MST3K, RiffTrax, and Beyond: MST3K Season 8

I remember watching whatever garbage was on the Sci-Fi Channel back in 1997, suddenly a commercial pops up saying "On the next Mystery Science Theater 3000..." and I saw a black and white movie with a giant mantis and was instantly interested. I like me some monster movie. Then I looked downward and saw little theater seats and a guy with two puppets. What is this? Then one of them made a joke.

My entire life was turned upside down. I didn't know what this was, but it was already the greatest thing I've ever seen.

I didn't have Comedy Central growing up. I was lucky to have any cable at all. Sci-Fi picking up MST3K was a godsend, as at the time it was the channel I watched more than any other and it was offering up this well established show that I had never heard of yet was tailor made for. If it were any channel other than Sci-Fi, there is a good chance that I might not be a MSTie today. I might not even have heard of this show.

Maybe I'm a millionaire in that timeline. Putting my love of writing about bullshit into something productive instead of this blog about a puppet show.

So I'm a little biased about season eight. It was the season that was airing when I was getting into the show, and as I started my journey of being a MSTie there was no such thing as a bad episode. Just episodes that weren't Prince of Space. Nostalgia might be weighing me down, but there are so many episodes this season that I just absolutely adore, and the second half of the season from Incredibly Strange Creatures on is quite possibly my favorite run of episodes in the entire series. I can watch any of these episodes and laugh myself silly.

Weeding out a top five is easy enough. My top three have been my favorite episodes of the entire series since day one. It was just a matter of finding what my fourth and fifth rankings were, which wasn't too difficult. Finding a bottom five was more troublesome, because there aren't that many episodes this season that I don't love. The bottom three are the only ones this season I'm indifferent to, and I had to fill it out with two more episodes that I like quite a bit, just not as much as the rest. Alas, The Undead and I Was a Teenage Werewolf got thrown under the bus.

When it comes to movie selection, one can certainly sense there is a bit of hesitancy from the Sci-Fi Channel to embrace the whole "Worst movies ever made" concept of the show, likely not wanting to scare off potential viewers with something horrid (doesn't stop them from airing Asylum movies though, just saying). They start the show with a string of B-movie classics from Universal International and American International, which are more products of their time than all-out bad. That's not to say there aren't a few stinkers, as both Leech Woman and The Thing That Couldn't Die suck pretty hard, but there is very little theater pain to be had.

The flicks get rougher starting with Giant Spider Invasion, which is a cheapie from the 70's that is much uglier and unpleasant than the films that preceded it. Then they hand us Incredibly Strange Creatures and the term "bad movie" is redefined for this era of the series. The latter half of the season has no set similarities between movies, except Prince of Space and Invasion of the Neptune Men, which are both tokusatsu superhero movies from Japan. But outside of the fact that all of these movies are science fiction films in varying degrees, there is very little in common.

The one last noteworthy thing about the eighth season is that Sci-Fi mandated a story arc throughout the season, even though the host segments aren't exactly the reason most people watch the series. This is hardly the only series Sci-Fi mandated this for, as when Sliders was ported over from Fox in 1998 they were asked to do a season arc as well (they dwindled their arc and fizzled out a lot like MST too), but MST isn't so much about its premise as it is its comedic concept. Arcs can work, and episodes have been done in the past with a full arc told through the host segments, but the people who work on this show aren't exactly storytellers. They come up with this "Chase through time and space" idea, where Pearl and her new Mads Bobo and Observer harass Mike and the Bots from planet to planet and throughout time. It kind of works, and some of the scenarios are pretty clever. But the big failing is that they have issues working in fresh jokes with each premise they set up the longer they go on. The Roman Times run for example, just kind of drags as it seems like a decent premise for a single episode, but not four.

All of this seems moot by the season finale, which forgets about the arc entirely and just does a parody of public television.

The eighth season of Mystery Science Theater 3000 is a gem and it's the season I have the fondest memories of and it's one that will always have a soft spot in my heart. When I'm likely to pop in an episode of the show, these are usually the episodes I think of first. Thank god for this season and thank god for the Sci-Fi Channel. This is one of the most important runs of any television series for me as a human being.

Top Five Episodes:

1. Prince of Space

2. Invasion of the Neptune Men

3. Space Mutiny

4. Time Chasers

5. The Deadly Mantis

Bottom Five Episodes:

1. The She-Creature

2. The Mole People

3. Parts: The Clonus Horror

4. I Was a Teenage Werewolf

5. The Undead

MST3K, RiffTrax, and Beyond

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MST3K Season 8

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