Let’s Talk About The Red Dwarf XII Bluray/DVD News Posted by Ian Symes on 20th November 2017, 08:32 It’s been just over fifteen years since we all trundled down to Woolworths or Virgin Megastore to purchase the first ever Red Dwarf DVD, and today’s the day that those of us who still crave physical media pick up the latest installment from our doormats. Well, that’s if you weren’t one of the lucky ones who have already received their pre-orders, which started happening as early as last Thursday. The rest of us have had to make do with the methadone-like preview on TOS, which promises a more in-depth look behind the scenes in the featurettes, and a main documentary that focuses on the scripts and actors. Whenever it is that you finally have your Bluray and/or DVD in your grubby mitts, this is the thread to discuss all the delights within, as you await our trademark excessively detailed review within the next week or so.
Not seeing any of the bonus stuff on iTunes yet … which is annoying as it’s usually there but greyed out I think. I’ll still pick up the DVD anyway but it’s nice to have them easily available there too.
“It’s been just over fifteen years since we all trundled down to Woolworths or Virgin Megastore to purchase the first ever Red Dwarf DVD,” (puts hand up) Actually I bought mine from Amazon in 2002? (shame mode)
Mine only arrived at 2pm, but I’m working my way nicely through. Got to say that Norm looks better on his appearance in the SmegUps than he does in the show. Actually I bought mine from Amazon in 2002? (shame mode) Play.com for me. And it probably turned up early, too.
Series 1 was bought from MVC Maidstone – who must have been on the verge of extinction. Now waiting in Austin TX to see if Amazon will deliver one day early. What a different place the world is thanks to G & T.
Bought my copy of Series I from Virgin Megastore. Got it home to realize it didn’t have the booklet, so I went back in a few days later and they found it under the register. I’m secretly hoping for a steelbook release of XII, but it hasn’t been announced, so I guess it’s not happening. Not for a while, at least.
Just finished watching all the extras. I say ‘just’, I finished about twenty minutes ago, then spent another ten trying to work out exactly where the ad cut in Skipper is.
It’s odd. When Rimmer walks past Holly… It flows perfectly well, but you can see something’s kind of off. Although I think that that’s probably because I’m looking for something. Sat there with the remote controls, flicking between HDMI 1 (Sky+) and HDMI 2 (blu-ray), rewinding, replaying, pausing, stepping. From what I’ve looked at, I think they’ve managed to snip it just as Rimmer passes – as he walks by, the background screen in front of his face is pre-ads, then post-ads behind his head. Or something. Someone just work it out and tell me.
As for the extras: Lovely stuff. The kind of stuff we used to see on the I-VIII releases. VFX, Lighting and Models. Great stuff. John Pomphrey’s old photos from Backwards. Nice to see the features given proper titles too, rather than just generic ‘BTS feature’s. And if they ever want to revisit old sets again, I’d love to see them do the series III-V sets. They were lovely. I’ll be an arse and say it’s a shame there are no trailers. But then again, RDXII didn’t really have much trailer-wise, just clips of episodes. Although that pass with the sombre piano was nice.
I got series 1, 2 & 3 from HMV, 4 from Woolies, 5 from MVC With Starbug, 6 i preordered from the old Red Dwarf Shop with ‘You Have Been Judged Unworthy’ tshirt and 7 & 8 were woolies or HMV. Amazon are complete knob jockeys, pre ordered dvd & bluray last tuesday, expected them yesterday, but they said tuesday! Got a glimmer of hope when i got the dispatch notice yesterday and they said they’d be here by 8pm today, tracking said that all day but at 5.15 i got an email to basically say, we were hoping to deliver today but there MAY BE a delay, allow another 1-2 Days! Theres no maybe it all they either can deliver today or not. So i am without XII on release day, that smeggin’ sucks!
Got mine from Amazon, although the problem with them having their own couriers is that they arrive much later than the morning post.
No trailers? That’s a shame. For those of us outside the UK who can’t watch the previews etc. on YouTube without resorting to ‘special techniques’ it would have been a good chance to see them all in one place. Surely they didn’t fill up the Blu-ray at least? In any case I apparently receive my copy on the 4th of December (shipping from Amazon). I don’t expect it then, as shipping halfway across the world at this time of year is never quick!
Yeah, the old menus were great. And RDX was good too. XI and XII are nice enough, but they’re just not in the same league. Oh well, they’ve a couple of years to work on some RDXIII menu plans.
Smeg-ups as funny as ever. Love that Craig’s reaction to Mr Rat is broadly similar to ours! Unexpectedly the first deleted scene also addresses the question of why Rimmer’s “finally get to fix Starbug’s…thruster” line sounded edited in Cured… Looking forward to seeing the rest of the extras.
Still nothing showing on iTunes :( – deliberately didn’t rush an order on the DVD as I’d already bought the season pass. Then went via Sainsbury’s on the way home and they didn’t have it. So I’m sat here having to study instead of enjoying all the Red Dwarf content I could be devouring
Love getting to see a bit more of the I & II bunk room. Wonderfully recreated. That shot when Danny has the new set at one side, and the camera turns to the old bunkroom at the other, is rather magical.
Some interesting extras on there. Still need to watch the main documentary but I enjoyed the model featurette, in the unlikely event anyone knows my previous posts I’m quite into the miniatures and technical details of filming them, so it was nice to get a few things confirmed, like they film on the same Arri cameras as the main production that go up to 120fps, I’ve been banging on about that for ages because I don’t think it’s fast enough for the scale, also that Mike Tucker fucking hates that Starbug, though that is inferred rather than said haha The 3D printing feature annoyed me a little because if it’s so easy why not print some bigger fucking legs for Starbug, but I’d love one of those for Christmas regardless. Pomph was a nice feature and the behind the scenes pictures he gave were great but I feel like a good chunk of it is told on the original series DVDs and the content could have been more of an insight into the old days if it had a more conversational casual style, but still very good. Seeing that series VII Starbug set makes me hope they’ll recreate that next series for a Lister finds a quantum skipper episode, or they find an old one abandoned somewhere. It’s beautiful, so much depth and character, so much grime. Love it. So far, so good.
Steve Coogan randomly in the documentary had me thinking I didn’t know what Steve Coogan looked like.
Amazon are complete knob jockeys, pre ordered dvd & bluray last tuesday, expected them yesterday, but they said tuesday! Got a glimmer of hope when i got the dispatch notice yesterday and they said they’d be here by 8pm today, tracking said that all day but at 5.15 i got an email to basically say, we were hoping to deliver today but there MAY BE a delay, allow another 1-2 Days! Theres no maybe it all they either can deliver today or not. So i am without XII on release day, that smeggin’ sucks! Same here.. Distribution cock up by the sounds of it. Amazon’s explanation to me was that some had to be dispatched from outside UK but the system didn’t amend delivery times blah blah. Apparently mines at the local delivery place ready for delivery now so it sounds like it might come today but “who nose”?
I got the first series from dvd.co.uk. To those who’ve got their copies of XII, my only question is: IS THERE A STICKER? AND WILL G&T REVIEW IT? (that’s two questions)
I wasn’t going to bother getting it yet, but peer pressure made me. Ordered last night on Amazon, just delivered now by the postie.
Norm just casually mentioning how much he likes Firefly and Serenity weirded me out and I dunno why Old men are supposed to like New Tricks, Still Open All Hours and the Porridge remake.
Looking forward to G&T’s review – going to ask for the Blu-ray for Christmas, so there’ll be a wait until at least then before I can check out the extras myself. Quick question – once you guys have had time to digest the extras and write your review, are there any plans to update the Complete Guide to include XI/XII and their respective bonus features?
I see the deleted ending for siliconia mentions the OM song again. Kinda glad that ending was cut tbh, its not that great.
I wasn’t going to bother getting it yet, but peer pressure made me. Ordered last night on Amazon, just delivered now by the postie. You ordered last night on Amazon and got it today, i pre ordered on Amazon last Tuesday and i’m still waiting. There mech butts are going down!!
Quick question – once you guys have had time to digest the extras and write your review, are there any plans to update the Complete Guide to include XI/XII and their respective bonus features? Yes, we figured we’d wait til after the Pearl Poll, so we can add those rankings in at the same time.
Well that was … alright. I don’t know if I’ve spoiled myself by hanging out here but in the past I always found the documentary full of interesting stuff but this time there was nothing that really grabbed me. It seemed very odd doing it in filmed order, rather than broadcast order. Is that new? I’m sure they’re normally broadcast order. Also makes me wonder if they have a limited run-time for it, as some episodes got way more coverage than others. Smeg ups – check Deleted scenes – check At risk of being burned at the stake as a heretic, I’m not even going to bother with all the other boring stuff. Watching 6 slightly different model shots in silence doesn’t really grip me. So. Hm. Guess I’ll rip the episodes off and stick it in my box.
I’m an enormous nerd for things like model shots, but even I find it a bit of a chore to sit through them in complete silence. At least play some music over it, come on.
The other extras aren’t model shots in silence, they’re all documentaries. The filmed order was also done for XI, and I agree that it doesn’t work as well as the earlier making ofs. Unusual decision really.
It was great in isolation but disc 2 doesn’t come close to the old I-VIII dvd extras. I laughed a lot at the cut scenes, which is rare as usually cut gags aren’t that funny. Smeg ups were hilarious. No coverage of the Rimmer critic monster was a shame. Besides that, I loved it. Commentary would be nice but maybe that will come with a future re-release as now it’s probably too early for such a thing, at least from the cast, although Doug and Richard could have done them, perhaps with a different cast member on each episode (with David Ross and Norman on the last two respectively) for a nice little extra for the fans. No biggie.
At risk of being burned at the stake as a heretic, I’m not even going to bother with all the other boring stuff. Watching 6 slightly different model shots in silence doesn’t really grip me. There aren’t any model raw footage features on this. So it’s lighting, sound, model making, short documentary talking heads featurettes, or interviews, that may not grip you.
Most enjoyable smeg ups for years. Especially Craig and the rat. Most enjoyable deleted scenes for years. I love the stuff that fell out of time wave (more than some of the stuff kept in!) Characters, lines, more of mr vegas, all great, and I love the song we could of got in Siliconia whilst I can see it wouldn’t have been any less clunky an ending than the one we got, and is too long to consider that anything else in that episode could have been cut that wasn’t more vital, but for the thunderbird mech walk acting alone I will now remember this episode ending with an extended moment that doesn’t just end the cat and rimmers involvement with their mind swap and no aftermath. That said its the demons and angels joke done again, this time Lister getting to play with remote controlled crew for the alexia generation, sooo much of dave dwarf jokes that aren’t direct call backs, are undirect lifts still or gags so very recycled. Shame we don’t get a music finished version anywhere of the song. Weird that storyboards etc are in the deleted scenes. Ed Moore. Ed Snore, sorry, nice idea that went on too long for me. Much as his lighting porn with pomph session did, though it did have some really nice archive set photos. If the last new dwarf I ever see is the rat song. Then I will feel warm and snuggly about that fact. The documentary is all good, feel less lacking now we have XI & XII told in full, they do feel like a part one and two of each other. Convinced Normans look in the behind the scenes footage shows he was make up designed well, and it’s a HD camera and lighting thing that make it look like a floating potato. Really nice to see him chatting on set. Time wave I could still enjoy hearing more about it’s intensions, beyond Dougs feelings of audience reactions in general to the shows past, which would have come before this series aired and are consistent with things he has said in previous documentaries about “hate” or “worst thing that can happen to an audience”, interesting “dick dastardly” mention from the actor playing Ziggy, something zero comments about the show picked up on to my knowledge. Psychedelic gets a mention, but the lack of howard burden talking in this one, or whoever, doesn’t feel like a deep enough delve into a show that problematically misfired for a large section of fans. Capturing the moment bobby saw the others in a mask for the first time would have been something I would have set up for the behind the scenes, a missed opportunity. Mac is spinal tap again within the documentary, and nice to see him in the full uniform etc. David “legit” Ross. awwww lovely stuff. Nice to see some of the actors talking who were inside kryten masks in the episode, now I know what they really look like, except for the girl they interviewed with mask on, so I’m now convinced that she looks like that in real life. Typecast.
Well, it finally arrived, an hour after my daughter irreparably destroyed our TV which we can’t afford to replace.
I honestly think the best part of the whole documentary for me was seeing Norman Lovett happy. You get the impression that over time he’s regretted making the mistakes that led to him not being in the various series, and so to see him being interviewed at time of recording and to see him with the rest of the cast. He just looked like a different Norman to the one that we’ve seen over the years. Even the way the cast talk about him has changed a lot too.
Well, it finally arrived, an hour after my daughter irreparably destroyed our TV which we can’t afford to replace. try watching it on your laptop or PC, some of them have DVD players on them
‘Dan, this is a comedy spray’ – vintage audio over the introduction to the M-Corp section of the documentary?
I honestly think the best part of the whole documentary for me was seeing Norman Lovett happy. You get the impression that over time he’s regretted making the mistakes that led to him not being in the various series, and so to see him being interviewed at time of recording and to see him with the rest of the cast. He just looked like a different Norman to the one that we’ve seen over the years. Even the way the cast talk about him has changed a lot too. Norman did it to himself, twice actually. Seems like norman gets a hissy fit over his ego and then later starts to feel left out and crawls back with tail between his legs. I can only imagine norman will be back in the next series and while that sounds good as an idea its still normans ego that Doug may feel pressure to keep happy just so he doesn’t decide he is being badly treated again.
It’s odd. When Rimmer walks past Holly… It flows perfectly well, but you can see something’s kind of off. Although I think that that’s probably because I’m looking for something. Sat there with the remote controls, flicking between HDMI 1 (Sky+) and HDMI 2 (blu-ray), rewinding, replaying, pausing, stepping. From what I’ve looked at, I think they’ve managed to snip it just as Rimmer passes – as he walks by, the background screen in front of his face is pre-ads, then post-ads behind his head. Or something. Someone just work it out and tell me. I was thinking about this in the other thread, as I was curious about how they would link parts 1 and 2 on the DVD, since both featured audience reaction rising from nothing. My assumption before the DVD release was that the sequence after the advert break had edited audio so that the audience response wouldn’t just continue from a loud volume. I thought that, in the end, the DVD would show a single smooth take: Rimmer passes Holly, who pauses for audience laughter to die down, then at an appropriate moment says “Morning Arnold.” Seemed a reasonable assumption. Then the DVD came out, and the bit with Norman riding the laugh was gone. Arses. The conclusion I’ve reached is that there wasn’t a single take with both the pause and “Morning Arnold”. Instead, I suspect, they filmed separate takes: first a pre-adverts cliffhanger (with Norman saying nothing) that they didn’t intend to include on the DVD. Then I reckon they did a retake and the audience did their (slightly more muted) ‘yay’ before Norman did his line. That would be my guess, as I can’t think of why they would have cut out the initial pause otherwise, as doing so somewhat ruins the rhythm of the sequence. In particular I think it’s a shame that this means part of Norman’s performance from the episode isn’t on the final DVD.
Norman did it to himself, twice actually. Seems like norman gets a hissy fit over his ego and then later starts to feel left out and crawls back with tail between his legs. I can only imagine norman will be back in the next series and while that sounds good as an idea its still normans ego that Doug may feel pressure to keep happy just so he doesn’t decide he is being badly treated again. I do wish people wouldn’t talk about others like this without all the information. Calling it a tantrum or hissy fit, and putting it down to a colossal ego and so on. How do we know he doesn’t have depression, anxiety or some form of autistic spectrum condition, for example? People who come across as aloof or socially evasive are often feeling uncomfortable rather than full of themselves. And there can be many reasons for frequently making regrettable decisions. I just wish people wouldn’t shove their oar in and judge people without all the facts, and this keeps happening with Norman. He hasn’t harmed you personally, I presume, and everyone around him involved in Red Dwarf production appears to be willing to forgive and forget as many times as he gets it wrong, which is the correctly compassionate response.
I do wish people wouldn’t talk about others like this without all the information. Calling it a tantrum or hissy fit, and putting it down to a colossal ego and so on. How do we know he doesn’t have depression, anxiety or some form of autistic spectrum condition, for example? People who come across as aloof or socially evasive are often feeling uncomfortable rather than full of themselves. And there can be many reasons for frequently making regrettable decisions. I just wish people wouldn’t shove their oar in and judge people without all the facts, and this keeps happening with Norman. He hasn’t harmed you personally, I presume, and everyone around him involved in Red Dwarf production appears to be willing to forgive and forget as many times as he gets it wrong, which is the correctly compassionate response. Its just alot of messing around waiting for norman to decide if he wanted to be in the show again or not which is not a good formula to keep going back too. I wonder how far he got with his book he said he was writing about how badly he was treated on the show before he realised it was biting the hand that feeds him.
Its just alot of messing around waiting for norman to decide if he wanted to be in the show again or not which is not a good formula to keep going back too. I wonder how far he got with his book he said he was writing about how badly he was treated on the show before he realised it was biting the hand that feeds him. I think the best approach to life is to show compassion towards people’s weaknesses, and not be judgemental. We have no idea why Norman has been the way he’s been, so why sneer?
Because he couldn’t have his ball back. He would have been repeatedly asked to tell his ball back story on camera. He wouldn’t have come into the interview locations over a decade after the event, fuming and thinking, “I’ve got to tell that anecdote about the ball back because even today I can’t get over it.” He would have been asked about the ball back. “Tell us the ball back.” Like that.
The conclusion I’ve reached is that there wasn’t a single take with both the pause and “Morning Arnold”. Instead, I suspect, they filmed separate takes: first a pre-adverts cliffhanger (with Norman saying nothing) that they didn’t intend to include on the DVD. Then I reckon they did a retake and the audience did their (slightly more muted) ‘yay’ before Norman did his line. That would be my guess, as I can’t think of why they would have cut out the initial pause otherwise, as doing so somewhat ruins the rhythm of the sequence. In particular I think it’s a shame that this means part of Norman’s performance from the episode isn’t on the final DVD. I take it you haven’t watched the documentary yet, then.
I take it you haven’t watched the documentary yet, then. I have, but that detail must have passed me by. I’ll check it again tonight.
It’s just that the documentary literally shows footage of that bit being recorded and what happened. It cuts off just as Norman’s starting his line, but it does make the sequence of events clear!
You know, I usually don’t care much for the technical side of behind the scenes material. But all the stuff with lighting, and the models actually been discussed rather than just shown, was fantastic. Really felt like a good package of BTS on this release.
It’s just that the documentary literally shows footage of that bit being recorded and what happened. It cuts off just as Norman’s starting his line, but it does make the sequence of events clear! That detail must have passed me by, I said. I never claimed that I was a normal human being who notices the same things as everyone else. My brain says things like this: “The ‘comedy spray’ line in the documentary is not vintage audio, but modern day Danny doing a callback for the purposes of the documentary.”
In fact I have just rewatched that bit and I don’t think that it conveys everything that happened at all. You see Norman riding the laugh and saying “Morning Arnold”. “Morning Arnold” is spoken once the audience laughter has died down. You don’t at all get the sense that they definitely didn’t do further takes that allowed them to form separate Dave and DVD edits. This, I suspect, is why I didn’t pick up on it the first time. If it was all one take: Norman riding the laugh, saying “Morning Arnold” and then, seamlessly, the rest of the scene, then I am baffled as to why it was edited the way it was on the DVD release. We’ve lost a piece of Norman’s performance that could be compared to him riding the laugh of “We are talking jape of the decade” in Queeg. I am just sad.
I can’t believe they NEARLY went with the theory I had, which was that Telford was Hitler all along, but they DIDN’T do it!! XD silly billies, it would have been so much better if they had!!! Yeah, the Cat psychopath stuff was great, but they could have worked it in as well! Grrrrrr…….!!!
I found it quite pleasing how many of the issues and points raised here were actually covered in the docu. Short though it was.
I like how the end of the main doco almost threatens to go into ‘We’re Smegged’ territory with them, albeit very briefly, admitting it was pretty insane to try to pull of twelve 30 minute shows in that timeframe and they won’t do it again. It was a damn good effort though! I’m pretty sure we’d all agree that doing 6 next time is the way to go. As brilliant a job as Doug, Richard and the crew did with these 12, there were still several occasions where an episode like Officer Rimmer was a gnat’s wing from being bloody brilliant and then you get that ending…. Also, you need extra time for everyone to realise when stuff like Timewave is going off in just too stupid a direction. :o again, that one could have been a great episode!! All it needed was some revision and polish. I have every faith XIII can learn from all this stuff and be something excellent indeed. :D
Don’t know where you’re getting that they don’t want to do a block again from. Seemed like most thought it was the best way to go to me. Especially Craig and I think Kerry, given the casts age and savings. As long as Doug has time to write them, they should be fine, and I don’t think he had the time issues he did with X this time so I can’t see how The One With The Saggy Titties is anything to do with doing 12. I’d say perhaps more to do with a young crew and a cast who have gone on record saying VIII is some of the best Red Dwarf not wanting to say to Doug, “Doug, this is wank”. A couple more script editors would help, and some kind of lore checker.
A couple more script editors would help, and some kind of lore checker. As I’ve said elsewhere, they need a script editor who can read a completed draft blind and judge it based on how it actually comes across without being compromised by knowing what it’s trying to do. If you know what the script is going for, it’s easy to project that meaning onto it as you read even if it fails to actually convey the idea well.
Yes. Here’s an example. Doug Naylor realises one night that “clitoris” sounds a tiny bit like “slit her wrists”. He decides it could make a decent Red Dwarf joke, but decides against having Rimmer say that he has slit a woman’s wrists before. In his mind, “spit on her wrists” is a passable alternative, so he writes it in. What he needed was someone who hadn’t shared that thought process to observe that the connection didn’t work. Abstracted from “slit her wrists”, there is no natural path from “clitoris” to “spit on her wrists”, and that’s before taking into account the quality of the joke.
The moment Doug Naylor put pen to paper and wrote “spit on her wrist”, he should have been carted off the the nearest old folk’s home. Not really, but fuck.
The neighbours kindly lent us their spare telly. The XII extras are superb. A different world from the XI disc. Even the Smeg Ups are cut better. Those featurettes – they’re the kind of extras I thought I’d never see again. Weird to see zero mention or acknowledgement of James Buckley though. But yeah, it’s on a par with the BtE and X discs. Good work, GNP. Now go back and do the 18 commentaries you missed.
My wife was surprised that I payed so much for the DVD ($28) as I’m normally such a tight arse. I explained it was Red Dwarf and so obviously I’d get it on day of release no matter what. I settled down to watch disc 2 and here are some of my thoughts… That actress who tweeted a photo of Starbug was that peculiar mechanoid oiling Kryten’s knee. Doug in the Timewave section telling us he’d given the fans some ‘good shit’ over the years was fantastic. The last three episodes really do feel special and I laugh along to the rat scene every single time be it in the episode or the documentary. I’m glad all the deleted scenes are here but they would have made their episodes worse, especially Timewave and Siliconia. Going back to the series XII episode 6 Dwarfcast, can anyone remember what the very last thing shot on the night was? Was it Danny doing the ‘I’m going to eat you little cheesy’ song? I watched the XI and XII documentaries back to back last night and together I think they’re just as good as We’re Smegged. Looking forward to semi-retrospectives and DVD reviews to help the long winter months fly by.
The very last thing shot for Skipper was the rat scene, but not including the ‘cheesy’ song. I have no memory of ever seeing that before (and I’m pretty sure I would have remembered it if I had!). What’s really been bothering me is the very last scene in the episode – when was that filmed? I don’t think it was done in front of the audience on the night (and if it was, it must have been done earlier before they redressed the set for Rat World). I could have sworn that the last VT we were shown ended with Rimmer skipping out of the old bunk room, I don’t remember seeing that poker scene at all. Probably just a memory fail though.
Doug in the Timewave section telling us he’d given the fans some ‘good shit’ over the years was fantastic. Yes, big laugh from me there. I like how he’s completely open about the fact that some of his work is deemed… ‘controversial’.
can anyone remember what the very last thing shot on the night was? Danny, in the rat suit but sans head, doing some clean readings of his lines in front of the audience.
IN FACT, I think that means that everything after that scene would’ve been VT on the night, which makes sense.
can anyone remember what the very last thing shot on the night was? Danny, in the rat suit but sans head, doing some clean readings of his lines in front of the audience. Was this for replacement audio purposes?
Danny, in the rat suit but sans head, doing some clean readings of his lines in front of the audience. It’s almost a shame that this probably won’t be the last thing ever shot for Red Dwarf before an audience. Can we just make it a rule that just as every potential last episode ever is a Rimmer story, every last recorded moment of each series needs to be Danny dressed as an animal doing a silly voice?
He’s been dressed as a cat doing a silly voice for 30 years now How does a cat doing a silly voice dress?