Film Year: 1976
Genre: Fantasy, Adventure
Director: Kevin Connor
Starring: Peter Cushing, Doug McClure, Caroline Munro
MST Season: 11
The Movie
From pretty much the same crew of The Land That Time Forgot comes another adaptation of an Edgar Rice Burroughs novel, At the Earth's Core. This "totally not Journey to the Center of the Earth" story revolves around a scientist played by Peter Cushing who invents a drill vehicle that will allow him to drill beneath the surface of the Earth. He and his assistant, played by Doug McClure, make their fateful journey but soon find themselves drilling out of control into the core of the Earth. There they find a human civilization of slaves who serve mind controlling bird monsters, which they vow to put a stop to.
Not much on logic or reason, At the Earth's Core is still somewhat fun to watch. For what it's worth, if you enjoyed Land That Time Forgot you shouldn't have much of a problem with this one. The pacing is better in Earth's Core and the monster scenes carry a bit more flavor to them. That said, Time Forgot may have had a better story, so which one you enjoy more may be a bit of a toss up. I might favor Earth's Core.
But it's also a bit of a misogynistic male gaze fantasy, as Doug McClure goes down into a new world, becomes alpha male, and finds that women down here desire to be "owned" by their men. McClure has a romance with a native girl who feels insulted by his lack of desire to claim her as a piece of property, as all women are trophy's won in petty squabbles between men. It is only when he manhandles her does she relent in becoming his mate. What a weird lesson in eroticism.
Though for fans of fantasy settings and guys in rubber costumes playing monster, At the Earth's Core is serviceable. The effects may look quite silly in spots, but they're fun to look at, and the rear projection scenes are actually pretty cool. At the Earth's Core isn't high quality escapist fantasy, but it somehow manages to be just enough.
But it's also a bit of a misogynistic male gaze fantasy, as Doug McClure goes down into a new world, becomes alpha male, and finds that women down here desire to be "owned" by their men. McClure has a romance with a native girl who feels insulted by his lack of desire to claim her as a piece of property, as all women are trophy's won in petty squabbles between men. It is only when he manhandles her does she relent in becoming his mate. What a weird lesson in eroticism.
Though for fans of fantasy settings and guys in rubber costumes playing monster, At the Earth's Core is serviceable. The effects may look quite silly in spots, but they're fun to look at, and the rear projection scenes are actually pretty cool. At the Earth's Core isn't high quality escapist fantasy, but it somehow manages to be just enough.
The Episode
Wedding bells are ringing and the big day is here. In this season finale to MST's relaunch season test subject Jonah Heston is forced into a shotgun wedding with mad scientist Kinga Forrester. Surprisingly upbeat about it, Jonah seems willing and able to love, honor, and cherish his bride for all eternity, while Kinga shows very little interest in Jonah at all, rather desiring the symbolic wedding itself. The episode builds to the event with an opening "bachelor talk," Jonah introducing a new bot named Growler (a parody of Rowlf from the Muppets) to play piano at the wedding, while the jealous Max gets a pep talk from "alpha dog" Doug McClure (played by Joel McHale in a hilarious cameo). This leads to the big finale event where Kinga and Jonah wed in front Pearl, Bobo, Observer, and a group of random Observers (played by Kickstarter backers), while Max unleashes Reptilicus Metalicus (which he discovered in Yongary) upon Jonah, bringing about an end of season cliffhanger of "What happened to Jonah?" It's almost similar to the way Reno 911 used to close out it's seasons, with every character seemingly dying a horrible death only to have them emerge just fine in the following season opener.
Other, non-wedding related segments include new steampunk versions of the Bots, which are pretty awesome. Crow also becomes a Mahar, one of those psychic bird monsters from the movie, and tries to put a spell on Jonah. The Invention Exchange is mostly sidelined for wedding talk, though it still comes into play as verbal gags relating a funny idea: Permanent Temporary Tattoos and a Rip Taylor Urn Cannon.
Other, non-wedding related segments include new steampunk versions of the Bots, which are pretty awesome. Crow also becomes a Mahar, one of those psychic bird monsters from the movie, and tries to put a spell on Jonah. The Invention Exchange is mostly sidelined for wedding talk, though it still comes into play as verbal gags relating a funny idea: Permanent Temporary Tattoos and a Rip Taylor Urn Cannon.
But there's a movie here too! On the riffing end, I have to admit to being disappointed by the back half of season eleven's run. I need to rewatch most of them, though by the time I got to this episode it had felt like they had run out of steam. I didn't really expect much from At the Earth's Core, but I'll be honest with you it was a breath of fresh air post-Carnival Magic and The Christmas That Almost Wasn't. The movie is far more fun than we have been getting lately, and the riffing plays it up with a joyous support of gags that play up the absurdity of the movie, or just make goofy fun even goofier fun. One of the biggest laughs of the episode comes when Doug McClure verbally announces his desire to kill all the Mahar, so he grabs a rock and prepares to fling it at them, resulting in the quip "This rock will DESTROY THEM ALL!" It's such a beautifully absurd moment in a film that's full of them, and the riff is perfect. There's also some great lines at the expense of Peter Cushing, who they play up as a doddering old fool. The fakey monsters inspire great comedy as well, as all these rubber puppets tend to get some grand parallels between other film puppets, such as Jedi Master Yoda and Sam Eagle.
And probably underlining the entire thing is one hell of a callback, as Doug McClure makes the perfect pose causing Jonah and the Bots to shout in unison "Phineas T. MITCHELL!"
At the Earth's Core proves to be quite a good end to the season, bringing closure to a season that had its share of ups and downs, was mostly successful at recapturing the magic of the previous seasons but at the same time showed a lot of room for improvement. I look to season twelve with optimism in hopes the right lessons were learned and there are still some great episodes heading in our direction. But while lackluster episodes made this season a bit uneven, I will very much say I wouldn't trade the great episodes for anything else in the world. And I'd also say this one is one of the better ones.
And probably underlining the entire thing is one hell of a callback, as Doug McClure makes the perfect pose causing Jonah and the Bots to shout in unison "Phineas T. MITCHELL!"
At the Earth's Core proves to be quite a good end to the season, bringing closure to a season that had its share of ups and downs, was mostly successful at recapturing the magic of the previous seasons but at the same time showed a lot of room for improvement. I look to season twelve with optimism in hopes the right lessons were learned and there are still some great episodes heading in our direction. But while lackluster episodes made this season a bit uneven, I will very much say I wouldn't trade the great episodes for anything else in the world. And I'd also say this one is one of the better ones.
Good
The DVD and Blu-Ray
The eleventh season of Mystery Science Theater 3000 was released on DVD and blu-ray on Shout Factory's Season 11 collection. Backers from the Kickstarter had early access to the DVD and blu-ray sets with exclusive bonus features in Shout Factory's Season 11 (#WeBroughtBackMST3K Collector's Edition). At the Earth's Core was featured with fantastic high definition audio and video, while like all the episode discs it held no special features. It did however share a disc with the previous episode, The Christmas That Almost Wasn't.
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