You know, being from another planet, I didn't have a lot to do with this film.
Dr. Forrester: Your film today, Joel, is a cinematic tranquilizer starring Ben Murphy called Being From Another Planet, and I hope you haven't made plans for dinner, my little corn muffin!
Film Watched: Being From Another Planet (Time Walker repackaged by Film Ventures International)
The first MST3K film to feature actor Ben Murphy, who would later appear in the episode, Riding with Death.
The episode is available in the Gizmoplex here
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The Segments:
Prologue- Crow and Servo play Twenty Questions with Joel, trying to guess movies he's thinking of through their taglines.
Segment 1
- The Mads jump on the saccharine pewter figurine bandwagon by introducing their line of "Tragic Moments" figurines, bringing sadness and death to Grandma. Joel's contribution is a set of Jack Palance Impersonation Kits (gas masks and respirators), perfect for attention-grabbing and scaring friends.
Segment 2
- Joel dresses Crow and Servo as mummies, prompting Crow and Servo to start making fun of Bill Mumy, whom Joel defends.
Segment 3
- Crow leads a blindfolded Joel through his and Servo's haunted boiler room experience.
Segment 4
- Joel cues up his special Rainy Day Fun Sketch for Crow and Servo, bored from today's film. The fun doesn't last for long.
Segment 5
- The crew become pitchmen for the "TV's Frank Shopping Network", hocking products that only Frank would buy. Specifically, they attempt to sell a letter from a viewer and a "V-Shaped Diamond Encrusted Mummy Communicator Thing" in exchange for their freedom. Frank seems to like it and prepares to bring the SOL down, but Dr. Forrester cuts in and stops the escape attempt, punishing Frank by shoving a Thighmaster into his head.
The Mystery Science Theater 3000 presentation of Being from Another Planet contains examples of:
- Buffy Speak: In the final segment, Joel and the bots try to trick TV's Frank into calling them down to Earth to deliver a "V-shaped diamond-encrusted mummy communicator type thing" to him.
- Call-Back:
- To Pod PeopleCrow: Trumpy, you can do magic things!
- The "Trumpy does stupid things" music plays when Joel tries to cheer Crow and Servo from the film.
- To Pod People
- Donut Mess with a Cop: Joel makes a donut joke as soon as a pair of cops appear on screen. The bots are disappointed in him for going for such an obvious joke; this issue will be revisited a few episodes later in Indestructible Man.
- Dramatic Necklace Removal: When the mummy rips the necklace off the girl's neck, Joel comments that it must have had a pretty flimsy clasp.
- Dude, Not Funny!:
- Joel and the Bots are horrified by the Mads' "Tragic Moments" figurines.Joel: That's the sickest thing you guys have ever done!
- The bots' reaction to Joel identifying a skeleton in the opening tomb scene as Pete Duel (Joel immediately apologized). Duel co-starred with Ben Murphy on Alias Smith and Jones and committed suicide during that show's production.
- Joel and the Bots are horrified by the Mads' "Tragic Moments" figurines.
- Fanservice: Between Servo and Joel, you can briefly see Jane's breast near the end as she leans in to hug Peter after seeing the mummy.
- Heroic BSoD: Servo declares this the absolute worst film they'd ever seen. Joel and Crow challenge him by naming nearly every single film they'd seen up to this point. Servo eventually admits The Castle of Fu Manchu was just as bad; keep in mind that all this was before they saw Manos: The Hands of Fate or Monster a-Go Go.
- Reality Subtext: Mike Nelson had the habit of stating every movie they'd just worked on riffing was the worst they'd ever done.
- Long List:
- The Running Gag of made-up Mad Lib Thriller Titles from the Ludlum Library.
- During the movie credits, Joel and Crow list out most of the previous movies they'd done with Servo declaring that this movie was worse than all of them (other than The Castle of Fu Manchu being just as bad).
- Mad Lib Thriller Title: The Running Gag of made-up books from the supposed the Ludlum Library. It starts out sane with The Horshack Conspiracy and The Forbin Conundrum before rapidly devolving into Word Salad Titles and utter gibberish Like The Macheengo Conghelium, The Shreenshrack Regeengyne and The Kriskrack Krakrakra. The full Long List is linked above.
- Non-Ironic Clown: The Hexfield Viewscreen Fun-Time holographic clowns for Joel (and Gypsy)'s Rainy Day Fun Sketch.
- Odd Name Out: When challenging Tom if the previous movies they watched are worse than Being from Another Planet, Joel suggests The Manchingo Coniglium, to which Tom responds, "Huh?"
- Running Gag:
- Crow and Servo getting distressed from the film's green filter.
- The memorandum of The NBC Mystery Movie jokes return from Teenagers from Outer Space. In the same vein, the gag of Joel making cop/donut jokes and the bots objecting to it would come back with a vengeance in Indestructible Man.
- Any mention of the "fungus" will be followed by the phrase "among us."
- The Ludlum Library, as mentioned above.
- From several episodes, "Jim Henson's Baby Babies"
- Shout-Out: When Tom Servo asks Joel if the mystery movie is about Dudley Moore trying to maintain relationships with two wives at once, Joel tells him he's making that up. He isn't: it's 1984's Micki & Maude!
- Spoiler Title: The new title of the movie chosen by distributor Film Ventures International gives away a major plot twist.
- Suddenly Shouting: Servo bellows "What are YOU looking at??" at the clowns once fun-time's over.
- They Killed Kenny Again: TV's Frank gets impaled through the skull with a Thighmaster as punishment for nearly letting the crew escape.
- Worst. Whatever. Ever!: Tom declares this to be the worst film they've seen so far. Joel and Crow go through a Long List of films they've seen before Tom finally agrees that The Castle of Fu Manchu was just as bad.
