Reviews

I am trying to complete watching every episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000, and Mighty Jack is about the last one I have yet to watch. I was going back to KTMA episode days and started watching that Mighty Jack and man oh man was it sucking, I think Joel and his buds were mainly ad libbing in those days with a lot of long pauses in the riffing, so after 15 minutes of that (FYI avoid the KTMA version of Mighty Jack), I switched to the season 3 version. Now Joel has been doing this for over 3 years and this is his heyday, he is in the groove, they have joke writers and things are moving along good. Except for this episode that is. It's not the least favorite episode I have watched (Those Master Ninja ones and Castle Of Fu Manchu may be close to bottom for me), but it's not a good episode or even an average episode. I will say that the first half of the episode is good, Joel doing the toking a doobie bit made me laugh, but after that it gets pretty boring until the end when it gets funny again. 1 of 10 for the film, 5 of 10 as an MST3K episode. Don't point a newbie to start here. My favorite Sandy Frank episode? Time Of The Apes for sure followed by the Fugitive Alien episodes and then the first 3 Gamera ones. This one is probably my least favorite Sandy Frank MST3K episode.

I watched this on TCM, they played it for Memorial Day 2012, I had never heard of it but when I saw Chad Everett it seemed different so was interested. The beginning battle scene is straight out of many films before, it would seem, but especially reminded me of the battle scene in Pride of the Marines with John Garfield. Not that it was bad, it just seemed like a verbatim copy of it to a point. The movie then goes into a love affair part which I always hated before but this one had some realism to it and reminded me of questions in my own life and with todays never ending wars I have had the option as a reservist to go back to a war zone and these issues are address in this film with Chad's fiancé and then wife. I thought that was pretty interesting and I normally hate the domestic relationship parts in these war films. Which brings me to what I now started thinking of this film, it was made in 1967 but sure did seem that it was made in 1957 or 55 or even 52. I'm guessing like others have said that this was made solely to be a B movie/ drive in fare. It's target audience being the Marine Corps, and the South. I believe Gomer Pyle USMC was the number one TV show that year so this was made to cash in on that audience somewhat, IMHO. The final battle scenes seemed rushed and unrealistic in Chad's sudden change of heart but I guess they thought the film needed something, it really didn't they should have just left the good chance of death be enough tension for the audience and then when it gets all solved it really reveled itself as just a B movie action flick. Chad did a good job and showed a wide range of emotions I liked him, Gene Hackman was wasted here especially with the drama of having a coward officer above him, he was not the Gene Hackman you and I know. Claude Akins has major billing but has a very bit part as a Major at the CP, no drama went on there. Dean Jagger does a convincing Marine Colonel, and William Conrad adds his distinctive voice as a narrator. The combat hardware seemed real enough for the period. It was probably post WW2 hardware but unlike a film like Battle Of The Bulge where the Germans are using Pershing tanks as Tigers and it's distracting, since I am not familiar with Pacific WW2 hardware it looks realistic enough and the stock footage was in color and blended in OK. All in all, I was entertained enough but this wont go down as any Sands Of Iwo Jima best of film. I give it a 6 of 10 as far as B movie war dramas go.

I caught this a few scenes into it and was really happy I did. First off Iron Man is one of my favorite comic superhero's, first following him around the early 70's watching those horribly animated Marvel TV shows made in the mid 60's. I would get hooked and would start collecting the comics buying them used and all torn up but with those great stories and characters this would go on until the mid 80's when other interest's took more precedence. As far as the movie goes I was really surprised at all the flat out dislike the reviewers here have posted and then I realized why. I am 100% sure that the reviewers are under 30 years old, that they probably always had an internet and are basically spoiled with technology and awesome anime programming. I on the other hand do remember the days before the internet, I also remember growing up with some really terrible animation (including anime shows like Gigantor and Speed Racer), that included the 60's Iron Man show. I also remember watching stuff from the 70's and 80's and while a lot better animation then the 60's stuff was still pretty bad (weak stories also, which at least the 60's stuff was good at since it was a copy of the comic's stories). The 90's Iron Man TV show wasn't bad, it was pretty good, but this 2007 movie's animation is really really good. Keep in mind, I'm sure Marvel saw this having limited audience at the time (maybe a whole lot more now that Iron Man is better known with the live action movie), so they had to keep the costs under control and you can tell it a LITTLE bit. However if you make a comparison of this Iron Man movie to all the past Iron Man stuff, it's totally awesome. I really like that Tony had to use his old armor to battle the bad guys also because the series developed that he was Invincible like the comic cover said when he had his new battle suits, so he was at a real disadvantage in the old stuff and I like that tension being created. So there you go, from a 45 year old who missed the very early introduction but has followed Iron man for over 35 years, this movie is the best Iron man I've ever seen, it's great for Iron Man fans. See it and don't listen to those that sound like the Comic Book Guy from the Simpson's this is a cool flick! 9 of 10.

Overly long, corny premise, and Kevin Costner....all drawbacks to this film, but if you are a post end of civilization film fan it should be on your list. I'm saying this from a standpoint that I actually enjoyed Waterworld, and I don't think many people will have that opinion (or admit it if they did). So let me also say that I watched Postman in bits and pieces on a retail showroom floor in between TV sales in the early 2000's, that probably made the film a lot more tolerable because I didn't know it was like 3 hours long, that would have been pretty tedious. So what other movies did I like in this genre? I liked the AI film "Panic In Year Zero" with Ray Malland, I liked "Def Con 4", I like "The Day After", I liked "On The Beach", I liked "When Worlds Collide", I liked "Dr Strangelove", I like "The Last Man On Earth", "Omega Man", and I'm sure I'll like "I Am Legend" (all 3 based on the same story I think), Night Of The Living Dead, and 28 Days Later. I liked all those flicks and also liked the Postman, not as my favorite of all of those but entertaining. Watch it if your an end of civilization film freak. 6 of 10.

You've just saved the world and are close to ground zero with a hot Eurasian woman, what do you do? Think of sex, oh yeah Baby!!!!!! I equate this with a Fantastic Four episode where the Thing, in their first encounter with the Sub Mariner, carries an A bomb into a sea monsters mouth to kill it, that's classic! The only reason this garners such a low rating on IMDb is because it's audience is so limited. So you have a bunch of offended leftist getting mad that the Chi-Communists don't win, LOL! Even that is explained that it's not really the Chi-Comm's doing it so I don't know why they should rate this so low for it's genre. I don't think this film is shown on TCM USA or is available on video in America, but it is shown with frequent regularity on TCM Europe and I have seen it now multiple times because it's a highly entertaining and addictive guilty pleasure to watch. It's A bombs under America with guns and heroics and America wins and it has some great campy moments! If that's what you are looking for this is a definite 9 of 10. Even as rated as a movie with the whole Sci Fi genre its a solid 7, think about it and compare it to all the boring dogs of sci fi flicks you saw from the 50's to even today, this one is solid and has held it's 7 rating well. It's a definite 8 of 10 when you combine that it's in color and it's campy and the actors look like they are taking it all in stride and don't suck like an American International flick. Plus the Navy leads the whole shooting match, I love that part (with some Marine muscle). Not to spoil it too much but I love the part where the renegade General realizes his doom, that was a nice touch I thought. Of course it's soooo easy to destroy this pictures credibility but one thing really jumped out at me, they are running cars in a tunnel, doesn't everyone die of asphyxiation? LOL. OK it's got a smattering (more then enough, but could have wished for more) of hot women of the Asian persuasion, guns, bullets A bombs, military things, sci fi gadgets all the key ingredients you need for a good campy sci fi flick from the early to mid 60's, throw in MGM's higher class touch and it's a classic. 8/10 on the sci fi action scale. You know you've seen much worse and I'm sure better, but there are not that many better than there are a whole lot worse. See it with an open mind!

I don't have the prejudice of having seen "Ah Wilderness!" so that is why I'm rating this so high. I just watched the film on TCM Europe and was expecting to change the channel or lose interest and do other things on the internet, but this film kept me watching, thats saying a lot since I'm not a big musical kind of person. Actually the musical part seems subtle, I liked that. I am also a Rooney fan so I am biased in that as well, I liked every thing I've seen him in that I can remember and I don't go out actively seeking his stuff. When I do come across one of his films I always seem to enjoy it but this film really seemed to click on all cylinders because it has a very very cool dark side and also discusses politics which rings true today. The supporting cast of many does a great job of course, and a musical bit about a Stanley Steamer? C'mon, thats awesome! Great colors and production values, I am not saying it's Mickey's best but I really was entertained, good flick!

Maybe it should be a 10 or 10 for its period piece, but this was a blatant propaganda movie when the UK needed it more than ever. Taken in contemporary terms this movie is on the order of the American movie "Air Force", utter propaganda, not realistic, no matter how you want to slice it. It was used in an episode of "The World at War" a WWII documentary produced by the BBC to show how utterly silly the concept of night bombing was before they started carpet bombing, and had the technology to do precision aerial bombing. In that episode(W@W), while this movie was playing with narration from the real "Bomber" Harris in an interview, he states that 3 bombs out of 100 landed WITHIN 5 miles of the target. Total fluff, the kind of fluff I would have liked to have seen about myself serving in Iraq in 2004, but still fluff. It's better than "Air Force" though, as the gunners don't shoot down 5 fighters a piece.

I'm reading glimpses of other reviews here and many are a bit skeptical of this movie and of Lassie being a shell shocked war vet. Well I grew up watching Lassie the 50's TV show and I must admit I'm very partial to everything I've seen with Lassie in it. Yes we should all know that Lassie was played by more than one dog (its obvious that thats the way they make dog movies, isn't it?), that Lassie was a female, all that geeky stuff, I say whatever. I was not expecting anything from this movie and had it on in the background as I was surfing the web this morning and doing other tasks, I ended up getting very focused on this film! It's just another testament that if it's a Lassie movie, it's good entertainment. I wish I had watched this with my now teenage daughter while we had the opportunity, I know it would have strengthened our relationship at least just a little. Work overseas and divorce tell me that wont happen any time soon (if ever). If I ever get the chance no matter how old she is I'll try to see this at home with her. It has Liz Taylor and her pet's loving bond in Lassie which is very wholesome, it also has a lot of adult overtones with war and such, so it should keep any mature adult interested. In todays overly skeptical world, I'm happy I have not fallen into the trap to not really enjoy a Lassie movie. 8 of 10.

Caught this while doing some work at my desk and saw it had George C Scott, a favorite of mine. It had a really bad feel to it on a made for TV movie level, so I kept it in the background so I could get some snippets as this looked really really boring and it's all that was on at the time. Anyway if your political bents swing towards the Greenpeace crowd than you will rate this a 7 to 10, since I'm on the other end of the political spectrum it gets a 2. I love secret Nazi formula thriller stuff, and one that holds as much promise as the "formula" here did along with Scott should have come much better. That said the movies only redeeming qualities was it's similarities of Brando's character to Dick Chaney, and the speech in the end when Scott says "Your the reason why old people have to eat out of garbage cans!". That and a weird scene with strippers on stage in Germany with swastika pasties on, that was kind of interesting, you had to be there. I think both of these actors pulled some stunts during the academy awards and they were the forerunners of todays mostly leftist Hollywood actor crowd, and this movie has a clear political bent to appeal to that audience with dialog like the old people and trash cans. I'm surprised he didn't mention anything about soup lines, but I might have just missed it as this movie was hard to stay focused on and for once I preferred to do some work than follow this boring drivel. 2 of 10 stars, Scott didn't make all that many truly great movies in his career, but I certainly remember the ones he did do, this one wont be remembered as one though.

I Tivo'd this because I was told this was a "minor classic". Watched it with my wife and she seemed to stay into it, I was thinking this was a serious "dog". The running line between us was, "which 5?" well we ruled the kid from the start, so I'm thinking OK do the pilots count? The crash (which happens a long almost half way point) yields no new deaths, just a bruised shoulder from the old lovable professor (of Shirley Temple and 4 Feathers fame among many other roles). Anyway a total waste of John Caradine, I was hoping he would be good here, but no luck, he's dead in the jungle after a very bad start. I mean c'mon, is this a chick action flick or what? Hey, its Hollywood, its couples going out, its not about grim realities, its a kind of boy that was cool action flick (if your a woman), its lame (if your a dude). 5 of 10. I don't know why I rate it that high, but the wife didn't fall asleep which is saying something for a old black and white film. I'm into them, and old planes; but this one was barking loud like a dog in heat. I predicted the head hunters also long before they showed up. yawn. Was waiting for some savagery among the survivors (all of them survived, sheesh) but we got nothing like that. Boring B flick worth forgetting about. Also, Lucy isn't in much here if thats why you are are curious.

I wish I had recorded more of Joe E Brown's movies when they showed up on TCM and definitely will be on the watch as this movie was freaking funny as hell! I'm a big fan of the Marx Brothers, The 3 Stooges, Laurel and Hardy, and others and now definitely Joe E Brown. Well I can't really say that based on one semi short flick but man, if all of his films are THIS funny I'm in brother, I'm in! I knew I was going to like this flick when they are in the train. OK heres why this was refreshing for me, Joe is not a total dummy, he actually likes woman, and he tries to con people, everyone as a matter of fact, its just too cool. Plus the guy is like a ancient predecessor of Jim Carey for crying out loud, I'm sure Jim got some material from this guy! I was trying to place his face and thanks to the other posted review here I at least know him from Some Like It Hot, but as a lead comedian this movie REALLY holds up well. One of many scenes that made me laugh out loud, he is signing books as a fraud of the author, he is signing in all the woman's books his hotel room number! I mean I'm sorry I never saw that done before and its really funny! There's a little (not to much) slapstick, which I love, a little bit of adult stuff humor (which is classic, like getting drunk before his air race during prohibition, I think), but a whole lot of skit comedy that for me seemed great. 9 of 10, I wont put it in the esteemed best of all time category but I really did laugh a lot watching this.

For those in love with this film it is in the public domain and I picked it up through Amazon on a 50 movie pack "Dark Crimes" set for as I recall around 20 dollars, worth it if you want some low end noir with a few gems included. Well let me say, I have seen worse Noir, much worse so I'm giving this a 5, but to call this a masterpiece is definitely someones opinion, and it isn't mine. It has a lot to do with Paul Henreid, was it only me, but I just do not like this actor. He was my least favorite character in Casablanca, he just seemed irritating, I also saw him in a yarn about pre war Poland with Ida Lapino and that was horrid. So I guess when I'm watching this, trying to understand what he is saying through the really thick accent, I end up saying to myself this is kind of a lame movie. OK the scar is on the wrong side, that really isn't used much in the movie so I'm not sure what the point of that was, but this guy never saw the Doctor so how does he know he's going to have that same thick accent? I mean he saw him briefly before he killed him but that was after he sliced his face open (on the wrong side, so yeah this guy is a genius).This guy is a real idiot, he botched the job in the beginning really really badly, I mean was I supposed to think this guy was slick? And that thick accent whatever kind it is (French? Hungarian, who cares, its irritating for a lead the whole movie in an American crime movie). I had it on a long time in the background it was just really boring, Give me an American playing the lead in Noir anytime, unless it's a foreign language made Noir than I can accept that. 5 of 10 and I'm being generous out of respect to all the ones here who love this film. Even the women here didn't do anything for me, they were tepid at best. Maybe if he killed the cleaning woman I would have been giving this more praise, he should have killed a lot more people, yeah thats it, kill, kill, kill. All this guy did was run, run, run, and smack his woman around (once, zzzz).

This one episode I remember well from first viewing it in the early 70's when Trek was shown in syndication (unike some season three episodes which I have forgotten due to them resembling a Lost In Space episode without the Dr Smith). I rate it as one of the best season three episodes and its still a great watch today if you have never seen it. Gorshin is the establishment (interestingly referred here as "the Black" by his nemesis because of the color on his right side, which is probably another statement alluding to the right being conservative) and he is a chasing another of his race who is anti establishment and also a different skin color (he's white on his right side). Rascism is the tone the episode mainly takes, but you can see other parallels with the 60's generation rising up against "The Man" here as well. Excellent episode to watch. Now for some cheap nit picking, when Kirk is issuing the self destruct, Gorshin's character only had to knock him out, than he can't give the command, right? OK that was too easy, how about the way to save money by using an "invisble" alien space ship, that was pretty lame. Despite those two gaffs that I saw, the aliens here are pretty cool, with personal force fields and life spans of over 50,000 years. To bad they didn't study the 1990's LA riots history and know that we all just need to get along. My rating, 8 of 10, its nice to have a Trek episode with a moral again as not all of season three did. The ending is a bummer also which is actually a pleasant surprise, not all things in the Trek universe work out.

For season three this is one of my favorites, it also ranks high for the entire TOS run in my book. Kirk shooting the phaser after accelerating remains a vivid memory from my childhood, I just thought that was so cool. Only real criticisms I can think of are the ending, was Kirk that po'd that he just left them there? Where is the branching out the Federation of Planets stuff? At least tell them your going to send back a diplomatic ship to work on a resolution. And why didn't they offer them the antidote that McCoy made? Another criticism I have is Trek TOS encountered all these different alien races for exploration reasons but I never see them adopting any of the stuff they find other than in that episode, never later on. Case in point that Scolosian water accelerates and McCoy has an antidote to counteract it. Wouldn't it have been cool for the Enterprise to be in a hopeless situation in another episode and surrounded by alien ships (take your pick), so Kirk beams Spock on board the alien ship after he takes the acceleration water, Spock disables all the ships and beams back, no problem! Well I guess you can't beam with shields up, so it would have to be another situation, but that acceleration water could have come in handy. Anyway, meeting all those aliens I could see some of the humans learning stuff like levitation and the ability to fly, it would have made things "fascinating". My rating for the coolness of the aliens 9 of 10.

I thought this was a "lost" episode for me in that I had missed one episode in my decades of Trek viewing in repeats with "Court Martial" only seeing that in the 90's (not a favorite)! I was watching this episode now and did not have a clue. However, I have seen it, it was just so bad I didn't set aside enough brain matter to remember it fully. I know I saw it because I remember the alien folding up into a nothing. What I didn't remember was the awesome scene with Scottie getting serious rad's in the jefferies tube and passing out as Spock acts like an a hole, asking why he should say thank you, that was a little over the top as Spock had shown thanks before (I think), but Spock never gave Scottie a break. With that much said, Spock would be my all time worse Captain to be serving under don't you think? "Hey Mr Spock, how about some liberty call on board that planet that loves to please?" Mr Spock answers, "The Federation is not paying you to enjoy yourself so get back to work!" Anyway, this episode is really lame in that it has no moral message like "Let This Be Your Last Battlefield", it's just a lady with superpowers and limited dialog screwing with the Enterprise, and despite Scottie's and Spock's very cool moment this episode sucks cheese whiz. 4 of 10, season three is starting to look lame like everyone said (but there were some good episodes before this one!).

Season three is holding up pretty well in my re-watching of the DVD set in series order. The Tholian Web is an excellent episode, at least top 30 of all the Trek TOS made. Here we see another Starship (The Defiant, I believe) losing its whole crew to a space madness, plus its phasing in and out of the dimension! The landing party don space suits (!) for the first and only time here, proof that the writers were at least trying to keep this series alive; despite it never cracking the top 30 shows TV ratings in its total run. We also get a new alien with comparable weapons, and its own unique ones at that, the Tholians! Add on top of that, cool scenes with Chekov, Dr McCoy and Scottie; and Spock becomes the Captain, this is on the level with seasons one seriousness with the crew and adds seasons threes chemistry between Kirk, McCoy and Spock, making it must watch Trek TOS. McCoy and Spock further their friendship and respect for each other here adding to the chemistry that would later on make the movies so good. A goof I noticed, the officer (a one strip on the sleeve type) beaming Kirk is an Ensign or close to that rank, the hand we see moving the slides is that of CDR Scott with two gold strips. Oh well I'm sure there are lots of others to make fun of but than this wouldn't be a cool show to watch if you nit picked. McCoys spacesuit went for 125,000 US dollars on auction recently, so there are those who think this was a great episode other than me. LLAP

I'm surprised no one has picked up that Bones (DeForest Kelley), was in the famous movie "Gunfight at the OK Corral", starring Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas! He had a minor part but still was involved in the movie pretty well. Well now to Trek, after season three's horrible "Is There No Truth In Beauty" we get "Spectre Of The Gun", this is actually, in my humble opinion, one of the best of all the original series run, it definitely deserves to be in the top 20. The premise where the crew is transported to another world or alternative earth time works extremely well when its done by an alien race with higher powers, unlike the lame season two "Assignment Earth". Favorite part, the gunfight of course, and Spock saving the day, as he has done in countless episodes, the Enterprise and it's crew are toast were it not for having a Vulcan onboard! Some have commented on the sets used, I think they were awesome. The sets were cheaply made for budget reasons but in the end it shows up so much better that this is sci fi and that the aliens have a limited capability to recreate memories. I've seen this episode in the double digits now but it's still great entertainment and is highly rated. If your new to Trek, as in a younger viewer, try some season one episodes first as this has the cast firmly into things, and you may be lost here and not appreciate what would be a great chemistry for years to come (decades).

Is this the "worse" Star Trek TOS episode? Maybe, at least it gets my vote as being in the bottom 5. I mean, this episode makes absolutely no freaking sense. Seeing something that makes you go mad? Give me a break. This episode also has a different feel to it, the music is heightened, almost forced to enhance a feeling of distress, to the point that it sucks. Give me some Klingons, Gorns, Tholians, Romulans, higher beings like Triskelion's or anything but Medusin's, these are very boring aliens to make an episode around. McCoy gets to utter his famous phrase "He's Dead, Jim". Spock puts on the protective goggles when transporting the ambassador away but Kirk does not. They go through that freaking "barrier" now for the third time that I can remember, boring. At least season three's next episodes would be "Spectre Of The Gun", and "Day of The Dove" and others to follow, making Trek a decent show to watch in syndication where it would pick people like me up as avid fans. Personal observations, Trek loved to use the color purple, its kind of a pinkish purple, like when they are in the corridor outside the compartment, the gangway that is normally grey is now purple. We never had a purple bridge but its interesting to see, I noticed it in several episodes, it was done by a light filter and it works very well but in this episode, in the ships corridor is pretty lame.

A word of advise here, as a 21st century viewer, put phasers on stun and knock out those kids! OK enough with the levity, this episode has special meaning to me because it is the earliest episode that I think I remember as a child, imagine that! I actually believe that I was old enough to see this when it first ran in late 68, well thats my story and I'll stick with it, age 5? OK maybe not, I probably saw this in a repeat, but at an early age it stuck out. McCoy utters his trademark phrase here, "He's Dead, (put in either Jim, or Captain, or whatever)", and we see some flowers on the Enterprise along with a lot of ice cream and flavors! The ending is a serious tear jerker for a young kid, so that word of caution, the moral is not to forget your parents. As I have seen in my personal life, its a message that may need to be reinforced in today's youths, sigh (like my own). Season three as I am viewing the DVD set here starts off OK, not nearly as strong as season two's start (which kind of whimpered out to season three's levels), but its still decent Trek. Be it memorable because it was made in the "innocent" 60's or just groundbreaking sci fi, Star Trek TOS is worth viewing from episode one till episode 79. LLAP

This is a decent episode and yes, I'm sorry we didn't get to see Gary Seven do more in 1968/9's earth. Would have been a cool show for sure, but since this is a Star Trek episode and came from my favorite season, season two, I question why they made this the season and possibly show's finale. From Trek stuff I've watched, this show was practically canceled after season two and only a letter writing campaign saved it. Had it not been saved for season three, Trek was said to have died a death not being shown in reruns because it wouldn't have had enough episodes to sustain it. So with all of that in mind, was this the way we wanted to remember Trek? Granted Turnabout Intruder is several notches below in my opinion from Assignment Earth, so I guess that point is mute. I just hate the way TV producers played with us and didn't give us finality with the shows we are so attached to to just give us a another average episode when it could be the shows last, a freaking spin off even! OK why it doesn't rank all that high to me. First off, (than the geeky stuff), since this is a spin off pilot attempt, character banter between Kirk, Spock and McCoy are at a minimum, McCoy is hardly seen! Thats why Trek was great and this episode puts them in the background, thanks TV Executives! OK now Geeky stuff, this episode shatters the premise that time travel is a unique occurrence, they casually say they did it for research purposes. HUH, whats up with that? The ramifications of time travel on demand totally change this shows universe, this is lame writing! If they wanted to do this they should have done another angle, my suggestion is a higher evolutionary being transports them (Kirk and a few others or the whole ship, it doesn't matter) to this time saying that another entity is messing with your continuity. That still leaves the time travel option a special case. OK other things I picked up, Scottie using a weather satellite to view the earth close up, OK I'll buy into that, EXCEPT when the camera angles are from the ground up! How about when Kirk and Spock get beamed over to Sevens place at the end, I didn't see them grab the phasers and extra communicator; oh brother another "Piece of the Action" deal! OK getting really geeky here and this isn't specific to this episode, but why cant they do the transporter control thing from the bridge? I mean they would still beam into the transporter room but can't they have extra controls on the bridge to do that? Scottie is doing a whole lot from the transporter room with communications using that weather satellite so he didn't have to go to the bridge, so I wonder why the same concept was never applied with the transporter? Anyway, I'm ranting a little, decent but not not great episode; yes I wish a series was made as a spin off, but this one kind of cheapens Trek TOS in my opinion.

Take my review with some grains of salt as I haven't watched the whole series yet (got the entire run from a collector and watching the first season now), and other than vague recollections from youthful viewings (not a good sign that I don't remember more), I'm sorry but I don't see much interest to keep watching "Wanted Dead Or Alive". To clarify my background since most other reviewers here have done theirs, I watch WDOA in the 70's and 80's in the odd repeat on syndicated TV channels, and I only remembered it had Steve McQueen and a cool gun, a sawed off Winchester. With that said, I also watched shows such as Have Gun Will Travel, Bonanza, and The Rifleman, two of which were 30 minute western dramas aired during the same years as WDOA. Unlike WDOA, I remembered a lot of details of those other shows, the reason being, character development. I don't blame McQueen, he was a starting actor, and his persona is clearly evident thankfully or else this would be totally forgettable. But other than the cool intro and ending credits that's all I remember from my youth of this show. 30 minute (really 23 minute when you take out the commercials) are tough to do, they require a really fast intro and usually need some heavy moral dilemma to make a memorable impact as good drama. HGWT and Rifleman did this very well, WDOA does have a little of this but the level of morality and injustice doesn't come close to those other two shows. Maybe its that or maybe its that Josh is a bounty hunter who isn't seen making a whole lot of money like Pallidan does, so the show looses realism. I don't know, I can't put my finger on it, but if the show's selling point is the gun, it looses that point to the other two shows as well, since in the few episodes I've watched recently, I'm really loosing interest, Josh uses the gun as a club more than a gun. Rifleman showed what a man could do with a rifle quick so the point of sawing it off seems really stupid, I'd just use a pistol and also a rifle. Palladin has a wicked creep when he's ready to draw, I do NOT want to mess with him in a draw! Anyway, if your looking for the best of the 30 minute westerns, I'd check out those other two shows first. I'm still a big McQueen fan, when his material is good.

Scotties line when asked by the alien what the fourth bottle of booze was, drunkenly says after sniffing it, "Well, it's green!" Thats classic! An average overall Trek episode, thats not a put down because an average rating to me means very good compared to other sci fi shows which seem to be very very dull. Another reviewer here (I am assuming a young or somewhat young one), slams this episode for too much Scottie, excuse me? You are joking correct? The scene with Scottie getting the alien drunk under the table is all time best Trek material. Hello, this was made in the 60's.... miniskirts are worn by the female crew, Kirk is tagging as@ throughout the galaxy.... and Scottie has some booze stashed onboard without the preaching of a ex junkie liberal bartender (as in STTNG) to make you make you feel guilty that you want to kick some alien as@! This is what sets TOS apart from all the rest, its that they could GET away with it! And lets look at that Scottie point anyway, the ship was a DRY ship, just like a modern day US Navy ship is (McCoy had some booze just like a US Navy ship (1960-1980's) had for a pick me up shot if you fell overboard (saw a guy that got one), they don't even have that anymore). I love that TOS took the concept that these were starSHIPS, mostly because I am a Navy vet, but I mean not to stir up inter-service stuff, but if this was like a Army/Air Force gig, it wouldn't hold the charm of these rouge personalities like a Scottie in my humble opinion. Shore leave with the Army or Air Force, boring, lets go Navy! Anyway, this episode is cool, they kill the redshirt crewman in the beginning and they didn't pick the black male but the white female, I thought that was genius writing. Putting the black male (who had a few lines also, kudos's) in that role was awesome but hey, that was late 60's TV, Trek was very supportive of minorities in the future and nurtured my social liberal ideals. I could delve more into this episode but it is a good episode and holds up great to season two's standards. 7 of 10 (even after repeated viewings).

The Line Between Science Fiction and Science Fact Is Microscapicply Thin. Well, thats the line you get at the end. As the MST3K crew would say, the good things about this movie were that you couldn't hear the dialog they were saying: and that no one involved in this picture would be involved in another picture. So is it really as bad as the MST3K crew says, yes. Does it rank in the annal's of time? NO. OK I'm sorry, it sucks! It bights the big caaca, it's really bad, don't see it, don't waste your time! If your watching the MST3K episode (which I hope you are, otherwise you are really missing out on ton's of other recorded entertainment to enrich your ever needed brain masses), than you see some slams on Catholics which would be an ever increasing joke feast from this bunch. I guess there isn't anything wrong with that IF they would joke about other religions, and since the series creator is a non Catholic (A Jew, is it OK to call people that?), I question the humor as being in a just for having fun way. Since I am myself uneducated, you can come up with your own word from the thesaurus. Movie rating 1 of 10 (just above Beast of Yucca Flats, its the second worse movie made), MST3K rating 4 of 10 they should have gone to so many places other than slamming Catholics and also after the first season Comedy Central put the clamps on the humor (maybe thats why the bias?).

On a strictly all films rating The Corpse Vanishes would rate about a 3, but we all know that would not be fair to it since this was not made for a serious movie audience. I am not a Monogram aficionado as I think some reviewers here are, so it doesn't rate a 9 or 10 in my book. That is except if you watch it as a Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode which I did and I rate this a 10 as it was the BEST MST3K episode I've seen yet! Anyway, back to the best Mongram movie I've ever seen (did that distributor put out anything worth a crap other than this?), Bela and his cohorts are actually interesting in this one. The evil dwarf definitely adds a star as does the necrophiliac hunchback, the evil back stabbing (literally) old hag mother, and the evil scientist's wife who needs her fix of freshly dead women to stay young. As far as the movie goes, I've seen far worse from Bela and with his supporting bad guys this movie rates a solid 6 for old cheap monster movies. 10 if your watching it as an MST3K episode, its so far my favorite! The bit where they talk about the 200 clowns who got drunk and crashed the clown car in the parade is priceless, this is a high water mark for MST3K humor.