Episodes Featured:
Also included:
Pledge Drive Bonus Disc (Pledge Drive Edition only)
Another season box set? My inner fanboy is shrieking! It's only six episodes though, so it's barely more than an average volume of the classic series (and equal to the 25th Anniversary Edition), so that's a bummer. However the six episodes are the six-part story arc of "The Gauntlet," a six movie marathon that Jonah and the Bots suffer through.
But overall while several of the episodes are worth watching, the entire experience is kind of middling. My overall impression of the season can be found here, but overall it's a few good episodes and a few meh ones. Mac and Me is the set's highlight, with Ator, the Fighting Eagle coming in at a close second. The season low is Lords of the Deep, which is just really dull.
Average Rating: 2.667
Whether you get the DVD or the blu-ray, you will see great picture regardless. Filmed in HD and not decayed by age like the classic series, the twelfth season of Mystery Science Theater has handsome and sharp visual presentation. Obviously the blu-ray is the better option for videophiles, though those who don't care about sharpness will be content with the standard definition presentation of the DVD.
Like the previous box set, there were two separate versions of this set. The normal retail version is a three disc set that just contains the episodes, while for a short period fans were able to purchase a "Pledge Drive Edition" which people could purchase through a pledge drive to help support the series before the season came out. The Pledge Drive Edition features a bonus disc with a group of excellent featurettes on the making of the series. For a thorough breakdown of those, I've linked a review above.
The packaging of the two versions is virtually the same, as it was a promotional piece of artwork for the series, which has Jonah, Crow, and Tom Servo running through a hallway of liquid film containers down in Moon 13, while the heads of Max and Kinga hover in the foreground and the Satellite of Love and the MST logo fly in the sky above. The only difference between the artworks of the two editions is that the Pledge Drive Edition has "Pledge Drive Edition" written on the bottom, which clears up which version you have. Disc art is just a starry backdrop with movie logos against it. Disc menus are bare minimum, as each one is just a shot of the Satellite bridge with an episode selection.
There is really not a lot here to break down. Those who want special features will want the Pledge Drive Edition (though it's not for retail sale) while the regular set is just a bare minimum package of six episodes. It's unfortunate that we have no Steve Vance art or humorous menus to entertain us, but I guess six more episodes is still six more episodes. This season is a cute experiment but far from a series highlight though, so I'd direct people to a lot of better sets in the past over this one (I'd even call the previous season better). But if one wants to support the new Mystery Science Theater 3000, the set is a must have.
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