A cowboy must clear his name after being accused of murder as part of a land-grab scheme.
The Episode[]
Host Segments[]
Mirror universe TV's Frank and Dr. F
One of the few episodes with a distinct plot entirely unrelated to the movie being riffed, the host segments in this episode parody the classic Star Trek episode "Mirror, Mirror,” with Tom Servo and Gypsy transported to the Mirror Universe, where an evil Mike Nelson and the bots torment Clayton Forrester and TV's Frank with bad movies. Evil Mike and Crow also wear uniforms and play roles reminiscent of Mirror Kirk and Spock from the original episode. In the normal universe, evil Tom Servo is mortified that he is being forced to watch the horrible movies, and evil Gypsy has plans to be "the Captain's Woman.” Evil Tom Servo's character is reminiscent of Hikaru Sulu from the Mirror Universe.
Mirror universe SOL crew
Prologue: Mike programs Crow and Tom with regional speech patterns
Segment One: Dr. F sends a matter transference device to the SOL during an ion storm. It’s “Mirror-Mirror” time!
Segment Two: The Mirror-Mads sing “Joey the Lemur.”
In our universe, Crow and Mike struggle with Mirror-Servo.
Segment Three: Mike and Crow plot strategy, while Mirror-Gypsy and Mirror-Servo do likewise.
Mirror Gypsy and Mirror Tom
Segment Four:
Mike and Crow consult The Alternate Universe Manual. In the mirror universe, Mirror-Crow attacks Mirror-Mike while Tom and Gypsy plot strategy -- by consulting the computer in the Mirror-Deep 13 (which speaks in Torgo's voice).
Segment Five:
Everything back to more or less normal, Mike and the bots try to sort out what happened. The Mirror-Mads visit via Hexfield while a letter is read.
Back in Deep 13, the Mads are enjoying their new agony booth.
The idea of the Mads being the ones trapped aboard the Satellite watching bad movies was first used in a host segment in MST3K K08 - Gamera vs Guiron.
The mirror Mads’ fun friend Joey the lemur hearkens back to a segment in Experiment #210 - King Dinosaur.
In a reference to Tom Servo's movie segment entries, alternate universe Frank asks Dr. Forrester if he's going to carry him into the theater.
Dr. F and Frank are seated on the opposite side of the theater for their segment riffing the movie.
The Mirror Mad's symbol is an inverted triangle, no reason given (one theory is because the Deep 13 logo has an inverted triangle behind the 13).
The movie in this experiment is considered to be not particularly bad, but the audio quality makes it almost incomprehensible.
The Mirror Mads riff the movie without robot characters in the theater. This would not happen in an episode again until Episode 1313, when the three Hosts riffed a movie without robots.
Servo is echoing a similar scene in Blazing Saddles, when Hedley Lamarr sends out his gang of outlaws, Nazis, bikers, banditos, nomadic raiders, and Klansmen to destroy the town. The line originally comes from the song "You Do Something to Me" by Cole Porter.
"Are we supposed to find our smile?"
A reference to the comedy film City Slickers, in which an unhappy middle-aged city resident (played by Billy Crystal is encouraged by his wife to go on a dude ranch vacation and "find his smile".
"Perhaps an underdone potato or a bit of undigested beef..."
Servo is paraphrasing the character Ebenezer Scrooge from the Charles Dickens novella A Christmas Carol, attempting to explain the phenomenon he is experiencing as something he is imagining due to indigestion.
"Oh, mother! Blood!"
A quote from the 1960Alfred Hitchcock film Psycho, said by the character Norman Bates upon discovering evidence of a murder that he suspects his mother has committed.
