4. Rocketship X-M (Episode 201)
Like The Crawling Hand, Rocketship X-M isn't an episode that really gets that much hate. In a family of about 196 episodes or so, they are a couple of the many, many middle children.
First and foremost, as the first episode of the second season, Rocketship X-M saw a lot of important, or at least dramatic, changes to the show. The bridge was redesigned and would remain more or less unchanged for the rest of the show's run. Tom Servo's puppeteering and voice acting changed hands from J. Elvis Weinstein to Kevin Murphy, who would continue to play Tom Servo for the remaining nine seasons. The departure of J. Elvis Weinstein also led to the introduction of one of the most beloved mad scientists among the show's fans, TV's Frank (Frank Conniff). Less dramatically, this episode was the first time (according to the MST3K wiki) Joel used the phrase, "Give me rocket number nine," which would end up being one of the show's many catchphrases. For being such a momentous episode, it's kind of unfortunate that Rocketship X-M is so often overlooked (compared to fan favorite Mitchell, which was equally momentous and yet somehow much more beloved). Really, though, the reason I like this episode in particular isn't because it's especially funny, though it's still funny. The movie itself is what endears this episode to me, for a few reasons. I'll always have a warm spot in my heart for old sci-fi movies that come with a moral message about nuclear Armageddon, really, no matter what. The fact that in Rocketship X-M there's no babysitting deus ex machina alien race to come down and "tut-tut" us into behaving (The Day the Earth Stood Still) makes the message that much more poignant and believable. Maybe the mutant effects are cheesy, in retrospect, but the concept is still pretty haunting. Outside of its call for pacifism, the movie is also kind of a watershed moment in cinematic sci-fi. It's the first post-World War II Hollywood space adventure movie, a feat director Kurt Neumann achieved by making sure he finished his movie before George Pal finished Destination Moon. It was also the first sci-fi movie to feature a theremin (now considered a sci-fi soundtrack staple) in its score. The fact that the spaceship crew in the movie includes a woman as a proper scientist is also pretty neat, especially for a movie released in 1950. Though, it
is undermined by the fact that the ship's re-entry into the atmosphere is doomed because of the woman's miscalculation, with the implication being that maybe if she were less... emotional... she could do math better! Regardless, it gives Joel an the bots a chance to comment on some of the other characters' crappy attitudes about women in space and science, so it's good for a kind of feminist laugh. Finally, the fact that the movie clearly does not give a flying fig Newton about science is great. The mechanics of space travel are always glossed over in these kinds of movies, and in Rocketship X-M it's no different. What's particularly outstanding is their utter disregard for the character and nature of Mars. We didn't necessarily know a lot about the red planet back in 1950, but we definitely knew it didn't have cloud cover, thunderstorms, and heavy rainfall. Rule of drama, I suppose.