I think to myself "it's just a show" but I SIMPLY can't relax!

Maybe it’s just because I’m an avid wiki-reader for every franchise I love, but when I first got into MST3K I dove headfirst into the “lore,” so to speak-- who the characters are, what are their stories, why hosts/Mads changed, etc. I even began pondering how the Satellite of Love works or is laid out, or how and why the Bots need to intake food.
Now, I know that all flies in the face of the time-honored advice of repeating to yourself “it’s just a show, I should really just relax.” And I do: I don’t let my worldbuilding questions get in the way of my enjoyment of the show. But I still sometimes wonder if there are others like me.
If there’s any lore, theories, or other non-just-relaxing things you’d like to discuss about MST3K, put 'em here!

I’ll end with a fun fact: Crow (and Joel) mentioned at various points that Crow’s body is made primarily of molybdenum. The melting point of molybdenum is 4,753°F (2,623°C), so as long as our little golden boy stays well away from such extreme temperatures, he should be making us laugh for years to come! :smiley:
(Someone forward that to Crow and Jonah, just for safety’s sake…)

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Actually, there is at least one different description of Crow’s makeup from the Deep 13 years. I can’t recall it. Cool story, huh?

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I’ve been thinking about what happened before the events of season 11. My theory is that while Kinga and the Boneheads were reviving MST3K and rebuilding the SOL, Kinga tracked down Crow, Servo, GPC, and possibly Cambot, who’re now on Earth. So she sent in an escape pod-like shuttle that says “FREE RAM CHIPS” on the door (kinda like the van’s “FREE CANDY” sign). Fooled into thinking there’re really free ram chips in the shuttle, the 4 main bots got captured and sent back to the SOL.

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In “I Accuse My Parents”, Joel comes on and introduces himself, “Hi, I’m Joel Robinson! You might remember me as that guy that was accidentally shot into space!” Except… NO HE WASN’T. We just saw the theme song! “He did a good job cleaning up the place/But his bosses didn’t like him, so they shot him into space!

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I don’t like thinking about Dr. Forrester making love, but… who is Kinga’s mother? Is she a test tube baby or something? I just can’t think of any woman getting it on with Clayton.

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Huh. I thought Dr. Erhardt said that Kim Cattrall’s Kinga’s in-universe mom. No wonder why I added her in the Forrester family tree I’m working on.

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It’s Kim Cattrall! (Seriously, in canon it is, as revealed by Dr Earhart when he made his shocking return in season 12)

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What are your ponderings regarding the double butt graft?

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Ah! Ok. I knew he was in the show, I must not have paid much attention.

Fun fact: I posted on Twitter about one of the original openings to MST3K: The Movie, which involved a remake of The Great Escape, where it’s Crow biking over the fence and on the other side is his girlfriend, Kim Cattrall. On the bonus features to the movie, Kevin Murphy said he had heard that Kim herself was interested in doing it. The sole like on that tweet? Kim Cattrall herself.

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Oops, thanks!

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As far as I’m concerned “It’s just a show; I should really just relax” applies to continuity errors on the SOL or the logic of why there’s gravity on the SOL or how Tom got so many packages of underwear or how Auntie McFrank managed to get a couple down to Deep 13’s nascent B&B when it’s a highly secured area that Gizmonic Institute isn’t even supposed to know is still active. That kind of thing.

As TV Tropes puts it, it’s the “rule of funny.” It’s more important that it be funny than that all the details make sense or remain consistent.

The MST3K mantra does not in any way apply to the movies being riffed, as the whole point of the show is to pick them apart.

And if you find it fun to come up with fan theories and head canon and all that, then you are relaxed and it’s all good.

I love behind the scenes lore and finding little tidbits and connections I might otherwise have missed.

I don’t have any off the top of my head, but this is just my long way of saying thanks for making this thread.

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Haha! Tom and Crow would totally be lured in by that. Mike should’ve kept an eye on them.

As for Gypsy/GPC, it’s implied she’s a highly successful tech mogul at the end of all that, so I feel like it would make quite a stir if she suddenly disappeared, but I guess it could have happened. Maybe the Mads built another one and backed up her memories to it? Assuming the newer GPC even makes reference to past events in the Netflix seasons.

I often wondered why Cambot’s appearance changes so frequently in between hosts/seasons, and I’ve come to the conclusion that maybe they just short out after so long of being exposed to bad films and the host aboard the SOL has to make a new Cambot occasionally. (Mike’s Cambot could’ve just stayed with him, though.)

And lastly, even though the KTMA season probably isn’t canon to the rest of the series (actually, it almost certainly isn’t, given Joel’s reasons for being in space are different), I used to like to think that Tom Servo was created using salvaged parts from Beeper, his predecessor from that season, and that Beeper’s residual memories and/or trauma (from presumably dying young) were what gave Tom his attitude and fits of anger. Poor fella. :slightly_frowning_face:

(Edit: I read that Joel considers it definitively non-canonical. But still, it was a fun idea I had had.)

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Hey, TV’s Frank wasn’t married. How did he have Max?

Unless if he and Pearl…

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He’s a soultaker now. The chicks dig soultakers.

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I always just told myself new voices and personalities of the bots implied a total wipe and or rebuild as Joel or Mike upgraded and worked on them, and Netflix gypsy was built as part of the new SOL.

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I always assumed that Max was just a Frank wannabe who was taking it a little too far, but no actual blood relation.

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Yeah actually I do enjoy thinking about the anatomy of the SOL, but at the end of the day I treat it like Tom and Crow did Gamera. There’s a lot of tiny rooms that don’t make sense and somehow fit into the shape of a stereotypical dog bone. Why the dog bone? You tell me.

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It was never “just a show”…the fact it’s the hottest future streaming service in town proves that.
Still waiting for the Forrester women to fight for absolute supremacy…and Dr. Donna St. Phibes wins. She’ll be the new Mad for Emily, but will trust her to take breaks every other month.

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That would imply ANOTHER uncomfortable to think about behavior involved for creating a test tube baby. Here’s a little better possibility. Clayton has two female middle names because a daughter was wanted. Mrs. Forrester had a daughter as “another chance to do things right.” It was out of wedlock and brought shame upon the family and was never mentioned. Well she got things right this time. She married a nice villain and had a daughter named Kinga. After a raid Kinga became a ward of the state. She had a longing to become a villain and met her grandmother. She moved into Deep 13 and gave it a feminine touch. All that was left were minions and a lackey to blame things on. Well Frank some how had a son named Max. Perfect TV’s Son of TV’s Frank to blame things on.

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