Genre: Science Fiction
Director: Mary Ann Fisher
Starring: Bradford Dillman, Priscilla Barnes, Daryl Haney
MST Season: 12
The Movie
It's crazy to think that so many movies rushed to theaters in 1989 to depict underwater sci-fi, especially when the movie everyone was piggybacking off of, The Abyss, was considered such a box office underperformer. But the James Cameron film, hot off the heels of The Terminator and Aliens, was thought to be a big-cinematic-event-of-the-year in the making, and films ranging from Rambo: First Blood Part II director George P. Cosmatos directing Leviathan to Friday the 13th director Sean S. Cunningham taking a stab with DeepStar Six. Hell, even Pod People director Jaun Piquer Simon jumped into the action with a movie called The Rift. If The Abyss barely made any money, was there any left for these?
Our subject here is one of the lesser celebrated films in the legacy, Lords of the Deep is a Roger Corman produced cheapie released during the rush. The film tells of a group of underwater scientists who encounter an extraterrestrial presence (sound familiar?). This one takes the form of a gel that begins to mutate into a goofy stingray puppet.
It's probably things like the puppets that help Lords of the Deep hold some sort of personality against its competition. The Abyss had ground-breaking computer graphics and Leviathan had creature effects by Stan Winston. Lords of the Deep has no standards like that. In fact, it's a movie that reportedly fired noted future Steven Spielberg cinematographer Janusz Kaminski from its second unit because his work was too good and wasn't matching the crappiness of the first unit footage (no seriously, this is true, look it up). Everything in Lords of the Deep looks plastic and fake, and that's kind of its strength because it's kind of cute and fun to look at, if nothing else.
The other noteworthy aspect of the movie is...it stars Priscilla Barnes, I guess? It's big star power is the second replacement for Suzanne Sommers on Three's Company, but Barnes was a pleasantly fun actress on that series so I'm always happy to see her get work, be it License to Kill, Mallrats, or The Devil's Rejects. She at the very least tries to take the movie seriously, even if most of her co-stars aren't up to the challenge. Bradford Dillman does try to camp it up as the movie builds itself to its nutty, inane conclusion, so it also has him in its favor. But I wish more of the movie were as playful as Dillman is, because it has a funny aesthetic that the movie could utilize if the movie didn't seem like it wanted us to halfway believe in it.
The Episode
The Bots rejoice because the Gauntlet is in the home stretch. Jonah then corrects them by saying that they aren't even halfway through.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
But the good news for the audience is that means there are four more episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000 left this season, and the last two were wildly fun. Bring it ON!
Then Lords of the Deep happens.
While not a bad episode, Lords of the Deep is something of a mood killer. Mac and Me and Atlantic Rim have a momentum and a rhythm to them. Lords of the Deep has neither. It's a lackluster experience with a goofy but slow film at its center and a commentary that feels like wild stabs in the dark. To an extent, the riff is interesting in its restraint, because it's a film with a recognizable sitcom star in it and they don't hurl as many references to her best known role as you might think they would. In fact, there is only one Three's Company riff I caught in the episode, and Priscilla Barnes isn't even in the scene ("I got an angry fish knockin' at my door!" "He's been waitin' for you!"). That's kind of symbolic of the riff, which feels like they're taking aim but their eye is off just enough that they never seem to catch the target. There are more giggles than laughs during Lords of the Deep, but it never feels enough to truly satisfy.
The host segments are pretty good at least, with the exception of one which is just a tease for a guest star in the finale. But that guest star is pretty delightful, Deanna Rooney plays the role of Dr. Donna St. Phibes, an expert on movie monsters, who shows of a Lord of the Deep to the Mads after the film. This segment is an absolute delight, and it's enough to hope Dr. St. Phibes becomes a recurring guest. There is also a cute segment in which the Bots escape from the Boneheads on Moon 13, and a fun recreation from the movie where Jonah touches the alien goo which has him recount embarrassing moments from his childhood. The episode also offers up one of the stronger Invention Exchanges from the relaunch seasons, where Jonah shows off the Hand-Drier Air Hockey Table (complete with urinal cake puck, "What? It's cake!") and the Mads' Motion Capture Drone marionettes.
Lords of the Deep has redeeming qualities, but in the grand scheme of the Gauntlet it's too much of a snoozer. It can't hold its own against the episodes surrounding it, and given that it comes right in the middle it just kind of collapses in on itself as the weakest episode of the season. Even outside of the bingewatch formula, the episode is a humdrum experience that bores more than it entertains. It's a shame, because with those silly puppets in the movie, this episode is craving to be much better.
Average
The DVD and Blu-Ray
Shout Factory released this episode along with the rest of the season on their Season 12: The Gauntlet DVD and Blu-Ray box sets, of which I own a Pledge Drive Edition sold to people who contributed to a pledge drive before the season began. Audio and video were exceptional, and there were no bonus features. The episode did share a disc with the following episode, The Day Time Ended.
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