I started this “MSTing Links” series way too long ago to bridge the gap between the original run of the show and the Netflix revival, with the plan to follow that up with the short run of The Film Crew, which happened in between the end of the original run of the show and the launch of Rifftrax. Of course, I’ve taken so long doing this that the Netflix era seems to have come to an end and the Rifftrax crew is returning to produce four new episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000 later this year.

But there was another big bit of recent news that I felt would fit nicely under the MSTing Links banner. Longtime fans of MSTK know that the show started on the UHF channel KTMA in the Twin Cities. The 21 KTMA episodes were essentially an extended pilot/proof of concept for the eventual first “real” season on The Comedy Channel. Many of the episodes were later re-riffed in the third season on Comedy Central.

For the longest time, KTMA episodes were circulated among the most diehard MST3K fans based on second/third/fourth generation VHS dubs, recorded by fans in the Twin Cities area. Over the years, fans-recorded episodes were accumulated for episodes 4-21, but the first three episodes, which originally aired Nov. 24-27, 1988, never turned up as fan copies.

But portions did appear in various VHS/DVD special features over the years. In the late 2000s, then owner Jim Mallon even digitized the host segments for “Star Force” for his revamped version of the MST3K website. When original host Joel Hodgson and Shout Factory took over ownership of MST3K in 2015, Joel even released digital copies of the first two episodes, riffs of “Invaders from the Deep” and “Revenge of the Mysterons from Mars” as Kickstarter bonuses. It was the first time any KTMA episodes had been given full, official releases.

Fans held out hope that “Star Force” might be given a similar release, but for years there was nothing. During the 2021 Kickstarter for the Gizmoplex season of MST3K, producer Ivan Askwith confirmed that they did not have a copy of the missing third episode. We know that it existed in the late 2000s Jim Mallon to have digitized it then, but it seemed to have been misplaced somewhere after that.

Over the years, there was regular false hope of the episode turning up. Usually, it was in the form of someone claiming to have an the episode, only to discover it was actually the third season re-riff of the show. But three years ago, a MST3K fan/archivist TarlCalbot25 made the most promising discovery to date: a Twitter post by someone claiming to have found a number of MST3K tapes at a Twin Cities garage sale, including an official-looking tape labeled “Star Force: Fugitive Alien II.”

TarlCalbot25 reached out to the tape-holder, heard back some promising details, then nothing. He would regularly follow up to check on things, but got radio silence. It seemed like another dead end, until…

This week, when it turned up on Youtube and the Internet Archive. Articles were written about the find on IGN, Gizmodo, The Verge, and other sites. The closest equivalent is probably the many missing Doctor Who episodes. Coincidentally, two of those were found just a few days before this discovery.

So after that excessive lead-in, I’m not going to write up a full MSTing Links piece on this. The main reason is that while KTMA episodes are of historical interest to a very niche subset of fans, they’re not great MST3K episodes. Starting with season one on The Comedy Channel, MST3K was written with actual scripts. KTMA was just Joel, Trace Beaulieu and Josh Weinstein watching the film for the first time and throwing out some very sparse riffs/observations. If you want to see the film get a good mocking, you’re better off watching the season 3 episode from the Comedy Central run.

I’ll throw out my favorite riff, which not surprisingly comes from Josh: “I would do my black hole jokes, but they all suck.”

Similarly, the host segments were largely repurposed for later seasons as well (using material from Joel’s stand-up act). So rather than break all that down, I’ll just say check it out if you’re a hardcore fan, watch the season 3 version if you’re a more casual fan, but be grateful that the last missing piece of the MST3K puzzle is finally found.

Or is it? Now we can focus all our attention on finding the lost MST3K short, “Mylar, What’s it to You?” But until that happens, at least it’s been riffed by The Mads are Back.

Oh, and Keep Circulating the Tapes!