As I edit the NVScene video that I shot for nVidia/Demoscene.tv (technically I own the rights to the footage, but out of professional courtesy I am giving them a six-month exclusive license to it), I find myself with a lot of free time, because creating .WMV files for previews requires rendering, and rendering 1920×1080 footage on my hardware takes a very long time.  So I’ve decided to pick another series I haven’t seen completely and watch every single episode in the downtime during the renders.  I did this previously with Star Trek: Voyager and DS9.  This time, I’ve chosen Mystery Science Theater 3000, including the early KTMA episodes.  With nearly 200 shows, at 1.5 hours per show (minus commercials), this will take a while.

So, having gotten through 20 or so KTMA episodes and well into the first proper season, I am going to save you the trouble of watching the KTMA episodes:  Don’t.  Weinstein’s acting and riffing is just horrible, there is no invention exchange (my favorite part of the Joel episodes), and the movies aren’t bad enough to be funny, just bad.  Which makes the whole experience incredibly boring.  I watched them at night because I knew they would put me to sleep, which they did.

There are two KTMA episodes worth your time:  SST Death Flight (for all of the cameos) and Hangar 18, which is silly in the first hour but neat sci-fi in the last 30 minutes.  That’s right: I’m recommending those two episodes for the movies themselves.  Watch those.  Delete the others, and don’t look back.  Start with the proper Season One and just try to ignore Weinstein until he’s gone.

Yes, I am being unnecessarily unfair to Weinstein.