BUT...
What if I told you that a handful of classic MST are actually on blu-ray? Are you as curious about this as I am?
MST3K's first blu-ray release was a Shout Factory special edition of The Movie back in 2013, which looks fairly stunning, since it was filmed on actual film of course. The one tiny flaw is that it used a transfer that replaced the original studio logo at the beginning of the movie, but the disc was particularly loaded with special features, so it's a tiny blemish on a beautiful package. It seemed to be quite reasonable that this might be the only blu-ray release of the series, especially since the relaunch Kickstarter had not come to fruition yet. Once the Kickstarter launched, it showed that the future of the series would be in HD. However, not long after that Shout Factory gave a sample of the classic series in HD, as in late 2015 they released the uncut film The Brain That Wouldn't Die, which included the MST episode as a bonus feature.
Let's not get too excited too fast though. While the quality of the unriffed film in question is undoubtedly pristine, the episode presentation is far less so. Even forgiving the fact that it doesn't live up to high definition standards as a standard definition source, the episode has troublesomely low contrast, which means absurdly high black levels. Anybody who remembers Rhino's Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders disc is having PTSD flashbacks as I say this. The one virtue Merlin had for having that kind of transfer is that it was a color film, but Brain is in black and white, which makes it far more bothersome because there are more blacks on display. This disc was very easy to pass up if you were just in it for the episodes. However bonus features did include a commentary and a bonus scene of nudity for foreign venues.
Shout did not stop there though, as it eventually released more episodes as supplements on more blu-ray releases of uncut films. The Screaming Skull hit in 2017 and once again the uncut film features a gorgeous, if slightly dirty, transfer. The MST transfer fares a lot better than Brain's, and one can even claim that the upscale transfer looks a bit more solid than its DVD counterpart, though it's predictably lacking texture and the poor print of the film used in the episode looks trashy compared to its HD version. Bonus features include the same featurette on the making of the film seen on the MST DVD while it also includes a photo gallery and some trailers for good measure.
A few months later, Shout graced us with a blu-ray of The Bat People, which was the original title to It Lives By Night. Forgiving that this is one of my least favorite episodes of the series, the high definition transfer of the movie is great. And being one of the last episodes produced means that the episode has one of the sharpest transfers of the classic series. A lot of these tenth season episodes have some great masters that can look pretty solid in high definition, even if they aren't hi-def themselves. Also included are a photo gallery and a pair of trailers that are really the same trailer just each with a different title for the movie.
2017 was also the same year that MST was relaunched on Netflix, introducing the series into the high definition era with native high definition transfers. In November of that year those who backed the series on Kickstarter were sent a copy of the season on blu-ray, while the season was released in retail stores the following April. For more on this release, I linked my review of it below.
More episodes were released onto blu-ray in 2019. This year saw Shout releasing a host of Universal International sci-fi onto home video, one of which was The Mole People. This release actually features the film with two aspect ratios, one in 1.85:1 and another in 2:1, which are both essentially the same video but the latter features less picture (incidentally, the version on MST is open framed, so you actually see the most video on it, even with the theater seats). The 1.85:1 looks the least cramped to me, so I'd probably prefer that one. This transfer of the film is very grainy, though that's not a bad thing as grain means texture. It's also a features specks of dirt on it, so it's not a fully clean look but it's easily the best the film has ever looked on home video. The MST version doesn't look quite as good as Screaming Skull or It Lives By Night, as I find it nearly indistinguishable from the DVD transfer. Special features include the same movie making of from the MST DVD, posters and lobby cards, a still gallery, and a trailer for the film.
A month later Shout released The Deadly Mantis, which features a much cleaner movie transfer than Mole People. The movie looks very good, all things considered (shoddy stock footage notwithstanding). The MST episode looks a little better than Mole People, which is weird because it's the episode that aired directly after. One plus to this version is that the original DVD version had cut the show's title bumper immediately after the first host segment, which is restored here. The only special features on this release are a photo gallery and a trailer for the film.
In mid-2019, people who backed a pledge drive to help cover costs of the twelfth season of MST were given a blu-ray set of that season, and that season went on sale for retail in November.
November of 2019 also saw a release of another episode on blu-ray, this time not by Shout Factory but by a little company called Film Detective. They did a blu-ray release of the film Eegah, which probably looks about as good in high definition as it's ever going to look. There are video flaws abound, and certain sequences look washed out and ugly and others look a bit crisper, while audio is pretty shitty. I'm assuming that this is the way the movie always looked and sounded, so Eegah is probably faithful to its source. They licensed the MST version from Shout Factory and it is the first Joel episode released on blu-ray, and considering the age of the episode it looks pretty solid. I'd even call it a better transfer than Mole People, and it's definitely a cut above Brain That Wouldn't Die. Special features include a newly conducted interview with the movie's star, Arch Hall Jr., and it also ports over Joel's interview from The Singles Collection DVD set.
Shout Factory released another episode in 2020, which was on a blu-ray of The Spider, which was the original title of Earth vs. the Spider. Despite being advertised as "The Spider" on the cover, the transfer used for the unriffed film still is labeled Earth vs. the Spider. My first impression watching it is that it's not nearly as blue as the MST print, which was an old tinting trick MST used to do to separate the film from the theater seats. The movie looks pretty great in high definition and I'm happy to have seen it like this. Also featured is an 8mm version, which is 9 minutes long, has no sound, and looks like ass. I love it! The MST version is as of this writing the oldest episode of the series on blu-ray, and it looks pretty decent, probably Mole People level if not slightly better, but worse than Eegah. In addition to the 8mm print, bonus features also include a photo gallery and a trailer.
The most recent blu-ray with an episode of the classic series is another release by Film Detective, this one of Hercules and the Captive Women. The transfer of this movie looks pretty great, crisp and handsome if maybe a little soft on color, and it makes me yearn for more of these Italian Hercules films on blu-ray. The film is English dub only, so sorry to purists who like to watch films in their original language. The video for the MST version looks a little drained and fuzzy to me. It's okay looking, but one of the weaker transfers on the blu-ray format to be sure. This blu-ray features an intro by Frank Conniff, but it's an intro they borrowed from Shout Factory's MST version of the Steve Reeves Hercules rather than Captive Women, which didn't have an intro. An audio commentary for the film is also included, as well as a new Hercules and the Conquest of Cinema documentary which was not featured on the MST DVDs.
Episodes Released on Blu-Ray:
Earth vs. the Spider (The Spider)
It Lives By Night (The Bat People)
Are these a good argument for releasing more episodes on blu-ray? Well, half of them are a slight improvement over their DVD counterparts, a couple look the same, and a couple look worse. It's a case by case basis, though I think using them as bonus features rather than releasing full sets on the format is a good move because some of them just aren't worth the upgrade and getting pristine prints of the unriffed films are actually kind of cool.
I'm curious about Shout Factory's release pattern for these, which seems a bit inconsistent. They've released quite a few films that have been on the show on blu-ray, but only a select group featured episodes as bonus features. After releasing Mole People and Deadly Mantis, Shout also released a blu-ray of The Leech Woman licensed from Universal which had the MST episode conspicuously absent, as was the Arkoff licensed War of the Colossal Beast, which was released after The Spider. Meanwhile other films like Incredible Melting Man and Diabolik are released by Shout without an MST episode. I'm curious if they are using episodes to beef up supplements when bonus features come up short, though even still some of these releases seem a tad light on content anyway. Leech Woman in particular only boasts a commentary over some of the releases I've covered here. It's possible some of these rights owners didn't want the MST version included with the uncut film, which is probably understandable.
But this little corner of the MST marketplace is interesting, even if it is slight and niche. The series has no real reason to be on blu-ray, but these releases exist. That existence by itself is curious to me, because they make no real argument that more should be made, yet one pops up every once in a while. I'm happy to have them, even if the only real reason to be buying them are the movies themselves and not the actual show.
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