Season 1 · Mystery Science Theater 3000

Earth-orbiting inventor Joel Hodgson invites the audience to watch "Bataille au-delà des étoiles (1968)" with him and his robot friends aboard the Satellite of Love.

The 007-ish exploits of "Mighty Jack (1968)," a government organization created to defeat the notorious crime syndicate known as "Q," took everything that was bad about espionage movies and threw the rest out.

Servo writes a letter to his uncle in which he recalls many memories of his time aboard the satellite. Meanwhile, the crew are subjected to "Superdome (1978)," a drama about a New Orleans Super Bowl full of intrigue, romance, and catfish.

This week's experiment is the disastrous disaster film "Cité en feu (1979)," which assures viewers the events depicted could happen in any city, anywhere. Even, as Tom points out, while the crew are watching this.

Shredded and stitched into incoherence from the 1974 Japanese series "Saru no gundan (1974)," "Time of the Apes (1985)" follows the travails of a scientist and two small children who are accidentally frozen and thaw into a future ruled by apes.

In "The Million Eyes of Sumuru (1967)," the groovy femme fatale Sumuru plots world domination, while Joel gets even with the Bots for locking him out of the ship.

The crew discover disturbing secrets in Crow's memory bank while watching "Space Connection (1980)," a film about bland government officials investigating, and then trying to cover up, a flying saucer crash.

"Course à mort : l'ultime solution (1981)," this week's film, features two intrepid heroes fleeing their Orwellian futuristic society in a souped-up racecar - but Joel and friends are more interested in reading fan mail from their adoring public.

Joel and the Bots suffer through "Planet of the Dinosaurs," the US version of "Les Monstres de la préhistoire (1977)," a dreary 70s Japanese dinosaur movie. Where's Doug McClure when you need him?