If you have never seen Mystery Science Theater 3000 (or MST3K as it is so annoyingly called) you’re probably wondering what the hell it is.  In essence, it was a program where a bunch of smart-alecks managed to create a cult phenomena on American TV by cracking wise during bad movies… something that people who’ve watched films  “so bad, they’re  good” have been doing for decades. 

For those of you who remember the pre-cable TV days, UHF channels were those lower-powered stations relegated to that weird dial on the television with the big numbers.  Most had no network affiliation, so they filled their time with old reruns and even older movies.  For Generation X Americans, these channels provided access to a variety of really obscure, usually not good, films.  Since the stations had all of those movies just sitting in their vaults, many would gather together their horror and genre pictures for late-night airings hosted by local oddities (Vampira, Pittsburgh’s ‘Chilly Billy,’ Cleveland’s ‘Ghoulardi,’ etc..) People sitting at home watching, would naturally pick them apart.  If you were with a bunch of friends, you’d shout out your jokes and criticism, trying to make your pals laugh.  Mystery Science Theater 3000 took this practice and ran with it.

It is kind of an obvious idea, yet genius in its execution and success.  For eleven years (1988-1999), 197 episodes, and one feature film, the creators and writers of Mystery Science Theater 3000 made an entire generation of fans laugh.  From its birth as a small UHF show in Minnesota through its runs on Comedy Central and The Sci-Fi Channel, the gang at Best Brains Inc. (the production company) continued to remind us that just because it’s a movie, that doesn’t make it art.

The crew at Best Brains probably had no budget. But as you'd expect from a bunch of art school and movie nerds, they managed to make an awful lot out of absolutely nothing; creating characters, props, and entire sets out of nothing but junk (junk that can be fun to identify by the keen-eyed viewer.)  The beauty of Mystery Science Theater 3000 is that they continued their no-budget aesthetic for the life of the show.  There is definitely a charm to this, as well as a feeling of admiration for these “found object” artists.

To boil down the premise that floats the idea, mad scientists imprison a human (first host Joel Hodgeson and subsequent host Mike Nelson) in their “Satellite of Love” and force him to watch bad movies.  To stave off the loneliness, robots are built, key among them are Tom Servo and Crow, to share in the pain of watching the films.  Seen in sillouette at the bottom of the screen, we watch them as they watch, and more importantly, comment on, the action unspooling before them.

Very rarely does having an encyclopedic knowledge of useless information and pop-culture trivia have much value; but when watching Mystery Science Theater 3000, it really pays off.  Not that it’s required, mind you.  At roughly 700 jokes per 90 minute film, you’re bound to get more laughs out of this than the average comedy.  The writers definitely take the ‘shotgun’ approach to their humor, throwing in everything from high-brow to low-brow.  There are also plenty of on-going bits and in-jokes that reward the viewer after a few episodes.  In fact, due to both the density of the material, as well as comments referencing other films they’ve watched, Mystery Science Theater 3000 is tailor-made for repeat viewing.

Obviously, a show like this will have mountains of rights issues to overcome on its way to home video.  Licensing the titles they’ve skewered becomes an obstacle course to navigate, from everything to estates who can’t be bothered, to thin-skinned owners who didn’t appreciate their movie being slaughtered on cable TV, to films that are just too expensive to secure (sometimes due to the fact that being featured on the show has raised the profile, and the price, of the film.)  Chances are we will never see full season-set releases; but since the dawn of DVD, Rhino Home Video has done a pretty fair job of getting the titles that they can out to the fans.  Starting with single-disc releases of individual episodes; Rhino has now been releasing the series in four episode, multi-disc collections.

Every episode has a wrap-around storyline featuring the crew of the Satellite of Love and their tormentors, and these segments are of varying quality.  At times, I’d prefer to be rid of them completely.  The real meat here is the skewering of the films themselves, and this set definitely doesn’t disappoint.

Their latest release, Volume 10, like the previous nine, is not organized in any specific way.  It seems that once Rhino has secured the rights to any four films, another release is put on the schedule.  For example, Volume 10 has an episode from season 2, two from season 5, and one from season 8.  The first two are hosted by Hodgeson and the last two by Nelson.  Since the hosts were changed during season five, there has been an on-going, heated debate by fans as to which is superior.  Each is very different in their approach and sense of humor, yet both are very funny.  Neither one sucks and both of them are quite good.  Get over it.

Volume 10 features four films and two bonus shorts.  The bonus shorts are generally education films and, because of how Eisenhower-era corny and square they are, they provide some of the richest material.

Disc One
Godzilla Vs. Megalon (1973)
Yes, Godzilla movies are silly, but this one is really out there; featuring the doe-eyed version of Godzilla… the one who is the hero of Japan and friend to children everywhere.  He and robot pal Jet Jaguar team up to fight the monsters unleashed on Tokyo by the denizens of Seatopia.  Don’t miss the kickin’ Jet Jaguar theme song at the end of the film.  Better yet, don’t miss the English “translation” by the folks at Mystery Science Theater.  Oh, and the bit they do, “Rex Dart, Eskimo Spy” might be worth the price of this set all by itself.

Disc Two
Swamp Diamonds (1955) w/ bonus short: What To Do On A Date (1951)
Directed by Roger Corman.  Really, that’s all you need to know here.  The running joke they have at the expense of the pre-Mannix star Mike “Touch” Conners will have you giggling so much, you’ll never think about how unwatchable this film must be without the commentary.

Disc Three
Teen-Age Strangler (1968) w/ bonus short: Is This Love? (1957)
Is it about a teenager who is a strangler or a strangler who targets teenagers?  You may never know the answer, but this episode had me laughing so much, I didn’t really care.  As I write this, I’m humming “Yipes Stripes” to myself.  When you watch this, you’ll carry the same curse.  Also, don’t miss Mikey, easily the greatest character ever created.

Disc Four
The Giant Spider Invasion (1975)
Bad special effects, washed-up stars (Alan Hale Jr., Barbara Hale), and rural Wisconsin locations all add up to quite the train-wreck of a movie.  Needless to say, the guys from Minnesota really let loose the arrows on their neighbor state, which seems to be their own West Virginia.  By the end, this film will have you cheering “Packers!”

Picture & Sound
The films suck.  Sure, the acting, dialogue, story, execution… well, everything, tends to be pretty bad; otherwise it wouldn’t be featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000.  That sentiment also applies to the quality of the prints as well.  You get rusty-scissored censor edits, film breaks, wash-outs, audio drops, scratches, dirt, hair… the works.   But all of that is another charming aspect of the show.  This is exactly the state you’d see these movies in if you were watching them in their “pure” form on your local UHF station.  The stations never cared about remastered, pristine film prints in their complete form and would show whatever they had.  As a way to recreate the experience, the poor condition of the prints works well towards that effect. 

As for the Mystery Science Theater 3000 stuff, it looks and sounds just fine.  For a low-budget, shot-on-video television show, the presentation here on DVD is much like you would’ve seen it broadcast on cable. 

My only problem was that there were times when the audio levels on the films were too low, especially noticeable when the cast of the show weren’t talking.  I had my television volume up at higher levels than normal when screening this, although it’s probably more the fault of the original engineering of the show than it is the DVD transfer.

Extras
On disc one, there is a Photo Gallery.  This is a mish-mash of stills, mostly behind-the-scenes, from the various seasons of the show.  They are not in any specific order nor is there any additional information provided.  Many of the pictures showing people had me wondering who the hell they were (like looking at a stranger’s photo album.)  There were a few images that I found interesting, but useless without context.

On disc three is a selection of Outtakes.  From some outside reading I’ve done, it appears that this fifteen minute selection of clips came from a previous VHS release of bloopers called Poopie 2.  Since there was a Poopie 1, most of the clips come from the later period of the show.  As you can imagine, a set full of cheaply constructed puppets and props will have more than their share of malfunctions.  If you want to see the puppets break, this is for you.

Disc four contains a Video Jukebox.  Like the creators of The Simpsons and Family Guy, these guys like to write silly songs and perform them on the show.  The Video Jukebox contains 15 of some of their choicer cuts.  If you have a favorite song from the show, I would imagine that you’d find it here.

Wrap-up
When it comes to Mystery Science Theater 3000, the actual films generally don’t matter.  These guys can and do find plenty of humor in them, making the movies nothing more than their non-stop straight man.  In fact, I’ve only seen them fail once.  That movie was called Red Zone Cuba, and thank your personal god or gods that it isn’t included here.  Red Zone Cuba was like a black hole where not even laughter could escape.  Avoid it.

Volume 10 is another solid outing by the comedy geniuses at Mystery Science Theater 3000.  The beauty of the show is that you don’t need to know anything about it; so if you’ve never seen an episode but are curious, you can start here just as easily as anywhere else.  If you’re already a fan, definitely get this set, get the others… get them all!  Except Red Zone Cuba.