I agree that season eight was a high-water mark. Pretty much consistently better than what came before it, and that’s saying a lot, because the stuff that came before was already outstanding. But I’d be hard pressed to say it was the best entirely; I feel like they kept getting better. Season 9 somehow improved on 8, and 10 somehow improved on nine. They were absolutely on fire, it was tremendous.
I second this. It was a great idea, with almost unlimited comedic potential. Pearl’s noodling on the pipe organ in the first episode is legendary for me.
I discovered MST early in the CC years, so those episodes have a special place in my heart and it took me some time to come around on the Sci-Fi years, but looking back now I think seasons 8-10 are overall the best of the 13 seasons created so far. (Which is not to say that I think the newer seasons aren’t good, just that 8-10 set an incredibly high bar.)
What sticks out to me, is just how “British” Mitchell and Hill are when horrifying stuff happens. Their voices barely rise above “mild concern” at times.
This one definitely has it’s moments (I dig the Season Nine British trio, but I’d rank this one third), but there’s one in particular that especially stands out:
During a particularity talky, action-less sequence (everyone is milling about at a party): Our riffers are in a prolonged silence, then suddenly Crow just frustratingly blurts out: “PROJECTED MAN!! YEAH!!”, Mike and Tom chuckle in agreement. That one always gets to me!
This is duly unfair to The Creeping Terror, because you know and I know that The Projected Man could’ve done with an unnecessarily protracted dance hall scene.
Shoulda’ been called The Protracted Man given how deadly dull it is.
Well, I think this one does have a bit of Pearl’s family history, which I guess is nice. It’s pretty much the only thing I remember about this episode five minutes after watching it. Other than the ogling of Sheila, which seems to go on until half past forever. Much like the story itself. The whole thing is so lazy. One of the boringly corrupt official guys literally orders her to show more flesh to hold on to the audience’s waning interest, because the writers couldn’t be bothered to try and think up even a ridiculous plot-based idea to make that happen.
Oh, and there’s one really standout riff: the “He always says he wants me and then it’s just talk talk talk.”
I love love love the idea of Pearl’s ancestors forcing hapless souls to bear witness to awful media. It casts the entire Forrester experiment in a new light, and I dig that.
I remember them ramming the “Lembach is staying” material into the ground to the point where it came out the other side of the planet.
I like a good running gag as much as the next guy, but… yowza.
I wonder if there’s a very early scene where you see Dr. Redhead and Lembach actually hanging around together. It might’ve helped make that plot point more meaningful. Yeah, the riffs really overdo that. Which may or may not be the result of that possible missing scene. But… [sigh] I don’t care about any of these people. Though it’s nice to imagine the woman scientist getting bored with every doofy old he-lech in Brittain and maybe driving off with Sheila, the successor Butt Lady from Devil Doll, and that poor pyromaniacal singer from The Deadly Bees to start their own all-female mad science commune somewhere in the peaceful countryside.
