Santa Claus Conquers the Martians: Love it or Hate it!
I will never forget that Thanksgiving Day when after eating a yummy dinner with my family, I was watching TV with my brothers and the first Christmas special of the season came on, one I had never seen and it involved sci-fi, space travel, outer space, martians and Santa Claus…some of my favorite things! That movie was, of course, Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. This movie has inspired much discussion (and out and out arguments) about it’s merits ( or lack thereof) as well as those, like me, who defend it’s cult classic status. (From Wikipedia, see below)
“….[This film] regularly appears on lists of the worst films ever made. It is regularly featured in the “bottom 100″ list on the Internet Movie Database, and was also featured in an episode of the 1986 syndicated series, the Canned Film Festival. The cast includes an 8-year-old Pia Zadora playing the role of one of the Martian children.”
It was even vaulted to a kind of popularity (notariety?) when it was spoofed on Mystery Science Theatre 3000. You can find clips of it on youtube. (The below quote comes from Wikipedia)
“The film took on newfound fame in the ’90s after being featured on an episode of the comedy series Mystery Science Theater 3000. It became a holiday staple on the Comedy Central cable channel in the years following its 1991 premiere, helping it become one of the series’ most popular episodes…”
If you have never seen the kitchy, cult classic Santa Claus Conquerors the Martians and curious because you are a sci-fi nut like me click here: SCCTM clip on youtube. You can decide for yourself. You are also invited to take the “Love it or Hate it!” poll at the bottom of the post.
As I’ve explained [See prior post, Major Matt Mason, sci-fi influences] my love of sci-fi has been with me for a long time, so that film was tailor made for me. I was also a child of the 60’s and was attracted to anything that had to do with outer space. I remember that my brothers and I sat enthralled in front of the TV watching that film and couldn’t look away. At that time, most of us had a fear of, and fascination with, martians. This was mysteriously but firmly instilled in us (Maybe this fear/fascination was added to the Flintstone’s vitamins we took or maybe it was absorbed into our heads along with our Breck shampoo.)
In any case, my brothers and I loved the story for a lot of reasons. We thought the attack robot TORG was scary (now he’s just silly and we all agree has a really, really cheesie costume.) We loved the concept of the martian’s food pills. In fact, my brothers and I used to pretend that M&M’s were martian food pills. We thought that was sooo cool and got many a belly ache from eating too many “martian food pills” (M&M’s.) We thought the martian the sleep spray, which put the unhappy, restless martian kids to sleep was a neat invention. And because the martian characters wore green, had “green skin” (read: really bad green make-up) and had antennas we thought the were real live martians. The martians obviously had some kind of beef with Santa else why else would Santa be forced to conquer them, So naturally we were hooked and had to see what would happen…would Santa win out against the bad ol’ martians? (I bet you can guess!) Suspense, Santa, martians, Christmas, space travel, flying saucers and seeing the real, live north pole on TV…what more could a child of the 60’s want in a TV program?
In much the same way The Wizard of Oz was always shown at Easter, Santa Claus Conquers the Martians was always shown every Thanksgiving. It became a tradition to watch it. In a way, for us kids, it came to signify the start of the Christmas season. Rudolf, Christmas carols, Christmas vacation and the Sears and Service Merchandise catalogs were not far behind. Christmas day and new toys would be coming soon, too!
I love this film and watch it every year. I know it might sound a bit far fetched, but in some small way, it makes me realize how great it is to be human and how privileged I am to be an “earthling”. There are lots of things on earth that you can’t find elsewhere. We’re lucky to have such lovely traditions and should cherish them.
For me, the film also brings back that innocent and childlike sense of wonder, that expectation of a happy day spent with family and the magic and mystery of Christmas.
Just a thought I caught flying by…what do you think?
PLOT BASICS: The story involves martian characters Momar (“Mom Martian”) and Kimar (“King Martian”) who are worried that their children are watching too much silly Earth television, like station KID-TV’s interview with Santa Claus in his workshop at the North Pole. Their children don’t eat or sleep well. So the martian leaders consult the ancient Martian sage Chochem, and are told that the children of Mars are distracted and restless because they aren’t allowed to ever have fun. Chochem says that the only way to help the martian children is to actually give them more freedom to play and have fun. To do this, they need a martian Santa Claus. The Martian leaders decide to zip down to earth to kidnap Santa Claus and bring him to Mars to make toys for the kids. Earth children Betty and Billy Foster are also kidnapped along with Santa and brought to Mars and it’s up to Santa to figure out a way to help the martian children and still get home in time for Christmas.
Leave a Reply