MST3K: Episode 1001 - Soultaker

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

Episode 1001: Soultaker

First aired: Sci-Fi Channel on 11 April 1999
Availability: iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, Amazon (Volume 14), Shout Factory (Volume 14), Best Brains (Volume 14)

Not starring Don Cornelius.

Season Ten opened with an episode chock full of awesomesauce.

It's got a bad movie that you don't want to watch, but, really, kinda have to.

The Host Segments aren't so much classics as they are setups for some special guests. Not one, but two. And, yes, they are special.

But, the show is all about the movie, right?

No. At least not this episode. They could have shown just about any movie at all and this episode would still be a classic because of the guests. But, the movie works better than most others, because of the tie-in between the movie and one of the guests.

TV's Frank, soul taker.

You see, TV's Frank shows up. And, like the title character, he's a soul taker. Seems he had a rough time in Second Banana Heaven, where he went with Torgo in the last episode of Season Six. So, he got a job as a soul taker.

Then, to top it off, Joel shows up. Seems he discovered that Dr. Forrester had set the Satellite of Love to fall apart after ten years. And, since this is Season Ten...

So, the appearance of both TV's Frank and Joel Robinson help make this a special episode. But, quite honestly, this is a great episode even without the former cast members showing up. The riffing on the movie is just that good. Mostly because the Soultaker is that bad.

Soul takers at work.

Joe Estevez is a soul taker, taking souls from the dying and giving them to big-faced Robert Z'Dar because he killed his wife or girlfriend or something a long time ago, but when he's sent to collect the souls of five teens who are going to run off the road and die, he finds out the crash was so hard their souls were knocked out of their bodies, but when he finds them, the girl who wrote the movie script looks just like his dead wife so he hesitates, then has to hunt them down again, only the kid who was driving got a job as a soul taker, and he helps them get away, which screws Estevez over, and everybody lives happily ever after, except those that died. The end.

The riffing is top-notch, and the episode doesn't need the Host Segments to bring it over the top. But, with the Host Segments having Frank's and Joel's visits, the level of awesome is way over the top.

Season Ten, the last season of Mystery Science Theater 3000, started off with a bang.

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