So far, this is shaping up to be a good month for people who don't mind having their sci-fi-related nostalgia exploited—Star Trek is coming back to the small screen in 2017, we have more Star Wars trailers than we know what to do with, and today Mystery Science Theater 3000 creator Joel Hodgson announced via Kickstarter that he will be attempting a crowdfunded reboot of the show.

For those who are unfamiliar, MST3K began in 1988 as a tiny independent project on a local TV station in Minnesota before moving to The Comedy Channel (later Comedy Central) for a seven-season run. From there, the show was cancelled and then moved to the Sci-Fi channel for another three seasons. The writers and performers changed over the years, but the basic premise was always the same: a hapless human (first Hodgson, later series head writer Mike Nelson) is trapped in space by mad scientists, forced to watch cheesy movies in an attempt to break his mind. With the help of his robot friends Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot, the host preserves some semblance of sanity by making jokes at the screen.

The series' simple concept, esoteric references and running gags, and intentionally lo-fi look endeared it to many, and since the show ended its original run in 1999, those fans have been buying DVDs and supporting related side projects from the cast and crew. Those include Nelson's Rifftrax (2006-present) and Hodgson's Cinematic Titanic (2007-2013).

Now Hodgson wants to bring back the original series with its name and robot puppets intact—the Kickstarter's initial goal of $2 million would finance three episodes of the show. If it makes its $3.3 million, $4.4 million, and $5.5 million stretch goals, Hodgson promises to create a total of six, nine, or 12 new episodes, respectively. The goal from there is to persuade a more traditional network or streaming TV provider that there's enough life left in the concept to fully revive it and to get more episodes of the show produced on someone else's dime.

The Kickstarter pitch doesn't mention whether any of the series' other veteran writers and performers will be returning to the project, but based on the announcement, the trailer, and the promo images, it looks like the robots, host, and mad scientist roles will all be filled by new performers. It certainly wouldn't be the first time the series replaced people in front of or behind the camera, but longtime MST3K fans know that people can be picky about their preferred cast members. (Seriously. It's a whole thing.)

Hodgson mentions in the Kickstarter copy that MST3K's return is possible partially because of some "legal issues" that have cleared up recently. This Kickstarter comes just a couple of weeks after Rifftrax started selling MST3K episodes directly, giving some of its former writers and performers the opportunity to profit from their work after years of missing out on money from sales of DVDs and merchandise.