Mystery Science Theater 3000- 20th Anniversary Edition”

Mystery Science Theater 3000- 20th Anniversary Edition” is a must own DVD set.
It’s been over a year since it was announced that Rhino would no longer be handling “Mystery Science Theater 3000” DVDs and that Shout Factory would be releasing all future sets. Last week, Shout Factory released their first MST3K box set and I have to say it was absolutely worth the wait.

For those who are unaware of what “Mystery Science Theater 3000” is all about, it is a show in which evil scientists torture a helpless janitor (who is aboard a spaceship in deep space) and his robot pals with excruciatingly bad movies. The only way they get through the movies is to make fun of them. Included in this 20th anniversary set are the films “Laserblast,” “Werewolf,” “Future War,” and “First Spaceship On Venus.”

“First Spaceship On Venus” is a second season episode in which Joel Hodgson, Tom Servo, and Crow T. Robot riff on a dull sci-fi flick that revolves around a group of scientists who head to Venus to discover where a mysterious recording came from. As with most of the early season episodes, the riffing is a bit rough around the edges, but the ending boasts some truly hilarious jokes about Devo, the goofy robot, and so forth. The best part of this episode, however, is the host segments. I really got a kick out of the junk drawer invention exchange and the bizarre/gross dinner commercial of sorts.

The season seven finale episode “Laserblast” finds Mike Nelson, Crow, and Servo blasting apart a schlocky late 70’s science fiction clunker about a small town slacker who finds an alien weapon that transforms him into an alien killing machine. It’s near impossible not to laugh at the gang’s jokes about football, “Star Trek,” film critic Leonard Maltin, Jim Carrey or their mocking of the turtle-like aliens and the dumb cop characters.

As an added note, I must mention that this episode marks Trace Beaulieu’s final appearance as both Dr. Forrester and Crow T. Robot. I thought the “2001” ending was a great send-off myself.

The season nine episode “Werewolf” is hands down the gem of this set, but I may be biased as I am a huge fan of Bill Corbett as Crow. Personally, I find his witty one-liners and joke deliveries to be pitch perfect. His talent is especially evident in this episode in which he, Mike, and Servo trash this so-called horror film by cracking jokes about Joe Estevez, a character’s ever-changing hair styles, the editing, Billy Jack, foreign accents, dogs, and even Steven Tyler. One of the best moments, however, comes during the end credits of the film in which Mike, Crow, and Tom bust out a song medley.

And last, but not least, there is the season ten episode “Future War,” which centers around a slave from future Earth who is being tracked down by dinosaurs and cyborgs (yes, you read that right). While all of the films in this set are terrible, “Future War” is the worst. The movie is plagued by never ending credits, scenes filled with boxes, a Van Damme wannabe, laughable voice overs (and voice dubs), and an overall terrible script. Luckily, Mike, Crow, and Tom manage to make it watchable via their jokes.