Mystery Science Theater 3000: DOCTOR MORDRID

June 11, 2022 2:20 AM - Season 13, Episode 5

"Jeffery Combs is" Doctor Mordrid! Master of the Unknown! Also, landlord of a building in New York! And yet the movie wants to believe he's a force working for good. He was sent to our world by a pair of blue eyes to save all reality from the eeeeevil Kabal! Sadly it seems his mystical abilities provide him no defense against getting arrested. It's the fifth episode of Season 13, and not such a bad movie. The story goes it was originally written as a Doctor Strange movie but they lost the rights, so they renamed some characters and made it anyway. Emily hosts this one; it looks like Joel will be hosting the next! Premiered in the Gizmoplex on June 10th, 2022.

Episode 1305

Rotten Tomatoes (Critics N/A, Viewers 34%) - Wikipedia
IMDB (1992, 5.5 stars)
"An unspeakable evil has come into our dimension and wants to rule over Earth, and only a mysterious sorceror known as Doctor Mordrid can stop him."
Directed by Albert Band and Charles Band. Written by Charles Band and C. Courtney Joyner. Starring Jeffrey Combs, Yvette Nipar, and Jay Acovone.

posted by JHarris (4 comments total)

I liked this episode, but I'm still irritated by this new Crow. I'm slowly growing adjusted to the cartoon-teenager voice, but some of the riffs are just...well, okay. For instance, the opening credits are panning over a dimly-lit library, and Crow says "Terrible light for reading". Later, Crow says "We were going to do a Doctor Strange movie, but we lost the rights". Those aren't jokes...that's just stuff that's happening. It's kind of grating.

On a more positive note, one of my favorite riffs from this one, from two characters looking at the books in the aforementioned library:

"These volumes are amazing."

"THANKS! LOUD IS MY FAVORITE!"
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 12:07 PM on June 11, 2022 [2 favorites]

I probably need to watch this again, as I was doing other things while it was on and didn't pay 100% attention to it. First reaction: I didn't think it was as funny as the first Emily and bots movie, but I also thought the movie itself wasn't as riffable.
posted by wittgenstein at 9:35 AM on June 15, 2022

Finally got around to watching the livestream replay of the premiere on the Gizmoplex, with an hourlong Zoom discussion/Q&A at the end with the cast/crew. They had the actual screenwriter (C. Courtney Joyner) for the movie on as a guest, and they had a fun talk about the surprisingly degree of cross-pollination between people who like MST3K (like Joyner) and people who make movies that end up on MST3K, as well as the surprisingly decent production values on certain tiers of B-movies back in the '80s and '90s. It's clear that the cast and crew had a lot of affection for this movie, so if the riffs weren't quite as razor-sharp as in other recent episodes, that may be why.
posted by Strange Interlude at 11:05 PM on June 18, 2022 [2 favorites]

"Kindy-garden"?
posted by Rat Spatula at 6:36 PM on June 20, 2022