Mystery Science Theater 3000 #404 - Teenagers from Outer Space

"By the looks of his outfit, I'd say he's from a private school somewhere." - Grandpa

In general, the movies featured in Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes fall into two categories: the campy, and the disturbing. Teenagers from Outer Space falls into the former category. This 1959 sci-fi film from writer/director Tom Graeff is highly watchable by MST3K standards, and is one of the few movies that I could sit through without the funny commentary.

The plot focuses on a 30-something teenager from outer space called Derek (yes, Derek) who turns against his alien crew when they plan to unleash a herd of giant lobsters on the Earth, so they can graze, grow fat, and serve as food for this nefarious alien race. The aliens disintegrate a dog and Derek runs away. Whilst he flees, the remaining aliens tie a lobster up and leave him in a cave. Why? Don't ask me. Derek's rival Thor runs off in pursuit of him, and it is his job to bring the little rascal back, disintegrated or not disintegrated. 

 "Stay!" - Tom Servo

Along the way we meet a variety of kindly towns folk who are hilariously oblivious to Derek's strange behaviour. Derek talks like Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation and nobody bats an eye lid; the people in this town are happy to drive him around and let him in their homes. Not even Derek's remark that he has “never piloted a vehicle like this before” in response to Earth cars is enough to raise suspicion. And when Derek asks his friendly chauffeur how to drive a car by angrily demanding “TELL ME!”, the driver calmly responds “sure, here's the clutch. When I push it in, I change the gears.”

In fact, it's only towards the end of the film when Derek refers to the moon as “her moon” whilst talking to Betty that she cottons on to the fact that he may not be of this world. “But you seemed so much like us,” she tells him. “Like Grandpa when he was young.” Well I'm glad I never had a Grandpa like hers then.

In the final act of the film Derek stages a mock betrayal of his human companions in order to trick his alien foes and gain control of their ship. He uses it to crash the ships carrying the lobster herds into himself and the other aliens, becoming a martyr. It's an okay ending and the pace is so brisk that you can hardly complain too much. Along with the comments from Joel & the Bots it's easy to see why this is a fan favourite.

The host segments are particularly good in this episode, as they usually were around this time in the series. My personal favourite is the segment where Joel & the Bots design a new fashion line based on the gaffer tape alien costumes from the film. I have a soft spot for seeing the legs of a puppet: it makes me laugh out loud every time when The Muppets do it, and the same happens whenever we see Crow's disturbingly long, matchstick thin legs. Put a funny costume on him too and there is no way it can go wrong. 

GOOD THING

The skeletons. A lot of fun is had from the skeleton props that appear whenever a character is disintegrated, and although it might be a bit cheesy and cheap, it's so much better than just seeing the characters fall over when they die. The film makers actually attempt to put some variety in these scenes too, such as the smoke rising out of the swimming pool when the swimmer is disintegrated, or the gun in the hand of the cop skeleton, or the great disintegrated dog prop. I never get bored of seeing those skeletons flopping around. 

BAD THING

The bad guy, Thor. He's not very menacing. In fact, he's kind of a weiner and a glorified errand boy. He spends most of the movie two steps behind Derek, and is easily tricked at every turn. We don't even get a great death scene to see him off, he's just one of the few easily duped aliens who get a fleet of flying saucers dropped on their heads. Terrible.