Recap / Mystery Science Theater 3000 S08 E07: Terror from the Year 5000

ARE YOU READY FOR TERROOOOOOOOOORRRR!!!!!!

Film watched: Terror from the Year 5000

The Segments:

Prologue

• Servo's bought a new coat from a comfort-rated catalog, and has since become obsessed with giving comfort ratings to everything he sees. When he breaks down revealing that he has no idea what he's doing, Mike gets his own comfort rating when he consoles Servo.

Segment 1

• The Observers have grown tired of catering to Pearl and Bobo's petty demands, and announce their true intentions to have the pair dissected and put on display in their museum. They psychically force the Mads to fight to the death, Pearl being given a double-bladed karanku and Bobo being given a sea snail. They attempt to do the same to the SOL crew, but Mike and the 'Bots are unaffected, prompting one of the Observers to beam himself onto the ship and communicate to them in charades. After they get the message, the crew dogpiles and pummels him.

Segment 2

• As Pearl and Bobo switch to boxing, the Observers send bowls of pills, their food source, to the SOL so Mike and the 'Bots can sample them. While Mike assumes that one pill equals a full day's nutrients, the superior beings note that the pills have very little nutritional value, so they have to eat several heaping bowlfuls of them. Mike decides to spice up the bland meal with some gourmet cuisine, creating a series of pan-fried, parmesean-encrusted pillcakes.

Segment 3

• The Nanites have constructed a replica of the movie's time machine for Mike. He has Crow test it out, hoping to send him to his Wisconsin home and tell his family that he's alright. When he returns to the ship, Crow ended up spending 11 years partying with the Nelsons, and he forgot to tell them about Mike, nor did they even ask. To rub salt in his wounds, Crow also tells Mike that he broke his stereo, rolled his Charger, and entered a passionate relationship with his old girlfriend Ginger, leaving Mike to cry.

Segment 4

• The SOL crew demonstrates different styles of yodelling while trying to sound like Jimmie Rogers, which agonizes the Observers. The omnipotent beings counter the yodeling with a soulful serenade they call "When I Held Your Brain in My Arms". During the song, Pearl and Bobo continue battling as ersatz gladiators.

Segment 5

• As Crow brags some more about his exploits with Ginger, Mike gets payback by using the time machine to set Crow up on a blind date with the TERROR... who's actually quite sweet once you get past her incoherent screaming. On the Observers' homeworld, Pearl finally defeats Bobo and is tasked with killing him, but she refuses to do so and launches into a passionate speech about being human and the sanctity of life, touching the Observers. Bobo takes advantage of her distracted state and the fact that he's not human by sucker punching her from behind, prompting the fighting to start again.

The MST3K presentation of Terror from the Year 5000 contains these tropes:

• Breaking the Fourth Wall: At one point, Bob asks if there's a good movie playing in town. Mike's response: "So now we get to watch people watching a movie? What's that about?"
• Food Pills: Observers sent Mike their super-advanced Food Pills — but you have to eat huge heaping bowls of them. Mike serves up gourmet pill dishes a la Anthony Bourdain.
• Funny Background Event: Bobo and Pearl keep fighting in the background throughout the entire episode.
• Hell Is That Noise: The SOL's yodeling ("Like Jimmie Rodgers!") is this to the Observers.
  First Observer (Mike): What are you doing? Stop it this instant!
  Third Observer (Bill): Can't you see you're killing Observer?!
  Second Observer (Paul): (clutching his temple) ...devils! ...devils!
  • After "When I Held Your Brain In My Arms", Mike gets a taste of his own medicine when the 'bots start singing the riff from 'that one Asia song' ("Only Time Will Tell").
• Ho Yay: Invoked for comedy when Victor arranges to have Bob sleep in his room.
  Mike: (As narrator, while Victor sneaks out of bed) The Terrible, Aching Crush I Have On My Roommate... FROM THE YEAR 5000!!!
• I Read It for the Articles: When one of the women in the film starts undressing, Crow excitedly says, "Movie's getting better, movie's getting better! I like the pacing, the cinematography has improved considerably."
• In the Style of: In the writeup of the episode, Kevin Murphy remarks when they sang "When I Held Your Brain In My Arms" that "the Observers sound a helluva lot like Servo covering the The Ink Spots."
• Involuntary Battle to the Death: The Observers cast aside their welcoming facade and force Bobo and Pearl to kill each other as a test of their abilities.
• Kirk Summation: Pearl refuses to kill Bobo at the behest of the Observers, going on a passionate speech about being human and responsibility to other living things, looking straight into the camera. The fact that it's the show's lying, bullying, Adult Child villain saying this does not go unmentioned:
  Pearl: Being human isn't about killing in cold blood those who are helpless — though I have in fact done that, I probably shouldn't have...
  • And then Bobo rabbit punches her from behind.
    Bobo: HOTCHKA! You forgot — I'm not human!
    Pearl: ...Well, that tears it, Magilla! You are so dead I can't believe it! [...] I'LL SKEWER YOU, YOU BIG STINKY CHEATER!
• No Indoor Voice: Miss Blake is said to be this, as a joke on her Extreme Doormat personality and exaggeratedly-gentle mannerisms.
• Running Gag:
  • Servo keeps impersonating the narrator's booming declarations of the TERROR FROM THE YEAR 5000 to apologize and make excuses for the TERROR's failure to show up until about an hour into the movie.
    Tom: I Realize I May Have Oversold The "Terror" At The Beginning, And For That I Apologize.
  • The pale, flabby, unattractive physiques of the lead characters when they get into their bathing suits.
  • Riffs based upon Bob's haircut making him resemble a Drill Sergeant.
  • Bob's secretary supposedly having a Hair-Trigger Temper.
  • Angelo the Crusty Caretaker, his obvious perversion, and his resemblance to Jimmy Carter lead to plenty of jokes.
    Mike: (as Angelo) I believe I am experiencing stagflation.
• Same Language Dub: The Observer played by Mike Nelson lip-syncs to what is very clearly Tom Servo/Kevin Murphy's voice for most of the song. The Bill Corbett Observer, on the other hand, lip-syncs to... his own voice.
• Shout-Out: The SOL's yodeling and the pain it causes the Observers are a reference to the Martians' Weak Sauce Weakness (Slim Whitman's "Indian Love Call") in Mars Attacks!, which came out the previous year.
• Shown Their Work: "When I Held Your Brain In My Arms" throws out a lot of neuroanatomical terms in service of its tortured Tunnel of Love metaphor.
  First Observer: I remember
  We would stroll
  Along your fissure of Rolando
  When I held your brain in my arms
  Third Observer: I miss how we would float down your vestibular canal
  And how we would go swimming in your pons
  The music you would play us
  On your locus coeruleus
  First Observer: Still tickles my neurons...!
• Slasher Smile: The Observers sport these in the Stinger. Just look at Paul Chaplin's and try not to be scared.
• Spoof Aesop: All three riffers get one in over the closing shot of the now-dead TERROR:
  Crow: "Remember to moisturize, and use a sunscreen!"
  Mike: "And don't bob for french fries!"
  Servo: "Marry only UL-approved attractive people!"
• Time Machine: Used to mess with Mike Nelson a bit, and to teach Crow a lesson for same.
• [Verb] This!: Crow tells one of the Observers to "Observe this!" after they try and get Mike and the bots to fight each other.

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(Once again, the Observers offer their brains to the camera)

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