MST3K: Episode K11 - Humanoid Woman

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Episode K11: Humanoid Woman

First aired: KTMA on 29 January 1989
Availability: MST3KVideos.com

Humanoid Woman

The Mads revert to showing a Sandy Frank film after two weeks without one. No flying turtles, and no hot Japanese she-villains. There is a Russian chick, with an odd haircut, but that's just not the same thing.

The movie is an English dub of the Soviet film, Per Aspera Ad Astra (Through Hardships to the Stars). Servo kept making references to "Czech" as if it was a Czech film. Don't know if that was a mistake, or just thinking that one Soviet bloc country was pretty much the same as another Soviet bloc country.

I laughed out loud at the references to Kraftwerk's Autobahn. That was one of those songs that just seemed to fit the times, and the movie's background music during that segment did remind me of the song.

"Rosie"

I thought of Rosie the Robot before they said it. Kinda obvious, though.

Servo said the "I said 'lunch,' not 'launch'" gag for the first time.

Joel & the Bots play tag. Servo's head extends like a Rock'Em-Sock'Em Robot. We've seen it in silhouette while watching the movie, but that's the first time we've seen it outside the theater.

I loved the reference to the Rutles. That seemed scripted, though, not ad-libbed. Not that it's a bad thing.

Joel & the Bots run down through the doors

The bots chase Joel down the hallway as the host segment ends and Movie Sign hits. That's new.

Servo thought the voiced used for Turanchoks sounded like "an intergalactic Truman Capote." I thought he sounded more like Wally Cox.

The show gets more and more like the show we remember. I had heard that the KTMA season (Season Zero) was very rough. And, at times it is. But, several times it is every bit as polished as the nationally-broadcast episodes.

Servo strikes out

To that end, they re-used some of the skits after going national. One example is the bit where Tom Servo hits on the blender. It's pretty much as I remember it, including the same punch-line.

The movie was, oh, I guess the word I'm looking for is "interesting." Maybe I just don't "get" Soviet films. I've seen some Soviet films, including the original Solaris (1972). Yawn-fest. I've also seen the sci-fi classic, Aleita (1924). Funny hats. But the Soviet film I've enjoyed the most is footage taken by survey teams exploring the Tunguska event. Really.

Okay, maybe footage of Alexey Leonov during his spacewalk. That or Tunguska. Certainly not this film.

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