Basil's Blog: MST3K: Episode 420 - The Human Duplicators

Monday, April 16, 2012

MST3K: Episode 420 - The Human Duplicators

I'm watching all of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes in order. More about that here and here.

Episode 420: The Human Duplicators

First aired: Comedy Central on 26 December 1992
Availability: MST3KVideos.com

They be making peoples.

Here's one I never saw when it aired. And, since it's not been released on home video, I never saw it until I obtained a fan copy, even though it aired 17 times on Comedy Central.

I missed them all because every airing of this episode either: 1) was while I was out of the country (Korea, and AFKN didn't carry MST3K) 2) was at or after midnight on a weekday and I had to get up early (Army life) or 3) was while I was at church. Well, not every one. There were two that aired the day after Christmas. So, yeah, I missed them all.

Big, scary-looking Richard Kiel plays a big, scary-looking alien.

It stars Richard Kiel, who played a convict in the original version of The Longest Yard.

Okay, maybe you remember him better from The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker. Big guy. Sort of scary-looking, but that's mainly because he's a big guy. A really big guy.

In this film, Dr. Kolos is a big James Bond villain-looking alien who travels to the earth to make androids as part of some plan for galactic domination. He meets an earth scientist who is trying to make androids and takes over the project, but a local investigator thinks something funny is going on, so he gets captured and duplicated. Beaver Cleaver's dad isn't happy. The big alien falls for the blind chick and the plan goes awry. The big guy figures out he's an android, and leaves. The end.

Hugh Beaumont with the Beaver and some dude.

Since it's never been released, mine is a fan copy. It was recorded April 10, 1993, as best as I can tell. Not a great copy. I'll be getting a better copy from MST3KVideos.com before I watch it again. But, I will watch it again.

It's a pretty good episode. The movie's not horrible, but it is bad. Really bad. But good riffing. Well, they did over-do the stuff on Richard Kiel. Maybe it's because everything I've read or heard about him indicates he's such a nice guy. I hate to see nice guys picked on. Even big, scary-looking nice guys.

Hugh Beaumont shows up, as I mentioned. He's the boss of the guy that saves the day. It was his last film role, though he did have a handful of TV guest-starring roles before he retired to sell Christmas trees or something.

The Mads win the Invention Exchange again. I seem to like theirs better lately. It's the "William Conrad Fridge Alert." If you remember, William Conrad was appearing in commercials hawking First Alert home safety alarms. The Mads' invention alerted you if William Conrad broke into your refrigerator. Turns out, they needed it.