Mystery Science Theater 3000: PRINCE OF SPACE

September 13, 2017 10:27 PM - Season 8, Episode 16

A guy working as a bootblack on the streets of Tokyo, who keeps a horde of kids with him also plying his trade, is secretly the interstellar hero Prince of Space! Defender of Earth from the dastardly chicken people of Krankor! Those who would invade us to obtain the athletic cup technology of which their own race is so woefully deficient! One of the most classic episodes of Season Eight, in terms all of riffing, of host segments, and of sublime movie weirdness. I like it very much! As for the show's "plot," all the guys go into a wormhole and strange things begin to happen.... Promo - YouTube (ih32m) Premiered August 16, 1997.

Episode 816 PRINCE OF SPACE
Satellite News - Mighty Jack's Episode Review - War of the Colossal Fan Guide - Annotated MST3K - TVTropes

Bridget Nelson gives her thoughts on the episode in her entry on it in the Amazing Colossal Episode Guide:

The movie was made bearable only by the fact that we ate sushi for lunch. Also, Krankor and company's droopy crotch areas made me have to close my eyes so I missed a good deal of the movie.
Look for a cute chipmunk (squirrel?) as it runs across the path in the outdoor scene.
When Kevin and I were trying on our roman costumes he complained that his slip was too lacy, to which Mary Jo replied, "Were you hoping for a more masculine slip?" That Mary Jo, what a minx. (In the end, Kevin wore shorts under his toga.)
It should be noted that Beez worked day and night getting Flavia's dress and wig just right. She did a great job! I'm just sad I'm am adult and can't go to prom anymore because Beez could make the coolest dress ever!

Movie
Daddy-O's Drive-In Dirt
(as "Planet Prince") - TVTropes
IMDB (1959, 2.2 stars)
"When an alien force tries to invade Earth to steal a powerful new rocket fuel, a mysterious hero intervenes."
Directed by Eijirô Wakabayashi. Written by Masaru Igami and Shin Morita. Starring Tatsuo Umemiya, Hiroko Mine and Takashi Kanda.

Notes:
I think we can see in Season Eight a series of returns to classic MST of the past. We got traditional monster movies like Return of the Creature, we got a lush-but-goofy Russian folk tale, we got a failed 70s TV show repackaged as a movie, and now we have the Sandy Frankish Japanese kids movie.

Like a few of the Sandy Frank imports, this movie is actually pieced together from other sources, in this case two other features that were in turn based on the Japanese show Planet Prince. Ol' Krankor wasn't the main villain of all of that, but he was of the two stories adapted. The hero bears a strong resemblance to that of another Japanese show, Super Giant.

posted by JHarris (9 comments total)

HAAAH HAAAH HAAAH!!!
posted by Chrysostom at 6:47 AM on September 14, 2017 [3 favorites]

I think it's well known on Metafilter that this is my favorite episode. If you have never seen it before, the second host segment is my favorite thing ever, though all of the host segments in this episode are really funny.

I can still make myself laugh by thinking "Samuel Barber's Adagio for Young, Japanese children."

I think Rifftrax's Attack From Space is a Super Giant movie, but I'm not sure.
posted by wittgenstein at 7:06 AM on September 14, 2017 [1 favorite]

Oh - a question - is this the only time we ever see the robots outside?
posted by wittgenstein at 7:09 AM on September 14, 2017 [1 favorite]

Yeah, this is the only time they went real world outside. I believe this was a patch of woods 100 yards or so from the Best Brains studio.
posted by Chrysostom at 10:58 AM on September 14, 2017 [2 favorites]

Sorry this is late (like, an hour 'til!) but yes we are doing MST Club tonight (Thursday) at 9 PM Eastern, 6 PM Pacific, at https://cytu.be/r/Metafilter_MST3KClub. Hope you can make it!
posted by JHarris at 4:59 PM on September 14, 2017

Just to be clear now that you have watched the episode, my favorite thing ever mentioned above is SuperMarionation Mike!
posted by wittgenstein at 5:07 AM on September 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

Dat dat da-dat dat DAT

I've probably watched this episode more than any other. There are at least 20 riffs that are part of my and my husband's shared joke language. For all their complaints about quality, there is such a density of silliness in the movie. It's one of their peaks.
posted by tchemgrrl at 5:36 AM on September 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

What's wrong with bootblacking, I like it very much!
posted by Chrysostom at 10:09 AM on September 15, 2017 [3 favorites]

I've been really wanting to come hang out with everyone, and was waiting for my FAVORITE EPISODE EVAR, and of course, I had to evacuate due to Hurricane Irma and had zero internet until about a week ago.

/curse the heavens, ON
posted by Major Matt Mason Dixon at 1:51 PM on October 5, 2017 [2 favorites]