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DVD Review Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume One DVD Review (1 Viewer)

Todd Erwin

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Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume One DVD Review

With the out of print Rhino sets often selling for multiples of their original list price, Shout! Factory has begun re-issuing those sets, starting with Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume One, with updated transfers and bonus features.



Studio: Shout! Factory

Distributed By: N/A

Video Resolution and Encode: 480I/MPEG-2

Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1

Audio: English 2.0 DD

Subtitles: None

Rating: Not Rated

Run Time: 6 Hr. 0 Min. (approx)

Package Includes: DVD

4-disc DVD keepcase

Disc Type: DVD-5 (single layer), DVD-9 (dual layer)

Region: 1

Release Date: 09/01/2015

MSRP: $44.99




The Production Rating: 3/5

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 One includes:

 

Disc One: Experiment 204, Catalina Caper, starring Tommy Kirk and Lyle Waggoner in a would-be comedy about an art heist on the island of Catalina off the coast of Southern California.

 

Disc Two: Experiment 606, The Creeping Terror, in which a newlywed sheriff does battle with a man-eating rug-shaped alien, directed by its “star” A.J. Nelson (aka Vic Savage). The film was apparently shot mostly silent (aka MOS) with bland narration filling in the numerous gaps.

 

Disc Three: Experiment 607, Bloodlust, about two “teenage” couples (Robert Reed, June Kelley, Eugene Persson, Joan Lara) who become stranded on a seemingly deserted island, only to be hunted down by a wealthy madman (Wilton Graff). The movie is preceded by the educational short Uncle Jim’s Dairy Farm, where a couple of kids from the city spend the summer on their uncle’s dairy farm.

 

Disc Four: Experiment 609, The Skydivers, another snoozefest from Coleman Francis (the man who brought us The Beast of Yucca Flats and Red Zone Cuba) about a group of skydivers and a love triangle, starring a wooden cast of nobodies. The feature is preceded by the educational shot Why Study Industrial Arts, detailing why shop class is important.

Of the four episodes included, Catalina Caper is probably the weakest, due mostly to the fact that the movie is a comedy that fails miserably, although Joel, Tom Servo, and Crow try their best to get in some good riffs. The episode is probably best known among fans for Tom Servo’s rendition of the song Creepy Girl. The three episodes from the sixth season feature Mike as host, and benefit from the thriftiness and cheesiness of the featured movies, setting up ample opportunities for riffing that often pay off with hilarious results.



Video Rating: 3.5/5  3D Rating: NA

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 some minor softness to it, but colors are consistent. The remaining discs are excellent, with increased detail and well-defined colors. Throughout all four discs, however, there are some brief minor anomalies inherent in the broadcast masters, such as dropouts, but these are few and far between.



Audio Rating: 3/5

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 Rating: 3.5/5

It’s been nearly 13 years since Rhino first released this set of four episodes on dual-sided DVD-10’s, with the original cut of the movie on the flip side. Although the non-riffed versions have been jettisoned for this release, Shout! Factory has included some new bonus features for this more budget-friendly release. All four discs are housed in a 4-disc DVD keepcase, and the discs themselves have more static menus than the more animated and creative menu designs found on the “new to DVD” sets.

 

Disc One (Catalina Caper):
The Crown Jewels (17:29): One thing all four of the movies included in this set have in common is that they were all originally distributed theatrically by Crown International Pictures, and this brief documentary takes a look at the history of the independent distributor that is still in business today.

 

Theatrical Trailer (0:52)

 

Disc Two (The Creeping Terror):
Extended Trailer for
The Creep Behind the Camera (7:21): An extended tease for director Peter Schuermann's exploration of the sociopathic star and director of The Creeping Terror.

 

The Creeping Terror Trailer for Screamfest 2014 (3:47): The trailer pokes some good-natured fun at the film.

 

The Creep Behind the Camera Screamfest 2014 Q&A (17:14): Peter Schuermann is joined on stage with two of his cast members, his producer, and Frank Conniff and Trace Beaulieu, fielding questions from the audience.

 

Disc Three (Bloodlust):
Theatrical Trailer
(1:56)

 

Disc Four (The Skydivers):
Theatrical Trailer
(1:31)



Overall Rating: 3.5/5

Fans who missed out on the original Rhino release will be happy to see these episodes available again on DVD, and at a reduced price. Owners of the original set will want to consider if the very slight bump up in quality and bonus features are worth the upgrade (if you hate flippers, this set is a no-brainer).


Reviewed By: Todd Erwin


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