When me and my friends are sitting around bored we end up watching or more likely re-watching some pretty crappy older movies, so like a lot of people out there we usually end up mocking whatever is on for about an hour and a half at a time. I know it sounds lame but trust me when I say that it can get quite funny at times. Needless to say I've been doing this for years so of course i've been a long time fan of a show called Mystery Science Theater 3000. The premise for the show for anyone who hasn’t seen it is exactly the same (well not exactly I guess): there’s a guy named Joel (later replaced by Mike) who is a janitor at a science station and for some reason his crazy bosses Dr. Clayton Forrester and his assistant Frank Conniffer decide to lock him in a satellite (called the satellite of love) and send him into outer space and to make it more interesting they sent with him all the worst movies they could find. Joel of course has to watch the movies when they come on but cannot control when they play as he took the remote and all the other equipment he had laying around and built a couple of smartass robots to keep him company. Thus Tom Servo and Crow are born, together the three make watching a crappy movie pretty fun. This by the way isn’t a new show and it’s not even a show that was so short lasting that no-one would know what it is. Mystery Science Theater 3000 actually came out quite awhile ago in 1988 as a matter of fact. It started in a small town in Minnesota with the creator Joel Hodgson and spanned for 11 years until 1999 with a total of 209 episodes that were approximately 1 hour long.

There have been a few box sets of some of the episodes already and the newest one from Rhino came out September 8th. Volume 10 includes 4 episodes from seasons 2, 5, and 8. The first film is episode 46 from season 2, Godzilla VS. Megalon, and not only is it the best episode on the four disk set but one of the best episodes there was. The small child in this film gives the guys lots of material to pick on him about. Sure it’s a little cruel picking on a child but I think after you see this episode you’ll agree that it had to be done. My favorite part of this episode though is when Tom Servo And Crow do a Orville Redenbacher skit which is absolutely hilarious..

The next DVD in the set is episode 99 from season 5 titled Swamp Diamonds In which a bunch of girls escape from a female prison to search the swamp for some buried diamond, featuring Mike “touch” Connors this is a more horrible than normal movie - there’s some pretty good jokes throughout but the episodes only saving attribute is a short film before the movie titled What To Do On A Date which is pretty hilarious as most the shorts usually are which more importantly leads to a running theme to this episode as well as Tom Servo asking Gypsie out and Crow giving pointers like in the short they watch.

The The third DVD in the set is episode 110 also from season 5 titled Teen-Age Strangler which is about a high school boy who is being blamed for recent murders in a small town and strangely the police and his parents think he may be involved in the murders because before he moved to this town he stole a bike from the last place he lived (which I find a little ridiculous but I guess that’s the point to the movies that they watch - they are supposed to be awful).. I just found this one a little worse than most. The only redeeming quality to this episode is the in-between stuff when they are not watching the film, like when Tom Servo and Crow want to have a rumble until Mike stops them. There’s also a short on this episode that’s kind of funny called Is This Love.

On the fourth and final DVD is episode 166 from season 8 where Mike, Servo, and Crow watch a truly bad film called The Giant Spider Invasion which is exactly what it sounds like. A meteor crashes on Earth that’s carrying giant spiders that get revenge for who knows what on the human race by going around and killing them. This episode is like the first in this set, it’s near the top of the list for all time best episodes. Not only is the movie mocking pretty class A but the in between action is funny as hell like when Servo becomes a cheerleader or later when the robots all become possessed by an evil entity. This is definitely one to watch.

So if you’re a fan of Mystery Science Theater 3000 this set is probably the best yet. If you’re not a fan but find yourself interested then this is probably the set to pick up first. There are a few things that irritate me about this and the other sets like the fact that there are episodes from 3 seasons on one set. I like Mike a little better than the first host (who’s also the creator) Joel but i'll watch both so it’s a shame when they mix the two hosts episodes on one set. I understand that it’s a good way to mix great episodes with weaker ones but I think you could accomplish that by picking 4 episodes from each season considering each year's episodes had a couple of stand out shows. I just think this would be a little more appealing to collectors as well as people who like the first five years better than the last five years or vice-versa depending on which host youlike best.

There’s a Mystery Science Theater 3000 jukebox, outtakes that are pretty funny as well as a photo gallery in the collection as well. Considering that you get over 320 minutes in this set its like getting four separate movies, which is exactly what you get so paying the average $ 44.00 for the set is pretty reasonable and what I actually uggest you do when you get the chance considering this may be a rare set if the rumors of discontinuation for this one are true.. - Dean Martell.