matril

While I don’t often look at the Tumblr “front page” much more than once a day, today I happened to visit it at the right moment to see a post from one of the accounts I follow saying that “the Rifftrax folks,” Mike Nelson and company, have started a Kickstarter campaign to make four Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes. I have to admit I haven’t pledged yet; my perennial caution about Rifftrax springing from how they started by putting down “big productions ‘everyone’ disdains” is involved there. I’m also thinking back to how an attempt to crowd-source funds for a fourth go at the Mystery Science Theater revival never crossed even its first finish line, and how after some time in limbo there was an announcement of Joel Hodgson “selling his stake” in the show. This Kickstarter followed in close succession, and I’ve already seen suggestions the new ownership had something to do with that. After all of that, I’m conscious I haven’t made much time to watch Mystery Science Theater episodes old or new since the last of the revival episodes premiered. Of course, I haven’t ruled out pledging either.

Rod Serling going “on-set” for his next episode preview for “Execution” and standing in what he said was a time machine did get my attention last week. I was still left guessing how that tied into the compact episode title, which at least could have got my attention before as I kept glancing back at the list of contents on the back of my old first-season DVD set.
( Forward and back )

From Rod Serling’s next-episode preview I understood “People Are Alike All Over” would be “science fiction” through the familiar expedient of involving space travel. Remembering “Mars” being mentioned at least had me hoping this would be a change from “asteroids” with atmospheres and Earth-normal gravity. It also, though, had me thinking of the Ray Bradbury story “Mars is Heaven!” and what its own take on the episode title might be taken as.
( Mars is... )