MST3K
Don't have an account?
Register
Advertisement
Register
MST3K
MST3K
3,109
pages
in: Season 13, MST3K Episodes, Directed by Jonah Ray

MST3K 1305 - Doctor Mordrid

Sign in to edit

“ Does he ever blink? ”
- Tom Servo


Doctor Mordrid is the 5th episode of Season 13 of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and the 222nd episode overall. It premiered on June 10, 2022.

The Movie[]

Main article: Doctor Mordrid (film)

Synopsis[]

A sorcerer must defend the Earth and it's plane of existence from a wizard who seeks to summon extra-dimensional invaders.

Edits[]

  • A scene of Kabal sacrificing his female minion is edited out due to nudity.
  • Some profanity was muted.

The Episode[]

Host Segments[]

Prologue: On the Simulator of Love, Emily and the 'Bots try to come up with pun roller derby names that have not already been taken. Kinga and Max prepare for another visit from Dr. Kabahl. He suggests bringing back one of the hosts from the original show. He introduces the Time Bag, a portal through time.

Segment One (Invention Exchange): Emily and the 'Bots present the Gilbert & Sulli-phone, a smartphone with ringtones that all come from public domain Gilbert & Sullivan operettas. Kinga presents the Palm Greaser, a device to make it easier to bribe people.

Segment Two: Tom's lecture turns into a stand-up comedy set that is exclusively moon jokes.

Segment Three: Emily, as Dr. Mordrid, must balance protecting the Earth with her obligations as a landlord.

Segment Four: Realizing that Emily's orb is a bowling ball, the crew looks for pins that they can play with. Crow's face is of particular interest.

Segment Five: Crow gives his origin story, which is complimentary to himself and derisive of Tom. GPC2 then joins the act. They fight for dominance.

Segment Six: The 'Bots have formed a superhero team. They force Emily be their villain. Dr. Erhardt visits Moon 1 and volunteers to bring back a host from out of time.

Stinger: Kabal's minion dances and sings while holding a Molotov cocktail.

Obscure References[]

  • "...The future is where you and I will spend the rest of our lives." "Thanks, Criswell."
Dr. Kabahl quotes a bit of Criswell's portentous speech from Plan 9 from Outer Space.
  • "Looks like the Mudville Nine minus seven are calling."
The Mudville Nine is the fictitious baseball team in the 1888 humorous poem "Casey at the Bat" by Ernest Thayer.
  • "Rise and shine, you, you, and Duproo."
Kinga seems to be referencing the comedy film You, Me and Dupree.
  • "Yum-Yum... Too many notes."
Yum-Yum is the female lead in the Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera The Mikado.
  • "What do you think, D'Oyly and Carte?"
Richard D'Oyly Carte was a British theater owner and impressario. He fostered the collaboration between Gilbert & Sullivan, and founded the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company at the Savoy Theatre.
  • "Can you paint with all the Colouris of the wind?"
A play on the lyric "Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?" from the song "Colors of the Wind", the theme to the 1995 Disney animated feature Pocahontas.
  • "Is this Doctor Mordrid's Zillow video?"
Zillow is a real estate website/app that offers users walk-through videos of properties.
  • "Hey! Those tapes should be circulating!"
The credits of early episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000 include the directive to "Keep Circulating the Tapes", indicating that viewers should record the show and distribute the recordings to people who could not otherwise access it. The modern incarnation is "Keep Circulating the URL".
  • "The sun never sets on the Band Empire."
A play on the phrase "The sun never sets on the British Empire", which was meant to indicate that the Empire was so vast that there was always some part of the Earth where it was daylight in a British territory.
  • "Nanu nanu, I guess..."
Episodes of the TV comedy Mork & Mindy would end with the alien being Mork from Ork communicating telepathically with his leader Orson. Mork would appear in a black void, addressing the unseen Orson. "Nanu nanu" is an Orkan salutation.
  • "Looks like a lot of people are praying for a man named George Bailey."
George Bailey is the protagonist in the film It's a Wonderful Life. At one point, a group of angels (depicted as twinkling stars in the night sky) discuss Bailey's situation.
  • "Why are they using the Mary Tyler Moore font?"
The font (technically the typeface) in the caption closely resembles the one used on the TV comedy The Mary Tyler Moore Show (also referenced in the logo for The Mary Jo Pehl Show).
  • "So far, Terry Gilliam made a more accurate movie about Brazil."
Director Terry Gilliam's 1985 film Brazil is a dark satire about a dystopian society. It is not about the country.
  • "What's in the box?"
This plaintive question was repeated by Brad Pitt's police detective character at the end of the crime thriller film Se7en. During a Q&A at one of the Time Bubble Tour stops, Kelsey Ann Brady professed to hating Se7en, later prosecuting it on Reels of Justice.
  • "Richard Branson?" "Dolph Lundgren?" "Lord Flashheart?"
Richard Branson is a well-known billionaire who wears his blond hair long and often has a thin beard. Actor Dolph Lundgren has worn his hair and beard in a similar fashion later in his life. Lord Flashheart is a bombastic character played by Rik Mayall on the British TV comedy series Blackadder who also had long blond hair.
  • "Frankie Avalon's doppelganger!"
Actor and singer Frankie Avalon is known for his thick dark hair. The actor in this scene does not much resemble Avalon otherwise.
  • "Prima materialis..." "Lorem ipsum!"
Lorem ipsum is placeholder text often used to demonstrate a particular typeface or layout. It is not Latin and does not translate into any meaningful phrase.
  • "May it find its place with the Philosophers' Stone." "Now, in America, that's 'Sorcerer's Stone'."
The Philospher's Stone is a mythical substance associated with the practice of alchemy. The earliest known written reference to it is from the year 300 AD. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, the first in the popular British series of novels by J. K. Rowling about the wizard Harry Potter, was renamed Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by its American publisher due to concerns the term "Philosopher" would be unappealing to the target audience.
  • "Raymond, don't! Everybody loves you!"
Tom is suggesting that the armored truck guard resembles actor and comedian Ray Romano, who starred in the popular TV sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond.
  • (A dog barks twice off-camera.) "That's the sound of da police!"
A reference to the 1993 KRS-One song Sound of da Police.
  • "Time to make the donuts."
A reference to the long-running ad campaign for Dunkin' Donuts featuring Fred the Baker, in which his character would lament the need to get up early because it was "time to make the donuts".
  • "We now return to Cop Rock on ABC."
Cop Rock is a musical police procedural TV series that aired on ABC in 1990. It was a notorious failure.
  • "Meanwhile, at Count Duckula's castle."
Count Duckula was a villain in the British animated series Danger Mouse, and a mellower version of the character later headlined in his own comedy series. The latter lived in a labyrinthine castle that could magically teleport itself.
  • "In other news, the rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain."
This is a diction exercise used by Professor Henry Higgins to improve the elocution of the cockney Eliza Doolittle in the musical My Fair Lady. It became the refrain of a song sung by Doolittle, Higgins, and Colonel Pickering.
  • "Where in the world IS Carmen Sandiego?"
A reference to the main title in the long-running Carmen Sandiego franchise, which began with a popular computer game designed to help children learn geography. It inspired several follow-up games, a PBS game show, and several animated series.
  • "This is so." "-Raven."
That's So Raven is a Disney Channel sitcom starring Raven-Symoné.
  • "Now I am become Death, the re-arranger of worlds."
The line "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds" is said by the deity Krishna in the Hindu scripture the Shrimad Bhagavad Gita. It was famously invoked by the atomic scientist Robert Oppenheimer in reference to the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan.
  • "What marvelous short-term discounts does Kmart have for Doctor Mordrid?"
The big box retailer Kmart was known for its "blue light specials", in which special in-store offers were announced over the sound system and marked with a flashing blue light.
  • "Richard Pryor's autobiography!"
Comedian and actor Richard Pryor nearly died in an incident wherein he set a bed that he was lying in on fire (supposedly while under the influence of drugs or alcohol). This experience later became part of his stand-up act.
  • "To infinity, but not beyond. Because that would be mathematically impossible."
"To infinity and beyond!" is the catchphrase of Buzz Lightyear from the Toy Story franchise.
  • "I told you the guy's some kind of magician." "'Illusionist', Michael."
A reference to the character Gob Bluth from the TV comedy Arrested Development, who would correct people (including his brother Michael) if they referred to him as a 'magician'.
  • "I want you to see..." "Sicily, 1922!"
On the TV sitcom The Golden Girls, the elderly character Sophia would often start stories about her past in Italy by saying "Picture it! Sicily, (year)!".
  • "Anything you still can't cope with is therefore your own problem."
This announcement was made by the Infinite Improbability Drive computer in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy franchise after normality had been achieved.

Callbacks[]

  • The premise of the Gilbert & Sulli-Phone is reminiscent of the Mads' Public Domain Karaoke Machine from Episode #303.

Behind the Scenes[]

MST3K Cast[]

MST3K Crew[]

Production[]

  • This is the first episode since the show's revival in which Jonah Heston does not appear. However, Jonah Ray was still involved as the episode's director.

The Premiere[]

Like all episodes of Season 13, a live-streamed Premiere Event was held for Episode #1305. It has a runtime of 3 hours and 13 minutes.

The episode was interrupted for the following Madvertisements (the same ones used in the Premiere for Experiment #1301:

  • Bearmanor Media: Jonah is a fan of BearManor Media biographies, which include celebrities such as Marjoe Gortner and Lee Van Cleef. Tom Servo believes BearManor should publish his biography and goes full-on Roy Batty.
  • Bendy (from Joey Drew Studios): The ad copy Jonah reads proclaims Bendy to be innocent and nostalgic. Tom and Crow swiftly disabuse him of this belief, using exceedingly improper innuendo.
  • Onyx Path Publishing: Crow wants to play as a half-merman/half-centaur in They Came From Beneath The Sea. Jonah believes it is too complex and advises using a human character instead. Crow responds by presenting a figure who combines the top half of a merman and a centaur.

Following the episode there was a discussion hosted by Matt McGinnis and featuring Kelsey Ann Brady, Tim Ryder, Emily Marsh and Doctor Mordrid writer C. Courtney Joyner.

Video Releases[]

Gallery[]

References[]


Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.
More Fandoms
Advertisement

Fan Feed

More MST3K