Saturday Morning Cult-TV Blogging: Mystery Island (1977): "Fate's Just a Dirty Trick"

This week on Mystery Island (1977), we get “Fate’s Just a Dirty Trick,” episode number eight, another in a series of generally atrocious stories. 

Specifically, Dr. Strange has managed to awaken both the fugitives and his own minions from the cave of the “sentinels of time.” 

But Chuck and Krieg have switched bodies upon awaking. 

Yes, Chuck is now in Krieg’s body (though with Chuck’s voice), and Krieg is in Chuck’s body (but with Krieg’s voice). 

Of course, this makes no sense whatsoever. Why would your voice change if you hopped into somebody else’s body?  

The human voice emanates from a physical source (not a spiritual one, like the soul), in this case, the larynx.

Once more, we get a lot of running around in this episode, some dumb quips, and little else.

Here, the ending makes no sense whatsoever.  Strange’s minions and the fugitives are all standing together in a clearing.  Chuck and Krieg suddenly switch back into their normal bodies, but Chuck pretends to be Krieg and engineers an escape for his friends.  

But Krieg is standing right there, back in his own body, and he doesn’t object, or interfere with Chuck’s plan! 

Why not?

Then, the episode ends with the three humans and P.O.P.s. jumping onto a raft and sailing downstream, towards a waterfall while a strange being watches from behind some bushes.  I will say this, the series' primary strength is its outdoor photography.  The scenes with the raft boast a nice, adventurous quality, true to the pulp origins of the series.

This is the last Mystery Island installment available on YouTube at the moment, so I hope the last few weeks have given you at least a flavor of this 1977 Saturday morning series. As I’ve noted before, I have watched many Saturday morning programs from the seventies, but none have been as consistently horrible as this one.  Not even Big John, Little John.

Next week, I start Valley of the Dinosaurs (1974),