![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
MST3K 417: Crash of Moons
Moving on to another episode in the latest Mystery Science Theater 3000 DVD set, I've reached "Crash of Moons" (as the title card itself says, in a strange, somehow both "science-fictional" and not font). Following "Manhunt in Space," once more episodes of "Rocky Jones, Space Ranger" have been combined into something at least as long as a movie, and there's another chunk of "General Hospital" to lead things off with...
The early 1960s-styled soap opera involves what seems to have been a very depressing party (perhaps the party in the segment that was attached to "The Beatniks") wrapping up, and it comes out that in best soap opera fashion, everyone is in love with someone who's supposed to be in love with someone else. With that, the experiment of showing "General Hospital" on Mystery Science Theater comes to an end (and I do sort of appreciate them getting back to showing shorts educational, instructional, or "industrial"), and the space opera is under way. Space Ranger Rocky Jones is unable to convince the imperious planetary queen Cleolanta (who also appeared in "Manhunt in Space") to have her world join the organization of planets, but shrugs that off and heads for a space station several other recurring characters are on. They're all planning to watch two co-orbiting and inhabited "gypsy moons" pass by on other side, but the brilliant scientist has forgotten where Rocky Jones hasn't that the moons are linked by an "atmosphere chain" and the station can't take being in it. In the nick of time, Rocky manages to dock the "Orbit Jet" to the station ("You see guys, when a spaceship loves a space station very much...") and push it out of the "atmosphere chain." ("I'd be relieved if I knew what was happening.")
It's then figured out that because the moons are swinging around each other, they pose a greater threat to other planets (this is demonstrated via a strange dance), and it just so happens that one of the moons (but not the other) is going to collide with the hostile planet Rocky Jones was just at. He sets out for it again, managing to get in contact with someone with a contraband receiver, and is then locked up, set free by the dissident, and in several fistfights. In the meantime, Cleolanta is preparing to blow up the inhabited moon about to hit her world, but is stopped by her rocket pilot (who just happens to be married to the dissident) developing a conscience. Everybody gets evacuated from both of the doomed worlds just in time.
That potted summary doesn't begin to cover the peculiar quality (such as it is) of the science-fictional costumes ("Why does he have to take orders from a bus driver?" "Why are you wearing a pagoda?") and sets ("Welcome to our cardboard home!"), but even as the "riffers" get fed up with seeing rockets take off and land I did find myself remembering the comments that "Star Trek's" transporter was developed just so the show's budget wouldn't be swallowed up by having to have a ship land every episode. I did sort of get the impression that there wasn't quite as much twinking of Rocky's sidekick copilot "Winky" and the kid character Bobby this time around as in the last episode, and I don't mind that, even if the episode still had sort of a lower-key feeling to it.
The early 1960s-styled soap opera involves what seems to have been a very depressing party (perhaps the party in the segment that was attached to "The Beatniks") wrapping up, and it comes out that in best soap opera fashion, everyone is in love with someone who's supposed to be in love with someone else. With that, the experiment of showing "General Hospital" on Mystery Science Theater comes to an end (and I do sort of appreciate them getting back to showing shorts educational, instructional, or "industrial"), and the space opera is under way. Space Ranger Rocky Jones is unable to convince the imperious planetary queen Cleolanta (who also appeared in "Manhunt in Space") to have her world join the organization of planets, but shrugs that off and heads for a space station several other recurring characters are on. They're all planning to watch two co-orbiting and inhabited "gypsy moons" pass by on other side, but the brilliant scientist has forgotten where Rocky Jones hasn't that the moons are linked by an "atmosphere chain" and the station can't take being in it. In the nick of time, Rocky manages to dock the "Orbit Jet" to the station ("You see guys, when a spaceship loves a space station very much...") and push it out of the "atmosphere chain." ("I'd be relieved if I knew what was happening.")
It's then figured out that because the moons are swinging around each other, they pose a greater threat to other planets (this is demonstrated via a strange dance), and it just so happens that one of the moons (but not the other) is going to collide with the hostile planet Rocky Jones was just at. He sets out for it again, managing to get in contact with someone with a contraband receiver, and is then locked up, set free by the dissident, and in several fistfights. In the meantime, Cleolanta is preparing to blow up the inhabited moon about to hit her world, but is stopped by her rocket pilot (who just happens to be married to the dissident) developing a conscience. Everybody gets evacuated from both of the doomed worlds just in time.
That potted summary doesn't begin to cover the peculiar quality (such as it is) of the science-fictional costumes ("Why does he have to take orders from a bus driver?" "Why are you wearing a pagoda?") and sets ("Welcome to our cardboard home!"), but even as the "riffers" get fed up with seeing rockets take off and land I did find myself remembering the comments that "Star Trek's" transporter was developed just so the show's budget wouldn't be swallowed up by having to have a ship land every episode. I did sort of get the impression that there wasn't quite as much twinking of Rocky's sidekick copilot "Winky" and the kid character Bobby this time around as in the last episode, and I don't mind that, even if the episode still had sort of a lower-key feeling to it.