Space Mutiny
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| Space Mutiny | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | David Winters |
| Produced by | John de Kock Hope Holiday |
| Written by | Maria Dante Ian Yule |
| Starring | Reb Brown Cissy Cameron John Phillip Law |
| Distributed by | Action International Pictures |
| Release date(s) | 1988 |
| Running time | 93 min. (108 min. Canada) |
| Language | English |
| Budget | unknown |
| IMDb profile | |
Space Mutiny (as known as Mutiny in Space) is a 1988 science-fiction action film about a mutiny aboard the spaceship known as the Southern Sun.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
The Southern Sun is a seedship, or a spacefaring vessel that contains all of humanity, whose mission is to colonize a new world. Its voyage has lasted generations, so many of its inhabitants have been born and will die without ever setting foot on solid ground. This does not please the antagonist, Elijah Kalgan, who conspires with the pirates infesting the nearby Corona Borealis system and the ship's Chief Engineer MacPhearson. Kalgan hatches a plot to disrupt the Southern Sun's navigation systems and use the Enforcers, the ship's police force, to hijack the ship and direct it towards this system. At this point, the inhabitants of the Southern Sun will have no choice but to accept his "generosity."
Kalgan sabotages a key part of the ship just as an important professor's shuttle is on a landing trajectory. The loss of guidance control causes the ship to explode. The ship's pilot, Dave Ryder, is able to escape, but the professor dies in the explosion. This sabotage seals off the flight deck for a number of weeks, which gives Kalgan the opportunity to attempt to wrest control. With the Enforcers in his hand, and with the flight deck out of commission, he holds the entire population of the Southern Sun hostage. Commander Jansen and Captain Devers enlist Ryder's assistance, aided begrudgingly by Jansen's daughter Dr. Lea Jansen, to regain control of the ship.
[edit] Production
Space Mutiny stars Reb Brown, Cissy Cameron, Cameron Mitchell and John Phillip Law. The spaceship effects were lifted wholly from the original Battlestar Galactica TV series.[1] The engineering areas of the ship were filmed in an industrial building with un-futuristic brick walls, windows and concrete floors, while the bridge looks remarkably like a vintage-1980s corporate office (non-shag, neutral carpeting; white particle board desks; computers with 16-color ANSI displays, including one with a 5¼ inch floppy disk drive as an ID card reader). Kalgan's "torture chamber" set features contemporary computer keyboards inexplicably mounted on the walls. The characters all wear the silver or white lamé outfits that were common to science fiction/futurist productions of the time.
The film's notable flaws provided substantial material for later spoofing on Mystery Science Theater 3000 (see below). In one scene, the camera passes by a bridge officer, Lt. Lemont, working at her computer console as an extra despite having been killed in the previous scene.[2] One chase scene involves slow-moving Enforcer vehicles, strongly resembling bowling-alley floor polishers, and the collision of two of these vehicles produces an extraordinary explosion for such small craft. The scene is further undermined by the intense sunlight streaming into the corridor - far more sunlight than one would expect on a space ship.
[edit] Mystery Science Theater 3000
Space Mutiny was lampooned in a November 1997 episode of movie-mocking television comedy series Mystery Science Theater 3000. The movie's editing flaws, stilted dialog, and poor execution lent itself well to the MST3K treatment, and it has proved to be one of the most popular episodes, released as part of the MST3K DVD Collection, Vol. 4 from Rhino Entertainment.[3]
Despite comments made during its airing as an MST3K episode, the movie was not made in Canada, but rather in South Africa during the apartheid period.
Some ten minutes of footage were edited from Space Mutiny for its use on MST3K. Much of the edited footage featured space battle scenes taken from Battlestar Galactica. The version of the film featured in the episode was, in essence, consistent with the full version; the discontinuities apparent in the episode were all present in the 1988 film.
MST3K viewers found it odd that Mike Nelson and the 'bots did not comment on the reused Battlestar Galactica footage. Best Brains writer Paul Chaplin acknowledged the omission, but did not provide an explanation.[4]
[edit] Notable cast
- Reb Brown — Dave Ryder
- John Phillip Law — Flight Commander Elijah Kalgan
- Cameron Mitchell (actor) — Commander Alex Jansen
- Cisse Cameron — Dr. Lea Jansen
- James Ryan — Chief Engineer MacPhearson
- Graham Clark — Captain Scott Devers
- Billy Second — Lieutenant Lemont
[edit] Trivia
John Phillip Law, who appeared in this movie as the villain Elijah Kalgan, would show up later as the star of Diabolik, the last movie to be riffed on MST3K.
Cameron Mitchell, who played Commander Jansen, also appeared in another MST3K episode, season three's Stranded in Space. He is not the only member of the Mitchell family to be involved in the film; his daughter Camille Mitchell provided the voice for Jennara, the lead Bellarian; his son Chip Mitchell played Blake, a mustachioed member of Kalgan's crew (in an early scene he is shown apologizing because "the information's so scanty").
The male and female leads, Reb Brown and Cisse Cameron, met on the set of this film and were later married.[citation needed]
[edit] References
- ^ "Trivia for Space Mutiny (1988)". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved on 2006-08-21.
- ^ "Goofs for Space Mutiny (1988)". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved on 2006-08-21.
- ^ "The MST3K DVD List". Satellite News. Retrieved on 2006-08-21.
- ^ Chaplin, Paul. "Episode 820- Space Mutiny". The Amazing Colossal Transplanted Sci-Fi Channel Episode Guide. Satellite News. Retrieved on 2006-08-21.
