We’re caught in some kind of…time trap!
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| They're waiting for Chell to pop out. |
Movies
with bogus, BS science can be some of the best for MST3K experiments. What can
be more fitting for entertaining ridicule than heads being kept alive in pans or people and animals embiggened by radiation? Well, The Time Travelers
has people who time travel via a machine that looks into the past like a TV and
then, somehow, creates a portal. And while it’s nothing as cheesy as a Bert I.
Gordon movie, Time Travelers does have scientists who can’t pronounce “lasers”
correctly, so it’s ripe for riffing.
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| Where Doc Brown did his internship. |
Said
people are four scientists (well, three scientists and their electrician,
Danny) who, in the basement of a fancy university, are using an experimental
machine to peer backwards in time. But, they push things too far, and soon the
machine isn’t merely gazing into the past, but creating a portal there. Idiot
electrician Danny wanders in, and the rest of them follow him, only for the
portal to close after them. Finding themselves over a hundred years in the
future, the world is a radioactive wasteland and most people are mutants,
fighting for scraps to survive, as you’re wont to do in any proper post
apocalypse. But, they’re soon rescued by civilized survivors, who live in
underground bunkers and are planning to leave on a rocket to the nearest star
system because the neighborhood has gone downhill and they need better schools and
a place with a Whole Foods and such.
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| I don't even want to know what Vault-Tec was up to here. |
The
whole thing is taken about as seriously, and is similar tonally, with an
original Trek episode. That said, a George Pal effects bonanza this ain’t, as while
it’s colorful and creative, more than a few special effects are based on stage
magician techniques, and it’s also one of those 50s-60s sci-fi movies where a
lot of time is taken up explaining the futuristic technology in ways that prove
the film’s writers actually don’t understand it. So, as far as riffing material
goes, it’s about an 8 out of 10; nothing too dopey or terrible, but with more
than enough delicious goofy cheese for Jonah and the Bots to feed on. Jonah has
fun with the time travel concept itself, saying, after the character end up
trapped in the future, “Now we wait for future version of ourselves to solve
the problem and pop in and rescue us, it’s a snap! Yep, any minute now...”
There’s the colorful yet still dated special effects, such as the time portal
itself, which Crow notes, in the tone of the dilweed Danny, “Is almost like there’s
a couple of Styrofoam rocks in front of a rear projection screen or something!”
Oh, and don’t think the bots don’t have fun with the presence of androids. As
two workers finish making one, Tom wonders, “Say, Bob, ever feel like you can
never touch a human being again because it just reminds you of the horrible
fleshoids we handle here?” The riffs are a mile a minute, maybe too many as is
the case of early Season 11 episodes, but when the majority are hilarious, and
you can tell the performers are having a ball, it’s hard to complain.
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| Pictured: an important plot point. |
The
thing oddly going against the movie’s riffing factor is it’s quality. Even
though it’s from the director of Reptilicus, this is a miles better
movie, far more entertaining and with a higher production quality. So, it can
be hard finding things to joke on aside from the subject matter and
self-serious tone. Thankfully there’s Danny, the dopey electrician who accidentally
gets the characters in the future in the first place. He’s the kind of comic
relief who has a plot purpose in a story that would otherwise just cast him
aside or be killed off in a better movie, but here he’s around to lighten things
up. That said, the actor, Steve Franken (also in Avalanche), is far from
very annoying, and Danny is likeable and dumb enough without being a load. So
Jonah and the bots get to have fun at his expense, and he doesn’t make the
movie worse. This can be a bad thing, as characters who are worse and make the
movie more painful can result in better episodes; but here, Danny’s just fine
for the purposes of the movie and riffing material. As one of the future
scientists showcases their teleportation technology, Servo says, “It’s like a
People TV. That sounds stupid, but I’m just trying to dumb it down for you,
Danny.” As the main characters mill around, Jonah says, “Remember everyone, if
we avoid eye contact long enough, Danny will go away.” They even get in on it
on Danny’s first appearance, as he wanders into the lab and Crow bleats out in
a dopey voice, “Whatta ya guys doing, some science?” Danny is far, far from
even the mildest annoying character they’ve had in a movie, but he’s good for
jovial joke fodder.
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| Danny's reaction to himself is the same as Jonah and the Bots'. |
The
host segments surprisingly don’t go as far with the concept as possible though.
Gypsy’s T.I.M.E. safety procedure is kinda cute, and writer Elliott Kalan and Joel are
fun as the skeevy party guys from the future, but they’re not nearly as memorable
as the main feature.Jonah making fake bots for Tom and Crow to take out their aggression on is pretty funny, though.
There’s
a part during the android repair factory tour where Servo says, “When did this
start to feel like a training video for a job that doesn’t exist?” And that’s
what a lot of the movie feels like: touring a futuristic job. Which means
you’re hanging out at work with Jonah and the bots as extremely funny
coworkers. And considering how close MST’s special effects are to this movies
(okay, they’re worse, but similar in spirit anyway), it just gives the episode
a ton of fun times with coworkers and some nice synchronicity. It’s a hilarious
episode and the first one of Season 11 that really assuaged my fears of the new
version of the show, letting me know the show would, indeed, be well.
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| Servo: making things weirder since 1988. |
Episode
in a riff
It’s
just like Mad Max, but without all the cool driving -Crow
Random
asides
-Including
the original KTMA proto-season, this was MST3K’s 200th episode.
Congratulations! To even live in a world with 100 comedy gems.
-Jonah
and the Bots playing “Never Did I Ever” as a way of getting to know one another
is pretty funny. Crow: “Never did I ever...have to confront my own mortality.”
-The
show starts to find its footing with this episode. Shots of the SOL bridge are
better framed, and the flow of riffs, while still rushed and a little too many,
is much smoother.
-The
Mads’ invention is pretty cool: After Life Alert! “I’ve fallen into the sixth
level of Purgatory and I can’t get up.”
-”It’s
a tale of mutants, androids, and really icky future nooky.”
-Vilmos Zsigmond did the cinematography to this! No wonder it looks so snazzy.
-Remember
the T.I.M.E. system for avoiding time travel paradoxes:
Tell
Someone
Identify
When
Make
a Plan
Enter
the Portal, Not!
-35
minutes in, as Danny prepares to hit on a future girl, Crow says, “I don’t know
that I’m ready to see Danny ‘do his thing’.” Netflix even has “do his thing” in
quotation marks. Love it.
-”Do
you guys like to party?” Anytime anybody asks you that, walk away from them.
-That
really is Forrest J. Ackerman at the 44 minute mark! Uncle Forry!
-”A
lifestyle like ours demands a ready source of Vitamin C. Plus, orange is the
grooviest color.”
-There
is not a single Fallout reference in this episode. Disappointing.
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