Regarding Dr. Cook, I always took the injuries on the sides of her head at the end to mean the Perfect Order had operated on her brain after the torture, meaning that she literally was not in her right mind when she betrayed the protagonist, but when I voiced this opinion back in the Info Club days I recall a lot of pushback.
Some startlingly vehement “No! She was a traitor and that’s that!”
I still think those (admittedly subtle) head wounds were meant to be a clue she was given, shall we say, unscheduled brain surgery.
No matter what series one discusses, there always seems to be that one episode most seem indifferent or lukewarm towards but a few people unabashedly adore. This episode is that for me. I found the riffing to be hilarious, the skits to be strong and on target and the relentless skewering of 70s era TV SF tropes to be fun.
That said, I do find myself wondering on if this particular pilot had gone to series, how they would have sustained it. The impetus of the plot is more or less lost by the end.
In a quest to experience episodes I have not seen/movies riffed I have not seen, I am just now watching this, And with captions!
Good stuff: Cameron Mitchell’s character (and his snazzy suit.) He clearly honestly believes the Perfect Order is better than what came before it, so he thinks he’s the good guy. Better than a pure bad guy.
Bad stuff: Everything else.
I mean, come on. “Terra” is exactly like Earth except 1. Three moons 2. People don’t normally use their right hands (?) 3. The Perfect Order. Goofy stuff. The silly “there’s a planet on the opposite side of the Earth in the same orbit” theme was used in the equally dreary made-for-Tv movie “Journey to the Far Side of the Sun.”
The movie from which the new title sequences scenes are taken, Prisoners of the Lost Universe, is a hoot. Lousy but much more fun to watch than this turkey.
By the way, does anybody know why the company that retitles these things (Space Travelers, Cave Dwellers, Pod People, etc.) doesn’t just put up new opening credits on a black screen (or whatever), like I’ve seen done on other retitled films, instead of using completely unrelated scenes from another film?
Film Ventures International is the company. They nabbed old films and bookended them with new titles from unrelated films. The reason? To milk more out of dead properties. These titles were perfect for MST and part of my discovery of the show. There’s even a thread.
