Genre: Action, Comedy
Director: Alan Myerson, Ray Austin
Starring: Lee Van Cleef. Timothy Van Patten, George Lazenby, Crystal Lynn Bernard, David McCallum, Monte Markham (This one's for you, Frank!)
MST Season: 3
The Movie
It seems The Master had a head start on that whole home media breathing new life into a prematurely cancelled series fad that hit its stride with the advent of DVD. Apparently the entire series was released under the Master Ninja label for home video, which was a pro of having so few episodes. Was it the Firefly of its day? Not even I am bold enough to make that claim, but there must have been someone buying these.
When I remember the first Master Ninja, I more or less remember the first half of that movie more than the second, with the silly origin and cheesy ninja fights. The formulaic nature of shows like this can start to wear you down if you aren't hooked enough to keep watching, which is probably why the series was cancelled after thirteen episodes, because it never hooked. There were a lot of shows like this, where drifters fight injustice while traveling town-to-town, like The Fugitive, The Incredible Hulk, and The A-Team. And even then, even that genre wasn't different enough from your normal crimefighter TV show, like Charlie's Angels and Knight Rider. The Master bet it all on the ninja and martial arts craze to be its hook. It worked for a lot of things in the 80's, but not The Master. When you get into a generic people in a little town with a big problem plot, Lee Van Cleef in a black ninja outfit looks pretty weird.
Because of that, I'm not too into the first episode, which as aired was called "State of the Union" and features Max and McCallister helping a woman build a union against her job, which doesn't want one. There are not enough words in the English dictionary to explain how much I don't care. The second episode, "Hostages," with terrorists vs. ninjas, is more fun and has more action. Of course, it helps to get a ninja on ninja battle in this episode, which is definitely a plus when you're trying to sell a series on the ninja aspect.
Unfortunately it's clear that The Master as a series isn't going to do anything special with its premise in the long run, because it does fall into this rut of rudimentary TV series plot lines being thrown at the characters instead of giving the characters any attempt to develop their own stories. If the series felt like it had any progression on the initial setup of McCallister looking for his daughter, maybe then I would feel different. After all, even The Fugitive had continuing plot devices like Richard Kimble trying to distance himself from Lieutenant Gerard and the search for the man who framed him, while The Incredible Hulk had David Banner trying to research a cure for himself at various destinations. In this batch of episodes, McCallister and Max are just doing random shit that has little to do with their journey as characters.
There's some cool guest stars in these episodes though, like one-time James Bond George Lazenby and Man from U.N.C.L.E. star David McCallum. Like Demi Moore in the previous episode, there's even a neat "in retrospect" guest in Crystal Lynn Bernard, who landed a lead role in the hit sitcom Wings a few years after this.
The Master was probably destined to get cancelled, but those who love cheesy 80's television will find some kicks in this series in the long run. Unfortunately this is the last the series will be featured on Mystery Science Theater, so we'll never find out where the Master and Max Keller wind up. It's doubtful they wound up anywhere, but I believe their adventure continued in my heart!
The Episode
THE RETURN OF MASTER NINJA THEME SONG!
Master Ninja is a welcome return, because the cheesy 80's action series was a lot of fun the last time around. That being said, Master Ninja II doesn't rev me up the way the previous episode did. I think it's partially because the episodes are less interesting to me, though the more entertaining second episode jumps out a little more than the first. It's the opposite opinion I had of Master Ninja I, where I think the first half is more enjoyable than the second, stemming from the TV series they're watching.
To be honest, reviewing this episode of MST now is really just an opportunity for me to comes to terms with something resembling an opinion on this episode, because it's always been just kind of there to me. If I'm in the mood for Master Ninja, I usually pop in the first one and often don't bother with this one at all. Not a lot about it sticks out to me, and even watching it with some solid distance between it and the first I find it fails to leave much of an impression. It's weird, because the riffing doesn't strike me as being really all that worse than the previous Master Ninja installment, and I did laugh, but it just feels like more. And if you watch this episode in production order, it comes so close to that previous episode to the point where it feels a little repetitive (although I will admit returning to Master Ninja is a huge pick-me-up after Castle of Fu Manchu). I'm not saying bringing back Master Ninja is a mistake, but a more patient return would have been welcome, maybe bringing it back the following season where they're distanced enough to bring something fresher to it.
Interestingly enough, Master Ninja III was rumored to be a film up for a slot in season six, which I would have been game for. The riffing had been given a new dynamic with Mike as a host and I really would have liked to see that era of the show tackle the further adventures of the Master and Max Keller. It feels like it could have been fresher than Master Ninja II and added something fun to the show's Master Ninja legacy. But MST always had this habit of burning through movie series almost immediately to dwindling returns, from running through the same five Gamera movies twice to Rocky Jones and even as recent as doing two Wizards of the Lost Kingdom movies back-to-back (the only exception to this nasty habit seems to be Ator).
There are some fun sketches though. There's a fun bit where Servo pairs up fictional characters with pet companions, like Max and the Master's pet hamster. It reminds me a bit of a scene from the movie City Slickers in which a duo of ice cream conglomerates proudly declare they can pair up any meal with the perfect flavor of ice cream and dare anyone to challenge them. Crow's turn as General Patton is brief but a cute image, while the opening offers up a goofball take on bad improv. The Invention Exchange offers up a Conveyor Belt Buffet and a Self-Perpetuating Hamster Habitat, both of which I enjoyed.
This episode doesn't do anything wrong really, it's just I don't have much to say about it except explaining why I don't have much to say about it. I think there are stronger opinions out there on this one than my own, so I'll leave those opinions to state something more substantial. That's probably a shit stance to take in reviewing something, especially when the subject is perfectly fine, but I just can't shift out of neutral after watching this episode.
Average
The DVD
This second verse of MASTER NINJA THEME SONG was released on Volume XX, right next to Master Ninja I. Audio and video were pretty good, while the sole special feature is a Dragon*Con 2010 panel called Tom Servo vs. Tom Servo, which is attended by J. Elvis Weinstein and Kevin Murphy and they discuss the character. What's cool about this panel is that J. Elvis has a lot to say about the character, even though he only played him for a fraction of the episodes Kevin did. J. Elvis talks about evolving the character from Beeper to Servo to Tom Servo and figuring out who this bot was supposed to be, and Kevin takes it from there to establish how the bot settled for the rest of the series. Kevin also goes the extra mile to dig out some goodies he had in storage from his days on MST, including the infamous "I HATE TOM SERVO'S NEW VOICE!!!" banner.
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