- For the season marketed under the name "The Gauntlet", see Season 12.
The Gauntlet was a series of experiments devised by Kinga Forrester to break the spirit of test subject Jonah Heston and his robotic companions. Unlike earlier iterations of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 project, which inflicted bad movies one at a time, the Gauntlet forced Jonah and the bots to watch six movies back-to-back without rest. The process was a prelude to Kinga's plans to take MST3K on the road.
Whenever discussing the program, either directly or in passing, Kinga waved her arms and spoke very emphatically whenever she said, "the Gauntlet".
The series of experiments were:
- Experiment #1201: Mac and Me
- Experiment #1202: Atlantic Rim
- Experiment #1203: Lords of the Deep
- Experiment #1204: The Day Time Ended
- Experiment #1205: Killer Fish
- Experiment #1206: Ator, the Fighting Eagle
Between experiments, Kinga brought Jonah to Moon 13 to modify the containment vessel to make room for the six new episodes as well as ready it for travel for their upcoming tour. The Gauntlet appeared to come closer to breaking the test subject and bots than previous individual experiments, mostly due to fatigue from being forced to watch six movies in a row.