Castle Forrester
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Castle Forrester is a fictional castle and laboratory featured in seasons 9-10 of in the Peabody Award-winning science-fiction/comedy television series Mystery Science Theater 3000. It is the residence of the evil Pearl Forrester (Mary Jo Pehl), an ornery mad scientist bent on world domination. Pearl (also called "Mrs. Forrester" to distinguish her from her son, Dr. Clayton Forrester) forces series protagonists Mike Nelson and his robots, trapped on the Satellite of Love, to watch bad movies, which they mercilessly mock.
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[edit] Story
Pearl discovers this castle when she and her henchmen, Observer (aka "Brain Guy", played by Bill Corbett) and Professor Bobo (Kevin Murphy), return to Earth after chasing Mike and the bots through space (in season 8).[1] She finds that the castle is her ancestral home, with a long line of female Forresters performing similar absurd "experiments" on hapless victims. (One ancestor "trapped a man in a cave and pushed in bad paintings of the hunt".)[2]
The castle's location on Earth is never made clear. In one episode, the "Mads" are confronted by a mob seemingly right out of Frankenstein, in line with the spooky Eastern European horror-movie setting. But the "mob" turns out to be a Minnesota-nice welcoming committee, disappointing the trio's hopes for a violent confrontation.[3] In another episode, the castle is temporarily relocated to a traditional American suburban street.[4] Unlike the location, the temporal setting of the castle events is set in the "present", presumably coincident with the show's run, much to the relief of the SOL captives after a season of time-travelling pursuit.[5]
[edit] Behind the scenes
In keeping with the progression from a very cramped Gizmonic Institute set in the KTMA season, to the larger room of the Deep 13 set in the Comedy Central era, the Castle Forrester set was quite spacious. Best Brains took advantage of the deep set to perform a classic low-budget special effect, the forced-perspective miniature, where Observer "shrinks" Bobo to doll size. (Kevin Murphy simply stood in a fixed position at the far end of the set so that he appeared to be in Bill Corbett's palm.)[6] Another episode closes with a charity pancake breakfast supposedly hosted by the Delta Knights of the film, with long tables spread across the set and populated by two dozen crew, family members, and friends.[7]
[edit] References
- ^ Mystery Science Theater 3000, "The Projected Man" [901], intro segment.
- ^ MST3K, "The Projected Man" [901], host segment 2.
- ^ MST3K, "The Phantom Planet" [902], closing host segment.
- ^ MST3K, "Horror of Spider Island" [1011], intro segment.
- ^ MST3K, "The Projected Man" [901], opening segment.
- ^ MST3K, "The Screaming Skull" [912], closing host segment.
- ^ MST3K, "Quest of the Delta Knights" [913], closing host segment and credits.
[edit] External links
- Castle Forrester — MST3K news and information presented as the Castle's website
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