305-Stranded in Space

Film Year:  1973
Genre:  Science Fiction, Adventure, Drama
Director:  Lee H. Katzin
Starring:  Glenn Corbett, Cameron Mitchell, Sharon Acker, Lew Ayers
MST Season:  3

The Movie

Proving for the most part that an interesting sci-fi premise can't float without good writing, Stranded in Space is actually a failed TV pilot called The Stranger.  In this drawn out premise set-up, an astronaut finds himself in a space mission gone wrong, and awakens back on Earth and finds out that he was the sole survivor and is being kept for observation.  Suspicious of his surroundings, he escapes the hospital and goes on the run, soon finding out that this world is similar to his, but entirely different at the same time.  He has landed on a Counter-Earth named Terra, a planet that is on the same orbit as the Earth but on the opposite side of the sun.  This world has been taken over by the Perfect Order, a government that rules the citizens with an iron fist and brainwashes anybody with an opinion of their own.

I normally enjoy shows like this, such as The Fugitive, Planet of the Apes, or The Incredible Hulk, which feature rogue main characters who go from city to city and hide among residents as they don't want to be found.  That said, Stranded in Space strains my attention span.  It has a great concept but fails to make it interesting.  The idea of a planet similar to our own but taken down a different path is a great setting, but they choose to make that setting far too familiar.  For the most part almost everything about this planet is like our own, with the only difference being the government.  This show might have had a better chance of lasting if it featured a type of society that was a bit more removed from what we know, maybe more primitive or more advanced or perhaps aesthetically turned upside down.

It's feasible that future episodes of The Stranger might have been more exciting than this pilot.  As is usually the case pilots are more or less just a proof of concept, and are often made with actors and crew trying to get a feel for the characters and material that they're provided.  This pilot film gives us wooden characters with generic development however, trying to sell us on this premise they've devised.  But the tricky thing about television is that more than any other form of storytelling the characters need to hook you, because if they aren't interesting you don't have a desire to see what predicament they are in the following week.  This is likely the thing that killed this particular pilot, because I don't really care what happens to them in the next episode.

And with a series never developing we find ourselves judging Stranded in Space as a by-itself movie, and it is a dull bore that never goes anywhere.  Like a lot of high concept pilots, the explanation of the premise itself is the primary concern while it sets up little threads that a series might explore.  As a singular experience we're given that high concept introduction that plays out like an hour and a half of something that maybe could pass off as a first act.  The film doesn't have a conclusion, with our main character still stuck on Terra and on the run as the film ends.

One also can't help but feel that the movie we see in this week's episode is a bit of a disappointment based on the title alone.  When one sees the title of Stranded in Space your mind might think of the movie Gravity or the TV series Lost in Space, or even to venture into MST's catalog Space Travelers or The Phantom Planet.  While technically this character is "stranded in space" this feels like something of a misleading title to make us think what we're given might be more exciting than it is.

The Episode

This episode is a bit of dry experience.  Sometimes the riffing is good enough for a solid string of chuckles, but this movie is not really something that they can work with.  It's bad, but it's talky and has a very meandering plot.  And worst of all it's just plain dull.  Whether you pay attention to the film or the jokes, it's difficult to maintain attention to this episode.  But to give credit where credit is due, I can't call this a below average on the whole because I feel the theater segments get a lot of work done to make this wooden pilot watchable.  Not all of the riffs land, but I found the guys snapping my attention back at points when I thought the movie was getting to me.

The host segments are fairly low key but mildly endearing as well.  I enjoyed the close with Tom Servo as a big time TV producer, while Joel's take on the film's villain was enjoyable as well.  But the one thing I'd say a lot of these segments have in common is that they just kind of snowball and lead to nowhere in particular, though those above mentioned segments are the ones that come off the best.  Servo and Crow's trading cards and their discussion on Ward E are mostly just long and a little meh, while Joel's shooting gallery is bland.  Even the invention exchange is a bit of a run-on, featuring Joel and the Mads one-upping each other with weapons based off of the "BANG!" flag gun.

This is an episode I mostly find myself watching if I haven't seen it in a while just to refresh my memory on it.  I believe most of the time when I relive it I come to the conclusion of "eh, it's alright."  It's not much of a casual viewing episode, as the movie is a labor and while the riffing isn't a total loss the SOL crew isn't up to go above and beyond on this one.  But I can think of worse episodes to fall asleep to.

Average

The DVD

Stranded in Space was released on DVD in Shout Factory's Volume XXXVI set, featuring good audio and video.  The only bonus feature was The Devil Down in Georgia, a documentary on Film Ventures International, the studio that provided all those curious retitled films with re-edited opening credit sequences that appeared on Mystery Science Theater, which include Stranded in Space and others such as Cave Dwellers and Pod People.  The re-editing phase of the company is just a small portion at the end of this company's life span, as this excellent documentary delves into their history of distributing films, including the production of films featured on Rifftrax such as Grizzly, Day of the Animals, The Last Shark, and Mutant.