Mike Nelson (character)
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- For the character "Mike Nelson" of Sea Hunt, see Sea Hunt.
Mike Nelson is a fictional character in the comedy science fiction television series Mystery Science Theater 3000. Portrayed by actor/head writer Michael J. Nelson, Mike is a doofy, slightly dim temp worker from Wisconsin who comes to work for the mad scientists ("Mads") Dr. Clayton Forrester and TV's Frank in Deep 13 while they prepare for an evil-scientist audit in episode 512, Mitchell.
When Joel Robinson escapes from the Satellite of Love at the end of this episode, the "Mads" knock Mike unconscious and shoot him up to the satellite to replace Joel as their experimental guinea pig. The hapless Mike finds himself forced to watch bad movies with robot companions Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot while interjecting humorous quips and cultural riffs based on the action and dialog of the films. Nelson's first full appearance was episode 513, The Brain That Wouldn't Die.
[edit] Overview
Early in his tenure as the show's host, Nelson terminated the invention exchanges and letter readings that were a staple of the show's first five years, ending a popular tradition but giving the writers much more freedom in creating the opening and closing sketches.
Mike's relationship with the bots was very different from the one the bots had with Joel. Though the bots occasionally riffed on Joel, they generally respected him and his authority, often regarding him as a father figure (unsurprising, since he literally created them) who would espouse life defining lessons that could neither be questioned nor refuted. The bots never felt that way about Mike. Though they came to accept him as their friend and companion, they were often more cynical and merciless with him (particularly during the Sci-Fi Channel era) when he screwed up or failed to pick up on something that was blatantly obvious to them; if Joel was a father figure, Mike was more like a younger brother, though he was nonetheless acknowledged as the captain of the crew. Mike was also different from Joel in personality and temperament. Joel tended to take his captivity in benign stride, often delivering his riffs in dead pan, holding no malice against his captors and affectionately calling them "the Mads". Mike tended to be more aggressive regarding his captivity and making fun of the films, and was forever scheming to escape the Satellite or at least make the Mads look like fools, though he and the bots did share moments of friendly recognition with later villains Pearl Forrester, Professor Bobo and Observer.
According to The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Amazing Colossal Guide, Mike is "as intelligent as the average man", and often displays a comic unawareness of his limitations and foibles. In episode #602 Invasion U.S.A., he builds a robot whose only function appears to be to "destroy...destroy...destroy...". During the eighth season, he manages to contribute accidentally to the destruction of planets in three separate incidents. In episode #911 Devil Fish, he believes his identity has been stolen by a secret government agency merely after misplacing his wallet. He has an older brother, Eddie, a rude, smoking and drinking bum who replaces him temporarily in the Time Chasers episode due to Crow going back in time to prevent him from getting the temp jobs which eventually result in him ending up on the SOL. However, this also results in Mike dying a horrible death, which caused Crow to go back once more to fix things.
In the final episode of the series, Mike and the bots finally return to Earth, not by means of cunning escape but by the stupidity of their captors who accidentally send the Satellite tumbling back into Earth's atmosphere. The final scenes show Mike and his robot friends sometime later, now living together in a ground level apartment in Wisconsin, where Mike enjoys a bowl of rice as he sits down to watch a movie.
