Synopsis:

An ongoing project that seeks to remaster classic episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000 using the best available HD film sources in their original aspect ratio.

Intentions:

My goal is to give these classic episodes new life with a true HD remaster – not simply upscaling or syncing the show audio to the HD movie, but applying the original silhouettes to the latest and best version of the movie. At the same time, I want to hold on to every element that made these classic episodes so great (...and at times., eh, not-so-great,,,) so not a word of dialogue has been removed.

Change List:

The film is sourced from the Vinegar Syndrome blu-ray. While the film is presented on blu-ray in an open 1.85:1 aspect ratio, I discovered an interesting detail in the director's interview that appears over on the MST3K disc. There, director Albert Pyun said that the film was shot on Super35 format and was intended to be shown in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio. This format has been used for hundreds of big budget movies, including nearly everything James Cameron has done, and indeed, with Alien From LA cropped for cinemascope like it was meant to be, its cinematography has a slightly less cheap direct-to-video feel; like it was meant to be seen in theaters (preferably with a comedian and his robots). So I've presented the episode with the film in both the wide scope ratio and in an open matte format. Personally, I lean toward the scope version, but I understand where others would prefer open matte. Silhouettes and host segments were deinterlaced and upscaled by Zapp at Project MSTie. For the silhouettes, much cleanup was still needed to be done to isolate Mike + the bots from the original episode. Crow's head received it's own separate pass with unique settings and adjustments to better retain the grate of his hockey-mask head. A light gamma halo was applied around Mike + the bots making them the blackest element in their vicinity, while still retaining the overall contrast and gamma of the original film transfer. Some light saturation and contrast boosting was applied to the host segments. Cuts and Additions: Star field added around the SD host segments. Rotoscoped the final countdown door so that it opens/closes on the new, expanded HD theater. Red curtains used to cover Mike and the bots entering/exiting from within the frame. This is done 3 times in the episode. The last countdown door covers the rest. Cleaned up six or so instances where Mike's hands appear as blocky chunks. 00:05 – Updated “Turn Down Your Lights” logo 43:31 - cleaned up + animated Crow's hat silhouette 1:31:49 – Recreated the Best Brains logo with HD movie footage.

Other Sources:

Curtains closing by Jurassic Films (youtube) Green Screen curtains opening by Yuriy Tsymbaliuk (youtube)

Special Thanks:

This project would not be what it is without the upscaled footage and support from Zapp at Project MSTie. Do yourself a favor and follow them on youtube (https://www.youtube.com/@ZappRowsdower) and archive.org (https://archive.org/details/@project_mstie) for the absolute best quality renderings of the original show. Also thank you to INIGHTMARES who has been a champion of this project from the start and is always there with technical and moral support.