Release Date: July 29, 2014
Features the following episodes:
At long last, the episode that won Mystery Science Theater 3000 a Peabody Award has finally hit DVD. A glorious disc of Outlaw, one of the most hilarious episodes of the series riffing on one of the most inept movies they've ever riffed! If you don't own this set, get crackin' and buy it already! No collection is complete without it!
Oh yeah, there are other episodes here too. Just none worth saying in the same breath as Outlaw. That's the big downside to this set, is that there is one great episode worth having and three others that you just get with it and probably won't watch as much. The best of the rest is probably Projected Man, but that's from lack of competition. The Black Scorpion is a poor episode that is almost saved by a fun movie while It Lives By Night is for my money one of the worst episodes of the series. If I were looking to this set on a surface level, I'd be as doom and gloom about the episode selection as I am with Volume 12. But my eyes keep stopping on Outlaw and I think to myself "But...Outlaw! I have to have it!"
Average Rating (scale of 1 to 4): 2.25
Audio and video are top marks across the board, while special features keep lovers of the films happy, as we get some decent behind the scenes features on The Black Scorpion, Outlaw, and The Projected Man (It Lives By Night gets shafted). General historian presentations are provided with Stinger of Death: Making The Black Scorpion and Shock to the System: Creating The Projected Man, while Outlaw gets a trio of interviews titled Writer of Gor: The Novels of John Norman, Director of Gor: On Set with John "Bud" Cardos, and Producer of Gor: Adventures with Harry Alan Towers. Also featured are trailers for The Black Scorpion and The Projected Man.
One may notice there is a general lack of MST related features on this set, so if you're craving some series info you're going to come up disappointed. The most MST related special feature on the set is a trailer for an independent comedy film called The Frank, starring Frank Conniff in the title role, and featuring Bill Corbett, Mary Jo Pehl, and J. Elvis Weinstein.
The box art is Shout's stock box art for the series, featuring the MST logo in the upper left hand corner against a starry backdrop and the theater seats at the bottom, as the roman numeral "XXX" is painted in red in the center. Disc art is also the Shout standard, featuring title logos against a starry backdrop. As always the centerpiece of the art is the individual slim cases on the inside, which feature individual episode art by Steve Vance. The Black Scorpion features Servo and Crow in a crane being chased by the title beast. Outlaw has Servo and Crow dressed in Gor clothing being pinned to a wall by swords. The Projected Man offers Crow as the titular Projected Man, who is chasing Servo in a blonde wig. It Lives By Night has Servo turning into a bat man (not THE Batman) as Crow, dressed as his wife, flees in terror. The art is also featured in four mini posters offered in the set.
Disc menus are excellent, as usual, each featuring the Bots in episode related scenarios. The Black Scorpion is presented as if it were stop motion, as Crow and Servo play around on the bridge of the Satellite of Love as a giant scorpion rises behind them. Outlaw has Crow and Servo heckling wizard Jack Palance, who has Gypsy as his queen beside him. The Projected Man offers Crow and Servo luring the titular monster being onto the SOL bridge where they "project" him to death. It Lives By Night concludes with Crow and Servo hiding with bats on the ceiling of a cave, trying not to spook the main characters of the film who are passing by.
For a deca-release, Volume XXX is fairly disappointing. There is an unfortunate lack of series related bonus material and the included episodes fall below average. The only thing about this series that demands it be a part of your collection is the fact that it contains the award winning episode Outlaw, and for the movie connoisseurs out there, the movie related features will definitely demand to be seen. Little pieces of Volume XXX demand to be owned, but the full package leaves one wanting. But if you've collected the previous twenty-nine volumes, you're going to pick this one up as well.
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