Okay, that’s my new suggestion: bring back Leonard Maltin!!
Episode idea: Kinga fires Max and hires Maltin in his place.
Yeah. I agree that the host escape story arc was not really needed. Or at least not needed to the extent that it was done.
I’d much rather the host segments remained more episodic and tied to the movie. It’s astonishing that they managed to make the arc of the sci-fi era as entertaining as they did, but it was still a bad idea (forced on them by SyFy) and hurts rewatching those episodes since most people view the experiments out of order.
Speaking of arcs… Can we be done with having the hosts escape the Satellite/Simulator of Love at the end of every season? There’s no need to give every season an ending. If something happens, and there somehow isn’t a season 15, nobody is going to be upset that season 14 “ended with no closure.” (Though I can understand if they ended season 13 the way they did if the plan is to soft-transition into only having Emily back for future seasons)
How dare you try to make me choose between Mark Hamill and Matt McGinnis in a dress?
Here are my suggestions (some of which are already mentioned in the thread):
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Physical. Sets. Yes, its expensive, but it would improve the general “vibe” of the show to go back to the physical sets vs green screens. Build them once, and leave them standing between seasons. I think a lot of the charm of the original seasons was in the kitbashed sets and props, and the Netflix sets carried on that tradition well. The greenscreen sets just don’t imho.
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On the same note, while i like a lot of the paper animation techniques used for Season 13, the door sequence is still the weakest one. Either reusing the physical door sequence from the Netflix seasons or developing a new physical door sequence is a change I really need for S13. You can keep the paper stuff for space effects, but the door sequence really needs to be physical/miniatures.
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PUT THE GIZMOPLEX ON CONSOLES. Smart TV apps are good, but I, and I believe most of the younger side of the MST fandom watch a lot of stuff on their tv through their console. A Playstation and Xbox app would do wonders for easy viewing of MST
Keep in mind the production doesn’t have a home studio now. There is no place to store sets between seasons.
This is going to be down to the number of hoops they have to go through to get something on a platform. You don’t just go to Microsoft and say, ‘here stick this in the Xbox store’ There’s likely proprietary code that needs to be used and don’t forget the fees. That stuff isn’t there because Microsoft is generous.
Disagree about dropping movies like “The Christmas Dragon.” My kids freakin’ love that episode. Often the old movies are too boring even with the riffing to keep them watching.
Yeah - I mean … let’s be honest here. In season 13 what was the host segment that stood out the most. Anyone? Bueller? Of course its “Mother Crabber”. And why was it the best?
Simple. It was a skit that was fun, funny, and had no other purpose except to call back to the movie’s own bad elements. That’s (usually) the thing that makes a host segment truly great … it calls back to the movie and highlights some component that was absurd, or stupid, or otherwise deserving of mockery.
For example…
Danger Death Ray’s host segment where Tom fries Crow. Classic segment. Why? It makes fun of the cheap looking Death Ray in the movie, mocks the whole “Peaceful purposes” idiocy, and does it in a way that is hilarious. Mother Crabber does the same thing. The Driving sequence in Manos, and so many more memorable host segments that stick out are the ones which just do a callback to the movie itself and gives the writers a chance to poke more holes.
By comparison, the “escape the Mads” host segments all felt kind of forced, and very little (if anything) about them was funny. In the old days Joel or Mike would read a letter, Dr. F and Frank would do something whacky, and then they’d push the button. The first is kind of dull and goes nowhere and out of context makes very little sense. The second is a satisfying endcap to an episode that works no matter what order you watch in.
Physical sets would be great, if that’s a realistic goal. there isn’t anything else I can think of that I would change, really.
Celebrity cameos are fine as long as they are used sparingly.
::stands up in trenchcoat and glasses:: Oh, yes, the wrestling sketch.
I don’t think any particular film era should be left off the table. Different movies bring different flavors, which fuels a diversity in the experience each episode brings. I don’t understand why anyone would want to cut one avenue off.
And definitely keep The Christmas Dragon. That episode is aces.
Physical sets or at least start using more backgrounds. It felt way too limited and “static”
Matt Mcginnis in a wig and dress please
I don’t mind the overarching storyline tbh. So long as there are plenty of dumb host segments related to the movie too.
And songs. I love the songs
One thing that we saw for the first time in S13 that I would like to NOT return in any S14 episodes is White Dot.
I don’t think the character added anything to the show, in fact, I felt their appearance was very distracting and definitely delayed my enjoyment of the new episodes. I can’t even remember one good joke they made. No more White Dot!
White Dot was great at its own place and time. But like the most popular twitch streamer of the early pandemic, Chair, it’s a short-lived phenomenon. Nobody watches Chair’s streams any more. And we don’t need a recurrence of White Dot. But that in no way takes away from the greatness of White Dot’s hour of fame.
The Christmas Dragon gave us Friar Nolte.
White Dot is the Tiger King! 
By Every, you mean… two seasons?
When Joel originally got away, it was in mid-season. Jonah didn’t exactly escape in S11, unless you count appearing to die as an escape.
I think they’ve done a good job in the last couple of seasons of mixing a story with the one-offs. The story isn’t a critical part of the experience, but it’s fun to have around. Sort of like how if I’m served a sundae, it doesn’t need to be in a fancy dish like at the sody fountain to be good. But it’s kinda’ nice to have that flourish anyway.
The Christmas Dragon was one of my favorites of season 13. Like Demon Squad and Doctor Mordrid it had that happy balance of watchability and riffability.