Play MST For Me

On Comedy Central Premiere at Boylston Auditorium

Fans of Comedy Central's Mystery Science Theater 3000 have reason both to mourn and to celebrate.

The new season marks the departure of the show's creator and original host, Joel Hodgson, to pursue other comedy avenues. However, the new host, head writer Mike Nelson, promises to continue and possibly to improve upon the show's tradition of biting, eclectic humor at the expense of awful movies.

For those unfamiliar with Mystery Science Theater 3000, handily abbreviated as MST 3K, the premise is as follows:

Joel Robinson (Joel Hodgson), sleepy-eyed space handyman, is shot into space by his evil bosses and forced to watch bad movies. Lonely on his spaceship called the Satellite of Love, Joel constructs two robot pals out of a lacrosse helmet and a gumball machine. Together, they are only able to endure the movies by talking back to the screen in a series of pop culture references which are often obscure, but consistently funny.

Joel's final episode features the movie "Mitchell," a truly terrible 70s action flick starring, among others, Joe Don Baker, Martin Balsam, Linda Evans, and Merlin Olson in an early role as an evil henchman. Unfortunately, the jokes don't entirely succeed in making this movie watchable.

The joy in hearing Joel and the two robots scream "Mitchell!" every time something exciting, or even something completely unexciting, happens does not make up for the fact that this film has to be one of the slowest, most incomprehensible action movies ever made.

However, this episode is worth watching to see the skits in which the show orchestrates the transition of hosts. Mike Nelson (Mike Nelson), the new host, is hired as a temp by the evilbosses to help organize their office for an audit.Meanwhile, Cambot, a third robot friend whoappears only in skits, plans Joel's escape. Iwon't reveal the brilliant climax, except to saythat Mike finds himself as Joel's unfortunatereplacement on the Satellite of Love.

Mike gets a much better movie to make fun offor his first episode. "The Brain that Wouldn'tDie" is a campy 50s film detailing the exploits ofa deranged doctor who keeps his fiancee's headalive in a pan while he stalks buxom women in aneffort to find her a new body.

The new host performs his duty admirably.During a scene in which the doctor is presidingover a mess of bubbling, smoking vials and tubes,Mike cracks, "His methods are unusual, but thiscoffee is great!"

Many jokes are made about Mike's unfamiliaritywith the show's routines. None of the viewer mailis for him, and he doesn't know that Tom Servo,the gumball machine robot, needs to be carriedinto the movie because he doesn't have any legs.

He does well in the bit where the host and theevil bosses exchange ideas for inventions. Mike'sinvention, a huge umbrella with gutters and aspout drain, is wildly popular with the robots,although the bosses don't think much of it.

The producers may have done it on purpose, butthe fact that Mike has a funnier movie to workwith than Joel does makes him seem like a peppierpresence. Part of Joel's charm was hissluggishness during the comedy bits, but Mikebrings a brisker pace, as well as a deeper voice,to the show.

All in all, Mike Nelson a la Conan O'Briensuccessfully makes the step up from writer tohost. Those who are overly distraught at Joel'sdeparture should heed the advice of the MST 3Ktheme song--"Tell yourself it's just a show, Ireally should relax.