104-Women of the Prehistoric Planet

Film Year:  1966
Genre:  Science Fiction
Director:  Arthur C. Pierce
Starring:  John Agar, Irene Tsu, Robert Ito, Wendell Corey, Kieth Larsen, Paul Gilbert, Merry Andres, Stuart Margolin, Todd Lasswell
MST Season:  1

The Movie

Whew boy, you know you’re in trouble when you’re watching a sci-fi movie and the special effects look about as cutting edge as the host segments of the MST episode you’re watching it on.

This cheapie, obviously filmed on stock sets and as fast as possible, tells the tale of space voyagers who crash land on a prehistoric planet (natch) due to a mutiny led by lower class crew, the Centaurians.  Others from their fleet search for them, but along the way a Centaurian woman falls in love with a doofus caveman named Tang.

Elephant in the room:  In spite of the title, there aren’t many women on this prehistoric planet.  It’s clear that the title is more or less just an attempt to sell tickets to people who want to see beauties in animal skin bikinis, and while our main actress doesn’t look too bad in her skimpy outfit, there aren’t many female forms to be gawked at here, and none of them are exactly native to this prehistoric planet anyway.  But then again “Tang of the Prehistoric Planet” probably didn’t work well with focus groups.

What DOES the movie have?  A half-assed message about racism, maybe?  The movie is very blunt with its social commentary, to the point that Rod Serling himself would just go “My god, stop being so damn preachy!”  The film’s superior race is played by a bunch of whiteys, who act smug while making snide comments about how much Centaurians suck.  The Centaurians are played by Asian actors, and they stand there and take it because they aren’t the almighty Caucasian.  The film of course feels like a commentary on the United States’ tendency to separate races and put white people on the top in the mid 20th century.  It’s a noble message to make, but the film’s presentation is way too on the nose.

It leads up to a twist ending that’s not too surprising nor that clever.  All that in mind one might make the claim that Women of the Prehistoric Planet was trying to be an ambitious sci-fi hampered by budget.  I’m forced to disagree with that.  The screenplay lacks heart and what little charm the film has comes from its low budget.  Good for a laugh, but not one to admire in any shape or form.

The Episode

One thing to be made clear, despite the episode’s production number, this is the finale of the first season.  Certain MSTies still count it as the “fourth” episode of the season, but I absolutely cannot abide by that when it so obviously isn’t.  It features an opening segment immediately after the opening credits as well references a contest that was announced latter in the season.  Now, WHY does it have this production number?  No clue.  And I don’t care.  It’s not episode four, and it’s as simple as that.

As such, this is Josh Weinstein’s final episode on the cast, and the last we see of Mad Dr. Erhardt.  Leaving so early on in the show’s run pretty much doom’s Josh to being something of an obscurity on the show.  When you ask someone to imagine Tom Servo, chances are they’ll think of Kevin Murphy’s interpretation of the character (we’ll see if Baron Vaughn gives him a run for his money in future seasons), and if you asked fans to rank their favorite riffers on the series those who even remember to include Josh will most likely put him last.

That said, as time went on Josh has had something of a reevaluation in the MST community, largely thanks to Cinematic Titanic.  His contributions in the KTMA season are immeasurable, leading the charge in improvisational riffs.  The more even pace of the scripted first season may have proved to be a bit of a downfall for him, as Trace’s delivery slowly became the highlight of each episode.  That’s not to say that Josh doesn’t earn a spot on MST’s Mount Rushmore.  It’s a bit unfair to judge him based on what is seen here, because the series hadn’t grown into its own yet.  One can’t help but ponder how Josh would have evolved had he stuck with the show.  Cinematic Titanic was a glimpse into the Josh we might have had.

Women of the Prehistoric Planet isn’t a grand last hurrah for the veteran performer’s retirement.  The movie is pretty funny on its own, but ultimately Joel and the bots fail to really give the film any sort of enhancement and I find that what laughs I’m getting from this episode really just come from the stupid movie.  Take the comic relief character for example.  He’s less funny than the movie thinks he is and the crew wastes no time in pointing it out.  However their best ammo at the man is simply them screaming “SHUT UP!” at the screen.  It’s just not a very strong riff, and it’s repeated several times.  The best that comes of it is when Joel gets up from his seat and tries to physically shut his mouth.  Ultimately this proves to be a metaphor for the rest of the episode, as a lot of the riffing tends to be a bit generic with small bright spots, while the movie itself tends to be funnier.

On the host segment side, we have an episode arc featuring a doomsday machine created by Isaac Asimov, and Joel and the bots try and defuse it.  Each host segment feels pretty much the same as the last, so I find myself with not a lot to say about it.  It’s mildly amusing at first, but gets tiresome as it goes on.  The Invention Exchange barely qualifies as an Invention Exchange, even though Dr. Erhardt’s song is pretty damn funny.  Joel’s toilet paper in a bottle is a dud, though.

Women of the Prehistoric Planet brings this early era of MST to a close with a bit of a whimper.  It’s not the best remembered era of MST to begin with, so most would consider it unimportant that it isn’t all that memorable itself.  But I do feel Josh deserved a better send off than this.

Average

The DVD

Rhino’s second and final release of a first season episode came in Volume 9.  Video and audio were pretty super, like all the first season releases so far.

There’s also an introduction by the lovely Irene Tsu, who plays Linda in the film (and spends most of it in a short blue skirt).  She shares entertaining stories about the making of this particular film, as well as a glimpse at her career, working with greats like Elvis Presley, John Wayne, and Jeff Bridges!