"No one can beat me at snap-zooms! I was in Time of the
Apes!"
Plot: A
trained space assassin goes rogue and joins a flight crew of Earthlings.
Famous for:
"He triiiiiiiiied to kill me with a forklift!"
"Eat fork, buddy!"
My favorite riff:
I feel bad picking the forklift scene as my favorite riff, because it's
so predictable, but I mean... that scene really did become
iconic for a reason. If you went back to 1993 in a time machine, or
1994, or 1995, or whatever, and you polled MST3k fans from that era,
and you asked them for their all-time favorite MST3k scene... I have no
doubt that "Fugitive Alien - Rocky tries to kill Ken with a forklift"
would have probably been the most popular answer. At the very least, it
would have been the most popular scene from anything that aired prior
to Manos.
Combine THAT goofy scene with the memorable song that
Joel and the Bots made up about it (and they keep singing, all the way
through Fugitive Alien 2), and of course here you have it. One of the
most famous riffs in MST3k history. And easily one of their most
popular running jokes of all time.
Aside from that,
I also love the running Beatles joke that every time someone mentions
the character Rita, Joel and the Bots will instantly follow it with "Meter maid."
I mean, that's just fun nerd humor.
"Rita! Meter maid!"
Comments:
Fugitive Alien is without question one of the most popular
episodes of MST3k, and I would say is one of the
three outstanding episodes from the first three seasons. I know I've
mentioned it before (probably in my Amazing Colossal Man writeup),
but in my opinion, the big episodes from the first three seasons are
this one, The Amazing Colossal Man, and then Gamera vs. Guiron (which
we'll
be talking about in a bit.)
I wouldn't say that the
riffing is all that amazing in Fugitive Alien. I mean, it's funny,
but
there will be better riffing that comes later down the road.
No, what this episode has going for it is that the movie
itself
is just FUN. It's fun, and it's goofy as all hell, and you would
probably laugh at it even if you were watching it unriffed.
Sometimes the jokes
practically write themselves. Joel and the Bots barely even have to say
anything.
"When Josie and the Pussycats go bad."
"Presser? AIR PRESSER??"
Tammy: Captain! It's for you!
Joel: Fisher Price phone, sir.
Fugitive
Alien isn't actually a movie, by the way. It's just three episodes of an old
Japanese TV show from the 70s called "Star Wolf."
When the
Japanese production company wanted to bring it to America, they just
took three episodes of Star Wolf, they spliced them together
with
the barest semblance of a storyline, and voila, there you go, it was repackaged as a
movie. Then the MST3k guys got their hands
it,
and it became one of their early signature episodes.
And
despite the fact that I don't think the riffing in this episode is
especially outstanding, I have always loved the running gag they come
up with that every single character in the movie is apparently named
"Ken." If you don't remember Fugitive Alien for the forklift
song, you'll definitely remember it for all of the Ken jokes.
To
me, Ken(s) was/were the heart of the episode.
"Ken thirty-three, go left! Ken sixteen and eighteen, flank him!"
Even
though I think there was funnier riffing later in the show, this will
always be one of my top thirty episodes. If only because I
have
seen it so many god damn times over the years, and because it is one of
those episodes like to I use when I introduce someone
new to the show. In fact, for YEARS, this was my go-to
episode
when I wanted to turn someone new into an MST3k fan.
Because of that, I will always have nothing but respect for Ken and Captain Ken and
their Kenlings.
"Between Ken and Ken
lies... Obsession."
Trivia:
MST3k also riffed Fugitive Alien 2 (aka three more episodes of
the
TV show "Star Wolf"). And some would argue that episode is even better than
Fugitive Alien. After all, that one has most of the fun callbacks and the fun
songs. But I'm trying not to include sequels or franchises on this countdown, I'm
trying to include as many different types of episodes as I can.
So please just consider this a joint entry for both Fugitive Alien 1
and
2.
They're pretty much the exact same (fun) thing, and they're both awesome.
