MST3K: Episode K14 - Mighty Jack

I've begun a project to watch all the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes. Some background on this is here and here.

Before they went national with MST3K, it was a local show on KTMA (now WUCW) in Minneapolis. The first three of the local shows are lost to antiquity ... and Jim Mallon's vault. Fan copies of the other 18 KTMA episodes exists. I have one of those.

We're still in the KTMA season, also known as Season K or Season Zero.

Episode K14: Mighty Jack

First aired: KTMA on 5 March 1989
Availability: MST3KVideos.com

It's Sandy Frank!! Or this film is a Sandy Frank import. It's from Japan, but there are no turtles. At least, no flying turtles that are full of meat and friend to all children.

Rather, it's like it's a live-action version of Thunderbirds or something. Silly submarines and jets and such. And Mighty Jack is an organization or a ship or a person or a rock band or something. It's not clear. And not all that important, when you get down to it.

Mighty Jack is opposing Q, which is an organization sort of like SPECTRE. Which, I suppose, makes Mighty Jack MI6 or U.N.C.L.E. or something. Maybe CONTROL. Again, not all that important.

Can't hurt me, I got my eyes closed!

There's a plot where they have to rescue some person named Atari who (*SPOILER ALERT*) turns out to be the head of Mighty Jack, which Mighty Jack doesn't find out until they rescue him. The bad guys try to torture Atari with a blinding light, which he overcomes by ... closing his eyes.

Later, one of the good guys goes to rescue Atari, but is trapped when he lets the door to Atari's cell close behind him.

Yeah, the film is like that.

Hot Japanese she-henchman

There is a hot Japanese she-villain. Well, sort of. She's more of a hot Japanese she-henchman/spy, who is caught, escapes, then spontaneously explodes on the roof of a building. Oh, the short, tragic life of a henchman.

The opening segment has Dr. Erhardt telling Dr. Forrester that he's not sure they're really mad scientists, just angry. They have a couple's spat. And Dr. Erhardt, in an attempt to change, adopts a voice that sounds suspiciously like Tom Servo. Dr. Forrester isn't impressed.

My buddy Mad Max said, "there are marvelous moments." And there are.

A couple of the in-theater comments I loved were this one:

"This is the kind of politics Josh — this guy I know — could get into." -- Tom Servo

It was fun hearing Servo/Josh refer to Josh/Josh. And I though this one was interesting:

"He looks like Frank Conniff" -- Tom Servo

In Season Two, Frank Conniff would join the cast as TV's Frank, replacing Weinstein (Dr. Erhardt). Someone else would take over as the voice of Servo.

While the riffing is more on par with the national seasons, the host segments are still all stand-alone, not related to the movie. Though in later seasons, there are still some segments that have nothing to do with the film, most are movie-related. All of these are stand-alone. But good skits.

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