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MST3K 'Star Trek'

By T'Bonz
November 8, 2008 - 9:35 PM

If one likes a little sarcastic commentary with one's Star Trek, Rifftrax is the place to go.

As reported by RiffTrax, fans of Mystery Science Theater 3000 take heart, the sarcastic commentary is back, with shows and movies, including Star Trek, being offered to fans for a modest price.

Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) was a popular American cult classic where a man and his robot sidekicks, stranded on a satellite in space, were forced to watch dreadful movies, including cheesy old science fiction movies. To cope with this punishment and to save their sanity, they offered a running commentary on said movies, where they made fun of the many flaws of the "B-movies." MTS3K ran for eleven years.

Rifftrax is the Internet successor to MST3K. Writer/Performer Michael J. Nelson and others, including the occasional guest star such as Weird Al Yankovic, join together to poke fun at movies. MST3K fans may remember Nelson from the television series. He took over the role of the stranded man from series creator Joel Hodgson in 1993 and continued the role until the end of the series in 1999.

For Star Trek fans, there is been one episode of Star Trek: Voyager available, the pilot Caretaker. The rest of the available Star Trek offerings are movies, including: Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, Star Trek: The Final Frontier, Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country and Star Trek: Generations.

The Rifftrax site includes samples from each of the shows where one can "try out" the movie before deciding whether to purchase a download or not. For example, in The Wrath of Khan, in the scene where Kirk sees a rather hung-over Scotty, the dialog went like this:
Kirk: Wee bout of what?
McCoy: Shore leave, Admiral.
Commentary (with faux Scottish accent): Ah, she was green and she was worth it!

And another comment was made regarding Scotty's nephew, the young and doomed Peter Preston.
Preston: Midshipman First Class Peter Preston!
Commentary: Designated casualty? Yes SIR!

One of the funniest samples was that from The Final Frontier, a film long derided by fans of the original series. In the opening scene, Kirk is climbing Yosemite's El Capitan. The comment on this scene:
"I can even climb a mountain with my new hair!"
"He's actually trying to scale his own ego!"
"That would be tough..."

Spock's rocket boots in the same scene came in for ridicule too.
"Spock bought those used off of Wile E. Coyote."

To see more and sample the offerings, head to the link located here.

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