Monday, March 5, 2012

MST3K: Episode 317 - The Saga of the Viking Women and their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent

I'm watching all the episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000 in order. More about this here. It began here.

Episode 317: The Saga of the Viking Women and their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent

First aired: Comedy Central on 26 October 1991
Availability: MST3KVideos.com

The Saga of the Movies with the Really Long Names that Contain the Entire Plot in the Title
I had never seen this film, neither the actual movie nor the MST3K version, before watching this as part of this "watch 'em all" project. I didn't get to see as many episodes of MST3K as I would have liked in its first few years, and I missed all 12 Comedy Central airings of this episode.

It's a Roger Corman film. Which means it was made on the cheap. And it's not very good film. In fact, this is a bad film.

Bad film. Very bad film.

This film is so bad it should have been made to go break off a switch and then beat to within an inch of its life, then stood in the corner while it cried and sniffled and then sent to bed without any supper.

The Great Sea Serpent attacks the Viking Women
The plot is, well, pretty much what the title of the film says. But the title isn't complete. Because, while the Viking Women do set out on a Voyage that takes them through the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent, it doesn't end there.

The Viking Women survive the battle with the Great Sea Serpent -- who must have a really good agent because he got an in-title billing for what was only a walk-on, um, swim-on, role -- and wash up on the land where the barbarians who live there have enslaved all Viking Men. Oh, yeah, that's why the Viking Women take their Voyage to begin with: all their men are gone and they're really horny.

They battle the barbarians and free their men and make their way back. The traitorous Viking Woman -- what would a Viking Women movie be without a traitorous Viking Woman -- played by Susan Cabot redeems herself along the way, and the young Viking -- there had to be a young Viking trying to prove himself a man -- proves himself a man.

Waffles!
So the movie had a plot and stuff. But that doesn't make it a good movie. But it was a great movie for riffing. And riff they did, but it needed something else. And, what do you suppose that something else was?

Why, waffles, of course.

Lots and lots of waffles. With syrup.

There were several Teenage Cave Man references, indicating that although this episode aired before Teenage Cave Man, it was produced and intended to be aired after Teenage Cave Man. I wonder why these episodes were aired out of order.

"Look! Look! Look at my crotch!"
The short that preceded the movie was lots of fun. All by itself without any riffing. It was one of those silly shorts, The Home Economics Story, which -- and this isn't really a spoiler -- tells the story of Home Economics.

Lots of good riffing in the short. It was laugh-out-loud funny. My favorite part of the short was J&tB's cheer when the cheerleaders were shown: "Look! Look! Look at my crotch!" I had to back it up and watch it again.

Okay, I didn't have to. I just wanted to.

Great episode. A short that just begged to be riffed -- and was. A movie that demanded to be riffed -- and was. And a silly, silly theme that permeated all the Host Segments and a little of the movie.

This episode can be summed up in one word: Waffles!



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