I think the Roman Times episodes were a low point in terms of host segments. Some of the other storyline elements like the psychic space children were pretty amusing and I did enjoy the original Planet of the Apes stuff. But the Roman Times did feel forced.
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The storylines were a bad idea⌠when Sci-Fi did it and when Netflix did it. You should be able to pick any MST3K episode at random and watch it and know whatâs going on.
Still, the host segments were still funny even in isolated form. If you just know in general what was happening, it still works.
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Much like Johnny, I donât care.
Why, because season 13 changed my mind about running storylines. I had such fun with them.
Sci-Fi? I watched them as they aired for the first time, so it was fine. And now that I know the story I can watch them out of order without it being an issue.
If I have to care and if you give me a choice, yeah, I prefer them as stand alones, as I think it gives them more freedom to do whatever, you could just have a rainy-day segment related to nothing, or lock into the movie and do a bit based on it.
Though they still managed movie-based skits during sci-fi, so itâs not like we lost that completely (while I was disappointed that the Gesture Professor didnât show up for real, that it was just Mike playing around and being mocked for it. Eventually folks like Ortega or Paulâs Devil, selling dolls, would pop up, and that was a nice)
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I think I feel the same. In a perfect world, there would have been no forced story arcs. But they were given lemons and decided to make lemonade, and it worked out in the end.
I too think the Roman Times stuff was the weakest, but even at their weakest the gang was good. The âbring Mike downâ bit is pretty classic. The body snatcher pods and Mikeâs âdestroyer of worldsâ theme and subsequent trial were brilliant.
I just watched the Incredibly Strange Creatures episode yesterday and was appreciating Ortega, and how they pluck otherwise incidental characters from movies and elevate them to stardom.
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Yes - the nature of the arcs in the Sci-Fi era was a dictum from the channel, and so the fact that they are what they are has to be considered sort of a baseline that we were stuck with in order to keep the show going. As such, no harm no foul. But that doesnât make them any BETTER than what they are⌠
And what they are is definitively a notch down from the fun, unforced, easy-breezy charm of CC seasons 1-6. Given the alternative? Sure - Iâll keep 'em. But give me Joel sleep-walking through an invention exchange, Dr. F and Frank fiddling with the Techtronic panel, and a little skit poking fun at the movieâs flaws any day over âWelcome to Roman Times!â 
I often have wondered if the BB guys just leaned hard into how ridiculous that whole Roman Times thing was. Kevin delivered it with such cheese that I often find myself wanting to greet people by saying, âWelcome, to Modern Times!â or something just because itâs so corny.
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Everything you need is right there in the theme song. Goods and bads are easily identified. If the plot seems thin or dumb or confusing, jeez just look at this movie.
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Are you saying we should really just relax?
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I was on the AOL Mystery Science boards when season eight was happening in real time and let me tell you about the genuinely week long war about âBring Mike downâ. One side thought it was stupid, the other thought it was hilarious.
Neither could see it was both.
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Doesnât that pretty much sum up disagreements in 2023 in general?
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It certainly sums up one disagreement in 1997.
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As I rewatch the first Netflix season, thatâs also how Iâve come to feel about Maxâs oh-so-subtle pining for Kinga.
Itâs interesting that we transition from Pearl ragging on Clayton to her being constantly outgunned/outthought by her own henchmen. I still think two henchmen is one too many, and of the two Bobo was the weaker and less interesting most of the time.
There were some funny moments in the Roman Times segments, but I wish theyâd given Bridget more to do with Pearl than just be catty . The vibe these two have now with RT is much more to my liking. (Yeah, Iâm a softie. What of it?!)
I think the actors do what they can with the demand for an ongoing story. Itâs probably for that very reason that I can still get ragey on their behalf: knowing that they jumped through every hoop the suits demanded only to have the episodes not even air in order.
In short, itâs wildly uneven for me. And Season 8, so beloved by (almost) everyone else, is probably the hardest go for me in many places, especially its opener which just feels very awkward as everyone tries to find their feet story and character-wise.
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I confess, I have never watched the episodes in order, so I still have no idea what the story arc was in all those shows. They are all just individual bits and pieces to me.
I still donât see why the storyline mandate was forced upon them. But then, I guess that is why I am not an obscenely overpaid network executive. Fans of the show clearly were not bothered by the lack of one before. New viewers who chanced upon the show would likely just have found it all so confusing.
I do like the more settled feel the show had once the Mads reached Castle Forrester.
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Now that almost everything is readily available in one place, whatâs really evident is just how good that crew got at writing and performing these things together over 10 years, especially the riffing.
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ESPECIALLY THE RIFFING. Indeed. Like anything, experience helps.
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Ugh - if thereâs anything in this world that calls into question the validity of an entire profession and even an entire INDUSTRY it has to be ânetwork executiveâ. These morons will puke dollars by the millions down a toilet on complete and utter nonsense that almost no one likes (except themselves) while killing shows that are good without so much as a thought. A more out of touch, incompetent, blinkered group of dunderpates could not exist - and yet they get hired and paid bazillions of dollars to be complete and utter failures who could be replaced by a doorknob and generate better results. Thereâs only one other area where outright incompetence is rewarded so richly and thatâs government.
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Harlan Ellison may be dead, but his spirit lives on.
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I donât know if I met him on an especially good day or what, but I got to spend a few hours with Harlan Ellison (along with a small group) rehearsing a live radio drama a couple of decades ago and he was a really warm and friendly guy. So I have no idea what to believe about Harlan Ellison now.
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I understand the want to make the note but it just doesnât work. MST3K is a sketch show so a liner story only makes sense if itâs hinted at. I think season 13 was the best use of an actual arch for the show. 12 was nice but the stakes were fairly low.
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Iâve heard a bunch of warm fuzzy stories about meeting him. He was just sort of a crank, I guess, like a lot of humans.
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I enjoyed Harlanâs curmudgeonly commentaries on The Sci-Fi Channel, which apparently are all available on YouTube (âHarlan Ellisonâs Watchingâ). (No, I probably wouldnât watch them all again, to be honest.) Two quotes that sum him up to me are: âYou are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. No one is entitled to be ignorant.â And: âI hate being wrong, but I love it when Iâm set straight.â
OOTC:
I have no complaints about The Sci-Fi Channelâs conditions on MST3K. Thatâs 48 episodes we probably would never have had, and it brought in a lot more fans that helped make the revivals happen. Besides, most of the earlier movies were SciFi/Horror, and The Sci-Fi Channel wasnât the cause of Joelâs exit.
Also Season 13 also contained a host segments story arc, and even its 2 ostensibly non-SciFi/Horror episodes (Munchie & Sumuru) would probably have been allowed. (Sci-Fi allowed Hobgoblins and Agent for HARM.)
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