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Satellite of Love (MST3K)

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For the Lou Reed song, see: Satellite of Love
Satellite of Love

The Satellite of Love (sometimes known as the SOL) is the fictional main setting of the comedy television series Mystery Science Theater 3000. It is a giant bone-shaped spacecraft that Joel Robinson and his friends — robots Crow, Tom Servo, Gypsy, Cambot, and the noncorporeal Magic Voice — live in. The vessel was in orbit above Earth during the much of the series, except for a journey to the end of the universe <ref name="mst-laserblast">Mystery Science Theater 3000, "Laserblast" [7.06].</ref> and its flight throughout the space-time continuum from Pearl Forrester. <ref name="mst-spacetimeflight">MST3K, "The Deadly Mantis" [8.04] through "The Projected Man" [9.01].</ref>

Contents

[edit] Story

According to the show's storyline, as part of an experiment to see how bad movies affected a person's mind, mad scientists Dr. Clayton Forrester and Dr. Laurence Erhardt (aka "The Mads") kidnapped Robinson, placed him on the Satellite of Love, and shot him into space. In order to keep from going mad himself, Robinson built his robot friends from parts of the spacecraft — namely the controls used to begin and end the movie. <ref name="mst-joelopen">MST3K, opening credits sequence, seasons K-5 (through "Mitchell" [5.12]).</ref> Eventually, Gypsy found an escape pod in a box of hamdingers and propelled Joel into it, returning him to Earth. In response, the Mads kidnapped Mike Nelson and sent him up to the Satellite of Love to take Robinson's place. <ref name="mst-mitchell">MST3K, "Mitchell" [5.12].</ref>

At the end of season 10, the Satellite was deorbited and crash-landed near Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Mike and the Bots moved into an apartment nearby, and were last seen about to watch The Crawling Eye, the movie which provided the first nationally broadcast episode of the series. Gypsy founded an international conglomerate, ConGypsCo. <ref name="mst-diabolik">MST3K, "Diabolik" [10.13].</ref>

In the unaired pilot, series creator Joel Hodgson (not yet using his character name "Joel Robinson") claimed to have designed the Satellite of Love himself. <ref name="pilot-intro">The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Scrapbook, host segment from unaired pilot "The Green Slime" [K.00]. VHS, Best Brains, Inc.</ref> This was changed by the first aired episode to the more familiar storyline. The Satellite of Love during the KTMA era was also noticeably different from the version shown during the show's official run, built on a very low budget and not featuring the somewhat iconic "doggy-bone" shape. <ref name="mst-ktmaopen">MST3K, opening credits sequence, KTMA season ([K.01-K.22]).</ref>

[edit] Layout

Little is known of the Satellite of Love's internal design and workings, following a general theme mentioned in the introductory song:

If you're wondering how he eats and breathes, and other science facts,
Then repeat to yourself, "It's just a show, I should really just relax." <ref name="mst-relax">MST3K theme song, all episodes.</ref>

However, some aspects can be determined from the episodes. Based on the opening sequence of season 10, where the crew is briefly seen looking out a window, the room where the "host segments" take place is on the bridge, which appears to be in the upper-right sphere of the dog-bone-shaped ship. The crew is able to communicate with Gizmonics Institute (KTMA season), Deep 13, (seasons 1-8), and Castle Forrester (seasons 9-10) via a viewscreen of some sort (never shown on the TV series but shown in the movie), accessible through Cambot, which enables the crew to see the Mads and vice-versa. (For all intents and purposes, it was the actual television camera that served this purpose, since whenever one group was communicating with the other, they looked at and spoke directly to the viewer.) Another viewscreen, the Hexfield, similarly provided two-way transmissions to spacecraft interiors and other locations. An exterior camera called Rocket Number Nine enabled the crew to see the entirety of the SOL and any spaceships or creatures in its immediate vicinity; the crew evidently viewed this through the same forward viewscreen that communicated with the Mads (again, the actual television camera).

Each of the SOL crew has his own living quarters, the locations of which are unclear. Mike's room was only seen once when the Bots were stalking him by putting a "hidden" camera on a toy. <ref name="mst-moonbeast">MST3K, "Track of the Moon Beast" [10.07].</ref> Servo's room is very messy, with underwear strewn about (Servo collects underwear), and contains a car-shaped bed. <ref name="mst-movie">Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie DVD (1996), ISBN 6305078246.</ref> Crow's room has never been seen, nor has Gypsy's. It is unclear if Cambot had a room or if he simply lived on the bridge. From season 8 onward, the ship was also inhabited by billions of nanites.

The Mystery Science Theater, in which the SOL captives watch and mock movies, is apparently located directly behind the bridge, on the opposite end of a long hallway with several oddly shaped doors (as suggested by the transition between host and movie segments), although the characters are rarely shown using it. <ref name="mst-theater">MST3K, "Wild Rebels" [2.07]. Joel specifically refers to the viewing room as "the Mystery Science Theater" during the invention exchange.</ref> A few sightings include one instance of Mike and the Bots walking down the hallway, <ref name="hubble-crash">MST3K: The Movie, during the Hubble crash host segment.</ref> and three occasions when someone runs into Cambot's direct passage before apparently being run over by Cambot himself — Joel and the Bots after a game of tag during the KTMA season, <ref name="mst-humanoid">MST3K, "Humanoid Woman" [K.11]</ref> repeated in a later nationally telecast episode, <ref name="mst-corpse">MST3K, "The Corpse Vanishes" [1.05]</ref> and Mike alone after dislodging the stuck door in the season 10 opener. <ref name="mst-soultaker">MST3K, "Soultaker" [10.01]</ref> Given the sheer size of the SOL, it seems unlikely that the hallway extended entirely from one end of the ship to the other, given that Joel and Mike were able to run from bridge to theater in so short a time; however, if it didn't, precisely what was at the other end of the SOL was never revealed.

During the Joel era, Joel was sometimes seen jumping into a separate entrance beside the main door to get to the theater,<ref name="theater-door">MST3K,often shown in the opening credits.</ref> In later seasons this opening would be changed to, among other things, an airlock leading outside the satellite. <ref name="mst-laserblast"/> In a few episodes, this hatch allowed the characters to send things back and forth between the satellite and Deep 13 via a long tube called the "Umbilicus", tethering the Satellite in orbit. <ref name="umbilicus-names">This device was, at different times, referred to as the Umbilicus, Umbilicon, or Umbiliport.[citation needed]</ref> In its first appearance, the Umbilicus was directly attached to Gypsy's snake-like body, and the characters could receive and send objects through Gypsy's mouth. <ref name="mst-girlstown">MST3K, "Girls Town" [6.01]</ref> This tether was cut in the season 7 finale, causing the satellite to drift off into deep space. <ref name="mst-laserblast"/>

The Satellite of Love was so large that many regions of it went unexplored, at least by Mike, who, during season 10, was surprised to learn that the SOL was equipped with a squash court, a silo, and a feed lot.<ref name= "mst-hamlet">MST3K, "Hamlet" [10.09]</ref> The presence of Joel's escape pod in "Docking Bay 14"<ref name="mst-mitchell"/> implies there are at least fourteen docking bays.

Another section, simply referred to as "the basement" by Tom Servo, is first featured in a scene where Crow attempts to "dig" his way back to Earth. <ref name="tipperary">MST3K: The Movie, during the escape-attempt host segment.</ref> This part of the ship is located directly beneath the bridge. In season 8, Crow conducts an archaeological dig to uncover his forgotten 500-year solo occupation of the SOL since season 7. <ref name="mst-leech-woman">MST3K, "The Leech Woman" [8.02]</ref> The SOL crew also discovers albinos living in this area that happen to resemble the light-deprived Sumerian descendents of The Mole People. <ref name="mst-mole">MST3K, "The Mole People" [8.03]</ref>

Also shown in the movie is a device referred to as the "manipulator arms", a set of robotic arms that extend from an opening near the back of the ship, controlled by a pair of virtual reality gloves. <ref name="hubble-crash"/> The hands were labeled "Manos" (Spanish for "hands"), a joke referring to the infamous season 4 episode, "Manos: The Hands of Fate". A similar mechanism appeared during season 1, but was never featured again.<ref name="mst-wotpp">MST3K, "Women of the Prehistoric Planet" [1.04]</ref>

[edit] Footnotes

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[edit] References

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