Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume 10
© N/A
Show Grade: A/A-/B+/A-
Disc Grade: B+
Reviewed Format: DVD
Rated: Not Rated
Cast: Joel Hodgson, Trace Beaulieu, Frank Conniff, Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy, Mary Jo Pehl, Bill Corbett
Writers: Joel Hodgson, Trace Beaulieu, Frank Conniff, Michael J. Nelson, Bridget Jones, Kevin Murphy, Paul Chaplin
Directors: Vince Rodriguez / Joel Hodgson / Kevin Murphy
Distributor: Rhino Home Video
Original Year of Release: 1991/1993/1993/1997
Extras: English DD 2.0; outtakes; music videos; gallery
Suggested Retail: $59.95
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"Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume 10"
By: Brian ThomasDate: Sunday, February 11, 2007
Rhino continues to release episodes of this still popular cult favorite in more economically acceptable 4-disc sets, rather than their initial practice of serving them up one show at a time. Unfortunately, since this series incorporated the screening of feature films, Rhino can’t yet season Mystery Science Theater 3000 – release of episodes on DVD depends on whether Rhino can procure rights to the original feature, which is no problem in the case of public domain features and shorts, but some others were only rented for broadcast within the show. So far, Rhino hasn’t been able to release any episodes from the first season, which was broadcast on local Minnesota station KTLA. But they have released:
Season 1 (first cable season): 2 episodes
Season 2: 5 episodes
Season 3: 4 episodes
Season 4: 7 episodes
Season 5: 10 episodes
Season 6: 7 episodes
Season 7: 0 episodes
Season 8: 6 episodes
Season 9: 3 episodes
Season 10: 4 episodes
As you can see, they’ve been hitting seasons 4-6 pretty hard, while completely ignoring the abbreviated, 6-episode season 7. Of course, you could get a nearly complete set via bootlegs, but let’s not get into that.
This volume turns out to be one of the better ones, containing some prime episodes. Oh, is it necessary for me to explain the show’s premise to anybody? Poor shlub trapped in a satellite - with only some robots for company - by mad scientists who torture him by forcing him to watch “bad” movies. Got it? Good. Actually, when I first heard about this show I was less than thrilled. I’m a big fan of these movies, and I didn’t need some doofy standup comics to help me make fun of them, thank you. Then I caught an episode and was instantly hooked. It successfully portrays the same spirit we get when we get together with friends and family to watch a movie at home and spend more time ragging on its faults than trying to follow the plot. It also maintains that comfortable small town local TV show atmosphere, even after it shifted to the Sci-Fi Channel where management tried to get them to slick things up with story arcs and special effects. Thank you. Now enjoy Disc One:
Episode 212- Godzilla vs. Megalon
MST3k covered many other crude Japanese sci-fi movies of the same era during their first season on KTMA in Minneapolis/St. Paul, but when the show was picked up by the Comedy Channel/Comedy Central, they were later forced to reshoot a lot of these episodes on their new sets. Fortunately, 1973’s Godzilla vs. Megalon – which is widely considered to be a public domain title in North America – was not among those films, and the production company Best Brains didn’t have to deal with Japanese imports until they were settled comfortably halfway through season 2. Thus, they were able to write some of their freshest material for it. Plus, GvM – in which the Big G teams with a very strange robot meant to cash in on TV heroes like Ultraman to fight a pair of monsters working for hostile subterranean folks - is probably the least of the Godzilla series, so they had plenty of raw material to work with. One of the features of the show was the “Invention Exchange”, in this instance a competition between Joel Hodgson (now “Joel Robinson”) and the Mad Scientists (Trace Beaulieu’s Dr. Clayton Forrester is now assisted by “TV’s Frank” Conniff) for nifty Halloween costumes. Inspired by the movie, Tom and Crow cover up for some kind of shifty photo club by creating monster ideas of their own. Clips from the movie are turned into a promo for a new TV show – “Rex Dart, Eskimo Spy” – which has me gut-bent with laughter every time I see it. Later, everybody takes a dysfunctional popcorn break, with robots Crow and Tom Servo portraying TV commercial duo of the day Orville Redenbacher and his nerdy grandson). Other skits draw directly on the movie for inspiration: Joel gives the bots new monster arms, and the movie’s theme song for heroic robot Jet Jaguar is translated for karaoke (“He jock it made of steel! Eats sushi from a pail!”). The disc also contains a gallery of behind-the-scenes photos.
Episode 503- Swamp Diamonds
The outré ouvre of Roger Corman provided a rich vein of material for MST3k. This 1955 feature has plenty of dated exploitation angles, with a gang of leggy escaped cons from a women’s prison (including a homicidal Beverly Garland) abducting hunky Mike “Touch” Connors to help them hunt for stolen loot in the Louisiana bayou. But Joel and the ‘bots get much more mileage out of their opening short subject “What to Do on a Date”, a vintage social engineering film about a teenage doofus and his fumbling attempt at romance. The opening skit reveals the crew’s obsession with that Star Trek episode where Spock falls in love, and later Tom makes his own doomed stab at romance by asking female-designate robot Gypsy out on a date.
Episode 514- Teen-age Strangler
The flames of romance continue to flicker in this episode, as the short subject “Is This Love” forces a newly engaged college co-ed to seek advice from her roommate, who is so much more worldly wise that she looks old enough to be her mother. The message: wait until marriage fits into your life better – or are you not really in love? This was only the second full episode with Mike Nelson taking over for Hodgson as the subject of the experiments, but as he’d been serving as head writer for some time already, he was already pretty comfortable in the middle chair. So much so that, while spoofing a character from the 1968 regional dud, Mike gets to sing a showstopper called “I’m A Janitor”. This experiment sits slightly lower on the graph, however, likely due to the fact that the film itself is so completely laughable. An extra feature on this disc is a reel of show outtakes from various seasons, previously known as “Poopie II” on VHS.
Episode 810- The Giant Spider Invasion
By this time, Beaulieu and Conniff had also left the show, and the general milieu reflected the show’s move to the Sci-Fi Channel all too obviously. Mike and the robots are now plagued by Clayton’s mom Pearl Forrester (Mary Jo Pehl), who pursues the untethered Satellite of Love in a converted van/spaceship as it wanders through space, picking up assistants Prof. Bobo the chimp (Kevin Murphy) and the alien Observer (Bill Corbett, now playing Crow as well) on the way. The show is given a plot that has nothing to do with the movie at hand (Bill Rebane’s inane 1975 thriller about big arachnids overrunning Wisconsin), but instead spoofs Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Despite the skits and movie commentary now operating as separate entities, this is still a darn funny episode, as both vectors score laughs. As a bonus, this disc includes a “video jukebox” section, which provides 15 different musical sequences from throughout the series’ run. Who can resist Tom’s torch song to a turtle “Tibby Oh Tibby”, or Crow losing his cool in a virulent verse of “The Canada Song”?
Note: This collection seems to have sold out very quickly from most outlets, leading to over-inflated prices on eBay. Try writing to Rhino so they’ll replenish supplies soon.
Apparently Rhino lost the rights to one of the movies in the set. They can no longer sell it and asked stores to return copies.