Space Mutiny - Mystery Science Theater 3000

Nine years after its initial release, Space Mutiny was lampooned in a November 1997 episode of movie-mocking television comedy series Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K). The movie’s editing flaws, stilted dialog, and poor production lent itself well to the MST3K treatment, and it has repeatedly proved to be one of the most popular episodes, released as part of the MST3K DVD Collection, Vol. 4 from Rhino Entertainment.

Many of the scenes involving characters being thrown to their deaths over guardrails in the interior were coined as "railing kills" by Mike and the Bots. Mike and the Bots also mock the fact that a character killed on screen shows up prominently as an extra in later scenes. Throughout the film, the appearances of the characters were sources of ridicule: Dave Ryder, the muscular protagonist, is referred to by many ridiculous names, such as "Slab Bulkhead," "Blast Hard-Cheese," "Bold Bigflank," "Splint Chesthair," "Punch Rock-Groin," "Derk Hardpeck," "Crud Bonemail," "Punch Sideiron," "Gristle McThornbody," "Trunk Slamchest," "Thick McRunfast," "Butch Deadlift," "Crunch Buttsteak," "Big McLargehuge," "Stump Beefknob," "Smoke Man-Muscle," "Hack Blowfist," and "Roll Fizzle-Beef,"; Ryder's love interest, Lea Jansen, is obviously much older than him, and is referred to as Commander Jansen's "grandmadaughter"; Commander Jansen is consistently compared to Santa Claus, due to his white hair and beard; Kalgan's continuously strained expressions are attributed to him trying to force his skull out of his skin.

Some ten minutes of footage were cut from Space Mutiny for its use on MST3K. Much of the edited footage featured space battle scenes taken from the original television series of Battlestar Galactica. The version of the film featured in the episode was, in essence, consistent with the full version; the discontinuities apparent in the episode were all present in the 1988 film. Mike Nelson and the 'bots did not comment on the reused Battlestar Galactica footage. Series writer Paul Chaplin acknowledged this omission, but did not provide an explanation.