A few questions about the experiments

[Troy's Dad]

I had a few questions pertaining to the experiments taking place within MST3K, these came about when I was rewatching some season 11 episodes.

• Has the experiment of watching cheesy movies always been referred to, by the mads, as "Mystery Science Theater 3000"? I recall Kinga referring to this but don't recall Dr. Forrester or Pearl ever specifically saying this.

• Is the experiment intended to be ongoing, where they are just monitoring the host's mind? Or is the endgame to find the most painful movie? I know there are sometimes hopes for world domination, but do the experiments play into this?

• I know episode numbers have been used on the wikis, but season 11 brought the numbering into the intros. What I found confusing is that while Cry Wilderness is the 199th episode, wouldn't it be the 200th experiment when you count the movie? Why isn't the movie counted as an episode/experiment?

[Torgo]

1. The show has been referred to as "Mystery Science Theater" at points in the past, though not often. I don't believe that Dr. F ever definitively labeled it as such on screen, prefering to just call it "the experiment." Pearl usually just called it "the movie" or "the theater." Kinga however is very much about branding, so naturally she embraces the title itself.

2. Different Mads had different endgames. Dr. Forrester was hoping the worst movie ever made would subdue the population with its awfulness and conquer the world. Pearl stemmed from that, though she seemed to care little for the experiment itself and just seemed content with torturing Mike. Kinga seems to want to conquer the world from a capitalistic point of view and just desire to obtain power through wealth and property. As she points out in Reptilicus "We're going to blow up this brand and sell it to Disney for a billion dollars!" The results of the experiments themselves seem to matter very little to her.

3. Very few television shows count movies in their official episode counts. Even if the film contributew something to the television show in general, such as The X-Files movie, it's not considered an episode. MST's opening count is just based on the number of episodes in the series. Though if you want to get technical, episode three is still lost, so the movie could fill that gap if you wish to include it.

[LoanerCrow]

Nov 20, 2018 12:50:52 GMT -5 Troy's Dad said:

I had a few questions pertaining to the experiments taking place within MST3K, these came about when I was rewatching some season 11 episodes.

• Has the experiment of watching cheesy movies always been referred to, by the mads, as "Mystery Science Theater 3000"? I recall Kinga referring to this but don't recall Dr. Forrester or Pearl ever specifically saying this.

•

I do remember Dr. F very clearly calling it “Mystery Science Theater 3000” during the 91 turkey day bumpers. I’m sure it was done once or twice in the show itself (actually, in Crash of the Moons I know Joel called it “mst3k” in the canoe singing host segment) . I think Joel once said a long time ago, when asked about the backstory, that the Mads were selling the results to cable tv to fund more experiments.

[LetGoOfItSlappy]

Nov 20, 2018 18:44:49 GMT -5 LoanerCrow said:

Nov 20, 2018 12:50:52 GMT -5 Troy's Dad said:

I had a few questions pertaining to the experiments taking place within MST3K, these came about when I was rewatching some season 11 episodes.

• Has the experiment of watching cheesy movies always been referred to, by the mads, as "Mystery Science Theater 3000"? I recall Kinga referring to this but don't recall Dr. Forrester or Pearl ever specifically saying this.

•

I do remember Dr. F very clearly calling it “Mystery Science Theater 3000” during the 91 turkey day bumpers. I’m sure it was done once or twice in the show itself (actually, in Crash of the Moons I know Joel called it “mst3k” in the canoe singing host segment) . I think Joel once said a long time ago, when asked about the backstory, that the Mads were selling the results to cable tv to fund more experiments.

Ironically enough, in the first Rocky Jones episode (Manhunt in Space), Tom makes the comment about Casa 7 looking like the MST3K logo and Joel tells him he's not supposed to know about that.

[Mod City]

I can't recall about the Mads specifically, but I know Joel referred to the actual theater on the satellite as "the Mystery Science Theater" during one host segment. I believe it had something to do with them eating pizza before the experiment.

[crowschmo]

And, of course, they always referred to it as Mystery Science Theater 3000 when they put the address up back when they had the fan club and you could send letters.

[Troy's Dad]

Thanks for the answers everybody! Since the live show, which had the awesome 30 year retrospective intro, I was thinking about this stuff. Nice to have some answers.

Yeah, I remember the letters section was when they'd really break the fourth wall and openly refer to MST3K but season 11's blatant mention of the show's title and referring to MST3K as the Forrester experiment really stuck out to me.

I always got the impression that Peal was just doing it to be evil and didn't particularly care about the results.

I'm interested to see how tomorrow's season 12 premiere handles the endgame for Kinga, seeing as they are collecting 20 liquid vials of whatever the experiments resulted in. Maybe they're delivering the episodes to Netflix?

[brandonakaxerxes]

Nov 20, 2018 15:16:03 GMT -5 Torgo said:

3. Very few television shows count movies in their official episode counts. Even if the film contributew something to the television show in general, such as The X-Files movie, it's not considered an episode. MST's opening count is just based on the number of episodes in the series. Though if you want to get technical, episode three is still lost, so the movie could fill that gap if you wish to include it.

On top of that, most of the Brains don't consider The Movie a satisfying project, so it may also be canon discontinuity for them (although 'This Island Earth' did get referenced in a couple Sci-Fi Channel era episodes).