Recap / Mystery Science Theater 3000 S09 E13: Quest of the Delta Knights

Well, better than the Quest of the Delta Burkes, I suppose.

Film watched: Quest of the Delta Knights

The episode is available in the Gizmoplex here.

The Segments:

Prologue

• After going outside to check the gutters, Crow has been damaged by a freak hailstorm, so Gypsy takes him away for repairs. In the meantime, she brings an AMC "loaner Crow" she's been working with to help introduce the show. The loaner has definitely seen better days with how he violently smolders and shudders, as well as his poor communication stylings, but he has a killer sound system.

Segment 1

• Gypsy patches Crow up with a layer of true coat and sends him back on the bridge, while the loaner is sent to someone in Pennsylvania whose own Crow was totaled by a semi. Down in the castle, Pearl delivers Mike's semi-annual checkup, where her jumpsuited test subject states that he has a clean bill of health, physically and mentally. At this news, Pearl gets upset and freaks out, complaining about how he could possibly not be broken by all the bad movies she's sent up. On Brain Guy's suggestion (one that earns him a punch in the kisser), Pearl decides to take the initiative get a first-hand evaluation of her experiment by switching roles with Mike. She has Brain Guy send her up to the Satellite of Love in her own jumpsuit to riff the first 20 minutes of today's experiment with Crow and Servo, while Mike is sent down to Castle Forrester in her uniform, put in charge of browbeating Bobo and Brain Guy while being forbidden to escape.

Segment 2

• Having finished her evaluation, Pearl checks in on Mike, who's enjoying some good old fashioned male-bonding with Bobo and Brain Guy over beer, smokes, snacks, and cards. Pearl gets furious enough to be heard from the SOL when they start trash talking her, so she has herself and Mike switched back to their respective places. The 'Bots are upset at this development because they loved having Pearl around, espescially since she gave them each half a mint in the theater, but they're overwhelmed by the sheer contrast of Mike's odor that they ditch him for showers.

Segment 3

• Mike introduces the Sir Thomas Neville Servo Consort of the Middle Ages Just-After-the-Plague Singers, a quartet of Servo clones who perform the beautiful number "Air on a Delta Knight". Then they break into something much more raunchy, leaving Mike to try and stop them before Movie Sign activates.

Segment 4

• While Mile practices his hockey skills, Leonardo da Vinci flies up to the SOL in an ornithopter-styled spaceship to tell the crew (in a thick New York accent) that the young man playing him in the movie is a "mook" who acts nothing like the real him. Servo asks the original Renaissance Man how he's still alive in the 20th century and what he's been up to, prompting Leonardo to take his questions as threats and nearly reach for a gun in his robes. Thankfully, he cools himself down and leaves, after which Mike convinces the 'Bots that it's a bad idea to ask what da Vinci does for a living.

Segment 5

• During the credits, Pearl re-enters the theater with a Facili-Tech contractor, Fred "Eggs" Eggleston, to discuss renovating the place so she can make the movies she sends more painful to watch. Her short presence reignites the 'Bots' trauma about her brief-but-wonderful time with them, even after she hits them and Mike with a clown hammer, to the point where they gaze longingly at a scrapbook and a collection of photos of her on the bridge as Mike comforts them. Meanwhile, the Delta Knights have visited Castle Forrester to host a pancake breakfast, which is all they do now after years of roaming the countryside and defending the poor, to the point where they reserved the castle for such breakfasts long before the Mads moved in. When they announce reaching their goal for enough money to host their next breakfast, one of them celebrates by throwing hard candy, hurting everyone in the process.

The MST3K presentation of Quest of the Delta Knights contains examples of:

• Acting for Two: Invoked with several riffs lampshading David Warner playing both the mentor and the villain.^note In addition to his usual roles as Crow and Observer, Bill Corbett is also Leonardo da Vinci.
  Vultare: (to Baydool) Don't I know you?
  Mike: Aren't you me in another role?
  • Later:
  Crow: David Warner, you are under arrest by order of David Warner!
• Actor Allusion: Invoked for Richard Kind, who plays Wamthool.
  Wamthool: I think I got it!
  Mike: Yes, I got the role in Mad About You!
• The Alleged Car: More like Alleged Robot. While Gypsy is repairing the original Crow, she gives Mike and Tom a "loaner Crow" - by AMC no less - that she's been tinkering with. He can't speak coherently, he shakes constantly and smoke keeps belching out of him - but he's got a killer stereo!
  • Truth in Television: AMC cars were remarkably well-built. So much so that their chassis and engine would remain in great working order decades after their production — while everything else would be falling apart.
• Brotherhood of Funny Hats: The final host segment reveals that the Delta Knights devolved into a Shriners-like organization which doesn't do anything but host an annual pancake breakfast that just barely breaks even.
• Breast Expansion: The crew's reaction to Athena's Of Corsets Sexy transformation. "Her dough has risen!"
• Brooklyn Rage: Leonardo Da Vinci lives in Queens and has a Hair-Trigger Temper, and is especially sensitive to any line of questioning that concerns what he and his friends do for a living.
• Call-Back: Once again, a troupe of Servos launch into a Bawdy Song, to the consternation of emcee Mike, as they did in The Starfighters.
• Continuity Nod:
  • In the opening host segment, Crow goes in for repairs and is temporarily substituted with a less than optimal Fake Crow. When the real Crow returns, he says that Gypsy needs Fake Crow immediately; some other guy's Crow got trashed and he needs a loaner. The Continuity Nod part is the fact that there is another Crow - the one who stayed in the past over the course of Time Chasers. Behind the scenes, Loaner Crow is actually the older version of the Crow puppet from the Comedy Channel era, recognizable by his slightly longer "beak" and duller-colored eyes.
  • The Sir Thomas Neville Servo Consort of the Middle Ages Just-After-the-Plague Singers who sing "Air on a Delta Knight" are presumably the same Servo-clones introduced in The Human Duplicators. previously pressed into service as a choir as the United Servo Academy Men's Chorus in The Starfighters. Once again, the Servos decide to launch into a Bawdy Song, once again inciting Mike, once again imitating locally-based public radio host Bill McGlaughlin of Saint Paul Sunday, to freak out and demand they get out of his studio.
    Sir Thomas Neville Servo: (suddenly with a brusque Oop North accent) Oy, let's sing a naughty one, eh?
  • One of the 'Bots' framed photos of Pearl in the last host segment is her from back in the Comedy Central seasons.
  • During Tee and Leonardo's escape from the tree village, Servo finds himself starting to like Willow in comparison, which he and Mike (but not Crow) very openly disdained in Village of the Giants.
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: One of the Running Gags on Tee.
  Tee: (whispering to Leonardo) Follow my lead.
  Servo: (as Tee, whispering) Get hair extensions and talk like a girl.
• Every Car Is a Pinto: Invoked by Servo, quipping that Travis' pinto horse may explode.
• Formula-Breaking Episode: Pearl joins the 'Bots in riffing on the first 20 or so minutes of the movie, as part of a role-swap experiment she's conducting with Mike.
• Friendly Enemy: Without Pearl there to egg them on Bobo and Brain Guy drop their respective beefs with Mike to just hang out and share some beers.
• Historical Domain Character: Mike and the bots audibly groan and make sarcastic comments when Leonardo reveals that he's from a town called Vinci.
• Hurricane of Euphemisms: The Bawdy Song that the Servos try to sing is a hurricane of Unusual Euphemisms.
• Late to the Realization: At one point in the movie, Crow says "Hey, that's also David Warner!" Tom replies, "Yeah, Crow."
• The Mafia: Leonardo da Vinci is heavily implied to either work for them or is one of their members. He goes for a gun in his 15th Century robes when Servo starts prying into his private affairs.
  Leonardo da Vinci: ...I do what I do. I'm in business.
• Mood Whiplash: When the scene shifts to bumbling wizard Wamthool and goofy music starts playing, Servo asks, "Are we in the same movie?!"
• MST3K Mantra: Invoked when Leonardo da Vinci visits Mike and the Bots partway through the movie. The Satellite of Love crew complain that they can't understand the movie, especially in terms of where and when it's supposed to be set. Leo's response: "Hey, it's a bad movie."
• Overly Long Name: The Sir Thomas Neville Servo Consort of the Middle Ages Just-After-the-Plague Singers.
• Role Swap Plot: Pearl is so fed up with Mike and the Bots' refusal to go insane that she decides to experience the theater for herself, while Mike winds up hanging out with Bobo and Observer.
• Running Gag:
  • Hanson jokes concerning Tee's wavy blond locks.
  • Tee "pitying the foo'."
  • The SoL crew makes several jokes mocking the ham-handed way the film "casually" introduces Leonardo as the Leonardo da Vinci.
    "...So then my folks moved, and I was Leonardo de Oxnard for a few years."
    "When this is all over, I hope to be Leonardo de Cancun for a couple weeks."
    "Yep, that's how they raised us in Vinci!"
• Shout-Out:
  • Wamthool is hockey player Wayne Gretzky. Mike is playing floor hockey on the Satellite in the next host segment.
    Other Wizard: How's it coming, O Great One?
    Crow: You ever get back to Edmonton?^note Gretzky, nicknamed the Great One, was born and raised in Edmonton, Alberta. Originally drafted by the Edmonton Oilers, he was playing for the New York Rangers when the episode aired.
  • Mike once again introduces the choir of Servos in the persona of Bill McGlaughlin, host of Minnesota-local public radio Classical Music show Saint Paul Sunday.
    Mike: Hello, my friends. Today on Satellite of Love Sunday Morning, we are livid with proudness in presenting the Sir Thomas Neville Servo Consort of the Middle Ages Just-After-the-Plague Singers.
  • Tom's doubles form a choir group, the "Sir Thomas Neville Servo Consort of the Middle Ages Just-After-the-Plague Singers", a very long, oblique reference to classical conductor Sir Neville Marriner, founder of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields chamber orchestra.
  • The title of "Air on a Delta Knight" is a possible riff on Air on the G String, August Wilhelmj's arrangement of the air from Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 3.
• Special Guest: Leonardo da Vinci shows up in an ornithopter-spaceship and complains (in a thick Brooklyn accent) about the movie's portrayal of him, calling the twerp in the film a "mook." When Servo wonders how Leo's still alive, the feisty Italian takes it as a threat and goes for his gun. At the end, Mike concludes that it's not a good idea to ask what Leonardo da Vinci does for a living.
• Strange-Syntax Speaker: Loaner Crow is not all there in the brain processor department.
• Those Magnificent Flying Machines: Leonardo Da Vinci's Cool Starship has bat-like sail-wings like the flying machines in his journals.

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"Hahaha, good."
"I'm coming!"

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