Re-Release Date: January 31st, 2017
Buy Rhino set here!
Buy Shout Factory set here!
Features the following episodes:
Girl in Gold Boots
Hamlet
Overdrawn at the Memory Bank
Space Mutiny
Volume 4 of our favorite puppet show finally taps the episodes featured on the Sci-Fi Channel, which have been a long time coming. Better still it contains one of the most beloved episodes of the series in Space Mutiny, and two other quite popular episodes backing it up with Overdrawn at the Memory Bank and Girl in Gold Boots. Also good news is that after two sets with a bonus shorts compilation disc we actually have a fourth episode in this collection. Deflating any enthusiasm for that fourth episode for most fans is the fact that the fourth episode is Hamlet, one of the least popular episodes of the series (most likely included because the public domain film was easily to procure). While Hamlet's easily the worst episode of the set, I personally like it quite a bit, which makes this set play stronger to me than most people might view it.
Average Rating (scale of 1 to 4): 3.25
Episodes presentations are pretty solid, though Space Mutiny has some barely noticeable flaws with the transfer and Hamlet has a bizarre issue with the theater seats in the opening theater segment that could honestly just be a flaw in the episode itself and not the DVD release. Special features are regulated to intros by Michael J. Nelson for each episode, which are the first retrospective features ever produced for an MST DVD. Volume 5 would later take this a step further with a lengthy interview with Mike and Kevin Murphy, while Shout Factory would ride on introductions quite a bit when they started carrying the torch. Girl in Gold Boots also features a trailer and a TV spot.
The box itself is Rhino's typical fold out box for the series. The outer box features a hole that sees the MST logo on a layer through it, while theater seats sit at the bottom and look up at orbs that are orbiting it, which include stills from the movies on the interior. Initial copies of the volume set also had the "Volume 4" orb pushed out with a glued on plastic piece, though this made a uniform shelf collection problematic (my copy is without this). The hole featured for the logo is also easy to tear as well.
Inside we have the same art, sans the hole. Opening the box further is a nice photo of Mike, Crow, Servo, and Gypsy. Opening that further we find the discs, each with a label that looks like the moon, while behind the discs themselves are stills from the episodes.
Moving on to the menus, Girl in Gold Boots features a bunch of go-go dancers getting jiggy to a generic tune. Hamlet features clips from the movie being played against what looks like a dungeon wall. Overdrawn at the Memory Bank has what looks like a bubble-wrapped microchip (?), with some of the retro effects from the movie thrown in. Space Mutiny features a generic grid with characters from the movie fading in an out on it, while also featuring Servo in a flying pod and Crow in a Ballerian outfit. As per usual, these Mike episode feature Joel at the bottom of the menus in the theater seats for some reason, with the sole exception being Girl in Gold Boots. That series of clips seem to be ripped straight from the episode and the theater seats with it.
You get pretty much the same thing with Shout's set, which features the same transfers for the episodes (flaws for Space Mutiny and Hamlet intact) and the intros are kept, as well as the trailer and TV spots for Girl in Gold Boots. This set is a slimmed down DVD case which features Shout's stock re-release art of the theater seats looking up at the MST logo. Interior disc art is just episode titles against a starry backdrop, while menus keep the stock theme alive with theater seats looking at titles against a starry backdrop. Normally these menus use the closing theme as music, though the only one here that does is Hamlet, which also uses the "To Be or Not To Be" soliloquy during it. Girl in Gold Boots uses the theme from the movie itself, while both Space Mutiny and Overdrawn port over the menu music from the Rhino release.
Volume 4 is a great set to own, especially for those of us who grew up on the Sci-Fi era. I can wholeheartedly recommend three of the episodes, while Hamlet is probably not one for newbies. But if you're a practiced fan of the series I say give it a shot. The majority dislike the episode, but you might be surprised at how funny it really is. I'd daresay that this might be one of the most consistent sets on the market.
No comments:
Post a Comment