The Experiment
Jonah and the bots return for another round of fun in their 200th episode of MST3K! That's right, combined with Joel and Mike's episodes, this episode makes for a random anniversary. Over all, the host segments are decent, though not especially memorable. A decent standout is when Jonah keeps creating robots only to let Tom and Crow destroy them mercilessly. Beyond that, it's a lot of time travel gags.
The Time Travelers
Some scientists accidentally open a portal to a dystopian future and then accidentally step through it. They come to a future where the Earth is dying and only a small community of people survive by fighting off the caveman-like beings with androids. They are building a ship to escape the planet before it completely dies.
What makes this movie bad?
First of all, this movie is dull. It is boring, lifeless and full of a great deal of scenes that last forever and go nowhere. The acting itself is already very stilted and full of 60's and the atrocious screenplay doesn't help that aspect one single bit. It's more or less a fifteen minute show stretched out to an hour and fifteen minutes of snores.
One large problem this movie has is its characters. All of them are so bland that they all run together with their shared lack of personality. The only one that really stands out is Danny. Of all the characters, Danny is the man-child character that is anything even close to memorable, and that is only because he is the one who used his stupidity to fuel the first plot point.
The Riffs
The real problem with having such an overly dumb and boring movie is the fact that riffs need to work double time to make up for the lack of interest. Sadly, while the riffing is very good, it falls short on making this episode even remotely memorable. There are some very good riffs, especially at the beginning of the movie when they step through the time portal and find that they are in the future. Making fun of Danny and all of his ineptitude at living was a sheer joy. However, through the middle and the end, the riffs start to fall a little short.
The Episode
Not a bad episode all around. There are definitely some laughs to be had and there are wonderful patches of comedy all around in both the riffing and the host segments. Though, it's not really enough to call this a standout episode. It is worth the watch, and it may even capture your heart if you let it, but whether or not you return to it is another matter.