Friday, February 3, 2012

MST3K: Episode 210 - King Dinosaur

I've decided to watch all of the episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000. More about that can be found here and here.

Episode 210: King Dinosaur

First aired: The Comedy Channel on 22 December 1990
Availability: Amazon DVD (Volume 23), Shout Factory (Volume 23)

Pocket Scientist
Though you can purchase this episode from the Shout Factory Store, you won't actually get it until March, when it's officially released. My copy is from a "Circulating The Tapes" source. The sources that I deal with actually pull episodes from their circulation library when they are commercially released. This episode falls into that category, and, until the official release date, is in limbo.

Oh, and yes, I have already ordered Volume 23. Whatever episodes I have from whatever source, I do purchase the episodes when they are released. I've had a "Circulating The Tapes" version of this episode for a while, but, I still bought the official release and am awaiting it's delivery. I'm looking forward to retiring this copy and replacing it with a real one, a good one.

He died and went to New Jersey
I can't tell which airing my copy is from. There are no Comedy Channel/Comedy Central bugs in the corner, and there is no closing announcer. It has some VHS recording artifacts and issues. After the first commercial break, for instance, the hiccups that happen when you pause the recording then press record again are there.

Frank causes a boo-boo and Dr. Forester gets crushed, ruining the Invention Exchange. Joel's was lame. Let's just leave it at that.

We get a short that's not part of a movie serial. That's the first time this is done. It won't be the last. This short is a New Jersey DMV film, "X Marks the Spot," and it tells the story of a dead driver and his judgment in the afterlife.

The main feature is a Robert L. Lippert film. It's the fourth Lippert movie shown during Season Two. It's also a Bert I. Gordon film, the first one of his Joel & the Bots do. It won't be the last. We'll see a lot of his stuff before we're done with this project.

Joey the Lemur, not a lemur
The "Joey the Lemur" sketch came out of nowhere. It's like they wrote the Host Segments out of order, because the lemur (or more like a kinkajou) doesn't show up until later. When J&tB went back into the theater after the Host Segment, Joel still had Joey with him. He mentioned that the movie guide mentioned a lemur would show up.

I understand they wrote the riffs for the film first, then the Host Segments, then built the props needed, then filmed the Host Segments one day, and filmed the movie and riffs on the final day. It's like they planned the "Joey" sketch, but when they began filming the actual movie segments, discovered the lemur hadn't shown up, so they added the line about the movie guide.

Or, maybe it all went as planned and I'm just over-thinking it. After all, it's just a show, I should really just relax.

Um, the movie. There was a movie. I seem to remember there being a movie.

A T-Rex, by Bert I. Gordon
Oh, I remember now. There was bad science. Or maybe it wasn't science. After it's so wrong and so silly, I don't think it's called science any more. Not science fiction, not anything with "science" in it. It's just plain silly at that point.

This movie is just plain silly. Scientists -- though I'm not sure how there can be scientists if there's no science -- discover a new planet and build a rocket to go visit it. They send two couples who don't want to be there after they get there. They discover dinosaurs that look like lizards and armadillos, so they blow them up with an atom bomb. The end.

I had seen this episode once before I started the project. I think I fell asleep watching it back then. I nearly did this time, too. Okay, I did. But, I watched it again until I watched it without falling asleep. I think I liked the sleep better.



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