Post by Pemmican on Oct 14, 2008 12:27:21 GMT -5
First, let's get into the right frame of mind, hmm? Star Trek: TNG fans, stand up? Okay, all several million of you sit down, please. Hard to believe that the Next Generation's (actually three generations out, but who's counting?) voyages started more than 20 years ago, and ended about 14 years previous, as of the time of this writing. I watched with great interest as "All good things..." gave a graceful, time-travel friendly coda to the entire series, its characters and scenes etched into my young mind more firmly than the re-runs of the original series had. Except for the redshirt getting a spear in the back, that scene owned.
Anyway, I can remember a time when new episodes of TNG were still being broadcast. What interests me more to this day is the 2nd to last episode, "Preemptive strike." This episode was more concerned with setting up the characters for their final voyage, before they sailed (warped?) onto the silver screen. Not only did this episode flesh out some of the side-plots that had been hatched the season previous, but it revealed a traitor to the crew, and basically set up the plot of the series to follow, "Deep Space Nine."
Which website was I on, again? Oh yeah, "Squirm." In much the same way, it's easier for me to appreciate this episode of MST3K than I do "Diabolik." I'm not saying the final episode isn't great, but I prefer "Squirm" because it showcases the series at its absolute zenith, not in a state of decline and ending. I'm still new to this forum, so I came back to put in this edit: SPOILERS AHEAD! Ye have been warned, traveler.
First, we have the final short, "A case of spring fever." According to Bill Corbett's liner notes, this short was famously considered for an amazing seven seasons before it was actually used in the show. Not only is the short itself demonstrative of the underlying premise of the show itself, the riffing in on par like nothing else: "So Coiley waited all eternity to show himself, and then backs down almost instantly?"
The host segments are a trifle forced, especially the Fair; though the Yankee in me delights when Servo is given a pastrami injection. As a non-native son of the South, I find the movie not only spot-on with Georgia culture, but the riffing thoughtful and yet stinging. I am an online gamer, and often will quip to my opponents/teammates/whomever, "My hair challenges your hair to a fight." People who have never even heard of MST give me a hearty "LOL" whenever I type that.
I can see that the movie would have certainly been scary when its first audience viewed it; no, not the worms, the disgusting bean pole actors they hired! I did a trifle of research and found out that those are indeed worms; kinda, technically, sorta... they're of a particularly yucky subset known as "bloodworms." Wouldn't that have been a better title? I digress...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squirm_(film)
I realize that a lot of directors enjoy working with 'unknowns,' one of my favorites being George Romero. Good thing this film didn't go with that Stallone fella for the part of Roger! The actor, R.A. Dow, must have felt his contribution to cinema history was complete with his one and only credited role on IMDB. I don't think Stallone, very much the type-cast actor, could have pulled off this performance, as young as he would have been at the time. Instead, Mr. Dow, perhaps culled from the "large crowds" of "people who showed up to steal from the caterer," gives stunningly Shatnerian delivery of his lines, injecting his persona into every word uttered. I'd be interested to come across an original script to see if, "Now you gonna be the worm face!" was actually written or simply ad-libbed.
Our protagonists are laughable. If "Mick" (Don Scardino, who has had a very diverse career since "Squirm") had any sense, he'd have given the egg cream to his wisp-like and un-fed love interest, "Geri," and they'd have high-tailed out of town in the station wagon to the South Carolina line for a quickie elopment. Actress Patrica Pearcy's most recent credit is a 1996 voiceover of a Japanese cartoon. The audience didn't buy their tickets to see unattractive bulemia sufferers, they wanted worms and gore!
I haven't seen an unedited version of Squirm, but somehow I doubt it's too much more gruesome than what made it onto the screen of the Mystery Science Theatre. Here we have our country's bicentennial year, frozen in time, focused on a culture reeling from its own mistakes and trying to make amends, and at least act slightly civilized (we're still working on it, eh?). Just as Fly Creek feels they've dodged another natural disaster, which oddly enough, happens a lot in hurricane regions; they are instead brought down by a monster they unleashed themselves.
Don't try to read too much into the plot of "Squirm," though. You'll get lost by the pre-Lucas jump cuts and riveting kazoo-based soundtrack. Instead, focus on the crew of the SOL, as their characters view their second to last bad movie. To sum:
Pearl and the gang are still trying, and still failing.
The bots reveal, in stunning clarity, just how vast the SOL truly is; TARDIS, anyone?
To my knowledge, no one sells skeletons at auctions in the South. We only have people stealing skeletons because they're too lazy to respect the dead.
What happened to Momma? They could have included at least a short scene where she's shown throwing herself into the worms after Roger.
Favorite riff, made recent every four years: "Ahh, to hell with the Olympics."
As much as "Diabolik" was a graceful end and a new beginning for the characters, "Squirm" shows them at the peak of their game. The Brains apparently knew that the 10th nationally broadcast season would be their last, but none of that comes through here. Don't ask yourself, "What kind of other Internet humor would have made," if they'd only been allowed, what, one extra season, two? Like a good story or a well-made movie, you tend to learn a little more about the characters and places just before they bow out, instead of in their final scene. Except if it's "Casablanca." And "The Terminator." And "Wizard of Oz."
Oy! Take it from an adopted Southerner; the world presented in "Squirm" is not only plausible, given the shining environmental record in Georgia, it's more than likely. However, we're far more likely to be overrun by kudzu than by a group of worms; at least the worms fight fair!
Anyway, I can remember a time when new episodes of TNG were still being broadcast. What interests me more to this day is the 2nd to last episode, "Preemptive strike." This episode was more concerned with setting up the characters for their final voyage, before they sailed (warped?) onto the silver screen. Not only did this episode flesh out some of the side-plots that had been hatched the season previous, but it revealed a traitor to the crew, and basically set up the plot of the series to follow, "Deep Space Nine."
Which website was I on, again? Oh yeah, "Squirm." In much the same way, it's easier for me to appreciate this episode of MST3K than I do "Diabolik." I'm not saying the final episode isn't great, but I prefer "Squirm" because it showcases the series at its absolute zenith, not in a state of decline and ending. I'm still new to this forum, so I came back to put in this edit: SPOILERS AHEAD! Ye have been warned, traveler.
First, we have the final short, "A case of spring fever." According to Bill Corbett's liner notes, this short was famously considered for an amazing seven seasons before it was actually used in the show. Not only is the short itself demonstrative of the underlying premise of the show itself, the riffing in on par like nothing else: "So Coiley waited all eternity to show himself, and then backs down almost instantly?"
The host segments are a trifle forced, especially the Fair; though the Yankee in me delights when Servo is given a pastrami injection. As a non-native son of the South, I find the movie not only spot-on with Georgia culture, but the riffing thoughtful and yet stinging. I am an online gamer, and often will quip to my opponents/teammates/whomever, "My hair challenges your hair to a fight." People who have never even heard of MST give me a hearty "LOL" whenever I type that.
I can see that the movie would have certainly been scary when its first audience viewed it; no, not the worms, the disgusting bean pole actors they hired! I did a trifle of research and found out that those are indeed worms; kinda, technically, sorta... they're of a particularly yucky subset known as "bloodworms." Wouldn't that have been a better title? I digress...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squirm_(film)
I realize that a lot of directors enjoy working with 'unknowns,' one of my favorites being George Romero. Good thing this film didn't go with that Stallone fella for the part of Roger! The actor, R.A. Dow, must have felt his contribution to cinema history was complete with his one and only credited role on IMDB. I don't think Stallone, very much the type-cast actor, could have pulled off this performance, as young as he would have been at the time. Instead, Mr. Dow, perhaps culled from the "large crowds" of "people who showed up to steal from the caterer," gives stunningly Shatnerian delivery of his lines, injecting his persona into every word uttered. I'd be interested to come across an original script to see if, "Now you gonna be the worm face!" was actually written or simply ad-libbed.
Our protagonists are laughable. If "Mick" (Don Scardino, who has had a very diverse career since "Squirm") had any sense, he'd have given the egg cream to his wisp-like and un-fed love interest, "Geri," and they'd have high-tailed out of town in the station wagon to the South Carolina line for a quickie elopment. Actress Patrica Pearcy's most recent credit is a 1996 voiceover of a Japanese cartoon. The audience didn't buy their tickets to see unattractive bulemia sufferers, they wanted worms and gore!
I haven't seen an unedited version of Squirm, but somehow I doubt it's too much more gruesome than what made it onto the screen of the Mystery Science Theatre. Here we have our country's bicentennial year, frozen in time, focused on a culture reeling from its own mistakes and trying to make amends, and at least act slightly civilized (we're still working on it, eh?). Just as Fly Creek feels they've dodged another natural disaster, which oddly enough, happens a lot in hurricane regions; they are instead brought down by a monster they unleashed themselves.
Don't try to read too much into the plot of "Squirm," though. You'll get lost by the pre-Lucas jump cuts and riveting kazoo-based soundtrack. Instead, focus on the crew of the SOL, as their characters view their second to last bad movie. To sum:
Pearl and the gang are still trying, and still failing.
The bots reveal, in stunning clarity, just how vast the SOL truly is; TARDIS, anyone?
To my knowledge, no one sells skeletons at auctions in the South. We only have people stealing skeletons because they're too lazy to respect the dead.
What happened to Momma? They could have included at least a short scene where she's shown throwing herself into the worms after Roger.
Favorite riff, made recent every four years: "Ahh, to hell with the Olympics."
As much as "Diabolik" was a graceful end and a new beginning for the characters, "Squirm" shows them at the peak of their game. The Brains apparently knew that the 10th nationally broadcast season would be their last, but none of that comes through here. Don't ask yourself, "What kind of other Internet humor would have made," if they'd only been allowed, what, one extra season, two? Like a good story or a well-made movie, you tend to learn a little more about the characters and places just before they bow out, instead of in their final scene. Except if it's "Casablanca." And "The Terminator." And "Wizard of Oz."
Oy! Take it from an adopted Southerner; the world presented in "Squirm" is not only plausible, given the shining environmental record in Georgia, it's more than likely. However, we're far more likely to be overrun by kudzu than by a group of worms; at least the worms fight fair!
