The mirror universe Mads watch Last of the Wild Horses
In Oregon, hot-headed entrepreneur Charlie Cooper has developed a thriving business (the "Double C Ranch") by capturing, taming and selling wild horses. The smaller ranch owners in the area feel the horses are beginning to be over-harvested and ask him to stop for a year to replenish the stock. He is initially resistant to the idea, but after some pressure from his daughter, Jane, he agrees. However, Cooper's villainous ranch manager Riley (Reed Hadley) is manipulating Cooper for his own nefarious purposes.
Suddenly, Duke Barnum rides in. He is about to rob a stagecoach when he is interrupted by several ranch hands from the Double C. The crime is averted, but he's arrested for assault and suspicion of attempted robbery, and earns their enmity.
Two local ranchers, tomboy Terry (Mary Beth Hughes) and comic relief "Remedy" Williams believe that they can reform Barnum. They persuade Sheriff Harrison to release Barnum into their custody. Barnum becomes a ranch hand on their spread. Terry begins metamorphosing into a woman because of Barnum's presence.
Barnum begins spending time with Charlie Cooper's daughter Jane. He is drawn into the wild horses dispute which, due to Riley's easy manipulation of Cooper, escalates to mass violence including murder and arson.
When Charlie Cooper discovers Riley's sinister machinations through eavesdropping, Riley and another ranch hand kill him and implicate Barnum for it. Barnum is apprehended and a murder trial gets underway with Remedy acting as his defense.
Trivia
Producer Robert L. Lippert decided he wanted to try directing a film himself, and picked this one. However, when he found himself falling behind schedule, he "fired" himself and hired director Paul Landres to finish it on time and on budget, which he did.
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. (Although one theory is because if you look at the "Deep 13" logo -- there's a 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 to follow.
Servo is echoing a similar scene in Blazing Saddles, when Hedley Lamarr sends out his gang of outlaws, Nazis, bikers, banditos, Arabs, 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 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".
"Is this the Legend of Curly Joe DeRita's Gold?"
The sequel to the aforementioned film City Slickers is subtitled The Legend of Curly's Gold. Joe "Curly Joe" DeRita was a member of the Three Stooges comedy team in its later incarnation.
"It's Magritte!"
Remedy is wearing a hat similar to the one in René Magritte's famous self-portrait, The Son of Man.
"Give it up for my posse!"
A reference to a line often used by Arsenio Hall on his talk show.
"Building code invented, and under fire."
A long-running joke on this show, based on the observation that many of the fake newspapers shown in old movies had the headline "BUILDING CODE UNDER FIRE" on them.
"Perhaps an underdone potato or a bit of undigested beef..."
Servo is mimicking the character Ebenezer Scrooge from the Charles Dickens novella A Christmas Carol. Upon being confronted by a ghost, Scrooge attempted to explain the phenomenon as something he imagined due to indigestion: "You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato."
"Oh, mother! Blood!"
A quote from the 1960 Alfred Hitchcock film Psycho, said by the character Norman Bates upon discovering evidence of a murder.
