The 23rd collection of episodes from Mystery Science Theater 3000 arrives from Shout! Factory, including one truly classic episode and some highly entertaining and enlightening bonus materials.
Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume XXIII
Studio:Shout! Factory
US DVD Release Date: March 27, 2012
Rated: Not Rated
Running Time: 360 minutes
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 full screen
Audio: Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono (English)
Subtitles: None
In the not too distant future, next Sunday, A.D.....
Movie: 3.5 out of 5
Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) was the brainchild of Joel Hodgson, a former prop comic and frequent guest on Saturday Night Live and Late Night With David Letterman. Basically an extension of the popular hosted movie format made famous by Vampira and Elvira, the original premise was that Joel (and later Mike Nelson), along with his robot companions Crow and Tom Servo, were sent into space, orbiting the planet and forced to watch bad movies by Dr. Clayton Forrester (Trace Beaulieu). The show first aired on local Minneapolis-St. Paul UHF station KTMA in a very crude form in 1988, but was picked up by the Comedy Channel (now Comedy Central) as one of its first series a year later. The series survived for seven seasons, then moved to Sci-Fi for three additional seasons, finally falling out of first-run orbit in 1999.
Volume 23 is the eleventh set of episodes to be released by Shout! Factory. As with the previous set, they go back to tradition by offering up two Joel episodes long sought-after by fans of the series as well as two Mike episodes. One other thing fans will be pleased about - the inclusion of the Turn Down Your Lights (where applicable) title that appeared at the beginning of most Joel-era episodes, and has been missing on many of Shout! Factory’s previous releases.
First in the set is Experiment #210, King Dinosaur, from the last quarter of the series’ second season. The episode starts out with the educational short X Marks The Spot, a cautionary tale about a man who may very well be New Jersey’s worst driver and having to answer for his driving habits to his guardian angel and judge. The short begins with an overly long prologue by monotone (and Elmer Fudd impersonator) Commissioner Arthur W. Magee, and proceeds to the fatal accident. Joel, Tom Servo, and Crow get some good riffs in, but things really pick up once Robert Lippert and Bert I. Gordon classic, King Dinosaur, begins. The film is a goofy piece of 1950s science fiction with a team of scientists (coincidentally two couples) travelling to a recently discovered planet, Nova, that is inhabited by giant alligators, ants, bees, snakes, and lizards (mistakenly referred to as a T-Rex).
Riffs include references to Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, The Brady Bunch, Joel voices the snake as Satan, and the obvious use of stock fottage throughout the film. Host segments include Dr. Forester getting squashed like a pancake in the elevator, Joel reading a poem, Crow wonders if he’s “qualified,” and the infamous “Joey The Lemur” sketch.
Next up is Experiment #323, The Castle of Fu Manchu. The episode would be a precursor to season four’s Manos: The Hands of Fate in terms of the level of suffering one must go through to watch this film, which stars Christopher Lee as the famed Asian villain in a plot that is almost completely indecipherable. Like King Dinosaur, Fu Manchu resorts to the use of stock footage from other, much better movies, most notably the sinking of the Titanic from A Night To Remember. The riffs are pretty good, with references to the sitcom That Girl, the Shriners, Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous, Dougie Houser, and one of my favorite recurring riffs from the series - Does this bug you, I’m not touching you. Host segments show just how rundown this movie has made Joel and the Bots, so much so that they tell Dr. Forester and Frank that it’s not easy to make funny comments during this movie, to which the Mads attempt but fail miserably.
Code Name: Diamond Head was a failed TV series pilot from 1977 by Quinn Martin (Barnaby Jones, The Fugitive), and the subject of Experiment 608. Roy Thinnes (Dark Shadows) plays secret agent Johnny Paul (code named Diamond Head) who is hot (or lukewarm) on the trail of Sean Donovan (Ian McShane, Deadwood), who is attempting to steal a deadly nerve-toxin gas. It is not surprising the pilot was not picked up, as the film is fairly dull. The two riffs that sum up this film are Tom Servo’s “Ah, the gripping luggage sequence” and “You know, in retrospect, the luggage scene was really fascinating.” It is interesting to note that the writers must have been fascinated with the British series Lovejoy that starred Ian McShane, since they reference it several times whenever Ian McShane appears. The short, A Day At The Fair, precedes the feature, and Crow has the best riff, a reference to Silence of the Lambs, “Later, these moths turn up in the mouths of Bob’s victims.” Host segments include Mike and the Bots living in their own filth, the Mads arguing with each other over who is the cleanest, Magic Voice has fun with Crow, and Mike and the Bots throw a luau.
The final episode in the set, Experiment #611, Last of the Wild Horses, has come to be known by fans as the evil parallel dimension episode, an homage to the Star Trek episode, Mirror, Mirror. Dr. Forrester’s Matter Transference Device malfunctions during an ion storm, sending Dr. F and Frank up to the Satellite of Love and an evil Mike, evil Crow, with Tom Servo and Gypsy in tow, running things down at Deep 13. But in the normal reality, Mike and Crow have to deal with evil Tom and evil Gypsy. The movie is a bit forgettable, marking the directing debut of Robert Lippert (it would be his only effort as director), a standard 1940s low-budget western about a ranch-hand who must clear his name of murder.
Video: 3 out of 5
As I’ve stated in my previous reviews of these sets, judging the video quality of an episode of MST3K is difficult. The movies are usually in fairly bad shape, with sub-par transfers that the series’ producers had to contend with.
The only fair thing to do is to judge the host segments, and the quality improves as you get later into the series. Disc one has an overall softness to it, but colors are consistent. Disc two fairs much better, with greater detail and color fidelity. Discs Three and Four are excellent, with increased detail and well-defined colors.
Audio: 3 out of 5
As with the video, the audio quality is best judged by the host segments and the actual riffing during the movie. All four discs include a Dolby Digital 2.0 track, encoded at 192 kbps. Dialogue is intelligible and overall the tracks have good fidelity.
Special Features: 4 out of 5
As with Shout! Factory’s other MST3K boxed sets, the menu designs on each disc are themed with the episode, with decent CG animation, and are very funny. Also included in the set are a set of original comic book style mini-posters for each episode, identical to the DVD covers. All five discs come housed in THIN-Pak keepcases within a paperboard sleeve, encased in a special edition tin box.
Disc One (King Dinosaur):
The Incredible Mr. Lippert (35:50): This is, perhaps, one of the big highlights of the bonus features in this set, a documentary on Robert Lippert, the producer of King Dinosaur. Lippert started out as a movie exhibitor, but found that he was unable to get the big studio movies because they owned their own theaters at the time. Tired of booking films from the smaller studios such as Monogram, Republic, and PRC, he started up his own studio producing movies for his own theaters. Although much of his output was marginal B-movie material, he did launch a few careers, most notably Samuel Fuller. This short would be a wonderful companion piece to Corman’s World: Exploits Of A Hollywood Rebel.
Theatrical Trailer for King Dinosaur (1:40): The film’s trailer is poorly scratched and full of compression artifacts (likely sourced from archive.org).
Disc Two (The Castle of Fu Manchu):
Introduction by Frank Conniff (3:23): Conniff admits that this was one of the more difficult movies they covered on the series, his admiration for actors getting work regardless of the final result, and what the standards were for a movie to be included on the series.
Darkstar: Robots Don’t Need SAG Cards (17:48): A behind the scenes look at the computer game Darkstar, which featured performances by many cast and crew members of MST3K.
Theatrical Trailer for The Castle of Fu Manchu (2:07): The film’s trailer is poorly scratched and full of compression artifacts (likely sourced from archive.org).
Disc Three (Code Name: Diamond Head):
Code Name: Quinn Martin (6:37): Jonathan Etter, author of Quinn Martin, Producer, discusses the career of Quinn Martin.
Life After MST3K: Kevin Murphy (9:24): The voice of Tom Servo discusses what he’s been up to since MST3K went off the air.
Disc Four (Last of the Wild Horses):
Vintage MST3K Promos (14:16): A total of 29 promos from the Comedy Central era are featured here, most of which appear to have been sourced from VHS tapes.
Overall: 4 out of 5
Shout! Factory continues to put a lot of much-appreciated effort into their MST3K sets, and the show’s fanbase will yet again likely not be disappointed with this release. The set is bookended by two solid episodes, and the two middle episodes have enough laughs, especially in the host segments, to make them worthwhile.
