Entertainment
 

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians

From MST3K

321 - Santa Claus Conquers the Martians
Air Date December 21, 1991
AKA Santa Claus Defeats the Aliens
Movie Director Nicholas Webster
Year 1964
Cast John Call, Leonard Hicks, Vincent Beck, Bill McCutcheon
Preceded by 320 - The Unearthly
Followed by 322 - Master Ninja I

Contents

The Movie

Synopsis

Martians, upset that their children have become obsessed with TV shows from Earth that extol the virtues of Santa Claus, start an expedition to Earth to kidnap the one and only Santa. While on Earth, they kidnap two children, who lead the group of Martians to the North Pole and Santa. The Martians then take Santa and the two children back to Mars with them. Voldar, a particularly grumpy Martian, attempts to do away with the children and Santa before they get to Mars, but their leader Kimar stops him. When they arrive on Mars, Santa, with the help of the two Earth children and a rather simple-minded Martian lackey, overcomes the Martians by bringing fun, happiness, and Christmas cheer to the children of Mars. [1]

Information

The Episode

Host Segments

Prologue: The Bots pour through expensive Christmas catalogs and tell Joel what they want for Christmas.

Segment One (Invention Exchange): The Mads reveal their devastating holiday invention, the Wish Squisher. Joel and the Bots demonstrate their own Misfit Toys.

Segment Two: Crow writes his own Christmas carol, "A Patrick Swayze Christmas". Joel is not impressed.

Segment Three: Joel tricks Frank into sending up more Christmas specials. Some are good, and some are really, really bad.

Segment Four: The SOL reads their Christmas essays. Crow reads "A Christmas Editoral", Tom reads the classic "A Child's Christmas in Space", Joel reads about 70's office parties, and Gypsy says it all.

Segment Five: The crew sings their own version of "Angels We Have Heard on High", goes through their stockings, and reads a nice holiday letter, while the Mads exchange gifts.

Stinger: Voldar laughs evilly.

Quotes & References

  • "This is really cheap animation -- Clutch Cargo was better than this!"
Clutch Cargo was a television series notorious for its poor and limited animation -- the most striking example of this being the way the characters' mouths were "animated" simply by splicing in the filmed mouths of the actors performing the lines.

One of the Martians is named Momar, recalling Colonel Muammar al-Qadaffi, the notoriously anti-American dictator of Libya.

  • "I want those kids *dead*! I want Santa's house burned to the ground!"

Servo is paraphrasing Robert De Niro as Al Capone in The Untouchables.

  • "Are you sure it's not 'The Fish Who Saved Pittsburgh'?"

The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh was a 1979 movie starring basketball great Julius "Dr. J" Erving.

  • "Kimar is the Savings Place!"

"The Savings Place" was an advertising slogan used by Kmart during the 1980s.

  • "They've been reading 'The Bell Jar'!"

The Bell Jar is an autobiographical novel about mental illness written by Sylvia Plath.

  • "It's Big Jim McLain!"

Big Jim McLain was a 1952 movie starring John Wayne.

  • "You! Get Donna Rice on the phone! I'll get a camera!"

A reference to a late 1980s sex scandal that ended the presidential ambitions of Colorado senator Gary Hart.

  • "Wait a minute, it's Warhol's Factory!"

During the 1960s, artist Andy Warhol was based out of a New York studio he called The Factory.

  • "Bennies! Dexies!"

Joel is referring to various slang terms used by pill abusers.

  • "With whipped cream!" "And other delights!"

Whipped Cream & Other Delights was a 1965 album by Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass.

  • "Sounds like the music from 'The Ghost and Mr. Chicken'!"

The Ghost and Mr. Chicken was a 1966 movie starring Don Knotts.

  • "Hey, it's the Bugaloos!"

The Bugaloos was a TV show produced by Sid and Marty Krofft.

  • "I want my MTV..."

Servo is imitating Sting's backing vocals for the Dire Straits song "Money for Nothing".

"Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!"

Reference to Monty Python's Flying Circus.

Video Release

  • Commercially released on DVD by Rhino Entertainment as part of MST3K: The Essentials, a double-disc set which featured this episode and the previously released Manos: The Hands of Fate. As a limited time special offer, if ordered off a specially created Rhino website, a bonus disc of Shorts Vol 3 was also included with the set.


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