Talk:Tom Servo

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[edit] Joel Robinson

Does Joel Robinson (as opposed to Hodgson) really need a page? -- Lefty 16:26, 28 February 2004 (UTC)

— signature added by Jeff Q (talk) 13:40, 18 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Deep Space Nine reference

Can someone point out which episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine mentioned Tom Servo? We could use a specific reference. Thanks. ~ Jeff Q (talk) 13:42, 18 January 2006 (UTC)

I've been checking on this as well, and I don't believe it was ever in an episode specifically. It seems to have been just one of many "in jokes" in the Promenade Store Directory (along with Red Dwarf and Hitchhiker's Guide references). But the directory was probably never shown closely enough on-screen for it to be read. This bit of trivia appears to have been made public in a special feature on the Season 5 dvd release, if this page at memory-alpha.org is trustworthy. 65.31.197.14 16:15, 14 February 2006 (UTC)
I hadn't noticed that Memory Alpha is a wiki as well. This makes it ineligible for use as a reliable source, as anyone can edit it (as I confirmed by nearly creating an article for "Tom Servo's Used Robots" anonymously) and there is no professional editorial review. (That's also why we can't use Wikipedia articles as references for other Wikipedia articles, only as see-alsoes.) Do we have a better source? ~ Jeff Q (talk) 08:04, 15 March 2006 (UTC)
I was the one who provided that link. I didn't really intend to use Memory Alpha as the source. I was thinking we could track down the source through them. Does anyone have the Season 5 dvd release of DS9? It shouldn't be too tough to double check. Jwadeg 16:40, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Gumball Machine Head

Where does the claim "his head was replaced with the now familiar gumball machine during KTMA season episode K02" come from? That episode doesn't exist for double checking, and the minutiae section over at mst3ktemple.com seems to convincingly refute it. 65.31.197.14 04:43, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

Good point about the lack of a source for K02 info. I didn't notice any specific statement about Servo's gumball head at mst3ktemple.com; could you be more specific about how it refutes the current text? If we can't pin down an episode, we can just say "sometime between the marketing 'pilot' and episode K03", as both recordings are available for review. There might even be something in the MST3K Scrapbook, which has excerpts from the first 2 shows, if I recall correctly. I'll look into that. ~ Jeff Q (talk) 06:38, 14 February 2006 (UTC)
At this link to mst3ktemple.com, there is a piecing together of extant clips from the first three episodes (most of them from the Scrapbook tape), using the color of Joel's jumpsuit as the controlling factor. Upon looking at the site again, it doesn't clearly refute the current text, but it does lend credence to the idea that Servo's head changed prior to or during episode K01.
His basic argument runs like this. Joel wore the blue jumpsuit with a white undershirt in K01. There is an extant image of Joel in this outfit holding vacuum-flowers (which supposedly intoxicate anyone who smells them). There is another image of Joel in this outfit with Gypsy; she has something on her nose. He connects this to the shot of Crow and Servo with clothespins on their noses - as though they were all attempting not to smell the flowers.
However, Servo doesn't appear to have been in the theater in K01, there are no known images of Servo from K02, and the only image from K03 that appears to exist is a theater segment in which he has the gumball machine head.
So, while it's certainly not clear, it seems very plausible that Servo had the gumball head in episode K01. But the case rests entirely on the clothespin photo, which can't be definitively placed. 65.31.197.14 07:09, 14 February 2006 (UTC)
There's some impressive research and deduction on that page! The site itself is a bit obscure for a reliable reference, and the connection is plausible but not compelling. I've rephrased my suggested text to include the theory with an explicit citation, so readers can consider the case for themselves. ~ Jeff Q (talk) 11:19, 14 February 2006 (UTC)
I agree, and I think the new phrasing is as accurate as we can get. Good job there.
I still wonder about the origin of the original "during K02" comment though. I tracked it down, but it was an anonymous addition from April 29, 2005. However, the very specificity of the comment is compelling. It makes me wonder if this person knows something we don't. I wish he/she'd come back to this discussion page and defend his/her addition. I'd love to know where the idea came from. 65.31.197.14 15:51, 14 February 2006 (UTC)
You can always post a question to the anonymous user's IP talk page. I don't usually worry about tracking down such things, because 99% of the time, either no one responds, the information turns out to be sheer speculation, the person can't recall where they read it, or in the rare case they can reacll a source, it winds up being a fan forum whose postings fall into one or more of the aforementioned groups of unreliable info. We need to be careful about sourcing such data, because there is far too much fan speculation in Wikipedia TV-show articles, which tends to incur a not-unreasonable backlash of demands for proper sourcing, with wholesale deletion of sections or articles as a penalty for failure. ~ Jeff Q (talk) 19:55, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Black Servo?

I own the MST3K movie "The Skydivers", and was wondering when does the all black Servo make his cameo? I have yet to see this.

I've removed the statement, as it's too vague to properly verify. It was probably meant to connect the theater-Servo with the "Tom Star Show" in the teaser (opening) segment, where Servo has turned himself into a planetarium projector, his opaque head pierced with "star" points. The problem is that this is almost certainly not the same opaque Servo, because (A) the pinpoints might have interfered with future theater segments, and (B) Best Brains had no particular need to limit their Servos to two, as they amply demonstrated in at least four episodes I can recall offhand. This claim appears to be yet another case of a fan trying to make more connections out of what they see on the screen than they have evidence for. I've said it many times before in these articles, but we are supposed to limit our prose to that which is verifiable through specifically cited reliable sources. Let's try to avoid the fancruft, please. ~ Jeff Q (talk) 09:50, 6 July 2007 (UTC)