r/MST3K

I thought this was a good one with some interesting tidbits that I hadn’t heard before about the MST Movie and a few other things. Enjoy, won’t you?…?

Experiment #20

Episode 410: Hercules Against the Moon Men

Rewatch date: May 20th 2013

Along that road they take the victims to the sacrifice. Beyond the river and those woods is the Mountain of Death.

Humans have an interesting connection to memory. Movies and television shows help bring back the memories of our first experiences with them (where we were, what the circumstances were, what life was like at the time). This episode is one such example. When I was a kid, I had really bad Insomnia. One time, I had a hard time sleeping. My dad heard me tossing and turning. He told me to go to the basement and watch TV til I felt tired. I had always been told not to stay up late. But since dad said it was okay, I went to the basement and watched Hercules Against the Moon Men. Or rather the second half of it. I had watched the first half the day before, but stopped after the “Alan Steele” host segment, knowing I would pick up from there later. After finishing the episode round 4AM, I turned it off and switched to the Adult Swim block on Cartoon Network. I didn’t watch a lot of Adult Swim til I was in High School, and I certainly hadn’t seen most of the stuff that aired after 10PM. That night was the first time I saw what would become one of my favorite anime: Detective Conan, or as it was called when it came to the U.S., "Case Closed". I also saw Lupin the 3rd for the first time. Memories.

Hercules Against the Moon Men is a 1965 re-edit, re-dubbing and retitling of the 1964 Franco-Italian film, "Machiste and the Queen of Samar". I already know what you’re thinking, “What the hell does that title have to do with Hercules?” Well the original film had nothing to do with the mythological Greek demi-god. It was originally about Machiste. Machiste is (I’m told) a character originally created for Italian films in the early 1910s. A sort of ideal man who always saves the day. But we American folk weren’t familiar with this character. So, when the film was brought to the United States by Governor Films, they instead named the hero Hercules. Makes sense considering Joseph E Levine’s distribution of the Hercules films were a major success. I’m no Greek scholar, but I don’t think it detracts or changes much of the film.

Ages ago, a meteorite crashed into the earth. With it came the evil Moon Men (or Moon Man, I don’t think we ever see more than one in the film). The Moon Men demand the Kingdom of Samar to provide their youth for sacrifice every certain lunar cycle. Without the knowledge of her people, The Queen of Samar knowingly aids the evil Moon Men. There is only one man who can put a stop to her evils. Hercules (we always go by the name given in the version used on MST3K) comes to aid the townsfolk. There’s a lot of fighting and torture spikes. I don’t think I’m spoiling much when I say that he succeeds.

When I first saw this episode, it wasn’t something that stuck out as enjoyable. I’ve enjoyed going back to it from time to time. This time I would say was the most enjoyable re-watch. I don’t know if it’s because I have to pay more attention in order to do these write ups. Whatever it is, here’s some riffs I enjoyed:

When the youths are chaned together and brought to the Mountain of Doom for sacrifice, Crow quips “These guys aren’t very good at Tug of War.” Also, just before they are scarified, Servo says “This must be what Limbo is like.” Joel responds “Oh, Rush Limbaugh?” Servo comes back with, “No, then it would be hell.” Near the end we have a scene that looks an awful lot like the book cover to L. Ron Hubbard’s Dianetics. After Servo points this out, Crow gives us, “How much money can we squeeze out of John Travolta?” Sometimes riffs are timeless, aren’t they? I’d say my favorite joke is when we first see the Queen of Samar’s palace. She has several giant, gold, human statues surrounding her throne. Joel gives us, “Check it out! It’s a Life-Size Achievement Award.”

When I was young, I had a handheld tape recorder (tape recorders were these things we used to record audio before smartphones). I recorded the audio of the sketches from this episode and listened to them during car trips. I was a weird kid. The sketches are engrained in my memory. Servo and Crow failing to run away from home, Super Freak Out!, The Tribute to Pants; all winners. My favorite sketch is The BOOBY Trap Illusion. “It’s just a kind of bird.” The letter reading sketch stood out in my mind. When it comes to discussing this episode, I don’t know if I’ve seen anyone else write about this online. When I was younger, I used to freeze frame the fan letters they would excerpt (again, weird kid). Then I would try to read the entire letter. I remember this one being really sad. It looks like it was written by a child under the age of 10. It says something like "Everyone thinks I'm (Joel)'s lovechild. I don't look like my dad.” I hope that kid (who assuming nothing happened to him, would be an adult now) is doing alright.

Of course, this episode gives us The Mad’s invention exchange: Saaaaandstooorrrm. Which is all part of their new program called "DEEP HURTING!" The Mad’s tease the Sandstorm/DEEP HURTING! bit in host segments 2, 3 and 5. Well sure as rain, the last 14 minutes of the movie is a sequence that takes place during a sandstorm. Joel and the Bots almost lose it. But they manage to keep it together long enough to give a riff close to my heart, “This is what happens when you go to Kansas during Tornado Season.” Also I love Dr. Forrester’s line, “I’m a scientist. I don’t think, I observe!” It’s not anti-scientists, it’s just a fun observation joke (Which is what scientists do best: Observe and then try to find cause).

Sometimes your memories surrounding a past event are better than the actually event itself was. This episode is that for me. I wax nostalgically about seeing the episode at 3AM on a school night and then watching Anime I never could see before. That to me is the beauty of MST3K. Having not been there when it aired, my exposure is much more linked to DVDs than TV airings. I feel this method lends much more to nostalgia and specific memories (Also I don’t have to deal with Penn Gillette’s annoying commentary on the credits).  For that I will always love this episode. It ain’t the funniest. But it’s special to me and that’s all that matters.

But what do you think? Do you have episodes that you enjoy more for the memories associated with them? Do you know if there was more than one Moon Man in the film or not? Do you think you could survive DEEP HURTING!? Leave a comment below and let me know.

To remind everybody, this is part of my experiment where I’ll be watching a different MST3K episode, every Saturday evening/night, until I’ve watched all 176 episodes of the show’s original run in the exact order that I watched each for the first time (with 3 or 4 liberties taken). I will be consuming NO MST3K, Rifftrax, Cinematic Titanic or anything that could be construed as MST3K type programming outside these viewings until this experiment is over. Crazy, I know. We shall see what come what may. Will I crack? Will I make it? Will I ever figure out what makes this show so great? Keep reading and find out. Next week we shall see royalty in action. It’s Prince of Space. Looking forward to it. Til then, thank you for reading and DEEP HURTING!

20 Down 156 to go.

https://preview.redd.it/vgoae91am7kh1.png?width=3072&format=png&auto=webp&s=88183a21f930387ec4d139e3f318359643037a8f

https://preview.redd.it/87zlg3acm7kh1.png?width=596&format=png&auto=webp&s=a089e23eca582de4bb804df6072806268d75a3a7

I don't know if anyone has ever looked into it, but we have a number of versions of various episodes, from the DVDs, to those sold by RiffTrax, those from previous MST3K fundraising, and those on YouTube.

I know you can't improve the original videos as recorded originally, but are there any differences in quality among the various versions? I hope I'm clear with my question!

I'm starting to download my season 13 videos before Gizmoplex goes away, but I am trying to decide whether I should also grab the old episodes there that I already have from other legal sources.

Thanks!

EDIT: after a google search by episode name (YouTube search sucks) it looks like most episodes I care about were added to YouTube in 2024. I have ad free youtube so it seems we have a winner :)

Both in the TV app and on web, there is no option to view 4:3 content in its original aspect ratio. It zooms/stretches to force it to 16:9 and makes original MST3K options totally unwatchable.

I was always streaming original episodes on the gizmoplex app. Now I have no way to choose an episode to stream unless I wanna see them all barfed up :(

The YouTube channel shows the 4:3 versions without stretching them, but it's a literal ocean of 9 hour streams rather than individual episodes to watch.