MST3K: Episode K13 - SST - Death Flight

I'm watching all the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes. Background on this is here and here. I'm still in the "K" season -- the episodes that aired on KTMA TV 23 in Minneapolis, before the show went national.

We're half-way through Season Zero. Actually, more than half-way. Or something. There were 21 KTMA episodes of MST3K, but the first three of those are "lost" -- no fan copies exist. So, of the 18 episodes that do exist, we've covered nine of those, with nine more.

Episode K13: SST - Death Flight

First aired: KTMA on 19 February 1989
Availability: MST3KVideos.com

Remember the disaster movies from the 1970s that featured an "all-star cast?" This is one of those. Disasters, I mean.

"Wow. Look at that wingspan."

Who are the all-stars making up this all-star cast? Well, theres Robert Reed (pilot), Billy Crystal (stewardess), Bert Convy (low-life), Misty Rowe (hot chick), Doug McClure (washed-up ex-pilot), Tina Louise (castaway stewardess), Lorne Greene (owner of the company), along with a bunch of others, including Peter Graves (passenger who doesn't self-destruct in 5 seconds), John de Lancie (whiny passenger), Robert Ito, Martin Milner, Brock Peters, Burgess Meredith, Susan Strasberg, George Maharis, Barbara Anderson, Regis Philbin (not a star, but plays one on TV) ... and more!

My buddy Mad Max saw this episode and said it looked like "they just tipped over the TV Star Coffee Can and poured them all into this one."

What could make this TV movie even better? Have Joel, Crow, & Servo trash it! Either that or it be the European version of this film where Misty Rowe shows her boobies. Guess which one we're doing? That's right: Joel & the Bots ravage the film. No Misty Rowe boobage.

Dr. Forrester is back from Las Vegas.

Trace Beauliew is back, which means Dr. Forrester is back. And Crow is put back together. Dr. Forrester says "push the button" for the first time, only it's to send up the movie, not at the end of the show.

They jump straight into the movie -- so fast, Joe only has time for a spit-take -- and the voyage is underway.

The whole soap opera storyline is set up with all of the characters introduced, with their relationships and former relationships explained. Most of them, anyway. And, J&tB do their standard comments on each.

• Mike Brady!
• Oh, I get it!
• Misty Rowe ... Wow, look at that wingspan.
• I wonder how Cindy and Jan are doing? They’re in the luggage compartment. In four different suitcases.
• This movie’s got more stars than that two-hour episode when the Love Boat went to Fantasy Island.

"The trouble with being a legend: most people think you're already dead." -- the late Burgess Meredith.

The movie plods along. The plot involves a company competing to fly America's first SST, a last-minute transport of flu virus, an MSbP mechanic whose plan goes even more wrong, characters betraying other characters, pregnant girlfriends, ex-girlfriends, and just about every other movie cliche.

Fortunately (*SPOILER ALERT*) the plane crashes at the end. However, some people survive.

You can't have everything.

Again, in the episode, Servo makes another Yul Brynner "don't smoke" reference. Josh Weinstein loves that gag.

The host segments were funny. Servo got to feel pain, the Bots got to do a limbo contest, and Gypsy got a new voice. Okay, she didn't; it was Servo playing a gag on Joel. Think that one through.

Good episode. Not a good movie, but that's the idea. The episode was funny, though. And that's enough enough.

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