature film. By 1996 the once unusual comedy had become very much a hit for fans of cult cinema and science fiction. The series as a whole, when first stepping in to it, is weird. I fondly remember first watching the series and literally thinking “What the hell is this?” But when you get in to the nuts and bolts of the concept, it’s not only genius but hilarious. Suffice to say, I was hooked, without apology. Essentially you’re watching a man watching bad movies with two robots.
That’s the gist of the whole shebang.
In 1996 with the internet in its mere infancy (MIDIS were all the rage!), the idea of people sitting down to mock a movie was merely a beloved (sometimes controversial) ritual shared by movie geeks and people with a bad VHS rental. Before the internet made it common place on the youtubes and the tik toks, this was merely just a universal game played by literally everyone. And that’s what spoke to fans and helped create such a passionate, die hard fan base.
Heavily inspired by “Silent Running”), we meet Mike Nelson, a simple worker for Gizmonic Institute. After being tricked on to the Satellite of Love (subsequent the departure of previous prisoner Joel Hodgson), he’s left there with two sentient wise ass robots. There’s Tom Servo, a smaller hovering robot with a transparent head and coil arms, and Crow (Croooooow!) T. Robot, a bird beaked robot with ping pong ball eyes. While there, Mike’s forced to watch really bad movies as an experiment from the evil Dr. Clayton Forrester.
With the help of his robot friends, they have to endure every cheesy, awful movie with wisecracks, hilarious observations, and sharp pop culture references. How does Mike eat and breathe and other science facts? Just repeat to yourself it’s just a show, you should… you know… really just relax.
In the film, Mike Nelson is living his best life on the Satellite of Love, and evil Dr. Clayton Forrester (Trace Beaulieu) figures he can rule the world if he deadens his subjects’ brains by making them endure terrible movies. Exploiting his access to nearby satellite-dwellers Nelson (Michael J. Nelson) and his robot pals, Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo (Kevin Murphy), Forrester makes them watch the cheesy 1950s cult classic “This Island Earth.” But when they make funny comments throughout the movie and others that follow it, Forrester’s plan looks increasingly flimsy.
There’s a lot of ballyhoo behind the movie and its inherent lack of success. The movie wasn’t an easy project to get off the ground despite getting noticed by the mainstream. For whatever reasons it never quite clicked, “MST3K: The Movie,” I think, suffers because it struggles to maintain its television formula, while also pandering to the cinematic medium. Movies are so literal, and final, so packing the show on to a movie would require a lot of take aways from the series, but it would also contribute as well.
With “MST3K: The Movie” you have to go in willing to make a compromise, and once you do, it’s a darn good condensed version of a typical episode. To boot, to gang has a good job mocking “This Island Earth” which is no small feat, and they manage to land some great jabs at its inherent silliness. There are also some jokes that don’t work, but knowing that the writers had to pull on the reins for a broader audience, you tend to forgive it. The gang’s all here and Hodgson does his best to even expand on their setting, allowing us some glimpses within the Satellite of Love, and watching Mike maintain the ship and engage in “2001” style exercises.
Even with the big controversy with Nelson behind the scenes in recent years, Mike is still my all time favorite human host for the show. His weird sharp wit and genius comic timing make him a wonderful foil that kept the show moving along after the sad departure from Joel Hodgson. Yes, the 1996 film didn’t win a new (or bigger) fan base, or set the world on fire, but if you’re interested in the history of the series, this movie is a great sub-category all its own. Not to mention it’s a great mid-point detour for Mike Nelson’s tenure as the host. Despite it all, the movie is mostly a beloved part of the Best Brains legacy by fans alike.
There’s no keeping the Satellite of Love and their MSTies down. That’s a fact. After being cancelled from Comedy Central, MST3K returned to the SciFi Channel. After being cancelled it returned years later on Netflix. And after being cancelled after two short seasons, it’s promising yet another return with a successful Kickstarter. Do fans want more MST3K? Yes.
And somewhere down the line I’d love another movie that demonstrates to a new generation of movie geeks why the original series is so unbelievably fantastic.