Recap / Mystery Science Theater 3000 S02 E01: Rocketship X-M

"Robert L. Lippert presents..."

Dr. Forrester: Well, Joel, under the circumstances, I'm afraid I'm going to have to stick it to you this week. Rocketship X-M will assault your pop and folk sensibilities. It's a chillingly uninteresting assault of mind-numbing, gut-wrenching, brain-bloating non-action.
Joel: Oh, a Lloyd Bridges movie? I guess I can handle that.
Dr. Forrester: Uh, Lloyd Bridges with Hugh O'Brian?
Joel: Noooooo!

Film watched: Rocketship X-M

Mystery Science Theater 3000 featured Rocketship X-M in its second season premiere, which also featured Kevin Murphy taking over as Tom Servo's new voice, along with the introduction of Frank Conniff as "TV's Frank", Dr. Forrester's new sidekick.

The Segments:

Prologue

• The Satellite of Love has been completely redesigned, and Crow is suffering from a toothache (though as Joel points out, he shouldn't — seeing how he's a robot).

Segment 1/Invention Exchange

• After Joel installs a new voice module in Tom Servo, the crew meets Dr. Forrester's new lackey TV's Frank (since Dr. Erhardt has gone missing), and they almost successfully trick him into letting them escape the SOL. For the Invention Exchange, Joel unveils the BGC-19 drum machine/power loader so drummers can get as much attention as the rest of the band. Frank unveils... the exact same invention, and gets punished soundly by Dr. Forrester.

Segment 2

• In a tribute to the numerous reporters from the film, the crew give them goofy names.

Segment 3

• Joel conducts a quiz on the 'Bots on "selective gravity"; objects and/or people which are either funny or unfunny when they're floating.

Segment 4

• Valaria from Robot Holocaust makes a surprise visit to the SOL via the new Hexfield Viewscreen.

Segment 5

• Joel and the 'Bots chew out the Mads for sending them — a crew stuck on a spaceship with no chance of escape — a film about a spaceship that crash lands and kills its crew. Dr. Forrester shows Frank how to push the button to end the experiment.

The MST3K presentation of Rocketship X-M features:

• Big "NO!": Joel isn't too worried about having to watch a boring movie with Lloyd Bridges in it, then Dr. Forrester tells him Hugh O'Brian is also in it and Joel screams "NO!" as Movie Sign sounds.
• Burger Fool: Dr. Forrester found Frank working at an Arby's. When Joel calls down to Deep 13, Frank picks up as if he's still working the front counter. When Frank robotically asks whether or not they want to eat in today, Crow manages to keep a straight face and trick him into bringing the Satellite of Love down.
• Call-Back: Valaria from Robot Holocaust^note Mike Nelson in his first onscreen appearance, and in drag at that drops by to let the SOL know that "You and your daughter are dyoomed."
• Catchphrase: Not the first or last time Joel would say "Thank you, Mr. White Male Reality!"
• Downer Ending: Even worse for Joel and the Bots, since the film is about people stuck in a spaceship that crashes is being shown to people stuck in a spaceship.
  Crow: You know, the only thing more depressing than watching a movie about people trapped on a capsule is a movie about people dying on a capsule...
  • Joel then snarks that maybe the Mads should send them Marooned next. Two years later...
• Dresses the Same: After Joel shows his invention for the week, a wearable drum kit called the BGC-19, newcomer Frank proudly displays his invention... the BGC-19. Dr. Forrester promptly punishes Frank for stealing ideas.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • Kevin's voice for Servo starts out here as sounding like Josh's, but gradually settled in a few episodes after.
  • Frank hasn't adopted the name "TV's Frank" yet.
  • The Hexfield Viewscreen, which first appears in this episode, uses a simple windowshade to cover it and turns its lights off when inactive. Its distinctive aperture shutter is introduced later in the season.
• Establishing Character Moment: The episode immediately shows that the relationship between Forrester and Frank will be substantially different than with Erhardt. While Erhardt was (mostly) treated as a respected (if junior) colleague, Forrester wastes no time berating and physically punishing Frank.
• Face on a Milk Carton: Dr. Erhardt is missing.
• Forgot He Was a Robot: In the opening segment, Crow has a scarf wrapped around his jaw and complains about having a terrible toothache. Joel covers the sides of Crow's head and quietly explains to the audience that robots don't have any teeth.
• A God Am I: Frank calls himself a god in his Establishing Character Moment.
• Misapplied Phlebotinum: Joel invents a set of functioning Powered Armor so that drummers can carry a whole drum kit around the front of the stage (instead of being left to languish in the back).
• Naïve Newcomer: Joel and the Bots take advantage of Dr. Forrester's brief absence to trick newcomer Frank into beaming them back down to Earth. Before Frank can do so, Dr. Forrester returns and intervenes when he learns what was about to happen.
• The Nth Doctor: Kevin Murphy as Tom Servo. Explained in-universe as a refit.
  • Memetic Mutation: Fans eventually learned that one watcher didn't approve of the change and went to the trouble of making a large banner reading "I HATE TOM SERVO'S NEW VOICE" and mailing it to Best Brains. Kevin Murphy kept the banner as a keepsake and even brought it along to show off during a panel at DragonCon.
• Powered Armor: Joel's invention, the BGC-19, is a walking drumset based on the P-5000 Powered Work Loader which Ripley uses to battle the xenomorph queen in Aliens.
• Put on a Bus: The only explanation for Frank replacing Dr. Erhardt is "He's missing." Erhardt would only be mentioned once more on the show, when an actor who looked vaguely like him was killed in Earth vs. the Spider ("So that's what happened to him!").^note No one was expecting him to return, 28 years later and nearly three decades less shrill and less mad, in Season 12's The Day Time Ended.
• Remember the New Guy?: Right after we are introduced to Frank, we also get the first appearances of Gerry and Sylvia who are implied to not be new arrivals like Frank.
• Running Gag:
  • Playing up the Ho Yay between Dr. Eckstrom and Dr. Fleming, his "old friend" left behind on Earth.
    • Dr. Fleming ending his introduction of Eckstrom with "and an old friend" becomes a running gag through this episode and the next few seasons of MST3K.
  • Singing "The Happy Wanderer" ("Valderi, Valdera-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha").
• Screwed by the Lawyers: invoked Variation: As the crew complains to Dr. Forrester about the ending of the movie, Joel asks why he didn't send them Marooned instead.
  Dr. Forrester: (bluntly) We couldn't get it!
• Shout-Out:
  • Tom Servo's first attempt to speak ended up as "Warning! Danger! Danger, Will Robinson!" His next attempt is "Daaaiiisyyy, Daaaiiisyyy..." The third and real attempt, he exclaims, "Hello world! Happy birthday!"
  • During the sketch about the men and women of the Press Corps, one reporter in the front is referred to as "Peanut. He's a Woozle."
  • Segment 3, "Things That Are Funny Floating", namedrops various celebrities.
    Joel: Sebastian Cabot.
    Crow: Fun-nyyy.
    Joel: Right, very funny, but impossible.
  • "Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down? That's not my department."
• Spoiler Opening: The show intro shows us the new SOL deck and Frank before they were properly introduced.
• Take That!: Gallagher is declared to be "extremely unfunny" floating. The crew doesn't speak fondly of Sally "The Flying Nun" Field, either.
• Waxing Lyrical:
  • Dr. Forrester prompts Joel to start off the Invention Exchange: "Hit me with your best shot. Fire away."
  • During Segment 4, before and after Valaria arrives, Joel and the Bots stare wistfully out into space as they lament their situation, sharing quotes as though they are philosophical profundities. Naturally, they include a few song lyrics (and a line from Poe's "Lines on Ale") in their musings.

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