MST3K (801)

801 - Revenge of the Creature - Wow. Fancy lighting, a modified SOL bridge, a new set for monkeys to play on, a new theme song, and new characters. It's a fresh start! Wait... what's the hell is wrong with Crow? He's reverted halfway to his KTMA baby voice and, worse, seems kinda listless. Bill himself explains in the ACEG: "Crow seemed to have suffered a stroke during the 500 years he hung out on the Satellite." Fair enough. He'll get better.

I'm impressed that they picked up exactly where 706 left off and explained each and every change to the show. The crew of the SOL returns from the edge of the Universe and reverts from pure "something" into their normal forms in the prologue. Crow off-handedly mentions that he redecorated the SOL bridge. Pearl explains both why she's in the future (frozen) and why Dr. F is gone (smothered). Mike winks at the audience and tries to find out what's different with Crow. The embarrassing secret of Mike's great-grandchildren reveals the source of the intelligent apes on Earth. You have to hand it to the Brains: they know their core audience. They knew, if left unexplained, the changes to the show would drive the fans nuts and cause a barrage of letters and Internet arguments. Wise move, fellas.

It's a fairly decent start on the new network. The movie selection reveals that Sci-Fi's film access is going to provide some new options for the Brains to pick from. The riffing is perhaps a tad rusty and Bill is still getting used to his new job. There was lots of interesting stuff going on in the host segments. Much of it was devoted to explaining what had happened over the past 500 years, but it was fun. I'm curious to see where they take them next. Blows the water out of the last episode to inaugurate a new network, anyway.

"Do you need any milk? Sir!" (7/10)

film d. Jack Arnold (1955)
mst d. Jim Mallon (1 Feb 1997)