MST3K-OZ #8 5 May 1998 Welcome to the eighth issue of the Antipodean MSTie Newsletter! As always, anyone who wants to get off this bus, let me know. If you know someone else who might want to see this, please get them to e-mail me to add them to the list. I won't add anyone who doesn't request it directly. Feel free to print this, show it to your friends, blow your nose on it - whatever works for you. Remember, this effort works best as a co-operative effort. If you've got something you want to share with us all, even if it's only a paragraph long, send it to me and I'll include it! I'm not fussy! As long as it's got something vaguely to do with MST3K and is somehow relevant to us, I'm happy to see it! As an editor I have a pretty relaxed style . -------------------------------------- JOIN US! New this time around is Tina from Melbourne, and Noah Singman from West Orange, New Jersey, U.S. of A.! (So what's East Orange like, Noah?) Wave hello to them everyone! -------------------------------------- WE'RE ON THE WEB! Quintas has been working hard and has updated our Web site! I think it looks spiffy, if still a little sparse. But it's young, it'll grow! Visit http://www.fortunecity.com/lavendar/pimlico/131/oz.html! You know you want to! This is a site in continual development, so mind the girders and don't step in the paint! Suggestions for improvements always welcome! If you have any great ideas, or material to contribute, please forward them to Quintas (syntax@picknowl.com.au). ------------------------------------- NEW ARRIVALS Paul Dossett has lent me his two new tapes of Season 8 and Season 9 episodes ... cripes! Some of these episodes were only first seen in the US a few weeks ago! God bless the electronic age (and air mail)! Reviews are sure to follow! ------------------------------------- APRIL MELBOURNE GATHERING REPORT This month was another low attendance month ... Tina and Paul were the only ones who showed up, but we had a *very* good time watching some episodes that Paul received recently. First up was a Season 9 episode, "The Phantom Planet", an astonishing film that predicts that man will be exploring space from a moon base in 1980! Unfortunately, when we go into space strange gravitational effects will reverse the polarity of our electron flows and cause us to shrink to the size of Barbie dolls. This in turn will put as at risk from the Solarites, a strange race of beings (also the size of slightly-larger Barbie dolls, apparently) who enjoy wearing those "pop out eyes" novelty spectacles. Just as well the Solarites are dumber than a pile of rocks, then. We followed this educational and informative documentary with a Season 8 episode, "Prince Of Space", a Japanese sci-fi drama about this guy who shines shoes, see, but actually he's PRINCE OF SPACE! So when the evil Krankor and his brood of chicken-like cronies come visiting Earth, PRINCE OF SPACE demonstrates conclusively why poultry are not fit to rule the galaxy. After all, their weapons are useless against him! (It's true!) Finally, PRINCE OF SPACE goes back to the coop to fry him some chicken wings, showing definitively that he, as PRINCE OF SPACE, is not only immune to the weapons trained against him, he is friend to all children! No, wait, that's Gamera (he is made of turtle meat, Gamera is really neat!). Sorry, I digress .... I'd just like to say at this point that "Prince of Space" has become one of my favourite episodes, and scores a wacky 9.5 on the Goofy-meter! "I like it VERY MUCH!" Tentative next gathering date: 16 May. Mark your calendars! ------------------------------------- REVIEW I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF - Reviewed by Alison Campbell (a.campbell@pmci.unimelb.edu.au) This is one of my favourite MSTed movies, not least 'cos it's actually watchable. Starring (a very young) Michael Landon ("Bonanza!") as the 'rebelling' teenager who becomes a werewolf due to the ministrations of an evil scientist/medico/psychatrist (I wasn't entirely sure what he was meant to be - I don't know a lot of doctors or psychatrist with chemistry equipment in their office, but then again I know almost no chemists who do psychology as a hobby.) The basic story involves a rebellious teenager (he fights and hurls milk) who finally agrees to go see the scientist/medico/psychatrist after alienating all his remaining friends and frightening his very, very blonde girlfriend. Said s/m/p hypnotises the teenager, regressing him back to his primeval past - whereupon he starts sprouting hair. [Basically, a tale of puberty going horribly wrong - Bruce] A Halloween party follows, featuring one of the worst songs I have ever heard, and soon after people start disappearing in strange circumstances. Suspicion that a werewolf is in town slowly gathers and is given a huge boost when the rebellious teenager turns into the werewolf at school and savages a gymnast. (Hey, I applauded). The town people gather and go to hunt the werewolf down, but luckily he escapes and savages the doctor and his Igor-like assistant to death before finally sucumbing to bullets (presumably silver ones) himself. All in all the movie isn't too bad to watch - only the song is truly cringeworthy - the MSTing was great and having Michael Landon around makes it kind of cool. In fact the only thing I didn't like about 'I Was A Teenage Werewolf' were the host segments which were disappointing (IMHO) and which I fast forwarded through the second time I watched it. ------------------------------------- LETTERS Carl, our correspondent in New Zealand, writes: "I had a BIG BBQ at my place last Friday. As the festivities wound down, I tried "Danger! Deathray!" on some of the remaining guests. I really didn't know if they would enjoy it or not. Well, that is one mystery that is now solved. Some of my guests laughed so hard, I thought I was going to have get them medical assistance. We will get together again on the 17th to watch another experiment. "And so, the cult continues to spread its tentacle like pseudopods to the farthest reaches of the planet. We will not be content until all have been exposed to the unspeakable horror that is (are?) "cheesy movies". In time, we will fulfill the late Dr Forrester's dream of world conquest! All living creatures will learn to respond properly to the "movie sign" !!!! "" So, is the secret to get your subjects well-fed and intoxicated first, and *then* show them the bad movies? Hmm ...! Thanks for the report, Carl! And mind the sheep! ----------------- April Herzog from Canberra writes: "Let me tell you about the week I took off work to concentrate on my part time studies. I didn't. Study that is. I discovered