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in: MST3K Episodes, Season 8, Foreign Film,
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MST3K 816 - Prince of Space

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“ Your weapons are useless against me! ”
- The Prince's oft-repeated catchphrase


“ His power apparently lies in his choosing incompetent enemies. ”
- Crow (on the Prince of Space)


The Movie

Synopsis

Princeofspace

Prince of Space

A group of space men from the planet Krankor are led by their leader, Phantom, to invade Earth. But a superhero named Prince of Space (actually a bootblack in disguise) arrives to defeat the spacemen. Although the weapons of the aliens cannot harm the Prince of Space, the Phantom continues to fight, and many plot twists (including capturing a group of elderly scientists) ensue. [1]

Information

  • Like Shintoho's Super Giant/Starman series, this Toei production was released to theaters as a sort of mini-serial with two approximately hour-long episodes. In the US this was edited into a single feature film running less than 90 minutes.
  • The main writer for the series was Masaru Igami, who worked in various tokusatsu including as the main writer for the first seven Kamen Rider series. His son is fellow tokusatsu and anime writer Toshiki Inoue.

The Episode

Host Segments

Mikedoll3

The wormhole briefly replaces Mike with an alternate reality robot version

Prologue: Crow and Tom's game of "Dog and Bear" gets out of hand.

Segment One: Bobo finds a suitable spot to go to the toilet, but it turns out to be a wormhole, through which The Widowmaker and an unwilling Satellite of Love enter to chase after him.

Segment Two: Due to the effects of the wormhole, each member of the SOL is moving at a different temporal speed, which makes conversation problematic, but provides ample chances for the theft of Crow's chicken puppet.

Sylvan Glen

The SOL crew wind up in a sylvan glen

Segment Three: Due to the effects of the wormhole, Mike is replaced with a version from an alternate universe where he is also a robot. What little respect Crow and Tom have for Mike is lost as they can't take the ventriloquist dummy-styled robot seriously.

Segment Four: Due to the effects of the wormhole, Mike and the Bots are transported to a lovely sylvan glen. Tom discovers that he has hay fever. Tired of all the wackiness, Mike just goes for a walk.

Closing (Segment Five): Everything appears to be back to normal, complete with a visit from Krankor, and they're even back around the Earth, but Pearl and Brain Guy have reason to suspect they've traveled back in time to Ancient Rome...

Roman times-0

Pearl and Brain Guy arrive in roman times

Stinger: The Phantom of Krankor's trademark laugh.

Other Notes

  • Due to Mike being transformed into a robot during one segment, he spends an entire segment of the movie as a robot silhouette, only returning to his normal self after the next commercial break.
  • Ranked 15th in the Top 100 Episodes as chosen by backers of the Bring Back MST3K Kickstarter.

Guest Stars

Obscure References

  • "So is this going to be a super violent porn cartoon?"

Crow's riff plays off the fallacy that most Japanese animation (Anime) is full of scenes heavy with gratuitous sex and violence; particularly those from the late 80's and early 90's.

  • "OK...two Italian guys dodge mushroooms thrown by a monkey."

Most likely a reference to both Donkey Kong and the Super Mario Bros. (Though Donkey Kong threw barrels.) Mike's ad lib pitch could also be a reference to their creator Shigeru Miyamoto.

  • ("I'm Prince... of Space!") "Ah, hoo-hoo!"

Crow is singing in the style of the singer Prince.

  • "Hey! HO-Scale Japan!"

HO scale is the most popular of model railway scales.

  • "Hey look! Up there!" "It's Cheap Trick!"

Riff playing off the fact that the band Cheap Trick were at one point extremely popular in Japan (being referred to as 'The American Beatles' at times).

  • "We were supposed to meet those Heaven's Gate people here."

Heaven's Gate was a small cult of people that believed that there was a spaceship carrying Jesus following right behind the Hale Bopp Comet waiting to transport them from Earth. As Hale Bopp passed, they committed mass suicide.

  • Great Hall designed by The LEGO Corporation.

Reference to a toy company that makes interchangeable brick toys.

  • "The Gabe Kaplan brigade."

Kaplan is a comedian and actor known for his work as the star of the TV sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter.

  • "Paging Mr. Herman."

Deep voice sounds similar to one in the movie Pee Wee's Big Adventure. When Pee Wee himself appeared in the movie based on his exploits, his voice was deepened when he said that line.

  • "There goes a narwhal (Servo goes "Neee!")

Reference to the B-52's song "Rock Lobster".

  • A police car's loudspeaker makes repeated announcements, Servo contributes theme music.

The music accompanies a bus' loudspeaker announcement at the beginning of "We're All Bozos on This Bus" by The Firesign Theatre.

  • "Truman Capote sent to fight Krankor!"

Truman Capote was the author of In Cold Blood, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and other novels. He was heavyset, bespectacled, and somewhat effete.

  • "The aliens have a Young Ones spaceship."

The Young Ones was a British sitcom about a group of students and their surreal misadventures. The remark most likely refers to Vyvyan, the punk rocker of the group, and how the fins on Krankor's ship look kind of like his spiked hairstyle.

Memorable Quotes

[The opening title of the movie shows: Prince of Space.]
Mike: I'm in space already! Damn!
[The children's family is discussing an exploration mission to space while eating dinner.]
Mother: The first cosmic exploration rocket will be launched from this base.
Crow: ...the dining room?
[The TV shows an obvious toy spaceship while a voice blares through the set.]
Spaceship: Attention, people of Earth! Attention, people of Earth! This is Krankor Exploration Force speaking!
Crow: Crank whore?
Spaceship: Do not be alarmed! Stand by for an important message! Stand by for an important message!
Servo [as TV Advert. announcer]: Veterans cannot be turned down!
. . .
Crow [as Mickey]: That's a toy I wouldn't mind having! I like it very much!
[After Phantom's announcement, the movie cuts to a newspaper printing press.]
Crow [as Headline]: Krankor: Nothing to Worry About.
Mike [as Headline]: Truman Capote Sent to Fight Krankor.
[Camera focuses on the alien ship's 'periscope'.]
Crow [as periscope]: I am the lemon zester of destruction!
Crow: A rare Godzilla-free day.
[We hear a barking dog running past]
Tom [As dog, with Japanese accent]: Rufforu! Bow-a-wow!
[A police car drives past in the same direction]
Mike: After that dog!
[Krankor's henchmen blaze away at Prince of Space, who ducks out of the way despite having repeatedly claimed he's immune to their weapons.]
Crow [as Prince of Space]: Your guns are useless, but scare the crap outta me anyway.
. . .
[The Prince of Space leaps and bounds daintily out of the way of the weapon fire.]
Crow [as Prince of Space]: I have no powers, but I can skip reasonably well!
[Prince of Space's and the Krankorians' spaceships trade cheesy beam weapon effects.]
Mike: An exchange of deadly negative scratches!
[In an abandoned building, Phantom threatens some children to flush out the Prince.]
Phantom: Listen! Show yourself! Otherwise, we're going to kill some di— [movie skip] —ren!
Mike: "Kill some diffren"?
Servo: "Diffren"?
Prince: I hear you! Come in here! I'm waiting for you! Leave the children alone!
Crow: You hear that, Jerry Seinfeld?
[A Japanese Air Force pilot reports to his CO.]
CO: Ah, Captain Manikata. Come in, please.
Mike [as CO]: I understand you're stuffed with cheese.
[The Prince of Space's ship narrowly dodges an attack, obviously being held by wires.]
Mike [as Prince of Space]: Swing me over there, trusty string!
[The chicken-men's spaceship, which looks rather chicken-ey itself, flies about, terrorizing the people in the street.]
Crow [as Phantom]: Set whole fryers to stun!
Mike: The upper half of a Hopper painting.
Servo [as Citizen]: Oh! A giant roast chicken!
Crow [as Citizen]: It is brown on the outside, tender and juicy on the inside!
Mike [as Citizen]: It is not fermented, pickled, or raw! Run!
Servo [as Citizen]: Ohhhhh!
Crow [as Phantom]: Potatoes or stuffing?!
[The Phantom witnesses Prince of Space invading his headquarters.]
Phantom: What a fool!
Servo [as Phantom]: He has defeated us numerous times, what makes him think he can do it again?
Crow: [on the Prince of Space] His power apparently lies in his choosing incompetent enemies.
Wally: Mr. Tannen! Hey, Mr. Tannen!
Mike [as Wally]: Get out of my wine!

Video Release


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