I'm approaching the finish line on Season One! Today I'm watching another from my "haven't seen" pile, The Black Scorpion

Apparently the Bots are throwing Joel a party!

Joel is less than impressed when he's informed that the Bots spiked the punch with "10w40 and Tang!" and does a spit take

Something has *definitely* happened to Dr. Erhardt, which he says was the result of an accident resulting from him and Dr. Forrester "trying to create a Cold Fusion Walkman" and that Forrester has been similarly affected (though how so remains to be seen)

Joel's invention is a "man-sized" party favor, in honor of the party the Bots are throwing him

It turns out Dr. Erhardt had invented the exact same thing and decides to just skip the Invention Exchange this time

Clayton arrives and boy he's *really* not looking so hot, though he brushes it off as just being "all in the name of science" (though I like Joel's assertion that "You two look like something out of a Wes Craven children's book")

A note: while Dr. Forrester claims the special effects in this movie were done by Ray Harryhausen, he's incorrect. They were actually done by Harryhausen's mentor, Willis O'Brien

Servo: COPS is filmed on location! Everything you see is true!

A great visual gag as Joel and the Bots break out oversized hot dogs to "cook" over the open flames of the erupting volcano

Crow: We should make s'mores later
Servo: Did you bring the 'kraut?

The writers still haven't figured out how to do appropriately lively riffing over opening credits yet, sadly

To open, we have two scientists who have arrived, presumably to investigate the volcano that was belching all over everything in the film's intro

The scientists' car breaks down due to the radiator boiling over, leading them to an abandoned house with a wrecked police car nearby. Its two-way radio starts broadcasting, asking for a Sgt. Vega (in English. Strange, considering we're supposed to be in Mexico)

After talking with the police dispatch and informing them that Sgt. Vega is nowhere to be found, our scientists investigate a strange rattling noise for entirely too long until they discover a baby. Awww

Servo's hilarious game show announcer spiel after the scientists discover the body of (who is presumably) Sgt. Vega is a definite highlight of the season

Villagers swarm our scientists' vehicle as they enter San Lorenzo, and it's quickly established that the villagers believe some manner of demon has been killing people off one by one

Servo: The Milling-About Festival continues well into the night

In the first host segment, Joel and the Bots (now bedecked in sombreros) decide to pay tribute to the film's setting of Mexico by discussing the film in Spanish with Cambot-provided subtitles

Joel and the Bots' Spanish is a mixture of grade school Spanish and nonsense, while Cambot's subtitles seem, uh, off the mark

(A nice subtle joke is, after Joel produces a piñata, Crow quietly says, in English, "Oooh, kitty")

Joel and the Bots wear their sombreros into the theater as the scientists on-screen finish their discussion with the town priest about the recent events

After a local military official warns the scientist that their presence isn't wanted or needed, they head back to the ash plains near the volcano and discover a young woman who falls off her horse and needs to be tended to

Joel: "Thou shalt not ki". What?

Our scientists (actually, archaeologists) escort the young cowgirl back to San Lorenzo, who chastises the town's men for being a bunch of cowards. Ramos & Scott are then taken to the town's local doctor/scientist who mentions Vega died from a strange substance in his blood stream

Dr. Ramos and Dr. Scott are now staying at the ranch of the young woman, who's named Teresa. Dr. Scott makes several extremely unsubtle passes at her because that counts for romance in movies this old.

Ramos discovers the shape of a scorpion embedded in the slab-shape chunk of obsidian Scott retrieved earlier (not how obsidian works) and breaks it open to reveal a live scorpion inside, making stock bat squeaking noises (not how scorpions work)

Teresa answers her newly-fixed phone which leads to a nice Glen Campbell reference from Joel.

Teresa: Hello?
Joel: Uh, I'm a lineman for the county, and I drive the main road

As the (movie's actual) lineman talks with Teresa while finishing up repairs, his coworker hears a massive roar and meets the movie's titular giant black scorpion, who immediately grabs him and makes him into lunch (with some pretty decent stop-motion animation)

I have to admit, when you give Willis O'Brien license to do his animation work, it definitely livens up a film, no matter how mediocre. Just like his protegé Harryhausen now that I think about it

As the doctors and Teresa get ready to investigate the bridge where the linemen had been working, our young boy servant Juanito gets himself in a pickle after he chases after his dog Ancho and finds himself right in front of the giant scorpion! But now it's host segment

Servo and Crow discuss Joel's weird "habits" (such as "lying horizontally then not moving for several hours" and "leaking fluid then flushing it out into space"), not noticing that Gypsy seems to be undergoing a strange transformation until she tries to eat Servo

It bears mention that the scorpion tail add-on for Gypsy was apparently pretty poorly attached since it falls off almost immediately.

Also, Tom's reading the issue of Tiger-Bot Magazine that appeared several episodes ago in The Corpse Vanishes

The giant scorpion wastes absolutely no time in deciding to storm the village of San Lorenzo and wrecking everything, causing a mass panic. The army tries to fight back, rather incompetently.

Joel: Uh, I hate to tell you this, but that's not how you use the gun. It's upside-down

Servo: Flint, Michigan. On a clear day, you can see the GM plant on the outskirts of town. Hey look, there's Michael Moore

Another scientist, Dr. Velasco (whom the town's local scientist sent his findings about the death of Sgt. Vega to) arrives and tells everyone that the scorpions are of a prehistoric species thought extinct, no doubt summoned from the bowels of the Earth by the volcanic eruptions

We have a brief interlude where Dr. Scott greatly befriends little Juanito, which would probably be a bit more charming if it weren't for the fact that little Juanito's acting stinks

Going to resume this thread tomorrow since I'm getting tired and losing focus. Until then, good night!