It’s been speculated that the doctor was less extremely affected because his job required him to constantly think and problem-solve, whereas the other people (bartender, dancer, ticket lady, newspaper seller, cabbie, etc.) had repetitive jobs that didn’t really require them to use their minds much.
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You mean someone had a theory about that.
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I had a theory that it was because he was the smartest man in town, but someone else thought it was more likely because of the creative thinking, which sounds better to me.
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I’m just staying consistent with The Bubble, where everything is a theory.
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Actually, until it can be scientifically tested, it’s just a hypothesis.
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That’s one theory (or hypothesis), but I am going with another one. The Dr. had a high tolerance to the drugs being fed to him because he had been doing speedballs for years in a vain attempt to keep up with the exhausting pace of his residency.
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Naaah, this was the 60’s. His “residency” was probably going with Old Doc Brown when he made his rounds in his buggy.
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It was 1966, to be precise, and my hypothesis also explains why there are no hippies in the Bubble. Therefor, it is the superior hypothesis.
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The Doctor wasn’t controlled the same as the others. He’s just been exposed to The Bubble for too long and his brain is rebelling. It will happen to you if you watch it too many times!
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It’s really more of a thought experiment.
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A thexperiment, if you will. Just don’t go around saying that a lot if you speak with a lisp.
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The download for the bubble should be available today I guess we have to wait because of Thanksgiving
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Not so much Westworld, as Wandavision with no actual payoff. Then again, it does have that Westworld feel of doing stuff that leaves you more frustrated than curious. for example, if people are just going through the motions, how did the cab get them into town, let alone how did that doctor deliver the baby?
Though I do wonder if Stephen King saw this and took inspiration from it. The way the guy is positing theories about what is going on, reminded me of Emilio Estevez in Maximum Overdrive trying to posit why the machines have come to life.
After this was over, I was thinking how I would have gone with Robot Monster as a palette cleanser after this. Now that movie was willing to explain its ridiculousness!
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Just finished watching this episode - I was unable to catch the premiere, and ended up watching the first half of the movie and its Stinger post-show on the weekend of its premiere. I finished the second half of the episode tonight.
I usually agree with Joel’s insight on many things MST3K, but, in my opinion, the “new Manos” this unfortunately is not. Despite its painfulness, there’s still a level of technical competence and an interesting concept. Some scenes are more interesting than others, and I think I remember some MSTies saying that there’s at least a halfway-decent half-hour TV episode in here.
I’d much rather give the “new Manos” title to Things, which is similarly a semi-professional passion project that is just so baffling that it never gets out of its own way. With that being said, its content is likely too extreme for MST3K and I don’t expect it to be featured (though stranger things have happened).
However, Joel is absolutely justified when it comes to the padding and the ending. This movie has some of the absolute worst examples of padding a feature-length runtime that I’ve ever seen. I can’t imagine how painful this must be to watch unriffed. So while I don’t agree with the “new Manos” title, I can at least empathize with everyone who riffed this.
And while it’s perfectly reasonable to leave endings ambiguous, The Bubble’s ending, at least as shown in 1312, was absolutely ridiculous! Even Beyond Atlantis sorta had a resolution. And even if it was “end of budget”, skilled filmmakers have ways of working around this (see: Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which is honestly one of my favorite endings of all time). There’s none of that here. Not even a cop-out narration or title card, or even some sort of hint toward the townspeople turning on the couple, or the overseers being weakened in any way apart from what Mark did.
If anything, there’s some sort of pseudo-revolutionary (maybe Communist?) vibe in the final scene, where the “masses” wake and rise u—y’know, it really is just a show, I should really just relax. 
Anyway, yes, the movie is not good. It’s competently shot and has a pretty good tone in places. That said, even its positives are kinda stretching it. The stringed-up beer tray says it all. Even though there’s a hint that something “refreshing” might be coming along, there’s some really visible strings showing how shoddy it all is.
Finally, the concept has been done a lot better and much more compelling in the years since. I can imagine Stephen King saw this on late night TV and probably felt as upset as we were, so he used that inspiration to write Under The Dome. Otherwise, the “awkward town” concept was done much better in things like Westworld and in both versions of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, among countless others, including this year’s NOPE.
A look at IMDb said this movie was edited down to 91 minutes due to complaints, which I think was hilarious. I’m sure someone’s already mentioned what version this episode ended up featuring, which was still too painful at any length of time. There’s no use for exposition if the exposition consists of repeating the same things over and over!
Well! With that out of the way, I honestly enjoyed this episode. Joel did an outstanding job in the host’s chair. Conor was great as always, but I honestly felt Kelsey had some great moments and stood out to me in particular.
Highlights for me included the host segment about Servo’s sight, “Mark, you’re on mute” (which likely was written before Matt’s livestream woes), the Evil Dead reference in the cellar scene, the Netflix clapback, a (likely) unintentional reference to the aforementioned NOPE, the riff about a new rating system and Crow finding nothing more to riff about, eventually running out of the theater in agony.
The only complaint I had riff-wise was that the “Cabgentlemen” riff, while funny at first, was slightly overused. I say this because the movie essentially repeats the joke. I would have likely cut one of those mentions out, but that’s just me. It kinda struck me as a new attempt at “capsule!” only without a lot of that riff’s silliness.
Overall, I thought this episode was pretty great. Not a “top 3” episode but one with a lot of fun moments. The movie isn’t good at all, but it isn’t as painful as Manos or even Munchie. It’s mostly disappointing, in that it could have been so much better than it was. And as a WWE fan, I laughed when I saw that the lead actor’s name is Michael Cole. Oh my, indeed.
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He was anything but a Communist, but yeah, welcome to Arch Oboler.
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Still thinking about how there’s a longer cut than the one MST3K was given.
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So…The Bubble.
And I listen to Big Tooth and the Fuzz in the morning.
Now, with Worfels! 
Knowing what is supposed to be going on, I can’t help but notice that they land at an airport, not some lonely road. We are off to a great start.
What more can be said about this film that has not been already said? After this first aired, a poll was made comparing it to Monster a Go-Go and Foo Manchu. And it was decided that this was not as bad as other ‘bad’ films. But rewatching this… OH MY GOD, just HOW STUPID ARE THESE GUYS! I seem to have a limit on how much a fictional character acts counter to being human. He is completely incapable of catching any clues.
Then an hour into the film, the brainless moppet starts theorizing about what is going on. When moments before he didn’t understand up from down. Then our “hero” suddenly drinks the cool aid and starts to proselytize about how not-bad this place is. Boy does this turd hits all my buttons.
The thing is, there is a good sci-fi idea here. It’s just I can’t remember when the last time I wanted to punch a protagonist so much.
Even the riffing can’t completely save this one. OK, crows Cookie Monster impression was good. And Tom’s “Oh god, what is that thing!” for Crow was really apropos. While I love Joel’s calm demeanor, and I agree with the laughing with as opposed to laughing at philosophy, this film needs to be treated rougher. As such the times they mock how much this movie sucks are some stand-out jokes. And Cynthia, again, tickles my funny gut for me this whole season. “Did you see it too?” 
An admirable outing. This is one where the jokes are needed to make it watchable as opposed to enhancing it like last time. And while I hated this movie (well the main cast, mostly), I am glad that they did it and added it to the MST3k collection.
Rated N for Nope.
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